From the portal

 Pulpit Talk at Pulpit Rock

 I was continually amazed at the many debates I witnessed about whether God existed or not, all without anyone ever defining what each debater argued who God was that they were advocating.

I was an atheist in those pompous days. My arguments were largely based on the people I witnessed attending churches, and not on God at all. Eventually I realized my position was wallowing in a logical fallacy. The fallacy of the misplaced authority.

I incorrectly assumed the pastor and elders of my church were authorities and that God was in on it with them. This was from my idea as a child that God was in with the "other" adults. 

Today I constantly am meeting atheists who maintain their atheism on their position as an atheist solely because of church people. My view is that the devil of doubt fosters these attacks on the churches. 

This is the reason for the Pulpit Rock blog. Churches spin off atheists from the age of fourteen, only for them to be eaten alive by the time they get to college, where they become educated. (See for the sake of the children at Pulpit Rock)

From the portal

 Problems in Groups

I believe there will come a time when evidence from the unseen world will be more seen in the seen world. It seems inevitable this would happen. Nothing stays the same. Utopian political entities zero in on the concept word, same, as an example of their attempt to strengthen the group but which weakens creativity.

The difference between the political and the religious are not that dissimilar. The religious parties have not done a bangup job of teaching their members, young or old, anything much at all. Even in the time of Jesus, Jesus could suggest in the parable of the unjust servant, that the children of the light were not as smart as the children of the world.

When people gather together in groups, they seem to me to hesitate to engage each other as individuals, preferring to form even smaller cliques. Individuals enjoy agreement by in large, this is their 'never quite fatal' flaw. 

Nevertheless groups, no matter their size, never approach the creativity of the individual. Rather the creative individual can be expelled if they seem too far afield. Some churches emphasize singular differences, like baptism while never engendering an interest in any other focus that might naturally follow. This then becomes their distinction.

It is a point to remember; that Jesus ran against a church clique of His day. Reading the history of the early primitive church is less than awesome as when opposition brought martyrdoms. 

The Cross? Only a symbol?

And Off They Went

The devil is seldom seen in the barroom. Those kind folks can wait on themselves. The devil goes right to the head of the class in churches, religious schools, and especially seminaries.

For as long as my entire lifetime, professors in seminaries only confess to believing the easy part. Anything that takes too much faith they make no effort, avoiding belief in the hard parts. Since then, the polls have only kept growing this trend.

I was astounded to find as a child, that the adults only believed in God for the sake of the children. I overheard adults talking about pulpit talk. When I grew up I did not have to believe any of it. Most of the other kids decided fourteen was grown up. And off they went.

Pleasures of the Flesh wear out and many pleasures demonically turn on and consume their host. The event is often called accidental, but I think rather many were driven to it by demons for relief from exact pleasures turned too painful, like some sort of Venus fly trap.

Children played church on Pulpit Rock just like the adults on Sunday.

Testing My Faith

From the time I was deciding whether Santa Claus existed or not, the adults in church made me wonder the same about Jesus Christ. I eventually learned everything from the adults, who I concluded, were in with God. The verdict was the adults were pretending for the benefit of the children. 

This lesson of pretense was drummed into me, in the church I was born into, to the Christian high school I graduated from, to the religious college I attended where I finally decided I was an avowed atheist. After seven years I became tired of that crowd. The extent of their awareness seemed to be all rejoicing when a church burned down. 

Playing Church

From the church I was born into, to the church I was married in, to the church where they normally put on a celebration when one dies, religion was either for the "benefit of the children" or for "clicks". 

Pretending Church

It was well known, since I heard it often enough from the adults, about pulpit talk. It was just for the children, the adults put no stock in it. All this even as far as my 12th grade in high school where I was told, literally now, it was all for the benefit of the children. 

Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. In my experience, few in church prominence even know or give any recognition of what the commandments are. Many in churches I attended, the lay people preached or taught from books they read. They never said what they themselves believed or mentioned how they came to believe in Jesus. 

If the great doubter cannot shake anyone from their belief in Jesus, he will settle for shaking their belief in the power of Jesus. 

One can only imagine how many fourteen old boys graduate from the coloring books of church and enter college. There they are told, by professors in college, and they agree, when they are told, if you are educated you do not believe in God.

One double negative equal one positive, negative?

I recall an incident, I'll never forget it either, I actually heard someone say a particular preacher they did not like, did not believe in something or the other. Here is the kicker. This was true because this preacher never said that they did not believe it. Amazing how some folks can tangle themselves up in their double negatives. Of course, I suspect not a few talk about me being that way.