I’ve been all over the board since I was a teenager in my spiritual/religious life. My volley on the right was being a believer in the scriptures as taught by the Grandview Park Baptist Church in Des Moines as a child and as taught by the Rising Sun Church of Christ as a teenager then on to Bible College – the best year of my life. I tried to live the scriptures, gave a lot of lip service to the good and evil…as an adult, enmeshed myself in the Christian Church in Newton for several years…listened to both sides of the God argument, read, read, read.
What I found to be true for me was spiritualness. I have problems with the bible. I’m just going to put it out there…Today, at this moment, I do not believe that it is the inspired words of God. More like I think it was written by some folks in order to control the masses, control women and inspired by fear. Perhaps as an explanation of things they didn’t understand. A rule book?….compiled a few centuries later by a catholic leader.
There are far too many things going on in my head and in the universe for me to discount religion as a whole. There will be no blanket statements here…I refuse to criticize one “religion” over another and not opposed, at this point, to believing in a higher power.
I read an article this morning that President Jimmy Carter has left the southern baptist congregation. Jimmy Carter’s article makes total sense to me! I respect Jimmy Carter!
When we visited Ecuador several years ago, I was depressed about the deplorable conditions in which some people lived. My experience was mainly along the coast…the fishing villages…when I said this out loud, my x-friend, Christa said that I shouldn’t feel sorry for them…this is their life…this is what they know. I call bull shit on that one…It was a happy little way for her to justify. It did, immediately, make me feel better about the difference in my social existence and theirs. Once again, I call BS. I think that it is just nice way to say that one group of people is better than another group of people…so just let them be and live in their squalor. After all, they don’t know any better….BS. Hasn’t this chapter been written over and over in several books?l
Wow…glad to get that out…it has been bugging me for awhile.
Huffington Post comedy posted a video of David Letterman coming out of retirement as a guest on a Steve Martin and what’s his name show in Texas. He had another top ten list…this one about Donald Trump. Wow. It was great to see Dave being Dave again.
I have no compassion for ants!
Until next time…..
Ninasusan 
*through
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I think the bible can be both. It can be both the inspired word of God, and it can be wrongly used by men to control the masses and spread their own agenda.
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I’m just in a weird place, Deb!
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I like that you’re a deep thinker and working your way thought things. It’s all a good thing 🙂
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We have the word of men telling us that He existed in addition to the things He said. It’s the same way we know who Christopher Columbus was and also Socrates and Plato and Alexander the Great. Historians and others wrote down what they said and so we know about them…We have nothing from any of those in their own hand to prove who they were or what they were or if they were…thank goodness someone wrote it down.
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probably doesn’t matter though. If Jesus did write something and it was in the Bible, you wouldn’t believe it anyway…right?
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History. But no one is expecting a culture to commit themselves to those characters of history. It is perhaps an important book…biography…written about events of the past. In the authors own words of their memories as an explanation of some things they did and didn’t understand with their own filters of how they saw things and interpreted what they saw. After my trips to Rome, I soaked in the history…the stories told, the violence of the times. I accept the stories as history of our civilization but I would not swear the stories are true….nor would I commit myself to the characters in the stories.
The bible may be accurate in detail but I no longer think so. As far as the important part, I believe in a higher power. If I’m required to name it, I’ll call this higher power God. But it is semantics to me.
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So…if he’s not the son of God, was he crazy, a megalomaniac, a liar? I mean he claimed to be God for heaven’s sake. If he was just a man, that would be crazy right???? Why then isn’t everything He said suspect?
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Did Jesus actually write anything 1st person for the bible or anything that a pope thought was important enough to include…basically what we have is the word of men telling the stories after the fact and with their own filters.
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So…If Jesus is a real, historical character in your mind….how do you know that?
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I didn’t say I didn’t believe the bible. I said I do not believe it is the inspired word of God. I think it may still have historical significance. I don’t question that he existed and was a prophet and a preacher.
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So how do you feel about Jesus? To your mind, is He a real, historical person ? Is He the Son of God?
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Answering right this minute, yes…he is a real historical person.
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Sorry, the name of the book was “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by Harold S. Kushner.
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I read that book several years ago!
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This is a very controversial topic. I was raised Catholic (went to Catholic school) and have always questioned things — a reason why I wasn’t the nuns’ favorite student. Mostly because I never understood the concept of punishment and judgment. And how some people were rejected although they did no harm to others, specially those who did not cause the circumstances in their lives.
I am believer of a higher power — someone out there. I just refuse to believe all the things that are written about that “someone.” So if we were to call that someone God, in my mind he is a God of love and doesn’t want any of us to suffer.
When I was dx I read a book called “When Good Things Happen to Good People” written by a Rabbi. One quote that really attracted me was about God and how people always blame him for everything: “God did this to you.” But he brought up an interesting perspective I’ve never seen before: “What if God doesn’t have all the answers? What if he is struggling to find out the answers just like we are?” It was an interesting read so I recommend it.
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