Do I Actually Believe in God?

Or am I just trying to make money?

Recently on Twitter, I was asked:

I must admit that at first, I found the question rather amusing. It reminded me of my time in boot camp back when I was in the army. Our drill sergeant was busy harassing us when he asked, “Why did you boys join the Army because it sure wasn’t for the money.”

I didn’t know about everyone else but I was from Florida, so excuse me Sergeant, but money had a lot to do with me being in Fort Benning, that and the free room and board. I joined because survival wasn’t easy. And I just wanted to get out of Florida.

The point the sergeant was trying to make was that there are a lot better ways to make money than joining the military so we must have joined because we loved our country. Or because we felt that we had no other choice. Maybe someone had gotten in trouble with the law and was given the option to either join up or go to jail. Or maybe working for minimum wage at a fast-food restaurant as a junior high dropout just didn’t measure up to the chance to “be all I can be, in the Army.”

So anyway, back to the question, “Am I just trying to make money?”

If I were just interested in making money there are a lot of more profitable ways to do so than to write about religion, especially the way I write about religion.

During my time writing about religion, there have been three fellow writers whose work I follow closely. I am going to introduce each of these writers and consider the topics they cover and their target audience. Finally, I will discuss the topics I cover and my target audience. And by then it will become clear that if I were doing this for the money I am definitely going about it wrong.

J.R. Heimbigner

We’ll begin with J.R. Heimbigner. From what I’ve seen, he’s a great guy. I wrote an article somewhat critical of his work and I think that I might have been too harsh. I really do like his work, which, from my perspective is targeted towards new Christians who are wondering which parts of the Bible they should read first or how a loving God could create a world bad things happen to good people.

I assume that every article he writes is read by thousands. Not just new Christians but Christians of all sorts who are always ready to read an inspirational article or two.

Dan Foster

Next, we come to Dan Foster. Dan writes about the problems and challenges that contemporary Christianity faces. His vision is of a liberal progressive Christianity free of prejudice and open to the latest findings in science. Sure, he still writes an occasional article against atheism, but all in good humor.

His target audience I’m guessing would be the more politically conscious Christians who stand apart from America’s Nationalist Christianity with its bigotry and anti-science rhetoric. Dan’s target audience is every Christian that is opposed to the blasphemous merging of far-right politics and Evangelical Christianity.

Once again, I am almost certain that every article he posts is read by thousands of Christians.

Jonathan Poletti

Then we come to Jonathan Poletti. Jonathan is my favorite writer on this list. about a third of his articles are personal profiles of individuals who are well-known within the Christian community and who were or are probably or admittedly gay. The other major part of his work is a critical examination of the teaching of the Church when compared to what Biblical scholars have published.

Jonathan is gay and was raised a Christian and homeschooled. At least I think that’s his backstory. I’m not sure of the details but I’m assuming that some of those factors led to him becoming somewhat critical of his faith.

His target audience is anyone that wants to learn what the Church is lying about, especially in matters having to do with sex. Also, anyone who is curious about the latest developments in Biblical scholarship. Then there are those who love scandals and the outing of hypocrites as well as those whose lives have been whitewashed by the Christian press.

Jonathan has over 30,000 followers meaning his articles are potentially read by tens of thousands of readers. I should mention that while he is strongly critical of the Church, he may still consider himself a Christian.

Finally, we come to me and my articles. My writing approaches Christianity as a puzzle in need of decoding. I look at Christianity not as an institution in need of reform, but rather as a relic from another age. However, I am not suggesting that we do away with the Bible and religion altogether.

If I did, that would make me an atheist, and there is an audience of atheists eager to read atheistic rants, I assume.

But I am not an atheist. Instead, I claim that the Bible contains another faith encrypted into the text and that the time has come for it to be revealed.

This brings us back to the tweet that began this article.

Do you actually believe in God or are you just trying to make money?

I believe that there exists a divine plan that was set into motion ages ago. I believe that it was no accident that the Nag Hammadi Library was discovered when it was. I believe that the creator of the divine plan foresaw the challenges that now confront us and provided us with the tools to develop a higher form of intellect, one based on a more balanced use of the brain’s hemispheres.

For a more thorough introduction to these tools, follow this link and work your way down through the list of articles.

If I was just trying to make money I wouldn’t be pushing the idea of a secret teaching hidden within the Bible because that isn’t a thing, unless we are talking about the Da Vinci Code. Or the Bible Codes. But what I write about no eye has seen and no ear has heard and no hand has touched and it has never occurred to the human mind. So there really isn’t much of an audience.

Jack Heimbigner writes for what I might call the Innocent Christians. Dan Foster writes for the good sort of liberal Christians. Jonathan Poletti writes for those who have had negative experiences and left the church but possibly still consider themselves Christians.

My writing is for those who have grown tired of what Christianity has to offer but remain curious about what secrets might remain hidden. Also, it might appeal to some who belong to a church and like the idea of leading other curious members through a labyrinth of subversive knowledge.

Basically, my writing is for other Chryptians like myself.