The Political Importance of Fearing God by Amy Barath
The fear of God is the reason why I do not steal from a jewelry store even if nobody is looking. I must choose right over wrong because I am looking, and through me, God is looking.
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The fear of God is the reason why we do not kick our neighbor's dog, whether our neighbor is a Buddhist or a Jew or his dog is a purebred or a mutt.
Fortunately, an overwhelming majority of them would simply pay lipservice (or, lie about their adherence) to this tenet. The rest of them are in prison with the rest of the deeply, consistently religious.
A brief moment of reason could stop a normal person from stealing, whether he is being watched or not. It's called "judgement," and Christians sin in this way all the time.
We fear God so that we may not fear men. This fear allows us to discern between what is right and what is wrong.
Amy, you either judge or you do not, and it doesn't matter if you call it "discernment." One way or another, you're going to have to judge whether or not to follow your scriptures, so you're trapped in a little paradox. You can't follow scripture at all. It must be really frustrating.
Thank reason--for moral realism.
2 comments:
Doing right only because you're afraid God will "get" you if you don't is like a thief wo doesn't steal only because he's afraid he'll get caught. Since nobody can go right all the time, it sure is nice we can be forgiven...that's the point of Christianity, but too many churches don't understand it.
Your Token Fundie,
Jake Danger
So being forgiven is the point of christianity, and you know this while most churches don't?
Sorry Jake, but you may have committed the True Scotsman fallacy.
You must judge whether your actions are right or wrong (how else could you choose to follow your religion). Yet scripture tells you to judge not, Jesus can be the only judge. It's either obey or not obey, because a child--you are to be like one--can't make these judgements. Luckily we disregard this and make moral choices anyway!
It seems that the scriptures don't know the point of christianity either--nor did Paul, who founded it. Why do you suppose the bible is bigger than a little tract with the verse John 3:16 in it? Fundies should know these things.
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