It's the Only Life I Know of

                                                           (Earth as seen from space.  Photo Credit: Harrison Schmitt via Wikipedia)

Most theist’s I’ve met see their belief in God a simple task really.  They believe there’s a God, and believe Jesus died for them and there’s no other commitment.  Maybe they go to church on Sunday, maybe they don’t.  But since they believe in God and Jesus they are all set to enter into Heaven and live glorious lives after this.  Mormons however, believe it takes a great deal of work to to get into their super awesome heaven and live with their Galactic God again.  After all, “faith without works is dead”, according to James in the New Testament.  They will really applaud all the works they do and consider themselves righteous stewards. 

I had often marveled at the simplistic attitude of most Christians I’ve met.  The folks I’m talking about are the ones I’ve mentioned above who just believe because that’s all they know or have ever been told.  Unlike them I’ve always felt if there is a God, then that’s a very important thing to know, because there’s probably some rules we should be following.  So I would find it very ironic when someone will tell me that of course there’s a God, but then they do nothing about that belief.

In fact, their lives are quite similar to mine.  They don’t go to church, abstain from anything they don’t want to abstain from.  They don’t read their Bible or any other theological literature.  Yet, they chant, “God bless ‘Merica”, and become upset when an atheist pokes holes in their belief of a magic invisible sky wizard.  How does this even happen?  

Although I can look back on things now and realize, even my beliefs hinged upon that of what my parents taught me, believing in God actually meant something.  It meant I had rules to follow, and it’s all written down what I need to do to go to heaven.  Even today, if I found evidence to substantiate a belief in a God, I would feel duty bound to learn how I must live my life.  There’s no question about it.  Yet, a lot of Christians in this country just don’t lift a leg to figure out what their God wants from them.  It’s more of a social acceptance belief than anything.  

This is why I find it so disturbing that many laws and ideas in the country are being pushed by those with a God agenda.  They don’t want marriage equality because their God said it’s an abomination, yet they probably couldn’t even point to the correct Testament it’s written, let alone which book of the Bible.  They don’t believe a woman should have rights over her own body in deciding on an abortion because, once again, their God they know nothing about would feel that way.  Their answer to the majority of scientific inquiries is “God did it”!

How do we push past this ignorant behavior most red blooded Christian Americans take part in, and actually push forward rational thinking?  It can seem like an arduous task most days, but then I take a look back and see all the progress that has been made so far.  I feel it’s very important that the atheist movement continue their fight against irrational belief.  People need to know there’s another option out there.  That believing in a God or Christianity is not the only way.

Just like determining if a God does exist, coming to a conclusion that one doesn’t, is also important to know.  For if there isn’t a God, that means it’s up to US to make this world a better place.  My biggest problem with most Christians is not that they want to believe in fairy tales, although that’s disturbing in it’s own right, but that they are so focused on their reward in Heaven that they forget about the world they live in now.  They all seem to look forward to that next life, while ignoring this one.

They live their lives without a care because at the end of the day, since they believe in Jesus, they are going to a paradisaical world after they die here.  I remember when I was young, my Dad taught me how the idea of climate change and global warming were a farce.  His rationale was God made this earth, and as such it was made to sustain his creation for as long as we lived, until the second coming ushered in the End.  With this belief, there was nothing Man could do to tear up our planet.  All this talk of man made climate change was just liberal hippy talk.

This is a problem.  Because of somebody else’s mystical belief in an unproven deity, the rest of us, and our children’s children, will have to pay the price.  Even with the abundance of evidence and data that demonstrates conclusive proof of climate change; those God-fearing Americans (who probably couldn’t even tell you who’s tomb Jesus was placed in) ignore the problem because, “man can not destroy what God has made”.  

Instead of living for the next life, why don’t we live for this life.  The only life we can be certain of.  Make this life the one to live for, because the next one we can not be certain even exists.  This life, we know exists.  Wake up people, we all have to live on this Earth together and I would like to keep that going.