Christian judgement on Facebook

When Christians claim that only God has the authority to judge us, why do they practice judgement so freely?

Is atheism a threat to Christians?

This morning, I read a long string of comments on Facebook from Christians who were critical of atheists.

This series of criticisms came in many forms. One lady claimed to feel pity for atheists who don’t have Jesus in their lives. Others derided anyone who had not come to the same conclusions as they had about God, creation and reality. Some passed judgement on those of us who had not accepted the Bible as the WORD of God and as the source of all wisdom. Still other felt that expressions of atheistic views were not acceptable because their own religious views were the only topics worthy of public airing. One man condemned atheists for not placing the Bible at the center of all human morality - he postulated that no one could possibly have a moral foundation for human action without the Bible.

I was a disillusioned Catholic teenager.

One of the reasons why I left the Roman Catholic Church as teenager was because I had witnessed many of the above hypocracies too often to have any faith that organized religions would turn those judgemental types into compassionate and understanding people who shown tolerance for the many differences manifested in humanity. With over 4200 different faiths today, it is also clear that no single religious doctrine can legitimately claim to be “the one true church” as I was taught as a Catholic boy.

Recently, I learned that Father Lorne Trainor was listed as one of 27 priests who had been identified and publically exposed as a sexual predator of boys. Father Trainor was one of my teachers between 1964 - 67 when I attended Brebeuf, a Jesuit private boys school. Little did I, or any of my fellow students, know that our teacher had abused boys. Trainor died in 2000. The list of 27 was released by the jesuits a few years ago after all but one of those men had died.

If my parents had known that two of their sons were being taught by a pedophile, I wonder how long it would have taken for them to get my younger brother and I out of that school?

Is lying negotiable?

I also experienced the politics of the Roman Catholic Church in 1980.

My first wife was previously married and divorced. She wanted to be married again in the RC church but, in a meeting with her parish priest, we were told us that it would not be possible unless she told the Bishop that her first marriage of two years was never consummated.

I had learned in religious studies that lying was a sin. Did that parish priest think that a lie was a small moral price to pay if it could be easily forgiven if she went to confession after lying to the Bishop?

So much for religion offering a foundation for living a moral life!

Religions compete for souls.

Religions are corporations that have executed a proven business model based on selling fear followed by a ‘good news’ path to salvation.

Fear of death and eternal damnation in Hell is reinforced repeatedly in religious prayers, sermons, sacraments, ceremonies, religious merchandise like rosaries, and more. The promise of salvation and eternal life in Heaven comes with a condition that the faithful ardently follow the Church’s prescription.

This business model has proven ‘foolproof’ time and again across time and nations. It has been so successful and popular that even politicians and governments have adopted it. Fear-mongering strategies are built upon sensationalized threats related to climate change, pandemics and more. Politicians portray themselves as saviours in the face of there fearful circumstance of their creation. Their conditions are that you vote for them, pay their prescribed taxes and obey their laws.

Their path to success differs only in form from the religious game plan. Fear and salvation are always at the heart of every strategy.

Isn’t it interesting that the two topics which most people avoid ‘in polite company” are religion and politics. Does this surprise anyone? After all, we instinctively know when we are being deceived and/or manipulated by these institutions. Their influence of our lives is so far-reaching that few people are willing to rip the scab off past government-imposed injustices that fester in the minds of most people. Instead, they just avoid the topics altogether in an “out of sight, out of mind” strategy to maintain their public composure.

A book worth reading,

Last year, I read ‘The Psychology of Totalitarianism’ by Dr. Mattias Desmet.

I applied his ‘mass formation psychosis’ explanation to my observed behaviours of people who have appeared ‘captured’ by certain religious or ideological beliefs. The ‘mass formation psychosis’ thesis reveals the psychological dynamics behind the widespread and cult-like brainwashing that I have seen in societal groups over the years. I noticed, for example, a “tribal zealotry“ often in religious communities, in groups of climate change alarmists, political party partisanship and in people who believe that government institutions can do no wrong even when the evidence of wrong-doing is overwhelming. That book was a godsend for the insights it provides.

I wrote this essay to make a point.

There is nobody on this planet who possesses perfect knowledge of everything, or can even make a credible claim to know the absolute truth about God, creation and reality. This certainly includes members of religious communities. 

When I was a very young boy, four myths were taught to me: Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and God. The truth about the first three was eventually revealed. The fourth became an imposed expectation by the people in authority closest to me. It was not acceptable to question it.

During Covid, it was also unacceptable to question many official reports about the virus or its origins, the accuracy of PCR tests, the effectiveness of masks, “vaccine” safety and efficacy, or any reports of “cases” coming from mainstream media companies and public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Teresa Tam.

This censorship strategy was identical to the one used to protect church dogma. Its authoritarian tone and inferred consequences for skeptics are always evident. It works like a charm and trains us to ‘behave as expected’ much like Pavlov’s dogs. This keeps individuals from thinking for themselves or daring to speak out about their genuine thoughts and feelings. Implied threats are subtle yet powerful methods of persuasion to get people to “go along to get along” with the authorities.

I am human too.  

I admit to passing judgement on all of those Facebook posters who look down on people like me for my non-Christian beliefs. Fortunately, I don’t believe in the concept of sin. Therefore, I feel no need to confess my ‘sins’ to a man in a long black robe in a small, closed cubicle. I also feel no risk that my ‘soul’ will be compromised for my ‘sin’ of judgement and that it will befall some eternal destiny defined by the Bible for speaking ‘my truth’.

This is the freedom that I enjoy from understanding ‘mass formation psychosis’. I may be ‘brainwashed’ in other ways, but certainly not as a religious zealot. That is why I don’t consider those Facebook comments as particularly relevant to my life. However, their comments remain interesting to me as evidence of the continuing manifestation of religious ‘mass formation psychosis’.