FAQ

I believe (not a good word for an agnostic to use, but oh well) that there are many others who would share my agnostic Christian perspective, but many are hesitant to admit it. This blog is meant to share my story as an encouragement to anyone else who might be scared to come out of the closet, so to speak. You are not alone.

With that in mind, while I disdain categories, labels, stereotypes, etc., I realize that many people need these things to identify compatibilities and incompatibilities in those with whom they interact. So here ya go. I’ve set up the pins for the haters and lovers alike. The following excludes most context, so if you’d like more context, please ask.

• My Beliefs: …are not as important as my actions. My beliefs sometimes change. My beliefs are worthless if they do not motivate me to make the world a little better than I found it. I believe that God does not care what I believe, but for some reason people do.

• Why “Agnostic Pentecostal”? How can you be both? First off, the “either-or” paradigm is not the only one available. Next, you could probably say that I am an agnostic Pentecostal in the same way that there could be an atheist yoga practitioner, or whatever. Yoga originated as a spiritual-physical practice in the Hindu tradition, but one doesn’t have to literally adhere to all Hindu principles in order to effectively practice yoga. Considering this, I no longer believe much of what I’ve heard or read or what I’ve been taught about God — thus the “Agnostic” part of my title — but I love God nonetheless. I continue to experience and seek to experience God, sometimes within what could be considered a Pentecostal context, which is the culture that reared me — thus the “Pentecostal” part of my title. But experiencing God, in my opinion, rarely has anything to do with whether or not we believe in God or follow the correct methodologies or tenets of religion, or say or do whatever it is we think we’re supposed to. My failures at faith and my doubt have brought me to a point at which I have given up trying to play that game. I have felt that God, wherever and whatever he might be, accepts me and interacts with me regardless. For more clarification on this, check out my first two definitions on my Definitions page.

• God: I think he/she/it exists. I can neither prove nor disprove this. My experiences have indicated that this entity has a desire to interact with the universe and with humanity. By the way, although I will usually use a singular male pronoun when referring to God, I do not believe God is necessarily a male, especially a European, white, over-40 male with long hair and a long beard. And it’s irrelevant to me really. If I had to guess, I’d venture to say that if God is singular and remotely human-like, God could even be a hermaphrodite, but I’d better not go there. 😦 …And no one really knows, not even the ancients. We’ve just been guessing since the dawn of civilization. I just use “he” because it’s commonly accepted and it’s a easier than typing “he/she/it” all the time.

• Truth: I believe that absolute truth is absolutely relative, or relatively absolute, whichever you prefer. 😉

• Jesus: Whether he was/is divine or not makes no difference to me, and I cannot prove either way, although stories effectively suggest that he may have had an uncommon link to a higher plane/entity. Regardless, according to what various records have to say (both extrabiblical/historical and Biblical), I see him as the finest example of humanity our world has ever known, and that’s why I try to follow his teachings.

• The Afterlife: Never been there, so not sure. To get mystical about it, I have a hunch that there’s probably some sort of other dimensions or planes of existence (and entities that may inhabit them) that may interact with ours. (Physicists, by the way, have shown that it’s plausible that there are 11 dimensions to our (multi)universe.) Whether we call this Heaven, hell, purgatory, or whatever is irrelevant, and how one gets into or out of these “places” is not important to me.

• Good and Evil: I believe that there is negative and positive energy in the universe. I believe that this perspective is applicable to both science and philosophy, the material and the immaterial. With this in mind, I do believe that the words “good” and “evil” are often appropriate, although I think these terms also have been misused.

• Atheism and Christianity: Both of these are absolute and exclusive systems of belief. I prefer to disengage from, yet remain skeptically open to, discussions that center on absolute, exclusive claims.

• Religion in general: All religions or non-religions (including agnosticism) are systems of belief created within the finite limits of human reasoning. I believe that none have authority to claim absolute truth, including me.

Anything else? Ask. I may add to this list, but if you’d like more info on my background, check out my backstory.