hollytheheretic

[hollytheheretic]

Not about religion, necessarily, but because it’s tied into Christmas traditions, and I thought it was cool, I wanted to share this.

Source

#santa claus #religion #religion and spirituality #spirituality #christmas #christmas traditions #Christian #Christianity

[hollytheheretic]

People be like u so disrespectful to God with all your criticisms and I’m like bitch you think the creator of the universe can’t handle being questioned by my dumb ass?

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #christianity #christian #humor

[hollytheheretic]

So, one of my most recent sticking points has been the issue of the morality of other deities and minor spirits in a Christian framework. I happen to believe that there is a vast spiritual landscape beyond the Trinity, although my reasoning on this is a bit complicated.

I can’t, in good conscience, assume that all spirits outside of the Trinity and whatever angels or Saints recognized by various Christians are evil, since that would necessarily vilify those outside of Christianity who worship other deities and spirits. At the very least, it paints them as “deceived,” which is condescending at best, and completely invalidates any positive experiences they may have. Painting them all as simply a different understanding of the one true God is an issue for similar reasons. It privileges our understanding of the supernatural, effectively erasing other cultures beliefs by assuming they’re simply imperfect shades of our own.

Now, being a universalist, it makes sense not to condemn people for worshiping other gods, but what of the gods themselves? It seems to follow that, to respect another person, you have to have at least a bare minimum amount of respect for their spirituality, assuming they aren’t hurting anyone. And I find respecting other religions and spiritual beliefs to be incompatible with the Christian understanding of the spiritual landscape. I can’t claim to respect, for example, a Hindu if I think all of their gods are either fabricated, or demonic. This is yet another thing that seems to put me out of the Christian camp, and I’m not sure how I feel about that yet.

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #christianity #christian #Christianity and other religions

[hollytheheretic]

Anyone else friggin love candles? I know full well they don’t actually bring me closer to God in any concrete sense, but they are just the best thing to meditate with.

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #christianity #christian #meditation

[hollytheheretic]

i don’t know who needs to hear this, but being disciplined should not equal punishment towards yourself, your body and your mind.

#religion #spirituality #evolution and spirituality #discipline #self discipline #healthy self discipline #reminders #mental health #affirmations

[hollytheheretic]

I’d like to take some time to let you all know that my faith has taken a bit of a turn. I’m not having a crisis or anything, and I’m actually really happy with where I am. However, I haven’t felt comfortable sharing a lot of my most recent thoughts, as its a lot of new territory that I’m still trying to make sense of privately. I’m also not entirely sure much of it would be appropriate to the theme of my blog. I do, of course, realize that my blog is, well, mine, but I’ve been feeling somewhat obligated not to get too far off theme in terms of what I post.

This isn’t to say that I will never talk about my faith on this blog again. I’m just not in the mood to be as open about my thoughts as I was when I first started it. I will continue to make occasional posts that I feel are relevant, as well as respond to any messages or asks. Otherwise, I’ll probably be pretty quiet for the foreseeable future.

#religion #religion and spirituality #spirituality #update

[hollytheheretic]

Sometimes I want nothing more than for God to pick me up out of my shit and tell me He loves me. But I’m scared of parts of myself being left behind in the muck.

I want to be loved for who I am, but who gets to decide where my shit ends and “I” start. Do others get to reject the parts of me that they don’t think belong, and still claim to love “me?” Is there even a meaningful distinction between “me,” and “not me” to be made in the first place?

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #food for thought #religious thoughts #thoughts #religious musings #personal musings #showerthoughts

[hollytheheretic]

How is being religious different from having a deep sense of spirituality?

Spirituality, generally speaking, is a person’s private sense of relationship with spirit. Religiosity, however, is whether one affiliates with a specific religion. You don’t need to be religious to be spiritual, and you don’t necessarily have to be spiritual to be religious.

Religions are there to provide structure for group ritual, which would be hard to come by as an individual. Not everyone feels the need to participate in group rituals, but many find them meaningful. Not everyone gets the same things out of them. A more spiritual person may enjoy the energy of the room, and the sense of God’s presence, whereas a less spiritual person may simply enjoy getting together with like-minded people to celebrate culturally significant days.

A non-religious, yet spiritual person may prefer to be alone while they engage in their preferred spiritual activities, as the structure of religion may be more of a hindrance in some cases. Religious dogma can make spirituality more complicated, especially for people who like to get deep into the meat of things, as it’s easy to get caught up in the inconsistencies that often come with it.

Personally, I don’t think either spirituality or religion are better than the other. Religion has the advantage of providing a coordinated approach to spiritual development and resource sharing, and many people benefit greatly from it. However, such coordination also provides the opportunity for power to concentrate in the hands of influential leaders, which goes about as well as you’d expect. Private spirituality doesn’t have the issue of power as much, and allows people to develop their own relationships with God/gods/spirit that suits their unique needs. However, so much of spiritual development revolves around learning to have healthier relationships with other people as well as spirits, and spending too much time alone can hinder this development in the long term. My personal opinion is that it’s best to spend time in both religious spaces (or something equivalent if you don’t feel comfortable with an established religion) and in private spiritual contemplation, as they both develop different aspects of a person.

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #christianity #christian #general spirituality #ask

[hollytheheretic]

“Some people live in cages with bars built from their own fears and doubts. Some people live in cages with bars built from other people’s fears and doubts; their parents, their friends, their brothers and sisters, their families. Some people live in cages with bars built from the choices others made for them, the circumstances other people imposed upon them. And some people break free.”

— C. JoyBell

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #mental health #mental illness #recovery #c. joybell #motivation #quotes

[hollytheheretic]

I am very grateful to God that He has allowed me to live in the same neighborhood as an obese, orange cat named Wilson.

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #inspiration #humor #gratitude

[hollytheheretic]

“I believe love is why we’re here on the planet and that ultimately it’s our purpose for life. They say people who’ve had near-death experiences often report back that at the end of our lives we have a life review and we’re asked one question, and that question is, how much did you love?”

— Marci Shimoff (via icreatewhatibelieve)

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #quotes #love

[hollytheheretic]

throughout my childhood i heard it repeated “god loves you more than you will ever comprehend”

but i never heard once “god likes you”

which explains a lot

#religion #spirituality #christianity #Christian #god #faith #relatable

[hollytheheretic]

Thank you so much! I’m glad I could help. Religion is a difficult topic, so don’t feel badly for being confused.

You can certainly ask more questions in the future. I’ll answer them to the best of my ability.

Musings On Universalism, Heaven, and Hell

My belief in universalism stems partly from my belief that there is no such thing as separation from God, at least, not in a spacial sense. There is no place that exists where God isn’t because He is the very sustainer of existence itself. If there is a place we may conceive of as being Hell, God must be just as present there as He is in Heaven, therefore rendering the distinction useless.

I like the idea that some Orthodox Christians have that Hell is simply the experience of God’s presence from the perspective of a person who opposes Him. If a person is filled with hate, the experience of being in the presence of God’s love would naturally be very painful. Those who have spent their lives cultivating love and being in a relationship with God would experience it as bliss. In this way, there is no real Hell. Some people will just naturally not adjust as easily to God’s presence.

I’m not sure, however, how long our consciousness would actually be preserved after death. If a soul was forever in a state of being in God’s presence and hating it, that would seem a bit nonsensical. After all, we are capable of changing during our lifetime. One would assume that, over time, even the most hardened soul would acclimate to its new reality, thus ending their experience of Hell. However, I personally think that our sense of self would simply dissolve into a state of complete unity with God, and that the experience of bliss or pain would only exist in our last moments of existence as individuals.

As with anything else I believe, I have no “proof” that such is the case. Nore have I consulted any specific theological position of a specific church tradition. I’m not asking permission to believe these things, and if, at some point, I see them echoed in the words of established scholars and theologians, that’s simply a happy bonus. These are just the ideas that make the most sense to me, and I will give them up only when I find ones that are more interesting or helpful.

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #christianity #christian #heaven #hell #universalism #christian universalism #musings

[hollytheheretic]

Im trying to unlearn it now in my theological studies but its an old fear of mine to see how... human.. some of the origins are.. how can we keep faith in our God (or any god) if we can see "xyz is from zyx"? (cnt think of a proper example) Wouldnt agruements about "well this emotional response made the author delusional or smthing" hold against belief in God? Im wrestling with that.. (albeit, much less then i expected, praise God) kinda vague, but any advice is always lovely - c

Yes, the fact the Bible is a human document makes a lot of people uncomfortable and that’s why we get a lot of Bible literalists who can’t accept evolution or even that the Earth is round. I don’t think however you’ll find many people (even atheists) arguing that the Bible is the products of delusions, instead they are much more likely to say it was “made up” either on purpose by con-men or just as epics and explanations for (at the time) unexplainable things. 

The Bible as the basis, the bedrock, of faith is actually very interestingly a kind of recent thing. The English printing press wouldn’t be invented until 1450, people didn’t always have a Bible in every home. Prior to the press Bibles were written out by hand by monks which was very expensive so there weren’t a lot of Bibles, they were mostly owned by clergy or very wealthy people. Before that the Bible wasn’t even collected into one definitive “book” and instead were various scrolls which existed in many forms, again having been written out by hand. Judaism and later Christianity spread via word of mouth, the ancient oral traditions. Saying that the Bible has been transmitted differently, perhaps slightly imperfectly, isn’t that controversial to anyone who knows this but you’d be surprised how many people are shocked at the notion. 

We know what we need to know for our salvation and our worship but as one knows, word of mouth can sometimes lead to interesting variations. You can see this with the numbers in the Pentateuch. In 1 Samuel 17:4 Goliath is first four cubits (6ft) high but then later editions say that he was six cubits (9ft) high. He goes from a tall but realistic height to impossible over time. 

So how do I deal with this? First assure yourself that God has made sure everything which is needed for your salvation has been transmitted correctly. Secondly, remind yourself that this is a tradition being continued. One day I asked myself, why aren’t we adding new testaments to the Bible? If Paul can get his letters inside the Bible and read at Liturgy, then why not anything new? Then I remembered, we are writing new testaments and they are called the lives of saints. The saints who make the written records and saints who will never be remembered but who were saints none the less. We are all called to be saints, some of us will make it onto paper, some won’t. Those who don’t make it to paper? Well they might be remembered through word of mouth, they might become part of the great ancient oral tradition; it continues. 

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #religion and storytelling #Christianity #Christian #the Bible #bible questions

[hollytheheretic]

i like being alone but i want someone to be alone with, if that makes sense

#religion #spirituality #religion and spirituality #christianity #christian #praying #the experience of praying #meditation #meditating

[hollytheheretic]

You don’t sound foolish. Don’t worry. There’s always a risk of being shut down when talking about matters of faith, so I give you credit for sharing.

So, seeing what you’ve written, I don’t think my personal perspective will be helpful. However, I did find some information for you.

Firstly, the Rapture itself is a complicated subject, and many denominations of Christianity either don’t subscribe to it at all. Now, among the denominations that do believe in the Rapture (Baptists, Pentecostals, nondenominational Evangelicals, and a few other similar churches) there isn’t as much consensus on what the Rapture means as one would think. The classic image is that the faithful living and dead are brought up to heaven and escape the tribulation, but this is not the only version of events that people subscribe to, and many of the variations (post-tribulation rapture, mid-tribulation rapture, no rapture, etc) are still arguable both within an inerrantist view of scripture and church doctrine. For example, the Southern Baptist Church, ever a fan of writing down doctrinal statements, says the following regarding the end times in their official confession of faith:

“God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.”

Notice that the exact details of the Rapture, and everything else for that matter, are absent. This is due to the fact that it was clear to them how much wiggle room there actually is within scripture regarding the End Times. It’s a confusing topic, and as long as you don’t outright contradict scripture, your beliefs would probably fit into even the most conservative interpretation of them. I point this out to (hopefully) offer some consolation in the fact that, even among non-universalists, the Rapture is not a settled matter, so it’s okay not to understand where it fits in with the rest of your faith.

Secondly, among those who do, indeed, believe in the classic Rapture, there is no hard evidence, scriptural or otherwise, to suggest that the Rapture is the end of the story for those that miss it. They didn’t happen to be saved at the time, and are then subjected to the tribulation, but Salvation isn’t out of their reach by any means, as the final judgment hasn’t yet happened. Therefore, I wouldn’t say that a belief in the Rapture itself excludes a belief in Universal Salvation.

I want to add that Final Judgement, as it pertains to Universalism is another matter, since it’s verdict is more, um…final. This particular piece of doctrine is the one I personally find to be the most difficult to make work within the framework of Universalism, but it’s not impossible. It does require a much more rigorous analysis of scripture, however, and probably deserves it’s own reply. Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll send you what I can find. Also, feel free to let me know if I’ve said anything that doesn’t make sense. I’m not particularly well-versed on this subject, and am doing my research on the fly.

Musings On Universalism, Heaven, and Hell

My belief in universalism stems partly from my belief that there is no such thing as separation from God, at least, not in a spacial sense. There is no place that exists where God isn’t because He is the very sustainer of existence itself. If there is a place we may conceive of as being Hell, God must be just as present there as He is in Heaven, therefore rendering the distinction useless.

I like the idea that some Orthodox Christians have that Hell is simply the experience of God’s presence from the perspective of a person who opposes Him. If a person is filled with hate, the experience of being in the presence of God’s love would naturally be very painful. Those who have spent their lives cultivating love and being in a relationship with God would experience it as bliss. In this way, there is no real Hell. Some people will just naturally not adjust as easily to God’s presence.

I’m not sure, however, how long our consciousness would actually be preserved after death. If a soul was forever in a state of being in God’s presence and hating it, that would seem a bit nonsensical. After all, we are capable of changing during our lifetime. One would assume that, over time, even the most hardened soul would acclimate to its new reality, thus ending their experience of Hell. However, I personally think that our sense of self would simply dissolve into a state of complete unity with God, and that the experience of bliss or pain would only exist in our last moments of existence as individuals.

As with anything else I believe, I have no “proof” that such is the case. Nore have I consulted any specific theological position of a specific church tradition. I’m not asking permission to believe these things, and if, at some point, I see them echoed in the words of established scholars and theologians, that’s simply a happy bonus. These are just the ideas that make the most sense to me, and I will give them up only when I find ones that are more interesting or helpful.

#religion #religion and spirituality #spirituality #christianity #christian #the rapture #end times #end times theology #eschatology

[hollytheheretic]

Before I tackle your question, I have to ask you one thing: What’s your view on Biblical Inerrancy, and how do you interpret Biblical prophecy?

The reason I ask is that I don’t want to give you an answer that would completely offend your views on Biblical authority, since doing so usually shuts down any conversation that might otherwise be had. I also find that my beliefs only make sense within a particular view of the Bible, so I want to know up front how likely it is that we’d end up talking past each other.

Musings On Universalism, Heaven, and Hell

My belief in universalism stems partly from my belief that there is no such thing as separation from God, at least, not in a spacial sense. There is no place that exists where God isn’t because He is the very sustainer of existence itself. If there is a place we may conceive of as being Hell, God must be just as present there as He is in Heaven, therefore rendering the distinction useless.

I like the idea that some Orthodox Christians have that Hell is simply the experience of God’s presence from the perspective of a person who opposes Him. If a person is filled with hate, the experience of being in the presence of God’s love would naturally be very painful. Those who have spent their lives cultivating love and being in a relationship with God would experience it as bliss. In this way, there is no real Hell. Some people will just naturally not adjust as easily to God’s presence.

I’m not sure, however, how long our consciousness would actually be preserved after death. If a soul was forever in a state of being in God’s presence and hating it, that would seem a bit nonsensical. After all, we are capable of changing during our lifetime. One would assume that, over time, even the most hardened soul would acclimate to its new reality, thus ending their experience of Hell. However, I personally think that our sense of self would simply dissolve into a state of complete unity with God, and that the experience of bliss or pain would only exist in our last moments of existence as individuals.

As with anything else I believe, I have no “proof” that such is the case. Nore have I consulted any specific theological position of a specific church tradition. I’m not asking permission to believe these things, and if, at some point, I see them echoed in the words of established scholars and theologians, that’s simply a happy bonus. These are just the ideas that make the most sense to me, and I will give them up only when I find ones that are more interesting or helpful.