I just discovered Bill Bailey on youtube and have been enjoying him. Here are two of his clips
11-02-2007 |
5 Comments »
I also posted this on Friendly Christian today
A few years ago I realized acceptance is essential to living a happy life. It also occurred to me that acceptance may be simpler for atheists.
When Christians encounter personal suffering or tragedy, there’s always a ‘why’ question that has to be dealt with, namely:
“Why did God, who is all-powerful and claims to love me, allow this to happen?”
When atheists encounter personal suffering or tragedy (any type which isn’t directly caused by another human), it’s ‘just the way it is’. There’s no person behind it to ask ‘why?’ to.
I think this makes such things easier to accept (not easy, but easier) than if God is in the picture. What do you think?
10-29-2007 |
15 Comments »I found this on Mike Clawson’s blog, Emerging Pensees
10-13-2007 |
8 Comments »We went to see Evan Almighty yesterday afternoon. I enjoyed it.
The name indicates it’s a sequel to Bruce Almighty. God’s interactions with Evan and Bruce are somewhat different though. In Bruce Almighty Bruce challenges God and God responds by saying “Ok, let’s see how you would do at my job” and gives Bruce all his powers. In Evan Almighty Evan doesn’t challenge God. He asks God to help him change the world and God says “Ok, build an ark for me”.
This movie comes about as close as anything I’ve seen to depicting the way God interacts with people in the Bible. God shows up unexpectedly and asks people to do things he says are important, which tend to be unusual and extremely inconvenient. It would be nice if God also appeared to the family and friends of those people and said “Yes, I really did tell them to do this!” But God often chooses not to do that, leaving the people the challenge of convincing others they are not crazy but rather are doing what God asked them to do. Read the rest of this entry »
06-25-2007 |
11 Comments »Ken Trainor, the newspaper editor who invited me to write about not going to church anymore, wrote an editorial this week, “Professing what God is not“. I was interested to read what he himself believes about God. His editorial ends this way (which explains the title of it)
Though I don’t feel judged by this silent omnipresence, I do feel high expectations. Never disappointment, just steady, unrelenting, high expectations. Encouraging me to be more than I am now. Much, much more than I am now.
At church on Sundays, we profess a “creed,” but sometimes I think we would be better off professing an “anti-creed” because we have a better shot at stating what God is not:
God is not a promise-keeper; God does not make bad things happen to us; God does not abandon us; God is beyond imagining, but not beyond sensing; God is not violent and does not condone violence; God is not jealous; God is not vengeful; God does not require our “worship;” God is not a God of fire and brimstone.
What God is we’ll someday find out–in due time, and that will be soon enough.
In the meantime, living up to those expectations will keep us occupied.
04-05-2007 |
Comments OffThis is my latest response in the newspaper dialog I’ve been having with Rev Lueking.
Dean, in your most recent response to me, you asked about sharing with me what you have learned from people who live in other countries. I would be happy to read about what they’ve taught you.
You also asked: “Would you or anybody else make up a God who comes to us in the form of a suffering servant, an itinerant rabbi who was nailed to a Roman cross for the sins of the world? Would you invent a risen Christ who turned traitorous disciples into trustworthy witnesses with Good News to spread, down through the centuries, even to us in our time?”
I think you were implying the answer is “No.” However, I can’t categorically say that no one would make up a God like that. People are creative, and the stories they make up are sometimes strange, unusual, moving and beautiful.
My own feelings about this story are deep and very mixed. I see beauty in the sacrificial love and humility in it. On the other hand, it’s very hard for me to accept that the only way God could rescue humanity would be to require the bloodshed and brutality of the cross. That part drives me to wonder: Is this really the best story that ever could be told, or is it only the best story anyone could tell 2,000 years ago? Which would mean it’s long overdue for an update, since people have learned many things in the last 2,000 years. I apologize if that sounds very irreverent. I don’t know how to stop asking these questions without giving up a part of what it means to me to be human. Read the rest of this entry »
03-15-2007 |
4 Comments »JoAnn wrote the following comment on the first-time visitor’s page:
God and His teachings are absolute. To understand God one must be touched by His Holy Spirit to understand and believe as God would have us to believe. The bible states..”Lean not on your own understanding”…. and He will make your paths straight. There are no gray areas when it comes to God..
01-02-2007 |
15 Comments »I’ve heard the term “respect for God’s creation” a number of times, but until recently, I don’t think I’d heard anyone talk about “respect for God.” That phrase came up at the end of a videotaped lecture I watched this week by Ken Miller, a Catholic biologist. In the question-and-answer session, he was asked how he reconciled his scientific beliefs (in evolution, and against intelligent design) with his religious beliefs. He said that he took the position on this issue that he felt was more respectful of God. It was clear in how Ken Miller spoke about it that he meant “respecting God” not “respecting God’s creation” — he was referring to God’s ability to plan and design, not just the end result of God’s designs. Read the rest of this entry »
09-21-2006 |
32 Comments »Yesterday’s Running To Win radio broadcast opened with this statement:
Looked at from our standpoint, to be egotistical is wrong because we have no right to be egotistical. But looked at in the right way, yes, God is egotistical, but He has a right to be, because to him everything funnels into His glory and into His plan.
I’d be interested to hear the following from atheists, Christians and people inbetween:
08-31-2006 |
71 Comments »Yesterday JG asked the following questions in comment #14 on My Response to Rev. Lueking:
08-04-2006 |
3 Comments »