Not
long ago, I heard about this billboard along the highway: “God is an imaginary
friend—choose reality. It will be better for all of us.”
(From Our Daily
Bread available at http://odb.org/2013/06/14/imaginary-friend/)
While
the world would be far better off without some militant and distorted forms of “faith”
for the most part people who serve and follow this “imaginary friend” have made
the world a much, much better place. In
fact it is hard to imagine what the world would be like without the influence
of genuine Christianity! Placing value
on human life, sexual morality, the place of women, and education, to name a
few have been changed for the better by Christians.
Alvin
J. Schmidt in his book, How Christianity
Changed the World tells how people who were transformed by Jesus Christ set
about to make the world—their world a better place. Sometimes it was a movement like the Abolitionist
Movement or the Hospital Movement but most of the time it was as a result of
people changed by Jesus Christ who set about to right wrongs.
An
example of individuals serving is that when Roman families did not want a baby
because it was deformed or of the wrong gender, they would seek to dispose of
the child. Christians rescued these
infants and raised them as their own children.
Even greater are the numbers of Christians who go about doing good with
no notice or care about the personal costs involved. There are many who quietly serve those in
need not out of some selfish motive but simply because Christ Jesus called them
to go.
No,
the billboard was wrong—reality is that without God there is no reality
at least no reality that changes people so they can then go out and change what is wrong with the world.
The bible supports slavery and hatred towards homosexuals and women and children (just depends on which chapter you prefer to believe in). Your god Jesus Christ (if he existed) threatened (several times as do other cult leaders) anyone that didn't accept him, to an eternity of burning and gnashing of teeth.
ReplyDeleteIf all these people are doing good for Jesus Christ, than it's not altruistic...it's survival...afterlife insurance. Jesus is their motive and eternity is their objective.
Those that benefit from these people are usually led to believe in this god. In example; Mother Theresa in Calcutta converted over a million Hindus into Catholics. There's your motive...and she didn't do it without an objective.
Atheists do actual acts of altruism for no other reason than to do benefit toward others. :)