The Time That a Twitter Fight Lead to a Blog About Religion & Spirituality

Many years ago (back before my career was where it is today - a point where I was on the verge of considering the prospects of becoming either a truck driver or a bar tender) I sold cellular phones, pagers, and accessories for such devices in order to make a living. We had a representative from the wireless company we were affiliated with who would come by every so often and she was always quick to give us new tips on how to be better salespeople. I remember her telling me that it's never a bad idea to get to know your customer by making small talk but she was quick to point out that there are two subjects that, as a salesman, you should never go near: Politics and religion. She was absolutely correct because there are no other subjects, short rivalries in college athletics, that will divide people as quickly as matters of state or those of spirituality.

It was a lesson I took to heart. To this day, I tend to allow that kind of conversation to happen as the result of some other participant having initiated it, and even then I usually only go so far as to hear out whatever they may have to say without putting myself in alignment with one perspective or another. Certainly, I have my own opinions, however I am very guarded in when, how, and with whom I share them. (The Rush lyric "by choosing not to decide you still have made a choice" doesn't apply to me in this situation, or at least I don't think it does.) Paranoia of either offending someone or of causing an argument gets the best of me every time as I am not an argumentative person. I wasn't always this way but as I've gotten older I find that I'm the kind of guy who would sooner look at things from multiple angles and seek out compromise. Age and maturity dulling a youthful ego, as it were.

I am a Christ-follower and I have been for the better part of my life, however I am also a ponderer of many things. You know how you used to sit and stare out a window as a kid, thinking about toys and the opposite sex? Yeah, I still do that, only I'm thinking about life and the world that surrounds us (and toys - okay, and sometimes the opposite sex, too). Despite my pondering, I haven't solved all the world's problems. I accept that there are things I will never fully understand and I'm content to accept that a great many of those things are mysteries that exist without what would be considered reasonable explanation to we mere mortals. To that end, I also accept that what my spirituality assures me of isn't rooted in logic but in faith.

It would seem to me that a majority of people share this stance, that there is some higher power out there and that the influence of he/she/it is why humanity and the world around us is what it is. There are those, though, who don't subscribe to this line of thought - atheists, who believe that there is no such thing as a deity and that unless it (whatever "it" is) can be proven by science that it cannot possibly be true.

Despite what you may think, I'm not going to try and vilify atheists. I say they're welcome to their own opinion because, who knows, they may be right. Yes, you read that correctly - I'm a Christian and if you aren't a Christ-follower as well I'm not going to try to convince you that you're wrong just because we may not agree on whether or not there is a God (for that matter, if you're Muslim, Buddhist, Wicca, or whatever else I won't bother to argue that my God is "right" and yours is "wrong"). Quite frankly, I think that's the kind of heavy-handedness that's driven people away from spirituality. Too much hellfire & brimstone, not enough tolerance of the fact that we were all blessed with the gift of free will.

All that having been said, a relative of mine who is also a Christian, took to Twitter recently to express some of their thoughts on atheism. The image below is a screen grab of the tweet they made and one reply to it.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the responses that followed were not exactly the most cordial of correspondence. It was very much the opposite as there seemed to be a literal cavalcade of Twitter users who were lined up waiting for their chance to respond with some sort of rebuttal to the stance expressed by my relative.

Theological discussions rarely seem to be able to transpire without breaking down into something that would more readily resemble an episode of the Jerry Springer Show. (Here again, another reason why I was coached to never bring up such things while making chit-chat with customers.) It bothered me to read the back and forth that ensued. Ultimately there were no points to be made, just the noise made by two sets of people aligned against one another.

It bothers me that people can't just talk anymore. Everyone wants to debate their own points without stopping to at least consider an alternative perspective. I blame the influence of the media but that's a blog topic for another time.

Atheists would seem to adore science because it gives them comfort in that it explains things. Spiritual people would seem to adore faith because it assures them they don't have to have an explanation for everything. I see myself somewhere in the middle - I accept that science gives us measurable, quantifiable truths about the world around us yet at the same time I accept that I will never be able to wrap my head around things like how it was that our species, our world, or our universe came to be.

Is it even worth arguing points like these? (I say that knowing that an aspect of most religions, Christianity included, is that in order to be considered a "true believer" one has to accept a given religions' perception of how our world was conceived.) In the grand scheme of things, what difference does it make where we came from? We're here, right now. Does the knowledge that we started back there, somewhere, improve our ability to lead moral, righteous lives? How much more advanced would mankind be if we'd let go of the pursuit of trivialities and instead took up the role of stewards to one another? I think it's about time we spent more effort on teaching the benefits of living considerate, noble lives as opposed to frivolous, self-centered ones.