"The Bible Says....."

Pastors in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and other swing states are readying Sunday sermons inveighing against same-sex unions,...
-Minneapolis StarTribune May 12, 2012

Psst, Pastors, God didn't write the bible men did and some of them put in their own bigoted ideas about anyone who they thought was beneath them such as gays, women, and pagans. Then they said their bigoted beliefs were the words of God.

Now, don't you men of God who turn to the bible to find support for your bigoted views feel just a little foolish?

No, probably not.

Mary Had A Baby

You do realize that according to Luke 1:27 through 1:35 Jesus' mother, Mary, became an unwed pregnant teenager when he was conceived, don't you? Why is that thought considered sacrilegious? And none of that that, "Well, she wasn't really since, at that time, a contract to be married (a.k.a an engagement) was just the same as being married." spin.

Just giving you a reason not to be so judgmental and holier that thou toward unwed teen mothers. Instead think of another unwed teenager mother and open your heart and show a little kindness.

"I Dreamed This"

See, what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?
-Mel Gibson as Graham Hess in the movie Signs




I watched the movie Signs (2002) yesterday morning and it got me thinking since it talks about, among other things, predestination, signs, miracles, and dreams. If you have not seen the movie and plan to, stop reading-there be spoilers ahead.

I'm definitely a person who believes there are no coincidences in life and who sees signs but I don't believe in predestination in the religious sense; the belief that God guides the lives of everyone who is destined to be saved. At one point in the movie something happens that makes the lead character, Graham Hess, a lapsed Episcopal priest, believe that his son has been born with asthma so he would be protected when exposed to poison later in life.

Is his son's asthma a gift from God which will save him later because that's what God wants to happen? No, the idea that our lives are directed by a God who is a puppet master pulling the strings of only some of his puppets is an idea that springs from man's egotistical need to be seen as unique and worthy of special treatment. I believe that our lives are directed by the choices we make and that sometimes God steps in to protect us from some of the more foolish ones and that this "stepping in" is what we call a miracle.

So, the miracle is not the boy having asthma, the miracle is he doesn't have his inhaler when he needs it. This is a child who earlier in the film is shown pulling his inhaler out of his pocket and using it which means he is conscientious about keeping it with him. In the basement he doesn't have it. How can that be? It must be God protecting him from a foolish decision.

Are prophetic dreams a sign that God is directing our lives? There is one scene in the movie which I really identified with and that is when the little girl, while watching something play-out in front of her eyes, says, "I dreamed this."
Been there, done that, and had that look on my face. I've dreamed about conversations, houses my family ended up living in and when I got older, jobs I ended up doing. Evidence of Predestination because I am one of the chosen ones who will be saved? No, just glimpses of where my or other people's (my parents) choices were leading me.

God may not direct our lives but I am positive that God sometimes gives us a helping hand.

(For a scientific explanation of Predetermination you might want to read,Signs (2002) and the Predetermination of Destiny, which brings up Freud's theory of psychic determinism.)

A Rose By Any Other Name

Jesus

Allah

Jehovah

Buddha

Yahweh

Krishna

Gaia

Vishnu

Kami

Jah

Ik

Ahura Mazda

Goddess

...is still God.

Spirit In The Sky

I believe in God, no ifs, and, or buts about it. Well, one but, I don't believe that God is a man and looks like this:

To be fair, I don't believe God is a women either. All you have to do is start reading the bible to figure that out. Heck, you don't even have to get that far into it to discover this fact. A quick perusal the story of Adam and Eve will show you this isn't so.

As we all know, God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge but the devil disguised as a snake talked Eve into taking a bite of the forbidden fruit, who in turn gave it to Adam to try. God found out and became angry. Adam being the weasel that he was blamed the whole thing on Eve saying she was the one who told him to eat it. This is the point where, if God was a women, "she" would have asked, "If Eve told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?"

Prove positive that God is not a women.

Anyway back to God as a man. I know the bible says that man is created in God's image but what does that really mean?


This is drawing of a person that I created in my own image. It is just like me in that it has a head, body, arms and legs. It is nothing like me in that it has no face, no mouth, no nose, no eyes, no feet or hands, no ears, no brain, and no skin. It can't move, it can't breath, it can't think, it can't eat, it can't see. The biggest difference between us is that my little stick me is only two dimensional (It only has height and width.) while I am three dimensional (I have height, width and depth). This is the reason why my stick figure cannot get up and walk around while I can move in any direction in space that I want too. Now, if this stick person represents us as human beings in relation to God what must God be like?

But what if God isn't talking about our bodies? What if God is talking about what is most important to God, our Souls? What if it is our Souls that are made in God's image? Then there is no reason for sexism or racism because in God's eyes we are all the same. What a wonderful world it could be.

Where Is Love?

Does it fall from skies above?
-Where Is Love from the musical Oliver!

As someone once asked, isn't the role of religion to create compassion in people? I've always thought so but evidently there are many people who do not agree with this interpretation and the ones who do not seem to be more than willing to share their intolerant religious views with the rest of the world. In the last few months I have been reading about or listening to people condemn others based on their (the person condemning) interpretation of the bible and/or their belief that their religion is the one and only true way to God.

-We have people passing out religious leaflets saying women who dress "provocatively" are responsible for being raped.

-We have FoxNews commentator Brit Hume saying Tiger Wood can only be forgiven for committing adultery if he gives up Buddhism and becomes a Christian.

-We have Christian evangelist Pat Robertson saying that the earthquake in Haiti happened because the people of that country are being punished for making a pact with the devil.

How can people who call themselves Christian and supposedly follow the teachings of "the prince of peace" be so reactionary and judgmental? I think Mark Twain explains it perfectly:

In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.

And where is this leading, you ask? To me writing down my own thoughts about the bible and religion. Starting next week I will begin a series of blog posts called The Gospel According to Colleen in which I will explain my biblical and religious views. I am not sure where this will lead but I do expect it to be interesting....well, at least for me and hopefully for you, too.