<2023-01-14T19:46:05.000Z> Iris: A man of faith looking to break a few beds with your fellow man? Pls note that I don't take issue with people's personal preference, i just find it an entertaining notion. 
<2023-01-16T03:58:00.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: I've always been a walking Oxymoron. This is just another in a long line of strangeness in how I operate. I'm just as confused about it as everyone who asks. I don't know if I can call myself a Christian. I don't like taking on a title that I haven't fully earned, yet. And I have a lot of reading to do, before I come to a solid conclusion. 
<2023-01-16T03:59:21.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: I've suffered too much insanity to chalk it up to coincidence. I'm not satisfied with the Boomer conceptualization of God, and the academic chalk-down to "archetypes and symbols encoded into story" only go so far, though they do offer significant insight into how ancient people thought and perceived the world. 
<2023-01-16T04:00:59.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: My gut tells me there's something else. Something more that can satisfy the need for a strong faith, while understanding the truly complex nature of it scripture, much of which is obvious code for more than just histories and lessons on the human condition. 
<2023-01-16T04:02:49.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: My logical conclusion at this point in time: If he exists, he is as kind as he is cruel. He doesn't need to be all-powerful, omniscient, or omnipotent, or even all-loving in order to earn our worship. The concept that he created us is enough a prerequisite for worship. We've worshiped lesser gods for far less. And this particular God's foundation is based on quite the equalizer between men, which is sin. 
<2023-01-16T04:04:06.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: In the age of God-Kings, where only certain men were permitted the keys to paradise, the Christian concept that all men were equal under the original sin, from which blossoms our various "sins" (in the more classic sense, greed lust etc), was one hell of an earthquake in the world of religious conception. 
<2023-01-16T04:06:19.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: Because instead of only certain heroes and elites being blessed by certain gods for certain reasons, all men could be granted a blessing to catalyze their will into being. Think of Religion as an enzyme that catalyzes human action, be it good or bad. At the most logical sense, the religion under the God, Yahweh was the religion that served as the most effective catalyst with the most sustainable strictures that allowed for growth and conquest.
<2023-01-16T04:07:45.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: I'm rambling, if I continue on. Point is, I can't call myself that just yet. But there's so much to admire about the faith in all its forms, and I can't just throw it away like I used to when I was younger and far angrier at the modern churches, which only hold a fragment of the faith's true power. 
<2023-01-16T04:09:48.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: And I need to look more into it, before I make a decision on what to do with myself in regard to it. For now, I'll live honestly, and die with the consequences, should there be any. I'd rather be sent to hell on an honest life, than try to beg for heaven on a lie and a guess that I have to reaffirm every week. I intend to learn as much as I can on it, and I accept the outcome of the journey. 
<2023-01-16T04:11:56.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: *Not the "lie" that God exists. But the "lie" that I am a Christian who worships God, when I merely respect the faith and the concept, and wish to see it strengthened. 
<2023-01-16T04:20:09.000Z> LionelValentineAborted: Sorry for the ramble. Like I said, I'm still learning. 
<2023-02-04T04:35:07.000Z> Iris: I also walk a split path. I see evil growing the courage to walk my streets. I seek faith not because people fight and crisis happen but to strengthen the spirit of my own life and my family. I especially see the encouragement to disconnect from all self sufficiency in the city's as a self fulfilling prophecy of death waiting ahead 