Russell
Who is Bertrand Russell? His definition of a Christian has nothing to do with salvation or reconciliation with God. He doesn’t feel that the arguments for the existence of God are very good. He mentions how certain authorities can dictate what a person should/shouldn’t believe, showing the importance of the individual claiming and practicing religion on their own instead of letting someone tell them what to do. He doesn’t agree with all of Christ’s teachings and also misunderstands some of them (i.e. “judge not, and you will not be judged” from Matthew 7:1/Luke 6:37 is not talking about judgment in civil courts; it’s talking about when people try to act like God and think they know about someone else’s spiritual walk based on the things they see and condemning them when they have no authority to do so.). He mistakenly considers Jesus “immoral” for “believing” in Hell. Obviously Jesus did more than “believe” in Hell if He went all the way to the cross in order to spare us from it. Russell must not have ever heard the gospel or he was too hung up on Hell to realize the immense grace and holiness of God in comparison to it. He does make some good points and seems to have a lot of unanswered questions that would overwhelm anyone who has never experienced God’s faithfulness 1st hand. His view is also based off of the Christians he knows and certain religious churches (i.e. Catholic church) that act like the Pharisees in stepping away from the focus (God) and making up additional rules in order to do religion instead of being spiritually right with God.
Lewis
Mere Christianity’s pretty cool. I’ve been meaning to read it for awhile now, but usually when I read Lewis’ stuff a lot of it goes over my head. His mind’s amazing, though. I really enjoyed the section on marriage, because I’m getting married soon. I agreed with all of it and it’s cool to learn that other people feel the same way I do. I also liked when he said “Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone
says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once.” Nietzsche
Nietzsche felt it was wiser to exalt the life we have now and accept our natural desires as simply our desires, nothing bad or sinful. Thus, I guess our morals should be thrown out the window, because according to Nietzsche they are misconstrued anyway. I think Nietzsche’s critical of Christianity because he doesn’t have a very clear understanding of it. For example, just because Christianity doesn’t exalt sexual pleasure the way the world does, doesn’t mean that it views it as bad. True, there are individual Christians w/ their own opinions, but the Bible makes it clear that God created sex to be a beautiful expression of love. What’s sinful is when it’s abused and more important to a person than what God wants. Sometimes it’s hard to realize it, but God really does know what’s best for us and for the world as a whole. Whether we trust that is up to the individual. It’s true that Christianity has a way of thinking that a lot of time is opposite to what the world would say (the “world” being the secular, nonreligious people in the world). Its focus is on God and others, not on self and self’s desires. A lot of people may hate that because they don’t really get it, but those who understand and truly follow that way of thinking live a life that is so fulfilling and rewarding and precious that nothing else can compare. Yeah, nonbelievers would think it as hostile to life, but do they ever take the time to stop and think about their life and what they want out of it? I guess it’s really about values. Do you want to impact the world or just stay in your own bubble?
Yogananda
This guy seemed to live a pretty interesting life and experience some strange and cool things. I really enjoyed his explanations of miracles in chapter 30. His viewpoint of science being able to support miraculous occurrences was interesting. According to him, God is in control of science and the discoveries and realizations of scientists. They can go hand in hand and be used to support each other.
