Just What's A Canker Sore
8 years ago
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
I was thinking about guidance and how people find it. I read another blog about how someone was checking out astrology. I asked them what it was that they gained from this, beacuse I'm quite curious what people gain from astrological readings, because I don't believe in it. They basically said they didn't believe in it, it was just fun, and something you can read into whatever you like. This got me thinking.
Why then go to anything if all you're doing is seeing what you want to see? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of going to an outside source for guidance and direction? Just make it that's all your going to do anyway! They compared going to astrological readings like going to the bible for direction. I shared with them my views that the bible is much more than just reading into it what you like. If that's all you do, then I agree that reading the bible can be pointless, you aren't reading what's really there at all. It's just another comfort source in that case. God quite often tells me things in the bible that I don't necessarily want to hear.
Any text without a context is a pretext (as someone wise I know one said). When I read the bible I think it's important to ask "What did it mean to them then?" Then I can take the underlying principle and apply it to my own life. And that's not always what I want to hear, but it is what I need to hear. If no one got guidance from an outside source then I think we'd all be screwed. Wait! That's why the world is screwed!!! 6 billion people just doing what they feel is right (if we're lucky. It's usually what they WANT to do). No wonder we have wars and conflict over difference of opinion. Everyone does what is best for them, which is not best for everyone.
I love the bible. I think we need a steady source of guidance rather than doing what feels good. Who else could provide that other than an all powerful God who loves each one of us as his own percious child?
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There are people who use the bible to back up their own selfish choices, but that is not what the bible teaches. That is merely people, once again, reading into things what they want to see. Like what I was saying in my blog.
Anything can be manipulated if that is your desire, and yes, some people have used Christianity to do so. But that does not mean that Christianity is the thing that is wrong. It is the manipulator of the situation, not the false use of the context behind it.
By the way, what is a bible?
Face it, mother nature is bloodthirsty and red of claw, thrusting up species to watch them compete and die. She rewards the ruthless and terminates the weak. Domination and power to exploit your environment for as long as you can against competion is ALL we have... You know that is right, eh, 'poser? You are too weak to face it and have manufactured yourself the emotional teddybear called 'spiriuality' to give yourself cold comfort in a cold world... you yearn for the same certainty as Ludicrouisity
But either Ludicrousity is actually right and some external Being has spoken into your universe ... or else all religious thoughts and books are but the opiate of the masses, as someone once said. You've checked out her bible and found it to be crap - as well as other organised religion? Excellent! well face the consequences with courage!!
rh
Personally, yeah, I'm Christian, and I believe that there is a God, and that he has a will, and that we are at our best when we fulfil the purpose we are destined for, to be with him.
Of course, I'm not one to go on huge rants involving point by point deconstructions, but hey, that is what I believe. And, sadly unlike many, I have actually gathered up the courage to put my faith in something without waiting for it to conform to my conditions, and in return it has shown me what I needed to hear, and what my heart longed to hear.
Anywho, there's just so many small things in this world that make me think, and that support the idea of a loving God who wants a relationship with us and that we are meant to rely on Him. One for example, is throughout history, tales of heroes and legends, they are all of someone who rose above the people, whom the people could rely on who wouldn't fail them. The fact that these themes re-occur throughout history seems to imply a build in human need to rely on something greater than them to get them through.
Another, just for fun, is depression. Some look at it as becoming aware of the pointlessness of life, I say it is a crying out that the most vital part of what makes life meaningful is missing, as though God is a vital puzzle piece needed to make life work in it's entirety.
Just random thoughts, that strike me as intriguing. :)
Each of us to his own serving of man.
I can really stongly relate to your view of oraganised religion Bigassposer. We need to find our own purspose. ;)
Me personally, i believe there is a God but at this point in my life i find it hard to believe IN him. In fact i have no doubts that god exisits considering i have seen the changes in my friends lives as they have accepted God as their personal saviour, but i seriously go mental if they try to tell me what i should believe...
If God has chosen me as one of his people i have no doubts that i will eventually seek him out again in my life, but like i said... at this point, i'm finding it easier without him and his rules.
I find it funny that people say they dont know how i can believe in him and not want to follow him... it's easy enough... i just be myself rather than who God wants me to be... ignoring God is pretty easy, although i do sometimes find myself taking to him occasioanlly when i forget who i am now... just proves old habbits die hard.
Love your honesty bigassposer ( not sure that name matches your character, honestthinker sounds better, but as a name it totally sucks!). I love art.Great place to start. Love Starry Night! But be cautious, art as a metaphor for value can be dangerous. Hitler was an artist, so stark, so graphic, so confronting was his performance art!
Ludicrousity: Your faith is obviously very real to you... Does it affect your life so that people notice it,like bowen says?
That rh sounds like a desparately crusty old fart!
Hi Nomes! Good for you! I think I don't believe in the same god you don't too! the god of rules.
I wonder if you want him to seek you out... like you say. What do you think he wants to 'save' you from, as you put it?
therevhead
ps . hows the househunting?
I agree with therevhead. The God I know doesn't impose rules on me. He merely offers me help when I'll accept it and shares with me the way He created me. No one knows how things work better than the creator, and it seems to be the same for humans in my experience.
If God is real, and He did create us, wouldn't He know better than I ever could how I should live my life? I can't imagine it would be possible for me to ignore him and do my own thing and for it to work better than the way He intended me to live.
And in response to something else you said revhead. I should hope that people are aware of my faith simply by the way I live, but I am aware of my short comings, and I know that I do not always live the way that I would want to. I'm sure to people it does not always look like I live like a Christian. I am highly flawed, but it is always something I am working on.
this is so much better than other posts i've read that have just been like two groups butting heads together - none of that here. a mind streching experience 2 thumbs up!
LOOK AT ME! Please! *juggles fruit.*