THE OPPOSITE OF GOD
A good friend and I had an exchange of ideas where our differences were clearly delineated in the FB page which we both manage. I posted something about mental health in regard to the pandemic written by a faith-based research center and he was concerned how it might offend our followers.
I pointed out how he has posted about other faiths and secular beliefs but we have not heard a peep so why the concern for a Christian perspective? He said those were more cultural in nature. That may be so but chances are, we have followers who may subscribe to my faith and those who do not, need only to disregard my post in the way I do with some. He zeroed in on the use of “my faith.” He didn’t like “certain rituals” like praying and reading the Bible. He said he wanted everything to be representative of what is to be Filipino. To that I asked, “What is being Filipino? Isn’t a Filipino a lover of God?”
Seen zone.
I am no philosopher. My barely-hanging grades in Philo 101a and 101b are a testament to that but my Logic mark is more presentable. Together with my training in formal theology, I would like to put forth my thesis that the opposite of God is not secularism as it is also a set of beliefs that should we only talk about that, we are putting it at an advantage and that is proselyting which can also be offensive.
Years ago, the top secular university in the land denounced the activities of a Christian organization in its campus as being unfair to all other religions and called for a halt saying if it’s allowed to continue, then other faiths should be given the same freedom. In all humility as I am sure my credentials are not equal to the academic, I ask, “What is wrong with allowing all the others? Why censor in a nation where there is freedom of worship?”
She goes on to say that in the spirit of fairness, only secular ideas will be allowed. By doing so, she is violating her own mandate as she is imposing her beliefs upon the rest. She forgets that secularism does not deny religion. It is not making things “fair” or “equal” as it “seeks to defend the absolute freedom of religious and other belief, and protect the right to manifest religious belief insofar as it does not impinge on the rights and freedoms of others. Secularism ensures that the right of individuals to freedom of religion is always balanced by the right to be free from religion.” To be free from religion is also a belief system; the absence of religion is also a belief system.
I think what is being overlooked here by both the academic and my friend is that there is no such thing as the opposite of God or the belief of Him that can make anything “fair” for to be opposites presupposes an equal standing and no one and nothing is (Exo. 15:11, Isa. 40:12-31) equal to Him, even death itself. In fact---and a very heartbreaking fact---those who are now spending eternity without Him because they denied Him in their lifetime might be the most religious of them all (Luke 16:19-31).
A good friend and I had an exchange of ideas where our differences were clearly delineated in the FB page which we both manage. I posted something about mental health in regard to the pandemic written by a faith-based research center and he was concerned how it might offend our followers.
I pointed out how he has posted about other faiths and secular beliefs but we have not heard a peep so why the concern for a Christian perspective? He said those were more cultural in nature. That may be so but chances are, we have followers who may subscribe to my faith and those who do not, need only to disregard my post in the way I do with some. He zeroed in on the use of “my faith.” He didn’t like “certain rituals” like praying and reading the Bible. He said he wanted everything to be representative of what is to be Filipino. To that I asked, “What is being Filipino? Isn’t a Filipino a lover of God?”
Seen zone.
I am no philosopher. My barely-hanging grades in Philo 101a and 101b are a testament to that but my Logic mark is more presentable. Together with my training in formal theology, I would like to put forth my thesis that the opposite of God is not secularism as it is also a set of beliefs that should we only talk about that, we are putting it at an advantage and that is proselyting which can also be offensive.
Years ago, the top secular university in the land denounced the activities of a Christian organization in its campus as being unfair to all other religions and called for a halt saying if it’s allowed to continue, then other faiths should be given the same freedom. In all humility as I am sure my credentials are not equal to the academic, I ask, “What is wrong with allowing all the others? Why censor in a nation where there is freedom of worship?”
She goes on to say that in the spirit of fairness, only secular ideas will be allowed. By doing so, she is violating her own mandate as she is imposing her beliefs upon the rest. She forgets that secularism does not deny religion. It is not making things “fair” or “equal” as it “seeks to defend the absolute freedom of religious and other belief, and protect the right to manifest religious belief insofar as it does not impinge on the rights and freedoms of others. Secularism ensures that the right of individuals to freedom of religion is always balanced by the right to be free from religion.” To be free from religion is also a belief system; the absence of religion is also a belief system.
I think what is being overlooked here by both the academic and my friend is that there is no such thing as the opposite of God or the belief of Him that can make anything “fair” for to be opposites presupposes an equal standing and no one and nothing is (Exo. 15:11, Isa. 40:12-31) equal to Him, even death itself. In fact---and a very heartbreaking fact---those who are now spending eternity without Him because they denied Him in their lifetime might be the most religious of them all (Luke 16:19-31).