Reporter William Lobdell, looks at how the stories he covered affected him and his spiritual journey.
http://www.dickstaub.com/links_view.php?record_id=5313
I thought I'd offer my thoughts to the questions that he raised.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why do good things happen to bad people?
Why does God get credit for answered prayers but no blame for unanswered ones?Why do we look for truth in answers when these answers historically don’t come from such deep questions? Isn’t the truth found in questions?
I see a world that looks like God is hiding. But like a parent who plays hide n seek with a small child, when its that parents turn to hide, they hide in a place where they can easily be found as long as the child is looking.
I believe God answers all prayers. Some of his answers are “yes” and some are “no”. This may not be an attractive proposition, but this unattractiveness is proof that I’m not wishful thinking.
Reality itself’s most axiomatic truths are unattractive, in the form of suffering, death and taxes.
As C.S. Lewis once wrote:
"Reality, in fact, is always something you couldn't have guessed. That's one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It's a religion you couldn't have guessed."
--The Case for Christianity
I don’t claim to have all the right answers, just the right questions.
Why do we believe in the miraculous healing power of God when he's never been able to regenerate a limb or heal a severed spinal chord?
As a Christian, every healing that I’ve ever seen God perform was to serve a greater purpose of authenticating His word. Just one example is when Christ tells a bed-ridden man, in the presence of many observers, including the religious leaders of his day, that his sins are forgiven. Then, to authenticate His ability to forgive sins (a quality only given to God alone), he proves it by telling the man to rise up and walk.
Healings are very rare today, but I hear them most loudly and convincingly described, from missionaries in countries that have never even heard the Gospel, in authenticating the Word of God being proclaimed.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Facts are Meaningless
The following link is a news article describing how blue eyes are a result of a mutational gene which turned off a gene which causes human eyes to be brown. The article states that at one time all humans had brown eyes.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327070,00.html
The article reeks of evolutionary interpretations.
However, the article can be interpreted in two ways. And I believe this second interpretation makes much more sense.
I once heard a story about how a podiatrist had told a creationist that he believed he was seeing the proof of evolution in his patients. He told the creationist that over the many years of his practice, he was noticing one of the toes (I presume the little tow, but I don't rememember for sure) of people get smaller over time. He believed this was evolution and that eventually humans would lose that toe.
The creationist objected, saying if losing a toe is evolution, we're all in trouble. Show me a toe that is being added to a foot, and then you might have a point!
The same can be said for a mutation that turns OFF a gene. That's a LOSS of information, not a gain. Because of the LOSS of information, the Koala bear is going extinct. It is more susceptible to disease because it no longer carries sufficient amounts of recessive genes to its offspring to give some of them the viability to adapt.
Without going deeper into the subject of origins, let me just point out that evolution can only point to instances where genetic information is being lost, not gained. If this were not true, we'd all stick our heads in microwaves hoping for a mutation to expedite the evolutionary process!
Facts by themselves are meaningless. They have to be interpreted. The interpretation process usually (perhaps always) leaves us with a fork in the road. That fork allows us for at least two plausible options.
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Dan Castellaneta
Do you see how our will (volition) comes in to play as we set about to discern truth?
Of course, some people don't even want to believe in truth itself:
The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.
- Jane Wagner
Who we are is a prerequisite in in determining what we can possibly know.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327070,00.html
The article reeks of evolutionary interpretations.
However, the article can be interpreted in two ways. And I believe this second interpretation makes much more sense.
I once heard a story about how a podiatrist had told a creationist that he believed he was seeing the proof of evolution in his patients. He told the creationist that over the many years of his practice, he was noticing one of the toes (I presume the little tow, but I don't rememember for sure) of people get smaller over time. He believed this was evolution and that eventually humans would lose that toe.
The creationist objected, saying if losing a toe is evolution, we're all in trouble. Show me a toe that is being added to a foot, and then you might have a point!
The same can be said for a mutation that turns OFF a gene. That's a LOSS of information, not a gain. Because of the LOSS of information, the Koala bear is going extinct. It is more susceptible to disease because it no longer carries sufficient amounts of recessive genes to its offspring to give some of them the viability to adapt.
Without going deeper into the subject of origins, let me just point out that evolution can only point to instances where genetic information is being lost, not gained. If this were not true, we'd all stick our heads in microwaves hoping for a mutation to expedite the evolutionary process!
Facts by themselves are meaningless. They have to be interpreted. The interpretation process usually (perhaps always) leaves us with a fork in the road. That fork allows us for at least two plausible options.
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Dan Castellaneta
Do you see how our will (volition) comes in to play as we set about to discern truth?
Of course, some people don't even want to believe in truth itself:
The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.
- Jane Wagner
Who we are is a prerequisite in in determining what we can possibly know.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Other Esteem
"I believed I could fly. I believed I could touch the sky. Then I jumped off of a building. And I fell straight to the ground."
Ok, those aren't exactly the words...
If you've ever watched American Idol, you've seen the dangers of the self-esteem movement, as aspiring stars deluded with the self-confidence that told them they sounded like a cross between Baby Face and Billy Joel, sounded more like a cat in heat.
Hitler believed in himself. Read excerpts of Mein Kampf if you don't believe me. And as G.K. Chesterton noted in his book, "Orthodoxy", lunatics also believe in themselves. In fact, the problem with a paranoid person is that they ONLY believe in themselves. Its not that they have lost their mind, its as if all they have left is their minds are they have abandoned everything EXCEPT reason.
Brittany Spears believes in herself and look at the emotional and mental mess she is in.
Another song lyric says, "Learning to love yourself, is the greatest love of all." Kurt Cobain loved himself so much that he was willing to go so far as to commit suicide and therefore hurt others who loved him in order to escape the pain.
My Christian faith, typically casting a counter-cultural worldview, teaches in the concept of what I call "other esteem":
"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." - Philippians 2:3
Far from obsequiousness, this passage suggests that we should give our lives away to others. Christ taught:
"And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." - Matthew 10:38-39
I know non-christians often exhibit a phobia of Scripture quotations, and no wonder. Many times Christians quote them to cast judgement. But that is obviously not my intent.
I just want to suggest that the self-esteem movement is equivalent to someone who had a golden egg who was soooo intent on not losing that golden egg that they squeezed it until it cracked in their hands.
Esteem others and find that you are now more fully human! Start with me! Send me an e-mail and tell me how great I am! LOL!
Ok, those aren't exactly the words...
If you've ever watched American Idol, you've seen the dangers of the self-esteem movement, as aspiring stars deluded with the self-confidence that told them they sounded like a cross between Baby Face and Billy Joel, sounded more like a cat in heat.
Hitler believed in himself. Read excerpts of Mein Kampf if you don't believe me. And as G.K. Chesterton noted in his book, "Orthodoxy", lunatics also believe in themselves. In fact, the problem with a paranoid person is that they ONLY believe in themselves. Its not that they have lost their mind, its as if all they have left is their minds are they have abandoned everything EXCEPT reason.
Brittany Spears believes in herself and look at the emotional and mental mess she is in.
Another song lyric says, "Learning to love yourself, is the greatest love of all." Kurt Cobain loved himself so much that he was willing to go so far as to commit suicide and therefore hurt others who loved him in order to escape the pain.
My Christian faith, typically casting a counter-cultural worldview, teaches in the concept of what I call "other esteem":
"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." - Philippians 2:3
Far from obsequiousness, this passage suggests that we should give our lives away to others. Christ taught:
"And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." - Matthew 10:38-39
I know non-christians often exhibit a phobia of Scripture quotations, and no wonder. Many times Christians quote them to cast judgement. But that is obviously not my intent.
I just want to suggest that the self-esteem movement is equivalent to someone who had a golden egg who was soooo intent on not losing that golden egg that they squeezed it until it cracked in their hands.
Esteem others and find that you are now more fully human! Start with me! Send me an e-mail and tell me how great I am! LOL!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Saved From Ourselves
You can call it cynicism if you want, but what Christianity calls "the curse of sin" is manifest in that the more popular (hence the wider the net is cast) something is, the more watered down it generally becomes. In other words, there is an inverse proportionality between quality and appeal. If Wisdom was common, it wouldn't be valued. It is valued because it is uncommon. I see this effect in commercialization.
Just compare popular music to what music schools study. In other words, the music that the pop culture values is dramatically different than the music that educated musicians tend to value. I'm not trying to be a snob nor am I casting judgement on people's preferences. Believe me, there are plenty of three chord pop songs that I love (the latest is Celine Dion's "What Do You
Say"), but from an educated musician's standpoint, I recognize them for what they are. They are great for getting my toes to tap and putting a melodic hook in my head, but they are far from
bastions of creativity or musicianship. The more creative music becomes, and the greater the displays of excellent musicianship are present, the less popular the appeal of such music tends to be.
As a guitar teacher at Cedarville University, (http://www.cedarville.edu/) and at a local music studio, I frequently encounter young students who want to learn commercially popular music. I am able to teach them these songs when they are at a beginner level, but as they advance, I have to gently steer them away from most of this music because it ceases to present significant challenges required for their growth as musicians.
So if "the curse of sin" as Christianity calls it truly exists, then as Walt Kelly once said, "We have met the enemy and He is Us".
How do we get saved from ourselves?
Just compare popular music to what music schools study. In other words, the music that the pop culture values is dramatically different than the music that educated musicians tend to value. I'm not trying to be a snob nor am I casting judgement on people's preferences. Believe me, there are plenty of three chord pop songs that I love (the latest is Celine Dion's "What Do You
Say"), but from an educated musician's standpoint, I recognize them for what they are. They are great for getting my toes to tap and putting a melodic hook in my head, but they are far from
bastions of creativity or musicianship. The more creative music becomes, and the greater the displays of excellent musicianship are present, the less popular the appeal of such music tends to be.
As a guitar teacher at Cedarville University, (http://www.cedarville.edu/) and at a local music studio, I frequently encounter young students who want to learn commercially popular music. I am able to teach them these songs when they are at a beginner level, but as they advance, I have to gently steer them away from most of this music because it ceases to present significant challenges required for their growth as musicians.
So if "the curse of sin" as Christianity calls it truly exists, then as Walt Kelly once said, "We have met the enemy and He is Us".
How do we get saved from ourselves?
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Plane on Treadmill
Recently, Myth Busters did a show dedicated to the question of whether or not an air plane can take off if it is on a treadmill that is moving at the same speed in the opposite direction.
I guess this question has been hotly contended on both sides.
What was the result of the test?
http://boortz.com/more/video/mythbusters_plane_conveyor_belt.html
What does this have to do with this blog? I don't know. I just thought the experiment was interesting....
I guess this question has been hotly contended on both sides.
What was the result of the test?
http://boortz.com/more/video/mythbusters_plane_conveyor_belt.html
What does this have to do with this blog? I don't know. I just thought the experiment was interesting....
Monday, February 4, 2008
Test for Echo - Part II
Continuing where I left off in my last blog, I would like to give one example of a system to which I am very knowledgeable about, and show how it seems to "echo" greater truths about life itself.
I am a musician, playing 6 instruments, teaching as an adjunct professor and serving as a worship leader. I have recorded three albums (see www.gregjonesmusic.com/music.htm).
I have found that one can roughly classify musicians (as well as people) in two general categories:
1. Visceral
2. Analytical
The visceral musician is creative and intuitive by nature. They have to to even be a musician since they struggle with structure.
These musicians are most comfortable with "flying by the seat of your pants" spontaneity and improvisation. Visceral musicians aren't very detail oriented. They tend to be your McCartneys, Lennons, Cobains, etc....
Analytical musicians are thinking musicians. They love music theory, reading music and therefore the detail found in musical scores. These musicians have a greater ability to become very proficient on their musical instruments and more likely to become virtuosos, but do NOT ask them to write music!
I have found that the best musicians, those who are both great songwriters, creative and expressive, as well as being virtuosos, have become thus by successfully combining and balancing both of these categories.
Kurt Cobain, in interviews, used to freely use self-deprecation when it came to describing his guitar playing. He wasn't a very good player, but fortunately, he didn't have to be.
A similar thing was said by Elvis Presley:
"I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to."
Because today's commercial music generally doesn't promote great musicians, it will be harder for me to point to current musicians on the scene as examples of this visceral/analytical balance, but if you were go back and look at Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Neil Peart, Prince (he's still on the edge of the current scene), you'll start to see this balance emerge in their thinking.
But beyond simply being a good musician, I've found both as a music teacher, and as a band leader, that my bands will work best if I combine these two elements. I do so by giving them chord charts which provide them structure (analytical), but not giving them the anal-retentive detail provided in a music score that gives soooo much detail as to not give them any room for interpretation, creativity, spontaneity and improvisation (Visceral).
Now someone may object to my line of thinking and reference classical music as being tilted heavily towards the analytical details that a music score provides. But many of the great classical composers that these musicians try to exepmlify, were known for improvisation and spontaneity in their musical expressions. I firmly believe that this side of music is a huge key in their genius. To ignore it is to imitate, but never truly capture the spirit of these genius composers.
So how does this apply to life? I see life as a balance between the analytical and visceral, or better said a balance between the absolute and the relative.
As stated in another blog, at a higher level (closer to every day human experience), life seems to echo relativism and experience.
But at its base/foundational levels, life seems to echo absolute truth.
Both sides, while they can be seen to be opposites, cooperatively converge and balance each other out.
I am a musician, playing 6 instruments, teaching as an adjunct professor and serving as a worship leader. I have recorded three albums (see www.gregjonesmusic.com/music.htm).
I have found that one can roughly classify musicians (as well as people) in two general categories:
1. Visceral
2. Analytical
The visceral musician is creative and intuitive by nature. They have to to even be a musician since they struggle with structure.
These musicians are most comfortable with "flying by the seat of your pants" spontaneity and improvisation. Visceral musicians aren't very detail oriented. They tend to be your McCartneys, Lennons, Cobains, etc....
Analytical musicians are thinking musicians. They love music theory, reading music and therefore the detail found in musical scores. These musicians have a greater ability to become very proficient on their musical instruments and more likely to become virtuosos, but do NOT ask them to write music!
I have found that the best musicians, those who are both great songwriters, creative and expressive, as well as being virtuosos, have become thus by successfully combining and balancing both of these categories.
Kurt Cobain, in interviews, used to freely use self-deprecation when it came to describing his guitar playing. He wasn't a very good player, but fortunately, he didn't have to be.
A similar thing was said by Elvis Presley:
"I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to."
Because today's commercial music generally doesn't promote great musicians, it will be harder for me to point to current musicians on the scene as examples of this visceral/analytical balance, but if you were go back and look at Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Neil Peart, Prince (he's still on the edge of the current scene), you'll start to see this balance emerge in their thinking.
But beyond simply being a good musician, I've found both as a music teacher, and as a band leader, that my bands will work best if I combine these two elements. I do so by giving them chord charts which provide them structure (analytical), but not giving them the anal-retentive detail provided in a music score that gives soooo much detail as to not give them any room for interpretation, creativity, spontaneity and improvisation (Visceral).
Now someone may object to my line of thinking and reference classical music as being tilted heavily towards the analytical details that a music score provides. But many of the great classical composers that these musicians try to exepmlify, were known for improvisation and spontaneity in their musical expressions. I firmly believe that this side of music is a huge key in their genius. To ignore it is to imitate, but never truly capture the spirit of these genius composers.
So how does this apply to life? I see life as a balance between the analytical and visceral, or better said a balance between the absolute and the relative.
As stated in another blog, at a higher level (closer to every day human experience), life seems to echo relativism and experience.
But at its base/foundational levels, life seems to echo absolute truth.
Both sides, while they can be seen to be opposites, cooperatively converge and balance each other out.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Test for Echo - Part I
I believe that every "system" "echos" the deeper truths of life. By systems, I am talking about the thinking processes that support fields of studies and even hobbies including:
History
Music
Physics
Sports (any sport applies)
Sociology
Pyschology
Basket Weaving
Astronomy
Geology
Video Gaming
Chemistry
Philosophy
Photography
Theology
Music Theory
Poetry
Literary Criticism
Computer Science
Auto Mechanics
Painting
Law
Political Science
Architectural Design
Economics
Mathematics
English Composition (or any other language)
Technological Studies
Business
Investments
In other words, I believe that as you dig deeper into any study, hobby, skill, profession, and begin uncovering the systems of knowledge that support these areas, you'll find truths that transcend the area and apply across life itself.
For instance, all of these areas require discipline. Life requires discipline. All of these areas require a degree of humility that drives a person to learn more about them. If you think you're already an expert musician, then you're not likely to study music.
From systems as diverse as economics, to body building, we see cost-benefit and "return on your investment" principals in action. "No Pain No Gain", a mantra of body building, applies to life itself. The best things in life come at a cost.
Even love is not free. The strongest expressions of love in any great love story come when one lover makes some sort of sacrifice for the other lover.
Henry David Thoreau -
- The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
Most of the areas that I have listed can be reduced down to their axiomatic foundations. For instance, I have already stated in a previous post that the axiomatic foundations of computing is the binary language. I see binary as confirming that at the foundations of life itself, not just computing, we will find is a black and white, absolute truth. Where we do not yet see such absolutes, like in quantum mechanics, I believe we have not yet dug deep enough. In other words, at the sub-atomic level, our current scientific understandings tell us that we see a world that looks very random and indeterminate. We see a world based more upon statistical probability than certainty. I suspect that if science is able to allow us to eventually dig deeper, we will find a defined order that guides the activity that previously looked like anarchy to us.
One reason that I believe that all systems "echo" a larger epistemology, is because as a Christian, I believe that God communicates His revelation to all of us. For Him to do that, it makes sense that He'd use the presuppositional truths that hold up every branch of the tree of life itself.
History
Music
Physics
Sports (any sport applies)
Sociology
Pyschology
Basket Weaving
Astronomy
Geology
Video Gaming
Chemistry
Philosophy
Photography
Theology
Music Theory
Poetry
Literary Criticism
Computer Science
Auto Mechanics
Painting
Law
Political Science
Architectural Design
Economics
Mathematics
English Composition (or any other language)
Technological Studies
Business
Investments
In other words, I believe that as you dig deeper into any study, hobby, skill, profession, and begin uncovering the systems of knowledge that support these areas, you'll find truths that transcend the area and apply across life itself.
For instance, all of these areas require discipline. Life requires discipline. All of these areas require a degree of humility that drives a person to learn more about them. If you think you're already an expert musician, then you're not likely to study music.
From systems as diverse as economics, to body building, we see cost-benefit and "return on your investment" principals in action. "No Pain No Gain", a mantra of body building, applies to life itself. The best things in life come at a cost.
Even love is not free. The strongest expressions of love in any great love story come when one lover makes some sort of sacrifice for the other lover.
Henry David Thoreau -
- The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
Most of the areas that I have listed can be reduced down to their axiomatic foundations. For instance, I have already stated in a previous post that the axiomatic foundations of computing is the binary language. I see binary as confirming that at the foundations of life itself, not just computing, we will find is a black and white, absolute truth. Where we do not yet see such absolutes, like in quantum mechanics, I believe we have not yet dug deep enough. In other words, at the sub-atomic level, our current scientific understandings tell us that we see a world that looks very random and indeterminate. We see a world based more upon statistical probability than certainty. I suspect that if science is able to allow us to eventually dig deeper, we will find a defined order that guides the activity that previously looked like anarchy to us.
One reason that I believe that all systems "echo" a larger epistemology, is because as a Christian, I believe that God communicates His revelation to all of us. For Him to do that, it makes sense that He'd use the presuppositional truths that hold up every branch of the tree of life itself.
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