Is it harder to be a Christian than an atheist? Is it harder to be a Christian than any other religious theist, especially in America? It's common for Christians to say this and I'll allow that the Christian belief system imposes burdens on people which may be difficult to bear sometimes.
However, I don't think that Christians generally or always mean something like "Christianity set high goals that are hard to meet." Quite often, they mean something more like "Society doesn't always reflect my beliefs and tell me I'm right, and that makes me sad."
First off, I'm an atheist, formerly a Christian. I've often heard the argument that Christians are weak-minded and use their religion as a crutch. This may be true for some, but i believe it's harder than most people realize to be a Christian.
One of the hardest things in the world to do is tear down your pride on a continual basis and place your faith in someone/something else. It involves the denial of one's self, which completely goes against our nature. Sometimes it can be just downright scary. I know i struggled with this every day of my life as a Christian, as did a lot of other people i know.
Not to mention taking a stand in your belief system that is ostracized by a large portion of the world.
Since when has Christianity been "ostracized by a large portion of the world"? Even in the Middle East where Islam dominates, I'm not entirely sure that "ostracized" would be an accurate label -- although it is true that Christians don't always have the same status as Muslims.
In the West, and especially in America, Christianity is generally the norm while members of minority religions and nonbelievers in particular are the ones who are typically ostracized. I would argue that not having to take full responsibility for everything that goes on around you is far harder than simply praying and leaving it all in the hands of some absentee deity.
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I think the difficulty of being a Christian that the forum member writes about has a lot to do with the mental state with which you approach Christianity. If you really buy into the concept that you’re a sinner, you’re worthless, your only value is in setting aside yourself and doing what pleases your god, it can be extremely difficult (or, if you’re inclined to be self-negative) extremely damaging. But most of the Christians I know aren’t focusing on that too much; they’ve established enough cognitive dissonance that they can aspire to “not I, but Christ in me” without giving up self-trust.
The forum member’s observations do not co-inside with mine, and I think that Karen and I have similar takes on this.
The modern day Christians that I interact with seem to revel in being miserable sinners without giving the impression of being miserable. Sure you get extremists Catholics in countries like the Philippines, and others in South America, were worshipers indulge in self flagellation, and even feel compelled to be crucified, in their desperate attempts to feel worthy and cleansed of sin. This is unusual in the west however, unless you give credibility to Dan Browns expertise on the subject (the monk in “The Da Vinci Code”).
Our modern day Christians, with supercilious smiles welded to their faces, seem content to keep their sinfulness intact, as they drive around in cars with stickers on the back proclaiming “Not perfect just SAVED” and the like. How hard is this to do?
On a sombre note at this time of year I think about those poor deluded bastards in the Philippines, that are going to be voluntarily nailed to crosses. I think about the other sick bastards that flock to the scene to see the spectacle, and I think of that callous bastard in the funny hat that could stop this practice with a few words.
“Amen, my brother” ;o)
Grandpa
“People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy”.
– Circular Letter to My Friends in Italy
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin (1814-1876)
Russian anarchist and political theorist who opposed Karl Marx
“Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man — state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.
- Karl Marx”
Grandpa made me do it