“After coming into contact with a religious man I feel I must wash my hands.” Friedrich Nietzsche
“Men never do evil so completely as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise Pascal
“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever – this is a somewhat new kind of religion.” Albert Einstein
The phrase “losing my religion” is often used to indicate a person who has crossed a line where they cannot contain their anger and must react, or must blurt out curse words. But in a bigger sense, we have many people, sadly many young people in our culture, who are literally losing their religion. They grow up in a church many times, but because they do not truly see faith lived out by their family, and/or because they don’t receive adequate training from family and church, the result is that they have just gone through the motions of “going to church” for years. Maybe they’ve been entertained by the youth minister. Such a background may do them more harm than good! Now when the term hypocrite is leveled at Christians, it’s easy for them to relate. Or, when the college professor teaches there is no God and that evolution is true (etc.), they jump on the bandwagon. Or during crisis (divorce, gay tendencies) they have no “God oriented” resources to draw from, and gravitate to the liberal minded side of things (the chief goal in life is to be happy).
As a result we have many who are like Albert Einstein; if they are religious at all they are religious non-believers. This “new kind of religion” he speaks of is prominent today, the religion of self; humanism in all its glory, with no need for God unless it’s a vague version that is virtually meaningless.
What are we to do? Maybe we should lose our religion, as well. Let me explain.
Humans are basically religious beings. Throughout history we see their need to believe in something and to have some structure to it that makes them feel they are involved in a life that is more than just evolutionary blobs in a meaningless universe. It is almost like this yearning for “God” is built into our system. Augustine said our hearts are restless till they find their rest in God. Yet how amazing is our ability to warp this into something that is fashioned in our own likeness, rather than in God’s likeness.
Much of this becomes “religion” that has the God of the Bible nowhere in sight. We become passionate about something that is dear to us, although it may not be dear to God, and yet we cover it with the cloak of religion and pass it off as our connection to Him. Adolf Hitler might be considered a religious man in this sense. He was passionate about his vision, and he used religion and the church as a front to appease and convince the people, but in reality he was far from the heart of God. Germany is still reeling from the religious convictions of this leader. Many today, like Nietzsche of old, have washed their hands of religion in Germany due to misuse of Christian jargon for selfish purposes. Hitler is an extreme example, but we are guilty also if we put on the mask of religion without truly honoring God.
So let’s lose our religion. And let’s plug into a genuine relationship with God that seeks his will, not ours.
Cross Point: Talk to friends or family about the evils of "religion" compared to genuine faith in God.
