>>>I feel that I have to maintain a position against the Bible in Christian circles or otherwise they get the idea that they are somehow making progress in my conversion to their truths.<<<

Exactly. And the "truths" they push are merely lies that they have been trained to mistake for truth. To be honest, one of the reasons I continue to call myself "Christian" is that I worry that forsaking that label would let the Christianoids win by default. I remember a conversation I had with God once on that subject. I had asked him if there wasn't something I could call myself something other than "Christian" in view of the morons who had pre-empted that label with their moronic dogma. "Sorry, son," he told me, "I'm stuck with it; you're stuck with it."

So I thought that over for a few days, then went back to him and asked, "Okay, how about I call myself 'Christian' and call them "Christianoids"?"

And he answered, "Okay, that works for me." So I feel that I have Divine Authority (whatever that might be) to call myself "Christiian" and those idiots "Christianoids".

It is never a good idea to give the dummies the impression that they are making progress toward "saving" you. It is better to avoid talking to them at all. It is relatively easy if you come up with some stock answers to their questions and propaganda. Not long ago, I heard a knock on my door. When I opened it and peeked out , there were a couple of perky young women at my door. They wanted to invite me to visit their church and they wanted to tell me how to be saved. "Thanks," I said, "I appreciate your kindness. I have already been saved, thank you. And I can't invite you in, as I am not dressed yet." They wished me a good day and left. I suspect it was the fact that I was still in my underwear that convinced them to depart, although I was simply peeking around the partly opened door, so they didn't see how I was dressed (undressed).

And once a brother of my Lodge told me how he handled the dopes. He has a clear view from his front window, so he can see the Mormons or the Witnesses coming from a couple blocks away. When he sees them working their way up the street toward his door, he throws on his ceremonial robes from the Lodge, takes his staff in hand, throws on some strange-looking pendants and greets them at the door iwith his shaved head, dressed in this weird-looking outfit, knowing they'll be terrified by anything they don't understand.

"Oh, please come in," he growls in a gutteral rasp. "You're just in time for the sacrifice." He says they always leave promptly and NEVER COME BACK. What more could one ask? Thanks, Bill.

You just have to find ways to dodge the Jesus shouters, that will send them away instead of encouraging them to try harder.

>>>I think there should be an extreme penalty for distorting religion in a fashion that causes harm.<<<

There already is a penalty. It is called living in a dream world, out of contact with reality. This can be fun at times as a fantasy, a deliberate game to escape reality for a few minutes, but what they have done is to crawl into a hole and pull it in after them. They tell themselves they are blessed and joyful, but they are really self-cursed, self-deluded and living in fear of reality. I pity the fools.

And you can't blame the Bible for these pitiable creatures since they are not using the Bible as it was intended to be used. Their idea of the Bible is a horrid distortion of what is printed on the pages, as I have proven to myself again and again. They read a book that mentions "heaven" over seven hundred times and "hell" a grand total of 54 times in all, and then will tell you that what they see is that it's all about avoiding hell. All they find in the Bible is hell. They fear hell and worship Satan, although they would be shocked and furious if you told them that.

My little sister, Kathy, (who has been brainwashed by her church) once told me, "Bob, Jesus had a lot more to say about hell than about heaven." So, I went to the Gospel according to Matthew and counted, using only the texts in red letters that are supposed to be the actual words of Jesus. In that Gospel, Jesus refers to heaven or "the heavens" a total of 63 times. That means that in one book he says more about heaven than the ENTIRE Bible has to say about hell! It is pitiful. And I'm certain that she was only repeating what she had heard from some hell-worshiping preacher who hadn't bothered to do a word count either. It's hopeless to expect any scholarship, any attention to the text, even any common sense from these dupes. Kathy more recently called my counting of the words a "stunt." So even facts aren't going to convince her. Her "faith" in hell is too strong.

>>>We call it "shine".<<<

And Stephen King calls it "the shining" as you probably know. And one of the most ancient concepts of the gods is revealed by a common term from those times, "the shining ones" ("devas" from a term for "to shine"). So that is part of why I continue to call it "the voice of God", even though I have personal reservations about the term and am convinced that the phenomenon is probably a peculiarity of human neural wiring. And it helps when I study ancient writings on the experience that I am familiar with the common terms used, though I feel no obligation to understand those terms in the same way as the original writers did. It helps to know what an old source means by the terms he uses, though we have several thousand years of scientific study to draw on that the ancients lacked.

I once had an odd experience on that score though. I was having lunch with my father. He had called to give me some good news and remarked that I must be surprised to hear it. So without stopping to think, I had said, "No, actually I was told to expect this about now." He asked who had told me and, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the topic, I had told him that I didn't want to go into it on the phone. So he suggested we meet for lunch the next week.

As we enjoyed lunch, Dad asked me what I had meant about having been told to expect this surprising good news. So I fudged (this was my father, after all) and said, "Well, I heard that from. . .uh,. . .from a 'spiritual source'."

"You mean from some kind of psychic?" he asked.

"No, from. . .well. . .from God."

And then I felt a real pride in my father, when he asked a really intelligent question, "What do you mean by 'God"?" he wanted to know.

"I mean that little voice in the back of my head that tells me things I would otherwise have no way of knowing," I replied.

To which he said, "Oh, Him. Well, why didn't you just say so?"

"Dad? You too?"

"Yes, of course," he said, "but he's never told me anything about the future before."

"Have you asked?"

"Well. . .no, . . .hmm. . ..but maybe I should."

(My God, this insanity must be hereditary!)

And I'll leave it at that for now.

With love under will,

Bob, Adastra,
The Wizzard of Jacksonville