What is forgiveness?

We are stuck with the fact that this is a coping mechanism that is deeply rooted in religious traditions all over the globe.  This in my opinion does not a monopoly on forgiveness make.  The “golden rule” is an example of how something that is sheer common sense was appropriated by religion; so much so that it is commonly thought to be religious in origin.

Forgiveness is what exactly if it is not a coping tool we are born with.  Is it a good thing?  Is it over used?  It is necessary? Did we have this sense of needing to forgive and be forgiven when we were still struggling as early humans on the savannah?  Did our ancestors use this as a negotiating tool when ills were perpetuated between the early tribes?  Did it seep into the religious lexicon as a carry over along with theft, perjury, and murder?

Is forgiveness, the religious version we are all aware of, actually an excuse to perpetuate wrong-doing?

“Oh, I screwed up.  God will forgive me.”

Atheists do not have this “forgiveness” available to them (assuming of course it exists for the sake of this argument).  I argue that an atheist does not need this forgiveness.  If you think you will be forgiven, no matter how heinous the action is,  the believer considers a higher authority; so I ask, what good does it do?  Forgiveness in no way serves as a preventative measure; in fact it seems like an easy OUT.

“Oh, I screwed up.  God will forgive me.”

It seems that if this “law of forgiveness” did not exist… We’d be better off.  If we didn’t believe that a transcendent figure would forgive our transgressions… We would hold ourselves more accountable to each other and to ourselves.

You have the last word…

Is it fair to Christians to hold them up to scrutiny because of the actions of some of their leaders?  I mean, here are a few shepherds that lead the flock.

Ken Ham (Australian / Head of AiG; Answers in Genesis) discounts science but then wants to “use science” to prove the bible. Huh?  He is teaching children and adults to ask “Were you there?” anytime someone states anything about the earth being any older than 6,000 years old or asks about dinosaurs.  He states that the account in Genesis is factual and represents what truly occurred, without question.  He also believes that we lived in a “Land of the Lost” during the time of Noah and Noah grabbed up a few of the “baby” dinos for the ark.  Seriously. 

Ray Comfort, a New Zealander, who teaches that the banana proves god’s existence.  Seriously.

Kent Hovind is serving a ten-year prison sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution in South Carolina, after being convicted of 58 federal counts, including twelve tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents and forty-five counts of structuring cash transactions.  Oh yeah, and he has his theory of creation (that is sort of in line with Mr. Ham’s theory above).  There is no other way of telling it:

Hovind explains the Biblical account of Noah as follows: Noah’s family and two of every “kind” of animal (including young dinosaurs) safely boarded the Ark before a minus 300° F (~-184°C) ice meteor came flying toward the earth and broke up in space. Some of the meteor fragments became rings and others caused the impact craters on the moon and some of the planets. The remaining ice fragments fell to the north and south poles of the earth.

Hovind also states that the Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks.  Seriously.

Lee Strobel click it.  Seriously.

Televangelists in general?  I mean do those count as leaders?

Is it fair?

You have the Last Word…

Just to set the record straight once and for all. I am not angry. I am not an angry individual in the least. I may be peculiar and other adjectives may better suit me, but angry is not one of them. I am not here to plug my site, but if you go to my blog and read some of my blogs under “Religious Considerations” you might learn a little about me.

I would not say that I am angry with or even at god. That, to me, is just nonsense. It would be like be being angry at the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus (also not real). I don’t want to get into a huge discussion here about my “walk” as it is called in certain circles. Suffice to say that I spent the better part of my youth (between the ages of 6 to about 19) LUI (Living Under the Influence) of religions. Plural. Not a typo. I was “born” into the Catholic persuasion of belief. I attended Catholic School from 1st grade to 4th grade. We then switched for logistic and economic reasons to a Baptist School that was much closer to home. I attended there from 4th to 6th after which I enter the public school system. There was a transitional period where we (mother and I) began attending a Presbyterian Church, which in hindsight, may have led to my mother enrolling me in the closest christian school to our house.

I became very involved in the church. I was in all the christmas and easter programs, the choir, the youth group, etc… As I got older I searched for a new church. I have met many christians that “outgrow” their church and move on. So I did. I found a church with a strong youth ministry and began again so to speak.

I charged through the ranks of the Youth Ministry and at one point became the leading youth lay-minister of the church. I would coordinate mission trips locally as well as internationally. I was knee deep. Waist deep. And of course then I became fully immersed. All the while I had questions. As I gained momentum (it is addictive if any of you have been in a similar situation you will be able to attest to the “high” of leading) my questions also grew. “Am I a fake?” “Do I even believe this?” “These kids and fellow youth must see right through me!”

I would speak to those in authority and of course it would lead to prayer and “laying of hands” and the whole flan (enchilada has been overused)! But the doubts I had as a young catholic and then a “born again” did not cease. In fact they increased instead.

I would lead the Bible studies on Friday nights as was the custom in the church. I would pore through the bible looking for something that would move and touch and be applicable. I would not have a hard time finding it. I came to realize that I would find ANY answer I WANTED to find. I realized that I would FIND meaning in just about every word. So that part of the job was easy. So easy, that I began doubting that ability. I would look around and I would be able to find the “love of god” in ANYTHING. That was fine. It worked. It worked for my audience and that should have been enough. It wasn’t enough for me. I was a fake.

As I read through the bible I realized many things that were not normally discussed. I questioned what I read as being real. I started seeing things I was not open to before once I took off my god goggles, if you will, and looked at it as an outsider. One of the things I will say helped me then and now fully understand BOTH sides of an argument and being able to defend both sides with evidence. This of course requires knowledge.

It was the last bible study I gave. The title was “Defending the Non-Believer”. I had just read To Kill a Mockingbird and was moved by Atticus’ attitude and belief in defending the un-defendable.

So I undertook a “character” change for the exercise. I removed the god goggles and read the bible as though I was a non-believer. To see what questions a non-believer might have. I started at the very beginning. I went straight through the death of Moses. I was in shock. I was in horror. I was awestruck. I took notes along the way. It took me about a week to get my material together for my weekly bible study. Word got out that it was going to be a “good one” and “don’t miss this talk” sort of thing. (This of course was orchestrated by the authorities in the church whom I had sought counsel from during the week and who were curious as to the execution of “their” knowledge and wisdom through me). It was a full house.

As I opened the study I acknowledged the help that I had received during the week from the pastors and from other church leaders. I gave a small testimonial about my walk for the “new faces” and then I stopped. I asked everyone to bow their heads in prayer. I will never forget what I said…

“Dear Lord, thank you for this day and thank you for the fruits of your labor. Your fruit gave us immediate satisfaction as well as eternal salvation. Through your fruit we tasted the sweetness and the bitterness of life and all it holds. Life and all it holds… We come here today to learn something new and something that may be uncomfortable to hear but needs to be said and learned…”

Then I just stopped. I never finished the prayer. I still haven’t. That was as far as I got.

I asked everyone to open their eyes. I asked everyone to raise their heads and asked everyone to look at me.

“I am a liar. I cannot do this anymore. I cannot lead you anymore. I am a liar because I have lied to each and every one of you here tonight. Even the new people. I am not a christian. I cannot be. I don’t believe. In fact, I never believed. I am very sorry, but I cannot do this anymore.”

With that I walked away.

Some people believed that that was part of my presentation (I tended to be somewhat dramatic at times) and expected me to return a few minutes later. I was told that people waited almost 15 minutes before they realized I had not only left the building but I had left the parking lot.

I never returned. I lost every single person I considered a friend. All of them. Not one left standing. Did that anger me? Eh. Not really. I expected that. I tried to reach out to go play some basketball or volleyball or baseball… Nothing. It was clear I was not welcomed. It took some time to adjust, I am not one to hold a grudge, but eventually I found comfort and most importantly the TIME to get to know my true self.

I am not angry with god. God is a made up thing that people needed a long, long time ago to understand life and to find hope when there wasn’t. It was created for and by man. I just can’t, and honestly, never could wrap my head around it anyway. I tried. Trust me I tried.

I am not saying that science has all the answers. It doesn’t. It falls short more often than it is “right”. I am fine with that. When two scientists get together and argue a point they argue and hope that either one will be correct or they will both discover something altogether new. Even if one of the scientists is “wrong” he still wins. If you get two opposing religious figures together this would never happen. Ever. It will inevitably lead to violence. My god vs. your god, right? Your beliefs vs. my beliefs…and so on.

I am not angry at god. I am happy with the life that I have. I happy that I can walk, talk, breathe, share, read, write, learn… there does not have to be a place to go after this life is over. I want to make THIS place the best place possible because it is the ONLY space we all share right now. If there is a heaven and I am not there, oh well. If there is a hell and I AM there… same thing. I want to concentrate on making THIS life the best possible.

I know that I lived my life as fully and as free as I could because quite frankly, this is the only one I KNOW I HAVE.

I want to urge you all to read the bible. I mean really read the bible, not in the devotional doses you are used to. Put those “out of context” verses into the context they come from. Read the story they were told in and how they were meant to be read.

Think of it like this… You are on a special diet. You find a cookbook on the sidewalk near a gas station. It is just sitting there. It sort of looks placed there, but why would anyone leave a cookbook on the sidewalk? You pick it up because you are on this new special diet. You leaf through the cookbook. You see a very delicious recipe. Problem is you can’t have the finished product. Most of the ingredients are prohibited on your new special diet. Then you have a bright idea. You will use substitute ingredients. You will take the ingredients you can use and discard the useless ones. You will regard yourself very intelligent. You have found a way to bake your lava flow without chocolate and without flow. Is it still Lava Flow? It is. It is because that is what you call it. Let it be Lava Flow.

Don’t take the ingredients (verses) you like and discard the ingredients (verses) you don’t like! You must read your bibles! All of you. You must go through the bible and take notes. Verse by verse. Chapter by chapter. Book by book. This will only strengthen your faith or show you something else. Are you afraid?

You should be. It will mean the undoing of chains and weights you have tied yourself to. It will liberate you. You will be free. But, freedom has a price. So does salvation, right?

I am sorry I “rambled” on and on. I do apologize.  But, as usual, you have the Last Word.

So I googled “hearing voices” and I got a bunch of hits.  Top hit, of course is this, which was NOT what I was looking for.

I have been posting on a blog recently and the topic was “the voice of god”.  Some one was claiming that god speaks to them regularly.  Sometimes the voice of god (VOG) compels this person to do something.  Kevin Costner’s character got laughed at for “hearing voices”.  When it comes to the religious folks, hearing voices seems quite frequent and by some reports (in my analysis) seems to occur simultaneously.  VOG, it seems is quite common.  I almost feel left out. 

I said ALMOST. 

When people hear voices, let alone the VOG, the assment seems to always depends on who you ask.  If a christian claims to hear the VOG and shares this with another christian, it is acceptable and sometimes it is called a “gift”.  If this same christian tells a non-christian that they experienced hearing the VOG the non-christian is going to scratch their head and then suggest a good doctor.  If a non-believer tells another non-believer that they hear voices they will receive the same suggestion of visiting a doctor. 

I have also spoken with christians and asked if muslims can hear the VOG (seeing that it’s the same one, right).  They say no way.  If a jew hears the VOG, I can only assume, that does not count and will be dismissed by the christian as either SATAN or hallucination (as would be the muslim).  Most christians dismiss Joseph Smith as crazy.

Andrea Yates claimed to have heard the VOG and it told her to do bad things. 

I am not sure, but it seems kinda lopsided.  Only christians can hear the VOG and no one else.  I would venture to say that muslims feel the same.  I mean Mohd even heard voices he “thought” were from the almighty that inspired literature…but then they may not have been from Allah at all as some contend(Satanic Verses?).

I have an active, very active, imagination.  Very active.  I will make a confession.  I used to think I heard voices.  I used to think I saw dead people. 

Quick Examples:

An old man appeared to me while I was outside watering.  He just said, “Bye.”  Two weeks later someon called me to ask me guess who died “two weeks ago?”

I was watering my front lawn when I hear the distinct voice of a former boss.  A few minutes later I called an old co-worker and asked how she was doing. “Fine,as far as I know.”  15 minutes later, phone rang. It was the co-worker advising that our former boss passed away that morning.

For a long time I thought I had the “gift”.  No gift.  It’s just an overactive imagination.  Right?  If not I might be suffering from one of the following causes:

Something forbid this could be the reason so many hear the VOG in their daily lives.  Some people end up hospitalized for hearing voices depending on the severity.

I must have had a slight case of something.  I don’t do drugs.  So it must have been something.

Anyhow, the point is that people find it easy to say they heard the VOG.  They are also very capable of discerning if it is indeed god or satan.  If it is good, then it is god.  If it isn’t good, then it is the devil.

Life can be so simple.

Seems delusional to me.  I was once delusional.  Then I was cured.

I found that searching for truth I found the answers.  I also found more questions.  That is how simple my life can be.  Questions and answers.  You get some and then you get some more.

You have the Last Voice…

There is a Tooth Fairy.

The Tooth Fairy is a strong woman. Do not let the sound of her name fool you. She is powerful. She is able to lift children’s heads while they rest on a pillow and remove loose teeth and replace the loose teeth with coins or depending on the size or weight of the tooth she may leave paper money. I once heard she dropped 100 smackers for 2 huge molars. Nice.

What is there not to believe? I put a old bloody tooth under my pillow when I fell asleep. In the morning I found a quarter (it wasn’t that large of a tooth). This is not magic. This is real. I investigated this and it occurred more often than I thought and sometimes simultaneously around the globe. I know what you are going to say…Santa does the same thing. Yeah, sure, but Santa is not real. So no point in going there.

Reasons I KNOW there is a Tooth Fairy

There is written proof of her existence going back hundreds of years. It may be even longer, but people used to just throw the loose teeth away and the Fairy would be forced to leave the money where she found the tooth. Have you not ever wondered where the expression, “Throwing money away” originated? It was an oral traditional (see the oft-used expression as proof) that eventually led to some great men and women to record these incredible events for future generations.

The Tooth Fairy would only allow herself to be seen by the most “believing” and not by those who did not believe. I remember Keith, he was kid in my 2nd grade class, refusing to believe that the Tooth Fairy existed. When I lost BOTH front teeth I got a fifty-cent piece. I came to school the next day. I bought Keith an ice cream. I asked him if he liked it. He said yes. Good, because the Tooth Fairy gave me the money to buy that. Keith insisted that it was my mom or dad or something. I refused to believe because I found the money under my pillow. I experienced the wonder for myself. For kids who don’t believe, the Tooth Fairy jut skips their house. Parents, on the other hand, knowing that their child does not believe will try and drop coin in the middle of the night, but we all know that is just fakery and false. These parents just wish that their children would just believe, as they did. Alas…there is no mercy from the Tooth Fairy for those parents who do believe but their children do not.

How can so many of us be wrong? I mean there are hundreds (if not millions) of believers out there all across the globe? It is just sheer madness to NOT believe.

It is basically miraculous that she can be all over the place at the same time. The fact that she knows when the teeth fall out and how much each will be worth is just incredible! She can lift pillows (with heads on them) pick up teeth…drop coin… over and over again every night (not just once).

There are so many artistic representations of her too. You can’t tell me it’s made up if there are people painting her image!

Arguments against the facts

I already mentioned Santa Claus. That is so ridiculous I won’t even reply to that as it is just silly to compare the two. I would not be surprised to find out that the people behind the entire Santa Claus myth-building didn’t lift the concept of time-travelling and time/space bending from the Tooth Fairy. Here is another reason I KNOW that the Santa Claus “thing” is a myth. It is too simple. “He” only has to show-up one day of the year. Not even a full day. A few minutes. Plus he has rules. Rules? No rules with the Tooth Fairy. With “Santa” you have to sleep in a different room. With “Santa” you have to send him a letter. With “Santa” you have to leave him food. Yada-Yada-Yada. That is so silly.

This is the most common heard argument against the existence of the Tooth Fairy. “How come no one can see her now?” That is the easiest to answer. There is no time. There are so many, many, many more people on the planet that she has to work so fast you just can’t and she can’t just stop to “prove” her existence. She exists and that is that.

Does she “deliver” money to kids that are on the fence? The answer is yes. She is all knowing! She has to be! If she knows when the teeth are being dropped she must know that deep down inside the kid believes. This is further helped by parents who believe too.

Kids are doubters by nature. Kids ask questions and usually don’t stop until it makes sense to them. Ever been around a 4 year old? “Why is the sky blue?” When it comes to the Tooth Fairy, it is just something that exists and not questioned. It should never be questioned. There is no reason to doubt or to think it is just some ancient none-sense.

The most heretical question usually asked by an Atoothfairyists is, “PROVE SHE EXISTS.”

The answer is simple.

Prove their isn’t.

Seriously, who really believes this? If god had written the bible, he is then at fault for the misinterpretations that have been made. God is then to blame for the many versions of Catho-Christian sects as well as the misreadings of the Talmud and Koran. You’d think there would be just one version and one interpretation; the definitive word of god. Since this is not the case, it remains that the only possible conclusion is that the bible was written by man, for man and nothing else.

Men wrote the bible. Men chose the canon. Men. Not god, but man.

There is no other logical conclusion. Why? Men make mistakes. Men make the necessary interpretations to suit their environment and their place in time. Man is controlled by WHAT he knows WHEN he knows it. Religion made sense before the advent of science and the exploration of our world. When the church stepped aside (begrudgingly) and allowed men to “seek” answers; we found them. The flat earth was flat no more. The center of the universe shifted from an earth-centered belief. The discovery of other celestial bodies increased our understanding and showed us our place in not only the solar system but our galaxy and in the universe. Science allowed for better understanding and took the weight that had rested on the shoulders of religion slowly away.

Science taught us that it was not an angry super-invisible-being that was responsible for earthquakes and tsunamis but the planet we lived on and it’s atmosphere.

Science freed us to a certain extent from the shackles of a god; from religion in general.

The purpose of religion was to explain the unexplainable. Job done (not well, but done nonetheless).

Religion and its followers have always stood in the way of progress. Ask Galileo. We are now facing the same battle with stem cell research. The dates change, but not the times. We are still battling for great understanding. It is understanding and thirst for knowledge that damns us. Read the first few chapters of Genesis if you don’t believe me. God was afraid.

Sorry…I got a little off topic. Back to the point. Did god write the bible…

Uh, no. It was man-written. It was man created. It was created from a lack of understanding of nature and our place in it. It didn’t make sense to the earliest civilizations and so it made sense to them to create something from nothing. There was no divine intervention. We may wish that there is, but there wasn’t then and it isn’t so now.

I would have to take pause if all the religions on the world…all of them…named the same god. If god had appeared to those in ancient Asian and ancient South/Central America…pacific islands…if they all had the same name of the guy upstairs (wherever that is) then MAYBE…MAYBE…I might be a little more hesitant in being an Atheist. Seems like god chose illiterates in the middle east to show himself and be his selected group to be taken seriously throughout the world and throughout the ages. I might even have to concede a little if the Middle East was a little more, I don’t know, dare I say, civilized? If the middle east had some sort of technology or something that no one else had that had divine provenance ( I don’t mean that little black rock!). I mean something the like does not exist anywhere else on earth and made of something that is not of this universe; then MAYBE I might consider it. Taking it a step further the word of god should have been made available to all civilizations and all peoples in all languages at the same time. This is yet another indication that “god” is a man made entity and the fact that there is no evidence of a global apparition leads me to believe that there is no god and in fact all gods tend to have “local” flavors and not really “universal” flavors (although after MEN are done interpreting the damn holy books then there are…).

It is rather pompous to presume that god selected only one group of people to share this thing that passed as “knowledge” over 2,000 years ago. This seems to preposterous it is laughable. Bill Maher makes a point of saying that god seems to select one guy to whisper to or appear to to share god’s wisdom. Why rely on some guy to do god’s work? Why didn’t god just present himself to all? Would have made more sense to me. I know what Catho-Christians will say and to a certain extent Muslims too… god sent his messengers and we didn’t believe. Again, this is not efficient. One guy? I guess god didn’t really want the entire world to be saved back then.

Some christians have accused me of hating god. I don’t hate god. I am indifferent.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” – Elie Wiesel

I am not sure if that can be more clear.

Back to the topic…I get side tracked very easily.

Moses was told not let anyone come with him to the mountain when god was to meet with him. Why would god need to hide in a burning bush? Why would god need to not have so many people around when he spoke? God spoke to and walked with Adam. I guess that was OK because there wasn’t anyone around. It almost sounds like god has some sort of phobia or shame or some sort of anti-social disorder. He wouldn’t come down himself. He sent his son. Then this got me thinking… I don’t remember were Jesus and god were in the same place at the same time. I mean, god didn’t appear to Jesus did he? Back to Moses. God either writes the tablets himself or Moses takes dictation. These are the words of god from god. Kind of holy. Then what does Moses do? He breaks them. Huh? Seems, once again, god could have created a special stone that would be able to withstand drops and weathering and nature in general. (Note to self: send Panasonic an email because I think they make a pretty rugged laptop, maybe someone should send god one of those next time around)

Moses is then credited with writing the first five books of the bible. From Genesis to Deuteronomy. How did Moses write the last chapter of Deuteronomy? If someone of faith can answer that I would be most appreciative. The rest of the Old Testament or Tanakh is open to dissection as well, but this seems to be the best place to start. Moses.

If Moses was writing these books (the Torah or the Pentateuch) was god speaking to him every night or during the day? Was Moses every tempted, for lack of a better word, to interject his own words?

…discuss!

Why did Jesus weep?

I seek the truth. I always ask questions. Sometimes I am surprised by the answers I am given or answers I find. I think that people need to ask more questions. Most of all I wish people would ask themselves… Can there really be a God?

I remember growing up Catholic. I went to Catholic school and had my knuckles whacked more than once for asking “tough questions”.

Me at 8: Do the kids in Africa go to hell since they have not heard of Jesus? Why is it always the “kids in Africa”? How come it is not the kids in Asia? The kids in Antartica?

WACK!

I remember those days.

Then we switched to Christianity when I was about 10. I preferred the “Christians” over the Catholics. Christians don’t WHACK you when you ask a question like the one I would ask when I was 8. Christians would just tell me to “pray about it”.

Huh? Pray about it? I need an answer.

“Pray about it. Ask the Lord for guidance.”

I am asking you for guidance! I guess you don’t know the answer. I probably shouldn’t bother you with my other questions…

I was quite the “believer”. I was at church as much and as often as possible. I was part of the youth ministry. I lead Bible Study every other Friday. I would be asked to read from the Scripture on Sundays. I kept asking questions.

As I grew older my questions became more and more sophisticated. I stopped asking if the kid in Africa was going to hell. I started asking WHY that kid in Africa has no food? WHY are so many families starving to death? WHY is there so much suffering? If God is so powerful, WHY doesn’t he just FIX the hunger and the suffering?

I remember thinking that the Native-Americans had it pretty good. They could do a little rain dance, please the rain god and all was well (according to the Brady Bunch anyway). Maybe the Native-American’s god/gods were more powerful than the Christian God?

“Pray about it.”

I then started reading my Bible. In earnest. Not in the “Daily Devotional” way. I mean READ the Bible. Cover-to-Cover. “In the beginning….Amen.”

Wow. Even more questions. Lots more questions.

First, it seems like there are 2 very different Gods in the Bible. God 1.0 (Old Testament God) seemed like a very angry and bitter God. He was smiting people left and right. Killing innocents all over the place. Then God 2.0 was released (New Testament God) and his mood changed. It was like Hitler turned into Mister Rogers.

Fire and brimstone gave way to peace, love and harmony. Huh?

Then I thought, WHY did God wait so long so send his son? Why didn’t he send him before flooding the world and killing almost every living thing? Why didn’t he send him right after Adam and Eve for that matter?

How about this one…why not take a Mulligan? A do-over? He could have just said, OOPS! Let me try that again. We wouldn’t have known. We would have just assumed (since we wouldn’t have known) that he got it right and that this is the best and final product…perfection! No. He didn’t issue a “recall” until the Flood. You’d think he would have “fixed” it then? No way. (We got a damn Rainbow out of it as a consolation prize.) He waited something between 14 and 43 generations to send his son. No rush…

I must say that I am only speaking of the Christian God/Catholic God here. Yeah, it is confusing!

I just can’t believe in god. Just cannot bring myself to thinking that it is all true.

Ask a Christian for evidence. They will point to the Bible or to how they feel.

I was thinking about this the other day. I remember when I “accepted the Lord” as my own personal savior. (That sounds funny.) I had this strange feeling. It was not scary or cold. It was warm and it was inviting and it was like buttery nostalgia. A few weeks later I fell in love and I had the same feeling. And then again a few weeks after that and so on… If I could duplicate the “feeling” that I had when I “accepted the Lord” by way of a girl then something was not “right”.

The Bible left me scratching my head. Just 2 chapters in and there seemed to be two different creation accounts. Two different sequences of events.

I am reminded that Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible. I can never get a straight answer as to how a dead guy can finish Deuteronomy (check it out).

Then Job. Psalms. Isaiah. Ezekiel…

Then the fun begins. The New Testament. Woo-Hoo!

…almost the second to last word…