Page 1 of 7

Faith for Faiths Sake

By: R. Andrews
Ive heard it said many times that its best to not discuss religion or politics, as these
topics are sensitive and the discussion will, more often than not, end in discontent. I disagree.
Some of the best conversations Ive ever had have been about both topics. I think the caution
should be to not discuss religion or politics with people who are uninformed and/or blindly
passionate about them.
Having said this, Ive had some great discussions/debates about religion Christianity
specifically. Im not afraid of the subject, Im afraid of zealots; I avoid this subject with people
who believe things just for the sake of believing them. These people tend to be thoughtless and
irrational and uninformed. One of my favorite quotes is, Nothing is so firmly believed as that
which least is known. I dont recall who said it or to what it was in reference, but it certainly fits
with religion.
Many people of faith tend to get angry or easily offended when confronted by dissenting
opinions about religion. I consider these folks to be close-minded zealots who are blind to the
duplicity of their reactions. For many of these people, there is a difference between them trying
to convert me and spread the Word, and me voicing my skepticism. I certainly dont get
offended when approached by a missionary, so I find it a bit tiring when someone takes
exception to opposing views. My grandfather used to say that, offence is far more often taken
than given. Indeed.
Ive had some incredible talks with intelligent, thoughtful people who have very devout
Christian beliefs. These people come from different walks of life, and have worshiped and
practiced their faiths in various denominations of the Christian church. They include pastors,
priests, scholars and ordinary people. They have their opinions and reasons for believing
things, and all of them were eager to talk about the subject (though they tended to quickly lose
their gumption after tasting what I put on the plate). Having said that, they each had the agenda
to persuade me of the correctness of Christianity and draw me towards the light. I hold no ill-
will, thats the primary message of the bible - to spread the word of god. I get it. Truth,
however, respects no education and tolerates no justification for dissention. Truth simply is. It
stands alone...uncaring and immovable. You must respect it.
I dont capitalize the word god as I dont happen to believe such a being exists. For the
record, I dont believe in a holy being, a heaven/hell, or salvation. I dont believe in virgin births,
floods that destroyed mankind, resurrections, or an apocalyptic revelation. I dont believe in a
Holy Spirit or a human soul, nor do I buy that there is a destiny or an afterlife. Saying this, I
add that, contrary to what religious people want me to think, my life is neither empty, nor
unfulfilled. Im perfectly comfortable in my own skin and the here-and-now. I prefer reality to
fantasy even in times when reality sucks.
I have absolutely no idea what the hell were doing here and I couldnt care less.
Perhaps we are just on the right planet at the right time. Maybe its all a fluke. I dont know.
Page 2 of 7

The fact that I dont have any answers however doesnt mean that my best course of action is to
just grab on to something that I know, in my heart, is ridiculous. Im not searching for answers.
Why? Because I dont want to miss anything.
My first inclination, when speaking on the subject, is to say that I respect the other
persons right to believe what they want. The truth is, I find it difficult to take seriously those
who practice faith. I think we have been programmed in this culture to not offend the delicate
sensibilities of the ever-fragile believers. I dont like having that inclination, as I feel its not fair.
If you dont bend to accommodate their special-needs, you are being discriminatory. You better
allow every faith to have their prayer groups, and you need to accommodate their special
religious diets and recognise each of their special holidays. If you dont, youre not being
inclusive and you can expect all sorts of bullshit as a result. We have an entire school board
fully funded by us for the Catholics. Christians think nothing of declaring you sinful and
warning you of the danger youre in, but if you use words like absurd, ridiculous or nonsense
to describe your feelings on the subject, you are being disrespectful. Its difficult to engage in
reasonable dialogue and thats not an accident.
When discussing the subject of faith with a Christian, you need to be patient. I think of
them as brainwashed victims of a powerful cult. I know they just cant help themselves, and
they are so convinced of the truthfulness of the crap theyve been indoctrinated with, that you
cant give them an inch. They certainly wont give you one. My opinion is as valid as that of the
person who chooses to engage me on the subject, and my arguments have, in my opinion,
more merit than the other persons. (If I didnt feel like my conclusions on the whole subject
didnt have more merit, Id be a Christian!)
I will say that I find it interesting that the human mind can allow us to believe things that
we all know instinctively to be bullshit. The fact that I dont have alternative theories to give
these people doesnt preclude me from mocking their beliefs. If ever there was a belief system
worthy of mocking, its Christianity. Christians believe in miracles, I believe in happenstance
and coincidence. I think that coincidences, if traced back far enough, become inevitable. If a
religious person asks their deity for something they really want, and they get their wish, I cannot
buy that it was their deity that made it happen. It just makes no sense to me and Im not going
to pretend to be open to the idea.
I have my reasons for taking this position. I have read the bible from cover to cover
twice in my life. I was, for a brief period of time, a believer and a follower of the Christian faith. I
was twenty-years-old (Im now forty-six), and didnt have the life-experience or education I now
hold. I was a member of a Pentecostal church and studied the faith and bible quite intensely for
a period of time. (For the record, the Pentecostals believe that the sun rises and sets around the
Book of Acts.) I went to seminars and took religious study-courses. I have intimate, first-hand
knowledge of the running of the church, having lived with the Pastor and his family for a few
months and forging a mentor/protg relationship with him. I was his project. I was privy to
private communications he had, I sat in on the churchs Steering Committee meetings, and
engaged in some pretty candid discussions with the pastor, and church elders.
Page 3 of 7

I became disillusioned with organised religion. The hypocrisy, back-stabbing, and in-
fighting along with the politics of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada - was too much for
me and I went my own way - keeping my firmly-believed relationship with my god private. Over
the years, as I learned, and grew as a man, I questioned what the hell I was doing. Why was I
holding this opinion? There was nothing else in my life that I would ever consider believing
based on the evidence that I had said evidence being none.
Once I woke-up, the progression from indoctrinated to enlightened was swift and
sure. It didnt take me long to see how childish and simplistic my beliefs had been; how silly the
stories in the Bible were. I have heard the bible referred to as the big book of Jewish fairy
tales. That assessment, in my opinion, is fair. I wont dissect or take shots at all the fables in
the bible, for that has been done to death and I have nothing to add. It was the bigger questions
that I couldnt reconcile with my sensibilities.
When you think about it, the Christian church is a messy hodgepodge of ideals, mantras,
and doctrines. First we separate the Catholics from the Protestants. I get the whole idea of a
sect of Christians breaking from the Catholic Church. My opinion when I was a believer was
that the Catholic Church wasnt really even trying to live up to the spirit of what Christianity was
supposed to be about. Its theology revolves around ritualism - the droning, rote recitation of
antiquated prayers and stanzas.
Why, I ask, does there exist so many splinter groups in the protestant church? We have
the Anglican Church, the Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the United Church, the
Reformed Church of Christ, the Pentecostal Church, the Mormon Church, the Seventh Day
Adventists, the Lutherans, the Christian Orthodox...the list goes on and on. What the hell is
going on here? Theyre all working off the same fucking book!
Then theres the book, itself. Ive read it, Ive studied it, Ive heard all kinds of sermons
from different faiths in person, and on television and Ive debated and discussed it at length.
My conclusion? I dont have the foggiest idea whats going on. This part is to be taken
literally, this section here is a metaphor, this passage means different things at different times to
different people, and this whole book here is literal again. This means that, that means
this.....shut the fuck up!
Ive even heard a few Christians say that they dont necessarily believe everything in the
bible, but they believe in god, Jesus, and the message of salvation. Unfortunately for them, it
doesnt work that way. But for the bible, none of these things would be there for them to
believe. God and Jesus couldnt exist. No one would have heard of them or gotten the notion
of them. The bible is either the divine Word of an omnipotent Creator and to be believed in its
entirety or a work of fiction. There is no grey area here no room for manoeuvring. Thats
the brilliance of the book, and the people who wrote it: its all or nothing an absolute truth, or
complete fiction. To believe in the bible, you must believe in a Holy Father, His Son, salvation,
and every single story in the book. You cannot cherry-pick what parts to which you want to give
credence. It would be like reading the Harry Potter chronicles and choosing to disregard the
periphery, but believing based solely on the books in wizards.
Page 4 of 7

Some archeologists found the remnants of a big-ass boat somewhere in the middle-east
and proclaimed it to be Noahs ark. Come on, man. Really? It was said to be found at the
place where it would have been, according to the bible, and to be of the right size the correct
cubits, if you will. First of all, are you fucking kidding me? How the hell would anyone know
where it would have been? And the right size? We cant even get a consensus on what a
fucking cubit is. Like my Uncle Bruce used to say, Oh, my aching ass!
I dont believe in a god or any of the religious doctrine out there - simply because I have
no reason to. Not one shred of evidence has been produced to me, personally, for me to
change my mind about it. I refuse to see obscure things and attribute them to an omnipresent,
omniscient being. Jesus didnt show himself in Ralphs grilled-cheese sandwich, and the statue
of the Virgin Mary didnt weep tears of blood. The flowers are not miracles, and rainbows are
not a reminder of a covenant with god. The greedy little sleaze ball on the television didnt heal
the crippled dude, nor did he invoke the power of some god to restore the deaf chicks hearing.
(Chris Angel did levitate, though. That was amazing! How the fuck did he do that? Oh yeah,
he didnt.)
There is simply nothing to back up this belief system other than some words written on
paper that are open to interpretation. I have long defied anyone to name any other life-
philosophy or facet of the human experience that we are willing to accept as truth with such a
low standard of proof. Ive yet to hear one. In fact, its against our very nature to believe things
so easily. We question everything, and it sometimes takes quite a lot to convince us of
something. Hell, there are times when we have difficulty believing that which weve seen with
our own eyes. Yet millions of us have embraced Christianity, and the idea of a god, having no
logical reason to do so.
Ive actually heard a pro-Christianity stance taken on this very point. The person
attempted to convince me that the very fact that people can believe without reason is proof-
positive of the existence of god. He said it was a spiritual yearning he felt in his soul and
couldnt explain. (I feel that way about chicken wings, but I dont pray to them.) Ive even had it
argued to me that when we make exclamations like Oh my god! or throw out a Jesus Christ! in
exasperation, we are subconsciously acknowledging our inner-inclination towards god. Of
course, using this reasoning, I guess that when I exclaim Holy shit! Im acknowledging the
belief that somewhere out there exists a turd that is pious.
People of faith will stop at nothing to explain why they think the way they do. They will
stretch and reach for any and all crack-pot ideas to justify being stupid, and there exists no such
thing as too ridiculous. Believing something as significant as the Bible and its god
something that so profoundly and fundamentally affects our entire being - just because some
people tell us to, is absurd. Further, because we do that with absolutely nothing else in the
world, we cannot deny that absurdity. Faith for the sake of faith is folly.
My position on this is strong. I have spent a lifetime deciding that this is my conclusion
and I find it difficult to fathom that something will be found to cause me to reconsider it. Maybe
one day all of this bible/Christianity stuff will prove to be true, but Im not holding my breath.
Besides, there are all kinds of other religions and belief systems out there that are, on their face,
Page 5 of 7

equally as absurd and unproven, and the people who follow them are every bit as sure of
themselves as the Christians. Whats there to say?
I believe in science, because Ive been given plenty of reason to. The various scientific
fields have advanced at different speeds at different times throughout history, but they tend to
get it right eventually. Science offers me facts...tangibility. It hypothesises, and works to
discover, prove, verify, and expound. You can see it, hold it, taste it. Its just there. Here are
the facts, and this is what they mean. Evolution, a theory once considered to be a
blasphemous affront to god, is now thoroughly proven, and the hands-down consensus of the
scientific world. (Science has even explained rainbows!)
As the Christian Church struggles to adjust its theology to fit the advances of science,
science itself just plods on, answering the questions that puzzle mankind. Its batting average is
impressively high, but its not infallible. It makes adjustments and, at times, has been forced to
reassess its conclusions but it offers me far more than Christian theology.
Christians rely on a book that was written at a time when man knew very little about our
planet. The worlds population was minuscule by todays standards, and people were far more
easily swayed and amenable to the ideas of the powers to be. They still thought our planet was
flat! Those 366,000 that were mentioned in Revelation? That was a literal number when the
text was written. With todays population being what it is, winning a seat in the Kingdom of
God would be like winning the lottery. It wouldnt pay to be a believer because the odds of
being rewarded are so long. Thats why, over the years, the Church has had to address the
issue and tell the masses that the number isnt literal.
To hold such texts as truth is incomprehensible to me. At least science doesnt try to
blow smoke up our asses. Science is motivated by using facts to seek new facts. Scientists are
aware that what they are advancing are theories. Christians are too certain of their guiding
principles and the validity of the book upon which these principles were founded. It simply
makes no sense. Just because you were brought-up to believe in something doesnt excuse
you from using your perfectly good brain to realise how dumb it is when you get old enough to
think for yourself.
When good things happen, theyre blessings from god. When lousy things
happen...well, god works in mysterious ways theres a purpose. There isnt a purpose, theres
a reason. That reason? Shit happens. Not every answer is complicated or multi-faceted;
sometimes the answer is right in front of you, waiting to be embraced. Some may find that
explanation to be too simplistic, but Ill put it up against every single religious doctrine out there.
I watched a program once about alien spacecraft, and it discussed the theory that extra-
terrestrials once visited the planet and shared their knowledge with man in ancient times. How
else, they asked, to explain the building of the Egyptian pyramids and the mathematical
knowledge that would be needed to do so. Its the best explanation for the mystery of
Stonehenge and the seemingly astonishing advanced knowledge of the ancient Mayans.
Page 6 of 7

Now, I dont buy any of this crap either, but how does this belief system differ from the
Christian one? How is one group a bunch of loonies and the other not? To me, they are just
two groups of people who have attached themselves to an idea they find attractive and
comfortable - and which satisfies their collective curiosity. I call these people simpletons. One
of the scientists interviewed in this program summed it up nicely. He said, I can investigate a
thousand claims and disprove nine-hundred and ninety-nine of them. If I cant explain one
claim, there will always be people to say See? Alien spacecraft are real! The same can be
said about believers in a god.
I understand that some people need to believe there is something else out there that
there is some higher purpose for our existence and a place for us to go after were dead. They
simply cannot fathom that this is all we get. Thats all fine by me. If believing that being a good
person is necessary for one to go to a magical kingdom after one is dead - and that is ones
motivation for being a decent human being - then, what the hell, go ahead. Many of the best
charities are faith-based and they are doing very good work. Ill accept help from someone if I
need it, and I wont question the motivation. Its never a bad thing to be a good person. Having
said that, there is real danger in being fanatical and immovable with this stuff.
Viewing our flaws as sins and seeking some divine absolution is counter-productive and
hinders our evolution. We should, in my opinion, make good use of our ability to learn from our
mistakes and shortcomings and improve. Living our lives in fear of eternal damnation and fire
and brimstone is archaic and harmful. These people are being guided by fear, and that I
believe was the true purpose and sole motivation of the folks who put the bible together in the
first place.
As Dennis Miller is fond of saying, this is just my opinion, I could be wrong. I dont
think Im wrong about my stance and Im positive I have no alternate theories to offer. I have no
idea what the answer is, but Im confident that I know what the answer isnt. Ive been called
smug for holding my views and being so sure of myself. I respond by saying that Id much
rather be viewed as smug than idiotic.
People who believe in an invisible man in the sky who has made a magical, utopian
kingdom for me to live in if Im good and believe in him - humbly sponsored by the invisible
mans son who was conceived by a fucking virgin - think Im smug. Youll pardon me if I dont
lose any sleep over the opinions of these profound thinkers.
My thoughts on faith and religion come as the results of a lifetime of living combined with
a very real and informed experience and education on the subject-matter. Oh yeah, and liberal
usage of my brain. I dont call it common sense because I dont feel like I am in the majority.
There are far more people out there who hold fantastical beliefs as answers to questions they
cannot comprehend. The number of people who think like I do, however, is growing and that is
a good sign for the future. (Ive never really used the computer for anything other than work-
related purposes, and Im very new to social media. I must say that Im encouraged by what I
see trending on the subject. I had no idea that so many felt the way I do about the
ridiculousness of religion and faith and I cant wait to hear what others have to say about it).
Page 7 of 7

Maybe we will never know the answers to some of the big questions. Im okay with that
because lifes too short for this man to ponder why were here. If theres something more after
death unlikely Ill find out when I get there. Im just going to concentrate on surviving as long
as I can and learning as much as I can. I close by reiterating that not knowing the answer to
something should not give one licence to believe in a ridiculous one. We all know this
instinctively, so if you want to defy your own instincts, Im only too happy to engage you about it.
Ill call you on your idiocy though, so dont be upset with me for pointing it out to you.