Personal Worth

In a post that I read recently, the person wrote: It can be comforting to believe in the Christian God. 

Personally, I tend to think that is one of the prime reasons people embrace and/or stay in Christianity. It’s comforting. They always have a “Heavenly Father” to turn to when times get tough. Even though the actual conditions of their life rarely change, they think/believe/imagine they do, and that’s the bottom line.

The thing is, ALL of us face difficult circumstances at one time or another … and  spending time trying to find solutions is NOT an easy task. In fact, it can oftentimes be a grueling experience. But I believe it makes us stronger within ourselves because it gives us the tools and processes to help us if/when we are faced with similar obstacles. Moreover, it instills a level of confidence in ourselves and our abilities to face whatever comes.

However, for many, believing in themselves and their own abilities to work through a situation is just too scary. They find it much easier and more comforting to shuffle the responsibilities of decision-making and action to a “higher power.”

Yet the facts are that every one of us lives in a world of uncertainty. Our lives are full of ups and downs, with some being more stressful and troubling than others. But EACH of us has the capability to work through them and come up with a solution on our own. We just have to believe in OURSELVES, rather than some unseen and silent entity that others have convinced us exists.

It’s my belief that any individual who relies on a supernatural deity to help them get through difficult times is forfeiting their own sense of personal worth. And from my perspective, that is irresponsible at the least — and foolhardy at the most.

Moreover, it does NOT make the problem go away.

****************************************
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Higher Power?

“We answer to a higher power.”

This is the defense that church leaders offer as California Governor Gavin Newsom (once again) puts restrictions on indoor church services because of the pernicious increase in COVID-19 cases.

Yup. As discussed in one of my earlier posts, the churches are once again complaining that they should be exempt from any and all limitations related to their services.

As most of my readers know, I’m adamantly against any “special privileges” by Christians.

And yes, believers, I’m well aware that the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”

The BIG difference is NO ONE is PROHIBITING the free exercise thereof. The powers-that-be are simply ruling that you don’t do your “free exercise” within the confines of a church building. And this ruling is backed by medical and health professionals that know far more about what’s best for Christians (and heathens alike) than any church leader.

But let’s go back to the first line of this post: “We answer to a higher power.”

No doubt this references the Christian God which no one (outside of bible fables) has ever seen or heard — contrary to the claims of believers who are certain they heard God “speak” to them during occasional moments of prayer. Or on those occasions when they desperately wanted their god to move on their behalf and “he” answered.

However, lucid and rational-thinking individuals –the ones who endorse the old saying seeing is believing– tend to utter “hogwash!” to these celestial claims.

The ONLY “higher power” that has been proven to exist are those neurons and protons that exist within one’s physical brain.

In other words, complaining pastors, it’s all in your head!

The hard truth is these church leaders are fearful of losing their source of income … and they will use whatever tactics/excuses/reasons they can come up with to justify their need.

It’s just too bad that those who are in other lines of work cannot use the same excuse to vindicate their (very real) needs during this pandemic.

Here is a question that continues to gnaw at me and no pastor who complains about “religious rights” has been able to answer: Why has this “higher power” allowed so many to die from a virus that, supposedly, “He” could have prevented?

*************************************
References:

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2020/november/ca-church-goes-to-court-facing-350-000-fines-despite-zero-covid-cases

https://lc.org/newsroom/details/20201125dragging-the-ca-gov-to-the-supreme-court (Notice the request for donations at the end of the article.)