While Islam is often singled out for having a worldview at odds with rationality, the West is hardly free of such things. Forget for a moment goofball cults and celebrity based “religions,” many of those who profess Christian beliefs have a view of the world that seems to me to be utterly at odds with reason, facts, science and the Constitution. Beyond even such patent falsehoods as Intelligent Design, there is the basic theology that some hold.
For example:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20101013/jesus-isnt-your-homeboy/
I remember seeing a t-shirt a few years ago with a portrait of Jesus on it that said: Jesus is my homeboy. On one level, that could be considered funny or creative or relevant. But Jesus Christ isn’t your homeboy. He’s the sinless Son of God who suffered brutal torture and crucifixion on a Roman cross. His blood was shed to pay the sin debt that you owed. And that makes Him more than your homeboy. He is the sovereign Savior who is seated on His Throne and the earth is his footstool.
Holy crap!
A: Declaring that Jesus paid a debt that you owed indicates that you owed the debt in the first place. Can someone owe a debt for something they didn’t do and didn’t profit from? It has long been policy in enlightened Western cultures that *you* don’t get punished for some wrong done by an ancestor.
B: “The Earth is his footstool?” Nice. Actually, no, not nice… fricken’ disturbing.
I’ve long seen some SuperChristians argue that if aliens ever show up on the White House lawn, the most likely explanation is that they are actually demons, here to lead us from the path of righteousness (which always seems to be the path of the SuperChristian). But it seems to me a dandy sci-fi yarn could be written from the opposite direction: aliens come to Earth, study us in secret for a while… and then make an appearance as the Second Coming Of Jesus (or the 12th Iman, or Elvis, or whatever). Once you have come to the conclusion that it is *right* for some entity to view a planet of living, intelligent sentient beings as his “footstool,” you have declared yourself a slave awaiting a master. Someone sufficiently devious and willing could then step right into those shoes.
NOTE: for those who choose to over-generalize from this post, I am not saying that all of Christian theology is inheirently wacky. But belief that humans are the “footstools” of God, or that any God that views humans with such disdain is worthy of worship and adoration, is a belief I not only can’t get behind, but can’t even friggen’ understand.
14 Responses to “An Alien Worldview”
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Interpretation is always the problem with any orthodoxy, be it religious or political. Then there is of course, the huge gap between belief and practice. Many (primarily but not all) American Christians assume that all Muslims are 100% devout, mindless slaves to their religion. Many Islamists believe all Christians are 100% devout, mindless slaves to their religion. The reality is that most religious people are somewhat further down the scales.
Just as your “SuperChristians” seek to determine not only the beliefs of other Christians and how they practice their religion, so do Islamists with Muslims. In Islam there is a term, “takfiri” – it is equally applicable in all religions – it means roughly, “a zealot who denies all others’ belief”, implying that only their interpretation of religion is the correct one. Problem is, too many in the West seem to be assuming that the takfiris’ view is the only correct one of Islam and all Muslims. You don’t make that mistake with Christians, why do you do it with Muslims?
> too many in the West seem to be assuming that the takfiris’ view is the only correct one of Islam and all Muslims. You don’t make that mistake with Christians, why do you do it with Muslims?
Incidence of Christians out to blow my heathen ass to hell have so far been quite few. But the Gallup poll from a few years ago showed that somethign like 10% of the Muslim world was cool with the idea of killing me outright. This, coupled with watching much of the Muslim world merrily slaughtering not only any infidel that comes along their way but *each* *other* is the sort of thing that causes warning bells to go off.
Additionally, Christianity is not a “political religion.” Islam, by way of Sharia, *is.*
“You don’t make that mistake with Christians, why do you do it with Muslims?”
pretty simple…
when a superchristian does it, there are a lot of people telling him “shut up you don’t know what you’re talking about”
when a “takfiri” muslim does it…silence.
so, regular muslims need to start shouting down these takfiri muslims. in droves. because in the real world silence = consent.
The “footstool” part is strange, as I’ve heard the Earth described as “The Devil’s Footstool” as well .
It seems a little strange also in that it seems to move Jesus to a position of more power than God proper, with he, not God, running the Earth.
Silence? Or perhaps you just aren’t tuned into the right channel?
Moreover, when criticism gets you dead, people tend not to criticise.
It is naive to assume that silence equates to approval. Islam is no more monolithic or uniform in its beliefs and views than is Christianity. You have everything ranging from ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia to modernist Malaysia and Indonesia and everywhere in between yet invariably when Usama bin Laden pops up you have right-wing Americans saying, “Yeah! he’s da man!” Its rather like suggesting that the “Reverend” Fred Phelps represents all Christians when he’s picketing military funerals. You know thats wrong but you assume bin Laden represents all Muslims for some reason.
The mere fact that the Takfiri have killed a hell of a lot more Muslims than they have Americans or other Westerners might be a clue at whom they see as their real enemies.
One rule for Christians, another for Muslims. Hardly surprising. Afterall, all Muslims are evil ’cause some Muslims flew some planes into some buildings and killed a few Americans (and other nationalities). Simplistic bigotry.
I don’t care what Muslims do to their own. When they do it outside their world, they become a problem. All of them — because the conservatives support the lunatic fringe. Why the conservatives do it isn’t important.
Just read a good article on the similarities between Islam and other totalitarian ideologies: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/geert-wilders-western-sages-and-totalitarian-islam/?singlepage=true
A particularly relevant paragraph:
But Wilders’ assessment not only comports with scholarly observations made (primarily) before the advent of the postmodern Western scourge of cultural relativism, it is supported by contemporary hard polling data from 2006 -2007, and a more recent follow-up reported February 25, 2009. At present, overwhelming Muslim majorities — i.e., better than two-thirds (see the weighted average calculated here) of a well-conducted survey of the world’s most significant and populous Arab and non-Arab Muslim countries — want these immoderate outcomes: “strict application” of Shari’a, Islamic law, and a global caliphate.
Isn’t that the Star Trek TNG episode with Ardra, an alien who poses as Ardra, a being like Satan that the culture made a deal with thousands of years earlier for peace in exchange for their complete submission to Ardra upon her return.
“Incidence of Christians out to blow my heathen ass to hell have so far been quite few.”
Actually the worst terrorist attack in the history of our country was, before 911, at the hands of conservative Christian Americans.
What was that terrorist attack, R2K?
It can’t have been OKC, the worst terrorist attack prior to 911 that I can immediately recall, since Tim McVeigh was an agnostic (or an atheist, I forget which).
Maybe he’s referring to The War Of Southern Aggression as a whole, as the slavers used Christian scripture to justify enslaving their fellow man “for their own good/for the betterment of society.” Sort of Christian pseudo-socialists/aristocrats.
“Actually the worst terrorist attack in the history of our country was, before 911, at the hands of conservative Christian Americans.”
umm…tim mcveigh was a socialist racist.
he made regular visits to the Aryan Nations compound in elohim city OK
the only militia meeting he ever attended they bodily threw him out..like picked him up and introduced him to about 8ft of parking lot by air. for being a racist socialist.
your information about mcveigh being a conservative christian is very incorrect. perhaps you should recheck your sources.