Welcome to Gaia! ::

I thought it might be entertaining to post some interesting questions and answers I have asked/given/recieved throughout my 'second life' as a Christian. Most of you have seen my siganture, which invites skeptics and believers alike to ask any questions they have about my personal beliefs, and I've had quite a few people PM me about it. (Proof of how thirsty the world really is for the Word!)

In any case, posts here will be devoted to questions and answers yopu have of anything relating to:
- My personal religious life, including my conversion and vocation to ministry.
- God and any philosophies I have heard regarding God.
- Jesus
- New Testament (And Old Testament); specific verses
- Trinity and other baffling concepts.
- Anything under the sun! (Eclessiastes says: "There is nothing new under the sun.") I believe that there really is nothing new under the sun; the water we need to drink can be found in the ancient scholarship and in God, who is certainly not 'new.'

Ask, read what others have asked, and add your replies if you feel they can be helpful! All are welcome in the ministry of Shrubbery.

First Entry: Background


Basic Background: I was raised atheist, so for most of my life I was acquainted and very much satisfied with the idea that there was no God, and all religion was fluke, and that religious people were all completely ridiculous. Then, around fifth grade, I became intensely interested in philosophy and psychology I read everything from Machiavelli to Mother Teresa. This got me hesitantly curious about leadership and the meaning of life, because by this time I found I was taking an increasing amount of leadership positions in my life, and I needed a system.

So, I read two texts which became focal points in my intellectual life: Sigmud Freud's Civilization and its Discontents, and the Qua'ran (almost cover to cover; skipped a few technical moments). I started noticing a lot of the political implications of bad leadership, and, most of all, of unspiritual leadership. I decided in my own mind that the reason America was having such difficulties, and the reason, globally, that the world was feeling quite a lot of blows, was due to the presence of unsupressed 'human nature' and the lack of spiritual leadership.

By human nature, I mean human nature in the way that Freud and others have defined it: the violent, uncompassionate human nature that was neccessary in primitive times for survival. Although Freud wasn't right in everything, he hit the nail on the head here. And by spiritual leadership, I didn't know exactly what I meant, or what I wanted from it: but for some reason I didn't feel that fundamentalist Islam, or biased Judaism, or corrupt Christianity could be included in this category. Thus, there was a lack in genuine spiritual leadership.

Before you label me as a hopeless idealist, I never expected to stop war, or have a communist society, or anything of the sort. But I think if we don't aim toward those heights we won't get anywhere--we need to aim for the ideal in order to get the best possible reality. Enter God from stage left.

At this point, I read a few books on 'the God argument,' including C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. I felt, and continue to feel, as if the rejection of absolute truths proposed by people like Nietzche are trying to replace the concept of absolute truths with the idea that "there are no absolute truths." This, in itself, is obviously an 'absolute truth.' I decided that the 'neither-nor" or 'nunclogic' that celebrated atheists propose was impractical. There is no philosophy or science which has eliminated the neccessity of absolute truth. Now, the question: do I prefer an 'absolute truth' that contradicts itself in the elementary makeup of it, or one which does the universe a little more justice?

I walked around with this question of a while, at which time I read the Old and New Testaments, skipping, again, some technical parts. I noticed that, displayed not only in Jesus but also in figures like Elijah and Ezekiel, there was an extraordinary form of leadership, the very same leadership which I felt was vital to the well-being of society. I decided that, regardless of what the absolute truth is, whether it is Nature, or Physics, or Philosophy, or Logic, it was far easier (occam's razor) to abbreviate: G. O. D.

And from there, the ultra-rationalistic part of the journey became less of a focal point, and I had some personal spiritual reformation, et cetera. You've probably heard conversion stories a million times before, and I don't claim to display a revolution in the mind of God. But in essence, here I am--a student of science, philosophy, debate, politics, and war, and a Christian. I feel that theism has opened doors for me which I would have been banging my head against for all eternity had I not converted. I never had an eye for art: loving God's world made me see it and portray it skillfully. I never had a love for active physical excercise: I'm now on two swim teams and a blackbelt in two disciplines of martial arts. What have I lost?