One of the advantages of coming to Christianity from lifelong atheism was that I got to read the New Testament like a suspense story. I knew from cultural osmosis that Jesus was born in a manger, that three wise men visited, and that he was eventually crucified, but I that was about it. So I was caught off guard when I learned the details of his conviction and execution. I was particularly shocked that many of the same people who shouted “Crucify him!” had joyously hailed his entrance into Jerusalem just a few days earlier. What could explain such a drastic change of heart?
There were undoubtedly many factors at play, and each person who joined in the shouting had his or her own reasons. But I’ve often thought that, at least for some of them, they were lashing out in anger—an anger driven by fear and disappointment. When they saw him enter Jerusalem they recognized him as the long-awaited King, and thrilled at the ideas of what his kingship might involve—maybe peace? Prosperity? Riches? Surely it would mean that life would somehow be easier and more comfortable for everyone. And when they saw the Lord’s seeming powerlessness in the custody of Pilate, they were crushed. Because what they had wanted more than anything—a decrease in earthly suffering—had not come to pass. In fact, the One who was supposed to make it happen was about to experience the worst kind of suffering in the world. And I believe that this fear and hatred of suffering is what was behind at least at least some of the cries calling for Jesus’ punishment.
This same fear of suffering is at the heart of so many of the scourges that plague the modern world. When suffering is seen as the worst evil, even worse than death, it opens the door for all sorts of malevolent ideas. Euthanasia is seen as necessary. Eugenics starts to look reasonable. Suicide doesn’t seem so bad. Contraception and sterilization appear to make life better. Abortion can even be touted as a compassionate choice for the children who are being killed, on the grounds that they might have experienced suffering had they lived. A terror of suffering always leads to death, whether it’s killing ourselves, our unwanted people, or even our Messiah.
This is why the world needs Good Friday. I don’t just refer to the great act that took place on this day, that reconciled us to God once and for all—that part goes without saying. But the world needs this commemoration of it, a day set aside to focus on the figure of Christ crucified. Because it is there, on the cross, that we learn that suffering is not the worst evil. It is there that we see the shocking truth that we do not suffer alone, that God himself suffers with us. And it is there that we come to understand that our suffering is now bearable, because it has been redeemed.
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Great article Jen! I just cant fathom how Atheists or non-Christians are able to view suffering and not be in total despair. In light of the sufferings of Christ, all earthly suffering becomes 100 times more acceptable and even beneficial. On this Good Friday, I look to the cross and I find renewed strength and I realize how truly loved we all are.
This is a wonderful Good Friday reflection. Thank you. I am 22, and grew up secular also. It’s funny what you get by “cultural osmosis”. You get the joy of Christ in the manger and the beauty of “O Holy Night” (plus presents!!), and then the joy of…the easter egg hunt (which is just something your grandma takes you to do one weekend in spring, no biggie). In that context, good Friday doesn’t make any sense. Our culture is all about feasting, because it sees the everyday suffering as useless, inefficient. Dwelling on it seems sick. I don’t think this day was ever mentioned to me growing up, just another “weird holiday” on the calendar. I was baptized last year at Easter vigil, and this year has been one of the most difficult of my life. But also one of the most beautiful. I have been filled with hope, joy, and healing from God in a way that has changed me and challenged me. I have been ridiculed, felt so alone. But He has always been there for me in a way words don’t explain. This Easter will be full of true, lasting joy. Thank you, Jesus.
Very true and very well said! We expect a decrease in our suffering when we believe in God. But when things turn sour we question what we believe in by lashing out in anger, a way to express our fear and disappointment. I’ve been wrestling with the issue of physical suffering since 2007 after two surgical operations to save me from colon cancer which leaves me with no !@#$%. I came close to shout my unbelief. But each time I cursed the devil knowing that suffering does not come from God as He suffered Himself. An experience I would never have understood if I did not go through it. The perspective of non-stop suffering is scary and devastating. But there is hope in the various forms of healing that can take place, all reflecting God’s love for us.
@peggy, beautiful!
@jen, love all you write :)
@fritz, God bless you.
All I ever goth from the New Testament was that God was demonstrating that people could be forgiven for torturing and murdering some one who was not only innocent, but also a savior of humanity, and be forgiven for it. Further, they could take his words and use them for their own political agenda, degrade and silence women, and con their subjects into giving away their own wealth for their own good in the “next life”.
Rick Santorum wants to deny health care to the poor because it would be to our spiritual benefit. Mother Theresa withheld modern pain medicine from her hospice patients, yet was damn sure to get medicine for herself before she died. The current pope will be forgiven for telling lies about condoms and spreading AIDS and other diseases in the third world—not that he thinks he is doing anything wrong. Get your minds of an idealized fiction of 2000+ years ago and look around you now.
Adrienne, you had something there until your second sentence.
Explain, please.
Great article Jen! As crazy as it seems, suffering can be seen as a gift in a way, because it brings us closer to Christ, who suffered the ultimate suffering. Thanks for writing and happy Easter!
Christians believe suffering brings them closer to the divine. That is why it is easy for them to inflict suffering on others. They know they will be forgiven for unforgivable things. It is a sick thing to want to suffer and even sicker to justify the pain of others as part of God’s plan. Even if the New Testament was believable, why would anyone want to submit to such a tyrant?
Adrienne, I know you don’t think you need it, but I’m praying for you and people like you. God bless you.
Like I haven’t had that response before. It means you have nothing to counter my argument. I’m always willing to be convinced but I have yet to meet a “person of the book” with a rational reply.
No, suffering is not God’s plan. It can’t be. You imagine a God taking pleasure in suffering. He would be a sick mind. Jesus assuming our humanity had to suffer like any other man and had no choice but to suffer. The mystery is not in suffering but in choosing to become a man to suffer like any other man. Only after his earthly life did his followers understand what happened because they saw the Risen Christ. And then suffering not something inflicted to oneself became a gift of uniting oneself more closely to Christ’s passion. A true Christian has to be against suffering at every level: someone is sick, he has the right to medical assistance; someone is hungry, he must be fed; naked, he must be clothed. We should categorize suffering as evil the same way we categorize something good is from God.The point is that we must be all attuned to the reality of suffering which plagues our existence and the ugly truth to cope with it. Maybe there is a hidden opportunity in suffering which the person suffering would not have had if adversity did not strike. This is not to say there is a reason for everything in the suspicion that suffering is part of a master plan. Good things like bad things happen because behind every event there are human decisions which are carried into actions. When something happens we should’nt be too quick in seeing an act of God when in fact we should question human wisdom. The instability of human wisdom cristallizes the unpredictability of the elements in human life and causes us to despair in our search for solutions. We should all pull together to fight evil. If we are not together we are alone and God is not with us.
Your comment appeals to a humanist philosophy that I agree with, except for the concept of God. I don’t believe in God or a plan, but I see the behavior of people possessed by the archetype and obsessed with controlling the behavior of others. They are suppressing scientific education, making hate speeches, and taking away our economic and health care securities. I see the pope refusing to acknowledge the church’s participation in past and current evils and condemn those who criticize the church’s authority. As you said, good and evil arise from human decisions, there is no reason to believe a god exists. As for Jesus, he is not the first or the last deity to be killed and then be resurrected. I prefer John Barleycorn.
Adrienne, I picture you as a person looking for truth,disappointed by life, skeptical at the possibilities of human goodness and then relying on science for emotional support and the meaning of life. My philosophy is that we are all here for each other. We are destined by nature to one another. Whatever I can do for you I should do it. Together we can make life beautiful and worth living. Only if we start from the basic principle: “Do to others what you would like that others do to you”. It takes courage and a passion for beauty wherever it can be created. For everything is Love and comes from Love. Sow the seed of love and look around you. The magic of Love makes everything possible and you become part of what is Life because you separate yourself from death, what is destined to die, the tyranny of suffering, the kingdom of evil.
Adrienne, pray for the grace of the new creation of the resurrection of Christ. Seek Love for the meaning of Life is Love.
Fritz, your thoughts are kind and I appreciate your good will. Also, for some reason, your description of love is one I can understand. It is not the “romantic” love that promises eternal devotion and commitment, which, incidentally, is what the church promises its believers. It is the joy of living and helping each other grow. I’m not so disappointed in life as I am disappointed in people who claim to love others, promise eternal devotion to their welfare, and change their tune once they’ve been elected. But the catch to helping others grow is that growth means change. With your efforts, the one you love changes to someone different. You have to be willing to change too, and accept them as they are. Religion does not acknowledge when it needs to let go and I believe that causes a great deal of anguish. We live in a time when there is enough scientific evidence to explain things that were once attributed to the will of one or more gods. We have enough knowledge to question the existences of god(s). It is comforting to hope death is not an end to life, but we need evidence. Instead we are told that the evidence we have in the real world is an illusion and instructed to have faith in a deity that does not show itself, and if it does it is the end of all life on earth. Christianity may have started as a humanist movement, but like all other human idealogies, has grown stale.
Adrienne, sorry to come back so late on this. Allow yourself to come near Jesus’divine nature. Be open to a new horizon and follow the path of the revelation which will be given to you just by wishing if Jesus is real he comes to you.
I was once an unbeliever like you reading scientific books and the writings of Marx and Engels. Do I still think that history occurs through a dialectic of opposing forces? Yes. But my thoughts have been enriched with the reality of God who is above history and causal determinism.
I was once walking the streets of Manhattan with no particular purpose and stopped to write my impressions on the city. I was suddenly struck with the feeling or idea that there is something inexplicable about life, about this universe in which we find ourselves. My reaction was that there is nothing inexplicable to the rationa mind only unexplained. Like an answer to my thought another idea popped into my head and invited me to address the unknown as someone who hears me and sees me. And I did gazing at the sky and humbly said: If there is a supreme being, reveal yourself to me. So days, months passed as if what I said in a moment of confusion went unnoticed because it could not be delivered like a piece of mail with no address. And I forgot about it until a year later in Montreal a friend who also does not believe took me to Saint Joseph’s Oratory built on the site of a small basilica where a religious man Brother Andre Bessette cared for the sick and the disabled.
On entering the Church I clearly heard an inner voice telling me not to laugh at what I do not understand and I came out a believer. This marks the beginning of my belief in God. I have plenty more to say about the reality of God, that death is not the end of life.
Adrienne, if your heart wants it, it can be comforted by the sacred heart of Jesus. Go ahead, take a leap in the dark. All growth is a leap in the dark, in the unknown,a sponteneous unpremedited act of faith.
RE: “Christianity may have started as a humanist movement, but like all other human idealogies,(sic) has grown stale.”
Christianity spawned humanism, not the other way around. Humanism emerges, oh, 1400 years after Christianity, sponsored by Popes, of course. Also, did you know how many scientists were, and are, priests? Did you know that a Jesuit came up with the Bog Bang Theory? We do not believe the world is illusory at all—that’s Buddhism. Instead, we take an incarnational view of the world, and it is precisely this incarnational view that helped support humanism as it emerged.
“Because what they had wanted more than anything—a decrease in earthly suffering—had not come to pass.”
Jennifer, this is so well-put. And it’s still true today, as you point out. The idea that Christ did not eliminate suffering but redeemed it is rock-bottom true, but so hard to both convey and to accept.
@ Adrienne: I know a long time has passed since you posted here so there may be no point in bringing it up again but I’m willing to take the risk…. There is no rational reply, and as long as we look for something rational, we’ll never find any satisfactory answers. The entire story of salvation shows a God who doesn’t work according to human thinking, but if we are able to step away from our desire to rationally “know” for a moment, and open our hearts to an irrational “knowing”, in the sense that you know your best friend, i.e. a relationship, then God comes in and helps us to see, clearly. I KNOW that this doesn’t make any logical sense, and there is a part of me that feels silly writing this… but this comes from someone who was where you are, so I really do understand what you are saying. One day I took up the challenge that has been put in front of you in many responses to your comments here too: BE OPEN. Not because because any human gave me the rational argument that finally explained it all and proved it to be the best option among the thousands at our fingertips, but because at some point in my life I realised that all of the attempts at rational explanations were hopelessly lacking, but at the same time, I was miserable without “knowing” SOMETHING. There were 2 choices: stop living, or take one last shot - the one that I had always rejected, i.e. open my heart to the unexplainable, the mystery. And I can testify that the new horizons are beyond what any rational being could ever quantify or prove. When you experience it, you realise that there IS proof… just not the kind that we think we want before we know what it is :)
Anne: Thank you for trying to find the joy you are experiencing as a catholic, but I find it impossible to abandon logical and scientific thought for a mere fantasy. To be blunt, your invitation sounds very similar to an ex-boyfriend of mine when he was inviting me to a marijuana party.
See my comments on the Sex Education thread: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/we-need-more-sex-education/
I think religion is a romance that has infatuated believers and/or is used by believers to justify their greedy and ruthless behavior. I cannot fall in love with a deity whose worshipers are cutting access to health care for impoverished women and uninsured, lower-income people in general. I cannot get along with people who demand to rescue unborn children, yet do not want to feed or help these children when they are born. Most of all, I cannot stand people who willfully ignore and lie about facts they don’t want to know.
Enjoy your ignorance in peace and don’t worry about me.
Bye!
Wow, Adrienne, those are some pretty hectic arguments that you had on the other thread. You are clearly a very intelligent and well educated person, and I compliment you on your ability to argue your point. Whichever side you are on is fortunate to have you as a supporter :) I’m not going to try to convince you of anything because very rarely does it have the desired outcome (I personally have a strong aversion to being proselytized). I’m not going to tell you that I will pray for you and the salvation of your soul either, because it would be a sign of disrespect, assuming that someone who has stated so clearly that they neither believe in prayer nor salvation of souls would appreciate it. I’m not American, have never been to America, so I admit that I am ignorant on many of the local issues that you speak about, but I know that these paradoxes exist where I live, and everywhere else, too. What I DO want to say is this: I believe that it is very unlikely that the core motivation behind all your arguments is as “detached” from you as local / national / international government (unless you are a politician or in government in which case it is what you do with your life and I’m glad to see someone who believes so strongly in what they do, even though I don’t agree with you. All sides could do with more of that. If so, you can ignore anything that follows :)). The amount of zeal that you display can only come from your heart, it’s impossible to be this passionate about something that isn’t very close to your personal life, and the amount of time that I can only imagine you spent participating in these debates testifies to how important it is to you. When someone speaks in such a heartfelt way it is because their lives have been affected very intimately by something related to what they are talking about, because it has touched YOUR life, not the lives of other people. I don’t know anything about you, only what you think about issues that have been covered in these threads; I didn’t know you existed until today; and it is unlikely that our “relationship” will deepen beyond this brief encounter. My life has been touched by the encounter though - in some way you are now a part of it :) Arrivederci.
Anne:
Wow, right back at you! You are the only person on this site that has shown any respect to me. I wish we could meet.
It’s probably true that my anger and passion is motivated because of the political issues in my country. Your Christianity may be your way to confirm your love for humanity. I find other literature that supports my love for people. I thank you for respecting my right to choose another path for my journey in life.
Apparently religion has not become involved in the politics of your county (in my passion I sometimes need to be reminded that not all Catholics/Christians live in the United States and oblivious to the harm their creed is causing). I’m sure if you witnessed the abuse or neglect of children or other helpless people, you would not excuse it because they profess to be Catholic. Unfortunately the other Catholics I’ve been encountering in this site do not look at the world around them. Their religion, at least when they get involved in politics, has made them paranoid psychotics with no sense of compassion or humor.
I’ll leave you with a link to a video that describes my life here. Again, thank you for your respect and peace be with you.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/03/its_a_drag_to_be_the_only_skeptic_in_the.php
I’m happy to hear from you again! An entertaining song, thank you :) The desire for power and control is an ugly beast, and is saddens me very much too when people use religion as a tool to obtain either, or both, because as you so rightly point out, all it does is discredit religion. I’m sorry that you received such a hostile “welcome”... I have to keep reminding myself of something when I visit blogs and discussion groups though: it’s all too easy to imagine that what is discussed is an accurate portrayal of the way things are for everyone rather than what it really is - a small group of like minded people discussing something that is relevant to them for one reason or another at a given point in time. I think that people who are not able to speak out in their “real” lives for one reason or another are at a high risk of using these platforms to speak out too much and too strongly. You were the proverbial lamb walking into the middle of a pack of wolves and challenging them for seeing life from a wolf’s point of view. That nerves were touched and pride flared up is hardly surprising - it’s a natural human response to being challenged, especially in a group where people take strength from the fact that that are not alone. I doubt whether you’d get the same hostility were you to present your questions to an individual. Someone close to me recently commented that she find the “us vs. them” attitude in some of the catholic blogs annoying, but that attitude is prevalent in blogs of every creed and colour. The people who visit them and participate in the discussions generally do so not to learn anything new but to find affirmation for what they already believe. Trust me that there ARE catholics / christians out here who genuinely try to live authentic lives without exploiting their belief for their own personal ends. Most of them are not in the public eye though, and so you don’t know who they are or that they exist. I think we’d be hard pressed to find more than a handful of politicians in history who could be looked up to as role models for morality and spirituality… If you really do want answers to questions about faith, the best person to ask is one whose life mirrors what they believe.
Anne,
We don’t really have an argument-you love your god, and I love science. I’m currently in love again with Carl Sagan as I am watching Cosmos for the second time around. There are other love stories I enjoy, and they don’t involve someone dying to save their lover. They live to enrich each others’ lives.
I have to admit that although I first visited this site to find Christians/Catholics who were also humanists, I find the hostile ones stimulating and enjoy posting arguments that make them think. It’s the frightened ones that get hostile, while those who really want to know where I’m coming from counter my arguments with respect. Also, I keep getting notices of replies and have to counter the ones who give blanket statements about women who seek health care and need the option of safe abortions, should it be necessary to choose. They don’t understand that this is not a casual decision simply because they made a “mistake”. They also seem to think that ignorance about sex will “save” them for marriage.
I don’t know which country you live in, but it is likely to have universal health care—another thing christians in the U.S. don’t think we deserve, as you have seen from the links on my other posts. As I have said, I can’t leave it alone because these issues affect my life and the lives of others.
I’m not really interested in changing christians to atheists. I just want them to use the brains god gave them (if that is how they think). You obviously appreciate that. Thank you again.
Maybe you would also like this video if you haven’t seen it yet: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/04/storm_the_movie.php
I did enjoy that video :). I’m one of “those” people who believe that faith and science are fully reconcilable, not mutually exclusive (of course, this is true only if both are used for the purposes for which they were intended and in the search for truth, not exploited for personal gain and advancement at the cost of others). In fact it was my university studies in science (microbiology, genetics, etc) that first planted the seeds of my attraction to the faith. I’m not an apologist or a debater and becoming one is not an ideal of mine, but I do enjoy “meeting” people like you and having conversations about things that are important to people, so this has been a pleasure.
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