Christianity | k r i s a n d r o

I am agnostic and I do understand religion but I find it rather irritating if anyone I follow blogs/tweets/post about Christianity almost all the time. I could have tried being politically correct by saying “about religion” instead of “about Christianity” but I don’t find my Buddhist or Muslim friends rave about Buddha or Allah all the time. In fact, they hardly mention a thing about their God(s).

Being someone who takes pride for being impartial to almost any situation, I asked myself if I would irritate or offend someone if I only post about something I really love.

If I post of nothing but running, I will probably offend a group of people who absolutely hate running/exercise.

If I post of nothing but my gf, I will probably irritate a significant amount of people who dislike romance and those who are single.

If I post of nothing but gadgets, I will probably offend all the neo-Luddites. But then again, a neo-Luddite wouldn’t be on Facebook.

Also, if I only post about one particular thing, I’ll just bore every damn person to death.

What if I put myself in a Christian’s shoes? I love God. I love Jesus. I love to share about my experiences with Christ. I love to share little snippets about the bible. I love to pass thoughts about Christianity to people who follow me. Maybe if I post about Christianity more often, I might convince more people, especially my loved ones to convert to Christianity. After all, heaven is only open to those who believe in God, Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and repent for their sins. Sharing is caring.

But wait. Assuming that Wikipedia is right; 18.3% of Singaporeans are Christians and 17% are non-religious, which leaves 64.7% who follow other religions. If I have 500 friends on Facebook, I risk offending 324 friends (64.7%) and irritating 85 of them (17%). Why would I want to irritate and offend more than 80% of my friends?

Some might tell me that if I don’t like it, I should just unfriend/unfollow the person on Facebook/Twitter or just stop reading the blog. Sure, I can do that but I follow or befriend someone online because I am either a friend in real life or I am interested in the ongoings of his/her life. As mundane as it sounds, I want to know what they eat, where are they going, what are they doing and what views they have. There’s no simple way for me to filter things especially when they say things like:

“This chicken rice is delicious, I thank God for the food.”

“Made a trip up Mt. Kinabalu. God showed me the way.”

The Buddhist will thank the effort and cycle of life for the chicken rice and good karma for his safe climb.

The Muslim will thank Allah for the chicken rice and safe climb.

The non-religious will thank the chef for the chicken rice and his own legs for the climb.

There are reasons why any considerate person will refrain from talking about religion when amongst friends with mixed beliefs in the real world.

One problem is that every religious slanted update/post will have statements that will offend the other religions because it isn’t true in their beliefs! Having someone who blabs nothing but religious statements online is like having a friend physically in the same room with you, talking about his religious thoughts. I can try to ignore some of your religious thoughts or try to be accepting but it’s hard when everything said is about it. So do I be nice and sit in the same room and ignore you or do you be nice by restraining your religious thoughts?

I want to be your friend but for the 23rd time, that damn chicken rice didn’t come from your God.

P.S.: Of course this post has the potential to offend with the seemingly un-religious thoughts but if you read it as I intended, only a small group should feel offended.

[Image by crowt59]

The closest I ever got to Christianity was at a very young age when I would follow my Dad to a church. He would go for the mass while I would attend the children classes where the teachers will tell stories of the bible that appealed better to children and the public. I don’t know why Dad stopped going to the Church after some time but I stopped going as well because of that and maybe it’s why I became a happier kid as I could spend the weekend mornings watching cartoons on TV instead.

At that point in time, God played a role in life; like those times when I prayed that my Mum would get me the toy that I was eyeing at and also the time when I prayed that she wouldn’t find out that I failed my Chinese test.

She did find out eventually of course.

I love reading books and I came across a bible lying in one of my house’s cupboards when I was around 12 years of age. Out of curiosity, I read the bible from start to end and instead of enforcing the belief of God in my faith, I started to believe that it’s all fiction. Interesting isn’t it? As I think back into the thought process and life experience that I had back then, I begin to wonder if the books I’ve read prior to the bible were the cause of my detachment with faith.

I read up to 6 books a week back then and amongst the books of fiction like Greek folklore and princesses in distress, I had a great interest in science like astrology, physics and dinosaurs. I think the knowledge from such books gave me a good perception of what’s fact or fiction and build my interest in science over faith. So as I flipped though the pages in the bible, I had the same feeling I get when I pick up a book of fiction. Adam and Eve; their children living to hundreds of years; their children, having children, children and more children; and the sort of stories that fit very nicely into tales of the incredulous or such.

I begun to question the existence of God and I tried to look for his role/presence in the living world as I see it and found nothing. As science improved by leaps and bounds and explained more about the wonders of the universe, the smaller the credit I give to a ‘higher being’ that gives life.

As I mature in my years, I do start to be more encompassing in the fact that everyone has their beliefs and faith in a religion like Christianity does more good than bad usually. I do not deny God’s existence anymore but more then ever, I question the legacy and teachings he supposedly left behind and scoff at the ways that his children act in his stead, like the recent AWARE issues.

If you ask me about God and my take on him and Christianity, my answer would be that he could very well exist but I choose to question his existence till the day I meet him or truly feel his existence. I hate the fact that non-believers go to hell (if it ever exists). If I do ever meet God, I hope I can have a lengthy discussion on the criteria for entry into the gates of heaven (if it ever exists) and other questions about life.

And I’ll tell him to set up a blog and a Twitter account so that he’ll reach out better to the youngsters.