"Anonymous" Attack on Religion

"Greetings fellow pirates,

Let us be clear from the start: any kind of religion is a sickness to this world. A sickness that creates hate and intolerance, a sickness that brings people to wage war on their fellow people, a sickness that has come to this world long time ago, when mankind wasn’t educated, a sickness that brought false hope and suppression to those who believed and often even more terror and suppression to those who dared not to believe.
Religions are authoritarian hierarchies, designed to dominate your free will. Religions are mind control.They’re power structures that aim to convince you to give away your power for the benefit of those who enjoy dominating people. When you subscribe to a religion, you enroll in a mindless minion training program. Religions don’t market themselves as such, but this is essentially how they operate. In case you ever wondered why religious teachings are invariably mysterious, confusing, and incongruent (sic)? This is no accident — it’s intentional.
We see religion pretty much the same way as we see many governments. Fear mongering and making lots of money,so a small group of ppl (sic) will become insanely rich, while the believing masses can eat dirt...
So people of the world, don’t let religion control your life. Don’t fight against each other for contrary beliefs.This world and our life can be a wonderful adventure, where you have the unique chance to help mankind and your fellow citizens. Where we can all work together to make this earth a better place for ourselves,our children and all those generations who will come after us. ^(;,;)^"

-Examiner.com (emphasis added)

This comment was used during an attack on three separate church websites by the cyber-terrorists "Anonymous," and I would like to address some of the issues that have been highlighted above. Furthermore, accompanying this video was Richard Dawkins "An Atheist Call to Arms" speech.

1) Is it not intolerant and hateful to attack and shutdown three church websites because you disagree with their beliefs? This is certainly a contradiction in ethical principles. The propositions would go like this:
           a)You are a Christian Church
           b)Therefore, you are intolerant and hateful
           c)We do not believe as you do
           d)Therefore, we will attack you and shut down your right to free speech imposing upon your medium of said free speech, our view

2)Education means that one will deny Christianity, is the assumption here, and that all Christians (I am using Christians because it was Christian websites that were attacked; once again supporting the fact that atheists tend to equate all religion immediately with Christianity) are uneducated and mistakenly hold on to these outdated and antiquated ideas via their Christian worldview. That's interesting considering the following list:
            Dr. A.E. Wilder Smith
            Dr. William Lane Craig
            Lee Strobel
Which list is simply the first three names that came to mind; there are many scientists, philosophers, and educated men and women who still believe in these "lesson[s] [of] Bronze Age ethics," according to the most recent militant atheist attack.

3)Religions are "domination of your free will...[and] mind control;" At what point does Christianity dominate or brainwash anyone? In fact, some of the same ethics and morals that Christians are taught are the very same that secular humanists (see atheists attempting to justify morality) laud and praise. Biblical, orthodox Christianity teaches freedom (Colossians 2:16ff) and that no man can place restrictions on the Christian because of their freedom in Christ (Colossinas 2:20; 1 Corinthians 10:31).

4)Making a lot of money? Have you ever met a Christian pastor that meets the Biblical requirements for what he is to teach (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy)? Pastors that are not wolves (a wolf would be the likes of Joel Osteen or Robert Schuller who do NOT preach the gospel or the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3)) do not make substantial amounts of money unless their congregations and ministries are enormous. Even then, the money is used for ministry and the spread of the gospel (John Piper is an excellent example; none of his books sales go to him but into Desiring God Ministries).

5)"Don't fight against each other for contrary beliefs..." Is that not what you are doing? Do Christians shut down atheist websites and post violent, militant videos promoting radical Christianity and calling for all out war against atheists?

As can be seen this message is fraught with contradiction and misinformation leveled at all Christians, not to win their minds, but to continue the self-declared war against them. These attacks reflect the inherently violent nature of militant atheism that demands capitualtion or the "consequences" will be meted out. All Christians should stand united, defending the faith with gentleness and respect as 1 Peter 3:15 commands. Put your armour on, Christians, we are in a war (Ephesians 6:1ff).

           

On Ignorance

Biblical ignorance is something of a pandemic, not only in the church, but in atheism as well. Whilst recently listening to a review of "50 Things You Didn't Know About Religion" by Skepticality. A few things struck me during that interview/dialogue and then I went to this site (Disclaimer: If you want to follow Alice down a contrived, fantastically warped rabbit hole go to the site; if not, stay away. Its liable to cause frustrative brain explosion (credit to Mr. Rosebrough for the "frustrative brain explosion" remark).

For now I will focus upon the interview. The first thing that is striking is that most often when someone refers to "religion" what is almost always implied is the Judeo-Christian religions. This is interesting in that,  the Jewish/Christian faith has made such an impact on the world, that immediately what is discussed is the Judeo-Christian claims of God and His nature when referring to "religion;" this was so in the aforementioned interview.

The next thing that came to light whilst listening to this 24+/- minute pontification on all things "relgious," mostly the Christian religion as aforementioned, is the Biblical ignorance of these "learned" skeptics. Recently, on an article's comments section, I engaged in a lengthy debate with numerous opponents. What amazed me was the fact that sites like those aforementioned, and the commenters that I engaged, either refuse to accept or patently ignore the greater context in which the texts that they cite as so abhorrent. It must be said that one need not be a Christian to apply the same rules of reason and context one uses in reading any text to the Bible.

For instance, one commonly cited verse is Isaiah 13:11-16, which says:

¹¹ I will punish the world for its evil,
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
     and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
¹² I will make people more rare than fine gold,
    and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
    and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    in the day of his fierce anger.
¹⁴ And like a hunted gazelle,
    or like sheep with none to gather them,
each will turn to his own people,
    and each will flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Whoever is found will be thrust through,
    and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed in pieces
    before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
    and their wives ravished.


Clearly, this is a difficult text, even for a believer, for the Prophet is quoting God as saying these things. Yet, as has been mentioned before, context is needed. Isaiah 13:1 says: "The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw." Thus, this prophecy is written to a specific people, at a particular time, namely that God is bringing His judgment upon the people of Babylon. Why? Because Babylon was an idolatrous, sinful nation who was being judged for said idolatry and sin; Israel, God's chosen people and nation, were judged no less harshly for the same sins (cf. Isaiah 3:1ff).


This passage is difficult in that it condemns "innocent" people, but as Scripture clearly teaches there are no innocent people (Romans 3:11ff). Therefore, God's condemnation comes upon them, and rightly so. How can a loving God do this? one may ask. The simple truth is that the reality of sin (see "sin" link above) is far greater than most in modernity ever care to acknowledge. It is the most abhorrent thing in God's eyes, in fact, He cannot look at it (Habbakuk 1:13). Furthermore, because of His holiness, He must punish sin. God does not leave the issue at, "Sinner, be damned, but instead He provides mercy in the Gospel of Jesus Christ whilst simultaneously punishing sin and remaining holy, just, and merciful.

Ignoring the direct context and the broad context of Scripture, does not make your claim valid, and ripping verses out of context does nothing but prove your ignorance. I would hope that those who claim to have "studied" religions such as Christianity would know that essential and fundamental truth. As Christians we can only pray and hope that those looking for answers actually look, and don't take these untruths at face value.