***As you may notice, much of this entry is also posted as additional content on my very first entry. I was/am doing some "house cleaning" and cut & pasted that in before realizing I had made this post. ***
Some of you may have seen this, as it was originally published under a different blogspot that I accidentally created on 12/20/10. Sadly, my tech savvy was incompatible with naming a blog and naming a particular entry. So here goes...
I wasn't planning on running two blogs at once, but I'm an idiot sometimes. Combine that with fat fingering the keyboard, and you have the perfect storm of confusion.
In this particular blog I am going to be more personal, and hope that folks will take that to heart when they attempt to rip me a new one. I still expect civility in the commentary. SO, here goes.
I was raised in what is best described as a Christian home. My mother was church-going and my father became agnostic after my older brother was diagnosed with cerebral palsey. The particul denomination shall remain nameless, because there are still far toomany who don't deem it to be a Christian church at all, but a cult. Sigh.
Anyhow, as I begin my fifth decade of life on this planet, I have become disillusioned with organized religion. I typify myself as areligious. I still very much believe in God; I am a deist. I also lean to pan-theism - the idea that all religions (at there core) are striving to return their followers to some sort of union or communion with God (or a higher power, a higher level of being from this mortal realm).
Yes, yes, I know there is currently a book out about how God is NOT one. And in some respects I do agree with the author. We cannot unite people of varying religious beliefs by claiming that this version of God and that version of God are compatible, and tha "our" religions are thus compatible. That is not true. They can't be, they aren't or the religions would have found commonality long before now. God is God, but how different cultures, and how even people who have culture in common, but believe in and conceive of God differently means that how God is thought of is different.
I also still believe in a figure called Jesus Christ. Even with all of my questions and doubts about the life this person led during what is NOT reported in the Bible, I think that he taught a very compelling way to live. And I attempt to live up to it, though being an imperfect man, I fail as often as I accomplish this goal.
Questions about Christ you say. How can anyone have questions. All that needs to be known is in the Bible, right. I say no. What was his life like from about age 12 to age 30. Where did he go, Did he not teach and preach and learn and grow during this time? If he is the savior of mankind, why did he limit himself to an out of the way spot in what is now known as the Middle East. Why wouldn't he get married? If he didn't get married isn't that odd? He should have been a husband and father by this time in his life. It would have been out of place and made him less likely to be taken seriously were he not, wouldn't it? Where does what Saul/Paul say that Christ taught find it's basis in one of the Gospels?
Along with my other "ist's" I am also a peaceist. A peaceist is differnt than a pacifist, in that turning the other cheek does not mean that evil is not fought against. That righteous anger has a place, and that defense of self and others is a good and right act. If we are made in the image of God, then allowing ourselves to NOT protect that image is not showing love to God. Not protecting other human beings from evil is not showing love to God nor to our fellow man; thus violating both the first and second greatest commandments. One does not preemptively strike, as a peacist. One does not seek to have a physical confrontation, but should evil arise, and it becomes necessary to protect the life of yourself or of those you love, know or even of a stranger threatened by evil, one will act.
So, I have opened myself up to you. I have made myself vulnerable to your thoughts, your words, your. I hope a healthy discussion ensues.
Some of you may have seen this, as it was originally published under a different blogspot that I accidentally created on 12/20/10. Sadly, my tech savvy was incompatible with naming a blog and naming a particular entry. So here goes...
I wasn't planning on running two blogs at once, but I'm an idiot sometimes. Combine that with fat fingering the keyboard, and you have the perfect storm of confusion.
In this particular blog I am going to be more personal, and hope that folks will take that to heart when they attempt to rip me a new one. I still expect civility in the commentary. SO, here goes.
I was raised in what is best described as a Christian home. My mother was church-going and my father became agnostic after my older brother was diagnosed with cerebral palsey. The particul denomination shall remain nameless, because there are still far toomany who don't deem it to be a Christian church at all, but a cult. Sigh.
Anyhow, as I begin my fifth decade of life on this planet, I have become disillusioned with organized religion. I typify myself as areligious. I still very much believe in God; I am a deist. I also lean to pan-theism - the idea that all religions (at there core) are striving to return their followers to some sort of union or communion with God (or a higher power, a higher level of being from this mortal realm).
Yes, yes, I know there is currently a book out about how God is NOT one. And in some respects I do agree with the author. We cannot unite people of varying religious beliefs by claiming that this version of God and that version of God are compatible, and tha "our" religions are thus compatible. That is not true. They can't be, they aren't or the religions would have found commonality long before now. God is God, but how different cultures, and how even people who have culture in common, but believe in and conceive of God differently means that how God is thought of is different.
I also still believe in a figure called Jesus Christ. Even with all of my questions and doubts about the life this person led during what is NOT reported in the Bible, I think that he taught a very compelling way to live. And I attempt to live up to it, though being an imperfect man, I fail as often as I accomplish this goal.
Questions about Christ you say. How can anyone have questions. All that needs to be known is in the Bible, right. I say no. What was his life like from about age 12 to age 30. Where did he go, Did he not teach and preach and learn and grow during this time? If he is the savior of mankind, why did he limit himself to an out of the way spot in what is now known as the Middle East. Why wouldn't he get married? If he didn't get married isn't that odd? He should have been a husband and father by this time in his life. It would have been out of place and made him less likely to be taken seriously were he not, wouldn't it? Where does what Saul/Paul say that Christ taught find it's basis in one of the Gospels?
Along with my other "ist's" I am also a peaceist. A peaceist is differnt than a pacifist, in that turning the other cheek does not mean that evil is not fought against. That righteous anger has a place, and that defense of self and others is a good and right act. If we are made in the image of God, then allowing ourselves to NOT protect that image is not showing love to God. Not protecting other human beings from evil is not showing love to God nor to our fellow man; thus violating both the first and second greatest commandments. One does not preemptively strike, as a peacist. One does not seek to have a physical confrontation, but should evil arise, and it becomes necessary to protect the life of yourself or of those you love, know or even of a stranger threatened by evil, one will act.
So, I have opened myself up to you. I have made myself vulnerable to your thoughts, your words, your. I hope a healthy discussion ensues.
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