Christian Perspectives on Peak Oil

DomusAlbion

zzzpeakoil said: "If I were a moderator i would have moved your thread from Psychology. Religious sects have nothing to do with psychology, but with psychopathy."

Interesting, what is the diagnostic code in DSM-IV? I'd like to look that up.
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"Modern Agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food."
-- Albert Bartlett

"It will be a dark time. But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting."
-- James Lovelock

Ludi

This might help:

misconceptions of Catholic Doctrine

comparison of Catholicism and Protestantism
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charliebrownout · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 17, 2008 Posts: 272

Hagakure_Leofman

I''m resisting the urge to post a few george carlin quotes in here... something about zombies and angels for example - but it's hard!

Carry on.....

BigTex

Gandalf,

Thanks for the thoughtful and serious post. There have been times when I thought you might have turned a little too much water into wine, given the time of evening and the content of some of your posts. In fact, I admit to picturing you as a sort of Merlin-on-acid kind of character, so I enjoy hearing your serious voice.

To the topic:

I grew up in a Christian church and still attend one. My understanding of Christianity has evolved along with my understanding of the world. I am at the point in my faith where I am comfortable simply taking Jesus's teachings and attempting to apply them to my life as sincerely as I can.

I do not believe that the miracles, resurrection, immortality and other supernatural phenomena in the New Testament are necessary to validate the truth of Jesus's teachings. To me, his teachings stand on their own.

I think that getting bogged down in inter-denominational and inter-translational disagreements and distinctions is actually one of the things that Jesus was most opposed to--i.e., legalism and institutionalized spirituality. I am content to let other people believe what they want to believe. I will tell them what I believe if they ask or if it comes up in conversation, but I'm not big on the multi-level marketing approach to spreading the word.

As for the question about the Christian way of dealing with zombies, I think you gotta just shoot 'em in the head and if you feel the need you can pray about it when you get back to camp.

As for sharing food, outside my family I would probably share a little food if I had a lot. I might share a very little food if I only had a little. If I don't take care of myself, I won't be able to take care of anyone else. Sort of like on the airplanes when they tell you to put your oxygen mask on FIRST.

Throwing stones at Christianity is, to me, not a very productive exercise. Hardcore Christians are just going to throw them back at you, or, if you strike a mortal wound they're just going to take a martyr pose, and you really haven't accomplished anything for your trouble. I'm a little more laid back about things, so when people talk trash about Christianity, I don't argue, I just try to pass along some of Jesus's teachings as a counterpoint to whatever aspect of Christianity they are upset about.

As clear as Jesus tried to be about the role of humility in understanding, people have somehow used his message as a basis for viewing themselves and human beings in general as god-like and somehow not subject to the same laws of our finite world as other creatures. This is obviously cause for concern.

But Gandalf, it sounds like your faith gives gives you a sense of wholeness to your world, and that is something that many people will never feel. A coherent faith can provide a great sense of security and, if nothing else, is probably a good vaccine against disabling mental illness--i.e., just like you take a small amount of harmless viral material as a vaccine against a serious virus, perhaps religion at its best is adopting a small amount of delusional belief in the interest of preventing full blown mental illness as the hopelessness and futility of life begin to gnaw at you.

The trouble, of course, is when that small bit of voluntary delusional belief turns into an affliction worse than the mental illness you were trying to prevent. See the Crusades, the Holocaust, and radical Muslims as examples.

I am not trivializing faith by referring to it as a bit of voluntary delusion. We all have irrational beliefs that give us comfort, starting when you were a kid with the various entities that may have brought you gifts throughout the year.

The one bit of advice I would offer anyone who feels strong in their faith when times are good would be to be prepared to have their sense of confidence and certainty in their faith challenged when times are bad, either personally when you lose someone you love, or socially when the whole world begins to look like it's falling apart as peak oil, global warming, bird flu or some other calamity suddenly makes life a lot harder, and it feels like God has left you.

Some of you may have read about how Mother Teresa apparently felt absolutely no connection to God for something like the last 40 years of her life (based upon her writings that came to light after her death). That struck me as incredibly sad when I heard it. It was like a sincere belief led her to a life of service, but the reality of what she saw during her service made it impossible to preserve the illusions upon which her service was based. Not that she was saying "how can God let these things happen?", but more like "the fact that these things are happening makes it obvious that my understanding of God was flawed from the beginning."
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KillTheHumans

charliebrownout · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 17, 2008 Posts: 272

Ludi

clueless

Ludi

clueless · Last edited by clueless on Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

Ludi

clueless

Ludi

Lumen Gentium
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Gandalf_the_White · Intermediate Crude Joined: Nov 21, 2007 Posts: 511