In Bad Faith, Part 5: What’s Missing?
February 4, 2010 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, featured
Abandoned Christian Science Building 3 by Maxwell GS
that all experiences of “Faith” are delusions, that there is no god out there “talking” to you. He wrote that anyone with an ounce of intelligence recognizes that there is no “man behind the curtain,” and that the stories in the Bible, for example, should have been given up when we gave up on our belief in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. It all seems very logical. But something is missing here.
Conversely, I love that, for the fundamental or conservative Christian, the answer to every problem faced by us is to “give it up to Jesus.” Lost your job? Give it up to Jesus! Stuck in a rotten marriage? Give it up to Jesus! Need a new car? Give it up to Jesus! It’s a powerful message, especially if you’re a teenager or a drug addict looking to leave that lifestyle. But, for all of us in between, there still seems to be something missing.
In Bad Faith, Part 5: What’s Missing?
Ironically, one of the mistakes that I made as a young Christian adult was to close off my emotions and try to be more logical because my faith told me that one can’t trust emotions. Yeah, that approach didn’t work so well for Mr. Spoke, I don’t know why I thought it’d turn out any better for moi. I tried to be logical and I wasn’t any fun to live with. Just ask my ex-wife. Now, I know that Dawkins isn’t advocating a logic-only/emotionless lifestyle, but there’s a kind of delusion to entertain the idea that human beings are going to be “logical” and “scientific” when it comes to the bigger issues in life or even in ones day to day existence. I think the fictional character, Geordi, in ST: TNG, said it best when he said that we humans go with our “gut” so much because we almost never have enough data to make the decisions that we need to make.
Share this Post[?]
In Bad Faith, Part 4: The Evil Media
January 26, 2010 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, JBB's Media Buzz, featured
A few months ago I saw this comment on my Twitter feed: “RT @vavroom: Sometimes, small minded Christianity really saddens me. (via @kubke @snowded @annemcx @euan )” – Christine Morris (@CMoz). And attached was a link to a story from the Telegraph in the UK about how a film about Charles Darwin was having difficulty finding a distributor in the US because the film’s subject, Evolution, is too controversial. The Telegraph story was written in September (2009) when the film opened at the Toronto Film Festival. What the story failed to mention was that this was one of those years when a large number of films were having difficulty finding distributors. The theory of distribution presented in the story came from the film’s producer. So, perhaps, it was economics and not the small mindedness of US Christians that was making finding a distributor difficult. As someone with a degree in Journalism and Biblical Studies I tire from hearing the Christians complain how Godless (liberal) the Press is and from the Atheists and Secularists how Christian (provincial/conservative) the Press is.
In Bad Faith, Part 4: The Evil Media
What both the Left and Right seem to forget is that the Media, especially in the form of the movie industry, is a form of banking, and it will do whatever it thinks will make money for it’s investors. Period. It rarely leads and often plays both sides of the issues because it needs to draw attention to itself, not to change things but to make money. The Media is not a perfect reflection of our culture, remember it’s first responsibility is not to reflect Reality, but to make money. And this “bottom line” mentality is not limited to the movie industry but, sadly, has become a big part of the News Industry too. Journalism has felt the pressure to sell it’s wares. We may think of Journalism as a service, but it’s a business. This is not to say that Journalism has abandoned the principles of Objectivity, but it’s more of an ideal, like how Americans try to live up to our Constitution, Bill of Rights and Pledge of Allegiance. Journalism believes in Objectivity, in part, because it’s business model requires a certain level of trust. No trust, no sales. So, at it’s core the News & Media industries are neither Left or Right. They can’t afford to be. They will follow the interests of their audiences, Left or Right, but the commitment isn’t to the politics but to the business of making money. The Media decision-makers are not pushing any position except the one that keeps them viable and better yet, more than viable.
Share this Post[?] In Bad Faith, Part 3: Franky Schaeffer, Son of “Slippery Slide” Comes Clean
January 10, 2010 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, featured
I was amazed to hear the interview of Franky Schaeffer on NPR because his story was so revealing about the dangers of when sincere faith is influenced by political power and marketing. I was introduced to his writings in the early 1980s after his father had been promoted as an “intellectual Christian” and Franky continued his father’s beliefs that any step toward accepting “modern values” (particularly abortion) was a slippery slope toward liberalism.
In Bad Faith, Part 3: Franky Schaeffer, Son of “Slippery Slide” Comes Clean
One of my favorite Fuller Seminary professors, Colin Brown, commented once that he didn’t think that Francis Scheaffer (Sr) read any of Kierkegaard in the original languages. Academic put-down! The Schaeffers represented a huge line in the sand between True Biblical Christianity and the various forces of liberalism, academia and secularism. After reading one of Franky’s books in the 80s I recognized that I wasn’t on the “right” side of the divide. I was too much of a rationalist, situational-ethicist and intellectual. I loved the Bible but I also recognized the cultural-historical place it came from (hint: it wasn’t Heaven). Slippery slope, indeed.
So all these decades later it turns out that all the rhetoric was mostly a sham promoted by the Christian Right, to the point that even Franky eventually couldn’t tolerate and left. What I really loved about the interview was that this was a story about Idealism, human foibles, bending the “Truth.” The forces the Schaeffers represented created a conflict that I’ve spent a lifetime contending with. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one scarred by the experience. I love the comment Franky makes during the interview when he’s asked why he hasn’t gone all the way to Atheist. He says that the patterns of his life are such that the first thing he’d do would be to pray to God to help him be a better Atheist. So human.
Sources:
Pro-Life — And In Favor Of Keeping Abortion Legal by Frank Schaeffer - NPR Fresh Air Interview. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97998654 retrieved 1/9/2010.
In Bad Faith, Part 2: Born this Way? or This is Your Brain on God
January 9, 2010 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, featured
As a college freshman at Loyola Marymount University I recognized that there had to be at least some psychological aspect to things like Speaking in Tongues (Glossolalia) and didn’t feel that that diminished the “God” part of the behavior at all.
In Bad Faith, Part 2: Born this Way? or This is Your Brain on God
NIH by National Institute on Aging
I don’t think that I ever shared these thoughts with my fellow-believers. I just assumed that those in the midst of the experience probably didn’t analyze the phenomenon beyond a few Bible passages and whether the practice was accepted or rejected by their church. Then many years later I saw a documentary TV program where scientists were mapping the brain, using scans that looked for elevated brain activity. They found that persons in deep meditation or prayer showed elevated activity in the Temporal lobe. From what I remember, the pattern of activity was similar to those who reported stories of alien abduction. They were able to induce the “Alien” experiences in some test subjects by transmitting the pattern instead of recording it. Then one scientist, an atheist, thought that he might “see” what the religious participants in the experiment had experienced if he also used the recording harness to transmit the “religious” patterns to his brain. The scientist saw and felt nothing. I wasn’t too surprised, but it wasn’t because of any “God” thing. It might have been that his brain was just not wired to understand the “language” of religious experience that had been recorded in the experiment. According to a recent article in Ars Technica, it might indeed be something lost in translation that’s individual to everyone’s brains.
Share this Post[?] Street Meets… Pedestrian: Christian Side Hug
December 13, 2009 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, Past Featured Media, featured
When the rapper begins screaming, “Are you ready to party?!” the crowd goes wild. Apparently there’s a lot of pent up energy here. Then for the life of me I couldn’t figure out if this was straight or parody. I think it’s both… This video is totally def with an “A”… ack.
Sources:
youtube video: “Christian Side Hug” by 1337ven0m07. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g91J37qcRfI retrieved on 12/13/2009
Living in the Present Moment w Thich Nhat Hanh
November 10, 2009 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, Past Featured Media
In the midst of all of the shouting about what’s wrong with this and that and who’s to blame, in the midst of all the technological changes, it’s good to be reminded of holding onto the mindful moment in the midst of the most mundane and unimportant things in life. Thanks Seann for the reminder and link.
In Bad Faith, Part 1: It’s the Accent, Isn’t It?
November 10, 2009 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, featured
Over several months I’ve begun this entry at least half a dozen times, but failed to get past a few lines and embedded videos. That’s usually a pretty bad sign. In this case, however, it was more about the importance of these thoughts, compounded by my inability to successfully find the narrative. But, given my written record in this blog and its predecessors, I felt compelled to dig into this subject and try to make sense of things. Thus, I’ve decided to attempt to divide these thoughts into several parts and in each one confine myself to various books and influencers I’ve encountered over the last few years. Thus begins a series on my recent journey of Faith, that I call “In Bad Faith.”
In Bad Faith, Part 1: It’s the Accent, Isn’t It?
My brother warned me against reading this book unless I was serious about examining my faith. I can only imagine how confusing my circuitous route into and out of and then back into and later out of Faith must appear to my sibling(s). I mean, given that I went against my parents’ wishes and switched from Catholic Loyola Marymount University to Fundamentalist Protestant Biola University, and instead of getting something practical like a B.A. in Engineering I got one in Biblical Studies. This was definitely something more important going on here than a passing adolescent fad. But having gone from highly academic Loyola to wanting-to-be-more-academic Biola (in the early 80s) I learned to approach my Faith and the Bible from a more scientific/academic approach than just a devotional approach. Two of my favorite books from this era were Robert Alter’s The Art Of Biblical Narrative
Fast forward twenty-eight years, divorced twenty-five years, failed MA in Theology from Fuller Seminary. second BA in communications/journalism, teaching credential, MA in Educational Technology, failed Ed.D in Educational Technology, re-located from Southern California to Central Florida, I decided against jumping back into the church thing. I needed to find some balance between my experiences of faith and the academic/scientific part of my personality. That’s when I decided to listen to Richard Dawkin’s The God Delusion
Intelligently Confused about God
November 5, 2009 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, featured
free child walking on white round spheres by D Sharon Pruitt
While I continue to wander about in my head about my relationship with God, I continue to have encounters with individuals on similar courses, though, perhaps heading in a different direction. For example, last night at a local watering hole, while enjoying the evening’s Monday Night Football game, a gentleman ordered up his bucket of Buds and after random chit-chat mentioned his faith and his failure to abide by the “Truth.” It was an interesting exchange over beers, ribs and NFL play-by-play. In the end he thanked me for an intelligent conversation.
Then a couple of weeks ago I got a comment on my old blog, Jacob’s Ladder (which is why the writer makes the understandable mistake that my name is Jacob. oops):
Share this Post[?]Jacob, I’m not really skilled at computer codes, etc.,so I’ll try to get on the site using anonymous. I’m Don Kimrey My blog is Scripturestudent.wordpress.com. I came upon your site thru the “Ooze” posting and your comment there. Sounds like we have some things in common. I read right many of your posts and found them interesting and, more importantly perhaps, honest. Sounds like we traveled some of the same roads, and I discovered that a disappointed idealist makes the worst kind of cynic. But I also have come to believe God’s love is constant, even when ours falters and we’re not sure which way is up. Hang in there. You seem to be quite intelligent, and I sense that you’re on an honest quest. Let’s pray for each other. Don Kimrey
Change/Follows/Learning
October 16, 2009 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, education re-examined, featured
Emdt student Kevin Hayes created this video with the catch phrase: “If what you learn doesn’t change what you do, then why you learnin’ it?”
Kevin is a very committed believer and has shared the connection he feels between his beliefs and his actions. There’s something amazingly simple and powerful in this. And in his video he illustrates it so well with the example, if you really believe that the world is beautiful than you should be doing something about it, like picking up the trash and recycling. So simple and so powerful.
I think I know what Kevin means, if we believe in something it should effect how we act and how we live our lives. A frustration that I have, that Kevin may or may not share with me, is the obvious gap between what I consider the prime-directive left by Jesus to his followers and how his followers seem to live with one another:
“”A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13: 34-35 NIV)
Having moved from Southern California to Central Florida, where there seems to be one church for every city block, and sometime two, I’m not sure that I’ve seen much in the way that would convince me that I’m now living among His followers. Perhaps that’s not very fair. Let’s put it this way, I haven’t seen much of a difference between those who have shared their faith with me and the rest as far as quality of life, compassion, you know “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” kind of stuff.
Now there’s a possibility that this region, this place is so saturated with religion and basic Christian principles that the guy in the bar and the guy in the pew are both looking for the same things in life and going about it pretty much the same way, except for one guy sleeps in on Sunday morning and the other doesn’t (and don’t assume which one is which). I don’t know. If someone is trying to persuade me that their faith has something to offer, than I have an expectation that I’m going to see a difference in their life that I wouldn’t see in someone who doesn’t share that belief. I think Kevin was talkin’ about more than just trash when he hummed, “If what you learn doesn’t change what you do, then why you learnin’ it?”
Sources:
YouTube: Change is good by Kevin Hayes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Jma04y40I retrieved on October 16, 2009.
Bible Quote: John 12:34-35, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+13%3A34-35&version=NIV retrieved on October 16, 2009
11 Things the Bible Bans, #12 Diggnation Talking Religion
August 7, 2009 by joe.bustillos
Filed under In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt, JBB's Tech Picks and Tips, featured
A friend once quipped about how stupid it is when MDs think that just because they are experts in one thing, that they must be experts in other things. For example, being an expert surgeon doesn’t mean that one is an expert at running a business (as many office managers for the medical profession painfully understand). Doctors are obviously not alone in this delusion. I cringe every time I listen to some tech pundit go from talking about the newest version of Firefox to explaining the Bible. Chief TWiT, Leo Laporte has done this more than a few times with Merlin Mann on various TWiT podcasts. I understand that they get caught up in the moment, but really? So I’m watching my favorite online drinking buddies, Alex and Kevin, on a recent Diggnation and they get all Biblical on me. It was hilarious watching Alex try to explain to Kevin the sin of Onan without mentioning that the whole deal was about making sure that the bloodline of a dead brother doesn’t end because the brother died without a son to carry on his name. It just came across as some weird Biblical thing that if you are going to have sex with your brother’s wife than you cannot pull out. Right. The rest was pretty much over-shadowed by that one. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not everyone is entitled to punish us by sharing said opinion. Then Kevin goes on to say that he got bible lessons every Sunday growing up, but how could that be true and he not know about the sin of Onan, unless he pulled out when he was like nine. It’s just fucking embarrassing. And not really very funny…
Please, don’t do this again…. but that said, Kevin nailed it when he talked about the hypocrisy of people doing whatever the hell they want to do all week and then going to church on Sunday to “clean up” for all the shit they did the previous six days, and pretending like there’s nothing wrong with that. All the other bullshit aside about heaven being whatever you want it to be or about being Christina but “cool,” there was some real truth to Kevin’s observation. But then maybe this is only something that you can see when you are not living in it, that is, the unlivable cycle of holding to a belief about how one should live that no one CAN live. When our religion is reduced to a nostalgic Hallmark moment forwarded in an email by one’s older sister but has nothing to do with the conduct of one’s daily life, or one holds to an eating or drinking ritual but clearly ignores an awareness to the Holy in the here and now, what’s the point? How sad and confused to live a life that aspires to some belief or is said to be lived in honor of the One but there’s no trace of that belief in the conversation or actions one expresses to the world from moment to moment. Eleven things my ass, who cares if what you say you believe in is completely invisible by the conduct of your daily life? Out of the mouths of babes, or in this case, the clueless.
source:
article: 11 Things The Bible Bans, But You Do Anyway, http://digg.com/d1uYZz retrieved 8/7/2009
video: What Would Kevin And Alex Do? Diggnation/Revision3, http://revision3.com/diggnation/faith retrieved 8/7/2009
