From strident atheist to --- a theist. That encounter while on mind-altering chemicals producing nirvana, ecstatic vision and later a supernatural experience reshaped my life- journey.
Creating and evolving via elapsed time and transformed by Love into the new person I am today.
With my obvious and blind-to-me flaws, mixed attitudes, desperate beliefs and ordinary desires melded into a walking and talking Christian that I hope I am today.
Though, elapsed time, psychiatry and helpful parents, friends and work all provided support and relative calm. But all this while the floodgates of new experiences were opened, reality was being reshaped, renewed and revitalised almost weekly
As a University student, my mind and poorly formed character took existential blows that wrong beliefs, poor choices and wrong ideals produce.
Life
had reached choke-point .
My point of existence was broken by performative living, harmful addictions and poorly-thought-out worldviews.
Although I remember where I came from, yet I have not arrived at the final destination.
Belonging, meaning and purpose according to Os Guinness are the essential pillars of human life. But I suggest that there is a necessary spiritual component as well. Many of you will shut down in disbelief and click away having read that.
Although science and its sister, technology often lead the way in the world, science can not explain nor cure everything. Many reading this will shut down their interest and break away. Though neuroscience has reached sparkling heights, Scripture was there 2,000 years earlier. Oxytocin may be the hormone the brain releases during loving interaction, however it can not fully explain all the dimensions of Love.
The much vaunted Enlightenment period
summed in one word is "reason"
Life is much more than reason, so it can never be captured and explained by reason alone—crucial and valuable though reason is. Apply reason as carefully and systematically as you like, and there will always be things it cannot explain, things that simply will not fit into its categories, however hard you push, press and pull Os Guinness
It was von Neumann who conceived the idea of programming that led to the computer—the notion that you can break down a problem into a series of simple steps that can be manipulated as numbers are manipulated. But what works for a machine does not work for a human being. If only we humans were more logical, or were only logical. Os Guinness.
Well, with the advent of BASIC, Ruby and other digital yet plainer English programming languages, computers released mankind from analog semi- mediocrity and evolved the Western World into a potentially Utopian Global Fiefdom.
Who hasn't felt an unmet need or experienced a broken heart? Or watched a beloved pet slowly die? How can science comfort a perceived failure? Isn't there a dimension beyond the spacetime continuum? Is a Black Forest Birthday cake just ingredients or is there more to it ? What about a broke gambler whose debt is more than money? Or a girl whose dance dress is "unflattering" and a Mum who needs me time with two little boy toddlers in tow while husband is at work?
Knowing that the impossible just might be possible with a benevolent GOD hidden from view but involved, caring and readily supportive cracks open living hope and releases it from its earthly prison. Not just a caring GOD but with all supernatural resources to unleash.
Clear across the divide between earth and heaven is a mighty and lovely Being whose clear aim is to help the orphan, the harassed Mum, the homeless woman with a young girl living in a car and the team of Netball girls whose flagging spirits need another inspired goal to perhaps win the trophy.
Whether you believe or not, the supra -natural is a heartbeat closer than you dare think. Ask GOD humbly and you'll find that He will not deceive you.
Since the Universe is infinite, then heaven lies somewhere beyond and its not a cosmic address of 42 universal.
By Digital Anvil
[ A Significant Threshold to Freedom ]
Many in Western countries and some Middle Eastern countries enjoy a newfound freedom embracing Christianity vigorously from different strata and walks of life.
While many return to their spiritual roots, finding solace and guidance in their faith, new Christians arising from a wide-spread 'dissatisfaction' with traditional Islam are relating vivid dreams/visions with a central figure robed in white apparel stating, " I am Jesus." Or " I am Eisa, Messiah."
Anecdotal evidence suggests that these visions/dreams are and have been occurring for decades and are significantly manifesting in numbers too many to ignore.
The underground church in Iran and China, though persecuted and at best vilified, continues to grow and throw off the chains of brutal iron- fisted dictatorship with nothing but belief in Love as the ultimate superpower.
Civil disobedience at best overthrows the excesses of democracy and Christianity overcomes the course of all alternatives to the bedrock of Judeo- Christian values and ethics with nothing but higher - order Love and the so - called Myths of democratic rule.
Christian
ministries in the USA and other nations relate stories of receiving
countless
emails and personal contacts from some Middle Eastern persons having
watched Satellite TV where death for the Christian convert lurks in
the name of Allah. "Death to the Infidel" and death with
cruel, war-sized terrorism amid cries of destruction to Israel and
the USA factoring in as well.
Where some alternative news services exist, there is opportunity for a different and truer viewpoint to transform persons long-held misbeliefs. This fact explains the almost universal prohibition or outlawing of Christianity by totalitarian regimes. The overthrow of the family unit, the destruction of the norms of free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of democracy as occurs in virtually every communist and socialist society to date. Wouldbe dictators know this truth and implement secret programs, secret surveillance and twist rule of law to circumvent these truths, ways of natural justice and socialisation of youth to prevent the rise of democracy, Christianity and the subsequent freeing of normal life.
People everywhere are reviewing their previously held conclusions and rejecting the legacy media false, often biased news.
This
resurgence is not limited to any particular socio - economic class or
demographic but is a widespread phenomenon bringing people together
in a shared sense of spirituality.
One of the key factors contributing to this resurgence is the freshly awakened search for verifiable truth, meaning and purpose. With a sharp sense of disillusionment in a flip-flopping good-doing and evil-doing world and its relativity, many are asking, "Is it true" and “is it valid for you a-n-d me?” Not my truth and your truth ever syncing.
Though Western societies remain mostly secular and materialistic, many, many individuals find that the altar of material possessions and worldly success are not enough to bring them true, lasting happiness and fulfillment. They are turning 180 degrees to the Christian faith as a source of stability, hope, and a renewed moral compass to navigate the many-times disturbing complexities of post-modern Western life.
While
pornography rampages like a colossal monster coupled with a sharp
decline in marriages since the so-called '60s and 70s sexual,
political, social and cultural revolution, an insane rise in daily
reliance on alcohol, designer drugs, recreational drugs is the
environment for rapid resetting of belief.
The Covid pandemic,
increasingly uncertain politics, human gender dysphoria and human
sex- affirming care, have twisted, semi-religious so-called values of
tolerance, inclusivity and exclusiveness-- all are mixed in a
variable, troubled societal soup.
Social
injustice and rampant political opportunism are melded together with
anti-semitism rising with geopolitical and geo-social upheaval with
the recurring wars in the Middle East. Increasingly social unrest
dogs most Western and now
Eastern societies.
Illuminating
present economic disparities in their respective cultures coupled
with disparate empathsis placed on arriving
populations,
not
on the natives.
With strong war-caused immigration occurring for more than two
decades, the new social and cultural landscape fractures most
European nations. A
few countries have avoided such calamities.
The return of Christianity is a positive development that is bringing people closer to traditional spiritual roots and fostering a sense of unity and purpose.
Youth suicide is on the horrific rise, with a decades-long decline in familial values. Puzzling as this is, some posit that the loss of structured families with the loss of masculine role models, fathers and strong lack of positive views towards stay- at- home Mums.
Decades of Big - Media promoted Atheism now no longer presenting a danger to traditional Judaeo-Christianity, which had helped undermine the very foundation of our Western society. However, with this resurgent model of developing Christianity following standard growth patterns, it could lead to a greater realised turning to Biblical Christianity.
The Lighthouse is fulfilling its function! Nations are being served!
Fueling the resurgence of Christianity is the desire for a closer community and more genuine connection for youth in Gen Z and Millennials. Recent surveys in the UK and AU see 10,000s of Ks of citizens as attending churches for the very first time-Young a-n-d Old.
Many people long for genuine face-to-face human interaction, instead of screen-mediated connections and weaving a real sense of intimate sharing and belonging in an increasingly digital and ever-alarmingly disconnected world.
While the Internet promised a growing democratisation of humankind, unlimited knowledge, economic opportunity for all, freedom for all, and universal connection are some of the benefits. But many express disillusionment with the skewed results.
However, churches and para-religious communities are stepping up to provide a space where people can unite, support one another, and form meaningful relationships based on shared values and beliefs.
The resurgence of Christianity is a positive development that brings people closer to traditional spiritual roots and fosters a sense of unity and purpose.
A brightly flaring lighthouse in a darkly polarised world divided in too many aspects and overwhelmingly uncertain.
Perhaps this darkest hour is ending with the nearing dawn.
by Digital Anvil.
Wu Zetian, also known as Empress Wu, holds the unique distinction of being the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor in her own right. Her reign during the Tang Dynasty marked a period of significant political reform, economic prosperity, and cultural flourishing.
Rising from concubinage to the pinnacle of imperial power, Wu Zetian demonstrated remarkable intelligence, political shrewdness, and administrative capability, challenging traditional gender roles and leaving a lasting legacy on Chinese civilization.
From Digital Anvil
You may not have heard of all of them, but they certainly fuel some of your beliefs.
I have read a few of their famous books, devouring the publications eagerly and was deeply impacted by them. Some were great thinkers who liberated my mind and our contemporary society. They were unrivalled men whose contribution to Western thought is priceless. Some of their books caused me to stay up for hours overnight to complete reading those works of compelling genius.
I studied deeply their ‘messages to the world’ in High School. I learned that these thinkers were skillful with words, causing 100s of 1000s like me to accept their cognitive engineering of contemporary Western society’s social and evolutionary progress.
There were key themes in books that we studied in High school. For example, the individual vs the society: Huxley’s vision of the near- future where people were divided into 3-4 classes and how a particular drug was given to ‘lower’ masses to stop them from knowing that they were living in an elitist governed Utopia and kept ‘happily’ unaware. ( Brave New World )
My generation, the Baby Boomers, wanted to change the world! We did precisely that. For good or ill? You decide? As I aged, I grew up in a way that reflected what I had read for about the first three decades of early life. Yes! Ideas, you shall find, can have real-world consequences.
Yet as I grew older, I began seeing some flaws with the loss of critical thinking and the indoctrination of the modern Western civilisation in latter decades.
I’ve read some contemporary philosophers and particularly, general technology books, which opened my mind to search, review and understand carefully.
It wasn’t the wisdom of another more extraordinary thinker that brought down the intellectual Everest for me. The then overall meaninglessness of my life, the emptiness and the void in my heart, tolled the death- bell of this long-cherished Worldview.
Later
on, I concluded that their writing was intelligently crafted,
deceptively skillful fiction. We could term this
collective body of work as misleading, delusionally conceived and
destructive information. The over-arching strategy of their books is
an attempt to explain away God. To deny Him a place in our world and
present Him as an ancient mythic- being. An improbable Wizard in the
sky.
It was my original acceptance of their spellbinding system of beliefs (the atheistic worldview) that brought me to that cave of despair and darkness in the first place. They taught that God is dead!
And that a person’s value is not inherent and that individuals must earn their way in life while valuing and obeying the Government elites above their own freedom. If this seems like a return to ancient Rome’s ideals, it is. Women and girls have been seduced by the darkness in idealising their roles as ‘empowered’ females in an age where unattached sex is easier to obtain than a pizza. Where the tragedy of 'Bonnie Blue' polarises Mums and Dads of yesteryear disapproving attitude and more than the likes of current social media platforms.
These achingly poor realised attitudes are the deeper echoes of the 50s, 60s and 70s political, social, cultural, sexual and economic ‘revolution.’ The catch-cry’s then morph into the hook-ups of today with old slogans of...
‘If
you want to, then do it, don't stop!’Nice single girls can too! ‘If
It doesn’t hurt anyone, go ahead, do it!’ ‘That We, not
God, are the measure of everything.’ Anyway, God left us all
alone, and He departed after creation.’
True? Or not? 'Pessimism seems true.'
It
seemed to the following generations, that existence
is meaninglessness; Face that kind
of life
with courage. Courage is meaningless. The gladiators motto or
existentialists
tagline became,'
eat, drink and be merry. For tomorrow we die!'
But ...
Look
up at the night sky and see the white points of trillions of galaxies
in overwhelming blackness. Is the universe impersonal or is it the
intentional craftsmanship of an intelligent Designer?
Ask
yourself, when you are faced with a likely moral decision, do I
invest this moment (e.g.,meeting girls by serendipity) in my life
for short- term benefits or for long-term gains?
We ask ourselves how
do we make sense of all the particulars we encounter in our
lives? From Adam to Zoology, from a baby's cry to a Ferrari, from
ideas to transcendence, from the cell to a prisoner. All is
phenomena in the world of our space and time. All things, we
can see or sense, yet there are things that we cannot see, yet we
know that they are true and real. We have asked, how does this all
fit together? The question wrestled throughout human history.
Who do we trust? Mortal man or immortal God?
Because, like 100s of millions of others, we choose to trust some of those trickled down ideas from a few mortals who—I believe-- undermined the foundation of our Western society to fracture the granite-like base of our collective lives. Their ideas sound good until you see the downstream consequences. Compare Putin's Russia with Singapore ? Hong Kong under Britain vs Chinese Protectorate? China vs USA. Iran vs Israel.
Who is truly free and who has freedom chained?
The after -effects of some trickled down thoughts are found in the rise of relativistic ideals, radical gender theories, neo-atheism, neo-racism and the emergence of communism -Lite, political correctness and reality ensembles. One example is the popularity of reality TV. These people are rarely endowed with awarded talents, fine acting skills or other merits except that they are famous. For instance, the Kardashians' fame lies primarily in persistent self-promotion and clever marketing. Mega-numbers crave such celebrity, power, wealth and prestige. ‘Appearance is everything,’ a myriad of voices cry out. Cosmetic surgeons do whole-body makeovers to chase the elusive ‘fountain of youth.’
Today, celebrities, whether athletes, rock bands, movie stars, billionaires, models... etc., project our inner desires. Our lives in the digital age reflect the core value of belonging: where do we fit in? We are composites of the persons we want to emulate. We mirror other mirrors, other like-minded people; it is one reason for the massive popularity of social media.( Four Billion + members) Becoming more like what we desire. Is this good or ill? We consume and assume worth by buying acceptance and belonging to particular people- groups. From our data, the algorithmic marketing pitch, honed and shaped by our offline and online lives over the past decades, precisely targets our human need for worth. Despite our fiercely guarded independence, we comply, longing to belong.
I know you believe we are all made free. I was duped, but now I see. I am free from near- global deception. More than a game changer, it is a Life- Transference! Transferred from the domain of man to the kingdom of God.
I am overwhelmed by gratitude. Who or what liberated me?
All that happened was that somebody took me out of a deep cave into
pure, radiant light. This new reality, which I have begun to live in,
makes me want to rescue others trapped in the deep cave and release
them. This is a gift I am unworthy to receive, yet I did! Originally
a prisoner now rescued from falsehood,fiction,myth and delusion.
Why
should I be fortunate to experience this true enlightenment, this
change of perspective, heart and mind? Has Love found a way?
Transformed
by new concepts and persons whose selflessness, devoted actions
and committed friendships shared their light. There is abundant love,
genuine acceptance, and a meaningful and purposeful life to be
found. Experiencing new and renewed relationships in the
illumined world that reaches beyond barriers and toward healthier
living
with the fundamental dynamic Love from the ‘Book
of Ages’:
The
Bible.
(Thank you for reading this letter.)
Recommended sources for further research:
Renewing Your Mind
by R.C. Sproul.
Consequences
of Ideas by R.C.Sproul.
Streams
of Confusion by Brad Scott.
1984
by George Orwell.
The Intellectuals
by Paul Johnson
Dekonstructing
the Kardashians by M J Corey
and others
Academy
of Ideas: YouTube Channel.
Final Comment:
It came to my attention that I didn't name other contemporary thinkers. While its not an omission of agreement but of space and historical relevance, its still mine. Tonight I embark on reading a tome by Dostoevsky of whom Camus and Einstein said,that he is the real brilliant 19th century.Prophet, not Marx.
