If You Don't Agree, I Don't Care
I am a Christian and I am paranoid. There is a plot afoot to discredit my beliefs. It is not by radical Islamics or others who haven't figured out yet you can't change someone's ideas by blowing them up. The media is as culpable and more sinister, they visit our living rooms on a regular basis. And it's not just Christianity they're after, they're out to get God.
Just to make things a little more interesting let me explain my concept of God. I can't because how can we wrap our minds around something we can't imagine? The Old Testament Jews went through the name thing and after given a name which was unpronounceable they figured out a way to pronounce it. And when they pronounced it they defined it and by defining we place limitations. Whether our vision of deity is a mental image or a physical symbol what our nature leads to is, well, visual. But as Joseph Campbell said, "The best things can't be told". In this case no matter how hard we try the best thing cannot be visualized, it can't even be conceived.
The news on NBC really got my goat the other night when they continued as they put it "the story that just won't go away" because NBC news and other media keep harping on it. Yes, my friends, it was the great Christmas/Holiday debate. Why did they have to put the BIG, red (communist plot?) "X" through "Merry Christmas" in the introduction of the segment. Why use the BIG, red "X " at all.
Another thing, and here I'm on shaky ground because I don't usually watch those TV shows about religion unless they're on PBS and then they're suspect. There was that one "Joan of Arcadia" where God kept turning up as various humans. So, if, as Nietze pointed out "God is dead" lets replace with a psychic plumber from Omaha. Now I see there's a new one coming on called "The Book of Daniel". The Daniel of the Old Testament is an interpreter of dreams and a seer of visions who prophesies the coming of Christ. The promo's I see for this new show has a cleric driving down the road talking to the stereotypical white, long haired, bearded, white robe Jesus figure. Who knows what the rest of that message is going to be. And those shows that purport to either find or not find evidence to support any view are really foolish. The one thing common to all religions is faith. If we find evidence then we quantify and faith is no longer necessary.
Our "words" form our concepts except ever since Thomas Hobbes came along we define our words to mean what we want them to mean. Case in point "intelligent design". Is this some giant "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" brain sitting at a intergalactic drafting table pumping out graphics? Or a cosmic spreadsheet entitled "Plan for the Planet Earth and Environs"? Maybe it's that evolution is an intentional process but if so whose intent is it?
Everyone has a beliefs in something or other and that's O.K. with me. I, like everyone else, think mine are correct. So just leave them alone. It's taken me a long time and a lot of study and the grace of God to form them. All I know is that that inconceivable, unknowable, unquantifiable, Being has blessed me in many ways and if people would just mellow out and quit being all unto themselves they could get some of the same.
This attack is not going to stop in my lifetime if ever. But one thing I'm sure of and that's who'll be the victor. God has survived many battles over many centuries simply because the combatants had no idea what they were up against.
Just to make things a little more interesting let me explain my concept of God. I can't because how can we wrap our minds around something we can't imagine? The Old Testament Jews went through the name thing and after given a name which was unpronounceable they figured out a way to pronounce it. And when they pronounced it they defined it and by defining we place limitations. Whether our vision of deity is a mental image or a physical symbol what our nature leads to is, well, visual. But as Joseph Campbell said, "The best things can't be told". In this case no matter how hard we try the best thing cannot be visualized, it can't even be conceived.
The news on NBC really got my goat the other night when they continued as they put it "the story that just won't go away" because NBC news and other media keep harping on it. Yes, my friends, it was the great Christmas/Holiday debate. Why did they have to put the BIG, red (communist plot?) "X" through "Merry Christmas" in the introduction of the segment. Why use the BIG, red "X " at all.
Another thing, and here I'm on shaky ground because I don't usually watch those TV shows about religion unless they're on PBS and then they're suspect. There was that one "Joan of Arcadia" where God kept turning up as various humans. So, if, as Nietze pointed out "God is dead" lets replace with a psychic plumber from Omaha. Now I see there's a new one coming on called "The Book of Daniel". The Daniel of the Old Testament is an interpreter of dreams and a seer of visions who prophesies the coming of Christ. The promo's I see for this new show has a cleric driving down the road talking to the stereotypical white, long haired, bearded, white robe Jesus figure. Who knows what the rest of that message is going to be. And those shows that purport to either find or not find evidence to support any view are really foolish. The one thing common to all religions is faith. If we find evidence then we quantify and faith is no longer necessary.
Our "words" form our concepts except ever since Thomas Hobbes came along we define our words to mean what we want them to mean. Case in point "intelligent design". Is this some giant "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" brain sitting at a intergalactic drafting table pumping out graphics? Or a cosmic spreadsheet entitled "Plan for the Planet Earth and Environs"? Maybe it's that evolution is an intentional process but if so whose intent is it?
Everyone has a beliefs in something or other and that's O.K. with me. I, like everyone else, think mine are correct. So just leave them alone. It's taken me a long time and a lot of study and the grace of God to form them. All I know is that that inconceivable, unknowable, unquantifiable, Being has blessed me in many ways and if people would just mellow out and quit being all unto themselves they could get some of the same.
This attack is not going to stop in my lifetime if ever. But one thing I'm sure of and that's who'll be the victor. God has survived many battles over many centuries simply because the combatants had no idea what they were up against.
posted by The MacBean Gene at 12:13 AM
3 Comments:
I like this wonderful post affirming your Faith, protecting your beliefs, and admitting that God can't be described. We can know Him through his Prophets, through his creation, and through the relationship we have with Him. Everyone's relationship will be different.
And, there will always be people who construct, and those who deconstruct our Faith, motivated by their own ego and the course of their lives.Those who 'deconstruct' others beliefs often have had miserable efforts to construct a workable Faith, so they spend time deconstructing other peoples beliefs, so they will feel some sort of affirmation and alliance. Its good to catch on to this, early on, to save yourself some grief. It sure has helped me make sense of the storm of beliefs in my extended family.
There is this device some people use to elevate their own self worth which necessitates the degredation of the self worth of others. On the cultural level it becomes one of the tenents of totalitarianism.
Thanks for the nice comment, Bonita, and adding me to your blogroll.
I have always believed it was a free country and what ever floats one's boat is fine with me-as long as I am not required to man the oars.
I read on another site this morning a quote that I like-"the ACLU is giving us athiests a bad rap." Although I am not an athiest I have to agree. I figure that if I want my beliefs respected then I have to respect the beliefs of others.
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