Christianity No More?

           Christianity no longer fits my world-view.  That isn’t to say that I do not believe in Jesus or the Bible as an inspired book, there are just aspects that sum up modern Christianity that I can no longer in good conscience claim as my own belief. First I will describe to you my world view and how that plays out in my own personal life, then I will describe what about Christianity, and indeed all religions, falls short in keeping up with what I am and what I believe as a logical free thinking autonomous creation.

            My world-view has been under development for some time now. I grew up as a pretty conservative individual. If you talk to people who knew me when I was growing up they would probably be shocked at who I am now. The person I was then would have strongly condemned the person I am now. I support things such as women’s ordination and the acceptance of the homosexual community into our churches. I believe in equal rights for all, no matter race, sexual orientation or sex. I believe that all people have an opportunity for salvation, no matter their sexual orientation, whether or not they wear jewelry, or whether they drink, smoke or use recreational drugs. I believe that sin is no barrier to heaven; if it was there would be no one who would be saved. The only barrier to heaven is the individual’s desire not to be there. I believe that heaven is for those that are broken by this world and the muck it contains. Heaven is for those who desire to have a relationship with a God they might not know or even believe in, yet they have seen a glimpse of love and desire that existence more than life here on this world. In short, I believe heaven to be a choice, not a reward for good behavior. Heaven is for those who choose it and for those who would be happy in its company.

            I believe that God is not a created being living in a place called heaven somewhere far out in space. God does not have a body and a brain and emotions like we do. God is in all and works through all. God’s character is revealed inside reality itself. All of creation is a revelation of what this God is. I believe that by studying nature we gain a deeper understanding of who God is and what His “character” (if God can be said to even have such a thing as character) truly is. Nature is not God’s second book but rather his first. I believe there is no such thing as absolute truth for one simple reason. What is “truth” is determined by fallible humanity as they reason what God must be from their own existence. Whenever you have a fallible human observing  the universe from his relative position inside of the universe, you get an inaccurate or incomplete view at best.

            If there is one thing that post-modernism has taught us, through the study of science and the observable universe, it is how impossible it is for us to know for sure whether a theory is true or false or only partially true. I believe that truth is the study of the empirical world. What is real is what is true. Of course, when it comes to quantum physics and other sciences that cannot be truly objectively studied, there is some give in what can and cannot be known, which has obvious implications in allowing for the belief in God himself.

            I believe that morals can be known without the need for a priori theorizing and that human morals can be studied and observed by simply understanding and exploring the natural world. God’s creation supplies the framework of which morals are constructed by humanity in order to make sense of existence. I do not believe that we have to call upon supernaturalism in order to explain our morals. As has been seen over and over again throughout history, some of the most reprehensible acts performed by man were justified by appealing to one god or another and the morals supplied by that god. Much of our morals are constructed based off how we feel about God at the time. Instead, I believe morals are constructed as a direct result of creation and are therefor constant and unchanging across culture and land divisions.

            I believe that God is Love. Why do I believe this? I believe this because of my observation of creation. Even a neutral, uncaring, deistic god could not have designed such a fantastic piece of art. Everything in the universe has free will as an essential part of its existence. An asteroid in space can be acted on by other bodies in the universe, causing it to change its course randomly. An electron inside my own body can be in any place it “chooses” at any time with no possibility of us calculating where exactly that will be. It has “free-will” of motion and position in space and time. I have free will in that I can choose what to do and when to do it. This free will is possible because of the freedom of movement of the electrons inside of my brain that are responsible for my thoughts and actions. I am a totally free agent, free to go and to do as I please. The God responsible for all of this must be the essence of Love itself or else such concepts as free will would not be in existence at all.

            I believe that Jesus revealed the character of God to humanity in a way we never understood before. The nature of Christ is absolutely not important; what is of importance is the message he taught and the things he revealed about God. God revealed himself through Jesus, just as he did through many more human beings before Jesus. Trying to determine whether or not Jesus is fully God, fully man, or both, is an exercise in futility. The message of Christ is clear: God is awesome, and incredibly different than we always theorized.

            I don’t believe in supernatural events, simply because I believe all things to be supernatural. Creation itself is a manifestation of God. When I pray I do not expect that God is going to do something magical outside of space and time; prayer is simply my way of coping with the frustrating parts of reality and free will. God does not do for me what he does not do for every single individual in existence. For instance, a few weeks ago I missed my flight out of LA. All the circumstances were pointing toward having to buy a completely new ticket at a later date, which would force me to spend hundreds of dollars and get to my destination late. My mother was praying as was my fiancé that I would get something worked out. I spoke to the customer service desk and lo and behold a different flight opened up  for me for just $75. Now for those praying, this was a miracle, but according to my world-view it was chance working in my favor. It was nothing more than the world behaving as God ordained it to behave. As Solomon once wrote, “…time and chance happen to all” (Ecc 9:11).

            I believe that because nothing can ever been fully known, truth is in a constant state of change and development. Truth is continually growing and developing and adapting according to what we continue to discover about this world and the awesome God that created it. What is true is never stagnant. If your religion has been the same for the last 100 years or longer, then you have the wrong one. Humanity has the tendency to assume that what was before was better than what is now. We have a fallacy to believe that because it is old it is somehow infallible or wiser than what we are now. We romanticize the past and make it into what it is not. I believe that what is known now is almost always superior to what we knew in the past. That does not mean that we discard the old in favor of the new, but that we critically analyze the old in relation to the new and selectively choose which beliefs fit best with empirical evidence. For instance, today we know that the world revolves around the sun even though the church stated it was heresy and contrary to the Bible to believe so. We do not believe that the earth revolves around the sun simply because it is an old belief and supported by the church for hundreds of years. We took empirical data and we changed our theology about the world’s importance in space. Truth changes and adapts.

            I think the reason why Christianity no longer fits my world-view is obvious. My views no longer match the beliefs of the general Christian church and especially do not match the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist church. The church does not believe that gays should be accepted in our churches or that salvation is available to everyone. They believe that salvation is conditional based on your works inside Christianity. The church does not believe that everyone is equal before God. They elevate pastors above everyone else, they ban women from serving God as pastors,  and they have historically banned peopled based on race. They have again and again shown that they cannot tolerate change or handle thought, questions, or challenges. They cannot adapt to discovery, new truth, or anything that seems to contradict their previously held interpretations of facts. Christianity in general, and most notably my own faith, can no longer contain my worldview. It is too narrow-minded and shallow. If I told someone that I was a Seventh-day Adventist I wouldn't be a telling the whole truth because there isn't much in my faith that overtly resembles the church.

So I am now faced with one of the hardest problems I have ever had to deal with. What do you do when your culture and your claimed faith no longer fits your worldview? For many young people the answer is to throw away all claims to the faith and leave. In fact, this decision is so popular that over 50% of Adventist young people will end up leaving the church. That method doesn’t work for me though. I understand why they do it, boy do I understand. Sometimes I am so frustrated by the narrow mindedness of the church that I too wish I could simply walk away and say goodbye to the church I have known for so long. Yet, if I leave, where would I go? As I have insinuated through this post, there is nowhere inside Christianity I would go. Every faith outside of Christianity is also just as problematic for me. My only option is to stay where I am or leave religion all together, and most in my position take the later route.

My response to this increasing problem has been to redefine what it means to be a Christian. I have had to deconstruct the associations I attach to what it means to be a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. I have discovered that the problem with religion isn’t the religion itself. Most religions and denominations have great things about them, but where they start going wrong is with the people who begin to shape what it means to be a part of that religion. The problem with religion is people; that is the bottom line. I rarely argue with the doctrines of a religion, what I end up arguing with is the subsequent interpretation of those doctrines.

Here is the ironic part of this whole issue though; the only thing that makes me desire religion at all is the people. The very thing that frustrates me so much is also the thing that drives me to desire it. I love the people in my church. I don’t love all of them, but I could say that the majority of people inside my faith I actually really like. I associate with a body of believers because I enjoy the association of people who I can relate to. If I left the church, to what group of people would I go? I could go to the philosophers, but I guarantee you that I would find similar frustrations and disappointments with that group as well. Wherever you involve people, you will have differences in opinion and decisions you personally may deem as idiocy.

So my response is this: I have a philosophy and a worldview that is now no longer compatible with the worldview and philosophy of my religion. However, I can no more abandon Christianity than I can abandon my humanity. To abandon Christianity because of the people in it is not logical since no matter where I go in this world, unless I become a hermit and seclude myself in the Alaskan wilderness, I will be faced with the stupidity of humanity. Dealing with other people’s ideas, thoughts, and desires is a part of what it means to live in a society with other people, whether inside a religion or out in the general population. So I will continue to attend my local Seventh-day Adventist church, I will continue to associate with Adventists and call myself Christian, but I do all this with the understanding that my worldview and my philosophy is not based off the worldview and philosophy of narrow minded people. I am a follower of truth, I am not a follower of the whims of the Adventist population. The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists cannot dictate my conscience, neither does any other ruling body, either Christian or otherwise. My faith is my own, my beliefs are my own, and my relationship with God is my own. The people that I associate merely spur me to discovery and support me in my quest for truth; they do not determine what I believe to be right. So the church can carry on refusing ordination to women and condemning homosexuals to hell, but as for me and my own belief, I will serve the Lord as my relationship with Him continues to dictate.