Atheism V. Religion

On Saturday night I went to a party at a friend of a friend's house. At about 2:30 AM I got into a very civil (yet heated) discussion about Atheism with said friend of friend. I had never met this guy before, and maybe never will again, yet we had a very intense discussion about Religion and why he thinks it's a bad thing. I'll admit I had had a few beers by this point, but I still think that our discussion was meaningful to both of us.

I believe that Faith is a gift of God. Therefore, I can't really hold it against anyone if they're Atheist. Either they haven't opened the package God's given them, or maybe God hasn't delivered it yet - either way the question of Faith doesn't necessarily reflect on the person's level of belief. I did tell this young gentlemen to pray for Faith. Although he said he had never prayed in his entire life.

On Sunday night I went to Church with my roommate here. We have very different backgrounds. She grew up going to a large Southern Baptist Church in a Dallas suburb; I grew up going to small Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge. Although I would say my parents' theology has shaped me more than the Episcopal Church's Theology. However, this Sunday the Church we went to was held in the Gym of Austin High. There was a line of traffic to simply get into the parking lot. For me a 'large' church has a few hundred people in attendance. This Church probably had close to a 1,000. However, my roommate liked this Church because it is 'small'. Again, very different backgrounds.

I have been thinking about these two very different experiences this weekend. I honestly think that I have more in common, more shared 'values' with that Atheist than I do with most of the other 'Christians' at the Church I attended.

I feel hypocritical when I go to Church because I see that I am not living my life as a little Christ and that 'Church', often, is not encouraging that kind of life. When did Christ become a personal savior and not the savior of the entire world? If everyone on this planet was an evangelical Christian the 'world' would NOT be saved! Jesus came to create something new, something completely different, something so drastically revolutionary that we cannot even begin to think it is possible. When we start to live that, somewhat unknown, life we become little Christs - we become Christian. I have not been doing this lately and I see Churches, especially the Church I went to on Sunday, are so focused on Christ saving each and every individual person that they forget that Christ came to save the entire world.

My grandmother recently said to me: "How stupid is it to believe that God created people just so that He could save them." I know that I believe in God that is bigger than that.