Soul Survivor

I’m in a bit of a writing mood this evening so I thought id raise the subject of Soul Survivor.

Soul Survivor is a Christian camp that I (briefly) went to last week. For those who are observant you may wonder why I put ‘briefly’ in brackets. Well I only actually stayed until the 3rd day at Soul survivor at which time I decided to go home. To put it simply I seriously didn’t enjoy the event. I shall explain why without being too pessimistic!

Soul Survivor is by far the most eccentric event I have ever attended in my life. Loads of people like this aspect of the camp but for me it seemed to cast a shadow over the real issue which was God. Now in honesty I would be lying if I were to describe myself as a Christian at the moment, atheism looks like a far more realistic belief (however that is another subject altogether!) and for that reason I don’t want to talk about God’s interaction at Soul Survivor since it wouldn’t be my place. From a personal point of view I was gaining nothing out of the talks or worship which took place. It’s clear other people were as discussions seemed to be sprouting between people at the camp. I actually got involved in a discussion about the idea of Hell. This conversation sparked a realisation within me and almost an anger against Christianity simply because most faithful followers seem to take faith as something to be proud of.

Only a fortnight ago we were given a questionnaire at my youth group about finding out what Spiritual Gifts we may have. The test involved numbering certain boxes against a question we either strongly agreed to or didn’t agree with. Now when this ‘test’ was given to me I thought it was some kind of joke and started laughing to myself. I then looked up to see a room full of concentrating, serious faces! I couldn’t believe it; people were actually taking this test seriously! It made me realise how much power religion has over some people and how the blind believing of faith can make people do stupid things or even believe ridiculous things. I did the test anyway and was glad to receive a single point for faith. Made me realise I’m not mad!

Soul Survivor seemed to play off those grounds of blind believing and for that reason that is maybe why the majority of people enjoy it. However I’m a person that doesn’t like blind faith, I just can’t be convinced by it simply because it’s the ignorance of evidence and reason. On the first night 160 people went up to the front to become Christians and I honestly couldn’t work out why, I still can’t. The talk before had just been about having a relationship with God of which no historical or scientific evidence had been given. People just bought into the idea that a God must exist because he exists! I understand that everyone is different and everyone has their own special reasons for believing but surely all belief should be backed with reason? It reminds me of a terrible but comical talk given by a preacher named J John last year. His talk was simply a Christian rant against anybody who wasn’t Christian and of which over a 1000 people came to the front to commit their lives to Christianity.

Now I am not disputing the fact that a God may exist. He may! But I am sad to say that I am being more and more convinced that his existence his nothing but mere emotional reaction for most people. It was for me when I was confirmed 3 years ago. You may wonder why I said ‘Sad to Say’; a personal God would be amazing, just to know that somebody more powerful than yourself is with you all the time and helping you feels great. However I no longer have this feeling and for that reason it is sad since this feeling has probably departed forever. However I would rather live an unhappy truth than a deluded comfort.