Dissonance Chords & Dissenting Opinion

Sometimes, I think atheists think too much.

They think they’re so incredibly intelligent because they follow science instead of religion. They think science disproves the existence of God, without considering the possibility that science could be just another facet of God’s miraculous creation, that He put so much effort and thought into the way the universe works.

They think that because war and violence occurs, God can’t exist. Because He doesn’t answer every prayer, because people are allowed to die for senseless reasons. I have to wonder what kind of naive living situation they had while they were growing up. I figured out early on in life that bad things help a person to grow. God is that loving parent that allows us to hurt in order to grow from it. It’s hard, but sometimes a child can’t learn to stay away from the oven until he burns himself. Sometimes we can’t appreciate life until we experience death. Sometimes we can’t appreciate the beauty of the world around us until we witness the destruction of a forest fire.

And God understands that, whether atheists do or not.

My best friend is an atheist, to a degree. She doesn’t believe in God, or religion, but she does believe that something occurs after death. Obviously, we get along incredibly well. She was raised with morals and common sense and that’s all I ever ask of people, regardless of political or religious affiliation. She doesn’t care that I believe, and I don’t care that she doesn’t. Live and let live. The personal choice to believe is just that: a personal choice.

I’m not saying religion isn’t guilty of attempting to convert people, because they are. It’s part of the Christian creed, to save people by bringing them to God. But nothing drives me up the wall more than a hypocrite, and I can’t stand preachy atheists who moan and cry on and on about all the bad experiences they’ve had over the years with those evil mean Christians who tried to convert them… only to then go after Christians and try to convert them to atheism, in equally nasty ways.

I also absolutely hate how Christianity is the only religion atheists ever go after. Why not just label yourselves anti-Christians instead of atheists? There was a poster on Twitter today who made a single comment about the war between Islam and Christianity, and apologized to peaceful Muslims… only to then carry on bashing Christianity without an apology to peaceful Christians.

Excuse me?

I’m not a member of a church. I’m not baptized, I’ve never taken communion. My parents made the decision to let my sister and I ultimately choose for ourselves. But I have been performing with a local Lutheran church orchestra for the past two years. And I have never seen nicer, more generous people than there are in that church. It reaches this point where I become irrationally angry to hear people whine about Christianity’s evils, when this church has done nothing but good in people’s lives.

They have never preached against other religions (in fact, I think one of the senior/former pastors teaches a class about understanding other religions, and often speak of reaching out to our brothers and sisters of other beliefs). They have never preached about the devil. They don’t demean women (there are actually at least two womens’ circles where ladies of the church meet to discuss the role of women in the Bible), or other races. They appreciate music and the arts. They don’t comment directly on current events.

Instead, they speak of God’s love. Of the importance of charity and kindness and morality. Of being humble and thankful.

I have never seen a group of people be so generous, especially when they don’t have very much to give. This church donated upwards of $70,000 AND sent their own people to help build homes in Mexico. They raised enough money to feed thousands of children in Africa for over a year, and used their own hands and time to make the food. They donate money and food to keep members of their own congregation in their homes and eating well.

I am constantly stunned by the ever-growing depths of their kindness and understanding. The church council leader and several other members of the church are all aware that I’m not baptized and not actually a member of the church. And all I have ever heard is, “If you decide to join us, the doors are open.”

Yeah, those evil dominating Christians have to demand everyone be Christian and start all those wars about others not being Christians and they’re really just evil! How dare they!

How dare you?

I know that there are some incredibly cruel Christians out there. And terrible things have been done in the name of Christianity. But what atheists don’t understand is that those people are not the majority. This is the problem we run into with the sensationalist media. When all they do is report about idiots like Fred Phelps, people forget about what Christ actually taught, and what Christians actually are.

They also refuse to consider that terrible things have been done in the name of other religions as well.

I was fourteen on September 11th, 2001. I didn’t know how to deal with tragedy on such a scale, so I started to question God. I started investigating other options (because even at 14, I hated atheist hypocrisy enough not to want to be associated with them), but nothing ever felt right. Like I said before, my parents allowed my sister and I to make our own decisions about religion. Mine was Christianity. I believe God is there, because I feel Him. Atheists talk about facts without realizing that, fact is, words like “faith” and “believe” don’t need facts, don’t rely on them.

I believe because it feels right, to me. I think evolution is the most likely theory, but who’s to say the original being we evolved from wasn’t created directly by God? I accept science that makes sense regardless of the Bible, because the Bible can’t be taken literally. Each translation is different, so how can we know what God truly wants except to look at the big picture?

Love, generosity, and kindness reaps rewards.

That’s something even atheists should be able to believe in.