PerpetualSeeker

As I read the above thread, I considered the role of the ego in humankind's attempt to search for a meaningful relationship with the Creator. The ego I believe prevents frequent use of statements such as "I don't know" or "I am not sure". It appears much easier to say "the way I believe is right, and you are wrong". It is comforting I think to feel that way sometimes. Normally, when I encounter my Fundy friends I discuss with them that if they were to have been born in the Middle East, their outlook on Christianity would be completely different. I think ego drives humans to believe that there is one way North and it is theirs. It seems pretentious in my view for a group to think they have the corner on the market. I am baffled that the inerrant and infallible argument could possibly remain in the face of such scholarly criticism to the contrary. As Dr. Bart Erhman has stated time and again, there are more discrepancies between manuscripts of the New Testament than there are words in the New Testament. How does the argument stand knowing that? When I was younger, I took a course on the Book of Job. To my surprise, I learned that substantial beginning and ending portions of the book were added by scribes at a much later date and were not part of the original. They did so, it is thought, so that it read better and made sense. Did God realize that humans had erred and took action to place the beginning and end portion into the book? My sense tells me no. These are literary products created by humans to describe attempts to understand God. I think the same could be said for the Ghita, the Qu'ran, the Tao and other spiritual writings.

Steve, welcome. I can completely relate to the shedding of labels. You speak truth I think. No one really knows exactly what God is or is not, but many have laid claim to this knowledge. Great to be with you.

Glad to find a board to discuss a progressive movement of Christianity. I ran in to this board from Bishop Spong's website. I am a God-realized man who has spanned the denominational tree from fundamental Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, and Roman Catholicism. I find myself now unrelated to most organized religion and rather favor an approach to the Creator that appreciates not having to claim the corner market on it all. In my view, all sincere prayers go to the Creator as humankind attempts to work out its relationship with the Divine. Looking forward to establishing meaningful communication with you all. Bob

Eric, I think you are heading in the same directions as many other faith seekers today. Let's face it, in this post-modern world the fundamentalist definition of the term Christian struggles to be relevant. Organized religion is progressing through some tough times. I agree with your 8-point theses above and that Jesus gave us prescriptions to deal with many of the internal challenges that you cite above. I am a big believer of all prayers go the same direction regardless of your faith approach to God, when the believer is sincere and is not in conflict with the "laws of God" that are readily apparent and not spelled out in a specific creed. I do not feel that we need creeds or dogma to know what is in keeping with God's laws as they are within every human. I am pretty sure that there are fundamentalist that will take issue with your progressive approach to Christianity and take offense with your alleged "hijacking" of their title , but you will most likely not run in to them here. Most of the literal beliefs you have distanced yourself from (literal interpretation of scripture, concrete belief in creation and flood accounts, etc.) are key tenets of fundamentalist belief. As progressives I see us on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. But I want to be careful to avoid the trap of judgment. In my journey, I do not want to pass judgment on others and become part of another "group" who thinks that they are on the right path and others are on the wrong path (that is the last thing this world needs). I think most sincere thinkers of all faith groups are doing their best to understand God and the relationship with humankind, titles will prove irrelevant in the endgame. Thank you for sharing , Bob