Sunday, July 18, 2010

There is a Compelling Case for Jesus Christ Living Within You

I have posted recently on the lack of reason when it comes to Christianity and modern thought. Here are just a few sample comments from blogs that I looked at recently. The point here is not to demean or ridicule( I intentionally don't mention any names), nor will I attempt to argue against them. I just want to give a few samples of how Christianity is view.

"God is a myth. There is no God outside of the imagination of men. Thousands of deities have been invented by man since Prehistory. The images of the gods were used to inspire fear, obedience, and demand service from the masses. Nothing has changed. If Emperor Constantine had not proclaimed Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, our gods would be Jupiter, Mars, etc. The sooner we accept that life is finite and that if there is going to be a paradise, this planet will have to do, the better for mankind. There are things about nature and our origins which we do not understand yet. However inventing a supernatural being to "explain" our unknowns is childish and only serves the purposes of the unscrupulous trying to control society."

"I grew up christian – catholic grade school, hi school, and college. I luv the writings of the 4-horsemen of the New Atheism. In fact, I have written my own book about growing up christian and how brain washing and indoctrinating it is. So by all current measurements, I would be considered an atheist. But since no one can define god, or prove that he exists, or has met god, it would seem that u are crazy if u are NOT an atheist.

However, DO NOT mix believing in god with spirituality. god-believers are seldom spiritual, yet spiritual people will often express there sensitivity to the wholeness of our universe using religious symbols, myths and language. I would consider this to be the situation with Dylan/Waugh. Expressing spirituality via language, art, song, myths usually results in being categorized into one of the religious baskets.

I am very spiritual, more than any christian I have personally met. My views on spirituality could probably be cast into one of the religious baskets – for those who need a religious basket as the author does. However, that does not make me religious.

Hitchens magnificently writes about the destructive non-spiritual nature of organized religion. Basically, he points out how NON-spiritual most religious people are, and how anti-spiritual religious orgs are. Religious orgs only accept their brand of spirituality, thus excluding the magnificent variety of spirituality in this universe. Religious orgs are just companies trying to capture the spiritual product onto their product list. AMEN"

"When I meet a little child who believes in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or Elves that bake cookies in a hollow tree, I consider them to be children with a sense of whimsy. When I encounter an adult that believes in all-powerful, magic, invisible sky fairies that promise eternal life, I consider them to be imbeciles."

There are several issues when it comes to faith: 1) disbelief - either no one has made a compelling case for God or the case has been ignored or rejected. 2) religion is a restricting moral organization of some sort attempting to deny one their freedom. 3) Christians have done some down right destructive things and thus the message of Christ cannot be true. ( this also includes individuals who have a particular gripe with a particular church) 4) there are other avenues for one to become spiritual. 5) Christianity or religion has no relevancy to my life.

I understand also that there are many barriers, such as the secular mindset that desires to separate faith from reason, the overwhelming belief in relativism, and the obsessive attractions of the material world. But, if we as Catholics cannot answer these objections and respond in a Christ centered charitable manner then we need to change what we are doing in the method of evangelization and how we reach people. If you and I desire to bring the message of the Gospel - a message delivered to us from Jesus himself, motivated out of love from the center of our heart, that this love of God is a beautiful gift of hope for every human being, and we want all to share in this gift of God's love, then it is incumbent upon us to seek out the most optimal way of doing it. I do not have the answers to how we go about doing it but I do know this - we must first and foremost display humility and charity, and lead by the example of who we are from our actions not our words.

7 comments:

Agnieszka said...

I'm with you here, but my question is totally unrelated:
I love that painting of the risen Christ, who did it?

Paul Bernacchio said...

The artist is Hans Memling, a 15th century German painter. His work is similar in style to Jan van Eyck, a Flemish painter of the same time period. Here is a link to a site that has some of his works: http://hoocher.com/Hans_Memling/Hans_Memling.htm

Agnieszka said...

Thank you! Now both are familiar.
As a kid I came across some of his (Memling's) paintings of the Last Judgement, and found them incredibly frightening - and, actually, I still kind of do...

Paul Bernacchio said...

He does have some eerie stuff like his Last Judgment.

Paul Bernacchio said...

Thanks for visiting please sign up as a follower. I appreciate your kindness in visiting.

Agnieszka said...

I'm following you but don't know how to do that "officially"/can't sign up.

Paul Bernacchio said...

Click on the FOLLOW button and follow the instructions and if it doesn't let me know.