anyway, i choose this title because i'm going to talk about religion. It's going to be a long post...
so this past Sunday i decided to go back to church and listen to the sermon. The speaker talked about how a person who lives solely on faith cannot be saved. In order for a person to be truly be saved, he must accompany his faith with good deeds. Here's what the bible says about it:
James 2:14 - 2:17 - "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, i wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
If you don't get it, think about the saying "actions speak louder than words." You have to back up your beliefs with actions.
Okay, I understand that faith alone is not enough to be saved. You must accompany it with good deeds.
But what happens if we switch things up a bit? What if you do good deeds, but you don't have faith? What happens then? Do all the good people who don't believe in God suffer? (This is why I don't particularly enjoy going to church because their sermons, messages, lessons, etc. are catered to those who BELIEVE and find meaning in the passages. I don't. The speaker goes on saying things like "the path to salvation is through Jesus Christ." That statement itself is very hard for me to swallow and I'm not going to. I'll talk about this later on)
So the speaker talks about how showing love to others is very important. He asks the parents in the room a question, "What would you rather have happen? Have someone do something nice for you or have something nice done for your children? Be honest. Which one would you prefer?" A few seconds later i hear some parents softly say "kids." Then the speaker goes and says "see? That proves my point."
The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear this question is the absurdity of it! Come on, Mr. Pang (that's the speaker's name). Do you really expect people to answer truthfully?! These parents are in a church, a quiet place where people can HEAR the faintest whisper. Don't you think that these parents aren't pressured to say "kids?"
At the end of the sermon, Mr. Pang called up a girl to come up and share her testimony with us. Her name was Tiffany Chan. I think she's around 13-17 years old, I'm not too sure. So she tells us her story about how she believed in God/Jesus for the wrong reasons (to avoid going to hell). She described that mentality as selfish. Then she tells us her volunteer experience for the "Jesus Loves Chinatown" campaign. It's where Chinese Christians go around Chinatown telling the good word (Jesus and salvation) and evangelize. At one point she said something along these lines, "The fact that God sent down his one and only son to Earth for our sake and died on the cross is amazing. It's mind blowing how much God loves us so much." She explained how excited and enthusiastic she was during the "Jesus Loves Chinatown" campaign. Tiffany even talked to one of her friends and the friend accepted Christ. "Praise God."
Just thinking about Tiffany's experience gives me such an uneasy feeling. I really don't understand how someone can believe that God exists. They don't provide any tangible evidence, they just BELIEVE. They just believed that God sent his one and only son to die on the cross. How in the WORLD can someone believe in something they never SAW before? How did that young girl like Tiffany take a leap of faith and decided on one day that God and Jesus EXIST.
In order for me to fully believe in God, I need hardcore proof. I know 1 + 1 = 2 because i can envision it. I can see it. I can apply it. I can understand it. Now for religion, there's nothing i can see about it. There's nothing i can feel about it. There's nothing TANGIBLE about it. That's why it's so hard for me to believe! I can't believe in something where its existence cannot be PROVED! Sin is just an IDEA. Salvation is just an IDEA. Ideas are NOT TANGIBLE.
Is it just me or am I being a bit too cynical? Am I putting my defenses way to high up? Am I so blind that I don't see the existence of God and Jesus in my face?
Whenever someone tells me an answer, I just have another question. It's a never ending vicious cycle.
I don't think i believe in God/Jesus with all my heart and soul (if i have one).
Well Jeff, we know tere is air and we can't see it. We know the Earth is round even though we can't easily observe it, and we know that the center of the Earth is liquid although we can't see it. Fact ifthe matter is, these are all things we can't see but firmly believe exist. As for people's faith, it's something THEY can see. It's not for others too see. Their relationship with God is a personal one, not a friendship that's openly touted.
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't think you're being too cynical. I think you're not blind. The reason why I don't believe in Jesus or any other God is simple. With the existence of various cultures, people, and religion, we can see that the idea of religion is a very man made thing. It's not natural. It's something that we humans created. A lot of people who believe in organized religion acknowledge this, but don't really. In the end, you gotta let the believers believe and the non-believers disbelieve.
Furthermore, I'd like to add on to your comment on the never ending question of "Why?"
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think religion exists today? Because people have an insatiable need to know why. Why are we alive, why do we live on Earth, how can Earth exist in such a vast universe? Easy, because God created it. Simple. Easy. No more whys.