Heavy Metal vs. Jesus

They tried to tell me that I couldn't be a Christian if I listened to Heavy Metal. Some guy standing behind a pulpit decided that he didn't like it, so he told all his parishioners that it was evil. After all, if he doesn't like it, it must be bad. Once you become a man of the cloth, you become the voice of God, don't you?

Men standing behind pulpits once told people that using herbs for healing was witchcraft, and anyone who practices this must be in league with the devil. The fact that God created these herbs, not the devil, was irrelevant. The church said it, so it must be true, and so people were burned at the stake. Witches, they were called.

The church told my Uncle Andy that it was wrong for him to marry out of his religion, and so most of his family weren't allowed to attend his wedding. They would fall out of favor of God and incur his wrath if they went to their brother's wedding to a Mennonite. Just a couple of years ago, I attended my Uncle Andy and Aunt Matilda's 50th anniversary, and they're still going strong, despite what the church said. Most of my other aunt's and uncles now regret not going to their wedding.

If Jesus were walking the Earth today, in the flesh, I don't think he would be anything like the church tells us he is. I think he is beyond their understanding. He wouldn't be so quick to judge people, or to pass judgement on things that he didn't understand. He came into the world as a common man, and, unlike the men in 3 piece expensive suits who call themselves men of God, he would probably wear blue jeans and a tee shirt. He wouldn't ride around in a Cadillac, he would probably take the bus, or hitchhike. He'd be just an common man.

When my time comes to meet him face to face, I honestly don't think he's going to care what kind of music I listened to. I think he's got more important things to worry about than that. And those men standing behind pulpits presuming to pass judgement on others in His name, they will have much more to answer for than I will.

A Question of Forgiveness

I'm a little confused about this whole forgiveness thing. Consider 2 examples, (Although there are countless others). Jeffrey Dahmer and Mahatma Ghandi. You couldn't find 2 more opposite individuals.

First we have Jeffrey. He was a homosexual, cannibalistic, necrophiliac serial killer. I know they like to say he was sick, but that's simply not the case. There was no history of mental illness, no delusions, no voices in his head. Nothing. He knew exactly what he was doing and did it by choice. In other words, he was evil. Plain and simple. He knew it was totally wrong, but he didn't care.

The thing is, shortly before he died in prison, he was baptized. The pastor who ministered to him in prison is completely convinced that he was truly remorseful. He wanted forgiveness. After all, his sentence was life with no chance of parole, so he really had nothing to gain by lying or pretending. He felt guilty, and wanted absolution. According to conventional Christian thinking, he is in heaven now. After all, he asked Christ to forgive him, didn't he?

Now, on the other hand, consider the Mahatma. Here was a man who dedicated himself to helping others. Whatever wealth he had, he gave to the hungry. He taught a nation to resist without shedding blood. He was the living example of "turn the other cheek". And he didn't belong to a religion. He never accepted Christ, or any other God as his savior. He believed we are judged by the life we live, not the religion we join. According to conventional Christian thinking, Ghandi didn't make it into Heaven. He wasn't a Christian.

If you take the bible literally, Jeffrey Dahmer is in Heaven, and Mahatma Ghandi isn't. And they say that He is a just God. Where the hell is the justice in that?

Evolutionary Creation

I have been struggling with 2 diametrically opposed ideas, both of which make compelling arguments. I'm talking about the seemingly endless debate of creation versus evolution.

For as long as human kind has existed as humans, (and possibly before even that), there has been religion. When people don't have God, they invent gods to fill the vacuum. It seems that within the hearts of the vast majority of people living on this planet, there is the need to believe in a higher power. The need to believe that we're not just here by accident and not just a fluke result of natural forces.

On the other hand, the evidence that has been found to support the theory of life evolving from lower forms, and then advancing by a process of natural selection is overwhelming. There is so much confirmation of Mr. Darwin's theory that it really can't be called a theory. It's a proven fact.

So what about faith?

If you take the bible literally, that we were made from sand, and that everything was fine in the garden until the talking snake convinced Eve to take a bite of an apple, then it sounds too much like a fairy tale. Oh, and my favorite, "the lion laid with the lamb". Yeah, I can just see that. It's obviously just symbolism. The guy who wrote the book of Genesis wasn't even there. He was born thousands of years later.

You see, this guy named Moses wandered off into the Sinai desert for 40 days and 40 nights with no provisions, and then he saw a burning bush that talked to him and told him all the secrets of creation. Christianity's entire story of creation is based on what he wrote about what the burning bush told him. If I were to wander off into the Arizona desert without food or water, I bet after a while the bushes would start talking to me too. That wouldn't make it the Gospel truth, would it?

I really don't think you can take the bible literally. It was written by people from a much more primitive time about something that they really didn't understand. We don't even understand it now, so what chance would Moses have, or Mark, or Luke, or any of the several dozen authors of the bible? It's an interesting bit of theology, but it's not a true historical document.

I'm not saying it's all lies. I believe the people who wrote it believed their words to be true, but only as they perceived things. None of them were present when God created the world, or even when he created human kind, so they don't have a clue how he did, except for that famous conversation with a "burning bush".

So here's my own personal theory. I believe that God created man, and evolution is the means by which He did it. Evolution is not an accident. We exist because we were intended to exist. God didn't create religion, people did. God really doesn't care what religion you belong to. He judges you by the goodness that is in your heart. We, alone of all the creatures on this world, have a definite understanding of right and wrong, good and evil, and how we choose will determine our fate.

I hope my views don't offend anyone, but it's the only thing that makes sense to me. Religion is just a mordern age mythology.