Posts
There is a new theory floating around this planet that many people have taken firm hold of. It isn't actually new, but it's far more pervasive than any other time in history. This theory is that there are no moral absolutes. It's a completely atheistic idea.
To start with, it is founded upon the premise that there is no God. If there is no God, then several other things must go. First of all is morality. See, God is the source of morals--or at least, that's the claim made by all religions (except Buddhism, which is atheistic). So if there is no God, who says morals are true?
No one, except for the religious people. But if the religious people are just people, what makes them right? Nothing. So, their morals are fine for them, but that doesn't mean they're true. From this, it follows that there is no truth.
So all this is built on the fact that there is no God. So to refute this theory, all that must be done is to prove the existence of God. This is really hard, however, but not because there are no proofs. It's hard because the people who don't believe in God will cling to any tiny thing that could possibly be a difficulty for religion.
Since I'm not sure how to go about proving God, I'll just refute the idea of no absolutes.
Here's the first thing: There are absolutely no absolutes. I emphasized "absolutely" for the convenience of the reader. My view of the universe is only true for me, and yours only for you. Well, but my view of the universe states that there are absolutes. So that one isn't valid? Doesn't that mean that the only truth is that there are no truths? That's self-refuting.
Also, there's another big problem. What makes moral laws so different from the laws of physics? Just like the laws of physics are a vital part to the behavior of the universe, moral laws are a vital part of human behavior.
So here's an illustration. Right now, it is winter, and therefore it is cold. I don't like the cold. So, if physical laws are as malleable as we say that moral laws are, I can just say that it's mid-summer and 100 degrees outside, right? But if I decide to go swimming to ward off the heat, I'm going to freeze.
Moral laws are the same. Even if I don't like that I'm not allowed to kill, I'm still breaking a law if I decide to murder, both moral and civil laws.
If I applied this s upposed flexibility to anything but morality, it would cause some tremendous problems for me. Every sane person understands that. So it's just insane to apply such looseness to morality.
I don't know if any of my readers believes in the personalizing of morals, or knows someone who does, but I thought I'd write about it anyway.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Bricks
There are lots of different kinds of bricks. Some are made of concrete, and are very large and are actually mostly made of the core. These are called cinderblocks. Others are smaller, red and have much smaller cores. These are the kind you see in the construction of most brick houses. Yet another kind is about 2 1/2 pounds, is gray, and can be found inside the human skull.
I have a low opinion of human intellect (my own included). You may wonder why. You also may not, however, because you may have observed some of the same things I have.
1. Everyone in the world does hundreds of stupid things every day.
2. Everyone in the world says hundreds of stupid things every day.
3. Everyone in the world thinks hundreds of stupid things every day.
4. Ice cream is delicious.
These things demonstrate clearly how messed up our minds are. Maybe part of it is the fact that we can actually use only about ten percent of our brains, meaning that we are short about ninety percent of our needed intellect.
Whatever. It doesn't matter that much why we do dumb things. The main thing is that we do.
Think of the last really smart thing you said. This tends to be pretty hard for must of us. Now think of the last really dumb thing that you said. Again, this is pretty hard for me, because I can never remember which dumb thing was said most recently.
So dumb things are said, done and thought daily. I know what you're thinking. "We're only human, what do you expect?" This is not a dumb thought. The other day I was talking endlessly about holiness. We, being only human, cannot attain holiness. We also have a hard time with wisdom.
Even King Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, did some dumb things. Is there hope left for the rest of us?
So, what do we do? All problems have a solution. This problem is not special, because it's drowning in a solution.
Read the Bible. This is hard for a lot of people (like me) because we've never really entered the habit of reading the Bible frequently. But the Bible, being the word of God, has the answer to just about every problem you'll come across.
Actually, let me rephrase this. Read the Bible prayerfully. The Bible was written thousands of years ago, and is no longer relevant to this world. . .unless the Holy Spirit is guiding the reader. So if you are one of us who needs things like wisdom, go to the Bible. And more importantly: pray without ceasing.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
I have a low opinion of human intellect (my own included). You may wonder why. You also may not, however, because you may have observed some of the same things I have.
1. Everyone in the world does hundreds of stupid things every day.
2. Everyone in the world says hundreds of stupid things every day.
3. Everyone in the world thinks hundreds of stupid things every day.
4. Ice cream is delicious.
These things demonstrate clearly how messed up our minds are. Maybe part of it is the fact that we can actually use only about ten percent of our brains, meaning that we are short about ninety percent of our needed intellect.
Whatever. It doesn't matter that much why we do dumb things. The main thing is that we do.
Think of the last really smart thing you said. This tends to be pretty hard for must of us. Now think of the last really dumb thing that you said. Again, this is pretty hard for me, because I can never remember which dumb thing was said most recently.
So dumb things are said, done and thought daily. I know what you're thinking. "We're only human, what do you expect?" This is not a dumb thought. The other day I was talking endlessly about holiness. We, being only human, cannot attain holiness. We also have a hard time with wisdom.
Even King Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, did some dumb things. Is there hope left for the rest of us?
So, what do we do? All problems have a solution. This problem is not special, because it's drowning in a solution.
Read the Bible. This is hard for a lot of people (like me) because we've never really entered the habit of reading the Bible frequently. But the Bible, being the word of God, has the answer to just about every problem you'll come across.
Actually, let me rephrase this. Read the Bible prayerfully. The Bible was written thousands of years ago, and is no longer relevant to this world. . .unless the Holy Spirit is guiding the reader. So if you are one of us who needs things like wisdom, go to the Bible. And more importantly: pray without ceasing.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Friday, January 25, 2008
Fire
For the last 24 days, I have lived in a new house that I have never before lived in. This house has no central heat, and instead uses a wood-burning stove. This one stove actually keeps the house fairly warm--most of the time. The problem is, sometimes the fire goes out and is not noticed. So the house steadily loses its warmth, and house - heat = cold house.
But that has nothing to do with what I was actually planning to say. Actually I was going to talk about the fan on this stove.
About the fan on the stove: the wood-burning stove has a fan on it that blows heat out of the inside and into the outside. This means that the whole house is warm, not just the inside of the stove. Right in front of the stove, where the heat is constantly being blown out, it's really warm. So certain people (like me) enjoy standing a few feet in front of the stove, where heat is being poured out constantly.
But at some point, that person has to walk away from the stove to do something else. This person then becomes even colder than before, because he has been standing in a cloud of heat. So does that mean it's not good to stand in front of the stove? Because then I'm even worse than when I started.
My point is this: the stove in this picture represents God. The heat represents holiness, which is the thing I was talking about two days ago. Holiness is a good thing to have, just like heat. But like heat (in the house I live in), it can come from only one source. Holiness comes from God, heat comes from the stove.
I have two points I want to make. The first I mentioned already. When I step away from the stove and its warmth, I feel colder than I was before. I'm not really, but it certainly seems that way. Same with holiness. As soon as I step away from God, I seem to be worse than before, now that I've felt His glory.
So should I still strive for that holiness? I would say yes. If I had no warmth, I would eventually freeze to death. If I have no holiness, I'll eventually burn. Remember what I said about eternity? That's a long time to be sitting in Hell (whether the fire depicted throughout the Bible is literal or figurative, Hell will still not be fun by any stretch of the imagination.)
But that isn't the point that interests me the most. I might talk about that a little more later, but not now.
Here's what interests me: I can find warmth in other places. If I get in bed and pull the blanket over my head, it'll be warm. But it isn't nearly as warm as standing in front of the stove. And still, without the stove I'll eventually get cold again.
So the point is, we can find holiness elsewhere. But it isn't real holiness in that it's only a sort of morality. And again, it will eventually fade if the source isn't present. Cynicism is a powerful weapon against this fake holiness--people get jaded, and then decide that it isn't worth it to keep trying.
This is what's killing our planet. It isn't global warming or terrorism. It's false holiness. All religion is a failed attempt at creating holiness without God. Even Christianity, but only when it becomes so watered down that God is forgotten--sort of like our churches today. . . .
So what can we do about this? How do we turn the world around and start giving people real holiness?
Send them to the source. This could be rephrased with equal accuracy as "send them to Jesus."
That's all I have to say. I can't make you change, I can just make you aware that you need to. I hope that, if needed, you do change. I also hope that you can show others how to change.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
But that has nothing to do with what I was actually planning to say. Actually I was going to talk about the fan on this stove.
About the fan on the stove: the wood-burning stove has a fan on it that blows heat out of the inside and into the outside. This means that the whole house is warm, not just the inside of the stove. Right in front of the stove, where the heat is constantly being blown out, it's really warm. So certain people (like me) enjoy standing a few feet in front of the stove, where heat is being poured out constantly.
But at some point, that person has to walk away from the stove to do something else. This person then becomes even colder than before, because he has been standing in a cloud of heat. So does that mean it's not good to stand in front of the stove? Because then I'm even worse than when I started.
My point is this: the stove in this picture represents God. The heat represents holiness, which is the thing I was talking about two days ago. Holiness is a good thing to have, just like heat. But like heat (in the house I live in), it can come from only one source. Holiness comes from God, heat comes from the stove.
I have two points I want to make. The first I mentioned already. When I step away from the stove and its warmth, I feel colder than I was before. I'm not really, but it certainly seems that way. Same with holiness. As soon as I step away from God, I seem to be worse than before, now that I've felt His glory.
So should I still strive for that holiness? I would say yes. If I had no warmth, I would eventually freeze to death. If I have no holiness, I'll eventually burn. Remember what I said about eternity? That's a long time to be sitting in Hell (whether the fire depicted throughout the Bible is literal or figurative, Hell will still not be fun by any stretch of the imagination.)
But that isn't the point that interests me the most. I might talk about that a little more later, but not now.
Here's what interests me: I can find warmth in other places. If I get in bed and pull the blanket over my head, it'll be warm. But it isn't nearly as warm as standing in front of the stove. And still, without the stove I'll eventually get cold again.
So the point is, we can find holiness elsewhere. But it isn't real holiness in that it's only a sort of morality. And again, it will eventually fade if the source isn't present. Cynicism is a powerful weapon against this fake holiness--people get jaded, and then decide that it isn't worth it to keep trying.
This is what's killing our planet. It isn't global warming or terrorism. It's false holiness. All religion is a failed attempt at creating holiness without God. Even Christianity, but only when it becomes so watered down that God is forgotten--sort of like our churches today. . . .
So what can we do about this? How do we turn the world around and start giving people real holiness?
Send them to the source. This could be rephrased with equal accuracy as "send them to Jesus."
That's all I have to say. I can't make you change, I can just make you aware that you need to. I hope that, if needed, you do change. I also hope that you can show others how to change.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Infinity
When was the last time you thought sat down for a minute and thought about eternity? I say "sat down" because it's hard to do standing up. Eternity is a big amount of time. It's really big. It's so big, in fact, that there is no end.
Think about it like this: there is a robot that is programmed to repeat the words "hello, how are you?" He repeats it at five-second intervals. He is also absolutely indestructible, because who would want such a friendly thing destroyed? This robot was built a long time ago, so he's been saying those words for a long time.
Now, to complete the story, imagine that he keeps on saying this forever. Try to imagine this.
We have a hard time with this, because if he started at some point, he has to stop eventually. What goes up must come down. What begins must end. That's what we think, anyway. But he doesn't stop. Just goes on and on and on and etc.
Now imagine a little more. This robot has always been repeating this phrase. Always. Since before you or anyone you know was born. Before, in fact, the universe ever existed. How many hours has he been speaking? How many days? Years? Centuries?
We can't measure it. We can't even begin to measure it because something like this is so far beyond anything we can conceive of in our brains. Maybe if we were able to use 100% of our brains, rather than the 10% actually available, this would be a comprehensible thing. But maybe not. Like I said, this is a big amount of time.
God rules over it all. God absolutely and totally controls every part of this massive amount of time, and has existed through all of it. I know this has been said a million or more times (probably a lot more), but I'm still amazed every time I think about it.
So think for a while about eternity, and then think about God.
"Wow" is such an understatement, don't you think?
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Think about it like this: there is a robot that is programmed to repeat the words "hello, how are you?" He repeats it at five-second intervals. He is also absolutely indestructible, because who would want such a friendly thing destroyed? This robot was built a long time ago, so he's been saying those words for a long time.
Now, to complete the story, imagine that he keeps on saying this forever. Try to imagine this.
We have a hard time with this, because if he started at some point, he has to stop eventually. What goes up must come down. What begins must end. That's what we think, anyway. But he doesn't stop. Just goes on and on and on and etc.
Now imagine a little more. This robot has always been repeating this phrase. Always. Since before you or anyone you know was born. Before, in fact, the universe ever existed. How many hours has he been speaking? How many days? Years? Centuries?
We can't measure it. We can't even begin to measure it because something like this is so far beyond anything we can conceive of in our brains. Maybe if we were able to use 100% of our brains, rather than the 10% actually available, this would be a comprehensible thing. But maybe not. Like I said, this is a big amount of time.
God rules over it all. God absolutely and totally controls every part of this massive amount of time, and has existed through all of it. I know this has been said a million or more times (probably a lot more), but I'm still amazed every time I think about it.
So think for a while about eternity, and then think about God.
"Wow" is such an understatement, don't you think?
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Holiness
Have you ever thought about the word "holy"? It's used in a lot of different ways. For example "Holy Cow!" Or, "my old jeans have holy (holey) knees." But I don't really care about those particular usages, because they're too silly and pointless even for this blog. I want to focus on a very different usage, which is the way it's used in church.
We say things like "God is holy" all the time. The word is used in tens of thousands of worship songs. But what does it mean to be holy?
There are several simple qualifications. First of all, you have to be sinless to be holy. Anyone who is holy never sins, and never has. Not once. One sin, no matter how small, destroys the holiness in the same way that a brick destroys glass. All you've got left are a bunch of little bits of holiness.
The next qualification is perfection. This one is a lot more harsh, and seems to be mentioned less than holiness. Well, "perfection" is mentioned quite often in relation to God, but no one really seems to expound upon the theme.
Perfection is one of the things that keeps the Bible from being politically correct. In the Old Testament, along with the rest of the Law, God gives instructions on what can and cannot be sacrificed. He basically saws that He will only accept a perfect lamb--meaning that it cannot be blind, deaf, lame, etc.
Any handicap makes a person imperfect, and therefore that person is not holy. If you are reading this and you're blind, deaf or lame, don't quit reading yet. There's yet another qualification.
To be holy, a person must be clean. This excludes a pretty big portion of all the people in the world. I'll just mention a few things about cleanliness. If you want the rest you can read the book of Leviticus.
Anyone with any kind of skin disease is unclean. Sorry, this doesn't just include leprosy. It also applies to simple little things like warts and sores.
Anyone who is sick is unclean.
Anyone who has eaten an unclean animal is unclean.
Anyone who has touched an unclean thing or person.
And so on.
Basically, the point is that holiness is not an easy thing to attain. In fact, it's impossible. But God is holy. God is sinless, perfect and clean. He is absolutely holy.
So, think about holiness for a while, and tomorrow I'll talk about infinity.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell the unholy
We say things like "God is holy" all the time. The word is used in tens of thousands of worship songs. But what does it mean to be holy?
There are several simple qualifications. First of all, you have to be sinless to be holy. Anyone who is holy never sins, and never has. Not once. One sin, no matter how small, destroys the holiness in the same way that a brick destroys glass. All you've got left are a bunch of little bits of holiness.
The next qualification is perfection. This one is a lot more harsh, and seems to be mentioned less than holiness. Well, "perfection" is mentioned quite often in relation to God, but no one really seems to expound upon the theme.
Perfection is one of the things that keeps the Bible from being politically correct. In the Old Testament, along with the rest of the Law, God gives instructions on what can and cannot be sacrificed. He basically saws that He will only accept a perfect lamb--meaning that it cannot be blind, deaf, lame, etc.
Any handicap makes a person imperfect, and therefore that person is not holy. If you are reading this and you're blind, deaf or lame, don't quit reading yet. There's yet another qualification.
To be holy, a person must be clean. This excludes a pretty big portion of all the people in the world. I'll just mention a few things about cleanliness. If you want the rest you can read the book of Leviticus.
Anyone with any kind of skin disease is unclean. Sorry, this doesn't just include leprosy. It also applies to simple little things like warts and sores.
Anyone who is sick is unclean.
Anyone who has eaten an unclean animal is unclean.
Anyone who has touched an unclean thing or person.
And so on.
Basically, the point is that holiness is not an easy thing to attain. In fact, it's impossible. But God is holy. God is sinless, perfect and clean. He is absolutely holy.
So, think about holiness for a while, and tomorrow I'll talk about infinity.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell the unholy
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Question Number 4
Today, I seek to answer the final question. Why does God not just destroy the universe and start over?
The answer can be found in the biggest best-seller book of all time: the Bible. Exodus 20 describes an interesting occurrence. God gives Moses the law, including the widely-famed Ten Commandments. In the interest of time and space, I'm not going to list all ten. I'm just going to bring up one.
To paraphrase: don't kill anyone. Why does He tell us this? Because life is sacred. All ten of these commandments basically work the same way. Don't misuse God's name. Why? His name is sacred. Don't commit adultery. Why? Marriage is sacred. Don't work on the Sabbath. Why? Because the Sabbath is holy. Etc.
That last one (the Sabbath) is important to my coming argument, and here is why. God was the first one to keep the Sabbath. Following the six days of creation mentioned in Genesis, God took a day to rest. That means that He also keeps the Sabbath holy.
I don't think that God does nothing on Saturday just to keep it holy, but I think that He is mentioned as resting for a reason. Maybe to show that He believes in the holiness of that day. He's not a king who is above His own laws.
So it follows that He believes life to be sacred also. I'm sorry if you don't follow this leap of logic, but I'm not sure how else to phrase it. But the point is simple.
Because God believes life to be sacred, He will not destroy it. I can hear you arguing already: "wait a second, Mitchell, are you trying to tell me people don't die? Or that God isn't in charge of our lives?"
No. People do die, and God is in charge. But remember Question 3, and more importantly, the answer. If it wasn't for Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge, they and all their children (everyone) would still be alive today. God didn't take life--we broke it.
There are exceptions, however. For example, in the Old Testament are mentioned several kings of various nations whom God kills for their sins. But think about it. What happened next? What is it preachers always say to try to get people saved?
"Do you want to live for eternity in Hell?" I most certainly do not, but the point is that word I so neatly italicized. Live. Even if He were to take our lives, God always leaves our souls. It may not be our choice when our lives end, but it's certainly our choice what happens next.
So He won't destroy the universe, because Heaven and Hell are part of it all. And to destroy the universe would mean that nothing would exist but Him. And He will not ever destroy one of His creations.
So, that should be either encouraging or terrifying. Because if you're with Him, that means eternity of happiness. If you're against Him, eternity of not-so-happiness. Choose wisely.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
The answer can be found in the biggest best-seller book of all time: the Bible. Exodus 20 describes an interesting occurrence. God gives Moses the law, including the widely-famed Ten Commandments. In the interest of time and space, I'm not going to list all ten. I'm just going to bring up one.
To paraphrase: don't kill anyone. Why does He tell us this? Because life is sacred. All ten of these commandments basically work the same way. Don't misuse God's name. Why? His name is sacred. Don't commit adultery. Why? Marriage is sacred. Don't work on the Sabbath. Why? Because the Sabbath is holy. Etc.
That last one (the Sabbath) is important to my coming argument, and here is why. God was the first one to keep the Sabbath. Following the six days of creation mentioned in Genesis, God took a day to rest. That means that He also keeps the Sabbath holy.
I don't think that God does nothing on Saturday just to keep it holy, but I think that He is mentioned as resting for a reason. Maybe to show that He believes in the holiness of that day. He's not a king who is above His own laws.
So it follows that He believes life to be sacred also. I'm sorry if you don't follow this leap of logic, but I'm not sure how else to phrase it. But the point is simple.
Because God believes life to be sacred, He will not destroy it. I can hear you arguing already: "wait a second, Mitchell, are you trying to tell me people don't die? Or that God isn't in charge of our lives?"
No. People do die, and God is in charge. But remember Question 3, and more importantly, the answer. If it wasn't for Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge, they and all their children (everyone) would still be alive today. God didn't take life--we broke it.
There are exceptions, however. For example, in the Old Testament are mentioned several kings of various nations whom God kills for their sins. But think about it. What happened next? What is it preachers always say to try to get people saved?
"Do you want to live for eternity in Hell?" I most certainly do not, but the point is that word I so neatly italicized. Live. Even if He were to take our lives, God always leaves our souls. It may not be our choice when our lives end, but it's certainly our choice what happens next.
So He won't destroy the universe, because Heaven and Hell are part of it all. And to destroy the universe would mean that nothing would exist but Him. And He will not ever destroy one of His creations.
So, that should be either encouraging or terrifying. Because if you're with Him, that means eternity of happiness. If you're against Him, eternity of not-so-happiness. Choose wisely.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
