I Believe... in Truth

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I understand that some people find Jesus/Christianity to be exclusive by claiming to be the only way to heaven. But each religion believes that it is right and by default makes nonbelievers wrong.  For this reason, I think that saying 'all paths lead to God' is being intellectually dishonest/ignorant.  That being said, at the opposite end of the spectrum we have people going around saying "Believe or die", which is just plain wrong.

The argument most people make is that it's a matter of perspective.  That heaven/salvation/paradise is at the top of a hill and each religion is approaching the hill from a different angle.  But when you compare the primary tenants of most religions you will see that we are really talking about different hills.

The problem is that truth has been hijacked.  It's been hijacked by this concept of ME.  It's definition has been twisted and perverted so that one can make ANYTHING true.  The idea is that what I believe about God is true and what a Muslim believes about God is true and what a Jew believes about God is true... and so on and so on for all religions.  But how can they all be true if they don't agree?

The answer is that we make truth relative.  If truth is simply based upon your own perspective then we can all be right!  We can all be true.  But that's a LIE!  Sure, truth looks different based upon your persepctive.  But that doesn't mean truth IS different depending on your perspective.  It means your perspective makes truth APPEAR to be different.

Have you ever gone back to a house or school from your childhood?  Everything seems so much smaller than you remember it.  The house or school didn't shrink from old age.  You grew so your perspective changed.

Truth is true absolutely.  We try to define and mould it with our own biased persepctives.  If we want to try to have a clearer view of what is true then we need to do a couple things.  The first thing we need to do is recognize our biases and let go of them.  Like getting a new pair of glasses, we need to change the way we see the world as a whole.

Next we need to compare.  We each have two eyes.  Our brain takes the image from both eyes and blends them together to get a more focused view.  When evaluating the truth we need to get as many different points of view about a single issue and compare them for similarities.  That's why in court we take into account the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses before accepting something as fact.

So truth is real and can be known, but it may not always be discernable.  Because if God created all things (including time), then God exists outside of time.  So how could my limited human brain living a linear life possibly fathom some of the truths known by God, who isn't limited by time or mind?

Finally...

I got a new monitor (& keyboard) for our NEW (refurbished) HP Tower.  It's been out of commission for a while.  And it always seemed like more important / expensive things came first.

You know, things like weddings, wedding presents, car repairs, buying a new car, and a summer vacation.  Since I had some free time after work today I grabbed a monitor (& keyboard) hooked it up and booted up the HP.

It's working GREAT!  Much faster than this piece of junk IBM ThinkPad I'm typing on right now.  The ONLY reason I'm still using it as I type is because of the oodles & oodles of updates the HP is currently enduring.

OH!  Looks like a few just finished up.  Time to reboot and then update the iPods.  w00t w00t

I Believe ... in God

I believe in God.

But I was once an atheist.  Well, technically, I was an agnostic with atheistic tendencies.  What I mean by agnostic, is that I believed there was no way to know for sure whether or not a god, goddess, gods, or goddesses exist.  So I figured, if there is no way to know for certain, that the odds were slightly in my favour for not believing.

As my life went on that paradigm was consistently challenged by the reality I was facing.  The first crack in the foundation was the lack of purpose, and not just my own.  If there was no God then there was no purpose to my life, your life, or anything.  As I followed the logical implications of atheism, to things like purpose and morality, life became very depressing.  If life lacks purpose then why bother continuing to exist  Needless to say, I sunk into a heavy depression about this time.

However, I refused believe that the universe was some giant cosmic mistake.  It didn't feel right and it didn't match with what I saw in the world.  I saw purpose and design behind everything I saw.  First with technology like computers, cars, and bridges.  Then I saw it with society in things like families.  Finally I saw it with nature in things like seasons, the food chain, and the movement of planets and stars.  Sure there is disorder, chaos, death, and suffering in the world.  But beneath the surface there is large scale order and design.

So I realized, if the world was created with a purpose and design, then perhaps so do I.  And if I was created with a purpose and design, then I have a creator: God.

Word of the day...

CHRSITIANOPHOBE

Christian - A word that describes a person who believes in the deity and ascribes to the teachings of the CHRIST (of Latin Christus or Greek Christos origin.  Originally translated from Hebrew Messiah or Mashia meaning 'annointed').

PHOBE - A suffix from of the word PHOBIA of Greek origin.  Meaning a person who suffers a specific persistent, abnormal, and/or irrational fear of the preceding word.

So a Christianophobe is a person with an irrational fear or aversion to Christians.

National Poetry Month

For the uninformed, April is National Poetry Month. The idea being that

First up we have the old stoggy crew,
Focused on dictating to me & you.

But even before keyboards, pens, quills, and chisels we had a voice.

Would the real poets please stand up?


Now we have those who use the spoken word,
To espouse on things they've lived & heard.

But before rants, activisim, politics, and religion we had words.

Would the real poets please stand up?


It doesn't matter if you write on pages or rock stages,
Self-expression is beyond genres and outlasts the ages.

Now they call it freedom of speech, but watch what you say.

Would the real poets please stand up?


Please! Stand up and fight haters and their foul nonsense,
Like my man Made Wade who's stomping out ignorance.

But just because you have an opposing view
Doesn't mean I need to or ever hated on you.

Enough of this junk about who is or isn't legit.
Let's just battle, shake hands, and get over it.

I Believe

I'm thinking of starting a new series called "I Believe".  In my last post on Atheism I got ALOT of response.  But there was some confusion over terms and definitions.  I think this is due to the fact that my beliefs don't fit into the mold most people think of a Christian.  So, I figured it would be a good idea to explain myself.  To explain what I believe and why.  For that reason I will NOT be allowing comments on these posts.

This isn't an attempt to bury my head in the sand while blasting my views from the soapbox.  I love honest discussion.  But in an honest and fruitful discussion you need to understand where the other person is coming from.  And that what this series is about.  Letting you know where I'm coming from.  Agree, disagree, whatever.  I just don't want this to become some sort of horrendous debate.

That being said, I may say some things that come across mean-hearted or antagonistic.  Please don't take it that way.  I'm just saying what's on my heart and mind.  I'm not trying to attack you personally or the views you hold to be true.  I'm simply going to be explaining why I don't hold them to be true.

Atheism is a religion

The other day a friend on Facebook posted an article from the Ottawa Citizen titled "Atheists have a place in discussions on faith". The article basically says that atheists are unfairly being excluded from discussions of faith despite the fact that they would have unique perspectives on the issues at hand.

The author contradicts himself. In one paragraph he encourages "a messy process that may at times appear to engender disrespect" and then in the next paragraph says that "The idea that atheists are arrogant or shrill needs to be put into some perspective", implying that atheists are unfairly portrayed as screaming idiots. Which is it? Do you want be invited to a panel only to say everyone else on the panel is wrong? Or do you want to engage in discussion with other faiths by offering your own unique perspective?

Personally I would welcome an honest and professional discussion on faith by inviting atheists along because, whether atheists like it or not, Atheism is a religion. But what is religion? Simply put, religion is a set of beliefs (world-view) origin, nature, and purpose of the universe. Isn't that what Atheism is? It's a belief that the universe began with a big bang from which all things evolved, the universe changes over time through undirected processes like natural selection and survival of the fittest, and since the universe is just a gigantic accident then there is no purpose.

As such, atheism should be subject to the same rules as other religions. If they want to teach their religious views then they are free to do it in a school not subsidized by tax dollars. Teachers in public schools will be forbidden to teach atheistic material in the science, math, or other classrooms other than a religion class. They can form atheist organizations and get tax deductions for making donations just like any other church organization.

Perhaps then, they will think twice before claiming that Intelligent Design isn't real science just because the objective, observable, and repeatable experiments have metaphysical implications. At least I hope it would. Because let's face it, a belief in a lack of a metaphysical existence still has metaphysical implications.