5 Comments
leave one →
We are all children learning from other children. We are all children leading children. We are children with children. Love and be loved.
-
Recent Comments
josh on Alister McGrath on Adam and… 
JamaicanGirl on It’s Personal – A … JamaicanGirl on It’s Personal – A … 
Jordan on Rob Bell: Resurrection 
Mike Lehmann on Richard Dawkins Interviews Row… -
Authors
Joshua Scales
Mike Lehmann
I have a few questions/comments after watching this video . . .
1) What is meant by “heart”, specifically when it is mentioned “how my heart won over my head”? I am not being facetious here, I think its very important to grasp what is meant by this word. I think its safe to exclude the physical organ from the intended meaning, however I am still not sure of the meaning.
2) I am curious why the speaker does not seem to have taken a more naturalistic approach into the source of the “tension” he describes, specifically the “tension” he experienced when going to the small group with his Christian wife. It seems perfectly natural to me that one would be at war with their own integrity when faced with a situation where they are choosing to satisfy their loved one’s terms of marriage over their personal convictions. Is it unreasonable that the source of the speaker’s “tension” could have been derived here instead?
3) Although it may have been humbling to learn that some of his preconceived notions about God and Christianity were not completely true (if not outright false), I do not understand how these humbling experiences justifies one to submit that God, in just a few words, “works mysteriously”, or (in words closer to what the speaker may have been more prone to use) “MAY work MORE mysteriously than >II” and “<" used to show emphasis). To me, if God works "mysteriously", even "more mysteriously than I would if I were God", then God seems to work with a mysteriousness which boarders on incompetence, impotence or outright maliciousness rather than love, knowledge and power. If the speaker shared my same aforementioned view, I could hardly see his ending prayer and ensuing conversion as much more than cognitive dissonance catalyzed by marital pressure (be it explicit or internal). Therefore I question the "stoutness" of this proclaimed former-atheist's atheism.
Finally, I submit that a FAR more extensive conversation on the speakers conversion is necessary and would be helpful in order to determine the "divinity" and/or reason of his conversion.
Sean, you asked this question in January of this year. This is the beginning of September, hopefully I’m not too late.
1/ “Heart” is another word for “Spirit”, and spirit is windlike essence of a person. Here’s a a context I’ve drawn up for you; man is a spirit who lives in a body and possesses a soul(mind, emotions, intellect). When a man dies, he retains his soul, but he has lost his body. Your heart/spirit is the what your body looks like, and your body gets all it’s abilities from your spirit. However, your spirit can be corrupted/weakened by what you give attention to(music, tv, people who surrounds you) This is why Proverbs 4:23 admonishes that you guard your heart with all dilligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
2/ The speaker would have to answer that question for himself…
3/Now how you interpret someone’s actions says more about you than the person. You see God as malicious, impotent or incompetent because you don’t understand his nature? It is incumbent upon you to figure out his nature since you’re the one enquiring rather than expect him to adhere to the parameters you have determined in such an adhoc manner.
God is a master communicator. If you asked a question of him, EXPECT an answer, but don’t expect it on within your specified parameters. If you ask a profound question of God the answer may come in the form of the guy at the ice-cream shop saying something to a customer that immediately reveals something to your spirit(in other words, a lightbulb clicks on in your mind). God reveals himself through REVELATION.
Hey Sean, I appreciate you taking the time to comment on this video. Thank you for your candor.
Regarding your comments, I want to reiterate that this is a brief introductory clip for an entire sermon focusing on the head vs. heart theme, not a video intending to explain, in every detail, the speaker’s testimony. You ask some great questions of the speaker, Sean, but it is unfair, and frankly insulting, for you to watch this incredibly short clip, question the “stoutness” of his atheism, and then write-off his conversion.
I totally agree with you that a far more extensive conversation would be illuminating, but I think that given the purpose of this clip, it is understandable the pastor did not start his sermon with a 2-hour documentary chronicling the speaker’s conversion.
The speaker, and the subsequent sermon that distills the speaker’s points, does not simply appeal to God being mysterious, or even simply to God being more mysterious than we would be if we were God. Further than that, I think they humbly hint at a deeper epistemology, a deeper way of knowing: we ought not to ask ‘Is belief in God reasonable?’, as if we knew beforehand the shape that rationality must take, but ‘What makes you think that might be the case?’
Thank you again for your honest comments. I look forward to more of them!
Where’s the main video for the story?
I love the experienced thought that is in each of your writing. It is obvious that this issue goes very deep to our inner-most being. I have often pondered what Sean was talking about with the heart/mind issue. I would appreciate more talk on dualism vs. a more physical approach. I have studdied this before but it must be acknowledged in a conversation such as this. Thanks.