http://www.penpaperpause.com

I guess i’m trying to balance in my mind:

God: inventing the concepts of time, space, matter and life (creation)
Vs
Me: scribbling on a piece of paper or writing a little song about girls (creation?)

I’m not trying to say human creativity isn’t important or god-infused, i’m just wondering if we overstate it sometimes. After all, isn’t human creativity just a new combination of things that already existed before in a new/surprising way?

What do people think?

“

FROM THE BBC:

An atheist campaign claiming “There’s probably no God” has been reported to the advertising regulator.

Posters with the slogan appear on 800 buses in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as on the London Underground.

But organisation Christian Voice has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority saying they break rules on substantiation and truthfulness. The British Humanist Association, which backed the campaign, said it was not taking the complaint seriously.

The adverts contain the slogan: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” and (interestingly) they set out with an ambition to raise £5K via http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus but rapidly raised over £140K.

More interesting still is the premis that if God exists it is a cause of worry that would destract from life’s joy. For me, it is a pertinant challenge to the Christian faith and one worth thinking about. It echoes what a lot of people I know say about faith – maybe it’s time we admitted that the Jesus message of abundant life isn’t getting through to normal people.

Completely uninteresting is the complaint.

Petty.

But completely uninteresting.

The good news is that watching this video makes your life better.
The  even better news is that, the more you watch it, the better your life gets.

A few years ago I bought a book from a second hand shop called “why christians crack up”. I’ll be honest with you: I still haven’t read it. However, what feels important here is that it sung with enough penetrating truth that I wanted to read it. Having been brought up a christian and having been in some way part of uk christian-sub culture ever since leaving home, I can testify (as i’m sure many of us can) that christians are often highly strung and do indeed crack up.

Whilst the book continues to daunt me with it’s drab 70s cover and small type, I read this article in the NY Times and it seems to be hinting at the same phenomenon:

‘In a paper published in the August issue of The Journal of Anxiety Disorders, Chris Miller and Dawson Hedges of Brigham Young University estimate that as many as one million Americans may suffer from a moral-anxiety-cum-mental-illness known as “scrupulosity disorder.” They define it as obsessive doubt about moral behavior often resulting in compulsive religious observance — and they warn that it can lead to depression, apathy, isolation and even suicide.’

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/magazine/14ideas-section3-t-008.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I was very much trapped in this mindset and only by some twists of grace did I slowly escape into a faith more confusing but more balanced.

And whilst I think headspace is a place which at its best heros balanced christianity, I am increasingly tuned in to notice this odd phenomenon in christians/sermons/churches: depression, huge feelings of inadequacy, guilt, “we must work harder”, “we are such bad christians”, “i had a period away from the lord but now im back” (you can get away??), denouncement of faith, and on and on for ever…

I’m struggling to formulate any big point but what I mean rests somewhere between – “oh my goodness this is a big problem for christianity in the uk and could be part of the reason churches are heamoraging” and “what a strange irony that the whole basis of our faith is the removal of guilt yet we often, in its outworking, entrench guilt deeper in our souls”

According to http://gospel-tract.com/, “The Gospel tracts that we present to the world in Christian evangelism speak volumes about who we are and how we value our church and God. Each Christian tract must be attractive enough to survive the trip home and then it must deliver the salvation message of Jesus Christ clearly and quickly. These tracts are excellent for Christian outreach, evangelism, short term missions trips, summer missions trip and Spanish missions trips. Please be assured that each one of these gospel tracts will be gratefully received and read, and as God uses them, we will see many come to know the salvation of Christ Jesus. Share the good news Gospel of Jesus Christ. All of our Christian evangelism tracts are printed on glossy paper (needed for bright colors) and all have God’s plan of salvation. Remember that a great portion of unattractive outreach handouts with no color will never be read, and in the end, they will cost more per convert than the more attractive Bible tracts. And to give out a tract without God’s plan of salvation is just a waste of time and paper!”

My favourite bit is either the whole concept of “cost per convert” or the stark reality that the transforming power of an omnipotent creator is put at risk if we don’t print in colour.