We are all sinners

Not too long ago I had a discussion with someone who seems to adhere somewhat to the mild, easy-going, Westernized version of Buddhism. He mentioned that ‘everyone loves something, even if it’s tacos’ or something to that extent. This was in reply to my statement that we are all sinners. And although I cannot help but sympathise with the positivism of his statement, I still feel there’s something awry in his statement. Namely, it seems to focus on the good side of mankind. This sort of implies then denying, or at least not focussing too much on, the dark side of men. Which in turn made me think how different the Christian worldview is from most others. Buddhists do not necessarily believe in God (I’d say most of them don’t), and they think they need to perform good deeds to personally escape the cycle of rebirths and sort of have their ego vanish into the non-existent state of ‘everything’ (which is as close to God as a Buddhist wants to go). Hindus believe something very similar, except that they name ‘everything’ God, and they worship Him in fragmented perspectives of their vision of Him, in the shape of countless gods. Each emotion, each aspect of life, heck, each village has its own god. Jews believe in God as the Creator of the ‘everything’ and they understand He is righteous, but they think the only way one can worship Him is by obeying countless laws and rules. Muslims believe in a righteous Creator too, but they too think you can keep Him satisfied by performing certain duties during your life.

Of course there are many loving Muslims, Hindus etc but I still feel they are missing out on what I believe is the essence of religion: personal relationship with God, who is Good. We are living in a broken world (if you don’t think so I advise you to watch the news for a few minutes) and rather than a yin-yang-ish balance of good and evil, we Christians believe that the bar is raised much higher. Evil must and will go! We will be cleansed from our sins, and evil will be destroyed and kicked out of existence. Existence will be purified if you will. So, rather than trying to escape this existence and its evils, or trying to maintain the balance, Christians are engaging (or should be engaging) in a head-on battle against evil. When you come to Yeshua, things start to change. You start to see sin for what it is: sin. You start to receive a new persective on the world around you. You feel things changing inside you. You start to notice the sinner in yourself. And you raise the bar. To the level of Him who died for us while we were still sinners. Nailed to a cross and betrayed by his closest friends and His own people. God forgive us.

Layers

The sub-atomic domain is a layer. The atomic and molecular domain is a layer. All part of a physical layer. Then there is the metaphysical layer. Technically speaking, anything not physical belongs here (although the term ‘metaphysics’ is used a bit different in common practice). This would include thoughts, emotions etc. Sometimes I’m so surprised that atheists take those bits out of science that only relate to the physical layers when trying to ‘disprove’ the existence of God. Or when they dare to venture into the non-physical domain, they will tell you that for instance ‘love’ is just the label for certain chemical reactions that evolution has allowed to survive as a favourable trait. Is it so challenging for them that, no matter whether love has a base in the physical realm, it is real? It is there? And that it is no less valid or important if/when it is based on physical elements? And is it, conceptually, so difficult to imagine even higher layers of consciousness? Or love? Or purpose?