The Sharemarket and Religion

Listening to the radio in the car this morning, I was struck by the similarities between the sharemarket and religion.

Both are governed by the fundamental human emotions of fear and greed.

If we think the stock will rise, greed kicks in and we rush to buy. When the prophets (analysts) predict impending doom, we sell in fear (and sometimes panic).

Religion appeals to our greed in promising eternal life to those who believe and act (and donate) as desired, and also to our fear should we not toe the party line, with threats of eternal damnation in a very unpleasant place (how’s that for the ultimate scare tactic!).

I must say that I’m so very very glad to be rid of the yoke of organised religion from my thinking, and am so very very glad  to have the simple freedom to decide Who I Really Am for no other reason than because That is Who I Wish To Be, and not because I am greedy for some prize or fearful of some punishment.

A winning plan!

Hey … I just had a really great idea to get people to join my club!

Tell them that if they DON”T join, something really really BAD will happen to them when they die!

but …

if they DO join, something really really GOOD will happen to them when then they die!

How about that folks?

(I should really patent this!)

PS: If you are wondering what sparked this off … just got a christian pamphlet in the letterbox today

Dear Jane

Dear Jane,

One of the “features” of churches is they tend to present one version of many interpretations as if it was the one and only truth, and Revelations is a good example. The “Left Behind” series served to scare the shit out of everyone and help convince us that Jesus is about to return any day now. What the churches do not tell us is that Futurism is only one of three ways of dealing with Revelation, and that there is also the Literary theory and the Praeterist Theory.

Praeterism (for example) says that Revelation was all (or almost all) fulfulled within the generation that lived with Jesus. The disciples asked “when will these things happen” and Jesus answered “some of you will not taste death … this generation will not pass away before ..” What did he mean? I could argue very effectively that the return of Jesus happenned in AD70 when “Jeruslaem was surrounded by armies.” Of course the modern church does not teach this because they do not want to upset the masses or be shown that they could have been so grossly wrong (and risk losing a big chunk of their tithe-giving clientele).

Chuck Missler is just one more fear-monger dressed up in sheeps pseudo-intellectual clothes but is really doing nothing more than building his own Christian book-selling speaking-engagement business. His biggest crime – and he really does know better – is only presenting a “modern church friendly” version of “the truth” and conveniently missing out a big lot of other stuff that is nowhere near as cut and dried black and white as he makes it appear (just like YWAM!)

It upsets me to see beautiful people like you sucked into the shallow modern day christian theology when there is so much more richness of thought out there.

Jon

Intelligent Design Question

I’ve been thinking about this idea advanced by some Christians of “Intelligent Design”, where the basic thought is that because we appear to be designed we must be the product of a designer. Seems like a sensible enough idea, and supports the Christian idea of a Creator and a Creation.

As I reflect on this idea, my question is “Who designed the Designer?”

If Christians reply to this question with “No-one, God is outside of time and space and simply IS”, then I could just as easily say this reasoning could apply to everything, including the known universe.

If I remove the duality and simply view everything as being part of All That Is, then “the Designer” and “the Designed” become one and the same and the question dissolves into nothing (or everything!).

Works for me.

Nothing to sell

This afternoon we visited a school function and I found myself chatting with a couple I had never met before. After discussing one thing and another the subject of the church came up and they asked me if i was a member. I offered a brief answer that I had been a member of the church for a good number of years, but was now no longer involved.

However, the observation that interested me most was that not only did I feel neither a need nor desire to justify or explain why I had left Christianity, but also that I felt neither a need nor desire to justify or explain my new “New Age” beliefs. I was content to simply let it be.

Its a wonderful freedom to simply be, to allow others to be, to bless that which you do not choose, and to have nothing to sell.

Beliefs and Values

Yesterday we all went along to the opening ceremony of the new church building extensions at my parents church, a small presbyterian community of mostly older people.

The building is to be used not just for chuch meetings, but also for a variety of community activities like indoor bowls, girl guides and the like.

I liked the idea they had embraced that the building was open to use by any group that “shared our values, not necessarily our beliefs.”

I wonder how diffferent the world would look if world leaders were smart enough to make the same distinction.

Before you become a christian …

Before you decide to “become a christian” there’s a few things you might like to think about:

There are lots of religions in the world – what makes you think christianity is the only right one?

There are lots of holy books in the world – what makes you think the bible is the only right one?

Your teachers tell you that God gives us free will – but what kind of free will is it when choosing one thing over another brings condemnation?

Your teachers tell you that Jesus prayed for unity, yet over the years there have been hundreds of different “denominations” that cannot agree on the most basic common ideas and – worse still – fight amongst themselves.

Your teachers use fear – the antithesis of all they say that God is – to gain your assent to their petty teachings. “Believe as we say or Perish!”

Over the ages, the christian church – both protestant and catholic – has been responsible for the murder of countless thousands of people (witch hunts, crusades, inquisitions, hugenots)

Believe what you like, but think it through!

Blessing that which I do not choose

During my years as a Christian I was very good at presenting my viewpoint (this was called evangelism) and also very good at attacking opposing viewpoints (this was called apologetics). I spent many hours studying the various religions, cults and other wrong world-views, and learnt ways to argue how wrong they were in light of the teaching of the bible.

From my reading of “Conversations with God”, I now see what unbridled judgementalism ruled my mind, and have now discovered (re-membered) a far better way of living:

“The job of the soul, of course, is to cause us to choose the grandeur-to select the best of Who You Are-without condemming that which you do not select.

This is a big task, taking many lifetimes, for you are wont to rush to judgement, to call a thing “wrong” or “bad” or “not enough” rather than bless what you do not choose.

You do worse than condemn-you actually seek to do harm to that which you do not choose. You seek to destroy it. If there is a person, place or thing with which you do not agree, you attack it. If there is a religion that goes against yours, you make it wrong. If there is a thought that contradicts yours, you riducule it. If there is an idea other than yours, you reject it.”

(quoted from CWG, Book 1, p78 )

Jessica’s question

My 14 year old daughter asked me “If you are gay or lesbian or bisexual, can you still be a christian?”

My response was to ask her what she meant by gay, and what she meant by christian. Although she seemed reasonably clear that gay meant “you were born liking other guys” she was fuzzy to say the least about this troublesome christian word, giving up after something like “someone who believes is God and tries to live the way the bible says you should.”

I then asked her to pretend she was a christian, and answer the question herself. She proceeded to ask me straight back what the bible said about homosexuality. From this, I asked her if that meant that her basis (as a christian) for determining whether something is right or wrong was “what the bible says”, which got met with a mumbling sort of yes. As for me telling her what the bible says about homosexuality, I pointed out that it isn’t all that clear, as christians from both sides of the fence argue their viewpoint by each quoting different verses at each other (as they do for many other issues). So then I suggested we just pretend that the bible was crystal clear that being gay was wrong – what would she think then? This was greeted with more grumbling as she clearly did not want to agree with this, but also did not want to disagree with the bible.

Finally I asked her how people of other cultures and religions would resolve the same question. So this left her with the questions of not only how do you determine the “correct” message of the bible, but also even if you do, what difference does that make as there are lots of other “bibles” out there. How can she know whether or not the bible can be trusted as divinely authoritative, or whether it is just another religious book devised by man.

After all this which was way more thinking than she was expecting, she decided to leave it at that.

What would you say to her?

The joy of …

A few years ago I decided to certify in the Microsoft Windows Server 2000 products and spent 8 months studying many volumes all about this product. Many times I would experience an inner thrill as the lights switched on in my mind as I realised what they were on about and how a particular component actually worked.

It’s a great feeling. The joy of learning and discovery. The delight that comes with understanding.

It’s the same feeling David had as he studied the Hebrew law and delighted in learning and discovering its wisdom and its message for him.

The past year I have been reading and re-reading (and re-reading!) the three books of the trilogy “Conversations With God” and almost every time  I read I feel a delicious welling-up of joy as my soul and mind respond to its simple message. While I don’t agree with every word that is written in its pages, I love the overall message of the book and I embrace it as my own. It has become a “lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” and I am grateful that this message has been given to mankind at this time.