Edhat Staff
Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels
By edhat staff
This is an Easter weekend unlike any other. Whether you’re religious or just enjoy bunnies and chocolate eggs, the coronavirus pandemic has cancelled all in-person plans this year.
On previous Easter weekends, a large percentage of Americans would host family gatherings including food and Easter egg hunts, maybe a church service depending on your beliefs. Now government officials and faith leaders are urging everyone to stay indoors and celebrate virtually.
According to WalletHub, 68% of Americans who observe Easter state the pandemic will affect their Easter spending this year. Below are their findings:
All religions are cults. What nonsense is it that you think distinguishes one irrational and emotional belief system from another? No religion has ever been able to save itself from the scientific/natural world (Biblical myths aside). If the believer’s savior was listening they would not have gone through world wars, hurricanes, tsunamis, AIDS, SARS, Ebola, or polio, the Spanish Flu or Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin to say nothing of starvation, bad water and lack of shelter. Human’s need the rational rules of science to deal with these threats. We should abandon the distracting and false and sometimes deadly ideas of religion.
It’s up to religious clergy & administrators to make sure that any gathering they sanction doesn’t harm their congregation or others. Otherwise, they aren’t religions, they are cults.
As the one woman said, when she was interviewed leaving a church service recently: “I am covered in the blood of Christ. Christ will protect me.”
GIFTEDINSB; I don’t want to come across as a religion hating militant atheist. I’m not. I live with a DEEPLY religious Baptist mother. So you gotta understand that I have no problem with individuals and their beliefs. But what I DO have a problem with is OUR SECULAR GOVERNMENT “respecting the establishment of a religion”, in giving bailouts to churches
(https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/06/828462517/another-break-from-the-past-government-will-help-churches-pay-pastor-salaries) , granting religious exemptions for vaccines, pushing for “Creation Science” to be taught in publicly funded schools, etc. Yet your religion has NOT MET ITS BURDEN OF PROOF when it comes to whether or not it works, and whether or not its true. My tax dollars are paying for your fantasy. And that is something that I WILL NOT take lying down. So when I get all iconoclastic, and start questioning the veracity of your religion, and what millions of its adherents do that endangers all of society, there a reason for the furor behind what I’m saying. Because what you believe has no proof. This pandemic isn’t ending because people prayed; its ending because people of SCIENCE (doctors, virulogists, microbiologists,etc) are doing they’re DAMNDEST to figure this thing out. And not with prayer or religion. With the only thing that works. Science. So keep the damn prayers to yourself. You wanna tithe? Donate that money where it will actually make a difference. And that’s not in the coffers of your church. Send it to hospitals, the CDC, philanthropic foundations with a proven track record. Hell, you wanna keep it local? Donate to Direct Relief. They help people. And I worked for them in the past. Santa Claus isn’t real, and neither is “God”.
I wonder how much “God” is helping people right now. Everywhere I look, its not the atheists and other “heathens” that are endangering people. Its the Kenneth Coplelands “healing” people through the TV, churches violating SIP orders to have Easter service, popes calling for “an end to self centeredness” while their priests get away with buggering children…. Yeah, before you start pointing the finger at other people and “praying for their salvation”, look at your own house first. And for the religious people that can “reconcile” their faith and science, take a GOOD LONG look at your beliefts, ’cause y’all are engaging in some O’Brien-level doublethink…. Christopher Hitchens put it best: “Science flies you to the moon; religion flies you into buildings.” Or in this case, drives you TO buildings to kill everyone else. Just something to think about. And before I get called out for being an iconoclast, I want anyone who follows the Bible to open up to Exodus 21 and read it and tell me HOW IN THE WORLD that is justifiable or moral. THEN we can talk about if what’s in there is “real”.
XO: You may be overthinking it a bit. That’s not a bad thing, but simply one perspective. Also, the New Testament is just that.
As a Protestant believer, it makes me sad to hear about these things. The God that I serve does not condone the Kenneth Copelands or Benny Hinns of the world who use their fame and status to take advantage of innocent people.
But while there are bad eggs out there, there are churches that are rallying to help people. They are donating money for people who have fallen on hard times, they are providing food and clothing, they are offering to pick up and deliver groceries, and – to your point – there are churches that are abiding by the stay-at-home order. My church held a virtual Easter service, as did thousands of others across the nation.
So again, while I grieve so-called Christians who give Jesus a bad name, please remember that not all Christians or churches who are like that. Peace and safety to you.