Most Christians don't really believe

That's right, I've recently come to the conclusion that most Christians don't really believe in their religion. Oh, they think they believe, but they don't really believe. Don't get me wrong, there are some that do and I, for one, am thankful that most don't, but that doesn't change the simple fact.

Okay, I'll throw you a bone. Yes, all Christians believe the basic tenet that Christ died on the cross to forgive their sins. But that's about all they believe these days. The most obvious area where they don't believe, and the topic which lead me to my conclusion, is in life after death. An easy way for me to highlight my point is by describing some points from the movie Johnny Q, which I have recently seen again.

The father in Johnny Q is trying to get his son's name put on the heart donor list but runs into the horrible American health system where money, and only money, speaks. Eventually overcome by frustration, this good Christian and family man takes an emergency room hostage. He does all he can to help the people he's trapped while negotiating for what he wants. After all, he's a good Christian man. Finally, after being shot at by an inept police sniper, he gets more serious, however, time has almost run out for his son. Therefore, Johnny Q decides the only way to save his son is for him to commit suicide and donate his own heart. The rest of the movie is not relevant to my discussion here and I don't want to ruin the rather obvious ending for anyone who hasn't seen it.

On several occasions, the movie mentions that he is intended to represent a good Christian husband/father so let's look at some of his actions with regards to Christianity. I can already hear some of you saying 'but he only held them hostage to fight a corrupt system'. That's fine by me and completely irrelevant to this discussion. My main interest is in the fact that, after Johnny Q has exhausted all possibilities (presumably God has ensured Johnny's devotion by now) he then decides to take his life to save his son.

Now, in my understanding, one of the other big tenets of Christianity is that all good Christians go to heaven to live in peace and happiness with their family for all eternity. And now we come to the meat.

While Johnny's actions are more extreme than most would attempt--after all, this is a movie, the realm of hyperbole--I'm sure most Christians do not criticize them on a Christian level-->after all, he's showing great devotion and love for his child. Or is he?

Let's take a logical run-down of what would happen assuming the Christian belief system is correct.

A. If nature takes it's course and the son, call him Junior, dies then Junior has lived about eight years and will now spend an eternity (presumably infinite time or at least until the end of everything) in heaven in peace and happiness. When Johnny Q and the wife die in forty or sixty years they will join Junior in heaven for an eternity, reunited as a happy family. So, the family will miss Junior for the rest of their entire 'natural' lives which amounts to an insignificant value in relation to the infinity together in heaven after their death (60/infinity x 100% = infinitesimal %).

B. If Johnny Q had succeeded in his suicide plan, then he would have sinned one of the big ones (can't repent after suicide, cause you're dead). So Johnny Q would go to hell for eternity (hey, seems unfair but I don't make the rules). In the meantime his wife and child live their normal lives, die presumably good Christians and go to heaven for eternity. In this case, Johnny Q has sacrificed an eternity together to allow his son an insignificant amount of extra life (80/infinity = infinitesimal).

So, if Johnny Q is really a good Christian, the logical thing to do would actually be to let the child die--anyway, presumably that is the will of God, no? Yet he chooses what is basically the worst possible choice, and the important part to me is, never once is his status as a good Christian questioned.

Now many of you good Christians will say "it's only a movie" and yes, you are correct. But how many of you would fight as hard as you could in the same situation instead of rejoicing that the Lord has chosen your child early. Many of you feel sad when a good Christian loved one dies? Why? Should you not feel happy that they are going to heaven? Some of you will argue that I'm analyzing the situation too much and in the heat of the moment you do what come naturally. This is actually exactly my point--a true believer 'knows' there is an afterlife and will except and be happy that God is taking their child there. Only someone who doesn't believe will fight the situation.

There are some 'true' Christians, don't get me wrong, but by-and-large, I am willing to argue that 99% of Christians don't really believe in the afterlife (if they analyze their feelings and motivations on the issue). In reality, this is undoubtedly a good thing for the world as I could see no real reason for doing much of anything with an eternal afterlife of milk and honey waiting.

Censor it? Don't play it--and a challenge to muscians

This is a note to all those radio stations and music TV channels out there. If you feel the urge to censor a song then please, just don't play it. Don't. It's almost laughably absurd to listen to some songs where 1/3 to 1/2 the words can be censored and any meaning the song might have had is completely lost in a wash of null sound. Censors already disgust me but if a company is not willing to challenge the censors or to find a way around it (like playing the music after prime time) they just shouldn't play the music. Period.

Note to the parents: Get in touch with reality. Your desire to censor such things will have absolutely no effect on whether your children know/use the language (except, perhaps, to make them more curious). You're living in a dream world if you think otherwise.

Challenge to musicians: I would love to see a well written song designed so that, after the censorship, the remaining words form a message (ie: the song has one meaning without censorship and another meaning with). Could be anything, but obviously a political statement or comment against censorship would be most interesting.

M.I.A. Paper Planes

Alright, who's the tone-deaf record exec that signed this group? I just heard this song and the only thing I could think of was how annoying the voices were and how bad the singing was. At the risk of sounding older than I am, is bad singing the new trend? I mean I like rock, alternative, hip-hop, etc, (not country...too depressing) so I consider myself fairly open-minded musically. However, not only is every verse in the song repeated at least 2x but it's repeated off key. And this is supposed to be the best song on their album? Well, let's just say, they are either really good and doing it on purpose or...

On another note, this song really makes me feel out of touch with western society since I'm not overly concerned about an influx of immigrants (which is apparently what the song is about--relax, the group is only intending to highlight society's fear). It does make you wonder why westerners are so afraid of 'foreigners' (a word that I feel has little meaning in today's world) however.