Choose Your Beliefs

The Reformation Experience - Our 500th Anniversary Celebration

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Fri, 03 May 2019 00:45:00 +0000

Most Protestants honor the Reformation and, in theory at least, they honor the 95 Theses that helped start the Reformation. Our modern society is in many ways in need of additional reforms. So, I decided that the best way to honor the 500th anniversary of the Reformation was to provide to leading Protestant organizations a similar "reformation experience" to what the reformers gave to the Catholic church in the 1500s.

In the fall of 2017 we printed and laminated 500 copies of the new 95 Theses (double sided on 8 1/2" x 14" parchment paper). On the October 31st anniversary we posted around 200 of them, using removable glue dots instead of nails, to the doors of almost every church in Midland Texas. We attached post-it notes saying it was in honor of the 500th anniversary and signed it to be from Andreas Karlstat, the reformation leader who trained Luther and who wanted additional reforms but was maligned and misrepresented for doing so. It took from before sun up to late at night to post them all. The GPS has a function that allowed us to download the locations and optimize the driving route. We skipped the two churches where we had attended, as well as two or three where people were congregated around the door. It was on a Tuesday so most were empty.

A week or two earlier we had mailed the other 300 to leading Protestant institutions, including the largest churches, para-church organizations, and to the chaplains at Christian schools. We estimated mail delivery times and sent the international mailings earlier to try to time the arrival around the October 31st anniversary. We attached stick up dots to the four corners and a post it note asking them to post it to their door (to provide the desired effect), though there was no expectation they would actually post it to their doors. We bought sheets of "Luther" stamps from the 1980s and we also created a custom stamp using a stamp customization service to mail the envelopes.

We used a service to translate the new 95 Theses into Spanish and Korean to send to the large Spanish speaking churches, the large churches in South Korea and the two Protestant churches in North Korea. We were going to translate into more languages but decided not to in order to reduce costs.

As a test of the various marketing channels we robocalled 95 recipients saying happy 500th anniversary of the Reformation (assuring them in the message that there would be no additional calls), we sent 95 automated FAXs, and advertised a small amount on Facebook and YouTube. We set up a web site and a Facebook Page. We priced using an electronic billboard on one of the roads, but it was too expensive.

For the fun of it we printed pictures on each of the printed 95 Theses using invisible UV ink. The pictures can only be seen using a UV light. The best UV printing was the Korean versions where on one side we used the Korean letters for "True Christianity" and the other side the Korean letters for "True Self Reliance" (Juche, the philosophy of North Korea), with the idea that true Christianity is not just social but also true empowerment of the individual.

To top it all off, we used an email marketing firm and bought two mailing lists to email the new 95 theses to 95,000 Protestant churches in USA and England. We tried to avoid sending to Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches since they don't have the same relationship to the Reformation as the Protestant churches. A significant percentage didn't make it through but tens of thousands did.

We remained anonymous to allow the propositions to stand on their own and to not be seen as just another Christian group's marketing effort. While some of the theses are controversial, and some may be thought to be heretical, at very least they should open interesting discussion and debate.

So, that is how we honored the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation of the 1500s. I can only hope that some of these 95 propositions will help bring needed reform to our information-based society of today.

95 Theses on Substitutes

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 04:04:00 +0000

DISPUTATION ON THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF SUBSTITUTES, OCTOBER 31, 2017

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed in West Texas. We request that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so online. In the name of Truth.

A Multitude of Substitutes take the place of Sola Sacrificium

1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ``Take up your cross daily'', his followers understood that he willed their entire life to be one of daily sacrifice, potential social ostracism and willingness to accept death for doing right and following truth.

2. “Sacrifice” cannot be understood as referring to just the common everyday sacrifices of a good person, living in poverty or isolation, “spiritual disciplines” or as the act of taking communion.

3. God’s ultimate desire is to maintain both free choice and a good society, which is based in the individual and communal nature of the Trinity. The willingness to die as Jesus did gives us power and freedom as individuals to make the hard choices. Jesus’ life example helps indicate what is best to choose to maintain a good society.

4. The willingness to be killed for doing what is right, true and virtuous is the true meaning of being a “follower” of Jesus. This is the true theology of the cross, “oneness” with Christ. It builds strong community, it is powerful against our evil tendencies, it allows us to maximize eternal value, it is ultimate self-control and is the true meaning symbolized in baptism and the cup of communion.

5. All die. So, while in one sense death costs everything, in another sense the willingness to die requires no extra cost.

Leaders use Substitutes in place of Truth to maintain Unity

6. When John said, “In the beginning was the Word”, he also thereby indicated that in the beginning was information. Information is in opposition to mysticism, fictional stories, distractions, unverifiable experiences and utopias, which are substitutes for living with reality.

7. The use of fallacies in marketing can be more effective than the use of logical arguments, but there is only one valid way to choose beliefs: choose the set of beliefs that are most probably true.

8. True unity is not possible by accepting the wide variety of substitutes for truth as the polytheists/pantheists have done, or by imposing uniformity as some monotheistic faiths have done. Allowing for reconciled diversity while rejecting substitutes for a focus on truth enables the true unity that Jesus prayed for.

9. “Anti-Christ” means a substitute for following both Christ’s example and the sacrifice of his life. The reference to 666 in the books of Revelation and Kings point to Solomon, the ultimate example of a seemingly wise leader who used substitutes to be successful.

10. We have traded away our birthright to our leaders in an unholy bargain that substitutes the leadership of a few individuals for the leadership of every individual, allowing most people to be passive.

For many, the State Monopoly has replaced God and the Church

11. The State is the caretaker of the forceful methods of persuasion no longer wielded by the Church. The State maintains its geographic monopoly. All monopolies, lacking competition, are in as much need of reformation as the state-church monopolies of the 1500s.

12. The book of first Samuel indicates that God did not want a king over Israel. Diplomatic intermarriage (Diplomatic and Information - marketing power), horses (Military power), and gold (Economic power), were early methods of gaining central state power (DIME), each of which God said not to do in Israel. So, God wants weak centralized state power in leadership, military and the banking system, keeping power as locally distributed as possible. Some intelligence agencies and police/military seek to simulate God’s omniscience and omnipotence. Large scale suffering, starvation and death is most often caused by mistakes of central leadership and their wars.

13. We need a wall of separation between money and state, including a “first amendment” for banking, and currency creation. Most taxation allows no way to opt out and so is the taking of personal property without free consent. Many people look to the state to take the property of others to provide for their needs.

14. There is no social contract at birth with our state or society. We have at birth only two inherent contracts: one with our parents and one with the creator of our world. Five of the ten commandments discuss honoring those inherent civil contracts. Rights/responsibilities of laws should not be automatic based on age/location, but rather they should be contracts accepted/rejected by free will as adults, with “adulthood” determined by competency rather than by a specific age.

Schools often Indoctrinate instead of train for Freedom of Thought

15. Schools sometimes expose students only to one-sided propaganda because they have a conflict of interest to teach submission to the prevailing views of the supporting state or church. Rather than just transmitting the commonly held views of the Church, State and/or employers, schools are most effective when teaching critical thinking, freedom, trade and enabling self-directed learning.

16. Team and project based education is most effective, creating real value rather than just rote academic exercises, causing students to be leaders/producers and reconnecting learning to value. Leadership training is built on the foundation of virtue training.

17. Effective education crosses all boundaries, including between religious and secular, primary and higher education, academic and corporate training, and between self-directed and formal education. Education is most effective when large scale term-based education is integrated with small scale competency based education to provide both economy of scale and customization.

18. The elderly are intended to perform the role of teachers and mentors.

Scientists have become the Priesthood of our Day

19. Scientists, especially physicists, are treated as the priesthood of the information age because they tell the quantitatively illiterate masses, who are unable to interpret the formulas for themselves, what to believe about how the world works.

20. If it is impossible for something to come from nothing, then something must be eternal. That can be either “creation” or a creator.

21. There is no viable mechanism for cosmic evolution since mutation and natural selection do not apply until life exists. The creation of an imagined "multiverse" is a “philosophy of the gaps”, i.e. a theory created to support a belief that is lacking evidence.

22. Time is just our "perception of change". What we call the "past" is our memories and what we call the "future" is our current mental plans. Therefore “time” is not a reality that can speed up, slow down or go backwards. God did not create "time" itself but rather He created the regularly recurring changes we use as "clocks" to measure the passage of other changes, which is how we commonly think of "time".

23. Logical Positivism has been misapplied to say that what we perceive/measure must be actual reality. Limitations of perceiving/measuring fast speed (Relativity) and small size (Quantum Mechanics) make our perceptions and measurements diverge from reality. “Bending the ruler”, speeding or slowing clocks or our inability to consistently detect something does not change the reality we are measuring.

Many leading Philosophers are Atheist, Agnostic or Universalist

24. Monotheism is a claim of historical truth. Atheism, pantheism and polytheism, which claim the high ground of philosophical truth and inclusiveness, have no defensible claim to early history.

25. Atheism, where nothing is of ultimate value, can lead to pantheism, where everything is of ultimate value, which is related to polytheism, where only the most powerful things are assigned ultimate value.

26. Agnosticism is not a separate belief system. “Believers” are also by definition agnostics because they cannot prove their belief.

27. The “Both-And” of universalism cannot replace the “Either-Or” of Monotheism.

Celebrity Leaders with access to Broadcasts act as our Gurus

28. We treat those with access to broadcast mediums, such as speakers, authors, preachers, musicians and movie stars, as our gurus.

29. All professionals, including teachers, physicians, and pastors, have a conflict of interest. Many believe that to provide better service they need to keep people dependent on their expertise rather than helping them become self-sufficient and risking lower quality outcomes.

30. Leaders use marketing methods, which are only valid if they are educating and communicating truth in support of self-reliance.

31. Movie action heroes are the modern polytheistic pantheon, now divorced from religion, that our children follow by example.

Church Services and Auditoriums drive focus to Pastors

32. The focus of the separated day of rest is intended to be the benefits of rest, reflection and family/community rather than attending a service.

33. Church services are a crutch that enables passive participation instead of individual/small team active productivity. Goal focused small team meetings are the true church meeting, which removes the need for using marketing techniques to maintain large group unity.

34. Stages are for actors, comedians and musicians, not for Christian leaders. The sage on the stage can be more effective by taking their rightful place as guide on the side.

35. Pastor’s monologues, on-stage worship teams and other events with a spectator audience are antithetical to the priesthood of all believers.

36. If desired, record and watch monologues at home before coming together in small groups, which then discuss how the concepts in the monologue can be applied to current needs and goals.

37. The natural repetitive routines of life do not imply the validity of contrived or centrally controlled routines/rituals. Rather than repeat the same basic teachings to large groups over and over, teach in small groups building on prior learning based on current needs.

38. Any form of church governance is acceptable as long as force and manipulation are not used, so that individual church attenders/small groups can easily opt out of decisions.

39. Positive references to pastors in the books of the Bible are always plural, indicating multiple “pastors” in each church is to be the norm.

The True Nature of History

40. Historical truth about the ancient order of things is the treasure of the Church. The books of the Bible are claims to accurate histories.

41. The question of scriptural authority is not one of scripture vs. tradition, but rather how best to determine truth versus falsehood.

42. Comprehending a writing is probabilistic, not a work of full certainty. When trying to understand a text, attempt to understand what the author was attempting to communicate to their intended audience, including understanding their background, their use of shared definitions and their shared circumstances, such as what it means to be a “follower” and the imminent threat of death to the early followers of Jesus.

43. In the book of Genesis Moses and the Israelites rejected Egyptian myths, which were created from later history, in favor of core historical claims present in the mythology of Sumer, which were created from the earliest history.

44. Prophecy is possible because God has full control, but we also have full free will, enabled by our willingness to die. Which one we perceive is a matter of how much information we have. If God were not hiding his full power, we would effectively be forced to follow Him and our choice to follow/not follow would not be apparent.

45. Jesus’ life and death successfully demonstrated to God that His desire to have a good society that maintains individual free choice would eventually be satisfied by people following the example of Jesus, thereby averting the need to wipe out humanity and start over again as He had done at the flood.

The True Nature of Belief

46. Deductive logic requires inductive logic to support its premises. “Faith” is treating something that is probably true as if it is definitely true. Inductive logic is probabilistic and so requires faith.

47. To say “I Know” is denying faith, because “faith” implies the possibility that the belief may not be true.

48. As followers of truth, we must be able to say "If a different belief were shown to be true I would reject my current belief, even if my family, friends and community shun or kill me".

49. Monotheistic faith requires faith that a Creator exists, we have mostly accurate information about Him and He is trustworthy to follow.

The True Nature of Virtue and Law

50. Virtues point to high standards and the discipline needed for effective trade and strong motivation. To maintain and grow the organization, some pastors refrain from speaking against low social standards such as no-fault divorce and immoral relationships, abortion, common Christian profanities, and other worldly lifestyle choices.

51. Respecting ownership, persuasion, and trade can replace physical force, which is reserved for only when necessary for protection.

52. The Golden Rule has a corollary called the Non-Aggression Principle. Both are a summary of five of the ten commandments, and are the basis of criminal justice, which provides for freedom through ownership. Identifying individual ownership/stewardship avoids the potential for a “tragedy of the commons”.

53. Laws are not good because they are in the books of the Bible, rather they are in the books of the Bible because they are good.

54. Laws are education with the goal of maximizing value/reducing risk.

55. Prisons are a form of forced slavery. Early Israel did not have prisons. It is better for inmates to be emancipated, receive appropriate corrective training/coaching, work to pay restitution and/or be exiled, or, in violent cases such as murder, be put to death.

The True Nature of Forgiveness and Bankruptcy

56. Always have an attitude of offering forgiveness, but the benefits of forgiveness are only obtained by the recipient when they repent of the hurtful practices that required forgiveness.

57. Focusing on a "free gift" is a marketing technique. God’s forgiveness is offered free, but the acceptance of His forgiveness has the high cost of being willing to die, which should be communicated up front.

58. Forgiveness and bankruptcy laws enable striving for greatness even if there is a high likelihood of failure and they re-enable relationships/trade after failure. God forgives failure and does not require any payment for the “sunk costs” of the failure.

59. Significant long-term consumer debt is a form of serfdom, caused by artificially easy long-term credit, which bids up prices. Long term debt serfdom could be eliminated, and prices of big ticket items could be reduced, by extending bankruptcy laws to not allow for loans/refinances of longer than seven years. Other than marriage, contract/treaties should last no longer than seven years.

The True Nature of Prayer and Fasting

60. Early Christians were mistaken to be atheists, indicating a lack of Christian rituals, sacred objects or “sacred spaces”.

61. Prayer was intended to be a two-way conversation with God. God does not currently speak back, but we still have a need to speak to our Creator.

62. The term “prayer” includes multiple functions: asking forgiveness, requests, thanks, praise, and a general blessing of others.

63. When Jesus said, “when you pray, go to a private place” he intended that even well intentioned Christian leaders should not pray in front of groups. Verbal prayers by leaders are often misused to tell people what should happen and/or to display oratory skills.

64. Omniscience implies that God is always on “speakerphone” and “surveillance camera”, though he can turn away in respect of privacy.

65. Fasting is symbolic of willingness to die. Living a healthy, natural lifestyle would answer most health-related prayers before the prayers were necessary and would address the leading causes of early death.

The True Nature of Giving and Tithing

66. Tithing was of food only, not money, and was in place of crops/farm animals that Levites would have received if they had been farmers.

67. Monetary support is payment for a service, not an obligation, which implies the determination of the costs/benefits of the service provided. The priesthood of all believers implies taking back control of their money, getting out of unnecessary debt obligations, giving directly to causes they are physically involved with, and banding together in small groups with others who have similar goals.

68. Short term missions give locals access to industry, money and education and shows the missionary the value of that access. Local groups are more effective in building local industry and education.

The True Nature of Intelligent Beings

69. We are not our bodies. We are the part of our brain that watches and judges our ways of thinking, our memories, how we communicate, and what we control, all of which continues after we die.

70. We can be considered both as our whole set of thought processes and as multiple groups of various thought processes. The nature of both being filled with the Holy Spirit, which motivates holiness, and demon possession, which motivates evil, is that they both can be considered groups of our thought processes, which by definition makes them part of us; but, they can also be considered as the thoughts of separate “individuals” to either be desired or cast out.

71. Emotions are information-based shortcuts that motivate us to action. Before Jesus, animal sacrifice was designed to motivate change in behavior by empathy with the sacrificed animal paying the price we should pay.

The True Nature of Families and Society

72. Relationships, families and communities are forms of free trade.

73. The “teen-age” season of life is artificially created by extending education and delaying the ability to have a career and/or marriage.

74. Gambling is a substitute for the risk/reward of trade. Gambling is win-lose whereas free trade is win-win.

75. Pornography is a substitute for the risk/reward of relationships. It involves only receiving whereas the give and take of relationships involves both giving and receiving.

76. Substance abuse is used to escape stress and/or pain and is a substitute for the Holy Spirit, true rest and willingness to accept loss.

77. Use of Expletives is an attempt to shock/force others into compliance, and indicates rebellion against the taboo of not discussing the topics of religion, sex and the results of digestive function.

78. We must be ready to live off of nature in order to sacrifice, if necessary, the ability to trade in society.

The True Nature of the Spiritual and Supernatural

79. There is no actual difference between "natural" and "supernatural", other than one is observable and repeatable on demand and the other is not. So, “miracles” by definition do occur, but individual “experiences” are unverifiable and so are of no use to others.

80. The goal of spiritual warfare is to produce strong motivation to proclaim truth against the propaganda of the powers of this world.

81. By being willing to sacrifice ourselves we are filled with the Holy Spirit which strongly motivates us.

82. While seeming to argue the opposite, Paul said he would not eat meat sacrificed to idols and he emphasized abstaining for the right reasons.

83. The true “speaking in tongues” described in Acts was information transfer. The Corinthian church thought they had the same ability but did not. Paul could not prove a negative concerning tongues since people could claim the language was of angels. So, rather than attempting to prove a negative, he affirmed their desire to follow God and instructed them to minimize the practice and focus on other gifts.

84. Omniscience and omnipotence provides the equivalent of omnipresence, but if God were actually omnipresent he would be inside all objects, including inside sewage and in Hell.

85. Mysticism is an illusion used in place of reason and faith when people want to feel emotions related to holiness, awe, peace and/or being valued. Mysticism is not necessary for transcendence.

86. Meditation and Yoga are a substitute for a day of rest and reflection.

The True Nature of Evil, Suffering and Death

87. Most of evil is not the opposite of good. It is the attempt to force the creation of a substitute Utopia which promises unobtainable benefits rather than accepting the benefits and dealing with the seeming problems of following God’s design of natural simplicity.

88. The Golden Rule implies empathy and the use of persuasion and trade rather than offensive force, which causes evil, suffering and death.

89. Only a Creator has the right to destroy his creation, so offensive war, murder, abortion and suicide are not acceptable.

90. God removed access to eternal life and thereby allowed death not as punishment but to give humans, including Jesus, the ability of ultimate self-sacrifice.

The True Nature of Heaven and Hell

91. To maintain freedom of choice and a good, truthful society, those who continue to choose to do wrong must ultimately be exiled from the society of those who choose to do right.

92. Hell is a torturous place to be not because of active torture by God. Putting people who do not follow truth together in a place without the Creator sustaining it would naturally make it a terrible place to be.

Why the Coming Reformation is Needed Now

93. The printing press in the age of the Reformation enabled a few to publish to the masses, thereby bypassing the monopoly of the priesthood. The Internet in this age of information enables anyone to publish to the masses, thereby bypassing the control of leaders, publishers and marketers, giving us the ability to highlight the use of substitutes by leaders.

94. The unbridled use of substitutes makes it difficult even for learned people to rescue the reverence which is due to Christianity from slander or from the shrewd questions of non-Christians.

95. These concepts are historical from the earliest time periods following Jesus. They are simple and practical. The only need for complexity is that needed to address complex errors. Come out of Babylon.

The West Texas Confession

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 06:04:00 +0000

Introduction

Much of what is marketed as Christianity, while good and helpful, is actually a substitute that obscures the core power of the Bible and Jesus. Since I have recently moved to West Texas from Wheaton, Illinois I want to at this time outline my current beliefs so that I can communicate them clearly and systematically. My intellectual background includes studies in Electrical Engineering (i.e., Physics), Information Technology, Management, Theology, Liberal Arts, Economics and Education Reform. Here is what I think I have learned so far, much of which is at odds with popular Christian teachings.

0. Summary

Proposed celestial evolution has no viable mechanism. Mutation & natural selection doesn't apply and a multiverse doesn't make logical sense. So, some form of an intelligent designer seems to make more sense.

The earliest written records in history are from Sumer and, though in mythological form, they do seem to include references similar to the earliest historical accounts claimed in the Bible.

A misinterpretation of "Logical Positivism", which equates what we see and what our instruments measure with actual reality, is at the root of misinterpretation of valid formulas in quantum mechanics and relativity and is the cause of some seemingly unsolvable dilemmas. Physicists/scientists have become the modern day priesthood, requiring the quantitatively illiterate mass of people (i.e., people who are unable to understand/interpret their formulas directly) to trust their interpretation of how the world works without giving people the ability to interpret the formulas for themselves.

There is no actual difference between "natural" and "supernatural", other than one type of event is observable/repeatable and the other is not. The goal is to separate truth from fiction/mythology, whether a particular event is repeatable or not.

The main conflict and goal of life, as implied by Genesis and Revelation, seems to be maintaining full individual freedom of choice (required for value, love, motivation, etc.. to exist) while at the same time creating a good society (Garden of Eden, healthy families, good nations, Heaven). The answer to the dilemma of how to have both seems to be to freely choose to sacrifice ourselves daily to do what is right. To be "born again" one has to first be willing to die. To be a "follower of Jesus" is to be willing to "sacrifice" ourselves as Jesus did. Both baptism and communion were intended to symbolize the willingness of followers of Jesus to die just as Jesus was willing to sacrifice himself. Willingness to give up everything, coupled with a commitment to do what is right, eliminates daily stresses and worries and gives a person the motivation to do great things, to become a hero and make a difference in the culture and world.

Many Christian teachers have replaced this meaning in favor of the more marketable "Jesus sacrificed himself and we just accept his payment to God for us", without also including an up front discussion of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. That is similar to how some vendors market their product as being "free" without discussing up front the actual future cost. To understand the specific differences at issue, see the Penal Substitutionary Atonement debate and compare to Communal Substitutionary Atonement. So some have emptied the meaning of baptism and communion to be only "remembering/accepting how Jesus paid our debt to God" and have re-purposed the symbolism to focus on group membership rather than a shared commitment to self-sacrifice. Then, some infuse a form of Christian mysticism and ritual in order to substitute for the meaning and power that they perceive is now missing from the center of Christian teaching. By necessity they replace discussion, debate and active learning with monologue and use various forms of social control to maintain the unity of their organization.

The word "antichrist" combines two roots: αντί (anti) + Χριστός (Khristos). "Αντί" can mean not only "against" and "opposite of", but also "in place of".

1. Evidence (What)

Before we can use reason to determine how the world works or communicate information, first we must observe raw information about the world we live in.

1.1 The Natural Record

Observational Science is using our senses and various tools to observe the current state of nature. From those observation and by using some assumptions, through theoretical science we may be able to extrapolate what likely happened in the past and therefore what is likely to happen in the future.

1.2 The Historical Record

People have recorded their perspectives of what has happened in their lifetimes. By trying to determine what the authors were trying to communicate to their intended audiences, if the authors were truthful and accurate and their writings were not altered over time, then we can determine what likely happened in history. From that history then through philosophy/theology we can determine what we should do in the future to avoid past problems and to build upon past lessons learned.

2. Reason and Belief

2.1 In the Beginning was Information

When John said "In the beginning was the Word" he was also indicating that in the beginning was information. Mysticism is a substitute for searching out information.

2.2 Inductive and Deductive Logic

By observing the world we inductively derive knowledge and rules that are likely, but not guaranteed, to be true to help determine what is likely to happen in the future. Inductively derived information gives us the assumptions/premises that, if true, we can use with deductive logic to determine additional information that is also true.

Fallacies are reasoning shortcuts we all use when we don't have enough time to reason through a question fully. So using fallacies is the most effective marketing method, but we should take the time to use logical think through for the most important decisions rather than relying on fallacious shortcuts.

Similarly, emotions are learned responses based on perceived information that are designed to motivate us to action, and as such are effectively used in marketing as well.

2.3 The Role of Faith

Faith is just another name for how we use inductive logic in our everyday lives. Faith is what is needed to treat something we inductively derive to be probably true as if it is definitely true. For example, when we step in an elevator there is a small probability that it will fall, but because we have faith it will work we treat it as if it will definitely work and don't give it a second thought.

Faith to follow a creator consists of two different parts. First, we must believe a creator exists and, secondly, we must believe the creator is good and worth following.

2.4 How to Choose your Beliefs

There is only one valid way to choose your beliefs: Determine the set of beliefs that are most likely to be true. The Bible is a claim to an accurate history of the world.

2.5 Atheism, Agnosticism and Universalism

Since faith by definition means less than 100% certainty, all believers are in some sense agnostics. All agnostics by necessity must act as if a particular set of beliefs is true and many choose to act as if Atheism is true.

Atheism (God does not exist) many times leads to Pantheism (God is everything), which many times leads to Polytheism (gods are whatever is most honorable/powerful). Note that these are each philosophical beliefs and have in common no actual claim of a written historical record. Most world empires were polytheistic, allowing and integrating various belief systems.

3. Communication

3.1 Prayer

Private Prayer:
Prayer was originally intended to be a two way discussion between God and Man. Unlike animals, Man is geared to have communication with his creator. Since God seems to be hiding somewhat and typically does not speak back currently, at this time the main practical value of prayer is in thinking through/articulating issues and in helping people give up worrying by reminding them that God values them and He is in control of their situation even in situations of failure or death. While there may be value in repeatedly begging for things that we desperately need, in the rich West most prayers are for convenience rather than for desperate necessity.

Public Prayer:
Many times public prayer is used for the practical purposes of maintaining a sense of group unity, making people feel they are in touch with God and/or demonstrating the oratory skills of the leader. The Biblical command to pray in secret rather than in public is meant to apply to good leaders with good intentions, not just those actually intending to use their public prayers just for marketing purposes. Distinctions should be made between various types of "prayer", including making requests, giving thanks to God, worshiping, and giving a blessing to someone.

3.2 Teaching, Preaching and Evangelism

Teaching, preaching and evangelism are all forms of education, which includes both providing information and, perhaps more importantly, providing motivation to the learner. As with all learning we should enable self-directed learning, offer "bite sized chunks" of information and in some way to validate to others the knowledge they have gained. We should get away from pastor/teacher-focused (sage on the stage) education and move to self-directed (guide on the side) project-based, non-repetitive, learner-focused education with a purpose.

In many cases short term mission trips benefit the short term missionary more than the places they visit. Foreign countries benefit from temporary access to Western money, industry and education, whereas the missionary benefits from seeing first hand the value of that access. To truly benefit the country requires indigenous missionaries who over time build up community, trade and education locally rather than just giving temporary access to those resources in the West.

4. Philosophy/Theology and Theoretical Science

4.1 The Books of the Bible

The books collated into the Bible, in addition to containing history, also include the philosophical/theological concepts to use to interpret how history can be applied to make future decisions. Most of the concepts are qualitative rather than quantitative.

4.2 Observational Science

Most information determined from Observational Science is quantitative, so most of theoretical science is determining quantitative formulas to predict what will happen in the future. Scientists are good at determining what formulas fit historical numerical patterns, but they are sometimes not as good at providing a well-reasoned qualitative interpretation of, at a foundational level, what their valid formulas mean.

4.3 Church Practices

4.3.1 Baptism

Baptism is intended to be a physical demonstration of our willingness, as followers of Jesus, to sacrifice our lives, as Jesus did, to do what is right.

4.3.2 Communion

Communion is intended to be a reminder of our commitment, as followers of Jesus, to sacrifice our lives as needed to do what is right. As we remember Jesus we also remember that to be a "follower of Jesus" means we are willing to die, as Jesus did, for what is right.

4.3.3 Music and Motivational Speech

Music and motivational speaking is used to build emotion/motivation. The Holy Spirit functions to train emotions to motivate gaining value. Virtues are those habits that typically maximize value, trade and community. Music and motivational speech can either build motivation toward virtue or they can be an emotional substitute for focusing on virtue.

4.3.4 Interpreting Paul - Tongues and Meat Sacrificed to Idols

Peter says that what Paul writes is sometimes hard to understand. This is because Paul is nuanced in his thinking and tries to agree as much as possible with the opposing argument before arguing the opposite. So, for example, Paul seems to be arguing for eating meat sacrificed to idols before he says he would never do that and we shouldn't either.

Paul was asked if "Speaking in Tongues" that no one understood was valid or a false practice that should be banned, though some claimed that this might be languages of angels. Knowing that no one can prove a negative, instead of banning the practice Paul wisely said to focus on the original intent of transferring information to people who don't speak your language and to focus on other gifts. Paul identifies with the people who want to speak in tongues since they are motivated to do something good, but then argues to focus their desire elsewhere. Today, Charismatic churches miss Paul's point in this chapter, and many anti-Charismatic churches miss Paul's attempt to address the issue without having to prove a negative.

4.3.5 Tithing and Giving

Tithing was the giving of a crop harvest, not giving coinage/money. This tithe was to replace the harvest that Levites would have received if they had spent the year farming instead of working in Jewish service in the temple. Part of the tithe was to be used for a feast and to purchase strong drink.

Today referencing the tithe is an easy way to help fund Christian projects. Instead, Christians should pay only their fair share of projects they have freely committed to help support. As members of a church, they should cheerfully support their portion of what is needed to support the workers, though many organizations may be overstaffed and overbuilt.

4.4 Mysticism

Mysticism is used in place of reason when people want to deal with certainties rather than probabilities where they don't have enough information. Mysticism should be rejected in favor of reason.

5. Intelligence (Who)

5.1 Humans

We are not our bodies, but our ways of thinking. Cut off any part of the body other than our brain and we can still be ourselves. We can be thought of as one individual, but we can also be defined by the "sets of ways of thinking" that we hold to. Conversely, the different "sets of ways of thinking" can be considered different "individuals" in our mind. This is the way that people can be "filled with the Holy Spirit" or "possessed by demons". We can be thought of in two ways at the same time: We are both whole individuals that persist over time, but we are also subsets of ideas that can change over time.

5.1.1 Races

The characteristics that separate races are superficial. Genetically, to reduce genetic defects it is healthiest to intermarry with people who are the furthest genetically from us. Different cultures can have better or worse social standards, so we should take the best traits of each culture.

5.1.2 Gender Roles

Both genders are equally valuable but each gender is in general designed to be better at different tasks. Just as we should be caring of people with physical struggles, we should be caring for people with gender identity struggles. We should work to maximize freedom even when we believe others are in error. But, freedom also means not trying to force people to believe that gender identity or gender attractions that don't match genetics are normative.

5.2 God

God is eternal and the designer of the Universe, which is not eternal. If "something" cannot come from "nothing", then the only other alternative would be for the creation to be eternal. In either case, something has to be eternal.

5.3 Holy Spirit

The result of having the Holy Spirit being in our minds is a strong motivation because we are convinced we are trying to do the right thing. As we change our minds and habits to become more holy, doing what is right can become strongly motivational. So, it is valid to look at the Holy Spirit in two ways: as the person of the Holy Spirit inhabiting a subset of our mind, while at the same time saying that sets of ideas are changing our minds to motivate us to be more holy, whatever the cost.

5.4 Jesus

Jesus is the example of sacrifice, to the point of being willing to die, that we as followers of Jesus are committed to following. His ways of thinking fully matched God's ways of thinking as well as the Holy Spirit's ways of thinking.

5.5 Angels and Demons

Angel means "messenger". These messengers can apparently be given bodies but they don't necessarily need physical bodies. On the other hand, there is no example of Demons existing anywhere other than inside minds, either human or animal. Demon possession can be thought of in two ways: either as a set of bad ideas that should be rejected as not one's own, or, as another individual inhabiting a subset of a mind.

5.6 Animals

Animal's minds apparently cannot conceive of symbolic language or ideas, but never the less God does make a covenant with the animals as well. Animal sacrifices were designed to bring out the emotion of sadness and to motivate a changed life. In the future when God puts an end to war, he will also cause animals to become herbivores.

Before the Flood people only ate plants, and, in the future animals will no longer be killed/eaten. So while we are currently allowed to eat meat, especially in areas/times that don't support farming or gathering, meat eating apparently wasn't intended to be normative. Also, a whole foods plant based diet seems to, in most cases, prevent vascular diseases, the leading cause of death in western diets.

5.7 Plants

While plants can react to their environment they do not have central minds that process, store or communicate information.

6. History (When)

6.1 Time

Time is just our "perception of change". What we call the "past" is our current memories and what we call the "future" is our current mental plans. So God did not create "time" itself but rather He created the regularly recurring changes we use as "clocks" to measure the passage of other changes, which is how we commonly think of "time". So, the Relativity Theory formulas describe human/device perceptions rather than what is actually happening in space independent of the observing person/device.

6.2 Our Origin

6.2.1 Freedom of Choice

God didn't have to give Adam and Eve freedom to choose from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. By giving them that choice it shows that God believes that maintaining freedom of choice is more important than maintaining an ideal society, though he is working to provide both.

Evil is not the opposite of good. Rather, Evil is striving to obtain a supposedly better, but actually non-existent, utopia by means of force. In other words, Evil is when we are prideful enough to think we know better than the designer.

6.2.2 Good Society

The Garden of Eden was the initially intended society, at least for individual families. We should each be able to rely on nature for our necessities rather than solely relying on others in society. Even if we live in cities we should be able to, if necessary, move to a location and become self-sufficient in the necessities. Otherwise we effectively become slaves to our society.

6.2.3 Origin of Death and Suffering

Death and suffering motivates us to want a world where there is no death or suffering. Death is not the end but it symbolizes ultimate sacrifice. If Adam and Eve were perfectly willing to die rather than eat the fruit then they would never have eaten, regardless of the amount of time.

6.3 History

6.3.1 Freedom of Choice

The wide variety of societies over history are needed to allow different societies to make varying choices to, in the end, demonstrate that God's way of setting up society is the best.

6.3.2 Good Society

The goal of history is to show how to set up the best society.

6.3.3 History of Death and Suffering

Societies that try to use force to set up the ideal Utopian society typically end up causing the most death and suffering. Societies that work to maximize freedom end up creating the best societies.

6.3.4 Historical Governments

6.3.4.1 Before the Flood

Violence was so bad before the Flood that society needed to be ended and started over.

6.3.4.2 Sumer

All the key events in the book of Genesis are found in some form in Sumerian mythology/history. Abraham left the corruption of Sumer to found a new society.

6.3.4.3 Egypt

Moses rejected the mythology of Egypt in favor of the history that Sumerian myths were based on. The Israelites left the corruption of Egypt to recreate a society more similar to the Garden of Eden, as Abraham had done before them.

6.3.4.4 Israel

Israel was intended as an example of a group of people following God, but the intent was to maintain freedom. High value was placed on not becoming a slave to work. Moses says he never took anyone's donkey, so government infrastructure was minimal. Samuel said God wasn't pleased that Israel asked for a King who would build an army, amass wealth and go to war. Much of Genesis is written to show the problems of society without a law to guide the people and to justify submitting to the laws in the Torah. The temple and the sacrifices were initially needed as physical symbols, but were not ultimately what God wanted.

6.3.4.5 Roman Empire

Today the West is a descendant of the Roman Empire rather than being a descendant of Israel. We follow the example intended by Israel and their laws but we were not intended to be under the same laws as Israel.

6.4 The Future

6.4.1 Freedom of Choice

Heaven and Hell is the separation of people who are willing to sacrifice themselves to follow God from those who are not willing to do that. People who make good choices will create a good society (Heaven) and those who make bad choices will create a very bad society (Hell). Also, God is not required to make the world work just as well for those who do not follow Him. So Hell is a very bad place even without the need for God to eternally torture people in Hell.

6.4.2 Good Society

Heaven is a place where freedom of choice is maintained but those in Heaven have shown that they naturally will choose to do what is right. Good relationships and good societies are both forms of good "trade". "Virtues" are just heuristics that generally promote good "trade", good relationships and good societies.

6.4.3 Future of Death and Suffering

Death and suffering were not originally intended but are useful to motivate us to want a future world without death and suffering. Even though death is not the end, it is symbolic of making the ultimate sacrifice as followers of Jesus. Since death is not the end then at some point it will no longer be an issue.

7. The Universe (Where)

7.1 Supernatural, Simplicity/Complexity and Substitutes

There is no actual difference between "natural" and "supernatural". If something is re-creatable we call it natural and if we can't re-create something we call it supernatural. Natural objects hide complexity and interact with simplicity. Since the designer has a broader view of how things should work, in general, doing things naturally is the best method. There are two kinds of substitutes for nature. One kind of substitute is a good substitute for areas where we cannot do something naturally (such as exercise when we can't do hard labor). A bad kind of substitute is where we think we are improving on nature, trying to maximize superficial traits at the cost of more important traits.

7.2 Miracles

We call something a miracle if it isn't repeatable and we don't understand the mechanism. Once we understand the mechanism or can repeat the event we call it natural rather than a miracle. Since we can't repeat or understand everything, by definition some miracles are possible.

8. Goals (Why)

8.1 Value, Motivation

8.1.1 Honor/Worship

To worship is to ascribe value to something, not just singing or adoring as the term "worship" is commonly understood. Worship is important because when we increase the value we ascribe to God we are also therefore increasing the value ascribed to His creation and to human life. Value is a perception which is only partly based on usefulness. We many times derive our value from the perception of others around us, so it is important to surround ourselves with people who value us and to remind ourselves that God values us and others highly.

8.1.2 Happiness/Enjoyment

True happiness comes from knowing we are doing the right thing, even if that causes short term pain. Short term pleasure can at the same time be causing unhappiness.

8.1.3 Faith, Hope and Love

Faith, Hope and Love all have in common embracing risk. Faith allows us to live in a world of current risks. Hope motivates us to act as if the future will be better even when there is risk of failure, pain and death. Love gives to others even when there is a risk that giving will not be reciprocated.

8.2 Freedom (How)

8.2.1 Providence and Free Will

God has full control but we also have full free will. Which one we perceive is just a matter of how much information we have. If God controls all the forces on dice being rolled then he also controls the outcome of the roll. But, if we don't see how he is controlling those forces then the outcome looks random to us.

8.2.2 Virtues, Repentance, Justification, and Sanctification

Something isn't virtuous because God commands it but rather, by nature, he commands what He knows, as the designer, is virtuous. Repentance is a decision rather than a "work". Once we repent we are justified but it may take time to train the habits of the various virtues. That learning/growth process is called sanctification.

8.2.3 Forgiveness

We are forgiven when we try to turn away from doing wrong and we decide to follow the example of Jesus. Forgiveness should be continually offered (for one reason, harboring un-forgiveness hurts the person who was wronged), but the actual benefit of forgiveness isn't actually received by the wrongdoer until they turn from doing the wrong.

8.2.4 Excommunication

We should have freedom of association and of disassociation. We need to make it clear what groups believe and disassociate in a friendly way from those who believe differently in key areas so that outsiders can see clear distinctions between groups. But we should always be open to trade with others who have opposing beliefs in order to maximize value.

8.2.5 Work and Rest

A day of rest is important so that we don't become slaves to our work. Rest is more enjoyable when we feel we have accomplished something valuable from our work. Many times we can do better thinking and planning during times of rest such that, even with a time of rest, we are more productive than if we worked constantly.

8.3 Good Society (How)

8.3.1 Liberty

Value is determined by the free determination of others around us. So, freedom of choice is required for worship and love to be of any value.

Use of force should be limited to defending oneself and one's property. Instead of force, persuasion and trade should be used to get others to do what you want them to do. The striking of children or the extremely elderly for training or deterrence is a form of force that should be replaced with education, persuasion and trade.

8.3.2 Education

To make truly free choices we must have correct and accurate information. So, freedom of education is foundational to freedom of choice. Therefore, in a perfect world education should not be provided/regulated by the state through forced taxation.

8.3.3 Leaders and Councils

Following the collective wisdom of leaders and councils is very helpful, but we must not follow leaders/councils blindly and we must retain our freedom of choice without coercion. Leaders have conflicts of interest in that they need to maintain control, promote unity and restrain dissent. Also, all professionals have a conflict of interest in that they get more value from people continuing to be dependent on them than from training people to be self-sufficient without their ongoing services.

8.3.4 Laws

Laws, rules, standards, best practices, virtues, ethics, suggestions, etc.. are in essence all the same. Each are ways of educating/motivating people concerning practices that maximize the likelihood of good trade, relationships and society. Laws differ only in that they have law enforcement attached to coerce people to follow the practices deemed by the state to be laws. If we have a focus on trying to have good trade, relationships and societies then we will naturally do what is in the laws.

8.3.5 Contracts

Trade increases the value to both parties in the trade. Trade over time requires trust in the commitment to deliver the value at a later time. So, to maximize value we must honor our contracts.

8.3.6 Marriage

Marriage is a freely entered into contract to deliver value over time. Therefore, marriage should not be regulated by the state but rather it should be affirmed/dis-affirmed by families, churches and/or other social organizations.

8.3.7 Church

Church was intended to be individuals getting together for a shared purpose, much like home education groups function today. But, to maintain unity and to maximize the likelihood of success of the group, churches and denominations over time have naturally put into place organizational
leadership, structures, rituals and mysticism that focuses on maintaining the unity and success of the group. Rather than being centrally lecture-focused and leader-focused, churches should be decentralized, with a project and team focus.

8.3.8 Belief Systems

All belief systems have some form of wisdom, but we still need to decide what is true and what is not true in each belief system.

Christian Yoga - The Missing Manual

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 23:23:00 +0000

I first became aware that the Christian college where I work offers a Yoga class back in 2008 so I began researching the topic. I ended up visiting Yoga classes at the Science of Spirituality, Theosophical Society and the local Hindu Temple to compare their practices and teachings. The Yoga class at the Hindu temple was the most interesting and that motivated me to learn more about Yoga from the Hindu perspective. A May 2013 episode (51 minutes) of the Moody Radio show "Up for Debate" on Christian use of Yoga referenced my hands-on research of this topic.

In my initial thinking, I used two arguments that Christians should refrain from Yoga (which I think are still valid, but I now think there is a better way to address this question):

1. Paul argued that while eating meat sacrificed to idols was technically O.K. since idols aren't real (similar to how Yoga is technically O.K. because it is just stretching), he said he wouldn't do it because it could confuse others (my paraphrase). Also, note that at least two other passages (Acts 21:25, Rev 2:14) seem to condemn Christians eating meat sacrificed to idols.

2. The writer of the book of Kings argued against worshiping God at high places, where the other religions were worshiping. If you think about it, going up a mountain to worship God requires physical labor (like Yoga), the air is a little thinner so possibly making people at little light headed after climbing (somewhat similar to and including an adrenaline high), and the view is awesome. Those characteristics help motivate people to think about the big picture (the "mountain top experience", or more simply, a "high"). So it would be easy to think you are getting a spiritual experience on top of a mountain, substituting for a focus on Truth. I like this analogy because it says leaders who were wholly devoted to God nevertheless did not take down the high places, leading to a situation a few generations later where most of the society rejected God.

But I ended up deciding that the best method of addressing this question might be to argue that if you are a Christian considering or practicing Yoga, then I would suggest that you should learn more about the Hindu history and philosophy of Yoga directly from Hindus so that you can make good decisions on this topic. That is what this blog post is intended to help you do. So, this is my attempt at a "missing manual" for Christians considering Yoga.

Now, six years later, the college is offering "Lenten Yoga: a contemplative practice for the Lenten Season", which has motivated me to make this updated post. Also, now I see that there are more Hindu discussions of the meaning of Yoga on YouTube which were not available when I did my initial blog post six years ago. So, now you can get the information directly from Hindu sources. If you watch the three following videos, you will understand more about Yoga than probably 99% of westerners.

1. Here is a set of videos discussing the possible future merging of Christianity, Hinduism and Atheism, followed by a discussion of atheists and Christians using Yoga for health benefits at first, then graduating to an understanding of the spiritual meanings/benefits of Yoga (17 minutes). I also added a video clip on the end of Billy Graham discussing his inclusivist beliefs (which says good people of all belief systems are chosen to go to Heaven, which is similar to but a little different than Universalist beliefs), which C.S. Lewis also shared (the two most honored Christians at the college where I work):

2. Here is a video talking about a panel discussion on the topic from Hinduism Today (15 minutes). I also added on the end a video clip of Father Keating discussing how his Christian beliefs (step 1) are transcended by Hindu/Buddhist concepts of Oneness (steps 2 and 3 of the "spiritual journey"):

3. Here is a link to buy the below video on Yoga philosophy from the Christian perspective. This one isn't a Hindu source, and I don't necessarily agree with all the assertions, such as the Yoga moves themselves having actual spiritual/mystical/demonic implications. Also, I always thought that the idea of Kundalini, being the waking of a sleeping snake at the base of our spine, came from the fact that our intestines look like a coiled snake rather than being a reference to the serpent in Genesis and Revelations. But in any event this Christian author did grow up in India and the video has some very interesting first hand accounts from the Christian perspective (77 minutes):

If you want more information, check out the Wikipedia article on Yoga, and the origins of the Sun Salutation: "Its origins lie in India where they worship Surya, the Hindu solar deity". Compare that to Ezekiel 8:15-16 where it says:

15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these.”
16 Then He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar,were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.

I know that most westerners aren't intending to worship the Sun when they do a sun salutation, but at the Hindu temple they did say during our sun and moon salutations that we were "honoring the Sun" and "honoring the Moon". So I would still suggest thinking about that passage the next time you do a Sun or Moon salutation.

I am a Christian libertarian so I believe that the ten commandments were really talking about how to maintain freedom, through right motivations (don't covet), respect for ownership of yourself (don't kill) and your work (don't steal), and respect for free trade/contracts (no adultery, honor parents, honor God). But to make free choices requires that you have all the information. Now that you have more background information on Yoga you are more free, and also more responsible, to make good decisions.

If you aren't a Christian, then perhaps none of this matters. But if you are a Christian who believes the God of the Bible actually exists, then perhaps Pilates or some other categorization of similar stretches might be a way to obtain the same physical benefits without risking disrespecting God. God gives us freedom to do what we believe is best, but choose wisely.

A Road-map to Self-Directed Christian Liberal Education

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 02:01:00 +0000

See the current summary of this model at www.theballardmodel.com.

The "How" of Building an Effective Christian Community

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 21:12:00 +0000

I work at a Christian college. A committee was tasked with created a document called "Working in Community" that describes what it looks like to build Community in a Christian workplace. In reading the document, it struck me that the document does a very good job of describing what a successful Christian community looks like, but it doesn't seem to focus on how Biblical concepts actually are the foundation of an effective community. Also, it doesn't indicate how those Biblical concepts are in actuality the same financial and managerial best practices used in all successful organizations, but in a Christian context using Christian lingo.

Much of the confusion in this area seems to come from differing definitions of terms. I actually view “stewardship” as “delegated ownership” (which includes accountability), whereas most people seem to view stewardship and ownership as opposites. The practical difference is that many people think the Christian view of management is to give up ownership (and therefore to give up control and responsibility), whereas I would argue that an enlightened understanding of wise, delegated ownership is key to building a good community. Many times it is when “ownership” is unclear that people try to force others to do what they think is right rather than trying to persuade or trade to get what they want. Note that the verses in the Bible that seem to argue against “ownership” actually presuppose ownership rights as being valid but then argues that people should trade to obtain greater value. Also, I would argue that the Ten Commandments actually defines ownership. For example, “Do not steal” actually presupposes and defines ownership of physical items to be a valid concept, “Do not kill” defines ownership of our own bodies, etc...

Also, I would view the concepts of “community” and “relationships” as actually the same concept as “trade”. Note that trade is two or more people exchanging things (including exchanging time and information) such that, in the aggregate, they each believe they benefit in some way more than it costs them. Healthy trade, community and relationships each increases value to all involved otherwise the trade would cease, the community would fall apart and the relationship would end (or at least it would be an “unhealthy” relationship).

The reason I am interested in this topic is that these concepts have been of significant value to my household. We have eight kids so it is a necessity to maintain a good family community. What we do when there is conflict is to clarify (delegated) “ownership” of particular areas. So, when an inappropriate form of attempted control (physical, verbal, tantrums, whining, etc..) takes place we first ask who “owns” that decision, then we have the others involved try to persuade the owner and possibly trade with the owner to get what they want/need. So, the only methods of control that we use are persuasion/debate and trade based on ownership. The other methods of control: physical force, punishment, peer pressure, yelling/pouting, tantrums, etc.. are considered to be invalid attempts to control (steal) what other people own. We teach them that to say “please”, “thank you, “yes ma’am”, etc.. is valuable because that indicates to others that they respect their ownership/choices and will not try to force them to do what they want (which intuitively indicates they will be good trading partners). Basically, what I am arguing that the non-aggression principle is just a restatement of the golden rule, which is a summary of the Ten Commandments.

We also teach them that grace/forgiveness is very important (assuming they have the right motives), because they can only be motivated to try to do things well if they are assured that there is acceptance when they fail. Also, emotions are mostly learned “reasoning shortcuts” that motivates us to action of some kind, so emotions should be managed and used for self-motivation. Note that these ideas work the same universally so our relationships don’t have to change when they get out on their own, there is no need for rebellion (hopefully…) and they are also learning how to interact with others at church and in their careers.

So, I would argue that the Biblical concepts of wise delegated ownership (stewardship) and trade (community, relationships) are actually the power behind building a good community and that these concepts are the best way to resolve conflicts. Conflicts can also be resolved by “giving up ownership”, but that also removes control and responsibility, leading to less that optimal solutions and many times more conflict in the future. I sometimes worry that we are good at communicating what godly interactions should look like but that we don’t always communicate well the power of how Biblical concepts promote virtue in the workplace and in communities.

The Liberal Arts and the Ideal Christian Educational Institution

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:28:00 +0000

The ideal education system:
The ideal educational system is arguably one where everyone in the world is prepared with the "methods of thinking”, information, and relationships just before they need them in order to create "value", erring on the side of becoming prepared through education sooner rather than later. It would provide an overview and foundational ”ways of thinking”, information and relationships for all areas of knowledge, both the “Liberal Arts” areas and the (broadly defined) “Technology” areas. It would then also train each person to be an expert in at least one specific area such that they can monetize/trade that expertise with other experts to achieve division of labor/economy of scale and maximize value (note: “value” can be qualitative and does not necessarily mean monetized value).

Historical Trade-offs due to limited educational resources:
The problem is that because of limited time and resources we can’t yet reach that ideal. So the question for educational institutions is: what should we leave off? Trade schools and apprenticeships tend to focus on providing a marketable expertise but they tend to minimize training on foundational/broader technology and liberal arts. General undergraduate colleges that focus on technical degrees tend to focus on overview/foundational technology knowledge, but they tend to minimize training in the liberal arts and don’t typically provide a particular area of expertise (unless someone continues to get their Doctorate). The Liberal Arts colleges focus on the liberal arts, but they tend to minimize foundational/overview knowledge of technology and they don’t normally provide a particular area of expertise. And all colleges historically have focused just on the four college years, pre-caching "ways of thinking”, information and relationships for students during those four years that the faculty expect they will likely need in the future (rather than also providing resources the students could access in a just-in-time manner either before or after those four years of college education).

The current day form of Reformation we are living through:
The Reformation was arguably enabled by the information technology of the day, the printing press, which allowed a few leaders to publish directly to the masses. Today we have technology that allows the masses to publish to the masses. So, if the information technology of the Reformation allowed every man to become his own priest (one form of education/motivation), then the information technology of today is allowing everyone to become their own evangelists (another form of education/motivation). As the Reformation had a significant effect on education and community, so too we are living through an era where we need to take these kinds of systemic changes into account.

Opportunity to transcend historical trade-offs:
Today Information Technology is bringing a revolution on the order of the Reformation and the printing press, such that we can now get closer to providing the ideal educational system. So, ideally, liberal arts colleges could offer their students overviews/foundational knowledge in both the Liberal Arts and the Technology areas of knowledge (which in fact I think we actually do in many cases, since in reality the Liberal Arts areas of knowledge create “value” by being the foundational supports to the, broadly defined, “Technology” areas of knowledge), as well as at least giving them a plan for obtaining a particular expertise as well. Also, we can help the learning be more broadly “just in time” and global by offering an asynchronous re-branded subset of our services (including access to training, feedback, a community and credentialing) to prospective students, alumni and the general public, including possibly supporting multiple languages.

Rather than the concept of the “ideal educational institution” being at odds with the “ideal Liberal Arts college”, instead what I am promoting is to allow the Liberal Arts education to transcend limitations that have been imposed on all three models of education in the past due to lack of available resources and lack of needed information technologies. I would argue that separation of the three types of educational institutions was necessary in the past to provide division of labor/economy of scale to deal with limited educational technologies/resources. But, as educational resources/capabilities increase and limitations are being removed, all three models now have the ability to grow into a combined model that also covers the areas that historically have been provided by the other two.

I am not arguing that liberal arts colleges should replace anything that they are doing as a college, because we are doing many things well. And I am not just arguing for online education, since face to face embodied education is the gold standard for many reasons. The disciples undoubtedly received a better face to face education with Jesus than we can get by studying the Bible (a book, which itself is a form of Information Technology). Rather, I am arguing that we need to supplement and expand the concept of our institutions to be closer to the ideal educational institution or we will likely lose out when other institutions expand their services into our areas of strength.

The Liberal Arts and Technologies - A New Model

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:20:00 +0000

Please Note: This is an earlier version of my thinking that I have left up for historical reasons. Please see the updated model.

This model of education refines the concepts of the trivium, quadrivium and areas of technology education as follows (it is not really new, just refined and expanded):

Please note the following implications of this model:

The Liberal Arts areas are separated by the “quantitative” and “qualitative” areas (as is the trivium and quadrivium)
Each area lower on the chart is foundational and prerequisite for each area above it
The concept of “technology” is more broadly defined than common usage, as being "the methods of doing something of value", and includes the qualitative areas of technology as well as the traditional quantitative-focused technologies (So with this definition we do actually already teach an overview of the various areas of "technology" because there are economic "technologies", social "technologies", etc..)
In this model, the liberal arts areas have inherent value because they are required foundations to creating value in the (broadly defined) "technologies" areas
The arts and music are included under the area of “social technologies”. They are special in that they have less restrictions on creative freedom than other technology areas, but they don’t get their own category because all areas of technology should include as much creativity as allowed (such as how architecture/civil engineering doesn't have as much creative freedom as art, for example).
Education and Communication are special, but they don't get their own areas because they are integral areas of "Information Technologies", in the broadest sense of that term
Each of the qualitative and quantitative liberal arts areas are interchangeable with their partner by a process of quantification or qualification (i.e., characterization).
Theoretical science is separated from observational science. Observational science correlates well with recording of history and differs only in that one is quantitative and the other is qualitative.
Language includes logic/reasoning since logic is qualitative, so language includes both communication and reasoning (and logic is as key as communicating)
Math includes both quantitative reasoning and communicating, so formula literacy/communication is as key as computation

Note that this model doesn't directly address the concept of becoming expert in at least one particular area to be able to trade/monetize that expertise with other experts, in order to obtain division of labor/economy of scale and therefore maximize "value" (note: value is not the same as "monetized value"). So learning an overview of the areas of technologies is more akin to learning the liberal arts areas than it is in just training for a career/job.

Also, when discussing these “areas of knowledge”, I am actually thinking of the term "knowledge" in the “object oriented” sense (a computing term). So, I am using the term “knowledge” in the broader sense to include “ways of thinking”, information and relationships/connections (“Wisdom” might be a better term, but the term “knowledge” is more commonly used). That correlates well with constructivism, instructivism and connectivism, which correlates well with the human brain (thought, memory, and communication).

Using this broader definition of knowledge, what educational institutions do is "pre-cache" (sorry for the computer term) the "ways of thinking", information and relationships/connections/community, that we believe will be useful to the student sometime in the future.

A Vision for Information Technology at Christian Colleges

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:15:00 +0000

This is an academic/philosophical and motivational paper I wrote in 2012 relating to IT and education at a Christian college. I thought I would post it here in case it is of use for others to broaden their view of how IT is strategically related to Christian education. It starts out addressing some of the negative issues that have been associated with IT (rebutting some assertions made in publications from some faculty at my current institution) and then argues that IT is actually integral to education and that IT is enabling a new form of reformation in our generation.

Please note: Some references are specific to the history of Wheaton College, such as Wheaton's strong stance against slavery, their initial conflict with Secret Societies, the Beltonian literary/debate society, the founders quote about this era being a "martyr-age", Billy Graham being a prominent Alumnus, and the College Motto being "For Christ and His Kingdom".

Our ancestors were given the ability to eat either from the Tree of Life or from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, but not both. In so doing God held out to them the opportunity of expressing from their hearts either an evil choice or to continue to make good choices. They chose badly. Fast forward to today. In our society we live at a time of both increasing opportunities for doing evil and increasing opportunities for doing good. As technologies, including Information Technology (IT), increase the power available to mankind, we are able to express what is in our hearts, either evil or good, in more powerful ways. Just as the new Information Technology of the printing press was used to mass produce indulgences before it was used to mass produce the Bible¹, so today we are misusing and neglecting the power of our information technologies to do good.

Our generation has been provided a powerful gift in the form of Information Technology but, on an individual level, our sinful nature causes us to misuse or neglect the benefits of that gift. Pride causes many to care too much about their online image, sometimes neglecting the humility needed to build close personal relationships. Sloth causes many to use IT mostly for recreational reasons rather than being diligent to equip themselves to advance the Kingdom of Christ. Greed contributes to causing some to take on too many online friends, be on too many email lists, try to multi-task too many items without good prioritization of their time and attention, and to neglect the God given periods of rest from the pressures of our life. Impatience causes many to learn topics superficially without taking the time to learn a topic in depth. And impatience may cause us to rush into using a new technology without the proper preparation. Lack of love for truth and wisdom allows opinion and anger to rule the day in many online conversations. But notice that the primary cause of all these problems is the human heart, not the Information Technology. We don’t blame the tree of knowledge of good and evil for the choices of our ancestors.

On a community level, our sinful natures can use Information Technology to cause harm to the community. We should glean wisdom from the Amish Christians, whose views concerning technology have generally been misunderstood². For example, many Amish use genetically modified crops and pesticides because those technologies meet their requirements for easier harvesting and greater yield. While we may disagree with some of their decisions, the Amish are not against technology in general; rather they focus on different requirements and longer term goals. In fact, the Amish may have the most experience of any Christian group in critiquing technology to prevent harm and to promote social virtue because they give a higher priority to avoiding risks to their community. For example, they have a requirement to avoid debt and surety and we would do well to do the same. They will not leave people who are trained in older technologies behind. We should learn from their example by not neglecting training, support and time for people to adjust to new technologies. They do not feel rushed to adopt a new technology until it is thoroughly vetted. We should not neglect thoroughly evaluating technologies and we should encourage talking with peer institutions that have previous experience using each particular technology. The technologies they use must be manageable and repairable over the long term. We should thoroughly consider life-cycle maintenance costs and our degree of dependence on individual vendors. They do not want to become dependent on choices made by the larger society. They want to use what meets their requirements the best, whether it be “low tech” or in some cases “high tech”. They want to be in the world but not of the world³ because sometimes society in general chooses badly.

God has a history of disciplining societies that continue to choose badly. Perhaps the most likely form of judgment that we may see in our lifetimes is a potential coming economic judgment, a natural result of the greed, impatience and pride of our society. We have gone well beyond wise capital investment and insurance into the areas of unwise consumption debt and surety. Proverbs says that the debtor becomes a slave to the lender⁴. Our federal government currently is in debt over $140,000 per household. If you include the present value of future federal obligations that number rises to $640,000 per household. But if you look at the total debt throughout all of U.S. society, including federal, state, local, commercial and individual debt, the total number come out to be just over $1M per U.S household⁵. We believe we are rich as our credit limits grow, but we are actually poor, enslaved debtors to (currently) generous masters. Proverbs says to flee surety⁶. The problems related to surety are today discussed in fancier terms such as “counter party risk” or “moral hazard”. We have arguably institutionalized the practice of surety in areas such as the FDIC insuring $8.9T in deposits and in the international credit default swap market, currently valued at over $28T⁷. By neglecting the Biblical warnings concerning debt and surety we may be setting ourselves up for economic judgment, potentially causing a significant reduction in our purchasing power. It is unclear whether that may happen tomorrow or after we retire, or whether it will happen suddenly or spread over many years. But, whatever the case, prudence demands that IT planning prepare for the days when our collective bills start to become due.

IT can help reduce college costs and/or increase productivity through economies of scale, process optimization, better decision support, automation, and greater use of free or low cost information resources. Also, through providing better mechanisms for marketing, advancement, student recruitment and online sales IT can help increase college revenues.

But the first order of business for effective use of Information Technology is to answer our Creator’s call to repentance and accept His forgiveness for our pride, greed, impatience, sloth, lack of love for truth and wisdom, and other sins and instead replace those motivations with humility, charity, patience, love of diligence, love of truth and wisdom, as well as the other virtues. But if Information Technologies can be a curse when following sinful desires, Information Technology is a blessing when we work toward truth and the Kingdom of Christ. Information Technology can help us better determine and communicate truths and it can help break down the information barriers between communities.

Christian colleges need to understand the full nature of information technology, since education itself, in its broadest sense, is a form of Information Technology. It is no accident that the three major components of information technology, storage, processing and networking, correlate well with three leading educational philosophies: instructivism (transferring stored information from teacher to student), constructivism (students “actively assemble” new information from their existing base of information) and connectivism (building connections to information). Also, a liberal arts education is the form of education where we motivate students to cache and index a wide variety of information, including various skills and values, that educators predict will be useful for them at a later time. That is similar to how a computer caches the information and programs that it predicts it will need most in the future. So, in learning and promoting appropriate uses of information technology we are actually learning and promoting the education process itself. In fact education theory and Information Technology theory are both derived from the design of humanity. Cut off any part of the body except for the brain and we can still be alive. So, humans are information based creatures and our foundational brain functions of memory, thinking and perception/communication are at the root of both education and Information Technology.

An original goal of most Christian colleges was to offer an affordable education so that anyone, regardless of economic class, could attend. We try to maintain some measure of affordability and accessibility though grants and student work programs, but as with most colleges in today’s society we have lost our ability to offer education to our students without most of them taking on a significant amount of debt. The same characteristics of Information Technology that can help prepare us for economic downturns can help provide a rebranded subset of a Christian education to a broader constituency at a significantly reduced cost, which would in turn help promote, subsidize and maintain the excellent core liberal arts curriculum without compromising the quality of that core curriculum¹⁰. While maintaining our Liberal Arts distinctives we should follow the lead of Harvard, Yale, Berkley, MIT, Hillsdale and others¹¹ in the area of opening up our course content to a broader audience¹².

In fact, we need to break down any unnecessary barriers to accessing any of our information, whether that be opening up course content to a broader constituency or unlocking our administrative data by providing timely reports, dashboards and alerts to a wide audience. By definition, secret societies limit access to their information in an attempt to increase their mystery and their majesty, but in contrast institutions of education should promote access to their content as far and as wide as possible. By unlocking course information, motivated alumni and friends will have a method of self-improvement provided by the college. Motivated prospective students will have access to the information needed to be better prepared to attend college. Current students will have a tool to better determine which classes they should sign up for. Faculty will be better able to integrate and link information between courses and K-12 and graduate institutions will be able to reference course information in their classes.

Information Technology can enable location independence, providing support for the globalization of a Christian education. We have the ability to offer our services remotely to students traveling abroad and we can easily bring in guest lecturers remotely, allowing students to see more differing perspectives and promoting a culture of discussion and debate as existed in the early college literary societies.

Using Information Technology we can offer a subset of our services to the world, without regard for race, nationality, gender or economic class. A Christian college’s ultimate goal is not limited to educating and graduating a few hundred seniors per year and launching those individuals to go out and affect society, but rather a summary of the ultimate goal of a Christian college is, as an educational institution, to affect society and the world for Christ and his Kingdom, using any means it has at its disposal. How can we say that we support social justice if we hide away from outsiders our most valuable resources, the knowledge and experience of the faculty, when it is in our power to make their knowledge widely available to people of all countries around the world?

Replica of First Printing Press

It was the Information Technology of creating scrolls that has given us the Bible, as well as giving us the counterfeit gnostic gospel scrolls, but ownership of scrolls was limited only to a few. During the reformation it was the Information Technology of the printing press that enabled both the reformation and the counter-reformation, and both movements were based on a few leaders publishing to the masses. Today’s Information Technologies of the Internet allow for a new era of evangelism, both for Christianity and for competing belief systems. Beginning with the reformation anyone could receive publications from competing experts and judge issues for themselves, effectively bypassing the monopoly of a face-to-face education from the priests. Today anyone can become their own publisher using Facebook, Twitter, blogs and multiple other forms of self-publishing. If the Information Technology of the reformation allowed every man to become his own priest, then the Information Technology of today allows anyone to become their own evangelist. A display on the second floor of Blanchard Hall at Wheaton College graphically illustrates the dwindling number of graduates who choose to go into full time missionary service. By providing our students with not only core knowledge but also with the Information Technology tools and skills they need to open their vendor’s booth in today’s marketplace of ideas, we can turn all of our students into lifetime missionaries/evangelists, equipped to each potentially become their own Billy Graham. And by leveraging the scalability of Information Technology we have it in our ability to also help equip our alumni, staff and friends to be better prepared to participate in today’s battle of ideas.

95 Theses were Nailed Here

So, renew your zeal for a new era of reformation: based on truth, and overcoming barriers to information, enabling a new era of personal and institutional evangelism. If our society is to eventually come under judgment then we need to prepare to become even more of a martyr-age¹³ institution, including effectively using all of the Information Technology tools at our disposal. So, turn off the TV, stop your frivolous texting, stop reading the latest novel, sell your computer games on eBay, and start using all of your time, talents and technology in the service of truth. Look at your hands and your feet and take it to heart that those hands and those feet will be rotting in the ground someday, until the resurrection comes. But your soul lives on and that soul maintains its memory, thinking and perception/communication capabilities and so the concepts underlying Information Technology and education are also of transcendent and eternal value. So repent, accept His forgiveness and enlarge your vision for what you will do with the fleeting few moments remaining of your fleeting life in this world and in this age. Significant challenges and opportunities lay before us but could it be that each of us were placed where we are today for such a time as this¹⁴. Remove anything that wastes your time, your focus or your resources and use what little time remains to renew again your commitment to work in this age for Christ and His Kingdom.

References:

¹http://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/indulgences.html Indulgences were printing on the printing press from the earliest days of the printing press

² http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/02/amish_hackers_a.php A discussion of Amish views towards technology

³http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+17%3A15-16&version=NASB “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

⁴ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+22%3A7&version=NASB “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.”

⁵ http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html for number of households (114M households as of 2010)

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ for current federal debt ($16,026B as of 10/2012)

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-06-us-debt-chart-medicare-social-security_n.htm for federal obligations, not including federal debt ($57,000B as of 6/2011)

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ for total U.S. Societal debt, including federal debt and obligations ($58,587B as of 10/2012)

⁶ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%206:1-5&version=NASB “My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, Have given a pledge for a stranger, If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, Have been caught with the words of your mouth, Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor. Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids; Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.”

⁷ http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/createStat.asp?System=SOD&Item=ddep ($8.9T in FDIC insured deposits as of 2012)

http://www.bis.org/statistics/otcder/dt1920a.pdf ($28T in Credit Default Swaps worldwide as of 12/2011)

¹⁰ http://open-ed.nitle.org/?page_id=36 “Higher education in 2012 seems to be on the brink of disruption, given rising costs, emerging technologies, competition from for-profits, global education, and other often-cited forces. Leaders of elite liberal arts colleges express concern that their business model, which typically involves high costs to deliver small, intimate face-to-face classes, may not be sustainable.[1] Open education ranks among those disruptive forces confronting colleges. For example, as Jon Breitenbucher (College of Wooster) argues, MOOCs may threaten liberal arts colleges by offering “extremely low cost options for obtaining skills” and replacing grades with more flexible, open means of assessment.[2] However, Breintenbucher also suggests that liberal arts institutions may be able to adapt to this challenge by adopting a “symbiotic relationship with open education resources,” so that faculty focus more on guiding learning than on delivering content.”

¹¹ http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative Harvard Open Learning Initiative

http://oyc.yale.edu/ Open Yale courses

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm MIT OpenCourseware

http://constitution.hillsdale.edu/ Hillsdale Open Constitution and History Courses

¹² http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course A description of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

¹³ http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=30882&page=1 The Greatest Story Never Told: Modern Christian Martyrdom

http://christianity.about.com/od/denominations/p/christiantoday.htm “An average of 159,960 Christians worldwide are martyred for their faith per year.” (quoted from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (2010) )

¹⁴ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+4%3A14&version=NASB "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

Picture Source Attributions: (most are Creative Commons licensed)
Adam and Eve

Amish Buggy Ride

Inflation and Gold

Virtue

Complementary nature of Instructivism, Constructivism andConnectivism

Paying Your Way

The MOOC! The Movie

Gutenberg Printing Press

Wittenberg Church door

The Seven Areas of Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:08:00 +0000

One critical area that seems to be lacking in traditional education is teaching people how the various areas of knowledge fit together. So, here is an attempt to systematically categorize all the areas of knowledge. There are other ways to categorize this information (such as the Dewey Decimal System, for example), but this is the way to categorize knowledge that currently makes the most sense to me. By using these categories it makes the educational process more understandable.

The Seven Areas of Knowledge

1. Language

How to compute (logic) and communicate qualitative information.

* Listening - Decoding verbal words and phrases into their related "thought" * Speaking - Encoding a "thought" into their related verbal word or phrase

* Phonics & word recognition - decoding written letters into mental "words"
* Handwriting & Spelling - encoding mental words into written letters
* Reading - decoding written sentences and paragraphs into "thoughts"
* Grammar & Composition - encoding "thoughts" into written sentences and paragraphs.
* Research - Methods of actively searching for some information
* Presentation - Actively disseminating in some format (speech, book, tape, video, web site, etc..)
* Logic - Using valid rules to determine previously unknown, qualitative information from information that is already known.

2. Math
How to compute and communicate quantitative information

* Philosophy of math
* Arithmetic - counting
* Algebra - translating relatively uniform qualitative information into quantitative information
* Geometry - translating quantitative information into 2D or 3D space for visual (or auditory or any of the other five senses) communication and computation
* Calculus - translating relatively non-uniform qualitative information into quantitative information and using shortcuts to handle the information more easily
* Statistics - taking into account a range of uncertainty when exact information is unknown
* Computational Math - the methods used by calculating machines to efficiently solve a math problem

3. History
The study of qualitative information recorded about events in the past.

* Human recorded record (i.e., oral, written, pictorial, audio, videographic, etc..)
* Archaeological record

* Geological record
* Astronomical record

4. Observational Science
The study of quantitative information recorded about events in the past.

Observing and Measuring the following areas:
* Earth Sciences
* Physics
* Chemistry
* Geology/Oceanography/Meteorology
* Astronomy
* Life Sciences
* Plants
* Animals
* Humans
* Social Sciences
* Psychology
* Economics
* Geography

* Political Science

5. Philosophy/Theology
Determining qualitative patterns and trying to predict likely future occurrences

* Nature of the designer

* Origins
* How best to handle current issues

* Predicting likely future events
* Possible other creations/creatures (heaven, angels, etc..)
* What is valuable to do

6. Theoretical Science

Determining quantitative patterns and trying to predict likely future occurrences

Determining patterns and predicting events in the following areas:
* Earth Sciences
* Physics
* Chemistry
* Geology/Oceanography/Meteorology
* Astronomy
* Life Sciences
* Plants
* Animals
* Humans
* Social Sciences
* Psychology
* Economics
* Geography

* Political Science

7. Technology

Using qualitative and quantitative information to do something useful

The 14 sub-areas of technology:

* Food
* Clothing
* Shelter
* Transportation
* Communication
* Education
* Medicine
* Management, Law and Government
* Financial
* Computing
* Recreation, Art and Music
* Martial Arts, Security & Military
* Career
* Interpersonal Relations

Relations between the Seven Areas of Knowledge

Math and Language - Some people think math computes and language communicates, but as defined here math can be used to both compute and communicate quantitative information and language can be used to communicate and compute qualitative information. When we "compute" qualitative information it is called "Logic".

History and Observational Science - As defined here, "History" records qualitative information. Observational science observes quantitative information and as soon as it is recorded that information is part of the past. So both history and observational science are dealing with records of past events.

Philosophy/Theology and Theoretical Science - Philosophy/Theology theorize about qualitative information whereas theoretical science theorizes about quantitative information. One mistake is that people mix up theoretical science with technology. Because they know technology works they assume a particular theoretical interpretation of observational science must be correct, but that is not always the case.

Quantitative areas - Math, Observational Science and Theoretical Science are all mainly quantitative areas of knowledge

Qualitative areas - Language, History and Philosophy/Theology are all mainly qualitative areas of knowledge

Goal of all knowledge - The goal of all knowledge is to do something of value, which by definition is the broad definition of "technology". Technology in this definition is not just electronics and other equipment, but also includes methods of using qualitative knowledge to do something useful.

Music and art - They have been traditionally given higher status because they use mediums that have few boundaries, so people can be creative with few restrictions. But in my view people can be creative in any technology, with each technology putting varying levels of restriction on their creativity. Therefore, I don't think art or music should get a special status above other technologies
.

Enlil, Enki and Genesis

noreply@blogger.com (Lowell Ballard) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:31:00 +0000

I recently went through a video course called "Between the Rivers: The History of Ancient Mesopotamia". I also read a few books containing the primary sources from the time of the Babylonians and earlier in Mesopotamia. Though Egyptologists may disagree, Mesopotamia, in particular the Sumerians, seems to be the oldest civilization for which we have records. It has Eridu, the earliest city we have records for. It has the Akkadian empire (conquered by Sargon) which is the first empire we have records for. And it has the city of Ur, which was the city that Abraham left likely around 2000 B.C. during the Ur III dynasty. So, if the early history in Genesis is at all historical then there

should be at least some similarities between the writings from Sumeria and the writings in Genesis.

All writings from early Mesopotamia relating to history seem to be considered as being totally mythical. There doesn't seem to be a separate genre of early historical writings from Mesopotamia like there is for later periods. But embedded in the early myths we would expect at least some remnants of history, distorted but handed down over time. Lets see what we find.

Here are the relevant quotes from various Mesopotamian accounts relating the history of man. While there may be some conflicting myths, in general we can Identify some Mesopotamian gods with the characters in Genesis:

Enlil (and also An)- the creator God who sends the flood, has the tablets of destiny
Enki/Ea - Satan, who helps mankind escape Enlil, he is the father of Marduk (who is later Zeus in Greece) who takes the tablets of destiny and replaces Enlil as the head of the gods
Ninmah - Eve, who chooses good or evil for her descendants
Ziusudra/Utanapishtim - Noah, who builds a boat and takes animals to escape the flood

1. Enlil controls everything

From Hymn to Enlil (Harps that once, P101-102)

Compare to Psalm 95:2-4 and Psalm 69:34

"Enlil - his orders august into the far yonder, his words holy, his unalterable utterances decisive into the far future...", "Heaven and Earth bowed of themselves down to him, and all the gods of high descent humbled themselves before him, loyally awaited for their part instructions."

2. Enlil controls the destiny of the earth

From Myth of the Storm God Zu

Compare to Acts 4:26-28 and Romans 8:28-30

"Also the omens of all the gods he (Enlil) controlled, ..., His eyes behold what Enlil does as sovereign. The crown of his sovereignty, the robe of his divinity, The tablet of destinies belonging to his divinity... "

Note: all the kings down until Babylon went to Enlil's temple to be crowned king

3. Enlil separates heaven and earth

From Song of the Hoe

Compare to Genesis 1:6-7

"Not only did the lord make the world appear in its correct form -- the lord who never changes the destinies which he determines: Enlil, who will make the human seed of the Land come forth up from the earth -- and not only did he hasten to separate heaven from earth, and hasten to separate earth from heaven, but, in order to make it possible for humans to grow in Where Flesh Came Forth he first suspended the axis of the world at Dur-an-ki."

4. The first people were made from clay

From The Harps that once... P156

Compare to Genesis 2:7

"When you have drenched even the core of the Apsu's fathering clay imma-en and imma-shar can make the fetus bigger, and when you have put limbs on it may Ninmah act as your birth-helper..."

5. Enki was considered to be wise and crafty

From The Harps that once... P155

Compare to Genesis 3:1

"Enki... the ingenious and wise one, skillful custodian of heaven and earth..."

Note: Two of Enki's symbols are a goat and a double helix snake, his compassion disarms the stern wrath of his brother Enlil, see http://en.wikiped

ia.org/wiki/Enki

6. Enki and first woman chose Good or Evil for descendants

From The Harps that once... P158-159

Compare to Genesis 3:1-6

"Enki and Ninmah were drinking beer and began to feel good inside. Ninmah said to Enlil: "As for the build of men, what makes it good or bad is mine affair, whichever way my turn of heart, I am making the decision about mode of being, good or bad." (The result was that many offspring were deformed, possibly a reference to sin)

7. A snake takes away eternal life

From Gigamesh P99

Compare to Genesis 3:13-15

"Its name shall be "Old Man Grown Young", I will eat it myself, and be again as I was in my youth! At twenty leagues they broke bread, at thirty leagues they stopped for the night. Gilgamesh found a pool whose water was cool, down he went into it, to bathe in the water. Of the plant's fragrance a snake caught scent, came up [in silence], and bore the plant off."

8. Eve driven out of Eden

From The Harps that once... P 165

Compare to Genesis 3:23-24

"I am one lamenting. ... I am one driven out of my house, at my beer-pouring party... I am become one lingering outside, cannot enter at wish! Now I cannot dwell under heaven, cannot dwell on earth, cannot in the country get out of your sight. Where you dwell not, in a house I shall build, I shall not hear your voice. Where you live not, in a city I shall build, me myself despairing silense will fill. "My city is destroyed, my house wrecked, my children taken captive. I am a fugitive driven out of Ekur (the temple of Enlil), I myself, even, have not escaped out of your hands!"

9. "Sons of God" took any women they wanted

From Epic of Gilgamesh tablet 2

Compare to Genesis 6:1-4

"For Gilgamesh, the King of Broad-Marted Uruk, open is the veil of the people for choosing. He will have intercourse with the 'destined wife,' he first, the husband afterward. This is ordered by the counsel of Anu, from the severing of his umbilical cord it has been destined for him."

10. Man's thoughts were continually evil so God decides to wipe out Mankind

From Story of Atrahasis

Compare to Genesis 6:5-7

"The country was as noisy as a bellowing bull. The God grew restless at their racket, Enlil had to listen to their noise. He addressed the great gods, 'The noise of mankind has become too much, I am losing sleep over their racket. Give the order that surrupu-disease shall break out. (A God who can hear thoughts might refer to hearing evil thoughts continually as man being "noisy")

11. Noah saves animals, gives sacrifice, has seemingly endless life

From The Harps that once... P149-150

Compare to Genesis 6:13-8:22

"All the evil winds, all stormy winds gathered into one and with them, then, the flood was sweeping over the cities of the half-bushel baskets for seven days and seven nights. After the flood had swept over the country, after the evil wind had tossed the big boat about on the great waters, the sun came out spreading light over heaven and earth. Ziusudra then drilled an into the interior of the big boat. Ziusudra, being king, stepped up before Utu kissing the ground opening in the big boat. And the gallant Utu sent his light before him. The king was butchering oxen, was being lavish with the sheep Barley cakes, crescents together with...he was crumbling for him juniper, the pure plant of the mountains, he filled on the fire and with a ...clasped to the breast he... You here have sworn by the life's breath of heaven the life's breath of earth that he verily is allied with yourself; you there, An and Enlil, have sworn by the life's breath of heaven, the life's breath of earth. that he is allied with all of you. He will disembark the small animals that come up from the earth! Ziusudra, being king, stepped up before An and Enlil kissing the ground. And An and Enlil after honoring him were granting him life like a god's, were making lasting breath of life, like a god's, descend into him. That day they made Ziusudra, preserver, as king, of the name of the small animals and the seed of mankind, live toward the east over the mountains in mount Dilmun."

12. Noah telling the story of the flood

From Gilgamesh

Compare to Genesis 6:13-8:22

"Gilgamesh spoke to Utanapishtim (Noah), the Faraway: "I have been looking at you, but your appearance is not strange--you are like me! You yourself are not different--you are like me! My mind was resolved to fight with you, but instead my arm lies useless over you. Tell me, how is it that you stand in the Assembly of the Gods, and have found life!"

Utanapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh, saying: "I will reveal to you, Gilgamesh, a thing that is hidden, a secret of the gods I will tell you! Shuruppak, a city that you surely know, situated on the banks of the Euphrates, that city was very old, and there were gods inside it. The hearts of the Great Gods moved them to inflict the Flood. Their Father Anu uttered the oath (of secrecy), Valiant Enlil was their Adviser, Ninurta was their Chamberlain, Ennugi was their Minister of Canals.

Ea (Enki), the Clever Prince, was under oath with them so he repeated their talk to the reed house: 'Reed house, reed house! Wall, wall! O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu: Tear down the house and build a boat! Abandon wealth and seek living beings! Spurn possessions and keep alive living beings! Make all living beings go up into the boat. The boat which you are to build, its dimensions must measure equal to each other: its length must correspond to its width. Roof it over like the Apsu.

I understood and spoke to my lord, Ea: 'My lord, thus is the command which you have uttered I will heed and will do it. But what shall I answer the city, the populace, and the Elders!' Ea spoke, commanding me, his servant: 'You, well then, this is what you must say to them: "It appears that Enlil is rejecting me so I cannot reside in your city, nor set foot on Enlil's earth. I will go down to the Apsu to live with my lord, Ea, and upon you he will rain down abundance, a profusion of fowl, myriad(!) fishes. He will bring

to you a harvest of wealth, in the morning he will let loaves of bread shower down, and in the evening a rain of wheat!"'

Just as dawn began to glow the land assembled around me- the carpenter carried his hatchet, the reed worker carried his flattening stone,... the men ...The child carried the pitch, the weak brought whatever else was needed. On the fifth day I laid out her exterior. It was a field in area, its walls were each 10 times 12 cubits in height, the sides of its top were of equal length, 10 times It cubits each. I laid out its interior structure and drew a picture of it. I provided it with six decks, thus dividing it into seven levels. The inside of it I divided into nine compartments. I drove plugs to keep out water in its middle part. I saw to the punting poles and laid in what was necessa

ry. Three times 3,600 units of raw bitumen I poured into the bitumen kiln, three times 3,600 units of pitch ...into it, there were three times 3,600 porters of casks who carried vegetable oil, apart from the 3,600 units of oil which they consumed and two times 3,600 units of oil which the boatman stored away. I butchered oxen for the meat, and day upon day I slaughtered sheep. I gave the workmen ale, beer, oil, and wine, as if it were river water, so they could make a party like the New Year's Festival. and I set my hand to the oiling. The boat was finished by sunset.

The launching was very difficult. They had to keep carrying a runway of poles front to back,

until two-thirds of it had gone into the water. Whatever I had I loaded on it: whatever silver I had I loaded on it, whatever gold I had I loaded on it. All the living beings that I had I loaded on it, I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat, all the beasts and animals of the field and the craftsmen I had go up. Shamash had set a stated time: 'In the morning I will let loaves of bread shower down, and in the evening a rain of wheat! Go

inside the boat, seal the entry!' That stated time had arrived. In the morning he let loaves of bread shower down, and in the evening a rain of wheat. I watched the appearance of the weather-- the weather was frightful to behold! I went into the boat and sealed the entry. For the caulking of the boat, to Puzuramurri, the boatman, I gave the palace together with its contents.

Just as dawn began to glow there arose from the horizon a black cloud. Adad rumbled inside of it, before him went Shullat and Hanish, heralds going over mountain and land. Erragal pulled out the mooring poles, forth went Ninurta and made the dikes overflow. The Anunnaki lifted up the torches, setting the land ablaze with their flare. Stunned shock over Adad's deeds overtook the heavens, and turned to blackness all that had been light. The... land shattered like a... pot. All day long the South Wind blew ..., blowing fast, submerging the mountain in water, overwhelming the people like an attack. No one could see his fellow, they could not recognize each oth

er in the torrent. The gods were frightened by the Flood, and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu. The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall. Ishtar shrieked like a woman in childbirth, the sweet-voiced Mistress of the Gods wailed: 'The olden days have alas turned to clay, because I said evil things in the Assembly of the Gods! How could I say evil things in the Assembly of the Gods, ordering a catastrophe to destroy my people!! No sooner have I given birth to my dear people than they fill the sea like so many fish!' The gods--those of the Anunnaki--were weeping with her, the gods humbly sat weeping, sobbing with grief, their lips burning, parched with thirst. Six days and seven nights came the wind

and flood, the storm flattening the land. When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding, the flood was a war--struggling with itself like a woman writhing in labor. The sea calmed, fell still, the whirlwind and flood stopped up. I looked around all day long--quiet had set in and all the human beings had turned to clay! The terrain was as flat as a roof. I opened a vent and fresh air (daylight!) fell upon the side of my nose. I fell to my knees and sat weeping, tears streaming down the side of my nose. I looked around for coastlines in the expanse of the sea, and at twelve leagues there emerged a region of land. On Mt. Nimush the boat lodged firm, Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing no sway. One day and a second Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing no sway. A third day, a fourth, Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing no sway. A fifth day, a sixth, Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing no sway. When a seventh day arrived I sent forth a dove and released it. The dove went off, but came back to me; no perch was visible so it circled back to me. I sent forth a swallow and released it. The swallow went off, but

came back to me; no perch was visible so it circled back to me. I sent forth a raven and released it. The raven went off, and saw the waters slither back. It eats, it scratches, it bobs, but does not circle back to me. Then I sent out everything in all directions and sacrificed a sheep. I offered incense in front of the mountain-ziggurat. Seven and seven cult vessels I put in place, and into the fire underneath I poured reeds, cedar, and myrtle. The gods smelled the savor, the gods smelled the sweet savor, and collected like flies over a sheep sacrifice.

Just then Beletili arrived. She lifted up the large beads which Anu had made for his enjoyment: 'You gods, as surely as I shall not forget this lapis lazuli around my neck, may I be mindful of these days, and never forget them! The gods may come to the incense offering, but Enlil may not come to the incense offering, because without considering he brought about the Flood and consigned my people to annihilation.' Just then Enlil arrived. He saw the boat and became furious, he was filled with rage at the Igigi gods: 'Where did a living being escape? No man was to survive the annihilation!' Ninurta spoke to Valiant Enlil, saying: 'Who else but Ea could devise such a thing? It is Ea who knows every machination!' La spoke to Valiant Enlil, saying: 'It is yours, O Valiant One, who is the Sage of the Gods. How, how could you bring about a Flood without consideration Charge the violation to the violator, charge the offense to the offender, but be compassionate lest mankind be cut off, be patient lest they be killed. Instead of your bringing on the Flood, would that a lion had appeared to diminish the people! Instead of your bringing on the Flood, would that a wolf had appeared to diminish the people! Instead of your bringing on the Flood, would that famine had occurred to slay the land! Instead of your bringing on the Flood, would that (Pestilent) Erra had appeared to ravage the land! It was not I who revealed the secret of the Great Gods, I only made a dream appear to Atrahasis, and thus he heard the secret of the gods. Now then! The deliberation should be about him!'

Enlil went up inside the boat and, grasping my hand, made me go up. He had my wife go up and kneel by my side. He touched our forehead and, standing between us, he blessed us: 'Previously Utanapishtim was a human being. But now let Utanapishtim and his wife become like us, the gods! "

13. Long life removed from mankind a few generations after the flood

From Gilgamesh P XLV

Compare to Genesis 9:28 and Genesis 11:10-26

"After the assembly had made the Deluge sweep over... Ziusudra, one of mankind, still lived!... From that time we swore that mankind should not have life eternal."

"After the Flood had swept over... when the gods An and Enlil... had not sent down from heaven (once more) kingship, crown and even city, and for all the overthrown people had not established (once more) mattock, spade, earth-basket and plough, the things which ensure the life of the land, then a man spent one hundred years as a boy, free of duties, another hundred years he spent, after he grew up, (but still) he performed no task of work."

14. Changing of one language into many

From Harps that once...

Compare to Genesis 11:1-9

"Once upon a time, there was no snake, there was no scorpion, There was no hyena, there was no lion, There was no wild dog, no wolf, There was no fear, no terror, Man had no rival. In those days, the land Shubur-Hamazi, Harmony-tongued Sumer, the great land of the me of princeship, Uri, the land having all that is appropriate, The land Martu, resting in security, The whole universe, the people well cared for, To Enlil in one tongue gave speech.

Then the lord defiant, the prince defiant, the king defiant, Enki, the lord of abundance, whose commands are trustworthy, The lord of wisdom, who scans the land, The leader of the gods,

The lord of Eridu, endowed with wisdom, Changed the speech in their mouths, put contention into it, Into the speech of man that had been one."

Note: Eridu was the first known city and it had a large Ziggurat, Enki, who opposed Enlil in the Sumerian flood story, was the patron god of Eridu, and there are correspondences between "Eridu" and "Babylon", See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridu#Possible_location_of_Tower_of_Babel

Note: the first successful large city was Uruk. One myth tells of how the plans for building civilization were stolen from Eridu and taken upstream to Uruk, See http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sumer_anunnaki/esp_sumer

_annunaki16.htm

15. World replaces creator God with polytheism

From Harps that once... P171

"Enlil was passing through Kiur, and as Enlil was passing through Kiur the fifty great gods, and the seven gods of formulating the decisions, were seizing Enlil in Kiur: The sex offender Enlil will leave the town! The sex offender Nunamnir will leave the town! Enlil, in accordance with what has been decided about him, left town. Enlil was walking along, Ninlil was following..."

16. Hammurabi was a follower of a creator god

From Code of Hammurabi

"When lofty Anum, king of the Anunnaki, and Enlil, lord of heaven and earth, the determiner of the destinies of the land, determined for Marduk, the first-born of Enki, the Enlil functions over all mankind, made him great among the Igigi, called Babylon by its exalted name, made it supreme in the world, established for him in its midst an enduring kingship, whose foundations are as firm as heaven and earth - at that time Anum and Enlil named me to promote the welfare of the people, me, Hammurabi, the devout, god-fearing prince, to cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, that the strong might not oppress the weak, to rise like the sun over the black-headed people, and to light up the land. Hammurabi, the shepherd, called by Enlil, am I; the one who makes affluence and plenty abound; who provides in abundance all sorts of things for Nippur-Duranki; the devout patron of Ekur; the efficient king, who restored Eridu to its place"

17. Four males and four females come out of water

From Egyptian Creation Myths

Flood related myth from ancient Egypt:

The oldest of the Egyptian creation myths was that eight gods, fo

ur male and four female, were created out of water. That would fit well with the flood story since four men and four wome

n came out of the ark. Each of them lived much longer than their descendants and had tales of a more populated world that was lost, so they could have seemed like Gods with eternal life to their descendants.

Note about Terah and Abram and Ur

Depending on the specific dating, Terah and Abraham may have left Ur during the Ur III dynasty. If so Ur may have been the thriving capital city of Mesopotamia at the time. The first king of Ur rebuilt the major Ziggurats in Nippur (to Enlil), Ur, Uruk and Uridu (the first known Ziggurat). And the second king of the Ur III dynasty wrote arrogant things about how great he was and he declared himself to be a god. He was the second king in history to do that. The first king to declare himself to be a god was told in a dream by Enlil that he would have some kind of disaster. That king destroyed the temple of Enlil and his Akkadian empire was taken over and destroyed some time not too long after that (during the reign of the next king).

So, if the chronology I am using correctly dates Abraham's life (somewhere around 2000 B.C.,), the dates could match up with him leaving Ur possibly during the Reign of Shulgi, who was the second king to declare himself a God. At that point it would make sense that God might abandon Mesopotamia and create a new nation that recovers the true history of the creator God and the flood.

Also, it is interesting that Ur and Haran (where they originally went) both have the same patron god of the Moon. The new testament says Terah and Abraham were actual polytheists who were called out of that society rather than pure monotheists out of step with the culture. Abraham would have seen, and likely visited many times, the Zigurat pictured here. The timeline also suggests it may have been built during the lifetime of Terah, Abram's father.

Since Shulgi declared that writings be re-written in a new format, there would have been many scholars at this time re-writing older texts. It is possible that Terah and Abraham may have learned about more accurate histories than were popularly known at the time and so they came to reject the mythologies that had come to surround their history.

From The Harps that Once Page xii "The majority of works we possess seems to have come down to us in a form given them slightly later, during the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur, some of the rulers of which - notably Shulgi - were much concerned to preserve extant older literary works and to encourage the creation of new ones".

Summary:

These correlations do not prove that the ancient history listed in the Bible is accurate. One could just as easily argue that the history in Genesis is a cleaned up version of Sumerian myths, which may be the reason why churches do not teach people about these correlations in Sunday School. But at least it can be said that a best guess at pulling history out of the earliest myths is consistent with what we would expect if the Bible history in Genesis is true. Perhaps that is part of the reason why the Book of Genesis has stood the test of time and today over half of the world's population (including Christians, Muslims and Jews) honor the book of Genesis.

The Trinity of Christian Management

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 23:48:00 +0000

After becoming a manager I spent a few years learning the various management methodologies and recommendations. I've been certified in project management, attended the Dale Carnegie Course, read most all of what Steven Covey has written and attended Franklin/Covey classes, I've been certified as a Help Desk manager, plus I have been training and certified in the most common IT management frameworks (such as ITIL and COBIT). Basically I have looked for most any information that would seem to help me in my career as an IT manager. But, after looking at the various information, recommendations and frameworks concerning how best to manage, I started to question how all these various recommendations actually fit together. Managing shouldn't have to be that complex. So, I started trying to simplify and combine the various recommendations to boil them down to the essentials of how to manage effectively.

Best Practices

The first core concept I came to is that, regardless of how we manage, the goal is always to get to some idealized set of "best practices" for performing each of our functions. Even though we may never actually get there or we may be mistaken about what is "best" in a given situation, getting to a set of "best practices" is still the goal.

The concept of "best practices" goes by many names. If there is no force behind them we call them suggestions, recommendations, or models. If we put social pressure behind them they are called etiquette. If we put law enforcement behind them then they are called laws. But these are all just different forms of "best practices".

Willingness to Sacrifice Yourself

The concept of "best practices" seemed obvious from the list of hundreds or even thousands of recommendations that the various management literature recommends. But just teaching and

knowing the recommendations is not enough to be effective. We need to actually put the recommendations into practice to be effective. Now we naturally do things that give us an immediate reward, so those kinds of tasks do not even need to be managed. But what we do not do naturally are the things that bring some pain or hardship up front in order to gain a greater reward later. So, a big part of management seems to be the art of getting people, including yourself, to want to do the painful things up front to get a reward later. To do that requires the willingness to sacrifice short term benefits to obtain long term gain, so the willingness to make self sacrifices seems key to be willing to implement "best practices".

Right Attitude (Motivation)

But what causes us to be willing to make the needed sacrifices? To do that we need to have the correct attitude/motivation. The best model I have heard for how we motivate ourselves and others is to convince people that a particular goal is valuable and worth the cost of obtaining the goal, and then to show a believable path for getting there which builds hope of actually being able to obtain the goal.

The Trinity

It was at that point that I realized that reducing management theory to core concepts in this way reflects the core attributes of the Trinity. God the creator gave us laws and practices which, even if they don't seem to us to be best, by definition they must be the best if he is an all powerful, good creator. So God is the author of the concept of "best practices". But that apparently wasn't enough for mankind to live rightly so Jesus came and sacrificed himself to uphold the truth of what he taught, including that he was God's son, while at the same time submitting to the religious and legal authorities. As disciples of Jesus we have committed ourselves to also sacrificing ourselves to uphold truth and to determine and do what is right. So, a key attribute of Jesus is the willingness to make self sacrifices to support what is right. But apparently even that wasn't enough for the first century followers of Jesus to boldly sacrifice themselves to do what is right. They needed the Holy Spirit to motivate them to be willing to sacrifice themselves. So, there you have it. God is the giver of best practices, Jesus sacrificed himself rather than compromise truth and the Holy Spirit gives the right attitude/motivation to the disciples of Jesus. So the key attributes associated with the Trinity are also the key attributes of effective management, especially self management.

Engineering Trade-offs

You might ask why there is problems with the world if God is an effective manager. The reason is that the common Utopian concept of a "perfect" world of freedom without any pain does not actually exist, even for God. Apparently God values freedom of choice and where there is true freedom of choice there are also bad choices being made. So, by definition, in a world with freedom of choice there also has to be the problems associated with bad choices. Also, God is not required to make everything work perfectly, so it appears, according to the Bible, that after man chose not to follow God He changed the world somewhat to not work perfectly, likely to cause us to desire the perfect world which we do not currently have.

It appears that the Christian God is an excellent manager (as we would expect). So it would make sense that western, historically Judeo-Christian world has advanced the art of management, invention and industry more than any other civilization.

So, when you are confronted with a management problem, either at work or on a personal level, I think you will find that the resolution can be categorized as either to determining/implementing best practices, being willing to sacrifice something that up until now you have been holding on to, or having the appropriate attitude/motivation to get to your goal.

666: The Number of Solomon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 01:53:00 +0000

The book of Revelation in the Bible is mostly relaying what the writer of the book saw in a vision. Even though this vision seems like an irrational dream, we still need to interpret it using the same method we use to interpret any writing: determine what the author was trying to communicate to the intended audience.

Most all of the images in the book of Revelation are referring to similar images in the Old Testament, so it seems the author of the visions was trying to cause the intended audience to think about each of the old testament visions and what they were referring to. Places where it says things like "to him who has understanding..." seem to indicate that some of the audience would understand the references whereas others would not. Perhaps those who would understand this reference to "666" would be those who knew and understood its reference in the Old Testament.

The "666" quote in Revelation 13 & 14:^"15And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ¹⁶And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, ¹⁷and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. ¹⁸Here is wisdom Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six."

Note that "666" is "the number of a man", so the question naturally arises: "Who is that man?". While the passage could have more than one intended reference, at very least the passage would evoke in the educated Jewish reader any significant instances of that number in the old testament. So lets take a look at those references.

Old Testament References to "666"
There are two references where "666" is mentioned as part of a list of people returning from Babylon:
Ezra 2:12 -14 : ... ¹²the sons of Azgad, 1,222; ¹³the sons of Adonikam, 666; ¹⁴the sons of Bigvai, 2,056;...
Neh 7:17-19 : ...¹⁷the sons of Azgad, 2,322; ¹⁸the sons of Adonikam, 667; ¹⁹the sons of Bigvai, 2,067;...
Since there is no reference to anything historically significant done by the sons of Adonikam and it is unclear whether 666 or 667 people from this family returned from Babylon, this seems to be a chance instance of where there was a group of 666 or 667 people and that probably doesn't relate to the book of Revelation.
The only other reference to "666" in the Bible is in two passages describing the same events, one in Chronicles and one in Kings:
2 Chr 9:13-14;9:22-28¹³Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold (about 50,000 pounds of gold), ¹⁴besides that which the traders and merchants brought; and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.... ²²So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. ²³And all the kings of the earth were seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. ²⁴They brought every man his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year. ²⁵Now Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁶He was the ruler over all the kings from the Euphrates River even to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt. ²⁷The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the lowland. ²⁸And they were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all countries.
So, Chronicles shows how Solomon gathered gold and horses, but doesn't mention anything about Solomon in a negative light (such as having multiple wives and honoring other gods). To see the full picture of what happened we have to look at the book of Kings:
1 Kings 10:14-15;10:23-27;11:1-13
¹⁴Now the weight of gold which came in to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, ¹⁵besides that from the traders and the wares of the merchants and all the kings of the Arabs and the governors of the country.... ²³So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. ²⁴All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. ²⁵They brought every man his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. ²⁶Now Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; and he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁷The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the lowland...¹Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ²from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon held fast to these in love. ³He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. ⁴For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. ⁵For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. ⁶Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. ⁷Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. ⁸Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. ⁹Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, ¹⁰and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded. ¹¹So the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. ¹²"Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. ¹³"However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen."

So, it seems that Solomon increased in military might, inter-married with rulers of other countries, gathered up lots of wealth, and he honored other Gods from countries around him rather than exclusively honoring the creator. Interestingly, those are the key things a world ruler would need to do to gain power and maintain peace. But how does that compare to what the Pentateuch says a king of Israel should do?

What the Creator says kings should/should not do
Deut 7:14-20 :
¹⁴"When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,' ¹⁵you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. ¹⁶"Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' ¹⁷"He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. ¹⁸"Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹"It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
So, Solomon was the wisest and most powerful king of his time, but he disregarded what the Pentateuch said he should not do as king. Basically, he thought he knew a better way to rule than the one given by the designer and creator of the universe, and his methods were seemingly successful. So, that fits very well with as an illustration of a coming set of future world leaders, who believe that they need to use various methods of obtaining power in order to maintain peace.

Why don't students of the Bible see this seemingly obvious connection?

I think people don't focus on this connection because of the common view that "Evil" is the opposite of "Good". Many people would say Solomon is described as wise and good and so he couldn't possibly be the intended reference concerning a coming world leader who is considered by the Bible to be evil. But in fact normally the goal of someone who is "Evil" is actually trying to be better and smarter, not worse and more destructive, than what the creator designed. For example, Hitler thought he was helping the evolution of European races by getting rid of inferior individuals and races. People who kill unborn babies think they are helping young mothers be more successful in the formative years of their lives. Eve thought it would be best to eat the fruit rather than follow God's recommendation. And, most likely, Satan himself thinks he can do better than the creator's way. So, evil normally starts out thinking that

it is working to do better than the method that the creator designed, but very bad things are caused by evil people as the unintended result of their belief system (the "necessary evil" to get to their Utopian system).
Here is a test. Which one of these pictures pictures evil and which one pictures good? The answer is that we can't know by looking. Many times good can look like evil (such as tough law enforcement and capital punishment) and many times evil can look like good (such as government subsidies, which steal from one person to give to another, and interfaith prayer), "for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. (2 Cor 11:14)".

Summary

So, if this interpretation of the "666" reference is correct, then apparently it implies that a set of world leaders will arise that will seem to be as wise and respected as Solomon.They will work to bring peace and prosperity to the world. Of necessity, they will amass wealth, build a strong military, and promote inter-religious cooperation (and possibly intermarry with other powerful families). They will also, at some point, limit the ability to buy or sell as yet another means of necessary power and control. In the end they will end up believing that they need to kill those who do not honor the laws of their government above conflicting laws given by the creator.
So, don't be looking for a world leader who looks evil. But rather keep a look out for world leaders with true wisdom, but who value peace and safety more than they value either truth or the one true designer/creator (who is the only one who can actually guide us into truth and peace).

The Path

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:32:00 +0000

My son made this five minute video for a Patheos sponsored student video contest. It discusses his journey evaluating the various beliefs at the end of his home education years and beginning of college. It was mostly created using a green screen in our living room as well as some outside shots from around the Wheaton area. We edited it in Adobe Premiere. It was a fun family project. I wrote most of the script and I edited the video using Adobe Premiere. We ended up winning in our category (a $1,000 prize).

Speaking in Tongues - Understanding the Meaning

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:55:00 +0000

The concept and practice of "speaking in tongues" is very interesting to read about and to experience. I will argue that Christians from both sides of this issue do not study Paul's writings carefully enough on this subject to understand what Paul is actually trying to communicate. There is one main passage in the Bible on this subject and five supporting passages. Lets take a look at what the Bible actually says and think through what Paul is mostly likely trying to communicate.

The Five Supporting Passages - Four involving known languages/foreigners and one involving "groaning"
I will highlight in red the parts that refer either to a known language or foreigners who would likely speak a different known language.

Acts 2:1-13
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. 5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs--we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God." 12 And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13 But others were mocking and saying, "They are full of sweet wine."

So, clearly in this passage "tongues" refers to speaking a different language in order to communicate with foreigners. Interestingly, in a sense this ability temporarily makes up for God creating/separating the different languages at the Tower of Babel. At the tower of Babel God was trying to keep people from banding together to rebel from what He said to do (to disperse throughout the world). After the death of Jesus, God was apparently working to communicate the message about Jesus to all those nations/languages to give them the opportunity to believe and follow Jesus.

Acts 10
²⁸And he said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean. ³⁴ Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, ³⁵but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him. ⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. ⁴⁵ All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. ⁴⁶For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, ⁴⁷ Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?" ⁴⁸And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.

This passage is less clear on whether tongues is always used to communicate in a known language, but in this case as in the previous case there are foreigners present who would need to communicate and who are being added to the group of early Christians. Also, the phrase "just as we did" seems to imply that this experience was of the same kind as in the previous passage and there is no indication that the tongues were not understandable by those who were present.

Acts 19
¹It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. ²He said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." ³ And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, Into John's baptism." ⁴Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus." ⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. ⁷There were in all about twelve men.

Again this passage is unclear whether the tongues were necessarily understandable or not. But since they were "speaking in tongues and prophesying", that seems to indicate that the tongues were understandable since prophesying implies a transfer of information. At very least there is no indication to the contrary.

Mark 16:14-20 (Note: Some reliable early manuscripts do not contain Mark 16:9-20, so this section may have been added later by a scribe as a summary of what was said in the other books, or it might have been removed by scribes thinking it was an erroneous addition...)^[14Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. ¹⁵And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶"He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. ¹⁷"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." ¹⁹So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions. And after that, Jesus Himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.]

This section mentions speaking in tongues but does not comment further and it may or may not have been in the original writings. So this section does not seem to give us any more useful information on the subject.

Romans 8: 18-27 (phrases mentioning "groaning" and prayer highlighted in red)

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ²³And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. ²⁴For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. ²⁶In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; ²⁷and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

So, apparently here is a case of the Holy Spirit "groaning" and God understanding the pain that is trying to be communicated because He "knows what the mind of the Spirit is". So, this leaves open the possibility that some unintelligible "groanings" between a man and God are substitutes for actual speech. But note that in this case no actual communication to God is necessary since, as Paul says, He already knows what is needed.

But also note that since Jesus clearly has said that prayer should be in private (a passage that is widely disregarded in most all modern churches and home groups...) this is not a practice that Paul is advocating should occur in church.

The main passage on Speaking in Tongues
As seen above, at least one of the supporting passages clearly says that the tongues were speaking in foreign languages that were understandable by foreigners and at least one of the passages talk about "groaning" as part of private prayer. But none of the five supporting passages have any indication that tongues were used in public when no one present at the time understood what was being said. So, a valid question is whether tongues is always used to communicate to others or whether there is any situation where tongues is used in a groups setting for some other reason than communication. Now lets take a look at the main passage to answer that question.

One key to understanding the Corinthians passage on speaking in tongues is to understand that Paul is responding to a list of questions he received in a previous letter. To see this, take a look at the introductory statements to the surrounding passages:

1 Cor 7:1 "Now for the matters you wrote about:" (concerning married life)
1 Cor 7:25 "Now concerning virgins"
1 Cor 8:1 "Now concerning things sacrificed to idols"
1 Cor 12:1 "Now concerning spiritual gifts"
1 Cor 16:1 "Now concerning the collection for the saints"

So, it appears that from 1 Corinthians chapter seven on Paul is mostly answering questions that he had received in a previous letter from the church leaders at Corinth.

The passage in Corinthians is by far the longest on this subject. It seems at first reading to be discussing two types of "speaking in tongues", one type where others understand what is being said and another type where no one else seems to understand what is being said. But lets take a look to try to understand what Paul is trying to communicate.

Since Paul is responding to a previous question, to fully understand his response it would be helpful to try to infer the question he was responding to.

Dear Paul: What about Tongues that no one understands?
Here is my best guess at the question that the Corinthian church leaders had written to ask Paul which he was trying to answer in this passage in Corinthians. While somewhat of a guess, the question listed below does correlates to the answer that Paul gives and also, given normal human nature, we should have expected this situation to arise as some point.

I would suggest that the question might have been something like this:

Dear Paul,
Some of the most dedicated people in the Corinthian church became aware of how at Pentecost the apostles were miraculously given the ability to tell foreigners about Jesus in their own language. So, they asked God to give them the same ability. And some of the people also believe that this ability to speak in another tongue is a gift from God that all committed Christians should be able to do.

The problem is that when they began speaking in what they thought was a foreign language no one is able to understand them. So, some in the church now say that perhaps the foreign language is a genuine one but no one is there who speaks that particular language. So in that case the gift would be valid but no one is able to interpret in order to verify the authenticity of the gift. Others say that maybe the language is actually the language of angels and not of any foreign country at all, so we shouldn't expect anyone to be able to interpret. So, again the gift would be valid, but unverifiable. But still others say that God has not given them the gift of speaking a foreign language all and that they are presumptuously assuming God has given them this ability when He hasn't. So they insist those who are not speaking in a true foreign language have been led astray and should be kicked out of the church, similar to how false prophets were dealt with in the old testament.

So, what should we do about these people who say God has given them the gift to speak in another language but no one understands them and no one can interpret what they are saying? The people involved seem to be some of the most sincere and motivated people in the church and they affirm that Jesus is their lord. But unfortunately this issue seems to be splitting the church.

Sincerely,
Leaders of the Corinthian Church

Paul, recognizing that these were just sincere Christians wanting the miracle of speaking in different languages but not receiving the desired miracle, identified himself with them. He affirmed the desire to speak in tongues and he did not try to argue whether a specific instance of tongues was or was not valid. Instead, he said that if no one understands what they are saying (i.e., the miracle of speaking a foreign language isn't present) they should only try speaking a foreign language at home, not in public, or at least quietly to themselves. And he also implied that speaking a foreign language was the least of the abilities that God gives and so people should desire the other abilities more than just speaking a foreign language.

What I think many people miss is how thoughtfully Paul handled this issue. It would be natural for some of the more motivated people to desire the gift of speaking in a foreign language and any other ability that God might give them. But the only way they would be able to use the gift would be to start trying to talk in a different language. So, it seems natural that this question would arise just from our knowledge of human nature. And far from being the fringe of the church attempting to speak in other tongues, the core of the church, the most motivated, would most likely be the people who would want that gift.

Even those who believe that most instances of speaking in tongues today are actually other real languages have to admit, since Paul says that "not all speak in tongues", that at least some instances of speaking in tongues is a result of this natural desire to try receive good gifts from God even when God isn't giving out that particular gift at that time. And they would have to admit that there is no good way to be able to discern between an experience coming from God and the person just trying unsuccessfully to speak another language.

So, there was no way that Paul or the Corinthian church could prove a negative. If some people believed they were speaking another language, how could Paul have proved them wrong? They could always say that it was just a different language that no on in the room understood. So, instead of Paul trying a futile attempt to say they were wrong, instead Paul emphasizes that they should not do that in the church and that they should seek the more important gifts, ones that would help others.

Note how Paul handled this situation very, very tactfully and avoided a possible split in the church. Now let's see what Paul actually said. I will highlight in purple the few sections that seem to say that speaking in tongues doesn't need to be understood by someone else. I will highlight in red the areas that say that tongues should be understood by someone else, or areas that discourage speaking in tongues and I will add my commentary in parentheses in blue.

1 Cor 12-14
^12:1Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. ² You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led. (there is no information transfer with mute idols) ³Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. (so both Christians who speak with tongues and those who do not both have the Holy Spirit) ⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. ⁶There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. ⁷But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. (so the ability to speak in another known language was apparently considered a separate ability from being able to understand another language)

¹¹But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills (so apparently God doesn't give the ability to speak or understand other languages to everyone, but only to who he wills). ¹²For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹³For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. ¹⁹If they were all one member, where would the body be? ²⁰But now there are many members, but one body. ²¹And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." ²²On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; ²³and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, ²⁴whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, ²⁵so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. ²⁷Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it. ²⁸And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues (note that tongues is last on the numbered list and is therefore likely implied to be the least important). ²⁹All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? ³⁰All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? (This reply implies that some were saying that all Christians should have the ability to speak in tongues and Paul is refuting that idea) All do not interpret, do they? ³¹But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way. (While not prohibiting tongues, Paul is minimizing their importance and asking the Corinthian church to focus their efforts elsewhere)

^13:1If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. ⁴Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. (having Love for others is more important than receiving special abilities from God) ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.¹¹When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. (implies focusing on "spiritual gifts" for their own sake is something a mature Christian should move away from, toward focusing on Love for others and desiring the abilities to help others) ¹²For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ¹³But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

^14:1Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.²For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. (this is the only place in this passage where Paul says that tongues are not understandable, but read on to see whether he is recommending that as a public practice in the church or not) ³But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. ⁴One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. ⁵Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying. ⁶But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? ⁷Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? ⁸For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? ⁹So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. ¹⁰There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning. ¹¹If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me. ¹²So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church. ¹³Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵ What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. ¹⁶Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the "Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? ¹⁷For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. ¹⁸I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all; ¹⁹however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue. (so the key for Paul is being able to give information to others, whether someone is really speaking another language is not important. The key is being able to get the information across, which requires a real language)

²⁰ Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. ²¹In the Law it is written, "BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME," says the Lord. ²²So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; (to tell foreigners who aren't Christians about Jesus) but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe. (to tell believers and nonbelievers how God wants them to change their lives) ²³Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? (i.e., why wouldn't they just use their normal language??) ²⁴But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; ²⁵ the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. ²⁶ What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation Let all things be done for edification. ²⁷If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret; (there is no indication that both the tongues and the interpreter are both abilities given by God, but rather the tongue is likely a special gift but the interpreter is someone who normally knows the language, or vice versa) ²⁸but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God. ²⁹Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. ³⁰But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. ³¹For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; ³²and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; ³³for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. ³⁴ The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. ³⁵If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. ³⁶Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only? ³⁷ If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment. ³⁸But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. (both sides of the debate are likely to reject the Biblical instruction here. People against tongues are likely to split the church to maintain the purity of doctrine while those supporting tongues are likely to split the church saying they are more spiritually connected to God than those who do not speak in tongues. But Paul upholds the primacy of rationality while not splitting over an unprovable debate about whether someone trying to speak another language is actually from God or not) ³⁹Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. ⁴⁰But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.

Summary of the main passage talking about speaking in tongues
So, here is a summary of what Paul seems to actually be saying:

Don't split the church over debating whether someone is actually speaking a real language or not
Different people are given different gifts, not everyone speaks in other languages
Speaking in tongues is probably the least important of the gifts that God can give you
Having love is more important than being able to speak in tongues
If no one understands, have them do their speaking to themselves at home or to themselves
Speaking "groanings" to God in private when you are in pain is O.K. because God already knows what you need (communicating information is not necessary in that case)
Any gifts God gives you should be used to help others rather than just yourself
Paul's view is the authoritative view on the subject

So, here is a summary of what Paul was most likely trying to communicate. It appears that speaking in tongues/interpreting were meant to be special gifts to be able to tell foreigners about Jesus and to understand their responses. When the most motivated of the Corinthians tried to have the same gift, without the same need to communicate with foreigners, various views about what was happening sprung up in the Church. Paul, in characteristic fashion, broke through the surface arguments and went straight to first principles in order to solve the dilemma. He affirmed that those trying to speak in tongues were in fact highly motivated Christians while at the same time he affirmed the primacy of communicating information. The alternative was to take sides in a debate that was unprovable and therefore ultimately un-winnable.

Interestingly, if today's church leaders understood Paul's argument here that would bring back together the charismatic/pentecostal and the more rational/theological based groups in the church. And this passage is a case study for any negotiator in how to go to first principles to resolve a dispute without giving up truth and at the same time maintaining the honor and dignity of both sides of the dispute.

Secular research about speaking in tongues
The technical term for tongues that no one else understands is "glossolalia". William J. Samarin studied modern day speaking in tongues and determined that it could not be a real language, either known or unknown for the following reasons:

"...the syllable string did not form words, the stream of speech was not internally organised, and – most importantly of all – there was no systematic relationship between units of speech and concepts. Humans use language to communicate, but glossolalia does not. Therefore he concluded that glossolalia is not "a specimen of human language because it is neither internally organized nor systematically related to the world man perceives".

On the basis of his linguistic analysis, Samarin defined Pentecostal glossolalia as "meaningless but phonologically structured human utterance, believed by the speaker to be a real language but bearing no systematic resemblance to any natural language, living or dead".

Felicitas Goodman, a psychological anthropologist and linguist, studied a number of Pentecostal communities in the United States, Caribbean and Mexico; these included English, Spanish and Mayan speaking groups. She compared what she found with recordings of non-Christian rituals from Africa, Borneo, Indonesia and Japan. She took into account both the segmental structure (such as sounds, syllables, phrases) and the supra-segmental elements (rhythm, accent, intonation), and concluded that there was no distinction between what was practiced by the Pentecostal Protestants and the followers of other religions.

Free Will and Determinism are the Same

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:48:00 +0000

I have been wanting to write on this topic for awhile now, but had more important posts to work on. But tonight I googled "Choose Your Beliefs" and found a post named "You Cannot Choose Your Beliefs". In a sense I agree but on the surface that sounds contradictory to the name and purpose of my Blog. So, I thought I should explain how Free Will and Determinism (or alternatively Pelagianism and Calvinism) are not just compatible, but actually they are two perspectives describing the exact same concept. This is a first rough draft which I will clean up over the next few weeks, but I wanted to go ahead and post it to motivate myself to get this one done. This concept is key to having a rational view of who God is and to resolve some common misconceptions that lead to unnecessary debate.

The difference between free will and determinism is just a matter of perspective. If someone knows/controls a situation then to that person the situation is predetermined. If someone else does not know how a situation is controlled then to that person there is no determinism and everything involves free choice.

For example, if someone knows the way to the airport, was able to put in your mind the desire to go there and they put a roadblock in the way that causes a detour, that person will both know and cause you to take a certain path and they will know ahead of time where you will go. But from your perspective you will have made the free choice to go to the airport down the direct path, but an obstacle in the way will cause you to choose to take an unplanned detour. So, both perspectives of determinism and free will are true depending on how much knowledge of a situation a person has.

Another illustration is what happens when we roll dice. To the casual observer it looks like the result of the dice throw is pure random chance. But to someone who both knows and controls all the forces on the dice during the throw, including the forces exerted by our hands, the air, the surface of the table, etc.., that person can both know and control the result of the dice throw.

Now, just because someone can fully control every aspect of a dice throw doesn't necessarily mean that they actually do control every aspect of a particular throw. Logically they could know all the forces without directly causing each and every force. So, someone with the ability to control all forces on a dice throw could either actively and directly "cause" a certain result or they could passively and indirectly "allow" a certain result and we would not be able to tell the difference.

So, the debate between determinism and free will is just a matter of the perspective and ability of control that the observer has. From God's perspective, everything is fully controlled and known, either actively or passively on His part. So, ultimately the determinism perspective is the most accurate one since God's perspective is the most accurate perspective. But from man's perspective, it is as if everything is free will and nothing is controlled (unless God tells us what he is controlling beforehand). So, the only option man has is to act as if everything is free will and nothing is predetermined, unless God tells us what is predetermined (because only He knows).

The problems occur when people try to mix the two perspectives. It is a fallacy to talk about something being determined when from our perspective everything is free will.

So, here are some examples of mixing the free will perspective with the determinism perspective and getting confused:

If God actually controls everything and to us it just looks like we have free will, then is it right for God to Judge us for our actions?
From God's perspective he created some people to do good and some to do badly, and as creator he has the right to honor those he created for good and to separate out those he created to choose badly. But that is from God's perspective, not ours, so we can't think that way.

From our perspective we have no idea who was created to do good and who was created to do badly. So, from our perspective some people freely choose good and others freely choose badly and are judged based on their choices, and that is true from our perspective.

So, from God's perspective he has the right to do what he wants with what he created. From our perspective it is right for God to reward those that choose well and separate out those that choose badly. Both are perspectives are true and the only time people get confused is when they try to combine the two perspectives at the same time.

Then does that mean that God causes evil and pain?
From our perspective the two sources of pain are 1. man's bad choices and 2. God caused the world to not work quite right after man decided not to follow him (in order to cause men to desire a world that works correctly).

From God's perspective, yes, he does cause, either directly, or more likely, through passive acceptance, evil and pain which are apparently necessary for a greater purpose to be achieved.

But again, since we are human we can only take the first perspective since everything looks to us as free will choices.

What is Time?
One idea that many people hold is that "God is outside of time" or "God created time". But to discuss that idea we must agree on the definition of what "time" is and separate that concept from the concept of "clocks".

"Time" is man's observation of change. Websters says time is a "...measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues". But all periods can in theory be measured against other periods, so any time there is an action, process or condition, even for God, then time exists. To say that time did not exist is to say that no change could have occurred at all.

A "clock" is "a device... for indicating or measuring time". Note that clocks do not need to exist for time to exist. For example, if the sun and moon did not exist, the passing of years and months (time) would not stop.

To say that God is somehow "outside of time" is therefore to say that God could never "do" anything. Yet every time God speaks, creates or even thinks anything that means that God is going through "time".

If you look at the passages concerning the "beginning of time" in the Bible, in all cases at least some translations do not translate it to say that time was "created". I would suggest that those passages are actually referring to either the creation of our standard clocks, the Sun, Moon and Stars, or that God is eternal rather than having a beginning or end.

TULIP

In theology, the concept most closely related to determinism is called Calvinism and a competing concept is called Pelagianism. Calvinism is usually defined by five concepts listed by an acronym called TULIP:

Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin) - From God's perspective, all mankind was created to choose badly and then some be redeemed from their depravity, but from man's perspective in theory each person could choose to do right all their life (though no one ever does).

Unconditional Election - From God's perspective he can choose who he wants to make follow him, but from man's perspective those who God chooses to put in the new Jerusalem are those who decide to follow him

Limited Atonement - From God's perspective, he knows who he created to choose good so atonement looks limited, but from man's perspective, we don't know who will choose good so atonement looks unlimited.

Irresistible Grace - From God's perspective, whoever he created to do good will, without fail choose to follow God so grace looks irresistible, but from man's perspective we have to the choice to follow God or not and we have the choice to resist

Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved) - From God's perspective he knows and controls who will be "saved" in the new Jerusalem so it looks to him like every one he has chosen will persevere, but from man's perspective we do not know who was chosen so to us it looks like some people turn away.

So, I can agree that from God's perspective TULIP is the most correct. Therefore, I can say I hold to a full five point Calvinist view. But I can also agree that from man's perspective (the only perspective that is valid to work with in this life) we have full 100% free will and the TULIP concepts makes no difference to us whatsoever (unless we know what the Creator has chosen to do, which is very rarely if ever the case). So, I can say that I am actually a Pelagian, which is normally considered an opposing view to Calvinism.

So, when you lift your little finger it is most accurate to say that, either actively or passively, God caused you to lift you little finger. But that is from God's perspective and that mode of thinking is useless to us. From our perspective you lifted your little finger by your own free will, and we get mixed up if we try to live our life as if we can see from God's perspective.

Doesn't Quantum Mechanics prove Free Will?
Quantum Mechanics does not show that the world at its core is only probabilistic. The uncertainty is in our ability to know where something is at any given time rather than the uncertainty and probabilistic nature being inherent to nature itself. That mistake in reasoning leads many physicists to the belief in the Schrödinger's Cat paradox, which logically cannot be true. That is why you will find Physicists who study Quantum Mechanics who also promote different forms of mysticism, such as the physics who have spoke at the Theosophical Society or those on "The Secret" video.

The closest I have found to this concept of Free Will and Determinism both being different perspectives of the same concept is called Compatibilism. But even Compatibilism doesn't seem to match what I am saying because I am saying that the differences between total free will and total determinism are just a matter of differing perspectives and both are fully true. Compatibilism on the other hand seems to try to somehow mix the two, when I would argue the two perspectives cannot be mixed at all.

The Many Definitions of Contemplative Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:23:00 +0000

When discussing the concept of Contemplative Prayer, sometimes called "the discipline of silence", the discussion many times leads to a question of what the term "Contemplative Prayer" actually is intended to mean. At one extreme, some will say that Contemplative Prayer is no more than trying to not think about the issues/concerns of the day in order to focus attention on God (i.e., not much different than regular prayer). And others will say that Contemplative Prayer is like regular prayer, except you are quiet and listen for an extended time in order to give God a chance to speak back to you, since they say prayer should be a two way conversation. At the other extreme, some will say that Contemplative Prayer is emptying the mind of all thought and emotion so that you can experience union with God directly, and that this practice, along with acts of service, can bring unity and peace between the world religions and people groups (as opposed to "belief systems" and "practices/rituals" which divide religions and people groups).

With such a wide variety of meanings infused into the term "Contemplative Prayer", I thought it might be helpful for discussion to compile a sampling of the meanings and expectations various leaders pour into the term. I will use Green to indicate definitions that I think are rational and in keeping with mainstream historical Christianity. I will use Red to indicate definitions that seem to be mystical and that are more in keeping with the practices of the mystics, either the ancient Catholic mystics or Hindu, Buddhist or other eastern mystics.

From a Google definition search (religioustolerance.org):
Contemplative prayer: This is an ancient Christian practice that was suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages and is rejected by many conservative Protestants today. It consists of a wordless form of prayer in which one simply exists in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The definition from Wikipedia:
In Christian mysticism, Contemplative prayer can refer to:

repetitive chanting, breathing in a controlled manner or silent concentration to quiet the thoughts and feelings and commune with a spirit that some believe to be God.
infused contemplation: a divinely originated, general, non-conceptual, loving awareness of God; a pure and unmerited gift
acquired contemplation: for which the believer could strive with the help of grace
Centering prayer, which is sometimes called contemplative prayer, although "It is not contemplation in the strict sense, which in Catholic tradition has always been regarded as a pure gift of the Spirit, but rather it is a preparation for contemplation."

The Science of Spirituality's Definition:
They believe that Contemplative Prayer is the same practice, regardless of the religion a person holds:

Definitions from leading proponents of Contemplative Prayer

Please note: For those leaders who have Red in their quotes, let me say that I believe in every case their goals and motives are good. I understand the desire to try to find better ways of doing things than what is common in contemporary society. But I also believe that those methods and belief systems will, over the long term, cause a devaluing of rationality, truth and making distinctions, even more than the concept of "truth" is devalued in contemporary society today.

Thomas Merton:
"Contemplative consciousness is a trans-cultural, trans-religious, trans-formed consciousness … it can shine through this or that system, religious or irreligious" (Thoughts of the East, P34)

"It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, ... now I realize what we all are .... If only they could all see themselves as they really are ...I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other ... At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth ... This little point ...is the pure glory of God in us. It is in everybody." (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 1989 edition, P157-158)

"I see no contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity ... I intend to become as good a Buddhist as I can." (David Steindl-Rast, "Recollection of Thomas Merton's Last Days in the West", Monastic Studies, 7:10)

Richard Foster:
"Thomas Merton has perhaps done more than any other twentieth century figure to make the life of prayer widely known and understood" (Spiritual Classics, P17)

"There are those who feel that the Christian idea of meditation is synonymous with the concept of meditation centered in Eastern religion. In reality they stand worlds apart. Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it" (Celebration of Discipline, 1st edition, 1978, P15)

"Christian meditation has nothing to do with emptying our minds"... "Contemplation goes beyond words and symbols and concepts to the reality the words and concepts describe...; Contrary to much current thinking, contemplation has nothing to do with making our minds blank or having honey-sweet thoughts. As we have observed, its chief aim is to encounter Christ..." (Spiritual Classics, P10, 13, Joyce Huggett, edited by Richard Foster)

Note that, just like when we sleep or when we are focused on one task, all mystics do fill the mind with something, whether they can recall the memory of their thoughts/emotions or not. So that is not the issue. The issue is whether we should be using our mind to think rationally, or whether we should be clearing our minds in an attempt to try to get away from rational thinking...

So, for example, here is one of the forms of Contemplative Prayer that Richard Foster has promoted :
"A fourth form of meditation has at its objective to bring you into a deep inner communion with the Father... In your imagination allow your spiritual body, shining with light, to rise out of your physical body. Look back so that you can see yourself lying in the grass and reassure your body that you will return momentarily... Listen quietly, anticipating the unanticipated. Note carefully any instruction given. With time and experience you will be able to distinguish readily between mere human thoughts that may bubble up to the conscious mind and the True Spirit which inwardly moves upon the heart." (Celebration of Discipline, 1st edition, 1978, P27)

Dallas Willard:
"Now because silence is such a radical thing and it does mean that you give up control of your situation, you can see what a tremendous impact that would have on the American church, in their services, in their meetings of various kinds. Suppose they practice silence in some of their meetings, that would actually give a place for God to break in... And you know that is the way God is, he more or less waits for us to get tired of running things then he is glad to help." (Be Still DVD)

"Genesis began as an oral tradition of narrative stories passed down from generation to generation….These stories [gradually] took on theological meaning….Over time [they] were written down and collected together (Gen 12-50), and a prologue (Gen 1-11) was added….Borrowing from other creation accounts…stories with parallels to ancient Near Eastern religious narrative and mythology were reshaped with monotheistic intent….These strands of varied materials were gathered and edited into the written text…" (Renovare Spiritual Formation Study Bible, Dallas Willard General Editor)

So, if the beginnings of the Bible were ancient polytheistic myths that were reshaped with monotheistic intent (rather than the polytheistic myths being an offshoot of accurate monotheistic history), then Christianity already has much in common with the eastern religions and the Bible may not be fully reliable. You can see why experiencing God directly might be considered by some as a more pure form of "knowing" God than studying the Bible.

Thomas Keating:
"[Contemplative Prayer]... is a process of inner transformation, a conversation initiated by God and leading, if we consent, to divine union. One’s way of seeing reality changes in the process. A restructuring of consciousness takes place which empowers one to perceive, relate and respond with increasing sensitivity to the divine presence in, through, and beyond everything that exists." (Open Mind, Open Heart, P4)

Father Thomas Keating describes "Centering Prayer" which, as defined earlier, is preparation for Contemplative Prayer:

Thomas Dubay:
Father Thomas Dubay has a 13 part video series called "Contemplation: Union with God" which has the most in depth discussion of Contemplative Prayer that I have found. His definition of contemplative prayer is as follows:

Contemplative Prayer is not:
1. a monastic exercise
2. a sterile intellectualism
3. inner introspection
4. an impersonal state
5. exalting in nature
6. visions and revelations
7. strong emotional feelings about God
8. thinking about Biblical concepts (discursive meditation)

Contemplative Prayer is:
1. being alone with the supreme Alone in a wordless presence to Him
2. meeting in mystery with the hidden God, listening to the silent word of God speaking in us
3. an experience of the indwelling Trinity
4. a knowing, loving immersion in the divine beauty of God
5. a waiting and thirsting for God
6. simply living the greatest of all the commandments
7. a divine invasion, the infinite enters our timed existence
8. reliving Jesus prayer in solitude
9. being quenched at the fountain
10. a small gentle transformation into the divine likeness, by seeing God as he really is
11. the beginning of eternal life here on earth

Contemplative Bible Reading... Small Group Discussion Guide by NavPress (The Navigators):
"Your aim is to let go of issues and agendas that occupy your thoughts and move your mind instead to God... The important thing is that your spine is straight... It is most important to relax the muscles in your throat... Slow down your breathing... praying the first phrase as your breathe in, praying the second phrase as you breathe out... Pray also that as you open yourself to the spiritual world that you will be protected from evil... Focus on God: you can do this by means of an image such as meeting God on the road and talking to him. As you inhale pray "Lord Jesus Christ" and as you exhale pray "Have Mercy". It may be helpful for you to find the right place. There is something about "sacred space"."

Summary:
So, it does seem that there is more than one meaning being used for this term, Contemplative Prayer. In fact, with the wide variety of meanings there seems to be something here for people who come at this subject from almost any perspective.

If you are concerned about Christians you know who never seem to grow out of their problems and you want a new "reformation" of discipline in the Christian church, but you don't want to focus on the Bible passages that point out people's "sins" and tells them that they need to change, then instead you can teach them Contemplative Prayer and hope that experiences during that practice will motivate them toward change.

If you think this is a strange practice and have never heard of the Contemplative Prayer movement until now, then you don't have to worry about doing anything, at least until this teaching comes to your doorstep (as it came to mine)...

If you are wanting to do something to make yourself feel more "spiritual" but you don't want to go into Eastern meditation, you can use the milder, more orthodox definitions of the term. Then later, when you are ready, you have the option to start changing your thinking to use the "deeper meanings" of the same term.

If you think there is nothing wrong with Christians using meditation practices from other religions and are wondering what all the fuss in about, Contemplative Prayer will finally give your beliefs and practices more respectability within evangelical Christianity.

If you are someone who places a higher value on truth than peace and you are eager for a battle where you will be an outsider and an underdog (like the reformers in the decades around the reformation), this is one good opportunity that can keep you busy.

If you want to insure that peace and harmony are maintained (in opposition to those previous people who place a higher value on truth than peace), then you can support the more orthodox definitions of Contemplative Prayer and allow people to continue peacefully using the term Contemplative Prayer, with each person pouring in the meaning that they are most comfortable with. Most people will start out using the milder meanings in any case, so why bother to split hairs over the meaning of the term.

And finally, if you are a Hindu or Buddhist who has felt that Christianity has devalued what your faith has to offer, this practice of Contemplative Prayer should at very least bring an understanding and appreciation of the meditation practices that have been categorically rejected by Protestant Christianity in the past. One of the major walls between Protestant Christianity and Hindu or Buddhist practices may finally be removed.

So, by having multiple meanings for the same term, the practice of Contemplative Prayer can make itself attractive to a large section of society. But since this post is about defining our terms, here is one more definition you may want to understand:

Obfuscation: To be evasive, unclear or confusing; mystification; intending to conceal the truth by confusion

Understanding Paul Through Speed Limits

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:13:00 +0000

One of the key concepts required to understand the Christian belief system is what Paul was trying to communicate concerning Christianity and it's relationship to law. A good modern day analogy to help illustrate what Paul was saying might be helpful: the concept of speed limits.

The Problems with Speed Limits
Speed limits are good. They save lives. But focusing only on the speed limits themselves misses the point and can be a substitute for actually doing our greater duty as citizens, causing us to act inappropriately at times.

Also, in order to receive your drivers license you likely had to sign a document saying that you would obey all traffic laws, including the speed limits, at all times. Yet, many times you have broken that promise by going one or two miles an hour above the speed limit. So, rightfully you have violated your agreement and you should go to the DMV and turn in your license. Just because you have not been stopped by the police does not nullify the fact that you are a law breaker and deserve jail or at least to have your license revoked.

Road planners study the best ways to decide how fast you should go. They weigh all the various issues and choose the appropriate maximum speed for the area, considering that you could crash and/or kill someone (including children). So, the speed limits are likely better information than you could come up with. But the speed limits are fixed for all times and all situations. They cannot reflect the nuances of weather, whether children are around or not, etc... So, the posted speed limits are never the most optimal speed. Sometimes you should be able to drive faster safely, and other times to be safe you should drive below the limit. So, at best, speed limits are a best average guess at what a good speed should be in most situations.

The Correct Attitude Toward Speed Limits
People have many different attitudes toward speed limits. Which one of these attitudes do you normally take?

1. I should do whatever it takes to never break the speed limit (normally driving significantly below the limit)
2. I should go below the limit but it is O.K. if I go over a little from time to time
3. I should go right at or just a little below the speed limit
4. I should go right at the speed limit as much as possible, not over but not normally below either
5. I can go right at or a little above the speed limit
6. I can go up to five miles above the speed limit (since police generally will not give tickets for that)
7. It is O.K. if go any speed as long as I don't get caught

Which one of these attitudes do you practice? Which one is the right answer? The right answer from the perspective of Paul is "none of the above".

Answer: Study the best ways to decide how fast you should go, weigh all the various issues and go the appropriate speed for the situation, considering that you could crash and/or kill someone (including children). Don't worry about getting a ticket, rather worry about doing what is best in all situations.

Note that this is a much higher standard than any of the seven options above. And it calls people to be more thoughtful and rational rather than blindly following standards. So, if you were shocked to understand that you were a law breaker before and deserved jail, now, even more shockingly, you find that you are supposed to live to an impossibly high standard. What hope do you have of meeting this higher standard if you couldn't even meet the simple speed limit standard?

The speed limits can be of great help to you in deciding what speed to go, since the road planners have already gone though the work of trying to determine the best speed. But we have already noted that the speed limit can only be a best guess and cannot be the best actual speed for every given situation.

Speed Limit Enforcement and Grace
The goal of the police is to get people to follow the rules in order to reduce problems to society. Speed enforcement is really only intended for those people who at some point want to break the speed limit. If they see that you actually intended to follow the rules, they will many time give you grace, unless your actions encourage others to break the rules. And they will generally not pull people over unless they are going five or more miles an hour above the speed limit.

But grace can be abused. On our highways many times it is socially acceptable, and even expected, to go well above the posted speed limit. And allowing society to accept law breaking in one area of life can cause the same thought processes to flow into other areas of life. A dilemma for road planners is whether to raise the speed limits, allowing a greater number of more severe wrecks, or should they lower the speed limits, causing the vast majority of people to break the law. One answer to that dilemma may be to keep the best speed limit but raise the penalties significantly. That would keep most people from breaking the law and it would keep down the number of severe wrecks.

Specific applications of the best attitudes towards speed limits
Analysis of some specific situations helps clarify this nuanced view of law.

What would the person do in an area where there are no speed limits? Some people would want to go much faster than posted limits, without thinking about how they might hurt other people.

What about an area where the speed limit seems too low? A good citizen will judge the risk and benefits of going against the speed limit. If they go above the speed limit they will willingly accept a ticket or jail time for that choice. Also, they will take into account that, even if they normally follow good practices concerning speed limits, they also need to take into account how they will be encouraging other, less conscientious people to break the speed limits when they should not do that. In these cases, it seems prudent, after doing what we can to get the speed limit changed, to accept and follow the speed limit as an example to others who may not understand the specific issues involved (and taking into account that you may be incorrect in your assessment of the speed limit being too low).

What about an area where the speed limit seems too high? A Christian will again in this case evaluate what should be the speed limit and if they should go lower they will do that. And just as they would work to get low speed limits raised, they should work to get speed limits that are too high lowered.

What about in emergencies, like when going to the hospital when someone is dying? If a life is in the balance then the driver needs to balance the benefits of getting to the hospital sooner with the risks of hurting others in getting there. If the risk is low and the benefits are high, then it seems morally acceptable to break the speed limit laws, though the driver should be willing to pay the ticket if they are pulled over.

What if you don't remember the speed limit? Sometimes I forget what the speed limit is. If I did not understand the first principles of what the speed should be, then I may not know how fast I should go. But if I understand the first principles, then I will be more likely to go a correct speed even if I do not remember what the speed limit actually is.

The Problem with Laws and Rules in general
The old testament, and governments in general, intend for people to understand the meaning of laws from first principles. The ten commandments are not the ten most important laws, but rather they are ten summarized categories of the other laws. Unfortunately, for some people the laws of the old testament (and the laws of their state) became the focus in and of themselves and the first principles behind the laws were sometimes neglected (Mat 23:23). Jesus and Paul affirm that law is good, but they point people back to the first principles behind the many laws (Mat 5:17-18, Rom 3:31).

It is true some laws are symbolic or may apply to a specific cultural situation but even the symbolic laws show us how important symbolism is to a culture. We should work to translate symbolic laws into appropriate symbolism for our culture today (such as laws against flag burning).

The Correct Attitude Toward Law and Rules in general
People have many different attitudes toward laws, and rules in general. Which one of these attitudes do you normally take:

1. I should do whatever it takes to never break a rule of any kind.
2. I should be careful to not break rules but it is O.K. if I break the rules from time to time
3. I should try to get away with as much as possible, with out breaking the actual rules themselves
4. I can break the rules that no one really cares too much about, as long as I try to keep the rules people care about
5. It is O.K. to break any rules as long as I don't get caught

In the old testament it at first seems that it was expected a person should obey laws at all costs, that was like answer number one. And in early Israel people did what is right in their own eyes (and that was not considered good) like answers 2 though 5.

So, which one of these attitudes do you practice? Which one is the right answer? The right answer from the perspective of Paul is "none of the above".

Answer: Study the the needs of society and decide what the best laws should be, weighing all the various issues and doing the appropriate thing in each situation, considering the effects you could have on others (including children). But since you may not have fully studied the issues and/or you may not fully know what is going on in a given area, laws are likely better information than you could come up with, so you should normally be happy to submit to a given law. Don't worry about getting punished for breaking the law, rather worry about doing what is best in all situations.

Note that this is a much higher standard than any of the five options above. And it calls people to be more thoughtful and rational rather than blindly following standards. So, if you were shocked to understand that you were a law breaker before and deserved punishment (like some of the wording in the old testament), now you are supposed to live to an impossibly higher standard. What hope to you have of meeting this higher standard if you couldn't even meet the simple standard of following the various laws?

Law and Rule Enforcement vs Grace
Is god, or governments for that matter, just waiting to pounce on us if we break the rules? No. They would rather us obey and hope for our reformation into people who will obey.

Is God, and governments for that matter, waiting to isolate us if we continually, willing want to do things that hurt others? Yes. While that is not their first choice, if we continually hurt others then at very least we need to be separated from society.

The new testament, and the goal of government in general, is like the person who is free to understand the situation, look at the laws, rules, etiquette, etc.. and then do the appropriate thing, which is almost always to follow the given law or rule. The problem with western society today is that many people interpret laws, rules, etiquette, etc.. to say that they are free to decide what we should do on their own, but without regard for either the rules or first principles.

The Christian view of laws and rules prepares us to live in a good society. If all people understand and strive to follow rules appropriately, that in and of itself would make a society much closer to being like Heaven...

Specific applications of the best attitudes towards laws and rules
Analysis of some specific situations helps clarify the Paul's' view of law.

What would the people do who lived when there was no laws written down? People would do what was right in their own eyes. That would be good only if they fully understood the first principles and were motivated to make an informed decision in each case. But normally that is not the case.

What about laws/rules that don't seem just? Normally a Christian should obey the laws but if a law is considered potentially unjust, then a Christian will judge the risk and benefits of going against the law. If they go against a particular law, then they must be willing to accept the punishment for disobeying that law. Also, they will take into account that, even if they normally try to do what is right, they also need to take into account how they will be encouraging other, less conscientious people to break the laws. In these cases it seems prudent, after doing what we can to get the law changed, to accept and follow the law as an example to others who may not understand the specific issues involved (and taking into account that you may be incorrect in your assessment of the law being unjust).

What about laws/rules that seem to be too permissive? A Christian will again in this case evaluate what should be the law and if they should go do more than the law requires then they will do that. And just as they would work to get an unjust law overturned, they should work to get laws that are too permissive to be more restrictive.

What about in emergencies, when it seems breaking laws may be a good thing to do? If a lives are in the balance then the person needs to balance the benefits of breaking a particular law with the risks of hurting others by breaking that law. If the risk is low and the benefits are high, then it seems acceptable to break a particular law, though the person should be willing to pay the price for breaking that particular law.

What about the good person who doesn't know the laws? All of us break some laws at times, but it our commitment to honestly try to follow the laws of the state that makes us a good citizen, not the fact that we actually attain perfection in following all the laws. But we do have a responsibility to know the state we are under and to know the laws that state requires. To expect to be a considered a good citizen while following the laws of a different state is no reasonable.

Billy Graham believes that good people from all religions go to Heaven. That is theoretically true, but the problem is the definition of who is "good". God considers a person "good" when they follow all of His laws appropriately. The problem we have seen is to really follow any given set of laws is an unattainably high standard. So, the "good" people from other religions that Billy Graham thinks should go to the Christian Heaven can not actually exist. If their religions are true, then perhaps they go to Nirvana, or whatever their religion believes happens after death. But if Christianity is true and they are not following the Christian God and His laws, then they cannot be considered part of Christian society, either before or after death.

How to understand Paul's attitude towards laws
Paul was well educated. He understood that many seeming dilemmas are caused by a lack of understanding of the first principles underlying the concepts of law and grace. So to resolve the perceived problems Paul points the reader back to first principles: love your neighbor. In doing that he is not nullifying the concept of law. On the contrary, he is fully supporting the concept of law.

Note that the same concepts apply to all the various forms of "law", including rules, best practices, etiquette, standards, etc.. All are different forms of the general concept of "law".

We should honor and be grateful for good laws, since they are the out workings of our caring for each other. We should work to change inappropriate laws, since they are not fulfilling their intended function. And we should strive to follow good laws, even when we can get away with not following them and/or when there is a personal cost involved with following a particular law.

We should break laws where necessary to follow higher first principles. But that should only be done in extreme circumstances where the letter of the law is not performing its intended function, and where breaking the law will not encourage others to break the laws when they should not.

Regardless of the correctness of our actions (such as rushing someone who is dying to the hospital), we should gladly accept law enforcement without expecting grace, because law makers many times are not able to make distinctions between when a law should be broken or when it should not be broken. To do so would make an unwieldy law (like the tax code...). Be grateful when grace is extended to you and do not use it as license to break the laws.

Teach your children and others the full concepts of law and grace and how they relate to each other. This is not an ancient or abstract concept, but one that can have a profound affect on how we live our lives.

New Health Craze Sweeps India

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:44:00 +0000

Scientific research has shown that antioxidants are extremely beneficial to health, possibly even helping prevent some forms of cancer. Wine has been found to be a significant source of antioxidants, as is unleavened bread. So many secondary schools and private Hindu colleges in India now offer a service to ensure that their students are able to take advantage of these health benefits in what is called "communion time". Some Hindu fundamentalists have objected saying that this is no more than western religion encroaching on their schools. But cooler heads have prevailed, with more moderate Hindus suggesting that students recite "do this in remembrance of Krishna" to ensure that this regimen is not at all related to Christianity.

We asked the Director of Nutrition at a leading private Hindu college whether he had concerns about this practice. From the email response: "I see no danger of our Hindu students becoming Christians. Besides I have been taking grape juice for years for the antioxidant benefits and I have no desire to become a Christian". It was unclear from the response why grape juice and bread was not just added to the lunch menu rather than being dispensed in communion time.

Reaction from a leading Christian college has been mixed. Some professors have seen this as an opportunity that will facilitate the evangelization of India. Others insist that "communion time" is a powerful spiritual discipline that, even though historically it has been associated with Christianity, can also be used by Hindu devotees to help in their spiritual formation. Still others insist there is no spiritual connection to the ritual itself, so it can be secularized and used by Hindus solely for the health benefits.

Respected Christian leader Dr. Tony Campolo was asked whether this might be common ground for the evangelization of Hindus. He said No it is not. "[But] ...if we are looking for common ground, can we find it in mystical spirituality, even if we cannot theologically agree?". We also asked evangelist Rev. Billy Graham what impact this could have on the future of the evangelism in India. Rev. Graham said "[Some good Hindus] ...may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their heart that they need something that they don't have and they turn to the only light that they have and I think that they are saved and they are going to be with us in Heaven".

We asked a spokesman from a leading Christian graduate school whether the Bible would commend the use of communion by other religions. The spokesman said "from my contemplative meditation and Lectio Divina, I feel that God is saying to me, even though this may look like a western religious practice, when Hindus do communion time it is purely a Hindu practice having nothing at all to do with Christianity. Besides, many conservative Christian leaders have been blessed by using eastern spiritual techniques for years. It is about time that we return the favor".

Your Family Tree is Actually a Family Diamond

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:08:00 +0000

Many times people trace their family tree back to royalty or famous people and are somewhat proud to find who they are descended from. But the broader truth of the matter is more amazing than most people imagine. Ask yourself this question: How many people (i.e. positions in your family tree) do you think you have in 1100 A.D. (about 900 years ago)?

Your Ancestors
You can calculate the answer. If you assume 30 years to be an average generation, then every 300 years (10 generations) you have 1024 ancestors (2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 g-grandparents, and so on up to 10 generations) and every additional 300 years multiplies the effect. So, 600 years ago you had about one million places in your family tree chart and 900 years ago, 1100 AD, you had approximately one billion ancestors in your family tree! And if any one of those ancestors had died before having children, you would not be here today.

Now you may say, wait a minute that is too many ancestors, there must be a miscalculation. In 1000 A.D. there was only an estimated 310 million people alive and it is estimated that there wasn't a billion people in the world until 1804. The difference is that you have people who are related to you in more than one way. It is true that if you draw out your family tree, you will have around one billion slots to fill 900 years ago, but some individuals will fill many of the different slots.

What can we understand from this? Basically, it appears that when you go back 900 years or more, it is probably more accurate to say you are related to whole people-groups, i.e., most everyone in any group that intermarried. For example, if you have English royalty in your ancestors, it is probably more accurate to say that you are related to most of England at the time. You only have the records of the royalty in your ancestry because royalty were the only ones we have kept records that far back for.

Your Descendants
Now the same math works for the future as well as the past. If your descendants average two descendants every generation of 30 years, in 900 years you will have approximately one billion descendants, but of course you will be only one of their one billion ancestors and you will likely be in their family tree in more than one slot. And the interesting thing is, now that births are fully recorded in most countries, 900 years from now your descendants will probably have all those slots filled in their one billion entry family tree. They may even have pictures and biographies of many of their one billion ancestors.

Think of the shape of your full family tree. We call it a "tree" because that is the only part of the diagram that we know. Our actual family "tree" is in the shape of a diamond with an upside down tree on the bottom of the diamond, i.e., the shape you see at the start of this post (time goes from the top to the bottom, the number of your relatives is the width between the two lines). The first humans (either Adam and Eve, or the first "human" mutations, depending on your beliefs) are at the top where the two lines meet, you are where the bottom lines cross and your descendants are the area between the two end points of the lines at the bottom of the drawing. We think of our ancestors as a tree shape because that is the portion of people we know back "up" the diamond a little way. We don't have records back to the time when the tree shape starts converging back into a diamond shape.

At this point you may be thinking: that is quite interesting but what is the practical application of this knowledge. Here are some ways this can change your ways of looking at the world:

1. When you study early history, if you understand that you are related to whole nations and people groups, that makes the history much more interesting.
2. In trying to influence your descendants, to leave a lasting legacy you must leave them something that will influence your descendants over time more than all their other ancestors, otherwise you and your memory will be lost in a mass of ancestors in just a few generations.
3. Try to influence society at large rather than just your kids, since in 900 years your descendants will most likely be most of society itself. And if you don't have kids you can have the same affect by working to influence society and other people.

So, you are truly part of the human race. In history and in the future ( if you have kids) you are related not just to individuals, but to people-groups.

Could Speed of Light in Intergalactic Space be different?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:56:00 +0000

Here is a thought. Is the speed of light the same in intergalactic space? The measurements of the speed of light seem to always be near stars, either on our end or near the star on the far end. The speed of light is a function of the permittivity and permeability of free space, both of which are derived experimentally and are not calculated from first principles. Could their values turn out to make the speed of light higher in parts of the universe that are not near any matter?

Could the constant speed of light have to do with how it is constant in matter? So the constant speed of light near earth would work for just the same reason speed of light is constant, but at a different speed, in glass and water. Gravity or some other force of nearby matter would be working on a large scale just like it works near atoms on a small scale.

Has anyone actually suggested that as a possibility? If not, why wouldn't that work?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_space

Even in classical physics it was realized [13][14] that the vacuum must have a field-dependent permittivity in the strong fields found near point charges.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_permittivity

Vacuum permittivity (also called permittivity of free space or the electric constant) is the ratio D/E in free space.

8.8541878176… × 10−12 F/m (or C2N-1m-2),
c (or c0) is the speed of light in free space.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permeability_%28electromagnetism%29

Permeability varies with magnetic field. Values shown above are approximate and valid only at the magnetic fields shown. Moreover, they are given for a zero frequency; in practice, the permeability is generally a function of the frequency. When frequency is considered the permeability can be complex, corresponding to the in phase and out of phase response.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intergalactic_space#Intergalactic_space

The density of the Universe, however, is clearly not uniform; it ranges from relatively high density in galaxies (including very high density in structures within galaxies, such as planets, stars, and black holes) to conditions in vast voids that have much lower density than the Universe's average. The temperature is only 2.73 Kelvin [14]. NASA's COBE mission(Cosmic Background Explorer) measured the temperature as 2.725 +/- 0.002 K.

Logical Positivism and Cosmology

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:14:00 +0000

When I went through a course on Relativity, the professor said that relativity was at its foundation based on the philosophy of logical positivism (i.e., the only meaningful discussion is of observations, no discussion of a larger reality is meaningful), which seems to preclude larger discussions of cosmology. I also understand that Logical Positivism was the leading philosophy of science until the 1980s, but after that Realism became the more accepted philosophy of science.It seems like some of the contradictions of relativity and quantum mechanics could be explained if we took a realist interpretation of the formula (that they correctly predict measurements, but are from only a limited perspective of a external reality). Of course we would be reopening the questions of why the measured constant speed of light is always measured the same and Bell's experiments. But would that be less acceptable than to accept the contradictions implicit in the logical positivist interpretations of Relativity (like the twin paradox) and Quantum Mechanics (like Schroedinger's Cat)?So, in discussions of cosmology, shouldn't we be working to remove any logical positivist assumptions from our discussions? Specifically, isn't the changing of time and space a logical positivist concept (those concepts would be valid when predicting measurements, but not when discussing overall cosmology). And isn't the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (that the world is probabilistic in reality) a logical positivist concept as well?Time and space seem like abstract human concepts which use clocks (uniformly repeating phenomena) and rulers (uniformly spaced phenomenon) to compare with other phenomena. I can see how rulers and clocks can be affected by the world, but it seems like the concepts of time and space should not be entangled with specific clocks and rulers in discussions of cosmology.And even if our measurements of small phenomena give us a probabilistic answer, isn't that a limitation of our measures rather than an actual view of the world itself? Or alternatively, are we measuring the probability of a particular event occurring rather than proving that reality is, in and of itself, probabilistic?Maybe I am missing something here, but I can't think of what it is. Maybe the constant speed of light and Bell's experiments are so compelling that we just have to accept the contradictions, but I am not convinced. Am I off track and missing something here? Is there other evidence that I am not considering?

The Book of Mormon: "I Know" versus "I Believe"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:14:00 +0000

We home school our kids. So to teach them about LDS (Mormon) beliefs and history we visited many of the Mormon historical sites. We visited Palmyra, NY (Hill Cumora), Kirtland, OH, Navoo, IL, Carthage, IL, Independence, MO, and Salt Lake City, UT. We also asked the local Mormon missionaries to visit and discuss LDS beliefs. If you have ever talked to LDS missionaries or gone to a Mormon historical site you will likely have heard someone tell you "I know the Book of Mormon is true", because they asked God and He gave them a feeling that it was true. But can they honestly say that they "know the Book of Mormon is true"?

The summary statements from the video "Journey of Faith: The New World", do still sum up the situation well. There are possibilities, but no actual conclusive evidence in support of the Book of Mormon has been found to date.

But of course the same could be said of any belief system. If we have objective, conclusive evidence about something (evidence that is convincing to a reasonable skeptic) then we say we "know" something is true. But if we do not have that objective, conclusive evidence then we say that we "believe" something is true. So, by definition, no belief system has objective, conclusive proof for their beliefs. Many religions have strong feelings and experiences which support their beliefs, but feelings and experiences are not grounds for saying you "know" something is true.

Joseph Smith believed the Battle of Cumora was in New York

Here is one question to consider. How would a 19th century person interpret the discussions in the Book of Mormon concerning the Nephites and the Lamanites and where they lived? It seems clear that readers of that day, including Joseph Smith, interpreted the Book of Mormon to be saying that the Nephites and Lamanites lived in North and South America rather than in the north and south parts of central America. But DNA evidence and travel time issues seems to prohibit the possibility that the North American Indians were Lamanites (and therefore Israelite descendants). So even if evidence of civilizations in central America at about the right time is found, it would still be a problem that Heavenly Father did not reveal to Joseph Smith the correct interpretation of the Book of Mormon concerning the location of the Hill Cumora and about the North American Indians being the descendants of the Lamanites. Every Mormon should watch the video "DNA and the Book of Mormon" and then compare what is said to the rebuttals from FAIR and FARMS (The Maxwell Institute), the two leading Mormon Apologetics groups. True beliefs can only be strengthened when tested.

I've studied both Mormon and anti-Mormon literature. Many of the reasons people dismiss Mormonism are either not valid or are not conclusive. But two seemingly valid issues to consider are: 1. Is what Joseph Smith's mother wrote in her biography concerning his father's dreams and Joseph Smith Junior's stories accurate? and 2. if Heavenly Father was originally a man and all his ancestors were once a man too, then who was the first God, how did he get there and what did each God create?

Joseph Smith's Mother's Biography

In the original 1853 edition of Joseph Smith's History by his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, two passages seem to say Joseph Smith Junior and his father had information from the book of Mormon before the gold plates were actually found. Read the dream that Joseph Smith Senior had starting on page 55 of the 1908 edition of her biography and compare it to the same vision listed in the Book of Mormon in 1st Nephi Chapter 8. You must agree that both Joseph Smith Senior's dream and Lehi's dream listed in the Book of Mormon are so similar that it is highly likely they are both referencing the same dream. You can take the position that Heavenly Father gave both Joseph Smith Senior and Lehi the same dream 2450 years apart, but you have to admit that another logical possibility is that Joseph Smith Junior knew of his father's dream and added it to the book of Mormon.

Then also see the passage on page 85 of the original 1853 edition of Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith... (his mother's biography) which says:

"During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode, their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them."

Note that was before Joseph Smith Junior found the plates. So, logically, either God was giving him detailed information about the historical habits of the ancient North American Indians or Joseph Smith made up the stories and then recorded them in the book of Mormon.

How many God's have there been and what did they create?

According to the fifth LDS President, Lorenzo Snow, the LDS church teaches "As man now is God once was, and as God now is man may become". If our Heavenly Father was originally a man and all his ancestors were once a man too, then who was the first God and how did he get there (I'm not convinced by the infinite regression of Gods concept). And related to that is what exactly did Heavenly Father create, was it the universe, our galaxy or just our solar system. The official LDS Gospel Principles book says that He created the universe, but if that is the case, then what is left for the other Gods to create (I don't buy the multiverse concept)? See D&C 132:19-2 2 where it says men may become Gods.

A Change of Debtors is not Forgiveness

The historical Christian concept of the value of Jesus's sacrifice is that he paid our debt and then forgave us if we are willing to follow him. This concept of complete forgiveness up front seems to be in stark contrast to other religions, where some form of good works is required in order to be acceptable to God. Yet the LDS concept of the value of Jesus's sacrifice seems to be different than the historic Christian concept in this key area. The LDS concept seems to be that God was going to put us in jail (or give us spiritual death) for non-payment, but Jesus paid our debt so that we will instead repay him the full debt, but he will spread out the payments so that we can afford the repayment schedule. See the parable from Elder Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, written in the official Gospel Principles Chapter 12.

Good People with Important Questions to Answer

I like the Mormon people I have met. They were surprisingly open and honest, even concerning the hard questions listed above. So it is good to try to get past common stereotypes and fear of people who believe differently. It is also important for each of us to take a look at the hard questions concerning our beliefs. So if you are LDS (or Community of Christ) then I hope you will do that with the questions listed above. And, even though they may not think so, atheists and agnostics have hard questions about their beliefs that they should look squarely in the face as well. So Mormonism is not the only belief system that has hard questions to answer.

For example, atheists and agnostics should consider the apparent design of physical constants. And since the human brain has the most complexity per square inch of anything we know of, does that imply the purpose of the universe may be to support human life? And can a good human society ultimately result if there is no external source of value for humanity? Also, we should consider the future implications of evolution, if it is true, such as future super-humans and that some form of social Darwinism (not racial) actually would seem to be a good thing for society in the long run (if evolution is true). So, Mormons are not the only ones who need to consider the hard questions about their beliefs.

We all look at the evidence and basically bet our lives on our best guess as to what we think is ultimately true. Family, friends, relationships and society are strong forces that usually sway people one way or another, which is why most people stay in the belief system of the social group they belong to. But ultimately we should ruthlessly follow truth, wherever that search may lead.

Answers to Religulous Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:18:00 +0000

I went to see the movie Religulous some time ago. As a conservative Christian, I actually thought probably 90% of the approximately 167 issues raised in the movie were valid points or honest questions. But I also came away feeling that the other 10% were somewhat deceptive and/or designed to shut down discussion rather than to consider the issues objectively (that kind of content, of course, was likely included to make the movie more interesting, since the movie was intended to make fun of various religious beliefs and practices). I agree with Bill Maher that much in Christianity and religion in general is deserving of ridicule, as Isaiah ridiculed those who worship wooden idols. But I also came away thinking that a few nights of honestly searching the Internet for answers should have come up with better answers than many of those offered in the movie.

In any case, the Religulous movie does highlight some important questions that need to be addressed and answered in an easy to use format. And in some cases I'm not convinced that the popular answers are at all satisfactory, at least to me. But I didn't hear any question or insinuation in the movie which didn't have an answer that I was comfortable with believing. So, I think specifically answering all of Bill Maher's questions from the movie in one place is a beneficial (though long...) exercise and that is what I have tried to do in this post.

This was a much longer task than I first thought (167 assertions), so I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to research all the questions. There are probably more thorough answers out there to many of these particular questions and I will add and make more changes as I get time in the future. But I did think it was worth getting this full framework of discussion published so that all the issues can be addressed in one place and so it can be demonstrated that there is no assertion in the movie that does not have a reasonable answer of some kind.

Note that if you want to link to a particular answer in this post you can link to it using "http://www.chooseyourbeliefs.com/2008/12/answers-to-religulous-questions.html#27" but then replace the "27" with either the number or letter of the answer you wish to link to.

Please note that I will be answering the claims against Protestant Christianity only. Catholics, Mormons, Muslims and Scientologists are better equipped to defend their own beliefs (assuming their beliefs are defensible, I will link to their posts in defense of their beliefs as I find them). It is also interesting to me that the only faiths that Bill Maher did not ridicule, or even mention, were the eastern faiths (Hindu, Buddhist, etc..). But of course a pantheist faith (everything is God) is very similar to Mr. Maher's practical atheist beliefs (there is no God). To say something is everywhere is pretty close to saying it is nowhere. And I assert that his viewpoint is one of being a "practical atheist" because every agnostic (doubter) has to live their life with the practical assumption that one of the belief systems is true, even if they have no way of knowing what is true. And for most agnostics the belief system they choose to live their life by seems to be atheism.

Here are the main web sites related to the movie:
http://www.lionsgate.com/religulous/
http://disbeliefnet.com
http://www.billmaher.com/
http://therealbillmaher.blogspot.com/2008/10/religulous.html

I will list and answer the main points at issue first, then go through each point as listed chronologically in the movie, referencing these main points where appropriate:

Main Points Answered

Faith and Reason
A. Faith does not mean to suspend reason and in fact reason requires faith
All deductive logic requires initial premises which are held by inductive belief rather than reasoned out through logic. Also, our everyday existence requires us to act on both belief and reason in order to function. For example, there is no way to know for sure that an elevator isn't about to fail and fall to the ground, but we step on elevators all the time. We reason that they haven't failed very often, so they are unlikely to fail for us, which may be 99.9999% true. But it is belief that bridges the gap from 99.9999% to be effectively 100% and allows us to step on the elevator. So, faith and reason are intertwined and we can't get away from using both.

B. Doubt (Agnosticism) still requires effectively practicing a faith
We all have to live our life based on foundational assumptions that we can not (or at least do not take the time to) prove. In fact, each of us use faith in something every minute of our lives. I have faith that my house will not fall down, that the elevator I step in will not fall, that Mars is still there, etc.. when I have no direct first hand evidence that any of those beliefs are accurate. Instead I rely on probability based on what I see happening to other people and based on what I am told by "experts". So, we all have lots of faith, the question is what is appropriate to put our faith in.

If I have doubt that I can ever know something in particular, and if my life choices would change depending on the answer to the question that I cannot know, I still have to choose which way to live my life. Basically, even if the answer is a toss up, I still have to throw the dice and make a choice. So, someone who calls themselves agnostic still has to live there lives either as if no god exists or as if some form of god exists. Doubting doesn't get around the fact that we have to make choices to live our life based on some religious (or non-religious) assumptions, even if we think there is no way to make a good choice. So, even agnostics, in practice, have to choose their beliefs.

C. God is hiding himself, like a billionaire might hide his wealth when looking for a mate
It seems that the main plot of the Bible is how to give free choice while still ending up with a society where people always will choose what it right. If God were to display his power in front of us we would naturally want to submit out of fear, if for no other reason. But it seems God wants to give people the ability to choose whether to follow him or not, without intimidation. That way we each can determine for ourselves whether we want to follow God, without being influenced by his power. That would seem to be similar to a billionaire looking for a mate. They would be prudent to temporarily hide their wealth from potential mates so that they will not want to marry just for the wealth. In the same way, God is hiding himself from us in order to give us a more truly free choice, in a way the angels never had. See Is 45:15 and Psalm 10:1,4

D. There are good logical reasons to believe in God
The Bible says that we can know God exists because that is evident in the design of nature (Rom 1:18-22). But if a Creator exists, then man would need to submit to the Creator. So, Humans have a conflict of interest when it comes to determining whether God exists or not. In many cases people choose to believe that something can be created from nothing (a logical impossibility unless you redefine the term "nothing") rather than believe in something that has always existed and has the power to create everything else.

Law and Justice
E. Just laws and strong governments are better than libertarianism
Libertarianism says that people should be able to do what they want as long as it doesn't hurt other people. But the problem is that some acts benefit people in the short term but then hurt those same people and others in the long term, and other things seem good at first glance but actually have a devastating effect on people and others.

I don't feel like I need to regulate my kids to tell them not to touch a hot stove. They will only do that once and the pain they will get will not kill them. But if I have a bathtub full of boiling water, I do need to restrict them from getting anywhere near the bath tub, since one slip could severely affect them or even end their lives. And I don't let my kids eat candy all the time because I know candy tastes good at first but isn't good for them in the long term. So, there are some areas where complete freedom is desirable, but there are other areas where external limitations benefit people more than they hurt people.

Also, we are social creatures by nature so many things that we think only affect individuals actually can affect society. Even in the case where someone only kills themselves and thinks they are not harming anyone else, someone else has to bury them and dispose of their assets.

So, rules, laws, commandments, best practices, recommendations, rules of etiquette, etc.. seem to be necessary from outside sources in cases where we may be in danger of having problems occur and do not know it, or where we may be drawn to an initial benefit that hurts us and/or others later. And whether something should be enforced by law or only be recommended, like etiquette, depends on the social compact that is agreed upon by the majority in the society. That social compact should seek for the greatest good for the most people rather than going to the lowest common denominator.

Critiques Of Libertarianism

F. God's laws and morality makes sense
If God's laws were actually followed then many of the problems of the world would go away. The Bible includes a direct welfare system (no government overhead) where the recipients still had to work for their wages. It had a limit on lifetime borrowing that would keep debt from being passed from one generation to the next (something that would have benefited our next generation...). Israel was never taught to seek to dominate the world like some of their neighbors did (Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome), but rather they were taught to do what it takes to keep their society together and maintain their high standards (a teaching which has served them well for several thousand years).

And the strict punishments listed in the Bible were likely more moral than our current laws, in aggregate. Which is more "caring", having some harsh laws such as the death penalty that no one breaks, or having lenient laws such as prison and fines that millions of people have to pay? Because of our backgrounds, we assume that if there was a harsh penalty that lots of people would be paying that penalty. We can't conceive of a society where almost everyone obeys the laws... So, part of the problem in American society is that we have been so "caring" that we have come close to giving up the concepts of strong law and justice as being foundational to a good society.

God and the Death Penalty

G. "Judging" is necessary and good
"Do not judge" is just one of the Biblical concepts that has been taken out of context and made to mean almost the opposite of what was intended. Look at what the author is saying in Mat 7:1-5. Actually they are saying, don't be hypocritical when you judge. First judge yourself with the same standard, then judge others.

"Judging" is required and good. That is why one book of the Bible is called "Judges"... If we are to refrain from making judgments, how can we discriminate between good and bad in any area of life?

1 Cor 6:1-5 Christians should be able to be wise judges of other Christians
John 7:24 Judge with righteous judgment
The cult of “Do not Judge”

Reliability of the Bible
H. The Bible is more reliable than any other book that old
The Bible has more transcripts than any other book of that time period. The transcripts agree on the essentials of the Christian faith. Other contradictory books were written decades or centuries later and have an obvious bias based on who wrote them (usually gnostics).
1 Peter 1:16 - some where eyewitnesses
Luke 1:1-4 - the writer talked to the eyewitnesses and was careful to relay the truth of the eyewitness accounts.
Craig-Ehrman debate on Resurrection of Jesus
Is the Bible Reliable

I. Just because something is mentioned without comment in the Bible doesn't mean that it is recommended or supported by the Bible.
The Bible relates much history without comment. The assumption is that the reader is a person who is familiar with other parts of the Bible who therefore would be able to make their own judgments about what is good or bad. So, just because the Bible tells of something bad that happened does not necessarily mean that the Bible approves of what happened.

J. The Bible is accurate where it touches on natural science
We talk about how the sun rises and the sun sets without implying that the sun is going around the earth. Similarly, the Bible talks from an earth centered perspective without contradicting anything in science. Also, the Bible talks about many of the natural concepts that we study using the scientific method today.

Scientific Accuracies of the Bible
Science or the Bible?
Creation: Science Confirms the Bible Is True (Video)

K. If a creator God exists, then He should likely be able to do anything that is logically doable, even "miracles"
The definition of miracles is something that is unexplained and isn't repeatable. So, by definition, miracles can not be analyzed by the scientific method, which requires repeatability. It would seem to be much easier to change things that already exist than to create things out of nothing. So, if a creator God exists who made everything, then it would seem that God should also be able to do anything He wanted to. And the things that He did which He did not set to repeat on queue would naturally be called miracles. So, if a creator God exists that intervenes sometimes with this world, then we would expect miracles to occur.

L. If something the Bible says sounds wrong, it may be our understanding that is incorrect.
For most of us, the Bible explains many concepts that we did not understand before reading the Bible. So, when we come upon something that doesn't seem to make sense, then we should give the Bible the benefit of the doubt. Also, since God, almost by definition, can do whatever He wants, we can't necessarily use the improbability of an occurrence to discredit the reliability of the Bible.

Specific Questions relating to Bible accuracy
M. The Jesus story is not a copy of the story of other gods
This is an area where Bill Maher really should have done his homework...
Doesn't the religion of Mithra prove that Christianity is false?
links between Krisha and Jesus
Why December 25th?
Aren’t there some striking parallels between the Jesus and Horus stories?

N. Homosexuality is not natural, marriage is natural and is the foundational organization
The evidence of a genetic predisposition to being gay is sketchy at best. But, even if there were a predisposition in some people, that does not make the behavior any less problematic. If people have a predisposition to anger or depression, it does not mean that we should allow them to become violent or depressed without working to end the inappropriate actions.

Marriage is supposed to be "one adult male and one adult female sharing everything for life". Many heterosexuals have given up on the "for life" part, substituting instead the concept that the marriage contract is only valid as long as "love" exists. Now we are considering giving up the "male and female" part of the definition. In the future some may rethink the "adult" and the "one" concepts as well. Maybe the Mormons previous views on polygamy will become more in vogue in the future... But, the point is that the reason for marriage is to make a stable unit to bring up children and to protect the married couple themselves. Society has incurred a significant cost already as the concept of marriage has changed, which is why the proposed additional changes seem to not be as big of a problem as it once would have been.
Lev 18:22-24, Lev 20:13, Gen. 19:4 -13, Jude 7, 2 Peter 2:6, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, 1 Tim 1:8-10, Rom. 1:26-28
Ex-gays?: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation
Homosexuality and Mental Health Problems
Homosexual Theology

O. Significant problems with believers and the church (and the existence of evil in general) do not disprove the existence of God, in fact the Bible warns there will be such problems with the church.
In fact, most of what Paul writes is addressing problems in the church.

Why we are here, why there is evil
P. God has an overall goal that is best, even though it includes terrible evil and problems. Free choice requires evil to exist.
Love seems to require free choice because it cannot be coerced. But free choice implies the ability to choose badly, especially for people who will live on (after death in our case) for the foreseeable future. So, giving Adam and Eve free choice would seem that over the long term, they and their descendants would tend to choose badly in most every way imaginable. Evil would seem to be caused as a byproduct of love and free choice. So, how would you resolve that dilemma? It appears that God's answer was first to pay the price and show the way of how to live without choosing wrong: by sacrificing yourself. Then ultimately, he allows free choice but separates out those who choose to follow him (i.e., and choose what is right) from those who ultimately choose to follow themselves. That way he can have a city with people who still have free choice but that will also choose right, even for the foreseeable future.
Salvation misses the point

Truth and Religion
Q. Just because some religions are untrue does not mean all are untrue, and in fact at most only one can be true in their core beliefs
It is not rational to believe that contradicting concepts are each true in the same way, so more than one religion (each of which contradict each other) cannot be true. But that does not mean that none of the religions are true, you just have to evaluate all of them (including atheism) and choose the one that you think is most likely true.

R. The search for truth in religion is not detrimental to humanity. - The search for truth is always a good thing because we have to first accurately understand the world around us before we can even hope to make good choices. The problem is not with the search for truth but rather when people believe they have found truth but are actually believing something that is not true. Truth by it's very nature is exclusive. There can be only one item that is true (and good) but there can be thousands of competing items that are false (and harmful).

S. Christianity is better for society than atheism - Christianity has similar benefits as government, except it can cause people to focus on their internal motives better than the state can. Also, our living under our government is only temporary, while we live, but living under the government of God goes on forever. So, Christianity gives transcendent value to law, justice and morality.

Each issue listed in order discussed in the movie

1. I hate prophesy (assumes prophesy is never true) - K, It is right to hate false prophesy, which is what the overwhelming majority of prophesies are. But if there is a God who can fully control the present world, He would be able to know the future by his complete control of the present. So, if an all controlling God exists, then it would be expected that He could know the future and could tell some people.

2.Religion is detrimental to the progress of humanity - R, False beliefs can be detrimental, but true beliefs are, of course, beneficial. And even in religions that may be false, self sacrifice, good attitudes, and submission to proper authority are some of the key attributes that most of those religions work to obtain in their followers, which should be seen as beneficial to society.

3. Religion is selling an invisible product - D,

4. People will make up any story and cling to it - A,

5. They believe that on Sunday they are drinking the blood of a 2000 year old god - That is a reference to the Catholic belief in transubstantiation, a belief that most Protestants do not agree with.

6. They call me the seeker (music) - B, Doubting is not true "seeking", A true seeker understands their failure to be what they should be - "I won't get what I'm after until the day I die."

7. Circumcision was strange when first introduced - L, Circumcision would have likely been seen as an appropriate symbol that people would naturally remember any time they considered relations outside of appropriate natural boundaries.

Our Lady of Mercy Church - Park Ridge, NJ (Bill Maher’s Sister Kathy Maher and Mother Julie Maher, at the Maher’s childhood Church)

8. Church was boring - O, Many churches are boring. Learning and following concepts in the Bible may be hard work, but doing that is not boring.

9. Required birth control is a good reason to leave Christianity - F, Most Protestant Christians allow birth control. But, following God sometimes requires us to give up that which may look like something good. Birth control enabled the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the disintegration of a large percentage of marriages, causing more abortions and single parent families. So, the Catholic church may have a valid point about the social problems associated with birth control and the related attitudes towards children and marriage.

Truckers Chapel/Truck Stop Ministries - Raleigh, NC - Reverend Joe Copeland

10. "Original Sin" is not in the Bible - 1 Cor 15:21-22, Rom 5:12-21, The concept of "Original Sin" is in the Bible at least in the sense that if Adam had not sinned, his descendants would not have died.

11. The "Immaculate Conception" is not in the Bible - This is a Roman Catholic view that is not held by Protestants.

12. Virgin Birth is only in two of the Gospels - Matt 1:18-25, Luke 1:1-4,26-38, Is 7:8-8:4 The verse in Isaiah is referring to Maheer-shalal-hash-baz, but Jesus is also referred to by this verse since a little later in Is 9:2-6 it also refers to a future son but that doesn't seem to be fulfilled back in old testament times. Also, note that Mary would likely not go around telling everyone about the virgin birth since most people would not believe her and there would have been no way to prove the virgin birth. Note the verses that imply that Mary and Jesus were keeping some things about Jesus to themselves:

Mat 1:19 Joseph initially planned to keep the virgin birth a secret and not marry Mary, but he changed his mind and married her, but he may still have kept the virgin birth a secret
Luke 2:19, 51 Mary treasured and pondered these things in her heart
Mat 8:3-4 Jesus sometimes wanted people he healed to keep it a secret from being general knowledge

The only people it would make sense to tell would be people who already believed he was the messiah. And it is possible that he didn't even tell the disciples. If that is the case then it is possible that some of the Gospel writers only found out about the virgin birth by talking with Mary herself. Luke said he did careful research in compiling his book, so it would make sense that he would talk to Mary and get the whole story.

So, it may be that Matthew and Luke interviewed Mary for their books whereas the other two writers did not. Note that the other two writers not only did not mention the virgin birth but did not mention Jesus' birth or childhood at all. That is at least one plausible answer to the question of why two of the gospel writers did not mention the virgin birth.

Another possible, related, answer might be if Mark and John were trying to be more evangelistic and did not want to start off their gospels with a miraculous event that was unverifiable.

The virgin birth could not have been parthenogenesis reproduction, like that found in some animals on rare occasions. Since the female only has female chromosomes, Jesus would have to be a female.

13. Popes are not in the Bible - That is a Catholic belief that Protestants do not share.

14. Response: Shroud of Turin had female blood from a male figure - I can't find any references to this and so this is obviously incorrect.

15. Response (Copland): Christianity... it's a faith thing - A, Yes, but we choose what we believe in based on the probabilities of it being true versus the probability of it being not true. So, we still should be able to articulate in a convincing way why we choose to believe Christianity.

16. Response: Changing from Satanism to Christianity is proof that God exists - Just because someone switches their beliefs to Christianity does not make it true.

17. Drugs and Prostitution are O.K. - E, Individual and social problems are caused by drug abuse and Prostitution.

18. Response: What if we are right and you are wrong (hedge your bets) - Chosen beliefs should be determined based on which set of beliefs is more likely to be true given the evidence, regardless of the benefits or drawbacks of accepting those beliefs.

Quote: "Yea, you could be right. I don’t think it is very likely. But yes you could be right because my big thing is I don’t know. That is what I preach. I preach the gospel of “I don’t know”. That is what I am here promoting, doubt. That is my product. The other guys are selling certainty. Not me. I’m on the corner with doubt."

19. Doubt is different than religion - B, Doubt is a belief system, too, that requires someone to live as if one of the other belief systems were true, and that chosen belief system is usually Atheism.

Carnegie Institution Auditorium - Washington, DC - Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute

20. It hasn't been proven that Jesus existed - H, All we have is historical literary evidence, but we have more literary evidence that Jesus existed than any other ancient person.

21. The Bible writers were not eye witnesses, nobody who wrote the gospels ever met Him - H, 1 Peter 1:16 - some were eyewitnesses. In Luke 1:1-4 the writer talked to the eyewitnesses and was careful to relay the truth of the eyewitness accounts. So, Bill Maher assumes the Bible is not accurate in what it is saying in order to prove his point that the Bible is not accurate...

22. The Bible doesn't tell us what Jesus was doing as a young man - I'm not sure why that matters since it would likely be a typical Jewish upbringing.

23. The Gospels are not history - H, The gospels claim to be accurate history.

24. The people who wrote the new testament read the old testament and made the prophecies fit - H, Perhaps, but no evidence is given other than the assumption that prophecies cannot come true. In fact this is an admission that Jesus' life did fulfill prophecies listed in the old testament...

25. The Bible is fictitious - H,

26. The Bible texts don't match - H, No discrepancies change the core doctrines, and you would expect some discrepancies from different eyewitnesses.

27. Important items, like the Virgin Birth, are not in all four gospels - The claim of virgin birth is not something that people would broadcast or that could be proven. So, it would seem natural that this would not be a widely known assertion. See my more in depth answer under item 12

28. "..being without faith is something that’s a luxury for people who are fortunate enough to have a fortunate life" - A fortunate life allows people to not have to think through the hard questions of life, but even fortunate people will unfortunately die one day. So, in that sense no one is fortunate...

29. How could smart people... believe in the talking snake.. - K,L, Obviously, the snakes of today do not have vocal cords or the mental ability to be able to talk. But we do have other evidence in the Bible that bad angels can inhabit animals, and there may have been ways to communicate without normal speech (but that is just speculation). The point is, that if the Bible is true and God created everything, even something as unlikely as this cannot be ruled out.

30. How could smart people... believe in... people that live to 900 years old... - K,L, Why do we live only 80-100 years now? It is not inconceivable that in a different environment with a better genetic makeup that men might live longer, like some animals.

31. How could smart people... believe in... the virgin birth. - K,L, How can scientists believe the universe created itself out of nothing? How can scientists believe in the twin paradox and the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics? It seems that religion has no corner on believing what seems to be unbelievable. Also, see my analysis of the virgin birth under item 12.

32. Religion turns into burning people alive, really evil s..t - O, So do ideologies of all kinds, not just religion.

33. Televangelists seeking money discredits Christianity (video clips) - O,

34. What do you think it says about religion and how serious it is if you can be a minister at 10 - O,

Ezra Conference Center - Raleigh, NC - Jeremiah Cummings Amazing Life World Outreach

35. Rock Stars are similar to religious figures, they both dress in elaborate costumes that get people's attention (fine clothes) - O, The clothes shouldn't matter one way or another, but the message should matter.

36. Response (Cummings): When he was born they brought him gold, Jesus was not poor - There is no indication that Jesus had any significant money.

37. Response (Cummings): Jesus dressed very well, he wore fine linen - There is no indication that Jesus' clothes were any better than anyone else.

38. Response (Cummings): Jesus does not preach against rich people - He does say that it is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But, then he says that with God it is possible for them to be saved.

39. Response (Cummings): Now things like houses and cars and clothes and money, they come as a result of my seeking God first - Money comes from bringing value to others. The problem with giving money in the Christian context is that the money is given based on the givers requirement to give, not necessarily how much value they are getting from the Church. So, in that case the pastor should be regulated by the church to not abuse the money they receive.

40. (Cummings) Turn your passion to God and see what happens (video of a terrorist blowing a car up) - O,

41. St. Paul only owned the clothes on his back - There is no indication of that.

42. The Bible doesn't have much morality because Lot (a good person) offered up his daughters to be raped instead of angels -I,

43. God hates fags (video) - O, No he does not, but he does think that homosexuality is an "abomination". Lev 18:22-24

44. Response: The Bible isn't against Homosexuality, that is what the Bible means to say - Lev 18:22-24, Lev 20:13, Gen. 19:4 -13, Jude 7, 2 Peter 2:6, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, 1 Tim 1:8-10, Rom. 1:26-28

Calvary Assembly Exchange Ministries – Winter Park, FL - Pastor John Westcott

45. Man wrote the Bible, Nature made Gay people, The Gay Gene has been found - N, See Homosexual Theology for a discussion of the evidence for a "Gay Gene". But even if there is a genetic predisposition in some people, that does not make the behavior any less problematic. If people have a predisposition to anger or depression, it does not mean that we should allow them to become violent or depressed without working to end the inappropriate actions.

American University biology lab, Washington, DC - Dr. Dean Hamer, author of The God Gene

46. All of the prescriptions against homosexuality come from the old testament.
Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. If it is so important, why didn’t he ever bring it up? - He didn't need to since the society which He was in already agreed that this was a condemned practice.

47. But what is your explanation for the millions and millions of people around the world who are leading homosexual lives, have no interest in anyone of the opposite sex… - N, Actually, there is indication that most homosexuals have at least some interest in bisexuality.

48. Gay people are secure in themselves - N, Sometimes people act secure when inside they are not.

49. Gay people are happy, they are called Gay, some of them look positively thrilled - N, Sometimes people act secure when inside they are not.

50. Christians should not judge Gay people by saying they are "people who are really incomplete in who they are as men or women" - G, The Bible isn't against judging. It is just against judging incorrectly.

51. You can tell people are Gay because they look Gay (good looking, neat, Little Richard) - N, Looks and actions may also make someone think they are gay, so the looks may be a contributing factor to the action, rather than an indication of a genetic predisposition.

52. When he was 17 and was dumped and sad, he was very vulnerable - thought a force was out there that was communicating through song lyrics or numerology, You make up an imaginary friend who loves you and who is sympathetic with you and has a plan for you. He didn't have to love me, he just had to be working for me, like an agent - O,

Liturgical Apostolate Center - Boston, MA - Steve Burg, Ex-Jew for Jesus

53. Highly unlikely coincidences after prayer are not evidence for God - C,

54. Believing Santa Claus flying around the world in one night is ridiculous, but one man hearing everybody murmuring to him at the same time, that I get. - K,

55. If Heaven is a better place, why don't you kill yourself - P, Our place is on earth, either this earth or the new earth talked about in Revelations. A common misconception is that our final destination as Christians is Heaven, when actually that is a temporary location and our final location is on the new earth. So, we are made to stay in this world, and killing ourselves would be sending us prematurely to the holding place just to return to the new earth.

56. Jonah could not have lived inside a big fish for three days - K, Whales and big fish have swallowed animals whole as large as people, so even without miraculous intervention the story of Jonah is physically possible.

57. Response (Berg): if you don't believe in miracles, that doesn't mean they do not exist - K,

58. Two things that are completely incompatible are Christianity as Jesus taught it and Nationalism -

59. Response (John McCain): The constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation -

60. A lot of books for the founding fathers that explicitly say that we are not a Christian nation -

Jefferson Memorial – Washington, DC - Ray Suarez author of The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America

61. Jefferson took out all of Jesus' Miracles and all the verses that talk about Jesus' divinity -

62. In Jefferson's age fewer people went to church less often -

63. 16% of Americans are unaffiliated with any religion from a pew poll -

Senate Office Building - Washington, DC - Senator Mark Pryor Democrat from Arkansas

64. Response (Senator): Why is faith good? Faith has a way of softening people, for example Jesus is very forgiving -

65. Jesus also said: If a man does not abide in me he is cast forth as a branch and withers and is gathered and thrown in the fire and burned. -

66. Response (Senator): We’ll let God sort out all the details at judgment day -

67. Are the ten commandments really the ten most moral teachings? That is not really a wise list of ten. - Actually when you understand the purpose of the 10 commandments and the purpose of the three groupings of commandments within the 10, then they make sense as a universal framework from which to interpret all other laws.

Commandments 1-3 and 5 concern respecting authorities. In the theocracy of Israel, the two authorities were God (and His representatives) and Parents. If Israel followed other gods (in that society they would have made idols for the other god), or said they followed the one true God but did not follow his commandments (taking on His name in vain), then they would lose the foundational reason why they decided to follow the Mosaic laws in the first place.

The 4th commandment, keeping the Sabbath day holy, insures that people have time to think and reflect on creation and how to maintain a "very good" world. If people are tired out from working all the time, they never will have the time or energy to learn about laws or to think about self discipline and the larger goals of life.

Commandments 6-8 concern maintaining boundaries between people. People have a right not be be murdered, to have a life long monogamous partner of the opposite sex, and a right to keep the property they make or trade for. These are the foundations of Criminal and Civil law.

The 9th commandment, "Do not bear false witness against your neighbor", is the foundation of law enforcement since reliance on witnesses is a pre-requisite for valid judgments concerning law enforcement.

The 10th commandment, "Do not covet...", is the last commandment for a good reason: it is the only one of the ten commandments that talks about attitude rather than just actions. Attitudes are the source of action, so the main focus of these laws is not the laws themselves, but to get the right attitudes that cause people to understand the reason for these laws in the first place and the desire to follow them.

The more summarized form of the ten commandments is: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:36-40). That reflects the two major themes of the 10 commandments: to give authority and others their rightful place in creation.

68. First four are all about just worshiping God and that he is a jealous God. - Worship is giving value and honor where honor is due. In a sense, we worship whatever we assign value to, but what we call "worship of God" is to give Him ultimate value and honor. As for God being "jealous", the head of any government is "jealous" of other governments taking over the leadership of their people.

69. Only two that are really laws are don’t steal and don’t kill. Why is this the wisest group of ten, it doesn't include Child Abuse, don’t torture, rape? It doesn't include a lot of things that I think if we were making a list today we would include. - The ten commandments are a framework that does in fact include, in concept, the laws that are listed as missing. Rape involves committing adultery. Murder is the extreme case of abuse and so is easy to list in a summary. Child abuse and torture need to be defined, otherwise people could claim abuse when any force is used, so those are not appropriate for a summary framework of laws.

70. Response (Senator): Society is so different today and our culture is so radically different - As a framework for all the following Mosaic laws, the 10 commandments are a very good summary, encapsulating all the key concepts of the legal system itself. And, if you understand that they were written for a theocracy and you translate the concepts to a democracy, then the 10 commandments are still the best summary of a legal system around.

Note that you can summarize down to fewer commandments, or you can expand the summary to more line items, or even to hundreds or thousands of laws and each would be valid. The question is how much of a summary of the legal system you want to have. The legal system could be summarized in one commandment: "do what is right", but of course to have meaning that needs to be expanded, which is why our legal system is so complex.

71. Can you think of anything else we still cling to from the bronze age. - yes, we still farm, eat, have transportation, communicate, write, etc... And, yes, we still have a legal system similar in concept to what Israel had.

72. Murder is against the law in every country in the world - Yes, so is honoring the government and other authorities, and respecting the rights and property of others, just as summarized in the 10 commandments.

73. Wouldn't we have come to that even without religion - Yes. A true "Religion" is only listing what is actually true and "natural", it is just that the things we do not understand we give the label "supernatural". If we understood those things we would label them as "natural".

74. There has been more killing in the name of our god - O, Killing only occurs when people can't control others to get what they want in other ways. Cain killed Abel because he wanted God to be happy with him the same as with Abel, but, irrationally, he thought killing was the best way to get that. The Bible shows that people should be given free choice, since God gave Adam and Eve free choice. People kill in the name of their god because they want others to follow their god and they can't think of any other way to get that to happen. But that same thing also happens with people wanting others to follow their philosophy, like Fascism and Communism.

It is interesting that the Bible does not say to kill others that do not believe in the God of Israel. The killing in the Bible seems to be to clear out the land from the influence of other governments, to respect the rule of law and to protect the innocent from how law breakers would change their society.

75. Response (Senator): More primitive cultures were constantly at war.

76. The modern nations are constantly at war too (video) - He mixes up national war and individual murder.

77. Response (Senator): Waffles on creation/evolution. - K,

78. It worries me that people are running my country who believe in a talking snake. - K,

79. Response (Senator): You don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the senate. -

Creation Museum, Petersburg, KY - Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis

80. Response (Ken Ham): In a nutshell we are saying the Bible is true, from Genesis to Revelations. - K, H ,

81. Response (Ken Ham): If you believe in evolution the woman had to come from an ape woman. -

82. Response (Ken Ham): Dinosaurs lived with humans. -

83. Response (Kirk Cameron): To be able to reason with people, learn to circumnavigate or go around the person’s intellect - Go to 19:50 and watch to 23:30 into the video to see this clip in context

84. It would have to be an enormous conspiracy going on between scientists of all different disciplines in all different countries to have such a consensus (for evolution). -

85. Response (Ken Ham): Man is a sinner. Man is in rebellion against his creator. All these scientists are sinners. -

86. Response (Father Coyne): John Paul said Evolution is no longer a mere hypothesis, Cur rent Popes Statement on Evolution -

87. Response (Ken Ham): Why is man coexisting with Dinosaurs important to your salvation or your morality. If we don't believe one part of the Bible, why should we believe the rest of the Bible - S,

88. Response (Father Coyne): Modern science came to be later than when the Bible was written so there can not be any science in scripture. The scriptures are not teaching science. - E, Just because the scientific method was delineated later, does not negate the fact that, if it is a true account given from God himself, the Bible should be accurate in it's natural history (science). That would still be the case even if the text was "dumbed down" to be able to discuss the subject with people who didn't know about the scientific method.

St. Raphael’s Parish Center, Raleigh, NC - Father George V. Coyne Director Emeritus Vatican Observatory

89. Response (Father Coyne): It is very hard for me to accept not just a literal interpretation of scripture but a fundamentalist approach to religious belief. Fundamentalist belief is kind of a plague. It presents itself as science but it is not - S, If the Bible isn't accurate about natural history, why should we believe it when it talks about other topics. And if the genesis story was not meant to be taken as history, what other parts of the Bible should not be taken literally either? Jesus thought Adam and Eve were literal people.

90. God is working in ways we sometimes do not understand. Isn't that a cop out? He is God. Are you God? - L,

91. Got thrown out of the Vatican - tactic of not notifying before showing up -

92. Flying nun reference - mixing of fiction and nonfiction -

93. Does that look like anything, like anything Jesus Christ had in mind – the Vatican. Response: If I were the boss I wouldn’t be living there. -

Vatican (Father Reginald Foster, Senior Vatican Scholar and Principal Latinist for the Pope)

94. Response (Foster): Roasting in Hell. That is all gone. That's all finished. - That is an interesting new change in Catholic doctrine...

95. Response (Foster): Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas. These are all nice stories you know. - Agreed, the date was chosen to overlap an existing pagan festival. But that doesn't have any bearing on whether Jesus actually existed or not.

96. Response (Foster): Jesus was sixth on the list who people pray to in Italy. Looks like it isn’t monotheistic. Talk about cafeteria Catholics. - O,

97. Response (Foster): You can’t convince people. Let people die with their stupid ideas. - If I had that idea, I wouldn't be writing this blog... The Bible seems to indicate that we should put forward what we believe to be true to people, then if they decide to believe otherwise, that is their prerogative.

98. Analogy: A space man zaps a virgin who has a son who is also him who goes on a suicide mission - The flaw in this analogy is that the "space man" actually created the earth and the virgin. And there is no such thing as a suicide mission since everyone gets raised again after they die, for judgment.

A better analogy might be a rich king creates a stadium and has his people try out to see who are worthy citizens to live with him in his royal city. His standards are extremely high, so it turns out that none of his people are making the grade. So he sends his son to sneak into the stadium and show the people how to do it. His standards are so high that the his son actually dies doing what is right, and the people who want to make the grade also have to be willing to die. But the king can bring people back to life, so actually no one comes to an end because of these tests (but he lets them think they will come to an end to see who will be willing to die).

99. If when you were a kid they transposed the Bible stories with fairy tales you would know the difference as an adult? If they told you Jack and the Bean Stalk was religion and that a man lived in a whale was a fairy tale quote. Would you be defending the one and not the other? - The difference here is whether the story is true or not and that is what he is trying to establish, so this argument assumes the result it is trying to prove

100. Eve being made out of a rib. -

101. Jesus is just alright with me - music - It is a little dangerous to have someone dress up like Jesus because people might assume they are saying what Jesus would say. The real Jesus would probably have had better answers...

Holy Land Experience - Orlando, FL - Employee Acting as Jesus

102. Why doesn’t he just obliterate the devil and therefore get rid of evil in the world? Response (Jesus Actor): He will. - P,

103. What is he waiting for? Response (Jesus Actor): A day is like a thousand years for God. He is so far beyond any of our ways. - P,

104. What was the holocaust, why was that good? Response (Jesus Actor): God has a plan for that. It is like explaining to an ant how a TV works. - P, We will all die, it is just a matter of how.

105. Wicked witch sounds when public relations coordinator comes - It is polite to let people know when you will be shooting a video on their property, but of course they were probably afraid that they would not be let in since the video is somewhat adversarial to Christian beliefs.

106. No other gods before me, that's not moral, it is just something a jealous God would do. That seems so un-godlike. I know people who have gotten over jealousy. - That is moral. Think of it like when one government says if you want to keep being a citizen, it will not allow you to work for a competing government within it's borders. The term jealous has a broader meaning than being implied here.

107. (Jesus Actor) It's two sides of a coin. He is a just God and He's also a merciful God. There are books of the Bible about God wiping out people. His ways are higher than ours -

108. (Jesus Actor) God put this God sized hole in your life, you can fill it with drugs, sex, anything you want, it is not going to fill it.. Can I try? You can try if you want, but you will end up hurting yourself and damaging yourself and burning yourself out.

109. I thought Christ was about not judging people, isn't that a judgment there? You don't even know me but you are saying I have a hole in my heart. Response: No, I'm saying anyone in general - G,

110. If I was God I would create people without the hole to begin with. - That is like saying if I were an automaker I would make a car that gets a million miles to the gallon and you never need to change the oil and that it could fly to work as well. The hole is there by design and it is a little presumptuous to think that, if there is a Creator, we can recommend a better design. And as a corollary: thinking we could make a better design is not good evidence that there is no Creator. If you can actually make a better design rather than thinking you could, that might be better evidence that no Creator actually exists...

111. (Jesus Actor) Have you ever had a little small voice in the back of your mind say some things. That's not God, that is you - Agreed, if there is no objective way, at least to that individual, to determine whether it is God speaking to you or whether it is just yourself, we have to make inference to the most likely cause which is just our own thinking.

112. (Jesus Actor) Holy spirit is like the wind - Agreed, but that is not evidence that God exists.

113. It’s a monotheistic religion, but there is three of them. Space God and sends himself on a suicide missions, he's God, he has a kid, he’s a single parent, it’s just silly. - See the answer and better analogy on item 98.

114. Your bio was something that was going around the Mediterranean for at least a 1000 years before Christ -

115. 1000 BC Krishna: carpenter, born of a virgin, baptized in a river - There are no credible links between Krisha and Jesus

116. 600 BC Persian God Mithra: Born December 25th, performed miracles, resurrected on the 3rd day, the lamb, the way, the truth, the light, the savior, messiah - Doesn't the religion of Mithra prove that Christianity is false? - The short answer is no. Many of the concepts associated with Mithra were post-Christian, and they were all post-Judaism. Since the concepts ascribed to Jesus can be directly derived from the old testament, there are no grounds to say these concepts were derived from Mithra worship, and in fact the opposite could be the case.

117. Response (Jesus Actor): I don't go by that, I go by the word of God - Good, but not good enough... We need to be able to give an answer for why we believe the Bible is true, which includes external proofs as well as internal proofs that the Bible is accurate and true.

118. Many of the gods were born on December 25th (So the story of Jesus was copying others) - Why December 25th? - Because the Christian church wanted to overlap a day that the pagans already used to worship another god, to make it easy for them to switch to Christianity. So, there is a good reason why the birth of Mithra and Jesus are celebrated on the same day. They were hoping that the celebration of Jesus' birth would replace the celebration of Mithra.

119. Horus: Egyptian God similarities list on screen - Son of Osiris, virgin mother, Aup the Baptizer, beheaded, temped in the desert, crown of thorns, walked on water, Asus means Lazarus, crucified and raised - Aren’t there some striking parallels between the Jesus and Horus stories? In short, the answer is,"no." Bill Maher's team should have done some more homework here...

120. (Jesus Actor) What if you are wrong and this isn't all made up? -

121. Believing in Jesus with the virgin birth and the dove and the snake that talks in the garden is like believing in Scientology -

122. Religions have to get crazier to keep up - K,

123. Religion is a neurological disorder. There are some very specific changes in the brain when people are meditating or praying or even speaking in tongues - First. in 1 Cor 14 Paul is arguing that people should seek to do better things rather than to try to speak in tongues. If the foreign tongues were actually understandable that would be profitable but, since that is not the case here, Christians should desire to do better things with their time and energy. Also, the practice of "centering prayer" is not really prayer at all but a controversial practice (in protestant Christianity) of clearing the mind, similar to what Buddhists do in their meditations. So, none of these practices studied are recommended by most protestant Christians (though the practice of centering prayer is growing).

Protestant Christians have historically recommended rational practices such as prayer and Bible study (assuming God exists and the Bible is accurate) rather than irrational practices such as clearing the mind and practicing rituals to improve our standing with God.

Secondly, Dr. Newberg only says that these practices show neurologically different patterns. He never says that belief is a neurological disorder. Also, other activities may have different neurological patterns associated with them as well. So, this is the worst kind of slander and should be strongly rejected. Once a point of view is defined as a disorder, then it becomes acceptable to force that viewpoint out of the marketplace of ideas and to even have social or legal pressure applied to "fix" the disorder. The Jews and others had to first be reduced to some sort of "problem" that needed to be fixed before the holocaust could take place. Lets not go down that road again...

Grand Central Station - New York, NY (Dr. Andrew Newberg, MD, author, Why We Believe What We Believe) co- founder of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind

124. (Karta) You must be on a certain level of holiness to deserve the land of Israel - (Protestant Christians generally do not agree)

Neturei Karta - Monsey, NY - Rabbi Yisroel Weiss, Anti-Zionist

125. God rested on the 7th day so man has to - the Christian belief is that the sabbath day is a benefit for man, not an imposed ritual. It is like arguing for a 40 hour work week instead of a 60 hour work week so that there is time for study, fellowship and getting refreshed.

126. Keep the sabbath day holy: can’t use electricity, you can't drive – 39 types of specific actions that cannot be done on the Sabbath: start a fire, planting, plowing, tying a knot, untying a knot, building, destroying so as to build - (Protestant Christians generally do not agree.)
Mat 23:23-28 Says it is good that they want to follow the law in minute details, but in many cases they miss the main, internal points of the law in order to focus on these minor external points of the law. The fact is that no Jewish person can keep the whole law in every detail all their lives, which is why the temple sacrifices were required and, eventually, Jesus' "once and for all" sacrifice.

Institute for Science and Halacha (Rabbi Shmuel Strauss; Rabbi Levi Halperin, Director of the Institute)

127. (Strauss) If there is a loophole, it is because it is to be used in a situation of need - Not necessarily. A loophole may not have been intended, but rather showed up because of an overly rigid interpretation of what was intended by the original writer.

128. Why am I going to these lengths to please God who has taken away my legs to begin with? - P, God has greater goals in mind which require this short term pain and suffering. Just because God thinks there is a greater good to allowing this suffering does not mean that he likes the individual suffering.

129. How do we define crazy? If we define mental illness as anyone who hears a voice talking to them, then anyone who has heard the voice of God is crazy. - There has to be some objective way to verify, at least to the individual, that any "voices" in their head are accurate and from God.

130. Mother who killed her children after hearing the voice of God - She was not objectively verifying whether the voice in her head was good or not. A Christian would normally reject voices if they told them to do things that were against what was taught in the Bible.

131. Abraham killing his son - Abraham would have been doing evil if there were not some way to objectively verify that the voice was coming from God and that God was trustworthy. The Bible does not specifically say how Abraham knew the voice was from God, but there must have been some way to objectively verify that.

132. Jesus was nuts (for talking to God). Moses talked to a burning bush. That guy is a cuckoo. - That assumes that God wasn't actually talking to them, so these statements are assuming what they are trying to prove.

133. (Miranda) Jesus had children descendants to Puerto Rico. No hell, devil or sin. How do you get this Job? Two tall and strong angels. - O, Mat 24:23-25 The Bible says there will be false Christs.

Growing in Grace Ministry - Miami, FL (Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda)

134. Why did God choose you? He is the descendant of Jesus. Jesus had a wife and has descendants. I thought the second coming was the reincarnation of the Christ himself - O,

135. It seems that if God wanted to communicate something to the world, He’s all powerful, He would just talk to the whole world. It always seems that He picks out a prophet in private and tells them, "O.K., you’re the prophet." And you go tell the rest of the world, so we just sort of have to take it on faith, we just sort of have to believe you. - C, If God just told the whole world many people would follow him because of His power and not because they actually want to do what is right. Part of the test of this life is following God without seeing His full power.

136. (Miranda) If I discovered that I was Satan in person I would do a good job too, because I would be faithful to my calling -

137. I wasn't born skeptical. I was still making deals with God when I was 40. I said if you make this problem go away I will quit smoking, and I won't go back on it because I would be going back on a deal with God. I’m kind of glad I had God in my life. - If God doesn't exist, then that was silly even if the results were good. So, the main question is still whether God exists or not.

Sensi Coffee Shop / Seed Shop (Ferre van Beveren, Cannabis Ministry)

138. Maybe the Dutch are so tolerant that they are now tolerating intolerance. It is all religious fundamentalists. - Note that by using the term "religious fundamentalists" it also implicates Christians and Jews who have not demonstrated the same level of religious violence in this generation as a portion of the Muslims have.

139. Theo Van Gogh assassinated. His film was deeply offensive to Muslims. - If God exists, He has also given us the freedom to choose whether to follow him or not.

140. (Rapper) Anyone worrying about what I am saying should get involved in the debate. You are allowed to dissent, that is a right.

Quote: But is that a right in Islam, to dissent? Was that a right for Salmon Rushdie (and his novel Satanic verses)? Salmon Rushdie was there to provoke, insult, and he did it intentionally. But, should he die for that? It's easy for you to say things kind of in black and white. It's more complex than that. There is emotions and passions and philosophy involved. All you have got to say is that it is wrong for someone to have to suffer a death threat for writing a book. But, apparently, it is more complicated than that. But, you want that protection for yourself. I'm willing to discuss them in terms of facts and not fictions. When you disagree with me it is a fiction. You have the truth and I have the fiction. You don't see a fundamental hypocrisy for you asking for the right to dissent and somebody else getting a death threat. No, because my dissent is to stop the madness. (his song talking about terrorism being O.K.)

London subway/tube station (Aki Nawaz, a/k/a Propa-Gandhi, Rapper)

141. Dutch parliament member wants, Geert Wilders, to outlaw Islam in Holland. Islam is a violent religion, the Koran is a violent book and Mohamed was a violent prophet. Do you think Islam wants to take over the world? They don't even make a secret about it. - Protestant Christians would like the whole world to be Christian, too. But, most think the Bible says that will not happen. And, in fact the world will reject true Christianity. But, in any case, the Bible doesn't say anything about taking over the world using force like the Quran does.

Recently Geert Wilders was charged with "insulting Islam" in Holland, and if convicted may spend two years in jail for creating a movie called "Fitna". See it on Youtube in two parts, part 1 and part 2.

The Hague/Parliament (Geert Wilders, Dutch Parliament Member)

142. Gay Muslim bar - Turkmani has an HIV infection and suffers from severe mental problems, which three times per month has to be treated by several physicians.

Habibi Ana (Muslim Gay Bar/Jimmy Turkmani)

143. Is Islam a threat to Dutch values? No, Islam is preaching above all, peace and peace and peace. (Clips of Muslims preaching violence). - See, Obsession, the Movie

Part 1 of 2:

Part 2 of 2:

144. And yet it is involved with a lot of war and violence. Yea, it is just all politics. Nothing to do with religion.

145. There seems to be a lot of passages that say the infidel is not the equal of the believer, the infidel will die in hell, don't feel bad about hating the infidel. No? Boy I've got a lot of bad information. -

146. What did you think when you read those passages? I explain those passages within the time they emerged. -

147. I think they are just in a state of denial to an outsider. Islam conquered most of the known world in one century -

Al-Aqsa Mosque, Temple Mount, Dome of the Rock (Dr. Muhammad Hourani, PhD, Coordinator, Center for Peace and Reconciliation)

148. The Kaba, this stone came from paradise. It is black and there are no other black stones around. Does it make any difference that we now understand what a meteor is? -

149. Women in your culture seem not to be as equal to the man as they are in our culture. The women have a special corner -

150. Mohammad never went to temple mount, that is a historical fact. Muslims have to accept every word in this story. - (Agreed by Protestant Christians)

151. Why can’t the people of the different faiths get along. Is it not because it has been conquered many times? - O,

152. Giant naked man on the side of a hill, is there a religion that maintains it? Believing in mysticism is similar to kneeling and fasting -

Cerne Abbas (Giant of Cerne) – Dorset, England

153. Because of the power of religion to divert man to destructive courses, the world actually could come to an end. -

Verses quoted on screen:
Rev 1:3, 16:16 The time is near and the place is called Armageddon
Surah 3:151 Soon we will cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers
Surah 55.26 All that is on earth will perish
Rev 6:12 There was a great earthquake... The sun turned black... the whole moon turned blood red and the stars in the sky fell to earth
Rev 9:6 During those days men will seek death, but will not find it;they will long to die but death will elude them
Hadith Sahih Muslim 41:6903 The last hour will not come unless there is much bloodshed
Rev 22:21 The grace of the lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.
Surah Al-Fatihah 1:2-4 Praise be to Allah... master of the day of judgment

154. If you believe the world is going to come to an end, perhaps any day now, does it not drain ones motivation to improve life on earth while we are here? -

Final Monologue:
"Plain fact is religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having key decisions made by religious people, by irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state, not by a compass, but, by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken. George Bush prayed a lot about Iraq, but he didn’t learn a lot about it.
Faith means making a virtue out of non-thinking. It’s nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.
Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don’t have all the answers to think that they do. Most people would think it’s wonderful if someone says, "I’m willing Lord. I’ll do whatever You want me to do." Except, that since there are no gods actually talking to us, that void is filled in by people with their own corruptions, and limitations and agendas.
And, anyone who tells you they know, they just know what happens when you die. I promise you you they don’t. How can I be so sure? Because I don’t know and you do not possess mental powers that I do not.
The only appropriate attitude for man to have about the big questions is not the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion, but doubt. Doubt is humble. And that’s what man needs to be considering that human history is just a litany of getting sh.t dead wrong.
This is why rational people, anti-religionists must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. And, those that consider themselves only moderately religious, really need to look in the mirror and realize the solace and comfort that religion brings you actually comes at a terrible price.
If you belonged to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, violence and shear ignorance as religion is, you’d resign in protest..
To do otherwise is to be an enabler, a mafia wife with the true devils of extremism that draw their legitimacy of their billions of their fellow travelers.
If the world does come to an end here, or wherever, or, it lives into the future decimated by the effects of a religion inspired nuclear terrorism, let’s remember what the real problem was. That we learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it.

That’s it. Grow up or die."

Issues from quote:
155. Religion must die for mankind to live - Nazism and Communism had even greater potential to end life as we know it on the planet, and those are not religions. So, what we would need to say is "Any significant ideologies must die for mankind to live". But, Ironically, to do that would take a strong world government that severely managed the education and thinking of the world's population. Interestingly, that is in opposition to Mr. Maher's political beliefs.

156. People who believe religion should not be political leaders - The last monologue assumes that religion is the same as irrationality. Everyone would agree that political leaders need to be rational, but he has not made his case that all religious people are also irrational.

157. Faith makes a virtue of non-thinking - Actually, that is not true. All reason starts with assumptions. The difference with religious faith is that it starts with seemingly unverifiable assumptions that could only be revealed in the past through books or other means. Both science and religion have their foundational beliefs that are unverifiable.

158. Faith keeps mankind in bondage to fantasy and nonsense - Yes, for the faiths that are not true, that is the case. But, if any of the faiths are true, then they actually free people rather than put them in bondage.

159. Faith has spawned much lunacy and destruction - Agreed. Faith and reason are powerful tools. If they are used to find truth, then they are a great benefit. If they are used to support falsehoods, then they can cause great destruction.

160. Bad people lead the willing faithful to do bad things - But, normally, the leaders of the faithful think they are doing a good thing. They don't think of themselves as being bad.

161. No one knows what happens when they die because Bill Maher does not know - Yes, that is something that would have to be revealed by God, which is what the western religions have claimed that God has done.

162. The only appropriate attitude on the big questions is doubt because doubt is humble - Doubt isn't necessarily humble, it can also be prideful. If you have already decided that there is no way you can be convinced of something, then that is just as prideful as someone who is convinced of their position. The only appropriate attitude on the big questions is to find truth wherever that may be and commit to rational debate.

163. History is a litany of getting things wrong - Agreed. That is why America was founded based on religious freedom, so that we would not make the mistakes of Europe after the middle ages. So, we should learn from the past and all support the marketplace of ideas, not shutting down discussion of any religious beliefs because we disagree with them.

164. Anti-religionists must assert themselves - Yes, every viewpoint should enter the marketplace of ideas. But, atheists can be just as dogmatic and narrow minded as religionists can be.

165. Solace and comfort of religion comes at a terrible price - Solace and comfort in atheism under communism came at a terrible price as well. The key is to determine what is true and stick to that.

166. You should quit Religion because of it's bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, violence and shear ignorance, to do otherwise makes you an enabler - We should work hard to find truth wherever it is.

167. Let’s remember what the real problem was. That we learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it. - Predicting Armageddon does not mean that people wish for Armageddon.

Contemplative Prayer Taught To My Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:15:00 +0000

It seems that I can't keep up with writing blogs for all the various ways that the Christian Church is being undermined with Hindu mysticism. I was minding my own business and another blog topic was thrust in my path yesterday afternoon...

We have been attending a different church recently, but some of our kids were sick last week end so I let one of our teenagers go to the Sunday morning youth meeting at the church where we are still members. This is a good church that on paper at least is theologically sound and they have a strong heart for evangelism. So by most measures this is a very sound, evangelical church.

My son brought back the sermon notes on the left (from the youth class) which talked about the "30 day silence" challenge. Here is their definition of how to improve prayer: "Find a quite place. Pray that God will reveal Himself. Sit quietly. Clear your mind, don't try to think. There is no time limit. Cross your legs in the lotus position". Well, I added the part about crossing your legs, but you get my point. Put it in a Christian context and it is "prayer". Put it in a Hindu context and it is Hindu meditation. The Christian movement that this comes from is apparently called "Contemplative Prayer" or "Centering Prayer".

The core difference here is that in Christianity prayer is thinking or talking information, but in Hinduism it is usually clearing the mind. Also, meditation in the Christian context is thinking through information, whereas in the Hindu context meditation usually is again clearing the mind. Though Hinduism is very broad, sometimes including most every possible practice, Hinduism in its most common form and Christianity still have opposite concepts of how one reaches enlightenment. Hinduism, in its most common form, seeks for us to realize, usually through clearing our minds, that we are one with Brahman and to detach from pain and pleasure in order to be released from samsara. In contrast, Christianity seeks for us to realize, through reason and study, who God is and what he wants from us. And Christianity seeks for us, through self sacrifice, to reduce real hurting for ourselves and others and to enjoy true pleasure as God designed it. So, Christianity and Hinduism are very much opposites. They can only be seemingly merged when Christian terms are instead infused with Hindu meanings. See Christian Answers for the New Age for a more in depth analysis than I can do here.

To see what a pro-contemplative prayer web site says, see Contemplative Outreach. Note that they believe in the "Indwelling Trinity" rather than just the Holy Spirit and they do not seem to mention any concept of repentance. In short, they are promoting Hindu concepts in Christian terms. For a site that shows how contemplative prayer is making inroads into the Christian church, see the Lighthouse Trails Research Project.

If I wanted my kids to learn contemplative prayer, I would take them to the meditati on class which meets every Sunday at 11 AM at the local Theosophical society. They could perhaps even go to the Gong Bath and Singing Bowl classes (at the local Catholic Franciscan order) to help them meditate better. Or instead, maybe I will wait for the Evangelical Christian version: the Organ Bath (give it time, someone will come up with a "Christianized" alternative). I'm not casting dispersions on the Theosophical Society. They are acting in keeping with their beliefs (which I do not share). But Christians who, without thinking through the issues, teach children to "clear their mind" during "prayer" are not in keeping with the Christian teachings they say that they are committed to. And Hindus and Buddhists who try to infuse Christian terms with Hindu meanings (in a Christian context) either do not know the difference or they are being disingenuous.

Dr. Ron Carlson - Eastern Philosophy Expert - Video

Rebuttal of Psalm 62 verses Dr. Lutzer used to support contemplative prayer

John MacArthur vs Doug Pagett video debate on Christian Yoga