Very much like the way you pit me on one side and modern Christianity on the other when i’m just starting and they’ve been organized for hundreds of years. However, your seeing it as an impasse because “All that needs doing, so both sides believe, is for the rest of the world to convert to their own way of thinking.” does NOT apply as i’m NOT asking or trying to convert anyone to my way of thinking.

What i’m doing is proclaiming the reality of life plays out according to what people feel deep down; and the unmitigated ridiculousness, preached as inspired, infallible, and inerrant by Christians, that Jesus suffering terrible pain and dying to gain God’s forgiveness for all believers’ wrongdoing, does not work for people, like you, who give some credence to how they actually feel about it instead of how they are told by someone else to feel about it.

You cannot make something that almost killed you a reality in your life. But because many others have made what almost killed you the reality of their life, even when it has no place to go in their hearts, has created a lot of problems in the world. A confused heart creates a confused reality and many confused hearts create things like poverty, disease and the insanity of war. More concisely, you are helping to solve the problems of the world just by giving credence to your heart and devout(zombie) Christians are causing individual as well as global problems by confusing and/or ignoring their hearts.

The world’s problems will be solved quickly when more people believe in themselves rather than believing something ridiculous that someone else tells them to believe. So again, i’m not trying to convert anyone to my way of thinking, i’m predicting when people are 100% true to themselves problems will disappear. And i do know that many people will be more inclined to give more credence to themselves as the true knowledge of human life spreads via all the different modes social networking.

It’s kinda funny that i see myself as a prophet exposing modern (Jesus suffered to pay a price) Christianity as the Anti-Christ, huh?. But it doesn’t matter how far i get with it, since it is the Truth that resonates in the human heart it will triumph on its own.

Your view of the Bible would be condemned by such people as a false doctrine, heretical, and smooth words to tickle the ears of men, etc. You might not consider them brothers and sisters in Christ; they certainly would not own you as such. It’s an impasse and I don’t know what to do about it.

Both sides are sure they are right and have The Answers to the World’s Problems. All that needs doing, so both sides believe, is for the rest of the world to convert to their own way of thinking.

So far this hasn’t worked. I see no reason for it to work in the future.

i like the idea that Jesus taught being true to your Self. And i would be interested to hear Spong speak but at this point don’t see when to fit it in. Will bookmark your site. Thanks for your info.

I think that is what Jesus taught. However, this understanding calls for a translation of the Bible that was probably not taught in the RCC when you were a child. Nor was it taught where I come from. One would probably need to go to progressive Christians like John Shelby Spong to find it. In the Bible part of my forums, I posted links to a few videos in which Spong speaks, in case you are interested to see what he believes.

I disagree with you that scrutinizing the Bible is of necessity poison for everybody. I find myself needing to understand the monster that nearly killed me. The Bible was a major part of it. As a Catholic you might not know the power of the Bible in Protestant denominations but it is THE power behind the church. “The Bible says, I believe, that settles it!” That’s the attitude of everyone from the top bishop to the lowliest child.

“Where in the Bible does it say that?” is a common challenge to someone who makes an assertion.

“Right here in black and white” is a common response.

A debate on the correct interpretation of the “black and white” text may then ensue. The fact that it is in the Bible makes it worthy of discussion. Depending on the topic, if agreement cannot be reached re correct interpretation, there is potential for a church split. Such is the power of the Bible in denominations that build on the doctrine of an inerrant, infallible, inspired Word of God.

You’re in agreement with my article saying the modern Bible is not trustworthy/sacred. But i feel the original/ancient scripture was sacred, and there is no way for us modern humans to know what the original said “because of the fact that stories may change significantly from just one person to another, let alone the Bible story, told with layers of symbolism, translated/interpreted over and over, from a hard to imagine culture 2000 years ago.”

Now i also feel that some biblical concepts like “the the way, the truth and the life” and the charismatic personality of Jesus performing miracles could, to some extent, survive 2000 years of cultural change.

Especially the Truth is the greatest survivor overtime. The meaning or what people think Truth actually is may change but Truth itself is something that does not change since it is the Truth. For example, the Truth about human death is that the heart stops beating.

And so in this article my contention with the Christian bleeping that the only way to Heaven is through Jesus, is that the main purpose of a name is to identify someone and therefore the name Jesus cannot be used to get to Heaven; and that Jesus had the ego of the Truth of eternity and therefore it’s through Truth itself that’s the only way to get to Heaven.

OK now i imagine that you’re a little frustrated that i’m still talking about Jesus for whom we have no evidence he ever existed. But what i’m really trying to bring out, with my unpolished writing skills, is that we DO have evidence for the Truth or that which never changes; and we know the Truth with our heart of hearts or how we deep down sincerely feel about something. The healthier a heart is the more sensitive and closer it is to the Truth.

So Matt and you after years of going along with Christianity both had the sincere feeling that Christianity is not trustworthy. And so instead of continuing to silently go along with something you didn’t trust, as so many zombie Christians wearily do, you started telling people close to you how you feel. Then the bleepings hit the fan. You know what a Christian bleeping is don’t you? It is something that there is no evidence for.

The present, the gift of right now, is what Christians need to be open to recieving. Matt and you have accepted the present more than most. How you feel in the present is all you ever will have as Truth. And so again if you believe in your gut feelings you are going in the direction of Truth. And if Jesus did exist as a representive of full blown Truth then you are following much closer to Him than most devout/zombie Christians.

Finally your concluding point about poison is a good one and i’m happy and proud to say i’m very healthy because i don’t study the Bible at all, i have some Bible recollection from my Catholic elementary school. My relationship with Jesus is quite unique as it’s completely heartfelt.

i suggest you be extremely cautious with your detailed scrutiny of Bible scripture because even if you know it’s poison, it seems to me, you would still have to ingest it through you heart and intellect. The Truth of life, with the poisoned Bible well, is very very unfortunate and will soon become a glourious freedom with your help to purify or get rid of the poison.

i recently read in another Life Coach blog, “You are on this journey to learn to trust yourself.” Keep on trusting your unencumbered feelings and you will enjoy the True Freedom of Life. Life is Freedom.

For the most part, I enjoyed reading this article, but I find myself having problems with the entire Jesus-thing. I will be frank about this (and I sincerely hope that you don’t mind). You talk about things that Jesus said (the way, the truth and the life) and about miracles that he did. However, how do you know that he said this or that or did any such miracle? My contention is that the Bible is NOT a trustworthy book where it can be examined and tested. As such, I cannot even accept as fact any of the parts that cannot be examined and tested. There is little evidence that Jesus said any of the things attributed to him within the New Testament. In fact, some of the Gospel accounts contradict each other with what he is claimed to have said and/or done.

Apart from the Bible we really have no evidence for the person, words or works of Jesus. And if that book is faulty, then what it portrays of him (words and works) cannot be trusted either. The evidence outside of the Bible is drawn from the Bible (such as the writings of the church fathers, etc) and, again, if the Bible is a faulty book then that which is drawn from it would be faulty as well. If one draws a cup of water from a well that has been poisoned, then shall not the cup of water be poisoned as well?