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I’m Praying for YOU! (Part I)

August 1st, 2008 by Waldorf Van Buren

“I’m praying for you,” or “you and your family are in my prayers.” They’ve become the all-too familiar refrain of people who want to do or say something meaningful to someone in crisis, but don’t have the desire or the knowledge to actually do anything.

Admittedly, when one faces a deadly disease (or sees someone close to them go through it), there isn’t much you can actively do to get well. You can follow doctor’s orders, you can try to enjoy life, you can do any number of things to take your mind off of the impact that the disease is having, and will have on the rest of your life. For those who don’t know how to do anything else, there’s prayer.

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└ Tags: agnostic, athiest, cancer, chemotherapy, Christianity, god, intercession, prayer, useless

Apostastic! Part 1: Methodist Madness

August 11th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy

There have been a couple of bible stories (about, not from) in the news in the last few weeks. One was about the “Jefferson Bible,” a version of the four canonical Gospels that Thomas Jefferson worked over with a pair of scissors. He cut out all of the miracles (including the big reveal resurrection) and inconsistencies that he could find, and pasted it into a book he called The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.

The other was about the planned online publication of the Codex Sinaiticus. The Codex is a Christian Bible, written in Greek and dated from the Fourth Century CE. It contains the oldest surviving complete copy of the New Testament, including books that were later eliminated from the canon, and is missing verses that are included in the current version. The most notable omission is in this early version of the Gospel of Mark, which ends 12 verses earlier than later versions, without mentioning the zombie resurrected Jesus.

Because I am that kind of solipsist, reading these stories got me thinking about my deconversion. I didn’t have a sudden epiphany. It was more a long slide away from my childhood faith. But it was studying the bible seriously that turned on the boosters and sent me careening toward apostasy.

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└ Tags: apostasy, bible, boring, Christianity, Codex Sinaiticus, communion, deconversion, Jesus, links, Methodist, resurrection, solipsism, Thomas Jefferson, United Methodist Church, zombies

I Wish I Said It

August 16th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy

Johann Hari, writing in The Independent on Thursday, in a commentary on why the suppression of Sherry Jones’ novel The Jewel of Medina is unfair to Muslims, and dangerous for everyone:

It is condescending to treat Muslims like excitable children who cannot cope with the probing, mocking treatment we hand out to Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism. It is perfectly consistent to protect Muslims from bigotry while challenging the bigotries and absurdities within their holy texts.

His basic thesis is that silencing critiques of Islam, whether for fear of violence or from a misplaced sense of political correctness, will prevent the kind of liberalization and moderation that mainstream Christianity has experienced. Rational criticism and thoughtful examination are the surest antidotes to fanaticism.

If everyone was this smart, we’d be a Type 1 civilization by now.

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└ Tags: Christianity, criticism, genius, Islam, Johann Hari, religion, Sherry Jones

I’m Praying for YOU! (Part II)

August 27th, 2008 by Waldorf Van Buren

I’ve had a difficult relationship with religion, mainly with fundamentalists, for a very long time. I grew up in a nasty neighborhood. It still makes the news from time to time for shootings, stabbings, or homemade chemical bombs tossed on neighborhood porches. It also has a high incidence of cancer, most likely due to years of illegal dumping by the various industries. I like to call it Brownfield, USA, although that’s not what it’s usually called.

It was a tight-knit neighborhood. With commercial properties intermixed with residential, everything you needed was within walking distance, including a variety of churches. Some Sundays I would attend noon Mass at St. Mary the Whore Roman Catholic Church, and I was compelled to attend CCD on Tuesday evenings at the Whore’s namesake school until Confirmation at 8th grade, where I got to choose a new name. I went the conservative route and chose Matthew, but that’s for part III, if I write it. (more…)

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└ Tags: agnostic, atheism, backsliding, blasphemy, Christianity, deism, hypocrisy, non-humor, praying, Waldorf Van Buren

Bible Stories: An Aside

August 29th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy

I’m working on Part II of my deconversion story. This is a story about having fun with the less savory parts of the Christian bible. It didn’t really fit anywhere, but I wanted to share it anyway.

Sometimes, the bible was a useful tool for vexing adults. Our church had a youth group for middle and high school students. When we would go on retreats, the adult chaperons would assign one person to say a prayer, and another to read a bible verse, before every meal.

I wasn’t a big fan of being forced to read in front of a bunch of people. Eventually, I flipped to Leviticus, and started powering through the list of things that made a person unclean. When that got me in trouble, I turned to Exodus. After fifteen “begats,” I had to get my bible verses vetted by an adult before I could read them to the group.

In the stark, retina-scarring light of hindsight, I suppose that might have been the time when my doubts about the bible as primary evidence started to take root. If the bible was divinely inspired, and its wisdom so unimpeachable, why were some verses acceptable and others not? Also, why was it bad to take the lord’s name in vain, but cool for me to eat bacon and hug my mom when she was menstruating? Shouldn’t she have been living in a tent in the backyard until that cleared up? (The menstruation, not the bacon.)

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└ Tags: amusing, bacon, bible, Christianity, doubt, Leviticus, menstruation, unclean

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