Thursday, January 04, 2007

Some Noteworthy Theological Posts

Since the "Welcome" thread has just about expended its energy, I wanted to call your attention to two posts written by two good blog friends AC and Mustang.

The first is by Mustang of Social Sense and is entitled, In The Name Of The Father. In it, he poses some very thought-provoking questions that many have asked, for years. It starts out like this:

There are obvious disagreements among scientists and theologians about the origin of our world and the people in it, although to be fair, not all scientists disregard the existence of an all powerful deity, in whose image we are created. Between these two groups of people, the underlying differences involve questions of fact versus faith; this is something we can all understand, and I think we generally accept such differences as simply “the way it is.”

But what about disagreements among those who do believe?


To get the entire message you will have to read the entire essay, yourself.

The second piece is by AC at Fore Left and is entitled, Pat Robertson's Murky Vision.

It isn't long, but it draws attention to more of the televangelist's outrageous remarks that are usually better left unsaid. You may recall that Rev. Robertson called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, awhile back. Well, he's back in the news again saying that God told him that there will be another deadly attack by terrorists in 2007, this time with even more people killed.

I am reminded of the Oral Roberts scam a few years back, where he said that God told him that if he did not raise a certain amount of money to keep his hospital open, God would call him home. Some wealthy benefactor gave him the money, but with one caveat. He should seek psychiatric help. For a list of this false prophecy and some of his others, you can look here.

My point here in this, is simple. It is this kind of activity that will ultimately turn people off to Christianity. Prophets, they are not. Scammers, are more likely the more accurate term I would apply to them.

So read these two pieces and see what you think. I hope to have an original post up by week's end.

Thanks to all that read here and at PYY.


5 comments:

Mary Ellen said...

Ok..I already wrote a comment but it got eaten up somehow, so LA, if it comes up as a double comment can you delete one? Here goes, I'll try again.

I was hesitant to comment on this thread because I seemed to have hogged a good portion of the "welcome" thread. So, if I get too visible, let me know. (Except SF, I never listen to him. ;-) )

First off, let me tell Mustang what a great post that was. Very well written,indeed.

Now, regarding this question:

"But what about disagreements among those who do believe?"

A funny thing happened to me on the way to this blog today...I got kicked off a blog today, a Catholic blog written by a guy that was an atheist, turned Catholic. The reason? Because I dared to question the authority of the Church. The discussion was about embryonic stem cell research. I believe it's ok..the church doesn't, and according to this group, I don't belong in the Catholic Church. The discussion also hit on homosexuality. Another thing I question the church on. I say, if God made a person a homosexual, who are we to say they can't live a homosexual lifestyle, i.e. marriage. Their response was that just because someone is born an alcoholic, doesn't mean God wants them to drink themselves to death. I explained (nicely) that alcoholism is a disease, homosexuality is not. Ooops! Too logical! This person (although no authority within the church) decided I should be stripped of my rosary beads and my membership card to the Catholic church (sarcasm). I guess that means no more Friday fish fry's for me during Lent! (more sarcasm).

The point I am so badly trying to make is, there are zealots in every religion, and there are also atheist zealots. That is human nature. I choose to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and follow those two wonderful Commandments that Jesus said were the most important, "Love God with all you heart and all your mind" and "Love thy neighbor as thyself". The rest is gravy.

LA Sunset said...

ME,

//I was hesitant to comment on this thread because I seemed to have hogged a good portion of the "welcome" thread. So, if I get too visible, let me know.//

Nonsense. That's what this blog is for. Comment all you want. You also won't get banned for disagreeing with me. I have yet to ban anyone, even on PYY. (And you know we have had some hot discussions over there.) As long as everyone respects others' right to their own beliefs, everyone is welcome here.

As for questioning the teachings of the Catholic Church (or any other for that matter), it's okay. You have that right. SF is actually right when he says that religion can be a restrictive institution. It is, at times. Not all are that way, but many are. Where he and I disagree is, when he lumps them all into that same mold. (Hi SF)

Churches are made up of people. People are fallible. Clergymen (and women) are fallible. So, it stands to reason that some teachings may be fallible. It is up to each of us to seek our own way, when endeavoring to find the truth.

I do not want to start this thing out by hammering the denominations, but as you have probably surmised by now, I am not a fan of them. Not that there aren't good people that belong to them mind you, but there are those zealots (as you describe) that are closed minded and wrongly believe that they have all of the truth, and it is etched in stone. It's not and I will get more into this later.

But, do not fret. Anyone that doesn't think for themselves in this process, is not worth debating. They won't see it, they won't get it, and no amount of reasoning is going to convince them otherwise.

Thank you very much for your participation, I do appreciate it. And look out. Saturday evening, I plan to put up a post that defies tradition and questions one of the more entrenched doctrines in the denominations today. (I may even get condemned to hell by someone...LOL)

Mary Ellen said...

//I plan to put up a post that defies tradition and questions one of the more entrenched doctrines in the denominations today. (I may even get condemned to hell by someone...LOL)//

Well, looks like you and I will be having a few beers in hell, after all, I have been stripped of my rosary beads. I hope they aren't going to ask for my Catholic school uniform back. I still wear it for my husband sometimes. Men...the things that turn them on!

LA Sunset said...

ME,

//Well, looks like you and I will be having a few beers in hell,//

As long as it's German beer from Bavaria.

//I hope they aren't going to ask for my Catholic school uniform back. I still wear it for my husband sometimes. Men...the things that turn them on!//

Count yourself luck to be able to wear it after all these years. The Army put 35 lbs. on me (of muscle). (The remaining gains can be attributed to the German Bavarian beer)

BTW, Blogger acts up now and then and you can lose a post sometimes. When I do a long comment and do not want to lose it, I copy it, then send it. If it doesn't go through, I have it for later.

Anonymous said...

First, thank you for linking to me, LA. I'm finally up to 3 visitors so far. LOL.

I could not agree with you more. The Bible tells us to beware of wolves in sheeps clothing. The world's greatest evangelist did his work without much money, without television, and without making everyone doubt his true motives.

Shakespeare wrote, and Franklin quoted him, that a fool and his money are soon parted. I think that people are always looking outward for important answers; they are stupid to think that giving money to any evangelist will guarantee them salvation. No, I think that what people should be doing is looking inward for the answers to important questions.

I agree with you vis-a-vis Mary Ellen's contributions here. Her opinions are well formed and well stated . . . I hope she will continue to participate.

I think that whether one is a Catholic or not, everyone must acknowledge that the Pope is an important world leader. Historically, not everyone elected to that office has been a credit to Jesus of Nazareth, but I think the last two have made major contributions to an increasingly secular society. In my view, Pope Benedict must stand firm with regard to the historical precedents of Islam -- without demeaning those who maintain their faith without radicalism. If he backs down in the face of criticism he will have contributed to the further decline of Christianity.

History shows that people who profess religion have acted intolerably; under such circumstances, it is hard to blame atheists for not believing in a Higher Power. Nevertheless, I think that in such times, faith becomes that much more important -- individually, and collectively.

In a similar way, we can say that our government's officials have let us down on more than one occasion. In spite of our disappointments, we must continue to have faith in our system or it will be destroyed by our own apathy.

President Reagan once said, "If we forget that we are a Nation Under God, then we'll become a Nation Gone Under." I think he was right . . . but of course, that's just my humble opinion.