An Easter Message - Is False Hope Better Than No Hope?

in #easter7 years ago

Existential Bunny.jpg

Recently a family tragedy befell me, my beautiful sister Kemi lost her life to that horrible disease cancer. She, like the majority of my family was religious. In fact you could probably call her devout; that special kind of religosity that can be summed up as blind faith.

I was born in London, England in the 1970s, however my sister was born in Lagos, Nigeria in the 1950s. This goes some way to explaining her's and my family's religious fervour. Christianity in Africa was forced upon the various indigenous tribes via war and those disgusting individuals, the missionaries.

Slavery of course played its part in spreading religious superstition, and indeed Christianity often used God as justification for slavery. I remember sitting through one of my forced church sessions as a child, listening to the pastor read the passage in the bible, whereby God sets out just how much you can beat your slaves and still be in his favour.

Even as a child, the stinking hypocrisy of this struck me, and led me to shun all religious superstition and see it for the horrible instrument of torture and control it was.

However, if like my mother, sister and brothers you grew up surrounded by people reinforcing ridiculous claims, then it is completely natural and normal to you; and it is folk like I, who refuse to believe in anything without strong, statistical evidence that are the freaks.

I believe most of my family realise that I don't believe in God, however there is an unwritten pact between us. If they don't bang on about religion, I won't fire logic bombs at their faith. I accept that they find comfort in their religion; and thus I won't be a dick about it.

But is that comfort real? Or is it just a sticky band aid; ready to be ripped off painfully at any given moment?

The Anatomy Of Denial

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My sister was suffering from cancer for 12 years, after first contracting it 25 years ago. I only found this out after her death, the reason being she and the majority of my family had absolute faith that God would heal her.

In her last weeks and days; I could quite clearly see that she was dying, I had never seen a person deteriorate like that before, and I never want to see it again. It is very obvious when you see someone who is going to die. Obvious to everyone except those who have cloaked themselves in the denial of religious superstition.

Every time I tried to broach the subject with the rest of my brothers and sisters; on how we were going to gently break it to our mother, so that she could prepare herself. I was met with a look that told me that the mere mentioning of it, may expose a lack of faith, for which God would punish us.

Without getting into how logically stupid this is; I was just left alone to face the devastating fact, that my favourite sister, my darling Kemi, was going to die.

When it finally came, the shock from my family was palpable, my mother would sit there repeating over and over again, in her native tongue of Yoruba; I don't get it, I don't get it, I've done everything right. I've prayed, I've pledged what I was to do when God healed her. I just don't understand, He told me I would never lose another child again. I don't get it, I don't get it.

The anger in me surged as I heard her utter these words, she was referring to a (false) prophet, who had told her years ago, after my brother died when I was just 7 years old; that God had told him she would never see another one of her children die again.

Which of course was complete bullshit, my sister is the third of my siblings to die prematurely, and whether that person truly believed they were getting messages from God or not, does not really matter. The result is the same; false hope.

I pointed out to my mother that she had seen how bad my sis was; she must have realised that the long term prognosis was not good. Her answer;

Yes; but nothing is to difficult for God...

Eugh.

The Hijacking Of Emotion

Her funeral was, as you can imagine, a very sad affair, For some reason I thought of the words of the late Biggie Smalls; ...there's gonna be a lot of slow singing, and flower bringing...

Tears flowed like water over a fall, as they flow now as I write this...

That sadness soon turned to anger, as I sat there and had to endure her pastor talk for 5 minutes about her life, and then bang on for 25 minutes about God.

I felt like the piece of shit was hijacking my sister's last moments, and using it to scare people about giving their lives to his imaginary friend. Lines such as some of you here today have strayed from Jesus, and this is a reminder that we can go at anytime, so make sure you are right with him.

I sat bolt upright as others bowed their heads; I stared a laser beam into his eyes; how could this lowlife do this? What's worse is that 99% of the congregation were fine with his words.

What a lovely service.

My stiff-backed silence spoke volumes.

I could imagine the missionaries of days gone by; preaching to various Africans how the suffering they were going through on earth. Brought on them by the pernicious acts of slavery, would be alleviated after their deaths.

The grieving I should have been feeling for my sister was replaced at first by anger, and then by pity; how a religious lie, beaten into their ancestors was still being uttered today.

It is no surprise that the most Christian places in Africa today, tend to be in the West; whereby the slaves were readied for the torturous sea journies and even worse lives in the Americas. Yet this is largely lost, on a community that holds blind, unquestioning faith as a virtue.

Absence Of Hope Leading To Faith Of Absence

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Many reading this will believe in one God or another, mainly the two main ones, the iron-age gods, Allah and Yahweh. Some will believe in the multitudinous deities of Hinduism, and others still in the alien "god" Xenu who sprang forth from the mind of science fiction writer and convicted fraudster, L. Ron Hubbard.

Many will claim not to wholeheartedly believe in all of their religion's myths and legends, however will "draw strength" from the stories, and ultimately their faith that there is "something or someone looking out for them."

There is no evidence for the existence of God, outside of the human mind

-- Cryptogee

To those people I say, rip that band aid off now; there are no Gods, and ultimately, the despair of no hope is far far better than the creeping, insipid poison of false hope.

Instead transfer that faith in a mythical being, to yourself, your family, love, light and laughter.

As ever take care and Happy Easter.

Cryptogee

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I'm so sorry about your sister, incredibly sad and it sounds so difficult to hear the so called solace of those you disagree with so passionately. I too agree that religious fervor has led people to do terrible things and that the missionaries had no business imposing their beliefs and ways of life on indigenous people all around the world. Religion is indeed as dangerous as any tool used to control the masses.

I'm so sorry for your loss @cryptogee. This was such a moving and powerful post, thank you for sharing it. Here's to you, your family, love, light and laughter.

This must have been very difficult. I'm sorry for your loss, yet grateful for your wisdom. Whether one is religious or not, it's a very powerful post. I had an extended family member who believed until the end that the lord would cure him and that did not happen either. I don't know that religion itself is to blame for those vain hopes, which may say just as much about humanity. It would have been nice to enjoy the time they had left in a better way (or get better treatment if that were possible), but some people find great comfort in religion and I guess there's something to be said for that too.

Thank you Tom,

I also used to think that; however now I have seen first hand how that "comfort" has turned to torture; as they wonder how they could have prayed differently or what sins they did to have this tragedy befall them. I see that as the opposite of comfort. Whereas me in my non-belief, am grieving, yet at peace, as I know my Sis is not suffering anymore.

Cg

A god as defined by those "mad prophets of the desert" is ludicrous, of course.

Moses, Muhammad, Jesus, all those nutters are just profiteers more than prophets. It's not exactly a secret that if you call yourself wise and holy, people will join your cult and give you free money.

And you make more money if you get more people to join the cult.

Make sure the cult infects children, family, neighbors, and everyone around you, and soon you'll be filthy rich.

But obviously none of the cult mythology is true.

There is no god, and all religions are completely false.
There is no "immorality in paradise" after you die. Is this sort of carrot really this blatant, yet unnoticed?

Or the idea of a hell if you don't obey or believe? Not a very realistic stick, to be honest. There is simply no such thing as the supernatural.

This is supremely obvious, but the cultural brainwashing is unrelenting, so we have to pretend like all this bullshit isn't complete bullshit lies, or else you get shunned by these morons, and that'd be troublesome, seeing as these morons make up nearly everyone, including family.

Ludicrous claims enforced by being surrounded by said ludicrous claims. It's really sad; hopefully one day the world will wake up to the absurdity of it all.

Cg

Just remember to hate the religions and lies.

Not the people.

Flaws and quirks inhabit all humans, so make sure love is the greatest priority in life, rather than just cynicism and disdain for people who believe things you don't agree with.

It's wise to remember that people born and die, like all animals, and that our lives and opinions are only as meaningful as we make them.

Looking forward to reading more from you @cryptogee it has been too long. This is a great post I missed.

Thanks :-)

Cg

Nawaoh! So we still have people like in Nigeria. You do not believe in God. You were just born by accident, and if you die, that is just the end. I don't think so sister. That you do not think so or do not believe does not make you correct. Witte this down, you will seek for this God called Jehovah sooner than you can imagine. Mark my word, it won't be far.

You are ingrained by the slave mentality of your ancestors. There is no god, it's a fucking huge lie, why do you think that there are so many gods? Why does it take geography to believe in this god or that?

Wake up and stop being a slave. Seriously think for yourself and look for evidence; your prayers are meaningless, you will have the same results if you pray to an apple.

Seriously, take a fucking history lesson.

Btw I'm not a sister, I am male.

Cg

I'm very sorry for your loss, @crytpogee.

Thank you Eric.

Cg

Just coming across this post @cryptogee, so sorry for your loss.

Thanks Nanzo.

Cg

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