convert / interested in Christ, oncology, neurodivergence & AI
Joined September 2025
- Tweets1.1K
- Following437
- Followers304
- Likes42K
This is what I call mfin bars
“Scepticism, then, is not avoidance of option; it is option of a certain particular kind of risk. Better risk loss of truth than chance of error, that is your faith-vetoer's exact position.
He is actively playing his stake as much as the believer is; he is backing the field against the religious hypothesis, just as the believer is backing the religious hypothesis against the field.
To preach scepticism to us as a duty until 'sufficient evidence' for religion be found, is tantamount therefore to telling us, when in presence of the religious hypothesis, that to yield to our fear of its being error is wiser and better than to yield to our hope that it may be true.
It is not intellect against all passions, then; it is only intellect with one passion laying down its law. And by what, forsooth, is the supreme wisdom of this passion warranted? Dupery for dupery, what proof is there that dupery through hope is so much worse than dupery through fear?
I, for one, can see no proof; and I simply refuse obedience to the scientist's command to imitate his kind of option, in a case where my own stake is important enough to give me the right to choose my own form of risk.
If religion be true and the evidence for it be still insufficient, I do not wish, by putting your extinguisher upon my nature (which feels to me as if it had after all some business in this matter), to forfeit my sole chance in life of getting upon the winning side,-that chance depending, of course, on my Willingness to run the risk of acting as if my passional need of taking the world religiously might be prophetic and right.”
Jalid ♱ retweeted
Friends, in just two days, Christians were murdered on two continents.
On Friday, gunmen opened fire on a funeral at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Karak, Jordan, and killed nine people. On Saturday, armed men attacked Orthodox churches and homes in Oromia, Ethiopia, and killed more than forty.
These are not statistics. They are our brothers and sisters, members of the mystical Body of Christ. When Saul set out to destroy the Church, the risen Jesus asked him, “Why are you persecuting me?” The Lord is still being persecuted in these victims of anti-Christian violence.
Christianity is by far the most persecuted religion in the world today. Those of us who worship in comfort have to ask what the deaths of these martyrs demand of us. At the very least, they demand that we pray for them, learn their names, press our leaders to act, and refuse to look away.
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
Jalid ♱ retweeted
Sadly, we have been informed that the number of martyrs from the terrorist attack on St George’s Church in Jordan has risen from 7 to 9.
We pray for our brothers who have borne witness to Christ through their martyrdom, as well as for the swift recovery of the injured.
Jalid ♱ retweeted
“وَأَمَّا أَنَا فَأَقُولُ لَكُمْ: أَحِبُّوا أَعْدَاءَكُمْ. بَارِكُوا لَاعِنِيكُمْ. أَحْسِنُوا إِلَى مُبْغِضِيكُمْ، وَصَلُّوا لِأَجْلِ ٱلَّذِينَ يُسِيئُونَ إِلَيْكُمْ وَيَطْرُدُونَكُمْ،”
“«لَكِنِّي أَقُولُ لَكُمْ أَيُّهَا ٱلسَّامِعُونَ: أَحِبُّوا أَعْدَاءَكُمْ، أَحْسِنُوا إِلَى مُبْغِضِيكُمْ، بَارِكُوا لَاعِنِيكُمْ، وَصَلُّوا لِأَجْلِ ٱلَّذِينَ يُسِيئُونَ إِلَيْكُمْ.”
“بَارِكُوا عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ يَضْطَهِدُونَكُمْ. بَارِكُوا وَلَا تَلْعَنُوا.”
Jalid ♱ retweeted
A few random thoughts.
Truth and goodness are related, but they aren’t the same question. *insert any religion* can teach much that is good and still be untrue in its distinctive claims. From a Christian point of view their unique claims are false, yet each can carry goodness.
Polemics has erased this dialectic. Polemicists aren’t content to show what is true and what is untrue. They insist that whatever is untrue must be necessarily and completely bad. That leaves the inquirer with a false choice: deny the obvious good in other faiths, or conclude that their goodness proves their truth. My conversion took a long time because Christian apologists painted every faith but their own as a demonic incursion. I just couldn’t accept that. Yes, your favourite apologists did more to keep me from Christ than bring me to him.
The goodness in other faiths isn’t an accident. Our Heavenly Father is merciful, and through the Logos, the true light that gives light to everyone (John 1:9), people everywhere can arrive at much of the same good. Both Jew and Greek.
I’m not saying all religions are equally valid paths to God. I’m not decided on the question of perennialism. But what it does show is that the good we find in other faiths points back to the one God who is its source, not to the truth of every claim made in his name. You can honour the first without accepting the second.
On a related note, & read on its own terms, the OT leaves open God’s promise of a king from David’s line while the NT ends awaiting Jesus’ return, not a final prophet
A few random thoughts.
Truth and goodness are related, but they aren’t the same question. *insert any religion* can teach much that is good and still be untrue in its distinctive claims. From a Christian point of view their unique claims are false, yet each can carry goodness.
Polemics has erased this dialectic. Polemicists aren’t content to show what is true and what is untrue. They insist that whatever is untrue must be necessarily and completely bad. That leaves the inquirer with a false choice: deny the obvious good in other faiths, or conclude that their goodness proves their truth. My conversion took a long time because Christian apologists painted every faith but their own as a demonic incursion. I just couldn’t accept that. Yes, your favourite apologists did more to keep me from Christ than bring me to him.
The goodness in other faiths isn’t an accident. Our Heavenly Father is merciful, and through the Logos, the true light that gives light to everyone (John 1:9), people everywhere can arrive at much of the same good. Both Jew and Greek.
I’m not saying all religions are equally valid paths to God. I’m not decided on the question of perennialism. But what it does show is that the good we find in other faiths points back to the one God who is its source, not to the truth of every claim made in his name. You can honour the first without accepting the second.
Jalid ♱ retweeted
He chose Matthew, the tax collector, so that His companions might be encouraged to come with Him. He saw the sinners and He invited them to recline with Him. This was a wonderful sight: angels stand and tremble, while tax collectors recline and enjoy themselves. The angels tremble at His greatness, while sinners eat with Him. The scribes choke with jealousy, while the tax collectors exult because of His mercy. The heavenly beings saw this sight and were in wonderment.
- Ephrem the Syrian (Commentary on the Diatessaron, 5:17b)
Apologies for the delay on the article. I fell down a rabbit hole with Siecienski's the papacy and the orthodox and lost a few weeks to it. The joys of adhd
“The Christian, however, must bear the burden of a brother. He must suffer and endure the brother. It is only when he is a burden that another person is really a brother and not merely an object to be manipulated.
The burden of men was so heavy for God Himself that He had to endure the Cross. God verily bore the burden of men in the body of Jesus Christ. But He bore them as a mother carries her child, as a shepherd enfolds the lost lamb that has been found.
God took men upon Himself and they weighted Him to the ground, but God remained with them and they with God. In bearing with men God maintained fellowship with them. It was the law of Christ that was fulfilled in the Cross. And Christians must share in this law.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jalid ♱ retweeted
Kierkegaard: Every existence that does not rest in God is despair. (My notes from 2007.)
Jalid ♱ retweeted
I am excited to announce my next online course - History of the Qur’an: Variation and Canonisation. Over 8 weeks we will explore in depth many of the questions that are asked about the Qur’an’s oral and textual history. More details and sign up: forms.gle/9d2nj44UFnXjFetu9.
Jalid ♱ retweeted
Creo en Dios, porque sus abyectas y extrañas obras me reducen a no poder tener por Él otra cosa que no sea Fe. Una Fe tal que no puede provenir de mi entraña, que por naturaleza le rechaza, sino sólo de Cristo en quien por pura gracia vivo.
I’ve got so many exciting articles in the pipeline including a few co-authored pieces where writers from other faiths & I each tackle the same issue from our own tradition’s perspective.
But the thing is my coach just dropped my calories from 2,500 to 1,600 & I can’t focus for more than 30 minutes at a time 🫠