I've been away from my blog for a few days so I'm not sure where to jump back in. So, when in doubt... just do.
God>
I went back to church this past weekend. I have remained in touch with one person from the church and I appreciate her keeping in touch. Usually it's her contacting me asking me how I'm doing, but everytime I see her email in my inbox it makes me glad. So, I bit the bullet, and dragged myself out of bed on a nice sunny fall sunday morning. After I do this, I'm always glad I did. But it makes me wonder how many spots in hell will be taken by people who just like to sleep in on Sunday mornings. :)
The sermon that morning was called "Ransomness" (I think that's how she spelled it). It was about a verse in the Bible that talked about Jesus being "our" ransom money. How he was given over to save "us". I was doing well with paying attention to the sermon, but then the preacher mentioned about how you have to be careful with this "ransom" analogy... For example, Who was Jesus ransomed to? Satan? Well... that's all she had to say to set my mind off on a loop of questions. The biggest... question... why? Why did Jesus have to die for us/me? I don't mean like "because it was prophesied" or "because God loves you" - I mean, why or who set up the rule that in order for me to have life everlasting, must someone else die? I mean, couldn't it be something like colecting the pull tabs off of soda cans? Once you hit 3,572 you're in? It's a huge guilt trip really, and I wonder why it's so closely tied to guilt. After the sermon, a group of us gathered to talk about the sermon and whatever else... We had a good discussion (well, they did, I pretty much just listen at things like this. I don't do well in groups). One of the things I learned is that one of the guys is a retired minister, and he calls himself now an agnostic. Then we all joked about what does "agnostic" mean? I just looked it up on wikipedia and no wonder there is confusion around this word. Oh, well, I think in it's basic meaning it means someone who believes there is a god, but that we basically don't know much about Him. I tend to confuse the meaning also with "gnostic" which I've found myself reading about and interested in what they have to say. Anyway, I found it kind of cool that I was in this discussion group from an agnostic retired preacher. (I did hear him preach once and liked his overall style and message).
So, the other day I was surfing the web and I read about a new group of "athiests" that are trying to form a coherent group of non-believers. I saw this on wired and did not read the whole thing (it's long), but it was a bit scary and it made me think... what if all atheiests gathered together to form a group. What sort of influence would they have?
Then to continue on this God thread, last night I saw the very end of Stephen Colbert's interview with Richard Dawkins. It was a pretty good discussion really. The term "intelligent design" came up. I don't know how I feel about this. There does seem to be a thread of logic that I agree with, but I also understand the danger in stretching this too far (such as the "flying spaghetti monster").
All of this really just to say, there has been a lot happening to make me think about God. Which is a good thing.
By the way, I just found the link above for the Colbert interview so I got to see the whole thing. It's great!
Of course I found the link via my daily surf today on boingboing.
Oh, and I just remembered that this past weekend I finished season 2 of HBO's "Carnivale"... I REALLY liked this tv show! I am afraid to look though, because I think there will not be a season 3. ugh.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
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