출처 : 다음카페 술술영어  http://cafe.daum.net/englishwiz 아래 글은 아들이 대학 일 학년(당시 16세) 때 English 110 class에 제출했던 글인데, Essay Writing에 관한 기본을 쉽게 이해할 수 있는 outline이 함께 있어 주제가 마음에 꺼리지만 옮겼읍니다. 주제가 특정 종교비판의 내용이 있어 망서렸지만 academic writing에 바탕을 두고 있어 원문의 Indentation을 빼고는 일체의 수정없이 글을 옮겼습니다. 카페규정에 link 를 달 수 없게 되어 있으므로 글의 내용에 반드시 팔요한 것외에의 reference link는 삭제했습니다. Lifesaver, color=blue>[Essay 원문] Thesis: Christianity is more destructive than beneficial to the world. Main Ideas: Christianity is hypocrisy. Christianity forces itself upon other religions unwarrantedly causing conflict. (Concession) Most Christians aren't white-supremacist or Neo Nazis. (Concession) America was based upon Christianity and is agreed upon by many people to be successful. The Bible contains ambiguities that make it difficult to determine the precise meaning to allow a flexible and adaptive religion. (Concession) Catholic Church is here to interpret it for the people. The dogmatic text of Christianity, the Bible, is too easily used as a weapon. Attack God & Christ Attack the misinterpretations & abuses of the Bible Attack the Bible Attack Christianity’s ignorance Refute the “America’s a Christian nation argument” Refute the “founding fathers were Christian argument” Refute the “problems of people arg” Conclusion: Christianity needs to either be changed radically or eradicated to adjust for the modern world's changing attitudes. Introduction: Beliefs of people need to be scrutinized. “Christ is the centre of the Christian faith, the faith which the Church proclaims today as she has always done, to every man and woman.” [Pope John Paul II] Christ says: 'I am the way, the truth and the life." Revolution of earth in Bible References to Aryan race? "In order to justify their behavior, they turn their theories into dogmas, their bylaws into First Principles, their political bosses into Gods and all those who disagree with them into incarnate devils. This idolatrous transformation of the relative into the Absolute and the all too human into the Divine, makes it possible for them to indulge their ugliest passions with a clear conscience and in the certainty that they are working for the Highest Good. And when the current beliefs come, in their turn, to look silly, a new set will be invented, so that the immemorial madness may continue to wear its customary mask of legality, idealism, and true religion." (Aldous Huxley, The Devils of Loudun, 1952, Harper and Brothers, NY, NY.) http://www.dimensional.com/~randl/tcont.htm --^ "Satanic organizations fall short when they wield propaganda against their own members. The worst thing we can do is mimic the behavior of nazis and Christians. What distinguishes us from other religious groups? We don't tell our members what to think, we teach them how to think." - Lord Egan, High Priest, FCoS 본 문 Faith and its Consequences The American Heritage dictionary objectively defines faith as belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. When applied to the subject of religion, faith is often what one believes without undeniably strong or objective evidence for the belief. In the case of Christianity, faith means believing in God and the validity of the Holy Bible. Whatever the case, Christianity is certainly a faith. I have a set of ideas that I associate with a “Christian.” One of those ideas is the idea that a superior, omnipotent, and morally “right” being exists outside the human race. This “God” mandates a set of rules and wishes upon the human race that He created. Another fundamental belief to Christianity is that God presented his words, commands, and stories to the people of the world through a text known as the Bible. According to Dean Worbois, “…the New Testament is the scripture of the Christian religion.” One can infer from Worbois’s statement that Christians believe that the New Testament is sacred and truthful to a good degree. Since God lays down “good” and “just” rules through the Bible, people who follow the Bible are somewhat “just” and “good” as well in the eyes of God and should be good in the eyes of humanity as well. However, I ask whether the Christian religion is honestly benevolent and beneficial to mankind. First and foremost, I question whether God is a fully “good” and “loving” entity. God to Christians represents a kind of perfection. Christians can be heard saying “God made it so” or “God gave you a gift.” C.S. Lewis states that “They [Christians] think God invented and made the universe – like a man making a picture or composing a tune.” [384]. Thus, to Christians, God would be perfect in creating the universe in nearly every way. Bertrand Russell questions “Do you think that, if you were granted omnipotence and omniscience and millions of years in which to perfect your world, you could produce nothing better than the Ku Klux Klan or the Fascists?” [Russell 10]. I, for one, granted omnipotence and omniscience would not let any malady whatsoever fall to the world I create. Bertrand also states that since God is omnipotent, omniscient, and foresaw all that would happen to his world, God must also have created all the “evil” in this world [Russell 18]. I personally feel that a god that creates evil in the midst of his followers must feel some sort of malevolence. It seems to me that God is more sadistic than benevolent. The notions of Jesus, the Son of God in the Christian religion, are flawed, but Christians take Him as perfect beyond good reasoning. Pope John Paul II, in regards to Jesus, states “Christ is the centre of the Christian faith, the faith which the Church proclaims today as she has always done, to every man and woman.” [16]. Thus, it can be safely assumed that the Church takes Jesus Christ as a role model. Most Christians can agree that peacefulness and harmony are virtues Christ had. However, various instances of the Bible paint a picture of Christ as a vengeful and vindictive individual to those who ignored or despised Him. To support that Christ is not necessarily so virtuous, Bertrand Russell quotes from Christ, “The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend…and shall cast them into a furnace of fire" [Russell 18]. I think that Russell suggests that Christ inhumanely condemns sinners. I also believe that the sentence to an eternity of burning as rather cruel and vindictive and certainly not virtuous. A man who preaches love and compassion and also preaches undying wrath upon his enemies would most likely be called a hypocrite. No person on the planet honestly deems hypocrisy as a virtue, and Jesus apparently was hypocritical at times. A strange phenomenon occurring with Christians is the unnecessary persistence of attempting to convert people to Christianity. According to Graeme Lyall, the Pope attacks the Buddhist religion in his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. Lyall states “He [the Pope] provides no logical arguments against Buddhism but resorts to dogma to prove his point. …The Christians have been trying to impose Christianity on 'Buddhist' countries for centuries with little impact. Buddhists do not set out to convert Christians, but, if certain aspects of Buddhism appeal to Christians … this is more a criticism of the Christian attitude than of Buddhism. Buddhism does not condemn those who follow other traditions.” Essentially, Lyall means that the Pope is trying unsuccessfully and through faulty logic to convert Buddhists to Christians, but Buddhism does not do the same to Christianity. Christianity appears to be less tolerant of other religions than Buddhism. In an essay on toleration, Benjamin Franklin wrote “The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. These found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here [England] and in New England" [qtd. in Remsburg]. Benjamin Franklin apparently noticed a peculiar trend among Christians. The trend that Christians seem to follow is the persecution of each other. This continuous internal quarrelling must surely mean some kind of flaw with the religion. Whether history will repeat itself and support that Christianity indeed has significant flaws is a matter of time. Christian error is also shown in that it has hindered the scientific progress of mankind rather than to assist it. Most people believe that the subjects of religion and science are related quite little, if not vaguely. Mike Kari presents that “In 1633 Galileo … argued that the sun was the center of the solar system which contridicted [contradicted] Roman Catholic doctrine. Galileo recanted and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life” [Kari]. More succinctly put, Kari states that the Church censored a scientist’s work on the basis that the scientist’s findings contradicted a doctrine of the Church. Christianity also attempts to be the authority of science; religion and science are not very compatible judging by the definition of both. Bertrand Russell presents that “People observed the planets going around the sun according to the law of gravitation, and they thought that God had given a behest to these planets to move in that particular fashion, and that was why they did so. That was, of course, a convenient and simple explanation that saved them the trouble of looking any further for explanations of the law of gravitation” [Russell 7]. In essence, Russell, a scientifically learned man, reasons that Christians, masquerading as the authority of science, avoided the issue of planetary movement instead of investigating the matter appropriately. If Christianity governed the ethics and rules of science to this day, the sciences would be either headed in directions far from truth or stunted to the point of lethargy. Concerning the applicability of the Bible, the Bible apparently contains various contradictions. In the Bible it is stated “John 1:18 No man hath seen God at anytime. (Ex 33:20; Tim. 6:16; John 6:46; I John 4:12) | Gen. 32:30 For I have seen god face to face. (Ex. 33:11, 23; Is. 6:1; Job 42:5)” [qtd. in Randl]. Evidently, the Bible, the sacred and holy text of Christians, is contradictory on terms of whether anyone has actually seen God. The verses “Deut. 6:4 The Lord or God is one Lord. | Gen. 1:26 And God said, let us make man in our image [italics added].(Gen. 3:22; I John 5:7)”, also quoted by Randl, suggest that the Bible itself cannot seem to agree upon whether there’s one supreme deity or not. A primary religious text that contradicts itself multiple times significantly reduces the venerability and truthfulness of the religion as a whole. Some people may argue that America, a reasonably successful country, is successful because America was founded upon Christianity. The founding fathers of America were not Christians by definition. Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography “…I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinism… I began to doubt of Revelation itself…Revelation, indeed, as such had no influence on my mind.” [qtd. in Remsburg]. Remsburg concludes from evidence that, “at no time during his [Benjamin Franklin] career was he a Christian – that he lived and died a Deist.” Overall, I too believe that Benjamin Franklin, a famous intellectual during the founding of America, was not actually Christian. Another recognized figure of America, Thomas Jefferson, shared similar views. Thomas Jefferson wrote “I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies” [qtd. in Remsburg]. Such a directly confrontational statement from Thomas Jefferson indicates his strong opinion that Christianity has no merits. Remsburg states, "…the popular notion concerning the religious opinions of these great men [Paine, Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington] is erroneous…They were Deists". These famous leaders of the American Revolution, evidently, were not Christian. Thus, it is folly to state that America was founded upon Christianity. Furthermore, the Treaty of Tripoli states "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" [5th Congress]. Most definitely, it is quite foolish to state that America's religious foundation is upon the Christian religion. Many Christians would argue incessantly that the Church is flawed because the leaders of the Christian religion are flawed, and that the teachings of Jesus, and therefore God, are not being represented correctly. First of all, before anyone can represent the teachings of the Bible with the greatest of faith, the Bible itself should be examined. Errors and possibly invalid material are present in the Bible that renders the words of Jesus foggy. A list of over 180 errors or ambiguities in the Bible is located at the Internet site http://members.aol.com ckbloomfld/. Undoubtedly, books have been written addressing the amount of physical truth and validity to the Bible. Not too recently, a group of scholars assessed the historical validity of the Bible and came up with startling results. They concluded, “…only 18 percent of Jesus’s sayings were presented as … 'undoubtedly' or 'probably' uttered by Jesus. These included many familiar passages: the parables of the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the mustard seed, the lamp and the bushes, God and the sparrows; and the admonitions to love your enemies, to turn the other cheek… But only parts of the sermon on the Mount were deemed probably reliable, and only a fragment of the Lord’s prayer” [Jost 1068]. Christians must certainly have incredible faith that the rest of the 82 percent of Jesus’s sayings in the Bible are truthful. Still, the Bible seems to construct some assumptions about the word of Jesus Christ, and therefore the word of God, resulting in confusion among Christians. If Christians still insist on letting a human interpret the Bible, a physical object passed through the ages with various edits and revisions, then I conclude that Christianity will continue to see major problems. Assessing the facts, Christianity has done both commendable and abominable deeds to mankind. I have no personal vendetta against Christianity’s morals. I do believe that Christianity has potential to become a wholly positive and respectable religion but is marred by general misunderstanding and disagreement. I propose that Christianity’s fundamentals and/or doctrines should be made unambiguous, agreeable, and flexible enough to prevent the dangerous and demeaning effects of Christianity from occurring again. If such measures are undertaken with utter failure repeatedly, then I may contend that Christianity should be abolished altogether or reconstructed from the Old Testament on up.