Thought Sparkk

I've grown to respect fundamentalist religious people far more than their moderate counterparts.  Moderates, to me, are merely religious people who lack conviction in their own beliefs or those who refuse to dive too deep into those beliefs for fear of knowing too much, or even worse, actually having an opinion.  Moderates serve only to dilute any and all attempts at a real fact finding conversation by making the religion forever liquid.  They dissuade you from applying critical thinking to find truth on the topic.  They discourage real attempts to find out if the religion is true, and what is even worse, they don't care if it is true or false.  I give fundamentalists at least the nod of respect for taking what is written in their holy text and applying it rather than ignoring it.  They don't attempt to reinterpret it for their own reasons.  If their holy text outright states something, then they admit that it is part of their belief.  Even though...

I still find myself being bitter and disgusted at the lies that I was fed as a child about Christianity and salvation.  Not only the lies I was fed then, but the utter disownment by that same group and theology once I walked away from their brand of faith.  Here is the path that I took.  I was brought up in a devout baptist christian household.  We went to church every sunday, almost no exceptions.  At age 9 I decided to become a christian and so I explained my feelings to my pastor after youth group one wednesday night.  We talked about it and what it meant and the ins-and-outs of salvation.  I said yes!  I want this!  So that night I sat with my pastor and prayed for salvation and became a christian.  I went home and told my parents and they were thrilled.  We hugged and mom cried tears of joy.  I didn't start questioning my faith until about the age of 19.  So for 19 years of my life,  10 of those years of being a ...

I vividly remember a time when I was younger that I was dating a girl who, at the time, I was infatuated with.  My every action was for her greater well-being.  There were many times where I remember stating and truly believing that I would do anything for her.  Overlook any mistakes, or imperfections, or any trespass on poor judgment.  When she decided to walk away from the relationship, I found myself in a very deep depression.  Primarily, I believe, since I had invested so much of myself into the relationship and to her.  At the time I was fully broken and was unsure how I could possibly live my life now without her.  Yet, here I sit, some nine years later with a good job, great friends, an amazing wife, and financial stability.  How silly I was in that moment from my current perspective. Similarly, when I was nine years old, a new pastor and his family moved into the house across from my childhood home.  They had four children, two daug...

Make sure that your standards of evidence are as high as you would expect your brain surgeon's standards of evidence to be if they had to diagnose a problem in your brain and operate on you.  If they said that they have a book from a few thousand years ago that gives them all the answers and that you just have to have faith that it will work...find a different surgeon.  That tends to be the dividing line between what people espouse to believe, and what people ACTUALLY believe in practice.  When it actually becomes real and comes time to put your beliefs to the test, you tend to see a drastic change in how their reasoning changes. Honestly, think about it.  If somebody truly believes that prayers are answered and that god is in control and that there is no reason to be afraid, march them onto a busy interstate at rush hour.  Tell them to pray for safe passage across the road.  Have them close their eyes and start walking to the other side.  Do this 10...