Hi. My name is Aaron. I was a Christian for the better part of 24 years. I was very closed minded, fearful, rejecting of any other walk of life, and judgmental of any and all nouns not associated with my belief system. I also had a false moral compass. But that's not what I want to write about today... Within the past 2 months, I have deconverted, and now consider myself mostly to be an agnostic theist.Yesterday, I got my first phone call from a Christian acquaintance, asking me why I haven't been in contact. I explained my situation to him openly, and honestly. He responded, paraphrasing scripture: "Aaron, God will give you over to a debased mind if you want it. You have free will. But you need to know that you’re being a coward by dropping your weapons." This is me paraphrasing his paraphrasing, just to be clear.
COMMENCE RANTING:
A "debased" mind?
Apparently, when a person decides to reject a man made ideology which is riddled with closed-minded rhetoric, the literary god of that ideology gives that person over, without hesitation, to a debased mind.
Well thank god!
The same god that said it's okay to murder as long as it's for "His" glory, but also clearly stated that "Thou shalt not kill" (among many other clever dichotomies), also said that it's okay for you to "corrupt" your mind with a capacity for free thought. How wonderful!
I admire this rhetoric for its monumental potential to seize the minds of impressionable people. In tandem with the concept of eternal fire and brimstone for those who reject the Holy Book, this creates a very efficient fear-based system that keeps the reader on his or her toes!
It's no wonder that the Holy Bible is a best-seller. I have much respect for the authors of this book - they paved the way for televangelists, preachers, priests, pastors, and Christian authors to make obscene amounts of money, by taking advantage of those fearful followers.
Now, let's break this section of the best-seller down, from a logical, rational, and most importantly, OBJECTIVE standpoint (i.e. I have no reason to defend it anymore, since I am no longer consumed with blind faith and cognitive dissonance):
From Romans Chapter 1 (English Standard Version):
"[28] And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [29] They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, [30] slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, [31] foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless."
This is to say that once one rejects the ideas of a supreme being as dictated by the Holy Bible, one becomes susceptible to all of the horrible things listed in verses 29-31.
Let's break a few of these down, from a biblical and righteous perspective, shall we?
"evil," "inventors of evil," :
"And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." (I Samuel 16:23, KJV)
"And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand." (I Samuel 19:9, KJV)
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7, KJV)
So, we've established that the LORD invented and continues to invent evil. Here we find that by denying the Holy Spirit, you can become godlike! Cool! Well, unfortunately I have no desire to create evil. Unlike "God", I'm more compassionate, loving, and accepting when it comes to people of all walks of life (yes, even if it does go against what the Bible says, then doesn't say, then says again, etc., ad nausea).
"unrighteousness," "covetousness, malice." "envy," "strife, deceit, maliciousness." "gossips, slanderers," "insolent, haughty, boastful," "foolish," :
Sounds like social interactions after Sunday church service to me! All kidding aside - as a former Christian, I witnessed more of these "qualities" (heavy emphasis on "gossip", "malice" and "slander") in people back then than I do now in a community with free thinkers. My only explanation for this is that I've put some distance between myself and fundamentalists! Go figure.
Moving on.
"disobedient to parents,"
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26, KJV)
Well I can see why one would hate one's own parents, especially in the case of Lot attempting to whore his own daughters out for the sake of two angels.
(Note: For the sake of continuity, I won't be referencing those verses in full text, but I can direct you to Genesis Chapter 19, if you're unaware of this biblical atrocity.)
Well, apparently Lot's daughters didn't think much of his evil actions, given the fact that they got him drunk soon thereafter, and engaged in incestuous sexual acts with him, in order to preserve his coward seed.
It's a shame Jesus Christ hadn't come around yet. He could have made Lot's daughters his disciples, and they'd have hated their father! Oh wait, that's right, according to the bible, women are inferior and can't become disciples. Too bad.
(The contradictions and conundrums here are overwhelming.)
Moving right along!
"murder"
"The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." (Psalms 58:10)
There are many, many verses in Holy Bible promoting murder (even in the New Testament), as long as it's the wicked being killed. And the word "wicked" is a loaded one. It could mean "unbeliever", "homosexual"... Hell, it could even mean a murderer! Well, I am a firm believer that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". And yes, I know, Christ came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. To absolve man from the punishment from God's [man-made] laws concerning evil things like premarital sex, and free thought. Well all that tells me is that Jesus came a few thousand years too late. And with events like the Crusades, the Inquisition, and god-fearing groups like the "God Hates Fags" cult (all of which can be "justified" through scripture), I can only conclude that the punishment of God's law was truly a man-made concept, and Jesus could have done a better job of dying for our "sins".
So, if another Christian tells me that God is giving me over to a "debased" mind, all I can do is ask:
Whose mind is really debased here?
