I recognize anyone's freedom of religion, but joining this practice is equivalent to saying, "No, thank you. I would rather not think for myself. God granted my own intelligence for no particular reason other than to completely agree with Josh and not question his rhetoric, sophistry, and logical fallacies."

These people do nothing but a disservice to their own faith. Their hypocrisy is evident in their own means to spread the so called "word of god." They claim they do not idolize Josh, but why do their shirts, posters, and slogans not read "I believe in Jesus"? I consider religion a private matter between one and his/her god/gods, but if they firmly love their god they should not allow themselves to half-ass their way into the possible afterlife. The answer is not merely having faith in a being who has never revealed its own existence; the answer is in one's actions and how they champion the greater good. Do not just worship your god; be your god.

I do not wish to claim that these people are unintelligent, but they embody an extraordinary amount of common misconceptions and logical fallacies. I argue that courses in logic and critical thinking should be implemented into the public educational system.

No one worships Josh. We agree with the statement that was put out in his name. We all believe in Jesus, but merely agree with Josh.

The statement that we agree with says:
I believe in one true God,
Existing as three in the Father, Son and Spirit.
Sin separates us from God,
Yet God loves all.
His Son Jesus Christ lived a sinless life,
Died on a cross to pay for our sins,
And rose from the dead, conquering sin and death
To make relationship with God possible.
Humans cannot earn salvation.
It is a gift of God's grace
Through faith in Christ alone.

As you can see there is nothing in that statement that indicates anything about believing in Josh as a prophet or an idol. It says that we believe in God, and by extension of that Jesus.

Also many of us would agree to test things before believing them. We have tested the claims of scripture and have found them to be true for ourselves. I would encourage you to read the things that Jesus said, and the claims he made, and to take a look at them for consistency of message and relevance to our personal lives. Many of us have done this and come to the conclusion to accept the word of Christ, not because our parents told us to, but because we took a look at it on our own.

I hope this help's clarify our belief's. If you've got more questions, come talk to us in person at our tables throughout the week.

-Ed

Sean, you know by posting this, we're getting involved in the "controversy" that they are trying to stir.

Bryce. You bring up some valid points:

Why do the shirts read "I agree with Josh" and not "I believe in Jesus?" As explained in Sean's first post, the creators of the Josh shirts worded it that way on purpose. The cryptic statement warrants questions from any passerby.. giving the shirt-wearer an opportunity to give a lecture on his or her common belief - whether the questioner wants to hear it or not. So Josh isn't an idol to these people, but a tool to stir up controversy. He's a total tool. hee hee

I also agree with your two statements: 1) Faith is a personal thing between you and your god(s). 2) Doing good deeds and being a good person will get you into the desired afterlife. Like you, I believe more in the latter than the former. "Being the change you want to see in the world" is absolutely important. But I think faith is really important too.

I love that you mentioned the phrase "half-ass" because that's a really good way to put it. It's really easy to SAY you have faith. But I think TRUE faith is different; you can't half-ass it. It's just not possible.

True faith is weird, too, because you can't REALLY prove it to anyone else. I'm not even sure I truly believe, but if I did... I could never imagine being able to find the words to TELL anyone about it. I don't think I'd even WANT to tell anyone, for fear of sounding preachy or self-righteous. In my opinion, you shouldn't ever have toprove true faith to other people. Because just like you said, Bryce, it's between you and God (or whoever).

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