How has Religion become a Justification for Murder?

Posted on September 4, 2018 by Lee — 21 Comments

Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan

Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan began their ’round-the-world bicycle trip in South Africa in July of 2017. They pedaled through several countries in Africa, then through Europe, and then into central Asia.

All along the way, people followed their journey on their blog, Simply Cycling, and on their Instagram feed. Jay and Lauren spoke of the beauties of the landscape through which they traveled, of their struggles and triumphs cycling day after day and month after month, of the friendliness and kindness of so many people in so many places, and yes, of the disinterest or outright meanness of a few.

However, in July, 2018, as they were climbing the mountain passes of the old Silk Road through Tajikistan, their posts and updates abruptly stopped mid-story. Sad news came of an attack in which religious extremists killed Jay, Lauren, and two other cyclists from Switzerland and the Netherlands. You can read about their journey and its heartbreaking end here:

Whether or not the killers were actually affiliated with ISIS is hard to know for sure. Regardless, the attackers believed that they were doing a good deed by killing infidel unbelievers. The Tajik authorities did an efficient job of tracking down those responsible for these senseless killings. But the four cyclists remain just as dead.

And the question remains: How has religion become a justification for murder?

For more on murder in the name of religion, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Christianity, fundamentalism, Islam, Judaism, literalism, peace, Quran, religion, the Bible, violence, war
Posted in Current Events

Do God and Spirits Influence People and Things in the Physical Universe?

Posted on July 28, 2018 by Lee — 210 Comments

Here is a Spiritual Conundrum submitted to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life by a reader named AJ739:

Dear Lee,

Your website has massively helped me overcome my anxiety that was brought on by the New Age Movement and their beliefs, but I have two questions:

Can God/spirits cause things to happen to people? For example, can God/spirits cause a man to kill another or can God/spirits cause a warlord to start a war on various people at a time?

And finally, does God influence the universe? For example could God use outside forces to rearrange building structures or the Earth’s structure?

Many thanks.

Thanks for the great questions, AJ739! I think and hope this response will reduce your New-Age-induced anxiety level a couple more notches.

In previous eras, almost everyone believed that God and spirits, both good and evil, not only influenced but controlled everything from the weather to the fertility of crops, herds, and wives to victory and defeat in battle. And so they prayed and sacrificed to their gods, to the spirits of their ancestors, and to the demons and angels that populated the spiritual realms.

In today’s more rational and scientific age, talking about God doing miracles and spirits influencing events is enough to get a person grouped in with wild-haired men in the streets shouting about the end of the world.

And yet, too many people have had too many experiences suggesting that God and the spiritual realms are indeed very close to us, intimately intertwined with our lives.

What are we to think? Do God and spirits influence people and things in the physical universe? Do they shift buildings and start wars?

Yes and no. Let’s take a closer look.

For more on the influence of God and spirits, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: angels, evil spirits, freedom, fundamentalism, Gibeon, God, miracles, science, spirits, the Bible, the Exodus
Posted in All About God, Science Philosophy and History

Didn’t Jesus Say it’s Better to be Celibate than Married?

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Lee — 273 Comments

Matthew 19:3–12 records this conversation of Jesus, first with some Pharisees, then with his disciples:

Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”

He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?”

He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.”

His disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”

Traditional Christians, especially Catholic clergy, commonly point to this passage as proof that it is better to be celibate than married.

But Jesus didn’t say that.

This common misinterpretation is built on a basic error in reading Jesus’ words. It also confuses celibacy with being a eunuch. The two are not the same.

We’ll save Jesus’ words about divorce for a future article. For now, let’s take a closer look at what Jesus did and didn’t say about marriage in Matthew 19:3–12.

For more on marriage, celibacy, and eunuchs, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Catholicism, celibacy, Christianity, divorce, eunuchs, Jesus Christ, marriage, sex, the Bible
Posted in Sex Marriage Relationships

The Extreme Weakness of Faith Alone and Penal Substitution

Posted on May 24, 2018 by Lee — 10 Comments

A recent comment on the article, “What is the biblical basis against Sola Fide (salvation by faith alone, apart from works)?” led to a multi-part question by a regular reader of this blog named Rami. You can read his comment here. If you do, it will be clearer what this post—which is a lightly edited version of my comment replying to Rami—is responding to.

Here it is, with headings added:

Yes, I’ve had Protestants make all of these arguments in response to my attacks on justification by faith alone and penal substitution as being unbiblical and false.

However, all of these arguments have major problems. I’ll take them in the order you present them.

For more on the weakness of Faith Alone and Penal Substitution, click here to read on.

Tagged with: Christianity, faith alone, flat earth theory, Jesus Christ, justification, Penal Substitution, Protestantism, R. C. Sproul, salvation, sola fide, the Bible, Thomas Schreiner
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed

Response to a Christian Universalist: Is There an Eternal Hell? Wouldn’t an All-Powerful God Save All People?

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Lee — 88 Comments

The Off-Center Cross of Christian Universalism

Christian universalism is the belief that all people will eventually be reconciled to God and be saved, and that there is therefore no eternal hell.

It is not the belief that salvation is available to all people if they choose to accept it, nor is it the belief that all religions lead to God. Rather, it is the belief that all people are eventually saved by Christ and go to heaven—or to whatever blessed state it is believed God has in store for humanity.

Recently a Christian blogger whose screen name is The Iron Knuckle posted an article titled, “Tough Apologetic Questions for the Non-Universalist.” I took up his challenge, and posted a long comment in response, whose original version you can read here.

The rest of this post is:

My comment, edited to add the main questions from the original article as headings, and to remove a closing biblical question for The Iron Knuckle.
Some commentary on The Iron Knuckle’s reply, and on the general aftermath of my response.
Some additional thoughts on why many people believe what they do about God’s omnipotence.

Here goes:

For my response to The Iron Knuckle, click here to read on.

Tagged with: angels, Catholicism, Christian universalism, Christianity, God, heaven, hell, salvation, the Bible, The Catholic Church, the spiritual world, universalism
Posted in All About God, The Afterlife

Response to a MGTOW Critique

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Lee — 95 Comments

A MGTOW blogger whose screen name is Neroke recently wrote a response here to my article, “The Red Pill Movement (MGTOW): Men Waking Up as Loners.” Though he invited me to respond in his comments (“You have a problem with me you take it to my comments”), when I did so my comment was promptly deleted.

(Edit: Neroke has now restored my comment on his blog. The system incorrectly flagged the comment as spam, and he had to fish it out of his spam folder. My apologies to Neroke for assuming he had deleted it.)

Here is the response I wrote there, with some links added:

Hi Neroke,

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my MGTOW article. I’ll ignore all the standard Red Pill name-calling and personal attacks and focus on a few of the substantive points you make.

But first, I’m a little surprised that you think my article is so terrible. I read a whole lot worse while doing the research for my three-article series on the Red Pill movement. Having gone through a milder version of what a lot of Red Pill men have gone through in their relationships with women, I’m far more sympathetic to MGTOW than most outside critics. And if you can’t take a little satire . . . well, that’s your problem, not mine.

But what really struck me in reading your article is that for the most part, you’re telling MGTOW the same things I am, except from an insider’s perspective rather than from an outsider’s perspective: Get yourself out of bad relationships if you can. Be single if you want to be single. Don’t blame it all on women. Take responsibility for your own self as a man and move on with your life.

As for all of the things you say I’m avoiding, I had already dealt with most of them in the first two articles in my Red Pill series, on MRA and PUA.

Now I’ll respond on a few points:

For the rest of my response, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: atheism, celibacy, feminism, marriage, men, MGTOW, personal responsibility, red pill movement, the red pill, women
Posted in Sex Marriage Relationships

Death and Rebirth: Conclusion

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Lee — 25 Comments

For Chapter 4, click here.

As the rock group The Police say in their song of the same title, “We are spirits in the material world.” While the hope of an afterlife certainly fuels our fascination with near-death experiences, we miss much of their significance if we take them only as interesting information about what will happen to us when we die.

Most of us have a number of years left in our lives here on earth before the afterlife will become a present reality for us. For us, the greatest significance of NDEs, as well as Swedenborg’s and others’ descriptions of the afterlife, is in what they mean for us here and now. If we think of the material world as an expression of the spiritual world, all these descriptions of the afterlife can take on this kind of here-and-now meaning for us.

If we read accounts of NDEs simply out of fascination for the descriptions of the spiritual world, it will not necessarily touch our hearts and lives. But if we think of them as patterns for our life here we are presented with a deep and lasting challenge. The Book of Revelation speaks of a city descending to earth out of heaven from God. Our knowledge of the spiritual world provides a blueprint: a plan that we can use to build communities based on mutual love and understanding right here on earth.

This community-building must start in the soul of each one of us. By starting on a spiritual path and taking the steps described one way in this book, and other ways in others, we lay the foundations for the heavenly city in ourselves. As each of us finds our own spiritual path, we will also be reaching out to those around us and forming a spiritually-based community, built on mutual love and understanding. This, I believe, is the direction we are being shown by those who have experienced the spiritual world and come back to tell us about it.

For a book list for further reading, click here.

Tagged with: death and dying, Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell, near-death experiences, rising from death, spiritual rebirth, Swedenborg, the spiritual world
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Afterlife

Death and Rebirth, Chapter 4: Our Third Stage After Death

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Lee — 19 Comments

For Chapter 3, click here.

Near-death experiencers who meet the being of light say that this being emphasizes love and learning as the most important things in life. The love must come from within, but much of our learning comes from the outside. Even though we may have gone far along the spiritual path, we may still be working under some misconceptions about God and spirit. We may be mistaken about some of the ideas we cherish.

As we go along in this life, if our heart is in the right place God will not force us to give up mistaken notions that we love and see as guides. At some stages of our lives certain misconceptions may even prod us farther along than we otherwise would have gone.

For example, some people seem to need to believe that God is angry with them for the wrong things they do, or they would not be motivated to change their ways. But really, Swedenborg says, God is never angry with us. God only allows it to appear that way if we need to believe this in order to make changes in our lives.

Once we have overcome the bulk of our destructive side, though, we no longer have a need to hold onto faulty beliefs about God and spirit. At that point we have also left behind the ego that makes us cling to certain ideas because we think we understand things better than others. So we are ready to empty ourselves of everything remaining that does not correspond to our true love and motivation, and to learn what really does correspond to them. This is what the final stage is for.

Please click here to read on.

Tagged with: angels, death, death and dying, Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell, near-death experiences, spiritual rebirth, Swedenborg, the spiritual world, the world of spirits
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Afterlife

Death and Rebirth, Chapter 3: Our Second Stage After Death

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Lee — 23 Comments

For Chapter 2, click here.

After we die we initially go back to an outward lifestyle similar to the one we had before we died. But that doesn’t last long. Soon our outer layers start getting peeled away one by one, like an artichoke, until we reach the heart. The “heart” is what we love most of all. It is made of our true inner feelings and thoughts. It is the real us underneath the surface mask. Depending on how well we had covered our true self, this process of unmasking may take a shorter or longer time.

Near-death experiencers who have a life review as part of their experience gain a taste of this. They relive the passages of their lives, but from an inner view. They see not only what they did, but what they were thinking and feeling as they did it— and often what the people around them were thinking and feeling too. This unmasking of the deeper levels within our everyday conversations and actions is the next step in our spiritual growth.

Please click here to read on.

Tagged with: death, death and dying, Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell, near-death experiences, spiritual rebirth, Swedenborg, the spiritual world, the world of spirits
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Afterlife

Death and Rebirth, Chapter 2: Our First Stage After Death

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Lee — 38 Comments

For Chapter 1, click here.

In his Forward to The Tibetan Book of the Dead John Woodroffe says:

Life immediately after death is, according to this view, as Spiritists assert, similar to, and a continuation of, the life preceding it. As in Swedenborg’s account, and in the recent play Outward Bound, the deceased does not at first know that he is dead. Swedenborg, who also speaks of an intermediate state, says that, except for those immediately translated to Heaven or Hell, the first state of man after death is like his state in the world, so that he knows no other, believing that he is still in the world notwithstanding his death.^[1]

It may seem strange that after such a powerful experience we could possibly think that nothing had happened, and we had not died yet. But as Swedenborg and others have observed, this is a common phenomenon. Perhaps we will think the experience was just an especially vivid dream or hallucination, as many skeptics have claimed about NDEs in general. Or we may forget all about it in the press of the everyday life we have returned to. It requires a shift of consciousness to comprehend that our lives have changed completely and forever. This change of consciousness often takes time.

And so after our initial experience of death Swedenborg says we usually go back to a life that is very similar to the one we had left behind.

Please click here to read on.

Tagged with: death, death and dying, Emanuel Swedenborg, near-death experiences, spiritual growth, spiritual rebirth, Swedenborg, the spiritual world, the world of spirits
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Afterlife

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