Dissonances of the Day
Lately, I have stumbled across some weird people calling themselves Christians. First it was the Christian Atheists, who believe worship and ritual are beneficial for the psyche, but that there is no god. Yeah, real good for the soul, just like plopping down in front of an empty fireplace with a hot cup of nothing, and cozying up inside a lack of blanket to read your favorite air novel.
Then there’s this guy Justin Cannon, who set up a Christian dating site … for gays. They call themselves, ‘Rainbow Christians’. Why do these people go through such odd contortions to keep hold of their faith?
I suppose the latter example is at least encouraging evidence that, in some circles, the bible is gaining a more moderate and tolerant interpretation. But in my opinion, they should go for the gold and call it the fairytale that it is.
Tags: atheism, christianity, Cognitive Dissonance, Homosexuality
March 31st, 2009 at 11:39 pm
From what I remember, John Dewey has a perspective on religion that is sort of like what Christian Atheism. He thought that there was a religious frame of mind you could be in, and that this frame of mind had psychological and moral benefits. However, he thought that the object it was usually focused on, i.e. actual religions like Christianity, were really bad. Instead, he suggested that people should focus their religious tendencies on participating in democratic processes and civil actions. I forget if that was implicit in his thought or explicit; he may have only suggested the creation of a ‘non-supernatural religion’ obviously thinking of it as some kind of civic participation. This is all from A Common Faith by the way.
Maybe that isn’t too much like Christian Atheism, because it doesn’t embrace the doctrines and rituals of Christianity, but just the psychological mechanisms and structures Christianity itself takes advantage of. But anyways, I like Dewey’s idea so I thought I’d mention it.
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Andrew Sullivan is an interesting case of a guy who’s not only gay, but devotes about a quarter of his voluminous blog to putting down the behavior of the Catholic church, then calls himself a devout Catholic. Why go through the contortions? Check out his exchange with Sam Harris (on the right side of his blog). It’s interesting (and a little depressing) to see a guy like Sullivan who I agree with on many (most?) topics suddenly retreat into vapor-think.
Also, I like the concept of air novels. Come on, what’s cooler, Eddie van Halen air guitar or John Steinbeck air novels? “Here comes the cool part, ‘tell me about the rabbits’ YEAH high five!”
April 7th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
A fairy tale imparts knowledge and warnings to people upon the dangers in the world, the bible is not a fairytale. To call it such demeans fairytales, I prefer to call it a creative work of Myths and Legends of the primitive peoples of terra.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
@ Mike
I don’t really get Andrew Sullivan either. I read The Daily Dish all the time, and I usually agree with what he says, and it vexes me that he calls himself a conservative. If he is, it’s only because he exists right on the boundary of conservatism.
Anyway, I read a good part of that interchange between Harris and him a while ago. Harris lays out really good arguments but Sullivan just wriggles like a fish. Kind of out of character for a guy who usually has it all together.