s: You may think that Bible belief is intellectually indefensible, but how hard have you really looked into the matter? How did you come to this conclusion.
M: Folk use their minds to defend or attack the Bible all the time. The Bible, for example, to those not in its thrall, logically inconsistent and historically variable in content and implication. For the true die hard literalist it is possible to rationalize anything. What the independent observer is left with, in my opinion, is that every religion is composed of just those only truth possessors who happened to have been born into that religion, for the most part. So to a rational and logical mind they all must be bull shit. There really isn't a need to look into the religion. It would just make you tired because so many of them want you to do the same. For this reason I don't let Mormons in my door. I would just waste their time.
s: Someone misquoted Jesus in one of these threads recently, but I will quote it accurately here- when asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied -To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." What does thie mean? To love God is to not compartmentalize Him to a little "faith" section in your life. To love God means to love Him with everything you have, including your mind. True faith in Christ is something you pursue in every aspect of your life- it is not just a "faith" thing. I myself pursue God mainly with great intellectual vigor.
M: To me this just means there is only Love and if you only love you will know it. The Lover disappears in His Beloved, thought, doubt, time, fear, hate, and everything else that is ego disappears. There IS only Love and Being.
s: I would say I give Him less of other parts of my life, which is something I am working on.
M: What I do you refer to? If it is the I that loves, the journey is ended, and, if it is the I that wants to love, then it is the I that is separate and has yet to disappear. What I do you know that can will its own extinction. It's a prideful ego that thinks it is on the road to loving anything but itself, no? To me, then, the trick is not to intend to die but to surrender. You cannot kill your own ego. All struggle to become is hopeless. All there is for us is the pain of separation. Feel that. Jesus said somewhere I am told, that if you suffer you will not suffer.
s: Other Christians on this forum obviously pursue God with intellectual vigor as well, and demand that there be reason working in conjunction with their faith. I think you and others need to be a bit more honest in how you consider those who have religious views. I agree that tehre are many who hold an intellectually vacuous faith. Some, not all.
Almost all of the surviving religions of the world are Bridges that were built by folk to lead to the same place, the death of the ego. They all became antiquated with the death of the originator because only somebody free of the ego can see where you are attached to your own. This blindness to ones own attachment is our dominate concealed prejudice and it varies from time and place, so all the various bridges were for their time and place and yet still have some universals. Occasionally any of them can free the serious random traveler, but only an ego free guide can help most of us, in my opinion.