Call it the law of attraction, if you will, but I’ve been drawing myself into conversations with Christian church pastors, though I no longer attend churches.
On one occasion, I responded to a mass church email encouraging Christians to engage in “Reasonable” dialogues with members of their community. I decided to provide a reasonable response, and then my phone rang, a gesture from Pastor Bruce which I appreciated.
There are a lot of potential entry points to begin a ‘reasonable dialogue’, but I tell them that I actually do believe in Jesus Christ as God incarnate, who came to illuminate our thinking, and rose from the dead. But I simply do not accept the Bible, or any other book, as the exclusive “Word of God”. And I tell them it is this overwhelming idealogical dogma that keeps me out of the church.
I don’t want to rehash the whole tired debate. It doesn’t matter which Christian I talk to about this — none of them have an actual reason to view the Bible as “God’s Word”, other than “Because the Bible says so.” Beyond that, they have long and meandering, meatless explanations that obfuscate what we can personally witness and know about reality, either through curious research, or by more experiential intuitive methods (gnosis?).
Are you going to believe Hillary’s pathological ideas about “What Happened”, simply because they’re written in a book that claims to be authentic? I know, I know, the Bible is much more credible than that. It is. It’s a masterwork, no doubt. But nothing can ever make a single book “God’s Word”. Any such idea is pure propaganda, and it’s just astonishing to me that more of the world doesn’t see that.
For the love of God and Jesus Christ, who came here to illuminate the minds of all men, women, and children — please stop believing in the benevolent intentions of those who have the power and influence to publish a book and call it “God’s Word”. This idea is fundamentally disempowering to you, me, and everyone you know.
Great question. Thanks for asking ; ) We may need to iterate our way to a new consensus (maybe the blockchain can help??), and perhaps a radically more simple one. But for the foreseeable future, there will not be a broad and complete consensus on what constitutes “truth.”
What I am calling for is for adults, especially ones that claim to follow Christ, to be radically more responsible, reasonable, and discerning in their own world view structure. If you could zoom out, for example, and ask “Is it a good idea for one race of people on this planet to claim to be God’s Chosen people?” How is that going to go over with every other tribe and race on the planet?
In my humble opinion, that has not gone over well. I would like to see it stop. I’d like to see the 99% of decent people on this planet CHOOSE a new path. A path that is fundamentally empowering to our species, and healthy for this planet.
To be succinct, I think the foundation of that path might start with a positive belief that can be as real as we make it. Something like:
“I believe that every race and color of human beings are capable of giving and receiving divine love, and can aid in refashioning this world into one that revolves around love and empathy.”
How’s that? Can we do that please? Do you see how we don’t need “God’s Word” in a book in order to make this planet better? Do you see the empowering shift from being programmed to CHOOSING? When we shift our minds, we can move the world into a better place.
If you’re into this sort of thing, I’d appreciate your upvoting this article and sharing to your friends and communities. If I find the people of this internet are resonating with this message, you can expect a lot more to come — maybe, just maybe even a blockchain/cryptocurrency project.
