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Permalink Reply by Richard Gordon Zyne on 3rd mo. 29, 2011 at 6:55am

absolutely not!  to hell with objective religious insight.  isn't "objective religious insight" actually an oxymoron?

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Hubbell on 3rd mo. 29, 2011 at 11:37am

Forrest, I like that you've cast this in verse rather than prose.

What I read in this is that we can drive ourselves nuts, if we look to other people's writing or ministry as a "should", rather than centering on what God teaches us directly. Is that what you meant?

I'm intrigued and perplexed by your title. Curious about it, as I am sometimes plagued by a mental haze of distraction. When that lifts, I am better able to be present, both to God and to the world. Some of the things that help me break through the haze are devotional singing and writing, and staying attentive to how I am affected by substances like sweeteners and caffeine. (Quitting cane sugar did wonders.) Once the door is open a little, I am able to pray and listen again.

As I read your post, I'm guessing the "mental fuzz" you are talking about may be about getting stuck in one's head, rather than open in heart and spirit. What is your experience?

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 3rd mo. 29, 2011 at 12:11pm

If that were true, your article of many contemporary people's belief-- That itself would be an example.

 

If I tried to tell you that religious truth exists, that I've been led to realise some of it, that you could know it equally if you looked in the right way for the right 'nonthing'-- You might well take offense, as many people have. This could take the form of overt name-calling, or alternately, "peacefully" treating me as a nonperson-- a fathead, a fanatic, a raving loony (or whatever particular assumption suited you.)

 

Think of it as being as "objective" as the Pythagorean Theorem-- a fact about ideally 'flat' universes that turns out pretty precisely accurate in this one, which people generally employ as useful hearsay. It's called "objective" because any (ideally rational) person can see it if he examines certain things in the right way.

 

Comparable religious processes... usually require so much commitment to finding out, that anyone who wants to dismiss them, simply denies that there's anything to find or any way to find it. And (like most people) gets more-or-less mad when contradicted.

 

I think people really need to discuss religious matters-- but I get dismayed sometimes, at what this brings out in them...

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 3rd mo. 29, 2011 at 12:21pm

I wouldn't call this 'poetry'-- but as you say, 'verse'. Because it (unexpectedly) wanted to take that form, each phrase set out for careful examination...

 

No, I was feeling the effects of the social hostility that sometimes breaks out when I admit to knowing anything whatsoever. As if a head full of "fluff" was the only state that some people could find acceptable, non-threatening, sufficiently "Humble." And wondering if "mental fuzz" had become a necessary social grace: "Him-monkey talk too smart, need thump!"

 

I'm not at all sure 'tis a worthy subject to post-- but is there a touch of that at work among Friends?

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Permalink Reply by James C Schultz on 3rd mo. 30, 2011 at 6:25pm

I don't know

I think so

 

Maybe

it depends

 

Could be, I guess

Can't we just be friends?

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 3rd mo. 31, 2011 at 12:17pm

So far as I know, we are! Thank God for friends!

 

I was a bit upset due to circumstances (and me!) once again outing me as a fool. It doesn't seem to be good for me to try to keep it hid...

 

and the really dangerous ones are afraid to come out of the closet! We should be more sorry for them than afraid!

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