Propaganda, Conditioning, Reasoning, and Objectivity

New rule: I will try to make one entry minimum a week. That way I will keep progressing along this journey and feel accountable if I slack of. Please send me a virtual slap if you find that I have failed to adhere to this rule.

Ok, so it's long weekend coming up and I wanna go to bed, so I'm gonna keep this entry short. The topics I'll be throwing up into the air is particularly things that i discussed with my oldest brother, Attila last week. I think it's good to document and reflect on his points in case I forget them and because some lead to big issues which will need to be explored all on their own.

Here's an outline:

-Propaganda
-Conditioning
-Biblical Contradictions - a God that condemns himself and a God of changing character
-The Historcity of the Bible and Jesus...more conspiracy theories
-Bible's appearance relative to homo sapien species existence on earth


Propaganda

When I came home on saturday night with a CD set called 'Tough Questions" by Matthias Media, given to me ny a friend, I showed it to Attila and offered to lend it to him sometime. He skimmed the contents page and rejected my offer - proclainimg that it's Christian Propaganda.

Well when you think about it, he's right. The talks are by a Christian. He's coming to it from a Christian perspective. The aim is to deal with issues Biblically such that one's faith will be strengethened afterwards.

Let's be nerdy about this and look up the dictionary definition of propaganda:

The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.
Source:
"propaganda." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 23 Jan. 2009. .

So then, technically speaking, Christian resources could be said to be propaganda as they are made publicly accessible, reflect the Christian views of the writers, and encourage others to see that point of view and perhaps either strengthen their faith, or help in the conversion process into deciding to be a Christian.

One could go so far as to say that Christian resources are something that Christians read just to reinforce what they already believe and reassure themselves that it's all true and that their's a biblical response to all the [important] issues in life.

But, I just wanna add 2 things to that. 2 responses to get a balanced point of view going:
1. As far as I know, the writers or speakers of Christian resources tend to be genuinely committed believers who believe that the Bible is true and therefore a valid source of authrity for responding to issues in the world. They are merely presenting their findings from the Bible. That is, putting forward the Bible's perspective. If there's any imperative for change or whatever, it's not the writer's authority, but the Bible's authority that demands it.

So then, rather than the writer going 'hey I wanna convert some people', or 'hey i wanna encourage these believers to continue believing', I think they're just trying to synthesise and summarise how the Bible responds to something and that the Bible itself is the force pushing a view.

2.We're surrounded by propaganda. From posters of Barrack Obama, through to ads for Coke, through to anything really. All things made by or said by humans have some degree of bias, no matter how slight, and so it's just a part of the world we live in. Sharing opinions, beliefs etc isn't a bad thing. So to put Christianity or its down on the claim that it's propaganda seems kinda weak. Propagandas are worth exploring as they are the front of some fact or idea - and it's good to expose oneself.

More

Hm, nah, I'm too tired. I'll continue this after I get some Zzzzs. Night!

The Homo Sapien Species and God

Before I start thinking structurally here about the things I've started to read, I thought I'd put a few ideas forward.


1. It's ignorant to ignore evidence.

I can't pin point any particular example at this time, but in my experience I've found that some Christians just blatantly ignore, deny, or try to make excuses for evidence which does not initially seem to click with the Bible. One such area is science. The response to evolution, at least in it's dawn, is one classic example of this pig-headedness. Remember the classic debate where the Bishop denied Evolution and the scientist said he'd rather have an ape as his grandfather than an ignorant dude like him...or something like that. It's been a while since I did Biology back in year 12.

Hey, I love science. I think it's great, and I already decided that if I ever get over this animation gig or if it doesn't work out, I might re-train one day in something Biology related - maybe working with animals.

I digress. I'll be talking about and looking at scientific things and ideas later down the track. Quite frankly at this point, back from my Science and Religion course I decided to agree with the idea that science and religion do not clash. Main reason being that the Bible doesn't claim or intend to explain scientific things. It's purpose is the relationship between human beings and God.

So then how I've resolved a lot of the seeming conflicts between science and religion is to read it as 'yes the scientific evidence said it happened like this - so it probably did; and God oversaw/drove that process'.

But science is huge, and I wanna explore a bunch of distinct areas separately and in a lot more detail later. All I'm trying to get at through this point 1 is that some people don't open their minds to the challenges and just plain and simply ignore them. I can never be like that. I've always been and plan to stay broad-minded. And the main thing I wanna say is that if there is evidence there - you can't ignore the implications. Facts can't be disregarded. Theories may change with more evidence, but it's important to consider them. If experts in a field all agree on a hypotheses about certain facts, it's arrogant to hold your own opinions and conclusions above that.

In short, experts' finding on things are valid for consideration.


2. Humans are arrogant

I think that the Homo Sapien species, with our big brains, has become rather arrogant. We seem to think that we can know everything, and that what we conclude in our minds will impact the world around us. Don't believe me?

Anyone who's studied or read about the arts is probably familiar with the idea of relativity of truth - 'what you believe is true for you, but doesn't have to be true for me.' That kind of thing.

Well this is my response to that. An idea I put forward back in my science and religion course days. If something outside the system exists or is true - then it does not matter what you decide in your mind - that thing will still be there. It's like saying I don't believe there's life on any other planet in the whole universe and that's true for me - but if there actually is life out there then the truth is that there is life out there.

So in the case of God - if there is a God - deciding to believe that God does not exist, won't make him not exist. Our minds aren't that powerful. And that's the challenge I'd like to put forward to anyone who has never considered the possibility of a God.

Okay, let's play out this hypotheses further. Supposing there is a God, and that he oversaw and directed the creation of the universe - then:
a) anything is possible for him
b) it's completely up to him what he lets us know about him and how he reveals that information
c) it's arrogant to think that by human power alone we can test or prove him. We're just puny creatures in this universe after all.

So I think it is safe to conclude that:
a)There is definitely a possibility that a God may exist; and
b)Humans need to learn a bit of humility regarding what they think they're capable of.

You might be thinking - 'hey, but aren't u trying to prove God?'. Nah, not really. I don't think you can - unless he let you. My mission is more examining Christianity to see if it's the possible means through which this possible God has revealed himself to/communicated with us homo sapiens.

3. Is the concept of a God archaic?

And just one last idea I wanted to put out there. It ties back to science a bit. Some people (I'll be more specific when i research it) have suggested that the idea of God was made up by people to explain things they didn't understand. They go on to suggest that now that science explains these things, we don't need this God concept.

Well, my knowledge isn't broad enough yet, but I think this is true of some more 'tribal' religions. For example religions of the past where human sacrifices were made to say make it rain, or to keep the sun happy so it'd rise the next day. But I don't really think it's true of the surviving religions of today. Like I said earlier, from what I gather the Bible doesn't claim to try to explain the scientific hows of the world.

Some would suggest that no, what the Bible is trying to do is encourage people to be good. Well if that's the case, the elders over many generations managed to do a pretty good fluke job of getting a consistent message across the Bible. More exploration of these sorts later.

And the other areas I was thinking about where someone might suggest that God is being used to 'fill in the gaps' are:
1. In response to the argument that there must be a God because otherwise this would all be chance.
2. In response to someone saying that God oversaw/sees something like evolution. For example I have a big issue with the Evolution theory. While I observe the facts and agree that the current theories are the most logical, I just find it hard to picture so many mutations conveniently occurring across whole species. I mean, little things are easy to imagine - but seeing as the mutation has to be genetic and exist within the reproductive organs eggs/sperms to be carried across to the next generations, it's hard to imagine young born with drastic changes that would over time change them completely. I have no problem with the Galapagas island birds etc, it's more the like how did a fish manage to ultimately turn into a human.

One answer that seems possible is that God oversaw it and drove the right mutations at the right time - but that's the part I though 'fill-in-gap' types might attack....

Anyways, I've run out of time, so I'll leave it at that for now.

Time to Stop Being Lazy

Hi. My name is Nicolette Kiss. I call myself a Christian, but I've found that in the past few years I've been drifting away from God, rather than growing closer to him. Before I tell my story, and state the purpose of this blog, I wanna say that I think this blog could be both interesting and helpful to both Christians and non-Christians. I struggle with the kinds of doubts that non-Christians use to 'attack' Christianity. Because quite frankly, I often find that they have good points that I don't know how to respond to. So I think that both people who launch those arguments and Christians who struggle with them could benefit from my journey to explore and hence deal with them.

Ok, so here's my brief story. As a kid my parents casually attended a church which spoke their language - Hungarian. My bro and I were occassionally put into sunday school where the language was simple enough for us to learn some stuff, but most of the time we were stuck with the old people in the adults church and I was bored as hell. I remember just staring at my watch and observing the hour drag by very slowly. The good part was the food afterwards, and the park in that suburb...

So as a young kid my understanding of this whole Christian business was very vague. I knew about the major Christian stories, but I didn't really know what Christianity was all about. I also wasn't sure if Jesus was real or not.

Later on my mum turned learning scripture into a boring chore by making my bro and I sit with her for say an hour after school and read old language bibles in both English and Hungarian teamed with some Hungarian narratives or poems. That wasn't the way to get a kid's interest. I remember tuning out and playing my gameboy when it was my bro's turn to read...

Ok, so it was only in high school that I really came to know what Christianity was really about and actually got interested in it and believed it myself. I attended voluntary lunch time bible studies and learnt heaps. At some point in high school I also discovered that from a historical point of view Jesus was a real person. A guy named Jesus actually existed! And that was really important because Christianity 100% depends on this Jesus figure.

And then about mid high school my mum wanted my bro and me to get Confirmed - in Hungarian!! Yeah right? I wasn't about to do something I didn't understand. So my mum yielded to the rebellious teenage me and we started going to a local English church (St Lukes Liverpool) so we could get undergo the Confirmation in English. So began my journey of learning heaps more. The young mind is like a sponge and throughout those high school years I was really quite challenged and fascinated by all the interesting things I'd learnt about Christianity. By the end of high school I felt quite familiar with the main Christian ideas and felt I understood what it's really all about. One thing that I hadn't expected when I started out was to discover that Christianity is not just a Sunday thing. That it demands an impact on your whole life. In case I've lost any of the non-Christian readers, what I mean by that is that the Bible tells us that we need to surrender our lives and wants up for Jesus. A quote about taking up your cross says it all...

It seemed that things would go on as usual once I'd started uni. I attended church, church and uni bible studies, and the 2005 and 2006 MYC (mid-year conferences) - which were all very useful in advancing my knowedge of Christainity.

So what happened? Well, when a person goes to university they're encouraged to question what they believe. In terms of Christian beliefs, I didn't really do that back at school. I kind of just went with it 'cos my family was already kinda Christian and all. But a few things popped up during uni years that awakened the skeptic inside of me.

Well I guess that one force that's existed before uni is my bro-in-law and my fallen-away 2 oldest Christian siblings. Time and again, usually around Christmas they've launched their missiles agaisnt Christianity. They have their share of interesting points worth exploring.

One of the things that first struck home for me was, alas, 'The Da Vinci Code.' With its seamless blend of 'history' and fiction, a few scary but reasonable possibilities came out. Most important was 'could Constantine have really invented the whole Jesus being divine?' idea.

I bookmarked the issues of concerns, and wrote down my doubts on a contact card at church. My minister got back to me with a stack of articles that rebutted 'The Da Vinci Code." I confess I never got through them all (but I still have them), but the rebuttal to the Constantine thing seemed quite reasonable - that the churches had already agreed upon the biblical truths and preached them long before Constantine was ever born.

Aside from that, my fallen-away oldest bro leant us a non-religiously motivated documentary that basically crushed most of Dan Brown's so called facts as BS. I was content with that, and I was too lazy to bother with the issue any further.

Then in 2006 I did a correspondance subject with Moore Theological College called 'Intro to the Bible' which really showed how the Bible goes together and how the same message flows through the whole thing.

And then in 2007, I did a 'Science and Religion' general education course at uni, and through the online forums and debates, as well as from the lectures, a whole bunch of 'new' dounts surfaced. And I didn't do anything about it. I got lazy and they've been knawing at my brain for over a year now, such that I've forgotten what most of the doubts even were (though I do have my notes and could - and will - find them again).

So where does that leave me? It has left me divided in a battle between the skeptic and the believer inside of me. Because there's a chance that Christianity is real and of all the consequences that follow, the stakes are too high to just let the doubts cave in and be victorious. Similarly, I can't just ignore the doubts because they're very reasonable and need to be explored and solved before they can be buried, etc.

This all basically means that I've been feeling like a rather poisoned Christian. Every time I hear a sermon, read a bible passage or even watch/hear about other people's experiences in their Christian walks I wonder if it's real. I wonder if we're just deluding ourselves. But at the same time, I wonder how the Bible written over so many centuries could fit so well together if a single divine author wasn't guiding it all....

All this is really no good, and I can't progress if I don't do something about it. I'm the kind of person who can get really good or 'smart' at something if I really want to and apply myself to it. I've been pretty lazy with this Christian gig, and starting from this year I've decided that it's gotta stop. In order to be healthy physically, mentally and spiritually I need to deal with these doubts.

And so begins my journey. I encourage you to share your thoughts, point to resources you might think are helpful, ask questions or just out right challenge anything I say or discover. Bring it on!