Fear and Loathing
Sunday, February 2nd, 2014Yesterday, I saw a car on the freeway that had a big message plastered across the back window: “Fear God” and in smaller print under that: “and give him glory”.
Fear? Someone who is feared deserves loathing and condemnation, not worship and glory. You fear entities that you think will hurt you in some way – that is not something to love and worship. You love things that have qualities you admire – no one should admire or look up to anything that causes fear.
I suspect that the message they’re trying to convey is “be good or you’ll be punished”, but in this context, that message is probably in the vein of “everyone’s a sinner”. The fact of the matter is though, most people’s “sins” are pretty minor and not worthy of being afraid of being sent to hell for minor lapses. It’s neither healthy nor desirable to live in a constant fear of some infraction having severe consequences.
Live right because it’s the right thing to do: it’s good for everyone, including yourself. We don’t steal from or hurt other people because if everyone did that, we’d all be living in fear. Teaching others helps us learn ourselves. Helping others means there will be more people who will be in a position to help us when we’re in need. Smiles are much more pleasant to be around that snarls, and each is likely to be returned in kind.
It’s not a perfect world, and we do need to be wary, both of others who make antisocial choices, and our own inclination to unfortunate choices, but a life lived in fear is a life half lived: live life to the fullest, not in fear.
