I kinda found this funny but also quite thought provoking.
Do you know God?
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JButler
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Re: Do you know God?
Reminds of the Moravian pastor on the boat with John Wesley after surviving the storm. Do you know Jesus Christ? Yes I'm a missionary for the Church of England. But do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? Uh, no.
One event and two short questions set in motion a drastic change in Wesley's life and the church in the Western Hemisphere. Amazing!
One event and two short questions set in motion a drastic change in Wesley's life and the church in the Western Hemisphere. Amazing!
If the truth hurts, maybe it should.
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patrick
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Re: Do you know God?
I think the question of why religion seems to match up with national borders is put too rhetorically. I see it more as a starting point to ask many other questions. How many religious people have honestly searched for the truth? Is there any pattern of conversions to one particular religion over any others, and if not, why not? Most importantly, is there any religion that's qualitatively different from the rest of them that would sort this all out?
The short answer, my short answer, to all this is that the focus is too much on religion and not enough on God. A question that crossed my mind about a year ago -- would I ever seriously convert to Islam? At first, I thought "yes of course, if I thought it was true." But then, thinking about it deeper, that's a pretty big commitment, and it's one that would create a big divide between myself and many people I'd been close to too. The problem is less that it's alien to me, and more that it has so many expectations of particular rituals and customs that just seem unnecessary. And while I set that gripe aside for a time, I eventually decided that any religion that makes the means greater than the purpose just has got the wrong idea entirely.
I liked a thread K made about this issue a while back. In a way, Christianity isn't really a religion in the way that others are, because the focus isn't on doing certain things to achieve salvation. Really it's almost the opposite, saying that you can't do anything to deserve salvation and instead have to just accept God's mercy. It's a matter of sentiment, a commitment of the heart. When Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself, that's not commanding us to do any particular rituals to that end; rather, it leaves the means up to us, as it seems fitting.
The short answer, my short answer, to all this is that the focus is too much on religion and not enough on God. A question that crossed my mind about a year ago -- would I ever seriously convert to Islam? At first, I thought "yes of course, if I thought it was true." But then, thinking about it deeper, that's a pretty big commitment, and it's one that would create a big divide between myself and many people I'd been close to too. The problem is less that it's alien to me, and more that it has so many expectations of particular rituals and customs that just seem unnecessary. And while I set that gripe aside for a time, I eventually decided that any religion that makes the means greater than the purpose just has got the wrong idea entirely.
I liked a thread K made about this issue a while back. In a way, Christianity isn't really a religion in the way that others are, because the focus isn't on doing certain things to achieve salvation. Really it's almost the opposite, saying that you can't do anything to deserve salvation and instead have to just accept God's mercy. It's a matter of sentiment, a commitment of the heart. When Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself, that's not commanding us to do any particular rituals to that end; rather, it leaves the means up to us, as it seems fitting.