As you’re reading this my wife and I are on our annual wedding anniversary getaway. So I’m going to re-post a slight reworking of T.I. #50 — of one of my favorites from 2 years back. Let me know what you think in the comments. Enjoy!
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A couple of years ago I posted a video analysis of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. One of the things I mentioned was the nature and symbolism of Prince Philip’s Sword of Truth and Shield of Virtue.
During his fight with Maleficent in her dragon form, Prince Philip loses the Shield of Virtue because that’s what we all do. We’re human. We mess up, we make mistakes, we do things that we know are not in keeping with our own moral and ethical codes. But as long as we hold tight to truth the way that Prince Philip does in the movie, we can slay any dragon and ultimately regain our virtue. Because making a commitment to speak the truth is more than just a speech modifier. If you do things you’re ashamed of you’ll have to lie about what you did. So telling the truth is a behavior modifier too.
Truth may be the highest ideal known to man. That’s why it figures so prominently in the initiations of Cabal Fang. Individuals and cultures that do not revere truth may reap short-term rewards of one kind or another but eventually they will completely lose their virtue and have no way to regain it — and some dragon or other will eat them up in their bankruptcy.
Hold tight to truth my friends, and aim your compass toward it like it’s true north. You’ll screw up because we all do. But at least you’ll be able to get back on course!
More Truth: Cabal Fang Training INvolution #155
10 minutes of slipping and bobbing. Set a timer for 10 minutes and practice your slips and bobs, preferably with a slip ball. Beginners use this intro video. Advanced folks, run this slip ball impairment drill.
Heavy bag 4 x 2:oo/:30. Go after a heavy bag with maximum ill intent, just make sure that between each combination you (a) complete at least 2 slips or bobs, and (b) you circle the bag rather than standing stock-still. Hit while you move and move while you hit.
Meditation on Truth. Look into your past starting with most recent history and find a time when you were less than truthful. Now set a timer for 10 minutes and assume your chosen meditative posture. Untangle that lie through meditation. Use your imagination to step into the scene. Relive the incident. See if you can come to understand why you weren’t truthful, what you should have done, and what you think you might do the next time you’re in a similar situation. Record your thoughts and realizations in your training journal.
This week there was a fire at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. I hope I speak for the entire world when I say that any damage to this treasure is a devastating loss to all of human culture.
Notre-Dame means “Our Lady.” It’s a Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Holy Virgin. Before construction began in 1163 there had been at least four different churches on the site. Before those four churches, there was a Gallo-Roman temple. And before that, some believe, there was pagan goddess temple on the site. There’s no proof of that. But what we do know for sure that, for some time following the French Revolution, Notre-Dame was renamed the Temple of Reason and the Goddess of Liberty replaced the Holy Virgin on some of the altars.
Fifty meters in front of the cathedral you will find le Point Zero des Routes de France. When a French city’s distance from the capital is measured, it is from this point that the measurement is taken. Notre-Dame is the center of Paris and, from the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment, Paris was the center of Western culture — the home of the greatest academics, the greatest universities, the greatest libraries, the greatest museums, the greatest fashion, the greatest food, and more.
With all this in mind, is it a coincidence that le Point Zero is an 8-pointed star — the Star of Isthar? Is it a coincidence that this cathedral would be so central to Western culture, given that it is the Holy Virgin who gives birth to the babe who changes the world forever? Is it a coincidence that the famed North Rose Window of Notre-Dame depicts the Holy Virgin and Christ child at the center — surrounded by 88 circled images? No, it is not a coincidence at all.
Because Notre-Dame de Paris is the navel of the world. Surely we must grieve for her, pray for her, support her, and see her restored and preserved forever.
The Famed North Rose Window of Notre-Dame de Paris. At the center are Mary and the Christ child. Surrounding them are 88 circles. Image not in the public domain. Shared via Wikipedia.
Le Point Zéro des routes de France
Star of Ishtar
XVII The Star from the famed Tarot de Marseilles, one of the oldest fully preserved Tarot decks, and certainly the one most often copied. Note that there are eight, eight-pointed stars and that 17 reduces to 8 (1+7=8)
Why do you suppose it is that almost every religious symbol since the Egyptians screams out, “Pay attention!”? A Celtic cross is basically a set of cross-hairs. The Dharma wheel is a perfect target. And the symbol of the Jains is literally a big hand saying, “Stop! Look at this target thingy right here.”
When you are giving something your full attention, time stands still. When you are playing the guitar, making love, or getting hit in the face in a sparring match, you are essentially in touch with the eternal — from the Latin aeternus , meaning atemporal. In other words, outside the bonds of time.
Get this through your head right now.
Paying attention is the secret sauce that makes your martial arts burger tasty and delicious.
Paying attention is the splashy color that makes your oil painting fry people’s brains out when they look at it.
Paying attention is the magic mojo that makes your lover want to hold your hand until the sun becomes a black hole.
Not paying attention is what makes you step on snakes and tumble down slippery slopes and fall on punji stakes and suffer a short and miserable life.
It doesn’t matter what you do as much as how you do it.
This is why we journal in Cabal Fang — to focus and refocus our attention — and this is why journaling makes you powerful. Do something with full attention and write it down.
Last week’s T.I. was a double-down. So this week we’re going to take it down a notch — see below.
This month’s internal focus is The Book, a.k.a the Tarot. The Tarot is essentially an encyclopedia of symbolism in the form of a deck of cards, a way to train your mind to see the world in terms of story and symbol. When used as a tool for reflection and psychoanalysis, Tarot is fun and beneficial beyond measure.
Tarot cards are not dangerous and scary unless you use them to tell fortunes. I’m in seminary, and neither of my bishops see the slightest thing wrong with using Tarot cards to gain insight into oneself or as aids to meditation. The finest Tarot book ever written was penned by a devout Catholic. Divination and magic, on the other hand, will get you into hot water. I advise against it.
Here’s an example of how Tarot can work, using songs instead of Tarot cards. On the right is a copy of a CD I made for a coworker back in ’07. Chuck was leaving the company headed for greener pastures, and I said goodbye to him with a CD. I liked it so much I made a copy for myself.
Give it a listen. Pretend it’s a concept album and see if you get the story that’s being told by the various tracks. Here’s the YouTube playlist.
That’s kind of what you do with Tarot cards. You lay out a spread of cards, look at the pretty pictures and amazing symbols, and see if you can follow the story.
HiIt Parade: Cabal Fang Training Involution #151
A paradeis a “succession, series, or display of items.” The origin of the word parade is the Latin paro which means to prepare, provide, or resolve.
Let’s do this.
Warm up thoroughly — that’s 8 minutes minimum.
Cabal Fang Grappling Conditioner #2. Set timer for 3 x 3:00/1:00. For each 3:00, Splay-n-Punch 1-2, Splay-n-Punch 1-2-3-4, Splay-n-Punch 1-2-3-4-5-6, etc. up to Splay-n-Punch 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, then start again. If you’re not dawdling you should be able to get at least 5 climbs done during every 3:00 round — that’s 25 Sprawls and 150 punches. For the 1:00 “rests” body-lock a heavy bag and squeeze it as hard as you can. Take as many 12-count breaks as you must in order keep from upchucking. Just breathe. I promise it’ll be over in 12 minutes.
Scuffling, grappling and wrestling HIIT. Set a timer to beep every 40 seconds. Whenever it beeps take a 10-second break and then start the next exercise. Cycle through the following 6 times for a total of 16 minutes, each as many as you can for 30 seconds: Smearing Push-ups, Cross-arm Clinch Lunges (maximum cutting power!), Leg Triangles and Splay-n-Punch. See video below for details. Look familiar? It should.
Tell a story. Shuffle your Tarot cards and deal out nine cards, all face up, in a 3 x 3 square. Think of them as panels in a comic book of your life — the top row your past, the middle row your present, the bottom row your future. Come up with a plot that connects the pictures. Spend some time asking yourself questions about the little story you made up. Which episodes from your childhood are brought to mind by the first three cards? Do you know why? Does the story have a good or bad ending? What could you do to change it?
Record everything you learned in your training journal. If it ain’t in the journal, it didn’t happen.
I’m camping this weekend — heading out tomorrow morning right after I finish leading the free tracking walk I’m doing to promote my Bobcat Martial Arts program — so this week’s T.I. comes out a day early!
As I’ve mentioned many times, I highly recommend doing a double-down day once every four to six weeks or so. Pick a recent training session that didn’t go well. Then double it and try to find a way to modify, adapt, overcome and suffer through it.
If you listen to your body and you know your limits, and if you are cautious enough to do this safely, the benefits are out-of-this-world.
Double Trouble: Cabal Fang Martial Arts Training Involution #150
I don’t know what you’re going to do, because I don’t know what you selected to double! But here’s what I did. This took almost exactly 2 hours.
1. Forms. I spent a full 10 minutes running through the Star of Ishtar, the Fool’s Journey and the new Six-headed Hydra choke form, plus a quick run through a few of my favorite Korean Karate forms.
2. Double weights. Tuesday’s session was weak sauce, so I just about doubled the reps.
T-handle Dead Lifts. #70 @ 2 x 10 as warm-up. #140 @ 4 x 5 + 1 set to failure (I made 5). Here’s a beast showing how it’s done.
HSPUs. 2 x 10 Jackknife Push-ups to warm up, then 5 sets to failure. I got 4, 3, 3, 2, 2.
Sandbag Shoulder Carry. #95 @ 4 x 50 yards+ 1 set to failure. 50, 50, 50, 50, 24. Still cruddy, but getting stronger.
3. Ground Fighting Conditioner #1 — twice. The conditioner so nice you ought to do it twice. Details here.
4. Weighted Shadowboxing. 10 mins with #2 weights on ankles and #2 dumbbells in hands. Count your strikes (10-count combos makes it easy to keep track). I made 520 strikes.
5. Stretching Meditation. Nice relaxing stretch, full 20 minutes, with total focus and body awareness — no linguistic thinking or daydreaming.
According to the very nice county police officer who gave me a heads up Thursday night, there’s a chance we’re going to be run out of the civic association park where we’ve trained since ’09. We’re okay for now, but “No Trespassing” signs are likely going up soon.
Running is almost always the right answer in a self-defense situation. But not this time.
Next week I’ll be asking for a zoning variance at the monthly county board of supervisors meeting. And I’ll also be asking about the future of the park — about the county’s commitment to its upkeep, and so on. Meetings are video taped and saved on the county website, so video to come.
Slug Fest: Cabal Fang Martial Arts Training Involution #149
9 mins of slugging. Warm up thoroughly (at least 8 mins). Set timer for 1:00 min intervals. Bang the heavy bag for 1 min as fast and as hard as you can. Then shadowbox as fast as you can for 1 min. Then, based on your fitness level, hold a Handstand, Push-up Plank or Elbow Plank for 1 min. Repeat twice more for a total of 9 mins. Take as few 12-count breaks as you must in order to finish.
Ask Archangel Barachiel for intercession. Light a white candle and/or burn some incense as an offering to Archangel Barachiel, our guardian angel, and spend a few minutes in silent reflection. Request he lend his wisdom, guardianship, guidance, care, visitation, and defense to Cabal Fang as we struggle to keep our space.
In Cabal Fang we generally train for max output over a limited time. Cabal Fang is a self-defense martial art. Self-defense situations don’t usually last for more than a minute or so.
But we also want Cabal Fang to be applicable in every day life. Only cops, medics and soldiers will likely use their martial arts skills more than once or twice in a lifetime. But if Cabal Fang makes you healthy and strong inside and out, you can apply that in a million different ways, all day every day. And every day life sometimes will require you to work until you can work no more.
So once in a while we should shake things up and train for distance instead of speed — for length of time instead of for output across a span of time.
Enduro: Cabal Fang Training Involution #148
9 rounds of emergency action. Only 8 breaks of 12 secs each, one break between each of the 9 rounds. Each round you’ll go until you gas, take a 12 sec. break, then proceed to the next exercise: HBSC (Heavy Bag Shoulder Carry), Up Strikes, Bear Walks, HBSC, Mounted Strikes, Bear Walks, HBSC, Low Kicks, Bear Walks. No pacing or lollygagging on the strikes, but travel at a relaxed pace for the HBSCs and Bear Walks. 8 breaks only. My time was a fairly pathetic 20:39. Post yours in the comments. See video below.
Internal work for time. Assume your posture of choice and set a countdown timer for one hour. Practice your choice of contemplation, meditation or prayer as long as you are able — until your mind or body fails you — or until the timer beeps, whichever comes first. I made my hour. Did you?
If it’s not in your training journal it didn’t happen. Record all times and all self-realizations in your training journal.
“Escape Plan Drill” a.k.a. “EPD” has been a fitness standard in Cabal Fang Martial Arts for many years, even before making its first appearance almost exactly four years ago.
If you haven’t done it yet, you’re in for a treat.
EPD is A+ because it shrinks to fit. You can use whatever calisthenics you like based on your needs and/or fitness level. And, since it’s an “as-many-as-you-can” type of drill, its difficulty increases with the fitness of the user.
This week’s variant uses martial-specific calisthenics. Dig it.
Escape Plan Revisited: Cabal Fang Training Involution #145
Escape Plan Drill. Set timer for 1:00 intervals. Sprint for 1:00, Shadowbox or hit Heavy Bag for 1:00 then complete as many calisthenics reps as you can for 1:00. Repeat 4 more times for a total of 15 mins, taking as few 12-count breaks as you must in order to finish. Your 5 calisthenics are: Sit-outs, Shots, Sprawls, Bear Walks, and Back Bridge. On the Back Bridges, hold or pop reps based on fitness level. This version of EPD could be called “Humility Sandwich.” Try a bite and tell me if I’m wrong about the recipe.
Hagakure Meditation. Escape is not always possible, certainly not in the end. After cooling down, set countdown timer for 10 mins., then read the paragraph below and meditate as directed. Seppuku is of course an ancient form of ritual suicide, so this is not to be read literally. Read metaphorically it contains a wise but very hard teaching. We are going to die, perhaps even by having to lay down our lives for what we value most highly. We modern people struggle with these old, hard lessons. But some things are worth the struggle.
NEXT WEEK…
Are you more fit than a 12-year-old boy circa 1945? Find out next week in Boy’s Twelve: Training Involution #146!
Initially this post was set up as an escape hatch. It was a link I could drop like a ninja smoke bomb so I could make my exit from conversations with vicious trolls and hate-filled, vitriolic atheists. But lately it has transformed into a personal filing cabinet for links that are helpful in dispelling common myths about Christianity.
It morphed because I slowly came to see that Christ did not shy away from difficult conversations, even in the face of crucifixion; and many was the apostle, saint and martyr who gladly went down to death in peaceful defense of the faith. They knew something that it took me a while to see, which is that many people who are angry, nasty and mean are in intellectual, emotional or spiritual darkness and pain.
They need help. So these days I’m not running too much.
I’m happy to engage anyone in conversation anytime. Please click here to schedule a meeting. I am here to offer pastoral care, intellectual conversation, interviews, and so on. As an interfaith minister, deacon and seminarian in the Old Catholic line, the alleviation of suffering is my calling, and my duty is to be an apostle and a witness for the reality of Christ.
If you don’t like to read, watch my Christianity for Doubters video series
This is a nice place to start for people who don’t like to read stuff. Or you can try to find you question below.
(A) General Questions
There is a 99.99% chance that you are not the first person in history to attack Christianity with the question, issue or method you are currently using. Christianity has successfully defended attacks by very smart people for over 2,000 years. This field of study is known as Christian Apology or Apologetics, and the Library of Congress lists over 5,000 books under this subject heading. Start by reading some of the previous scholarship. If you have a scientific, hyper-rational bent, I recommend William Lane Craig’s book Reasonable Faith. If you prefer a more light-hearted, literary approach, you must start with C. S. Lewis. He’s the most famous and popular Christian apologist — an atheist intellectual who converted to Christianity and wrote about why. Or, if you like a sort of “just the facts” take on this topic, one of my favorites is Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels by J. Warner Wallace.
“Why do we need religion? Why can’t people just be good because it’s the right thing to do?” Because people aren’t all that good, and it’s very hard to make them. About 40,000 years ago humans starting working on ritual systems to solve this problem. These evolved into religions. Religions are not superstitions — they are sociological technologies. For more on this topic start by reading Supernatural Selection by Matt Rossano. The religion that changed the the world most dramatically in ways that have never been equaled is Christianity. Read Dominion by Tom Holland for more details. Why didn’t Jesus come to earth earlier or later than he did? Because of kairos — the time wasn’t right.
“If God is good, why is there evil in the universe?” This is called the problem of evil. There are lots of answers to this question. I like the free will defense. In a nutshell, all of the evil in the world is either caused by nature (storms, bacteria, viruses, physics, wild animals, etc.) or by human beings (lust, pride, greed, envy, hatred, etc.) not by God. God wants every living thing to be good, each of its own free will — he refuses to force the issue, which would be evil. God wants all of creation to sing together as a heavenly chorus. And we will, at the end of time.
“If God created the universe, what created God?” The universe was created out of the initial singularity by the Big Bang. Before that, there was no space-time, no matter, and no energy — that’s a scientific fact. Therefore the creator of the universe is timeless and immaterial. If you say it’s possible for things to exist without a cause, then you are a believer in magic. This is the Kalam Cosmological Argument.
“How is Christianity any better than the silly myths that came before it?” The myths that preceded Christianity were low-resolution pictures of the truth that was coming, kind of like the way the icon of a disc on the desktop of your computer is a low-res representation of the hard drive in your computer. C. S. Lewis deals with this beautifully.
“What makes you think you’re so smart?” I don’t. But I do understand what it’s like to be confused about religion. I spent most of my adult life as a religionaut and spiritual seeker before finally re-embracing Christianity. I used to believe most of the anti-Christian myths myself. This allows me to be calm, polite, and measured. Anyway, I’m not that smart. I’m just a guy who made lots of mistakes, wasted a lot of time, and now wants to be a simple priest and alleviate suffering.
“If God is real, why doesn’t He stop ______?” Fill in the blank with your choice of horrible tragedy, natural disaster or crime, such as death by hurricane or clergy sexual abuse. God is not responsible for human acts of evil resulting from free will, nor is He responsible for acts of nature. If people had no agency and there was no nature, the universe would be a giant depressing clockwork — static, rhythm-less and dead. Thank God it isn’t. Also see #3 above.
(B) General Christianity Myths
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not crazy-talk. There are a number of perfectly good, reasonable, fact-based arguments to be made for the truth of the resurrection. Here is a video explaining one of my favorites. It’s for high schoolers, which means even I can follow it.
Christianity is not at odds with science, nor has science disproved Christianity. A humble Friar named Roger Bacon pioneered the scientific method, a Belgian priest named Father George Lemaître was the originator of the Big Bang Theory, and Father Gregor Mendel was the world’s first geneticist. One of the top biologists in the world is a Christian by the name of Francis Collins. He led the Human Genome Project and now directs the National Institutes of Health. He was a close friend of the late celebrity atheist Christopher Hitchens who called him “one of the greatest living Americans” and said “one of the most devout believers he had ever met.” In 2006, Collins wrote the best-selling book The Language of God in which he tells the story of his journey from atheism to Christian belief, showing that science is not in conflict with the Bible, but actually enhances faith. He started a foundation called BioLogos. Watch this awesome video.
Religions do not cause wars. According to the Encyclopedia of Wars, religion has been a factor in less than 7 percent of all wars and in less than 2 percent of all people killed in warfare. Isn’t it interesting that, when religion is involved, wars are less bloody, on average? Visit this website for data on the true drivers of war.
Miracles aren’t made up by crazy people. Things we can’t explain happen all the time. Ask anybody you know and you’ll get dozens of examples of spontaneous healing, freak events, and other improbable “coincidences.” If one in a million of them is “real,” there have been millions of miracles. C. S. Lewis wrote a book called Miracles that I highly recommend.
“It’s impossible for somebody to be raised from the dead, so Christianity is obviously made up.” Obviously it’s impossible, which is what makes it a miracle. That’s why a religion sprang up around this one guy named Jesus who rose from the grave after three days. You should know that nobody attacked Christianity in its infancy by contesting the empty tomb — not even Jewish or Roman authorities — which is why many modern atheist historians do not. And you should ask yourself why hundreds of people claimed to be witnesses to the risen Christ and were willing to be crucified and die rather than deny what they saw. It’s also useful to note that the gospels don’t make it 100% clear what happened. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus just disappears from the tomb and that’s it. In other Gospels he appears but the apostles don’t recognize him at first. What happened or didn’t happen isn’t all that clear. Most Christians understand that and are okay with it.
“God is your invisible friend or a flying spaghetti monster.” Billions of Christian believers over the last 2,000 years have not attested to the reality of a flying spaghetti monster. Would you rely on eyewitness testimony in a court of law? Then why not believe billions of witnesses of Christ? This is called the “argument from reason” and lots of really smart people seem to like it and/or have a hard time refuting it.
Christians are not blind automatons. The word “Israel” means either “God struggles” or “to struggle with God.” Either way, Christianity is a conversation between God and humanity spelled out in 73 volumes.
Christianity doesn’t owe its popularity to forced conversions. Isolated cases occurred. But, for the most part, people dropped pagan religions like a hot potato and picked up Christianity instead. And the world is better for it. Start here.
Just because some Christians don’t practice what they preach doesn’t mean that Christianity stinks. Don’t make a short list of radical, stupid, and/or evil Christians and say “see, Christianity stinks.” This is the dumbest thing I ever heard. All doctors aren’t perfect, but we don’t give up on medicine do we?
Christianity isn’t some childish belief system you can outline on a 3″ x 5″ index card and then poke holes in. Christianity has been developed by the the greatest minds of the last 2,000+ years. The Bible is a library of books that is completely unique for having been compiled by means of a multi-generational collaboration by thousands of authors across several millennia. Its 73 books are complex, universally relevant, inspirational and interconnected to a degree you cannot possibly imagine.
Jordan B. Peterson videos. If you don’t want to read books but you insist on being anti-Christian watch as many videos as you can on this video channel.
Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Vandals brought the Roman Empire to its knees. And then they converted to Christianity. These were some of the most terrifying, brutal, powerful tribes ever known. Were they converted by force? Were the Vikings? The Celts? The native tribes of the British Isles? The mere thought of it is absurd. My people are Scottish by name and blood, and we are pretty hard-headed. Try converting me by force and see what you get.
The Roman Catholic Church isn’t a parasitic organization that hordes wealth. The RCC is the largest non-government provider of health care services in the world, operating 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and those with special needs, and 5,500 hospitals — managing 26% of the world’s health care facilities.
Popes and priests are not rich fat-cats who gallivant around the world living large. Catholic clergy take vows of poverty. The Pope doesn’t get a salary at all, and priests may earn a small salary which averages about $40,000/year (paid mostly in room and board). Many priests subsist on room, board, healthcare, and a small stipend of around $250/month.
Catholic clergy aren’t more likely to abuse children than other clergy, nor have they been more likely to do so than men in general, or even more likely than public school teachers.
Clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church can’t be blamed on celibacy, homosexuality, or on all-male clergy.
Almost all of clergy sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church occurred during the 1960s and 70s.
Most clergy sex offenders aren’t pedophiles in the popular sense — most offenses were against post-pubescent teens, not young children. Still horrific and unconscionable, but this is an important distinction.
Before we even get going, I want to point out that most Christians are not anti-science. In fact, many sensible Christians have a much more practical, common sense relationship with science than some atheists. See the bit about Francis Collins above.
Anyway, there are 2.4 billion Christians on the planet, belonging to hundreds of wildly divergent denominations. It is virtually impossible to make sweeping statements about what Christians do and do not believe.
All Christians do not believe in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell.
Furthermore, Christians do not agree on the definitions of certain key words, such as “salvation,” “heaven” “hell,” and so on.
All Christians are not Bible literalists who believe Earth is only 6,000 years old, flat, and other silly things.
Christians are not motivated by fear of hell or promise of heaven. Most Christians believe that salvation (whatever that is) cannot be achieved at all – it comes through a combination of grace (a free gift from God) and works (demonstrating our cooperation in God’s plan by doing good stuff in the world).
All Christians are not fundamentalists. Only about 1/3rd of Christians are even Protestant, much less fundamentalists.
For about the fifth time: all Christians are not opposed to science.
Christians do not hate gays. If they do, they’re not following Jesus’ instructions to love everyone, even our enemies – instructions which are everywhere in the gospels and quite clear.
Christians do not despise the world and live for the next life to the detriment of this one. Despising the world is actually a pretty heretical belief in the eyes of most Christians. Probably the most famous Bible quote of all time is, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NRSV)
References
“Incorporeal things are not in place after a manner known and familiar to us, in which way we say that bodies are properly in place; but they are in place after a manner befitting spiritual substances, a manner that cannot be fully manifest to us.” [St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Supplement, Q69, a1, reply 1 written 1265–1274] 750 years ago, one of the greatest theologians in history plainly said that heaven, hell, purgatory, and so on are not physical places we can comprehend.
This is a page from the introduction to my Catholic study Bible which explains the difference between fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist interpretations of scripture.
Most Christians — especially members of the clergy — don’t believe the Bible was magically written by God. Or even that it was written by the people to whom the individual books are attributed for that matter. That’s because…
The Bible is not just “some old book.” The Bible is a library of 73 books, and it is an incredible feat. Somehow, thousands of authors, editors and scribes, working in different times across millennia, managed to bring together this library of books in such a way that the disparate volumes form a cohesive narrative structure. See the diagram below. The Bible makes something like Wikipedia look like a tri-fold pamphlet. You might even say that it’s a miracle.
The Bible doesn’t promote violence, or misogyny, or any of that. It contains stories with controversial themes — kind of the same way that a documentary about drug addiction might show drug use without promoting it. And it contains all of the outdated ideas that we’ve improved upon too. The great thing about Christianity is that its definition of “good” has evolved over time because Christians have generally tried to be humble. God is the highest possible good, and beyond our comprehension. As our vision gets better, “God” and “good” get better!
People who study the Bible and think it’s important are not uneducated and/or backward. Most of the smartest people and greatest scientists of past and present were and are Christians. See references in previous section.
Biblical laws were not and are not backward and draconian, nor are they evidence that Christianity is outdated and backward. The Hebrews were the first culture in the Ancient Near East to abolish physical punishment for property crimes, the first to establish a single law code for everyone regardless of social standing, the first to do away with divine kings, and so on. Compare the law of the Hebrews to those of their neighbors and you will see that the Hebrews’ are far more progressive. The philosophy that gave birth to those laws allows for the laws to be updated — see #2 above.
Just because the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) contradict each other doesn’t mean that the Bible is a nest of lies. The founders of the early Christian churches were aware of the contradictions — they just didn’t care all that much. Apparently they were more open-minded that most people are nowadays.
Biblical laws, rules and customs cannot be taken out of context and used to prove points. The Bible is a library of 73 books written across millennia that document the centuries-long struggle of Jews and Christians to figure out exactly what the laws and rules should be. Of course there are contradictions. Copernicus and Ptolemy contradict each other regarding the correct model of the solar system, but we don’t claim that Astronomy itself is invalid. Also, it’s useful to note that the book of Proverbs is not a book of religious laws. It is called Proverbs because, as it happens, it is a book of, you know, proverbs. It’s a book full of the ancient Hebrew equivalent of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” or “what goes up must come down.” Why do uneducated people insist on attacking Biblical material without any sense of appropriateness or context? Here’s an idea: “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” ~Proverbs 26:11
Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature — Prof. Dale Martin (RLST 152 – Yale Open Courses website). [Note: If you think it’s important, which it isn’t, but you might think it is if you believe in common myths about Christianity, Prof. Martin is gay.)
I teach free of charge through Heritage Arts , a 501(c)(3) educational charity offering free or donation-only classes related to martial arts, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development. Distance learning programs available. Visit the Heritage Arts website to find out more, or click here to join the Heritage Self-Defense group on Facebook.
What is Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble? It’s mind-body-spirit form of American Rough ‘n’ Tumble, which began as a manner of no-holds-barred fighting in the Southern Virginia backcountry during the Colonial Era and has since grown, evolved, and adapted to the realities of modern self-defense. An amalgam of the varying techniques brought to America by colonists from all over the world, blended with the fighting methods of the over 900 distinct indigenous tribes, American Rough ‘n’ Tumble is perhaps the world’s most fearsome martial art.
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“Why do we need religion? Why can’t people just be good because it’s the right thing to do?” 
Robert Mitchell Jr. 