A badly lit church looks to me like a tomb. After the pointless proclamation of the death of God, and the recent decimation of congregations, churches often seem like giant, empty vaults in a cemetery : God’s own massive tomb, among the other smaller ones in the adjacent graveyard. No light, no life, not even a corpse.
A modern iconoclast and ferocious misanthrope, Austrian author Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989), once called his country “a cemetery of ideas”. The Church, which some consider – while others just hope – to be moribund, has always deserved such a sobriquet. In spite of its ritual Easter symbolism of the Light of the Resurrection after the “Tenebrae”, the Darkness, of Good Friday, the Church has always lived in and promoted the Dark Ages, which cover, theologically, the better part of the last 2000 years.
The Church is a vast cemetery of ideas. Worse, it has been and still is an abattoir of ideas, an extinguisher of light. Systematically, whenever new, liberating, enlightening ideas appear, the Church condemns them. Its pronouncements often read like its famous 19th century “Syllabus of Errors”. Copernicus was wrong, Giordano Bruno was wrong, Galileo was wrong, Luther was wrong, Darwin was wrong, the Modernists were wrong, liberal theologians today are wrong, advocates of artificial contraception and stem-cell research are wrong, and – need it be added, in all humility – people like me could not be further from the truth.
When did the Church ever propose a new, illuminating idea ? It has been content to rehash the nonsense (apart from its impossible dream, “love one another”) preached by supposedly inspired authors of so-called divine Revelation, adding, over the centuries, even more nonsense of its own creation. It proclaims Jesus as the Light of the World and defines its mission as lighting up the lives of people with the Good News it calls the Gospel, repeated ad infinitum Sunday after Sunday in churches where no amount of candle or even electric light will ever reduce the darkness and the blindness it cultivates.
Meantime I aim to continue my self-appointed mission, described accurately enough in the Gospel song “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine”. The blog you are reading may not be a brilliant source of illumination, but I hope you will agree that it is not a cemetery of ideas. FIAT LUX !
RIDENDA RELIGIO
Blind Faith: Blind Folly 
FIAT LUX! Indeed. I doubt if there are many who had much luck with their purchase of a Fiat. Rust buckets, most of them and underpowered. Still they enjoyed a certain vogue, even here in Australia before we discovered the cheap and excellent vehicles made in Japan – and now Korea – and very shortly I imagine, China.
The great Light at Alexandria served a useful purpose for some considerable time. And even today with satellite navigation and other marvels of technology lighthouses continue to play an important role for mariners. The light keepers have largely vanished – replaced by automated systems. That is progress.
Sadly there has been little progress at an official level in understanding the fundamental message of the New Testament – the Good News – the light of which might free us from bitterness and division; and that is that we should Love One-another.
FIAT LUX!
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I agree with Tom about Fiat : the only cars that brought me troubles were Fiat …
Concerning the sadness of churches, it’s specially the case in our old countries ; when I see video in american or african churches it’s very ? cheerful
Do you want every churches and cathedral to be destroyed ? It has begun for economical and safety reasons. But I know also some that were tranformed in (good) restaurants …
Concerning “ideas” : I suppose that, as usual, you speak only of the catholic Church, Catholics have lot of high schools in all domains. They are opened ; the former errors are far less significant. Yes at a time, there has been a confusion between spiritual powers and power and every excess was good to improve it. Such drifts are frequent. We are experimenting one at this moment, concerning finance, but its another subject
So, if you want to find examples of the blindness of religion, it’s difficult to understand why you don’t use the one we hear of each day : destruction of libraries in Mali, Egypt, etc … by islamists, to remain in particular facts. But their general positions about “knowledge” is worst : no school, specially for women, few médicine, etc …
New ideas of catholic churches ? In USA, they have : thanks to internet, I often listen US radio for country music and gospel ; very often there is pub for god ; it’s very innovative, actual, funny . Of course, it remains marketing, not fundamental ideas
Normal, new ideas are obliged to concern the old testament, to find a piece of credibility or, more probably, to confess that it’s false
Delenda old testament
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Even in France churches are less lugubrious and brighter now than they used to be. In the U.S. I worked for ten years for the Church, and agree that American churches, even Catholic ones, are more “cheerful” than European ones (the word would be an understatement in some Baptist and Pentecostal Afro-American houses of worship where preachers like James Brown lead their colorful choirs in wild ceremonies which would touch even the Blues Brothers with Amazing Grace).
I have already stated my opinion on physically destroying churches, under the post “Destroy Religion…or Churches ?” (November 7, 2013). Recently some French churches have been demolished for reasons of economy and public safety, before, as in the battle of Jericho (mentioned in one of the Old Testament books you love to hate) the walls – and the roof – come tumbling down.
Thom is right : I am more familiar with Catholicism, but have not hesitated in my book to condemn Islamic obscurantism (see pages 74-77). I must add that I am opposed to anybody, whether the Church, German National Socialists or Islamic fanatics, burning books, even the Old Testament …
If you want to see a “pub for God” – not a “pubb”, like ours, but a “poob”, the French way of saying “publicity” – readers should check out “God T.V.” (page 143 of my “From Illusions to Illumination”) : it’s a non-stop commercial which only His American Protestant marketeers could produce.
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Laroche is right of course about the Islamic fundamentalists and their intolerance – children’s education, women’s rights, glbt issues, etc etc etc.
I imagine that Frank would defend his concentration on Catholicism in particular and Christianity in general on the grounds that he is most familiar with “Religion” in that/those form/s. The fundamental point that Frank is making, and it is a point that i agree with, is that all Religions have at trheir core absurd beliefs. It is the absurdity of those beliefs that should be exposed and ridiculed.
Rationalism should enable us to find solutions to any and all of the pressing problems confronting modern society. But don’t hold your breath.
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“The fundamental point that Frank is making, and it is a point that i agree with, is that all Religions have at trheir core absurd beliefs. It is the absurdity of those beliefs that should be exposed and ridiiculed”
Yes, we all aggree
And what is this “core”
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“Abattoir of ideas” – what a perfect description! Great post 🙂
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Maybe the core like the apple that Eve tempted Adam with in the Garden not that long ago is rotten through and through.
I imagine that the idea of a personal God who/which is concerned about me is about as core as I can imagine.
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Is’n it Abraham, the “father” of monotheism ? the start point of judaism, christianism and islam
Every studies that tried to find some links between the legend and facts failed.
If you have new ? proofs, you can complete Wikipédia
As soon as that core of religion is false, why loose time with the life of such or such of the following “Messengers” ?
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Cher ami : You realize, of course, that even if those American fundamentalist archeologists or their Israeli counterparts discovered proof of the existence of Abraham or of Noah’s Ark, we would still not have reasons to believe the nonsense in the Old Testament. Whale fossils have just been found in the Pyrenees. Someone may one day find fossils of a boat on Mount Ararat. The “core” of the Jewish Bible is not its characters, its “personae dramatis”, but its myths, its “miracles”, its message, supposedly divinely inspired by a God invented by its authors. The absence of archeological “proof” of biblical figures, sites and events is, to me, far less pertinent than the absurdity and outrageousness of much of the doctrine of the Old, and yes, the New Testament.
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The main interest to focus on the old testament is that we can hope, dream, that we help to slow the tensions that are growing among islamists, between islamists and jewishes, etc …
To introduce some begining of doubt among those ? fanatic, stupid persons, it’s not easy to know which arguments are the best ; all have to be tried. And the continuous reminder of the contradictions between scientific knowledge and the initial legends is one of them.
What I am sure of, is that if they read your, pertinent, critics against christian, they will just “see” that others are wrong and of course, they are right
We need certainly more than 15 days to find THE argument that will be the start point of some progress
So I hope the 9 december to be just an improvement of ? the engine ?
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TOUCHé, Monsieur Laroche !! Our readers will all agree that this is your very best comment to date. A telling blow ! I have never in my life had anyone point out that my demolishing Christian belief will only confirm the convictions of non-Christians.
Q u o i q u e . . . (however …)
Primo : You overlook the fact that in both my Book and my Blog I pull no punches with either Judaism or Islam. I do not say ” Delenda, Ridenda, Fides Christiana”, but “Delenda, Ridenda, RELIGIO” – that is, ALL religions.
Secundo : I laughed out loud (LOL ?) when I read your comment on my operation on December 9. You hope that this overhaul of my “engine” will improve my performance on this blog. Inch Allah, Hava nagila venis’mecha, mon ami ! Salaam, Shalom, Pax tibi. Keep on commenting !
Frank O’Phile
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I fear that your comment is irony Franck.
You minimize the huge difference there is between you and other catogories of persons, like “islamists followers”. The consequence to have been working with “high level leaders” ?
Once, I show more than 10 texts about the bad effects of canabis to a drug man. Only one of these texts expressed some doubt on a particular effect. The drug man remembered only this text that was enough for him to not pay attention to the others, however full of practical arguments
I wanted to make an analysis of your texts to get a repartition of arguments against such or such religion, or against religion generally. It is easier for you who have all in mind. My “tests” make me think that you argue only for “delenda christianism”
However, we can consider christianism as the first reaction against the bad use of credulity : this wyse man, Jesus, chiefly acted to help poor, weak persons that were forgotten, exploited by the new “leaders”, the jewish hierarchy.
Jesus was more impregnated by this story of “god” than us in the 21 th century, so it’s easy to criticize it’s new story. But the goal was good which is not the case with Mahomet who invented a “sourate” each time he needed something as a new wife.
To come back to a more concrete purpose, when I spoke of “engine” , I meant “heart” (the physic one) not brain (I am not an intellectual). I supposed that you don’t have completely finished its revision but I hope you will be better for a reasonable time after
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Merci, cher ami. I have not compiled a detailed subject index for the Book and the Blog, but if you want to see an indication that my criticism is in no way limited to Christianity, you might page through both, beginning with pages 74-77 of “From Illusions to Illumination” where I speak of the aberrations of both Judaism and Islam, with multiple quotations from both the Old Testament and the Koran. You have the book, and will find other references to non-Christian beliefs both in it and the blog. Meantime I am looking forward to my operation, which has nothing to do with either my heart or my brain but my intestines. You, as a Frenchman, would remember the original meaning of “Comment allez-vous ?” (literally, “How are you going ?”). Most Anglo-saxons and some French-speakers do not realize that it means “Was your bowel-movement this morning a success ?” The other criterion for health in the recent past – and still today – has to do with blood, but fortunately bleeding people is no longer seen as a panacea. We have advanced more in medical knowledge than in the recognition of the myths and nonsense of religion, ALL religions, all of which deserve destruction or at least ridicule.
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Ah, Intestin ! so I feel free to continue to annoy you Franck ! It’s useless that I recall the french trivial expression that express that persons like me acccelerate the intestin transit …
From a quantative point of view, half a page for the origine of the monotheism !
I plan at least a quarter of the book I shall (never) write (I have the title and some ideas), and at most a quarter for each derivation, christianism and islam, the rest being dedicated to possible évolutions …
From a qualitative point of view, I only red that “jewish has moved beyond such aberation”.
Not all of them for sure in my opinion
And what about the “core” of the religion of these advanced jewishes ???
I feel some ? prudence ? from your part, towards the “elected people”
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Cher ami, I will devote the same attention to reading the book I hope you will write, as you do to mine and to this blog. “Carpe diem” : if not now, when ? Bon courage.
You CAN write that book. Yes, you can !
Shalom. Salaam. Pax tibi.
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