This is another book I have started. It is a collection of essays about the impact of scholarship on the faith of religion and Bible scholars included in the book. The scholar I resonate best with so far is Robert M. Price. His essay "Footsteps in the Quicksand" (clever title) discusses his evolution from a fundamentalist Christian to an atheist who is friendly toward and enjoys religion for psychological and social pleasure and benefits it provides. He found himself holding the same opinions as other atheists but having a difficult time because they were irritated that he did not dislike religion the way he did.

"But I began to irritate some atheist colleagues because I could not be a virulently anti-religious as they were. You see, I had seen it from both sides, and as a scholar I knew one could not simply write off the whole cultural creation of religion as a baneful delusion, even if one were an atheist. If one considered oneself a humanist, one was obliged to understand human religion as empathetically as possible. So I was a religion-loving atheist, trying to promote keen criticism and respectful coexistence."

Perfect quote for today. I have noticed lately I seem less bitter and angry about the LDS church. I've got more of a live and let live attitude. Hope it stays that way for me.

Thank you for sharing that.

Neat book, and valuable for those who believe religion can still play a part in our spiritual journey. And I like the quote you provide by Robert M. Price.

Of course, the very idea of a "spiritual journey" is being questioned, for the idea of a spirit, a soul, to be having a journey is being questioned. Many are beginning to think we are only a brain. Our language, once saturated with the idea that we are spiritual things embarked upon a human journey, is under fire. Now we are nothing more than firing neurons. It's all in the brain, some say. "My brain made me do it," some say.

Well......it's all conceptual:

http://www.philosophypress.co.uk/?p=1583

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,35510,37652#msg-37652

As long as they don't take from me the holy trinity of love:


In all Love there is a love begetting, and a love begotten, and a love proceeding. Which though they are one in essence subsist nevertheless in three several manners. For love is benevolent affection to another: Which is of itself, and by itself relateth to its object. It floweth from itself and resteth in its object. Love proceedeth of necessity from itself, for unless it be of itself it is not Love. Constraint is destructive and opposite to its nature. The Love from which it floweth is the fountain of Love. The Love which streameth from it, is the communication of Love, or Love communicated. The Love which resteth in the object is the Love which streameth to it. So that in all Love, the Trinity is clear. By secret passages without stirring it proceedeth to its object, and is as powerfully present as if it did not proceed at all. The Love that lieth in the bosom of the Lover, being the love that is perceived in the spirit of the Beloved: that is, the same in substance, tho' in the manner of substance, or subsistence, different. Love in the bosom is the parent of Love, Love in the stream is the effect of Love, Love seen, or dwelling in the object proceedeth from both. Yet are all these, one and the Selfsame Love: though three Loves.


--Thomas Traherne--
--Centuries of Meditations--

http://books.google.ca/books?id=BFTx_DbG8FgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=centuries+of+meditations&hl=en&ei=0HXwTIHMBJGosQOew9jLCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false


Alas, maybe it is only my brain that loves. Even so, it's a wonderful thing.

Cheers Mr. B.

Human