No Battle Here

Emil, welcome to Barnson.org. It’s exciting that we know you personally and that you’re so interested in reading past blogs and joining in discussions. Unfortunately, you don’t know the unspoken rules around here, most of which are in place because of me.

I enjoy the discussions on this blog, including the religious ones. However I have asked Matt to make sure that nothing goes too far, that nothing is truly offensive or down right rude. This is a family website. Someday my children will read it. Many of my personal friends and family read it on a regular basis. I believe that is why Matt suggested creating another blog site, one that would not be so limited by me. Though that saddens me, I can understand. But my family name is on this site.

With that in mind, this is not a battle ground. I thank you so very much for your concern for Matt and his beliefs and your desire to convert him back. Your “rules” seem fair, but we will not be debating which church is the true church and debating LDS doctrine. You did mention that you did not serve a mission. There’s one thing that you missed out on learning (know that I did not serve a mission either). No one converts to God or Christ when it’s pushed on them. Debate won’t bring in the spirit of God and no one wants religion shoved down their throat. I don’t mind “discussing” a doctrinal point on occasion, but no one here is interested in having the LDS religion forced on them.

You seem to have the heart of a missionary. That is awesome! There are plenty of believers on barnson.org that might enjoy discussing Christianism. I do want to tell you that you are welcome to my home anytime and we can discuss in more details some reasons why I feel this way and some personal background that I won’t discuss on this blog.

As for the rest of you, for the most part I have enjoyed the discussion concerning the existance of God. Many parts are sad to me and I will address those. I have pondered your comments a lot while I’ve been running around my house busy with sick children and Christmas preparations.

As an LDS Christian, I am sorry that so many Christians have been rude to many of you “nonbelievers”. I personally believe that there are lots of good people in this world, whether of another faith than my own or don’t believe in God at all. I appreciate that these people know who they are or are working on who they want to become in life by setting personal standards, whatever they may be. My religion teaches tolerance to all kinds. With that, I am so grateful to live in a country where we can each choose our own beliefs. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to live in a place where the religious culture is shoved down your throat by the government. I have many friends from other religions as well as those who don’t believe and I try hard to treat them all the same and love them all. I am sorry if you have been treated differently for your personal beliefs.

As for the spiritual aspect, I have trouble putting my feelings into words. Obviously touches on personal emotions. Though I feel that it is very different from previous description. I consider myself a spiritual person. I thrive on spiritual experiences. I live my life not in fear of the wrath of God, but because my lifestyle allows me to be in tune with having such experiences. For me, a spiritual experience is something that I feel or something that happens that I did not create myself. It is a gift to me. I don’t believe that through my own emotions I can create spiritual experiences. I know that for you non believers this makes no sense. It’s not logical. It’s not meant to be. I don’t have to explain them to you scientifically to know that I have had a spiritual experience. Though you will argue and condemn these personal thoughts and beliefs of mine, you cannot tell me that I did not have the experience. I don’t expect you to agree with me and that’s fine.

As for science versus religion, I believe that they are very tightly knit together. You cannot have one without the other. If God uses the elements of nature to make things happen, He has to follow the laws of science and the laws of the universe. Each year we learn more and more about science and how our earth works. We’re constantly discovering new things that we didn’t know before. Each tidbit is a piece of the grand puzzle. Eventually we will have the whole puzzle put together and have a greater understanding of not only science, but how God fits into it all.

For those of you who have changed beliefs, that is fine, you have the right to choose what you want to believe. As Matt mentioned, please be respectful of others in their beliefs. I hope Matt doesn’t mind me saying that when he first left the church, he was very bitter and quite rude. I reminded him a couple times that if he expects me to respect his new beliefs, he needs to be respectful of my beliefs as well. That has really helped to keep the peace in our home.

For the most part, I enjoy all of your thoughts and comments on the blog. Thank you for not bashing. Thank you for keeping this site family friendly. I feel that we have created our own little community.

With all of that said, Merry Christmas to those who believe in Christ. To those who don’t, Happy Holidays. May you all enjoy your traditions in whatever you’re celebrating.