Something I remember as a teenager is being on an awful lot of mailing lists somehow. I got a lot of material from Masons and from Rosicrucians. I remember thinking they were interesting, but didn't want to send them any money. Maybe I would have if they were selling books but it wasn't clear...
Yes, sometimes even in the NT Gospels
I have sometimes wondered how much of Christian doctrine or ideas would make more sense thought of they way people think of koans
Even reading the NT Gospels I have always felt confused - maybe mixed messages but I was raised with mixed religious messages...
Context always.
One of the reasons I read commentary and scholarship and forum posts more than scripture itself is my long history of attempting to read Scripture but not understanding the context enough to get anything out of it. Finding the bible hard to read, not necessarily due to complexity...
Another thing I recall is my grandparents having some - concerns? for a time that my aunt was interested in "black magic"
(they didn't spell out that I can recall what the concerns were, only some feelings of tension. I vaguely picked up from them and the culture around me that there might be...
Always, I just don't think I found it there
I was raised to have an open mind and consider things, if nothing else
Oh I could have gone all in with my grandfather if I wanted to.
I sort-of knew that church goers wouldn't necessarily agree with other things i was taught, but I was under the...
Probably something like that. Or maybe she wanted me to get information besides my grandfather's rants about imminent armageddon, or maybe I asked questions she couldn't answer thoroughly. I think she was gobsmacked when I took some of the material seriously, is all.
Thanks, but sadness is misplaced in regards to this. There are lots of things about my upbringing I could complain about if I still wanted to, but being raised with the mixed spiritual ideas that I was, was a gift, I was lucky. 😇
Naturally, I didn't share that much of my beliefs with peers. Some of it was none of them seemed really analytical or philosophically inclined at all. And also, a few people were from really fundamentalist families, and almost ANYTHING you said that wasn't exactly in line with what they thought...
During my teens also, my mom was very into material like what is found here Jonathan Parker | Guided Meditation Retreats & Self Help Programs
It was that teacher, some earlier incarnations of his catalog, but a lot of the same material.
I listened to these materials along with my mom. I...
When I was 12, (12½), for some reason, despite her disapproval of organized religion, my mom decided to send me to "Vacation Bible School" that summer -- kind of like a Bible day camp, at the Methodist church down the street. I don't know what her reasons were.
They taught out of the Bible as...
In case it won't play on the site or the link won't work, the channel is called "The Unrepentant Atheist" -
Title is "Carl Sagan Responds To Christian Grad Student Question About God"
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