The kids make a bet on whose band can get a platinum album the quickest, and Cartman realizes he can do it easily by just cynically forming a "Christian rock" band.
Posted on 01/30/2015 7:20:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The co-founder and former guitarist of the popular world-famous Christian rock band the Newsboys has officially renounced his Christian faith and is calling members of the current version of the band hypocrites.
George Perdikis, who founded the chart-topping Christian band in 1985 with his friend Peter Furler, wrote an op-ed on Wednesday published by the website Patheos explaining how he transformed from a guitarist in one of the most popular Christian rock bands of all-time to a cosmology-enthused atheist.
"I always felt uncomfortable with the strict rules imposed by Christianity. All I wanted to do was play rock and roll," Perdikis wrote. "And yet, most of the attention I received was focused on how well I maintained the impossible standards of religion. I wanted my life to be measured by my music, not be my ability to resist temptation.
"And I'm now an atheist," Perdikis asserted.
Perdikis piece began by explaining the origins of the band, which originated in Queensland, Australia, and how it became a "christian rock band."
After Perdikis was kicked out of his high school and was sent off to a Christian school in Bethesda in 1981, he met Furler, who was a drummer, and jammed with him in a garage for years. When Furler's family moved to Queensland in 1983, Perdikis would travel up the coast to play with Furler on most weekends.
Perdikis later invited his other friend Sean Taylor, who played bass, to join the two in their jam sessions. Perdikis would later invite a vocalist, John James, to join the band. Although the band initially started out playing cover gigs in pubs, churches, parks and other small gatherings, Perdikis said the "band evolved quickly" and he ended up quitting his job in the Air Force and moved in with the Furler family in order to concentrate solely on music.
As the band began to write its own songs and practiced more often, the members decided to describe it as a "Christian rock band" out of respect for Furler's parents, who were "fundamentalist Christians."
"The choice to become a 'Christian Rock Band' was heavily influenced by Peter's parents, Bill and Rosalie Furler. As fundamentalist Christians, the only acceptable form of music was the kind that worshipped God," Perdikis explained. "Bill and Rosalie were like second parents to me and, for that reason, I never questioned their advice."
As the band practiced and wrote more songs, they decided to call themselves "the Newsboys."
"We might have been classified as Christian Rock, but, musically, I felt we were as good as any secular band," Perdikis asserted.
The Newsboys' big break came in 1987 when they were asked to participate in an event with the Christian band Whiteheart. Whiteheart liked the Newsboys' music and later that year the band was recording their first album, "Read All About It."
Perdikis co-wrote the band's first two albums and toured with the band up until he left in 1990. He would later get married, teach guitar and have two daughters.
He explains that after leaving the band, he began to live a life that separated him spiritually from the Church, as he began to search for what his beliefs truly were, admitting that he never really thought much about what he truly believed.
He started to become interested in cosmology in 1992. He became intrigued by the works of famous cosmologists and evolutionists like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss and others
"I learned so much and was blown away by all the amazing scientific discoveries," Perdikis said.
After his marriage fell apart in 2003, Perdikis said he did not turn toward God, but instead turned his attention toward psychology. About four years later in 2007, Perdikis had renounced his Christian faith.
Perdikis continued in his op-ed by criticizing the Christian music industry.
"The Christian music scene is populated by many people who act as though they have a direct hotline to a God who supplies them with the answers to the universe," wrote Perdikis. "There seems to be more ego and narcissism amongst Christian musicians than their secular counterparts."
He did not shy away from attacking the current version of the Newsboys, which does not include any of the band's original members.
"Recently, the Newsboys were featured in the movie God's Not Dead. The movie demonstrated the pervasive attitude of Christians. The demonized everyone while giving pass to their own particular brand of Christianity, making themselves look like white fluffy white angels with perfect, synchronized lives," Perdikis accused. "The truth is — from someone who knows what went on then and what goes on now– the Newsboys aren't as holy as they profess. Instead of wearing a mask of 'righteousness,' they should acknowledge that they are struggling as much as everyone else."
I have never, ever, failed to hear the “hypocrite” slur voiced by someone who slams Christians. Never.
I doubt that. I was where he was. Its a one way trip to logic and understanding.
Once person starts asking honest questions about ancient mythology, and analyzes bible stories passed on from generation to generation, an honest, thinking person realizes how silly these stories are. Stories about talking serpents, talking donkeys, burning bushes, people swallowed by fish and spit back out alive, people turned into pillars of salt, etc. really are... Well, that person begins to look at the bible the same way that thinking Christians now look at the Koran.... its just silly mythology.
Just looking at the plagiarism in the story of a zookeeper boat story and the Epic of Gilgamesh and one realizes that ancient scriptures are just stories fabricated to help ancient man deal with things like cataclysmic events such as earthquakes and volcanic activity. Thanks to scientific inquiry, we now know there's no angry god in trying to destroy some disobedient village, its just a natural geological phenomenon.
While some people will continue to cling to ancient stories about magical horses and chariots flying up into heaven (Muhammad and Ezekial) the rest of Mankind will be accepting those as just silly myths... and they won't be going back to believing in mythology.
I first noticed the Newsboys around 2002.
"Christianity has too many rules" often equals "I want to screw what I want to screw when I want to screw it."
Circular logic.
“Christianity has too many rules”
Has he looked at Islam lately?
Has he looked at what Islamists are DOING lately?
And yet his beef would remain with the Christians in this world.
The kids make a bet on whose band can get a platinum album the quickest, and Cartman realizes he can do it easily by just cynically forming a "Christian rock" band.
“Stories about talking serpents, talking donkeys, burning bushes, people swallowed by fish and spit back out alive, people turned into pillars of salt, etc. really are... Well, that person begins to look at the bible the same way that thinking Christians now look at the Koran.... its just silly mythology.”
Funny, those people usually believe in the silly myth about all the matter in the universe expanding from a single point, when the sheer gravity of such a conglomeration should allow nothing to escape.
I think teaching people what to do instead would lead to more success.
One way to look at raising children. You eventually go from "don't do that" to "you should do this." God did that with His children. He gave us a list of "Thou shalt nots" in our faith childhood and then led us into maturity with Christ.
Islam pretty much lets men have sex indiscriminately. The rules are for women.
“I always felt uncomfortable with the strict rules imposed by Christianity”
This attitude is infantile and unfortunately, is also overwhelming the position of modern culture (e.g. Like Outback Steakhouse: "No Rules - just right!").
I wonder how chemists feel about the "the strict rules imposed by chemistry". Or perhaps architects should rail against "the strict rules imposed by gravity"?
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Proverbs 14:12
Islam’s rules are beyond sexual relations. If you fart while saying your prayers while washing your feet in a daily ritual after going to the bathroom, you must begin the ritual all over again.
Islam is OCD writ large.
None of their paychecks ever bounced!!
From the beginning, there were those who thought that they could make up their own rules..Catholics are too strict, protestants are too diverse, others are just plain nuts, so I will make up my own rules and my first rule is that there are no rules....good luck with that!!!
The Big bang theory started out as something called the Cosmic Egg, which was first proposed by a Catholic priest who was also an astronomer.
Newton believed in alchemy, which we now know is implausible science fiction... like turning water into wine. ;-) but Newton was pretty spot on about his laws of gravity and planetary motion. So we rejected the bogus and advanced with the plausible
While science advances and corrects the mistakes of past theory, religion remains mired in the ancient quicksand of superstitions and mythology.
We see how creationism is now slowly coming around to rejecting a young earth and a 6,000 year old man. Whenever science can be shoehorned into some biblical story, it is.
-But when it can't be, well then it's just *God's magic*... and the science is deemed flawed, because scientists admit they don't yet fully understand the things observed in quantum physics.
-Like the double slit experiment, etc. :-)
The evolution of religion is an interesting study, give it a whirl.
New religions usually start out very violent and gradually evolve into something more civil, more social.
The Muslim religion is the new kid on the block. Muslims still believe in blood sacrifice. The crazy Muslims are probably the biggest reason I have finally arrived at where I am now. Ezekiel's fiery chariot and Muhammad's magical horse flying over the moon, both seem equally preposterous.
But that's my personal evolution.
“While science advances and corrects the mistakes of past theory, religion remains mired in the ancient quicksand of superstitions and mythology.”
I’m sure that’s a reassuring view for you to choose to believe, but the fact remains that science can never hope to answer any of the really important questions in life. They don’t even attempt to address them, because they are outside the reach of the scientific method.
So saying that you base your beliefs on science, while it may sound quite logical and sensible, really just means you have given up on the really weighty intellectual matters and concern yourself only with the fluff.
Well, yes.
“The choice to become a ‘Christian Rock Band’ was heavily influenced by Peter’s parents, Bill and Rosalie Furler. As fundamentalist Christians, the only acceptable form of music was the kind that worshipped God,” Perdikis explained. “Bill and Rosalie were like second parents to me and, for that reason, I never questioned their advice.”
It is amazing the things a dog will do to please, but not one has been known to become a human.
And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they've just heard
'Cause all the powers of darkness
Can't drown out a single word
I got choked up. Hit me hard for some reason. Still does if I'm in the right mood.
If you think the discoveries are amazing, just imagine how amazing the designer must be!
I guess I don't understand how science and God are considered by some to be separate and unconnected.
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