Inventing Christianity

If I were inventing a religion, I wouldn't invent Christianity. Christianity requires too much divine interaction to make its tenents fit with the natural order of things as interpreted by the senses and scientific theory. Christianity doesn't allow for a theory of everything because God keeps meddling in the universe, especially where man is concerned.

Suppose, for argument's sake, the Big Bang and subsequent evolutionary process we were taught in school are absolutely true. Now, take a look out your window or step outside for a moment. Be sure to come back; there's more to this.

Are you back? Good, what did you see? I saw a tree. Except for a few brown leaves, the limbs were bare and swayed with the wind. To the best of my knowledge, the tree was simply doing what trees of its kind do. I wish the tree was closer to the house and a little more to the west, but I don't fault the tree for this. It grew where a seed entered the soil and took root. That too is what trees do.

While I was looking at the tree, a sparrow landed near its roots. The sparrow pecked at the ground as sparrows are wont to do. Suddenly, one of the feral cats in the neighborhood sprang from the grass and pounced on the bird. Feathers flew in the air and the cat raced away with the dying bird in its mouth. I felt sorry for the bird, but I don't think evil of the cat. Killing and eating birds is what cats do.

Stay with me, I plan to make a point. That point is that everything happening outside is not as I would have it, but nothing that transpired outside was evil. It was nature doing what nature does. To say that it is wrong for the tree to lose its leaves or for the cat to kill the bird is absurd. There is no right or wrong to it; as far as I can tell there was no malice; no hatred; no envy; there was only nature being natural.

But what about mankind? How do we fit into nature? Lying and cheating are simply a part of how humans interact. Rape, murder and theft are humans doing what humans have always done. We are exactly how we evolved in our niche and these behaviors are how we survive and compete for resources. In a sense, it's boys being boys. Aren't all rules really just an attempt by others to force their standards on us? If our premise is true, that we are the product of mindless evolution, it makes no sense to treat mankind differently than any other animal.

The problem is, none of us truly believe we are the same as all the rest of the universe. We treat one another as if there are rules for human behavior that apply only to mankind. Moreover, we believe everyone else is aware of these rules and breaking them is "wrong." It doesn't matter that my rules are different from your rules, the very fact that either of us have rules is evidence that we think ourselves different from everything else. This idea doesn't fit with the observable truths of nature. Christianity embraces the idea anyway.

Christianity says men are different from the rest of creation. Christianity says this difference comes from the men being created in the likeness of God and designed for fellowship with the Creator. Christianity goes on to say that something went wrong with man; he rejected his purpose. God made rules for fellowship and man rejected them and in the process rejected God.

Without God rules, morals and ethics are arbitrary and pointless. Without God as a measure, there is no good or evil. Therefore, the true hypocrite is not the Christian who falls prey to sin, but the humanist that advocates rules of behavior.