thoughts out !oud

a Christian’s news, views, opinions and occasional poetry …

The only Jesus they knew

Christians can be a reprehensible lot; they can be the self-refuting testimony of an otherwise marvelous and positive influential Christianity. And I don’t excuse myself from among them, only to try to be aware of my own shortcomings and to be open and honest with them and then to deal with them.

I have no doubt that Jesus looks at the state of the wider church today and weeps over its lack of cohesion, strength and unity. Church is Satan’s favourite playground (he attends more religiously than anyone) - and he knows all the rules, better than the vast majority of Christians, and his pawns are those in church who hold prominent positions of office. Not only does he have pawns in his ranks, but also some of… Continue reading The only Jesus they knew

Lazy Myth: Christianity oppresses scientific truth and is closed-minded, aka the Galileo case

As Christians, it seems we are forbidden to ever broach the topic of who the Western world’s fathers of science were. Heaven forbid, especially, that we mention that many of them were faithful, Bible-believing Christians and then follow this up with the bold (but factual) claim that the methods employed by modern science today, and that science as an established and sustainable institution, happened within only one period – and in one part of the world – in history: that of Europe, in the period then known as Christendom.

I made the fatal mistake of dropping this claim into a little discussion on a related topic and it wasn’t long before someone piped in with their contrary piece of wisdom: “Just ask Galileo what he thought about Christendom [sic] great… Continue reading Lazy Myth: Christianity oppresses scientific truth and is closed-minded, aka the Galileo case

Worshipping the iPhone 3G

It’s being touted as the Jesus-phone - presumably, as it’s the 2nd gen model and is practically worshipped, this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Jesus’ second coming. I’m talking about the iPhone 3G, of course!
iPhone in dock

There is no doubt that there is an air of religious fervour surrounding the impending release of the Apple iPhone 3G. Reading up on various Mac enthusiast websites and forums, there is most definitely a buzzing obsession - not too much disimilar to the opening of Australia’s first Apple owned and run Apple store (which had people queing up 48hrs before the official openening time and attracted not just people from interstate, but international sojourners as well) in George Street, Sydney, last month. But given the… Continue reading Worshipping the iPhone 3G

What’s your ‘christian’ flava?, or ‘Why Christian Creeds are important’

Stemming from a recent online forum debate I was involved in, one of the queries leveled at me was along the lines of: what variant of Christianity do I subscribe to?

Initially, I found this to be a curious question. For to me, Christianity is Christianity - how can truth be varied? But there is an important lesson within this question for those of us Christians who aspire to share and argue for the truth of the Gospel. And the lesson stems from the fact that, to the unbeliever, to ask what ‘variant’ of Christianity you adhere to reveals that the face of Christianity is obscured or blurred at the best of times.

This reminds me of a story of a traveling Christian businessman. One weekend, when… Continue reading What's your 'christian' flava?, or 'Why Christian Creeds are important'

Lazy Myth: all religions are equal

Those of you who have been following along with some of my posts over the last several weeks will likely, no doubt, appreciate the irony with this post. I’m referring to an earlier post of mine, Covering Some Lazy Myths, the intent of which was to step through and critique those lazy, half-baked objections to the truth of Christianity. Well, if you haven’t guessed already, the irony about my Lazy Myth series is that I’ve been lazy in writing about them! (Where does that road lead again that was paved with good intentions?)

So, after much deliberation (or laziness), here’s the first. Lazy Myth: all religions are equal.

All religions are equal. That’s the claim of this lazy myth. No matter which religion you choose… Continue reading Lazy Myth: all religions are equal

On arguing apologetics

Arguing apologetics really can be fun. Seriously. You should try it, if you haven’t already. For an even healthier dosage of fun, try it on an internet forum … as the internet has no mercy. You can easily get lost in an apologetic dialogue for days on end. I’m convinced you need a lot of stamina to endure such discussion.

Now typically, arguing religion on any internet forum can be a frightful exercise. The ‘net is full of examples of discussion threads that have gotten out of hand, typically by nutters on both sides. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I’ve been in dialogue with a couple of humanists who began with the premise that the God of the Bible is… Continue reading On arguing apologetics

Religion only indoctrinates and brainwashes

Here’s my bold statement this morning: religion is the antithesis to all that is good. Religion seeks to indoctrinate and effectively brainwash all those who are put through it’s regimented system of controls, boundaries and misguided logic.

Indoctrination seeks to form a particular pattern of thought in the minds of its target audience at the expense of all other opposing thoughts.

Brainwashing seeks to render any alternate thought out of existence before it can take a foothold and challenge the agenda that is being pushed.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: religion sucks. Religion creates narrow-mindedness, bigotry and incites hatred and creates elitism and ‘holier than thou’ mentalities. Who can’t agree with prominent thinkers like Richard Dawkin’s that religion is, through and through, completely and utterly destructive… Continue reading Religion only indoctrinates and brainwashes

I’ve got a bad karma about this …

Ok. So maybe I jinxed things with my last post regarding karma, but I couldn’t help but see the humour in what transpired on the way home from the office today. It happened again!

That is, bang on evening peak-hour, our public train system hit another snag - the second in the same day - and this one crippled trains heading into the underground loop. Which of course means that I, along with oh, maybe several hundred fellow, faithful, fee-paying patrons had to make our way down a few city blocks to Melbourne’s iconic Flinders Street Station in order to get crammed onto a train for the ride home.

What made the situation even more funny was the fact that the train I caught at Flinders Street (and… Continue reading I've got a bad karma about this ...

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