Quotes From "Healology" By Criss Jami

Question like a child, reason like an adult, and write...
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Question like a child, reason like an adult, and write like a sage. Criss Jami
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God judges men from the inside out; men judge men from the outside in. Perhaps to God, an extreme mental patient is doing quite well in going a month without murder, for he fought his chemical imbalance and succeeded; oppositely, perhaps the healthy, able and stable man who has never murdered in his life yet went a lifetime consciously, willingly never loving anyone but himself may then be subject to harsher judgment than the extreme mental patient. It might be so that God will stand for the weak and question the strong. Criss Jami
Always seek justice, but love only mercy. To love justice...
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Always seek justice, but love only mercy. To love justice and hate mercy is but a doorway to more injustice. Criss Jami
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Who you are in public is a test of your conviction; who you are in private, integrity. Criss Jami
Trustful people are the pure at heart, as they are...
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Trustful people are the pure at heart, as they are moved by the zeal of their own trustworthiness. Criss Jami
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Take lightly what you hear about individuals. We need not distort trust for our paltry little political agendas. We tend to trust soulless, carried information more than we trust soulful human beings; but really most people aren't so bad once you sit down and have an honest, one-on-one conversation with them, once, with an open heart, you listen to their explanations as to why they act the way they act, or say what they say, or do what they do. Criss Jami
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I never feel unsafe except for when the majority is on my side. Criss Jami
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I sit and ponder my existence: how I'm here, what put me here in these thoughts, these feelings, birthed from a timeless sleep, what it felt like, or rather the lack thereof, to not have been and now to 'be', and suddenly, I realize how absurd I am to exist, the fragility in my understanding of existence; I then wonder why the supernatural, the thought of other beings, of God or of gods, must be distinctly absurd - by which I am no longer sure. 'If I exist and I have made myself absurd to me, then why not they exist while merely believed absurd by me?' Perhaps it is true that in a wandering head, one full of wonders, the natural becomes supernatural and the supernatural becomes preternatural (or rational within the sights of discovery and explanation), just as the return home after a life-long journey feels, for a moment, foreign after the many experiences. Criss Jami
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My belief is that, morally, God and Satan are vaguely on the same page. According to the common understanding of Satan's origins, holiness must be in his blood: but a corrupted formula. The vital difference is that God is willing to offer grace for our sins; he delights in grace. God is the one and only holy and just punisher of sin, yes, but that is partly so because punishment for the sake of punishment is not something he loves. Whereas Satan, as the accuser, and as it is written, actually seeks God's permission to punish; he, being a seasoned legalist, delights in finding wrongs and will defy his own morality just to expose immorality. This is why both the anti-religious soul and the violently religious soul are, whether consciously or unconsciously, and sadly enough, glorifying their biggest hater: Satan is not only a lawless lover of punishing lawlessness, but also the greatest theologian of us all. He loves wickedness, but only because he loves punishing wickedness. . Criss Jami
I'm always talking to God about whether or not he...
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I'm always talking to God about whether or not he exists - that's how I know I'm a theist. Criss Jami
With no positivity, there is no hope; with no negativity,...
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With no positivity, there is no hope; with no negativity, there is no improvement. Criss Jami
There have been times I've felt so much art in...
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There have been times I've felt so much art in my soul I grew sick of artists. Criss Jami
If you're waiting until you feel talented enough to make...
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If you're waiting until you feel talented enough to make it, you'll never make it. Criss Jami
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What I admire about the modern atheist is not at all his logic, but rather his gift of imagination. There will always be the cartoon versions of Christianity further perpetuated by the extremist atheists who do not possess the humility to ask real scholars and theologians its difficult questions. There is little doubt that the atheist has the bigger imagination: the first reason is due to his persistent caricatures of what constitutes a Christian; the second because of his belief that most of his questions are actually rhetorical. From this I can infer that, instead of laughing at one another (the Christian at modern atheist immaturity and the modern atheist at Christian stupidity), we would have a better chance at productivity laughing with one another as we all dumb down what we don't understand. . Criss Jami
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If life is music, I sometimes feel as though I was born on the off-beat of the song, and I love it. As Christian numbers reportedly decrease in America, my love for Christ feels as though it increases. Perhaps that is a little strange, yes, but in all honesty, I now want to be thought unfaithful about as much as a smug aristocrat wants to be thought a hobo. Criss Jami
All knowledge meets an end at the question '...Why?
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All knowledge meets an end at the question '...Why? Criss Jami
Truth is not fully explosive, but purely electric. You don't...
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Truth is not fully explosive, but purely electric. You don't blow the world up with the truth; you shock it into motion. Criss Jami
Pure wisdom is the 'fruit of life' banal platitudes are...
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Pure wisdom is the 'fruit of life' banal platitudes are the 'bane of existence'. Criss Jami
How easy it is for so many of us today...
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How easy it is for so many of us today to be undoubtedly full of information yet fully deprived of accurate information. Criss Jami
Because you're always learning, the chief lesson remains: you still...
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Because you're always learning, the chief lesson remains: you still know nothing. Criss Jami
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The study of Scripture I find to be quite like mastering an instrument. No one is so good that they cannot get any better; no one knows so much that they can know no more. A professional can spot an amateur or a lack of practice or experience a mile away. His technicality, his spiritual ear is razor-sharp. He is familiar with the common mistakes, the counter-arguments; and insofar as this, he can clearly distinguish the difference between honest critics of the Faith and mere fools who criticize that which they know nothing. Criss Jami
It is a healthy approach not to expect persons to...
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It is a healthy approach not to expect persons to turn out precisely how you would have wished. Criss Jami
Law without reason is criminal.
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Law without reason is criminal. Criss Jami
Together, we form a necessary paradox; not a senseless contradiction.
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Together, we form a necessary paradox; not a senseless contradiction. Criss Jami
Some of the simplest of truths are also some of...
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Some of the simplest of truths are also some of the most difficult of truths, but such is Christianity: 'If it's not about Christ, it's not about life. Criss Jami
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Initially, the God of the Old Testament might seem overwhelming and domineering to you, or tyrannical, or perhaps even evil, which is good. It is the first telling that God is indeed God, by sheer definition, and not some ear-tickling fairy by which one in his depravity is guaranteed to find another form of stale romanticism or love at first sight. For such a first impression as the latter would be problematic to the essence of Christianity. Therefore the Christians are right in saying that the nature of imperfect men cannot ultimately co-exist with the nature of a perfect God; and that the hope of each man is now desperately found in God's sending of Christ. . Criss Jami
Every exceptional bias against Christianity I find to be evidence...
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Every exceptional bias against Christianity I find to be evidence for its validity. Criss Jami
Without Christ a people may always have the freedom to...
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Without Christ a people may always have the freedom to do, but never the power to complete. Criss Jami
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Like most arts, the link between the mind and the pen can chain you like an enslaved workaholic. Even on an intended vacation you suddenly have this killer urge to record whatever the vacation may teach. Criss Jami
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If I were to believe in God enough to call him a murderer, then I might also believe enough that he, as a spirit, exists beyond death; and therefore only he could do it righteously. For the physical being kills a man and hatefully sends him away, whereas God, the spiritual being, kills a man and lovingly draws him nigh. Criss Jami
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The extent of creativity to which I admire in an individual is his ability to be richly creative while still, in a way, telling the truth. It is the fool who creates only his own lies, and the bore who simply repeats what he is told. Criss Jami
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To be naive is to be unaware of how stupid and cruel other people are; but, by some definitions, ignorance is nearly the opposite of naivety in being a kind of cynicism, in being unaware of their intelligence and humanity. It seems to be a normal although unfortunate case that the great many of us consciously abhor ignorance in others yet subconsciously practice it ourselves: as naivety is apparent and well-known to inflict its damage upon oneself; whereas the alternative and the easier, ignorance, its damage upon others. Criss Jami
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Like all great things which then become fashions, science, as now the universal stamp of approval, probably receives more abuse than any other field of study. Glaze the word itself over whatever vague ideology one may presume ratified, no matter the degree of pseudo-science or lack of scholarly credibility packaged within, and the many will consume it like gravy on a feast. My thought for the time is that as the promise of true science increases, so shall rise its many more superficial counterparts as provided by the agenda-bound trendies and hyper-ambitious laypersons to boot. Criss Jami
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Any halfway clever devil would decorate the highway to Hell as beautiful as possible. Criss Jami
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Character that is fruit-producing can be summed up in the mastery of these 5 qualities: morals, but a sense of humor; love, but respect for criticism; intelligence without pretense; humility without self-loathing; and a mind open, but with solid convictions. Criss Jami
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Science is knowledge meeting humility meeting curiosity: ever-evolving, always learning. Atheism is often but knowledge meeting arrogance: a masquerade under the wing of the beauty of science. Religion is infamously a weight under the one wing; then under the other is atheism, the championed masquerade. Criss Jami
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The internet is where some people go to show their true intelligence; others, their hidden stupidity. Criss Jami
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Rather than swallowing our pride and simply asking what we do not know, we choose to fill in the blanks ourselves and later become humbled. Wisdom was often, in its youth, proven foolish, and ones humiliated were meant to become wise. Criss Jami
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If Christians always seemed to be the most intelligent and the most righteous of men, I'd be a skeptic. Criss Jami
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Only the man who thinks himself a fool is as wise as he thinks. Criss Jami
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Unsettling are the days in which everyone is an expert. Criss Jami
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I respect traditional people - they have the eyes which see value in the tarnished. This is a gift in itself. Tradition requires a wealth of discipline in order to be adhered to, hence it is rarely found in youth. Criss Jami
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Knowing the truth is so minuscule compared to having the nerve to say it...and even more to live it. Criss Jami
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You can never make someone like something they don't like, but you can always help them to better understand it. Criss Jami
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There is this common notion that people are shallow and ignorant until they go out and see the world. I, on the other hand, went out and in comparison realized I was in pretty good standing. Criss Jami
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A number of our scientists boast intelligence but lack wisdom. I find those to be the predictable ones. Criss Jami
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The survival of poor opinions can make a thinker feel as though he is failing humanity. Criss Jami
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So, how close are love and genius, really? We know that they are both mentioned far more than lived. Criss Jami
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You wander. You work nearly every job known to man, it seems, only to arrive at the wonderings of philosophy. Criss Jami
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Angels are good not simply because they see bad as bad, but also because they see bad as corny. Criss Jami