Ierrellus wrote: "Tom Krattenmaker is part of a growing conversation that acknowledges--and seeks to address-- the abiding need for meaning and inspiration in post-religious America." (Jacket blurb on author Krattenmaker's "Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower" 2016.)
"growing conversation" and" post-religious America" are the key words here, describing a movement that is well underway and opposed to the old religious narratives. Krattenmaker does not believe in God; neither does he believe Jesus is God. He does not believe in the traditional concepts of heaven and hell. He does not oppose atheists or evangelicals. Instead, he offers a way of thinking about Jesus that could benefit secular minded individuals.
Okay, he believes this and he believes that. But why should I and others take him seriously until he is himself able to demonstrate why he believes what he does? Until he is able to persuade us to believe the same things. Until he is able to demonstrate that the millions upon millions around the globe who still embrace the old religious narratives are just plain wrong.
And that's just on this planet. Imagine all the mind-boggling narratives about God that almost certainly exist on all the other planets where intelligent life has evolved.
It would be interesting though to sit in on an exchange in which both you and he discuss God, peace on Earth and morality. As that relates specifically to the lives that we live from day to day. Lives in which moral and religious and humanist narratives precipitate behaviors that come into conflict over value judgments. Engendering particular sets of rewards and punishments on this side of the grave and [for some] particular consequences for "I" -- for the "soul" -- on the other side of it.
And how "well under way" is this movement? What percentage of religious folks around the globe would likely to be sympathetic to his own ideas about God and religion.
He doesn't even have his own wikipedia page yet.
Ierrellus wrote: I am skittish about posting anything here because of your adamant philosophical mindset.
Of course you are. After all, look at all you've got to lose if I manage to nudge you closer to my frame of mind. And look at all I've got to gain if you nudge me closer to yours.
Ierrellus wrote: Probably at the bottom of my bucket list is oblivion. I don't believe in heaven and hell, but long for a better world here for my children than the one I now experience. I really don't need to hear more postmodern garbage about conflicting goods or existential problems. I went through all that when I was a young man.
Back again to what you believe. Back again to a contemptuous dismissal of "postmodern" folks like me.
Tell me:
Are you or are you not a progressive Christian yourself? And what of those progressive Christians who do believe in a life after death for "I"? Or don't any of them believe this at all?
What do you imagine will be the fate of your own particular "I" when you are eyeball to eyeball with death itself?