every morning i give thanks for having "a precious human life." what is it that makes my human life precious? what is unique about being human? that's been the object of my meditation for the past week. i'm not sure i can say with any certainty what makes the human animal different from other animals but i want to write about some of the things that might be characteristics of our humanity.
first, we have the gift of language, of being able to communicate in complex ways through speech and writing with our fellows. other animals have a limited capacity for a sort of language but it is our ability to articulate our thoughts by speaking to one another and by writing them down that makes us special. as i type these words on my computer, i am acting in a way that no other animal can. the fact that i am doing this is a demonstration of my humanity. it is a precious gift. but if i were to have a stroke that prevented me from speaking or writing, i would still be just as human.
so, while language is a part of our humanity, it is not the only demonstration of our uniqueness. we are capable of a thought process that is different from other animals. our thoughts are not confined to figuring out how to carry on our species and acquire food and shelter. we can ponder what it all means, and our search for meaning leads to the development of much of our civilization and culture. we form bonds that are beyond the demands of species survival. we can ponder abstract concepts and relate those concepts to our daily lives. indeed, our very ability to think in the abstract may have blunted some of the instincts that are manifest in other animals. other animals do not seek out danger as humans often do, craving the rush that comes from the surge of adrenaline that results from risky behavior. our curiosity leads us to new discoveries, we are filled with the desire to understand how things work and how it all fits together.
we are compelled to express ourselves by creating works of art, music that is carved from organizing sound in time, visual art works that organize materials in space, performance and written literature that captures the range of emotions, and combinations of these various creative pursuits. these are not necessary for sustaining life, but human life would not be human without them. the compulsion to create something that is beyond the basic needs of life is special to us. our lives would be empty without our creative impulses and the art that results from them.
humans beings have choices that other animals do not have. we can choose how we live, in what locality we reside, how to relate to one another and the environment of which we are a part, how to put bread on the table and a roof over our heads, what to believe. we can train our minds or choose to live in ignorance. we can choose what we eat and how often. we can choose to be trim, obese, or something in between. our range of choices is far beyond that of any other creature.
one of those choices is how we relate to one another. when other animals are cruel, that cruelty is a survival mechanism. they kill in order to sustain life. we humans often choose to be cruel in a deliberate, calculating way, to get something we crave, something entirely unnecessary for our own survival. we can be greedy and grasping, clawing our way past others in the most callous ways in a rush of blind ambition. when other animals love, it is from an instinctual need to love in order to carry on their species. perhaps much of human love is the same, but we can choose to love that which is unlovely. we are capable to turning the other cheek, of responding to cruelty with forbearance, even with lovingkindness. we are an odd mixture of deliberate cruelty and altruistic love. when we are our best, love wins out.
certainly these few paragraphs don't exhaust what it means to have "a precious human life." they just skim the surface, admittedly from a non-scientific approach and in a superficial way. i will continue to ponder what makes up our humanity and perhaps write of it again. i am grateful that i've been given this life and hope that i can make something worthwhile of that gift.
may we choose love over hatred, kindness over cruelty. may we continue to search for meaning. may we think reasonably, abandoning our clinging, craving tendencies. may we train ourselves to use the gifts we've been given for the benefit of all sentient beings. shalom.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day
"i am fortunate to have awakened. i am alive. i have a precious human life." this is how i begin each day's meditation. i repeat these words but until a few days ago i didn't spend any time pondering their meaning. "to have awakened" can have the meaning of having awakened in the sense of gaining enlightenment, but in this context it means that i have ended the night's period of sleep and begun a new day. that may be a metaphor for abandoning an old life where one is mindlessly going through the motions of living and awakening to a new life of bringing the practice of mindfulness into every part of our lives, but my meditation on awakening had to do with the more basic meaning.
i thought of the gift of life which could come to an end at any moment. during the night i might have taken my last breath and there would be no awakening, no life, no new day. my time of having a "precious human life" would have come to a stop. i thought of my younger brother who had unexpectedly taken his last breath one evening not long ago. i thought of the fragility of life and what life might be like for those near to me if i was no more, or what my life might be like if i lost my beloved wife. i thought of the countless others who had ceased breathing over the thousands of years human beings have walked the earth, of the animals who die every day, giving their lives so that another animal can have food. i thought of how all of these deaths nourish the planet, so that even in death we can give life to those who follow us.
just as life is a gift, so is death. few of us long to die. there are more experiences we want to have, more love we want to share, more need for closure. seldom do we have adequate time to prepare for death. we put off thinking about it, hoping against hope that we will live until we feel that all our plans come to fruition. perhaps those who have terminal illnesses are blessed because they have foreknowledge that death is coming on a more-or-less definite timetable and can prepare for their end of life. i suspect that most often even those of us who know that we will die in the next few months spend most of our time fighting the inevitable, denying the diagnosis that tells us that we have little time left, seeking treatments that will effect a miraculous cure.
even in dying, we give back to those who remain, our bodies providing nutrients that the earth needs, living behind a treasure of memories for those who loved us. if we've lived a good life, we've made the planet a better place for others. we've encouraged others to life a better life, to live with compassion and kindness. we've paid forward the gift of life we were given.
may we not leave thinking about our own deaths until it is too late. may we do all we can to leave a legacy that will inspire others. may we demonstrate our gratitude for having lived by filling each day with compassion and lovingkindness for ourselves and others. shalom.
i thought of the gift of life which could come to an end at any moment. during the night i might have taken my last breath and there would be no awakening, no life, no new day. my time of having a "precious human life" would have come to a stop. i thought of my younger brother who had unexpectedly taken his last breath one evening not long ago. i thought of the fragility of life and what life might be like for those near to me if i was no more, or what my life might be like if i lost my beloved wife. i thought of the countless others who had ceased breathing over the thousands of years human beings have walked the earth, of the animals who die every day, giving their lives so that another animal can have food. i thought of how all of these deaths nourish the planet, so that even in death we can give life to those who follow us.
just as life is a gift, so is death. few of us long to die. there are more experiences we want to have, more love we want to share, more need for closure. seldom do we have adequate time to prepare for death. we put off thinking about it, hoping against hope that we will live until we feel that all our plans come to fruition. perhaps those who have terminal illnesses are blessed because they have foreknowledge that death is coming on a more-or-less definite timetable and can prepare for their end of life. i suspect that most often even those of us who know that we will die in the next few months spend most of our time fighting the inevitable, denying the diagnosis that tells us that we have little time left, seeking treatments that will effect a miraculous cure.
even in dying, we give back to those who remain, our bodies providing nutrients that the earth needs, living behind a treasure of memories for those who loved us. if we've lived a good life, we've made the planet a better place for others. we've encouraged others to life a better life, to live with compassion and kindness. we've paid forward the gift of life we were given.
may we not leave thinking about our own deaths until it is too late. may we do all we can to leave a legacy that will inspire others. may we demonstrate our gratitude for having lived by filling each day with compassion and lovingkindness for ourselves and others. shalom.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
A Shining Frame, Their Great Original Proclaim
so, what is God? we want to believe in a god who is focused on us, our needs, our desires, our problems. when we look at the vastness of the universe and the small role we play in it, we cannot even fathom a god from whose mind everything sprang, much less expect such a god to be human-centric unless it is a god that we've created for ourselves. God has to be so much more than that. it is easier to say that there is no creator-god and to believe that everything that has come to be resulted from forces we don't yet fully understand. it seems to me just as reasonable to believe that those forces are what God is, the source of the beginning of everything, the first cause.
perhaps the buddhist approach is best: we simply ignore the question of whether there is a creator-god or not and proceed to live our lives as best we can, seeking to understand ourselves and to relate to one another in the most compassionate way possible. after all, that is the highest goal of most religions or at least of those worth following. if a religion doesn't help us to get along with and help each other, of what use is it? i suppose that is my basic approach to my christian religion. i see in jesus someone who turned from traditions that made life less tolerable and espoused an ethic that taught us to love one another, to do good to one another, to reject prejudices that belittled women and those who were different from the dominant society, to choose nonviolence over violence and generosity over greed, someone who was worth following.
i don't worship jesus, i seek to be his disciple. i worship God as the cause of all that is, the source of all goodness, the great mind that is beyond all imagining. as joseph addison wrote in 1712 in an essay that introduced his poem, "the spacious firmament on high.": "The Supreme Being has made the best arguments for his own existence in the formation of the heavens and the earth, and these are arguments which a man of sense cannot forbear attending to who is out of the noise and hurry of human affairs,"
if we worship a god, may it be a God of reason and mystery, a God that is larger than our imagining, a God who inspires our own imagination. may we express our worship through the way in which we treat God's creation, seeking to preserve the gifts of the natural world rather than exploiting them to satisfy our own greed. may we see in each creature a reflection of the mind of God and seek to do good to all that lives and breathes. shalom.
perhaps the buddhist approach is best: we simply ignore the question of whether there is a creator-god or not and proceed to live our lives as best we can, seeking to understand ourselves and to relate to one another in the most compassionate way possible. after all, that is the highest goal of most religions or at least of those worth following. if a religion doesn't help us to get along with and help each other, of what use is it? i suppose that is my basic approach to my christian religion. i see in jesus someone who turned from traditions that made life less tolerable and espoused an ethic that taught us to love one another, to do good to one another, to reject prejudices that belittled women and those who were different from the dominant society, to choose nonviolence over violence and generosity over greed, someone who was worth following.
i don't worship jesus, i seek to be his disciple. i worship God as the cause of all that is, the source of all goodness, the great mind that is beyond all imagining. as joseph addison wrote in 1712 in an essay that introduced his poem, "the spacious firmament on high.": "The Supreme Being has made the best arguments for his own existence in the formation of the heavens and the earth, and these are arguments which a man of sense cannot forbear attending to who is out of the noise and hurry of human affairs,"
if we worship a god, may it be a God of reason and mystery, a God that is larger than our imagining, a God who inspires our own imagination. may we express our worship through the way in which we treat God's creation, seeking to preserve the gifts of the natural world rather than exploiting them to satisfy our own greed. may we see in each creature a reflection of the mind of God and seek to do good to all that lives and breathes. shalom.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
And Spread the Truth from Pole to Pole
last sunday i filled in as substitute organist at a church in our town. the sermon was delivered by a representative of the gideons organization. this is a group that raises money to give away bibles, especially copies of the new testament and psalms in a little pocket-sized edition. they work all over the world. when i was a child they gave these little books to all the fifth graders in school every year. now they are prevented by court order from doing so in public schools because of the freedom of religion clause of the constitution, but in many countries they continue to give bibles to school children.
the speaker had some interesting stories of people who were converted to christianity by bibles given out by the gideons. of course, these conversions were attributed to god having placed the bible in the right person's hands at just the right time. as he spoke, i thought about how easy it is to make a coincidence into a miraculous occurrence. i can't believe that God is busy meddling in people's lives by causing a series of events to lead to a predetermined result. belief in such miracles gives us hope that the unlikely can happen, and that such "miracles" are the work of god. perhaps such faith is helpful when we are at a low point in our lives and are ready to give up. if i were to come down with an incurable, life-threatening disease, i would want to believe that i might be miraculously cured, and if i were, i would be thankful for being free of the disease. i don't think i would believe that God caused me to be healed but rather that i was one of the lucky ones that was cured by some unexplained cause. i wouldn't think that god singled me out for a cure while letting others in the same circumstances suffer and die. what sort of god would do that?
it is that sort of god that it is dangerous to worship. blind faith in a god that chooses some to bless and some to curse without any reason is ludicrous. life just happens. sometimes we are the ones who are lucky, sometimes we are not. we can choose paths that lead to happier, more fulfilled lives, and we can work to make the best of the situation we find ourselves in. often, though, we find that in spite of our best efforts bad things happen to us. those bad things are not the doing of a puppet-master god, just as the good things are not God's doing. the miracle is the unfolding of life around us, the beauty of the world in which we live, the loved ones who support us, the gift of reasonable minds. i can worship a God who sets such possibilities in motion, but i can't worship a god who orders every detail of the life i live and who constantly interferes to make "god's will" happen.
may we search for the answers to life's questions with honesty. may we not be afraid to refuse to accept the pat solutions that require little thought. if we believe in a god, may it be a God that is larger than the god of pettiness. shalom.
the speaker had some interesting stories of people who were converted to christianity by bibles given out by the gideons. of course, these conversions were attributed to god having placed the bible in the right person's hands at just the right time. as he spoke, i thought about how easy it is to make a coincidence into a miraculous occurrence. i can't believe that God is busy meddling in people's lives by causing a series of events to lead to a predetermined result. belief in such miracles gives us hope that the unlikely can happen, and that such "miracles" are the work of god. perhaps such faith is helpful when we are at a low point in our lives and are ready to give up. if i were to come down with an incurable, life-threatening disease, i would want to believe that i might be miraculously cured, and if i were, i would be thankful for being free of the disease. i don't think i would believe that God caused me to be healed but rather that i was one of the lucky ones that was cured by some unexplained cause. i wouldn't think that god singled me out for a cure while letting others in the same circumstances suffer and die. what sort of god would do that?
it is that sort of god that it is dangerous to worship. blind faith in a god that chooses some to bless and some to curse without any reason is ludicrous. life just happens. sometimes we are the ones who are lucky, sometimes we are not. we can choose paths that lead to happier, more fulfilled lives, and we can work to make the best of the situation we find ourselves in. often, though, we find that in spite of our best efforts bad things happen to us. those bad things are not the doing of a puppet-master god, just as the good things are not God's doing. the miracle is the unfolding of life around us, the beauty of the world in which we live, the loved ones who support us, the gift of reasonable minds. i can worship a God who sets such possibilities in motion, but i can't worship a god who orders every detail of the life i live and who constantly interferes to make "god's will" happen.
may we search for the answers to life's questions with honesty. may we not be afraid to refuse to accept the pat solutions that require little thought. if we believe in a god, may it be a God that is larger than the god of pettiness. shalom.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Plant the Tree of Peace
in thinking about the sort of god we've created, one of the most repulsive ideas, for me at least, is that of a bloodthirsty god who would require animal sacrifice for appeasement. i had occasion to be in the choir room of a nearby church recently, and in the choir's folder was a piece called "at calvary love flowed red." how can a god be worthy of worship when that god demands that jesus die a horrible death on a roman cross? this belief in the "atoning death of jesus," that jesus died so that all of our sins could be forgiven, is ludicrous. if god is all-powerful, the only requirement for forgiveness is repentance.
the concept of the atonement is incompatible with a loving God who wishes only that the creatures who worship God be happy and at peace with one another. i believe that jesus died because he ran afoul of the religious authorities and because the roman rulers of palestine feared that his growing popularity would lead to a rebellion. jesus knew that his death was inevitable, that what he taught was incompatible with the status quo that both the romans and the jewish authorities wished to maintain. in the end, he goaded them to either take action against him or leave him to continue his teaching, realizing full well that they would likely take the former course.
nature is a brutal realm. everywhere the strong prey on the weak. we humans have the capacity to refuse to follow nature's example. we can help the weak rather than taking advantage of their weakness. if we must have a god to worship, why not worship a God who embodies the best in us, the impulse to have compassion for one another. those who seek to explain God to us do us a disservice. is God our collective consciousness, the ground of being, a distant observer who leaves us to sort things out for ourselves, or something else entirely? we create a god of our own making because such a god is more understandable. we identify with a god who is in many ways like the gods of ancient mythology: capricious, petty, eager to find fault with humankind, a sort of mad scientist/creator with us as the subjects of the experiment.
how does one worship a mystery? as john greenleaf whittier, the great quaker poet says in his poem (o brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother), "to worship rightly is to love each other,/each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer." whether or not God exists, treating one another with lovingkindness and respect and having compassion for each other is the best we can do, and a God of love will accept such worship.
may we not honor a god of vengeance and pettiness. may we seek to understand the mystery of who and why we are rather than accepting easy answers that have been handed to us by those who would rather control us than encourage us to think. may we not create a god who is more like us than like the divine mystery of creation. shalom.
the concept of the atonement is incompatible with a loving God who wishes only that the creatures who worship God be happy and at peace with one another. i believe that jesus died because he ran afoul of the religious authorities and because the roman rulers of palestine feared that his growing popularity would lead to a rebellion. jesus knew that his death was inevitable, that what he taught was incompatible with the status quo that both the romans and the jewish authorities wished to maintain. in the end, he goaded them to either take action against him or leave him to continue his teaching, realizing full well that they would likely take the former course.
nature is a brutal realm. everywhere the strong prey on the weak. we humans have the capacity to refuse to follow nature's example. we can help the weak rather than taking advantage of their weakness. if we must have a god to worship, why not worship a God who embodies the best in us, the impulse to have compassion for one another. those who seek to explain God to us do us a disservice. is God our collective consciousness, the ground of being, a distant observer who leaves us to sort things out for ourselves, or something else entirely? we create a god of our own making because such a god is more understandable. we identify with a god who is in many ways like the gods of ancient mythology: capricious, petty, eager to find fault with humankind, a sort of mad scientist/creator with us as the subjects of the experiment.
how does one worship a mystery? as john greenleaf whittier, the great quaker poet says in his poem (o brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother), "to worship rightly is to love each other,/each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer." whether or not God exists, treating one another with lovingkindness and respect and having compassion for each other is the best we can do, and a God of love will accept such worship.
may we not honor a god of vengeance and pettiness. may we seek to understand the mystery of who and why we are rather than accepting easy answers that have been handed to us by those who would rather control us than encourage us to think. may we not create a god who is more like us than like the divine mystery of creation. shalom.
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Sing A New Song
the passage of new anti-abortion laws in alabama and missouri caused me to think some more about the idea of a god whose nature would foreordain a child or woman to be raped in order for her to give birth to a baby for whom that god had some predetermined purpose. i've listened to some commentators who have defended such laws, one suggesting that it is necessary for victims of rape or incest to be prevented by law from having abortions so that the resulting child would provide evidence against the perpetrators, another saying that allowing abortion to be a medical rather than a legal question is imposing the jewish religion on our "christian" nation, while a third defended these newest laws on the basis of carrying out "god's will" since a child resulting from rape or incest would not be possible unless god wished the child to be born. all of these defenses are nonsense. what sort of god would be so cruel as to impose such a burden on a woman? is such a god worthy of worship?
if everything that happens is foreordained by god, a part of "god's plan," that would mean that this god wills that terrible diseases, birth defects, wars, natural disasters, hunger, poverty, and oppression of all sorts happen as necessary parts of that plan. we often hear christians make statements like "we can't understand why this tragedy happened, but we have to trust god since it's all part of god's plan," or "god needed this dear one who died more than we did and that's why this one has been taken from us." how can we believe in a loving god who would visit so many horrible things on those we say god loves and cares for? how can we claim that "a mighty fortress is our god, a bulwark never failing" if god is the cause of every bad thing that happens?
we are the cause of most of the evil in the world, not "god's plan." terrible events that are beyond our control are not caused by God but rather the result of the unfolding of life. suffering comes to us all, not because God wills it, but because suffering simply is. so where is God in the midst of this suffering? i believe that God is here suffering with us, that God suffers just as we do. God doesn't intervene to stop our suffering because it is our responsibility to figure out how to stop or prevent the suffering. we have the resources to end most of the human-created suffering and the intelligence to find solutions for the prevention or alleviation of suffering that results from natural causes.
may we reject the god of plans that include great pain for so many. may we let go of ideas that tell us we must worship such a god in order to avoid eternal damnation. may we search for the mystery that is the God of creation and the source of love. shalom.
if everything that happens is foreordained by god, a part of "god's plan," that would mean that this god wills that terrible diseases, birth defects, wars, natural disasters, hunger, poverty, and oppression of all sorts happen as necessary parts of that plan. we often hear christians make statements like "we can't understand why this tragedy happened, but we have to trust god since it's all part of god's plan," or "god needed this dear one who died more than we did and that's why this one has been taken from us." how can we believe in a loving god who would visit so many horrible things on those we say god loves and cares for? how can we claim that "a mighty fortress is our god, a bulwark never failing" if god is the cause of every bad thing that happens?
we are the cause of most of the evil in the world, not "god's plan." terrible events that are beyond our control are not caused by God but rather the result of the unfolding of life. suffering comes to us all, not because God wills it, but because suffering simply is. so where is God in the midst of this suffering? i believe that God is here suffering with us, that God suffers just as we do. God doesn't intervene to stop our suffering because it is our responsibility to figure out how to stop or prevent the suffering. we have the resources to end most of the human-created suffering and the intelligence to find solutions for the prevention or alleviation of suffering that results from natural causes.
may we reject the god of plans that include great pain for so many. may we let go of ideas that tell us we must worship such a god in order to avoid eternal damnation. may we search for the mystery that is the God of creation and the source of love. shalom.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Fill My Poor Heart
the christian religion teaches some strange ideas about God. i often think that we invent a god that conforms to our own design rather than honoring a God who is beyond human understanding. i suppose that is natural. after all, if we can't fully understand God, we give God characteristics that make the mystery more comprehensible to our limited imaginations.
one of the things that bothers me about what we christians are taught about God is that God "has a plan" for our lives, that we are born with a purpose that is predestined so that our obligation is to discover "God's purpose for our lives" and then seek to fulfill that purpose. if we subscribe to that belief, then abortion for any reason becomes immoral, since no one is conceived without God having developed a plan for that prospective being. there is always a purpose for the fetus that has been conceived. according to this line of thinking, even rape is purposeful, otherwise a child that is the result of a rape would not have been conceived. i can't accept worshiping a god that foists such a situation on a humanity that God loves. our only purpose, i believe, is to live the best lives we can, doing the most good and the least harm that we can, filling our hearts with as much compassion as we are capable of. i can worship a God who smiles on me when i do the best i can and understands my struggle to avoid doing harm.
another belief that most christians subscribe to is the idea that God chose the jewish people as the "chosen people." why would God do such a thing? the standard answer is that God spoke to abraham in ancient times, and abraham listened as God promised that abraham's descendants would be singled out so long as he and his descendants obeyed God's commandments. most of the old testament is the history of the jewish people's on-and-off-again relationship with God. a great deal of evil has flowed from this idea. being God's chosen made it the duty of the ancient israelites to conquer what is now israel/palestine and massacre its non-jewish inhabitants, according to the bible. it made the religions that arose from this chosen-ness the exclusive means of saving humankind resulting in wars that continue to this day, so that christians had the responsibility of persecuting those jews who refused to convert to christianity, muslims, jews, and christians had the responsibility to fight each other for supremacy, and the followers of the abrahamic religions were responsible for converting every person on earth to each religion's particular interpretation of God's revelation to that religion. surely, one shouldn't worship a god who would do such a thing, unleashing so much suffering on those God created in the name of religions that are supposed to reveal God to us.
in the next few posts, i hope to write about some of the other beliefs about God that are accepted by many (perhaps most) christians without much thought about their consequences. my intention is not to offend anyone who is sincere about their faith, but i continue to be disturbed about what seem to me to be absurd ideas about God that i can't endorse in good conscience, no matter how widespread those ideas are.
may we stop accepting concepts that make little sense, simply because they are commonplace. may we use the reasonable minds that we are given to examine our beliefs and the practices that flow from them. may we be guided by what makes sense, not by blind faith. shalom.
one of the things that bothers me about what we christians are taught about God is that God "has a plan" for our lives, that we are born with a purpose that is predestined so that our obligation is to discover "God's purpose for our lives" and then seek to fulfill that purpose. if we subscribe to that belief, then abortion for any reason becomes immoral, since no one is conceived without God having developed a plan for that prospective being. there is always a purpose for the fetus that has been conceived. according to this line of thinking, even rape is purposeful, otherwise a child that is the result of a rape would not have been conceived. i can't accept worshiping a god that foists such a situation on a humanity that God loves. our only purpose, i believe, is to live the best lives we can, doing the most good and the least harm that we can, filling our hearts with as much compassion as we are capable of. i can worship a God who smiles on me when i do the best i can and understands my struggle to avoid doing harm.
another belief that most christians subscribe to is the idea that God chose the jewish people as the "chosen people." why would God do such a thing? the standard answer is that God spoke to abraham in ancient times, and abraham listened as God promised that abraham's descendants would be singled out so long as he and his descendants obeyed God's commandments. most of the old testament is the history of the jewish people's on-and-off-again relationship with God. a great deal of evil has flowed from this idea. being God's chosen made it the duty of the ancient israelites to conquer what is now israel/palestine and massacre its non-jewish inhabitants, according to the bible. it made the religions that arose from this chosen-ness the exclusive means of saving humankind resulting in wars that continue to this day, so that christians had the responsibility of persecuting those jews who refused to convert to christianity, muslims, jews, and christians had the responsibility to fight each other for supremacy, and the followers of the abrahamic religions were responsible for converting every person on earth to each religion's particular interpretation of God's revelation to that religion. surely, one shouldn't worship a god who would do such a thing, unleashing so much suffering on those God created in the name of religions that are supposed to reveal God to us.
in the next few posts, i hope to write about some of the other beliefs about God that are accepted by many (perhaps most) christians without much thought about their consequences. my intention is not to offend anyone who is sincere about their faith, but i continue to be disturbed about what seem to me to be absurd ideas about God that i can't endorse in good conscience, no matter how widespread those ideas are.
may we stop accepting concepts that make little sense, simply because they are commonplace. may we use the reasonable minds that we are given to examine our beliefs and the practices that flow from them. may we be guided by what makes sense, not by blind faith. shalom.
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