Thanks for reminding me. I picked that book up recently during lunch. It's at work somewhere. :-(

Let me know how you like it.

Will do. I am really looking forward to reading it.

funny that the atheist that you are nicky you would even consider reading that book.....hummmm maybe I need more openmindedness?

hi, it is only by looking at all sorts of alternatives that I can continue to reconfirm my beliefs - if they cant withstand a challenge then they are not as strong as I think they are!

From a quick look at the book it seems to be about a guy who is an atheist who has his concepts of faith and human religious experience challenged.

I am hoping that I am going to enjoy learning a lot from it.

Will let you know how it goes - and of course whether I have changed my mind on god by the end of it!!

Hi Nicky,

I'm reading a book, Battlefield of the Mind. It was recommended to me by someone I met early In my quest for sobriety.

Not an overly religious person, I first felt the book was a bit to much. But if you read it slowly, contemplating on each chapter and how it relates to your life, there's a lot to learn from it.

It's made me think a lot about my faith.

It shouldn't be surprising that an atheist is interested in learning about why others believe in a God. I know my looking into the beliefs of others has been enlightening and has given me the chance to understand others better. If we don't understand eachother, we can't learn from eachother.

Oh, I come from a long line of whiskey-swilling druids and, unfortunately,, I'm not one of those drunks who suddenly discovered religion when I sobered off. As I've told here on older threads, before I got down to any serious drinking in my late 20s I had already had spent five and a half dry years as a Trappist monk and had more theology and scripture study under my belt than most Christians get around to in a lifetime.

I was also raised in a devout Irish-American Catholic milieu where drinking had a virtually sacramental significance, and where a person's faith and fidelity were measured by the intensity of the piety and euphoric certitude that followed the ingestion of the third cocktail. And we always made sure we had plenty of Dewar's White Label Scotch on hand whenever Monsignor Cleary came over for dinner, because that was his favorite. I'm sure you get the picture.

None of that prevented me from becoming a full-blown alcoholic, none of it put a dent in the progression of my disease over the next 24 years, and none of it has been part of my recovery. And we who are either clergy or former clergy can actually be some of the toughest nuts to crack because of our deep-seated conviction that theology or the authority of scripture trumps personal experience. I've been asked to sponsor a few like myself, either clergy or former clergy, and they've always cut me off me when I've suggest they try their own conceptions of God.

So if choose between the preachers and my own experience I must-- and choose I must, because I can't possibly reconcile the two-- I'll continue to trust the experience.

Ah, Nemo, I would have pegged you for a Jesuit, rather than a Trappist!

Perhaps your Druids are related to my Druids. :)

Augusta,

Hey, speaking of the Jebbies, are you familiar with this?

http://silkworth.net/ask_billw/Q&A23.html

Nemo, I wasn't familiar, but now I am off on a mission to read up on the writings of Ignatius. I had a cousin who was a Jesuit, and I developed a great fondness for the Order, even though I don't share its core belief of a Divine.