Sunday, July 6, 2008
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Why should you care about the opinions and whining of a recovering Evangelical, alleged Buddhist, retired geek, middle-aged hippie, philanthropic neurotic? Specializing in the economy (lousy), politics (lefty) and religion (none of the above).
4 comments:
That was cute!
Well, too true to be really "cute"
The sad fact is that people drift towards cliches as verbage, and then worse: as "faith" stuff
Oh, speaking of faith...the issues in that blog and it's comments regarding the question of whether or not it takes more faith to be an atheist or not. The original point, as I remember was made years ago that it takes a larger leap of faith to be an atheist than a theist. The folks in the blog and comments are too focused on Christianity and so their arguments against that statement leapt to Christianity, rather than theism. They seem to think you have to be either an atheist or a follower of Jesus. No Muslim deity or deistic mechanator. That does indicate the cultural context of the blog. The first stater of the "cliche" regarding atheistic faith was thinking "creator God" if I understand it correctly. And you can always tell a Faith Based Ideology by the emotional response by it's proponents to disagreement. The religious fervor of the anti "intelligent design" people is an example.
The problem that these blog people are raging ( rightly so) against is the silly and superficial sanctimonious attitude that Christians have copped. I just got an e-mail from a friend who has stepped away from the church in order to have a closer relationship with Jesus. He shares that cynicism that vomits when in touch with superficial Christianity.
here is what he said this week:
"If it's not humbling to follow Jesus, if you don't constantly feel like a failure at it, something is wrong in your understanding of the Bible, or yourself. The Pharisees and Sadducees didn't feel like failures, and Jesus had the harshest things to say to them, of all people.
I remember some years ago, a new Christian in our home group, said one Wednesday night, after reading her Bible all week, "This is impossible." I replied, "Good, now you are beginning to understand. Those who think that obeying God is possible, don't get it."
I remember how I used to read the passage in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 on love, and how it used to encourage me, make me feel good about myself, because, as I read the passage, I always pictured others I knew, who loved more poorly than I, or remembered ways that I had loved others well. Then as the years went by, and the Spirit began to open my eyes to be able to look inside, and see more clearly the horror of who I really am inside, I began to read the passage much more differently:
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Jesus did not come for the healthy, but for sicko's like Dave McCarty [the guy writing this], who know they are sick, and need a Savior, not just in 1966 when God broke into his life, but today, sick man that he is. Ahhh, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, and die to everything else, especially feeling good about self, based on one's own righteousness/success/performance."
So many people think they have a handle on God and Jesus and that bothers people who are sensitive to truth. Like Dave said, if a person who has counted on Grace doesn't see their need and helplessness...they become a monster, or ( as the bloggers point out) a caricature
Hey Jeff, finally found your site and love the atheist bent. To the issue of someone saying "I'll pray for you", the correct answer is "what you're not going to sacrifice a goat?!"
My best friends here in Baltimore are the Atheist meetup.com group, and the Separation of Church and State meetup.com.
Besides, there are more atheists on the planet than Christians by far (think Chinese and Bhuddists). Everyone is an atheist to the ten thousand or more gods of the other religions. We just go one god farther in our disbelief.
It does however get quite discouraging to see your neices and nephews being indoctrinated, without feeling it appropriate to give them the free-thinking outlook on the subject.
Brooks
Glad you like. My famiy has its' beliefs and I have mine. I'm most interested in the parts that overlap, rather than where they differ. Sort of a metaphor for the entire partisan divide in America today.
Brooks;
There are really very few people who do what Jesus said to do. What is your point about majority vs minority? Do you feel it would be appropriate to take a vote to determine reality?
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