[thechat] Mythology was comics
Ben Dyer
ben_dyer at imaginuity.com
Thu May 24 10:22:40 CDT 2001
Wow, this is great. I love it. I get into work and have a billion e-mails
on this thread. Fascinating.
Some comments. Bear with me.
Q1
The question has come up about faith considerably. How can you put faith
in something you've never seen? How do you know you're not blindly
following a man?
A1
To someone who is not a practicing Christian, this is an obvious point, but
you are really only seeing half of the story. There is an inexplicable,
indescribable feeling of the presence of God, especially when you really
think you're screwed, and then to trust God and watch him come
through. I'll give you an example. Back in the early days of our company
(when we were really, really small), we had a major accounting error. We
were short about $10,000 in the morning and we had bills to pay by
noon. We prayed about the problem knowing that there was really nothing
*we* could do about it. That morning, a $12,000 job came in (it found
us). The bills were payed on time. This is a small example, yes, but I've
found that it's usually the smallest things that reinforce my belief in God.
Really, the biggest problem is that we, as humans, like proof. We hate
gaps, we want evidence. That's what makes Christianity so hard. But God
has a way of filling in the gaps for us.
The second part, how do you know you're not blindly following a man (if you
consider Jesus to be just a man, or priests, the Pope, etc.). Well, first
off, the Pope, priests, etc., all of man are sinners so they are
fallible. These people are really just the front men for God. So we look
to them for guidance, counsel, direction, and when they screw up we really
blame God. "Oh great, if God is really there, he would put people in
charge down here that were perfect." or something to that effect. But you
really have to look beyond pastors, preachers and look to Jesus as the
ultimate example because all humans screw up (Romans 3:23: "For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God"). Now, how do you know Jesus
wasn't just a man? Well, this comes down to trust. The Bible of course
teaches about God sending his only son (John 3:16), and Jesus had the same
problems that man does (tempted by sin - he was tempted by the devil
himself, got hungry - both in Matthew 4, etc.), but he was able to resist
temptation because he was the Son of God. But it really comes down to
faith. I believe that he was indeed the Son of God coming to earth as
prophesied in the Old Testament.
Q2
Explain the Theory of Evolution/Big Bang vs. Creation.
A2
Oh boy. It comes down to this: we weren't around for either (whichever it
may be), so you don't know for sure and I don't know for sure. I believe
in Creation. I believe God has the power to make a rock appear to be 3
billion years old. Maybe carbon dating doesn't work that far back (I don't
know the science behind it, so I'm merely speculating). Again, none of us
was around 6,000 or 3-6 billion years ago, so we don't know for sure who
would be correct.
Q3
If Christianity is so great, why are "Christians" such jerks?
A3
I won't speak for everyone else. And I hate to think that people who
aren't in the Church perceive every Christian to be Reverend Lovejoy or Ned
Flanders because we aren't. (Shamless plug time again) It's a shame that
the Church can't/won't reach the younger generation who are basically
turned off by everything the Church really stands for right now. In fact,
I agree that Church is boring, boorish, money-grubbing, intolerant and
against the younger generation. I work with some other of the younger
people and we developed Spirit Groove (http://www.spiritgroove.com) which
addresses these issues. We meet in a club in Dallas, it's free (well, more
like donate if you want to, we barely even mention it), it's fun, always
great music, it's just a great way to be in "Church" without being in a church.
Q4
Okay, but what about the Crusades/Balkans/WWII/Segregationist South and the
other awful things that Christians did/do?
A4
Do you like being judged on the sins of others in your
religious/ethnic/cultural group? Neither do I. Don't write off an entire
group because of some of its members.
Q5
Use of icons in the Church and its relationship to idolatry.
A5
Yes, the 10 Commandments include graven images of God outside of what was
God-ordained (the Ark of the Covenant had two cherubim on top). One of the
ways archaeologists identify archaeological frescoes in the Middle East is
by their use of human images. Romans/others used them constantly while
Jews had ornate designs with no human images. (If I remember correctly).
Whew. I'd spend some more time on this, but I have some work to do. Maybe
I'll address some more points later. :)
--Ben
<!-----------------------
Ben Dyer
Senior Internet Developer
Imaginuity Interactive
http://www.imaginuity.com
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