Saint Maurice - As long as I get my rabies booster shots regularly, there's no rabidity. You must be getting your booster shots too, because you seem reasonable.
(Didn't know that about the little town in Switzerland. Wonder what the guy they named it after was famous for?)
OK, on with the reasoning... But first I'm going to read through what you wrote, about three times.
You said you "don't choose to believe in no God." In other words, you do choose to believe in God. Fine, we both agree on that. Unless it was a typographical error or a Freudian slip? I'm certainly not going to reason to the contrary if you now choose to believe in God. May the light of his truth greatly illuminate your path.
Yes, owning shares in stock involves a measure of faith. Actually, faith seems to precede and accompany every action we take, doesn't it?
But on the topic of religion. You are correct that religion has been used wickedly. That is what fallen man does with things. Give us knowledge of atomic power and of course we build a bomb. With positions of power and authority available in various religions, those who selfishly hunger for power and authority are among the successful candidates for those offices.
But I assume you have not read the entire Bible or even the New Testament yet, because in the New Testament is the inspired definition of religion which puts most of us to shame. Religion, as defined in the Bible, is definitely not the "opiate of the masses" - rather, it is avoided by the masses. Here is the definition: "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is in vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:26-27
Now - believing in God really has nothing to do with religion. God is not a religion. Jesus is a person, not a religion.
I've been a Christian since 1969, but I don't have any religion, though I've "dabbled" a little bit in it, in the spirit of the definition of true religion given above.
You raise quite a few subjects and it dilutes the discussion to try to cover them all, but... burning of witches: nothing more to say on that, beyond what I said earlier, that I don't believe the people who did the burning were Christians. I would bet that many people were falsely accused by others hoping to take their property. Similar things happen today. Even the government is doing it a bit, confiscating property of people falsely accused, who become impoverished trying to defend themselves. I don't know what religion it was that was behind the witch burnings, do you?
You spoke concerning "talking in tongues" (speaking in tongues is the term we use) and exorcism. I've no personal experience with any exorcisms, but I do not doubt the accounts in the New Testament. However, Hollywood would have a tough time making a movie about them, since they didn't take much time or effort on Jesus' part. The most spectacular one ended in a herd of pigs getting drowned and the local people (who had lost their pigs - which weren't kosher anyway) asking Jesus to leave the area.
I do have personal experience with speaking in tongues and it is not an illusion. I know many people who have received the gift of speaking in tongues. Incidentally, the Bible makes it clear that speaking in tongues is the least of all the gifts of the Spirit. I heard of a Christian who was sitting on a park bench across from the downtown library, praying quietly in tongues while sitting there. A very drunken Indian walked by, stopped, and became sober. He asked the Christian, "Do you know what you are saying?" The man who'd been praying quietly in tongues said no, he didn't. The Indian told him that he was speaking in an Indian dialect that few Indians were fluent in and that he was praising God.
My present wife has the gift of speaking in tongues, though she never uses it in public or in my hearing. I only know, because I asked her. I received the gift of speaking in tongues within the first year after I became a Christian. I use in in private prayer. Twice I have used in in public, speaking to others whose native language was other than English. Each time, they indicated they understood what I was saying, though I didn't. The first time I used it, a very agitated man, who was among those I had visited in a jail, tried to speak to me in Spanish, though I don't speak the language. He seemed to think that if he tried hard enough, I'd understand what he was saying. I finally felt the thing to do would be to speak to him in tongues. So I did. He said, "Si... Si.." and nodded his head each time. He seemed comforted and at peace. To this day, I don't know what I said, but the Holy Spirit knew what he needed to hear.
I heard a late night talk show once that had the subject of speaking in tongues. The host was just curious how many people had the experience, though he didn't and wasn't sure he believed in it himself. Caller after caller said he or she had the gift of speaking in tongues, but used it in private prayer for the most part. It is a small but definite comfort, especially if a person feels a need to pray, but doesn't know how to articulate what his soul is trying to express.
I've seen some of the Hollywood portrayals of manic behaviour associated with babbling "in tongues". And I've heard of real-life cases of some people madly babbling "in tongues". For every good thing, it seems the devil has a counterfeit. The counterfeits are usually quite obvious, if one is acquainted with the genuine article.
There are two writers, husband and wife, John and Elisabeth Sherrill, who did some investigative work on the gift of speaking in tongues, when there was a big move of the Holy Spirit among Christians here in the '60s. They ended being baptised in the Spirit and receiving the gift of speaking in tongues themselves. They wrote a book about it, which was a best seller.
Cathedrals? Well, those are man's handiwork, not necessarily anything to do with God. If you read the New Testament, you will find the account where some of the disciples comment about the grandeur of the edifices in Jerusalem. Jesus' response wasn't the response they expected. Like the good shepherd he is, he immediately turned their thoughts back in a direction relevant to his mission.
Returning to the 2nd paragraph of your message: You said, you just believe in what you think is? Remember Descartes, who said "I think, therefore I exist" Well, do you know how he ended? It seems he had a lot of faith in that famous statement. Late one evening he was in a bar, and the bartender, reminding him it was almost closing time, asked Descartes if he would like "one for the road." Descartes said, "I think not," and, poof! he disappeared. :)
John
P.S. Now that you believe in God, you need to decide if Jesus was a liar or speaking the truth. He didn't only say he is the Son of God.
He also said, speaking of himself, "I and the Father are one" and, to one of his disciples who asked to see the Father, he said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." But, as far as we are concerned, the biggest claim Jesus made is that he is the the only way to eternal happiness (eternal life) and any other way is a path to eternal isolation from God (the second death). But you have a good point there. The Bereans were commended for doing research on what they were told about Jesus. May you be commended for your research also. |
