Pessimistic Faith

Picture a monk in your mind. Make his facial expression quite clear in your thoughts, because I am about to ask you a question about what he looks like.

My question is, is he smiling?

Mine wasn't. My stereotypical image of a monk was a medieval man in a brown robe, with a mostly bald head and a serious face. Historical Christianity has an image of sombre, serious people. Some images could even be said to be of people weighed down by their belief. Maybe God is a kill-joy.

An atheist wrote an article a while ago in which he commended the relatively pessimistic view of religion. He was comparing this view with what he considered the unrealistic optimism of his current culture. He didn't mean that a pessimistic person was moody all day long- he made a point to say that when good things do happen, a pessimist can be as happy as an optimist. The difference is that only the pessimist will also be surprised.

I have faith in God. But am I a pessimist?

Greedy Optimism

Many people who would describe themselves as "not religious" appear to have an optimistic view that the world generally turns out OK. This view has possibly been influenced by seeing too many movies or reading too many books with shiny happy endings, but the optimism isn't founded on anything more solid that a vague idea that things just turn out that way.

Some of the most visible examples of this for me have been brief updates that people write online. I see people I know writing that they are currently going through a bad time, but that there is hope. Not hope in anything in particular. Just hope! These individuals sometimes quote the kind of happy mantras you might find in a birthday card or on a car bumper sticker, as if these small and cheap products are enough evidence to conclude that life can, and should, be nice all of the time. Strangely, the people who share these ideas about how nice life should always be are among the most frequent to complain that thing's are going badly.

All of this self-enforced happiness about life has recently reminded me of something else in the world- Economics. The way that the world has currently decided Economics works seems to echo some of this same unfounded optimism that I frequently see.

Sky: Behind the Scenes

For the 50^th post on Sky and Field, I would like to offer a glimpse behind the scenes of the Sky- the 12 short stories that I have posted on this blog so far. I have included my own reflections on my work, and mentioned where inspiration for styles and stories have come from. I feel that I have improved over time, and hope that I have more stories to post here in the future.

Belt Life

My first short story was created to present a sci-fi idea I had of an alternative earth. The belt spinning around the world so that people can permanently live in a time of day instead of a country is an exaggerated idea of humans trying to control our universe. I got to throw in a few other alternative-universe ideas too, like companies installing a new ozone layer, etc. The idea could be expanded on at a later date, but I am not motivated to do so myself.

Screwj

A quick trip through a well know Dickensian tale causes Mr. Evan E. R. Screwj to question why he has to die. This parody, starring a more generous human than the original, and a cockney grim reaper, was simply something I used to draw some quiet attention to death as a part of life. Some of my other blog posts have described how I don't think death, as a topic, need be as taboo as it is. Also, dying as "the bad news" hints towards "the good news" (a.k.a. The Gospel) being a remedy.

Focus in Prayer

Often in Church services or gatherings with other Christians, there is time for prayer. By prayer I could mean listening to God, talking to Him, or hopefully both. But my mind, like many, is easily distracted. I can find it difficult to focus for more than a minute. Here are some of the things that I have found affect me personally. What affects you?

Silence does not help.

Silence is too much of an empty canvas. Sometimes when I come home from work I let myself spend a few moments sitting on the sofa doing nothing just to let my imagination out. It can be like an animal that's been pawing at the door all day because it wants to get outdoors. Giving myself space and silence lets my mind breathe a sigh of relief and become less focused, not more.

Short Story: It was The Day

While recently sorting through some security archives- the location of which I cannot name at this time- I found the following transcript. It is a record of a man the document calls "Mr. D Gulling" describing a strange experience to the authorities. It has never been released to the public for two reasons. First, it is obviously nonsense, it cannot be true. It is too ridiculous. Secondly, a note attached to the document records that a member of staff investigated the same location on a later date, and found no trace of the beings or items described by Mr. Gulling. The witness would obviously state that timing was crucial to catch the event, but this only shows how delusional he must have been.

This Blog is Not Relevant

This blog is not relevant to current events. But it is applicable to them.

That, at least, is my aim. While many blogs provide commentary on recent events in the news or within their own communities, I haven't considered myself to be a voice for this. Instead, I have decided to take my time to write out my own thoughts on any topic, detached from the emotion that a currently relevant situation might create.

My aim has been to write pieces on a topic that are general enough to be useful when any event in that category occurs. If I write about suffering, I aim to write something useful and applicable to both the woman whose pet cat has died, the man who has just stubbed his toe on a door, and maybe even the teenager living in a war zone.

2 Reasons to Trust Authors

There are lots of non-fiction books by religious and spiritual people. They often contain views and explanations about life. They often disagree. How do you sort through the masses of material for something worth some of your time?

If you trust the writings of a person, you must trust the authority of that person. I have found that when I look for books to add to my One-day-I-will-read-this list, I am more likely to decide that I trust an author if the following 2 reasons are true.

The Money Lists

At the moment myself and Jenny host a small group (home group/cell group/life group) each week. I once set an activity that focussed on how different people make priorities with their money. I didn't know how it would go, or what we would find out from comparing the lists. But by the end, I was surprised.

What do we spend money on?

First I got the group to think of a list of about 7 or 8 headings that someone might use to categorise everything on a personal budgeting file. The list was fairly generic. It included food, taxes, recreation, giving/charity, travel, savings, and a couple of others.