When people are genuinely mystified by people of faith, the best explanation I can give is one I encountered as a teenager when I read "Jesus Rediscovered" by Malcolm Muggeridge, a socialist and atheist who became a Christian, because this was my experience of it as well. I offer excerpts here: /1
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I’m not confused at all. My early political mentors in Saskatchewan all democratic socialists Frank Meakes, Riley Lyle, and Gordon MacMurchy were all extremely religious. I asked Riley who was 85 at the time why he was a socialist and he answered “Because Christ was.” My mother is the same.
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Lovely writing. I'm most familiar with Muggeridge from the "Life of Brian" panel discussion with Palin and Cleese on the other side, and so inevitably he came off as stodgy to me. I'm glad to have read this.
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I was raised in a kind, gentle church. Like many I started to question my belief as a young adult . Ultimately, I can’t help but feel that there is a higher power in this world and that people come to know that higher power via a variety of ways.
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Truth isn't the greatest casualty of a social media culture, I'd argue its humility.
Faith is complicated. I question free will, but it would be reckless to live in a culture that rejects it. And, of course, I could b wrong.
Like anything, it's all about how you express your values among others.
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If God wanted me, why would I speak to him through Christian doctrine? So many other good options with less baggage.
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I lean more toward Spinoza’s god. I find it difficult to believe in a gendered god who shows any interest, and meddles in, the lives of humans.
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Mainly the ignorant magical thinking
dead-letter-literal-interpretation of the Bible
religious right evangelicals Christian fundamentalists.
Without the religious right there would never have been a president Trump.
Anti-abortion, anti-gay, etc., is what drove the Trump presidential Train.
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Thanks for the recommendation! I am going to read it. Sounds a bit like Terry Pratchett talking about God. It's free to read here: archive.org/details/isbn...
Jesus Rediscovered : Malcolm Muggeridge : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
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I dont believe in organized religion or the "named gods". My peace is being ok either way. If the wonders of the universe are just wonders and there's nothing else, that's enough. If there's more, the journey continues, that's great.
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"God" is about perception, not belief.
But belief is important in the beginning. Beliefs, are the houses on sand you were warned not to build. Because their foundation is unstable. It changes as you learn more.
Religion, is braille for the spiritually blind.
You want to see, right?...
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I find it hard to believe in God for the simple reason that if he made us in his image, than he must be ridiculously stupid bc we are imbeciles.
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Even if we don't believe, we still would love to be a God. And if we do believe, we ask what He was doing in the very long time before He created the universe.
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I don't question anyone's faith in "God", I wonder which flavor?
Within Christianity there are so many sects. Taking into account the many other ancient religions, my opinion is you do you.
A teacher in our country Lutheran school said: 'You worry about yourself & your God. They might be right'
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As long as I can believe that god has given us free will I can believe in god. But I cannot accept a god who allows the evils man does to other man. I’ve view organized religion as a way to control behavior so the religion is only as’good’ as the humans speaking for it
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Unfortunately, it seems many associate it with being judgmental, as opposed to the way Jesus guided us.
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Thank you sharing this, Tom.
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Faith is well and good and comforting. But tying a faith in a supreme being to a specific religion seems a step too far. Hard to believe God impregnated a Virgin Mary unless you also believe in Zeus and his half mortal children
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It is difficult to explain away the beauty of the universe, the scent of a flower, the roar of the sea, the tiny baby toes of a newborn and not see some Creative Mind at work. And it is hard to see the evils of this world and hold onto faith- but I see those who overcome evil with grace & believe.
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I’m strictly atheist after 60 yrs of Catholicism. Sorry. I think there’s a lot of solid social wisdom in the New Testament. Caring for others was radical. But no, no deity. None. Just the connections btw & among us all. Human conceit requires we assume a special status apart from all other animals.
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And for those of us not mystified, god is a metaphor for the unexplainable, for the perpetual mysteries of the Universe… a construct of the human mind. There is no ‘us’ and ‘god’. We are part of the Universe, born as a temporary aperture to observe itself.
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I'd be a lot more religious if "christians" stopped using their religion to justify plain evil actions or overweening ambition, "god told me I should be speaker of the house" or a bunch of school kids get shot and it's explained as "god's will" to justify the gun cult
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The time rebate you get back when you realize there is no god is so massive. Just a whole subject I just stopped caring about after I reached adulthood.
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There is humanity and our ability to tell stories and see beauty and horrors. The rain does care, nor the mountain. God is just one of many ideas, or a name to some nice experiences. Anyway, unsubscribing, nothing interesting here.
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This is it. No one is ever allowed to just be an atheist without people shoving their enlightenment down your throat. Please again tell me that atheists are as bad as Vegans and Harvard grads 🙄
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"Is there a God? Well, is there? I myself should be very happy to answer with an emphatic negative," he wrote in 1969. "Temperamentally, it would suit me well enough to settle for what this world offers, and to write off as wishful thinking, or just the self-importance of the human species..." /2
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🙏Thank you so very much for this.
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I believe there is a God gene that allows many to experience faith in a higher being. Some of us just don't have it and are mystified by those devotees worldwide of all religions.
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I was indoctrinated as a young boy but once I started asking questions that couldn't be answered my faith slowly eroded.
I'll never have the answers but I dont belive they exist in religious textbooks. They are entirely too earthbound with too many bits of hocus pocus to take seriously.
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I think your problem here is that you think this can be explained by a single example.
Religion and faith is a personal experience and choice. Each story is different.
Malcolm Muggeridge said Christianity filled a "void". Not really a ringing endorsement.
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I recommend anyone interested to read Houston Smiths 'The World's Religions'. Food for thought.
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I'm agnostic personally. But I also realize that I'm part of a very, very small minority. And that's why I am mostly* nonjudgemental about other humans' religious faith.
*I do make exceptions for the Church of Scientology and fundamentalists who overlook the 'commit no murder' commandment.
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Well, I have to say my view of you just flipped 180!
I was raised in an atheist household and became a Christian at 39
Have to say, it's a bit of a mystery to me how you support Dems? As abhorrent Trump is personally, he's better than the party that is dedicated to promoting un-Christian policies
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The existence of God cannot be proven . . . or disproven.
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Thanks for this
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Which God? The God I know from my Catholic upbringing is nothing like the God to whom Hegseth or Taylor Green or Johnson or Noem prays.
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My faith in different organized religions has gone thru a lotta ups and downs…but my faith in God has never wavered.
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I’m very happy to know there is no god but acknowledge that some people need one, so they’ve made one up. That’s fine isn’t it?
I feel sad and a bit annoyed that those people think they’re right and inflict all that goes with that on others. I don’t inflict my idea on others.
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A god would be so obvious that lengthy explanations like this are unnecessary.
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Yes, I've seen that too, and it works both ways. More often it seems that when people do serious research, they end up discarding their religion.
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Religion is probably the most common, and therefore widely socially accepted, mental illness. Nothing more, and nothing less.
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Faith is lovely, but I can’t just force myself to believe in something. Humans have created lots of deities; my favorite is Santa, but I can’t believe he’s real either. But the rituals of Catholic Mass were fun, and I’m a big fan of historical church music. 🎶
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I will NEVER be a Christian after understanding what American Christianity will do, support or accept to get what it wants.
