Dec 28, 2017
BAKED and AWAKE
Mars Hill
Church
Episode 20
27
December 2017
Why Mars Hill?
I have loved religion from as
far back as I can remember. I am also more accurately described, when
done so objectively, as a secular humanist more than anything else at least as regards my
personal spiritual leanings. I don’t even claim agnostic per se, although that label might be accurate.
I understand that term to mean that more or less we can’t rule a
conscious Creator God out, but by no means can one be ruled IN,
either. Therefore, agnostics claim to know NOTHING, or to not know
one way or the other, if there is or is not a God.
Note: Definition of Agnostic,
Origin; Greek (Unknowable)
noun
- a person who holds that the existence of the
ultimate cause, as God,and the essential nature of things are
unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to
experience.
- 2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate
knowledge in some area of study.
- 3. a person who holds neither of two opposing positions on a
topic:
Synonyms: disbeliever,
non
believer, unbeliever;
doubter,
skeptic,
secularist,
empiricist;
heathen,
heretic,
infidel,
pagan.
Some notes on the Host and my own context for my
interest in Mars Hill Church
- I
grew up in the Episcopal Church on Long Island NY in the 1970’s and
80’s
- No
Abuse, nor did I know of any in our church, specifically the clergy
were scandal free
- I was
an Altar Boy
- Was
Confirmed at age 13, Catechism, etc
- Grew
up watching The 700 Club and other Evangelicals on TV
- Youth
Group, Vacation Bible School, Etc
- Began
to distance myself from the church after Confirmation
- Questions I had were not being
answered
- The
standard teenager questions, albeit politely put always- “How could
Jesus die and come back after three days? How did Mary have Jesus
if she had never laid with Joseph? How did Noah and so many others
live to such advanced ages? Speaking of Noah, how about all those
animals? Dinosaurs? Lazarus? The Parting of the Red Sea?
Etc
- Glib
answers, then polite evasion gave way to eventual exasperation,
(never malicious just lacking imagination) is how I would
characterize the response from both my youth pastor and our actual
Minister.
- I had
to argue my way out with my parents finally at age 15 or so, when
we relocated to WA State and I no longer had my old Youth Group and
Sunday School kids to care about
- Still- I loved religion and spirituality, even
as at the time I might have claimed to be an Athiest! I read
and studied religiously inspired books throughout High School and
into my adulthood. This was during the Barnes and Noble and Borders
Books heyday, and you felt like you could purchase your own
personal LIbrary of Alexandria at the time. .
- Everything from vapid Christian self help books
like “The Road Less Traveled” and others, to annotated translations
of difficult to appreciate texts like The Dhammapada and The Upanishads. Now these books are not to be maligned as not
worth understanding- indeed the opposite is quite true, and there
are wonderful concepts that see expression in the beliefs and
mythologies of Hinduism, Bhuddism, and indeed a personal favorite
of mine, Taoism. Taoism, who’s most famous texts are the Tao
Te Ching, and the Chuang Tzu, or Zhuangzi. They just take more work than
reading your average study bible, for a young self taught reader
trying to apply some critical analysis, or so I thought at the
time- to the materials.
What follows is an unedited chat
between the host and two guests, Adam Schaeffer and Douglas
Moreland. Friends and former members of the Mars Hill Church
Congregation. Part Two to follow in the next couple of days. Thank
you for listening and please drop a review on iTunes sometime if
you are enjoying the Pod!
-Steve