Hey! Religious Stuff!

People ask me all the time, “What’s up with your religious stuff?”

My “religious stuff” is easy to explain, but difficult to understand.

This year, with the lady friend’s help, I’ve outlined some core beliefs of Joshism:

1 – I am pretty sure that Jesus and God would much rather have us live as good people, rather than constantly praise them.

It’s fine to constantly praise; it’s good to express happiness, but don’t forget that the more important part is to be a good person.

2- I don’t like churches.

They have become more about when to stand, when to sit, dressing up, eating bread, drinking wine, shouting, praying when you’re told, etc., than what the whole point of Christianity is:

BEING A GOOD PERSON.

Instead, 99% of all churches are more about the act of worship itself rather than the reason.

Also, churches, as Christian educators, aren’t doing so well.

It’s like school.

If the kids don’t want to be there, it’s not going to have the best impact.

My theory is that half of agnostics and atheists have their beliefs because they hated church when they were little, and have subconsciously forged a war against them because of it.

“But Josh, religion is serious, not fun!”

Um.

Jesus is a reason to be happy; so yes, it should be enjoyable.

3 – I’m not a huge fan of the Bible

See there?

I’ve immediately lost the ears and / or respect of about 60% of the people who are reading this.

The Bible was written thousands of years ago.

People believed that the sun went around a flat earth.

There are disagreements among the Gospels with events and such.

Et cetera.

Now, I’m not saying the Bible does not have Jesus’s hand on it, because it does / did, but I’m saying:

The Bible was not written by Jesus or God.

It was written by Christians.

And I know some pretty messed up Christians.

I believe in using the Bible as a guide, but not following it word-by-word.

Also, what usually happens, is that a lot of college-age Christians tend to just quote all the “easy” quotes from the Bible, that lay it out for you that Jesus / God will provide for you / is stronger / has risen / will create happiness / etc., and have really just patronized / made the Bible into sort of a pop-up book of quotes, when that’s not what it is.

4 – Intelligent design.

God created evolution.

It’s not God vs. science.

God made science.

Silly.

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So that’s that.

There’s more, but they all fall under the categories of

• Intelligent design
• The Bible is just a guide
• Church is not preferable
• Constant goodness is better than constant praise

So yeah.

…

I forgot what I was going to say.

…

Damn.

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Oh yeah.

I don’t really need proof.

If that makes me ignorant or something, then, uh, okay.

Are you happy now?

You win?

Okay, you can go now, in your little sad world of self-triumph over basically nothing.

If your argument is that Christianity, and religion in general, has caused wars, death, suffering, hatred, etc., well then uh.

Science created the *ing BOMB.

I say “People are flawed, therefore religion is flawed,” and you cackle and point and say “I will never accept morons believing in a flawed and false belief,” well then uh.

*, YOU’RE flawed.

Those people who create a hatred against gay people, other religions, etc.?

They’re doing it wrong.

Just like people who use science to hurt others, and not for progress and awesomeness… Are doing it wrong.

“Uh HELLO, years of research and [insert science here] have shown ZERO proof of God, and actually, have produced arguments against it.

Also, a man goes into a ‘giant fish’… I don’t think so.”

Okay, see, this is going to go nowhere.

The mature thing for you, people who disagree with religion, is to just let us believe what we want to believe, and laugh to yourself, that’s fine, just don’t be a * about it.

“NO, not when you people who believe what you believe are causing pain because of it!”

There are plenty of instances where non-religious people cause pain.

“It’s mostly religious people.”

No, EVERYONE creates negativity, it’s just that the majority of people have religion.

“It’s mostly for religious reasons.”

And non-religious people who create negativity do so for non-religious people.

Are we done now?

“No.”

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There will always be haters.

There will always be Christians who ignore and judge others because of the high moral regard they hold themselves in.

There will always be hatred and violence, with a label of religion on it sometimes.

The only possible thing to do is to try to be a good person, non-judgmental above all, for the sake of being a good person.

And this post doesn’t really draw any conclusions, but I really can’t, so.

Yeah.

…

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I know, I don’t have an obsessive love of the Bible, but still, this is pretty cool:

Psalm 118 is the middle chapter of the entire Bible.

Psalm 117, before Psalm 118, is the shortest chapter in the Bible.

Psalm 119, after Psalm 118, is the longest chapter in the Bible.

The Bible has 594 chapters before Psalm 118 and 594 chapters after Psalm 118.

If you add up all the chapters except Psalm 118, you get a total of 1188 chapters.

“1188,” or Psalm 118 verse 8, is the middle verse of the entire Bible.

And what is the message found in verse 118?”

“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” – Psalm 118:8

It pretty much sums up my relationship with God.

Most Christians I know are messed up, so my faith is 100% God, Jesus, and me, no Church, no Bible, no Christian exclusivity.

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That’s a God-awful lot of religious stuff, I’m sorry.

…

lol?

Tagged: bible, christianity, god, jesus, religion, stuff

Posted in: Reflection