Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Commentary on Comments Against Humanism

I saw a post on Facebook and some of the comments really upset me. The post itself bashed humanism, going so far as to label Hitler and Stalin as humanists, which is rather insulting, but interesting and not so far fetched if you read about the tenants of humanism.

So this Matt guy. While I love that he actually uses ‘balderdash,’ I’m baffled by his ‘unbearable arrogance’ comment. I’m assuming he’s talking about non-believers mostly, ‘cause obviously a good Christian girl isn’t going to have an abortion, or even put herself into a situation that would tempt her to have an abortion. So, given this, I find him “unbearably arrogant” to assume that a non-believer will care about playing God when they don’t believe in said God. Therefore his logic does not apply, negating the whole argument. Right? A believer should never presume that their beliefs apply to all people. That’s what gets us into trouble and leads to people hating people. Which is against the most basic tenants of your faith. Circular logic there. Yes, as a Christian you are called to share the Good Word, not kill over it, and love thy neighbor as thyself, even if you can’t convert them. And don’t even get me started on the first portion of Matt’s statement! Seriously, it’s the 21st Century and you have to question what RIGHT a woman has to her own body?! A woman has as much of a RIGHT to her own reproductive organs as a man has to his. What RIGHT does a man have to give or withhold his fruit of his loin? What ever happened to a culture were women were respected and appreciated for more than their subservience to man? Oh right, that was before your Christianity came along.

And the Frank guy obviously doesn’t know history. Yes, Hitler and Stalin were in the 20th Century and killed millions not in the name of God. Funny how he completely ignores the other 1900 years of persecution, war, crusades, inquisitions, etc. killing millions or even billions in the name of God. Well, the Christian God at least. Should probably count the Hebrew God “Before Christ” too since it’s the same God and all. Even though he insists that before the 20th Century God and his ways were thought of. Contrary to popular belief, people like Hitler and Stalin were brilliant. They may not have used this brilliance for the acceptable common good; however, there is no way a mentally deficient person can take over a whole country with a set of ideals that are contrary to the modern norm. Their people wanted change, something to believe in, and went along with it until finally the people realized that this was not the change they wanted. But now they were stuck, entrenched in the new regime, and called out for help! Which came in the form of their neighbor who may not have shared in their religion beliefs, but shared in their faith in each other. Maybe Frank’s “God and his ways” refers to the prevalence of Christian wars of the past. Because it’s okay to attack and kill others when it’s done for the good of the Christian God. But when you attack others under the name of another God or sans God altogether, that’s not cool and means you’re a bigot and racist.

I’m not crazy, right? I can respect another person and their beliefs even when they don’t respect me and mine. But when that other person attacks me and completely ignores the history of his own religion, I don’t appreciate it. I believe we have a right to believe. But I do not believe we have a right to force that belief upon another person through words or actions. I believe we have the right to agree to disagree. And then get on with living and being who you are and what you want to be, with God’s help or without. It doesn’t matter as long as you are happy with yourself.

Links:

No comments:

Post a Comment