Thoughts on “Religion” and whether or not there is a God

So I’ve just been reading another post on Reddit. I have been mentioning Reddit a lot recently, and there is a good reason for that: like many people these days, my brain needs constant stimulation, and I provide that using a variety of different websites. Reddit is one of the top websites that I use.

So I was reading, once again, one of these posts, which asks people to list the dumbest things that others believe. And sure enough, as with any similar post, “Religion” and “God” (and “Christianity” and “the Bible”) featured quite significantly, with some people going to great lengths to slate the idea of believing in God. Frankly, I’m feeling a little defensive as I write this!

This is something I often ask myself in relation to people who don’t believe in God: “Where do they/you get their/your morality from?” What standards tell you what is right or wrong in your life? I’ll give an example, I may well have used this before: there are certain things in the Bible that make easy and practical sense to me, and perhaps to most reasonable people (or “rational” people – ha ha ha!) Like for instance where the Bible says “Thou shalt not murder” or where the Bible teaches that all human beings have inherent value and worth. (This does not cancel out the fact that sometimes people need to be punished for crimes that they commit.) I think that most people would easily agree with those things. So even if you do not believe in the Bible specifically, or God generally, then you might still subscribe to those standards in your life.

And yet, for me, I have experienced real value not only in the things that easily make sense to me, but in many things that do not. Because there are some things that the Bible teaches which simply do not make sense to me. I cannot reason them out in any way. They seem strange, or weird. And yet, because I am a Christian, I will obey them anyway…because the Bible says so, and because I am committed to obeying the Bible. Now here is the thing: if I was not a Christian, and I did not have the standards of the Bible, I’m sure that I would just go along with whatever made sense to me. What about really grey areas, where some people are shouting one thing, and others are shouting another? As someone who does not believe in God, what do you do? Do you go with one area? Or another? Do you keep quiet? Some of these areas are really controversial, and I will suggest one: the topic of trans women in sports. As a Christian, I believe that we as Christians should be welcoming to everyone, regardless of their gender identity, their sexual orientation etc. (However, the question of whether it is biblically acceptable for people to express themselves this way is a different question. These issues are controversial and difficult, and ultimately it is between each individual and their God. But the question of trans women in sport is distinctly different.) For me, I come from a family where we all demonstrated a measure of athletic prowess. I believe the issue is black and white: with all possible grace to people born male who want to identify as female, the physical advantages of being biologically male make this inherently unfair, in a way which simply cannot be overlooked – at least for now. Who knows? Perhaps in another ten years science may have progressed to such a point where the advantages of being born male have been completely wiped out. For now the current metric is testosterone levels. So that trans cyclist Emily Bridges (?) was arguing on TV a few months ago that her testosterone levels were down to acceptable levels so she should be allowed to compete alongside biological females. And yet, there was an article I read a few years ago, which explained that testosterone is just one advantage that biological males have over biological females, and a gender reassignment makes no difference to the others. These others include, for instance, bone density, muscle density. I’m also guessing height, although I don’t remember the article mentioning that. I remember I once accidentally walked into a man without looking where I was going, and this man was a stranger so I don’t know his gym habits. However it was literally like walking into a brick wall.

Also – periods! I know it is taboo, but my own periods are so bad that I have unapologetically complained about them here on this blog. I know that some biological women for whatever reason don’t menstruate but it seems so unfair that people who have a zero probability of ever having to deal with the hell, the frustration, the mess of periods, compete alongside people who don’t have a zero probability of having to deal with all of that, meaning that they also get more time to practise/train. So ultimately for me it is all an issue of justice which makes me say an emphatic “No way.” It’s just not fair. And the issue is so clear cut and easy that of course biological men have an inherent advantage, that observe, no-one ever says anything whatsoever about trans men in sport. Who knows, with the advance of science, all these advantages might go away in time. In the meantime, if trans women want to compete and if there really are so many people who are trans, then why don’t sports bodies just set up competitions for trans women? That to me would be the fairest solution for now, but for people who were born biologically male to claim a right to compete against biological women – nup! And then this of course makes it abundantly clear, that with all the best will in the world, your biological sex is not fully available to you to personally determine, even after you have undergone gender reassignment. If people want to be recognised with pronouns and new names that correspond to their recognised gender identity, I am happy to recognise people however they want to be recognised. But when it comes to the crunch, where biological sex really matters, such as in sport, then I believe that at least for now, a line must be drawn.

Another issue I came across recently and I believe that this is a true story: apparently in an all-female prison, a transgender male to female inmate recently got 2 fellow prisoners pregnant. And I thought to myself: “What on earth did they expect?!” There are some obvious reasons of basic biology why male and female prisoners, are kept separate, or boarders at school, for instance, are kept in single sex dormitories. This is another instance where practical ramifications have to supercede someone’s self-determination of gender. Once again, if the number of trans-women prisoners is high enough to warrant it, then prison authorities will need to build specific prison facilities for trans women, and also for trans men. But it is clearly unwise to put biological males into the same prison facilities with biological females. I guess the question is what to do with trans women prisoners before their numbers are high enough to warrant their own facilities?

Anyway this post is not about trans people. However I have identified this subject as one in which people just cannot sit on the fence. I mean that whatever opinion someone might have is bound to offend someone or the other. So even if you subscribe to the majority or acceptable viewpoint on absolutely everything else, that is simply not possible with this one topic. So then, the question is how do you decide what to go along with in really tricky situations like this? Do you go along with what most people around you at any specific time are saying, ready to change your stated viewpoint if you find yourself in a different crowd? Do you bother cultivating a personal opinion? Moving beyond this particular topic, do you let yourself be guided by strong principles of right and wrong in life? For me, it is useful to have a clear underlying foundation to my opinions, so at least I know what the Bible teaches. As I say there are some things that I struggle with. On this blog (and in real life) I have never hidden the fact that I struggle with the Biblical doctrine of a woman’s submission to her husband. However I am committed to obeying it all the same, because the Bible says so, and because I have put my hope in God and in His word. Actually, that is one of the reasons why I am so careful to make sure that I choose a truly excellent husband, because I deeply resent the idea of making the commitment to submit to someone unless I know he is truly worthy of it. Sometimes he will act less than worthy of it of course, because he is a human being, but even in those times, I will submit to him, because on balance he will be worthy. A humorous aside, I was watching the final episode of Sanditon Season 2 (still crying about the absence of Theo James as Sidney Parker!) – and there is a wedding scene. And because this wedding was set two centuries ago, in a country that was more overtly Christian and where cultural expectations tallied more with the Bible, as part of the marriage vows, the vicar asked the bride about her husband “Will you obey him…?” And watching it I immediately scoffed to myself and thought – “Uh – no!” But then I remembered that I am actually a Christian and the Bible does actually mandate obedience to my husband. So I quickly caught myself :”I mean yes!”

So that is one question I would ask people who don’t believe in God – how do you make your mind up about controversial matters. I guess the point I’m getting at is that some things must be absolutes, and even if society around us completely disagrees, for the sake of integrity we have to take a stand. But how do we even know what is right in these matters?

Now I am going to talk a bit from my own experience about things which do not naturally make sense to me in the Bible, but which I have obeyed anyway. Perhaps when Huggie-Wuggie does turn up, “submission to him” will be an extra thing i will have to add to the list, hopefully I will be able to relate “It did not make sense to me, but I did it anyway, and I’m glad I did!” Actually no, let me talk about something which the Bible says to do, which I have not done, and I regret. The Bible says that you should forgive your enemies. For anyone reading this blog, you will know that if I have forgiven my enemies, I have done it in the most sarcastic and scathing way possible. I’ve never passed up the opportunity to slate them, to state exactly what they have done and how awful they are, and “I can’t believe these jokers actually call themselves Christians!” Now here is the thing. If I did not call myself a Christian, and if I was not bound by the precepts of the Bible, who could possibly call me wrong for just saying it as it is?! These people truly did do all these awful things. They truly do exemplify insincerity. They were racist, dammit! And yet. And yet. I regret giving vent to these things, although true, because they have created such negativity and venom in myself. If I were to go back in time, I would probably still rant, if I were to be candid! And yet I recognise that it would have been better and wiser to just keep quiet, for the sake of my own peace of mind. You know there were other people who treated me just as badly, but I have never (yet) ranted about them. And I feel at so much more peace about those situations. So this is an example of where the Bible says things that do not seem to make sense. And yet obeying it brings such life, in a way that you simply cannot appreciate beforehand. OK you could say “with hindsight”, or “with experience”. But here’s the thing – when you obey the Bible then you don’t need to have acquired the experience beforehand. Because there is an element of faith there. You obey the Bible because God’s divine wisdom transcends our human wisdom. This is one big area in which I have not obeyed God. I would not say I have disobeyed Him outright, but without a doubt, my heart has not been in the right place. There are, thankfully lots of other examples in which I have obeyed God, and in which I have equally seen unpredictable results, but this time positive.

One final example that I would like to share: I used to know someone who was very emphatically not a Christian. The same way I would emphatically, er, emphasise that I was a Christian, with that same fervour she would make it clear that she did not believe in God, she was an atheist! This next example might sound really mean but it is the truth. And it is a really big issue.
On this blog I talk about my attitudes towards relationships, and the ways I interact with men. Obeying the precepts of the Bible in romantic issues has rescued me from so much. I have often read what other women have gone through with men. And there is the potential for so, so much heartbreak, and thankfully I have avoided it all – give or take some unrequited crushes!

So this atheist person I used to know, in one breath she would declare her atheism, and she does not believe in God etc etc – and in the next breath she would relate some of the issues that she had been through. How do you tell someone this? As I say, I know that this is going to be difficult: “If you had not been so quick to reject God and the Bible, and if you had been in a position to listen to what the Bible says, then you might have spared yourself some of the heartbreak that you have been through.” Unfortunately there is no other way of saying it, and it sounds so harsh and so brutal. What I’m trying to say is that these things in the Bible are not just there for fun. They are not just there for Christians to be judgemental about. Rather the fact that we choose to obey them – or not – makes a tangible difference to our lives. So when people are talking on Reddit or elsewhere about God – asking “Who really believes that, in this day and age?” It is not just about whether or not you believe in God. it is also about the things that the Bible tells us to do. This is not just religion – choosing whether you can believe or not believe. Please believe me that obeying the Bible makes a tangible difference in your life. It makes a tangible difference to your happiness, your day-to-day peace of mind. And it is not about “conditioning”. When someone treats you like rubbish then it does not feel good – which is why I have ranted so freely on this blog. Regarding relationships, obeying the precepts of the Bible might seem so old-fashioned and unrealistic in our times but there is real protection in it. Pragmatically I would say that even if you do not believe in God, still do what the Bible says! That is one reason why I share the posts on this blog with everyone on Facebook, in the hope that people would read these posts and actually take them to heart. Please please check a would-be partner out for two years beforehand. Please please refuse to sleep with him until you get married. Even Christians disagree with me re the two year thing. However I am absolutely sure that when you are in the relationship and Mr “You Previously Thought He Was Wonderful” feels relaxed enough to show you his true, unattractive colours, then you’ll think to yourself: “I could have waited those two years.”

I have found it hard to articulate this paragraph. What I am trying to say is that I am not being judgemental here. Rather it is mathematical. If you put your hand into the viper’s nest, then you will likely get bitten. That does not mean that I am happy that you got bitten, or that I feel superior to you. It is simply a mathematical fact. Romantically speaking I did not put my hand into the viper’s nest (at least not that particular viper’s nest) because I was obeying the Bible. You did not have the precepts of the Bible to guide you so you did put your hand there – and you predictably got bitten. And then can you believe that this woman was advising me to metaphorically put my own hand too into the nest, presumably so that I too might get bitten?!
Looking back on my life, alongside times of basic ignorance or cluelessness, the times I regret are the times when I have metaphorically put my hand into a viper’s nest by disobeying the precepts of God’s word.