Whether or not you identify with any specific religion, you probably believe something about the world and your place in it. You might place your faith in a pantheon of deities, the small voice of inner wisdom that advises you when you most need it, or your own personal strength and will. This week, we'll look at your spiritual beliefs as first taught to you in childhood, and how they've developed as you've walked the path to your grown-up life.
What are your beliefs? What are they based on?
This week's theme is spiritual beliefs.
I was raised Lutheran but the bible stories I learned as a child seemed irrational as I grew into adulthood. Then I read a few books by bible scholars like (Bart Ehrman, Karen Armstrong, John Shelby Spong) and came to learn that my religious education very conservative and close-minded.
ReplyDeleteI also learned that numerous bible scholars have detected over 30,000 differences in various ancient scrolls (the bible's source) and that this information was suppressed from the public for various reasons.
For example, did you know that the books of the Christian New Testament have been ordered to make the reader believe in miracles? If the New Testament is placed in chronological order by publication date, the first books (written by Paul) contain no miracles while the last books contain numerous miracles in size and number.
So "is the bible the inerrant word of God" or "is it a second century creation to control citizens of the Roman empire"? I have always believed in God but suspect that religion is man-made and corrupt (so I guess I have shifted from Theist to Deist). This shift continues futher whenever I hear episodes of sectarian irrationalism (the murder of abortion doctors especially when abortion is legal and government controlled; people refusing life-saving blood transfusions for their children; family members blocking euthanasia of elderly relatives in extreme pain (better for them to be in pain than take a chance with ticking-off god?); people sending life-savings to television evangelists rather than assisting the poor in their own communities; etc.)
I recently became aware that many of the American Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, to only name 4) were also Deists and many were in agreement with the Philadelphia publisher, Thomas Paine. Eight decades later we find that people, like Abraham Lincoln, still quoting lines from Paine's publications.
QUESTION: So if the American Founding Fathers created a nation based upon the separation of church and state, why do modern Americans speak about their country as a christian nation?
ANSWER: lies from the pulpit.
If god is watching us I am certain he is mad as hell with what we are doing to each other in his name.
p.s. In this blog I have been pretty hard on Christianity. Both Islamists and Jews are being lied to as well. We all need to think before we act. This is what it means to be human.
"ANSWER: lies from the pulpit."
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the factual refernces in your posting here but as a Christian doing research in this area want to say something. I have read many such discourses--similar to what is given here--and have issue with one thing: They begin laboring to show the reasoning and factuality of their asserions and end with the direct or indirect point that "Christians" are the opposite sort of people.
Many Christians are uniformed--including their theological teachers and writings. That does not make them "liars" or "stupid" or "universally ignorant--any more than all non-believers are bigoted, intolerant intellectuals who desdpise all people of religious belief.
"If god is watching us I am certain he is mad as hell with what we are doing to each other in his name."
I'm sure he is...as well as with those who invoke it with the goal to demean people who have considered it in a way another might disagree with.