God’s Close Up September 11, 2009
Posted by justinfordxyz in Uncategorized.3 comments
“Choosing not to become the person your family expected is painful. You have to leave their world behind completely, just to make sense of your own life. And then fate lures you back whenever it can. To you give you the chance to measure their world and yours. And see if it’s just as far as you remember.” – God’s Close Up, This American Life.
Blowing Smoke? September 2, 2009
Posted by tysdaddy in Religion.Tags: addiction, Religion, smoking
1 comment so far
Is religion an addiction? Can it be compared to, say, smoking? My friend at Tit for Tat considers this here. Swing by and submit your thoughts . . .
Brian
Murder by Stryper August 28, 2009
Posted by tysdaddy in Misc.Tags: CCM, evangelism, glam metal, Michael Sweet, Murder by Pride, Stryper
7 comments
Back in the day, Stryper were . . .umm . . . the shit. We good little Christian kids didn’t say shit, of course. But there was no denying that, during a time when the Contemporary Christian Music market lacked a commercially successful metal group that could compete for souls with the likes of Quiet Riot, Ratt, Motley Crüe, and Twisted Sister, Stryper delivered the Glam for Jesus.
And, much to my WTF!!??!! chagrin, they still do.
Only the glam has been replaced by a patina of the most pathetic sort.
I became disillusioned with their music about the time they grew disillusioned with the whole CCM scene and released 1990’s Against the Law, a half-assed F-YOU! to the industry they had helped spawn and who, as a result, pretty much dropped them like a KISS record. I bought it, found very little conviction in what they had to say, and never deeply thought about them again.
Until about a month ago. A new album, Murder by Pride, hit the shelves, and a friend of mine from work offered to make me a copy after I told him there was “No way in Hell!” I was going to spend money on it.
Maybe he was trying to save me.
See, that’s what Stryper wanted to be about. Saving souls. Winning head-bangers for Jesus. Hard-core evangelism meant to, quite literally and spiritually, scare the Hell out of a generation wallowing in a mire of sin. And yet, with their pretty-boy hair, yellow and black striped pants, and cheesy lyrics, all they ever did was amuse me. There were other, less popular bands that could handle the “scare” part with a greater measure of respectability. Vengeance. Deliverance. Leviticus (I kid you not!). These bands snarled and screamed about blood red horses and Judgment Day and their willingness to be beheaded before they’d abandon the message of the Gospel . . .
In case you couldn’t understand lead-screamer Roger Martinez, who interestingly enough is now an atheist, here’s the chorus . . .
I want my head chopped off
You’ll see my body rot
But then I’ll reign with Christ
And then you will fry
Scary indeed, on so many levels.
But Stryper were cool. Sure Swaggart didn’t care for them, but most Christian moms and dads had no problem forking over the dough for a Stryper album. Even if it meant they had to listen to “Honestly” thirty-seven-million times, it was far better – and more importantly, spiritually edifying – than whatever trash The World had to offer.
And now, they’re back, and probably once again back in the good graces of the Christian market and available in bulk at a Family Bookstore or Zondervan in your fine city. How could they not be, with these poignant and insightful spiritual nuggets . . .
There’s no strength in a unicorn
No luck in a 4 Leaf Clover
There’s no life unless it’s born
And no death when it’s over
Huh?
There are also these pearls, coming soon to a local rockin’ contemporary worship service near you. . .
I Believe in You and You believe in me
I Believe in Love and Love believes in me
I Believe in faith and hope and destiny
I Believe
Musically, save the first song, the album isn’t bad. Being a Child of the 80s, I can appreciate the fact that the gang can still rock. But lyrically, it’s as shallow as my neighbor’s kiddie pool. Who is going to abandon their pointless life and embrace the Gospel after hearing this drivel?
Honestly, much better would have been a little honesty . . .
Blind faith August 21, 2009
Posted by notachev in Religion.Tags: blind, faith, lost, nathan ford, soul
1 comment so far
Have faith, believe in that which has no proof or make sense and if you don’t you are a lost soul and will burn in hell. Believe in stories that have no backing or proof or make sense to the human soul and prophets who have done unspeakable things because if you don’t you are lost and uneducated. Believe in the good things to get over the horrible things your leader has done. You will be saved.
Religous Fanatics August 15, 2009
Posted by notachev in Religion.Tags: apostate, faith, family, internet, lds, love, nathan ford, spiritual experiences, spouse
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I was referred to a blog of someone who is struggling with the LDS faith. He is in his early thirties and has a wife and kids. His whole site was not bashing the religion but rather trying to understand some of his doubts. He wrote a blog about how he has had personal spiritual experiences (which I hear all the time) that kept him from leaving. After his blog, people were invited to leave comments and this is one I ran accross.
“I know that the LDS church is the true church and I am saddened by the way that apostates and people struggling with their believes have used the Internet to vent their feelings. Just about everytime I am searching for information posted by ACTIVE and BELIEVING members of the church, like today I wanted to find a good way to teach the song, ‘I’m trying to be Like Jesus’ in primary, I come accross blogs and postings by apostates, the Internet is infested with them. It saddens me because I wonder, ‘why are these people who are leaving the church typing so much on the net about their experiences?’ I think it’s because you are having such a difficult time leaving the church because you know that it’s true and so you want strangers, who know nothing about the church to validate your decision. Or other apostates. How will you feel when you are in heaven and it’s pretty clear that the church is true and you meet people whose testimonies were shaken or who were investigating the church but chose not to based upon your online blog, how will you live with yourself? I just could never never fathom leaving the church, I never could, because it’s true. You were saying that this has causes friction with your wife, my husband’s testimony is his best quality in my eyes, if his testimony faltered and he couldn’t fix it so many things would change for me, it would be a ripple affect on my life and I just don’t know if I could sit down and watch those ripples spread outward and sit around waiting to see how that changed everything, I don’t know if I could and kudos for your wife for sticking it out with you, that would be one of the most difficult things I could ever imagine going through.”
I don’t get this way of thinking. Aren’t you suppose to love your spouse no matter what? Aren’t you suppose to have compassion and be supportive for those who may be struggling? This is what religion does to people. You lose touch with what realy matters and would give up your family for it.
called to serve August 14, 2009
Posted by mkhblink in Religion.Tags: altruistic, anonymous, atheist, black-eyed, catholic, celestial kingdom, church, god, mark hammerschmidt, mormon, muslim, pearly gates, Religion, service, tithing, virgins
7 comments
A lot of people talk about service in relation to religion. They brag about their service to God. They pay their tithing to their churches when they can barely feed their families with promises of blessings. They base their lives on what choices will get them their eternal reward. But service shouldn’t have strings attached. It should be anonymous and void of expectations. That’s not usually the case when service is done for a church.
You always hear religious people saying that they are working to get back to God. They choose their actions because they want to get to Heaven. They want whatever afterlife reward is promised in their religion. With Muslims, it’s the 72 black-eyed virgins. With Mormons, it’s entrance to the Celestial Kingdom and the chance to be a god. With Catholics, it’s what? Not going to Hell? When your actions are based on some type of reward system, doesn’t that kind of cheapen it? Aren’t you simply just going through the motions?
I would imagine that when a devout follower of any religion who spent his or her life in “service” of his or her God so that they would someday be let into Heaven stands up on Judgment Day next to a staunch atheist who performed acts of service with a truly altruistic heart, the atheist will be led through the pearly gates first.
I guess what I’m getting at is that you can be a good person even without religion. In fact, I would say that you can be a better person without religion. Because, if you think about it, a service with a payment is really just a job.
Existentialism – A Philosophy. August 12, 2009
Posted by lindseylouwho in Misc, Religion.Tags: agnostic, atheist, existentialism, lds, Lindsey Ford, mormon, open mind, politics, Religion
3 comments
As all of us grow up and get older, there is one thing we all ponder – life. The meaning of it, why we exist, how we were created and most importantly, how to live it.
It is ALWAYS a discussed and debatable topic in family as we are all very different in our beliefs. Some are Mormon (LDS), and some are just straight up Christian with no religious organization/denomination, Agnostic and maybe even Atheist.
Sadly, so many get so worked up over it that it can sever relationships and tear things apart… much like heated debates on politics and it can all finally just boil up and explode. Instead of bringing people together, I feel that those two topics, religion and politics, are a terrible thing to talk about (in certain situations) and sometimes doing more damage than good… only because so many cannot agree to disagree and are often felt like we are pushed into other views of other’s and not being accepted of our own. Recently, Mark had come up with an interesting comparison with religion and drugs and when taken in extremities, can have the same outcome. Sometimes, almost a crutch you become addicted to and somethimes the only thing you look at that will get you through the things in life, the hard things it brings you and all that’s relative. To each their own. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, hell, if it helps you get through what you need, that’s great. We all need our own sources of help through difficult times.
To me, all I have to say is to each their own. I don’t judge anyone on their belief systems and in a very highly heated subject as religion, I wish more people were able to agree to disagree more than anything. Especially when, like I said, associations with others are tested and being broken apart because of oppositional beliefs and views of others. So, as all of this has happens, when thinking down to the core of the situation, the reason for all this animosity is sometimes simply all down to just HOW you should live your life and what principles you should go by…. and how people think you should do it.
For me, this is where Existentialism comes in. Merely living life by the choices YOU make for yourself, despite what any religion or belief will tell you. It’s for anyone with any belief system really… it’s just a philosophy on life and how to go about it. Through all I’ve researched and come upon, this one had hit me instantly back when I had first learned about it, way back when but hadn’t really started to go with it until this year.
Existentialism in the broader sense is a 20th century philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world. The notion is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature.
In simpler terms, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief is that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook. And personal choices become unique without the necessity of an objective form of truth. An existentialist believes that a person should be forced to choose and be responsible without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions.
Existentialism takes into consideration the underlying concepts:-
Existentialism is broadly defined in a variety of concepts and there can be no one answer as to what it is, yet it does not support any of the following:
There is a wide variety of philosophical, religious, and political ideologies that make up existentialism so there is no universal agreement in an arbitrary set of ideals and beliefs. Politics vary, but each seeks the most individual freedom for people within a society.
Existentialistic ideas came out of a time in society when there was a deep sense of despair following the Great Depression and World War II. There was a spirit of optimism in society that was destroyed by World War I and its mid-century calamities. This despair has been articulated by existentialist philosophers well into the 1970s and continues on to this day as a popular way of thinking and reasoning (with the freedom to choose one’s preferred moral belief system and lifestyle).
An existentialist could either be a religious moralist, agnostic relativist, or an amoral atheist. Kierkegaard, a religious philosopher, Nietzsche, an anti-Christian, Sartre, an atheist, and Camus an atheist, are credited for their works and writings about existentialism. Sartre is noted for binging the most international attention to existentialism in the 20th century.
Each basically agrees that human life is in no way complete and fully satisfying because of suffering and losses that occur when considering the lack of perfection, power, and control one has over their life. Even though they do agree that life is not optimally satisfying, it nonetheless has meaning. Existentialism is the search and journey for true self and true personal meaning in life.
Most importantly, it is the arbitrary act that existentialism finds most objectionable-that is, when someone or society tries to impose or demand that their beliefs, values, or rules be faithfully accepted and obeyed. Existentialists believe this destroys individualism and makes a person become whatever the people in power desire thus they are dehumanized and reduced to being an object. Existentialism then stresses that a persons judgment is the determining factor for what is to be believed rather than by arbitrary religious or secular world values.
Now, if only our views on the world, no matter the differences, would rather bring us more together, open our minds and our hearts without feeling inferior to the other, or tested by another’s belief. Despite your belief, it is always good to still also keep an open mind as some may most times forget. In a perfect world, that’d be a nice thing. Let’s continue hoping for such, at least a little.
Sums it all up for me August 12, 2009
Posted by notachev in Uncategorized.add a comment
Albert Einstein:
I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his [sic] creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious ourselves.
just some of my own thoughts… August 12, 2009
Posted by goodbyepisces in Religion.Tags: energy, god, law of conservative energy, reincarnation, Religion, science, universe
2 comments
Let me start with the Law of conservation of energy. Simply stated, energy can neither be created nor be destroyed but it can be transfered from one form to another. The total amount of energy in the universe remains the same.
I’m not quite sure where to start, I don’t want to be so “out there” that everyone loses interest in reading further.
The human brain and body run on spontaneous electricity, and we already know that cellular memory exists. Would it be completely crazy to think that the electricity may carry an imprint or memory of who we are as it passes out of our body and back into the universe upon our death?
This theory makes sense to me because it seems we are all given a basic set of common “knowledge” to start our lives with. There are some simple things ranging from basic survival and on up to the need for human physical contact to thrive. We are given a startup package that we learn and build on. It rings true to me that if we all spark from the same energy, we share these common threads.
This electricity and the concept of soul could easily be one and the same. We leave this existence, and our energy travels on into a new cataylst, carrying with it some, but not all, of an impression of who/what we have been. It’s all much closer to a religion of reincarnation than the whole heaven and hell setup. A constant rebirth through changing forms of energy.
Personally, it’s a comfortable theory for me. It makes sense scientifically and there is no need to rule out a place for the spiritual or divine in the concept, as long as you can wrap your head around the de-humanizing of God and embrace “God” as a life-giving force.
I have more, but I’m gonna stop there tonight. Colbert starts in a minute 
agnosticism is beautiful August 12, 2009
Posted by notachev in Religion.Tags: agnostic, agnosticism, evolution, facts, faith, god, human, nathan ford, Religion, science
2 comments
The beauty of agnosticism is that I am tied to nothing and can take things from an unrestrained point of view. I get a lot of people who ask me about my beliefs and I am surprised at the reaction as to how most interpret it. “You don’t believe in God!” is almost always the reply. To which I know that they really don’t know the meaning of the word.
I never denounced the possibility that there may be something after our life here, but to say I know what that is would be foolish. As a human being, I put more faith in science and evolution. These are truths. These are things we know. Everything else is pure speculation and theories.
Many say I am a person who just does not understand faith. I also disagree with this argument. I do have faith; however, I don’t close the door to the thought of everything ending when we die. Would it matter? I know it’s a terrifying thought for most, but my argument is that you wouldn’t know the difference.
I think it will be interesting as time goes by and we uncover even more about who we are on this planet. My religion is fact, things we know, everything else doesn’t matter.
mkhblink
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