Faith-killing questions from the trenches, and answers
“Top 10 Reasons To [Not] Be A Christian”
Lie #1: ‘If you live a moral life, deny yourself pleasure, follow the prescribed rituals and give us enough money, you’ll have a decent shot at being accepted by God.’
Remember that scene near the end of the Wizard of Oz,
when Toto is pulling back the curtain? The sound system
is bellowing, ‘Pay no attention to that man behind the
curtain. THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN!’
And There’s a little man behind the controls, talking into
a microphone. more »
Lie #2: ‘God is huge and unapproachable, and He wants you to labor, struggle and live in guilt.’
2000 years ago, they wouldn’t even dare say the word
‘God.’ God was distant, remote, terrible.
But Jesus had his own words for God, and he used them freely.
They were controversial, even scandalous. more »
Lie #3: ‘You are not smart enough or good enough to think for yourself. We will do your thinking for you.’
Do you know what the most important invention in the
history of the world was?
It wasn’t the computer. And it sure wasn’t the light bulb
or the telephone. (Or even the electronic voting machine.)
It was the printing press. more »
Lie #4: ‘Women are spiritually inferior and must bow to the authority of men.’
In the religious bureaucracy of the ancient world, women
were basically property. If she burned his toast, he could
divorce her and send her away destitute. If she saw a crime
in progress and reported it to the police, her testimony in
court would be thrown out–simply because she was female.
Women weren’t considered smart enough to recount what really
happened.
Isn’t that special? more »
Tribute on September Eleven
On September 11, 1993, I received word that my 14
year old cousin, Chris Marshall, lost his life in
an accident.
Every year on the anniversary of that day his mom
and dad, my uncle Tim and his wife Dottie have relived
those sad events. When the World Trade Center was
decimated on September 11 2001, the sorrow became
greater still.
Today I want to share a message Tim wrote to his
son, on the 5th anniversary of what most of us now know
as “9/11.”
Perry Marshall more »
Mel Gibson’s Controversial Passion Movie
Most of the buzz about Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”
has subsided.
I heard a lot and read a lot about this movie before going to
see it. You’d think I knew what I was in for, but I really didn’t. more »
Lie #7: ‘If God was really powerful and good, he wouldn’t allow so much evil and suffering to go on.’
This is raised by just about everyone: Priests and ministers, college students and housewives, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers.
It’s one of the hardest questions anybody ever asks. more »
Lie #6: ‘The Bible is out of date, inaccurate and over-rated. People in the 21st century are way too smart for that.’
At first blush this doesn’t seem like an ‘Organized Religion’
thing. The reason I include it here is that many large religious
organizations do teach it today.
Let me ask you something: Don’t you think it’s a lot easier for a
leader to sneak in his own agenda when there’s no outside authority to
compare it to? more »
Lie #5: ‘There is no single truth. Everyone needs to explore and find a truth that works for them.’
This one’s a real hot potato. And it’s not something you hear
so much from ancient religious institutions… rather, it’s simply
the ‘politically correct’ way to talk about spirituality these days.
It tends to be expressed something like this: ‘You’ve got your
truth, and I’ve got my truth. You find a faith that works for
you, and I’ll find a faith that works for me.’
Well here’s my question:
How many conflicting versions of the truth can actually be true? more »
The Biblical Case for Cessation of Miracles
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Blah blah blah.
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Blah blah blah.
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Blah blah blah.
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Blah blah blah.
Anne Rice Quits Church
In another post, bestselling author Anne Rice told you her story – how, through historical research, she became convinced the facts support a real Jesus who rose from the dead. She explains how and why she left atheism to embrace hope.
Then, in 2010, she left the church. She said:
“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian … It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else. more »
The Burning
The Burning
by Joshua Russell
From the black void a voice arose: I will go to hell and back for you, dear child.
Then God created the heavens and the earth, full well knowing the heartache it would cause him to have such beautiful little children (he could gobble them up!) and watch them cower before his gaze, think horrible thoughts, despise him, despise themselves, despise the very sky he painted for them.
And what’s worse, they would feel such incredible more »
7 Things Yo’ Momma Never Told You – Transcript Part 3
7 Things Yo’ Momma Never
Told You About Church History
(Written Transcript Part 3)
There’s kind of a Catholic view of scripture, which is we have this Bible, but you don’t just pick it up and interpret it in a vacuum. Just like there are genealogies of scriptural documents that radiate outward from the center, there is also a tradition of interpretation that also radiates outward from the center.
Just like you can go back here as early as you can go and find out, “All right, the Septuagint says this, but this other version or other scroll says more »
7 Things Yo’ Momma Never Told You – Transcript Part 2
7 Things Yo’ Momma Never
Told You About Church History
(Written Transcript Part 2)
The Destruction of Jerusalem
It’s mentioned 78 times in the gospels. Here are some instances of that. more »
7 Things Yo’ Momma Never Told You – Transcript Part 1
7 Things Yo’ Momma Never
Told You About Church History
(Written Transcript Part 1)
I’m really glad that you’re here, and it’s been brewing for a very long time. There’s a little story behind this whole talk that I want to tell you about; how this whole project was born.
About seven years ago, I put up a website called CoffeeHouseTheology.com. There were a number of motivations for me doing this, but one of them was I needed a punching bag. more »
7 Things Yo’ Momma Never Told You About Church History
Power Point Presentation in PDF
In this talk Perry Marshall selects 7 huge “anchor points” – 7 monumental ideas and events that changed civilization. You’ll see with new clarity how the world has been transformed in a positive way: more »
Lie #8: “Miracles ceased with the disciples.”
7 Great Lies of Organized Religion – Lie #8
Where I grew up, they said: “Miracles don’t happen anymore. They ceased with the disciples.” I believed what they told me.
Dozens of personal experiences and medically documented cases have caused me to do a 180 on this. Miracles are REAL. The idea that miracles are fake is literally the 8th lie of Organized Religion. (Fake miracles masquerading as real ones are the other side of that coin, by the way… and there are many fake miracles.)
Miracles are far more common than many would have you believe. Today, I share several of my own personal experiences. And several thoroughly documented events. more »
The Dance of Equality, Technology and Spirituality
10 years ago someone said to me, “These days you may not even know your next door neighbor, but you exchange emails with your buddy in South Africa twice a week.” I looked out the window at the house next to mine – barely knew the neighbors – and yes I was sitting there sending emails to someone in some far-off country. more »
On Twitter
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Coffeehouse Theology: Doubt is not a source of authority.
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Cosmic Fingerprints: RT @TheFaradayInst: The Science Delusion http://t.co/sRW5AFI4 << A review of Rupert Sheldrake’s new book in The Guardian
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Cosmic Comments: Hi Perry, Many of the posts raise objections to your conclusion that DNA is a code, by asserting that the DNA p... http://t.co/ejcCvk2H
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