Laughing

I read Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis 2 and saw something poignant about life and suffering:

We can only feel sorry for ourselves when our misfortunes are still supportable. Once this limit is crossed, the only way to bear the unbearable is to laugh at it.

(p.112, Persepolis 2, by Marjane Satrapi)

And then I read about Hemingway's 6-word story and decided to do some research on the matter. I found quotes by him, and saw this similar comment:

A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.

(Ernest Hemingway)

Falling Into Belief

"Coming to believe what one takes to be true is not simply a matter of choice... one cannot simply decide to believe. When the issues are the tough ones, we don't so much decide what to believe as find ourselves falling into belief."

- Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All? by James W. Sire (p.212)

Can the gospels be used as proof of Jesus' authenticity?

This question involves another question, which is: are the gospels reliable in the first place? How do we know what the writers actually know? Were they being metaphorical in their recount? Did they remember things accurately, or did their memories distort facts? Recollection, as we know, can be highly inaccurate.

Therefore, how can we use Jesus' actions in the gospels as proof of his authenticity, as Christian writers like to do when they say: "When Jesus did this, it shows..."? The reality of these actions is dependent on the veracity of the gospel accounts, which is itself an issue being debated.

(refer to Why Should We Believe Anything At All? p. 162)

Persistence

New Year, same direction

Our Subconscious and God

James closely associates the sublimal and the supreme. He contends that the spontaneous source of religion conversion is the subconscious.

James does not say that the source of conversions is purely natural, that the subconscious is God. He admits that the "reference of a phenomenon to a sublimal self does not exclude the notion of the Deity altogether," for "it is logically conceivable that if there be higher agencies that can directly touch us, the psychological condition of their doing so might be our possession of a subconscious region which alone should yield access to them."

But it is precisely this close association of the Transcendent with Man's subconscious that raises anew the question of the reality basis for religious transcendence...

One cannot help but wonder whether or not the subconscious is all that is meant by the Transcendent.

- William James, discussed by Norman Geisler in Philosophy of Religion p60-61

That is exactly what I am afraid might be the case. What if what seems so plausible to believers, that God is speaking to us, turns out to be our subconscious voice after all? It has always been said, "The willing believes." Incidentally, it is usually the willing - also known as the gullible - who is susceptible to conmen.

To have knowledge of the One

One wishing to contemplate what transcends the Intellectual attains contemplation of it by putting away all that is of the intellect. For "knowledge of the One comes to us neither by science bor by pure thought... but by a presence which is superior to science..." To know the Supreme, one must merge with the Supreme and become one with it, centre coinciding with with centre. Just as one must become godlike and beautiful if he cares to see God and Beauty, so one must become one with the One if he is to know the One.

- Plotinus, discussed by Norman Geisler in Philosophy of Religion

Talking about "the One", and "being one" with the One, makes it sound very mystical.

But it just refers to alignment. This is probably quite similar to Christian teaching that we must be like Jesus. Also, to know God one must be without sin, that is why we must confess our sins before God will listen to prayer.

Did You Ever Talk to God Above?

A nice song I heard during the worship service led by Children's Ministry band during Family Worship.