Playing what if, pissing people off

 There is a small group of us that have started getting back together to have coffee and rolls in the mornings once every other week.  Most of the discussion is religion as we are all involved in it in some way.  Most all of us keep the debate and discussions very civil and look at it as a chance to learn and to exchange thoughts and ideas.  In the name of full disclosure, I am the only one that was not a pastor, minister, or priest at one time or another.  I have always, as one said, lived in the academics.  

The last time we got together I mentioned I was reading McLaren's book Faith after Doubt.   That turned out to be a great topic starter.  But me being me, started adding what if's into the conversation.  Most just received answers that are typical to various denominations.  Then apparently in a moment of screw it,  let's get the other six either mad or thinking. So I posed this line of thought:

"So let me ask this or maybe propose this thought.  What if the diety that the Abrahamic religions are based on was god-like to us but was just an average space alien that screwed up and got stuck here.  Since it always appeared to Moses and others prior to Moses as a glowing light, it was a pure energy being.  Further that all the stuff leading up to Jesus of Nazareth's birth was it trying to figure out how to be one of us? To blend in so to speak. What-if?  Okay go, let's hear what you have to say on that thought."

 The first to respond was an older, older than me at least, evangelical clergy, but apparently very open-minded and liberal thinking.  His response was more in the line of interesting thought, but how do you explain his Arch Angels and other things that do not quite fit with your what-if?

This began a long two-hour discussion, sometimes heated, sometimes thoughtful.  One of the members walked out angry that we would even have a discussion of such hearsay.   By the end, most of us left were chuckling and a couple said they were going to have to give this thought as it was an interesting exercise in taking a different look at the foundation of Christianity and Judaism.  

As I was leaving the young 20 something waitress asked me to hold back.  She asked if I was serious about my thinking of the what if on the energy being.  I just smiled.  I responded sometimes food for thought is the best way to stimulate thought and review without engaging in heated debate.   She asked what I really thought.  I said my thinking is struggling with doubts right now and what-ifs help me get through the doubts at times.  She sighed and said doubts are all she had left of her Catholic upbringing.  She said she tried to listen to the whole discussion, all the way through and hoped for an ah-ha moment. Instead, she said she had more doubts now.  I then said the only thing I could remember from all I read in various books.  

"Where there is doubt is where there is also understanding and growth. All this will let you move into another stage of your faith and belief. Use that doubt to find your way." 

I gave her my number and email and told her I was always around to listen and chat about her journey.  She seemed happy with that.