The Reason Driven Podcast

Hey everybody! We've got a new hour of Reason Driven mayhem, straight out of the hood, right onto your digital media device! We talk about interpreting the Bible, and the problems therein, and also how it sounds kinda dochebaggy to overuse big words.We mix it up a bit, so check it out folks!We'll be finishing out the Podcast as soon as we can, thanks for sticking around, those of you that have. Have no fear, we're are working on the next new way to explore the new media that we tech-savvy people refer to as the ''inter-web''!Love,Your Reason Driven Hosts

Point to Ponder: Whenever you are tempted to think how great you are, just think of Peggy Hill on King of the Hill.Quote to Remember: ''I'm humble -- and proud of it!'' (Wheaton College lapel button)Question to Consider: Does The Living Bible even count as a Bible?

Point to Ponder: Who am I when I feel most authentically myself?Quote to Remember: ''Idolatrous faith has a definite dynamic: it can be extremely passionate and exercise a preliminary healing power... But the basis of the integration is too narrow. Idolatrous faith breaks down sooner or later and the disease is worse than before. The on limited element which has been elevated to ultimacy is attacked by other limited elements... The fulfillment of the unconscious drives does not last they are repressed or explode chaotically.'' (Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith)Question to Consider: Reverend Warren warns: ''You will find that people who do not understand your shape for ministry will criticize you and try to get you to conform to what they think you should be doing. Ignore them.'' (p. 254). Should that include Reverend Warren himself?

A heart-to-heart with Danny and Miklye. A discussion about what it means to be truly YOU how to find yourself and find fulfillment in life... as a NON-believer! Check it out

Point to Ponder: I am not a robot programmed by God. Quote to Remember: ''Flee, my friend, into your solitude: I see you stung all over by posonous flies. Flee where the air is raw and strong. Flee into your solitude! You have lived too close to the small and the miserable. Flee their invisible revenge!... They hum around you with their praise, too: obtrusiveness is their praise. They want the proximity of your skin and your blood... Often they affect charm. But that has always been the cleverness of cowards. Indeed, cowards are clever!... They punish you for all your virtues. They forgive you entirely - your mistakes.'' t(Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra)Question to Consider: Why is some abstraction called ''the meaning of lfe'' better than just life?

Point to Ponder: For Rick Warren, ''spiritual'' gifts are simply talents your church wants to exploit.Quote to Remember: ''Men of thought seldom work well together, whereas between men f action there is usually an easy sense of camaraderie. Teamwork is rare in intellectual and artistic undertakings, but common and almost indispensable among men of action.'' (Eric Hoffer, The True Believer)Question to Consider: Is the Pentecostal belief in spiritual gifts essentially any less strange than belief in parapsychology or pyramid power?

Point to Ponder: Slavery, even slavery to God, is degrading to human dignityQuote to Remember: ''All truly noble morality grows out of triumphant self-affermation.'' (Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals)Question to Consider: If I feel disdain toward someone who needs my help, what is it I am afraid of?

Point to Ponder: When I ''sin,'' I am sinning against myself.Quote to Remember: ''Jesus says, 'Do not lie, and do not do what you hate, for everything is observed from heaven.''' (Gospel of Thomas, saying 6)Question to Consider: If we are really supposed to let the Bible be our only moral guide, what are we supposed to to do when the Bible doesn't address some moral issue?

Point to Ponder: What happens to me is ''good'' if I decide it is.Quote to Remember: ''A theory is a theory, not a reality. All a theory can do is remind me of certain thoughts that were a part of my reality then. A statement or a 'fact' is an emphasis - one way of looking at something. At worst it is a kind of myopia. A name is also just one way of seeing something. I can't make a statement about reality without omitting many other things which are also true about it. Even if it were possible to say everything that is true about a reality, I still would not have the reality I would only have the words. In fact, the reality changes even as I talk about it. When I outgrow my names and facts and theories, or when reality leaves them behind, I become dead if I don't go on to new ways of seeing things.'' (Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself)Question to Consider: Is Warren saying that things will actually turn out ''good'' for me in some way, or that I will have to redefine ''good'' as meaning ''whatever happens to me''?

Point to Ponder: If you believe the Bible is an infallible authority because your pastor said so, then he is really your infallible authority, isn't he?Quote to Remember: ''That which does not preach Christ is not apostolic, though it be the work of Peter or Paul and conversely, that which does teach Christ is apostolic even though hit be written by Judas, Annas, Pilate, or Herod.'' (Martin Luther, preface to James)Question to Consider: What isn't any true statement just as good as the ''Word of God''? what makes any true statement something other than the word of God?

Point to Ponder: If justice is not built into the structure of the universe, then our duty to establish it as best we can here on earth is all the greater. Quote to Remember: ''In this respect fundamentalism has demonic traits. It destroys the humble honesty of the search for truth, it splits the conscience of its thoughtful adherents, and it makes them fanatical because they are forced to suppress elements of truth of which they are dimly aware.''Question to Consider: Why would it be bad to admit that Christianity is a religion after all?

Point to Ponder: Jesus is too important to be left to Christians.Quote to Remember: ''Like beauty, perhaps Jesus is in the eye of the beholder.'' (Harry Reasoner)Question to Consider: When I ask myself, ''What would Jesus do?'' am I perhaps doing just what the gospel writers did?

Point to Ponder: It is easy to disguise cowardice as forbearance.Quote to Remember: ''Drive out the scoffer, and contention will go out.'' (Proverbs 22:10, NASB)Question to Consider: How do I know whether I ought to consider a troublesome member more like the demoniac in the Capernaum synagogue (Mark 1:23-26), to be expelled, or more like the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:12-13), to be pursued and persuaded?

Point to Ponder: It's more important to have good relations than to have shared beliefs.Quote to Remember: ''Only Nixon could go to China.'' (Old Vulcan Proverb)Question to Consider: Do you want to win an argument? Or do you want to win a friend?

Point to Ponder: Don't hesitate to request clarification: if you're mystified, chances are most others present are, too. Quote to Remember: ''No one is wrong. At most someone is uninformed. If I think a man is wrong, either I am unaware, or he is. So unless I want to pay a superiority game I had best find out what he is looking at.'' (Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself)Question to Consider: So what if I make a fool of myself?

Point to Ponder: The moment you can no longer take your beliefs for granted, you have become a heretic.Quote to Remember: ''For premodern man, heresy is a possibility- usually a rather remote one for modern man, heresy typically becomes a necessity.'' -Peter L. Berger, The Heretical ImperativeQuestion to Consider: Evangelists tell me I have to choose Christ for myself. Why don't they want me to make up my own mind about anything afterward?

Point to Ponder: You have to admire the courage of a radical, not that it makes his opinions correct. Quote to Remember: ''What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?'' (Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 3:125) Question to Consider: Is your church or group on the verge of buying building to meet in? Are you sure you want to do that?

Point to Ponder: If love accommodates even hell, what can't it accommodate? And then , what does it even mean? Quote to Remember: ''JESUS LOVES YOU, BUT EVERYONE ELSE THINKS YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE.'' (bumper sticker) Question to Consider: Do I really witness to people because I love them? Or am I afraid of guilt if I don't?

Here is the chapter 15 summary by Robert Price. Enjoy! reasondriven@gmail.com

Point to Ponder: Is the Christian life reducible to a kind of fantasy role-playing game inside my head? Quote to Remember: ''Christ's virtue, the virtue of discipleship, can only be accomplished so long as you are entirely unconscious of what your are doing.'' (Diedrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship) Question to Consider: If my Christian experience is a constant struggle of dissatisfaction, frustration, and seeking forgiveness for sin, aren't I being a hypocrite when I witness, telling people that Christ gives you inner peace?

Bob Price talking about chapter 13 of the Reason Driven Life. reasondriven@gmail.com and http://reasondriven.blogspot.com

Point to Ponder: Whoever thinks he can give you commands is not your friend.Quote to Remember: ''Verily, it is a blessing and not a blasphemy when I teach: 'Over all things stand the heaven Accident, the heaven Innocence, the heaven Chance, the heaven Prankishness.''' (Friedrich Nietzsche, Those Spoke Zarathustra)Question to Consider: Have you ever decided, however reluctantly, that it was time to break off an abusive relationship? Maybe that time has come with God.

Becoming Imaginary Friends with God...What could that mean? Here's a nice tidbit from the mind of Bob Price about chapter 11 of The Reason Driven Life.

A new format to the show: we'll be putting out Bob Price's chapter summaries and the normal episodes out seperately to give everyone a bit more flexability. Let us know what you think!

We talk about ''militant atheists', Jerry Falwell and The Simpsons during our (perhaps) now infamous ''Power Hour''. It's the New Year's Eve special of the Reason Driven Podcast! Send feedback to reasondriven@gmail.com or to the itunes stores! Happy New Year everyone!!!