Things I Like About Christianity, Part 1

I do not separate religion from philosophy. Religious ideas can be rationally analyzed like any other philosophical idea—even the esoteric and mystical ones.

From my perspective, religious ideas do not have to come in whole packages—as if Christianity or Buddhism are trademarked and it’s illegal to mix them together. I say we pick and choose the best religious ideas and discard the bad ones.

I’ve really been enjoying thinking about Christian philosophy and wanted to share some highlights. I don’t know enough to say which of these ideas are heretical and which are canon, so I can’t say whether these are “really” Christianity.

(Read Part 2 Here)

The Primacy of Love

Love is the meaning of life. It’s the whole point of everything. There’s a whole bunch of religious blabbering in the world, but if you triangulate from all the beliefs, they point towards love at the center. When asked which commandment was the most important, Jesus says:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

And, “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Sounds right to me. The point of the religious laws is to get closer to love.

An Individualist Relationship with God

In Christianity, individuals have a direct connection with God/the truth/Jesus/love. The connection does not need to be mediated by a priest.

This seems true. The connection between you and the truth is more important than any other connection. There is nothing more sacred, nothing more personal, and it does not involve anybody else. If you are skeptical of organized religion, this is wonderfully anarchic.

There are no human authorities that come between me and God/reality/the truth. Human authority is nothing in comparison to the real authority “in heaven” (i.e. compared to the power of Nature outside ourselves; the system in which we live; the rules that govern reality). This perspective makes it easy to refuse to kiss the ring, no matter who wears it.

An Individualist Relationship with “Jesus”

For purposes of this article, let’s say that “Jesus” is “the mindset of love.” There was a human that walked around 2000 years ago, possessed by this mindset. The human person of Jesus embodied the mindset of love.

That mindset still exists and possesses people today. To the extent you embody love, you are embodied by the same spirit that embodied the human Jesus.

Jesus Christ—the mindset of love—can be treated as a person within your own psyche, and you can develop a relationship with “him.” That’s a very good thing to do.

So, when people say, “I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” I can interpret that as, “I allow myself to interact with the mindset of love, as if it’s a person I can consult.”

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Consider the famous passage from Jesus, where he says:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.”

We can rephrase this to:

“[The mindset of love] is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to [knowledge of God] except through [this mindset]. If you really know [love], you will know [truth].”

And later he says:

“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

We can rephrase to:

“On that day, you will realize that [the mindset of love] [comes from God/Nature], and you are [within my love], and [the same mindset of love] is within you.”

The Value of the Individual Human Life

Every individual is made in the image of God and therefore has non-zero value. The person of Jesus interacts with everybody from every social position. He heals the sick, helps the poor, dines with prostitutes, and argues with priests. He is not a man impressed with our social hierarchies.

The story about Jesus’s sacrifice (which I’ll get to later) is about your personal redemption. It’s not about a group or a nation. It’s about his personal suffering on your personal behalf. Powerful, and further affirmation of the value of the individual.

The Relationship between Suffering and Love

Cause has effect. Actions have consequences, which means at some point, somebody is going to suffer.

Like most people, I see madness in the world. Anger, hate, lies. I also observe that people spend enormous amounts of energy trying to avoid the consequences of their action. They have bad habits (say, alcoholism), and they try to escape the consequences of their bad habits by indulging more.

Insecure men who were abused and berated by their fathers repeat the pattern on their own children. People who experience the pain of sexual abuse are more likely to abuse others—as if they are trying to escape their pain by inflicting it on somebody else.

So perhaps here’s the principle: the only way to break the cycle of suffering, necessarily, is by some people bearing the suffering without inflicting it on anybody else. Quiet suffering, to stop it from spreading.

In the story of Jesus, he predicts and ultimately accepts his suffering. The society at the time was corrupt—the religious leaders were a lying “brood of vipers”—and somebody will eventually bear the consequences. Jesus accepted that his fate was to be crucified. The man went around telling the truth, and for that, he was crucified.

Why would Jesus accept his own unjust crucifixion? Because of love. That’s the output of the love-mindset. His love was so great that he accepted the worst form of torture.

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I’ve realized there are a lot of reasons I like the Christian philosophy. Will have to break this into multiple parts and return later.