On the matters of faiths, beliefs, sciences and worldviews.

Ok, so what wacky analogy did Ray go with this week? But of course, one of his favorites: the thief and the judge!

How would you react if you were guilty of violating civil law, and your dad loved you so much that he sold his house and spent all of his hard–earned savings to pay the massive fine, so that you could get out of prison? Would you point at your father and accuse him of some sort of crime? How perverse would that be? If you did that, you would not only be despising his incredible sacrifice, but you would also reveal something horrible about your own character.

Ok, so let’s break it down:

First of all, Ray will jump between severe criminal law and punishment, and misdemeanor or purely civil case law whenever and however it is most convenient. Usually, he’ll liken regular, decent people with pedophiles, murderers and rapists, to emphasize that we are utter scum, and we don’t even deserve to exist. However, in this case, he wants to lower the impact of what the father, in this example, does for his son. To make it sound reasonable, the “crime” in question is merely a speeding ticket, and the “sacrifice” is the guy’s father having to take a loan to pay for it.

Secondly, the problem isn’t really with the perpetrator, but with the victim. If we take Ray’s example and imagine a father paying his son’s speeding ticket, the only thing that matters is that the fine has to be payed. There’s not even really a victim to speak of, it’s a perfect example of a victimless crime. This isn’t at all like the situation with God and Jesus that Ray describes. If it were, the son would be accused of something much more serious, like murder, adultery, theft, etc etc. In short, he would be guilty of essentially everything. Rightfully sentenced to death (ironically, Christians seldom seem have a problem with capital punishment), his father would then offer to be executed in his son’s place.

With a crime that isn’t victimless, and where you yourself were the victim, would you accept this switch? Would you think it fair that someone else took the punishment that was personally set for your attacker? What if the person who offered himself in the sentenced man’s stead was a man who wasn’t a man, and who would be resurrected three days after his execution? How would you, the victim, feel then?

This is my problem with Jesus and his “taking of our sins”. It’s a racketeering game, where humans are born already guilty of the crime of sin, and where Jesus has already decided to take your place at the execution, regardless of what you yourself want. Not only that, but for that you are also required to be thankful. Imagine that.

While Christians describe Jesus as the most loving man ever in existence, I can’t see his sacrifice as being anything other than completely selfish. He doesn’t care what we want, he doesn’t care what we feel and he did it all for himself – he was really God in mortal form, after all. He set a trap for humanity, and proceeded to create us already caught in it. Is that an act of love?

I am reminded of the many people in the world who are victims of spousal abuse, and who repeat to themselves that “he really does love me” or “she really does care about me”. They don’t, but they like to think the do. Just like God likes to think that we’re grateful to him for forcing us to worship him.