The Arrogance of Christianity
After leaving my religion (Christianity) behind, and studying world religions at university, I eventually came to the conclusion that Christians are arrogant. Why? Well, it has to do with their belief that their god is the ONLY god. I was reminded of this after reading an article at the Christian Post (my new “muse”?) in which the author takes offense at the Higgs Boson particle (which is a “whisker” away from being verified) being labeled as the the “God Particle”.
In the article, the author, John C. Lennox, a professor of Mathematics at Oxford claimed that:
“All this notwithstanding, Lawrence Krauss thinks that the Higgs boson “brings science closer to dispensing with the need for any supernatural shenanigans all the way back to the beginning of the universe”. Yet, even Isaac Newton did not imagine his discovery of the law of gravitation banished God like that. On the contrary, Newton was motivated by his magnificent discovery to write his magnum opus, the brilliant Principia Mathematica, expressing the hope that it would persuade the thinking person to believe in God.”
So my response is–WHICH GOD??? This is where the arrogance comes in. Christians claim their god is the ONLY god, whereas Hindus for example, believe their god manifests himself (Brahman) into whatever god you need him to be. Talking to Jesus? Well, he’s just another manifestation of Brahman. Roughly 14% of the world population claims to be Hindu (about half of the world population of Christians) which is a significant portion of humanity. If we take into consideration that Hinduism does not sentence unbelievers to an eternity of hellfire for “unbelief” in a particular version of god, and that even in you do not believe in their version of gods and goddesses, their gods and goddesses will still come when you need them, by this philosophy alone Hinduism is much more tolerant of other religions than Christianity. This is not to say there are no problems within the Hindu religion–because there are. The caste system and the practice of burning of widows alive known as ‘sati’ for example, are, and have been implemented by Hindus.
Nevertheless, the arrogance of “my god is the ONLY god” remains prevalent throughout the world today, and Christians such as the blogger Bill Pratt continue to defend their beliefs wherever they need to be. (Which is almost everywhere in the age of easy access to information.) So Bill Pratt, in
his skewed attempt to rebut the claim that Christians are arrogant in their faith said that:
If we look at the number of atheists, those who deny that any kind of god exists, it’s probably around 150 million people, or 2.5% of the world population (
see this link for data). Even if we double that number, we get 300 million people. That means that approximately 5.7 billion people are wrong about the existence of god, or
95% of all the people living in the world.
Bill’s claim that because the population of theists (not necessarily Christians) is approximately 95% of the world population, it is the atheists that are really the arrogant ones, as we are a minority population claiming there is no god because of lack of evidence. This is not only a red herring, it is also the logical fallacy known as argumentum ad populum, in which an argument is based on what the majority thinks is true–even if its not. Populations aside, the argument is, that Christian claim their god is the ONLY god-without having evidence that this is true. Remember, the majority thought the earth was flat for a long time, and that too has been proven wrong. Truth is, the arrogance claim has nothing to do with how many Christians or atheists there are, but the fact that Christians believe their god is the ONLY god, and if you believe in Vishnu for example, Christians say you will still go to hell. Why, even if you believe in Allah (who, technically is the same god the Christians believe in) you will go to hell. Why, even if you believe in the Christian god, but participate in transubstantiation rituals, some Christians say you will go to hell! Christians are arrogant that way, but many others who believe in the other Abrahamic faiths are as well. The arrogance isn’t exclusively Christian. It applies to many groups who claim their beliefs, and their god is all that there is, and if you fail to comply to their way of thinking–well, you will suffer for eternity in hellfire. Even if you are Christian you could suffer for eternity, as it depends on what kind of Christian. How’s THAT for arrogance…..lol.
If argumentum ad populum works for Bill Pratt, perhaps he will be swayed by this:
Atheists, Christians, Muslims and others agree that the Hindu Brahmin is not the one true God.
Atheists, Christians, Hindus, and others agree that the Islamic Allah is not the one true God.
Atheists, Muslims, Hindus, and others agree that the Christian Yahweh is not the one true God.
It seems atheists are in the majority.
Lol–I love your logic! I am going to remember that one!
Oh, how true this is! Like you, I only realised how arrogant Christians are when I left the faith. You are absolutely right, they use the word “God” without even a thought that anyone might take it to mean something other than what they do. They are also arrogant in their “I just know. It’s a revelation” mentality (what about other people whose “revelation is different to yours??), they are arrogant in their judgements on others (“You must be angry at God or hiding some sin to have left the faith” or “You must never have been a true believer if you left the faith”) and they are arrogant in their disregard for the evidence (“I don’t need to waste my time with reading all that, I know the truth”). These attitudes are staggeringly arrogant, and I was guilty of some of these manifestations of arrogance myself, but it leaves me speechless now that I see it clearly.
So true. This is also what is wrong with the experience argument, and why it fails. Christians use the experience argument for their Christian stance, but ignore the experiences of those who adhere to other religious beliefs. But if the experience argument works for the Christians, then it would work for the other religions as well, thereby offering a counter to their own religion.
A great commentary from the two hammers. Well done.
I agree with your claim that “Christianity is arrogant” if all of your negative claims about Christianity are true of all Christians. But, they aren’t. Many Christians don’t believe in many of the things that you assume they do – which I’m sure many atheists and Christians will say means they’re not “real Christians” (just like many conservative Christians say Romney and Obama are not Christians).
From my perspective, anyone who says “my opinions are absolute” is arrogant, whether coming from an atheist, Christian, whatever.
The problem is that all those Christians you refer to… aren’t the ones speaking out. They aren’t the ones that people think of when you say ‘Christian’.
People, especially in other countries, only see what is on the news. Just as the US population doesn’t ever see the millions of Muslims that are just going about their lives quietly, they don’t see the Christians you refer to. Those other people see Billy Graham, and Bill Donahue other people who you would probably agree are not representative of the Christian faith.
I totally agree with your last statement. But the point was that to a Christian (by definition) there is only one God. It’s stated in the Bible several times and also that God is a jealous God. That’s the arrogant point of Christianity… and many other religions as well.
I definitely think there are way too many self-appointed spokespersons for Christianity. Despite what many people think, Christianity has no pope or board of directors. So, from my perspective, the moment someone’s opinion becomes EQUATED with Christianity, that’s the moment that person should be ignored.
And, I’m not sure that the claim “there is only one god” is inherently arrogant. Many different people nuance that claim in many different ways. I think what could be arrogant are the implications of the claim, or how it is explained or defended.
For instance, many Christians equate God and nature or the universe. So, if it’s arrogant to say “there is only one universe,” I guess that’s arrogant.
But, my point is that many Christians think many different things about God. I don’t think all of them are inherently arrogant.
Rob Davis said…”if all of your negative claims about Christianity are true of all Christians. But, they aren’t. Many Christians don’t believe in many of the things that you assume they do”
Hi Rob.
But why would Christians even have such need to continue bothering with keeping their church doors open, if they thought it really didn’t matter, if people even believed or not.
Seems there must be at least some degree of arrogance, to faith beliefs. Otherwise these folks might not even bother to seek to achieve these sort of “special titles” . Like i’m Christian . I’m Islamist. I follow Judaism etc.
They might otherwise,simply be totally happy ? with just being classed as being another human being. Thus helping bring human society in general, into a more “all-inclusive” type of atmosphere.
Almost seems that theism by default , may? always need to also include, at least some degree of arrogance to the formula it chooses to have need to adopt. Seems maybe they cannot be totally happy, with just letting humans ,be human . They would need people to first agree to also become Christian human. Islamic human or Jewish human or what ever else.
And then we wonder why, social society in a wider aspect , is also been seen, to have developed so many other forms of bigotry and even the bullies too. People who may spend parts of their whole life time , feeling somewhat unhappy, that other human are different in some way , to what they are.
I understand why a faithful person may tend to feel a little bit embarrassed, or even slightly angry, to need to even hear faith being classed as , having a somewhat arrogant aspect involved in it . However this is just a honest observation, and a suggestion that Linda and Anthony have made here in a “generally-speaking” way. Such suggestion doesn’t need to try and say that they would necessarily need to be thinking this in any sort of “personal way”,in personally speaking about every single believer here upon planet earth. It is more likely, just a general opinion being made, of the overall situation as it looks at-large
If faith doesn’t carry a certain amount of arrogance with it ,then why ? would their even be any need at all, for all these many different faith beliefs, to have needed to even form.
The only reason such beliefs would have reason to form, must have something to do with faithful folks view that people will somehow remain thought of as being “lesser type humans” , unless they would agree, to join up with others within the walls of some faith-groups campsite.
This is indeed at least a very subtle form of arrogance, in an active form of promotion. And sometimes they will even feel quite free to be telling us too ,how it is, that us humans will also need to know how we reap, of that what were been sown.
So in understanding that, should we even be so very surprised ? that it often almost seems like maybe there is now an aspect of arrogant type atmosphere, that sometimes seem to permeate much within our society, in general, like its a nasty cancerous growth
youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU
which WORLD-VIEW will not exist, sh*thead?
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5000 whining atheists vs the Great Prophet
how the divine pen of Michel N. crushed the international atheist movement
sguforums.com/index.php?topic=43121.0
youtube.com/watch?v=s3lwG4MytSI
one applicant right here…
get the POINT, Randi….
….
Oh Boy. Mabus found SkepticBlogs…
As an aside, the atheist population in the world seems to be way underestimated in that article. Most sources I can find put the atheist population in China above 50 percent which would be 600 or 700 million there alone.