Monday, April 6, 2009

Something a lot of people are afraid to talk about...

Some of you may not know this...but I am a christian. Some of you also may not know, that I am a fan of "Family Guy". So what exactly could "Family Guy" possibly have to do with religion you ask? Well, first of all, for those of you who have never watched or even heard of "Family Guy", it is a show on FOX network, that centers around The Griffins, which includes the father, Peter, the mother, Lois, the eldest teenage daughter, Meg, the teenage son, Chris, the baby boy, Stewie, and the talking family dog, Brian. It is an adult cartoon set in Quahog, Rhode Island. The creator, Seth McFarlane voices about 75% or more of the characters, and up until this season it has been a really funny show. Admittedly this past season, the 7th for the series, has not been up to par with the previous 6 seasons.



However, I still have been watching episodes, because they are still funny despite not being as funny as before. Now that I've given you a little bit of background info, I'll explain what this has to do with religion. Seth McFarlane, happens to be an Athiest, which would be fine, I have, and still have plenty of Athiest friends. The reason some people may not know that I am a christian is because I do not push my religion on to anyone, and usually do not talk with others about religion in general. My reasoning for this, is because I have had times in the past where an Athiest friend of mine would want to start a war of sorts with me on how my religion is wrong and I'm stupid/ignorant/crazy for believing what I believe. I have never once tried to tell someone else that they were wrong for what they believe, and unless my religion is attacked I choose to keep from fighting with people on it.

I believe that there is no way I am going to be able to change someone's mind from their beliefs, and fighting is just a waste of time. I will not sit quiet when my religion is being attacked before me though, and I am known for speaking my mind, and fighting for things I believe in, and I do when my religion is being attacked. That being said, it pisses me off that people from other religions would attack me because my religion is different than theirs and then they would be the first to get all pissy when someone speaks bad about their religion. But no group of people piss me off more for doing that, then Athiests. I think it is highly hypocritcal for someone who chooses to not believe anything to say that I am stupid, wrong, or ignorant just because I choose to have hope, and to believe in the possibility of a better life, and a better after-life.

Now, back to "Family Guy", Seth McFarlane lets his personal Athiest beliefs leak into his writing for the show. Which would be fine, I can not say I would not have something to do with god in something I wrote for a show. He has made quite a few jokes about many different religions, though christianity seems to be the one he most targets. Now in the past, it's been something small in random episodes. Normally I would just maybe give a chuckle and then ignore it so I can enjoy the rest of the show. However, I watched the most recent episode of "Family Guy" recently, which sparked this blog. In this episode, there was a subplot which involved the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" actors, which was great, because I myself am a big fan of Star Trek, especially "The Next Generation", so I was really excited to see this episode. I made it probably a half of the way, maybe a few minutes more through the episode. The reason is because another subplot was that the teenage daughter, Meg, caught the mumps, and had to lay in bed for 5 days. Meg is a character that all of the family are mean to and treat her like shit, and in this episode her father brought in an old tv for her to watch which had only one channel that actually worked. The channel was supposed to be a religion channel. Kirk Cameron, who played "Mike Ceaver" on "Growing Pains" has become a devoted christian and does promotional type things for churches and stuff to bring people in. "Family Guy" is known for making fun of celebrities, and in this case he was the one they were making fun of, by having someone pretend to be him on the religion channel, trying to get people to become christan. Now, I was fine with this, because it started out as usual, and I figured that it could not be something that would end up offending me.



Now, I could have dealt with the show making fun of christians, because some christians are just as bad as Athiests and people from other religions who attack christianity and call us all ignorant/stupid/etc, and say that we are always attacking them, because they are the ones who actually do attack other religions whether or not they have been personally attacked for their beliefs. So normally I'd just laugh along because I can not stand those people either. Now, the Brian character, whom is supposed to be Athiest in the show, is also an alchoholic and since Meg told everyone Brian was an Athiest, in order to get him to convert, he wasn't able to go anywhere or buy anything, including alchohol. So he lied to Meg and said he converted just to get alchohol...which again I thought was still funny. Then she took him to a book burning outside of a church.

Do not get me wrong, I think book burnings are stupid in general, because in a lot of cases books like the "Harry Potter" series have been the target at these kind of functions. Christians are not the only ones who burn books, but all people who burn books should realize that number one, it is bad for the enviroment, two, not all books are evil, and three, just because you burn a book does not mean that people will stop believing what they believe. ANYWAYS, back on topic. Well, they showed three books being burned, the last of which said "Logic for First Graders", which irked me a bit, but I shrugged it off again. I was laughing at it despite the book they showed being burned, because it made fun of those kinds of people, but then Brian was trying to convince Meg it was wrong to do that, which would have been fine...except he was saying things like "The hubble telescope hasn't seen any guy in the clouds", and then going to how her family treats her like shit, calling her ugly, and saying "Why would god allow this and that". He also said that she was a smart person, and that she should see things logically. This offended me.

The reason this offends me is because the same people who tried to tell me I was wrong to believe what I believe, said these kind of things. I have decided that I will no longer be watching the show, because even though I think it is funny, there is just no reason to go this far with "jokes". I do not say anything bad about any religion, because I would not want them to say bad things about my religion. The only "religion" I even have a huge problem with is Scientology and I have reason to believe what I believe, and I choose to not attack the people personally in that "religion" still. I know that a lot of people will disagree with me, but I am intelligent. I am very intelligent. I am not being narcisitic, but I am. I think logically for the most part. Yet, I still believe in god. I will not go into all of the reasons, but I will say that I have every reason to believe in god, and no one is going to change that. I am sick and tired of people calling me and others, stupid, ignorant, or illogical, just because we choose to believe something that has no scientific or "logical" proof. Logic does not have to be scientific, and it does not have to be seen, smelled, or heard. I have a tendency to look up words, so that I can make sure that I phrase things the way I want them to be phrased, even if I know exactly what the words mean. Also, so that I can emphasize what I am saying by noting the definition. So, I looked up the word Logic. It can be based through science...but one of the meanings said...

the system or principles of reasoning applicable to any branch of knowledge or study.

...Lets break this down. "The System", Christian beliefs are in fact a system in many ways. "or Principles of reasoning applicable to any branch of knowledge or study.". I looked up principles as well...

an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct: a person of good moral principles

...To keep this as short as possible, despite believing in god or not, the 10 commandments are an great principles to live by. At least the last 6 if you do not claim a god. Now going on with the sentence, we as christians study the bible, and we believe that our religion is right, just as any other religion does, therefore, it is gaining knowledge to study the religion you belong to. Just because science has not been able to prove their is a god, does not mean people who believe in a god are stupid, and it definitely does not prove it is illogical to believe in a god. Now to ingnorance. Here is the exact definition of ignorance...

the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc.

...Like I said, we believe what we know is true, and someone not believing the same things we do, does not mean we are wrong. Now no one is perfect, and because of that, we have people in every religion/belief who think they are doing things correctly, despite what they have been taught, and those people are ignorant. However, not all of us are ignorant just because there is no scientific facts backing up a god existing. Science in itself is limited to what has been discovered. Just last month they discovered thousands of new species, and we still do not know if there is any living creatures outside of Earth. Science can not explain everything, and yet people still want to attack religion saying that science has to prove that something exists in order for it to exist. Yet Science has proved that even when we have so called "Scientific Proof" it can be prooved incorrect.

So let's say that Athiests or whoever else says that Christianity is wrong because there is no "proof" are right. You show me "Proof" that Christianity is wrong, and that there is no god. You can't, because there is no "Proof" either way. So, stop calling us stupid or ignorant, because you can not prove we are wrong, so your whole basis on attacking us is already faulty. When you can prove it, then throw it in my face, but from where I'm sitting, God is an awesome god...and I will follow him far beyond my death, and beyond the times when I will sit and talk with him in heaven. You see, all the "proof" I need is in the belief that there is someone watching over me, and who is there for me now, and when I die I will be in Heaven with god, laughing at those that kept saying how stupid I was, or how ignorant I was, and that I was wrong. Anyways, that's all for now. Love Ya's!