Letters to the Editor
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Jonathan
Thanks for the lecture. Nice to see that whether Christian or atheist, you're still an asshole.
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WTFWJD
I wuv oo too kissyface.
It's actually easier to shoot people down by being calm, polite and logical than it is by being a jerk.
Particularly so when they are attacking you, the calm, polite approach drives them into a frothing rage trying to get you to respond in kind..
Try it sometime, I think you'll find it works.
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"You are God"
Elaine said:
The Gospel of Thomas says that all who recognize that they come from God are also children of God, instead of teaching that Jesus is the only son of God through whom one must be saved.
I heard Elaine on the radio a while back express unfamiliarity with the John 10:34, a passage I should think she would appreciate.
The funny thing is how it repeats itself in real life.
I was at a party with a group of Lutherans, and I mentioned the concept that "you are God."
They said "that's blasphemy."
My response: "Go read John 10:34, where Jesus says 'I have said that you are God(s).'"
The irony is, the response I got was exactly what the Jews replied to Jesus, and he told them: go look in your own book (Ps 82:6), where it says the same thing!
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Voices in their heads
As a non-believer in any form of religion, I find it really very suspect when one or more fragments of the "true gospels" comes to light, and starts a new fight over who wrote what and when.
It is obvious that the Bible was actually written many years after the "events" that it recounts happened, by other people who had no connection with any of it-that indicates a willingness to subvert history to mind control and make people willing to believe stories that were written by people who heard voices in their heads.
Religion is an artificial construct designed to control people by others more powerful-and thus keeps 99% of the worlds' population in thrall to the 1% percent who think they ought to be running the world.
As history, very little of the Bible can be verified and to me, it makes little sense to even believe it. Faith doesn't do much to improve it.
Religion is a great excuse to pass the blame for our actions (and their consequences) to some other entity that doesn't even exist.
Interesting article though.
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Thou art God
-Michael Valentine Smith
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In other words, faith...
...is just a matter of "believe what makes you feel good." From a fundamentalist and atheist perspective, that is bogus, because it has nothing to do with "truth."
I'm amused at how she dismisses Dawkins out of hand as a "village atheist" (whatever that means). It's not that easy. For Pagels to discuss "God" she's going to have to define it, because without a definition there is too much chance for equivocation, since "God" means different things to different people. That is where atheists often run into trouble. S/he may be arguing with one theist about their god, and some other person comes in and makes statements defending the other theist but is using a different concept. (Speaking of definitions, my definition of atheist excludes the "angry at God" or "devil-worshipper" or "pagan" types - they really believe in the supernatural, even though they are quite different from any Abrahamic faith.)
Many atheists, especially those with some familiarity with philosophy, can argue about any god you care to define. Pagels has neatly fallen into the "god of the gaps" problem, where "God" can't be known because of all we don't know. According to her interview, one has to "feel" god. That is entirely true, especially when the person speaking refuses to define the terms. At that point, only emotions are valid, and since all emotions are valid (though not always appropriate or comprehensible) there can be no argument.
For my part, I don't understand all the vitriol against atheists. If faith is so important, firm, undeniable, and beyond logic, why are atheists so threatening? Further, if it is true that there is some sort of perception accessible to most people but not to atheists, then should not atheists be granted the same status as the blind? From this perspective, theists may simply be considered "blind" as opposed to "evil." You can't belittle and harass a blind person into seeing.
For those able to perceive "God" - isn't that enough? Why do you have to use the bullhorn of public and government buildings, land, and policy to announce this perception? Blind people would not appreciate having people shouting in their ear about all the colors the government will use to show everyone stuff they already can see. It is absurd.
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2,000 years ago there was Lively Debate on who JC was and why he came...
Before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the mainstream, all the early Church Fathers taught that Christians should not serve in the army but instead willingly suffer rather than inflict harm on any other. St. Augustine was the first Church Father to consider the concept of a Just War. Within 100 years after Constantine, the Empire required that all soldiers in the army must be baptized Christians and thus, the decline of Christianity began.
With the justification of war and violence supplied by Augustine’s Just War Theory, wrong became right. Nothing much has changed in two millennia, for in today’s Orwellian world politicians claim the way to peace is through war and that nuclear weapons provide protection...
In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity and thus, those who had been considered rebels and outlaws began to enjoy political power and prestige. Jesus’ other name is The Prince of Peace, and with the marriage of church and state, his true teachings were reinterpreted. The justification of warfare and the use of state sponsored violence corrupted what Christ modeled and taught. Jesus was always on about WAKE UP! The Divine already indwells you and all others. Christ taught that to follow him requires that one must love ones enemies; one must forgive those who hate, curse and revile them, without a thought of payback.
Christ lived a life that proved evil can be opposed without being mirrored, and that the cycle of a “tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye”, will never bring peace and justice. Before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the mainstream, all the early Church Fathers taught that Christians should not serve in the army but instead willingly suffer rather than inflict harm on any other. The term Christianity was not coined until three decades after Christ walked the earth. Until the day of Paul, followers of Christ were called members of The Way; the way being what he taught! Christ was never a Christian, but he was a social justice, radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who rose up/intifada and challenged the corrupt Temple and disturbed the status quo of the Roman occupying forces by teaching that God was on the side of the poor and the outcast.
Clement, Tertillian, Polycarp and every other early Church Father taught that violence was a contradiction of what Christ was all about. There have always been those Christians who spoke out against this corruption of scripture and they have been ignored, reviled, rejected, mocked, persecuted and maligned throughout time. There have always been Christians who have never abandoned the true teachings, such as the Quakers, Mennonites, some Catholics and Protestants who have been faithful witnesses to Christ by denouncing violence and caring for the poor. There have also always been Jews, Muslims, atheists, anarchists, secularists and other’s who have lived lives that embody the message of Christ...
Excerpted from "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American Girl’s
Life in Occupied Territory" by Eileen Fleming
http://www.wearewideawake.org/