Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

Beyond The Mirror – A Bill Allin Column

April 6, 2007

What Is The Truth? (Part 14)
by Bill Allin

[Caution: What follows may be offensive to some people because it is based on fact, reason and probability, not on an established belief set (religion). If you are offended by anything that does not support your belief set, you should choose to not read this article.]

God’s Love and God’s Grace (continuing to explore the concepts)

The concepts of a deity that loves and cares for His followers (sometimes also including non-followers) and that accepts, forgives and gives favour to His followers (but not to non-followers) were devices created by the early Christian church. The concepts had not existed to any extent in any religion prior to Christianity. They were subsequently adopted by Islam.

As social animals, we have an inherent need to feel accepted, to be part of our group, to be wanted, needed and forgiven when necessary.

Any new religion must find ways to distinguish itself from older religions in order to be accepted. Christianity found many ways to demonstrate its differences from its progenitor Judaism. One was to have a deity that took human form, who taught, suffered and died in order that His followers would be forgiven of their sins. Christianity boasted what Judaism had only hoped for (prophesied).

Ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians also had gods that were both deific and human, though none strove to help their followers the way the Christian deity did.

The concept of a person being born sinful was also a Christian creation. Jesus, the church said, died to absolve His followers of their "original sin" (all humans were considered to be sinful because of the sins of Adam and Eve). Despite the fact that Jesus died to absolve Christians of their original sin, the church continued to monitor the behaviours of its followers and remind them of their constant sinfulness. Indeed, it reminded them that they were sin-filled from birth, a clear contradiction if the death of Jesus absolved them.

The church said that everyone was born in sin, for which they are forgiven because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It was never made clear why a newborn baby should be guilty of any sin, let alone why the crucifixion produced forgiveness. God obviously must have ordained the original sin of every baby through His creations Adam and Eve, then sacrificed His own Son to absolve that sin.

Surely nothing in nature functions as inefficiently and with such contradiction as this part of religion. When such taught contradictions make God look stupid or insane, we should be cautious about how much of them we believe.

After the forgiveness at birth, people are responsible for their own sins, except when they are reminded of their original sin by their church leaders. However, they will be forgiven of the sins they have committed by asking forgiveness from God, through Jesus and the church.

According to Christian doctrine, a person may be sinful all his life, yet still be accepted into the Christian heaven by accepting Jesus as his saviour and requesting forgiveness from God before he dies. Acceptance into Christian heaven may take place even on the last day of a person’s life, provided that he follows the prescribed procedures. It’s in the Bible [Revelations].

Islam did not accept the concept of last-minute conversion and acceptance into heaven. It insisted that followers who lived a clean life and did the rituals (such as prayer five times each day) would enter heaven, but this could not be done at the last minute of life. It did promise, however, that a Muslim who followed all Islamic rules for his entire lifetime would be fast-tracked into the Islamic heaven (which was more important than other heavens).

The devices of a loving God and an accepting and forgiving God, one who cares for His people every minute of every day and will help anyone who asks through prayer were popular with heathens looking for a better way. Both Islam and Christianity benefitted enormously because of these beneficent offers. It made them the most popular religions on the planet.

Both Christianity and Islam claim that God is both jealous and vengeful. They insist that their followers respect and acknowledge only one God and that those who do harm against their respective religions or their followers will be punished.

They found many examples in the Jewish holy books (which both had adopted) to demonstrate how God gets even. Remember, in those days people believed that weather was totally controlled by God and bad weather was sent to punish the sinful. All that remains of that superstition today are the jealous and vengeful God parts.

The Old Testament examples all pointed toward the superstition that natural disasters or personal tragedies were visited upon humans to make them pay for their sins or lack of devotion to religious principles. The modern concept of a jealous and vengeful God was based entirely on ancient pagan superstitions.

What neither religion addresses is the fact that their most devoted followers suffer badly and die young in the same ways as non-followers do. If God is a loving and caring God, why did He allow the Holocaust to happen? Why does He allow cancer and AIDS to ravage His followers the way they do non-members?

Their answer to these questions is that only God knows what He wants of us and when he will "call us home" to heaven. Suffering, the religions say, is part of what makes us human and allows us to grow to the extent that we will be fit residents of heaven. Children who die have apparently suffered enough already.

Christianity and Islam are largely based on the concepts of personal suffering and deprivation. These problems, they claim, are imposed on us by God. We should not complain about them. God doesn’t care if we recover from these troubles because we will go to heaven simply because we suffered.

Let’s put this into perspective. These religions claim that God loves and cares for His followers every minute of every day. He allows them (or makes them) suffer diseases and misfortune--some of which kill them--to make them stronger. They need to be strong so that when they get to heaven they are fit and ready to do nothing but be happy for eternity.

Non-members suffer the same illnesses and misfortunes simply because they are sinful and/or ignorant about what God wants for them.

Those who are still formulating a set of beliefs to guide them through their lives should ask themselves which would be more productive and beneficial to humankind and the world: a loving, caring and forgiving God or self-proclaimed religious people who are loving, caring and forgiving themselves.

As God can only change the behaviour of humans by having those humans committing acts of love, caring and forgiving, it would follow that only those humans who act in loving, caring and forgiving ways are following the will of God. Human behaviour will change only through human actions. That is what the world’s most popular religions say, though this is stressed not nearly enough.

We can justly ask ourselves which is the better person, the one who loves, cares and forgives his fellow humans the way religions teach us that God does, or the one who attends services, says his prayers and pays his tithes faithfully but does not otherwise act in loving, caring and forgiving ways to those who need these most.

The major religions of the western world all believe that a Day of Judgment will come for each of us. Will we be judged more by what we say, how we dress and what rituals we follow, or by our actions?