Why Lent is Really Stupid

[trotsky]

The title alone will probably get a few people frothing about mean bigoted fundie atheists, but I think the guy makes a pretty good point. Is giving up a minor luxury or indulgence for a few weeks something that truly connects one with the allegedly ultimate suffering done by one's god? Believers don't need atheists to trivialize and insult their religion - they're doing it themselves.

http://blog.theproudatheist.com/why-lent-is-really-stupid/

But there was and is one ritual in which every Catholic participates year after year, and that is the 40 days of atonement and sacrifice known as Lent. We all may be currently inundated with factoids about white and black smoke, the ignored inconsistency of claiming the man being voted for is “chosen by god,” and the symbolism behind what color footwear the popacy wears, and we all may pine for the adventical season, with its chocolate-filled calendars and wreathes, but Lent is the big Catholic shebang...

...

Anyway, you all know the gist of Lent, I’m sure – Catholics abandon their tradition of not doing anything regarding their faith and trade their apathy in for annoyance as they commit to “giving something up” for a few weeks. It is, patently and undeniably, ridiculous. The story goes that, before he was to be sold out to the Roman feds by his most dickish ally Judas, Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the wastes… um… being lost? Searching for buried treasure?

While he was out there, none other than Satan himself, the fey, foppish clown prince of evil shows up and tempts him with various desserts and delights. Jesus resists and comes on back to the gardens of Gethsemane where he can have a nice, betrayal-filled meal with his closest buds while engaging in cannibalism and vampirism. So, to honor the toils and hardships, followed by the ultimate sacrifice, of their greatest and best Lord and Savior (who is also Lamb), Christians and Catholics the world over all agree to give up a minor vice or a favorite luxury.

...

So is there any way to fix it? Clearly, you and I are the wrong people to ask, because you and I don’t believe a word of the whole Jesus in the desert story. We find his sacrifice toothless, because there’s no sin to clear from human history and no heaven to secure for every follower of this deluded, carpenter-turned-shepherd-of-Mankind. But we can also look at ceremonies and traditions like Lent and see that Catholics and Christians in general are really missing the forest through the trees. It’s funtime games to point out the incongruities that arise when you mix pagan festivals with your Christian myths – just like there were no bunnies at the resurrection handing out chocolate, there were no decorated trees in the manger in Bethlehem – but Lent is different. Lent asks every single follower, down to the children in Sunday school, to make some sort of sacrifice in order to connect with the torture and death of a man from two millenia ago. It’s unclear which is worse - that believers are forced to participate in a month-long committed sign of reverence towards an act which they had nothing to do with, or that said sign of reverence has been reduced to “uhhh, I guess I won’t get LARGE shakes with my fast food this month. Thanks, Lamb of God!” Is that really the message we focus on? Lent and Easter are so very little about Jesus’ teachings – they never come up in the readings at mass. Never. It’s all word-for-word “retellings” of “then He broke the bread, then He said ‘You’ll deny me three times,’ ‘then the people shouted ‘Give us Barabas!”” Where are the morals, the teachings, the lessons? It’s a guilt trip, Lent, and a really stupid one at that.

[unblock]

1. it's symbolic. on passover, jews eat bitter herbs to symbolize the bitterness of slavery.

i mean, really? to reduce generations of enslavement to a little bitter taste in the mouth?

well, no, that's not what's meant, and no one's suggesting that jews should suffer anything like what their ancestors actually endured in order to mark the occassion. it's just meant to be a symbolic gesture, provoking thoughts and discussions and feelings of what it might have been like, and to give thanks that we are now free (although we always add, we are not free until all are free).


i'm no expert on lent, and i know that some christians (catholics in particular) are and have been much more into the notion of actual suffering (e.g., self-flagellation), but i suspect the idea is not to claim that giving up one thing is actually in proportion to what jesus endured, but to merely give you a small taste and to get you thinking about what he must have endured.

[trotsky]

3. It is worth noting that the author of the piece is a former Catholic.

And that he does address the point of it being symbolism.

[zipplewrath]

2. Huge fallacy

The tradition originated as an effort to improve ones self by taking on a pledge of some sort during lent. It morphed over time into "giving something up". I frequently didn't "give something up" I committed to doing something on some regular basis. It might be getting up on time, or writing an elderly relative once a week, or otherwise participating in the needs of someone or some group of people. Any activity that results in one bettering themselves, or addressing their greatest weaknesses.

When I was very young, and looking for something to do over Lent, my mother ultimately suggested maybe I do my chores without being asked. It seemed like a slam dunk at first, but ultimately I discovered all the reasons that such a thing can be so hard. A very good life long lesson about what it takes to be consistent and follow through on such commitments. My older brother committed on year to getting out of bed "on time". It turned out to be VERY hard for him, but he learned alot about what enabled him to be able to get up on time.

Will anything anyone ever do match the kinds of sacrifices that Jesus did in crucifiction? No. But it is a useful exercise in self exploration, if done with any sort of real intent.

Here's a "simple" one that is both hard and very enlightening for adults. (Simple things are rarely ever easy). Record every single penny you spend over Lent. Every rent check, every soda, every tip, every dollar to the homeless guy at the corner. After Lent, compare where your money REALLY goes to where you THINK it goes. There might be some real eye opening surprises. (And keep doing it for another 40 if you don't think the answers are "correct&quot .

[struggle4progress]

4. Some of these folk, who don't have not-collecting-stamps as a hobby, sure do seem

to spend quite a lot of time loudly discussing stamps and stamp-collecting and stamp-collectors

[trotsky]

5. There's a whole lot of talk about Republicans on a site called Democratic Underground, too.

Maybe it's because the actions, behavior, and beliefs of Republicans affect the lives of Democrats, too?

[struggle4progress]

6. "Help! Help! Other people have personal beliefs I don't understand! It's oppressive! Help!"

[trotsky]

7. As I noted above, the author is a former Catholic.

And of course no one is claiming oppression by how others practice Lent.

So now that I've torpedoed what you were trying to mock, do you want to try seriously discussing the issue of religious hypocrisy and insincerity?

Your call, s4p. Let's try to have a discussion.

[struggle4progress]

8. "Let's start a thread making fun of people and then whine about the quality of the conversation!"

[trotsky]

10. Lent, and how some people practice it, was called stupid.

Not the people themselves.

I am sorry you are unable or unwilling to make the distinction, but that does seem to be one of the primary defense mechanisms engaged in by believers when the difficult questions are asked.

[struggle4progress]

11. Let's listen to some music

... in a soldier’s stance I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach
fearing not that I’d become my enemy in the instant that I preach ...

[trotsky]

12. And the other defense mechanism, one of your personal favorites,

is spamming the thread.

[struggle4progress]

14. Lilliputians are always ready to fight over which end of a boiled egg to crack open

but perhaps it is not necessary to have an opinion on absolutely every topic. Not so long ago, many had strong opinions on every woman's dress and every man's hair, though then (as now) a lack of opinion could sometimes actually be a virtue:

... [link:http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html|The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity] ...

There is a certain sad irony in the fact that a movement, which makes so much outraged noise about various historical intolerances and persecutions of individuals for their peculiar personal beliefs, should nowadays spent so much energy demonizing and ridiculing the particular personal beliefs of other people -- but, of course, it has always been common for people to denounce everyone else loudly for the very same things they themselves do, and there is no reason to expect such transparent hypocrisy to vanish in the near future

Some issues do exist, of course, upon which one ought to take a stand. And there are also a great number of non-issues, for which the only appropriate reaction is: Meh! Let it be!

[trotsky]

16. So what opinions do you think atheists are allowed to have (and voice)?

What religious practices do you deem it permissible for an atheist to speak of, or criticize?

The piece I linked to was from a former Catholic commenting on his views of how real-life Catholics experience Lent. Many former members of a religion got that "former" put in front of them because of things they thought about and ideas they were exposed to. Seeing someone else comment on the hypocrisy of others observing Lent might prove helpful and informative.

Why do you evidently feel it is your duty to stifle the flow of information like this?

Drop the snark. Drop the attitude. Please.

[Jim__]

15. My Back Pages

[center]http://vimeo.com/36050070

[mr blur]

18. But you're all so easy to make fun of!

All those crazy things you seem to believe!

[pinto]

9. Yeah it's been trivialized. Which the author here does as well.

Lent is as much a cultural as well as religious observance. Common, though called and observed differently, among all three Aramaic religions, Jewish, Muslim and Christian.

And all three incorporate the desert as a place and time of lack, test and renewal.

Moses in the desert, Mohammad in the desert, Jesus in the desert.

All three religions note those traditional stories, those repeated tales, with some kind of formalized observance.

[dimbear]

13. I have always admired the logic of people who give up religion for Lent.

A nice compromise approach.

[goldent]

17. There is some great thinking going on in that article