The local radio station I have my alarm set to (KFI 640, Los Angeles’ major AM talk station) has a Rush Limbaugh intro that goes off around the time of my radio alarm. I hadn’t listened to him in about 10 years, and from these it looks like ol’ Rush has been listening to his own PR during that time — incredibly and increasingly full of himself, as compared to his attitude around the time of his first autobiography. Limbaughized Culture War Christians, take note!

Mipham, the great Tibetan Buddhist teacher from the beginning of the 20th century, said that mind is like an elephant bathing in a river. The elephant goes into the water to wash off the dust and then throws dust on itself to dry the water. So a crisis of faith leads to atheism. And the only alternative to atheism seems to be to find a truth to grasp onto and believe in.

It is impossible to conceive, except to think of god or no god. But all of the great theistic traditions say that god is beyond conception. And the thoughtful atheist, the one who is not reveling in atheism as a way to feel superior to benighted believers, will acknowledge the transcendence of art or the sacredness of nature.

So I think there is room for discussion — for those with a compassionate heart (and a sense of humor doesn’t hurt).

I have been a Buddhist (non-theist) for thirty years, so I’m most comfortable with the language of Buddhism. But we have common ground as human beings — wonderfully precise intelligence and moments of joy and wonder that are beyond intellect. This poem by Emily Dickinson (sorry about mistakes, bad memory) is about the transition from thought to the experience of something beyond that is beyond speech or thought:

I felt a funeral in my brain
And mourners to and fro
Kept treading, treading til it seemed
That sense was breaking through

And when they all were seated,
A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating
Til I thought my mind was going numb

And then I heard them lift a box
And creak across my soul
With those same boots of lead again
Then space began to toll

As all the heavens were a bell
And being but an ear
And I, and silence, some strange race
wrecked solitary here

And then a plank in reason broke
And I dropped down and down
And hit a world at every plunge
And finished — knowing — then

I think that is our common ground (just my opinion!).

This is just the funhouse mirror reflection of the same obsession — the Evil Secular Humanist, the Evil Xian, the Evil Other that empowers so many Grand Unified Conspiracy Theories.

If all that matters is “Saving Souls (TM)”, why is there Resurrection of the Body and a New Heavens and New Earth? Not just a Christianized Hades of Souls (TM) floating around forever in Fluffy Cloud Heaven?

And it’s easy to slip into the Platonic ideal of “Spiritual Good, Physical Baaaaaaaaad” until you’re as far gone as, say, St Rose of Lima in Asceticism and Mortification. Or into the mindset of the Inquisitor from Mark Twain’s Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: “If I rack him ’til he die, what of it? For I shall have Saved his Soul.”

If you do respond publicly, you are labeled a “extremist fundamentalist” by those inside the church. A catch 22 for anyone. The trick is to respond publicly to maintain a platform of public credibility without appearing to be narrow-minded, obnoxious, and graceless. I’m not sure that possible with critics in the camp ready to throw you to the wolves just for disagreeing.

I admire those who try, though am not sure the arguement is winnable publicly other than in print, where you have hundreds of pages to show your grace and truth.

The hillarity of this view is entertaining. Do you check under the bed for the boogeyman before sleeping?

Clearly you have invented an evil evangelical, who will do all the evil you can invent for her to do, and blame the rest of the world for those invented actions. Have you seen anyone calling for fire and stakes? Tis good entertainment though.

You make good points, but this invalidates the rest of your reasonable statements. I can only recall one abortion clinic bombed in the past 30 years in the USA, and that one deranged man is in prison. Pretending evangelicals do these things shows you have swallowed the hype, and know very few followers of Christ.

You fear your own straw man.

Odd…the venom is thrown at other Christians, some parts of God’s word (the part you dislike?), and their assumed intentions and design. Yet, no vitriol directed at those who call you names and mock your savior?

Be careful. Your tone (mean-spirited), verbage (santimonious), and view (judgmental) come across much like those you decry. If others should know better in your view, maybe, just maybe, you should too.

I think the point of the post is that the poor way Christians think about science, has spurred some cultural flashpoints. But it’s not just the repudiation of science by the right, but he embracing of science as the new God by the left that gives platform and ammunition to the atheistic push.

They’ll know us by our political grandstanding, sactimonious anger, and our boycotts.