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Glen Scrivener ن

@glenscrivener

29 Dec 20

Epicurus was famous for two beliefs:
1) That the meaning of life is to maximise pleasure (and minimise pain).
2) That there cannot be an all-powerful good God (because if there were he'd minimise the pain).

Of course those two beliefs are closely related.

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Epicurus saw no good reason to endure/embrace pain & struggle so he could not imagine God doing similarly.

But if it's questionable for *us* to embrace epicureanism (and it is), it's absurd to think God should. That's my argument in this video:

And I follow up by describing the many epicurean features of modern life.

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Glen Scrivener ن

@glenscrivener

17 Nov 20

Surely the greatest devotional ever written.
CH Spurgeon on "Looking Unto Jesus"

It is ever the Holy Spirit's work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan's work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ.>

He insinuates, "Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of his children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus." All these are thoughts about self, >

and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: he tells us that we are nothing, but that "Christ is all in all." Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee--it is Christ;

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Glen Scrivener ن

@glenscrivener

13 Nov 20

Reading 'Creativity Inc' by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull and I think I've identified one factor in clergy fatigue this year. On top of the usual 2020 stresses and on top of the steep learning curve expected as they (we) navigate lockdown ministry and online church, there's this...

Pastors have felt a shift from 'feeding the sheep' to 'feeding the beast.' They've gone from a tangible sense, pre-lockdown, of helping their flock and now shifted to an understandable (though unhelpful) sense that they're 'producing content'. >

All content producers feel dread about 'feeding the beast.' Just today I remembered a blog post from 2008 entitled "Feeding the Monster." Doing anything regularly sets up expectations — expectations that can feel overwhelming, especially when you can't see the tangible benefits.>

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Glen Scrivener ن

@glenscrivener

19 Sep 20

Someone's just asked me about projection. Do I believe in God cos I want to? An answer:

The problem of projection is everyone's. Actors think all the world is a stage. Footballers think life is a game of two halves. Atheists can certainly project their desires onto reality too.>

Get this from Thomas Nagel:

"I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. >

"It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” TN

We all want reality to be a certain way and this leads to all kinds of cognitive biases. It's worth everyone being aware of these—believers and unbelievers alike.
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Glen Scrivener ن

@glenscrivener

22 Jul 20

Faith is not a thing. It's not a thing you boldly push out of yourself. And it's not a thing God arbitrarily zaps into you. Both ideas exalt an abstract concept and diminish the actual Saviour, Christ.
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To say we're 'saved by faith' is true. But it's exactly like saying we're 'saved by grace'. Sure we're saved by grace, but Grace isn't our Saviour — no matter how many hymns we sing in her honour. We must define terms.
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Grace means 'the undeserved gift of Christ', faith means 'the unworthy person /receiving/ Christ'. But the Saviour here is not a formidable woman called Grace or a pretty young thing called Faith. Grace and Faith are not things. Properly speaking the Saviour is *Christ*!
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