Special bonus for today's special feast of the 100th anniversary of the 1st apparition of our Lady of Fatima.
Enjoy!
Q. So basically you are saying such a guy would be wrong because Christianity wasn't made up by humans alone?
A. Not even nearly. It's like in a movie production: God is the producer/director, the Church (humans) is the make-up artist/sound technician. The latter have no work to do if the former doesn't start everything off and guide it along to completion. To say or even imply the sound technician made the movie is evidently more wrong than anything.
Q. Hehe! That's an interesting analogy!
A. Does it make sense?
Q. Kind of... Yeah... But what about the "incomplete" part? I think the "right" part is straightforward... But for someone who says Christianity was made up to give humans discipline and direction, why would you tell them their statement is "incomplete"?
A. Well firstly because if you consider Christianity as something made up by humans alone, then you are missing the single most important truth about it: it was made up by God! It's like describing a burger as a snack made of bread. That is true. But it misses the single most important thing of the burger: the meat!
Secondly, Christianity does give discipline and direction. That is evidently true. So do all other religions. But I would dare say discipline and direction are not the most important or most essential purposes of Christianity. This is what distinguishes it from other religions - at least in terms of effect.
Q. Ee! I'm not Catholic, but even I can tell you that sounds very heretical! The purpose of religion is NOT discipline and direction!?
A. The purpose of the Christian religion.
Q. So what exactly is the purpose of the Christian religion?
A. It is the means by which we become God's children by adoption.
Q. Hehe! Have to admit I'm a bit disappointed with that answer... Wasn't as dramatic as I hoped!
A. Tell me one thing that would be more dramatic than discovering you really are the daughter or son of God!
Q. And how does this work exactly? I come from the camp that labels that teaching of us being children of God as "cute" like the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. Designed to make us feel better. Fullstop.
A. Hehe! I like that!
Q. Do you have a response to it?
A. Plenty!
Q. Ehe...
A. First, an overwhelming majority of people - even Christians - view religion and their faith as a contract between them and God with the usual terms and conditions.
We have something God wants; God has something we want. We enter into a contract where we give God worship and praise and a few prayers and sacrifices, He gives us happiness, prosperity and peace in this world and on into the next for ages unending. That "feel better" you mentioned...
Q. Sounds straightforward to me.
A. Straightforward but wrong.
Q. Really!? Dude! Are you sure you know what you are saying!?
A. Haha! Positive!
Q. So if religion is not a contract, what is it?
A. A covenant.
Q. Ummm... A what?
A. Co-ve-nant. Covenant.
A contract is an agreement for an exchange of THINGS: you have a book or shirt I want and you give it to me in exchange for money I have that you want. The book is now mine and the cash yours. Contracts create proprietorship.
A covenant however is an exchange of PERSONS. I want you and you want me so we enter into a covenant in which you are now mine and I am now yours. Covenants create families.
Q. Po-tay-tow, Po-taa-to.
A. First of all anyone who pronounces it po-taa-to is just wrong. Fullstop. So stop peddling that nonsense.
Then there are differences between contracts and covenants.
Q. Oookay... Let's hear them.
A. Things have a value that can be expressed in terms of money which precisely makes the contractual exchange possible. People have a dignity of inestimable worth for which reason they can't be bought, least of all for money. To attempt to put a value to a person is precisely the core and beginning of slavery.
Things can be duplicated so contracts are not necessarily unique. People are unrepeatable for which reason each covenant is indeed unique.
Because things have a shelf-life at the end of which they lose value; contracts can come to an end. Persons on the other hand have an innate dignity rather than an extrinsic market-determined value; for this reason, for as long as they are persons, they can't lose their dignity. Covenants thus distinctively end only with death.
Q. Wow! Never knew all of that! But are there like modern examples of covenants? That word just sounds old and ancient.
A. If covenants create families, take a guess as to a modern example of a covenant.
Q. Ummm... Marriage.
A. Bingo!
Q. So you're saying Christianity as a religion effectively is there to create the family of God?
A. Exactly! But a real family! With a Father, mother, children and love. God is the father, Mary the mother, we the children - St. Paul calls Jesus the 1st born - and we are all united by love.
Q. But doesn't this just take us back to that contentious, unproven point again!
A. What "...contentious, unproven..." point? And why do you think it is contentious and unproven?
Q. Aren't you basing all of this on the Bible!?
A. I am! It's my data!
Q. That's precisely it! How are you so sure the Bible and all its stories are not made up?
To be continued...
Very happy feastday!
13th May 2017