“So, you have to call sin, ‘sin.’”
“I don’t believe in sin.”
“What?!”
“I don’t believe in sin.”
*wide-eyed shock*
“Why not?”
“I’m an atheist.”
*awkward, confused silence*
It was a couple weeks ago that I had the conversation. He looked at me like a deer in headlights, as if what I said was entirely incomprehensible. How could I not believe in sin?
It wasn’t the first time. When I first left Christianity, most Christians, bewildered, thought sin was as essential to morality as wetness to water. How did I function without it?
They have the exact same reaction Steve Harvey did when giving ridiculous dating advice: “You’re sitting there talking with a dude and he tells you he’s an atheist, you need to pack it up and go home,” said Harvey. “You know, talking to a person that don’t believe in God, what’s his moral barometer? Where’s it at? It’s nowhere.”
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWJ9ylZkS2s[/youtube]
The confusion would be more productive if it prompted people to actually think more carefully about the concept of sin itself.
But that almost never happens. Rather than recheck their calculus, they tend to think that the problem is with you. I mean, if I had a dollar for every time a Christian indicated I’m deservedly hellbound due to my “sin problem”….
I’m tired of this nonsense of proudly ignorant Christians sanctimoniously saying I need to humble yourself and admit that I have a “sin problem” due to my malfunctioning heartbrain.
Why the hell don’t you, Christian, have a “sin problem”? The concept of sin is an outrage that too many of y’all are taking for granted, and if you stopped looking at me for a second and started looking at the illogical logic working in your own brain you’d see the weirdness in front of you, clear as day.
I hate that I even have to explain this nonsense.
It is thoroughly ridiculous to me that anything would be right or wrong because some imaginary being said so. Here is a being who drowned the world, ordered genocides, said to stone to death homosexuals, made human beings destined for hell, told slaves to obey their masters, and originated all the pain and suffering in the world.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA3OqrNnezc[/youtube]
It’s a being who is, rather conveniently, beyond the five sense of human beings, had no origination we would need to explain — in fact, we would not notice Him if He were gone. It’s almost as if He doesn’t exist and thus has absolutely no relevance on our very real existences.
And “sin” is everything this being dislikes, and when we’re breaking one of the made-up, random “sin” rules, we’re supposed to go apologize to this imaginary friend you have.
Have you ever even thought about how outrageous that is? Seriously. If someone cuts you off in traffic, they’re absolved of “sin” because they said, “Uh, God, sorry about that.” We both know that’s bull, don’t we? I mean, you want to make amends, you talk to the actual, y’know, flesh and blood REAL PEOPLE that you actually hurt.
That’s really offensive. If you cut me off in traffic, you can’t ask God for forgiveness. I’m the one you cut off. Talk to ME.
And no, you don’t get to disparage someone because they’re gay simply because they’re “sinning.” No. Your religious myths do not get to randomly dictate morality to the rest of humanity. Your imaginary friend does not get to make something perfectly good and natural “sin” with a mere say-so. If you’ve done anything hurtful, you’re doing it to the PERSON, not to God.
I’ll be dead honest. I think that if we got rid of the concept of “sin” we could see each other as flesh-and-blood actual people with concerns and desires that do not need to be illogically policed by people’s imaginary friends, and I further think that it is really difficult to overestimate how big of an improvement this would be over the current system that illogically has things labeled as “sin,” “just because.”
Come on. Be honest. Isn’t it better to make decisions that are based on evidence, reason, and empathy of people who actually EXIST instead of arbitrarily, willy-nilly calling things “sin” because my personal imaginary friend said so?
So yeah, when the Christian winces at me when I say I’m an atheist and says, “You must not believe in God because you have a sin problem,” they’re dead right. I’ve got a problem with suicide bombers blowing themselves up for a jihad, too. I have a problem with illogical, ridiculously ignorant, harmful concepts, and you can be as sanctimoniously patronizing as you want — it doesn’t change how stupid and harmful and selfish your attempts to press your imaginary friend dictates onto me are.
We should not believe in God, and we should not endorse belief in God, because people and actual real-life-consequences are more important than the arbitrary standards dictated by your imaginary friend, especially if it is the brainchild of barbarous bigots.
Seems like an open-and-shut case to me. I mean, honestly — why the hell don’t you have a problem with sin, too, Christians? What is wrong with you that you would decide to judge people based on the ridiculous standards of an arbitrary standard instead of by looking at people’s face value, actual real-life consequences determined by science and logical observation, and actually, y’know…caring about people more than your personal imaginary friend?
There are better ways to be a moral person. Not just for yourself, but for all of us. Shed that selfishness and try to be a bit more considerate.
Gravy?
Thanks for reading.