I just finished reading Phil’s blog. It must hurt to be that smart for I do not struggle with such questions (think Homer Simpson). I admit that they are good questions but for people with lees intellect such as myself, those thoughts do not grip me.
For fun, I’ll try to answer the question: If I’m naturally evil, would God’s word be appealing to me?
I might be able to answer the attractiveness of God’s word part in two ways.
1) What would the world be like if there wasn’t a bible A.K.A God’s Word (assuming that this is what Phil is referring to)? Would God still exist? Just because there is a “reference book”, it doesn’t mean that there is a God. Likewise, if there is a God, does He require an “operating manual?” Define God’s Word. I believe that it is a compilation of writings inspired by God. Simply put, it is a bunch of people’s thoughts on God and the enduring struggle to seek Him. I know that it can be a little more complacated than that, but I am refering to the basics. Other than history, what is different that the current books out there now that seek Him and write of His works? What is different than what you are reading right now (I am not inferring that this is holy)?
2) I believe God’s word would be appealing to most because it is history, it is filled with stories and it answers the big question. Our minds tend to work off of stories. Example: when I mention prodigal son, woman at the well, and Noah – our minds could ramble off these stories quickly and, for the most part, be identical. This is why Jesus used parables when he taught. The people would listen to the parables and, though they didn’t understand it at the time, the story would repeat in their mind until on day they figured it out.
The big question: Where did the world come from? Every person on this earth is restless until that one is answered for themselves and God’s word does a pretty damn good job of it.
Now let’s look at the naturally evil part. Human nature consists of many things and evil is just one of them. Curiosity is another. To state that, according to the Christian church – not catholic, we are naturally evil and to infer that to mean that we will not deviate from our evilness would be the same as saying that we live on dry land and that we hate swimming in the ocean, lake, pond or pool. Our nature is to live on dry land; our desire is to do a cannon ball into any given pool at any given moment. Our nature is to revert back to sin because sin is simpler and a hell of a lot more fun (crap, I just sinned – doh!!). Take for example the disciples: most of them were fisherman/sailors and I know that sailors haven’t changed. The opposite is also true. The Catholic Church states that our nature is to do good (I am not very well versed on the catholic church – this is just an assumption). What if they (both churches) are wrong and spend too much time trying to prove that they are right?
What if we are just to go out into society and make disciples and then not remove them from said society? What would we look like to other Christians?
posted by Tera @ 12:50 PM
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