I want you to know that I understand.
I have never taken Islam or Mormonism seriously. I believe they are fabricated religions that gained traction because of charismatic founders and blind followers. They don’t pass the most basic tests of validity, and a person would need to remove the batteries from a great number of smoke alarms in his brain in order to believe that it’s all true.
I understand this feeling completely, and I know that you, the rational modernist freethinker, feel the same way about Christianity: “He so easily realizes the absurdity of other religions, but can’t see the senselessness of his own!” Why should my faith be any different? What sets it apart?
I hold fast to the idea that man cannot invent a selfless religion. This is why I believe Christianity is different, and this is why I believe it’s true.
All the other world religions I know of are self-serving in some way: either they benefitted the founder, or they have tangible benefits for the followers. They could have easily been invented by a person or a group of people. An invented religious system always originates from the desire to achieve something, and then the spiritual beliefs are shaped around that. Mohammed wanted to inspire an army. Joseph Smith wanted to be rich and have a lot of wives. What better way than to invent a religion? It’s not hard for me to see them spending long hours hidden away, concocting a religious system that would serve their agendas. They themselves would have no reason to believe that a word of it was true.
The Eastern religions are possibly the most self-serving of them all. In some, the ultimate goal is your own personal heaven; in others, you are a god (or are part of God). Their teachings are focused on becoming a better person through discipline and understanding. But their usefulness does not depend on whether the beliefs are true; even if there is no such thing as reincarnation, you lived a fulfilling life.
I could say much more about animistic tribal religions around the world, or about nationalistic religions like Shintoism, but I don’t want to drag out the point. I think I’ve covered all the major categories of religion except for one: Judeo-Christianity. The Bible had to come from somewhere. If it all really was invented by some Middle Eastern men a few thousand years ago, I have to ask, “What was in it for them?”
Christianity stands out as the only selfless religion. It preaches forgiveness and love, but there’s nothing in it for me if I do these things. Why would I forgive someone who is likely to do it again? Why would I love someone who has done nothing to deserve it? Knowing what I do about human nature, I can’t accept that this was invented by humans.
OBJECTION! Many people make a lot of money being Christians and selling their faith! But if you pay attention, these people always use Christian words to sell un-Christian things that appeal to a person’s selfishness. “Send us money in faith and God will bless you financially.” No one ever became a millionaire by telling Christians they need to love more than they do. No one ever got rich off of Christ’s name by telling the truth. And look at three of the most recent Christian best-sellers: Your Best Life Now sold four million copies; The Prayer of Jabez sold nine million; The Purpose Driven Life sold 30 million. All of them are about self-improvement with God’s help. The true gospel of Jesus does not sell.
OBJECTION! In the end, Christianity is selfish, because every good thing we do is motivated by a desire for reward in the afterlife. I have two responses to this. The primary response is that this hinges on everything being true. Other religions may have rewards in the afterlife as incentives for following, but they have definite rewards in this life as well that do not require it to be true. But if Christian spirituality is not true, we have nothing. We don’t even have superior morality: the first step to becoming a Christian is accepting that you are not good enough to save yourself! My secondary response is that heaven is actually complete freedom from self. We receive our crowns only to give them back to God in praise, and then to spend eternity in selfless worship. In heaven, there is no more me. There is only Christ.
Now this is not to say by any means that Christians are selfless. I don’t have to look very far to prove that wrong. But Jesus left us no example of selfish behavior, and there is no Biblical basis for it either. We do mess up, and frequently; but the selfishness comes from our own human nature, not our faith.
I enjoy strengthening my reasoning skills by reading this post.
So many Christians will be baffled to read this because you are not quoting Bible verses. Does our faith really lie beyond the quotations we memorized as children?
So many I know engorge themselves in so-called church activities, or starve themselves in self-deprecation through building walls and sanding legalistic lines.
If only the gospel made sense in the way that math makes sense. Perhaps then everyone would understand. It takes something greater or someone higher to lift our understanding to get this thing you call “gospel.”
For, in this country, selflessness itself has mistakenly been viewed as a method to achieve self-approval. It is discarded.
One thing that you may have overlooked in you post concerning the motivations and origins of some of these religions is the supernatural. Mohammad and Joseph Smith both had a similar problem they wrestled with. Mohammad came in contact with Christians and Jews because of his family’s trading business. Joseph Smith had a crisis of faith because he too was exposed to the different flavors of Christianity…and became confused and discouraged because of the seemingly divergent beliefs. Both of them had a spirit come to them in their moment of crisis and “clarify” things for them. Joseph Smith’s spirit was Moroni who helped him translate the book of Mormon. He did it by placing his head inside a hat and the words of the spirit would appear in front of him in the darkness of the hat. (A demon was obviously deceiving Joseph Smith). Mohammad had a spirit appear to him to give him the words of the Koran. Since Mohammad’s family worshiped 360 Gods he assumed that this “revelation” had come from one of his favorite Gods. That God’s name was Allah…the Bedouin moon God. So…it seems that there may be more going on in the spiritual realm with lying spirits to pull people away from Jesus….I know first hand of this type of spirit and have talked with one. They are very deceptive.
didn’t read the post i’m commenting on.
It looks like I’m gonna have to go for something less bulky than cinder blocks…
And oh man do I need some more space. How does Macleod do this?
Yes exactly like that… :)
Brooks –
“selflessness itself has mistakenly been viewed as a method to achieve self-approval”: this is a very good observation. I might even add that (false) selflessness has been used as a method to achieve self-approval. Maybe the overabundance of false selflessness is the reason that we are skeptical of genuine selflessness?
@Kevin
The word “selfish” has taken new meaning than what the church has called it.
To me, selfish means concern only about myself. To feed myself only, to put my needs above the needs of others. To take care of myself first then take care of everyone else.
To people I know at work, however, “selfish” means to take from other people. To see what could be had that someone else has and to actively take it. “Selfish” means “stealing.”
Therefore, to be selfLESS also takes another meaning.
To God, being selfless means giving up all you have. Jesus was a pure example of this.
But to our friends and coworkers, selfLESS means to simply passively live and let live. Because, if you’re not taking things from other people, then you are not being selfish. Therefore you are selfLESS.
For example, it is viewed in our culture that if you have a wifi-enabled computer, you are free to take and use your neighbors’ connection, without asking, and as much as you like. The reasoning for this is: “it doesn’t hurt him.” While this depends on whose opinion you get, the example holds true because as long as you do as much as you want and are not injuring your neighbor, go for it.
Using neighbor’s stuff without permission: selflessness.
However, God gives a very different example of this in sending Jesus to the earth, emptying himself of his amazing-ness and powers. This is his view of selflessness.
Giving up all we have to the neighbor: selflessness.
What it boils down to is that people generally believe that by living a life unto themselves, we are being selfless. This makes no sense! Rather, giving of what we have to others is truly selflessness.
By contrasting the two views we see that people think that they are achieving a sort of godliness by living insulated lives unto themselves, and then hoping they have enough left over to give to someone.
Just some thoughts.
Basically, the canyon between giving and selflessness is not so grand as we generally believe.