Belieb It Or Not

A little analogy which chanced to pass across my synapses earlier today, be thankful there isn't a soundtrack album to accompany this post!

There are millions of teenage girls who love Justin Beiber. They pore over his words as reported by others in magazines and online, earnestly believing that he is speaking personally to them with every glance at the camera as they watch his videos online for the hundredth time that day. Likewise his lyrics, such as they are, these girls will take to have deep, emotional import that goes beyond those of other mere ephemeral artists and speaks to directly their hearts. The poster on their wall isn't simply another formulaic pop puppet with stylized hair and manufactured appeal, he is their everything and every moment of the their waking day is spent thinking of him, knowing he is out there and one day they might even get to meet him. If anybody were to doubt the talent of Justin or point out his failings they risk castigation for their impudence. Were anything to happen to Justin, such as being rendered mute by a particularly merciful strain of virus, these girls would be heartbroken, believing their world was crumbling around them and even feeling there remained no reason to live.

If you, like me, have an urge to tell these people to grow the f**k up and stop living a delusion you will understand how many atheists feel when Christians tell us that they have a “relationship” with Jesus, somebody they, like these girls, have never even met. If you exchange JB for JC you're left with the same basic pattern of unwarranted reverence.

Taking the analogy further we can conclusively state that Justin Beiber does exist, much as many of us may wish he didn't. We can say with absolute certainty that the words attributed to him are for the most part accurate, if facile, because there is video of him speaking them. We also know what he looks like, a baby faced twunt. None of this can be said of Jesus, beyond him likely being just another in a crowd of apocalyptic preachers mooching around the Middle East.

If anything, those claiming a “relationship” with Christ today are even more self deluding than the screaming teenagers with their “I'm A Belieber” badges and t-shirts. They've also been responsible for the proliferation of a lot of bloody awful “Christian Rock”, so maybe it's time they were told to grow the f**k up, too.