I can't believe I'm just finding this Chicago Sun-Times article by Cathleen Falsani, but if anyone wanted proof that Barack Obama isn't a Muslim - or even a Christian - this is the smoking gun. My friends, as I've always said, Barack Obama is a NewAger - and this article has the proof:
*Let's start here: "Obama doesn't believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he's not sure if he'll be going to heaven, either."
Ladies and Gentlemen, name me a Christian who doesn't believe in the reward of Heaven and the punishment of Hell. It's NewAgers who don't believe in Heaven or Hell, or right and wrong for that matter. This is what's made it possible for Barack Obama to go back on his word - on campaign funding, or running a different kind of campaign, etc. - he doesn't believe there's any price to be paid for violating what's supposed to be his core values. If you read this blog you know relativism and hypocrisy are defining features of the NewAge outlook:
* Next, we can parse this line:
"I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."
Ladies and Gentlemen, Christians don't believe in "a higher power" - they believe in God - and there aren't "many paths" to God, but only one and that's through Jesus Christ. These are not the words of a Christian but of a NewAger. Even his "belief that we are connected as a people" has no connection to Christianity: Christians believe we're all connected as Children of God. This man is a NewAger:
*Barack Obama goes on to say:
"I'm rooted in the Christian tradition."
Well, big whoop. Ladies and Gentlemen, NewAgers are "rooted" in all kinds of things but what is he in totality? NewAgers always say "You can be that and be this too." That's how they attempt to subvert Christianity:
*His biggest backer is also the world's biggest NewAger, Oprah Winfrey, who Christians have been attacking for her beliefs and the sinister twist it throws on CHristianity. Listen to her here:
Neither Barack Obama - or Oprah Winfrey - is a Christian. They're NewAgers. And even an atheist can see it.
Especially this one.
Ladies and Gentlemen, name me a Christian who doesn't believe in the reward of Heaven and the punishment of Hell.
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Universalism: The belief that all people are saved, that all people go to heaven - there is no Hell.
Universalism was a fairly commonly held view among theologians in early Christianity: In the first five or six centuries of Christianity there were six known theological schools, of which four (Alexandria, Antioch, Cesarea, and Edessa or Nisibis) were Universalist.
Universalism, or the doctrine of "No Hell," is enjoying something of a revival today as translations of the Bible continue to be clarified by modern scholars.
Lists of "No Hell" Christian Churches in the US by state:
* Alabama
* Alaska
* Arizona
* Arkansas
* California
* Colorado
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* District of Columbia
* Florida
* Georgia
* Hawaii
* Idaho
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Louisiana
* Maine
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Missouri
* Montana
* Nebraska
* Nevada
* New Hampshire
* New Jersey
* New Mexico
* New York
* North Carolina
* North Dakota
* Ohio
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Utah
* Vermont
* Virginia
* Washington
* West Virginia
* Wisconsin
* Wyoming
Nice try, but it still doesn't cancel out the rest of the context for Obama's beliefs:
ReplyDeleteHe's a NewAger.
And, if you bothered to do all that work just to suggest that I should have written "and/or", then you've got waay too much time on your hands.
ReplyDeleteYou asked me to name a Christian who doesn't believe in "the punishment of Hell," not thousands of them - so I guess that makes you right on a technicality. Good work!
ReplyDeletePlease carry on with your self-reinforced circular reasoning - no need to let history, facts or actual human beings intrude, If I had a belief system as airtight as you seem to I probably wouldn't want to risk puncturing it either...
You're just digging a bigger hole for yourself:
ReplyDeleteI'm an atheist - I don't have a belief system - I'm merely an observer of the nonsense (all with built-in hypocrisies) the rest of you "believe". This makes my world-view infinitely easier than most to maintain:
Reality can't be "punctured."
"I don't have a belief system... This makes my world-view infinitely easier than most to maintain..."
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Really? You don't have a belief system at all? Not of any sort?
Then you are not an atheist, Mr. Crack Emcee. If you have discarded belief systems altogether, then you are a nihilist.
Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position that argues that existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.
Nihilists generally assert that objective morality does not exist, and that no action is logically preferable to any other in regard to its moral value.
Nihilists who argue that there is no objective morality may also claim that existence has no intrinsic higher meaning or goal.
They may also claim that there is no reasonable proof or argument for the existence of a higher ruler or creator.
Harsh, huh? Oh well. Nobody ever said it was easy to live without any belief systems at all!
Honestly though, to me it sounds as if you do believe in "objective morality" - otherwise why would you even bother taking sides on Christian doctrinal issues?
I've met a lot of people who genuinely don't believe in anything at all, and very few of them set up blogs dedicated to attacking non-Christians, "New Agers" and anyone who who falls outside the "social conservative" camp!
To me it sounds like you are protesting a bit too much here. I think you are already 99% of the way there.
In fact, I bet it's only a matter of time before you make that final leap and become a born-again Christian yourself.
You know what the best and worst thing about talking to people online is? Discovering how limited the thinking out there is. It's great because, almost like for the very first time, I get to discover the thought processes of the world in mass. But it can get really depressing because it has a "is that all there is?" quality that makes me feel like I like in a world as gray as the film version of 1984. People making assumptions about what I think - when it should be obvious I don't think in a normal fashion - is the worst, like I'm just here to be insulted.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, I don't know how you could decide I'd be a nihilist just because I don't entertain beliefs. Not going along with the wonderings in our heads - relying instead on evidence - doesn't naturally lead to a life without meaning. That's as silly as a religious person thinking there can be no morality without believing in God. Those linkages make no sense. As I tell my friends, offline, you'd do better to ask me what I think than guessing because, using such a limited palette of ideas, you'll almost always be wrong. For the record, my life has meaning and I am discriminating, because the evidence of life proves not only it's worth but that some conduct is better than others. I just started out in life as a foster child and was immediately disabused of the fantasies most kids grew up with, so have never had any reason to go along. That doesn't make me a nihilist but a realist, incapable of of letting cynical and snarky diversionary thoughts divert me from the life and death lessons of my youth. Like (contrary to popular opinion) I'm not a Republican because I believe in Republicanism but because the G.O.P. is more right about what's important than my experiences growing up with Democrats proved wrong. We split, violently, on religion though. And now that the Democrats have decided to embrace and reveal their own "spirituality" they've become even more wrong. I'm discriminating against them, even more, for that.
Oh yea - I don't take sides in religious issues - I'm an atheist. I find it all silly and hold believers up to what they say they believe. Since they're all hypocritical, they fall of their weight. (You obviously haven't searched through TMR much if you don't know I slam Christians too.) NewAgers, taking a "you can believe what you want to believe" stance, are just a bigger, and more disgusting, target. I lay into them because (unlike organized religion) nobody pays attention to them, or seems to think of them as a threat, which gives them free reign to do their dirty work and that bothers me. Also, I don't work over Christians as much because they dislike NewAgers too (they're one of the few groups to take them as seriously as I do because NewAgers want to destroy them) so the enemy of my enemies are my friends, you see? I could never be a Christian or any thing else.
Just think of me as an atheist - a true atheist; not some fruitcake who's gotten mad at, and then rejected, religion and decided I want or need to still be "spiritual" - who is fascinated by all metaphysical nonsense and takes it very, very seriously as a threat to mankind. I stand with Christopher Hitchens in saying all "religion poisons everything", and that starts with each of my waking days.
And if it wasn't for birds chirping at sunrise (probably the most important sound on Earth) I probably would be a nihilist - but I wouldn't be able to go on.
I hope that clears things up a bit.
Thanks for writing.
I don't know how you could decide I'd be a nihilist just because I don't entertain beliefs.
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Because that's the definition of nihilism - the non-entertainment of beliefs.
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For the record, my life has meaning and I am discriminating, because the evidence of life proves not only it's worth but that some conduct is better than others.
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So then you don't reject belief systems at all. You do have a belief system.
It may not be a religious belief system, but it is an ethical and moral belief system based on "evidence," i.e., the way that you organize meaning and interpret your own experience.
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Thanks for writing.
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Thanks for answering!
O.K., I guess I can settle for that. I'm not sure if I - totally - agree with it (I'll have to give it some thought) but, until I decide, I won't fight it too vehemently.
ReplyDeleteThanks: I made have learned something here.