The Pagan Pulpit – Stan Lee – Being a Writer

November 18, 2018November 18, 2018 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day:

Announcements:

We don’t pray here – we figure God, the gods and goddesses, or whatever powers that be either know already, don’t give a fuck, or are busy with more important matters than our petty stuff. We also kind of assume that they expect us to do stuff that we can do for ourselves, and that we will do them ourselves and not be lazy. We also believe in being good friends, so we don’t presume on our friendship with the powers that be by asking them all the time for stuff while giving them nothing in return.

We also don’t take an offering here. We figure the powers that be probably don’t need it. Let’s be honest, offerings are not giving to the divine powers, they are given to an organization to support it. Just being honest. God, the gods or whatever never see a dime, farthing or peso of that money; it all goes to the church, mosque or shrine.

Seems like every time I turn around here some great icon I love has died and this week its a man who probably inspired my imagination more than any other during his life. Mostly because he has been around from the beginning. Spider-Man was to be my favorite comic character for his human struggles, snappy sarcastic wit and he was just plain cool. But I also found myself reading Stan’s editorial comments in his comic books and discovered a man who was inspiring in his imagination and advice to writers and aspiring comic book artists. This session of the Pagan Pulpit salutes Marvel Comics’ heart and soul – Stan Lee (1922-2018) – RIP.

Opening Song: Spider Man Theme Song 1960s

A song from my childhood and one that celebrates probably the best comic character of all time. It may be a cheesy song from the 1960s but that was normal back then. In any case, my Saturday morning cartoons were dotted with comic book super heroes and Spidey was one of them. Stan’s ultimate genius was a character that was real as a person but super as a hero.

Poem:

This poem went viral when Stan wrote it. He released it about two years ago. It speaks for itself. Stan was a pretty standard poet. His words however were anything but normal or standard.

Meditation:

Song of Preparation: X-Men Opening Theme

More cartoon stuff but from my teen age to early twenties (yes, I read comics and watched super hero cartoons well into adulthood). The X-Men were favorites of mine with the underlying tone of them being a call against racism. Stan Lee had a way of letting his characters not only be real, but also they addressed tough issues and the X-Men and its mutants were one of those groups that addressed a hard social issue. Particularly what society does with those that are perceived to be monsters or outcasts.

Text:

“The only advice anyone can give is, if you want to be a writer. keep writing. And read all you can, read everything.”

Sermon:

Writing is one of my passions of course. People who talk about writing get my attention. In truth one of my early instructors was Stan Lee. Not just through reading his comics but he would have an editorial at the beginning of every comic I read specifically to that group or character. I loved every moment of reading those. I mean my friends would read comics but I think I was the only one in my group of friends reading the editorial notes and thinking about how the comics were produced. The one message that came through is that everything started with a great story.

This is still true. We have digitized just about everything, but the imagination that casts the original story is still in the writer. It wasn’t the super powers that caught my attention, it was the characters and the story they were in and Stan Lee recognized this. That’s why his characters and stories survived while many other comics died and disappeared. No matter how cool your graphics, if the story sucks or the people can’t relate to the characters, people will not read it.

You have to be real when you write. Stan had this thing for the real. His most famous quote about this is that when it came to comic books he felt they were like boobs. They might look great on a computer, but he would rather have them in his hand. I concur with this observation and I still feel the same way bout books and other things I read. I like to sit in a chair and read them and I feel they should sit in my hand as real objects that books, comic books or magazines. I also feel the same about boobs as well. Some things have more reality than others. The more senses you use the more real things seem.

The advice Stan gives to writers is two-fold – 1) Never stop writing. Keep doing it. 2) Read everything you can. Not unique perhaps but when you hear enough successful writers say this you begin to realize it is probably true. As I am now considering writing as a career path, the advice seems more applicable. It’s advice I will take to heart for the rest of my life.

Closing Song: Avengers – Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – Theme Song:

If the X-Men took on racism, just about every issue along with that one, the Avengers addressed. One of my favorite groups because the cast of characters was constantly revolving and changing, It introduced me to a lot of characters and character development and as a writer I love that.

Stan Lee, you cannot know how many of us loved your work. You were more than a comic book artist or entertainer. You were a person who inspired many of us to believe that a better humanity was possible. That no matter how dark the evil might be, heroes would rise up from the human race and fight it. It was this notion that kept many of us from going off the deep end. Your work inspired my imagination and for that I will always be grateful.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

Odin’s Eye – Objections to Christianity – Part 2 – Sin: An Imaginary Man-Made Problem

November 15, 2018May 21, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / 1 Comment

Happy Thor’s Day

Introduction:

My loss of faith really started here. I can actually go back to a message I was preaching on sin and salvation through Christ and the fact this quote from Dan Barker from Losing Faith in Faith ( a book I still want to read) was rolling around in my head. I was trying to think of something that would make his assertion wrong. I got up preached the message and sat down. I can site this moment as the time my crisis of faith began. I realized he was right.

I realized there is no proof that sin rationally exists. I only believed that because that was what I was told by a preacher and read it in the Bible. Unless the Bible was truly inspired, then I had no natural or logical proof that there was this thing called sin, a sinful nature or my actions were righteous or sinful. God Himself had never come down and told me I was a sinner, that was men either in the form of preachers or the men who wrote the Bible. Over time, I began to realize that sin has the same problem as the inspiration of the Bible – the Bible asserts it but never proves it.

Going back to my pulpit moment, I sat there thinking and my faith started to unravel. I sat there thinking: “I make a living by telling people they are sinners so they will feel guilty, then they accept the ‘gospel’ and feel better. Out of gratitude they throw money in the basket and pay me. WTF.” It was a bad moment for me and one that led to my eventual downfall over two years later.

Faith:

If you are a believer you take the existence of sin as purely a matter of faith. Basically, if you believe that sin exists, you do it for the same reasons you believe the Bible is inspired. You have faith it is true – you hope and believe it is true, but you do not have a proof or a rational argument to say it is true. The Bible writers assume sin is real and a problem. They never prove it, and the believer is left to take that sin exists as a reality and that God has solved it. You believe all that without rational evidence. It is purely a matter of faith.

Religion:

I now think that sin is a man-made concept. It probably originally. like so many things might have had a good intention. To keep people from making bad decisions given the cultural context. I mean sex without birth control and modern medicine can lead to deadly diseases and unwanted pregnancies. So you tell people not to have sex except with people they are committed to and get married to so the child will be legitimate. The practical side of this is the lessened risk of STDs and unwanted pregnancies. It is a wise course of action.

When just showing the wisdom of this to others doesn’t work, you throw in the wrath of God to bring about a more forceful form of persuasion – tell them it’s a sin against God and He will bring down his wrath on the one who sins. This is where you make up the concept that sexual sin is an affront to God and he will send you to hell if you don’t repent of it and stop doing it. It is ultimately a fear tactic that uses guilt to prevent certain behaviors.

The dark side of this gets worse though as people genuinely think they’re taking the side of God when the punish sinners. The real problem with sin is that some people think they have risen above the concept of it. They feel qualified to judge others using their religious beliefs. It gets worse because the said concept can be held by people in power who wish to impose their views on people to create a ‘righteous society’. To force others to follow your moral code of some behaviors being sin and thus outlawed. The problem is the difficulty using reason to prove something is a sin. It’s not self-evident.

Theology:

I don’t believe in sin as a theological concept anymore. I think in large part it is a bad one because all it does is produce guilt and then in a guilt-ridden state people can be manipulated. I haven’t looked at this fully but I have a theory a large part of religious people have a poor self-concept and that is because they have a large amount of guilt associated with their ‘sins’. This leads them to think they are bad or even evil people and the cycle of self-destruction begins. You spend a lot of time putting on masks at that point to protect yourself from the social wrath of being a sinner while at the same time being wracked with guilt because you can’t seem to escape your sin. If it sounds like I have been there – yep. I would say a lot of my initial causes of depression came from this struggle.

My theology about mankind has certainly changed since I discarded man as a sinner. I don’t think of myself as a sinner but simply a human being. I am not all-powerful, all-knowing or all-present; so I am going to make mistakes and there is really nothing I can do about it. I have needs that are normal. Wants that are normal. I have my reason and wisdom to guide me. I am not perfect and I make mistakes and have errors in judgment, but that doesn’t mean I am a sinner, just human. To me, life is no longer about overcoming sin and removing it from my life. Rather, it is about discovering the virtue in me and causing it to grow. And there is a virtue in who I am as a human being if I look for it and develop it. It about growing into the best human being I can be.

Spirituality:

This is why spiritually speaking I spend more time meditating on the Nine Noble Virtues as a way to learn where I need to grow. I am not trying to get rid of sin out of my life, praying that God is gracious, etc. I have come to see some things as normal and human, not sinful. My goal now is to build character, not remove sin because I think sin is a made up imaginary concept. I meditate on the good things, not the bad things. I grow the good in me, rather than trying to deny my humanity by calling it sinful. I find it makes me much happier and far more at ease in this world.

Conclusion:

After concluding that the Bible is a human book with no proof of inspiration and the sin is a concept made up by the writers of the Bible. There are only two things left on my four objections to Christianity. The first is the other imaginary thing the Bible creates which is the solution to sin being Salvation in Christ and finally, the god of the Bible seems to have very suspect standards of justice.

You will have to hang on a while though as next week I will talk about how I can as a Deist, Humanist Pagan celebrate Thanksgiving. The week after that I will talk about Why I am a Humanist. Then I will get to my third theological objection to Christianity on the first Thursday of December. The remaining schedule for Odin’s Eye for the year looks like this:

November 22 – Why I Celebrate Thanksgiving (as a Deist, Humanist Pagan).

November 29 – Why I Am a Humanist

December 6 – Objections to Christianity – Part 3 – Salvation through Christ – An Imaginary Man Made Solution.

December 13 – Why I Am A Pagan

December 21 – Yule

December 28 – Objections to Christianity – Part 4 – The Justice of the God (Hell)

Then it will be on to the New Year.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

Of Wolves and Ravens – Religion and Leadership

November 13, 2018November 13, 2018 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Tyr’s Day

Introduction:

If there has been one thing I have learned in the last few month’s it is that people for some reason trust a person who is more religious than one who is not. I am not sure what the congregation reacted the strongest to when I left my last church, the fact that I had an emotional affair, or that I left the faith. I think if had been just the first I might have gotten off with lesser consequences from them but the notion that I, a pastor, had a crisis of faith seemed to bother them more than the affair. At least for some.

There is a prevailing notion that a religious leader is more honest and truthful than one who is not. We see it in politics every year as one candidate or another with come out and declare their faith, quote from the Bible or declare how their faith in God has made them a better candidate than the other one.

I know for myself I have noted a change in how people perceive what I say. I even had one guy say my opinion was now more invalid because I no longer had faith. So much for basing assessment of validity on reason and the rules of logic. The truth is while we may gravitate to religious leaders, they my be even more damning as far as leadership direction and motivation than their non-religious counterparts.

Does being religious make a person a better leader or just a more devious one? One that uses the politics of religion to get votes and support. To the wolves and ravens:

Needs (Geri):

Does a good leader need to be religious? I am not sure high ethics and morality are found in being religious. I mean even in Christianity, the ethics of Christians can get inconsistent and even diabolical. The Calvinist doctrine of election is most certainly something that led to the American notion of manifest destiny that probably single-handed was the most responsible philosophy that lead to the western expansion of the United States and the wiping out of the ‘non-elect’ Native Americans. Not exactly a positive high ethical moment when you use faith to justify genocide and theft. I don’t think there is any need for a leader to be religious at all because their religion being a force for good or bad really can depend on the religion and its worldview.

Wants (Freki):

Do we then still want a leader to be religious? I guess that would depend on who you are. Christians want Christian leaders; Muslims want Islamic leader, etc. Why? Because then those groups know their values have a better chance of being respected. The problem is this same issue becomes a way of excluding other faiths and systems of understanding the world. It should also be noted that religion more often than not causes people to believe things about reality that are not true and for that to affect public policy is dangerous. People want religious leaders because they want to push that particular faith’s agenda, not because being religious makes a leader a better or more sound one.

Reason (Huginn):

My problem with bringing reason into this discussion is that leadership and following one often has much more to do emotion. Very few honestly assess a leader for their leadership qualities. Reason actually tells us that people are stupid and follow people because those people share the same associations with them. Even of that person’s character is suspect, they will still follow them because they are ‘one of us’.

Donald Trump and evangelical Christians are a classic case in point. During the primaries Ben Carson supporters were basing Trump as immoral due to his past associations with Democrats and the fact he was divorced a remarried several times. There was also the fact that he had affairs while he was married. As an example of Christian moral character, Donald Trump was and is not the best, Yet, the moment it was clear he was the candidate of choice, they flipped and started saying what a godly Christian man he was. Yeah, evangelicals being hypocrites once again is not new, but this was the most blatant flip-flop I had ever seen and I was still a minister at the time.

From a reason standpoint being religious is the reasonable thing to do if you want religious people to blindly follow you, so Trump immediately made a show of getting prayed for and quoting the Bible. He was elected with a majority of Evangelical support. So it gets you elected but it’s obvious that being religious also gets people to leave their ethical standards to vote for you.

Wisdom (Muninn):

Wisdom when it looks at history cannot support the notion that a leader being a zealous religious devotee is a good idea. Religion has been used to justify more wars, genocides, rapes and other things no rational caring person would consider good. It takes religion to make otherwise good people do evil things. Give such a person power and you have magnified the evil that he can make good people do. Power in the wrong hands is already dangerous, religious zealots in leadership magnify this a hundred fold.

Conclusion:

I want to make it clear here, I am not really saying you can’t be in leadership and be religious. I am saying that probably given that we don’t need a leader to be religious to be effective, nor is it always wanted. Reason and wisdom say that it actually might not be good idea for a leader to be a zealot religiously in order to be fair to people of all faiths or those who lack faith at all.

I want to make it also clear Trump’s morality is not the issue here with me. I really don’t care as long as a leader is effective what his bedroom habits are. This issue for me is the danger of those who are religious who follow him, like the Evangelicals in how simply because a man quotes the Bible and bows his head in prayer, he must be godly. Therefore those same Evangelicals will follow him to damnation with the country and liberty as collateral damage. It might actually be more damning to freedom and liberty for a leader to be religious in truth.

Personally, I have found it interesting that people challenge the truth of what I say these days far more. Now if this was purely about lies told in the past, i could understand it to an extent. But it seems to be more than that. I am not ‘one of us’ with a lot of people anymore and so the tribalism of life comes in more fully. The real funny part is I have actually gotten more honest in the last few months than I have been in a long time. So much so, some people don’t like it.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

The Pagan Pulpit – Freddie Mercury – Actually Genuine

November 11, 2018November 11, 2018 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Today’s Pagan pulpit celebrates the life of man who probably was the best front man in Rock and Roll ever. Period. Given that a movie has been recently released about his life, it is only fitting that on this day the Pagan Pulpit pays tribute to the front man of the legendary rock band Queen – Freddie Mercury.

Opening Song: Hammer to Fall – Queen:

I start with a lesser known song by Queen. Don’t get me wrong this song is known, but it’s just a straight rock song. It is Rock n Roll of the era and actually stands out because of it. Queen was a rock band that defied genre classification because every song was so different. This one is classic rock and roll and quite frankly really good rock and roll. “To those that stand proud, in the shadow of the mushroom cloud.” Cold War Song as well and one I relate to very well.

Poem:

Not so much a poem this week as a quote about lyrics and poetry by Freddie. I think in part nails the problem I had with poetry for years which was trying to find meaning in them instead of discovering it. Sometimes when looking at lyrics and poetry, it just hits you and that’s when you know what it means.

Meditation:

Song of Preparation: Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen:

I don’t really have to say anything here about Queen’s probably most recognized song and the most ironic. It is because their producer wouldn’t do this song, Queen left him and went elsewhere and the rest if history. Their magnum opus that moved them from being a rock band to a legend.

Text:

I am not afraid to speak out and say the things that I want to, or do the things I want to do. So I think in the end being nature and being actually genuine is what wins, and I hope it comes out in my songs. – Freddie Mercury

Sermon:

As I read this quote I was struck by the phrase ‘actually genuine’. I wish I could find such people or even better be such a person myself. It seems this world wants to tell you ‘be yourself’ until you actually do it and then the refrain becomes – “not like that.” People don’t really mean that ‘be yourself’ what they mean is ‘be yourself as long as it doesn’t offend me’ or ‘stays within the normal parameters of what is acceptable’.

Freddie Mercury definitely hits the thing that people don’t like – someone who is actually genuine. Someone who truly speaks their mind and are themselves. He lived that and it made him remembered and legendary.

I think we all know what it takes to be successful, we all know what it would be to be truly ourselves. Most of us chicken out because we perceive the cost becomes to great. We settle. People like Freddie Mercury shame us though – he didn’t settle. I think he wrestled with it the same as us, but he was not going to give up what he wanted to be or say just to please others.

I want to be like that. I am tired of compromising what I say and do at times just so people like me. I want to be actually genuine.

Parting Song: Live Aid – Queen Full Concert – Queen:

Probably the best live rock concert ever. Less than 25 minutes but no one who saw it live forgets it regardless if they were actually there or watched it on MTV. The Movie Bohemian Rhapsody takes out two songs but this is the actual tape of the whole thing. Enjoy the ride.

Objective achieved, Freddie Mercury. Objective achieved.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

Odin’s Eye – Why I am a Deist

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018 / Ed Raby Sr / 1 Comment

Happy Thor’s Day

Introduction:

I said for a long time that if I wasn’t a Christian I would be a Deist, because it is the most rational position because of the ignorance of mankind. We don’t know a lot of things, so to maintain that there might be a Divine power out there is simply a rational statement. It’s possible and even atheists admit this. Most atheists aren’t screaming into the microphone that people who believe in the divine are stupid, they just maintain that they don’t believe in a divine power themselves. They also like Laurence Krauss above admit that we are ignorant, so we can’t dismiss the possibility. Epistemologically, we are all in a sense agnostics except the religious who apparently think they have it all figured out.

I know a lot of my friends are worried because I am not a Christian anymore. I even had my counselor ask if I had renounced Christ. I almost laughed because if my salvation or damnation depends on my saying or not saying words, then I am sure that’s more pivotal rather than living your life with virtue in mind? Your actions can be totally evil, but as long as you don’t renounce Christ, you are good to go to heaven? I am sure someone will eventually say to me “I love you and I just don’t want to see you in hell.” Did you ever ask yourself the question: Why should he or I go to hell in the first place and is that justice? More on that later in Odin’s Eye in weeks to come.

Faith:

As a deist I can have faith in a creator, in the divine. I can’t really say what that divine power is however. What this means is I also don’t know what the divine’s actual expectations are. What I am left with is to engage a lot of reason with my faith and that my friends is a far more powerful combination than religion and faith.

Religion:

As far as I can tell all religions are man-made and their holy books are written by men. I cannot completely dismiss that those men might have been honest and genuine in their intentions. I also cannot deny for sure that they may not have encountered the divine power that actually exists. What I might say is that they all interpreted those things in the light of their preconceived religious world view. Casting those experiences in something they already understood and then adding their own opinions and spin to it.

As a deist, I really am no longer religious. I am however still spiritual in some regards. I take however as the deist axiom that ‘God gave us reason not religion’.

Theology:

I can still reason about the divine. I just don’t have to deal with the mucky muck of trying to figure out special revelation or revealed religion. I am left with creation to tell me through engaging it with my reason, what the divine might be like. I could make mistakes in judgment, but the one thing I am no longer doing in my theology is accepting as final arbiter someone else’s opinion about God like it is fact that cannot be questioned. That includes Paul, Moses and Muhammad.

Spirituality:

I think religions tap into spirituality and that is why they exist, but also it is why they all will work in this regard. You can also be spiritual without them. Meditation for instance has been rationally explored and the reason it works is that it is basically a human being learning to calm down, think and be at peace. It’s why even as a deist I can be spiritual but it is far more me trying to find my way in this world, than understanding the divine.

Conclusion:

I have heard deism is the a logical progress which ends in atheism. I am not sure that is true and the whole logical progression/evolution of religion thing has never appealed to me as genuine or always true. I really don’t find atheism to be rational at this point given the colossal ignorance of mankind. At the same time I get it. I don’t bear the atheist any ill will because I do understand why someone would follow that path.

For me the path is deism for while I think. I can have a faith that is rational taking into account my own ignorance. I don’t have to be religious to be spiritual in truth. Theology is a little more difficult but still possible. I guess I just need to see where the path ultimately takes me.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

The Pagan Pulpit – Havamal 77 – Thoughts on Mortality

November 4, 2018November 4, 2018 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Probably and additional announcement is that the Pagan pulpit will be more and more taking on a more personal touch – mine. I really am kind of combining a lot of things here from an old blog that I liked. It will be my musings on things from music to poems and other things. My thoughts will be front and center and they are about my weekly journey. If by sharing these things with you, you are helped a little in your own journey than that is bonus and a joy to me.

Opening Song: Metallica – Creeping Death (Live Seattle 1989)

One of my favorite Metallica songs. The final plague on the Egyptians turned into a metal song. Awesome.

Poem:

“Awaiting the Valkyrie”

The war of life will someday claim my soul.

May I live a life worthy of song.

Broken and wounded I may be,

But my heart longs to see the Valkyrie

To take me to a place of the honored dead.

Whose stories forever ring throughout the ages

The soul at last at peace

Celebrated and immortal.

– Ed Raby, Sr. – October 30, 2018

This poem probably speaks to the occasional long that we all have for things to be over. When my end comes, I would like to be remembered well.

Meditation:

People ask me all the time why I like stories. Well because all stories resonate with my own. It’s what makes our existence common; that we all are a story.

Song of Preparation:

This isn’t my favorite Three Door’s Song, but it definitely hits the heart of all of us in what we want and how we feel about those closest to us that have passed into the unknown.

Text: Havamal 77

“Your cattle shall die; your kindred shall die; you yourself shall
die; one thing I know which never dies: the judgment on each one dead.”

Sermon:

Coming off Halloween there is always that element where one thinks about death. I mean we have skulls and bones everywhere. The undead walk from zombies to vampires to mummies. Our popular mythology is laced with characters that overcome and cheat death. In religion, the afterlife is a common thread.

When I was a Christian, the view I often had been that heaven or some afterlife was necessary to give life meaning and purpose. Perhaps this is one truth that many religions hit on, as death seems to take away everything. Ecclesiastes is a great book for pointing this out but the conclusion is a bit of logical leap as the only meaning to life it gives is to fear God and do what he tells you. I don’t think that works for me anymore or for perhaps a lot of you.

The painful truth is that death might genuinely be the end of it all for each of us or that the afterlife is nothing like we expect. That’s the problem, it really is an unknown.

So how to find purpose and meaning to life with the reality of death ever before you? There have been many theories and perhaps this is why we are incurably religious as a species. We don’t like the thought that we will end. We want to continue and so we hope that something is on the other side of death. But in the end I think Marcus Aurelius hit it on the head. We should live a good life. If God, the gods or whatever are just, they will look at the virtues you have lived by not how devoted you were. If they are not just, then we should not want to serve them anyway. If there isn’t any gods or afterlife; then well, we have the memories in the hearts of those we loved as our final thoughts.

Of course you are left to yourself as to which virtues make up your good life. For me the Nine Noble Virtues of Asatru form a good solid list and one that, regardless of who I meet and what religion they may or may not have, can be respected. The Havamal reminds us that the one thing that does not die is the judgement of the dead. The best way then to face death is to live life and live it fully.

Parting Song: Zergananda – The Path to Valhalla

Epic and one view of many. I personally think any view of the afterlife that involves courageously facing ones death is a good one.

Have a Great Week

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

Odin’s Eye -Objections to Christianity – Part 1 – The Bible’s Inspiration by God

November 1, 2018May 21, 2019 / Ed Raby Sr / 1 Comment

Happy Thor’s Day

Introduction:

I want to state up front, this is a long post. I want to be complete as possible in stating this objection and the ones in the months to follow. Mostly as I will state later that I for a long time wanted answers; I still do. It was hard leaving my faith because I wanted so desperately to believe. Reason for me eventually prevailed and I will stand by that decision. The reason I am putting a lot of words into this is that I still would accept answers: if they could be proven rationally that Christianity is the true religion.

I have written on my crisis of faith a couple of times. Despite some people’s assertion that this is recent phenomena due to personal events, it actually started about two years ago with my second objection. I will talk about that in a couple of weeks, but it is basically I think ‘sin’ is a man-made up concept. It started when I preached a message about sin and I had heard a quote that week from a critic of Christianity that basically said sin was made up and that because of it Christianity solves a problem of its own making.

I will get into this moment in more detail in a couple of weeks but it got me rethinking every thing in the light of skepticism and I began to form four theological objections for which I still have no satisfactory answers. While the sin question got my original thinking going, it is this first question involving the Bible and divine inspiration that forms the foundation of the other three.

Now, I want to state for the record that I am no amateur when it comes to the Bible or Theology. 1) I have degrees in both Biblical Studies (BA) and Theological Studies (MA). 2) I am a professional theologian and have been since 1996. 3) I was a Christian from the time I was eight and as I approach my 50th birthday that would have been close it forty-two years. 4) I was a pastor (now retired) for twenty years and have spent many years since school studying the Bible and engaging theological questions. 5) I have had several crisis moments in my theology and up until two to three years ago I could answer them all or found ways to explain them. Not anymore.

I will also say I am not hostile to Christianity, I get it. It took me a long time to face the facts of the objections I will present in this series. I still am open to anything that answers them. My largest problem when I discuss this is people sometimes get offended because I seem to be very aggressive, but I am not really doing that, just being as honest as I can. People don’t always like it when you ask questions that are hard about what they believe. Cognitive dissonance is a real thing, so I get. Understand I am not being hostile to your faith if you have it. I am just being hostile to mine or what mine used to be. That’s because I take as a central core idea that if the God of the Bible is the real god and the Bible is inspired by him, then it should make sense and have rational proof this is so.

Faith:

Bottom Line, faith is trusting in something that you have no evidence for and that is the problem. You hope it is true and you believe it is true, but you don’t know it is true. This is particularly true for many church doctrines and one of the most notable is the divine inspiration of scripture. The reason I can say this is no matter what school of thought you follow in looking at inspiration, there is no evidence that God came down and inspired the Bible. You simply have to believe the simple statement “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” There is no attempt to prove this, just a statement of fact that the reader must simply accept.

An example is probably in order: “The Rabyd Skald’s writings are inspired by the God Odin. Everything he writes comes straight from the mouth of the god Odin.” You say ridiculous. I ask why? You say because I simply have made an assertion and have offered no proof that what I say is true. I want to tell you the Bible does the exact same thing with the exact same level of proof that God came down and directly inspired the writers of the Bible – none. It’s pure faith, no evidence even from the Bible itself. The Bible writers simply assert this; they never prove it.

Religion:

Looking at the doctrine of inspiration historically, once again we have no proof of the inspiration of Scripture by God, just the creation of the doctrine of inspiration and various councils of men deciding which books are inspired. There is no record of God coming down and saying – “these books are my inspired word.” Just groups of men doing that. That is what you actually see.

It stands to reason that religions do this. In the end, you need a common core of beliefs and authority and it is far easier to make a group of writings do that because it has a greater chance of standing the test of time. Especially if you inject a tradition of copying and transcribing these books from one generation to the next. Even in this though, two problems develop. 1) People abuse the authority of said books and can twist their meaning and 2) the transcription of said books can be flawed.

The second brings up an additional inspiration question which is: ‘Is the Bible still inspired even though people have put mistakes into it and changed it from one language to the next where meaning is going to get changed? The human factors are definitely present in the Bible. Does that undermine inspiration or simply point to the fact that the Bible is a wholly human book and because we don’t really have proof God is involved, are we just making up the whole divine inspiration thing in order make this human book have more significance?

Theology:

I spent a great deal of time and digital ink pouring over this question of inspiration. On my blog All Things Rabyd (which is still there although no longer active) I spent nine posts looking at the various theories of divine inspiration. You can find the link to all of them here. I eventually settled on Dynamic Inspiration as the best possible explanation to handle the human element being in the bible. That much like the doctrines of Christ state Jesus was 100% God and 100% Man, so was the bible the same way. It satisfied me for a while but there was a fatal flaw in the whole thing.

The flaw? I still had no proof positive that the 100% divine inspiration part was real. There is no photograph of God reaching into the head of Paul or Moses inspiring them to write things. I mean you could say God is the inspiration for the Bible like a person might be inspired to write about nature from being outside. There is however no proof that God took an active hand in telling the authors what to write or how to write it. That is purely a matter of whether you believe that or not. It really is blind faith on that particular question.

Spirituality:

I will probably handle other objections involving scripture at a later date. My purpose today is to get the main parts of my first objection to Christianity out there. The question always comes – do I still read the Bible and what value do I place on it? Well, yes I do. I value it in that it contains a lot of ‘truth’ small t. I just don’t think it’s the Truth. Rather a lot of men wrote about their sincere belief in God. God inspired them in that way and they wrote but in the end, it was human inspiration ABOUT the divine. It was not God coming down and whispering in their ear what to write, no matter what their claims.

For me, I still draw a lot of inspiration from the Bible. Some of its stories are great. It has men wrestling with the question about God. The teachings of Christ are some of the best on human relationships you will ever see. That said, it is only one avenue of being inspired, not the only one and it is a very human book. In short, it has its flaws, and I think some of the morality it promotes could be questioned as to whether it actually does good or not.

Conclusion:

When the doctrine of inspiration goes, then you can look at the bible objectively. This caused me to really realize the god of the Bible has a few problems. 1) Sin seems to be made up as a concept and used to control the behavior of people 2) The plan of salvation God comes up with does not speak well of supreme being because it makes God both sadistic and masochistic. 3) God’s justice seems a little suspect especially when you consider final judgment.

Every other week I will be writing on one of these. In between, I will be writing on my state of faith currently and what I am pursuing to kind of balance out things. Because like it or not, losing your faith and going through the reasons for it is depressing. Need counterbalance that with a little more positive. Next Week I will talk about why I am a deist.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

The Pagan Pulpit – Havamal 47 – Enjoying Humanity

October 28, 2018October 28, 2018 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Sun’s Day

Announcements:

Opening Song: Disturbed – Voices:

I have been listening to this one a lot this week. It kind of goes along with the theme this week, so I will keep the commentary about it until the Sermon.

Poem:

“My Soul Has Eyes”

The Mirror to the Soul

So they are called.

I can’t see my own

unless I look in the mirror.

I wonder what part of my soul people see?

The part of my soul that is tired and depressed

The part of my soul that has regrets

The part of my soul that bleeds with wounds new and old

The part of my soul that is black and dark

or the part that shines in hope and love.

I wish I knew what people see in my eyes

What part of my soul is laid bare.

– Ed Raby, Sr. – October 25, 2018

I must confess my writing of poetry is bitter sweet. It enjoy it on the one hand because it allows me to express feelings in words that normal writing doesn’t do. I need that from time to time. On the other hand the memories of the person associated with me learning to write poems better and understand them better comes up every time I do it, and that just makes me sad. I guess it’s something I just live with, because I can’t seem to stop writing them from time to time. Sometimes its the only thing that works.

Meditation:

I post a lot of memes and sayings on Facebook. Just so everyone knows, the Meditation for the week usually comes from one of them I posted that past week. It’s the one that meant the most to me.

Song of Preparation:Van Halen – Love Walks In:

The story associated with this song for me is that I was standing in a convenience store a little after my wife and I started reconciling. This song came on and the guy behind the counter was singing it. I joined in; which is not something I normally do. The guy behind the counter stopped to listen to me and asked if the song meant something to me. I told him until that moment, no. But now it did. Not only did it reflect at the time the new feelings of love I had for my wife but there was a very human moment there with that guy. Humanity didn’t seem all that bad to me at that time.

Text: Havamal 47

Young was I once, I walked alone,
and bewildered seemed in the way;
then I found me another and rich I thought me,
for man is the joy of man.

Sermon:

It is really hard to be objective about the nature of humanity. Most of us think humans as a rule are not the greatest thing to ever happen to us. Some people I imagine love people, but there are a good chunk of us that have problems with humanity. Some of us, like in the video of Disturbed’s song ‘Voices’, have our fantasies about getting back at the bullies, getting revenge on the girl who dumped us or tying up a difficult boss. It truly is freaky shit that we think of sometimes isn’t it when it comes to how we would like to respond toward some people’s actions toward us. The voices are pretty convincing that even we are not all that great.

If we were honest though, most of the people in our lives are a lot like us. Just trying to make their way in the world and do the best they can. Very few people in our lives actually deliberately try to make our lives miserable. There are a few, I will acknowledge that, but for most part, people seem decent enough.

I think this is more evident if you have ever been lost alone away from people for a while or wonder if you can find your way back to them. I have had this experience at least twice. It is an intense relief when you actually find another person. I get what Odin is saying in Havamal 47. Like it or not we need our fellow humans and very few of us are misanthropes.

In fact, I would argue that many times at our lowest point it has been someone else who helped us out of it. Some person who saw us in our suffering and actually stopped to help, or as we wandered we ran into someone who inspired us. I would say our positive encounters with humans actually probably outweigh our negative ones.

At the very least we become like the guy in the Disturbed video of ‘Voices’. We drop our anger and desire for vengeance and simply walk off to the mosh pit and try to find a more human ‘loving’ way to get rid of our anger. Perhaps that is the greatest testimony to humanities goodness after all – that we choose to find another way that is constructive. Very few of us actually act on the voices.

Closing Song: Slash Street Boys – “I’ll Kill You That Way”:

A little Halloween Humor to send you off today. Enjoy the Week and Happy Halloween!!!

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

The Grey Wayfarer (Fantasy Serial) – Chapter 3 – Awakening (Wayfarer)

October 27, 2018October 27, 2018 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Saturn’s Day

The man in the bed stirred. It was the first time he had moved on his own power since the whole thing began. His eyes fluttered open but he immediately shut them again. Things were too bright. Gods his head hurt. No telling where he was now. He was either in his intended destination, the hospital or the morgue. If the last was true, he was waking up to what lies beyond the veil of death and that brightness was the afterlife.

Somehow though he suspected that it was not the afterlife or the hospital. You don’t hear the sounds of lovers making love in a hospital that often and he could smell smoke of a fire. No, unless something truly unplanned had happened, he had arrived in his intended destination. He just couldn’t move or speak or see it in truth yet. He opened his eyes once again and the blur came into focus.

He was in a room with a bed and a wash basin on a small wooden stand. There were towels draped over the stand as well and the fabric was exquisite. Not made by a machine but much better in many respects. He tried to move his arm and succeeded only to lift it a little. Then he looked a little to the edge of the bed only to see the face of a huge white wolf staring back at him. Their eyes met and strangely he didn’t feel afraid of the wolf. The wolf looked at him for a few moments and then walked out of the room past the curtain that separated it from the main room.

A few moments later a large man entered the room. He was muscular but looked older with hair that was white. He only had one eye and the other was covered with a patch. He was wearing a simple grey tunic and on his shoulder was perched a large raven.

“Well, you live after all. I will wake up my wife and she will tend you,” the man said in a commanding deep voice.

Then he disappeared. The man stirred a little more and after a couple of minutes a woman in a white dress came in. She was blond, blue-eyed and stunningly beautiful. She smiled at him but he could see a knowing sadness behind her eyes. He wondered about that, but she came along and sat beside him and touched his forehead and chest.

He couldn’t get over how beautiful she was. Her proportions were perfect and her skin flawless. He eyes were stunning like they looked right into your heart and her golden hair radiant beyond belief. No super model, with the most skillful of Photoshop work done, could look like she did. It was then he realized his nakedness under the blankets and began to feel a little self-conscious. She smiled again.

“Be at peace, you are safe here,” her voice was like soft music.

She leaned a little closer like she didn’t want to be overheard.

“Besides, you have nothing to be ashamed of.”

He blushed slightly and found his hand absent mindedly going to the Thor amulet around his neck. It was still there. He wondered at it now as the story that had been told him had been true. It was magical. It had drawn him to this place, wherever that was. He began to relax a little more. It was hard not to do so in this woman’s presence.

“You know you have been under my care for a day and I still don’t know who you are? Can you speak?”

The Man looked at her and smiled.

“My name is Beorn Erickson. I guess you could say I am a scholar of sorts”

“Well Beorn, I am Frigg, goddess of motherhood and home. Welcome to our home.”

Beorn didn’t show any reaction to the statement that she was a goddess. He actually relaxed even more. The amulet had worked and now he could move on to other things. He decided to choose his words carefully.

“So the mythology isn’t mythological after all. So the man I saw; he is Odin, the All-Father? Your husband?”

Frigg raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, he is Odin. All Father and King of the gods of Asgard. It is not often that mortals hear of the gods and react as you do. How is this possible?”

“You could say I have been looking for you. Mostly though I wanted to prove this amulet worked. The magic in it is unique and very powerful. Besides if legend is correct, the gods and goddesses of Asgard prefer actions of worship, not the groveling prayers of other religions.”

“A wizard, not just a scholar then? My husband might be very interested in that. He is a wizard himself and a warrior.”

“Yes, some of the legends and stories remain. Many are lost though. I guess you could say this was a research trip in that regard.”

“A seeker after knowledge. Yes, My husband will respect that. The issue he will have is whether or not you are willing to pay the price for knowledge that is sometimes needed.”

“Yes, those stories remain. His hanging from the world tree and his sacrifice of his eye. They also speak of your powers to see men’s fates.”

Frigg’s smile faded; but it was not anger that replaced it, but a sadness.

“Yes, I can, but it is not very helpful. There is little that can be done to change the fates of men.”

Beorn decided not to press this. He knew she was speaking of her son Balder and he didn’t want to bring up painful memories.

“Well, I suppose that would be a heavy burden to bear. I didn’t mean to cause you sadness.”

“No, it alright. It was a long time ago that I lost Balder…that Asgard lost Balder. You seem strangely emphatic for a wizard and scholar.”

“I wasn’t always a wizard and a scholar. I once was a priest. A Christian priest.”

“That explains your gentleness. You gave that up? I wonder what reason you could have for that?”

“I am not very good with celibacy for one.”

Frigg laughed and Beorn with her.

“I can also say that celibacy would not allow you to share one of your better assets with the world either. You shouldn’t deprive women like that.”

They laughed again. Beorn felt so at ease in her presence.

“I imagine though that there are other deeper reasons.”

“It was the beliefs. The god of the cross doesn’t make sense to me anymore. So I went looking for others.”

“Well, it seems you found a couple.”

“Yes, I have. The amulet worked and drew me to you.”

Frigg paused. The two looked at each other for a moment.

“Well Beorn, I can’t see that you are ill or in any way sick. Just drained of energy. I will make some food to help with that, and bring you something to drink. My husband will want you fully rested and restored before he speaks with you.”

She got up and headed toward the curtain. As she started to pull it back, Beorn spoke once again.

“Frigg, thank you for your hospitality. There was one other reason I left the priesthood. Love.”

Frigg smiled.

“I would say that was related to the first reason you gave, but I understand. I suspect you broke her heart or perhaps…”

“She broke mine.”

“Ah, well perhaps you will find love again.”

“I hope so, it’s a good thing to be in love but also dangerous.”

“Yes, it is.”

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

Odin’s Eye – Halloween (Samhain)

October 25, 2018October 25, 2018 / Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Thor’s Day

Every once in a while I make the statement that I am a Pagan or have Pagan tendencies. I have to confess the main reasons for this are spirituality and holidays. I suppose this post is more for educational purposes than it is expression of any beliefs I might have; but I do embrace the idea that a truer understanding in the realm of spirituality might be our hearts reaching out to the world around us, and paganism has that in abundance.

By the next Odin’s Eye we will be past Halloween and so I want to talk about the holiday before it happens. I must freely confess now that my favorite holiday of the year is actually Halloween. I never could say that because I was a Christian and minister, but now I can. I love the whole thing. The dressing up in costumes, the carving pumpkins, trick or treat, the whole darkness and death of it. It reminds us all things die and when it comes to the seasons this is particularly true. In a sense Halloween is the celebration of the end of the harvest season and the end of the year for pagans.

Now Christians tend to make anything Satanic if it doesn’t line up with their beliefs but Halloween and Samhain are hardly Satanic. The real problem is that Christians also steal a lot from pagans and the fact that All Saints Day is November 1 is no accident because Halloween is the big day for pagans. It’s about countering it with a Christian holiday. But Christians steal a lot more than that and holidays for Christianity tend to be near to pagan ones and even use pagan symbols but Christianize them.

That said, I like the basic concepts of paganism’s spirituality because it creates a very individualized belief system to the person while at the same time allows community spirit. At the same time, it has aspects of religion that I pretty much as a deist reject.

Faith:

No I don’t really have faith in what is commonly called Wicca or Paganism on that side of the aisle. When I say I have pagan tendencies, I mean I draw my spirituality from looking at the world around me and my inward self. This means paganism has many schools of thought and most of them have the same religious nature as the monotheistic faiths. I have faith in my abilities to advance myself and be in tune with the world around me. That’s about it, but it lines up with paganism’s basic foundational tenets.

Religion:

Halloween for the Pagan marks the end of the year and starts the new year with the season of Samhain. The beginning of the long dark period before rebirth and renewal in the spring. Different pagan groups view this differently but Halloween was a celebration originally and Christians are probably the most guilty of trying to add sinister qualities to it to discredit it. Mostly though it is a time and day to honor the past and past people. To honor what has gone on before.

Theology:

Theologically speaking as a deist who believes in something; but as an agnostic I don’t know what it is, I think paganism is more honest about looking at what we know for sure and honoring it. What can we know for sure? The people who have gone before us that have blazed the path so we are where we are today. Honoring the dead and their work and sacrifices is something we can truly honor and know we are honoring something that is indeed real.

Spirituality:

I suppose my most spiritual moment this last summer came while standing at the graveside of my father. Given all that I was going through, I was wondering what he would have said or done at that moment. I have to admit that it was there at his graveside I began to realize some sense of reality of what I was doing and perhaps honoring my commitments. Mostly to my wife. I still struggled after that but that moment left me pondering my life and in the end became the seed of the motivation that caused me to consider reconciliation with my wife. Perhaps there is far more spiritual truth to the honoring those who have gone before. All religions seem to have elements of this and perhaps it is one of the more valuable contributions of religion in general.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

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