So far I have criticized Christianity, but now I will write something positive about Christianity. However, the reality remains that all the positives of Christianity are clearly outweighed by the negatives.
The argumentation in this article will be highly rational, and this article is an excellent inspiration for diploma and doctoral theses for philosophers and psychologists at universities.
The positive thing about Christians is that they are interested in philosophy as such. For now, let's ignore the fact that Christian philosophy is completely misguided. It is a good quality to consider philosophy in one's life as an important thing and to have philosophy at the top of the value scale. Let's take into account that most people are not interested in philosophical topics at all. It is positive to deal with what transcends us, to deal with existence, other worlds and the like. If a person deals with philosophy, it is a manifestation of higher intellect, higher intelligence compared to other people. In a way, I also appreciate atheistic-materialistic philosophers – even if I disagree with them, it can still be seen as a manifestation of higher intellect that they are interested in philosophy at all.
Another positive aspect of Christianity is the interest in working on oneself, working on one's soul, working on self-improvement. Let's take this quality out of context. Christians mean well. In itself, these are positive qualities, but the fact is that working on oneself in a way that approaches the Christian ideal will harm and deform a person's personality more.
And we can understand the work on our soul in a broader sense of the word – the meaning of the word soul also in the psychological-materialistic sense.
Let's consider that most people are not interested in working on themselves at all, but Christians, for example, are interested in it.
People who try to exercise, keep fit, diet, and eat in a way that prevents weight gain can also be seen as a positive. This can also be perceived as a positive and is perhaps a preliminary step to working on one's soul. Of course, working on one's soul is more valued. And ideally, one should work on both the soul and the body at the same time.
Another positive aspect of Christian philosophy is that it is altruistically oriented, which is the opposite of egoism and hedonism . I admit that lately, I've been quite bothered by the egoistic traits in people, where they think about their own good, but not about the good of society and the people around them. People don't realize that we are energetically interconnected, and when I help another, I also help myself. Also, the fact that a highly controversial amendment to the law on the "reform" of national parks, which is against nature and against people, was passed by parliament, with many MPs voting against their conscience, is also a manifestation of egoism, comfort, and hedonism, where out of convenience, the MPs did not dare to go against the current.
Also, in a certain sense, Christian fundamentalists who try to impose their faith on others should be understood – after all, it is also an act of altruism – to pass on the best to other people. The second thing is that the Christian fundamentalist refuses to see any criticism of his religion, that the feces he believes in are not that great.
Also, some fundamentalists believe that they are saving the world through fanatical evangelization. On the one hand, it is good that they do not think only of themselves, on the other hand, there is the psychopathology of the savior syndrome.
Fanaticism. Even religious fanaticism can be viewed from a positive perspective. A fanatic tries to practice religion as intensely and actively as possible. Well, if Christianity were based on pure knowledge and truth, then religious fanaticism would be a great thing.
Hierarchy of values. Religion comes first. Christian philosophy strongly emphasizes that religion must be strictly first in the hierarchy of values, and as much time and energy as possible should be devoted to religion. Well, if Christian philosophy were based on pure knowledge and truth, it would be a great thing to have, for example, the value of working on oneself in the first place!!
In conclusion: these positive qualities of Christianity can be an interesting inspiration for practically all people, including atheists, materialists, people with esoteric beliefs, and people who are not interested in philosophy.
The negatives in Christianity outweigh the positives. Rationally about the negatives in Christianity
In this part of the article, based on rational arguments, I will discuss why the negatives in Christianity outweigh the positives. The content of the article is a fantastic inspiration for diploma theses for psychologists, where it is possible to prove, based on rational arguments, that religion is psychologically harmful to humans.Church hierarchy . This problem primarily concerns the Catholic and Orthodox churches, where the hierarchical system is very strong. It is an outdated dictatorial and military system of organizational management where a subordinate priest must obey the bishop, while the subordinate is forbidden to ask questions of the superior, discuss, point out errors, or have critical arguments about the church and religion. Any violation of these rules is severely punished by suspension, dismissal from employment, which economically and existentially destroys the priest. The enormous negative significance of the church hierarchy is in states where there is no separation of church and state or where there are so-called church assignment taxes. In this way, all the money is concentrated with the bishops, and they have disproportionately great power, thus hindering dialogue and discussion in the church, which makes any reforms impossible. The best system for financing the church is the Dutch model, where it is based solely on voluntary contributions. … However, Slovak Catholic bishops are people who crave power and money and will never voluntarily give up generous state subsidies to achieve decentralization and democratization of the church.
Believers choose only the worst from religion . I look very strangely at secular people who are extremely naive in thinking that Christians choose only the best from Christianity. …. Christianity could change into something at least somewhat acceptable if believers chose only the best from Christianity. Yes, that would be a nice dream. However, the reality is exactly the opposite. Christianity itself allows for a fairly wide room for maneuver, and whether a priest or a believer, they have the opportunity to put as much energy as possible into the positive aspects of Christianity and a minimum of energy and attention into the negative. But we see that in society as a whole, the negative side has the upper hand, and in religion, this is 100 times more true.
We observe a strong negative trait even in ordinary, rank-and-file believers, who pick the worst from Christianity.
While a liberal Christian tries to take only the best from religion, a conservative Christian, a religious fanatic, takes the worst.
… Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has become radically conservative and has forgotten the Council's message. The Council document NOSTRA AETATE calls for a serious dialogue with non-Christian religions, which implies tolerance, acceptance, and recognition of esoteric philosophy. Why don't Catholics choose the positive aspects of their church?
Strict prohibition of seeking the truth. Christianity strictly prohibits seeking the truth. It is based on the mentality that the church and religion are already perfect works of God, and it is blasphemy against God to question them, it is blasphemy against God to even think a little. Believers are so enslaved and manipulated by religion that it does not even occur to them that seeking the truth would be a good idea. A Christian imagines something completely different under the term seeking the truth than a normal person, and that is the search for religious fanaticism and the direction towards it.
I don't know a single Christian who has anything other than Christian literature at home, for example, on esoteric philosophy. How can we believe a Christian who strongly claims to be searching for the truth, that they are sincere, when they have hundreds of Christian books at home and not a single book on esoteric philosophy? Another problem is that Christianity is extremely hateful and hostile to non-Christian philosophy, and they fear esotericism like the devil fears holy water. Christians also have a huge fear of esotericism.
While a Christian is strictly forbidden to seek the truth, esoteric philosophy, on the contrary, allows a person to seek the truth and allows a person to make mistakes and correct them.
Strict prohibition of any criticism of the church or religion . Religion very dangerously programs and enslaves believers to be as resistant as possible to any criticism of the church or religion. It is based on the mentality that the church and religion are perfect works of God, and well-intentioned criticism is blasphemy against God. When I discuss with believers, they react very irritably to criticism of religion and look at me as the greatest enemy who wants to harm them. They are very afraid of the truth that their religion will collapse like a house of cards under strong arguments. On the contrary, if Christians had a clear conscience and if their religion psychologically shaped them towards mental balance, they would be very grateful for criticism of their religion, that new information would move them forward and that they have something to think about. However, religion strictly forbids a person to think.
… I can still understand that priests are unable to think critically about religion and the church, because the bishop would immediately send them to the labor office for their opinion. What I can't understand is the total manipulation of ordinary believers.
… Thinking and having your own opinion is severely punished in the Catholic Church. The bishop sent priest Michal Lajcha to the labor office just because he dared to express his opinion on the obligation of celibacy for priests. For absolutely insignificant and cosmetic criticism.
… A historical event that has gone down in history is that Pope Francis, as the first Pope in history, admitted a certain fault of the Church, namely in the area of sexual abuse. 99% of conservative believers had previously considered sexual abuse to be a non-existent phenomenon in the Church, invented only by enemies of the Church and hostile secular media. From the perspective of us secular people, the Pope only did a cosmetic thing in the Church, but from the perspective of Catholic conservatives, it is a huge thing. Many Catholic believers had to take antidepressants and suffered from insomnia because they learned from the Pope that sexual abuse in the Church really exists.
Reforms: on the one hand, Pope Francis's efforts to reform the church should be appreciated, but on the other hand, in the last 50 years, the church has never been as conservative as it is today, and the resistance to reforms has never been as great as it is today. I do not consider anti-reforms in the church to be reforms, such as the strengthening of fanaticism in the church, or the strengthening of a highly manipulative sectarian Pentecostal form of Christianity, or the strengthening of manipulative Christian communities. I also consider the Council of Trent to be an anti-reform of the church, the aim of which was to show Protestants and resist them against the backdrop of the hostile war between Catholics and Protestants.
For a truly serious reform to exist, criticism must be allowed. If we don't criticize anything and everything is perfect, then what is the point of reform? And this is exactly where we encounter a problem. The Church programs a person not to be able to think critically, so we don't criticize anything, we don't think, so we don't need any reform.
… The church mentality, a way of thinking, reminds us of a dictatorial political regime that has forbidden scientists to research and companies to introduce innovations and produce advanced innovative products. Can you imagine where we would be if we had been forbidden to research in science for the last 1000 years and had not moved anywhere in development? The system of church thinking is incredibly backward.
… Furthermore, while the democratic political system constantly amends and improves laws, the church, on the contrary, rejects even cosmetic changes. Often, even the cosmetic changes of Pope Francis are considered a complete revolution.
… Radical decentralization of the Catholic Church, a radical weakening of the power of bishops, and decentralization of church funding could ensure that priests would feel much freer to express their opinions, which could create an environment for reforms. In Slovakia, however, we are very backward, and nothing like that is likely to happen here.
… The Church and religion program believers to have the greatest possible resistance to reforms and openness of thought. All believers who have learned to think have simply left the church, they have ceased to be practicing Christians. There will certainly be reforms in the church, but any reforms will be postponed even 100-200 years later as if it were current. Reforms are postponed as late as possible. The Church is lagging behind in its thinking by as much as 200 years.
Christian communities: Christian communities are currently a breeding ground for religious fanaticism and manipulative sectarian faith. My naive dream is for Christian communities to be communities where people are truly open to the truth, where the truth is sincerely sought, where criticism of Christianity and the content on this page are honestly discussed, and where esoteric philosophy is also discussed positively and openly.
A source of inspiration for Christians can be the Hussite priest Rudolf Špaček, who has no problem discussing topics of esotericism or attending an esoteric lecture. You can search for his name on YouTube.
A side note: Anti-vaxxerism as a religion: anti-vaxxerism can also be perceived as a religion where rational discussion loses its meaning. If the state introduced mandatory vaccination, anti-vaxxers would perceive it as sensitively as if the state had banned a religious fanatic from going to church and ordered them to abandon their religion. There is a very similar psychology. (By the way, during socialism, party members or higher-ranking people were ordered not to go to church.)