This is a quote from Jonathan Edwards' sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He was a Puritan preacher in America in the 1730s and 40s. The Puritans believed that it was pre-destined that they should go to Heaven. This being the case, they spent their whole lives making sure they would fulfill this destiny. Making sure they could do nothing to screw up this wonderful plan God had for them. They were very, very strict and did nothing really "out of the ordinary".
This sermon is about how God treats the sinners who end up in Hell. Borrowing from one of my very favorite movies, Bruce Almighty, this sermon pretty much gives the listener an image of God as an angry kid sitting on an anthill with a magnifying glass. It has a certain sadist feel to it. Edwards is saying, Haha all you sinners, God hates you and he's gonna send you to Hell, and I'm going to laugh. His sermon is basically scaring other Puritans into being "perfect" in God's eyes. I'm sure they were all raised thinking, "If I do everything right and never sin, God will love me and I'll go to Heaven." Probably, most Puritans were raised in fear; fear of God, fear of sin, fear of Hell. God does not love you, he is angry.
I think this sermon is probably one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. God is supposed to be this wondrous creator, who gave life to all living things, who watches out for you, who forgives you. He's supposed to love you no matter what. The Puritans were all scared into their own religion. No doubt if anyone ever has second thoughts about it, they were shunned, or maybe even abused, I don't know. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but somehow I feel like this religion, and also some other religions, aren't one's own opinion. If you were raised to fear God because he's gonna send you to Hell, you don't have a choice. You have to agree. Otherwise you're damned for eternity, and who wants that? I'm not saying it was just the Puritans who do this - I know several other Christian religions use this tactic, the "be Christian or go to Hell" technique, and I'm sure it happens in situations every day. It's depressing.
Besides the fact that I think it's wrong to scare someone in to something like that, it just makes me sad. It makes me sad that these people didn't grow up believing in God's grace and mercy and love. I don't care if you're Christian or Jewish or Buddhist or Atheist - as long as you have something good and beautiful to believe in. Without a rock like that in your life, how can you ever be truly happy? I hope that the Puritans were happy doing what they did. I hope that as they were carrying out God's will and not sinning and being perfect, I hope they were thinking, "I'm so, so happy, because I get to go to Heaven." I hope that whatever they did, there was some joy in it.
I agree, it is very sad that those people live in fear
ReplyDeleteI never agreed in using fear as a tactic for getting what you want. But unfortunately, it always seems to come up in society. I love the way you write and I agree completely with everything you say!(:
ReplyDeletehello. first off, i don't agree with using fear to get people to believe in something. However, i don't think edwards was being sadistic and saying haha you're going to hell. i think he was saying "look, if you don't do this you will burn in hell, which you really don't want" i think it's more likely that he was a masochist than a sadist and liked believing in an angry god. or maybe he was using this fear to control people, in which case i say kudos on being smarter than they are. Anyway i'm offended by what you said about religion being something so beautiful that people can't live w/o. I'm an atheist. I know you don't need religion to be happy and in most cases i've seen people are only religious because they were just raised to be that way and don't question their creed, which is wrong.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think you can't live without religion. I think there are plenty of people in the world who have no religion whatsoever and they're living better, more moral lives than some people who claim to be religious. I completely and totally respect that you are an atheist. What I said and meant was that everyone should have SOMETHING good at beautiful to believe in - not just religion. And I agree about some people who are only religious because that's the way they were brought up. I think in those cases, people aren't necessarily "religious". They just say they are christian or jewish or muslim or whatever. Saying that you're religious doesn't just make someone religious. I know plenty of people, mostly my age, who say they're christian but they're not religious. my best friend calls herself a non-religious jew. she acknowledges the fact that she was raised in a jewish family and celebrates hanukkah and everything, but she doesn't actually practice the religion.
ReplyDelete