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An open letter to Fundamentalist Christians
Dear Fundamentalists,
I know you may not like me and that's ok. It is your "god given" right, but I am here to talk about one thing we ought to be able to agree on. The protection of the environment is something we can all get behind. It is a cause backed by biblical principles and the interest of all those on earth. Whether based on biblical doctrine or our children's sake we all have a deep interest in the protection of our Earth.
I know you don't want to talk about it because you think Jesus is coming back and we won't have to worry about the environment when he does. If this is true and Jesus comes back and saves mankind again, don't you think he may be pissed at the treatment of the world? We all know of the story of Jesus and his treatment of the moneychangers in the temple. Is there any sense in which this parable wears on you at all? Do you really Believe that this world is a gift from God? If we do have dominion over it than we have a responsibility to keep it safe and keep it healthy. If Jesus comes back I would be worried if I were you, he might turn over the tables of the moneychangers. I have a better question, who pays if you are wrong?
Global Warming probably won't affect my generation, it may not adversely affect my children's generation, but it will affect our grand children's lives. Now if you are wrong and Jesus isn't riding his magical cloud back to Earth as we speak than it is in some future generation that we will pay for it. I personally don't want to hand down a lesser Earth to my children, or my children's children and I have a feeling neither do you. I know this is not very convincing for you since, Jesus IS coming back, but please at least consider it.
Please be kind to our Earth, it is the only one we have. If not for you sake than for those who will one day call you their ancestor. If not for them than for Jesus, and if you won't do something for Jesus than what kind of Christian are you?
Sincerly yours,
Dan.
Posted at 11:15AM Oct 15, 2007 by Dan Benjamin Smart in General | Comments[2]
I agree with your direction here Dan but I just don't think your argument is strong enough. This is serious stuff we're talking about here. We want to SAVE the PLANET. SAVE HUMANITY. You can't wear kid gloves when you're on this kind of mission. You got to wake the sleeping drones up and help them to see and realize what's going on outside their comfortable belief system.
Fundamentalist Christians actually don't care what happens to the earth or the environment because they truly DO believe Jesus is just going to tap the planet with his finger and all will be restored to health and purity when he returns.
Their mythology has become self-destructive because it has become CONCRETIZED - hardened into dogma - which then rapidly become OBSOLETE and no longer OPERATES DYNAMICALLY as a living, breathing evolving spiritual system.
But because Fundamentalists are so deluded by this false belief in the return of Jesus (or the Return of the Mahdi for Muslims - or the Return of the Buddha for Buddhists - or the Return of the Jedi for Star Wars fans) - because they are so deluded by this false expectation of a SECOND COMING - and as a gnostic philosopher - I can say that I KNOW for a FACT that they are deluded - that they actually need to be 'unspelled' - 'disenchanted' - 'unprogrammed' - 'awakened' - 'released' - 'enlightened' - 'unplugged from the Christian Matrix' or whatever term you might use for taking all your reality filters off and seeing the Universe for what it truly IS and what it IS NOT...
We - HUMANITY - face a situation similar in scope and paradigm evolution to the necessity of understanding that the earth goes around the sun.
Pretend that you are a lone scientist with vast astronomical knowledge and have just discovered that in 1000 years - the Earth will eventually collide with a huge rogue asteroid the size of the moon and be destroyed.
However, most of your really nice but mostly clueless neighbors belong to a religion in which they firmly believe the sun goes around the flat Earth.
Do you treat them like idiots and cater to their false belief system - that the Earth is a stationary and flat disc - or do you appraise them to the true reality of the situation and the orbital mechanics involved so that they can all work together to best come up with an informed solution to this problem?
There comes a time when any organized religion must be exposed to the populace as hanging onto an infantile-stage of fantasy thinking and now we really need to collectively 'grow up' into the big world of real problems and real solutions or we're all going to die.
I think the time has come to start REALLY breaking the news to the 'it's gunna be all right' masses that Jesus isn't coming again - that the whole thing (religion) is a powerful, addictive psycho-mythic cycle that we need to break out of in order to progress past the self-imposed limitations of our own ego-centric - myopic belief systems and progress onto the next stage of our maturing humanity.
Posted by Douglas Bryenldson on October 15, 2007 at 10:45 PM CDT #
I agree with your premises but not your method. The problem with putting on the big boy gloves and going round for round is that it instantly creates mental noise. If I start with dear morons who believe that a zombie who is his own father will come back offering eternal life as long as you accept him as your master if you are willing to eat his flesh and drink his blood, then they may be turned off a little. I don't hope to convert anyone, but maybe I can change the mind of one or two people about the environment then I did something I would call good.
Posted by Dan Smart on October 16, 2007 at 01:29 AM CDT #