{"id":4130,"date":"2007-11-07T12:17:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-07T12:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/what-am-i\/"},"modified":"2007-11-07T12:17:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-07T12:17:00","slug":"what-am-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/what-am-i.html","title":{"rendered":"What Am I?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>I\u2019ve <a href=\"http:\/\/exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\/2007\/09\/why-i-am-christian.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">already talked about being a Christian. Lots of times<\/a>. But I have also been mistaken for an atheist, and perhaps this isn\u2019t surprising. Many of the same arguments that lead Sam Harris to be an atheist are the reasons I cannot be a fundamentalist. And I certainly disbelieve in Zeus-like deities, even if they bear Judeo-Christian monikers. If I had to choose, I would certainly prefer naturalism to superstition \u2013 but I\u2019m not persuaded that those are our only reasonable options. I find much in <a href='https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/library\/buddhism' target='_blank'>Buddhism<\/a> appealing \u2013 its pragmatic approach to spirituality in an experiential manner. But I don\u2019t find reincarnation plausible. I also have learned much from the Sufi tradition in Islam, without finding conversion to that tradition at all appealing, since mainstream Islam\u2019s focus on divine sovereignty and rewards and punishments in the afterlife emphasizes exactly the same things I find <i>least<\/i> appealing in the Christian tradition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pomomusings.com\/2007\/11\/06\/the-american-dollar-the-technicolour-sleep\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pomomusings<\/a> was kind enough to share the music of a band called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/americandollarband\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The American Dollar<\/a>. I like their style, a hybrid of Rock, Windham Hill or Narada Jazz, Electronica, and other styles as well. So what kind of music is this? Apparently it is called \u201cexperimental\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>I guess that\u2019s what I am too. <em>Experimental<\/em>. An \u201cexperimental Christian\u201d \u2013 is that a good label?<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-7319746168755882517?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve already talked about being a Christian. Lots of times. But I have also been mistaken for an atheist, and perhaps this isn\u2019t surprising. Many of the same arguments that lead Sam Harris to be an atheist are the reasons I cannot be a fundamentalist. And I certainly disbelieve in Zeus-like deities, even if they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Am I?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I&#039;ve already talked about being a Christian. Lots of times. But I have also been mistaken for an atheist, and perhaps this isn&#039;t surprising. Many of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/what-am-i.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Am I?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#039;ve already talked about being a Christian. Lots of times. But I have also been mistaken for an atheist, and perhaps this isn&#039;t surprising. Many of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/11\/what-am-i.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-07T12:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-7319746168755882517?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. 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