Filed under: Writen by Nick
As you know, Ryan and I started answering some questions from the book Tying Rocks To Clouds: Meetings and Conversations With Wise and Spiritual People by William Elliot, this is the second question I have decided to answer. It is pretty simple for the most part, I encourage you to answer this as well in the comments section. The question is: What makes you happy? Sad? Angry?
What makes you happy?
What makes me happy? Well, little bunnies playing in the front yard has always made me smile. But seriously, seeing Gods love makes me happy. What I mean by that is this, when I see someone do an unselfish act of kindness for someone else. When someone helps another person stranded on the roadside for no other reason other than the fact they need help, or anonymous donations to charity. I imagine it is these things that make God smile. Another thing that makes me happy is seeing pure joy. On our wedding day was the first time I truly saw pure honest joy. As Jenny and I stood up at the alter and I looked into Jenny’s eyes, as they were tearing up, I saw pure joy, joy in knowing we would be together forever. The only time I think I will experiance joy like that again is when we have children. These are the things that make me happy.
What makes you sad?
When I see the flaws in humanity through myself. When I allow myself to do things I don’t want to do and become something I don’t want to be. I sin, I don’t want to but I do, that makes me sad. When I fail to be the person i want to be. Also, when I see God’s design destroy itself. On 9-11 God’s design attacked itself. We are all God’s creation, and we failed. God does not want war, he does not desire his creation to be destroyed. The war in Iraq is sad. How do I support it then? That is a discussion for another time.
What makes you angry?
This one is hard, I hold this close to the same level as the previous question. I get angry when I see the ones I love fight. I get angry when I see others hold life as if it is nothing. When there is nothing I can do to help someone in pain physical or emotional, I feel . I get agry at situations more than people, I don’t know if that makes sense.
What about you? What makes you happy? Sad? Angry?
Filed under: Writen by Nick
Here is my answer to the question, sorry it took so long.
1. On What Main Beliefs (Or Truths) Do You Base Your Life?
I don’t know why this was so hard to answer, it’s a simple enough question, but I guess as soon as I start thinking about it my mind starts racing. The first that comes to mind is God. I believe the Bible to be truth, and the Bible was God breathed, and therefore God/Jesus is truth. I believe God is a loving God who wants a relationship with us. He has wanted this from the very beginning, He created us to walk with him and commune with him, and we did… for a while. But sin was introduced. God, being a perfect God, and just God could not look upon sin, so he had to punish us. But that is not the end. God still wanted that relationship with us, so he provided ways to do so, rules and guidelines. But we as humans could not live up to these standards, we kept turning away. There was no way we could ever be good enough, no way we could ever do enough good things to get ourself in the relationship God wanted. Like I said God is a perfect God, and a just God, he is sinless. If he allowed sin into heaven, it would no longer be perfect, so we as sinful people cannot step into heaven. God realized this and in his continuing effort to be in a personal relationship with us, he sent someone to take our place. Enter stage right Jesus Christ. Jesus not only came to teach us about God but he came to take our punishment. As I said earlier, we as sinners cannot step into heaven, we have turned away from God, so our just reward is hell. Jesus lived a sinless life, and was crucified on no grounds. Upon his death our sins were placed upon him. He bore our sins for us. He descended into hell. But that is not the end either. He beat the system, he beat death/hell. He arose three days later, to give us the hope of eternal salvation though him. The Bible teaches that this was a gift to us. All we have to do is accept it. Like a Christmas gift, when your grandmother gives you a gift on Christmas do say oh thank you grandma, and then take out your wallet to pay her back for it? I think not, all you have to do to receive that gift from her is hold out your arms and take it. But if you don’t hold out your arms, you will never receive that gift, it will just sit there. We have to “hold our arms out” to receive this gift of salvation, the gift is sitting there waiting to be opened.
These are the truths on which I base my life, God is the center of my life, and I want to have the relationship he desires. God calls Christians to share this good news with everyone, so that is my goal. I will not always share it like this, but I will share it.
Filed under: Written by Ryan
There is a book I go back to every now and then to read a part I haven’t read before. Its called Tying Rocks To Clouds: Meetings and Conversations With Wise and Spiritual People by William Elliot and its one of those books that you can pick up whenever and you needn’t read from beginning to end (I still haven’t finished it). It is non-fiction and in it Elliot has sought out leading voices in spirituality such as Ram Dass, The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, B.F. Skinner and many others. He interviewed them all with the same fundamental questions about existence and their personal beliefs. I thought it would be interesting and fun to try to tackle these questions for myself and post them up here. I invite Nick and all of you to do the same and share your own answers. There are twenty-four questions and at first I was going to finish them all and then start posting. However, this is pretty heavy stuff we’re talking about here and I realized that each question not only required a lot of contemplation on my part, but a lot of words too. The answers themselves could take you in a thousand different directions. So this is only part one of a series. After this I will try to post two at a time, making this a 13 part series. So at the rate I’m going: Part 13, copyright 2009. I really hope thats a joke.
1. On What Main Beliefs (Or Truths) Do You Base Your Life?
I believe that life is a relative experience. Everyone is living their own reality; their own universe. This universe is based on the sum of their experiences combined with how they think the world should be and how they negotiate the way it actually is, as well as some inate identity you were born with (have you ever heard how a baby’s temprament never really changes as it grows into an adult?). Keeping that in mind, I feel that there is no one right way to live. What works for some people will not work for others. It’s my experiance that this idea contradicts many other peoples beliefs (basically that there is one right way to live and they’re striving to achieve it) so it scares some or atleast makes some feel uncomfortable. It shouldn’t. This notion is something to be embrassed and loved. The universe runs on infinite diversity in infinite combinations. This can be seen all around us. It is diversity that keeps the ecosystem flourishing and keeps the universe alive. It is when governments, religions, and people try to proclaim that they know the right way that everyone should follow that people become truly at odds with each other; people are persecuted, get hurt, die, wars start, etc. That is not to say that I don’t believe in rules or laws or that those that harm the community shouldn’t be dealt with in some fashion. I simply believe in compassion, because even though I say that I believe we are all living our own seperate reality I also believe in the paradox of this–we are all in it together. We are alone, but not. And at our most basic we are all the same person, aren’t we? We all want the same things. We want to be loved and give love, to be nourished, to be respected, to enjoy life and be happy, to create and be productive. Simply put, I’d say try to be happy and at peace with yourself above all, do what you feel is right, and try not to hurt anyone along the way.
Filed under: Writen by Nick
Well it’s been a while since anything has been posted here, for that I am sorry. Ryan and I have been really busy lately with our own things. I know Ryan is currently working on a post for here so we could have some discussion so I hope that goes well. Otherwise, I am curious to see if any of you have some ideas for topics or if you have some questions for us, if so you can either comment here or shoot us an e-mail at righttosay@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you guys!
Filed under: Written by Ryan
Nick posted this list and his responses over at his personal blog TCRA. Then he tagged me with it, meaning that it was my turn. Also I believe that he, like many who have visited this site, just wanted some activity on my end. Sometimes I need a little extra push as I am a world class procrastinator. On top of that I’ve been busy with work and school and other aspects of my life. I just wanted to thank everyone for their support, interest and patience. Rest assured there will be more posts in the future and that your comments have not fallen on deaf ears (or would that be blind eyes?). An especially loud shout-out goes to Inaeth whose posts I’ve followed with great interest and whose blog I visit regularly now. Iif you haven’t yet, go check it out right now. He’s a cool cat with an informed view of the world that puts me to shame. Now let’s get to it —
A Book That Changed Your Life – It’s hard for me to say that any book literally changed my life. However, a book that profoundly affected my outlook on the world and the way I think about things would have to be Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I have a poster up in my room now that was inspired by Ishmael and I think speaks to the spirit of the book. When you first look at it up close it is a mess of white squiggles and blue blotches. It’s only when you step back that the message reveals itself:
“The genius of seeing that which is so evident as to be unseeable”
A Book That You’ve Read More Than Once – Slaughterhouse Five Or The Children’s Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
A Book You’d Want On A Desert Island – A big one. That floats. I’d use the pages for sails.
A Book That Made You Giddy – The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: The Increasingly Inaccurate Trilogy. “Zaphod Beeblebrox crawled bravely along a tunnel, like the hell of a guy he was.” “You’re a Jerk, Dent. A complete kneebiter.” “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” “Its unpleasantly like being drunk.’ ‘Whats so unpleasant about being drunk?’ ‘You ask a glass of water.’” “Ford, I think I’m a sofa.’ ‘I know how you feel.’” “If theres anything more important than my ego round, I want it caught and shot now.” “Don’t try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.” “It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.”
A Book That You Wished Had Been Written – I’m still holding out hope for this one: Kurt Vonnegut, 87 years old and running on nothing but unfiltered Pall Malls, mentioned a novel he was writing about a comedian back in 2001 when I was fortunate enough to see him at the Chicago Public Library. He mentioned it briefly again in his latest collection of essays A Man Without A Country. A new Kurt Vonnegut novel would be an event of epic proportions for me. Would I give my right arm? I’d give someones. Second place goes to A Salmon of Doubt – the novel the late great Douglas Adams was working on when he passed away. It may have become the 6th book in the Hitchhikers series as Adams said it wasn’t working as a Dirk Gently novel and the last Hitchhikers book had a bummer of an ending.
A Book That Made You Sob – The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
A Book That You Wished Had Never Been Written – The Wooden Sea by Jonathon Carroll. Worth reading if only for how spectacularly baffling it is. This one pissed me off so much I had to make a friend read it just so I had somebody to bitch with. He has still not forgiven me. Also, I could do without anything by Ann Coulter.
A Book That You Are Currently Reading – The Seven-Percent Solution by Nicolas Meyer. Sherlock Holmes And Sigmund Freud Together Again For the First Time! I swear to God it says that on the jacket.
A Book That You Have Been Meaning to Read – You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers and Cloning the Buddha by Richard Heinberg. Gotta clone somebody.
Filed under: Writen by Nick
I also posted this over at TCRA, but I thought that it would make for a good disscussion over here as well.
I have written on this topic several times, however, I never seem to get tired of discussing it. Religion is a very touchy subject, that’s because everyone believes something. Everyone has a religion; yes, even atheists are part of a religion. Whether you like it or not it takes just much faith to believe in evolution as it does to believe in God, but that’s a discussion for another time. I have been reading up on different beliefs recently and I came across “The Theosophical Society”, who believes, as far as I understnd, every belief system is correct, They are all just differant paths to take. That’s a great thought, believe whatever you want and do good things every once in a while, and you’ll be okay in the end, but is that possible? Can every religion be true in the end; is it all like the spokes on a bicycle wheel, different paths with the same destination? This is the question I am out to tackle. I have tip toed around this subject a few times, but now I want to settle it once and for all. If at the end of this you have any questions or ideas you would like to add, feel free to do so.
Christians believe that there is only one way to get to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ. We get this from the Bible when Jesus himself says, “no one can come to the father except through me.”
This is what Paul E. Little had to say on the subject in his book “Know Why you Believe”, he is speaking on the fact that Christians believe Christ is the one true way:
“Christians believe this, not because they made it their rule, but because Jesus Christ and the Bible, their source, state it. In fact the core message is woven through both the Old and New Testaments. A Christian is not giving his or her own bias but is explaining the biblical facts.
If we should say we would like to change this truth and vote in something more inclusive, here is our dilemma. We would be changing something that is not humanly changeable. It is fixed and is either completely true or completely false.”
If we changed the fact that Jesus is the only way then that would negate the entire religion of Christianity and thus saying Christianity is wrong. If Christianity were wrong, then, the belief that every religion is right would be wrong as well.
Little goes on to explain that there are certain laws we can change, for instance, the speed limit. If we all decided to change the speed limit that’s okay, we could go faster and there would be no penalty for it. But lets say we all got together and said we didn’t like gravity, lets do away with that. So we all took a vote and said gravity does not exist, no one in his or her right mind would go out and jump off a building to test it, right? Gravity is a law that cannot be changed; the same is true with religion. Just because you don’t believe something does not mean it isn’t true, likewise, if you do believe something that does not make it true. “You are entitled to your own private opinion, but you are not entitled to your own private truth” as put by Erwin W. Lutzer.
All religions claim to be true, how then can all the religions be true if they all contradict each other? Buddhist’s believe in many impersonal gods, and Christians believe in one very personal God, Can these both be true? Either one of these is true or they are both false, they cannot both be true. Lets say I believe with all my heart that I am a pink rabbit, but you, with all your heart, believe I am a red rhino, are we both right just because we believe it with all our heart? Or a person who sees hallucinations, he believes they are there but we all know they are not. Just because you want something to be true that doesn’t make it true.
I am not using this to convert all of you to Christianity, I am just doing this to help you realize there is a truth out there, and it needs to be found. It is not a personal truth but a universal truth. As Erwin W. Lutzer puts it in his book, “Christ Among Other gods: a Defense of Christ in an Age of Tolerance”,
“Mathematics is transcultural; it is foolish to say 2+2=4 is simply a western idea. Science and technology rely on universal principals that apply in every country, in every era.” He goes on to say: “Logic requires that if there is one God then there is not two, three, or ten. If what Christ said was true, then what Baha u llah said was false.”
Filed under: Writen by Nick
You know something, I don’t know what to think of this whole thing. I want to say I truly believe his apology, but I don’t want it to seem like I’m just saying it because he is a Christian. I have read and heard his apology several times now and it seems that he truly is sorry. He states everything he did wrong, and states why it was wrong. He knows what he did. My feelings are that he has some problems whatever they are, obviously stemming from his fathers beliefs, but he really wants to change that, I find it hard to believe that he likes being that way. I read a interview with him in reader digest, yes readers digest what of it? It was right around the time passion came out and he was asked about his father and weather or not he believes the Holocaust really happened, His answer was something like, he loves his father, but his father has issues.
Anyway like I said I don’t know what to make of it right now.
Filed under: Written by Ryan
Hello, my name is Ryan and this is the beginning of The Blog. I hope it will be a good blog. It has the novelty of being written by two people. Two old friends who grew up a block away from each other, who attended the same schools, had the same teachers and yet whose ideologies couldn’t be more different. Nick is truly the Yin to my Yang, the Christian to my Agnostic, the Peanut Butter to my Jelly.
If you’re looking for the safe, solitary, mental masturbation of a solo blogger I suggest you take your business elsewhere. Here we peddle the unnatural, sloppy, social intercourse that only 2 bloggers at once can have. Never before have the boundaries of blogging been pushed so far. Never before have metaphors been stretched so thin.
You should know that I haven’t read what Nick has written just as he won’t read what I do until we post. This may change down the road, but for now I think we’ll do follow up posts if we want to address each others directly.
For this first blog, Nick suggested that we begin by introducing ourselves, laying out who we are, what we believe and why.
Without further ado, I am 24 years old and grew up the youngest of 3 children to a middle class suburban family. There is a large age gap between my self and my siblings so I also have the traits of an only child. I have a fantastic loner complex.
Growing up I didn’t have any interest in politics or world events. Everything was perfect and safe from my neighborhood abode and the turmoil of the world seemed very far way, indeed. I credit my girlfriend in high school with showing me the importance of having an opinion, being informed and standing up for what you believe.
I consider myself to be a moral person and a Humanist. I try to do right where right without any hope of reward or fear of punishment. While my beliefs have been more refined over the years I can’t think of any one event that solidified it all for me. At my most basic, I have always been this way and felt the way I do about the world.
About a year ago, my mother told me a story about going to a parent/teacher conference \when I was in Kindergarten. Play time back then consisted of diving into a box of animal toys. Everyone wanted to be The Lion. Each day, fights would ensue over who got to be him. My teacher told my mother that I was the mediator, trying to make sure everyone got along. I even came up with a system for who got The Lion on which day. I remember this system. I also remember one conniving little diaper rash who always lied about what day was his. But I honestly don’t remember creating this system. Still, I can’t think of a better story to tell you about who I am.
Well, I if you’re not hooked by now, I can only assure you that the best is yet to come and platitudes are comforting. To all of you blog enthusiasts out there; don’t be shy with comments, criticisms or suggestions. If there is anything you’d like to see discussed on here, by all means let us know. There are over 277,000 other blogs on wordpress. Something might not get said.
Again, this is our blog. Welcome to it.
Filed under: Writen by Nick
Welcome to our new blog, I just wanted to start out by telling you a little about myself:
I grew up in a Christian home going to church on a semi-consistent basis, the thing I remember the most about my younger years in church was falling asleep. I believed in God but it didn’t really interest me that much, I couldn’t see him so I never thought too much about him.
Then one day my mom brought home a movie, it was one of those old cheesy religious movies made on zero budget, called “A Thief in the Night”. I must have been around nine or ten because looking back at the movie it was terrible, but at the time I was terrified. The fear of not going to heaven became real to me for the first time. I began to cry, full out tears. I was so terrified about never seeing my family again after I died. My mom brought me into the other room and sat down with me, I told her every thing I was thinking, all my fears. She began to explain that I don’t need to be afraid, there is a way that I could know for sure that I will go to heaven. She began to tell me about how God knew we would never be good enough to get ourselves into heaven so he sent his son to die for our sins, in our place. It was a gift; all I had to do was accept it.
I know what you are probably thinking, “Nick, you were at most ten years old, how could you fully understand that?” and honestly I probably didn’t. But I never forgot that night and that conversation, and now it has fully reshaped my life. It has shaped the way I think, the way I act, and the way I live.
As I got into high school I started getting more serious about my relationship with God, but I also started realizing how intolerant people are of Christianity. If you say you are a Christian, people will start calling you a bible-thumper or other names. The teachers would even join in on the intolerance, hiding behind the lie of separation of church and state. In Biology they would tell you Christianity was a “pseudo-science”, but evolution was gospel. It was this, though, that made my faith stronger.
It was also in high school that I met Evan Smith, a great man who took me under his wing and showed me how to truly live for Christ. I was in a weekly Bible study with him and several other students; we would get together and talk about God and whatever else was on our minds. Evan encouraged me to do more in ministry; I never thought I could do that. He had me start to lead lessons and various things like that, I loved it, but I still doubted myself. Since that time I have grown a lot, spiritually. My wife and I are now the outreach team leaders at our church, and I am training for Eldership at my church. I still doubt myself sometimes.
This has been a brief history of my spiritual walk. My political walk is significantly easier to explain. I am a Christian, and because a lot of those beliefs coincide with conservative beliefs, I am a conservative.
