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Christian Atheist Perspective


jsawyer

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As soma did I would point to the Spirit. Sometimes when we cite the "Golden Rule" we forget that there was another one tied two it. The Sema: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This reminds us that there is an inner journey as well as an outer journey. Each of us must attend to the Divine in is in all of us, the Divine that motivated Jesus. I also think a post-critical naivete is necessary. I am not articulate about this so I will quote Marcus Borg.

 

So what’s post-critical naivete? Post-critical naivety is the ability to hear these stories. I’m thinking of the biblical stories in particular here. It’s the ability to hear these stories once again as true stories, even as you know that they may not be factually true. Their truth does not depend upon their factuality. Post-critical naivete is not a return to pre-critical naivete. It brings the critical with it, but integrates it into a larger paradigm. http://www.religion-....asp?title=1639

 

Take Care

 

Dutch

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For me, anything pertaining to whether what's in the bible is actually true or factual became of little importance or relevance when I attained to "experiencing."

Experiencing what? Whatever it is that is beyond, within, greater than, myself and this material reality my physical senses know. For me, the bible, religion, other things in my life, were "pointing" at something, not the "something" themselves. I sought toward where it all seemed to be pointing, and I found. I experienced. Once I was there, those pointers really didn't matter any more.

By was of different metaphor, I was rowing a leaky little dinghy with an inadequate oar, on a rough and open sea in the middle of nowhere. But leaky as the dinghy was and as inadequate the oar, I kept rowing. along the way, I saw pointers, a bird here, flotsam there, a hue or glow on the horizon, a faint scent on the breeze, that suggested my course along the way. Finally, in the darkness of a moonless night, my little gifhy strick shore, and i srambled out onto land, onto solid gound, where I could stand and walk and find sustenance. that leaky little dinghy and its pitiful little oar can drift back out to sea without me, even sink for all I care, I don't need it any more. The bible, religion, all of that, had been for a time, the leaky little dinghy I had need of. It helped me get "somewhere", where I'm glad to be.

 

As a very little child, one particular bible text has stuck in my mind, and become something of my guiding lighr....Seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you...somehow, I from the beginning understood this to mean a search within.

 

Jenell

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  • 2 weeks later...

Jsawyer

 

How do you define "Christian Atheist"?

How do you define the God which you do not believe in?

What do you mean by the "immanent spark" that exists in us "in the Buddhist sense"?

You do know that there are Christians like the Quakers who believe in this spark and there are Christians like Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, and St. Teresa of Avila as well as other mystics who believed in a notion of God that was not theistic if that is your rejection.

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There is a belief in the teachings on love given by Jesus that some believe and follow. However, not all believe Jesus was God and some like myself believe him to be a man inspired by God. The trouble is nowadays the word Christian has become the name given to all who follow Jesus' teachings whether one believes in the Paulian concept of Christ or not. I would be just as happy being called a Jesus follower, but everyone I have met then argues that is the same as being a Christian. They cannot see beyond Paul's teachings and some believe he spoke for Jesus and overlook the many inconsistencies (IMO) between what Jesus is said to teach and that which Paul is said to teach.

I have found no one, believer or none believer, who can define God to the satisfaction and understanding of everyone. Yet, I believe there is that spriit that speaks to the heart of higher things and goes beyond a simple belief that something that happened 2000+yrs ago is factually reported or not. If one believes on that spirit then can they be seen to believe in God even if like me one does not accept that traditional vision of an angry, judgemental, and vengeful God who sits in the clouds just waiting to get his own back on everyone who does not believe exactly as the church ordered it and sent his son into suffering an evil death because this is the only way God could possibly forgive anyone. God is love the bible says and yet I just feel if one takes the Paulian teachings to heart then love is just not the picture that I am seeing of God. I therefore can understand why some athiests do not accept Christianity and yet follow many of the teachings because deep inside there is something there that speaks to them that goes beyond religious and dogmatic concepts.

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