A religious compulsion?
Why do so many religious, “God-fearing” people post quotes from the Bible on social media? By comparison, I rarely see posts by atheists espousing their beliefs. What is the explanation?
Genuinely perplexed.
I believe that the existence of the God of the Bible is a fairy tale like the existence of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. These myths grew out of folklore and mystical traditions. Some people grow out of their belief in fairy tales including the Creator God who allegedly created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh.
Compared with religious enthusiasts, few atheists feel the need to promote their beliefs on social media. Why is this? Are their lives so wrapped up in the Bible that there is nothing else in life that gives them meaning and joy? I personally get all the inspiration I need from a smorgasbord of great books written by great thinkers, both contemporary and past.
I have always wondered why so many people on social media post biblical content to profess their faith. Are they simply virtue signalling? Do they believe that only God-fearing can claim to be “moral” and they post to stake their claims to moral superiority?
Can someone explain to me why religious people seem so compelled to broadcast their faith on the Internet? Please provide an answer that is not derived from the Bible or other religious sources?
I asked ChatGPT:
According to an article on BBC Future, many Christians are turning to apps and memes to express their faith instead of churches – and it’s raising intriguing questions about the future of the world’s largest religion. The article explains that faiths are adopting online technologies to make it easier for people to communicate ideas and worship. However, that technology has shaped religious people themselves and changed their behavior. The ubiquity of smartphones and social media makes them hard to avoid, however. And they are changing the way people practice their religion.
My prompt failed to answer my question but its reply was interesting just the same. Large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT are adept at finding and retrieving digital information, but expressions of feelings are beyond their capabilities. The motive to post biblical content seems to be driven by feelings, not logic, and LLMs are not ‘beings of consciousness’.
No one has ever met Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy or God to my knowledge. Yet billions of people have acted as if those myths are true. I am not sure if I will ever understand why they do this.
The Block option
I get more messages on email and social media that I care to receive. Too many of them are useless promotional material that I can dispose of easily after reading the headline.
Recently, I began blocking people who advertise their faith. Like so many other ads that I did not request, their expression of faith are of no value to me. I would rather not know about their religious beliefs.
Freedom of speech on the Internet and email means that everyone is free to express their views and everyone else has the right to use the ‘block’ feature. Censorship by government fiat is entirely unnecessary.
Ok Gene, I'll bite.
First of all, even as a Christian I do not necessarily appreciate every use of Scripture I see on social media. I have in mind those who post a verse or two that seems to suit them at that particular time, but the rest of the time live in such a way as to invalidate their public confession. To be specific, more than once have I seen someone post a Bible verse to weigh in on the culture war. and their next post says something like "Getting drunk tonight with my girls!" This is at best hypocrisy, and at worst, a violation of the Third Commandment, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain". Furthermore, some people are guilty of using Bible verses as a kind of incantation or lucky charm, which should also be a foreign practice to Christians.
To answer your question – “Why do so many religious, ‘God-fearing’ people post quotes from the Bible on social media?” – directly, I would offer two reasons, though I suppose the possible answers may be as numerous as those who post.
1. For sincere, orthodox Christians, the Bible is not merely a book among books, nor is the Christian worldview merely one lens among many through which to see the world. On the contrary, the Christian confesses that God himself is the source of all knowledge, and apart from God’s revelation (both in nature – “general revelation” and especially Scripture – “Special revelation”) man can know nothing. “…Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Put another way, each man operates in accord with whatever his ultimate standard is. To turn your question on its head, I might ask, “Why do so many irreligious, “God-denying” people post thoughts that make use of reason and logic?” To the philosophical materialist, reason itself functions as the ultimate standard, and so to use it in an argument is akin to the Christian flipping through his Bible to make a point. We each have our standard; the difference is the Christian worldview can account for the existence and purpose of reason itself (being created by and serving as a reflection of the creator himself) while the materialist must ultimately argue in a circle.
From Cornelius Van Til, “If one does not make human knowledge wholly dependent upon the original self-knowledge and consequent revelation of God to man, then man will have to seek knowledge within himself as the final reference point. Then he will have to seek an exhaustive understanding of reality. He will have to hold that if he cannot attain to such an exhaustive understanding of reality he has no true knowledge of anything at all. Either man must then know everything or he knows nothing. This is the dilemma that confronts every form of non-Christian epistemology”
2. The second (and far less significant) reason that comes to mind is that politically, we are (hopefully) coming out of a period of time in Western society where religious claims were entirely discounted in the public sphere, especially in Canada. From the time of the so-called Moral Majority until roughly yesterday, Christians were encouraged to practice a kind of “quietism” where everyone on all sides agreed to keep religious views – and specifically the Bible – out of public life. There are youngish Christians today who are largely embarrassed by the legacy of Falwell and the MM, but also see (to borrow a phrase) it is either “Christ or chaos”, and “not whether, but which”. Furthermore, there can be a certain jolt that one gets from saying the unsayable. I would posit that today, saying publicly “Christ is Lord” is akin to saying the emperor has no clothes, and that has the benefit of being both true, and fun to say.
If you truly want the answer to your question, you should ask the people (they are your friends?) that post these scriptures. Perhaps some are, as you say, “virtue signaling”. Or, perhaps they derive genuine value in the concepts the particular scripture represents for them at the time.
Wanting to share things that bring us joy isn’t meant to be offensive. I am perplexed at why it troubles you.
I suggest talking to people more, and your computer less. Maybe you should reconsider deleting people you once thought had something to contribute to your life. Or, maybe your method of streamlining your friends to people who only share your values and beliefs is beneficial to you. I don’t judge. I do wonder, though. It’s different from my approach. I often learn from people who think differently from myself. I’ll know I’m not useful to you anymore if/when I’m blocked.