I'm certain that the Bible was the first book I ever knew of, as a child.
My mother often read me to sleep with “bedtime stories”, many of which were Bible stories.
She had also spent a lot of money to purchase a huge “Family Bible.” She kept pictures of the family
in it..I think it made her feel that we would all be protected that way. As a child, it made me feel that
way too.
No one at my home ever ate before saying “grace”... or slept before saying prayers.
I also grew up very close to nature... the sights, sounds and smells.
From freshly cut hay fields and newly cut grass....... to autumn leaves mixed with the smells of
hickory nuts and over ripening tomatoes, cucumbers....corn stalks and pumpkins.
...it was a wonderful childhood.
I remember that there were some bad parts too..but they just don't seem
to come to my mind as easily as all the good ones do.
I sometimes wish I could return to my childhood days......but it would be a lot more crowded
this time...
...I've got a long list of people now who I wouldn't be willing to leave behind.
...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I attended Penfield Presbyterian Church and summer Bible school during my childhood.
My parents attended church occasionally when I was younger, but my father worked six or seven
days a week, driving tractor trailer... and with tending to a huge garden, canning vegetables, and the
many other home and auto upkeep duties, he didn't really have much spare time left over for church
attendance. But I know that he prayed regularly, usually at bedtime, and the unspoken implication
that "everyone" should do so was always very apparent to me.
I had more time though...
for parts in the Church Christmas plays.... and singing all the hymns and
Christmas Carols.
I have to admit it..I was a Mom's boy.
She was always home, and usually in the kitchen.
When she was happy, usually always, I was
happy.....
The Philco AM tube radio was on a lot of the time... playing music..and Mom was often singing or humming along with it.
Vacuum tube audio amplification still seems, to me, to have a warmth and realism that is
missing in the transistor designs that I've tried..
..maybe it's just the experience and memories of my childhood that
makes it seem that way.
Music stays with a person..
Even today, when I walk or run with a certain rhythm, I often find myself
humming various Christian hymns that I'd sung and heard as a child.
The main lessons that I learned from attending church were..
....... that the Bible was the exact Word of God....
........that I had been “Saved”....and
........that being a Christian meant being a “Good” person,
while “not” being a Christian meant....... being a “Bad” person.
There were only two choices available..... Good and Evil.......... and who in their “right mind” would
choose Evil?
I gradually stopped attending regular church services around the age of 12..... mainly out of boredom.
The sermons and the Bible study seemed to always be limited to the same topics and verses over and
over again....... with John 3:16 usually at the top of the repeated list.
(“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”)
But since I had already become
............. one of the “Saved”......... I was ready for the “next” level.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really didn't get into serious “personal” Bible study until I was a teenager, and then.... mostly out of
...“fear”...
. . fear of “Armageddon”...
... and the impending torture and slaughter of the “True Believers”.. that was
being warned of on one of the late night religious radio programs that my Dad had been listening to on his long tractor trailer runs.
I had also begun listening to that radio program, The World Tomorrow after Dad mentioned it to me.
The Worldwide Church of God preached much of the same “Salvation doctrine” that the Protestant Church had preached... but it went into much more detail and “literal interpretation” of the scriptures.
It also introduced me to something called, “Bible Prophecy”... for the first time.
The World Tomorrow radio program focused on books in the Bible that I had never heard much about
before..... Isaiah, Daniel and..Revelation..
...but of course, as a true believer.......
...........I had no doubt whatsoever that they “also” contained the true “Word of God..
... but more importantly, I had no doubt that God was actually “revealing the future” to me!..
.. ..............by way of Bible Prophecy!
That amazing fact was very appealing to my young ego.
I was evidently “one of the few”........ in the entire World.....who had been “chosen” to receive this
message.......and it was very clear to me who had done the choosing.
This was around 1962, during the height of the nuclear Cold War..... I was 14 years old..
.
“Fear” seemed to be everywhere......... and fear is an extremely powerful motivation.
The minister of the radio program then... was Garner Ted Armstrong, with a voice and style very
similar to Paul Harvey... an “intentional” similarity, as I later discovered.
Garner Ted had taken over the top position in the church from the founder of the ministry, father Herbert W Armstrong.
Herbert W. had originally been ordained by a Seventh Day Adventist Church in Eugene, Oregon in 1931.
The program was very professionally and powerfully produced..... with the same quality and style as
the popular and familiar network television programs of that day.
I later found out that,
The program was introduced and concluded by the voice of Hollywood radio announcer Art Gilmore who appeared both on film and television screens in various roles. He was also noted for being the unseen announcer on The Red Skelton Show and on Highway Patrol with Broderick Crawford which were among his many credits on television.
"The World Tomorrow" concluded with an early Hollywood-produced music jingle over which Art Gilmore gave the program address, which varied according to the country that it was being aired in, or where its broadcast was intended to be received.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Tomorrow
It was an extremely popular worldwide radio program...... spanning a 60 year
period from 1934 to 1994.
This would likely have been “the entire lifetime” of some of it's listeners.
On January 5, 1968, the Radio Church of God was renamed the Worldwide Church of God. Shortly before, the church began to broadcast a television version of The World Tomorrow. The program would eventually expand to 382 U.S. television stations, and 36 television outlets internationally, dwarfing televangelists Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, and Jim Baker. .
It was very “plain” to me, that something this huge and powerful could only be..... the work of
...... God.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Church produced a free, full color top quality magazine as well, The Plain Truth... with a
peak circulation reaching 10 million people around the entire World.
(All of the old Plain Truth magazines are now available online
..http://www.herbert-w-armstrong.org/indexPT1960.html)
The Plain Truth magazine was a blend of world news, Bible doctrine, scientific discoveries.... and
prophecies of future World events..................all from the perspective of God's only “True
Church”...The Worldwide Church of God.
I once even took a copy of the Plain Truth magazine into my high school Biology class.... because it contained an article dealing with the exact subject we were then studying.
I can still see the look on my teacher's face when I showed him that magazine.
At that time, I interpreted the look as one of amazement. He obviously was impressed with the amazing “new knowledge” I had presented to him!
The article contained Biblical and “claimed scientific”proof of the falsity of the “theory” of Evolution.
He never actually commented on it, but he always seemed to look at me in a different way after that..just more confirmation to me that I was “really” on to something here!
My mother was a regular Plain Truth reader also, but she was more of a “heart believer” than a “head believer” like I was.
I was the one who kept sending for all the additional free literature..even an extensive Bible Study Course which took me months to get through.
Every single Biblical claim that was made on the World Tomorrow radio program and in the Plain Truth magazine was accompanied by multiple references to Bible verses......all of which appeared to fully support the “prophecy” picture being painted.
The only other Christian church organization that I've since investigated that supports “their” particular interpretation of the Bible with such an “extensive and convincing” supply of verses and Bible references....... is the Jehovah Witness Church.
I would probably have been just as convinced of their somewhat different interpretations and conclusions ..... if they had been the ones directing and guiding my Bible study.
I've noticed Muslims also using this tactic recently,on internet websites and chatrooms..... presenting
equally convincing arguments for the claimed “truth” of their Holy Book, the Koran
.
I later figured out why this method works so well..regardless of the belief or the book....
... this system of study is “backwards..
It has to do with human psychology, in particular “focus”.
Have you ever noticed ...that when you buy a car...you instantly begin to see lots of similar
cars around?
You probably never noticed any of them before...but they must have been just as common.
It was your “noticing”...your “focus”...that had changed.....and not the “actual number” of
similar cars.
That is why, as......
I discovered.... that beginning “any” serious investigation with a “conclusion” already in mind, will
always tend to “bias” the interpretation of any evidence found.. in the direction of that conclusion.
So called, “Myside bias” or irrational belief persistence ....results from (naturally and instinctively)
assigning too much weight to evidence that accords with one's belief, and too little weight to evidence
that does not.
It can also result from the failure to search “impartially” for information.
A formulated belief can prevail.. even if the evidence that was used in the initial formation of that
belief is entirely negated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias#cite_note-6
The natural, but misguided “trust” in this faulty and deceptive method of investigation
is probably one of the main reasons that there continues to be so many incompatible varieties of “Holy
Book inspired” religions around the World...each full of many sincere and “totally convinced” believers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their life".
"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Plain Truth magazine..... apparently had a huge impact on many others; including Michael Dennis Rohan, who cited Armstrong's work when questioned on the attempted destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 1967.
Rohan, a Christian and considering himself "the Lord's emissary", stated that he tried to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque acting upon divine instructions to enable the Jews of Israel to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount in accordance with the Book of Zechariah, thereby hasten the second coming of Jesus as the Messiah to rule the world for one thousand years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dennis_Rohan
I can remember wondering....that when the time comes.... will I be strong enough to refuse the “Mark
of the Beast”, endure the “Great Tribulation” and denounce the Anti Christ?
From what I had calculated, it might take about 20 years before I'd have to deal with the worst of
it, and by then..
... I'd be a old as my father was.... and since he seemed to be able to handle nearly
anything.. I figured that by the “advanced age” of 30 plus..
... I should be able to stand firm in my belief too.....
I pushed most of the “fear” to the back of my mind during my 4 years of college at Penn State, but
continued to pray nightly, read and study the Bible occasionally (always guided by the Plain Truth
magazine, of course).... and often anxiously watched the news headlines ...........throughout my
twenties and thirties.
Of course, “tithing” was an important part of remaining “one of the chosen”... I often revealed my
“mortal failings” in that particular area.... I have to admit.
But I'm certain that I gave a substantial amount of my meager earnings to the Church over the
course of those years, and I suspect that my mother did also.
There is also an important (to me) ..“Work/ Marriage/ Family with children” life story
coinciding with all this.....but the “personal belief” account is the one I'll stay focused on.
__________________________________________________________________________________
I somehow had made it past my thirties.... un-tortured and un-Raptured!
It was beginning to look like the Rapture and Armageddon were going to take longer than I had
originally been led to believe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It wasn't until my early forties, that I happened upon a small book in the DuBois library entitled , The
Historical Approach to the Bible by Howard Teeple.
Here is a link to some recent reviews of that book at amazon.com
It was the first book that I had ever read that looked at the Origins and History of the Bible and
Christianity from the “impartial” viewpoint of a well educated historian.
Published in 1992, it was the result of 50 years of scholarly research by Dr. Howard Teeple who was the executive director of the Religion and Ethics Institute in Evanston, Illinois. He held a Ph.D. in the field from the University of Chicago.
This one small, well researched and “reason based” book... made me aware.. for the first time in my
life... that there was a “whole lot” of “historically accurate” information available about all Religions..
not just Christianity.....and much of it was investigated and written from a “neutral unbiased
viewpoint”.
With over 40 years of thinking in terms of just Good and Evil... I really hadn't even
“considered” the possibility of a third way...........neutral.
After all, that would have required admitting some small measure of “doubt”..... which would thereby
tilt me toward the “Evil” side of my “Black and White” world view.
Fortunately for me, my particular Church began to furnish all of the “doubt” that I needed at that
point in time.
I possibly never would, or could have done it ..“on my own”.
With the death of it's founder, Herbert W. Armstrong, in 1986..his son, Garner Ted, and other top
Church officials began to engage in a power struggle for control of the rich “empire” that was
The Worldwide Church of God.
As early as 1972, there had been some rumors of problems and dissent within the ranks of the Church..
... but that had only served to “strengthen my faith”..
.........clearly Satan had begun his attack on “God's True Church”! ..and the “End Times” were
beginning!
But 14 years later, the “Prophecy picture” was beginning to fail the test of actual World News.............
...... and I was starting to have “serious” doubt!
Eventually, from the 1970s through to the 1990s several groups had gradually separated from the
Worldwide Church of God, after some “major” doctrinal changes in the Church had been made.
Basically.....not long after that........... the Whole Thing fell apart!
The largest splinter group became the United Church of God... today with as many as 17,000
members.
But it has renounced many of the teachings of the original Church.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All of my life, I had never believed in “Belief,”... simply for “Belief's sake”.
I had always just been “absolutely certain” that the Christian world view was the only “reasonable”
one to hold. It appeared to me to be a “scientific” fact.
My emotional feelings “about” that fact were a totally separate and private thing from my belief in it..
All of the evidence I had seen, the study that I had done, all of the people I had listened to, and all of the specific Bible verses I been been directed toward ..all fell neatly into place... and had formed, “for me”, a simple, clear and sensible picture of God, of my life, of my meaning, and of the Purpose of the Universe.
But Teeple's book was “Out of the Box”! At least it was out of MY box.
He traced the history of how the Bible had literally been constructed piece by piece over “hundreds of years”... by the various early Christian Church councils.
Man made?
I had always thought that God made it ......and that men had just faithfully copied it after that..
I next thought.... “at least” most of these men “claimed” some special personal “knowledge of”... or “inspiration from”.......... God. That was somewhat reassuring.
Now I was finding out that, over 300 years after the time of Jesus, with the the Roman Emperor Constantine declaring Christianity the State Religion of the “Mega Powerful” Roman Empire....
... Church Bishops were called by Constantine to gather together at numerous conferences, councils,
and synods, discussing and arguing over which of the many, many existing religious writings to
include... and which to reject........... as worthy of being called.....
...”God's Word and God's Will”.
Church councils were, from the beginning, bureaucratic exercises.
Written documents were circulated,
speeches made and responded to, votes taken, and final documents published and distributed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Ecumenical_Councils
It all sounded to me just like the modern day U S Congress, except that here, the representatives were
not even democratically elected by the “common” people..
... they had all been “appointed” by the top leaders of the Roman Church...................
They were called together, for the first time.... by Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus..
later known simply as.......... Constantine the Great.
Flavius started out as a Roman military officer and politician, originally totally loyal to the
multiple Roman Gods...Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, and Apollo, etc..
... but declaring himself a Christian
around the year 312...........at about the age of 40.
A bit of insight into Flavious's character can be glimpsed by this short description of his late night
escape from being a hostage in Rome... and attempting to join with his father.....who was a military
leader in Gaul.
“He rode from post house to post-house at high speed, mutilating every horse in his wake”
..... evidently to prevent being followed.
After (Flavious) Constantine's victory over the Alemanni, he minted a coin issue depicting
weeping and begging Alemannic tribesmen—"The Alemanni conquered"—beneath the phrase
"Romans rejoicing"
Eventually, he battled his way back to Rome...... slaughtering and hanging his enemies... to
become the Roman Emperor in 325.
That same year he assembled his first Christian Church Commission .....to discover (or
create.......depending on your particular viewpoint)......... in effect.........
.. The exact and official .....“Will of God”....
... which was then to be “revealed to” and
“enforced upon”........... all Roman citizens..... by the Roman Catholic Church..
...which was now the “Official Church” of the Roman Empire.
The emperor ensured that God was properly worshiped in his empire; what proper worship consisted
of was for the Church to determine.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a side note.... some 14 years after declaring himself a Christian,
......(in) 326,...Constantine had his eldest son Crispus, by
Minervina, seized and put to death by "cold poison" at Pola. In July, Constantine had his wife, the
Empress Fausta, killed at the behest of his mother, Helena. Fausta was left to die in an over
-heated bath.
Yet..... Constantine is still today revered as a “Saint”... by Eastern Orthodox Church, which is the
second largest single Christian communion in the world.
This Church is considered, by its followers,
to be the very same Church established by Christ and his Apostles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Historical Approach to the Bible had also pointed out to me... various “inconsistencies and
contradictions” in the final document which eventually emerged from all of this Church committee voting..
..a document known as the “Holy Bible” ...
The errors pointed out were ones that you would expect to find in any project put together by groups
of mortal men, but that was the real shocker for me!
I had always been certain for my entire life that the Bible was the infallible, inerrant, Word of God...
and if even “one small piece” of it was found to be reasonably and demonstrably false or
contradictory....
....then my entire “world view”.... 40 some years in the making... was going to go down the tubes!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I carefully spent the next few years investigating those alleged “errors” and “discrepancies”... from the
perspective of other historians and writers as well as from the viewpoint of various Christian
researchers... or “apologists” as they are called.
I found out that the few things that Teeple had pointed out were just the tip of a “huge iceberg”,
consisting of many, many disputed interpretations... and the incompatible and unresolved doctrines
that are “today”.... all “lumped together”.... and called ...Christianity..
That.... along with an equal number of different competing, diverse, and often contradicting
“deity descriptions”.......... that somehow, today..... ..
....all manage to come together under the “blanket title” .........God.
It then became clear to me why there are now some many branches of Christianity..
..the uncertainty and disagreement over the various doctrinal interpretations of the multiple
linguistic interpretations of the Book... and of the doctrine itself..
... which, incidentally I was to find out, was not even “officially” finalized until the Council of Trent of 1546..
...less than 500 years ago......and in response to the the doctrinal challenges of Martin Luther.
Originally a priest....Martin Luther was “kicked out” of the “True Church” for his efforts.... after he
“dared” to add his personal scriptural “interpretations” to the mix.
Since that time, Luther's “Protestant” offspring denominations have taken “their” various “God
inspired” interpretations and disagreements....
.. and split away from the original “God inspired” Catholic church...
and from each other.
Wikipedia notes anywhere from 8 to 33 thousand Protestant denominations in 238 countries, with
maybe 300 new ones being added each year. And no two of them believe exactly the same thing about
the exact message of the Bible or the exact characteristics of the God that they all claim is the only
“One and True”...... God .
But they all seem “quite certain”.... that the original “God inspired” Catholic Church no longer has
it right!
Some even think that Satan has taken over the original Church..
..but that God is.. of course... inspiring each of “their” particular scriptural interpretations and practices.
Given all of this vast variety and disagreement..it amazes me that so many of the professing
Christians that I've known and talked to...
.... seem to think that anyone who sincerely calls themselves a “Christian”... is actually
thinking of... and worshiping.. the exact same deity that they are when they say it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saying “I am a Christian” ... these days... seems to me to have become mostly a “Loyalty
Oath” to “Belief..over non-Belief”.
The varying scriptural interpretations and practices of the differing Protestant churches... appear to be
of little concern to the average Christian believer .
Maybe they feel that it doesn't matter much..... but it was certainly what mattered “the most”
throughout the entire history of Christianity!
Why people apparently feel that it shouldn't be important today, is a mystery to me...unless..
..... it's because today.......... most people just don't have the time to investigate such things!
It looks to me like many of today's Protestant churches have been forced into becoming.... McChurch!
Keep it fast and keep it simple!....
..”Believe and Receive! .... Doubt!... and you're OUT!
.....and you only need to know one Bible verse... John 3:16... to qualify.
This philosophy, of course, does not require..... and actually “discourages”..... any
“independent” thinking and scriptural investigation..
....even though.... this is the exact “process” that “Protestantism” owes it's very existence to!
As in 1546 with the Catholic Church, Martin Luther would “today” probably want to nail specific
written disagreements to the front doors of many of the “Protestant” Churches.
To him, the precise “Word of God” was detailed, specific and clear.
With a Doctorate in Theology, he had risked his life defending his personal
interpretation of the exact “Truth” in God's Word..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I began to suspect that this “God inspiration thing” was not as reliable nor as consistent as you might
reasonably expect it to be......if it was actually... literally.... of and from God.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have also come to realize that very few Christians that I've ever met, are even concerned very much
with the “details” of scripture.. in confirming and maintaining their “belief”.
Nearly all of the “outspoken” Christians that I've talked with...... have recounted “personal
experiences” of God..... or “personal failings”.... that they had eventually come to feel were in total...
“unforgivable”....a “hitting bottom”.. in their lives.....at least in “their” own minds.....
Their inability to “self forgive”.... for whatever reason..seems to have led to a
loss of much of their “self esteem”.... and all of their “personal trust”
in their own ability to recover without outside help of some sort.
It is at this point that they appear to have “thrown themselves” on the “mercy”
of God....
..... and immediately began to attribute “any improvements” in their situation...... to God's “personal
intervention” ........in their lives.
They never mention... or even seem to “consider” the fact that.... once you've
“hit bottom”....
.....there is nowhere to go but “up”..
.... and that it might actually have been just “natural occurring” improvements
that they had begun to experience, as a result of so drastically altering their former counterproductive
behaviors and lifestyle.
I'm also wondering if their tremendous sense of relief at the improvements and
their resulting feelings of gratitude... required.... “someone or something to thank!”
Since they had been failing and blaming themselves for so long,
they themselves didn't feel worthy of receiving that thanks...so the gratitude had to go to... God.
Many also seem to have, at that point, acquired a “dual self image”, with “God” no longer seen as a
separate being from themselves.
With this new concept of a “companion”, who is always with them...a “personal” God..
they have found forgiveness... and, it seems to me... a kind of “surrogate” self esteem.
When I was a “true believer”, whenever I had heard of, or encountered a vocal “nonbeliever”, (or
gasp!... Atheist!)......
.. my first reaction was “surprise”.. ...(How can they not see the [Plain] Truth?) .
.. .then pity.....(they must not have been chosen by God to know the Truth, as I had been).
I had never felt even the slightest “anger”....which is often the “first”
reaction I get from some.. not all.. Christians I've talked with recently.
I'd always felt that God was “big enough” to not need my protection in any way,
and my “faith” or “belief” was certainly not endangered ..because it wasn't even
“faith”......it was true.. evidence based knowledge! (using the only evidence that I had available at that time)
I've asked many of these same people what “new evidence”, if they happened to be presented with it,
could or might “possibly” change their mind about the existence of God.
All have said that “Nothing” could change their mind!
They seem to have totally “invested themselves” in belief in their particular “personal image” of God,
just as I had done for most of my life, and they have “no incentive” whatsoever to investigate
alternatives.
I was lucky. I had been forced into investigating further...
In addition, their type of “belief” seems much more an “investment of emotion”... than mine had been.
For me, it had always been an “intellectual investment”..with the emotional benefits just a
consequence of “knowing and living in accordance with the Truth.”
Because of that, when “my Truth” had to be altered...... by new “facts”... many of the emotional
benefits actually carried over to the new “Truth”.
I also had been fortunate enough in my personal life to have not been forced into the position of
“hitting bottom”....and my education and my college experience had given me a solid trust in my own
reasoning abilities.
I did certainly lose much of that warm, comfortable feeling that I had often felt from my association
with the Protestant Church, as a child..
...and in my later “trust in and loyalty to” The Worldwide Church of God.
But when I look back , I now see it as having been a... “false” comfort...
at the “absolute certainty” of my belief.
It was as if I had taken that same “childlike” sense of trust
and certainty about my Mother and Father...... and transferred it to the Church.
Unfortunately, I could not sustain the comfort of those old feelings without ignoring (or denying) the
new historical and scientific knowledge that was coming at me from every direction, ever since I had
first been given permission, by that one small book, to evenconsider it.
I just couldn't deny it any longer...my Church was NOT “God's True Church"....
..and possibly.... “None” of them were.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I decided to begin to read and examine the Bible.. from a much more objective, impartial
perspective..to the best of my ability.
If it was “truly” God's Word..that should be very plain to see.
This was the method used by Martin Luther ....and William Tyndale, who was “burned at the stake”
only 472 years ago for defying the Catholic Church. His forbidden “English language” translation of
the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek.. formed the basis for the later King James
commissioned translation.
.....................................................................................................
Tyndale's translation exposed the errors of the church to the people, which quickly brought the wrath of the church down on him.
......................................................................................................................................................................
Master Tyndale happened to be in the company of a learned man, and in communing and disputing with him drove him to that issue, that the learned man said: 'We were better be without God's law than the Pope's.
Master Tyndale, hearing that, answered him.
'I defy the Pope and all his Laws'; and said: 'If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scriptures than thou dost'.
http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/tyndale.htm
............................................................................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................
So.. instead of the way I had always “studied” the Bible...which was..
beginning with a particular Church's doctrine and beliefs,
and then allowing that to “direct me” toward verses that supposedly supported “their conclusions”..
I decided to start at the beginning............ and I allowed “myself” the freedom to evaluate and react
naturally to the “story” as it was presented.
I would draw “my own conclusions” as to what made sense and what didn't,
what seemed to be meant by “the author”... and what didn't.
I bought more Bibles........ some with multiple translations in parallel.... Nave's Topical Bible
Commentary....
..and a huge copy of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, which contains every word in the Bible.. where
and how many times it appears..... and the many possible and surprisingly varied English translations
of each of those original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words.
(All of these scriptural study tools, and many more, are now available on the Internet for free, and are much easier to access and search than the old printed versions..
ESword, Bible Gateway and BlueLetter Bible are a few of the really good and easy to use all-in one, multiple translation and Concordance programs and websites available)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I began by reading a sentence or two of the Bible, checking out the different possible meanings of the
words, and ....
coming to some general “conclusion” about what was most likely to have been the writer's “intended”
meaning.... within the context of the narrative... as it unfolded.
I instantly began finding out things that I'd never seen or heard spoken of before...and in just the first
sentence alone!
“in the beginning,God” ...it turned out, was a “mistranslation” in the King James Bible.
The correct translation of the original Hebrew word “Elohiym”, was the plural, “Gods”.
It was really getting interesting now.
(Later, I was to learn that some Christian apologists feel that the concept of the “Trinity” is evidenced
by the plural reading of the word Elohiym, whereas others deny the plural in this “particular” instance)
So “Gods”... more than one...created the heaven and earth, day and night, sea and land and also
something called a“firmament”, which “divided the waters above from the waters below”.
(
At first I had no idea what that was, but
I've since learned that ancient people once believed that a huge body of water existed above the “solid”
dome of the sky, a dome which “God” had “hammered out” of something similar to metal......
Job 37:18)
Elihu asks Job “Can you beat out [raqa] the vault of the skies, as he does, hard as a mirror of cast metal ?”
When it rained,....... supposedly, the “windows of heaven” were opened to release some of the water
above the dome .
That would have been a perfectly sensible theory, given the state of scientific knowledge back then..the sky actually does “look” like a large dome..a huge inverted bowl.
The Jewish Encyclopaedia describes the Firmament as follows:
- "The Hebrews regarded the earth as a plain or a hill figured like a hemisphere, swimming on water. Over this is arched the solid vault of heaven. To this vault are fastened the lights, the stars. So slight is this elevation that birds may rise to it and fly along its expanse.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=807&letter=C#2736
Genesis 7:11 uses “the windows of heaven” phrase in the Noah story.
Nobody today believes such a thing, scientific investigation has not discovered a “firmament”....
and you likely won't hear much about it in church......but it's still right there in Genesis.
Next, and suddenly, in Genesis 2:4, the “Lord God” shows up for the first time.
No more “Elohiym plural”....Jehovah appears to be the leader god of the elohiym group.
This individual god, Jehovah, is then said to create everything........ all over again.
Many Bible scholars feel that this was just a case of poor editing by whoever compiled the original Genesis writings.
Two different creation accounts stuck together.. likely.. two different authors were involved.
And the two “creation stories” each disagree on the order of what was created... and on who did the
creating!
I had never heard anything about that before...... I've since investigated many of the alternative
interpretations by some top Christian apologists, but it still just looks like “two incompatible creation
stories” to me.
It was the “singular” Jehovah Elohiym God who then planted a garden called Eden..... and is said to
have created “man”.
Jehovah also placed “two” trees in the garden... (I had always thought there was just that one evil tree)....
the “Tree of Life”, which could impart Immortality.... and the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil”.
Jehovah then places the man in the garden... to tend to it.
He tells the man that he can eat of and from everything..
“except” from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil... because eating from that tree would
result in “Death within the Day”.
Here is the exact quote from the King James Version...
..."But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
The Hebrew word for “day” here is the same Hebrew word used in the previous
Creation account, the one defined as “an evening and a morning”... and clearly meaning a 'literal” day.
Next Jehovah creates the woman Eve.
Then the serpent, who is described as either cunning, crafty, or prudent, depending upon how you wish to translate the Hebrew word “arum”.... tells the woman that she won't die if she eats from the tree that Jehovah told her not to eat from.
He tells her that, if she eats from that tree, her eyes will be opened, and she will be “like a God herself”, knowing Good and Evil!
Now .... that made perfect sense to me....after all, the tree was named, “the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”, and not..... “The Tree of Dying Today,”... what Jehovah had warned about and predicted.
So... as we all know... Eve and Adam both eat from the tree and..........
..the results proved............. that the serpent had told Eve the “truth”..... and that the Jehovah “character” had been lying to her.
. The next verses state that, the eyes of both of them were opened...... they both knew good and evil... and, most significantly.......... neither of them died that day.
Wow!..............I had always thought the “Jehovah character” was supposed to be the honest and righteous one in that story.
The serpent may have been an “instigator”, of sorts, but at least he was proven to be “honest” in what he had said to Eve.
Next, Jehovah finds out what happened....apparently for the first time... by “asking” Adam.
Then he gets really angry and throws them both out of the garden.
In Genesis 3:22, Jehovah expresses worry that, now that Adam and Eve have acquired the knowledge of Good and Evil.... if they next happened to eat from The Tree of Life, they would live Forever... and be Gods...... too!
Being a “jealous” God.... as he later describes himself... he naturally wants to prevent that from happening.
So he next places a “flaming sword” at the entrance to the garden to keep them both out... .
Later, I investigated and read some of the various Christian Church's explanations of why they claim that Jehovah did not “lie” in this particular incident.
Their most common “claim”, seems to be, that Adam and Eve merely “became “subject” to dying.. or “mortal”... because of eating from The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil..... and that Jehovah did not literally mean... “die that day”.... even though he clearly says that.
Now that theory does not seem to me to be an accurate or honest interpretation, for the following reasons:
The name of the tree, as I've mentioned before.
The Hebrew word for “day” clearly means a literal day, and the intended meaning of Jehovah saying that death will occur “in the day” of the eating.... seems quite clear to me.
“Becoming mortal” after “the eating” obviously would require that Adam and Eve were “immortal' prior to “the eating”..... either from being created that way..... or from previously eating of the Tree of Life.
If that were the case, then they would have become “as Gods” instantly... upon eating the “forbidden fruit”!
Remember in Genesis 3:22...Jehovah describes the “becoming Gods process” as being a combination of Knowledge of Good and Evil and Immortality (from eating the two fruits) .
I'm sure that a Christian Apologist could imagine another.. “it might have meant”....... to add to that that previous one ...about becoming “subject to death”.. rather than “literally dying” (an interpretation which, by the way, is totally “unwarranted” within the context of the story up to that point. It's only the much later writings “selected for” the New Testament that require such a twisted interpretation of an otherwise perfectly clear statement). ...
I can even help.
It “might have meant”.... that Adam and Eve would have needed to eat from both trees... “in the proper order”....... to become “as Gods” ......hmm?
My main point here is that... if you come to the interpretation of this story carrying the Christian Protestant constructed “preconception”.. that Jehovah is the “good guy” and the serpent is the “bad guy”....then you will totally ignore the indisputable fact that the serpent “told the truth here”...and Jehovah clearly lied! .
..because the serpent is supposed to be Satan, the deceiver......and modern Christianity requires an “Original Sin” interpretation here to justify that much later constructed, “Salvation” doctrine of theirs.
Even granting “that” viewpoint....Satan could never have gotten into an “All Powerful God's” perfect and pure garden without that God's permission. In that case, the whole thing was a “setup”, with Jehovah himself instigating it...so how can Adam and Eve, let alone all of the millions of their innocent descendents, even be blamed at all ?
They must have been just like children at that point!
If I, as a father, had sent, or even just “allowed”... a “talking snake” into my house..and he had then convinced “my children” to steal some cookies from the pantry..I certainly wouldn't blame the kids!
But here, the actual story has the “Jehovah character” asking Adam how he knew that he was naked ...and if he had eaten from the forbidden tree.
An honest and unbiased interpretation here... would be that..... Jehovah “hadn't known” about the serpent incident until after Eve told him about it.
But an “All Knowing God".. preconception” requires that he did know.... and was just asking rhetorical questions of Adam and Eve.
It seemed pretty clear to me that, from an unbiased viewpoint, this story would be seen as, and properly labeled....... “a Hebrew fable”..
.. talking animals, moral lessons, and a clearly “imperfect” creator Deity with the same emotional feelings and failings... and many of the physical limitations... of the average mortal man.
In the story, Jehovah even “walks around” in the garden.
Jehovah's human like characteristics and imperfections “abound” throughout the Old Testament.
And Jehovah is not a very pleasant fellow..
Anger driven and war loving ( Jehovah is a man of war..Exodus 15:3 ).....extremely jealous of all the “other gods” which were evidently all around him ...(you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God...Ex. 34:14 ..) ........he is the perfect “Tribal Leader” figure!
....... and Jehovah apparently is not even very “bright”.
One clear example:
Later on in scripture, Moses was actually able to persuade Jehovah to “change his mind” about destroying every one of the Israelites.......... by telling him that the Egyptians would not think very much of him for doing that, after he had gone to so much trouble to rescue them from Egyptian captivity!
Moses also reminds Jehovah of past promises that he seems to be forgetting, during this most recent tremendous and irrational anger outburst.
It's very clear from what is written that Jehovah actually hadn't even considered those things.... until Moses points them out to him...
...Why should Jehovah even care what the Egyptians thought of him?
(Ezekiel 23 ...(clearest... in the NIV translation)... has a sadistic and “X rated” story... detailing another of Jehovah's apparently significant... “concerns”.. about the Egyptians)
Well, evidently Jehovah does care...very much so..because.....
... he becomes “totally” convinced by the logic of Moses' arguments.... and completely “changes his
mind” as a result!
Ex 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moses speaking to Jehovah.......
Exd 32:12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
Exd 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit [it] for ever.
Exd 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not surprising to me,.. that the modern Christian Church focuses 99% of it's message and attention on Jesus, of the New Testament.
Defending the actions and image of Jehovah... as a “Perfect Deity”... would be an exercise in futility!
And since the concept of the “Trinity” means that Jesus and Jehovah are actually one and the same..
all of Jehovah's flawed characteristics would totally negate all of Jesus' attributes!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sentence after sentence, story after story, as I continued along, I kept coming to conclusions about the
characters and the plot, that were not at all in line with the general “Protestant Church” interpretations
and conclusions that I had been taught since birth.
If the Christian Bible was to continue to be the foundation of my religious belief, based upon what I
was reading and learning....
I would be forced into “constructing” a whole new Religion!
But if I wanted there to be an “All Loving.. All Knowing.. All Powerful” Deity in it....I would have to
exclude a large portion of the Old Testament!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I later learned that other religions of the World were also internally uncertain and confused in their
interpretations of their sacred texts and doctrines... the Shia and Sunnis of Islam, for example, have
been killing each other for years... in part, as the result of just some “small” doctrinal belief
differences.
But 'Belief'.. to most Muslims ...means Total Belief..
....right down to the last word and sentence in their Holy Book, The Koran..
...And they really take it serious!
If there were two branches, within a “fundamental Islamic country” as different as the Lutherans and
Methodist are.... those branches would probably be “shooting” at each other every day!...
.....because fundamentalism literally means a "deep and total commitment" to a belief.. and that...
in the smallest of detail.
We are talking about a “perfect” Deity here... who is revealing a “perfect” set of instructions
...so...
.... there is absolutely no “wiggle room” in the details of the doctrine or the worship.
There is only the “Right Way” or the “Wrong Way”.........The Good or the Evil way.
Unfortunately, we regular humans are not.... in any way... “perfect”.
And anytime we try to be perfect, we naturally are going to screw it up...... Bigtime.
I think that a more sensible and achievable goal is just...... to try to be “better.”
It was also occurring to me that... if I had been born and raised in a Muslim family, exposed only to
Muslim teachings, and taught to avoid and ignore the evil that “must necessarily lurk” within anything
or anybody who contradicts Muslim beliefs....
....then “believing totally” in the Muslim Faith would be “perfectly reasonable”, and I would probably
have lived my entire life without a shred of doubt about it, as I'm sure most Muslims do today.
The same would hold true for any religion or belief system.
Substitute the word Christian for Muslim in the above paragraph, and that is exactly what had
actually happened to me.....
...........except for the “entire life” part.
I did additional research and study, looking into the history of world religion, beginning with the
primitive “hunter/gatherer” tribal roots of supernatural belief systems.. which had slowly changed and
evolved with the adoption of widespread agricultural practices in the world.
The slow change, progress, and evolution of “God belief” in Western religion could clearly and
reliably be historically traced from the pagan (which originally meant, “country dweller”)
... to the Hebrew, then
eventually into the modern Christian denominations.
.
The gradual changes always integrated some of the previous traditions, and added many new ones.
I found out that Christmas trees, Yule logs and Easter eggs all originally came from those “evil
Pagans.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There slowly began to be little doubt... in my mind... that man himself had created the
“whole concept” that we now term.... “God”..
. and that the nature and qualities of that concept, and of that God, have been evolving and changing
for hundreds of thousands of years..
...and in “direct response” to gradual but steadily increasing scientific
discoveries and knowledge....
..... from belief in “spirits” in the rocks and trees... to the multiple “gods” of the original Greeks and
Romans..... to the modern “3 in One Trinity God” of present day Christianity.
Christianity still hasn't actually gotten it down to just one.... but Islam loudly claims to have done just
that.
I began to feel very, very fortunate that I had... totally by chance... been born into an “Open Society” of diversity... with the availability of multiple viewpoints..... and that I had been handed the freedom to investigate any of those viewpoints that I might choose.
My upbringing and education had always been supportive of my natural curiosity and my respect for reason and evidence..... in my search of the truth about reality.
I did feel some regret, however, that it had taken me so long to begin to venture out of my comfortable
“cocoon” of false certainty....but that regret was far outweighed by my gratitude at having been given
the opportunity at all!
“Hey, It doesn't take a brick building to fall on me!” ....
....well..........................it actually did take even more than that.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are many, many beneficial and admirable humanitarian and social accomplishments in the
world, past and present, that some of the world's organized religions are certainly to be given full
credit for... and which likely would not have come about at all, if it hadn't have been for the
existence of these powerful and “well structured” social systems.
But having acknowledged that.... I'm still convinced that the “primary” function of the major
“organized Religions” of the World... originated, and continues to be... as “political control”
mechanisms.....
......simply... to keep the common people “in line.”
Thousands of years... literally... of “hands on” experience... has taught organized Religions... what
works, and what doesn't work.....to keep their people under control.
A complex and very effective system has gradually evolved.
Religions promise.... the “Best Imaginable” rewards!
(after Death, of course!...that way, no
one is going to “complain” about not receiving their “promised” reward) ..
..and religions threaten the “Worst Imaginable” punishments!
An “All Seeing, All Knowing” judge is then placed “in the heads” of the believers... to do most of the
work.
Here is where the historical religious “argument” known as “Pascal's Wager” deserves to be mentioned.
This is the most common “reason” or “motivation” that I personally hear people giving for
why they say that they “believe in God” ... my own father uses this one.
Blaise Pascal was a French Philosopher and Mathematicion of the early 1600's.
What Pascal claimed, basically, was that.....If no one can actually “prove” that God exists or doesn't....
isn't it more safe to “bet” that he does exist....than to “bet” that he doesn't exist?
There are “lots of problems” associated with a belief in an All Powerful, All Knowing Deity... based upon such reasoning.
1. Isn't this “God” going to be instantly aware that you are not “really”convinced, and don't
really believe that he exists... and that you are just betting that he does?
How much “sincere” and “honest” trust and loyalty have you demonstrated to that “God” with
this type of strategy? Even worse than none, I'd think.
You can't “fool” an “All Knowing” God!
2. What if you are “betting on” the wrong God?
There are lots of them out there in the world, (and no..they are not all the same one)
....and some of them threatening even “worse” afterlife punishments than the Christian Church
has creatively “come up with”........ so far.
Unless you check out all of the possible claimed “afterlife punishments” of all of the religions of the
World.... you might accidentally pick the wrong God to “bet on!..
After all, you don't want to bet against a God who might torture you to Death..and then revive you for
another round.......over and over....forever and ever and ever.............................and ever.
Is this all starting to sound a bit silly?
Another published historian and philosopher, Richard Carrier..with a PhD in Ancient History..
has this to say about “truth seeking” (emphasis mine)
“Suppose there is a God who is watching us and choosing which souls of the deceased to bring to heaven, and this god really does want only the morally good to populate heaven. He will probably select from only those who made a significant and responsible effort to discover the truth. For all others are untrustworthy, being cognitively or morally inferior, or both. They will also be less likely ever to discover and commit to true beliefs about right and wrong.
That is, if they have a significant and trustworthy concern for doing right and avoiding wrong, it follows necessarily that they must have a significant and trustworthy concern for knowing right and wrong.
Since this knowledge requires knowledge about many fundamental facts of the universe (such as whether there is a god), it follows necessarily that such people must have a significant and trustworthy concern for always seeking out, testing, and confirming that their beliefs about such things are probably correct.
Therefore, only such people can be sufficiently moral and trustworthy to deserve a place in heaven — unless God wishes to fill heaven with the morally lazy, irresponsible, or untrustworthy.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organized Religions also.... all actively and vigorously, discourage “doubt” among their followers.
No one needs to attend regular “Gravity belief “ meetings, or read, (over and over again) passages
from Sir Isaac Newton's writings ... to remain convinced that “Gravity”
actually exists.
It is only... “unproven” or “unprovable” claims, containing at least some measure of “doubt”.. that
require such regular “belief reinforcement”.
In summary..it seems that religions have all learned and developed sophisticated "belief maintenance"
programs....
to pro-actively minimize dissent.. and primarily............ to ensure their own continued survival.
But they are all... still... gradually and constantly... changing...... in their practices, and in their
conception and description of their particular “God”s” character and characteristics.
Islam, however, appears to be evolving more slowly than the others... likely due to it's particular
success at restricting the ability of it's followers to access new information about the world.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And the Judeo Christian Religion...has certainly changed greatly, over thousands of years.
Jehovah... the “Tribal based” Hebrew God of the Old Testament would “slaughter and destroy” ....at
the drop of a hat!........ as would his wandering “fear-based” tribes of followers.
With increasing World population.. and agriculture.. came towns and cities..each requiring more
cooperation and less conflict among the people.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
"Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be, according to the rules of the animal kingdom, and we have agriculture to thank for that. Without farming, the world population would probably have reached (only) half a million by now....
Professor Steve Jones, of University College London.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
The “diplomatic and nonviolent” image and message... of Jesus ....of The New Testament era.. then fit
well with the times, even though the Christian “Messiah concept” had “originated” as an exclusively
Jewish one.
.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
========================================================
I now often watch and listen to the numerous lectures and debates on the Internet
between the passionate believers and the fervent nonbelievers.
There are usually many quite convincing points made by both sides.... that is
the nature of logical argument.
I also still enjoy reading and evaluating the latest “ontological” arguments from
both ancient and recent religious thinkers, and writers..
(ontology- the study of the nature of being, existence, or reality in general..I didn't know what it meant either... before I looked it up)
.. and I've recently been enjoying the style of and the logic behind many of
the arguments made by some of the so-called “New Atheists”.....
Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens.....
whose new books have been topping the New York Times Best Seller list.
Daniel Dennett is the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts
University.
I feel that he, in particular, is doing very interesting research.... and writings on the
likely evolutionary roots of.... “Belief”.
Since “what is fervently believed” varies so greatly across societies of the World...it's
not the “object” of each belief that should be examined first....
..it's the “process” of Belief itself that needs to be defined and explained.
.....even the “belief”..... that we can even actually figure this all out!
Dan Dennett has also, interestingly noted...
... that in America, very few people today... “really act” as if they believe in an “ever
present Deity/God actually existing.
Most people today act more like they “believe in Belief”..
They think it's a good thing, and they think that everyone else should do it too.
.
But otherwise, they just “ carry on” with their lives.... just exactly as they would....
..........if no “Deity” actually existed.
That's what I often see taking place too!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm still interested in.. and “open” to... any new evidence that a “deity” of some
sort might possibly exist..
..but so far I haven't seen convincing evidence.
(I guess technically , that makes me an “agnostic atheist”..or a “Pantheist”, if
my respect for, and sense of wonder at ...Nature's mysteries... is included ) ..
As for the issue of my own eventual “Death”..I can see no reason for any anxiety
about that.
It seems pretty clear to me that “death” will just be a.. “personal lack of awareness”.
...a condition that I've experienced before..during deep sleep and before my birth.
Basically a... “been there..done that”..thing.
There is actually no Biblical support for the idea of “eternal punishment” of
anyone...let alone just an honest unbeliever.
But since I'm now convinced that the Bible is half Hebrew mythology and half
Christian fabrication..the concept of “Hell” is not even an issue to me.
I hope that most readers, whether they happen to agree with me
or not, will be convinced that I've not come to my conclusions
without a great deal of thought and effort......
And I've often heard the Christian argument that a person cannot trust his or her
own judgment and interpretations of scripture.
Then whose should he trust..another person's?
Even the Bible is clear on that topic....
"PROVE all things; hold fast that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21 KJV
The Epistemology (or Theory of Knowledge) of the ontology ( the nature of being,
existence, or reality in general) ....of..... God......... has a long and distinguished history,
dating back to Aristotle in the early 300's BC.
Eventually a large list of standard “arguments' for and against the existence of a
“God” have developed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existence_of_God#Arguments_against_belief_in_God
Of the “against” list of arguments, the so called “Problem of Evil” Argument, in
particular, is a compelling one to me.
..it has pretty much convinced me to rule out the existence of any “All Loving”
deity.
see... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil
I've never met a “human being” so “unloving” that they could stand by and watch a
small child suffer for hours,
....even days, until death.... without that person doing everything in their power to
help.
Yet in nearly every large “natural” disaster, powerful earthquake or devastating
flood....... if a “powerful, loving deity” actually did exist....
.. then that must be exactly what he is doing!
I just can't seem to twist that fact into “love”.... of any kind.... no matter how hard
I've tried. The aftermath cleanups of these disasters are usually pretty sad affairs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for taking the time and effort to hear my story.
I welcome all comments..... personal...critical.....supportive.... or otherwise.
What's your story about?
Gary Llewellyn
vlgl@verizon.net
Paltalk is an internet chat service for text, voice and video chatting. Paltalk claims 4 million users worldwide, making it the largest voice and video chat community on the World Wide Web .
The service provides access to several thousand video-enabled chat rooms in which users can interact one-on-one or with large groups of people simultaneously.
I used to spend hours browsing the selection of rooms on Paltalk. I would often pop into one of the many Christian rooms and join the conversation or hop over to one of the atheist rooms for a different take on things
.
I just now checked, and there are over 300 Christians now chatting in 64 different Paltalk Rooms, but only 40 atheists in 4 different rooms.
But the Muslims are usually always the big winners in this Worldwide chat room “popularity contest”.....
...presently there are over 700 of them online in Paltalk in various rooms, and most of those rooms open to anyone who wishes to jump in and “chat”.
I've done it myself,many, many times, and I've gotten a pretty good picture of how the Muslims operate......... just exactly like the Christian Rooms do!
Some fellowshipping and idle small talk, plenty of personal faith stories, scriptural references and self
praise, and lots of “self assuring” about the Absolute Truth that is revealed in their Holy Book.
The only difference? ...................................................................................
Different Books...................Different Gods!
No comments:
Post a Comment