Don't Be Afraid of Your Curiosity

I was thinking about my own curiosity today - specifically I was reflecting on the fact that I'm not afraid of my curiosity, but I am sometimes afraid of what other people might think of my curiosity. Here's a very recent example:

I've been doing a lot of reading/listening about psychedelics, which all started after I read the book "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". The curiosity is specifically around LSD, DMT, and psilocybin mushrooms - not for recreational purposes, but for the potential of a spiritually significant experience; one that gets me out of my normal modes of operation. I've read a couple of books, watched a very interesting documentary called "How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan and listened to interviews** with several people including Paul Stamets who is one of the leading mycologists (mushroom scientist) in the world.

After reading and listening and watching, I was curious. I started to consider the prophets and prophetic literature in general...it is often full of bizarre imagery and sounds very similar to the 'trip reports' you hear from various people who have had psychedelic experiences. Very curious.

Food for Thought: The Trinity

I'm a regular reader of Skip Moen's daily blog and highly recommend him to everyone. He is thoughtful, well-read, and clear in his writing. He is like you and me - on a journey to deeper understanding. He doesn't pretend to be an authority, he is honest with where he is at, and he likes to wrestle. I can appreciate all of these things. Yesterday, he wrote a post entitled "Evangelizing the Jews" and at the end of the post was a provocative quote about the Trinity. I understand why modern Christians hold the doctrine of the Trinity so close, but might he have a point? The Church has made this doctrine a cornerstone of theology...but no where in Scripture, Old Testament or New, is this doctrine explicitly laid out. Anyway - here's the quote:

"Perhaps you haven't thought of the far-reaching implications of a Trinitarian view of Scripture. Perhaps all that theological discussion of the dual nature of Jesus, the virgin birth, the historical background battle between Athanasius and Arius, and the equivocation over the idea of "person" was just too much to examine. But now you see that ideas have consequences, and this idea, that Jesus is God and must be acknowledged as such, changes everything about the status of the Jew. Can I be bold enough to say that the Trinity is the fundamental antisemitic doctrine of the Church, and until we deal with its divisive intent, any substantive interaction is ultimately impossible?"

 That's certainly a lot to think about...read the full post to get the context.