Several Confusing Reasons
March 9, 2024
There are a lot of topics on Medium.com that I am interested in but never can find enough time to read published essays about them. One reason is that my time is used up with my central topic being about God, Jesus, the Bible, and, lately, Christians and Christianity.
There are many writers who have many “bones to pick” with that topic. Often, the opposing arguments go beyond the metaphysical into the ethereal and even further, into the Great Beyond.
My attempts to bring the discussion down to Earth in a meat and potatoes kind of way are too often futile. I am not at all confused about the reasons for that…
Now, often there’s nothing that appears solid in so many of the essays I read — only a freedom to blather on without making any sense about anything… Oh, sure: Basic logic and a form of reasoning are utilized. However, when discussing an untruth, the compositions end like a building well designed, but unfortunately, built on quicksand.
So, I am left confused and with a feeling of emptiness. So, I feel it is somehow my duty to say something. Again, unfortunately, as soon as I am discovered to be one of “them,” a member of that insidious Bible Sect, the group called, “The Others” (not to be confused with the Rock band “The Outlaws”), anything I have to say is discounted.
They have their reasons, I suppose. (I do have a list of some of them.)
Again, and the third unfortunately, my motives are mistaken as some evil plan and, the fourth unfortunately, my hope for an intelligent discussion plunges into the Abyss.
* — Arguments are a set of statements (premises and conclusion). The premises provide evidence, reasons, and grounds for the conclusion. The conclusion is what is being argued for. — https://open.library.okstate.edu/criticalthinking/chapter.
Without knowing the source of the intellectual treasure I might have found, it has now become like one of those maps of a hidden gold mine in the old TV Westerns… a wild goose chase.
I guess the thing that confuses me the most is when I cannot find the details of the premise in a writing, and therefore, I have no idea what or who the essayist is talking about. So, I cannot possibly have a premise for discussion nor for a civil debate. It becomes very frustrating. I am left simply dazed and confused.
It’s not a productive use of my time, and I think now I will first simply look for the premise and the source of the base information for the premise, and if it is undiscoverable and/or nonexistent, it is best for me to move on down the line. Or if it is accusatory gossipping about so-and-so, same thing…
As for me and my own essays, my technique includes what I have learned and applied in my own life successfully, what the sources for my studied learning are, what have been my experiential findings from my travels, what corrections in archaic Bible interpretations are both valid and needed… Also included are where my conclusions turn out to be incorrect, and admissions of where I have no understanding from my research, my prayerful pursuits, or extensive cross referencing in my Bible reading.
Finally, as a Bible Believing, born again Christian, one of the instant reactions I get are from people who are too quick to judge me, my obvious motives, my person and my personality, my intellect, my hidden motives, and even what I think and believe.
That kind of hypocrisy confuses me, because some of the main criticisms of Christians is that we are too judgmental, hypocritical, and ignorant.
It seems to me Christians don’t have exclusive patents on those character flaws, and ownership of those stocks seem to be in everyone’s 401(k)s and extensive portfolios.
Try to keep these verses in mind:
“The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” — 2 Peter 3:9, NLT
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” — John 3:17–18, NIV.
