OK, here we go then, a quick one-off response for a change – with apologies and please delete / jog on down the digest if you’re uninterested, easily offended, or an atheist botherer.
To be honest, I’ve got no real interest in religion, whatever it is, and no need or desire to defend it. My Christian faith, on the other hand, is based on reason. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that we and the universe we live in are the creation of an enormous power way above our comprehension. (And if it’s true, it’s profoundly unreasonable to think otherwise). It’s also based on evidence – Jesus said he was that powerful God intervening as a human being to get us out of the fine mess we’ve got ourselves into. (Happy Christmas!) To that end, he lived our life, died our death, for us – and then physically rose again to a new kind of existence. That is a very unusual claim: then, as now, dead people, especially those beaten up and tortured to death, don’t just rise up to a new kind of life; they remain stubbornly dead. But that’s the claim here – and it’s a straightforward historical Yes/No prove-all: If Jesus really rose, physically, then happy endings are here to stay, along with faith, hope and love, and mankind really is onto a winner. (Happy Easter!) If he didn’t, Christians are the saddest cases in existence. At least, that’s what the bible says. The more I find out about the bible, the more gobsmacked I am by it. So many different books, stories, documents, and accounts, written by people (ostensibly at least), for people, over hundreds, even thousands of years, which join together in such a coherent and profound whole, showing how God loved and saved us by becoming one of us. The Bible says how he said he was going to do it, and then says from first-hand eye-witness accounts how he did do it. And it gives a few tantalizing pointers into the amazing future ahead too. No historical documents have been subject to as much scrutiny, claim, and counter-claim, and still held up. Check it out. There’s reason, there’s evidence, and there’s also experience. The spiritual experiences I and millions of others have had confirm that Jesus is alive and active right here and now. And now I’ve seen too much, and there’s no going back. Drug addicts and drunks clean and sober, living well. People in even the worst, most inexplicable kind of suffering helped, healed and given heartfelt, tangible hope, enough to hold on. And there's no one beyond this. Not even me. If there is no God and everything is random, then good and bad and even reason and life itself is all a specious temporary irrelevance on a mind-bogglingly enormous scale, and “we’re all doomed” in a lugubrious Scottish undertaker accent, doesn’t even begin to come close to how grim "things" really are. And finally: Football is all about teamwork and support networks in the joint pursuit of a higher goal, at every level. How can footie fans, of all people, not "believe" in "organized religion"? All the singing, handwaving, and self-righteous offence-taking? All the worship of player-idols, all the baying for the blood and sacrifice of inadequate managers? All the boring legalistic stattoes? All the ritualised drinking of alcohol? The heaps of cash, and the hopes of trophy glory? All the mindless turning up even when it's boring and rubbish? And not to mention the endless hatred and even the ongoing, non-metaphorical smiting of enemy tribes? Flip me, even this email list requires organization, policemen and cash to keep going. Mustn't get on the high horse tho, I've been there and done all that too of course (apart from the smiting, obviously…). But then, like I say, I'm not really out to defend 'religion'. I think the local church is the way forward - a bunch of people trusting Jesus meeting to worship God and work with him and each other in and for the world. And in that fallen world, there are well-run clubs and badly run clubs and indifferently run clubs; there are good supporters, bad supporters, indifferent supporters etc etc. That bible book also suggests it’s going to be like this till Jesus shows up again to finish off once and for all the good work he’s started. Back to lurk, and to work, Cheers, Gav DaRealRev, Church of the Real Man – Jesus Christ (Sorry for shamelessly nicking your old tagline John :-) _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate
