Polly Toynbee, ranting in The Guardian about the many sins of Narnia:

Children are supposed to fall in love with the hypnotic Aslan, though he is not a character: he is pure, raw, awesome power. He is an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth... Without an Aslan, there is no one here but ourselves to suffer for our sins, no one to redeem us but ourselves: we are obliged to settle our own disputes and do what we can.

I hear this a lot from atheists: Since Christians believe in heaven, they don't believe in having humans take responsibility here on earth.

Yet, in my experience I find it is almost always inevitably atheists who are taking that kind of stand. For example, just a few days ago, I was reading through Sarah McLaughlin's lyrics, and was reminded that she seems to believe human beings are basicly innocent of all wrongdoing.

From her pop hit "Adia":

And there ain’t no one to buy our innocence
’cause we are born innocent
Believe me adia, we are still innocent
It’s easy, we all falter
Does it matter? ....

I take away your pain
And show you all the beauty you possess
If you’d only let yourself believe that
We are born innocent
Believe me adia, we are still innocent
It’s easy, we all falter, does it matter?
Believe me adia, we are still innocent
’cause we are born innocent
Adia we are still innocent
It’s easy, we all falter ... but does it matter?

So McLaughlin assures us, repeatedly, that we don't need a Jesus-like savior to "buy our innocence." All we really need to is realize that we're already wonderful and beautiful people, who are "born innocent", and are "still innocent" of all wrongdoing. And anything that does seem wrong is just "faltering", like the malfunctioning of a mindless machine, rather than a moral choice for which we are responsible. Furthermore, regarding our moral choices, "it doesn't matter" anyway.

Does that sound like a person who takes responsibility for the state of the world? Much less their own actions? Not unless you're smoking something!

So, is McLaughlin a Christian then? Heh, no, not in the slightest, she fits the modern definition of "atheist" quite well:

Dear God...
I feel that I should be hear loud and clear
We all need a big reduction
In the amount of tears
And all the people that you made in your image
See them fighting in the street
Cause they can't make opinions meet about God....

I won't believe in heaven and hell
no saints no sinners no devil as well
no pearly gate no thorny crown
you're always letting us humans down
the wars you bring....

If there's one thing I don't believe in
It's you, dear God.

So, um, what are we to make of this? How odd that Sarah is sure human beings do no wrong, but if there is wrong in the world, it must be the fault of God, or at least the idea of God.

Human beings: Innocent of everything wrong.
God: Guilty for everything wrong.

And indeed, even Polly Toynbee tips her own hand in her disjointed review. One minute, she complains that Christianity allows human beings to avoid responsibility for their own actions, yet another minute, she is complaining:

Poor child Edmund, to blame for everything, must bear the full weight of a guilt only Christians know how to inflict, with a twisted knife to the heart. Every one of those thorns, the nuns used to tell my mother, is hammered into Jesus's holy head every day that you don't eat your greens or say your prayers when you are told...

Now we might indeed complain that in some circles (Catholicism, in this case), guilt is overemphasized and overdone. Granted! But it's utterly illogical to place that complaint right next to claims that Christianity allows people to avoid responsibility for their own actions. I mean, which is it?

So what are we to learn from all this?

According to Sarah McLaughlin, who is clearly a skeptic, human beings are utterly innocent of doing wrong, even when we clearly see them do it. God, on the other hand, who we cannot see doing those things, is culpable for those actions, even if He told us not to do them.

And, according to Polly Toynbee, Christians are the ones encouraging people not to take any responsibility for their own actions and wrongdoing. Oh, except that they are also ones loading people up with guilt for their own actions and wrongdoing, which she clearly has an issue with.

Right. "Logic" like this is why I gave up on atheism a long time ago.