Get Rankled Not, Lest Ye Rankle
A fellow Academite posted this as his Facebook status update today:
No one should spend eternity in hell for not accepting the grace of Christ as savior, and no one should live a miserable life because they do not know the joy found in the Gospel. If you agree, be bold enough to re-post this as your statement for universal healthcare. - then ask what you personally are doing to make a difference in the care all humans receive.
This rankled me.
- OMG, really?! Someone who graduated from The Academy is really doing the eternity-in-hell bit?!
- Flashbacks to persecution in the third grade lunchroom
- The Gospel is really the only path to joy; all others straight to misery?!
So quickie-fingers over here retorted
No one should be so ignorant of the scientific method to think that hell is real, or so pompous about their own beliefs that they feel a life sans Gospel is one of misery.
(I’ve since deleted it. So reactive, I am. I blame mom.)
But, while making my way through a rather mondo spreadsheet for work, I began thinking on the side about the ridiculousness of my own comment.
- I believe in reincarnation and in universal interconnectedness, yet there’s not a lot of positivist A/B split action to back those beliefs up
- I believe that authentic happiness can only be found by looking inward and continuously sussing out the assumptions beneath my beliefs, and that all other variants of joy are functions of false consciousness
So, really, turning my quickie-fingers back onto myself, one could say
No one should be so ignorant of the scientific method to think that reincarnation is real, or so pompous about their own beliefs that they feel a life sans thoughtful self-reflection is one of misery.
What’s interesting is that there’s a tiny voice in my head that’s still saying, “But REALLY! That guy is WRONG! This gospel and hell stuff is LUNACY!”
Of course, there’s likely a more than tiny voice in his head that would state a similar opinion regarding my beliefs. And yet I would call his incredulity a prime example of simple naivete and ignorance to that which I know is true. So why can’t I grant him the right to feel hat someone who hasn’t accepted JC is living a life of misery?!
It’s a curious beast, this whole belief thing. I have to remember to put myself in the other person’s shoes before I start rolling my eyes at what they believe. Because just because I have, like, totally awesome powers of perception that have granted me unlimited access to truths that span space and time, doesn’t mean everyone else does.
2 Responses to “Get Rankled Not, Lest Ye Rankle”
I read “Under the Banner of Heaven” along time ago, per a family members recommendation. The family member thought the Mormon belief system was rather silly and full of flaws. It’s easier to point out flaws with regards to Joseph Smith, et al. because it is a new religion, as far as religion goes.
However, the same family member does not apply that logic to Jesus turning water into wine, walking across water, rising from the dead, but think it’s preposterous to believe Joseph Smith with his special decoder glasses.
By RunColo on Sep 8, 2009
Ha! Great story. And so true. When I converted to Mormonism for ~ 90 days a decade ago, this was exactly how I felt. Christianity was just as ridiculous as Mormonism, objectively, and I didn’t have the “Mormonism is weird” bias programmed into my head (having been completely ignorant of all things Judeo-Christian).
By Anittah Patrick on Sep 8, 2009