We're Alternatively Lazy
Thursday April 20, 2006
Christian college professor and "cult expert" Ron Enroth knows why "altreligions" like Baha'i and Scientology are popular with young people and celebrities:"Many of the alternative spiritualities do not make heavy demands on followers." That would be unlike the heavy demands of the Easter-and-Christmas Christianity mainstream?
Speaking of why we choose alternatives, I'd love it if any of our readers who practice an "alternative" spirituality would care to comment on their choices- did anyone out there reject Christianity because it was "too demanding?"
Comments
I spent more than a decade as a devout member of the xtian faith. I attended church 3X a week, taught, acted as worship leader, the works. Eventually it became more and more apparent that there were inherent logical flaws in the faith that the leadership of my faith were silent to answer.
After doing my own research for answers, I came to the only natural conclusion any person of reasonably intellect could arrive at - xtianity is a very effect and durable method of controlling large populations of people and bilking them for hoards of cash. The history of the church is replete with examples of how leadership imposed its will upon people who wanted nothing to do with the religion of the bible. Millions of deaths, from the crusades to the conquest of North America, can be blamed on the word of this “righteous and holy god”.
Too demanding as a faith? I think not. Too utterly stupid for any reasonable human being to accept with any amount of lucid thought on the matter.
I was a street preachin’, “Elmer Gantry”, Holy roller that believed questioning god was forbidden and holding hands on a date was “heavy petting.” Imagine the preacher from Inherit The Wind.
My path from bible thumper to free-thinker was a long struggle, but any task that yields such a wonderful reward as freedom is worth the difficult journey.
As a Laveyian Satanist, I can tell you the demands of personal responsibility, common sense, utilizing our brawn, instincts and intellect and living life to the fullest in this society is a great deal more difficult than asking for the Jesus to forgive you so that your “sins” can be swept under the rug.
As a heratical discordian, I can tell you nothing. Yup. No awnsers here fellah.
I don’t believe in any god(s), but have much more sympathy with the alt religions than the mainstream. The Church of the Sub-Genuis particually, as they have a sense of humour that is completely lacking in most mainstream religions.
As for it being easy? He’s got to be kidding, rebuilding your entire moral framework is much much harder than simply giving lip service to the current interpretation of their moral teachings that the mainstream do.
When it comes to any questions of religion (including the question of whether or not any given religious experience is “too demanging”), I often find it useful to remind myself that the word “religion” comes from a Latin root word, “religare,” which means “to bind.”
And, like it or not, we’re bound to this world and the nature of our existence, or (at the very least) our carcasses are. To be sure, we’re all subject to some fairly demanding conditions here, and most reasonable people would like to make less demanding, in one form or another. To that end, we have varying degrees of choice about how we might further bind ourselves, or, perhaps better still, how we might liberate ourselves.
That choice is critical, and liberation doesn’t come easy. In freeing ourselves from one boundary, we may unconsciously step into another one, which may be just as limiting.
For example, atheists, who undoubetedly liberate themselves from a personal belief in God, nonetheless bind themselves to opposing any metaphysical systems involving the concept of a God (thus, ironically, they bind themselves to the binding, faith-baswed choices of others). Even agnostics bind themselves to not knowing, and thus, well, they aren’t bound to know much.
It’s not difficult to imagine that this path is bound to have has its own rewards and punishements.
As for everyone else beyond atheists and agnostics, people either make decisions that are bound by faith (pistis), which calls for binding one’s self to someone else’s teaching, insights, or experience (i.e., you believe in it/him/her/them, whatever the tradition might be, and thus, like atheisim, you’re faith is secondary, or an “epiphenomenon,” because your faith can only follow something else that came first), or else people might rely on what they have come to know through outer or inner experience (gnosis).
Now, back to ther original points, when it comes to the question of whether or not anything is “too demanding,” I would make the simple observation that if nothing else, what you demand of yourself will seem far more acceptable than what anybody else demands of you, and in this regard, gnosis would seem to offer the most direct and flexible path to liberation, which isn’t to say the easiest (i.e., we can be far more demanding on ourselves than anybody else is).
Moreover, I’d make the additional observation that whenever “someone of faith” finds that their belief system is too demanding, it invariably is because “something inside” of them that tells them this is so.
So, hmm… why not just start from within and save yourself some time? After all, you’re always bound to be bound to yourself–it’s the way you came into the world.
This isn’t to say you are the only thing in the world, and thus you ought to look out for number one, and that’s that. “In-formed” experience will soon bear out that the best way to be selfish is to be unselfish.
It’s just that even in the act of being unselfish, you need to start with yourself, although you don’t end there. Upon further reflection, turning within leads to without, and eventually you redefine who you are–that you’re not bound to your carcass alone.
In fact, you’re connected to all of those carcasses “out there,” and they have to deal with the same essential condition you’re dealing with.
Maybe you see with a little more empathy–a little more compassion.
So, for example, we we come to conclude that this or that tradition or belief is utterly stupid, we also might then think, well, yea, no doubt this is true, what with all of this tradition’s hypocricies and contradictions, but then, look at all of the world’s contradictions?
Or, maybe, gee, look at all the hypocricy or contradictions in me?
For that matter, don’t we all come into this world utterly stupid? In fact, might it be fair to say that the whole world itself can be seen as utterly stupid?
Now, no doubt many will protest, “we might be stupid coming in, but that’s not the way we want to go out, is it?” And if that means separating one’s self from intolerable beliefs and practices, so be it. Nobody is likely to be “pro-stupidity,” though we have more than a few opinions about what stupid is (and, no, “stupid is what stupid does,} doesn’t count as an answer, because, well, it’s stupid).
Anyway, in the case of tossing aside old beliefs, I would just hope that we wouldn’t separate ourselves from empathy for the underlying condition that led us to those intolerable beliefs in the first place. Nor should we separate ourselves from the humility that this sort of experience undoubtedly should teach us.
We might be careful of demanding more of others than we would of ourselves.
Moroever, we might do well to remind ourselves that the world itself is inherently (and sometimes crushingly) demanding, which pretty much is why people turn to religion in the first place. On that score, some new and true believers believers might do better if they paced themselve a little, but then again, others might be better off if they picked up the pace abit.
But whichever might turn out to best be the case, I’m guessing that it’s the “still voice within” that will tell someone when something’s amiss–if something’s too demanding or not demanding enough.
Alas… If only we had the power to let that voice within make the demands at every moment of our lives. I’m guessing that verything would appear a whole lot less demanding, and a lot less binding.
Vicki writes:
I am responding to….
hristian college professor and “cult expert” Ron Enroth knows why “altreligions” like Baha’i and Scientology are popular with young people and celebrities:”Many of the alternative spiritualities do not make heavy demands on followers.” That would be unlike the heavy demands of the Easter-and-Christmas Christianity mainstream?
Speaking of why we choose alternatives, I’d love it if any of our readers who practice an “alternative” spirituality would care to comment on their choices- did anyone out there reject Christianity because it was “too demanding?”
I am a Bahai. Getting right to the chase the answer to your question is no.
As a Bahai I did not reject Christianity. In fact Bahais believe all religions to be from God.
Vicki
Wisconsin USA
As a Bahai, I can tell you that we have strict guidelines within which to live, including the eschewing of liquor and premarital sex. There are many alternative religions that make exacting demands on their followers behavior- perhaps Ron Enroth should do some true research before making judgements.
I was raised in a christian home. I saw two completely different christian spectrums, for better and worse, in both of my parents. But in the end, it still came down to severe fundamentalism. When the baptists went on strike against Disney, my father tore the tape from my Pinnochio, Snow White and Lion King VHSes because The Pastor Said So. No thought need be devoted to the process of what this does to your young children, to the fact that even if you’re boycotting disney that’s not giving them money, you already bought it. The fact that the first is a classic inspiring good morals. The Pastor Said So, therefore it must be true.
The mindset followed through to my mother, who instead says The Bible Says It, therefore it must be true. Or, often, The Bible Doesn’t Mention It, Therefore It Doesn’t Exist. I’m not a firm-set believer in UFOs, but I’m not cast against it, either. My mother believes UFOs don’t exist, because aliens weren’t mentioned in the bible.
I grew up in an environment where people could not think for themselves. And when I raised honest concerns over things [eg: Gap between heaven and hell that no one can cross, but lucifer goes to heaven and wanders around earth in other verses], I just get chewed out for doubting. Because The Bible Says It, and My Parents Say It, and The Pastor Says It, therefore it is so.
I believe being able to think for yourself is more taxing than going to church and putting on pretty appearances and putting a little pocketchange into a tiny dish. I believe opening yourself to the experiences around you that you closed out for your entire life because “they couldn’t be so/weren’t right” and thinking, for yourself, just how you should handle yourself, is a greater task than locking yourself in a small room. Hell, most christians don’t even go to church, or pay tithes, but they’re still christians. If alt religions are all about being lazy, does not paying tithes make you a scientologist or something?
I believe there’s some truth in christianity. I don’t know how much. But I believe there’s some truth everywhere. And some falsehoods everywhere. I believe that all of these religions wouldn’t be if people didn’t feel there was something to stand on, especially ones that have worldwide similarities between different faiths. But when people are too bound by their tiny perception to see this… well, what am I to say?
To any pastor, evangelist or whatever else: I interact with demons, and I’m damn proud. If I stand before the christian god on judgement day, I will need to ask him, he who created all, and is all, and is in all, why I am being condemned for doing what he himself does, or doing what he could have controlled, or changed. Free will might be someone’s answer, but is there really free will if he’s supposed to scare you into things?
I have no interest in living my life in fear. I live my life honestly. If that means I am lazy, then I am proudly lazy. But I haven’t felt this alive in a long time. Deceiving myself got me nowhere. And in fact, I’ve never been so active in my life since I took my own path: Spiritually, or otherwise. This is the healthy road for me. The only binds I still have is living under my mother’s roof [at age 19, blegh], which puts a serious cramp in things. But I work, and I strive, and I put in effort and if I was lazy I would just go with what my mom expected of me.
And in the none too distant future, people are going to see a fantasy series published by me. And the series is going to contain religious references. And there will be an outcry. And I will laugh at the hysteria. Because I’ve lived inside a house with it and seen how crazy it gets.
Reading the previous 8 comments on Christianity being “too demanding”, I clearly must be missing the point. Yes, I have been brought up in a Xtian home so I have a bias, but as far as letting it take over your life, that seems hardly true at all.
For people that are constant alcoholics or homosexuals or other groups of people that are frowned upon in the Christian community, you are merely too obsessed with the physical realm of the world to even consider changing your life.
As far as being a “money moocher,” offerings are asked for, not demanded. If you have so much attachment to the extra luxuries you buy with your money, go ahead and don’t give offerings. That is between God and you. But don’t complain because you feel “obligated” to pay.
The majority of the people that have responded seem like atheists and had a bias to the other extreme, so I figured this article could use a Christian perspective: Life on Earth can’t be the end. There is obviously a higher power. Whether you follow Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, you know that this world can’t be the best it gets.
Stop ruining your life on earth by accepting the boring idea that life on earth is all there is. There is merely no downside. No one says you have to be perfect, because it is obviously impossible for humans. Just try. None of you have given Christianity a chance. You are merely displaying all the negatives and downsides instead of any benefits.
Let’s face it, nobody ever really knows enough about some else’s religion to be able to critiscize it adequately. While I do believe in a god (several, actually) I do not believe that the Bible, the Koran or even the Vedas are the literal words of any particular deity. I seriously doubt that a God’s words would even be comprehensible to a human’s severely limited intellectual capacities. To an infinite being that would be like reading poetry to the third cell from the left in a fold of your ear. We are a part of the Gods, yes, and they are a part of us, but I don’t need their email address. Yes, there are rules, but most of them are simply the practical ones devised by and for humans to get through the day without irritating each other too much. whether your rules are ‘Do no Harm’ or the 10 commandments, they are demanding and no ‘expert’ can give an off the cuff dismissal.
I call myself a “Christian Pagan.” I take what I think is true from the Bible and the rest, well, I’ve found my own path. I am tired of the money-grubbing televangelists brainwashing the sheeple in their churches. I read Tarot. (I call it praying with cards.) I think people who check their brains at the church door get what they deserve. There are good ministers out there who THINK and encourage their congregations to THINK and come to decisions after thoughtful contemplation, and not blind obedience. I think blind obedience is worse than willful disobedience because you are only believing because someone says to, not because YOU know it’s true.
Eventually, I want to be able to stand up and say at least I put thought and contemmplation into my beliefs. I am not perfect, don’t claim to be. Don’t claim to have all the answers either. I just know what’s right for ME. I don’t go around trying to “convert” people to my way of thinking. I was outraged when I found out our “Christian” holidays were actually originally Pagan holidays and no one bothered to mention that fact before. And that there are fundamentalists who will blast “new age” religions while singing carols around their “Christmas tree” (which is actually a PAGAN symbol!!).
So I celebrate what I want how I want. I teach my son to question authority if he thinks it’s wrong or doesn’t understand, and to never accept, “Because _____ says so,” as an answer to a philosophical question.