Is Christianity a tool?

I was raised Christian and most of my younger life was occupied in prayer and Bible study although my family isn’t the typical Christian family. We weren’t a church on Sunday morning crew, we only went on special days and occasions but we prayed a lot at home together. It was always a relaxed atmosphere but I could always feel the subtle cues of it was not to be questioned. If I had a problem, was scared, was uncertain about the future, I was told to pray and study the scripture. None negotiable and all attempts to express the issues were met with the same solution; read, kneel and repeat. Since starting college, I have had much more opportunities to discover what else is out there and talk with people who are as engaged in their religious beliefs as I am, in a tug-of-war. From this push-pull relationship, is how it seems that Christianity serves certain purposes for man;

Hope

This is one of the best things that Christianity has been used for in our modern times and possibly even in the medieval eras.

-Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

This is one of the most comforting things anyone would love to hear and believe in. We are all plagued with our different worries and frustrations about the future. Will I get that job? Am I going to graduate? This turbulence feels pretty bad, will this plane make it? It feels very reassuring to know that there is an all-powerful being who is watching and is in control of our lives, that He is making sure our future is going to be great. That we will get not necessarily what we want, but what we need.

But what if it is just random, there is no one we trust in control of the situation and this is just life taking its usual course? For any staunch Christian, I would understand this could be a very unsettling revelation. The fear of the unknown and the future would certainly become overwhelming because now you’ve hit the reality that life just is. It favours no one and most of the time you just have to be lucky not owing to thank anyone in specific.
Was this their intention or was it an accident when the fathers of the doctrine wrote down their scriptures and teachings, was this to soothe our anxieties about what we have no control over?

But this specific comfort has also become a tool for complacency in a lot of people. This same scripture can be interpreted as; He knows what is best for me, that opportunity I wanted but did not come my way is all part of His grand plan. Most people then stop going after their dreams and decide to settle for whatever comes their way because scripture has taught them that this is part of the plan. They then tend to accept mediocrity since they can comfort themselves by saying this is the plan the Lord has in store for me. Was this also their intention, to help the majority of the people become complacent and believe they have no control over their lives?

Moral Scapegoat

Almost everyone has this ideal in their mind’s eye about how just and good they are as a person. We easily empathize with ourselves and understand what we do when we do it, assigning reasons for our behaviours especially those at are deemed questionable in society. We cannot easily reconcile with the idea that we all lie in the grey area and not everything can be characterized as black and white. Hence comes the infamous scapegoat for the average Christian, the devil.

-Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

“Did you steal the money I left on the dressing table?”
“I’m sorry but the devil tempted me”
On the whole spectrum of human shortcomings, as a faith, we have jointly blamed it all on this individual. Every time we see an injustice in the world, it is the devil. Every time we are a victim of an injustice, it is the devil. Every time we do something we are not proud of, it was the devil. And it is logical, it is easier to blame someone we have never heard from for all the wrong we see in the world than it is to take action and responsibility to stop the pain we see around us. It is easier to blame someone who we haven’t seen for the trespasses against us than it is to tap into our empathy to try and understand what led to them do this. It is easier to blame someone who has never spoken to us than it is to accept ourselves for the flawed human beings we are and take responsibility for our actions.

Nobody is perfect and this is not about our accomplishments but rather about our darker inclinations. And instead of blaming someone we have been taught to blame, we need to understand ourselves and the people around us for the grey creatures that we are rather than expecting everything to look black and white as we have been taught.

Was this a common problem when the Bible was first written, did they need absolution for their shortcomings so badly that it was easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility for their acts?

Law and Order.

It has been common knowledge for all of us about the better place, raised being told about the wonderful things in store for the good children in Heaven. Then finally as we get older and a little rebellious, we are introduced to the torment that awaits the bad ones in hell.

-Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

There was a fellowship I attended when I was in high school (this was probably compulsory being it was a Christian school) and I will always remember the guest speaker of the time asking us if we believed in what we had been taught about heaven and hell. About 80% of the room raised their hands in belief, his next remark was directed to the rest of us.
“I know it is hard to believe in things that you have not seen, but wouldn’t you rather die safe than sorry?”

I don’t think it was his intention, but he left me with the impression that he didn’t believe most of it himself, that he was only trying to save himself from eternal damnation just in case it was there. And most of the time it feels like this is one of the reasons why most people in Christianity do good because they don’t want to go to hell. This begs the question of whether consequence-based morality is immoral? Looking at it from the wider perspective of the people who do not play by the same rules, when they do something atrocious, one of the reasons we give is he/she was not religious. Does that mean that some of us are capable of despicable actions but refrain from them out of fear of the consequences in the after-life?

Voltaire said, “there is no God, but don’t tell that to my servant, lest he murders me at night”

Did the church founders put this in place as a tool to keep us in line? Teachings used to make sure we do not question their authority and even their actions, which we may not agree with, out of fear of the eternal fire?

Unification.

This reason does not have a Bible verse backing it but rather the general feel and what you see in the Christian community, a sense of belonging. Being humans and the social creatures that we are, we have always needed a feeling of community, a place where we feel we are accepted and we belong. Christianity has been able to provide this beautiful feeling to most of its followers (provided they stay inline) and has helped the community grow in many aspects through anticipated trust. This trust extends even in strangers just based on the fact that both of them are Christians. As seen in almost all religions, believers of the same religion are more than ready to work with each other in various ventures. From the point of view that we believe in the same teachings, therefore, we have the same values and principles making it easier for us to trust one another. This can be looked at in some ventures as doing the Lord’s work.

However, this unification factor wasn’t always used for the right purposes.
A few centuries after 323AD when Constantine successfully made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire, the need for holy wars became justified. They started innocently for the purpose to gain access to holy lands such as Jerusalem that were at the time under Muslim rule. For such a reason it was therefore easy to gain a lot of volunteers from all over Europe. But further into the 12th century, crusades started to be used to mask political ambitions. Crusades brought the French monarchy extension of their kingdom until the Mediterranean sea as well as put most of the Slavic tribes under the catholic rule. And because of the sense of unity, people continued to volunteer to fight these wars that had nothing to do with furthering their beliefs but rather the goals of the those who controlled the church.
And this can still be seen today in cases where a law, that could be resisted, is accompanied with the approval of the church.

Was this an invented tool to make the public more complaint to assisting in the development of a state? To reduce the public push back when the state tries to impose laws that may be questionable?

Conclusion
I believe everyone has their look, and perspective into their beliefs, as well as their varying experiences. But because we believe in something, that doesn’t mean we cannot question it and we should allow ourselves to openly discuss these questions. I do not remember the author of the quote — Do you truly believe in something if you do not question it?
But this is just my two cents.

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