Springs means Easter, and Easter also brings chocolate. I like chocolate, yet there are some people who don’t; and I loathe them. Unless you have a peanut allergy, then I understand I guess. Chocolate is good, but it’s not enough to be life sacrificing.

At least that’s my opinion, question: if you’ve never had chocolate though how would you know? That must be a very wretched state to be in, God gave you live but for some reason you’re not able to have a fully enjoyable life with chocolate. How dismal is that.

I have been lurking around the reddit thread r/exchristian, the common complaint; “I’ve been made to feel guilty for everything”. Growing up Christian myself, I don’t feel as if I have had that same experience. That is until I got older, and I noticed just how manipulative some people were. It’s almost as if we really aren’t worthy, or that we all need to repent our sins.

I can bet some of you are thinking that you are a good person, that you don’t need to confess to any sin. Well, yeah, you would say that. I mean, if you think about it, we always hurt someone even if it’s unintentionally; a lot of us think that we are right, when a lot of the time we may very well conclude 100% in error. I am currently reading Against Empathy by Paul Bloom, and I came across this passage about Jesus; how to be a true follower of Jesus, you must hate your parents, siblings, spouse, children and yourself so that you detest your own life, and now you can follow Jesus. Does that sound a bit cult-ish to you?

It honestly makes me think of that scene in Wayne’s World, lets see if I can pull it up.

Haha, what a great movie. The overall message is this, that we are not worthy of God’s love and that we should be grateful. Jordan Peterson was in Australia last month, he was on a panel where they talked the usual conflict between the left and right wing spectrum of issues; politics, feminism, equality, mental health and so forth. However the panel moderator (or the host of the program) noted that Jordan Peterson never really gives a definitive answer.

The question was, “Do you believe in God?”.

Here’s the whole talk, I think it was a very insightful discussion to have taken place: https://youtu.be/TmNSlF7lcaw. That question occurs at the end of the panel, it’s one of the if not the last.

Jordan Peterson says the following, “I live my life as if I am a deeply religious person”, he also says he lives in fear of God as if he exists. What I don’t get is how “God” can create us and everything around us, yet want us to suffer our whole lives. How can someone want to follow such a deity, knowing fully well that they are to suffer?

I certainly wouldn’t follow a person who causes me to suffer, but let us continue with what Peterson says. Peterson concludes that religion is a very private thing, that shouldn’t be made public. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement, because whatever power religion has over you, other people are going to question. I do think that faith is almost directly related to how most of us feel about our existence, and I believe that the overall message of God has been misconstrued in many of ways.

Am I just rationalizing or excusing the behaviour of religions, no. We have seen centuries of were religion has been the cause of tremendous human suffering, where belief was so strong that people were willing to give their lives, money and even their own children lives. I am talking about the actual existence of God, I was never a devoted follower of Christianity, I went because my mother made me, and then I stayed for music. Years later, I volunteered as a social media strategist for one of their camps, and overheard what the pastor was saying to the group of young campers.

“That’s fucked up” I thought to myself.

So I guess that the reason you’re supposed to hate everything, and give Jesus the wheel is because ideally, Jesus wouldn’t hurt you. But what happens when you give so many people that much power over yourself? They are 99.9% of the time, going to hurt you. They will justify it by saying”I hurt you because I care for you”, or some nonsense like that. Maybe they do, maybe what you want it arguably detrimental to your well-being. But aren’t somethings meant to be experienced, why can’t I eat the chocolate. If I were to die not knowing what I could probably find out how to do without harming myself, then why would a God withhold that from me?

God wouldn’t.

I have no problem with people beliefs, to a certain extent. My belief is that you shouldn’t be a hypocrite for a lot of things. The problem is that for EVERYTHING in life, there is always that exception. Be reasonable, use your brain for this; not your gut or intuition. I belief is that we should question our own actions, I’ve been really adamant about that for a long time.

I’ll leave you off with a Jordan Peterson answering to a question in that same panel about individual vs. collective responsibility, Peterson goes on to say that people have more issues with themselves, but the tend to avoid those by focusing on matters outside the world that makes them look good to their neighbours and friends. Cathryn McGregor agreed with Peterson for a lot of the discussion, but on this particular point Peterson makes is self evidently true. She was an activist for some time with the Communist Party of Australia, she basically that if you’re a revolutionist that has trouble keeping the lights on and making rent etc., you’re going to be a crappy revolutionist.

— AA