Comments on: Fear, Unconditional Love, Are You Sure?

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:24:35 +0000

RE: Kyle (Post #1)

The God described by Kyle is the quintessential “God as Father” figure in which God is invested with nothing but mere idealized human traits: God gives, God takes away, God is jealous and demands respect at all times. God has “power” over you, etc. Think back to the Godfather movies - this is the description of the mafia boss. It’s about the most fearsome entity (being) that people of small imagination could come up with.

If you bone up just superficially on the quantum universe, even you would then invent a much more imaginative God - that could be the Creator of such a thing - not simply a Corleone Family figure.

Jesus did not teach that sort of nonsense at all. His teaching would lead you to the real God within you. This new fangled organization they came up with called “Christianity” has not one thing to do with what Jesus taught. It is a simple political control organization using the most limited (and typically Western) thinking you can come up with. Look deeper to find the real God.

By: Catherine Silver Feather

Catherine Silver Feather — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:40:20 +0000

Thank you for this article. It articulates very well the feelings I had growing up (in a church family) and those that I had while studying Theology. I am a Wiccan now and thank the Goddess for being in my life (for longer than I thought).

Blessed Be!

By: Your Mom

Your Mom — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:15:02 +0000

Kyle - the idea of the Goddess accepting us with open arms despite our choices, our life paths, or our transgressions, is not something “borrowed” from Christian doctrine. To assume that Christianity is the root of all modern faith is arrogant, and incorrect. Pagan and polytheistic religions existed long before Christianity, and protection/patronage from deities and spirits has always been a theme. Indeed, Christianity would appear to have borrowed this patronage theme from earlier religions, as it has borrowed a great deal from the pre-existing pagan theologies in Europe. Icons such as the Christmas tree, yule log, wreaths, mistletoe and holly, and a plethora of other iconically “Christmas-y” items were originally used by pagans, and later adopted by Christians an attempt to make the religion more palatable to the pagans they were forcing it upon.

Just saying….

By: Alien

Alien — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:59:23 +0000

Let me specify beforehand, I am an agnostic if not an atheist. I was born Hindu and have grown up listening to this argument that how other religion inculcate the fear of God. As a Hindu, you are not forced to worship any particular deity or any particular form of god. In fact, even if you are an atheist, you still remain a Hindu, considering Hinduism is more of a philosophy rather than a set of instruction like following some n number of commandments or something similar. I would never adhere to any superpower. I am by myself, and if the superpower intends to punish me, I am not going to beg for mercy. Fear of God shows how limited humans are when they try to perceive the existence of God and attribute false human behavior.
I am glad that you chose to reason in stead behaving like a sheep.

By: Oxnard

Oxnard — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:48:08 +0000

You don’t need religion, they need you. Please never let them close your mind, it’s like being dead.

By: Logan

Logan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:44:25 +0000

Well said.

By: Moss Bliss

Moss Bliss — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:07:02 +0000

I agree totally, and am co-founder of a religious order which teaches exactly that. You might want to check out the document, “The Basics: Spirituality Without Dogma” (my writing) on the Our Philosophy page of http://pathwayssanctuary.org . Many, many hugs.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:38:31 +0000

I was raised Christian, had a brief foray into Wicca, and now I’m a diet Christian. At least that’s the term I came up with.

As I was brought up in Sunday school, I learned that to fear God was to respect him. Not so much in the way that Kyle said, but more in the way you’d respect a good friend. Sure, your friend could pull out a gun and shoot you, but you don’t generally think about that, cause you’re friends.

Also, I’m afraid many of the problems you stated with Christianity are problems with any large religion. Rules are put in place to control to masses, and to organize everything, to make the religion “flow” better. I’m not a fan of it, mostly because it’s full of fallacies brought on by human intervention. I personally don’t go to church but I consider myself “diet” Christian because “Christian” in today’s world means so much more than what it originally was: A relationship with God thanks to the work of prophets working in his name. Oh and Jesus too. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole died-and-rose-again thing. Whether it actually happened or if it’s some kind of metaphor. Good story, though.

I guess the whole point of this is that most of the problems you found with your experience were the fault of people tainting a pretty good belief system over a couple millennia. I don’t see the core of Christianity (which is a relationship with the Divine) as too different from what I saw in Wicca (correct me if I’m wrong). And there’s tons more I could say on that subject (I have a “all religions were once one” belief), but I shall leave that to my own (non-existent) blog.

As to why I’m commenting on this post you made a few months ago, I would just like to say the StumbleUpon is one of the greatest inventions ever.

Have a good day. and Thanks for the article.

By: Karyn

Karyn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:29:14 +0000

I was a mormon for many years. Now a die hard Wiccan. And this story has always stuck with me:
In france there is a statue of christ, during WW2 the village was bombded and the statue had to be put back together, peice by piece the statue was put back together, but alas, the artist redoing the statue couldn’t find the hands. So when the statue was unveiled there was a plaque that read “I have no hands but yours”
If you didn’t get the point to that story I’ll tell you, any deity no matter if its Christ, or Brigid or Hecate, are not living beings, as in they’ve already learned and excelled in their lives so they no longer have to do work on this earth, however WE do. We do their will through our hands, through spell work, prayer, meditation etc. The Goddess and God has given us the power when we need it, and that power will grow as we grow, but in all honesty its us that have to do the work, learn from the work etc.
I love this post and I’m really glad that you wrote it. The last paragraph moved me deeply. Thank you.

By: yeah

yeah — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:05:06 +0000

Kyle why should god tell us to fear that he could take anything away from us and why would he ever do that if he loved us?why would he put anyone into “hell” if he loves everyone unconditionally?unconditional means no matter what and if he’ll throw me into hell for not following or not believing thats not unconditional.