Everybody who is religious says that you're supposed to have faith. I think they mean faith in God, but everything we know about God comes from other people, so it's more like they want you to have faith in these other people who claim to know more about God than you do. Then there's faith in the Bible, but the Bible was written by a whole bunch of different people over a period of centuries, and we're not even sure that everything that is supposed to be in there is in there. Who knows what has been lost in translation? But that's not what turned me away from Christianity. What caused me to question the faith of our fathers is the way people claim to believe in it when many of them don't even know what's in it, and don't seem to be trying to find out.
Like I said before, Elsdon was more of a social club than it was a religious institution. On the other extreme, you have you're fundamentalists, who are so religious that they border on fanaticism. They claim to believe that the Bible is literally true, every single word of it, and doesn't need to be interpreted. But then you quote them the part where Jesus says the Apocalypse is coming in this generation, and they say that He meant the generation that is alive today. Well, people have been saying that for 2000 years and it hasn't happened in any of the generations that have come and gone in that time. Be that as it may, as soon as they say that, when Jesus said one thing, He meant another thing, they are interpreting. Then you've got your Catholics, and we all know what they're like. None of these people are necessarily bad people, and I would rather associate with them than some other people I can think of, but they don't seem to know what they really believe and where it came from. So how are these nice people who don't know what they're talking about supposed to teach me anything about it?
I think Rev. Anderson had similar concerns, but I'm not sure because he didn't say that in so many words. Of course, this was a guy who studied for the ministry, and one would assume that he took his faith more seriously than the average church goer. His decision to go back to school and learn more about it suggests that he wasn't so sure that he really knew what he thought he should know, or even that he wasn't so sure he believed what he thought he believed. Too bad he's not here now, we could ask him. He wasn't that much older than us, so he might still be alive. Alan Anderson is a pretty common name, but I wonder if it would be possible to track him down on the internet.
Can Italian beef add meaning to your life? Sure, why not? If I can find meaning in hunting, fishing, and forestry, why couldn't you find it Italian beef? I would have thought it more likely to be found in art, but I still don't think I understand what you have told me about your art. I find your statements about "illusion of meaning" and "nothing means shit" particularly perplexing. Perhaps you would like to elaborate on that theme.
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