After reading a post on Repentance and Evolution on a philosophy site I frequent, it lead me to have to respond…
“Repentance, to me anyway, is really a matter of love, for both oneself and God alike, and I believe those very mechanics work for any Theists, Atheists, or Agnostic that strives to keep their darker self under some kind of beneficial observation, and adjustment that may potentially move one toward, an inner peace of a kind… I like this quote from Dr Francis Collins whose team mapped out the Human Genome… “One of the main reasons I wrote The Language of God” (His book) “was to try to put forward a comfortable synthesis of what science teaches us about the natural world and what faith teaches us about God. Yet it seems to be a pretty well kept secret these days that the scientific approach and the spiritual approach are compatible. I think we’ve allowed for too long extreme voices to dominate the stage in a way that has led many people to assume that’s all there is. The thesis of my book is that there is no need for this battle. In fact, it’s a destructive battle. And we as a society would be well served to recover that happy middle ground where people have been for most of human history” End of Quote….I did hesitate, as to whether to add the second part of the first sentence of my comment, or not, knowing I most likely would have to follow it up in some manner, and also, didn’t really know how unprepared I would be to do just that…lol…But I did say “I believe those very mechanics work for any Theists, Atheists, or Agnostic that strives to keep their darker self under some kind of beneficial observation, and adjustment, that may potentially move one, toward, an inner peace of a kind”. So Im wasn’t stating my observation as fact, just that I believe this to be the case…I feel Christ to be an inclusiveness in presents, as opposed to, an exclusivity in terms of His Love and acceptance…I can only see the actual mechanisms of repentance operating in my own life as a Theists that holds the Gospels very close to my walk in life…But having said that, I’m also a musician that has made his living playing music, and living in tight quarters on the road with mostly Atheists and Agnostics for many years, and have witnessed “a” (in reference to the matter here) view through their glasses on many occasion when it came to this subject of repentance. I know repentance when I see it, with Atheists and Agnostics, it just doesn’t have the Religiosity that, we, as Theists, look for to go with the experience of deep remorse, and reflective pain in the face of knowing you have done harm, but its the same human experience none the less. Iv witnessed many a Christian that lived like devils, and many an Atheists that lived like Christ instructed. Whether one believes in God or not, or feels God is irrelevant is an intellectual, and Spiritual matter, for each man, or woman to contend with … that’s way above my pay grade… Romans 2:14: (dose come to mind here)… “When Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, it is the law written in their hearts, their conscience.”…I do realize we can go back and forth on this verse forever, BUT lets not, if at all possible. At any rate, lets see where this goes.. I see repentance as one acknowledging ones destructive behaviour, and instinctively, through Love, and, with the aid of love, repents…( if that person’s center is sincerely operating in love in the first place), A Theists, comes to this place where he, or she, makes a deep heartfelt acknowledgment, and apology for his, or hers behaviour to God, thus restoring love, to where the bad impulses have placed a wall between them, and that love… Why wouldn’t an Atheists, or an Agnostic have that same potential, or capacity for the same set of mechanisms working, in, and for them? A self centered behavior, weather it originates in a horrendous act, or a small indiscretion, we all know, can place that wall of division between a man and “love”, for both himself and his fellows. Why would I think a Theists only has this capacity to see the indiscretion that has caused a separation between himself and a loving wholeness?… So I believe repentance to be a heart felt, honest, sincere, embracing of a persons selfish, and, or destructive actions that has separated him from this Love, both for himself, and his fellow man, (if his actions included another person, which most time dose) and attempts to right the wrong with all sincerity, and action. And if he, or she, is a man, or woman of Faith, then God is the direction in which we make that plea…I don’t think for a minute these blessed impulses of repentance are just available to the Christian, Jew, or any other Religious “Group” alone…I feel that would be exclusivity, where inclusivity is called for…To me, Christ is inclusive beyond anyone capacity to know the depths of His inclusivity…And my hopes are, that, as time move forward, we all (as a race, of human beings) learn see this darkness inside ourselves, before looking out the window into the world, that lies to us, telling us, its always the other guy, and thus moves us forward toward healing from that honesty of self observation. I think this Illusion of objectivity that we are all so very conditioned to embrace in this life of smoke and mirrors, in reference to Good and Bad, and who, and what, Good and Bad is, and who is responsible for it, is holding up progress toward a better relationship both with ourselves, and our brothers and sisters we share this experience with… at a time when maybe we can, as a species open the door a little bit wider to let just a little bit more light into the room…For us all weather we be this, or that…I’ll end with this quote…“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
jeff bertolotti 