Ravenlaughs recently put up a film asking for intelligent discourse on God:



I have tried over the last couple days to film myself speaking on this subject, but I totally suck (as always) at filming myself. There is a part of me that protests the whole "Talking head" image that most people use on Youtube and other places. As if having my "blah blah blah blah" pixelated face UP FRONT and personal makes what I am saying more meaningful or true. My own belief is that the talking head image of "Television" is old and overused. In any case I suck at trying to fold myself neatly into that box.

I rarely get into any of these God Arguments anymore, because I have been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. Most attempts at intelligent discussion of the subject online end in endless ad hominems, vitriol and rankor. You have on the one hand the "Reactionary Atheist" pitted against the "Overzealous Uber-pious Christian" most of the time. The reactionary atheist is not in any sense a true atheist, who holds his faith in the "No God" firmly in his mind without regard to any religion; instead, the Reactionary Atheist has taken on the monniker merely to use it to profane and strike down ONE religion--that of Christianity. Reactionary Atheists are actually Anti-Christians. Their arguments are all based on their perception of the Contradictions in the Christian faith and some percieved wrong done to them personally by members of this faith. They are easily recognized by the amount of time they spend berating Christians or by their going out of their way to use symbols and sacraments of the Christian Faith in the most profane way possible in the name of "humor" ---so they say.

The "Overzealous Uber-Pious Christian" on the other hand has taken up the Cross of Jesus as a weapon to beat others over the head, using the Bible as their shield. Almost from the instant of their conversian to Christianity, they have become the guardians of everyone's soul. They believe they can convince anyone of the "One Truth" they have found, if they just pound it in their heads hard enough and with enough fear of hell and damnation attached. They live their lives in a state of almost gleeful piety, knowing they are bound for the glory of heaven and the rest of us are headed down the road to hell in a hand basket.

Arguments between these two groups is like listening to a Pee Wee Herman "I know you are but what am I?" type argument. Oy. So very redundant.

So I rarely enter into them. I am not fond of futility.

My own faith and the practice of it is very personal. Yes, I am a Christian, but I left the organized Church long ago. I find most churches fail the test. (2 Cor. 13:5). They are lukewarm. (Revelation 3:15-20) For too many years Christians have used the walls of the church as barriers to keep people out. Few are welcoming and inviting to new people. There is entirely too much "judgement" going on inside those walls.

My faith is a tapestry of the long walk I have had with Jesus Christ, who leads me. I do not fear where he takes me, nor do I question it. Interwoven into the practice of my faith are threads from many religions. The God I worship is the God of the Universe, not just Christians. Jesus is my guide and the test I use as I search for truth.

He led me onto the path of Mysticism 30 + years ago. It is the same path that others before me walked including Hildegard of Bingen, St. Bonaventure, and St. John of the Cross, to name a few. I do not fear where I am led during my soul's journey into god. Mysticism is a solitary practice, I have found, as are all journeys of faith. Mysticism transforms one's faith and belief into knowledge. And here is what I would say to Raven...

All knowledge, all that we claim to KNOW is subjective---it is personal. Proof is only proof to one's self. I cannot MAKE you experience the color Red. You must come to know Red through your own senses for it to be a truth to you. I can tell you, for instance, that a man named George Washington lived from the years 1732 to 1799 and during his lifetime he accomplished many great things. You can choose to believe what I say as a truth, but in reality, it is merely something you assume to know as a truth based on a trusted authority. In fact, you do not KNOW that he even existed except by faith in that trusted authority. There is, if you examine it honestly, very little in your knowledge base that can be called a KNOWN Truth, because you have never tested it, but merely claimed it as truth.

And so it is with God. I know God merely because I have tested it. But I cannot test it for you. You must choose to know a thing and test it and have it become a part of your own personal knowledge. Test that the world is round, test that you were born, test these things, and see if you can change them from the realm of assumed knowlege into fact. That is all the soul's journey is, it is a journey to know God.