A Blog a Day

Writer’s block is another obstacle facing bloggers like me (courtesy of Indie Reader)

It had to happen eventually.

After blogging daily for more than eight months, I finally hit a day when publishing a post seemed unlikely.

Today.

Granted, by virtue of writing this post, I will still publish something. It’s just not what I expected and, as you can see, it isn’t very long, either.

I realize that size supposedly doesn’t matter—whether I choose to believe it or not—but length does. At least that’s what I’ve always been told.

Also, this blogging every day thing is hardly easy, as I’m sure any bloggers in the crowd already know. Life always gets in the way, so sometimes there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

Take today, for instance.

I was hoping to post something last night—which is my usual routine—but a combination of allergy problems and lack of sleep sealed that deal. I passed out on the sofa and missed that opportunity.

My work schedule had some gaps in it and I was hoping to blog earlier today, but once again I managed to fill them all with other tasks and unexpected meetings. So once again, blogging fell by the wayside.

You live, you blog (Courtesy of hgjohn)

Fortunately, my iPhone is awesome and despite being at my son’s tee ball practice, I was able to churn this out. All the bells and whistles may be missing—namely pictures (which you now see since I had a chance to update this post, thank goodness)—but those can always be added later. I don’t know anyone who visits blogs just for pictures anyway, at least not many of them.

So even though this post is kind of a let-down, for me as well, it definitely served its purpose. And since a new WordPress day begins in just under two hours—most likely to accommodate our international friends—a new and hopefully more interesting post will be heading your way soon.

Unless, of course, life gets in the way again. And we all know that’s apt to happen at any time.

Today is a testament to that.

The Sweetest Award

So Sweet Blogger Award

Bloggers are the best kind of people.

Today, I received a wonderful and unexpected honor from the sweet and beautiful Donah at Sweetjellybean.com. She bestowed upon me the coveted So Sweet Blogger Award. And more flattered, I could not be.

I have only been blogging for three months or so, but the experience has been so positive and inspirational that I can’t imagine why I haven’t been doing this all along. Years of work-a-day stress and routine tapped my creativity until I finally visited WordPress, determined to write again and to join the blogging community.

And what a community it is.

Everyone I meet through my own blog or theirs, as well as readers from all over the world, have been awesome. Even the people who disagree with my opinions and leave negative comments have been courteous and polite, for the most part. I interact with loyal followers daily, learn more about them and their lives, and share my own experiences in an encouraging and nurturing environment. WordPress is a great place to be because the people make it great, and that includes the WP staff… not to mention YOU!

Three months of blogging is not a long time, but it is long enough to know who my favorite, kindest and “sweetest” bloggers (and oftentimes readers) are. I wish I could recognize everyone because narrowing the list was not easy. It had to be done, though, so please visit and congratulate these folks for receiving the So Sweet Blogger Award! Woohoo!

• Sweetjellybean – You might think I did this just to say thanks, but the truth is that Donah is even sweeter than her blog title suggests!
• Food and Other Stuff
• After the Kids Leave
• Mama Tattoo
• Lady or Not… Here I Come - Tag! You’re it, Rebecca!
• Becky Says Things
• The Vain’s World
• Impybat’s Emporium - You’re awesome, Terri! Sorry if I don’t tell you that enough!
• Iconicallyrare - Thanks for being so sweet, Sonya!
• Lies Our Parents Told Us - I hope you’re not getting sick of all these nominations, Lex!

The list could go on and on, but I have to save someone for future nominations, right?

Congratulations again, my blogging friends! Keep kicking ass and don’t forget to award some of your sweetest bloggers, too!

Addictive Blog Award: Meet the Nominees

Caffeine. Sugar. Love. Fast food. Crack cocaine. Destructive relationships. Weed.

People are addicted to all sorts of things, but I never thought a blog would be one of them. Then I was nominated for the Addictive Blog Award by the intelligent and lovely Rainshadow Noba at Notes from the Backseat. It is quite an honor and I would like to thank her for thinking of Gnostic Bent. Being recognized by your peers is always flattering.

I started this blog just over three months ago because I lacked inspiration and needed to “jump start” my writing. For years, I wrote nothing because I was teaching college English and reading terrible papers on a far-too-regular basis. All the grammatical errors, plagiarism and “text message spelling” drained my creativity and effectively killed my muse. This is my attempt to get her back. And so far, it seems to be working.

These past three months of blogging have been extremely exciting, to say the least. Aside from being the most productive writing period in my life, blogging has also reaped all kinds of unexpected rewards. The most significant are my readers and fellow bloggers. WordPress is an amazing community of talented and supportive people. I have developed online friendships with all sorts of bloggers from around the world and feel more connected than ever. And my readers—including those who don’t blog on the site—are so thoughtful, interesting and loyal. I do my best to respond to all of their comments not because I’m afraid of losing them, but because they deserve a reply and honestly, I like chatting with them. Thanks for all your support, dear readers!

In the beginning of Gnostic Bent, I doubted whether anyone would bother reading my work. Then I got another unexpected reward: my post “10 things that suck about being a guy” made it to Freshly Pressed! What came next was a flood of views and comments to rival the Great Flood. I spent an entire weekend responding to compliments and criticism and watched as my views rose with supersonic speed. This still stands as my most successful post with almost 14,000 views and more than 450 likes in only a few months. Of course, now I doubt myself every time my posts aren’t Freshly Pressed, but I suppose that’s to be expected.

Now it’s time for me to fulfill my Addictive Blog responsibilities. Here are the rules for the award:

• Write a post and start by thanking the person who nominated you. Be sure you link to them, too.
• Share a little something about why you blog (i.e. your blogging journey).
• Paste the Addictive Blog Award on your front page.
• Nominate ten blogs that you are addicted to, link to them in your post and then let each of them know—when you do, be sure to give them the link to the post you just wrote!

Although I normally bounce through the blogosphere, randomly reading different posts on a variety of different topics, I find myself visiting these ten blogs the most. When I’m away from them, I break out in cold sweats, experience shortness of breath and even succumb to mild hallucinations. They’re just so addictive, baby. I need more…

Impybat’s Emporium

Lady or Not… Here I Come

I just want to lay on a beach

Comic Belief

Dianne Gray: Writing and Loving Life!

ashikhmina

Iconicallyrare

Lies Our Parents Told Us

[thoughts of a lunatic]

s1ngal

Congratulations to you all!

The Seven Things About Me Award

From the Quiet Borderline on WordPress

I am happy to announce that the lovely Katherine Givens has nominated Gnostic Bent for the Seven Things About Me Award. I am very honored and want to thank Katherine for the recognition. In the spirit of this nomination, here are seven things you might not know about me. I’m keeping it brief since I offered up a similar list a few days ago, when my blog was nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award. When it rains, it pours!

One: Beef over chicken

Two: Mountain Dew over Mello Yello

Three: Brunettes over blondes

Four: DC over Marvel

Five: Green over every other color

Six: NFL over college

Seven: College over NBA

My next responsibility is to nominate seven people or blogs I respect and admire. To spread the love around, here are some folks I was unable to recognize in my last award post:

1. Young and Divorced
2. Life on the Margins
3. Nine & a half hours ahead
4. We’ve lost the plot
5. J.D. Gallagher
6. TheFurFiles
7. [thoughts of a lunatic]

Congratulations, nominees!

Now here’s what you’ll need to do next:

1. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you… namely me! Woohoo!
2. List seven things about yourself. Be as creative as you like.
3. Nominate seven people, link back to them and let them know.

Congratulations again to the nominees. And good luck, too. I wish we could ALL win!

An honor to be nominated

one-lovely-blog-award (Photo credit: Valdecor)

Earlier today, I received a wonderful honor from the lovely and talented hentaiq of The Chosen Voice. She nominated Gnostic Bent for the One Lovely Blog Award, and I could not be more excited. I truly appreciate the nomination and wish my fellow bloggers luck in winning this prestigious award, too.

Now for “The Rules.” Anyone nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award must do the following to keep this unique prize rolling:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to them in your post.
2. Share seven unknown things about yourself.
3. Nominate other bloggers and blogs you like or admire… 15 or so if possible.
4. Contact the bloggers you nominate to let them know and to link them back to your post so they can read “The Rules,” too.

The second “rule” demands that I share seven unknown things about myself, which will not be easy. I feel like I’ve revealed so much already through my blog, so please don’t expect any of this to be very interesting:

1. If I were limited to one food for the rest of my life, it would have to be cheeseburgers. With all the fixings, of course.
2. The only genre of music I truly detest is country. Hank Williams Sr. and Patsy Cline don’t count, though.
3. I once won the city spelling bee, but got eliminated in the regional. I’m pretty sure it was fixed.
4. In a previous life, I was a certified karate instructor. These days, throwing a kick would promptly be followed by throwing out my back, too.
5. My favorite film of all time is “Pulp Fiction,” even after seeing it hundreds of times. My first viewing came from a pirated and extremely blurry videotape I bought at a state fair.
6. I am waiting to hear that I won the Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes, but no word yet. I’ll be sure to post about it once it happens.
7. Seven is my lucky number, so it seems appropriate that I list it here.

And now for the blogs I admire and want to nominate for the One Lovely Blog Award. I’ve only been blogging for a few months and may not reach the 15 blog goal, but here are the people who make me smile, laugh and think on a regular basis:

Lies Our Parents Told Us – Righteous Indignation with a Nerdy Inclination

Silencing the Crowd – What Can They Do

Michele D’Acosta - Museum of Documentary and Fiction

diannegray – Writing and loving life!

Comic Belief - My own bloggable spin on life

Lady or Not… Here I Come – Anything and Everything

Notes From The Backseat

I just want to lay on a beach

impybat’s emporium - it’s like a really bizarre file cabinet stuffed with unrelated weirdness

Iconicallyrare - Acts & Deeds of the Style Prowess

sweetjellybean – Motherhood, beauty and simple DIYs

Thanks again for the wonderful honor and I wish all of you well. Good luck, nominees!

Uninspired

This is not me!

My son is finally in bed and now I have some “me” time to enjoy before I pass out. I rush downstairs to catch the latest episode of the Gordon Ramsay hit “Masterchef” and, more importantly, to update my blog. Seated comfortably on the sofa with everything I need in reach—my laptop, cell phone, remote control and a cold drink—I settle in to let my muse take over and to produce a blog post for the ages. And then it happens.

I can’t think of a damned thing to write.

Thankfully, this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced “blogger’s block.” It happens almost daily and is never easy to overcome. And at this moment, my mind is still a barren wasteland of utter and complete nothingness.

A quick internet search reveals little. The tips for overcoming this calamity are helpful enough, I suppose. “Try making a list” is a popular suggestion. I took this advice on more than one occasion and it worked very well. I actually return to it from time to time and it always seems to connect with readers. But you can’t do it all the time, and right now the only list I can think of is “5 ways to find inspiration.” I just don’t know what the hell those five things are!

Suddenly, my son appears at the bottom of the stairs. “I can’t find the remote, daddy.” Turns out he’s been up there watching Cartoon Network or the Disney Channel the entire time. And suddenly my list idea becomes “10 ways to get your kid to sleep.” Of course, I still can’t think of anything to fill it out. Aside from some kiddie cold medicine, that is. That doesn’t sound very responsible, so I vanquish the thought and help him find the remote.

At this point, television might just do the trick. It certainly works on me, and I have been known to doze off with the laptop still burning a hole in my lap. Those batteries get freaking hot, I tell you!

Rose shows her boobs

Back downstairs and “Masterchef” is done. I quickly find “Titanic” playing on one of the movie channels and dial it up. What better to use as white noise than the film that sees the annoying character of Jack—played expertly by Leonardo DiCaprio—turn into an ice cube and bite the big one in the end? The film I have seen so many times that I could write the script from memory? And since all I really like are the scenes of the carefully recreated ship—James Cameron is a genius, by the way—and the eventual sinking, watching Jack drift into the abyss is like the big, sweet cherry on top.

I should have no problem writing now. And although the laptop battery is already quite toasty, I press on. What’s the worst that could happen anyway? Impotence? Low sperm count? I would think these issues had been considered when the computer was designed, but there are no guarantees. It’s just like using a cell phone when it might give you brain cancer. You roll the dice and take what you get.

Still, my mind is a blank canvas. And all this fruitless “deep thinking” has taken its toll. I decide a short break is in order and venture outdoors. Yes, the annoying neighbors behind me are arguing on their back porch as usual, but it’s still quite pleasant, at least until all the mosquitos sniff me out and start bee-lining towards me. I’ll have a few minutes before this happens, so I sit and listen to the sounds of nature.

And those jackass neighbors, of course, whose argument is so banal it need not be reproduced here.

As I enjoy the buzzing cicadas and the sounds from the distant interstate, I remember another tip from the internet community: make fun of yourself. Hell, I do that almost every time I blog. It’s kind of my bread and butter. Honestly, though, nothing about me is particularly interesting or funny right now.

Except for the fact that I have “blogger’s block.” And who wants to read about that?

THE END—and thanks for reading!

What I Want

I want to write a blog entry about the things I want in life and, if I successfully complete this, I will accomplish my goal.

I want to make a lot of money not so I can buy more bling, but because I am tired of stressing about it so much.

I want people to get along since we are all in this together.

I want my son to grow into the man I never became.

I want to be in love unconditionally, yet still have that love returned.

I want to travel the world without having to worry about terrorists kidnapping and beheading me.

I want racism to end since skin color is nothing more than a geographical consequence.

I want to be Freshly Pressed again, even though I’m still not sure how I made it there the first time.

I want more blog followers so I can convert more readers into friends.

I want to buy a car that doesn’t take a small fortune to fill with gasoline.

I want to settle my debts so I can start to enjoy life a little bit more.

I want to connect with people through my writing and make them laugh, smile or think.

I want to retire while I’m still young enough to take full advantage of it.

I want to secure an entertainment agent and option one of my screenplays.

I want to monetize a blog so I can sit back and let the revenue stream in.

I want researchers to cure major diseases, but to allow enough of them to remain so we don’t run out of open parking spaces.

I want people to know and appreciate me for all my quirks and idiosyncrasies.

I want politicians to start serving the people rather than themselves and their bank accounts.

I want violence to end since all it does is traumatize my fellow humans.

I want peace in the Middle East even though it seems like it will never come.

I want religion to be based on love and faith rather than hate and judgment.

I want to serve as a script consultant on a film I wrote and developed.

I want to build my dream house, complete with an in-house screening room and a secret underground nerve center (think Bat Cave).

I want the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the Super Bowl this year due in large part to their Steel Curtain defense.

I want to find another television show to follow that will excite me as much as “Lost” did.

I want to be happy and want everyone around me to feel the same.

I want to end this entry with sincere thanks and gratitude for anyone who took the time to read it.

Thank you!

Reelin’ in the Blogs

In my early blog research, I ran across a number of tips about what kinds of posts to write. Several sources mentioned doing “round up” pieces that pull together related news stories or blog posts that represent some of your so-called “greatest hits.” Although I’ve only been blogging for a month, I have been a little overzealous and have published more than 125 articles of varying lengths. And by some miracle, I even managed to have one of my articles Freshly Pressed—I’m still trying to figure out how that happened. To be honest, getting some attention has made me even more paranoid about publishing posts people might actually want to read. While I try to determine my next step, however, I thought a quick round-up piece might be a good idea. So here are some of my favorite posts from my short life as a blogger.

10 things that suck about being a guy

When I wrote this post, I never thought it would garner so much attention, but it eventually made it to Freshly Pressed and continues to rack up views to this day. Reactions from readers have been largely positive, but some people accused me of perpetuating gender stereotypes even though, honestly, I find addressing serious issues through humor to be very liberating. A few guys even accused me of revealing too many male secrets. Apparently, they weren’t aware that most women likely know this stuff already, so hopefully they learned a little something in the process, too. I am glad that the attention this article brought me has resulted in lots of new followers and some great new friendships. And I truly feel like part of the blogosphere community now.

The Ups and Downs of Being Freshly Pressed

Obviously, this post was inspired by the whirlwind of my previous article reaching Freshly Pressed. Aside from the deluge of views—which hit roughly 8000 in three days (my previous high was 132)—I also got tons of comments and email notifications, all of which took me hours to respond to. And given that some strange and disturbing things were happening in my personal life at the time, the entire Pressed experience served as kind of a catharsis that I am still grateful for now.

Pet Peeves 101

To me, this seems like the most obvious of blog post topics. If you can’t think of something to write, why not post about the things that piss you off or drive you crazy? Odds are that someone out there in cyberspace is experiencing similar feelings and, as I later discovered, I was right. It’s also nice to get things off your chest so you can leave the aggravation behind and truly move on.

Dad before the symptoms began

Living through ALS

Of all the posts I’ve published, this one is the most personal to me because it addresses one of the darkest periods of my life: my father’s deterioration and eventual death from Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is another great example of how blogging can help heal deep, emotional wounds. The encouragement I have received from readers, friends and family has been wonderful and I feel like I’m starting to come to terms with my loss. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this and to send me such positive and inspirational comments. I appreciate it more than you know.

Aliens: Time for the Truth

I love conspiracy theories and nothing interests me more than the alien/UFO phenomenon. This is my take on the whole “alleged” government cover-up and includes some of my own theories about it. I also discuss a trip to Sedona, Arizona where I crossed paths with a true UFO nut. Check it out and feel free to share your own alien conspiracy theories.

10 terrible ways to die

Like most people I know, I sometimes drift in the morbid, dark corners of my mind and start thinking about the one experience none of us can escape: death. When I finally “check out,” I hope that I’m lying in my bed at a very advanced age, fall asleep peacefully and never wake up again. Unfortunately, simple probability indicates my ultimate demise might not be as pleasant as I hope. As long as I don’t go in one of these ways, I think I’ll be fine with it.

9 things you should know about me

This is another great topic for the first-time, personal blogger. One of my primary goals for blogging—aside from simply starting to write on a regular basis again—is to connect with others. So it’s important that my readers find some way to relate to me or they likely won’t bother reading anything I post. Since humor is one of my favorite tools, I decided to poke some fun at myself while also using this article to relay some personal information to my fellow humans. And yes, I even included some embarrassing photos of myself, a few of which I kind of regret. I’m kidding!

In Defense of Mr. Johnson

I didn’t realize this until recently, but a number of my posts have focused on a certain dangling organ that men share: the penis. This wasn’t intentional but, since I have one myself, I didn’t feel it necessary to avoid the subject. This particular post comes from the perspective of the male penis and again employs quite a bit of humor. I’m considering a post about the vagina at some point but, to be perfectly honest, I still feel I have a lot to learn. And Lord knows I would hate to do anything that might alienate my female readers!

So there you have it: eight of my favorite posts. Since I’m considering tapering off my post frequency—perhaps limiting it to a few times each week rather than 4-8 posts per day—I’m hoping articles like these will be valuable to someone out there. Blogging isn’t easy, but I must say that I am having a lot of fun with it. And I hope my future posts appeal to more and more people because as I mentioned, connecting with others is one of my primary goals as a blogger. In the meantime, Gnostic Bent will go on because of people like you. Thanks for stopping by and please come back to visit again soon!

How often should I post to my blog?

Watching and Blogging (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I ask this question because honestly, I’m not sure what the answer is. And I find myself asking this very question on a daily basis, especially on days when I simply can’t blog as much—like today!

Currently, I’m in the middle of student orientation on the college campus where I work, so the blog posts dated for today were actually written last night. And regardless of what I’ve been doing today—giving presentations, speaking to parents and such—I still have that nagging doubt in the back of my mind: Will what few readers I have ditch me if I don’t continue posting three or more times each day?

There’s no shortage of advice about this on the web and, in most cases, people tell you not to worry. If readers like your stuff, they’ll stick around. I’m not sure I’m all that convinced, though. And since I only started this blog a few weeks ago, somehow managing to interest readers and to even gain some followers, I put a lot of pressure on myself to continue at this pace. Is it sustainable? Probably not.

I am amazed by bloggers who post only a few times each week, yet still seem to have hundreds of views and subscribers. And I think my goal is to eventually do the same. After all, I don’t want to produce a lot of meaningless drivel just to increase my total number of posts. Instead, I want them to be entertaining, thought-provoking and even funny at times. In other words, I want my readers to find some value in what I have to say. I’m just not sure this will happen if I’m constantly forcing myself to publish more than I should.

The “experts” tell you to post as often as is necessary for your specific situation, but how exactly do you determine this? Sure, someone with a news-related blog might need to post daily. And bloggers who have monetized their sites likely post more than people with personal blogs (like me). But what’s the magic number of weekly posts? I’m no expert, but there is one thing I have learned in my short time blogging:

There is no magic number.

So as I struggle with this question now, tomorrow and likely for years to come, my advice to you is this: don’t sweat it. Remember that blogging is supposed to be enjoyable, rewarding and, with any luck, fun. Yes, newbies like me will stress over it at first, but things will eventually level out. And if readers appreciate what you’re trying to do and how you view the world around you, they will certainly return to see what you post next… even if several days or weeks have elapsed. Stick with it, do what works best for you and never forget that bloggers everywhere have faced or will face this question at some point in their experience.

The important thing is that you’re blogging at all. And I wish you all the best in doing so.

Religion through Agnostic Eyes

English: One common symbol for Agnosticism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since starting Gnostic Bent a few weeks ago, I have toyed with the notion of blogging about my religious beliefs. However, a number of questions have prevented me from doing so: Will I offend anyone, like potential readers, contacts or even friends? What will my family think? Does anyone even care what I believe?

Soon I reached a point not unfamiliar to me. The same thing happened during my first ski run down an un-groomed, expert slope in Vail,Colorado. As I stood at the top of the steep drop off—the tips of my skis barely crossing the cliff’s edge—I had a kind of epiphany and convinced myself that life was too short to be so fearful. With a nudge forward and a whispered “what the hell”, I took the plunge and ended up loving the natural terrain. It actually turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life.

Saying “what the hell” when it comes to penning a blog about religion might be in poor taste, but the same general rule applies. And now I think I’m ready to put myself out there. A little background might be in order first, though:

• When I refer to “religion”, I’m mainly talking about Christianity. However, I do have an interest in eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Hinduism, too.
• Rather than being guided by emotion, I tend to be ruled by logic. This will be important to remember later.
• Being forced to attend a Baptist church as a child had the opposite effect on me. My mother intended for me to become a more religious person—like my brother eventually became—but I went the other way. Call me a heathen if you must.
• I have met a lot of hypocrites over the years who claimed to be guided by their faith. Is it really possible to preach about love and understanding and then to use your religion to persecute others (like gays and lesbians, for instance)?

With that being said, let me first state the obvious (since it appears in my blog title): I am an agnostic. No, this doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in God, at least not really. To be more specific, I am an agnostic theist. Wikipedia defines agnosticism as “the view that the truth values of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—are unknown or unknowable.” And there are two types of agnostics: theists and atheists. An agnostic atheist believes people can never know if God exists and, when in doubt, opts for the view that there can be no God. An agnostic theist, on the other hand, leans more towards the “it’s possible there is a God” side of the coin.

In other words, I don’t think anyone can be sure of what’s out there in the Great Beyond, but I acknowledge the fact that there could be something. Is it God? Who knows?

This view doesn’t always go over well in North Carolina, a state where there seems to be a church on almost every corner. I often find myself debating with die-hard Christians who, if they actually listened, would realize that I wasn’t insulting their beliefs or their God. Sometimes people just can’t seem to distinguish between agnostics like me and atheists. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. And no, I am NOT calling Christians ignorant, at least not the ones who have some knowledge to back up their arguments and don’t make wild assumptions about me.

Getup Get God (Photo credit: prettywar-stl)

Of course, some of my more extreme views are very unpopular to religious folk. Take the following example.

Like many American students—at least back in the day—I spent a lot of time reading the great works of literature, like Moby Dick, The Grapes of Wrath and almost any other “classic” you can think of. In college, I majored in English and again found myself reading all sorts of literary works and scholarly articles. Then I decided to specialize in writing—specifically journalism (undergraduate) and creative writing (graduate).  All of this combined into a belief that even makes my mother shudder sometimes.

To me, the Bible is simply a great (and bestselling) work of fiction with some useful guidelines about how to live a more meaningful life, as well as how to deal with the finality of death. Before you start throwing stones, please allow me to explain.

In my first philosophy class—deductive logic—we learned how to form valid syllogisms. A simple example might look like this: If humans are selfish and I am human, then I am selfish. Makes sense, right? Now consider this:

If men are fallible and men wrote the Bible, then the Bible is fallible.

Humans make mistakes and sometimes they even lie or exaggerate. And writers tend to embellish the truth more than anyone else (no offense to my fellow scribes out there). Since men wrote the Bible, then to me this would mean there is a chance nothing in the book is really true. It might just have been “jazzed up” to make it more appealing to the masses—call it “biblical marketing”. Stranger things have happened, I guess. Just look at how Christianity was spread during the Crusades and you’ll understand what I mean.

The obvious rebuttal here is that the men who wrote the Bible were simply channeling God’s word and reproducing it on the page. This conflicts with my logical side and certainly seems like an easy way to dispel my belief without really addressing it.

After all, wouldn’t I then simply ask for proof that God really does exist? Otherwise, how could he deliver his message?

This is the point where some of my more religious friends tell me that God can be seen in a blooming flower or a stormy sky, or heard in a child’s laugh or a baby’s cry. While this might be true, the possibility still exists that it isn’t. And THAT is where my agnosticism comes into play.

Symbol of the major religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the sake of brevity, here are some additional beliefs that people might find controversial (even though I’m sure they have been expressed by many before me):

• Religions popped up all over the world and share a number of common features, even though the people practicing them may have been living on different continents. How is this possible? Well, if you think of religion as a tool for helping people cope with their inevitable deaths, then the picture becomes a little clearer. Religion gives meaning to the absurdity and unpredictable nature of life, while also providing people with the promise of Paradise if they live according to its principles.
• Speaking of death, what can be made of the people who die; see a light at the end of a tunnel; experience great comfort in the presence of the Lord or their deceased loved ones; and then return to life to tell the tale? To me, this stems from (a) the endorphins rushing through their minds during times of trauma and (b) the fact that they continuously hear this “tunnel” story, which likely makes it into their subconscious and returns when they die. And people who expect to enter Heaven will likely dream of it as they slowly slip away.
• As much as I hate to say it, I sometimes cringe when people say things like “it was God’s will” or “the Lord must have a different plan for me.” I’ve even heard this said in the most mundane of contexts. Your lottery ticket isn’t a winner, but it must have been God’s will. That job in broadcasting didn’t pan out, so the Lord must have a different plan for you. I’m just not sure I buy that.

Again, none of this is meant to be offensive. It’s simply what I believe and nothing more. And if you believe in God as our Creator—making everyone in his image—then wouldn’t it stand to reason that free will came along with it? And if God values free will, he will undoubtedly respect my right to disbelieve as much as he respects your right to believe.

Between you and me, though, I certainly hope there is a God, a Heaven and something more than our life on this earth. I’m just not sure, and that’s why I’m agnostic.

Any questions?