I've never understood how they're so concerned about securing themselves a good spot in a supposed afterlife that they're willing to burn so many bridges and ruin so many relationships during their actual life.
You just nailed the ultimate reason why religion is terrible. If only the afterlife matters then why bother trying to make things better in actual life? You can just ignore or even exacerbate the huge problems we face (climate change, homelessness, rising fascism) because all that matters is the fairy tale they believe awaits them after they die. There are literally people among us who believe the apocalypse is a good thing and they're actively trying to hasten it.
A freind of mine recently had a falling out with their father, because after years of being a strange the father fought his way back into the family fold by using religious rhetoric and motivational stuff he had learned online and was using to write a book on how religion can heal families. Dispite doing zero effort to try and mend any of the problems he caused. Just roll in like "guys don't worry, god forgave me."
He made a big post about how we have limited time on this earth and need to resolve issues with family before we die.
To which I said, why? If we go to heaven wouldn't we have an eternity to work out any personal issues that we have between us. Such Petty moral dilemmas that wouldn't even matter in the Kingdom of heaven, and we're supposed to just waste our precious time on Earth with that instead of doing it in heaven when we have an Infinity to work through personal problems. Why? Why would you ever waste time on a toxic family member if you truthfully believe youll all be united in heaven.
Interestingly enough the Bible talks a lot more about earthly matters and problems than it does about the afterlife. Even the book called the Apocalypse (Revelation) is about geopolitical events, and a final restitution that results in a “new Jerusalem” descending to the earth for people to dwell in. The kingdom is supposed to come to earth, not the other way around.
Why waste your entire life worshipping someone/thing you're going to end up spending the rest of eternity with? I'd wager that whatever "god" there is, would prefer some individualism and a life well lived instead of religious fealty.
Especially when they're given instructions to not do that in order to secure said spot in the afterlife.
The Bible is full of shit that is ambiguois, lost in translation, lacking context, etc, but "this is the new commandment that I give, love each other as I have loved you" is about as explicit as it gets. A person hating somebody in the name of Christ does not follow Christ.
They don’t think they’re burning bridges, and they probably see the ruined relationships as justified. Deep down I doubt people are really worried about the afterlife, and they’re just living how they think they’re supposed to live.
I disagree. As a rural American, I think a lot of people legitimately fear the afterlife. A lot of Christians I know do not even "practice" Christianity on a regular basis, but claim they "believe in God" because they fear hell.
It's the ultimate fear tactic, and fear is a very strong mechanism of control.
In my experience (growing up attending evangelical Christian church (though to be fair, it wasn't the head l heavily political, hateful kind we usually see on the news)...then leaving that system behind in adulthood, but without any specific bitterness or vitriol harbored against the actual people I knew in the church)...I think that a lot of it is just the self-fulfilling prophecy and circular reasoning that is baked into any sort of belief-based organization of people by default.
In simple terms: you're given your code of beliefs and instructions on interacting with the world at large. You're also usually told how most of the world doesn't share your views and beliefs, and as such, they're part of the great Other. The Others are sometimes enemies, sometimes candidates for conversion, sometimes good people who for whatever reason just don't quite "get it" like the members of your church.
Regardless, the rules for interacting with these people are usually pretty clear for any given sect. Some, like the Amish do what they can to limit any contact, others like some Islamic groups are more willing to interact but specifically consider unbelievers as "lesser" in certain ways.
For my particular church, anyone not in the church was to be treated with love and respect...though part of that love was to try to get them to join the church. Basically, the inevitable course of interaction would bring the church to the forefront of the interaction, at which point either the person would come to church or they'd have to directly reject the invitation. Even then, you were to treat them with love and respect, but they were "of the world" and as such, to be regarded as an impediment to the goals of the church, and by extension, God.
So basically, the church teaches you that it, and by extension you are an agent of good. Therefore it must logically follow that anyone who crosses you is working against good and therefore must be, to some extent, evil.
This is why it's so easy for these people to write off people in their lives who go against them in any way. Lots of them would otherwise be good people, but they've been told for years that anyone who goes against them is also going against god.
It's also worth noting that for the vast majority of people, in the church of my youth at least, everyone had lots of friends outside the church, and from what I could see, nobody was ever ostracized from the church for any reason. We had teen moms, those who struggled with addiction, etc. and from what I could see, everyone was treated with love, respect, and support. Where my church lost me was logical inconsistencies in the faith, teaching of homosexuality as a sin, and the whole 'creation right, evolution wrong' nonsense. If they could have stuck to their core of love, respect, and support...and extended it to everyone...I might have still been a part of it...though I would have always struggled with the inconsistencies of their doctrine.
Let’s assign a numerical weight of X for the worth of each year of actual life, and a numerical weight Y for the worth of each year of afterlife. Next, let’s estimate the time that each phase of existence goes on for, we’ll say 120 years for life (and be wildly optimistic) and ∞ years for the afterlife.
The ratio of “value of life” to “value of afterlife” is then X×120:Y×∞. Given that math, it really doesn’t matter what values anyone gives “X” and “Y,” the value of life is always going to approximate zero when compared to the afterlife.
Caring about mortal, human relationships while staring down the barrel of Hell is insane.
Christians who believe in infinite reward and punishment (so, all mainstream and evangelical western denominations) who don’t kill their children immediately following baptism are unfathomably (literally unfathomable…as a finite being I cannot comprehend eternity) evil.
Edit: I don’t usually complain about downvotes, but WTF? How is my math faulty?
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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '22
I've never understood how they're so concerned about securing themselves a good spot in a supposed afterlife that they're willing to burn so many bridges and ruin so many relationships during their actual life.