From CNN regarding the genocide in Rawanda
"So far, four Catholic priests have been indicted by the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Human rights activists say the small number of indictments do not accurately represent the church's role in the genocide.
By failing to issue swift condemnation, the church opened the door for slaughter in the name of God, according to the global group Human Rights Watch.
Some clergy who might have been able to save lives refused to even try to do so," the group said in a report on the genocide."
Monday, November 30, 2009
“Biologists’ investigation of DNA has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce [life], that intelligence must have been involved. It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism. I have been persuaded that it is simply out of the question that the first living matter evolved out of dead matter and then developed into an extraordinarily complicated creature. As people have certainly been influenced by me, I want to try and correct the enormous damage I have done.”
Anthony Flew
Anthony Flew
Hume says:
In a post last week “Atheists and Faith” I said that atheists rely on faith at least as much as do Christians. Today I want to show that miracles (the greatest of which have been the Big Bang and the Resurrection of Jesus) the nemesis of atheists cannot be logically argued away.
David Hume says:
1) A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature
2) Firm and unalterable experience has established these laws.
3) A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
Because Mr. Hume’s conclusion is question begging, I’ll take it from here -
4) Therefore the Second Law of Thermodynamics cannot be violated.
5) Therefore the universe cannot be infinite nor can we have an infinite regress of prior universes.
6) Therefore the universe had a beginning
7) Therefore the universe had a cause
The universe cannot cause itself nor can it precede itself either physically or chronologically. Whatever brought the universe into being did so from outside of and without the aide of the laws of science.
That means that the universe was caused by the working definition of a Miracle.
Now, David Hume presumes to know all experience is uniform against miracles.
However, neither he nor anyone else can make that claim. Many people are convinced that they have experienced a miracle, the greatest of which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is confirmed on multiple levels and beyond dispute except in the minds of ideologues for whom nothing could change their minds.
However, atheists say that:
1) A miracle is a violation of the known laws of nature.
Nevertheless,
2) Scientific laws are, on the atheist sceptics own account, empirically unverifiable.
Thus
3) What seem to be violations of the known laws of nature are quite possible.
Therefore
4) Miracles are possible.
Once again, only blind faith allows atheists to say that miracles are impossible or that they have never happened.
David Hume says:
1) A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature
2) Firm and unalterable experience has established these laws.
3) A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
Because Mr. Hume’s conclusion is question begging, I’ll take it from here -
4) Therefore the Second Law of Thermodynamics cannot be violated.
5) Therefore the universe cannot be infinite nor can we have an infinite regress of prior universes.
6) Therefore the universe had a beginning
7) Therefore the universe had a cause
The universe cannot cause itself nor can it precede itself either physically or chronologically. Whatever brought the universe into being did so from outside of and without the aide of the laws of science.
That means that the universe was caused by the working definition of a Miracle.
Now, David Hume presumes to know all experience is uniform against miracles.
However, neither he nor anyone else can make that claim. Many people are convinced that they have experienced a miracle, the greatest of which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is confirmed on multiple levels and beyond dispute except in the minds of ideologues for whom nothing could change their minds.
However, atheists say that:
1) A miracle is a violation of the known laws of nature.
Nevertheless,
2) Scientific laws are, on the atheist sceptics own account, empirically unverifiable.
Thus
3) What seem to be violations of the known laws of nature are quite possible.
Therefore
4) Miracles are possible.
Once again, only blind faith allows atheists to say that miracles are impossible or that they have never happened.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
“I want atheism to be true and I'm made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”
Thomas Nagel, The Last Word (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 130.
Thomas Nagel, The Last Word (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 130.
Different Languages
That’s what it’s like when I talk to atheists. I did a post a while back about the sex trade in America. I found the attitude of atheists so profoundly sad that I can hardly stand it.
I tried to say that how we experience life as a child has an effect on the choices that we make as adults. It's not an excuse, but it is a reason. Because she’s talked about it openly I’m going to use as an example one of the atheists that passes through here on a semi-regular basis. She said that she was at one time married to an abusive controlling man. While I don’t know her personally, I would suggest that we have two main options in understanding why she made that choice.
1) She’s really stupid.
2) Events in her childhood made that particular individual seem comfortable and attractive - or dangerous and exciting.
I know that it’s not number one and I’m pretty sure that it’s number two. If I'm wrong P. please correct me. What I’m saying is that while she obviously chose to be with that man for a time, her choice was influenced to the point that it really wasn’t a fair choice. It wasn't a choice that could be considered equal to someone coming from a different home environment.
Now, here is where we seem to be speaking two different languages. I said that same thing about those who work in the sex trade. Through my counselling I came to know hundreds of those women and men intimately. Here is what they told me over and over again.
. Being raped by their dad or other family member had a HUGE impact on the choices they made as adults.
. Being addicted to drugs early in life had a huge impact on the choices they made as adults.
. Having parents who were addicted to drugs had a huge impact on the choices they made as adults.
. Not finishing school had a huge impact on the choices they made as adults.
. Being offered as a sex object to “friends” of the family had a huge impact on the choices they made as adults.
While these individuals may be out there, not once did I meet a sex trade worker who came from a healthy family.
That is why it’s hardly accurate to say that these people have "consented" to work in the sex trade. What would be surprising is if they worked anywhere else. My exact words were, "I explained to you why the kind of adults involved in the making of porn are no more able to give consent than are children."
You know what atheists heard me say?
. “Are you admitting you do want to keep women down?”
. “It sounds like you have a real hatred of women, a real desire to keep them down, that you disguise as "protection". Women are not subhuman.”
. I was even told that I “would like to see women wearing a burque”
Guess what guys. The thoughts of desire for you that you imagine these air brushed photos of women in magazines are thinking about you isn't what they are really thinking. They aren't perfectly satisfied after you're done jerking off. There is nothing sophisticated or high-class to what they're doing for a living. Most of them need to stay stoned just to get through the day.
But of course helping these precious souls find options to working in the sex trade smacks of puritanical thinking. And to an atheist THAT would be a tragedy.
There is no true communication possible between atheists and Christians.
I tried to say that how we experience life as a child has an effect on the choices that we make as adults. It's not an excuse, but it is a reason. Because she’s talked about it openly I’m going to use as an example one of the atheists that passes through here on a semi-regular basis. She said that she was at one time married to an abusive controlling man. While I don’t know her personally, I would suggest that we have two main options in understanding why she made that choice.
1) She’s really stupid.
2) Events in her childhood made that particular individual seem comfortable and attractive - or dangerous and exciting.
I know that it’s not number one and I’m pretty sure that it’s number two. If I'm wrong P. please correct me. What I’m saying is that while she obviously chose to be with that man for a time, her choice was influenced to the point that it really wasn’t a fair choice. It wasn't a choice that could be considered equal to someone coming from a different home environment.
Now, here is where we seem to be speaking two different languages. I said that same thing about those who work in the sex trade. Through my counselling I came to know hundreds of those women and men intimately. Here is what they told me over and over again.
. Being raped by their dad or other family member had a HUGE impact on the choices they made as adults.
. Being addicted to drugs early in life had a huge impact on the choices they made as adults.
. Having parents who were addicted to drugs had a huge impact on the choices they made as adults.
. Not finishing school had a huge impact on the choices they made as adults.
. Being offered as a sex object to “friends” of the family had a huge impact on the choices they made as adults.
While these individuals may be out there, not once did I meet a sex trade worker who came from a healthy family.
That is why it’s hardly accurate to say that these people have "consented" to work in the sex trade. What would be surprising is if they worked anywhere else. My exact words were, "I explained to you why the kind of adults involved in the making of porn are no more able to give consent than are children."
You know what atheists heard me say?
. “Are you admitting you do want to keep women down?”
. “It sounds like you have a real hatred of women, a real desire to keep them down, that you disguise as "protection". Women are not subhuman.”
. I was even told that I “would like to see women wearing a burque”
Guess what guys. The thoughts of desire for you that you imagine these air brushed photos of women in magazines are thinking about you isn't what they are really thinking. They aren't perfectly satisfied after you're done jerking off. There is nothing sophisticated or high-class to what they're doing for a living. Most of them need to stay stoned just to get through the day.
But of course helping these precious souls find options to working in the sex trade smacks of puritanical thinking. And to an atheist THAT would be a tragedy.
There is no true communication possible between atheists and Christians.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
“Virtually nothing is known about the functioning microcircuitry of the brain. The existence of subjective first-person experience is not explainable by science.”
Steven Pinker, “How the mind Works,” 184.
Nevertheless in the absence of any evidence whatsoever, in the absence of anything but speculation, atheists are adamant that unconscious life sans direction can transform itself into conscious life.
Steven Pinker, “How the mind Works,” 184.
Nevertheless in the absence of any evidence whatsoever, in the absence of anything but speculation, atheists are adamant that unconscious life sans direction can transform itself into conscious life.
Atheists and Faith
Atheists are those most seriously tempted to devolve into scientism.
Atheists are the most susceptible to believing that science can and will tell us all things valuable.
To live like that takes a lot of faith.
To believe in scientism:
. One needs to have faith that our minds cannot be fooled.
. One needs to have faith that our senses are never wrong, and
. One needs to have faith that the people whose earlier research upon which our own beliefs rest never lied or made mistakes.
Examples you say? Freud, Kinsey, Mead, Rand, Haeckel, Galton, Skinner. Or how about East Asian cloning, or Piltdown Man. Or maybe you prefer ‘The Secret Gospel of Mark’ which turned out to be written by Columbia University historian Morton Smith. Or the common textbook icons of Darwinian evolution in action that have all been discredited:
. Haeckel’s faked embryo drawings, (Which I've been told have reappeared in Dawkins' latest book)
. Mutant four winged fruit flies that are in reality dysfunctional, and
. Peppered moths that in the real world don't rest on tree trunks; the photographs were staged.
. Oh and how about our high school biology textbooks that neglect to mention that the beaks of Darwin’s Finches returned to normal after the rains returned. No net evolution occurred. Like many species, the finch has an average beak size that fluctuates within a given range.
. Or how about Miller & Oparin “creating” life out of primordial earth’s ammonia, methane and hydrogen?
Of course the main reason that we shouldn’t naively believe in scientism is that scientism itself cannot be proven by science.
But that doesn’t stop atheists, for science is all they’ve got. Well, that and an incredible faith.
Atheists are the most susceptible to believing that science can and will tell us all things valuable.
To live like that takes a lot of faith.
To believe in scientism:
. One needs to have faith that our minds cannot be fooled.
. One needs to have faith that our senses are never wrong, and
. One needs to have faith that the people whose earlier research upon which our own beliefs rest never lied or made mistakes.
Examples you say? Freud, Kinsey, Mead, Rand, Haeckel, Galton, Skinner. Or how about East Asian cloning, or Piltdown Man. Or maybe you prefer ‘The Secret Gospel of Mark’ which turned out to be written by Columbia University historian Morton Smith. Or the common textbook icons of Darwinian evolution in action that have all been discredited:
. Haeckel’s faked embryo drawings, (Which I've been told have reappeared in Dawkins' latest book)
. Mutant four winged fruit flies that are in reality dysfunctional, and
. Peppered moths that in the real world don't rest on tree trunks; the photographs were staged.
. Oh and how about our high school biology textbooks that neglect to mention that the beaks of Darwin’s Finches returned to normal after the rains returned. No net evolution occurred. Like many species, the finch has an average beak size that fluctuates within a given range.
. Or how about Miller & Oparin “creating” life out of primordial earth’s ammonia, methane and hydrogen?
Of course the main reason that we shouldn’t naively believe in scientism is that scientism itself cannot be proven by science.
But that doesn’t stop atheists, for science is all they’ve got. Well, that and an incredible faith.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Human LIght
This is interesting. For decades now, atheists have worked themselves into a frenzy and outrage over the thought that Christians are celebrating the coming of Jesus to the world on a day that pagans have also celebrated something or other.
"It can't be done!" say the atheists.
"Only one group per day!" announce the sceptics.
Incensed that Christians celebrate anything, anywhere, anytime, atheists thought this would be the perfect excuse to do away with Christmas celebrations.
"Pagans already own Dec. 25th."
Well to each his own, I guess. Except, atheists have invented something called Human Light. It's a secular celebration that is held on, wait for it, December 25th. I'm not sure how this game is played but it appears that two groups celebrating on the same day is bad. Three groups celebrating on the same day is good.
Atheists. Their philosophy is cute but it's hard to keep up with the rule changes.
"It can't be done!" say the atheists.
"Only one group per day!" announce the sceptics.
Incensed that Christians celebrate anything, anywhere, anytime, atheists thought this would be the perfect excuse to do away with Christmas celebrations.
"Pagans already own Dec. 25th."
Well to each his own, I guess. Except, atheists have invented something called Human Light. It's a secular celebration that is held on, wait for it, December 25th. I'm not sure how this game is played but it appears that two groups celebrating on the same day is bad. Three groups celebrating on the same day is good.
Atheists. Their philosophy is cute but it's hard to keep up with the rule changes.
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him, and to not turn away from your own flesh and blood. Spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed. Isaiah 58:6 - 10
Richard Dawkins’ Bewilderment
Consider it sheer joy, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and it gains a chance to grow. So don’t try to get out of any difficulty prematurely. Let it do its work in you so you become mature in faith, and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-4 (The Msg.)
I saw a discussion between Alistair McGrath and Richard Dawkins awhile back. At one point, Dawkins makes a comment regarding the Christian’s reaction to natural disasters. “I find it bewildering to note that natural disasters actually increase the faith of believers.”
Of course he finds it bewildering. How could it be anything but bewildering to an atheist to see people not just coping but actually thriving and growing stronger in the face of horrendous circumstances. What Dawkins actually means is, ‘Because I can’t understand this type of behaviour, there must be something wrong with it.’ Arrogance, pure arrogance.
Atheists never seem to ask themselves why they are absolutely unable to believe what Jesus teaches. Atheists seem unaware that God takes those people who have decided to reject Him, and He runs them far far down their chosen road by hardening their hearts, dulling their minds and slowing their ability to think and to reason. Of course Dawkins and other atheists find it bewildering. Of course they are befuddled over the fact that they don’t experience God’s presence or power. Of course they are filled with dread in the face of disaster. They have no connection to God except to fall prey to the delusion He has sent them and to eventually be overwhelmed by His wrath. For Dawkins to be bewildered by a Christians’s faith is like someone who has never held a job and who lives on the street expressing bewilderment because, “Those who go to work every day always seem to have money. I just don’t get it!”
Here is what atheists really don’t get. Hebrews 13:5,6 - “Be relaxed with whatever comes your way. Since God assured us, “I will never let you down, I will never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly say, “Because God is there, ready to help; I’m fearless no matter what.”
And from Psalms, “Those who wait upon Creator God are like Mount Zion, unmoved by any circumstance.”
These verses are describing a God-given power that atheists will:
. Never get
. Never understand
. Never comprehend
. Never experience
To anyone who adheres to the lies of satan, the power and strength of Christians does indeed appear incomprehensible. They can do nothing but misinterpret the actions of followers of Jesus. They can only project unto Christians the fear and rage that they themselves experience in the face of dire circumstances.
When disaster strikes, both atheist and Christian immediately become aware of the reality of God, but for very different reasons. The atheist thinks of God in order to blame Him, curse Him and say to Him, “This is why I refuse to believe in you.” When the atheist realises that most of Jesus’ followers don’t react like s/he does, the thoughts quickly flip into what Dawkins said to Alistair McGrath. “I find it bewildering to note that natural disasters actually increase the faith of believers.”
Rather than explain the reason for suffering (something that atheists petulantly demand from the God they don’t believe in), Jesus gives believers a way of coping with suffering. The purpose of the faith that God gives to believers is not to generate good feelings. The purpose of the faith that God gives to believers is to sustain them in the absence of good feelings. When a disaster strikes, the Holy Spirit that lives in each believer begins to infuse hope and peace and security into the soul of a Christian. For the believer, tragedy is shown to have meaning. Suffering takes place within the context of God’s plan for the individual. Loss and pain are not a waste of time but have a purpose above and beyond our own existence. The Spirit of the living God is a presence that is palpable, tangible, real. In times of tragedy, it’s God’s Spirit that comforts. He counsels. He corrects and He guides. The Spirit of the living God increases our faith and our desire to worship Creator God regardless of circumstance.
In the face of painful circumstances, rather than peace and comfort, the atheist is filled with incredulity, rage, and hatred toward a God that the atheist claims to not even think about. It sucks to be God’s enemy at anytime, but it’s most certainly true in times of disaster.
I saw a discussion between Alistair McGrath and Richard Dawkins awhile back. At one point, Dawkins makes a comment regarding the Christian’s reaction to natural disasters. “I find it bewildering to note that natural disasters actually increase the faith of believers.”
Of course he finds it bewildering. How could it be anything but bewildering to an atheist to see people not just coping but actually thriving and growing stronger in the face of horrendous circumstances. What Dawkins actually means is, ‘Because I can’t understand this type of behaviour, there must be something wrong with it.’ Arrogance, pure arrogance.
Atheists never seem to ask themselves why they are absolutely unable to believe what Jesus teaches. Atheists seem unaware that God takes those people who have decided to reject Him, and He runs them far far down their chosen road by hardening their hearts, dulling their minds and slowing their ability to think and to reason. Of course Dawkins and other atheists find it bewildering. Of course they are befuddled over the fact that they don’t experience God’s presence or power. Of course they are filled with dread in the face of disaster. They have no connection to God except to fall prey to the delusion He has sent them and to eventually be overwhelmed by His wrath. For Dawkins to be bewildered by a Christians’s faith is like someone who has never held a job and who lives on the street expressing bewilderment because, “Those who go to work every day always seem to have money. I just don’t get it!”
Here is what atheists really don’t get. Hebrews 13:5,6 - “Be relaxed with whatever comes your way. Since God assured us, “I will never let you down, I will never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly say, “Because God is there, ready to help; I’m fearless no matter what.”
And from Psalms, “Those who wait upon Creator God are like Mount Zion, unmoved by any circumstance.”
These verses are describing a God-given power that atheists will:
. Never get
. Never understand
. Never comprehend
. Never experience
To anyone who adheres to the lies of satan, the power and strength of Christians does indeed appear incomprehensible. They can do nothing but misinterpret the actions of followers of Jesus. They can only project unto Christians the fear and rage that they themselves experience in the face of dire circumstances.
When disaster strikes, both atheist and Christian immediately become aware of the reality of God, but for very different reasons. The atheist thinks of God in order to blame Him, curse Him and say to Him, “This is why I refuse to believe in you.” When the atheist realises that most of Jesus’ followers don’t react like s/he does, the thoughts quickly flip into what Dawkins said to Alistair McGrath. “I find it bewildering to note that natural disasters actually increase the faith of believers.”
Rather than explain the reason for suffering (something that atheists petulantly demand from the God they don’t believe in), Jesus gives believers a way of coping with suffering. The purpose of the faith that God gives to believers is not to generate good feelings. The purpose of the faith that God gives to believers is to sustain them in the absence of good feelings. When a disaster strikes, the Holy Spirit that lives in each believer begins to infuse hope and peace and security into the soul of a Christian. For the believer, tragedy is shown to have meaning. Suffering takes place within the context of God’s plan for the individual. Loss and pain are not a waste of time but have a purpose above and beyond our own existence. The Spirit of the living God is a presence that is palpable, tangible, real. In times of tragedy, it’s God’s Spirit that comforts. He counsels. He corrects and He guides. The Spirit of the living God increases our faith and our desire to worship Creator God regardless of circumstance.
In the face of painful circumstances, rather than peace and comfort, the atheist is filled with incredulity, rage, and hatred toward a God that the atheist claims to not even think about. It sucks to be God’s enemy at anytime, but it’s most certainly true in times of disaster.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted’ for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have show kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted’ for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have show kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.
Sex Trade in America
Here's an interesting note on the sex trade in America. According to atheist Tristan Vick we should combat this with an increase in pornography.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/25/carr.human.trafficking/index.html
Correction: Tristan I truly am sorry for the above statement. It was said in the heat of the moment and to the best of my knowledge there is no truth to it. My comment was careless, thoughtless and potentially harmful to your reputation. Again, I was wrong and my suggestion above was baseless.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/25/carr.human.trafficking/index.html
Correction: Tristan I truly am sorry for the above statement. It was said in the heat of the moment and to the best of my knowledge there is no truth to it. My comment was careless, thoughtless and potentially harmful to your reputation. Again, I was wrong and my suggestion above was baseless.
“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment - a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori commitment to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanation, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin
Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin
Atheist Fallacies
So many are the irrational beliefs to which atheists hold, that it’s easy to forget that these people see themselves as the rational beings on this planet, to the exclusion of anyone who believes that there is more to life that what meets the eye. To highlight the extent of this dream-like state in which atheists live, let me give this example.
An atheist blogger recently wrote, “Statistically, given the conditions, experts have means of demonstrating that it's no real surprise that life came about. Given the truth of natural selection, it is also more than plausible that intelligent life-forms would evolve.”
Did you hear that? Did you hear the words that were used in those sentences?
“Statistically” “Means of demonstrating” “No real surprise that life came about”
Those who understand probabilities may raise an eyebrow at that last one. Is this guy the exception? Are atheists who depend on misinformation to maintain their belief system, who rehearse incomprehensible “facts,” who cling to what truly amounts to blind faith, are these people the exception or the rule? Well, it certainly isn’t difficult to find atheists, very well known atheists, who make statements that make the same type of claim.
Take for example, biologist Franklin Harold “Life arose here on earth from inanimate matter, by some kind of evolutionary process.”
Really? Do you think that Mr. Harold has considered how improbable something like that happening might be? Do you think that he actually has any evidence to back up that amazing statement?
“This is not a statement of demonstrable fact,” he continues, “but an assumption.”
It's not a demonstrable fact? But atheist #1 at the beginning of this post just told us, "Experts have means of demonstrating that it's no real surprise . . ." Obviously someone thinks it's demonstrable. I suppose I could guess that this blogger isn’t a scientist and is just guessing that there are ways of demonstrating how non life turned into life. Yet Richard Dawkins is a scientist, a very well known scientist and he makes the exact same claim, ‘Inanimate and inorganic gases evolved . . .’ In fact, the blogger probably got the idea from one of Dawkins’ books. Scientists, as we’ve been told, have means to demonstrate this. Surely statements like these are based on verifiable, repeatable, observable studies. Of course they are. I read one atheist who proclaimed that "theories are the same as facts."
And Richard Dawkins says, “As a lover of truth, I am suspicious of strongly held beliefs that are unsupported by evidence.” According to Richard Dawkins, it’s Christians who are guilty of doing this and it makes him furious. Surely he wouldn’t be guilty of the very same error. Surely Mr. Harold wouldn’t be guilty of the very same error. Well, maybe he is. What he means is, his statement is supported by a desperate need to have it be true to maintain an anti-God belief system.
Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” Interesting. When Harold has less than complete evidence, it’s called a scientific certainty. When Christians have less than complete evidence, it’s called blind faith. What's more, those kinds of statements don’t just apply to the beginnings of life. Even in explaining how the “I” functions, and how we have reason and a consciousness, it’s easy to find statements like this.
“Our starting assumption as scientists ought to be that on some level, consciousness has to be an illusion.”
Maybe you should read that again. “Our STARTING ASSUMPTION as scientists ought to be that on some level consciousness has to be an illusion.”
Harold, and other atheist scientists may nod and walk away, feeling pleased with themselves. However anyone using their mind has to be taken aback with the fact that these people think that this OUGHT to be their Starting Assumption. Why ought that to be the case? Well, because it fits the hypothesis - not the evidence mind you, just the hypothesis that human beings are nothing more than a mass of firing neurons and biochemical exchanges. Naturalism and materialism can allow for nothing else. To atheists, the soul, or the “I” does not and cannot exist. To atheists, you are nothing but an accident of nature; simple chance.
Let’s take a look at a statistical means of demonstrating the chances of protons having the right mass, electrons having the perfect charge, the correct gravitational constant etc. etc. all by accident. Stephen Hawking concurs that “impossible” is hardly too strong a word. In explaining the infinitesimal confines of the cosmological constant he states, “If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have re collapsed before it even reached its present size.”
When God is not allowed into the equation, there really isn’t any premise too improbable, a hypothesis too lacking in evidential support because, well, an accident is all we could possibly be. As Cognitive Scientist Steven Pinker explains, “Because there are no alternatives [to naturalism] we would almost have to accept natural selection as the explanation of life on this planet.” (Italics mine). Richard Dawkins writes, “However improbable the origin of life might be, it must have happened this way because we are here.” Talk about faith!!
An atheist blogger recently wrote, “Statistically, given the conditions, experts have means of demonstrating that it's no real surprise that life came about. Given the truth of natural selection, it is also more than plausible that intelligent life-forms would evolve.”
Did you hear that? Did you hear the words that were used in those sentences?
“Statistically” “Means of demonstrating” “No real surprise that life came about”
Those who understand probabilities may raise an eyebrow at that last one. Is this guy the exception? Are atheists who depend on misinformation to maintain their belief system, who rehearse incomprehensible “facts,” who cling to what truly amounts to blind faith, are these people the exception or the rule? Well, it certainly isn’t difficult to find atheists, very well known atheists, who make statements that make the same type of claim.
Take for example, biologist Franklin Harold “Life arose here on earth from inanimate matter, by some kind of evolutionary process.”
Really? Do you think that Mr. Harold has considered how improbable something like that happening might be? Do you think that he actually has any evidence to back up that amazing statement?
“This is not a statement of demonstrable fact,” he continues, “but an assumption.”
It's not a demonstrable fact? But atheist #1 at the beginning of this post just told us, "Experts have means of demonstrating that it's no real surprise . . ." Obviously someone thinks it's demonstrable. I suppose I could guess that this blogger isn’t a scientist and is just guessing that there are ways of demonstrating how non life turned into life. Yet Richard Dawkins is a scientist, a very well known scientist and he makes the exact same claim, ‘Inanimate and inorganic gases evolved . . .’ In fact, the blogger probably got the idea from one of Dawkins’ books. Scientists, as we’ve been told, have means to demonstrate this. Surely statements like these are based on verifiable, repeatable, observable studies. Of course they are. I read one atheist who proclaimed that "theories are the same as facts."
And Richard Dawkins says, “As a lover of truth, I am suspicious of strongly held beliefs that are unsupported by evidence.” According to Richard Dawkins, it’s Christians who are guilty of doing this and it makes him furious. Surely he wouldn’t be guilty of the very same error. Surely Mr. Harold wouldn’t be guilty of the very same error. Well, maybe he is. What he means is, his statement is supported by a desperate need to have it be true to maintain an anti-God belief system.
Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” Interesting. When Harold has less than complete evidence, it’s called a scientific certainty. When Christians have less than complete evidence, it’s called blind faith. What's more, those kinds of statements don’t just apply to the beginnings of life. Even in explaining how the “I” functions, and how we have reason and a consciousness, it’s easy to find statements like this.
“Our starting assumption as scientists ought to be that on some level, consciousness has to be an illusion.”
Maybe you should read that again. “Our STARTING ASSUMPTION as scientists ought to be that on some level consciousness has to be an illusion.”
Harold, and other atheist scientists may nod and walk away, feeling pleased with themselves. However anyone using their mind has to be taken aback with the fact that these people think that this OUGHT to be their Starting Assumption. Why ought that to be the case? Well, because it fits the hypothesis - not the evidence mind you, just the hypothesis that human beings are nothing more than a mass of firing neurons and biochemical exchanges. Naturalism and materialism can allow for nothing else. To atheists, the soul, or the “I” does not and cannot exist. To atheists, you are nothing but an accident of nature; simple chance.
Let’s take a look at a statistical means of demonstrating the chances of protons having the right mass, electrons having the perfect charge, the correct gravitational constant etc. etc. all by accident. Stephen Hawking concurs that “impossible” is hardly too strong a word. In explaining the infinitesimal confines of the cosmological constant he states, “If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have re collapsed before it even reached its present size.”
When God is not allowed into the equation, there really isn’t any premise too improbable, a hypothesis too lacking in evidential support because, well, an accident is all we could possibly be. As Cognitive Scientist Steven Pinker explains, “Because there are no alternatives [to naturalism] we would almost have to accept natural selection as the explanation of life on this planet.” (Italics mine). Richard Dawkins writes, “However improbable the origin of life might be, it must have happened this way because we are here.” Talk about faith!!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Where Is It Written?
Where is it written that only one group of people can celebrate what's important to them on any given day? I ask because every year around this time atheist begin to voice their frustration that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on a day that pagans have traditionally done their thing. Atheists seem personally offended that this is happening. It's like Christians were supposed to ask atheists for permission to celebrate Jesus' birth and we just neglected to do so.
And so I wonder. Is there some kind of rule somewhere that says only one day per group. Or is this just another example of the childish thinking that seems to go hand in hand with atheism?
And so I wonder. Is there some kind of rule somewhere that says only one day per group. Or is this just another example of the childish thinking that seems to go hand in hand with atheism?
“The pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts... nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.”
H. W. Westermayer
This kind of stuff just drives Dawkins to distraction. Because he doesn’t know the goodness of God, the peace of God, the mercy and grace and forgiveness of God, Dawkins simply cannot comprehend how anyone wouldn’t rage and tantrum at Creator God like little atheists do when they don’t get their way; like the atheist Richard Dawkins does when he doesn’t get his way.
H. W. Westermayer
This kind of stuff just drives Dawkins to distraction. Because he doesn’t know the goodness of God, the peace of God, the mercy and grace and forgiveness of God, Dawkins simply cannot comprehend how anyone wouldn’t rage and tantrum at Creator God like little atheists do when they don’t get their way; like the atheist Richard Dawkins does when he doesn’t get his way.
Blessed by Suffering
My spiritual journey and that of the atheists whose journeys I’ve read about seem to differ around two main areas.
The first is a belief in creed vs. a relationship with Jesus.
The second is of necessity, our response to suffering.
When ever we put belief in a creed in place of belief in God, we become a person filled with nonsense. Atheists rightly rebel against the nonsense that they became during what they call their “christian” days. If God is only a creed or a statement of religious belief, then He is not real; but if God is one with whom we get into personal contact in other ways than by our intellect, then any of us who are touched by reality are also touched by God.
Be it sexual abuse, or physical pain or illness, or the loss of a parent, or any of the myriad other cruelties that life is apt to bring our way, these things are geared to bring us into direct contact with our Creator or into direct opposition to our Creator.
Over and over again people have described themselves to be a disbeliever when s/he is simply outgrowing h/his creed. It’s a painful thing for a person to find that his stated views of God are not adequate. I feel this when reading people like John Loftus. His pain has caused this intelligent man to revert to the ramblings of a child. Reality is, the person who clings to a creed is also a coward who refuses to come into a personal relationship with God. The whole point of vital Christianity is not the refusal to face things, but a matter of personal relationship.
“Then why did my Dad die?”
“Then why was I assaulted?”
“Then why have I been unwell all my life?”
A creedal view of God has caused many a person to fail at the critical moment. It keeps us from being the kind of person we ought to be, and only when we abandon our VIEW of God for God Himself, can we become the right kind of person in the face of loss, assault and suffering.
Up until a time of crisis, God, to many a person, perhaps even to most people, is merely our own theological statement of Him. Until suffering strikes, God is simply what our parents told us about God. Let tragedy strike, however and our religious belief is swept away, and for a while we say, “I have lost my faith in God.” Atheists are renowned for reacting to suffering in this manner, even for suffering that belongs to someone else. This is where one type of person goes one direction and another type of person goes another direction. That is why I say that one of the purposes of suffering is to draw to God those who are destined for salvation and to drive away from God those who are destined for eternal separation from God.
For those who are destined for salvation, what happens is, though they lose their faith in their statement of God, suffering brings about a rejection of the creed while actually finding God Himself. We should never be afraid if our circumstances dispute what you have been taught about God. Instead, we should be willing to examine what we have been taught.
Atheists on the other hand make the illogical leap from:
Something difficult has happened - to - Therefore Creator God does not exist.
Instead they should have made the logical step, Something difficult has happened > What I have been taught about God (eg. God will never give you more than you can bear, or God will always protect from harm) is different than what reality suggests.
We begin our religious life by accepting what we are taught without questioning. Then when we come up against painful circumstances we begin to be critical and we find that however right those beliefs might be for some, they are not right for us because we have not owned them through suffering. When those destined for salvation come up against profound hurt, rather than abandoning God, s/he accepts that “I am facing something I don’t understand, but I will treat it with respect. I will abandon my traditional beliefs about God and learn from Him and from Him alone.
If anything we’ve been told about God contradicts life as it was lived by Jesus, particularly in the area of suffering, we should say, “No, I cannot believe that. This creed that I have been taught distorts the character of God, but I know in the end He will prove to be all that I trust Him to be, a God of love and justice, and absolutely honourable.”
The first is a belief in creed vs. a relationship with Jesus.
The second is of necessity, our response to suffering.
When ever we put belief in a creed in place of belief in God, we become a person filled with nonsense. Atheists rightly rebel against the nonsense that they became during what they call their “christian” days. If God is only a creed or a statement of religious belief, then He is not real; but if God is one with whom we get into personal contact in other ways than by our intellect, then any of us who are touched by reality are also touched by God.
Be it sexual abuse, or physical pain or illness, or the loss of a parent, or any of the myriad other cruelties that life is apt to bring our way, these things are geared to bring us into direct contact with our Creator or into direct opposition to our Creator.
Over and over again people have described themselves to be a disbeliever when s/he is simply outgrowing h/his creed. It’s a painful thing for a person to find that his stated views of God are not adequate. I feel this when reading people like John Loftus. His pain has caused this intelligent man to revert to the ramblings of a child. Reality is, the person who clings to a creed is also a coward who refuses to come into a personal relationship with God. The whole point of vital Christianity is not the refusal to face things, but a matter of personal relationship.
“Then why did my Dad die?”
“Then why was I assaulted?”
“Then why have I been unwell all my life?”
A creedal view of God has caused many a person to fail at the critical moment. It keeps us from being the kind of person we ought to be, and only when we abandon our VIEW of God for God Himself, can we become the right kind of person in the face of loss, assault and suffering.
Up until a time of crisis, God, to many a person, perhaps even to most people, is merely our own theological statement of Him. Until suffering strikes, God is simply what our parents told us about God. Let tragedy strike, however and our religious belief is swept away, and for a while we say, “I have lost my faith in God.” Atheists are renowned for reacting to suffering in this manner, even for suffering that belongs to someone else. This is where one type of person goes one direction and another type of person goes another direction. That is why I say that one of the purposes of suffering is to draw to God those who are destined for salvation and to drive away from God those who are destined for eternal separation from God.
For those who are destined for salvation, what happens is, though they lose their faith in their statement of God, suffering brings about a rejection of the creed while actually finding God Himself. We should never be afraid if our circumstances dispute what you have been taught about God. Instead, we should be willing to examine what we have been taught.
Atheists on the other hand make the illogical leap from:
Something difficult has happened - to - Therefore Creator God does not exist.
Instead they should have made the logical step, Something difficult has happened > What I have been taught about God (eg. God will never give you more than you can bear, or God will always protect from harm) is different than what reality suggests.
We begin our religious life by accepting what we are taught without questioning. Then when we come up against painful circumstances we begin to be critical and we find that however right those beliefs might be for some, they are not right for us because we have not owned them through suffering. When those destined for salvation come up against profound hurt, rather than abandoning God, s/he accepts that “I am facing something I don’t understand, but I will treat it with respect. I will abandon my traditional beliefs about God and learn from Him and from Him alone.
If anything we’ve been told about God contradicts life as it was lived by Jesus, particularly in the area of suffering, we should say, “No, I cannot believe that. This creed that I have been taught distorts the character of God, but I know in the end He will prove to be all that I trust Him to be, a God of love and justice, and absolutely honourable.”
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
“When examined carefully, scientific accounts of natural processes are never really about order emerging from chaos, or form emerging from formlessness. On the contrary, they are always about the unfolding of an order that was already implicit in the nature of things.
What Dawkins does not seem to appreciate is that his blind watchmaker is something ever more remarkable than Paley’s watches. Paley finds a “watch” and asks how such a thing could have come to be there by chance. Dawkins finds an immense automated factory that blindly constructs watches and feels that he has completely answered Paley’s point. But that is absurd. How can a factory that makes watches be less in need of explanation than that watches themselves?”
Stephen Barr, “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith,” 111
What Dawkins does not seem to appreciate is that his blind watchmaker is something ever more remarkable than Paley’s watches. Paley finds a “watch” and asks how such a thing could have come to be there by chance. Dawkins finds an immense automated factory that blindly constructs watches and feels that he has completely answered Paley’s point. But that is absurd. How can a factory that makes watches be less in need of explanation than that watches themselves?”
Stephen Barr, “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith,” 111
Occam’s Razor
The odds of our mathematically precise, finely tuned, life sustaining universe coming into being by accident is so astronomically improbable that it’s been described as randomly throwing a dart at the universe and hitting the correct proton.
Now, if that in fact happened, as is the case for our universe, you have two options to consider:
1) Something outside of nature or something Supernatural caused this to happen. In other words it was rigged to happen, or
2) There are an infinite number of universes that over an infinite amount of time with an infinite number of possible constants and quantities that finally resulted in a life sustaining universe such as ours.
Which would a rational person abiding by Occam’s razor use? Number one
Which would an atheist choose abiding by Occam’s razor? Number two.
As long as it keeps out Creator God, no hypothesis is too complicated, no amount of evidence too absent for atheists.
In reality, our universe is deigned for life because Someone designed it that way.
Now, if that in fact happened, as is the case for our universe, you have two options to consider:
1) Something outside of nature or something Supernatural caused this to happen. In other words it was rigged to happen, or
2) There are an infinite number of universes that over an infinite amount of time with an infinite number of possible constants and quantities that finally resulted in a life sustaining universe such as ours.
Which would a rational person abiding by Occam’s razor use? Number one
Which would an atheist choose abiding by Occam’s razor? Number two.
As long as it keeps out Creator God, no hypothesis is too complicated, no amount of evidence too absent for atheists.
In reality, our universe is deigned for life because Someone designed it that way.
Monday, November 23, 2009
American Music Awards
As secular culture celebrates the best it has to offer, progressive atheists find their poster boy in Adam Lambert.
Bluff and Bluster
What do the following things have in common? Science has nothing to say except in a lame and pathetic manner to suggest that they’re all an illusion, or to suggest they'r some mythological creation. Just as atheists have been forced into the ludicrous, “matter has always existed,” or "matter came into existence without a cause," so too, in the near future will atheists tell us that “Life has always existed. Life didn’t have a beginning. Life didn’t have a cause. Life has always been.”
Here are just a few things for which science has nothing of value to say:
- The Beginning of Life
- Consciousness
- Rationality and Morality (How do we know what is true)
- Science can't tell us why kindness is better than cruelty - yet we still believe it to be true
- Science can't tell us how the laws of mathematics and logic came to exist or why they came to exist but we still live as though they do exist. If the atheist says these laws exist to prove science s/he is arguing in a circular manner.
- Science can't explain or prove metaphysical truths;
. there are minds other than my own
. the external world is real
. the external world didn't begin to exist ten minutes ago appearing as aged.
- Science can't prove or disprove ethical beliefs
. Whether the Nazis did anything evil
- Science can't rule on aesthetic judgments
. Beauty and goodness can't be proven
Science itself can't be justified by the scientific method of inquiry.
Don't fear these atheists. They're all bluff and bluster. They've surrounded themselves with a barrier of misinformation. Give them eyewitness testimony and they'll say eye-witness testimony isn't reliable. Give them teaching that was learned from an eyewitness and they'll reject it as hearsay.
Here are just a few things for which science has nothing of value to say:
- The Beginning of Life
- Consciousness
- Rationality and Morality (How do we know what is true)
- Science can't tell us why kindness is better than cruelty - yet we still believe it to be true
- Science can't tell us how the laws of mathematics and logic came to exist or why they came to exist but we still live as though they do exist. If the atheist says these laws exist to prove science s/he is arguing in a circular manner.
- Science can't explain or prove metaphysical truths;
. there are minds other than my own
. the external world is real
. the external world didn't begin to exist ten minutes ago appearing as aged.
- Science can't prove or disprove ethical beliefs
. Whether the Nazis did anything evil
- Science can't rule on aesthetic judgments
. Beauty and goodness can't be proven
Science itself can't be justified by the scientific method of inquiry.
Don't fear these atheists. They're all bluff and bluster. They've surrounded themselves with a barrier of misinformation. Give them eyewitness testimony and they'll say eye-witness testimony isn't reliable. Give them teaching that was learned from an eyewitness and they'll reject it as hearsay.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Exodus 23:1,2 - "Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favouritism to a poor man in his lawsuit just because he is poor.
Life Starts With a Code
Each and every DNA molecule, including the first, is an algorithm in biochemical code with a capacity for transcription and replication.
“The genetic code is truly digital, in exactly the same sense as computer codes.” Richard Dawkins, “The Devil’s Chaplin: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science and Love” 28
“The genetic code is truly digital, in exactly the same sense as computer codes.” Richard Dawkins, “The Devil’s Chaplin: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science and Love” 28
Implications Of The Big Bang
Earlier I said that atheists try to avoid the “Distasteful Implications” of the “Big Bang.” In a tone of what I perceive to be feigned wonderment, I’ve been asked, “Why, whatever could you mean by that?”
Well, that’s easy. If there were no “God As Cause” implications attached to a universe with a beginning, atheist scientists wouldn’t be straining themselves to get rid of the simplest solution to the origins of the universe, by inventing manifestly complicated hypotheses to its origin. Atheism’s hostility to religion has made the elimination of the Big Bang theory its top priority, causing it to posit more and more preposterous ideas as the years go by.
For example, atheists state just as though it’s been proven that there are:
. Multiple universes where everything that can happen, does happen.
Others have declared that our origins come from an:
. Oscillating universe,
. Or a parallel universe,
. Or maybe we came into existence via a black hole
. Or that all of this takes place in imaginary time which requires no past, present or future.
. Some propose that space aliens brought life to earth and someone reading this right now will be thinking, in all seriousness, Hey! Aliens? Maybe. I never thought of that.
Occam’s razor has absolutely no place in the repertoire of the atheist scientist when it comes to explaining how our universe came into being. As Stephen Barr says, “It seems that to abolish one unobservable God, it takes an infinite number of unobservable substitutes.” Beyond that, atheist scientist completely ignore the finding of the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem which states that any model of an expanding universe, be it real, such as ours, or imaginary, such as those in the minds of atheist must have a definitive space-time boundary ie. a Big Bang type of singularity.
“It is said that an Argument is what convinces reasonable men, and a Proof is what it takes to convince an unreasonable man. With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe. There is no escape, they have to face the problem of the cosmic beginning.” Alex Vilenkin, “Many Worlds In One - The Search for Other Universes,”
This beginning demands an answer to Why did this take place?
Not only is it logical to say that the universe had a beginning and a cause, not only is it reasonable to say that the universe had a moment of Creation (Big Bang), but the Bible presents that beginning exactly as science is now “discovering” that it happened.
Here is what we know scientifically:
. Everything that has a beginning has a cause.
. The universe had a beginning.
. Therefore the beginning of the universe had a cause.
That takes care of the silly question, “Well, if God made the universe, who made God?” Remember, atheists have no problem with saying that something is infinite, or that it has always existed, or that it’s eternal, as long as that something isn’t Creator God. However, if God exists, then He exists outside of and prior to the universe. God is not material. He is Spirit. He does not need a cause. He has always been. He is infinite. He is eternal. Asking, “What caused an infinite or eternal Being to begin?” or, “When did an eternal being begin to exist?” is illogical and incoherent. Illogical statements are something that atheists usually take great pains to avoid, except when they’re confronted with the reality of Creator God. Then, it seems, all bets are off. The fact remains, and it remains a fact that is based on what science tells us is true, that everything that begins to exist, including the universe, had its cause from something outside of itself. There are no known exceptions to this observed and consistently verified rule.
We must choose between matter as infinite and Creator God who is Spirit, as infinite. Reason states that it must be One and not the other for matter cannot pre-exist itself either physically or chronologically, nor can matter bring itself into existence or create itself. Again, it is impossible for matter to be infinite or to exist from eternity past.
Now, Richard Dawkins says that a complicated God is very improbable. Maybe, but improbable is better than impossible. As well, whose to say that God is complicated? He may be capable of doing complicated things but that is another issue. Nevertheless, Richard Dawkins has absolutely no problem with highly improbable odds when they suit his cause.
The Creation Event is so serious a problem for those who have devolved into Scientism that they are now claiming, without any evidence whatsoever, that something can have a beginning without a cause. Here are some examples of what atheist scientists are saying.
Astronomer Arthur Eddington - “The concept of the Big Bang is preposterous, incredible, repugnant.”
Physicist Philip Morrison - “I find it hard to accept the Big Bang theory. I would like to reject it.”
Physicist Victor Stenger - “The universe may be uncaused and may have emerged from nothing.”
On the “bright” side David Hume stated, “I have never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without cause.”
Well, back in his day, when atheists were still hopeful that their faith system would prevail, that might have been possible for him to say. It is my belief that if Hume had known that Christianity would prove so resistant to destruction, he would have joined today’s atheist scientists in throwing off all restraints, put his integrity on the shelf, proposed ever more ridiculous scenarios and in that manner he would have increased his intellectual stature among the atheist crowd.
A universe with a beginning is disconcerting for atheist scientists because what existed before the Big Bang can’t be detected by observation or by the laws of physics. In fact the very concept of “before” is incoherent regarding the Big Bang because there wasn’t any such thing. Before the Big Bang, there wasn’t any time, or space, or matter or laws of physics to govern that matter. Whatever produced The Big Bang, produced those laws. If the universe came into being without using the laws of physics, more than that, before the laws of physics were even in place, then that is the working definition of a miracle. Miracles as we all know are not allowed into the vocabulary of an atheist.
Admittedly, some scientists feel compelled to tentatively acknowledge the obvious.
Arthur Eddington - “The beginning seems to present insuperable difficulties unless we agree to look at it as frankly supernatural.”
Nobel prize winner Arno Penzias - “The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Bible as a whole.”
Physicist Freeman Dyson - ‘The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.”
Stephen Hawking - “It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.”
Anthony Flew - The fine tuning of the universe at every level is simply too perfect to be the result of chance. Flew’s lifelong commitment “to go where the evidence leads” compelled him to become a believer in God.
It is the atheist’s determination to not follow any evidence that might point to God that keeps him from accepting the obvious.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
When there are several possible answers to the ideas that arise re: Beginnings, how does one keep internal bias from discarding opposing evidence or a conflicting hypothesis of equal validity? In this case, atheists don’t. They go with their bias.
Those then are the distasteful implications of the Big Bang.
Well, that’s easy. If there were no “God As Cause” implications attached to a universe with a beginning, atheist scientists wouldn’t be straining themselves to get rid of the simplest solution to the origins of the universe, by inventing manifestly complicated hypotheses to its origin. Atheism’s hostility to religion has made the elimination of the Big Bang theory its top priority, causing it to posit more and more preposterous ideas as the years go by.
For example, atheists state just as though it’s been proven that there are:
. Multiple universes where everything that can happen, does happen.
Others have declared that our origins come from an:
. Oscillating universe,
. Or a parallel universe,
. Or maybe we came into existence via a black hole
. Or that all of this takes place in imaginary time which requires no past, present or future.
. Some propose that space aliens brought life to earth and someone reading this right now will be thinking, in all seriousness, Hey! Aliens? Maybe. I never thought of that.
Occam’s razor has absolutely no place in the repertoire of the atheist scientist when it comes to explaining how our universe came into being. As Stephen Barr says, “It seems that to abolish one unobservable God, it takes an infinite number of unobservable substitutes.” Beyond that, atheist scientist completely ignore the finding of the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem which states that any model of an expanding universe, be it real, such as ours, or imaginary, such as those in the minds of atheist must have a definitive space-time boundary ie. a Big Bang type of singularity.
“It is said that an Argument is what convinces reasonable men, and a Proof is what it takes to convince an unreasonable man. With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe. There is no escape, they have to face the problem of the cosmic beginning.” Alex Vilenkin, “Many Worlds In One - The Search for Other Universes,”
This beginning demands an answer to Why did this take place?
Not only is it logical to say that the universe had a beginning and a cause, not only is it reasonable to say that the universe had a moment of Creation (Big Bang), but the Bible presents that beginning exactly as science is now “discovering” that it happened.
Here is what we know scientifically:
. Everything that has a beginning has a cause.
. The universe had a beginning.
. Therefore the beginning of the universe had a cause.
That takes care of the silly question, “Well, if God made the universe, who made God?” Remember, atheists have no problem with saying that something is infinite, or that it has always existed, or that it’s eternal, as long as that something isn’t Creator God. However, if God exists, then He exists outside of and prior to the universe. God is not material. He is Spirit. He does not need a cause. He has always been. He is infinite. He is eternal. Asking, “What caused an infinite or eternal Being to begin?” or, “When did an eternal being begin to exist?” is illogical and incoherent. Illogical statements are something that atheists usually take great pains to avoid, except when they’re confronted with the reality of Creator God. Then, it seems, all bets are off. The fact remains, and it remains a fact that is based on what science tells us is true, that everything that begins to exist, including the universe, had its cause from something outside of itself. There are no known exceptions to this observed and consistently verified rule.
We must choose between matter as infinite and Creator God who is Spirit, as infinite. Reason states that it must be One and not the other for matter cannot pre-exist itself either physically or chronologically, nor can matter bring itself into existence or create itself. Again, it is impossible for matter to be infinite or to exist from eternity past.
Now, Richard Dawkins says that a complicated God is very improbable. Maybe, but improbable is better than impossible. As well, whose to say that God is complicated? He may be capable of doing complicated things but that is another issue. Nevertheless, Richard Dawkins has absolutely no problem with highly improbable odds when they suit his cause.
The Creation Event is so serious a problem for those who have devolved into Scientism that they are now claiming, without any evidence whatsoever, that something can have a beginning without a cause. Here are some examples of what atheist scientists are saying.
Astronomer Arthur Eddington - “The concept of the Big Bang is preposterous, incredible, repugnant.”
Physicist Philip Morrison - “I find it hard to accept the Big Bang theory. I would like to reject it.”
Physicist Victor Stenger - “The universe may be uncaused and may have emerged from nothing.”
On the “bright” side David Hume stated, “I have never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without cause.”
Well, back in his day, when atheists were still hopeful that their faith system would prevail, that might have been possible for him to say. It is my belief that if Hume had known that Christianity would prove so resistant to destruction, he would have joined today’s atheist scientists in throwing off all restraints, put his integrity on the shelf, proposed ever more ridiculous scenarios and in that manner he would have increased his intellectual stature among the atheist crowd.
A universe with a beginning is disconcerting for atheist scientists because what existed before the Big Bang can’t be detected by observation or by the laws of physics. In fact the very concept of “before” is incoherent regarding the Big Bang because there wasn’t any such thing. Before the Big Bang, there wasn’t any time, or space, or matter or laws of physics to govern that matter. Whatever produced The Big Bang, produced those laws. If the universe came into being without using the laws of physics, more than that, before the laws of physics were even in place, then that is the working definition of a miracle. Miracles as we all know are not allowed into the vocabulary of an atheist.
Admittedly, some scientists feel compelled to tentatively acknowledge the obvious.
Arthur Eddington - “The beginning seems to present insuperable difficulties unless we agree to look at it as frankly supernatural.”
Nobel prize winner Arno Penzias - “The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Bible as a whole.”
Physicist Freeman Dyson - ‘The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.”
Stephen Hawking - “It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.”
Anthony Flew - The fine tuning of the universe at every level is simply too perfect to be the result of chance. Flew’s lifelong commitment “to go where the evidence leads” compelled him to become a believer in God.
It is the atheist’s determination to not follow any evidence that might point to God that keeps him from accepting the obvious.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
When there are several possible answers to the ideas that arise re: Beginnings, how does one keep internal bias from discarding opposing evidence or a conflicting hypothesis of equal validity? In this case, atheists don’t. They go with their bias.
Those then are the distasteful implications of the Big Bang.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Ram Bahadur Bamjan, a Nepalese teenager is revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha. Mr. Bamjan's followers believe he has been meditating without food and water in the jungles of southern Nepal since 2005. Believers say he spends months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.
Good thing they haven’t seen me over the last couple of weeks. They’d be worshipping me by now.
Good thing they haven’t seen me over the last couple of weeks. They’d be worshipping me by now.
That Didn’t Happen
Or as atheists would say, “Create your own reality.” Whether Stalin or Pol Pot or leaders in present day China, atheists are masters of reinventing themselves and history itself. Here’s an example. Do you remember something called the Tiananmen Square Massacre? If you do, chances are you don’t live in China. Like modern atheists in the West, atheists in China’s government don’t like admitting guilt either. In fact, the official line is that Tiananmen Square never happened.
Just the same, atheists in the west just change reality to suit their desires and opinions. Examples:
Divorce is good
Adultery is good
Porn is good
Living common law is good
Pride is good
Selective / relative morality is good
Having thus reinvented themselves atheists say, “See? I don’t need God in order to be a good person.”
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah 5:20
Just the same, atheists in the west just change reality to suit their desires and opinions. Examples:
Divorce is good
Adultery is good
Porn is good
Living common law is good
Pride is good
Selective / relative morality is good
Having thus reinvented themselves atheists say, “See? I don’t need God in order to be a good person.”
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah 5:20
Friday, November 20, 2009
Palin on Palin
Sarah Palin does a parody of Sarah Palin
“If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did He make em out of meat?
Sarah Palin
That is just too funny.
“If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did He make em out of meat?
Sarah Palin
That is just too funny.
If I Understand You Correctly
If I understand atheists correctly, our morals and obligations are actually invented, made up as we go along.
At one point rape really was ok, and then it became not ok. On atheism, that could change again.
At one point racism really was ok, and then it became not ok. On atheism, that could change again.
On atheism, no one is in a position to judge Hitler’s actions as right or wrong.
Right now having sex with animals really isn’t ok but as atheist Peter Singer predicts, one day bestiality “will cease to be an offence to our status and dignity as human beings.”
Peter Singer, “Heavy Petting,” a review of Midas Dekker’s dearest Pet: On Bestiality (2001)
At one point pornography was not ok. Because of moral relativism that goes hand in glove with atheism, that has changed.
At one point having sex with children was wrong. Because of moral relativism that goes hand in glove with atheism, that is changing.
On atheism we first invent morality and then it becomes right.
Now atheists are correct when they say, we should be good for goodness sake, not because we think someone might be watching. The problem is, atheists say that we alone decide for ourselves what is good. So when we’re pretty sure that no one is looking a high percentage of people (those who disagree with the society in which they live) are actually not so good.
Atheists say that the community should decide what is right and wrong, but that only works if the community agrees with what atheists think - eg, no prayer in school, same sex marriage etc. In those cases atheists say, “It doesn’t matter what the community thinks. It only matters what we / I think.”
The problem is, there is only room for one God in any given universe. When your god and my god are forced to share the same space, or to decide what is right or wrong, good or bad, something has got to give. On atheism, might decides what and who is right.
If I understand atheists correctly, atheism is absurd on virtually every level.
At one point rape really was ok, and then it became not ok. On atheism, that could change again.
At one point racism really was ok, and then it became not ok. On atheism, that could change again.
On atheism, no one is in a position to judge Hitler’s actions as right or wrong.
Right now having sex with animals really isn’t ok but as atheist Peter Singer predicts, one day bestiality “will cease to be an offence to our status and dignity as human beings.”
Peter Singer, “Heavy Petting,” a review of Midas Dekker’s dearest Pet: On Bestiality (2001)
At one point pornography was not ok. Because of moral relativism that goes hand in glove with atheism, that has changed.
At one point having sex with children was wrong. Because of moral relativism that goes hand in glove with atheism, that is changing.
On atheism we first invent morality and then it becomes right.
Now atheists are correct when they say, we should be good for goodness sake, not because we think someone might be watching. The problem is, atheists say that we alone decide for ourselves what is good. So when we’re pretty sure that no one is looking a high percentage of people (those who disagree with the society in which they live) are actually not so good.
Atheists say that the community should decide what is right and wrong, but that only works if the community agrees with what atheists think - eg, no prayer in school, same sex marriage etc. In those cases atheists say, “It doesn’t matter what the community thinks. It only matters what we / I think.”
The problem is, there is only room for one God in any given universe. When your god and my god are forced to share the same space, or to decide what is right or wrong, good or bad, something has got to give. On atheism, might decides what and who is right.
If I understand atheists correctly, atheism is absurd on virtually every level.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
“Life in Universe – rare or unique? I walk both sides of that street. One day I can say that given the 100 billion stars in our galaxy and the 100 billion or more galaxies, there have to be some planets that formed and evolved in ways very, very like the Earth has, and so would contain microbial life at least. There are other days when I say that the anthropic principal, which makes this universe a special one out of an uncountably large number of universes, may not apply only to that aspect of nature we define in the realm of physics, but may extend to chemistry and biology. In that case life on Earth could be entirely unique.”
microbiologist from the University of Illinois, Carl Woese
microbiologist from the University of Illinois, Carl Woese
Atheists demand their rights
Nothing but curious amusement strikes me when I hear once again of atheists demanding to pay the full price of their own sins. Goofs like Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens are offended by the unfairness of being able to off-load the guilt that is clearly theirs, onto an innocent scape-goat - Jesus.
Of course, as atheists, these men and others like them are denied the deeper and profound meaning as Christ confronts what we cannot confront and endures on our behalf what we cannot endure. None of us, and this is true to several orders of magnitude for atheists can comprehend the depths of our sin because we cannot bear the truth. The spiritual darkness in which we live is such that the light of God’s righteousness is painfully blinding. That is why Jesus did what He did on our behalf.
When atheists look at this event they don’t see the offer of a lifetime -
“Accept My love and you’ll receive eternity in Paradise.”
Atheists look at this and because their minds are already determined to reject God and His forgiveness and His freedom they can only hear,
“Accept my love or burn in hell.”
Here is what makes the atheist position seem so childlike in it’s understanding of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, and in it’s reaction to that understanding. First, the atheist, full of bluff and bluster rants at the offer of forgiveness. “We are the ones who have committed the crime and we are the ones who should suffer the consequences.” Then, when God responds with a sorrowful, “Then you shall indeed bear the cost of your sins,” the atheist roars back at how monstrous a thing is that proposition.
Atheists seem a wee bit out of the loop on this count. You see this isn’t a case of Jesus doing for us what we should be doing ourselves. Jesus is in fact doing for us what we CANNOT do for ourselves. We have destroyed a relationship that can only be healed by the other partner in the relationship. It’s a bit like a five year old breaking a window and the atheist next door saying, “Well, you’ve broken it. Now it’s up to you to fix it.” Yes the child broke it but it’s the Father who will have to bear the cost of fixing it for the child holds no such ability or resources on h/her own.
Of course, as atheists, these men and others like them are denied the deeper and profound meaning as Christ confronts what we cannot confront and endures on our behalf what we cannot endure. None of us, and this is true to several orders of magnitude for atheists can comprehend the depths of our sin because we cannot bear the truth. The spiritual darkness in which we live is such that the light of God’s righteousness is painfully blinding. That is why Jesus did what He did on our behalf.
When atheists look at this event they don’t see the offer of a lifetime -
“Accept My love and you’ll receive eternity in Paradise.”
Atheists look at this and because their minds are already determined to reject God and His forgiveness and His freedom they can only hear,
“Accept my love or burn in hell.”
Here is what makes the atheist position seem so childlike in it’s understanding of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, and in it’s reaction to that understanding. First, the atheist, full of bluff and bluster rants at the offer of forgiveness. “We are the ones who have committed the crime and we are the ones who should suffer the consequences.” Then, when God responds with a sorrowful, “Then you shall indeed bear the cost of your sins,” the atheist roars back at how monstrous a thing is that proposition.
Atheists seem a wee bit out of the loop on this count. You see this isn’t a case of Jesus doing for us what we should be doing ourselves. Jesus is in fact doing for us what we CANNOT do for ourselves. We have destroyed a relationship that can only be healed by the other partner in the relationship. It’s a bit like a five year old breaking a window and the atheist next door saying, “Well, you’ve broken it. Now it’s up to you to fix it.” Yes the child broke it but it’s the Father who will have to bear the cost of fixing it for the child holds no such ability or resources on h/her own.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Isaiah 11:2-4 - The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him - The Spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of power, of knowledge. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
“Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God – the design argument of Paley – updated and refurbished. The fine tuning of the universe provides prima facie evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that requires multitudes of universes [of which there is no evidence] or design that requires only one [of which there is evidence]. Many scientists, when they admit their views, incline toward the teleological or design argument.”
cosmologist Ed Harrison
cosmologist Ed Harrison
Ask Kim Kardashian
I’m not kidding! There is actually a section in Time Magazine - this is a top shelf News Magazine - or so I thought - where people have written in to find out what Kim Kardashian thinks about stuff. Dear God how is our planet ever going to survive? Now, I don’t know who Ms. Kardahian is but I am absolutely confident that the world will be better off if no one EVER finds out what Kim Kardahian thinks. O Crap, I should have died while I had the chance.
Blind Faith or Willing Submission?
Fatalism means, “MY number is up; I have to bow to the Power whether I like it or not; I do not know the character of the Power, but it is greater than I am and I must submit.”
Atheists, as I have said before, rightly or at least understandably rebel at this concept.
The submission of faith on the other hand, is that I DO know the character of the Power and it leads me to say with confidence, “Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him. I submit to the One whose character I know even thought His ways are obscured in mystery for now.”
If we are Christians, then we DO know the character of God because it has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus the Christ. “The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
Atheists, as I have said before, rightly or at least understandably rebel at this concept.
The submission of faith on the other hand, is that I DO know the character of the Power and it leads me to say with confidence, “Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him. I submit to the One whose character I know even thought His ways are obscured in mystery for now.”
If we are Christians, then we DO know the character of God because it has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus the Christ. “The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Isaiah 1:17,18 - Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Atheists and Specieism
Lest I offend by generalising, let me say that atheism leads some atheists, those who hold true to the logical conclusions of atheism / naturalism, to conclusions like those reached by Peter Senger and Nietzsche.
According to CNN, Dr. James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, claimed black people are less intelligent than whites. Because an atheist scientist would never make a statement unless it was based on scientific, observable, repeatable, verifiable evidence, we can know that Mr. Watson is correct. Going back to the origins of evolutionary thought, Dr. Watson said “there was no reason to think that races which had grown up in separate geographical locations should have evolved identically." Of course not! It makes absolute evolutionary sense. "The Nobel prize winner went on to say that he would like to think of all people as being equal but, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".
Atheist Hermann Klaatch - “The humanitarian nonsense which grants equal rights to all on the premise of the unity of humanity, is to be condemned from the scientific standpoint.”
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." Margaret Sanger's letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Original source: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon's Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.
These are examples of the natural fallout of atheism at it purist. Survival of the fittest. Some atheists, however, find that kind of thing distasteful. Having been marinated in Christian values of human equality and worth and dignity, these amusing atheists actually say that there is a difference between the human animal and other animal species of the world.
Well, no, that’s not quite right. When it suits, these atheists say that we’re evolved in the same manner as all other animals. When it doesn’t suit, these atheists say that morally, we’re very different. “Other” animals seem to have evolved a very different moral system than have we humans.
Bears don’t say it’s wrong to steal fish from other bears.
Lions don’t say it’s wrong to kill the offspring of other lions
Chimpanzees don’t say it’s wrong to murder and eat other chimps
There aren’t any males in other animal species that say it’s wrong to force females to have sex with them. In the rest of the animal world, “No” does not mean “no.”
Here’s where it gets complicated for atheists. Other animals have been tremendously successful doing things the way they doing them. Without the shackles of morality non human animals have survived much longer than it appears will be the case with us. Many people would say that we should copy them. Many people do copy them. Morals, values and obligations are just an illusion, these brights tell us. In reality, right and wrong, good and bad simply don’t exist. At worst, a rapist is merely flouting social convention. On atheism, the only wrong that Hitler did was to cross into other countries. Even that wasn’t so much wrong as it was stupid. If he’d stayed home and minded his own business, he could be frying Jews to this very day. After all, he was only doing what was best for his society. Or at least, so say atheists.
But then there are others who say that it’s wrong to copy survival of the fittest. Ask them why it’s wrong and they say, “Well, it just is. It’s what’s been decided along the way.” But is that any reason to do what “the man” says to do? Everyone knows that the rules of society are biassed against minorities. So who decides on right and wrong, good or bad? Well, in atheists world, it’s each to his own. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes, because in atheist world there is no higher authority than yourself. In atheist world, all there is are thoughts and behaviours governed by chemical reactions that either will or will not help the phenotype survive.
According to CNN, Dr. James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, claimed black people are less intelligent than whites. Because an atheist scientist would never make a statement unless it was based on scientific, observable, repeatable, verifiable evidence, we can know that Mr. Watson is correct. Going back to the origins of evolutionary thought, Dr. Watson said “there was no reason to think that races which had grown up in separate geographical locations should have evolved identically." Of course not! It makes absolute evolutionary sense. "The Nobel prize winner went on to say that he would like to think of all people as being equal but, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".
Atheist Hermann Klaatch - “The humanitarian nonsense which grants equal rights to all on the premise of the unity of humanity, is to be condemned from the scientific standpoint.”
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." Margaret Sanger's letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Original source: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon's Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.
These are examples of the natural fallout of atheism at it purist. Survival of the fittest. Some atheists, however, find that kind of thing distasteful. Having been marinated in Christian values of human equality and worth and dignity, these amusing atheists actually say that there is a difference between the human animal and other animal species of the world.
Well, no, that’s not quite right. When it suits, these atheists say that we’re evolved in the same manner as all other animals. When it doesn’t suit, these atheists say that morally, we’re very different. “Other” animals seem to have evolved a very different moral system than have we humans.
Bears don’t say it’s wrong to steal fish from other bears.
Lions don’t say it’s wrong to kill the offspring of other lions
Chimpanzees don’t say it’s wrong to murder and eat other chimps
There aren’t any males in other animal species that say it’s wrong to force females to have sex with them. In the rest of the animal world, “No” does not mean “no.”
Here’s where it gets complicated for atheists. Other animals have been tremendously successful doing things the way they doing them. Without the shackles of morality non human animals have survived much longer than it appears will be the case with us. Many people would say that we should copy them. Many people do copy them. Morals, values and obligations are just an illusion, these brights tell us. In reality, right and wrong, good and bad simply don’t exist. At worst, a rapist is merely flouting social convention. On atheism, the only wrong that Hitler did was to cross into other countries. Even that wasn’t so much wrong as it was stupid. If he’d stayed home and minded his own business, he could be frying Jews to this very day. After all, he was only doing what was best for his society. Or at least, so say atheists.
But then there are others who say that it’s wrong to copy survival of the fittest. Ask them why it’s wrong and they say, “Well, it just is. It’s what’s been decided along the way.” But is that any reason to do what “the man” says to do? Everyone knows that the rules of society are biassed against minorities. So who decides on right and wrong, good or bad? Well, in atheists world, it’s each to his own. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes, because in atheist world there is no higher authority than yourself. In atheist world, all there is are thoughts and behaviours governed by chemical reactions that either will or will not help the phenotype survive.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Don't lose any sleep
St. Laurent, Quebec, Reuters: Canadian scientists have discovered a “genetic switch” that when chemically tweaked allows a person to shut off the automatic mechanism that causes us to breath unaided. Of the twenty students at St. Laurent College, who were part of the trials, Ramon Piquette was almost euphoric over the results. “This is so totally awesome,” Piquette effused in a halting manner, stopping to inhale three times in those five words. “It takes a little bit to get used to, but I’ve never felt so in control of my life, so powerful, so fully alive as I have since I took command over my breathing.”
Charlotte Campbell, from British Columbia who’s studying at St. Laurent College said that her parents were frantic when they found out she was part of the voluntary breathing trials. “My dad actually thinks that I’m too dumb to breath on my own.” Having nearly fainted twice earlier in the day, Charlotte is determined to not let those small set backs keep her from enjoying her new found freedom. “You don’t realise how much time you waste thinking about other stuff until breathing comes under your control. That’s when you learn how to concentrate and focus. I feel like I'm almost one with myself.”
Others aren’t so sure that this is a helpful discovery. “Personally, I don’t see what’s so great about this,” says Scott Tourette, another member of the trials. “Forget about making out while you’re on manual. I almost killed myself four times with Sherri McConnel on Friday night. It’s a really stupid thing to do. Especially if you’ve been drinking - this is dangerous shit.”
All the students who take part in the trials have to return to the lab by ten o’clock each evening when they are given a chemical, the name of which so far remains undisclosed, that turns the switch back on and presto! everyone is breathing on automatic again.
Asked if there are any real world practical applications for this discovery, a team coordinator who asked to remain anonymous said, “So far the military and police interrogation teams have been the only ones showing any interest. There won’t be any need for torture any more. Put some terrorist on manual breathing for a couple days and I guarantee, you’re gonna be getting a lot of information.”
Charlotte Campbell, from British Columbia who’s studying at St. Laurent College said that her parents were frantic when they found out she was part of the voluntary breathing trials. “My dad actually thinks that I’m too dumb to breath on my own.” Having nearly fainted twice earlier in the day, Charlotte is determined to not let those small set backs keep her from enjoying her new found freedom. “You don’t realise how much time you waste thinking about other stuff until breathing comes under your control. That’s when you learn how to concentrate and focus. I feel like I'm almost one with myself.”
Others aren’t so sure that this is a helpful discovery. “Personally, I don’t see what’s so great about this,” says Scott Tourette, another member of the trials. “Forget about making out while you’re on manual. I almost killed myself four times with Sherri McConnel on Friday night. It’s a really stupid thing to do. Especially if you’ve been drinking - this is dangerous shit.”
All the students who take part in the trials have to return to the lab by ten o’clock each evening when they are given a chemical, the name of which so far remains undisclosed, that turns the switch back on and presto! everyone is breathing on automatic again.
Asked if there are any real world practical applications for this discovery, a team coordinator who asked to remain anonymous said, “So far the military and police interrogation teams have been the only ones showing any interest. There won’t be any need for torture any more. Put some terrorist on manual breathing for a couple days and I guarantee, you’re gonna be getting a lot of information.”
Sunday, November 15, 2009
atheists and intolerance
I've had just about as much as I can take. atheists are always going on about intolerance - intolerance this and intolerance that. I'll tell you what's intolerant. Trying to watch old episodes of The Office on http://theofficefree.com/S04E14.html - THAT is what's intolerant. The buffering, the buffering the insufferable buffering is driving me crazy. The best episode ever made, the one where Holly starts as the new HR person and they tell her that Kevin is retarded? All I wanted to do was watch it and now, seven hours and fifty-six minutes after starting, I've only seen the first five minutes. This is absolutely intolerant!
No one should have to live like this. This isn't Venezuela where my nemesis Hugo is running the show. That, I could underestimate. I live in one of the most modern countries in the world and I have to be tolerable toward this kind of stuff. Well I can't. In my H1 weakened state I'm almost over the edge emotionally. This situation really is intolerant.
No one should have to live like this. This isn't Venezuela where my nemesis Hugo is running the show. That, I could underestimate. I live in one of the most modern countries in the world and I have to be tolerable toward this kind of stuff. Well I can't. In my H1 weakened state I'm almost over the edge emotionally. This situation really is intolerant.
Pesky Improbabilities
That’s the most that atheists can say. When confronted by the impossible odds of life appearing on earth by accident, never mind this universe coming into being by accident, atheists are not affected at all. They blink, look back to their pizza and beer and say, “Well, whatever the odds, here we are so the odds must have been just right.”
Why go to God?
The only reason for my approach to God must be that He is what I believe Him to be, a God of honour and justice, not a God of manipulative magic who demands that we do things without any reason. There are many today who genuinely complain, “I will not, I can not, accept the God you are presenting because He is not a moral God; there is something wrong if He is as the Bible describes Him. My whole being cries out against such a being. I cannot go to such a God as a deliverer.”
I’m saying that God is different than what your childhood creed described and that it must be acknowledged that there are facts which that creed had not taken into account. That’s a god for theology, but theology is second, not first. If we put theology first, we will do what many do, refuse to look at facts and remain consistent to certain ideas which pervert the character of God.
In the final run God will not have us say an untrue thing for the sake of His honour.
He’ll allow us to reject Him but we should never worship or reject Him because of misinformation.
I’m saying that God is different than what your childhood creed described and that it must be acknowledged that there are facts which that creed had not taken into account. That’s a god for theology, but theology is second, not first. If we put theology first, we will do what many do, refuse to look at facts and remain consistent to certain ideas which pervert the character of God.
In the final run God will not have us say an untrue thing for the sake of His honour.
He’ll allow us to reject Him but we should never worship or reject Him because of misinformation.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.
It's a good life when you're loved by your Creator God. To allow life to unfold as it was meant is so much better than forcing life to fit our terms.
It's a good life when you're loved by your Creator God. To allow life to unfold as it was meant is so much better than forcing life to fit our terms.
No Fear!
No Fear!
Do you remember that slogan? No fear. No doubts, no need to please, no guilt, or shame or worry about what tomorrow might bring.
I can’t say that I’m there today. This H1N1 has really taken a lot out of me. But most days, this is what it means for me to live in the abundance of Jesus’ love. It’s a wonderful thing to not take one’s cues from the majority. It’s a wonderful day to recognise each sunrise as a gift. It’s wonderful to be able to know that “I can do anything,” and “All things are possible,” and that these things become true, in hindsight for those whose lives are lost in Creator God. It’s a wonderful life to not fear material loss, to know that our well-being is not equated to what we own. Security and contentment come from God. We can hold our possessions lightly
Only one thing is needed to lead a life of no fear. Let go. We must let go in order to receive. To be born from above is not something that is grasped, or achieved, it’s received.
No fear.
Do you remember that slogan? No fear. No doubts, no need to please, no guilt, or shame or worry about what tomorrow might bring.
I can’t say that I’m there today. This H1N1 has really taken a lot out of me. But most days, this is what it means for me to live in the abundance of Jesus’ love. It’s a wonderful thing to not take one’s cues from the majority. It’s a wonderful day to recognise each sunrise as a gift. It’s wonderful to be able to know that “I can do anything,” and “All things are possible,” and that these things become true, in hindsight for those whose lives are lost in Creator God. It’s a wonderful life to not fear material loss, to know that our well-being is not equated to what we own. Security and contentment come from God. We can hold our possessions lightly
Only one thing is needed to lead a life of no fear. Let go. We must let go in order to receive. To be born from above is not something that is grasped, or achieved, it’s received.
No fear.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Those who wait upon the Lord . . .
“Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will rise up on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”
“Those who wait upon the Lord are like Mt. Zion, unmoved by any circumstances.”
In the book of Daniel there’s an interesting reference to atheists. God is pleading with His people and he says, “Why do you worship gods that cannot see, nor hear, nor smell, nor speak, nor touch?”
We could add, “Why do you worship a god that can ONLY see, hear, smell, speak and touch?” Of course it’s atheists who do this. That’s their whole gig; bowing down to naturalism and scientism; expecting their lifeless god to carry them through life’s toughest struggles. In Daniel’s account, the King has built a statue of himself (the same as every atheist on the planet) and everyone is commanded to bow down to it. Under penalty of death, everyone does bow down to the statue that cannot see or hear or smell or taste; everyone that is, except three Hebrew captives. Can you imagine that kind of courage? The whole valley is full of thousands upon thousands of people, and all but three young men bow down in unison to this lifeless statue. Those who love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength remain standing in the face of formidable power.
How about you?
.Do you worship materialism?
.Do you bow down to scientism?
.Have you staked your eternity upon atheism?
.Do you worship something that can do nothing to help you in your time of need?
.When your spouse leaves you for another person, what is your atheism going to do for you? When your partner hits you or calls you names, how is your philosophy of life going to support you?
.When you get laid off from your work, or when the spot on your lung shows up in the x ray, or when your child turns against you and leaves home with some jerk who abuses her, upon what are you standing and will it hold you firm?
For atheists, your god of sight, hearing, smelling, talking, and touching will prove itself useless.
“Those who wait upon the Lord are like Mt. Zion, unmoved by any circumstances.”
In the book of Daniel there’s an interesting reference to atheists. God is pleading with His people and he says, “Why do you worship gods that cannot see, nor hear, nor smell, nor speak, nor touch?”
We could add, “Why do you worship a god that can ONLY see, hear, smell, speak and touch?” Of course it’s atheists who do this. That’s their whole gig; bowing down to naturalism and scientism; expecting their lifeless god to carry them through life’s toughest struggles. In Daniel’s account, the King has built a statue of himself (the same as every atheist on the planet) and everyone is commanded to bow down to it. Under penalty of death, everyone does bow down to the statue that cannot see or hear or smell or taste; everyone that is, except three Hebrew captives. Can you imagine that kind of courage? The whole valley is full of thousands upon thousands of people, and all but three young men bow down in unison to this lifeless statue. Those who love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength remain standing in the face of formidable power.
How about you?
.Do you worship materialism?
.Do you bow down to scientism?
.Have you staked your eternity upon atheism?
.Do you worship something that can do nothing to help you in your time of need?
.When your spouse leaves you for another person, what is your atheism going to do for you? When your partner hits you or calls you names, how is your philosophy of life going to support you?
.When you get laid off from your work, or when the spot on your lung shows up in the x ray, or when your child turns against you and leaves home with some jerk who abuses her, upon what are you standing and will it hold you firm?
For atheists, your god of sight, hearing, smelling, talking, and touching will prove itself useless.
Do I really trust God?
Atheists pound and pound and pound away at our faith in a God who allows evil and suffering to exist. Well, so be it. “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.”
My trust is NOT that He will rescue me from this present disaster. My trust is that God is, in the end, ethical and just and true and that I will yet be justified in sticking to my faith in His honour. This I know and I know it absolutely. Sin, tragedy and suffering do not have the final say. Always, always and always God can and does bring good out of my difficulties.
My trust is NOT that He will rescue me from this present disaster. My trust is that God is, in the end, ethical and just and true and that I will yet be justified in sticking to my faith in His honour. This I know and I know it absolutely. Sin, tragedy and suffering do not have the final say. Always, always and always God can and does bring good out of my difficulties.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Love? Only if you want to.
So say atheist relativists. I can ask them over and over and over again if love (eg. Loving our children) is an objective moral obligation / value. They would love to say “No” but can’t quite make themselves do it. Instead they say nothing at all. And why would they do that? Because atheists know that if there are objective morals, values and obligations, it’s because Creator God exists. If Creator God exists, then objective morals, values and duties exist.
So absurd is the atheist world-view, that atheists would rather say that discrimination against women and even the sexual slavery of children is open for discussion, as long as it keeps out the existence of Creator God.
So absurd is the atheist world-view, that atheists would rather say that discrimination against women and even the sexual slavery of children is open for discussion, as long as it keeps out the existence of Creator God.
Who needs a sky god to feel profound about existence?
It’s taken many, many thousands of years, but little by little atheists are coming to agree with not only what the Bible says but also with the teachings of Jesus. Two relatively recent concessions come to mind.
irst, is the decision that being good to others might not be such a bad idea after all. There are still frequent examples of the more infamous thinking on atheist blogs. Nevertheless, some modern atheists have almost overridden the atheist thought of old that helping the poor and helpless just weakens the gene pool. Although it causes me to shake my head while contemplating how long it’s taken, it’s good to know that finally in the 21st century, atheists have figured out, “If I’m good to others, it’s almost like being good to myself. Cool!”
Second, is the realisation that atheists seem to be taking to the idea that we live in an amazingly beautiful, awe inspiring universe. Again one is reminded of a pattern of atheist thought that has plagued the irreligious humans down through the ages. This thinking goes, “You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach three and a half billion years ago. You are the blind and arbitrary product of time, chance, and natural forces. You are a mere grab-bag of atomic particles, and conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You are a purely biological entity, different only in degree but not in kind from a microbe, virus, or amoeba. You have no essence beyond your body, and at death you will cease to exist entirely. In short, you came from nothing and are going to nowhere” Randy Alcorn.
All atheists must of necessity still hold to this “truth.” Either hypocritically or in a delusional or dream-like state atheists in the 21st century have decided that it’s ok to be thrilled by the environment in which they live and breath and have their existence. In fact, the attitude of the more radical atheist is bordering on the spiritual when contemplating the wonders of the universe. There appears to be almost a reverence for the grandeur of, dare I say it, the Creation in which we live.
Of course, atheists must be careful here. Observing, appreciating and contemplating the sheer wonder of finding ourselves in such a perfect spot in such a hostile universe might raise disturbing questions. Questions like -
. Why is there a universe?
. Why is there mathematical predictability to this universe?
. How is it that out of all the species living on earth, only we have a mind that is able to understand the mathematical precision of the universe?
. Is it really possible to accidentally have a universe that is based on order and design, a universe that is intelligible, a universe that is so perfectly favourable to our existence? Doesn't the nature of odds and probabilities enter into the equation at all? Don’t these things demand an ultimate explanation?
Atheists can’t allow themselves to ask those kind of questions because the answer is obvious. No, it isn’t possible that this happened by accident, sans direction and purpose.
irst, is the decision that being good to others might not be such a bad idea after all. There are still frequent examples of the more infamous thinking on atheist blogs. Nevertheless, some modern atheists have almost overridden the atheist thought of old that helping the poor and helpless just weakens the gene pool. Although it causes me to shake my head while contemplating how long it’s taken, it’s good to know that finally in the 21st century, atheists have figured out, “If I’m good to others, it’s almost like being good to myself. Cool!”
Second, is the realisation that atheists seem to be taking to the idea that we live in an amazingly beautiful, awe inspiring universe. Again one is reminded of a pattern of atheist thought that has plagued the irreligious humans down through the ages. This thinking goes, “You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach three and a half billion years ago. You are the blind and arbitrary product of time, chance, and natural forces. You are a mere grab-bag of atomic particles, and conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You are a purely biological entity, different only in degree but not in kind from a microbe, virus, or amoeba. You have no essence beyond your body, and at death you will cease to exist entirely. In short, you came from nothing and are going to nowhere” Randy Alcorn.
All atheists must of necessity still hold to this “truth.” Either hypocritically or in a delusional or dream-like state atheists in the 21st century have decided that it’s ok to be thrilled by the environment in which they live and breath and have their existence. In fact, the attitude of the more radical atheist is bordering on the spiritual when contemplating the wonders of the universe. There appears to be almost a reverence for the grandeur of, dare I say it, the Creation in which we live.
Of course, atheists must be careful here. Observing, appreciating and contemplating the sheer wonder of finding ourselves in such a perfect spot in such a hostile universe might raise disturbing questions. Questions like -
. Why is there a universe?
. Why is there mathematical predictability to this universe?
. How is it that out of all the species living on earth, only we have a mind that is able to understand the mathematical precision of the universe?
. Is it really possible to accidentally have a universe that is based on order and design, a universe that is intelligible, a universe that is so perfectly favourable to our existence? Doesn't the nature of odds and probabilities enter into the equation at all? Don’t these things demand an ultimate explanation?
Atheists can’t allow themselves to ask those kind of questions because the answer is obvious. No, it isn’t possible that this happened by accident, sans direction and purpose.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Take that pudding away!
Miracle: An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God:
I was explaining to an atheist that the Singularity is perhaps the greatest and most obvious working definition of a miracle that the human race will ever find. Literally out of nothing, before space, before time, before matter, before energy and most importantly before the laws of science came into being, matter and energy and space and time were formed. Before the laws of physics were in place nature itself was organised into a life supporting universe. This all took place prior to 10 ^ -43 seconds.
Even according to science itself, the singularity is a miracle.
Her response? “No it isn’t.”
And with that she moved on. Deep thought, that one.
What’s this got to do with pudding? I thought you’d never ask. Today at the fair there is a pudding competition. In the final round there are three puddings, one vanilla pudding, one banana cream pudding and one chocolate pud . . .
Atheist Judge: “No that’s not correct. There are only two puddings in the competition.”
Me: “But there are three dishes of pudding right there on the table - one vanilla, one” -
Atheist Judge: Takes the dish of chocolate pudding and throws it in the garbage. “There are only two puddings in the competition.”
Me: “That’s not fair. You just arbitrarily removed one of the puddings from the competition.”
Atheist Judge: “I see no evidence of three puddings.”
Me: “You just threw the evidence away.”
Atheist Judge: “No I didn’t.”
Me: “YES! You did!”
Atheist Judge: “I see no evidence of anything other than two puddings. Let’s get on with the show.”
I was explaining to an atheist that the Singularity is perhaps the greatest and most obvious working definition of a miracle that the human race will ever find. Literally out of nothing, before space, before time, before matter, before energy and most importantly before the laws of science came into being, matter and energy and space and time were formed. Before the laws of physics were in place nature itself was organised into a life supporting universe. This all took place prior to 10 ^ -43 seconds.
Even according to science itself, the singularity is a miracle.
Her response? “No it isn’t.”
And with that she moved on. Deep thought, that one.
What’s this got to do with pudding? I thought you’d never ask. Today at the fair there is a pudding competition. In the final round there are three puddings, one vanilla pudding, one banana cream pudding and one chocolate pud . . .
Atheist Judge: “No that’s not correct. There are only two puddings in the competition.”
Me: “But there are three dishes of pudding right there on the table - one vanilla, one” -
Atheist Judge: Takes the dish of chocolate pudding and throws it in the garbage. “There are only two puddings in the competition.”
Me: “That’s not fair. You just arbitrarily removed one of the puddings from the competition.”
Atheist Judge: “I see no evidence of three puddings.”
Me: “You just threw the evidence away.”
Atheist Judge: “No I didn’t.”
Me: “YES! You did!”
Atheist Judge: “I see no evidence of anything other than two puddings. Let’s get on with the show.”
Jacob the Liar
In John 1:47, Jesus of Nazareth is recorded as meeting Nathanael. Nazareth was an obscure and dirty Roman outpost full of corruption and prostitution. Upon hearing that Jesus was from Nazareth, Nathanael commented, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Poor Nathanael, unbeknownst to him, it was like saying something about your boss while she’s standing right behind you.
In a few moments Jesus “saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false.” Do you get it? Israel? Nothing false?
No? Another name for Israel was Jacob and Jacob was full of falsehood. Jacob’s life was a fraud. Deceptive, deceitful, treacherous, Jacob seemed to thrive on intrigue and double-dealing. Jacob even tried to run deals with God. That means that like us, he wanted to do things his way with the sheen of God’s approval. Yet God went along with it all.
That’s what always gets me about my Creator. His endless patience. His willingness to let us bumble along and screw up what He is accomplishing through us. God takes liars and freaks and misfits of various stripes and uses us to bring good into the world. God steps into the messy places of our lives, places that we’d rather no one know about and He cleans us, and heals us and loves us like no one else in the universe.
In a few moments Jesus “saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false.” Do you get it? Israel? Nothing false?
No? Another name for Israel was Jacob and Jacob was full of falsehood. Jacob’s life was a fraud. Deceptive, deceitful, treacherous, Jacob seemed to thrive on intrigue and double-dealing. Jacob even tried to run deals with God. That means that like us, he wanted to do things his way with the sheen of God’s approval. Yet God went along with it all.
That’s what always gets me about my Creator. His endless patience. His willingness to let us bumble along and screw up what He is accomplishing through us. God takes liars and freaks and misfits of various stripes and uses us to bring good into the world. God steps into the messy places of our lives, places that we’d rather no one know about and He cleans us, and heals us and loves us like no one else in the universe.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Last Question
Since I screwed up so badly on that question about what did God bring into existence first > Wisdom, I'll just do one more - if you're interested.
When Jesus told Peter to catch a fish, find a Roman coin in it's mouth and pay their taxes with it, what kind of fish was it that Peter caught?
When Jesus told Peter to catch a fish, find a Roman coin in it's mouth and pay their taxes with it, what kind of fish was it that Peter caught?
Who knows their Bible Better?
For those tuning in today, here’s a question to see who knows their Bible better, the atheists or the Christians. I maybe should have waited for Hugo to return from his holiday, but I’d forget by then. The question is:
What was the first of God’s works; the first thing to be brought forth?
Answer with chapter and verse(s) please.
Proverbs 8:22,23
What was the first of God’s works; the first thing to be brought forth?
Answer with chapter and verse(s) please.
Proverbs 8:22,23
Humility and the Disappearance of Self
Some mistake humility as an effort to be less than others or a race for last place. Paul’s admonition to think of others as better than yourself can be misinterpreted in this manner. In reality, humility comes solely from knowing ourselves though the eyes of God. Treating others in a deferential manner is an outflow of that.
We are obsessed with who we are in our eyes. We most often base our worth on the ebb and flow of world opinion. We strive for beauty and power and position. We measure ourselves by worldly accomplishments. Depending on how others see us causes us to place our very security on things that cannot save. It causes us to place our source of pride on things that may be worthless tomorrow.
However, Biblical humility literally means to empty ourselves of ourselves. It means to become so strong, so free from worldly concerns that anything other than who we are in Christ is of no consequence at all.
We are obsessed with who we are in our eyes. We most often base our worth on the ebb and flow of world opinion. We strive for beauty and power and position. We measure ourselves by worldly accomplishments. Depending on how others see us causes us to place our very security on things that cannot save. It causes us to place our source of pride on things that may be worthless tomorrow.
However, Biblical humility literally means to empty ourselves of ourselves. It means to become so strong, so free from worldly concerns that anything other than who we are in Christ is of no consequence at all.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Some thoughts on money
. Jesus taught more about our relationship to money than about heaven and hell put together.
. Giving is the only antidote to materialism
. Heaven, not earth is my home
. God prospers me not to raise my standard of living but to raise my standard of giving
2. Cor (9:10-11)
. Show me your year end bank statement and I’ll show you where your heart is.
. Giving is the only antidote to materialism
. Heaven, not earth is my home
. God prospers me not to raise my standard of living but to raise my standard of giving
2. Cor (9:10-11)
. Show me your year end bank statement and I’ll show you where your heart is.
Self-Contradictory Atheism
We know from the laws of logic that self-contradictory statements cannot be true. A statement cannot be both true and not true.
Many atheists will tell you that all there is to atheism is a denial of Creator God’s existence. Few statements are as naive as that. No belief, philosophy or world-view exists in isolation to other beliefs, philosophies or world-views. No belief in or denial of Creator God exists without that belief in or denial of Creator God having an affect on other thoughts and behaviours in one’s life.
Having said that, one of the effects of atheism is to rule out or deny the existence of objective morals, values and duties. A belief in atheism also requires the denial of the existence of ultimate truth. On atheism, truth and error, right and wrong become relative to the situation and selective based on the desires and opinions of the individual and / or society. Yet,
. Atheists will tell you that Christianity is false.
. Atheists will tell you that Christian teaching is wrong.
. Atheists will tell you that what you’ve been taught about God loving you is not true.
. And atheists will tell you that atheism is true to the exclusion of other belief systems, particularly ones that involve religion.
But how can that be since atheists have also told us that there isn’t any such thing as truth or error, right or wrong - only opinions, desires, likes and dislikes? Even things that atheists accept today, they freely admit might be discovered to be wrong tomorrow. And this is what frustrates atheists to no end; to know that Christians do not live in a perpetual state of doubt as atheists must of necessity do themselves.
Atheists seem to want everyone, like they do, to first deny that ultimate truth exists and to then live out one's days as though truth is the creation of each individual. Sad, sad, sad. "Live as you like," I say. "But don't expect me to voluntarily go down the tubes with you." I won't do it.
Many atheists will tell you that all there is to atheism is a denial of Creator God’s existence. Few statements are as naive as that. No belief, philosophy or world-view exists in isolation to other beliefs, philosophies or world-views. No belief in or denial of Creator God exists without that belief in or denial of Creator God having an affect on other thoughts and behaviours in one’s life.
Having said that, one of the effects of atheism is to rule out or deny the existence of objective morals, values and duties. A belief in atheism also requires the denial of the existence of ultimate truth. On atheism, truth and error, right and wrong become relative to the situation and selective based on the desires and opinions of the individual and / or society. Yet,
. Atheists will tell you that Christianity is false.
. Atheists will tell you that Christian teaching is wrong.
. Atheists will tell you that what you’ve been taught about God loving you is not true.
. And atheists will tell you that atheism is true to the exclusion of other belief systems, particularly ones that involve religion.
But how can that be since atheists have also told us that there isn’t any such thing as truth or error, right or wrong - only opinions, desires, likes and dislikes? Even things that atheists accept today, they freely admit might be discovered to be wrong tomorrow. And this is what frustrates atheists to no end; to know that Christians do not live in a perpetual state of doubt as atheists must of necessity do themselves.
Atheists seem to want everyone, like they do, to first deny that ultimate truth exists and to then live out one's days as though truth is the creation of each individual. Sad, sad, sad. "Live as you like," I say. "But don't expect me to voluntarily go down the tubes with you." I won't do it.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
It’s Hugo’s Day!
It’s come to my attention that Hugo is offended that I publish so many posts when I could be learning about him and from him. I suppose this is true. Well, errors must be corrected and today is your lucky day Hugo. Now, before you get all excited, I have to say that Dictators have always repulsed me. Perhaps that is why I've been ignoring you. It may also be because I so desperately want to be a Dictator and yet I don’t see how it will ever happen.
A Coup Thwarter is a close second. As a Coup Thwarter, I could thwart coups all over the world. Alas I have to raise little kids instead. As stated, my real desire is to come to power via a coup, rule with an iron fist and have that prima dona pope kneel before and kiss my hand so I don't lop off his head. Excuse me. Where was I? Oh yes.
As far as listening to you, do it today, Hugo. I’m at the tail end of an H1N1 episode so I’m in a weakened and subdued state. I’ve lost a tremendous amount of weight from every part of my body except the gut which prevents me from observing that which is below. As my late cousin Denny used to say, “I take just enough Viagra to keep from peeing in my shoe.”
Perhaps you can tell from my rambling that I am giddy and light headed. I've had had nothing to eat for almost three days.
My point? The spot-light is yours Hugo. You have 24 hours to tell me what I need or should know about you and your journey through space and time. I feel my demeanor turning combative even as I type, so hurry, time is wasting. With that:
Ladies and Gentlemen - I give to you Hugo CHAVEZ
A Coup Thwarter is a close second. As a Coup Thwarter, I could thwart coups all over the world. Alas I have to raise little kids instead. As stated, my real desire is to come to power via a coup, rule with an iron fist and have that prima dona pope kneel before and kiss my hand so I don't lop off his head. Excuse me. Where was I? Oh yes.
As far as listening to you, do it today, Hugo. I’m at the tail end of an H1N1 episode so I’m in a weakened and subdued state. I’ve lost a tremendous amount of weight from every part of my body except the gut which prevents me from observing that which is below. As my late cousin Denny used to say, “I take just enough Viagra to keep from peeing in my shoe.”
Perhaps you can tell from my rambling that I am giddy and light headed. I've had had nothing to eat for almost three days.
My point? The spot-light is yours Hugo. You have 24 hours to tell me what I need or should know about you and your journey through space and time. I feel my demeanor turning combative even as I type, so hurry, time is wasting. With that:
Ladies and Gentlemen - I give to you Hugo CHAVEZ
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Oh those silly atheists.
I can’t remember who it was, but he had a go at the pathetic claim that if it’s in the Bible, then it must be ordained by and approved of by God. The example he used was Abraham lying to a Pharaoh by telling him that Sarah was his sister and not his wife. Imagine that! No, not that. Rather, imagine how stupid you have to be to believe that if an account of some guy offering his wife to save his skin is recorded in the Bible, that must mean that God approved of it.
What these guys don't' seem to get is that the Bible is, from beginning to end, a book that documents God working in and through human failures to bring about His plan of redemption for the world. If I'm correct, out of all the so called Bible heroes, I think Daniel and Job are the only two who don't have tremendous moral failures recorded.
Paul was a torturer and a murderer
King David, a man who loved God, was an adulterer, and a murderer and a liar
Peter was ready to kill as well as denying his Master.
Jacob was a liar and a schemer as was his mother
Abraham was willing to trade his wife for his own safety
Samson was a womaniser and a murderer
The “heroes” of the Bible were deeply flawed individuals. Yet God took these flaws and, as He is willing to do with us, turned them to work for His plan of redemption for the world. Why does God use people like this? Because deeply flawed individuals are all He has to work with?
Why do atheists think that if it’s written in the Bible God must approve of it? Well, I'm trying extra hard to day to play nice and I can't think of any nice way of saying it. It doesn't fall under the categories of logic and reason.
What these guys don't' seem to get is that the Bible is, from beginning to end, a book that documents God working in and through human failures to bring about His plan of redemption for the world. If I'm correct, out of all the so called Bible heroes, I think Daniel and Job are the only two who don't have tremendous moral failures recorded.
Paul was a torturer and a murderer
King David, a man who loved God, was an adulterer, and a murderer and a liar
Peter was ready to kill as well as denying his Master.
Jacob was a liar and a schemer as was his mother
Abraham was willing to trade his wife for his own safety
Samson was a womaniser and a murderer
The “heroes” of the Bible were deeply flawed individuals. Yet God took these flaws and, as He is willing to do with us, turned them to work for His plan of redemption for the world. Why does God use people like this? Because deeply flawed individuals are all He has to work with?
Why do atheists think that if it’s written in the Bible God must approve of it? Well, I'm trying extra hard to day to play nice and I can't think of any nice way of saying it. It doesn't fall under the categories of logic and reason.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Atheist Denial
Atheists, like Ditchens and the anti Semite, Iran’s President can examine evidence, enough evidence to lead most reasonable person to accept historical events as true. Yet these same atheists and anti Semites (some are in both camps) hold to a denial of these events based, not on counter evidence but on a need to preserve their dearly held world-view.
Atheists will often respond to a statement like this with a list of all the photo and written evidence of the holocaust as though that means anything.
My whole point is that when a human being doesn’t want to believe in the historical Jesus or the attempted elimination of the Jews, evidence plays a minuscule role in making that decision.
Atheists will often respond to a statement like this with a list of all the photo and written evidence of the holocaust as though that means anything.
My whole point is that when a human being doesn’t want to believe in the historical Jesus or the attempted elimination of the Jews, evidence plays a minuscule role in making that decision.
Not here, Not there, Not anywhere
And certainly not in Jerusalem. Not for one day. Not even for one hour was the body of Jesus claimed to remain in the tomb after the resurrection had taken place. Right from the beginning, enemies of Christianity insisted that the tomb was empty because, they said, the disciples had stolen the body. If they had known where the body was, they most certainly would have produced it.
The resurrection was denied but never, not once did anyone try to deny that the body of Jesus remained where He was buried.
In beautiful irony atheists howl in protest that Jesus’ biographies weren’t written the day after He was crucified. Because of that atheists say we can trust the documents. Yet, from a position of thousands of years later, atheists proffer explanations for the empty tomb and they fully expect people to believe those theories. No one at the time of Jesus’ resurrection would have dared to propose such ridiculous scenarios for these simple reasons:
a) Jesus’ followers had no opportunity, nor power, nor inclination to move the body
b) Jesus’ enemies had no reason to move the body.
c) The execution and burial took place right there in Jerusalem. Any deception would have been found out immediately.
d) That Man was as dead and any person can be. He did not walk away.
The resurrection was denied but never, not once did anyone try to deny that the body of Jesus remained where He was buried.
In beautiful irony atheists howl in protest that Jesus’ biographies weren’t written the day after He was crucified. Because of that atheists say we can trust the documents. Yet, from a position of thousands of years later, atheists proffer explanations for the empty tomb and they fully expect people to believe those theories. No one at the time of Jesus’ resurrection would have dared to propose such ridiculous scenarios for these simple reasons:
a) Jesus’ followers had no opportunity, nor power, nor inclination to move the body
b) Jesus’ enemies had no reason to move the body.
c) The execution and burial took place right there in Jerusalem. Any deception would have been found out immediately.
d) That Man was as dead and any person can be. He did not walk away.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
atheists survive Christmas
Found this on an atheist's blog:
"Some of the country’s best known atheists will be exploring the science and philosophy of Christmas and offering advice on everything from how to put up your Christmas lights to what to read in the festive period."
10,000 children will starve to death TODAY
Some of the world's leading atheists will help you survive hearing someone say Merry Christmas
6,000,000 children, today, work as slaves in the sex trade
Some of the world's leading atheists will help you know what to do if someone says Bless You after you sneeze
War, genocide, mass starvation, natural disasters
Some of the world's leading atheists will tell you how to put up your Christmas lights and encourage you to protest displays of a baby in a manger
"Some of the country’s best known atheists will be exploring the science and philosophy of Christmas and offering advice on everything from how to put up your Christmas lights to what to read in the festive period."
10,000 children will starve to death TODAY
Some of the world's leading atheists will help you survive hearing someone say Merry Christmas
6,000,000 children, today, work as slaves in the sex trade
Some of the world's leading atheists will help you know what to do if someone says Bless You after you sneeze
War, genocide, mass starvation, natural disasters
Some of the world's leading atheists will tell you how to put up your Christmas lights and encourage you to protest displays of a baby in a manger
“Faith is not belief without evidence. Faith is trust without reservation. Faith affects the whole of man’s nature. It commences with the conviction of the mind based on adequate evidence; it continues in the confidence of the heart or emotions based on conviction, and it is crowned in the consent of the will, by means of which the conviction and confidence are expressed in conduct. Faith is not blind but intelligent.”
W. H. Griffith-Thomas, “The Principles of Theology, London: Longmans, Green, 1930.
W. H. Griffith-Thomas, “The Principles of Theology, London: Longmans, Green, 1930.
Atheists See Death
That’s what I get time after time as atheists attempt to describe to me the “freak accident” of a planet with life on it. Atheists talk about how hostile and huge our universe is. And they’re correct. What they fail the recognise is that our universe, billions of light years across and billions of years old, needs to be exactly this large, this old and controlled by exactly these constants and qualitites for life on THIS planet to exist. This is not freak accident.
As physicist Paul Davies says,
“We have been written into the laws of nature in a deep and, I believe, meaningful way.”
Paul Davies, “The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World, (New York: Touchstone Books, 1993), 21
As physicist Paul Davies says,
“We have been written into the laws of nature in a deep and, I believe, meaningful way.”
Paul Davies, “The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World, (New York: Touchstone Books, 1993), 21
Too Many Cookies
I had an atheist tell me that I still hold to outdated rules. Like probably 98% of atheists, seeing life from a child’s point of view led this man to resent a moral system that cramps his style. It’s kind of like this.
Imagine a child who’s had three cookies. They taste really good so he asks his dad for more, and his dad says, “No.” The kid is taken aback. He thinks, ‘How could someone who loves me, deny me what I want?’ He begins to cry and says, “You don’t love me! You’re mean!”
Of course, any parent reading this knows that sometimes we need to say, “No,” to our children. It doesn’t make sense to the kids. It even makes them dislike us. Still, we need to do it for their own good.
Atheists never grow beyond that childish tendency. They cannot imagine someone who loves them ever saying “No” to them or allowing difficulties into their lives, or asking them to deny themselves something that they really, really want. In fact, it’s easer for atheists to imagine that God doesn’t exist than to believe that He would allow hardship and struggle to enter their lives.
For example when God says to save sexual intimacy for a faithful monogamous relationship, atheists, in a childlike manner stomp their feet and say, “That’s an old, stupid, rule.” So what if a world without STD’s could be ours if only we’d obey that rule! In the atheist mind, a world marinaded in the scourge of HIV is more desirable than self-denial - of anything.
When Creator God says to not divorce; when He says to fix the marital problems rather than walk away from them, immature atheists hold their breath until they get their way to pop into and out of relationships. After all, that’s an old rule and how can an old rule have any benefit for today's society? As a result millions of children are forced to put on so many layers of protection that “loving” someone and getting close to someone is becoming practically impossible.
In arrogance and pride, atheists can’t imagine anyone knowing more than they do. So, rather than listening to their Parent they steal cookies until sick to the stomach.
Imagine a child who’s had three cookies. They taste really good so he asks his dad for more, and his dad says, “No.” The kid is taken aback. He thinks, ‘How could someone who loves me, deny me what I want?’ He begins to cry and says, “You don’t love me! You’re mean!”
Of course, any parent reading this knows that sometimes we need to say, “No,” to our children. It doesn’t make sense to the kids. It even makes them dislike us. Still, we need to do it for their own good.
Atheists never grow beyond that childish tendency. They cannot imagine someone who loves them ever saying “No” to them or allowing difficulties into their lives, or asking them to deny themselves something that they really, really want. In fact, it’s easer for atheists to imagine that God doesn’t exist than to believe that He would allow hardship and struggle to enter their lives.
For example when God says to save sexual intimacy for a faithful monogamous relationship, atheists, in a childlike manner stomp their feet and say, “That’s an old, stupid, rule.” So what if a world without STD’s could be ours if only we’d obey that rule! In the atheist mind, a world marinaded in the scourge of HIV is more desirable than self-denial - of anything.
When Creator God says to not divorce; when He says to fix the marital problems rather than walk away from them, immature atheists hold their breath until they get their way to pop into and out of relationships. After all, that’s an old rule and how can an old rule have any benefit for today's society? As a result millions of children are forced to put on so many layers of protection that “loving” someone and getting close to someone is becoming practically impossible.
In arrogance and pride, atheists can’t imagine anyone knowing more than they do. So, rather than listening to their Parent they steal cookies until sick to the stomach.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Time Speeds Up
It was exactly one year ago - today.
There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who think that's funny and those who squint and say, "What?" I'm in the former group.
Anyhow is old age ever cool.
One week seems like three days.
One month seems like a couple weeks.
One year seems like about 5 months, maybe even four.
Not even winter is such a pain anymore.
Like I said, it only seems like a couple months and there's spring again. This is a good time of life.
There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who think that's funny and those who squint and say, "What?" I'm in the former group.
Anyhow is old age ever cool.
One week seems like three days.
One month seems like a couple weeks.
One year seems like about 5 months, maybe even four.
Not even winter is such a pain anymore.
Like I said, it only seems like a couple months and there's spring again. This is a good time of life.
That is Hard!
So one of my kids turns nine today. My wife asked him what kind of a cake he wanted and he said, "A castle." I heard my wife groan and, being the awesome husband that I am, I said, "I'll do it." How hard can it be - right?
What a mess. I don't know how much cake decorators make but whatever it is, it ain't enough.
I just turned in my chair to have another look at it and burst out laughing. Hope my kid can do the same 'cause it's really, really bad.
What a mess. I don't know how much cake decorators make but whatever it is, it ain't enough.
I just turned in my chair to have another look at it and burst out laughing. Hope my kid can do the same 'cause it's really, really bad.
“We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures.. .. If the Universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.”
John O’Keefe, astronomer at NASA
John O’Keefe, astronomer at NASA
Dawkins and Faith
Atheist High Priest Richard Dawkins says that faith, Christian faith, is “blind trust in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence.” The Selfish Gene, 198.
Yet Dawkins’ definition of faith is itself a perfect example of a belief that is tenaciously and relentlessly held in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence to the contrary. Atheist sheeple read Dawkins and bow in agreement.
Yet Dawkins’ definition of faith is itself a perfect example of a belief that is tenaciously and relentlessly held in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence to the contrary. Atheist sheeple read Dawkins and bow in agreement.
Assault Witnessed by Crowd
Leading off our News this evening, authorities say a man is dead after he was attacked by an angry mob. Investigators say it all started when the man, who witnesses only know as Stephen, interrupted a meeting of religious leaders. Witnesses also say the man made several inflammatory comments directed at the people in attendance. Several members of the audience tried to restrain the man which only made him yell louder. The exact nature of the what the man said is not known at this time. Witnesses say that almost as one, about a dozen people grabbed the man and dragged him into the ally.
The Medical Examiner would not release any details. A police officer who asked to remain anonymous said that it was obvious the man died of multiple blunt force trauma to the head and body.
Investigators also say that several bystanders watched as the scene unfolded, but did not intervene. One individual who is being sought by Police is said to have shouted encouragements to the crowd and even held the jackets of those who took part in the beating.
The Medical Examiner would not release any details. A police officer who asked to remain anonymous said that it was obvious the man died of multiple blunt force trauma to the head and body.
Investigators also say that several bystanders watched as the scene unfolded, but did not intervene. One individual who is being sought by Police is said to have shouted encouragements to the crowd and even held the jackets of those who took part in the beating.
Monday, November 2, 2009
You will be killed . . .
In Luke chapter 21 Jesus is talking about how His followers will be hated and put in prison and even killed, “but not a hair on your head will be harmed.”
Jesus says that if we follow Him we:
Will experience an abundant life
Will have joy
Will not have to worry about having our basic needs met.
Hmm, jail and death on this hand and an abundant life on that hand. Since Jesus’ followers both then and down through the ages have suffered persecution and martyrdom and all the hardships of a normal life on earth, just what kind of abundant life was He talking about?
Or, is the abundant life a natural outflow of experiencing persecution? Well, ask an atheist and s/he’d probably say that life is LESS abundant because of persecution. So would most other people. In their ignorance, atheists would call this a Biblical contradiction. Only ignorance could make such a statement. So what gives?
The abundant life about which Jesus speaks is so other-worldly, so counterintuitive that the secular world cannot possibly understand. Dawkins in particular finds it “incomprehensible” that Christians who suffer often wind up more dedicated to God than less.
The fact is, the abundant life is a gift from above. We do not get it by striving or following ritual. Just as a child who is being born has played no role in h/his conception, growth and birth, so too being “born from above,” is beyond our effort. Being “born again” brings us into a very different existence. It gives us a literal connection with another dimension whereby the things that harm “those who live on the earth” do not have the power to destroy those who belong to the kingdom of God.
Those who live on the earth believe that life can be discovered only by examining physical evidence and combining that with reason. Gaining an intimate, healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus ushers us into a different kingdom, one that exists just beyond our senses. It is received, not attained. It is supernatural, not material.
The abundance that Jesus offers is a spiritual abundance that transcends life’s circumstances. It is not dependent on wealth or health or beauty or power or relationships. The abundant life is eternal and spiritual. Because my life is in Jesus, “You can kill me but I will not die”
Jesus says that if we follow Him we:
Will experience an abundant life
Will have joy
Will not have to worry about having our basic needs met.
Hmm, jail and death on this hand and an abundant life on that hand. Since Jesus’ followers both then and down through the ages have suffered persecution and martyrdom and all the hardships of a normal life on earth, just what kind of abundant life was He talking about?
Or, is the abundant life a natural outflow of experiencing persecution? Well, ask an atheist and s/he’d probably say that life is LESS abundant because of persecution. So would most other people. In their ignorance, atheists would call this a Biblical contradiction. Only ignorance could make such a statement. So what gives?
The abundant life about which Jesus speaks is so other-worldly, so counterintuitive that the secular world cannot possibly understand. Dawkins in particular finds it “incomprehensible” that Christians who suffer often wind up more dedicated to God than less.
The fact is, the abundant life is a gift from above. We do not get it by striving or following ritual. Just as a child who is being born has played no role in h/his conception, growth and birth, so too being “born from above,” is beyond our effort. Being “born again” brings us into a very different existence. It gives us a literal connection with another dimension whereby the things that harm “those who live on the earth” do not have the power to destroy those who belong to the kingdom of God.
Those who live on the earth believe that life can be discovered only by examining physical evidence and combining that with reason. Gaining an intimate, healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus ushers us into a different kingdom, one that exists just beyond our senses. It is received, not attained. It is supernatural, not material.
The abundance that Jesus offers is a spiritual abundance that transcends life’s circumstances. It is not dependent on wealth or health or beauty or power or relationships. The abundant life is eternal and spiritual. Because my life is in Jesus, “You can kill me but I will not die”
Sunday, November 1, 2009
No Greater Love
Most people know the line. Jesus said, “No greater love has any man than to lay down his life for a friend.”
Most people think that what Jesus meant was, there is no greater love than to be willing to die for a friend. He even demonstrated this by dying on the cross, for us. Well, that’s love all right. But it isn’t the most difficult love for humans to give. The greatest and most difficult love falls under the category of dying to self; putting other people’s needs above and before your needs.
Jesus demonstrated this love when He took the role of a gentile servant, pretty much the lowest position in the land and washed the feet of his followers.
Jesus demonstrated this love when He stepped down from His throne in heaven and took upon Himself the life of a human being.
We demonstrate this love when we apologise for a wrong that we have done.
We demonstrate this love when we do a task that our partner normally does
We demonstrate this love when we take on the role of parents
We demonstrate this love when we give money to those in need instead of spending it on ourselves
We demonstrate this love when we turn off the tv or put down the book and listen to a family member
We demonstrate this love when we don’t retaliate
We demonstrate this love when a line of gossip stops with us
We demonstrate this love when we give of our selves, our time and our money.
We demonstrate this love when we shut down a sexual fantasy, do good to our enemy, pray for those who seek to harm us, when we love the Lord our God with all of our hearth, soul, mind and strength.
Most people think that what Jesus meant was, there is no greater love than to be willing to die for a friend. He even demonstrated this by dying on the cross, for us. Well, that’s love all right. But it isn’t the most difficult love for humans to give. The greatest and most difficult love falls under the category of dying to self; putting other people’s needs above and before your needs.
Jesus demonstrated this love when He took the role of a gentile servant, pretty much the lowest position in the land and washed the feet of his followers.
Jesus demonstrated this love when He stepped down from His throne in heaven and took upon Himself the life of a human being.
We demonstrate this love when we apologise for a wrong that we have done.
We demonstrate this love when we do a task that our partner normally does
We demonstrate this love when we take on the role of parents
We demonstrate this love when we give money to those in need instead of spending it on ourselves
We demonstrate this love when we turn off the tv or put down the book and listen to a family member
We demonstrate this love when we don’t retaliate
We demonstrate this love when a line of gossip stops with us
We demonstrate this love when we give of our selves, our time and our money.
We demonstrate this love when we shut down a sexual fantasy, do good to our enemy, pray for those who seek to harm us, when we love the Lord our God with all of our hearth, soul, mind and strength.
Climbing Mount Improbable.
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
Robert Jastrow
Robert Jastrow
Are atheists better people?
What if atheists actually are better human beings than Christians? I’ve thought about that before, but today I’m seriously wondering if that might be true.
I was sooooo angry at my nine year old today. So angry! He’d thrown a metal toy at a younger sibling. I've always hated bullying. I was just furious. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to say mean things to him. I wanted to throw him to the moon. I didn’t do those things but I wanted to. Oh I so desperately wanted to.
Here’s my point.
. I don’t see how any atheist could be me and say, “I don’t need God in order to be good.”
. I don’t see how any atheist could be me and say, “I don’t need forgiveness.”
When atheists say, “I don’t need God in order to be good,” or when the New York bus campaign says, “One million New Yorkers are good without God,” are they lying? Are they profoundly deluded about their character makeup? Or are they correct?
I’ve long said that we shouldn’t be surprised when sin breaks out in the Church. We don’t become Christians without admitting to the fact that we are sinners; we’re hypocrites, gossips, liars, adulterers, cheats, drunks, abusers of all stripes and sizes and on and on and on. That’s who we are - those of us in Christ.
But what about atheists? Is it perhaps true that atheists don’t see a need for God because they really ARE good people?
I was sooooo angry at my nine year old today. So angry! He’d thrown a metal toy at a younger sibling. I've always hated bullying. I was just furious. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to say mean things to him. I wanted to throw him to the moon. I didn’t do those things but I wanted to. Oh I so desperately wanted to.
Here’s my point.
. I don’t see how any atheist could be me and say, “I don’t need God in order to be good.”
. I don’t see how any atheist could be me and say, “I don’t need forgiveness.”
When atheists say, “I don’t need God in order to be good,” or when the New York bus campaign says, “One million New Yorkers are good without God,” are they lying? Are they profoundly deluded about their character makeup? Or are they correct?
I’ve long said that we shouldn’t be surprised when sin breaks out in the Church. We don’t become Christians without admitting to the fact that we are sinners; we’re hypocrites, gossips, liars, adulterers, cheats, drunks, abusers of all stripes and sizes and on and on and on. That’s who we are - those of us in Christ.
But what about atheists? Is it perhaps true that atheists don’t see a need for God because they really ARE good people?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)