Atheists And Christians Community Blog - Latest Comments in Weary

Re: Weary

Blissfit — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:07:07 -0000

Mike, who makes it interesting? You do!

Some Christians would not see it all that interesting and interpret it into whatever they want, just like Christian leaders have interpreted the Bible into what they want. For example, the core Christian belief of Jesus suffering incredible pain to pay the punishment price of His believer's sins or wrongdoing. That is an absolutely ridiculous way for someone of Jesus' stature to save people but that is what Christianity fervently preaches because that's the way they want to see it.

You can make anything in life, and life itself, whatever you want it to be. It's called free will but you must be healthy in mind and body for your creation to be good and worthwhile. The main idea of the Art and Science of Funology page on my blog is: our Creator granted us free will to either feel bad and create problems or to feel good and promote our health, wealth and wisdom; the better we feel — the more miraculous our creation; the more pain or lack we feel — the more disastrous our creation.

Re: Weary

Mike aka MonolithTMA — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:36:46 -0000

Thanks, Dhanamjaya, you always have such an interesting perspective. :-)

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Blissfit — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:22:44 -0000

The present, the gift of right now, is fortunately what you've accepted more than most. And that's wonderful because how you feel in the present is all you ever will have as Truth. The way to full blown truth is to cultivate a truly healthy heart. That is, have fun in thought and action, exercise, eat healthy wholesome food. And as you continue sincerely believing in your unencumbered feelings you will be going more and more in the direction of Truth.

And if Jesus did exist as a representative of full blown Truth then you are following much closer to Him than most devout/zombie Christians.

I recently read in another Life Coach blog, “You are on this journey to learn to trust yourself.” Keep on trusting your unencumbered feelings and you will enjoy the True Freedom of Life. Life is Freedom.

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Mike aka MonolithTMA — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:17:35 -0000

Agreed. I still find reading this stuff interesting though.

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boomSLANG — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:44:49 -0000

Mike aka Monolith: "Out of curiosity, who would you recommend?"

In a sense, ' kind of self-defeating, because it's almost guaranteed(with supporting evidence above) that the Theist will recommend only companion books that support their chosen deity. If the suggestion is that "Truth" is found in religiously revealed "knowledge", then one shouldn't limit themselves to one philosophy, right? Why not explore Mormonism, Jainism, Buddhism, etc., etc., etc., etc., too?

Also, I respectfully take issue with the notion that "God" - presumably an "Omniscient", "Omnipotent", and "Omni-present" being - is "still pursuing you"(Mike). Seriously now, said being knows precisely what it would take to reconvert you. Your "free will" shouldn't be a factor, because you can still exercise your "free will" to reject this "God", even if it "caught you" in its "pursuit" of you.

Boom'.

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Mike aka MonolithTMA — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:35:42 -0000

Thanks, Sandra. I revisit those experiences on occasion in my mind. I realized that I had similar if not identical experiences in other parts of my life. Perhaps there is something greater causing them than the endorphins coursing through our bodies. I've prayed asking about those times, asking if there is something I am missing now. I'm still waiting for an answer, and perhaps I will get it some day. As I stare out my window right now, looking at the golden sun touching the tree tops, with the crisp blue sky as a back drop, I realize that right now, it doesn't matter to me. Maybe it will again someday, but right now, I'm just going to drink in life one day at a time. :-)

Thank you for your kind words. I hope you will continue to read and comment here.

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BlogLady — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:35:17 -0000

You have a fascinating story. I was raised a Christian, but my perception of God has changed over the years. I have had many spiritual experiences that likely would not be sanctioned by the church, and therefore I rarely attend. There are plenty of us "free" and thinking believers who have chosen NOT to force the Creator into a box of an absolute persona defined by any of the various denominations that claim to be the only way. The difference between us and you, I guess, is that we cannot invalidate or abandon our experiences and so we continue to seek the truth, just as you do. Our perspective is different, because we still believe in the universal source of power. Sorry to ramble - my point is - Whatever your decisions, I applaud your decision to "think."

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Mike aka MonolithTMA — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:08:02 -0000

Thanks Bro. :-)

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Jonathan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:03:17 -0000

Hey all, Mike is a very close friend of mine. Since I have known him (In our early teens) he has always been sincere. No one I know has tried harder to understand the world and universe around him. It's too bad you all could not have sat in on some of our great conversations concerning these things you are discussing over the years. The older i get the more I grow silent. Listening more is a good thing In my opinion.

Just so you know, Karla, Matt, etc. someone is doing just that.

Re: Weary

Mike aka MonolithTMA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:19:14 -0000

Yes, I read the first one and have the other two on my list as well as Tomorrow's God. I like Walsch. I think he's sincere and I like a lot of the ideas he shares.

Re: Weary

Blissfit — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:12:04 -0000

Have you read Conversations with God?
Walsch tells his story that how he got started talking to God was when he was at his wits end or you might say very weary.

Re: Weary

Mike aka MonolithTMA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:02:17 -0000

Thanks Dhanamjaya. I vaguely remember Laugh In, It was a few years before my time.

You mentioned Neale Donald Walsch, it sounds like your ideas would not be entirely incompatible with his. Interesting stuff!

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Blissfit — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:34:29 -0000

@ Mike and Matt

Did you guys every watch TVs Laugh-In comedy hour in the '60s. They had this heavy set dumb looking Nazi soldier show up, now and again saying, "Veeery interesting, but stupid." I know my comment above (Christianity is upside down) probably sounds stupid or moronic to most people.

But thanks for asking how I got there Mike. That is a very very good question, but I would have to write my autobiography here to answer it completely. I will make a few good points about it here and also recommend you guys take a look at my blog @ http://www.fortuneflourishi... where I am discussing how I arrived at Christianity being upside down as well as where I am going with it. I am in the process of writing a book entitled Fortune Flourisng Fun and my blog is to help me write by discussing it with people around the globe. So any pro or con comments and/or questions you guys have are welcome. Hopefully you will learn some useful things there as well.

In '73 I opened my heart to Jesus without any middlemen like Ray Comfort or Billy Graham. It was and always has been just Jesus and me without Bible study, sermons, church, or any kind of brotherhood. You see, I was born with Asberger's syndrome, which is a mild type of autism that gives people weak social skills. I have always shied away from social groups and gatherings because I feel very uncomfortable with them. However I am breaking through that know more and more.

Jesus and I have not had conversations, like Neale Donald Walch in Conversations with God, but I know a lot of my ideas are coming from Him, aka the Way and the Truth and the Life. I feel Jesus organized many experiences and events in my life because He needs someone to turn Christianity right-side up.

As I said on Matt's blog the Way and the Truth and the Life is back enlightening people to the real value or truth of things. And your comments below say to me that the Way and the Truth and the Life has influenced your beliefs to be more truthful.

As Miceal Ledwith, Biblical scholar and former adviser to the Pope writes, "If you believe it is as easy for us to read and understand the New Testament as it is to read and understand the morning newspaper, then you would probably have to concede that this is so. But the Bible, even the New Testament, comes out of a time and culture that is as far removed from us today as it is possible to imagine. Its techniques of communication have little in common with the techniques of the New York Times or The Washington Post. It is far more close to the techniques used by fiction writers of genius in our own day, such as JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, or Jonathan Swift in former times."

I have been trying to imagine how people could live in the time of Jesus without the modern conveniences (hot water, AC, toilets, internet, beds without cockroaches etc....) A big part of turning Christianity rightside up is knowing how stories can change a lot from one person to another, let alone from 2000 years ago and a culture it is hard to imagine. My therory is based on how the Greek word that has been translated in the Bible to faith meant something quite different from how we define it. I think the Greek word translated must have some feel good or fun connotation to it. I wonder if the Greeks even had a word for fun.

And the word sin is a very interesting word. It is my conviction that the word that has been translated to sin from Greek meant something more like being dumb shit and hurting onself. Because if we have a definition of God being Almighty it is not possible to offend Him or do something He doesn't like; God made us in His image with free will so we have a choice about everything. You have choosen and created everything in your life without exception. Jesus chose not suffer, and it was an absolute no-brainer for someone who had performed miracles all His life to end suffering. Jesus even chose to come back from the dead. The tagline of my blog and a summary of Jesus' message about human life is: Joy is certain, death is optional.

Finally, you choose based on how you feel about something. If you feel good about it you will probably stay with it; and if you feel uncomfortable you will let it go. And as I discuss on my site the better you feel the more good luck and success you will have. And that is because you will be enlivening your almighty image of God.

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Mike aka MonolithTMA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:32:40 -0000

It's almost like someone flipped a switch.

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Matt Oxley — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:39:22 -0000

I totally know how you feel man...i still cant explain half of my former life...nor my almost polarizing change in beliefs

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Mike aka MonolithTMA — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:34:42 -0000

That is a very interesting perspective. How did you arrive at these conclusions?

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Blissfit — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:00:05 -0000

Christianity is upside down believing that Jesus suffered on the cross. It would be the ultimate irony that the Christian faith, with its core belief of Jesus suffering to pay a price, turned out to be the prophesied anti-Christ. Because suffering is anti-Christ since it is what He miraculously saved many people from His entire public life. And on top of the fact that by definition it is impossible for God to suffer, why would Jesus not save himself from suffering on the cross, as He did with every other suffering person, or group of people, He encountered?

Now the above upside down Christian belief further deludes devout Christians, as well as people in other religions, into preaching and believing the backward advice that one should look forward to going to heaven in the future as the result, or reward, of action in the present. Because as everyone knows, the problem with looking forward to results is it prevents or distracts one's full enjoyment of what he or she does in the present, and thereby miss out on the wise council of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, “The reward of a thing well done is having done it.”

I propose Heaven and Hell are in one's present experience of good and bad respectively; and when we drop our body, and we are beyond time and space, Heaven and Hell will be the sum total of all the good and bad we experienced as an image of God on Earth. And if one has not done justice to his or her self, experiencing the wonders of living in the image of God, they will be remorseful like having sold a diamond for the price of spinach.

Re: Weary

Mike aka MonolithTMA — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:55:30 -0000

Here's a thread I found when I searched for C.S. Lewis and pluralist. Right at the top is the passage I was recalling.

Was C.S. Lewis a pluralist?

Here is the passage:

"from pg176 of Mere Christianity:

There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example, a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain other points. Many of the good Pagans long before Christ’s birth may have been in this position."

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Karla — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:47:52 -0000

Hmm, I don't recall that. I know he talks about the truth of God being reflected in all religions and mythologies but I think he always says Jesus is the way.

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Karla — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:46:40 -0000

I've heard people say both what your saying and what your friend said. I grew up reading his children's series The Chronicles of Narnia. I've read them countless times. Then in college I got into all his philosophical books and I've just about read all of them. I have a few more to go. I've always enjoyed his style of writing. It's rather heady at times though.

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Cyberkitten — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:29:12 -0000

karla said: "Miracles" and "Mere Christianity" are excellent by C.S. Lewis if you like very intellectual books.

[laughs] I was lent 'Mere Christianity' by a christian @ work who (maybe) hoped to convert me - apparently the Lewis book did it for him. After struggling with the badly constructed 'arguments' I gave up after the first 3 sections and gave him his book back. I found it to be terribly written nonsense and *really* struggled to think how it could have convinced anyone to become a Christian.

Re: Weary

Mike aka MonolithTMA — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:07:02 -0000

I'd have to find it, but I'm almost positive that in Mere Christianity Lewis talks about some people of other faiths being saved or something like that. Not all of them mind you.

Re: Weary

Mike aka MonolithTMA — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:02:46 -0000

I find it unlikely that if God exists, he would be so small as to not be able to communicate to people regardless of their proximity to the middle east and those 66 books. if Christianity is true, then I want to believe in it.

Totally off topic:
I'm not liking the way these comments are getting squished here. Oh well. ;-)

Re: Weary

Karla — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:58:45 -0000

Is your main concern about Christianity believing in something that excludes other paths to knowing God?

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Karla — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:56:52 -0000

I've never seen anything pluralistic by Lewis. He did speak of how the ancient myths shined the truth of God and helped draw Him to the reality of Christianity.

You know Strobel was an atheist when he embarked on his Case For Christ research. I found it in line with all the other books I've read on the topic from many different authors and experts. I try to read nearly 50 books a year. I typically average 40 a year but I strive for 52.

I did enjoy the Lotus and the Cross. I've read every book by Ravi and have many DVD's, CD's and attended two lectures.

Check out The Real Face of Atheism and see what you think.