for - meaning crisis - abandoning Christianity - search for other religions - John Churchill

Stoicism is about taking the thorn out of your own eye before throwing stones at others.

( ~5:58)

Yerba Maté tea (non-smoked) as a tool for fasting to reduce the feeling of hunger?

Also useful for weight loss as it converts white fat (adipose) cells into brown and beige adipose cells which are useful fat cells used for heat generation, stored around the neck and clavicle. This is done through a process of thermogenesis.

see also: Barnouw, Erik (1993), Documentary a History of the Non-fiction Film (PDF), New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 241–242, retrieved March 30, 2020

All true knowledge remains with God. There are certain ideas & pieces of knowledge that men just cannot learn. It remains out of reach, out of touch.

Also an interpreted theme in the song.

One of the greatest Christian songs I know.

Favorite song of mine by For King and Country.

Excellent song

Great song by Joshua Aaron.

Great song by Joshua Aaron.

( ~15:00)

You cannot know God except for on His terms. This knowing of God is not accessible to those who have not been humble enough to try it out and accept Him.

It is why I say that I lie when I say God does not exist, even though I cannot prove that He exists; He has proven it to me.

( ~12:50 )

The difference being faith and atheism is one of ultimate hope & justice. Hope for life after "the end".

( ~ 9:00 )

You cannot say why something was created, its purpose, without knowing its maker. No matter how smart you are. You cannot infer this from the matter.

( ~ 8:20 )

Not sure what Lennox is trying to say here...

He quotes a Russian scientist who said they though they could retain a value for human beings while abolishing God and found that they could not.

I do not understand, nor get the significance of, this argument. But it sounds interesting. Worth looking into in the future perhaps?

Lennox argues that both rationality and morality cannot be explained without the Bible & God... Humans are naturally rational and moral beings because "Man are created in God's image" or "The Holy Spirit remains in men"

The Holy Ghost is the reason we can tell right from wrong (spiritual anti-virus)... However, the more we sin, the more we silence this voice in our head until ultimately we cannot hear it anymore.

No person is born a criminal. A killer.

When we get baptized, we effectively restore our connection to God, and thus reenact the Holy Ghost within us; restoring our innocence. Our soul's integrity has been restored and we can hear the Spirit speaking to us loud and clear once again.

As Simone Weil argued, the purpose of a punishment, an adequate one, that is, is to cleanse the taint of our behavior from ourselves... Allowing ourselves to get back into humanity without judgement. Baptism serves the same purpose on a Spiritual level... With the key difference being that it was Christ who endured the ultimate punishment, and by being baptized (willingly), we enjoy that same punishment, can reap its benefits.

( ~ 6:00)

Lennox argues that the reason science works is because both the universe out there and the insane complex minds that humans have are both designs of the same divine being/architect; God.

What is easier to believe (~3:00)?

That God created everything... The existence of an architect?

Or: Nothing turned itself into everything? Oxymoron

Why is one more believable over the other?

Initially, people became scientists because they expected to find law in the universe, because they believed in the lawgiver.

God created the laws that govern existence. Scientists unravel and observe those laws.

Lennox argues it is his Faith that gives him his job.

God is a different explanation than science (~1:50)

Choosing between science and God is the same as choosing between Ford and Engineering for an explanation of the motor car.

They are not mutually exclusive.

Dr. Steve Boyd keeps to the traditional translation of everything coming into existence from God. He mentions the original Hebrew has no word for "universe" and therefore the creation of the heavens and the earth means eveyrthing.

James Tabor makes the same argument as Dr. Michael S. Heiser.

That Genesis 1:1-3 is a mistranslation, and implies that genesis was not about the creation of the universe.

According to this translation, the earth existed before God started creating in Genesis????

Very fascinating. Substance meaning can change depending on linguistics. For ancient thought, it's best to know the true original language.

( ~ 24:30)

Radiometric dating operates from the wrong assumptions (that all processes remained constant during all of history, which, compared to the Bible is false and therefore foolish).

Different radiometric dating methods give vastly different aging results in a systematically wrong way; according to Dr. Kurt, this is proof that they use wrong assumptions.

( ~ 19:00 )

The primary argument as made by Dr. Kurt with reference to the Bible is that God used processes during the creation that he NEVER used again. So to assume chronological dating methods based on processes that exist now is to be foolish, as you cannot go back to creation itself and use those methods; creation used different processes that do not exist anymore.

Additionally, God created all of existence... He is above it. He can certainly manipulate it. The laws of physics do not apply to Him. He has created creatures and things in an ADULT state of being... So by using dating methods that are used to calculate the age of something you can arrive at a result much older than it is in fact, for God could've created its values in an old state even though it is in fact young.

( ~ 18:00)

Dr. Kurt regurgitates second Peter 3:3-4 where there are "scholars" who knowingly reject creation and the Bible on the merits of the past, absolutism; what happens now is how it has always been.

This is a logical fallacy also described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in "The Black Swan"... Absence of Proof does not mean Proof of Absence. And also the fact that one cannot predict the future based on the past in all situations, especially Black Swan's... The Flood was actually a Black Swan (it was impossible to predict, and had catastrophic consequences)

Dr. Kurt Wise argues that the Bible's claims should be accepted over human's science. As is said, man's Wisdom is but foolishness for God.

There is a degree of truth to this; the Bible (God) should be considered absolute truth.(Christian) Science therefore should assume the truth of the Bible and use science to support it. Or at least try to see if what the Bible says is true; use its claims as the hypothesis.

Perhaps this is some form of confirmation bias, but I think this doesn't matter in this instance.

History is the story of God... It serves as a narrative to describe what God has done.

Inferring based on the creation is secondary circumstantial evidence, the eyewitness account is that of God himself.

Worth noting for Christians: before responding on impulse (from a good heart) and paying to save children, take a moment to stop, reflect and analyse, is this a trustworthy organization and person? Will my money truly solve something, will it really help someone?

Memory is the soul. Memory is identity.

Identity is determined by memory, for without our memory, we become mere husks.

(~2:30)

The universe came of nothing = oxymoron

Like saying that X created X

Great performance

Excellent performance.

Goosebump-giving

Coogan, Michael David, Marc Zvi Brettler, Carol Ann Newsom, and Pheme Perkins, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, An Ecumenical Study Bible. Fully Revised Fourth. 1962. Reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Annotations URL: urn:x-pdf:d8e0b658bbb0af5343bfb78eec4546f9

Alternate annotations view: https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?user=chrisaldrich&max=100&exactTagSearch=true&expanded=true&url=urn%3Ax-pdf%3Ad8e0b658bbb0af5343bfb78eec4546f9

DeSantis tweaks Florida book challenge law, blames liberal activist who wanted Bible out of schools by [[Brendan Farrington]]

Many in the southern United States are converting to Orthodox Christianity, a conversion which is tied into patriarchal ideas on the far right.

Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP)<br /> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_in_Basic_Life_Principles

https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/view/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/godinamerica/people/charles-finney.html

Opinion - Trump’s Bible Misunderstands Christianity by [[Esau McCaulley]]

specific quote? direct source?

Opinion - Donald Trump and the ‘Dune’ Messiah Have Some Things in Common by [[David French]]

• for: Marjorie Kelly - spiritual background in Christianity and Buddhism

His credibility or theirs?

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/anchor-yale-bible-series/

Ran into a copy of the collection at Pasadena City College Shatford Library on Friday 2023-09-09.

People of the last days will be abound:

1) Selfish - Symptom: Increase in Divorce Rates

2) Enjoy pleasure > God - Sin has an addictive & deceptive nature, it gives pleasure. (think of porn)

3) Lukewarmness (have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof)

They will not be caught up with the Lord during the rapture.

Be ready for the rapture at all times because it will come like a thief in the night.

In the end times, there will be a lot of lukewarm Christians, who will not be taken in the rapture.

Faith means crucifying the flesh and feeding the Spirit. Being lukewarm: Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof; Outwardly faithful, but not transforming. Your life after conversion (baptism) is the same as before. OR selective faith. Choose what to obey; define your own religion.

God (the Truth) sets free, therefore sin will be gone.

Profession of faith means to CHANGE, GOD may cost you a lot. LOVE is SACRIFICE. Do not just hear, but also do.

The most godly one is the one who sins the least, not the one who goes to church the most. Church means nothing. Doing the word of God, obeying Him, building a relation with Him means everything.

Walking the broad (easy) path leads to sin and thus death and hell. Walking the narrow (difficult) path leads to righteousness and Heaven.

• quote

  • "it's actually daunting chilling even
    • to see how this book,
      • which is really about conservative white evangelicals in the United States
      • I'm an American historian
    • how much it is resonating with people around the world right now
      • in ways that that should be alarming"
  • Author
    • Kristin Kobes Du Mez

• Comment

  • the viral and rapid global spread of evangelical christianity
    • is coupled with an equal spread of corrosive patriarchy and authoritarianism
  • The global spread of authoritarianism is linked to the global spread of Evangelical Christianity
  • This is an important observation which begs a global response

The Very First Bible 144 A.D. by Marcion of Sinope, A. W. Mitchell.

Randomly ran across the bible from Marcion of Sinope...

odd title if it's meant not as curiosity but as a bible for Marcionites...

The rise of Christianity over paganism took a stronger turn for Christianity in the year 529 as the result of Justinian's closing the Academy in Athens and Saint Benedict's founding of a monastery.

People clung to the promise of salvation. The idea that the more you suffered here on earth, the better your time would be in the afterlife was a potent shield against the desperate realities of everyday life in the fifth and sixth centuries. This doctrine was central

Relationship to Eric Hoffer's thesis in The True Believer and mass movements' "hope for the future" even if the hope is for one's afterlife? This sort of hope can be seen in both Islam and Christianity

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/michael-flynn-maga-christian-trump/671852/

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation. The Teaching Company, 2012, https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-history-of-christianity-from-the-disciples-to-the-dawn-of-the-reformation

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1570057592595963904.html

There's a tremendously long history here. Some related words and areas of intellectual history to study here for examples include "florilegia", "commonplace books", and even "miscellanies".

Philip Melanchthon wrote several handbooks on the topic and had some useful historical examples including one of the most influential: De locis communibus ratio (Augsberg, 1593). You might appreciate this article on some of the tradition: https://blog.cph.org/study/systematic-theology-and-apologetics/why-are-so-many-great-lutheran-books-called-commonplaces-or-loci

• Philip Melanchthon, Institutiones rhetoricae. Wittenberg [1536].
• Philip Melanchthon, Rhetorices elementa. Lyon, 1537.

Jonathan Edwards had a significant version which he called his Miscellanies though his was written in book form, though it can now also be found digitized online at http://edwards.yale.edu/research/misc-index.

Umberto Eco indicates that every work of art can be read in one of three ways: - moral, - allegorical - anagogical

Compare this to early Christianities which had various different readings of the scriptures.

Relate this also to the idea of Heraclitus and the not stepping into the same river twice as a viewer can view a work multiple times in different physical and personal contexts which will change their mood and interpretation of the work.

This is incredibly beautiful.

Well said.

Fascinating that the Mi'kmaq would level such accusations of non-Christian principles to a Jesuit missionary.

This sort of power dynamic in smaller individual churches sounds like the problems of power in the centralized Catholic church. In this case it's decentralized into thousands of smaller churches.

This seems to be getting at the "personal Jesus" and personal faith that Colin Woodard mentions as well.

This would seem to indicate that culture and politics are taking precedence over the religion and faith portions of these churches.

Echols, W. (n.d.). Wild Conspiracy Theory Linking Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine To ‘Lucifer’ Goes Viral. POLYGRAPH.Info. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-pfizer-vaccine-luciferase-newsmax/31546045.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blessed_salt_in_Christianity

Looked up in relation of mention of a blessing of salt and water in LJS 418, a manuscript about Saint Blaise: https://bibliophilly.library.upenn.edu/viewer.php?id=Oversize%20LJS%20418#page/12/mode/thumb

On the Homebrewed Christianity podcast, Tripp Fuller quotes Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead in a conversation with Brian McLaren (22:20).

When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers. The code of Justinian and the theology of Justinian are two volumes expressing one movement of the human spirit. The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly. In the official formulation of the religion it has assumed the trivial form of the mere attribution to the Jews that they cherished a misconception about their Messiah. But the deeper idolatry, of the fashioning of God in the image of the Egyptian, Persian, and Roman imperial rulers, was retained. The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar.

Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (p. 342). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

This immediately brings to mind Max Webber, but before thinking about that,

What about the overall discussion of the relation of time to Christianity in general. Early Christians practiced eschatology and were concerned with the imminent end of the world. How has that affected our relationship with time?

Even the rise of health care has dramatically extended our lives, thus making time a bit less valuable overall, but have we seen that effect psychologically?

Immunizations and Religion | Vanderbilt Faculty & Staff Health and Wellness. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17, 2021, from https://www.vumc.org/health-wellness/news-resource-articles/immunizations-and-religion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxography

I suspect many Christian doxographies ought to exist. Why are none listed on this page?

Compare this with the Christian philosophy of God: the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, etc.

This seems reminiscent of the reminder to recall that ancient writers actually lived and eventually quit living. C. Matthewes quote perhaps about Augustine?

What effect does the personal relationship with Christ play in this catastrophe? (the one described in American Nations). I need to return to this thesis and examine it closer.

Does Christianity still have a space in modern life if it can't be effective in the simplest ways?

Is it christianity+capitalism and conspicuous consumption that doesn't work?

What is causing this institutional failure?

Is it possible that this religion has been forcing itself on it's youth and thus chasing them away, thereby eroding support?

When will this "apocalypse" happen? What will it look like? What will be the cultural and political fall out look like?

The idea of Taylorism as a religion is intriguing.

However, underlying it is the religion of avarice and greed.

What if we just had the Taylorism with humanity in mind and took out the root motivation of greed?

This might be akin to trying to return Christianity to it's Jewish roots and removing the bending of the religion away from its original intention.

It's definitely the case that the "religion" is only as useful and valuable to it's practitioners as the practitioners allow. In the terms of the McLuhan-esque quote "We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us." we could consider religion (any religion including Taylorism) as a tool. How does that tool shape us? How do we continue to reshape it?

While I'm thinking about it, what is the root form of resilience that has allowed the Roman Catholic Church to last and have the power and influence it's had for two millennia?

context: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth

Interesting that this is interpreted in modern times in the same way as it was in ancient. A lot of this writing had to have been specific to it's political context at a time when keeping things in house was both to the benefit of the individuals as well as the Church which was a minority within a broader Roman protectorate.

Why can't Christians manage to see any historical context for a 2000 year old document that is far from a living one?

Very likely true.

Apocalypse of Peter was found in the same tomb and manuscript as the Gospel of Peter.

Miss Clack already seems to be far more religious than Betteredge. I wonder if she is going to cite the Bible similarly to Betteredge with Robinson Crusoe. It also suggests that Clack will be conservative in her views of societal norms and traditions, and may have a strict, judgmental perspective in line with her Christian values.

The reference to Original sin also brings up the classic dichotomy of good vs evil, innocence vs guilt. Does Clack view knowledge of good and evil as a deficiency in human nature? Does she believe in free will? These factors bring may provide a basis for how her narrative may be skewed or unreliable. Even if she does not ponder these questions herself, Collins certainly posits them to the reader by invoking original sin here. Furthermore, this sets up a tension between western Christianity and eastern Hinduism, reinforcing the previously introduced conflict between domestic and foreign values.

This made me laugh because I feel like Collins is just making fun of self-righteous of Christianity with such a ridiculous statement like this. If someone is concerned with the whole of their stockings being “spotless”, they clearly care a LOT about their appearance (which shows them as somewhat vain and maybe hypocritical in the case of the comparison to Christianity because the stockings are an article of clothing that no one really pays attention to). Also, Miss Clack’s comment about stockings “ready to put on a moment’s notice” suggests that it’s both expected and normal to take off your faith, so faith is just something that you put on to maybe look nice or be presentable in front of others?

This is actually a very good insight that can be applied to the spiritual life.

There's the argument about whether man's dominion over animals signifies man's power over animals to do as he pleases, or whether it means a responsibility to protect & nurture these animals. This is explored within the context of vegetarianism/veganism as a moral quandary for Christians.

Conflict with christian religious belief

Yet another Contradiction! Not only was Christianity a system that was used by imperials to shackle black people but it was also a tool that aided literacy and emancipation within the black communities

It's interesting how both Astell and Stewart, two of the oldest female rhetoricians we have studied, were very overt in their expressions of Christian spirituality, something that their male counterparts were less keen to do in comparison.

I wonder if this may have had something to do with their (relative) success as rhetoricians? Being female, especially one of color, is challenging enough, but bringing Christianity into it may have granted them an avenue to be discussed hundreds of years after their words first graced paper...