Note to investors
D January 19th, 2009
via http://www.236.com/news/2009/01/16/israel_to_get_back_to_its_root_11137.php
Archive for January, 2009
Comments on posts
D January 19th, 2009
Hey to the three people who read this blog,
I unfortunately misclicked and deleted one of the legitimate comments. It was anonymous, and as such I feel I should apologize to this anonymous commenter. The worst part was that I had not even had a chance to read it when I killed the poor thing.
I hope you don’t attack me with free speech pitchforks.
D
Questions
Em January 6th, 2009
For my entire life I have been a Christian. When I say “entire life,” I mean that I remember becoming a Christian as well as I remember my birth. The church I attended was not one conducive to in-depth questioning (I go into more detail in Truth, Proof, and Faith), so it has only been since age seventeen that I have begun to truly question what Christianity really is, its relevance, its meaning and verifiable truth.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it all comes down to Jesus. If he did all those things in the Bible, if what is written there truly did happen, then I can’t see how I could follow any other religion. The achingly beautiful idea that God literally became man and conquered death so we can conquer ourselves is too compelling to ignore. But here we come to the crux of the matter, the two main questions that nag at me: Did it really happen like the Bible says? And if it did, why does it matter?
The first question can be solved through investigation, and has been proven and disproven to various degrees by people with various degrees to various degrees of pompous arrogance. Now, clearly if it didn’t happen it doesn’t matter, but pompous arrogance is a strong motivator and will cause some to argue endlessly about matters that decrease in importance with every argument and rebuttal. Therefore, I have no intention of discussing that today; partly out of lack of knowledge about the subject, and partly to avoid endless factual debates.*
And so on to question two: Why does Jesus matter? Why would God need to die for us to conquer death? It seems like a moot point to me. Jesus dies and comes back; an incredible, impossible feat for man, but a speck on the computer screen of an omnipotent God. Did we not know that God had power over life and death? Would a Jewish priest have argued with you if you told him so? Then we come to the idea of God dying at all. Why would God require a sacrifice in order to forgive sin? I understand that he was fulfilling his covenant with the Jewish people, but what I don’t understand is the whole system of laws set up before Jesus came. What purpose did that serve? Why would God wait a good four thousand years before sending the saviour?
But the biggest question for me is why, if Jesus is the only path to God, and God so loves the world, why he would allow five billion people to go screaming to hell. Does everyone truly get a chance to know who Jesus is and what he did? Is there a mystical reality that reveals this to everyone at some point in their life? Because if not, that seems cruel and unjust. One who has never heard of Jesus must suffer, merely because of the mistake of being born in ignorance?
There are so many more questions: the relationship of the old testament to the new, the blatant restrictions on women and gays, the balance between God’s wrath and his grace. It may not seem apparent why I would remain part of a faith of which I have so many questions, even objections. But I don’t buy the idea that I can choose my truth. The Jainists tell a parable of blind men feeling an elephant, believing that the part they feel is the true nature of the elephant. All of them have a part of the truth, but not the whole thing. If those men represent different religions and the elephant spiritual reality, I don’t want to meet the guy who’s swinging of the tusk or clinging to the tail. I want to talk to whoever is sitting there watching all the crazy blind people climb all over an elephant. Because in the end, no matter what the blind guys say, it’s a bloody elephant. If Jesus is God, I have no choice but to accept him because it negates all other claims to divinity.
*Note: I do realize that someone other than my brother would have to read this blog to begin said debate, and that that is not entirely likely.