Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Those of you who have studied philosophy and the works of various philosophers will know that philosophy does not mix well with Religion. I fell in love with the writings of Bertrand Russell and started questioning everything I had been taught in Christianity. The first question started with why Adam was created first. Feminism, which was one of the subjects in philosophy, convinced me that men could not possibly be superior to women and accepting that man came before woman was an act of betrayal of myself. It is not that philosophy gave me any answers to my questions about life but the questions it asked about the answers I thought I had in Christianity were so difficult, I started to doubt that there was a God. In time, I abandoned any idea that there could be a God.
I used to go around saying, “I don’t believe in God. Yes, there is probably some Higher Power that controls what goes on in Life but how do I know it’s the God in the Bible?” No-one I met ever gave me a straight answer, at least not one that met my philosophical standards. They would beat about the bush telling me to look around me and see all these things which God created and how wonderful they are and that the existence of nature and its beauty was sufficient testimony that there was a God. To me, these guys missed the point. How can you tell that those things were created by a God and that the God that created them is the God in the Bible and not the one in the Koran or Krishna or whatever other deities there are. For all I knew, everything around me was created by me in my mind. I needed proof, strict proof of what the Bible professes.
Hey, I was also studying law and understood that law is all about proving you are right. What I had not realized is that in actual fact, law is about proving you are righter than your opponent. The guy with the better argument and better lawyer wins. But there is no such thing as definite proof. In criminal law they use the term “beyond reasonable doubt”, you don’t need definite proof to convict someone of a criminal offence and have them sent away to prison. In the practice of law, the law is manipulated and moulded to produce the effect required by the most influential of the parties. A lawyer doesn’t take sides, a lawyer represents the person paying the fees. This is why we lawyers are world reknown as the scum of the earth.
Exploring the question of God was interesting. I had not thought about Him for a very long time. I was doing quite well without Him in my life. Now I was wondering whether the good feeling I was getting from giving was the same as the one I used to get from going to church. No way was I going to start going to church. To me, church leaders were the greatest hypocrites to walk the earth. Even Jesus disliked them, the scribes and pharisees. So instead, I chose to read the Bible at my own time.
That book called the Bible is supposed to possess the answer to all of life’s questions but, it is such a long book and for the most part, its hard to understand what is being talked about and how it can be related to modern life. On the other hand, philosophy has no answers, it just questions everything and makes you believe there is nothing. To me, it was better to question and not have an answer than to accept a half cooked answer. I was not ready to read about Jesus until I was certain about my relationship with God. I didn’t want to be like those hypocrites who even tell you to do what they say and not what they do. I mean, please; if you can’t do it, then don’t tell me to.
Most people have to go to church or buy books explaining about what the Bible means to understand it. Worse still, there are those who claim to have proof that the Bible is wrong. Where was I to start? Well I am not a fan of ‘how to’ books. I prefer to check things out myself and form my own independent opinion. I do this so that I can be sure about what am talking about. At the very least, I should be able to justify my argument in an intelligent sounding manner. As a lawyer, you cannot afford the luxury of appearing in court without support for everything that comes out of your mouth. Well, you can if your opponent is not someone who takes their work seriously but I’d rather not expose myself to the possibility of ridicule. So I had to read about Jesus from the Bible. I was not bothered about trying to dig into investigations about the original Bible and how some translations are manipulated and all that stuff. If God is really who He says He is, then He would make sure I get the truth.
Luckily for me, one of the guests at our wedding had given us a King James Bible for a present so I decided to read it. From what I knew about the Christian God, He controls everything. I mean even my reading the Bible is in His control so I just held the Bible in my hands and opened a page at random.
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Those of you who have studied philosophy and the works of various philosophers will know that philosophy does not mix well with Religion. I fell in love with the writings of Bertrand Russell and started questioning everything I had been taught in Christianity. The first question started with why Adam was created first. Feminism, which was one of the subjects in philosophy, convinced me that men could not possibly be superior to women and accepting that man came before woman was an act of betrayal of myself. It is not that philosophy gave me any answers to my questions about life but the questions it asked about the answers I thought I had in Christianity were so difficult, I started to doubt that there was a God. In time, I abandoned any idea that there could be a God.
I used to go around saying, “I don’t believe in God. Yes, there is probably some Higher Power that controls what goes on in Life but how do I know it’s the God in the Bible?” No-one I met ever gave me a straight answer, at least not one that met my philosophical standards. They would beat about the bush telling me to look around me and see all these things which God created and how wonderful they are and that the existence of nature and its beauty was sufficient testimony that there was a God. To me, these guys missed the point. How can you tell that those things were created by a God and that the God that created them is the God in the Bible and not the one in the Koran or Krishna or whatever other deities there are. For all I knew, everything around me was created by me in my mind. I needed proof, strict proof of what the Bible professes.
Hey, I was also studying law and understood that law is all about proving you are right. What I had not realized is that in actual fact, law is about proving you are righter than your opponent. The guy with the better argument and better lawyer wins. But there is no such thing as definite proof. In criminal law they use the term “beyond reasonable doubt”, you don’t need definite proof to convict someone of a criminal offence and have them sent away to prison. In the practice of law, the law is manipulated and moulded to produce the effect required by the most influential of the parties. A lawyer doesn’t take sides, a lawyer represents the person paying the fees. This is why we lawyers are world reknown as the scum of the earth.
Exploring the question of God was interesting. I had not thought about Him for a very long time. I was doing quite well without Him in my life. Now I was wondering whether the good feeling I was getting from giving was the same as the one I used to get from going to church. No way was I going to start going to church. To me, church leaders were the greatest hypocrites to walk the earth. Even Jesus disliked them, the scribes and pharisees. So instead, I chose to read the Bible at my own time.
That book called the Bible is supposed to possess the answer to all of life’s questions but, it is such a long book and for the most part, its hard to understand what is being talked about and how it can be related to modern life. On the other hand, philosophy has no answers, it just questions everything and makes you believe there is nothing. To me, it was better to question and not have an answer than to accept a half cooked answer. I was not ready to read about Jesus until I was certain about my relationship with God. I didn’t want to be like those hypocrites who even tell you to do what they say and not what they do. I mean, please; if you can’t do it, then don’t tell me to.
Most people have to go to church or buy books explaining about what the Bible means to understand it. Worse still, there are those who claim to have proof that the Bible is wrong. Where was I to start? Well I am not a fan of ‘how to’ books. I prefer to check things out myself and form my own independent opinion. I do this so that I can be sure about what am talking about. At the very least, I should be able to justify my argument in an intelligent sounding manner. As a lawyer, you cannot afford the luxury of appearing in court without support for everything that comes out of your mouth. Well, you can if your opponent is not someone who takes their work seriously but I’d rather not expose myself to the possibility of ridicule. So I had to read about Jesus from the Bible. I was not bothered about trying to dig into investigations about the original Bible and how some translations are manipulated and all that stuff. If God is really who He says He is, then He would make sure I get the truth.
Luckily for me, one of the guests at our wedding had given us a King James Bible for a present so I decided to read it. From what I knew about the Christian God, He controls everything. I mean even my reading the Bible is in His control so I just held the Bible in my hands and opened a page at random.
2 comments:
This is juicier that the highway to heaven blog
this is juicier that the highway to heaven blog, thanks Njeri :)
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