Confessions of a Quirky Christian Artist

I did as my pastor requested and signed up for a 3-fold. The idea here is that you have a group of 3 or 4 people that you can be more open with then you can be in a small group. It’s for spiritual edification and support, prayer, study, etc. This is something I’m doing out of obedience, because I really don’t want to spend a lunch hour doing this when I could be reading, writing, or playing Civilization 4. When I filled out my little card to submit for placement I noted that I wasn’t sure I should be doing it since my heterodox beliefs could upset people. Not that I’m out to argue with anyone or try to change their views, it’s just that it is inevitable if I’m spending a decent amount of time talking about spiritual matters with people that my beliefs would come up. I don’t want to be disrespectful to the leadership of the church by spreading non-church approved messages to other members. Their solution was to put me in a group of what they considered to be very mature or...

Answer: Yes. I had another art show a couple weeks ago. Same one I did last year at the Tacoma Dome. Still didn’t really have anything to sell. But that was not for lack of tying! Leading up to the show I was pulling all-nighters trying desperately to finish and cast some sculptures. Having decided I just can’t sell my one-of-a-kind stuff for any sort of reasonable price I concluded my current business model should be 1. Teaching, and 2. Selling casts of my work. I’ve got number one down pat. It’s fairly easy for me now. Especially since I took my business mentor’s advice and started charging for my classes up front. Now, instead of a list with a hundred names on it that I have to solicit and end up only getting one or two actual students, I end up with a list of 4 people who already paid me and show up. But I was really hoping to start phase two for this year’s holiday season. If there is one thing I’ve learned about me and art, it’s that cramming doesn’t work ...

Some art type worker person found one of my sculptures on Myspace and invited me to be in a their gallery for a show they have every year. It’s a multiple-artist show called Gates of Hell III. I guess they think that goes with a Halloween theme. She specifically wanted my Costume Kid that’s dressed as the Grim Reaper. I don’t really want to sell that piece, but I’ve never been in a gallery, and could really use the money, so I went with it, putting a ridiculous price tag on it. I also included a piece that I thought would go with the theme of the show well. (Aesthetically at least) It’s the sculpture I was going to give to Rowan from Virgin Black , but wasn’t able to finish in time. I still plan on giving it to him, but I figure if it sells in a gallery for thousands of dollars I can always make another one. Here are some shots of it and an official explanation. This sculpture is based on a song called A Poet's Tears of Porcelain from the band Virgin Black. I ...

I want to talk about our perspective as humans. But I want to travel back in time several hundred years. I want to talk about our common sense and what that sense tells us about astronomy. When we watch a sunrise we see the sun coming up over the horizon. Then, later, it goes down beneath the horizon. This is a common experience we all perceive. Clearly, the sun goes up and down. This is common sense. Ok. Now we can come back to our current time. (Unless you are reading this in the future, in which case only set your time machine to 2007.) Our common experience of the sun rising and setting remains the same. The commonsense mechanic is incorporated into our parlance. We don't call it 'Earth rotation'. We call it ' Sunrise '. But we have been told by those scientist folk that the sun doesn't actually go up and down. Most of us believe these scientist folk despite the overwhelming appearance that our senses receive. They tel...

Here are a two examples: Mat 4:24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. (I don't think every sick person in the entire province of Syria was brought to Jesus.) Mat 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. (I'm assuming the writer meant all the cities and villages in the area, not all the cities and villages in the entire world.) This is brought up when rebutting the universalist take on many of Paul's writings that seem to plainly state that all will be saved. I've seen these verses go through many a theological chop-shop and come out looking radically different afterwards. But ultimately it comes down to 2 simple choices. 'All', or 'some'. I love this.....

Here are excerpts from some of my conversations on a forum called Happy Atheist. It's really hard to edit a forum conversation to include all the relevant discussion without also including a lot of off topic banter. So there may be a line or two in reference to something not included. But I think I got the just of it here. From Thread: Will there be more or less?… in the Philosophy section of HappyAthiest -toink33- "Believe or you will be in hell for all eternity." Without this type of statement will there be more or less God followers? In my case, it is some similar statement that was used to recruit me. But when I was alone, I asked myself. why? What have I done to deserve such punishment? What if I was born in a Muslim nation? How just is that? If I am to believe in God, there has to be a better reason. I never found one. When I was a young boy the statement scares me, but not anymore -Court- toink33 wrote: "Bel...