The Grax Domain

27 Nov 2007 My problems with Christianity

I had so much to say about this subject that rather than typing it all out I felt like recording it as a mp3. Kinda like one of those dang fangled podcast thingys you hear so much about.

You can listen to my rant here. Click to listen or right click and 'Save-As' to download.

P.S. It's around 30 minutes long.

18 Nov 2007 Waking Life movie review

Waking Life is the story about a man who is experiencing a series of dreams one after the other. That's the best way to describe it because there isn't really a plot in the movie in the traditional sense. Throughout the movie is a series of shorts that talk about deep, philosophical ideas, ranging from life, reality, consciousness, religion, society, dreams, and many other subjects. You not so much watching a story but more like taking part in a deep intellectual exercise.

And the way movie presents itself can only be described as art. Rather than being traditional video, the movie is essentially hand drawn over each frame of the video to create a cartoon, art experience. This allows for some very artist effects. The scenery shifts and changes, peoples features become exaggerate as they speak, clouds of symbolism appear subtly out of peoples mouths. The whole thing really does look like a dream.

This is not a brain-dead movie that you sit down to and mindlessly enjoy. Yes you can simply observe the pretty colours and movement but then you miss out of so much depth. If you take on board the assault of big words and expressions then you discover a whole world of ideas that, even though you mind not have heard of them often, somehow it makes perfect sense and you wonder why you don't hear it more often.

I really enjoyed watching this movie and I cannot recommend watching this enough. It's one of those things that people should experience at least once. At the end it'll make you think about life in a different way and think "Hmm, maybe I can give this whole 'waking dream' thing a go".

GRAX RATING : 5/5

17 Nov 2007 A Theory of Everything

I am a great believer of multiple dimensions of reality. The idea that there are several different universes in other dimensions with different versions of me seems very plausible. Kinda like Jet Li's The One, only without the bad soundtrack chosen by a nu-metal emo kid. I once read this article in the science magazine New Scientist which talked about the idea of time being purely a human perception. It gave an example of the frog's perception of time being a fraction slower than the fly's perception of time, therefore the frog missed the fly when it tried to eat it. I wish I could remember which issue it was because it was fascinating. Anyway there was a theory of reality in there which I would like to paraphrase and make into my own words:

"Anything and everything that is possible in life and reality happens all at once; time, space, matter, human emotions and choices, everything. This creates a kind of reality White Noise (much like the colour of white is the reflection of all light bouncing off an object, so too is the 'white light' of all possibilities).

"Human perception of reality is a series of still frames that goes in order, much like a Zoetrope. Therefore whenever someone makes a choice in life, or is guided down a particular path in life he is perceiving one set of snapshots of reality.

"This, in theory, can accommodate the idea of 'Free Will VS Predetermined Fate'. That is to say both can exist at the same time because everything has happened (past, present and future) at once, which covers fate, but mankind has the choice of perceiving one set of reality, hence the free will part."
Grax

I remember reading a comic, Marvel's Hyperion from Supreme Power fame in fact, and in it there was a character called Arcanna, of Squadron Supreme (Earth-31916) . She has the ability to perceive and influence parallel quantum dimensions, which is kinda similar to what I just said. Upon reading her Wiki entry I found this length page about Many-World interpretation. I have yet to read it due to it's sheer length, but I'm sure it's a fascinating read.

What do you guys think about all this?

16 Nov 2007 Alpha Course: Week 6

This weeks session was entitled "How Does God Guide Us?" Mankind has a great desire in life for guidance because, ultimately, mankind always wants the easiest way in life. Sometimes people can feel like their on the wrong path in life, or perhaps they are no longer on plan A. Can the Holy Spirit provide us with the right path in life?

The usual minister took the center stage and talked on this subject, which covered the following topics:

• Commanding Scripture – Stuff that is written in the Bible
• Compelling Spirit – Urges and impulses that people follow
• Common Sense – Self explanatory
• Counsel of Saints – Talk to other people to get other opinions
• Circumstantial Signs – Things that seem to happen just in the right place at the right time to give us a sign.

I was expecting the minister to go all preachy and holy upon his audience, ranting on about listening to the bible, to listening to any and all external sources to be a sign from God and so on. But to my surprize he was not. He stated that, although these 'spiritual interventions' like coincidences and holy messages do occur, we should not just blindly follow these messages without questioning and making sure that it is indeed the Word of God guiding us. He encouraged us to use our common sense and intuition and to consult others. Which to me was very positive to hear from the minister because it's not a message that is solely for Christians but can be applied to anyone and everyone. The minister stated that the Bible tells us only the 'How' in life, not the 'Where', 'Who', 'Why', and so on. And lastly the minister told us that God is with us always and loves us and, no matter what mistakes we make in life (because we will make mistakes, we're only human after all), He will be there for us to help us through life.

In my discussion group I felt it was quite difficult to come up with anything to discuss, mainly because it was all said already. That and it was requested we don't discuss the age old debate of "Free will vs pre-determined life" because "We would just go round in circles and we will never know the answers". Still we managed to come up with some points, including how making mistakes was a good thing because it develops character, understanding and empathy. Though one should not go around making mistakes just to experience them. I also came up with the argument that everything we do in life we have a choice, even with particularly difficult things including severe mental illnesses like depression and suicidal tendencies. Although I will admit this is purely a naïve claim and I will never fully understand what it feels like to have a severe mental illness.

I also managed to state a theory about reality that I adapted from an article I read in the New Scientist magazine (though I can't remember which article, which is a shame because it would back my theory up a lot). I proposed that every possible possibility in life happens at once, which creates a kind of 'white noise'. Our perception of reality is a series of snapshots through this white noise, like a Zoetrope, which leads down one path of reality. This could accommodate both free will and destiny because everything has been determined and played out, yet we can still choose to see which reality to perceive.

As expected I was met with looks of bemusement and disbelief, with one person swiftly saying "Well I don't believe that". However one person did approach me afterwards and asked me to elaborate on that subject, which I found quite flattering.

This weeks session I felt had a more weaker connection with Christianity compared to the other sessions and had less opportunities for discussion, partly because there was no need for any discussion. Whether this was the desired effect that the runners of the Alpha Course wanted or not I couldn't possibly say.

One more thing; the minister stated a bit of a disclaimer regarding "Hearing the Words of God". He warned us to be careful with making such a claim as "God has spoken to me and he said....", rather than saying something like "I get the feeling that God was talking to me because....". The reason for this is because the first statement is a strong claim and in the ministers words "Who are we to question his claim? It is the Word of God" like it is the end of discussion, whilst the second statement is an open claim that can be discussed. So it almost means that if you say "God has told me that.." then Christians have to believe you because they cannot go against the Word of God.

I find that a tad disturbing.

13 Nov 2007 Alpha Course: The Day Out part 3

After session 1 and session 2 it was time for the final talk of the day; 'How Can I be Filled with the Holy Spirit'.

The minister gave his final talk on the subject of the Holy Spirit. There was much page flicking and praising about how great God and Jesus Christ is, which is what I've come to expect from each of these talks. He answered the question of "How do we know that we are a Christian?", though whether he overheard our discussion or he planned to addressed that question much earlier only he knew. His answer is that everyone reacted differently to the realisation and acceptance of Christhood; some laugh with joy, others shed a tear, some don't feel particularly different.

He also mentioned that Christians received gives from God, one of which is speaking in tongue. The minister didn't want to speak in tongue in front of everyone but mentioned that if anyone was interested then he would happily take people in the corner to discuss it further. I was rather curious about what speaking in tongue sounded like. However I never plucked up the courage to directly ask him.

He concluded the session with the message of God is always wanting to give more and more of the Holy Spirit to help you when it is needed; all you need to do is ask Him.

He then got everyone to stand up and invited them to a silent prayer. The minister prayed out loud, thanking God for a whole manner of things. I decided to close my eyes and do some breathing exercises to relax myself so I didn't really hear what the minister said. Then he got all the staff members to go to each of the people standing up and place their hand on them to pray. Something like a channelling of praying power or something.

Then the minister approached me and, with my eyes closed, he placed his hand on my chest.

He prayed for me.
He thanked me for having a inquisitive mind and for being a seeker.
He wanted to let me know that God loved me.
I could feel the warmth of his hand on my chest. Noticeably warm in fact. I was trying to work out if he still had his hand on my chest or not without opening my eyes.

After the prayer everyone opened their eyes. I felt particularly relaxed.

Now to me there could be either one of two things happening there. One, is that there was a kind of spiritual energy being used (perhaps even The Holy Spirit™ Himself) or two, the minister and staff members we using the power of suggestion to program people to think positively.

After the prayer the day was pretty much finished and it was time to go home. I took this opportunity to do a little networking with some of the other people. It was interesting to listen to their other viewpoints; some were very passionate about Jesus Christ and argued for his case strongly, others were not too sure about Christianity and had more questions than answers, one was a complete Atheist and gave a completely different spin to the whole religion angle.

One person's comment cause my attention the most. I was discussing the idea that there were many similarities between religions. This leads me to believe that there was once a single real thing, whether it be God, a mass spiritual energy, or whatever, that all religions stem from. However over time ideas changed, names got mixed up and lost, and eventually religions ended up the way they roughly look like today. This guy quickly though about what I said and came back with a response that challenged me. He pretty much said to me:

“If all religions have one original stemming point but then split off into their own versions, which one speaks the truth?”

I sat in my car at the end of the day, the only car left in the car park. This was the time for me to reflect upon the day, I felt like I wasn't ready to go home just yet.

I enjoyed the chance to learn more about Christianity and to hear different people's opinions, as well as voicing my own opinions. The thing I thought about the most was the silent prayer.

The silent prayer at the end of the day, with the church staff members approaching people, placing their hands upon them and channelling the energy to them. It was the first time that I've ever come across something that physical in any religious activity before. Obviously this channelling has a positive impact upon Christians as they believe in it. Likewise I can imagine that this touching would have no effect on somebody that does not believe in religion and spiritual things.

But what happens if you apply this energy channelling to a non-Christian but slightly believes in spirituality?

What happens if you use the power of language and the power of suggestion on someone who is suggestible and can be easily influenced?

Can a church staff member spot these believers/influential people in the audience and target them?

...

I have to admit that the experience did leave me feeling a little... unsure of myself.

God I hate thinking sometimes.

11 Nov 2007 Alpha Course: The Day Out part 2

I took up the chance to do a special edition of the Alpha Course session, where we all went to a Christian centre in Stratford upon Avon and discussed the Weekend Talk session. We had done the first session in the morning entitled 'Who is the Holy Spirit'. Now it was time for part 2; 'What Does the Holy Spirit Do'.

We gather round the minister once again after we finished with our drinks. Once again he told a light-hearted story to break the ice and then went straight into the subject. The minister talked about being 'born again' spiritually and he addressed the situation about 'normal' Christians' behaving towards 'born again' Christians, almost as if they look down upon them. The minister made the quite bold claim that one was not a Christian unless he was born again, Jesus Christ stated that you needed to go through this spiritual rebirth. He then continued to speak covering topics of:

• Developing the relationship with God (seriously, this idea crops up every week)
• Unity in the family
• Gifts from God

The minister concluded with the statement of every Christian has the Holy Spirit within them but not every Christian is filled with the spirit. This got me thinking. Considering all the 'evidence' I seen in my life, both Christian and non-Christian, I believe that everyone has some kind of spiritual energy inside them and that some people are more spiritually developed than others. The question is can this energy be used in something other than Christian related, like Wicca related for example. Can it only be The Holy Spirit or could it be something else?

After the talk we broke up into two large groups to discuss the two sessions we had. Unlike the usual weekly spot where we saw our same old group members, people got mixed up into the different groups. So there were some fresh new face with fresh new ideas. It was good because I was able to meet a couple of other people, Christians no doubt, who were not 100% satisfied with the answers that were presented to them.

One such discussion point was “How do I know that I am filled with the Holy Spirit?” There were various answers to this questions including:

• You feel it inside you, like a gut instinct.
• There are two main ways of becoming a Christian. There's the 'Hallelujah' moment, where one significant thing happens to you that makes you believe, or there's the gradual moment, where over a period of time you grow and develop your belief, like a spreading infection (not the most pleasing comparison I know but it does paint a powerful picture)
• People have good and bad day, which influence how we feel about God and The Holy Spirit.

But still these answers were not good enough for one person in the group. In the end that person came up with a weak answer of “Well I guess my moment of knowing will come soon”, like he had given up trying to convince the people in the group to his way of thinking. It's a feeling that I can sympathise with.

This session highlighted one of the main desires of human beings, the desire for there to be more than life. There was lots of talks about how God promises so much goodness for Christians but they have to wait for it. A common way of controlling the masses through the promise of rewards beyond rewards.

People long for a sense of freedom in life and Christianity promises that freedom once you accept Jesus Christ into you life. However what people fail to realise is that the only real reason why they are constricted in life is because of the barriers that are put up around them by:

1. Society's rules
2. Their own rules

If people tried and pushed their boundaries a bit more I think they would be surprized as to how much they can get away with. They are free in life and they can do whatever they want. It's just a case of dealing with the consequences of their actions, whether great or small.

To be concluded.

10 Nov 2007 Alpha Course: The Day Out part 1

As part of the Alpha Course there is an opportunity for people to go out for the day for a special session. The main purpose of this is to cover the three Weekend Talk session covered in the course; 'Who is the Holy Spirit', 'What Does the Holy Spirit Do' and 'How Can I be Filled with the Holy Spirit'. In this case it meant a day trip to a Christian community centre in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Not wanting to do this course half-arsed and with a desire to complete the course in its entirety I agreed to attend the day trip.

Once everyone had arrived and had a cuppa tea we were all seated and the first session entitled 'Who is the Holy Spirit' began. The usual minister speaker told light-hearted jokes and stories to break the ice and gave his talk on the subject, with the sound of a dozen people flicking through bible pages echoing throughout the hall. The talk featured:

• God passed his message to prophets in chunks, not the whole thing. He spoke these chunks to different prophets that lived in different areas, even in different times. Therefore the complete message is written in the bible but must be discovered and pieced together.
• God intended to inject His spirit and His law inside the heart of humanity for them to 'instinctively' follow.
• The ministers read out a quote with said something along the lines of "If you thought of God as a influence then you wanted more of it. However if you thought of God as a person then you would want a relationship with Him".
• The Holy Spirit came upon particular people at particular times to do particular tasks. One person that was mentioned was Bezalel.
• There was a gap of around 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the start of the New Testament where there was no activity written in the bible.

Wait a minute. There was a gap of around 400 years missing in the bible? 400 years unaccounted for. I didn't know about this. What happened during that time?

After the talk I approached the minster and asked him about what happened historically during that time (presumably between 400BC and 0AD). He told me about how the prophets were no longer getting messages from God for some unknown reason; in fact there were no prophets. People began to form their own groups. However that is not to say that nothing was written down. There are a series of literatures called Apocryphas that documented all the events happening during this quiet period. But despite being written down they are not included in most bibles. Because these Apocryphas were not written by prophets they were shunned as they were not The Words of God. Another minister at the session added that during the bible's formation there was a Jewish council and a Christian council that got to decide what should go into the bible. Presumably they didn't think it was important enough to include the Apocryphas in the bible.

I know the bible is big enough as it is, but withholding information from the masses almost seems like they were trying to hide stuff that they don't want the people to know. Something... sinister and un-Christian like. Then again these Apocryphas are easily available to people who seek them.

Also during that 400 year period Israel was invaded by the Greeks and then later by the Romans. When the Romans invaded they created a stable and 'content' society. Which got me to thinking; if there was a content society were everyone thought they were happy then perhaps there was no need for religion. After all, why hope for something better in the future when everything is OK right now?

Perhaps that's one reason why today's society is spiritually and religiously numb.

More to follow.

9 Nov 2007 Alpha Course: Week 5

Halfway through the Alpha Course and this week's session is entitled "Why and How Should I Read the Bible?" Apparently it's not just a simple case of picking it up and flicking through the pages, although I feel there will always be plenty of page flicking.

According to the statistics presented by the minister speaking in this session the Bible is the most popular, top selling book ever. With around 1.52 million bibles sold in the UK each year and around 6.8 bibles in each US house (.8 of a bible? Destroying a bit of the bible? Blasphemers!!) it seems that the bible is indeed number 1. But why is this?

Whilst it is true that the bible is full of stories its serves a greater purpose. It is claimed that the bible is The Word of God (that is to say that God is speaking through the prophets that write out the passages), and that the point of the bible is for Christians to develop a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. These words are written by various people in the past, from Roman Catholics to Greeks and so forth, and most of all the bible is perfect and it contains no errors.

The bible is perfect and contains no errors.... That is quite a strong claim to have.

Especially when you consider:

• The bible has been translated into different languages over time, including Hebrew and Greek. Could it be possible that there could be some misunderstanding and mistranslations over time?
• The words of the bible were not originally written down. They were passed through word of mouth. Could it be possible that someone forgot some bits of important information? Or worse, lied for their own personal gain?
• The bible can be quite difficult for the average person to understand its meaning. How does it relates to their modern day to day lives. Mind you there are external 'bible guides' available for people to use to help them understand the message of the bible. But does that mean all these guides will say the same thing or will they be different depending on which guide you pick?
• The difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is that the Old describes a brutal world, whilst the New paints an image of mercy.

I believe that the purpose of the bible, for those who choose to read and accept it, is for it to be a guide. A guide to show people how to be a good human being, to co-exist with his fellow man and to create a world of peace. But these are core values and ideas that all of humanity should have. Do we need to stick a religion label on it just to get people doing it?

And if we are trying to become better people can we get the same effect as the guiding bible from various self-help books from you local book shop?

2 Nov 2007 Alpha Course: Week 4

This week's session was all about the hows and the whys of prayer. One of the main tools for Christianity, or indeed any other religion, would it be enough for me to communicate to God?

The minister was not there this week but there was a speaker to take up the challenge. He talked for around 15-20 minutes but the main points that I picked up were:

• 2/3 of people in the UK pray at least once a week and around 95% of people have admitted to praying at least once in their life.
• People tend to dismiss events happening after a successful prayer as coincidence
• The main purpose of prayer is to develop one's relationship with God and they only can access God via Jesus Christ.
• One reason why prayers are not answered is that people have sins which are not forgiven, and it is this sin that blocks us from God (which seems odd because surely all our sins are forgiven and removed by Jesus Christ's death, therefore there should be nothing blocking the way)
• Got is willing to answer your prayers and will happily give you what you need, all you need to do is ask.

I sat in the group listening to the speaker trying to absorb as much information as possible. However I got more value from the group discussion that came next.

Each member in my group sat in the usual circle and we all started to share our experiences with prayer. One woman shared her experience of a child that was born prematurely and her health was deteriorating. The mother prayed her hardest but nothing was happening. She got her friends and family to pray for the child but still nothing. Feeling she needed all the help she could get she asked many people from churches and eventual she had around 400 people praying for this child's good health. As soon as that happen the child made a miraculous recovery. With such a story surely there is a strong case of prayer being a real thing and that God does indeed answer prayers.

What if there was another explanation? And I'm not talking about coincidences because they don't exist.

What if it was all about attitude and looking things positively? The power of affirmation. I've touched upon this subject in the past and there are several more detailed websites in the Internet about this subject. The idea is that you think positively and eventually it appears that everything around you starts to go your way. Likewise if you constantly think negatively everything around you appears to be going badly. That is the power of the human mind and human attitude.

Why I've even had a prayer experience myself.

One time I went to a Christian Bible Study session with a Christian friend I had at the time. They discussed everyday life things but at the beginning and end they said a prayer out loud. It was kind of a improvised thing; one person would pray for a bit and then another person would pick up from where the last person left off. They were really getting into it. As I sat there with my eyes closed I could feel a kind of energy, a kind of excitement building up in the room. Eventually I felt really so good and excited that I felt compelled to join in. I rambled incoherently some sort of thanks to some sort of 'holy spirit'. Me, a non-believer doing a prayer. I shared my story to the other group members asking them if they had felt this before. One of them replied "Yes, that is the Holy Spirit".

Was it really the Holy Spirit flowing into me? Or was it something else? Could it been a case of mob mentality?

The best way to explain this would be with an idea. Imagine a music concert with hundred of people listening to the best musician, with everyone singing and dancing away. Or a riot breaking out for some reason and it absorbs more and more people into the destructive mass. There is that same kind of strong emotion, strong energy swirling around as there would be in a mass prayer. A person can easily get swept away and do all sorts. And it makes the person feel good too so they are more likely to repeat the activity. So the next time you get into a group activity and you start doing the same as everyone else, ask yourself is it because you're choosing to do it or is it because you got caught up in the moment?

This has been the most positive session I've had on the Alpha Course so far. The idea of prayer and getting results from them appears to be something that is documented outside of Christianity, whether it be religious or non-religious in origin, and it seems to produce results. Whatever the label is I am more convinced that there is something there. Some sort of energy to be used.

The question is what is the most efficient way of tapping into it?