Everyone Is An “Unbeliever!”

Did you ever think about the idea that everyone is a notorious “unbeliever”? Yes, even YOU… and ME TOO! Of course you are. If you are a Christian believer then there are literally countless faiths that you DO NOT believe it. For the same reason that you do not believe in someone else’s religion, they do not believe in yours. So, if you are a dedicated believer and enjoying it, just remember you are simultaneously enjoying NOT believing in something else. Now, if you are not enjoying your believing, you can do just like me… just flip the thing over and enjoy your unbelieving.

Scientific Methods vs. Creationist Methods

Mary found this cartoon that made me laugh! It really does express much of my own thoughts today about religion. Tell me what you think… The cartoon itself has copyright restrictions, so I cannot just post it, but you can find it here… http://www.cesame-nm.org/images/articles/trever_small.gif

You can’t see the horizon with a bag on your head!

I think wrapping your mind up in a system of belief carries with it an inherent trap of blindness. It happens when you accept as truth the whole of a belief system with an all or nothing view point. Analysis (i.e. critical thinking), which is such a wonderful and vital function of the human mind, is literally shut off. Questioning the validity of traditional and core beliefs is often considered the attack of “the enemy”. In this mindset, success and growth are determined, not by actual development of thought and understanding, but by how fast and how thoroughly you can assimilate the dogma of your chosen belief.

This does not mean you shouldn’t believe in something or someone. Deep individual convictions can be the result of meaningful experiences and cultivated personal knowledge. However, you are destined for blindness if the source of your convictions is unquestioned obeisance to one very old collection of writings bound into one volume and decreed to be the absolute inerrant message from Almighty God. Read it, if you are so motivated. But before you personally declare it to be the voice of God to which you and all humanity are now eternally defined, judged, and bound to… give at least equal consideration to the book’s historical and authoritative qualifications. And before you unequivocally grant “sacredness” to the pages and read them as “letters to you from God”, realize that these penned and printed histories, poems, songs, letters, and chronologies, came from the minds of men. The blind willingness to accept the notion that God spoke and then perfectly guided men to transcribe his words into an everlasting set of authoritative commandments is folly.

I suggest opening yourself, and your amazing analytical mind, to an entire world of thought. Exercise your endowed powers to reason and discover other views outside the religious island upon which so many find themselves castaways.

Godless

I’ve been thinking about the word “godless”.  Strange? Perhaps. But nonetheless interesting. In the context of my Christianity the word represented the absolute worst of circumstances. Depending on the context, describing something or someone as godless could mean anything from the simple pathetic situation of not being committed to Christ (i.e. spiritually lost), to actually acting on behalf of or in the control of the devil himself.

I, on the other hand, have been thinking of the concept of “godless” with a different perspective. In fact, as shocking as this may sound, especially to a person “of faith”, I have been living as if there is no God. And, I guess that would be “godless”.

Now, the idea of living as if there is no God might bring to mind some wild, hell-bent, drunken, immoral, and depraved existence. But actually, at least for me, it is not much different from all my so-called “believing” years. If you were to observe me on a day-to-day basis, studying what I do, where I go, how I act… I do not think you would see much, if any, calculable difference. It is, however, very different “being me!”

On the inside where I really live, the difference is dramatic. The most notable being the moment-to-moment absence of “talking to God”. I no longer “conjure up” the imaginative idea that this super all knowing, all powerful being is watching me. I am not requesting guidance from this divine presence, within or without. I am not expecting “Him” to work everything out for me because “I am His” or because “I belong to Him.”

Some might respond, “Abraham, you have become so jaded, confused, or lost in spiritual darkness… what happened to you? How did the devil get such a foot hold in your life? And I respond… do you mean how did I become so godless?” Good question and thanks so much for asking.

From a purely theological point of view… I do not think our believing or not believing makes God exist or not exist. If indeed I am godless, it is because there is no God to begin with. And making a conscious decision to “live as if there is no God” is not the same as making an absolute declaration that, indeed, there is no God. It is more like John Lennon’s song, Imagine. The idea there was not so much a declaration about God at all, but more toward allowing yourself to experience life without trying to make everything fit into your predisposed concepts about heaven, hell, life after death, salvation, and on and on. Hence Lennon wrote, “Imagine there’s no heaven…” rather than “There is no heaven.”

My present choice to simply live without any attempt to please or communicate with a superior being (with the exception of my wife… ha!) is simply that… a present, personal, and quite fascinating choice. It is exactly the same as when I decided to become a Christian some 35 plus years ago. Then, as a 26 year old man, I looked at the evidence presented to me, sensed its validity, and chose. It was simple. It is no different now at all. And to be quite candid, I am loving the experience with a deep emotional and intellectual relish.

Is there a God? Is the Christian message “truth” above all others? I am still in the process of studying those matters and have no public declaration above what I have already disclosed here. But with the most sincere objectivity I am able to utilize, I can say the evidence is mounting that “godless” may be much closer to reality.

To blog… or not to blog… that is the question!

To blog… or not to blog… that is the question.

I blogged… and then I ceased to blog.

I thought… who am I writing for anyway?

I was really writing for myself. I was blogging in order to focus my own mind as I worked through the deconstruction of thirty years of religious thinking.

Someone asked me recently… “Abraham, are you an agnostic?”

My answer is… “every once in awhile.”

Basically I am going with what I can actually know for certain. But you know… I was the same way even when I went to church every week.

Just because you have developed an ability to rivet your consciousness on a presumably reliable and well developed belief system, does not make that belief true. My problem was that I never allowed myself to even consider alternate possibilities… to do that was a violation of my own belief system!

Today, however, I am more and more comfortable living life without having to defend or propagate a gospel.

When I hear someone taking strong stands about what they consider absolute universal truth… I listen very carefully. Are they basing their view on something verifiable, measurable, and universally applicable with overwhelming certainty? If not, I can appreciate their zeal and their devotion at being able to articulate their position and I am free to consider what I deem of value from what they have said.

“We cannot expect to persuade others if we leave no room and opportunity for them to persuade us.” J.M. Balkin

A CURIOUS THING TO ME…

IT’S A CURIOUS THING TO ME how intricate our mental machinations are when it comes to making everything fit into our particular belief system. It seems we just love believing we are right! But doesn’t it all come down to what we decide to accept as truth?

Somebody says to us… “Jesus is the way! The Bible says so.” Perhaps this message comes to us at a pivotal time in life when we have a definite sense of our neediness. Maybe we say to ourselves that this message about Jesus may actually be true. And if it is true and I ignore or run from it, I could actually be turning my back on God himself.

We may also hear of the devastating consequences of rejecting the message of Christ. Fear and uncertainty become our tormentors, driving us to make a decision.

Somehow we manage to gather our courage to step into “the light of the gospel message”. We make a personal decision to “make Jesus the Lord of our life”. Suddenly, we begin to experience the relief of having ceased to struggle against “the truth”. Chances are that we may immediately feel a definite “newness” in our being. We are reminded that this is “being born again!” We realize that we are now saved!

We also now embark on our journey to know and understand our new belief system. Everything now becomes interpreted in light of our new faith. And, of course, the “book” supposedly becomes the end of all controversy as we defer all personal judgments to the authority of “the Word of God” which is, we are reminded over and over, the Holy Bible.

Now, your particular story will be unique to you, but the same basic elements will be at work. Perhaps you have converted to Islam or Judaism, or some other religious viewpoint. Whichever belief system you embrace, a very similar dilemma arises. You are faced with the challenge and pressure  to conform your viewpoint to that particular orthodoxy. The belief you have chosen is, of course, the truth and therefore, all of life must now be interpreted from that vantage point. You can no longer be objectively open to other viewpoints because those differing viewpoints are inherently inferior to yours.

Unwittingly you have taken on the mindset of duality. People who share your faith (believe what you believe) are “IN”, while those who do not are “OUT”! That is duality. And depending on your specific dogma or doctrine, the consequences of being “OUT” can range from being labeled an “infidel” to a full fledged eternal prisoner in God’s special dungeon of torture… HELL ITSELF!

Your particular doctrinal posture will also dictate what your responsibilities are toward both the INNIES and the OUTIES (apologies to all good belly buttons here…! And, btw… where did Adam get his… or did he have one? Well, I guess we won’t go there)!

You may become so passionate about the superiority of your viewpoint that you take on the mission of persuading all people to believe as you do. In fact, you may even develop the sense that the Almighty Himself is guiding you, inspiring you, and even empowering you with special gifts and illuminations. Your very identity is now defined by the belief system to which you have become committed.

What I have just written is my own story. It may be yours as well, but it was definitely mine for over thirty years. It has taken about four more years of step by step deconstruction to divest myself of Christianity. And, I must say, it was worth it! The liberty and personal sense of peace, the very things that were so highly touted to be the very heart and soul of that religion, are now mine.

Now… before you read this and count me an adversary to your faith, please understand something very important. I do not know if Christianity is right and therefore the absolute truth, or if it is just humans attempting to construct the very best God they could think of. I really don’t know. So, I cannot be against Christianity. I simply do not define myself by that belief system any longer. On the other hand, I really like being able to give thought to other viewpoints as well as Christian.

One last thought for now. Recently a young man that I have known for some time wrote something on his Facebook page that was less than enthusiastic about church and the basic Christian worldview. One of his friends he had known many years from church read his statement and commented that he obviously had “God problems.” As my young friend began to write back asking his friend to further explain his position, the friend deleted him from his Facebook friend list. Zap… gone!

Now I believe that exchange will actually work something good in this young man’s life. But the attitude of the friend to simply cut off someone who had in the past been his good friend is rather intriguing to me. I find it is all too common a characteristic of someone defending their belief system to use “shunning” or “rejection” to communicate their distaste of other viewpoints.

I like this perspective better…

Friendship that insists upon agreement on all matters is not worth the name. Friendship to be real must ever sustain the weight of honest differences, however sharp they be. – Mahatma Gandhi

Here is an idea…

Here is an idea… one that I recommend if people really want to have an amazing experience in coming to know the truth for themselves, rather than the parroting of what others have determined.

First of all, drop everything that has to do with how you currently believe for a season of time. Please note that I did not say stop believing. Just set aside for a specified period of time all the trappings and outward practices of your faith. Things such as…

• Put your Bible away
• Stop going to church
• Put prayer down
• Stop devotional times
• Set aside witnessing

…and whatever else has become part of how you normally act out your walk with God.

Do this for a month…. or two months…. Or some definite period of time when you are allowed to simply think for yourself. Truth will not change or become lost during such a season. However, your personal perspective may change. In fact, your ideas about what truth actually is may change.

Just an idea.

Convinced you are “right”?

I really do not want to pick a fight with the Christians.

I really do not want to pick a fight… period. Do I see that tendency in me…? Yes, I can see that such encounters can seem tempting. But as I recognize that motivation, I am letting go of it. Dropping it.

There is no point in becoming snared in a debate where each one is trying to prove their viewpoint right and the other guy’s is wrong. Anthony DeMello says it like this…

“We think the world would be saved if only we could generate larger quantities of goodwill and tolerance. That’s false. What will save the world is not goodwill and tolerance but clear thinking. Of what use is it to be tolerant of others if you are convinced that you are right and everyone who disagrees with you is wrong? That isn’t tolerance but condescension. That leads not to union of hearts but to division, because you are one up and the others one down. A position that can only lead to a sense of superiority on your part and resentment on your neighbor’s, thereby breeding further intolerance.

“True tolerance only arises from a keen awareness of the abysmal ignorance of everyone as far as truth in concerned. For truth is essentially mystery. The mind can sense but cannot grasp it, much less formulate it. Our beliefs can point to it but cannot put it into words. In spite of this, people talk glowingly about the value of dialogue which at worst is a camouflaged attempt to convince the other person of the rightness of your position and at best will prevent you from becoming a frog in the well who thinks that his well is the only world there is.”

Anthony De Mello

From his book: The Way To Love – The Last Meditations of Anthony De Mello

However… that said, it is wonderful to have the privilege of engaging another human being in a true comparison of ideas and deep convictions about important issues. Here “listening” is more important than speaking.

Doubts…

“Honest and conscientious doubts could never be a sin.”

Emma Darwin, devoted wife of Charles Darwin

Friendship

Friendship that insists upon agreement on all matters is not worth the name. Friendship to be real must ever sustain the weight of honest differences, however sharp they be.

- Mahatma Gandhi