“’Cause you have to remember: It's not just a sin, it's a felony.” (Robin Williams)

Here’s to the memory of the great Robin Williams.

I don't think suicide is the worst thing in the world, and I don't imagine Robin Williams burning in some invented hell or whatever. I will say, though, that this is a loss for the rest of the world. The man was an inspiration to everyone who had any sense.

The fact is, the world is a sad place. It is full of reasons that someone might decide that escape is the best route. I hope that I will also have the ability to choose death on my own terms, and I hope that I will have accomplished only a fraction of the things that this man was able to do in his short life.

May his memory ever be for a blessing among the enlightened of the world. May they remember his humor, his laugh, his wisdom and - most importantly - his strength of character. We love you still, #RobinWilliams, and wish your family the strength to grieve and move on with their lives.

Unbelievers on His Passing

• RIP, Robin Williams (The Friendly Atheist)
• Robin Williams and the False Promise of Success (iMortal)
• Robin Williams, dead at 63 (WWJTD)

Requiescat in pace.

Basic Proofs of Christianity

The following is something that a wrote a long time ago for an old blog. I have cleaned it up and turned it into something for this blog. I hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment on the post in response to the questions that I asked at the bottom.

The way I see it, the claims of Christianity can basically be viewed together as a three-legged stool attempting to support the basic claim that Christianity is true. If any one of the three legs falls, the support disappears, and the body of claims come toppling down.

In the case of Christianity, the three basic claim groups are: 1) Jesus fulfills me personally (personal testimony); 2) Jesus fulfilled the prophetic expectation of the Messiah (prophecy fulfillment); and, 3) The New Testament is an accurate record of the continued revelation of the God of Israel (NT authenticity).

If any one of these claims can be disproved, the weight of the Christian argument comes tumbling to the ground. Christianity depends on all of these things being true, though less so the claims of personal testimony, since these tend to accompany every form of religious expression based in a belief in a higher power.

My De-Conversion

It is hard to know the moment when I actually began believing in God, coming from a Catholic background and taught from early childhood of his existence.  An important shift in thought would have been the time I started taking God more seriously, which involved incorporating teachings from the bible into my life and this did not occur till young adulthood.

A triggering event that prompted a more thorough study of the bible were the visitations by Jehovah Witnesses, who were distributing their pamphlets while educating me of their views.  I was impressed by what seemed to be the amount of biblical knowledge they had and at the time of their visits,  both my husband and I were experiencing problems of our own so these meetings had become a welcome.