July 16, 2017
Religious Brain Damage: Secular and Spiritual – FBR Podcast#23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:16 — 19.7MB)
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Brain damage is the hallmark of a highly religious thought process – and I’m not just speaking figuratively. Religion can cause actual physical damage to the chemical receptors in your mind! And don’t think you’re immune to this malady if you’re secular. ALL people practice religion to varying degrees because we ALL promote the ideas of absolute righteousness and justice (GOD) in our pursuits (and of course trying to be right and just WITHOUT God is the definition of religion). In this week’s podcast:
- What the Bible means when it references “religion”
- Why James 1:27 actually validates the true definition of religion
- How unbelievers prove they believe in God when they pursue social causes
- A brief tangent on the history of global warming/climate change
- Examples of secular “religions”
- How the religious thought process causes cascading brain damage
Related links
Religion: Holy Brain Damage (blog post)
Religious Interlude (blog post)
Next Podcast: How Religion Leads Unbelievers to Hell
Hello E.M.
I’ve begun listening and reading. In podcasts 4 & 5 you’ve mentioned some things which lead me to a question. Is your not being religious mean that you have come by your beliefs on God and Man directly from your reading the Bible and science/logic? That as opposed to receiving theology from a confession or catechism. I ask because if your view of man’s free will ( I’m contrasting with our death in sin and inability to want the things of God without his converting our heart first) and that God feels anger and changes his views (vs. impassibility).
I guess i’d like to confirm that your theology is self-ascertained.
i’m intrigued to read/hear your logical and reasoned basis for believing all the Bible teaches.
Hello Michael!
Thank you for listening and reading Faith By Reason. I apologize for the lateness of this response. For some reason, I was not notified that you’d commented. Thank you for your questions. I like to begin any response by defining my terms so we’re “speaking the same language” as it were.
As I’ve said on the podcast and the blog, religion is man’s attempt to justify his guilt/sins through his own actions. God’s provision for sin is the death and resurrection of Christ, confession, repentance, and forgiveness. Any attempt by man to provide that justification through his own actions, even if those actions seem “godly”, is religion and it is based on pride.
I have always valued reason and logic above all else. I came to believe in God during a low point early in my life. God spoke to me through another person and that encounter led to my salvation. I began to read the Bible to get God’s word, and to study theology to better understand what I was reading. I also attended churches where I got a mix of bible teaching, theology, and religion. The more I learned, the more I understood that there was no separation between the words, deeds, and action of God, and logic and reason. Which makes sense because if God created everything good, then He also created logic and reason. I also saw that religion was illogical and unreasonable, and that God makes it clear in the Bible that He hates religion.
As to you next point, remember the difference between free will and volitional will. The definition of free will is the ability to act outside of your nature. Volitional will means you can do anything WITHIN your nature. God has volitional will, meaning He can do ANYTHING as long as it is completely right and just. God does not have free will because God CAN’T be unrighteous or unjust.
My reasons for believing all that the Bible teaches are contained in the first 16 podcasts (and the first 12 blog posts) on the Meaning of Life