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Posts Tagged ‘Satan’

Gays and Little Green Men: Banes of Christianity

Posted in Opportunities for Growth, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 17, 2008| 7 Comments »

Anyone who knows me or visits this site probably realizes that my personal “holy war” isn’t (and has never been) with Jesus Christ – it’s been with some who profess to follow him. And though time is starting to wear down my sharper corners, I can’t pass up the opportunity to gleefully point out the two most recent bricks being removed from the crumbling wall of Fundamentalist Christianity: legally sanctioned gay marriage in California and the discovery of three earth-like planets in a distant galaxy.

Though the people who could benefit most from reading this probably won’t ever visit this site, I’m going to write it anyway.

Your town, your state, your country, your world, and your Universe are all much bigger and more diverse than you realize. All That Is does not begin and end with your Bible and the subjective, selective view of morality you claim it has instilled in you.

Will you go to your Bible for answers when intelligent life is discovered on one of these “Super-Earths?” Probably. Will you find them?

If you don’t, where will that leave you? Will you, like those who’ve gone before you, simply resolve to label anything as “From the Pit” if your Bible doesn’t say it’s “From the Mount?”

Have you already gone to your Bible today, looking for an answer to why God would allow something as disgusting and morally reprehensible as the passing of a law that recognizes lesbians and gays as actual human beings?

Your religion is broken, and it’s robbing you of peace, power, and perspective. It’s convinced you that the Universe and all within it conform to the limitations and conventions of the human mind.

Wake up! Just because you don’t understand something does not mean it’s wrong or evil, regardless of what your Bible says. If you choose to continue denying this, be forewarned – things are not going to get any easier for you.

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On the Bible and Satan

Posted in Christianity, tagged , , , , on November 27, 2007| 19 Comments »

I came across a fantastic post about the origins of Satan that inspired the thoughts that follow. (The original post is long but very well written, and definitely worth reading.)

As I’ve grown older and (hopefully) wiser, I’ve come to hold a few convictions about Christianity.

  1. The Bible is its biggest stumbling block. It’s an odd fate that this venerable tome should be both the religion’s foundation as well as its wrecking ball. Written by imperfect men with their own agendas (and re-translated numerous times, also by imperfect men with their own agendas), there can’t be another book on the planet that’s been more misinterpreted. Yet despite this inconvenient truth, some Christians continue to look to its ambiguous passages to justify persecution of anyone who doesn’t believe the way they do. Though they think they’re displaying virtue and righteousness by waging war on Satan’s minions (i.e. gays, pagans, unwed mothers, Muslims, Jews, Democrats, etc. etc.), they’re actually hastening their religion’s demise. (To be fair, there are some amazing Christians who don’t approach their religion this way – a few can be found in my blogroll.)
  2. Satan (as he’s most commonly understood) was fabricated by the Church to keep the masses afraid so it could gain and retain power. For those who immediately went on the defensive when reading the last sentence, I encourage you to read the post I linked to above. The author offers a plethora of historical evidence, much of which comes directly from the Bible.

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Silly Fundamentalist Award of the Week

Posted in Religious Tolerance, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 27, 2007| 7 Comments »

To my Christian friends, those who hold themselves to the love Jesus taught and endeavor to teach that same love, this post is not directed at you. This is specifically directed at the vocal minority who have forgotten the foundation their religion was built on, and are content being fear-mongerers.

And the Silly Fundamentalist Award of the Week goes to…

Rev. Kelvin Franklin of Sword Ministries, author of Understanding Spiritual Warfare 2: Know Your Enemy.

Of particular amusement is Section 4 of this well-informed and skillfully-written treatise, Occult Symbols.

I won’t spend much energy defending the symbols of my faith from him, but I will inject some fact about one in particular so others may be spared from his ignorance.

Pentagram: Symbolizes the Morning Star, a name that Satan has taken.

The Pentagram

Attempts to link the pentagram with Satan are silly. First and foremost, Pagans do not believe in (and so do not worship) the all-evil anti-God of the Christian faith. Second, if Rev. Franklin had done his homework on the symbol’s origin, he’d have realized that ancient astronomers discovered it when plotting the course of the planet Venus around the sun. (When viewed from earth, Venus travels around the sun in a completely perfect pentagram shape every eight years.) With a little more digging he’d also have discovered the first recorded use of the pentagram, which occurred in Palestine over 6,000 years ago. This was 4,000 years before the birth of his religion and the introduction of the anti-Christ.

The pentagram is a symbol of the 5 elements (earth, air, fire, water, and spirit); the 5 directions (north, east, west, south, within/without); the interconnectedness of all things, and our desire to live in balance with all creation. Its five points have also been associated with the qualities of love, wisdom, knowledge, law, and power.

My apologies to the good Reverend that the truth isn’t nearly as sexy as the silliness he’s peddling.

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The “Source of Evil”

Posted in Christianity, tagged , , , , , , on September 3, 2007| 6 Comments »

Today two women from the local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses visited my front door and offered two pamphlets, one entitled “What is the Source of Evil?” On its cover is a figure in a black coat with black gloves, holding a gun and advancing toward children playing near a park slide.

Satan, the anti-Christ of the Christian faith, is apparently this “source of evil.” According to the Jehovah’s, he holds the puppet strings of all humanity, manipulating and tricking us into carrying out his wicked and sinful desires.

After more than 2000 years, the Church is still trying to convince people that they do not have the power to choose.

I choose personal responsibility. I do not claim I’ve been “manipulated by evil” when I make a poor decision, nor do I expect anyone else to shield me from the consequences that result.

I choose to empower myself. I do not give my power to a religious institution out of fear that if I don’t, I won’t be protected from said “evil.”

There is light and dark in us and all around us. Human beings are capable of both immense charity and unthinkable cruelty. The source of the rain that feeds our crops also destroys them with hail. The gentle summer breeze is born in the same place as the hurricane. The force that raises mountains also levels them. To deny either half of this universal duality is to live in fear and weakness.

The true source of “evil” is not the Christian anti-christ. It is in fact the same as the source of good – the power of choice.

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