Flare Time Vol. 15 - Christian Mechanical Engineers

Hey, what's up y'all? I was originally planning to do a Flare Time tonight about the awesomeness of iPods, but something even better came up! Guess what, someone tried to CONVERT ME to Christianity! And, of course, I paid some lip service to them, being the open-minded and respectful person that I am. It was quite an interesting experience. If nothing else, I viewed life in the shoes of a Christian for a few minutes (before returning to my "sin" and "separation from God"). How did I get involved in this? Well, I have a friend that I lived near last semester. We first were studying in the same room and I was interested in what he was studying (Fluid Mechanics). We talked occassionally, and then a religion discussion came up. He found my Deism to be interesting (although he was probably leading me to this point).

Now, even before this event occurred, I had a complete respect for Jesus Christ. He was the most moral man to have ever lived. He gave great advice to his followers. I would be Christian if people not named Jesus hadn't fucked up his teachings. Basically, I share the same viewpoint as Friedrich Nietzsche on Christianity in general:

I shall go back a bit, and tell you the authentic history of Christianity.--The very word "Christianity" is a misunderstanding--at bottom there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross. The "Gospels" died on the cross. What, from that moment onward, was called the "Gospels" was the very reverse of what he had lived: "bad tidings," a Dysangelium." The Antichrist ch. 39

If one were to read further, he ultimately blames St. Paul for the death of the Gospels (He's not well recieved by orthodox Christians). Of course, I did not dare tell them any of THAT!! That would have made me lose a good friend of mine real quick. I did mention the hypocracy of the religious right. They understood completely, even saying that Christ was against it.

To continue on, my friend, who also brought some grad student with him that was converted by this demo (you get the whole bullshit about how he was into drinking, sex, etc. and then, one day, miracuously found God). They first had me recite some verses in Romans (3:23 and 6:23) about how everyone sins and that it leads to death. Then they try to basically say that sinners go to Hell in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9. Then we get to quotes from John, 1 Peter, 1 Corinthians, hyping Jesus as the savior of man from our sins. The one interesting thing that I learned was about what the whole "Jesus is my homeboy" concept comes from. Read Revelation 3:20, it clarifies those shirts BEING SOLD FOR PROFIT (Read Matthew 21:12-13 to see his feeling on profiting off of his religion). The illustration is basically a bridge from death to life with Bible quotes on it (engineers and their bridges).

I bullshited my way through, acted interested in becoming Christian, only acting interested in order to end this uncomfortable situation. Personally, Christianity does not suit me. I have a hard time believing in the concept of sin to begin with, let alone that someone died so that I can be rid of "sin." To me, morality is in the eye of the beholder. Christianity does not say that at all. That's the real reason why I'm a Deist and not a Christian. They can pray for me all they want, but I leave them with a quote from a famous Deist, Albert Einstein:

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own - a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in Nature."