Up to this point on this blog, I have been cautious to be honest but not say too much about my experience as a follower of Jesus. The order of first importance was establishing a base we might call “trust,” as far as that is possible in the cyber world. To those outside of any religion, the theology and practice of the faith seems foolish. Even a great deal of what a Buddhist thinks escapes me, and more about how their practice has any real benefit to them or the world. Therefore, to speak too soon in any mixed crowd is to come off foolish. Now that we have engaged in several “conversations”, I hope that, even though not all would agree with me, most would not think me stupid in what I have to say. With that said, I am going to begin introducing more of my thoughts and experiences of faith open to the general friendly critique and questions of all.

There is a key way that I think I experience God. It might be termed “emergence,” but really I have no good terminology for it save the theological term “revelation”. Over the course of a day or several days or a week or more time, a pattern of experiences and thoughts will emerge that are interrelated. They seem to be saying something to me. Usually it is something of immediate relevance to my life and development. Often it will be needed in the next conversation or in engagement with an issue in coming hours or days. It is seldom anything I am thinking about before hand - before the first occurrence warms me to it. And then, while I am still pondering the first, more will occur in astounding frequency and clarity.

Continue reading The IS/OUGHT Dichotomy

Drunkentune and I (soulster) thought we’d like to send each other some questions via email and share the answers with the readers of this blog. Here are three questions by drunkentune concerning my understanding of Christianity:

Drunkentune: Dominionism [wiki] is in part control of all parts of being: the control of the mind within congregation, the control of the dominionist’s body and the bodies of those that violate the dominionist’s rules of conduct, be them homosexual or abortionist, and ultimately, control over the environment. Calvinism [wiki] is the requisition of control to a higher power and absolving all responsibility. I see that all classes of Christianity have different interpretations of scripture that seem to pull from different worldviews existing independently of the Bible or their belief. A Christian may find any message he chooses in the Bible to fit his worldview, or a verse may reinforce such a worldview that had only begun to grow. Is it possible to learn what Jesus meant, or is it that, since Jesus’ words have been used historically for any purpose, is it worth it to even attempt such an endeavor?

Continue reading Drunkentune’s Christianty Questions

I stumbled upon a Nova program entitled “What About God?” on Google Video which details students from conservative Christian backgrounds encountering evolutionary theory at Wheaton College, a conservative Christian university in the Midwest: watch it here [PBS/Nova | 54 min]. If you watch this program with very human eyes, it will give some keen insight into the issues at stake for Christians concerning evolutionary theory.

Continue reading Faith Struggling with Evolution

Our reader AV has coined a new term derived from this blog, "Philaletheists," over at Five Public Opinions.  That rocks.  If it should ever make it into a dictionary, I'll flip out.

He also points out an article on Jewcy called Why Are Atheists so Angry? where the "Atheist Evangelist" Sam Harris and popular talk-show host Dennis Prager debate.  In emails, they have four days to answer "The Big Question".  It's not quite clear if the big question is the title ( apparently as badly worded as my own "Can Atheists be Good?") or the existence of God, because the posts seem to be about the latter without regard to the former.

After talking for a while about Prager's lack of an argument or cheap tricks, AV asked:

On the other hand, it would be interesting to hear what a theist makes of Harris' arguments.

Continue reading Responding to Sam Harris on Jewcy

On the post Faith and the Bible, drunkentune asked one of our readers, ben, this question:

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you two personal questions: 1. Why did you choose the particular form of theism you practice now over other forms of theism? 2. Why in the end did you choose faith? To me, that sounds like a false dichotomy. The choices seem to me to be instead of religion vs. atheism, it's more fitting to be all reigions vs. each other, vs. atheism.

To which ben answered:

Answering #2 first, I chose faith partly because atheism depressed the hell out of me and seemed unlikely, and as long as I was 50/50 on what the truth was, I might as well go with the one that seems real on an intuitive level. Not exactly up to the standards of science, but life moves fast and I needed to begin.

Continue reading Believers: Why do you believe?

I. Introduction: Evolution, you say?

As the first real issue I examine, I think it fair to analyze the two most popular theories for the evolution of religion. You, the believer, must understand: to an atheist [specifically, a naturalist such as I], religion can be explained without resorting to God or the supernatural. In fact, it is necessary for the atheist to do so, since if I were to use Occam’s razor in atheism’s favor, it would be in the atheist’s interest to definitively show that religion is not a construct separate from the natural world. If all the evidence pointed in the direction of religion being a construct separate from the natural world, one would beg the question: Did something unnatural create it? Atheism would be on shaky ground, and I recognize this possibility.
Continue reading The Evolution of Religion: Is Religion Natural?