Hard Believing

There is a phrase we use in our family – “hard believing”- which means forcing ourselves to believe in something that we have little faith in, usually for the benefit of someone else. It is not the same as “hard to believe” which is used to conversely express a challenging belief in something, like an … Continue reading →

A Lesson in Patience, Tolerance, and Acceptance

There is a school of thought in the mystic religions that we are spirit beings engaged in a corporeal presence in the earth realm to experience God as the collected Universe, and in some branched thought of this ideology, to allow God to experience the fullness of his creation through our physical being. The most … Continue reading →

No Faith in God

If I had not already lost faith in an omnipotent benefactor abiding in the heavens before, I would now, because of this. In my home state of Tennessee a two year old child is missing, presumably lost in the woods. It has now been 72 hours since the child became lost and the search for … Continue reading →

Marriage licenses are a heaven and hell decision, but the root of all evil is not.

Like many, I ‘ve been following the saga of Kentucky deputy clerk Kim Davis as she battles into martyrdom for her stand against gay marriage. Today after appearing before a US District judge, Davis was in court and reprimanded to jail until such time as she agreed to perform her appointed duties. Outside the courthouse, … Continue reading →

Just Thinking About…God’s Will

I was having lunch with a friend. During the time that she had excused herself from the table I watched a commercial from UNICEF playing on the television. It was a sad, melancholy presentation featuring the sorrowful eyes of children with bloated bellies while the narrator, in a pleading voice, asks for monthly donations to … Continue reading →

The Voice of God

Have you ever experienced that one forceful thought? The one that scatters all processing thoughts into oblivion and seems to dismiss the flow of internal dialogue with the urgency of “whoa, wait, listen to me!”  In my experience, it doesn’t happen often but rather rarely and it is uniquely different from my usual thoughts. It … Continue reading →

Intellectual Heroism?

I stumbled across a blog that is promoted as a “civil discourse to better understand atheism.” A few clicks later and I realized that was a misleading statement. But among these clicks I came across one commenter applauding the genius of another by referring to his “intellectual heroism.” The phrase ‘intellectual heroism” is new to … Continue reading →

Commentary on Snake Salvation

Snake handling as a profession of faith has been a decades long tradition for some holynist Pentecostals living in the Appalachia mountain region. The National Geographic channel is hosting a documentary series titled “Snake Salvation”, which is promoted as a look inside the prominence of faith and religion in the life struggles of two pastors … Continue reading →

What is Sin….Really?

In the Gospel of Mary, Jesus explains what sin is. The scripture reads: Peter said to him, since you have explained everything to us, tell us this also: What is the sin of the world? 26) The Savior said there is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things … Continue reading →

Solo Sojourner

The often repeated criticism against those claiming to be “spiritual but not religious” is that those who hold this philosophy are without doctrinal parameters and as such pick and choose to believe what suits them. Most of these criticisms come from the devoutly indoctrinated, but occassionaly a new atheist will mount the same criticism in … Continue reading →