I've been proselytized
My oldest and closest friend says I'm going to Hell
My belief system in a nutshell: I do believe in God, or whatever name you'd like to ascribe to a Higher Power. That's about it. I do not believe that the Bible is the unquestionable Word of God. I think that much of its contents were more politically motivated than divinely inspired. Not to mention the fact that it was written, edited, and translated many times over by Man. As in men. As in XY chromosomed human beings. With power and a strong desire to hold on to that power (the editors and translators more so than the writers, I would surmise.) I don't think that the Bible is without merit, but I also think it's a mistake to not read it in historical context.
And, most importantly, I can't fully comprehend the notion that acceptance of Jesus Christ is the only ticket to heaven. As it is, I struggle with the idea of Christ's divinity....and to be honest, I can't come away with a true feeling of what I believe in that respect because I can't separate what I think now and what I'd been taught growing up. Maybe it's faith, maybe it's indoctrination, but I can't outright reject the idea, so it would appear that I'm at a standstill on that one.
In the end, I can only reach the conclusion that we, as human beings, don't have the capacity to truly understand. It shouldn't stop us from trying, as I think examining religion forces us to examine ourselves (and in theory makes us better people) but I simply don't believe that any one religion has gotten it 100% right. Some might call that a lack of faith, and to be truthful, I really don't have a better way to describe it myself....so I'll go with that, though I stop short of seeing that lack of faith as being necessarily a negative.
I just spent an hour talking to Betty on the phone about this. She's been going to a Baptist (and I mean really Baptist) church and totally threw me for a loop when she laid the "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?" on me tonight. I tried explaining to her how I felt about religion in general and she countered with Bible passages. Eventually she admitted that quoting a source that I found dubious wasn't the best way to get me to see her point of view, and at this point I thought we had agreed to disagree. But no...she wants to send me a book. Which explains the Bible. From a Baptist point of view. And asked me to promise to read it.
At that point, I had to put her on hold to investigate a loud noise outside my window. No really....there really was a loud noise. A convenient loud noise, but a very real one. When I got back to the phone, we moved on to talking about one of her kids, so I'm thinking that I've dodged a bullet. However, when we finally said goodbye she said "Be on the lookout for that book...."
I really, really miss the days of drunken ramblings from her. Now, those? Much easier to wrap my head around.
My belief system in a nutshell: I do believe in God, or whatever name you'd like to ascribe to a Higher Power. That's about it. I do not believe that the Bible is the unquestionable Word of God. I think that much of its contents were more politically motivated than divinely inspired. Not to mention the fact that it was written, edited, and translated many times over by Man. As in men. As in XY chromosomed human beings. With power and a strong desire to hold on to that power (the editors and translators more so than the writers, I would surmise.) I don't think that the Bible is without merit, but I also think it's a mistake to not read it in historical context.
And, most importantly, I can't fully comprehend the notion that acceptance of Jesus Christ is the only ticket to heaven. As it is, I struggle with the idea of Christ's divinity....and to be honest, I can't come away with a true feeling of what I believe in that respect because I can't separate what I think now and what I'd been taught growing up. Maybe it's faith, maybe it's indoctrination, but I can't outright reject the idea, so it would appear that I'm at a standstill on that one.
In the end, I can only reach the conclusion that we, as human beings, don't have the capacity to truly understand. It shouldn't stop us from trying, as I think examining religion forces us to examine ourselves (and in theory makes us better people) but I simply don't believe that any one religion has gotten it 100% right. Some might call that a lack of faith, and to be truthful, I really don't have a better way to describe it myself....so I'll go with that, though I stop short of seeing that lack of faith as being necessarily a negative.
I just spent an hour talking to Betty on the phone about this. She's been going to a Baptist (and I mean really Baptist) church and totally threw me for a loop when she laid the "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?" on me tonight. I tried explaining to her how I felt about religion in general and she countered with Bible passages. Eventually she admitted that quoting a source that I found dubious wasn't the best way to get me to see her point of view, and at this point I thought we had agreed to disagree. But no...she wants to send me a book. Which explains the Bible. From a Baptist point of view. And asked me to promise to read it.
At that point, I had to put her on hold to investigate a loud noise outside my window. No really....there really was a loud noise. A convenient loud noise, but a very real one. When I got back to the phone, we moved on to talking about one of her kids, so I'm thinking that I've dodged a bullet. However, when we finally said goodbye she said "Be on the lookout for that book...."
I really, really miss the days of drunken ramblings from her. Now, those? Much easier to wrap my head around.