What If?

OK before I put on the flame proof suit I am not trying to talk biblical innerancy. I am just trying to make people think. I am simply trying to ask what would happen if...

in the year 3507, a group of archealogists make a find. In the ancient city of San Francisco in an archealogical dig. They find what appears to be a temple to the god Google. They reject the religion of Google as too pluralistic. In the excavation of the temple of Google, they discover a primitive form of writing called a hard drive. They figure out how to read it and translate it. On this hard drive is all the blogs on blogspot. They decide it must be from God because it references their ancient religion which they have only a few writings of. They form a committee to decide which blogs will be the text of the religion. The only other info they have about this religion is what people have said and a few pieces of some texts that predate the blog.

What would happen if they decided to take my blog or your blog and put them in a book along with the other books they have and make it into an authoritative volume and claim it is perfect and innerrant?

Hate this post, love it, it will make you think.

Was Calvin a dipwad?

OK. I must admit that I started a firestorm in the comments section at SCP. I called Augustine who was a church official in the 4th century, a dipwad. Now maybe I could have used a better term than dipwad but I think he came up with some knee jerk theology to make his point. Calvin (and Luther) simply resurrected Augustine's old theories.

I am not a scholar but I have studied a bit on the subject and I have issues with the doctrine of predestination as many of you know.

I notice that Christians will give you a virtual bloodbath if you disagree with a doctrine like calvinism but when I make comments or post about things like social injustice they are silent.

I am a Christian so when I say they I guess I am included but I like to think I am a different kind of Christian.

Augustine by the way invented the just war theory to justify Rome conquering the world. Its the same idea that has overrun Churches and people like GW Bush subscribe to.

Ok maybe Augustine wasnt a dipwad, but he sure did a lot of harm to Christianity.

If you want to see the whole nasty string go to http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10782671&postID=7298228405183718164&isPopup=true
Read the comments near the bottom.

I want to thank "The Pete" aka Dufflehead for sticking up for my on SCP.

Nothing

This is a post to test some functionality of the blog. If you got this, the email notification is working

Chickinism pic

With my interested sense of humor that some of you are starting to get. How could I post something called Chickinism without and appropriate photo

Chickinism

This is my invented word for the insane yet entertaining teachings of Jack Chick. You can go to www.chick.com to see more. Chick teaches things like satanic conspiracy theories, that the pope is the antichrist. That Jesuits secretly control the world and that gay people are trying to control your mind. The guy is a looney.

He is more well known for his theologically weak, "scare the hell" out of you tracts that I believe do more harm then good. Maybe hell is a fire fueled by burning chick tracts.

The scary thing is I have met people in Churches who believe his crap. They think their neighbors are closet satanists. That pastors secretly follow the dark one and that those homos are out there to convert little Johnny to be a satan worshipping homosexual, liberal, got hating jesuit. I see some of the fruits of chickinism in the religious right teachings. People ACTUALLY BELIEVE THIS HORSESHIT.

I am not knocking his passion and zeal. That he has. But come on. Good Christian church going family men by day and gay satan worshipping Jesuits by night. WTF?

Jack Chick is almost as damaging to Christianity as Pat Robertson. More proof that people do what they are told.

The "cult" church i was part of years ago that taught that the world would end in 1993 used to buy into all this chickinism conspiracy crap. Dangerous. It would be funny if it wasnt so dangerous

Faith vs Theology

TKN had some wise words in a comment to one of my previous posts that losing faith isnt letting go of strongly held beliefs or something like that. I apologize if I misquote. Anyway, I have come to a conclusion, though my theology is exploding and melting, my faith is actually getting stronger. Perfect faith needs no theology. Perfect theology needs no faith. I am not falling from or doubting my faith. I am doubting what I have been told I should believe. I am starting to find some peace.

Thanks to all of you. Many have said helpful things. I wonder how much faith a theologian has.

Wisdom from a secular song

Live is a secular band. In fact some of their songs appear anti God (I am specifically referring to Operation Spirit on the Mental Jewelry CD if there are any Live fans). They did a song back in 2003 that sums up faith in my mind. Now I have no kids so it would probably mean even more if I did, but here are some of (OK all of) the words of "Heaven" by Live


You don't need no friends
Get back your faith again
You have the power to believe
Another dissident
Take back your evidence
It has no power to deceive

I'll believe it when I see it for myself

I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive

I sit with them all night
Everything they say is right
But in the morning they were wrong
I'll be right by your side
Come hell or water high
Down any road you choose to roam

I'll believe it when I see it for myself

I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive, yeah

Darling, I believe, Oh Lord
Sometimes it's hard to breathe, Lord
At the bottom of the sea, yeah yeah

I'll believe it when I see it for myself

I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive
I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset
I can see the sunset
I can see the sunset
I don't need no one
I don't need no one, oh
I don't need no one
I don't need no one
To tell me about heaven
I believe
I believe it, yeah

What I see here is a disdain for religion "Take back your evidence
It has no power to deceive"

an expression of faith in a higher power or God "
I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive"

and a paradoxical struggle with doubt "I'll believe it when I see it for myself" He obviously believes without seeing but yet says this anyway.

I dont know if this has anything to do with the writers personal faith or its just a story but it sums up basic faith for me right now. I dont need no proof when it comes to God and truth and I can see the sunset and I believe.

Talk about goofy weird childlike faith.

This is an awesome song. Much more profound than most Christian rock. Its gotta be one of my all time favorites.

CAUTION **************

If you are weak in your faith you may want to stop reading now. I dont want to be responsible for anyone losing their religion.

Melted in the fire

I hope all this is just a refining in the fire so to speak and I will come out of it stronger.

I want the truth. Not the religious BS and I no longer care if its compatible with Churchianity. But I may have to sacrifice some sacred cows to get there. as long as I dont lose whats in my heart, I will be OK. I can live with the I dont get it answer but what about being prepared to give a reason. Someone may ask why does God order genocide. What can I say, well the bible says so. Why did he order animal sacrifice, uhh cause he likes the smell of burning animals. I can see that. I love the smell of steak cooking too but thats theologically weak.

The genocide question

OK. I am not losing faith anymore than yesterday but I am having a hard time coming to grips with some things. My main issue is 1 Sam 15:3 I will quote from KJV for all you KJV onlyists Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

OK now why would God literally tell Saul to go smite their ass. I am struggling badly with this and have a few theories:

1) We dont know what the Amalekites may have done. But somehow punishing people for sins that were 400 years old dont seem right. That would be like God smiting me for the sins of Martin Luther.

2)Maybe God didnt really say this. Maybe the people made it up to justify their war. Something like GW Bush would do

3) Maybe there is some deep meaning I am just too stupid to understand as a human.

Why would God who is love (and I beleive that with all my heart) tell Israel (who wasnt exactly a godly nation anymore) to commit genocide on a bunch of Amalekites and their asses (donkeys) for somethign their great great great great great grandpas did.

I really really really want to come to terms with this and have some peace. Please help.

My prayer right now is Lord, I believe, please help my unbelief.

I see some of what I used to consider unquestionable spirally apart. I dont want to fall away. I am scared and confused at the same time. Yet deep in my heart I know Jesus is real. I even have the horrible thought in my mind what if the gnostics were right and Jesus daddy wasnt the same God as the OT.

Sitemeter

A fellow Oregonian blogger Crallspace mentioned on his blog that he uses sitemeter. I signed up for it and its interesting. Here is what I have found.

1) For some reason my work ISP comes up as being in Bethesda, MD even though I am near Salem, Oregon.

2) Most of my hits come from either my profile (likely a blogger reading a comment I made on a blog) or from Stupid Church People Thanks Steve and Josh. Without you guys I would be totally unknown.

3) I have visitors from primarily the US and Canada and not overseas. Maybe I need to put up some red herring pseudo porn to get more readers.

I cannot tell who is from where, who they are. I am not spying. So please dont hesitate to keep reading. I just find it interesting.

Meltdown

I have had sort of a meltdown of late. I have been asking questions that Christians arent supposed to ask. And reading interesting blogs by people who are deconverting or have done so. Here is where I am at:

I still believe in Christ. I would have to say that I believe more because in my heart I know what I believe to be true than because anyone or any book tells me to. I believe he was really here, died, rose again and took away my sins. I believe the gospels (the first four books of the NT) are fairly accurate and should be a basis for belief

I am confused by the Old testament and some of Pauls teachings and wonder if they are tainted. I can no longer call myself a biblical innerantist. Is that even a word?

I think now that the Bible is 66 books not one and each one should be looked at individually. Why trust the catholics who put them all together. Now I am not trying to shake anyones faith, but I am saying I question some things. That doesnt shake my faith at all.

Please dont Bible bomb me.

I think the inner witness of God is probably more real to me than religion. He has been there for me I believe. I dont think I would be alive today if somethign hadnt guided me. I believe that somethign to be Christ.

I know I am speaking heresy but arent there any Christians out there that ever ask questions about the Bible.

Some may say I am falling away. I think not.

Some use the Bible to justify war, genocide, torture, putting down women, slavery, etc. I am tired of running circles around why it didnt really mean that and ask why do we believe it. Not God, but the weirdness.

Anybody have a clue what I am talking about because I am not sure I do.

OK More why I hate "Internet Security Software"

It has been my experience that ISS (Internet Security Software) is mostly snake oil and is SEVERELY bloated. The name brand products can and will slow down your PC to a crawl. Normally firewalls will block your net access at some point and make your ISP want to reach through the phone and strangle you when you call and say your down. As a tech I have found that most infected PCs have some kind of big name software (i.e. Norton, MCafee) on them.

Trend is OK if you know what your doing and have more RAM than you need. apparenly none of them work with Vista (I think Vista sucks anyway). Norton and MCafee do more harm than good and are the cause of 50% of ISP support calls.

Some Tech Advice

OK. This is not normally a tech blog but I do work in IT and have for my entire professional life. I just want to share some of my advice on avoiding yuckware/spyware/viruses etc. this is not how to clean it if you get it. Nowadays the crapware is so advanced you are almost better off backing up your files formatting and reinstalling if that happens. I know I can disinfect a PC, but its a lot of work even for a tech. Your normal tools (spybot, adaware, etc) are not gonna save you. Here is how to protect yourself. Its mostly common sense.

1) Thou shalt not use Internet Explorer except on sites that force you. This is the main one. IE is full of holes, targeted and supports a lot of iffy technology. I use Mozilla Firefox unless I hit a site that absolutely requires IE. Not only is Firefox a superior browser but since it doesnt support active X, you are less likely to get infected. In my opinion, casual web browsing (not downloading, hackers, etc) is how

2) Thou shalt not run Limewire, Grokster, Imesh or other P2P tool. Yeah you may want to download music and I dont advise the paid sites because music should be free, but the majority of files on these things are fake and virus infected. If you must do this, get a seperate computer that you turn off when not in use just for this. Now if the music plays the file is clean and you can move it to your real computer.

3) Thou shalt not install smiley faces. Cute addins smileys, weatherbugs, purple monkeys, are almost all spyware of a sort. I even consider Yahoo spyware but not of a dangerous sort. If its free, its most likely adware.

4) Thou shalt not believe a web site that says its spyware free. Everything says that now. It means nothing

5) Thou shalt not surf porn. If you must, do what you do for music downloads. Use a dedicated computer and expect an infection. If you have sex without a condom, youll get a disease. Same goes for your computer

6) Thou shalt not feel safe because you have "internet security software" installed. Norton, McAfee, Trend, they all are some protection but they have two inherit problems (other than making your computer run like crap). 1) They dont help you until you have a virus. 2) The line between viruses and legitimate ads has been blurred. Dont waste your time and money with Norton, McAffee, etc. Its like the dept of homeland security It will terribly inconvenience you to make you feel safe

7) Thou shalt not hide problems from your techie friend. If you get an error, write it down and admit what you were doing. Your techie friend cant read your mind and decipher imaginary errors

8) Thou shalt keep Windows up to date. You can at least patch the holes they know of

9) Thou shalt not let others use your computer without knowing what they are doing. My wife let a friend use her PC once and the first thing she did was open up IE and infect away

10) Thou shalt not assume you are being hacked. You arent. It just doesnt happen to normal people.

OK so what do you do. Run a good free antivirus like AVG or Avast. Ask a tech, dont google free anti virus. Majorgeeks.com has both. If you have an old computer, run AVG, If you have a fast PC, Avast is a little better.

Dont bother with firewall software unless you are on dialup. DSL and cable modems usually are firewalls. Software firewalls may make you feel safer, but they normally just annoy and again, they cant help unless its already on there. If you dont understnad them, dont bother with them.

Do run Adaware and Spybot and Cleanup or Crap Cleaner once a week or if anything weird happens.(or your friend/child) uses your PC.

Dont assume that because you dont go anywhere bad, you are safe. You arent.

Take it for what its worth. I will answer tech emails but I am not your personal tech. I cant work wonders and I cant help you disinfect your PC (successfully)

The fruits of of fruity calvanism

http://www.flowofhistory.com/units/west/13/FC85B

Look what it did.