Summer Update

I haven’t had much time to write. Ok. I will be honest. I NEVER have ANY time to write!

Since I am a SAHM of two young children it is next to impossible to write on the computer. If I sit down at the computer, two adorable monkey-like creatures begin climbing me as if I am a jungle gym. The preschooler tries to sneak the mouse away to click to the Disney Princess website while the 9 month old wants to bang on the keyboard, pull everything off of the desk and conduct pummeling experiments with the objects. Both kids compete for space on my lap, the office chair and desk surface.  It is not very comfortable for the three of us to sit in one office chair while the preschooler tries to turn us in circles, the infant tries to eat the mouse, cords and printer and climb onto the desk while the mom tries to check twitter and hopes that one of the kids doesn’t fall to the ground as a crying, injured mess!

It is summer too! Or rather, it WAS summer. So I tried to do the most important things in life, which is to take care of and spend time with my kids, rather than blog the often half-baked religious musings, complaints and rantings of my inner mind. And we had a great summer!  The preschooler attended dance camp, soccer camp and swimming lessons.  We went to the local water park twice, once with family friends and once with just our family.  At 9 months, our infant learned how to do the army crawl, though some said it looked like he was doing the butterfly crawl!  He also pulled himself to standing and tried to climb every structure in sight!  He learned how to climb onto the couch, then to the top of the couch, then to the stair railing!

During the summer I have tried to read a few books!  I am still reading five books at a time with a book list of others in my head! I’ve received many good recommendations for other books as well.  (I plan to start a book list page! See sidebar!)

I am reading “The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails” edited by John Loftus. It is wonderful. I think every Christian should read it!!!! I am also reading “Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists” by Dan Barker. I recommend it though it is not as scholarly as “The Christian Delusion” but it does explain Barker’s personal loss of faith and points out many flaws in Evangelical Christianity.

I would challenge my dear Christian friends to read these books! I would love to have a knowledgable Christian friend with whom I could discuss these books! And a Christian that could read it with an open mind, not simply read it “knowing” that the arguments are all wrong and just ready to refute it with the same hackneyed apologetics answer that Josh McDowell, Lee Stroebel or Francis Schaeffer wrote. I sure am willing to discuss those arguments but just because C.S. Lewis wrote something that you, my friend, thinks justifies the faith, doesn’t mean it is the “final answer!” That doesn’t settle anything! Nor does, “Well that’s what the Bible says and if you have a problem with the Word, then you have a problem with God!”  Ummm, no that response just really says (to me) “I am just going to be a parrot and repeat words from the bible without really listening and thinking through this issue and there will be no more thinking and talking about this topic. I am a brick wall.” It frustrates me that most of my friends (with whom I’ve discussed these issues) when faced with a question about the merits or truth of the Bible or of the religion, they go to the relevant Christian apologist that they think addresses the issue and they DO NOT read any books of the opposing viewpoint by a non-christian writer!  However, on the other hand, even if my friends just read the relevant apologists but are willing to delve into these issues with me, I still appreciate the communal search, discovery and discussion!

I have SO many questions about how Christianity developed into the religion as we know it today! I am reading to learn more about the development of the religion from Jesus’ alleged lifetime to the birth and growth of the church to the time when the canon was decided upon and the course of Christianity since then. I’ve also started reading “When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight Over Jesus’ Divinity in the Last Days of Rome” by Richard E. Rubenstein.

If it took at least 300 years from the time of Jesus for the church to “decide” the question of Jesus’ divinity, how can Evangelical Christians simply accept that as a “truth” without looking into the circumstances of that “decision?”

This is just a quick update to let my two or three readers know that I haven’t abandoned my blog, just been busy with life! And life, after all, is the real reason for all these questions about God, religion, and existence, right?