My good friend Jay asked me to post this here. Enjoy!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
Mission Statement
This particular post is an amalgamation of questions that I have fielded from my previous post “What If…”. It is also a compilation of replies and hopefully answers to the post and subsequent threads of “Well, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. So what?” from Larry “The Barefoot Bum” Hamelin’s blog. I know, I know, Larry, that was not the title of your post, I am paraphrasing and quoting simultaneously, and at the same time too. ; )
Larry asked me what were the intentions of my project, so let's take a look at that and answer some other questions along the way as well.
Mission Statement: To use a quote from the Blues Brothers “We’re on a mission from God”. To make that statement it takes faith and that in and of itself is a choice. So, if faith is a choice and one decides it to be an absolute in their “mission statement”, then yes it could be said that no logical possible alternative answer could change one's faith. Admittedly not one of us can absolutely prove the many facets of our beliefs nor do we have, what we deem to be, “overwhelming evidentiary support” for our viewpoints. We take it all “on faith”.
Now some viewpoints would propose that anyone who leans towards belief in a creator has made a foolish decision for believing in such things and/or is inflexible in said beliefs. Let me say this, if it foolishness then I am indeed a fool. (see links below)
1 Corinthians 1:21 (Amplified Bible)
1 Corinthians 1:21 (The Message)
The last statement I made about inflexibility is not entirely true. My core belief, that is the acceptance of and faith in the fact that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, is not going to change. Anything outside of that is up for discussion. At times I will already have formed a strong opinion on a particular topic but again, anything is up for intelligent discussion.
What I intend to accomplish first and foremost is to reach out to secularists that are seeking to have a relationship with God, get “traditional” theists to look into and learn more about why they believe what they believe, and to show atheists that there are theists like myself in society that are willing to have intelligent and rational conversations about their beliefs as well as listen with patience, respect, and love not prejudice, condemnation, and distain.
One thing that I have noticed, and I am not condemning anyone for it, was a tendency to jump on something that I have posted as being an opinion I subscribe to, and often, contradicting what I have said. I have apologized for the perceived duality of my responses. I am sure we can all appreciate that emotion, inflection, and many other components of speech and thought are “lost in translation” on the internet. What I was trying to “get across” in my replies was to say I believe in concept “A” however anyone reading a post or reply could delve deeper into or expand on that concept with supposition “B”. I hope that clears things up for some readers.
I wanted to respond to John Morales question about “what possible rationale there might be for a deity to bother to create a universe in which event and outcome therein from its genesis to its end is known. This seems odd given the attributed benevolence of said deity, for without such a creation no souls need be sent for eternal torture.”, but since I have “gone long” in this post, I will be “saved” I mean save that for another day.
And now, for something totally different....
Larry asked me what were the intentions of my project, so let's take a look at that and answer some other questions along the way as well.
Mission Statement: To use a quote from the Blues Brothers “We’re on a mission from God”. To make that statement it takes faith and that in and of itself is a choice. So, if faith is a choice and one decides it to be an absolute in their “mission statement”, then yes it could be said that no logical possible alternative answer could change one's faith. Admittedly not one of us can absolutely prove the many facets of our beliefs nor do we have, what we deem to be, “overwhelming evidentiary support” for our viewpoints. We take it all “on faith”.
Now some viewpoints would propose that anyone who leans towards belief in a creator has made a foolish decision for believing in such things and/or is inflexible in said beliefs. Let me say this, if it foolishness then I am indeed a fool. (see links below)
1 Corinthians 1:21 (Amplified Bible)
1 Corinthians 1:21 (The Message)
The last statement I made about inflexibility is not entirely true. My core belief, that is the acceptance of and faith in the fact that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, is not going to change. Anything outside of that is up for discussion. At times I will already have formed a strong opinion on a particular topic but again, anything is up for intelligent discussion.
What I intend to accomplish first and foremost is to reach out to secularists that are seeking to have a relationship with God, get “traditional” theists to look into and learn more about why they believe what they believe, and to show atheists that there are theists like myself in society that are willing to have intelligent and rational conversations about their beliefs as well as listen with patience, respect, and love not prejudice, condemnation, and distain.
One thing that I have noticed, and I am not condemning anyone for it, was a tendency to jump on something that I have posted as being an opinion I subscribe to, and often, contradicting what I have said. I have apologized for the perceived duality of my responses. I am sure we can all appreciate that emotion, inflection, and many other components of speech and thought are “lost in translation” on the internet. What I was trying to “get across” in my replies was to say I believe in concept “A” however anyone reading a post or reply could delve deeper into or expand on that concept with supposition “B”. I hope that clears things up for some readers.
I wanted to respond to John Morales question about “what possible rationale there might be for a deity to bother to create a universe in which event and outcome therein from its genesis to its end is known. This seems odd given the attributed benevolence of said deity, for without such a creation no souls need be sent for eternal torture.”, but since I have “gone long” in this post, I will be “saved” I mean save that for another day.
And now, for something totally different....
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