Few people have read the bible from start to finish and most of the people who did were shocked at some of the things God tells people to do. I took SMV’s statement to mean that his mother would never own slaves, nor approve of killing, pillaging, and raping another group just because God gave instructions to do it.
They have revealed themselves directly to me on occasion, visually, audibly, trying to recall if there was a tactile/touch experience as well in our physical world. They have also allowed me to sense them given a spiritual equivalent of our physical senses, that works somewhat the same as our physical senses. Through that, and what I have seen, that I do believe that I can recognize their works in things I do not perceive directly.
I do understand this, and in some ways I do think it’s our evolution to understand this world better, to make sense of such things as part of our ‘upbringing’ as children of god. I also believe our advancements are being taught to us because it is time for us to learn these things, we have reached that stage of development. As I see it humans have done nothing on their own, but are just very small, very young children just entering school. And that is a function of schools, to help a student make sense of the world.
And yes YMMV
Possibly. However I seem to remember when another thread was started about this guy, many comments seem to be that he wasn’t really trying and was still viewing things through a religious lens in his daily blog. Wish I could find that thread to refresh my memory. (Hint hint everyone)
Anyone here familiar with Ezekiel 23:20? (NSFW)
I’m another one who doesn’t really understand the premise of the story, here. What does it mean to go “a year without God”? If one believes to begin with, then one shouldn’t consider that to be possible in the first place. Does he mean going a year without attempting to interact with God (via prayer, ritual, or whatever)? A year without publicly saying anything about God? A year without overt worship?
The matter of converting to Judaism to marry a particular person, though, isn’t nearly as puzzling. Judaism as a religion is defined much more by practices than by beliefs. A person can lack belief and still be considered a “proper” or “observant” Jew, so long as they follow the Law of Moses.
I think a few of his comments are quite telling. It seems to me that he was never a true believer (so-to-speak) but his initial paradigm was such that he didn’t identify as a “nihilistic” atheist. At some point he had to give himself permission to at least try out the option, and this experiment was his way of doing that.
It’s a bit like a guy who finds himself sexually aroused by other men, but he knows he isn’t gay because he doesn’t walk around in assless chaps. Then one day he decides to try the experiment of “A Year without heterosexuality”, finds out that gay men aren’t weird “others” and ends up identifying as gay.
I’m not saying that there was a conscious deception. It’s just that some people need a narrative in order to relieve cognitive dissonance and realign their identity. (See also: “I was a baby-killing, cocaine-snorting, hedonistic danger to society until I found God”.)
His blog for Chronos:
Reading your quote, I think Lobot’s analysis is correct.
Whoa. My mom’s theology is a discussion topic on the SDMB. Worlds colliding! This might be my most surreal Dope moment ever.
Mom’s theology is a bit more complex than that. She does believe that God exists (although she doesn’t really think that Jesus is his son). But she thinks that questions of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin are irrelevant; for her (and as I understand it), the experience of God is primarily a *relationship * between an all-loving and all-insightful being, and the worshipper/partner/lover. In fact, a marriage is probably the metaphor she would use for her relationship with her God. Which means times of anger, and arguments, and disagreements. But founded on a deep commitment to one another. Which is why all the arguments about Occam’s Razor, and the God of the gaps, and Russell’s Teapot, which swayed me and ultimately lead me away from Christianity, do not move her even while she acknowledges their validity.
As to whether or not her God is biblical, well, he probably isn’t. She doesn’t read the Bible regularly, that I know of, and I suspect that she thinks Thomas Merton is as good a guide to spirituality as Paul of Tarsus. But she was raised Catholic, and has always understood Scripture as writings that must and always have been filtered through human understanding and interpretation.
And no, she would never approve of violence towards others, divinely mandated or not. Interestingly, she also disapproves of violence towards self, as well; as she often points out, the injunction to “Love your God as you love yourself” implies that you are to love yourself.
My mother is a wise woman.
You are, of course, absolutely correct. My mind went to “didn’t believe in Jesus as Christ” as oppposed to “atheist”.
About all I’ll say is that I’m not convinced that faith/atheism is necessarily a binary thing. There are shades of gray in there. I’m sure plenty of people are believers in a sort of unexamined, general truths about the world that they learned as kids (the world is round, the sun will come up, there is a God, etc…) kind of way, but in daily life, there’s not much consideration of the divine, and the only time he really comes up in a sort of fervent way is in the extremes- births, deaths, danger, sickness, etc… There’s probably not a lot of thought or understanding into the nature of God- they may remember something about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit/Ghost from childhood Sunday school, but that’s about it.
Is this person a believer or not? I’d bet that 70-80% of modern day Americans fall into that particular category, with only about 10-20% being fervently faithful (they’re the weird ones whose lives seem to revolve around church and God).
A couple of things …
The OP title misrepresents the pastor, or maybe the pastor misrepresents himself, as he acknowledges he’s not there yet… He has accepted that an atheist world view makes more sense, but he hasn’t yet “bought” it, which is somewhat confusing to me. But I suppose if you’ve already drunk enough Kool Aid to make it to the priesthood, detox will take longer.
More evidence that he’s not made the leap yet … If he had, he wouldn’t be talking about “a year without God”, he would understand that he’s spent his whole life without God, and perhaps he’s now spent a year without delusions.
I’d love to see the conversation when you told you mom that her theology has become a message board discussion ;).
Yes, your mother is a wise woman. I find myself to be slightly more orthodox (I believe in Jesus being the Son of God, I try to read the Bible regularly if I can and believe it is a good source of wisdom, but yes it must be filtered, etc), but I do agree that the marriage metaphor is probably one of the best ways to think about God (heck, a lot of what God does in the Bible in setting up covenants, Jesus’s talking about God, etc. involves a ton of marriage metaphors).
Though I was raised Muslim (very, very moderate Muslim - I mean we prayed once a day, as a family, and went to mosque twice a year - both Eids, and didn’t eat pork, though my parents from time to time drank alcohol), had 10 years of atheism during and after college, and now have had 5 years of Christianity (the last 3 or so of those in a Lutheran setting). Maybe that’s the reason I’ve try to read the Bible regularly - I’ve read a lot of it - just haven’t finished up The Prophets and the Apocrypha. Amusingly its turned me into a left-winger (there is like a ridiculous amount of commands in the Old Testament that are focused on helping the poor and needy & the foreigner).
From your description, I agree.
Given what “people on the Internet talking about your mom” usually entails, I think she would find it as surreal as I do. Of course, her first comment would probably be “The Straight Dope? Is that like Facebook?”
So basically, your family was the Islamic version of Christmas and Easter Christians, then? I’d wondered if there was a Muslim equivalent.
Also, thank you and Yllaria for your kind comments about Mom. 
Yep, that’s exactly right. I find every faith has their version of Christmas and Easter Christians. Though I guess the more praxis based faiths have a bit more buy in (for example, my folks always kept Ramadan and prayed once day as well as never ate pork - I think those are kind of bare minimum stuff though) even if you aren’t super religious.
Your mother is what’s called a “cafeteria Catholic”, that is if she still considers herself Catholic at all. She keeps the doctrine she likes and wraps those delusions comfortably around herself, and ignores the doctrine she doesn’t like.
Um, no - as I said, she’s an Episcopalian convert, who left the Catholic Church over their treatment of women. But she joined her church because the people who belong to it experience their faith the same way she does, not the other way around. Labels aren’t really that important to her, nor are doctrines; for her, it’s the relationship with something greater than her, and infinitely loving.
I can’t really speak for my mom and her experience of faith, and I’m loathe to go any further about something so personal and intimate to her. But from talking to her about God over the years, I think that she and I come to the same set of values, just from different perspectives. If I had to give her a label, I’d call her a Christian humanist, as she sees spirituality as an integral part of a fully realized human life. But she’s not wedded to certainty and not afraid of doubt. Does that make her a “cafeteria Episcopalian”? Yeah, probably - like I said, she doesn’t think that Jesus is really one and the same as God. But she would say, so what? The church, any church, is only there to facilitate the meeting of God and the people; being too hung up over what’s on the sign out front is like pointing to the stars and only seeing the end of your finger.
Me, I’m a secular humanist, and Occam’s Razor and Russell’s Teapot are significant to me. But I also think that spirituality is integral to a human life - just as stories are, and art, and emotions, and plenty of other things that humans create that aren’t real but aren’t trivial, either. “Religion is stoooopid” atheists try to simplify an amazingly complex suite of behaviors and conceptions into a single false syllogism (“Religion is not falsifiable, therefore it’s not real”), the better to sneer at it.
Oh, by the way, Mom’s also a clinical social worker of more than thirty years experience. So she knows what actual delusions are. Apparently, you don’t.
The only problem here is that I don’t understand what “spirituality” means in this context. The closest I know how to come to it is to go out into the piny woods on a remote hiking trail, clamber over some rocks, stretch out and watch the clouds go by, and feel at peace with the cosmos.
Does that count as spirituality?
(I’m leery of the word because of the root “spirit,” which is another word I don’t know what means, exactly.)
I used to be a hate-filled atheist, but discussions such as this one helped me back down into a “live and let live” atheist. That is, for me, a much happier position, because it allows me to listen to religious classical music, such as J.S. Bach’s “Saint John Passion” with unalloyed joy.
In my opinion (today) it is as pointless to sneer at someone for believing in God as it is to sneer at someone because they like onions on their chili. It doesn’t hurt me in any way, and it makes them happier!
It boggles my mind, but take it for what it’s worth.