Monday, April 1, 2013

The Tower of Babylon and Abram

Hey there peeps. I am enjoying this process and am getting some good feedback here and there. The last 2 posts have gotten about 25 views each which I am completely cool with. I am hoping to get people from all sides of the faith issue viewing and commenting. If you think I am totally wrong please tell me.... I want discussion. I, obviously, want that discussion to be intelligent discussion and I know a good amount of devout Christian who I respect immensely that I am really hoping to hear from. I also really love the stories of the Bible.... I, for the most part, don't believe them to be true...at least not the Old Testament but I still enjoy them. The New Testament is much harder for me to discount. Once I am done with Genesis I am going to switch to a New Testament book and some thoughts in general that I have about Jesus, the resurrection, and the actions of the Apostles. Let's get into the Tower of Babylon.


Ok...I had forgotten exactly how this very short story played out. I had always heard that the arrogant men had wanted to build a tower to Heaven and that they actually thought they could reach Heaven. I don't read that in Genesis 11:1-9 at all. It essentially says that the people had started firing bricks and they were using these bricks to build a city and in that city they were building a tower to reach the sky....or the heavens. Whether the Bible says the sky or the heavens is a matter of which bible you read. My Bible said the sky so I looked up other translations of the same passage and they say that they were trying to build a tower that reached to the heavens. When someone says they want to soar into the heavens it doesn't feel to me like they are saying they want to get to heaven. It is a figure of speech....but this is now and that was then so who knows if I am misinterpreting here.  This doesn't sound like anything but people building to the best of their ability and then God saying that a society as advanced as this must be stopped. How many cities have a tall building or tower now? But when the Lord came down (why does the Bible always say that God came down or that He sent angels to check on something???) to look over the city and saw what the men were building He said, "If, as one people having the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come let Us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not be able to understand each other's speech." Whoa........whoa.........whoa........ let's hold the phone for a minute. These primitive tent dwellers are building a brick city and they must be stopped? We are in deep trouble my friends!! I live in a small little nothing town called New Castle, IN.  If I travel to the fabulous downtown area with it's magnificent shops and....well, if you live here you know what I am saying. We do have a court house made of brick even in this little nothing town. I wonder if the people who built this ran into any trouble when they were building it. If I drive to the big city of Indianapolis then my small town self stares in amazement at what has been created there. The canal.....Circle Center Mall....The Red Garter.... I have never been to New York city but I am imagining that it might just put ancient Babylon to shame. What I am saying here is that I completely believe this to be another fable. In my last post, I said that some kid probably asked his father how the world was created. I can imagine this same kid coming up to dear, old Dad and saying, "I have been thinking dude..... if we all came from those Adam and Eve peeps you told me about then why do the people from other places speak a different language than we do?  We would all speak the same language Adam and Eve passed down to us." Then the father was like.... "Why are you thinking so much when you are supposed to be planting? That is probably why we thought we were growing wheat last year and we ended up with all of those melons. Wheat stores well, boy!! Melon's don't!!! Concentrate!!". But then the father knows his kid so he thinks about it for a few days and when the kid brings it up again the father is ready with this story. I am not at all saying it happened like that.... I have no clue. I simply cannot believe that the story is true. It feels like a fable created to explain why we would have different languages if we came from one common ancestor and could all speak before we were dispersed over the earth.

Another reoccurring issue I keep seeing is God referring to Himself as "Us". The first few times I saw it I just decided to let it go. I didn't think it was a big enough issue to take up....and I really still feel the same. It just confuses me and sets my mind in motion. I looked this issue up on a few web sites and read in some of my other books about it. It seems that there is nothing conclusive here about why the plural is used. Some say this is the Holy Trinity being referred to....obviously people of the Jewish faith discount that. Some say God was talking to his angels. Could there have been some polytheism here? I have no clue but this is just one of those little things that so makes me want to have a time machine. I am trying to let this one go though as there are far bigger fish to fry. I guess my take would have to be in the Holy Trinity direction. It does sound very Golem from The Lord of the Rings though.

 Ok... just one more. I am almost hesitant to start on the story of Abram after going on about the Tower of Babylon so long. Abram, who will later be called Abraham, is an interesting dude. There is an awesome story here surrounding him. I will probably go several posts about him because his story is so cool. Ok....first off, in Genesis 12:3 it says that God will bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse him. These kind of things always trouble me. It is like we have a totally different concept of God now than they had in Biblical times..... and Biblical times are when God was most actively speaking to man, right? God essentially tells Abram, "I got your back, Homie. If someone gives you any crap, I will jump them and they will regret that mess!" That isn't a direct quote of course....hahaha It is our concept that God is the heavenly father to all. It would be like me having a big family and saying to my one son, "I like you a whole lot better than the rest of them. Tell me who is cool to you and they will get rewards. Tell me who treats you crummy and I will lock them in the basement." Once again the Bible seems to me stories to tell the Jewish people that God loves them more than all others. If things are bad now, remember that those who keep you down are enraging God and one day all will be as it should be with the descendants of Abraham taking their rightful place as God's favored people.

Dang....I so wanted to get into Genesis 12:10 when Abram goes to Egypt but this is getting a bit long so I will save that for next time. If you have any comments.....positive, negative, or whatever I welcome them. I am in no way trying to show Christian people that they are completely wrong. I do not want to convince even one person to my way of thinking. I am just trying to get honest dialog going between people from all sides of this issue. People should be able to talk about this issue without becoming angry so long as everyone is cool. We all have opinions and we all have bias'. I will completely admit that after all of these years searching I am coming at this from a viewpoint of the Bible not being the word of God.....and if I come to a belief that it is, I will have to change a whole lot about myself that I don't necessarily want to change. I have a horribly dirty sense of humor......I am not married and do not want to wait until I get married to have some "quality time".
; ) But..... if I can convince my head that the Bible is true then denying myself dirty jokes and pre-marital relations would be worth the rewards.

Later dudes and dudettes.

Friday, March 29, 2013

In the beginning...

In the beginning....


 Ok.... I am not all that far into Genesis and I can tell this is going to be a lot of typing. Some things I am going to see as big issues and some things are just written in such a way as to remind me of the stories of other ancient, primitive people. So... Let's do this.

First off... one of my very favorite controversies is between old earth and young earth theories stemming from the words in Genesis. Young earth believers hold that this story means that God created everything literally in 6 consecutive days. If that is the case then our world is merely thousands of years old. I really have a hard time with that. It would have to mean that everything we know about carbon dating is wrong. I, personally, hold to the old earth theory. I also don't find this to be one of my Bible difficulties. In an old earth theory those 6 creation days do not have to be consecutive and could be millions of years apart. A day doesn't have to mean 24 hours either. The first time I heard that theory and watched a video about it I was overjoyed. I simply love it when my eyes can be opened to something I did not see. That would mean that man could've been placed on this planet millions of years after it's creation. The story says that God created water creatures on the 5th day and then land creatures on the 6th. Humans were also created on the 6th day but the way the text was written it seems to suggest that land animals were created first and then humans. If each creation day was not 24 hours then this would explain how dinosaurs could roam the earth at a time when humans were not present. I like this old earth/non-consecutive creation days scenario better. It does bring up an issue that I have with the Bible in general though......

 Why has the Bible, which is God's way of communicating with man, been written in such a confusing way? If a book was the word of God I would think it would be the most perfect book ever written. I definitely do not feel like the creation story is written perfectly and in a way that any person could pick it up, read it, and feel closer to God. I like some scholars explanation of the old earth theory of creation but why is it not more apparent? Why did we need spin doctors? The fact that much of the Bible leaves you saying, "Really?" just further makes me feel it is the word of man and not the word of God. I truly believe that the Christian God would want every person to know Him. I don't find that consistent with creating a book which is so very confusing....or....hmmmm...what is the word.....vague maybe. A perfect book meant to convey God's word to us would be timeless and it would not put up barriers to faith.

 I find Genesis 3:14&15 completely faith killing. Essentially God was telling the serpent off here because it was the serpent who had tempted Eve. God doesn't say, "Lucifer, that was so uncool! I am just not very happy with you right now". He told the snake that the snake was cursed more than any livestock or any animal. God said that the snake would have to move on it's belly & eat dust for all of it's days. I wonder if the snake was like, "Yeah..... I kinda figured that one out when you didn't give me any legs. I tried rolling but that didn't work out so well. I got really dizzy and puked a lot.". hahahaha.... I kid....I kid!!! God also said that man would strike at the snake with his heel. This is not the curse I can envision for a fallen angel or a demon. This is a curse for a literal snake. So... This leads me to believe that the creature who tempted Eve in this story was actually a snake not Satan. That really crosses this story over into the realm of a fable that father's tell to their children when their kid's say, "Yo Pops.... I have been thinking.... How did this big old world get created anyhow?" I also feel like if the animals in the Garden of Eden could talk, wouldn't one of the other animals come over and intervene....like maybe the owl would say, "Lady.... I know it is kind or torture for God to throw these 2 trees right in your face and say, 'don't eat any of that stuff'. It is kind of like putting a plate of cookies on the table and telling a 5 year old not to eat those cookies because they are magic cookies. Even if you gave the 5 year old plenty of cookies elsewhere the kid is gonna want the magic cookies. I am not saying it was a cool move. I am just saying the big guy said no eaty the yummies on this tree. He made this stuff. I personally would listen." or maybe the talking dog would say, "Rot row Reve!" I just really see this as one of those stories that if you just read it as it is makes you feel as if this is one of those stories similar to what you would hear in any other mythology. Lots of people say this was Satan and that the text doesn't say it was Satan because the writer didn't know of Satan..... well, it isn't perfect then, is it? It is flawed by the ignorance of the writer and thus not the "Perfect" word of God.

Ok....then on to Noah's story. Any time God destroys a place because the people are wicked it makes me wonder about how many innocents are being killed as well. Picture yourself as a person alive with a family during the deluge..... Can you imagine watching your children drown? Maybe you as a person are a scumbag deserving of your fate but is everyone on the planet at this time? How many 2 year old children drowned? Could these 2 year old children have been horrible sinners? I can see an argument saying that society had deteriorated to the point that those 2 year olds, raised in that society, would have grown up to be the same kind of filth as their parents. But I have to look around and say to myself, "Could they have been worse than we are right now?" I just do not see how.... why do we not get wiped out? I know God said he would never destroy the world by flood again. There are other ways....war, plague, etc. We have to be the most perverse, self absorbed, corrupt society in the history of this world. I am not saying we deserve to die. I don't believe that at all but can you envision a society with more perversion than ours? If you can, I have a few web sites I can recommend to you. hahaha There are lots of people in our society who are very good people as well. Do you think that was not the case then as well?

Well.... this is for starters. I still have a long way to go in Genesis and I will have concerns far, far greater than these. I just knew that I was going to have a good bit to write and I didn't want each installment to be like a book. In order to have people read this I probably want it to be something you can get through in a few minutes. 

I will keep reading. If you have anything to say, I completely welcome your words. If you think I am too blasphemous in my writing here then I would want to hear that too. I am trying to keep it a little entertaining but certainly don't want to cross over to offensive.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Why am I agnostic?

 The question of whether there is a God, who is he, and what does he want is probably the single most important question facing us. For most it probably isn't a question..... I feel like very few people question whether what most people around them believe is true. So, how did I come to question traditional Christian beliefs? I was brought up believing that Christianity was true. We were not always regular church attendees but my aunt who was a Catholic took me to mass many times and my mother always told me that God was real. I started attending a Quaker church with my parents when I was in fourth grade (I think) and we went until I was in the sixth grade. That is not exactly a huge stretch of time but I learned the Bible stories in Sunday morning service and Sunday School. This was far more to my liking than the Catholic mass I had attended with my aunt. So... I had a general belief in Christianity but it wasn't ingrained in me as it is in those whose whole existence has been one centered around Christian belief.

Then, when I was 21, my aunt died. This is the lady I mentioned above who took me to Catholic mass. To say she was my aunt is to understate the relationship. My aunt could not have children of her own so she started taking care of me when I was 6 weeks old....as soon as my mother went back to work from maternity leave.  This wasn't a job for my aunt this was a way for her to have a child. My parents paid her insanely little and I do believe with the food, toys, birthday and Christmas gifts she and my uncle gave me that they probably lost money on this deal. But like I said, this wasn't about money for her. She was like a second mother to me. I went to her house 5 days a week from the time I was 6 weeks old until I was 14 (my parents didn't trust me not to burn the house down....with good reason). When my aunt died I was shocked, stunned, and grief stricken. My aunt was not that old.... she went to sleep and an aneurysm killed her. She had not been sick..... I didn't see it coming. I was 21 but no one truly close to me had ever died. I was born when my parents were only teenagers so my family was pretty young. After I dealt with the grief, I had to deal with a loss of innocence. Death is real.... it truly happens. I mean....intellectually I knew that it was but what 21 year old thinks about their mortality? I know one who did-me. I became very disturbed that one day I would be the one in that box....It wouldn't be for a long time but I could not escape it. It would happen. I decided that the only way for death to not scare me was through an unquestioning faith that there is something beyond death. I decided to read the Bible for the first time ever. As I mentioned above, I had heard the stories but they weren't so ingrained in me that I read the texts unquestioningly. I began....at the beginning....where else? Genesis. I began to read and I found some things here and there that didn't seem like truth to me.... they just seemed like the stories of primitive people. The more I read the more convinced I was that these were just the stories of people wanting to believe that their hardships had meaning and that their victories were because God liked them better than everyone else. I didn't make it all the way through and instead of instilling faith in me, reading the Bible had caused me to become agnostic..... I do not know who God is or what he wants. I do believe (most of the time) that there is a God. We believe the universe had a beginning... nothing that is natural can be created from nothing by no one. The universe had a beginning...it must've had a creator. If there was a ball of gas that expanded in the Big Bang then what created the ball of gas? If you figure out what created the ball of gas then what created the thing that created the ball of gas? And......that could go on for a bit but eventually you come to an uncaused first cause which is impossible and unavoidable at the same time.....it would have to be supernatural.... God. There you have it.... I am agnostic and not particularly happy about it. It has been years since I went back to this question and it is time to do so. I will be using Lee Stoebel's videos and web site for info and am reading "The Apologetics Study Bible". I am going to read and blog on my thoughts as I do. I am hoping that I will get some comments from bright people telling me how I have it wrong when I see things as problematic. I hope not to offend anyone...this is for me and....well..... here is what has me motivated now. My oldest son is almost 17 and he thinks a lot like me. I am afraid from the conversations we have had that he is coming to the same place that I am....which is agnostic. If Christianity is true than the worst thing I can do is to influence him away from it. Thanks for reading.... I hope it wasn't too boring. I will do some reading in the next few days and then blog some more.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Introductions

                                           That's me in the middle.

Hi there people of the blogosphere.

This is my first attempt at this whole blogging stuff. I decided to try it since I just want to go more indepth about things sometimes than Facebook will allow. This will allow me to elaborate on ideas or situations I am facing...maybe someone will even read it-who knows. I will probably be all over the place as far as topics....my dating/relationship adventures, home projects, current events, sports, religion, etc.

I am a 41 year old dude from New Castle, Indiana. I have 2 sons who are 17 and 14. My 17 year old is a video game junky. He and I both love movies and he is in the high school band. I try to be a good father to him by texting advice to him while he is playing in the pep band at basketball games. I watch him and when there is a girl nearby him I text instructions like, "Talk to her...Talk to the redhead!" Haha... He is not exactly fond of that. It's a good thing that he doesn't take my advice as taking my own advice hasn't worked out so well for me. When it comes to the ladies, if he just does exactly the opposite of what I advise he will probably do really well. ; )My 14 year old likes to play baseball, watch wrestling and football, and play his PS3. He has autism so he plays baseball in the Miracle league here in New Castle. That is a league for people with disabilities. I help to coach his team. We always have lots of fun. I do more running around telling everyone how awesome they are then actual coaching. I have been divorced for around 8 years now. I have dated quite a bit.... which is not the object of the exercise for me. I do not want to date around... so the fact that I have been on quite a few first dates is not exactly something I am pleased about. I am a bit jaded in that whole matter as of right now. I am probably not at the right spot in my life to make it work in a relationship so I am just chilling.We'll see......later dudes!