Flawed Thoughts (Part 1?)

 One of my earliest blog posts was on The Third Choice in a Two Sided Argument that is something I have pondered for quite some time. I have continued to ponder it since that post and perhaps refine it a bit as well. The question I posed is "Why do people insist that Creationism and Evolution are mutually exclusive theories?" Now, I use God when I could use Supreme Being, but I'm not sugar-coating anything. My belief is in God, not just as the Supreme Being but as the Creator, and besides, anyone who merely believes in a Supreme Being is probably not a proponent of Creationism anyway. Creationism is after all a result of the book of Genesis. And I intend my arguments for people of faith rather than just anyone because they have that singular point as well. In my original post I ended up getting off tangent with a discussion on the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Invisible Pink Unicorn. The discussion is not intended to make scientific types accept God, there are other apologetic discussions for that. Rather it is intended to get Christians to accept science and to see that the use of science is not an indication of a weakness or inability to create in any other way.

The first thing I realized after posting initially was that I did not intend to engage the thoughts of the scientific community, only those people of faith. Those who typically see anything scientific as not of God. I describe it as my Christian Flawed Thought. It is every bit as troublesome as the Scientific Flawed Thought. The CFT discounts the fact that science, scientific principles, and even the drive and desire to prove something all comes from God. It is not a worldly concept that merely leads to a humanistic explanation--in its purest form. Now perhaps as often as most of the time this drive does lead to a humanistic explanation. These would be the people I call "educated beyond their intelligence." Having this group of people seems to feed the belief that scientific endeavours are not of God.

Regardless of how the belief came about, or is perpetuated, there is a syllogistic gap in the logic that in itself becomes an incredulous object to those on the other side of the coin. One of my favorite authors, Douglas Adams, used the fact that the religious take any questioning of their faith as an affront to their faith and disallow it as an argument in favor of not believing in God anyway. His thought was that anything that required you to not think about it in order to prove that it exists, or that can only prove it exists by not proving it exists, must not exist. Those thinkers succumb to the Scientific Flawed Thought, that simply proving something (scientifically) is a sign that it is not from God. This also has a syllogistic gap in the logic, right at the very end, but in some ways the two flawed thoughts feed on themselves because the belief that proof shows non-existence increases the belief that the need to prove is a secular non-faith based activity.

There is still more to come on this subject, but the main point remains. Science cannot explain away God, but Christianity cannot explain away science.

Interpretative Labeling

Southerners are their own group when it comes to talking. No one can talk quite like a Southerner, especially a Northern actor playing a Southerner, and that's not even beginning to touch any actor not from New Orleans playing someone from Nawlins. In addition to just our drawl and accents, we have two more bad linguistic points.

One, we believe it to be our right to mispronounce ANYTHING, except you'd better not mispronounce our names/labels. In my home town of Biloxi (it's Bill-uh-xe, not Bill-ox-e) we had Reynoir (pardon my french pronuciation attempt, rin-waa) which we pronounce rain-are, Caillavett (kaileevette) or Ki-vet, and used to have both Beauvoir (Bo-vo-ah) and Buena Vista (bu-ee-na vees-ta) meaning beautiful view that are massacred into Bovore and Beuna Vista. The picture here is looking down what is now known as the Vieux Marche (pronounced view mar-shay, though not in its native french), and another oddity is Point Cadet (pronounced Point Caddy). I can speak these much better then I can ever type them.

The second is our phrases, such as naked (pronounced nekkid) as a jaybird (nude), flat-out (meaning as fast as you can), 'bout as much chance as a kerosene cat in hell with gasoline drawers on (not going to happen), and others. In fact, I was 14 before I found out that damn Yankee was two words.

Our churches are no different. During the War Between the States the Baptists and Methodists split. Afterwards the Methodists rejoined, giving us the United Methodists, but we Baptists, ever the free-spirited, remain split. Interestingly though, both Baptists and Southern Baptists tend to agree on a few linguistic choices. Once we outgrow our sanctuary and build a newer bigger building we call the old sanctuary the "Fellowship Hall." Oftentimes it is surrounded or borders our Family Life Building (Recreation Hall), which in turn contains our MPR or Multi-Purpose Room (gym). We have an altar (stairs to the stage) at the front of the sanctuary, and we share (gossip) in Sunday School. Well, not share as much as we ask prayer for others because they are...(list gossip-worthy transgressions here). While we don't subscribe to concept of transmogrification, we do believe in partial transmogrification because we use grape juice (wine) when we have the Lord's Supper (Communion). I'm not entirely serious when I say that the Baptist word for sprinkler is Methodist, but a more serious definition is that we call dance interpretative movement.

That is a little simplistic of course, because as Baptist we feel dance is wrong, but interpretive movement is fine. Problem is, it's the same thing. And while anyone who is not a believer may look at this point (or this whole post) and say that it is a perfect example of the non-logic and therefore proof (though the two are not the same thing) of the errors in organized religions, I present that this is merely one of those "small points" rather than a larger truth that churches can argue over. Certain concepts are not to be argued over, but the finer distinctions between denominations (like dance) are open game.

Jesus never said not to dance, but our modern-day legalism believes dancing can lead to sinning with the whole 'vertical expression of a horizontal desire' reasoning. It's a gateway activity. While I don't kid myself into thinking that the Baptist church will one day accept with open arms dance, calling it anything other than interpretive movement, or even remove it from the list of don'ts, it does seem to gain traction as an activity each year. It remains one of those areas open for argument, or discussion if you prefer. Not quite on the level with the full immersion versus sprinkling concept, but open nonetheless. 

Specks and Beams

One thing that used to bother me in reading the Old Testament is that the Israelites kept switching from following God to the gods of the day, Baal, Ashtoreth, and others. Another typical reaction, other than "Why?" is that as they turned from God they started going downhill. Soon, they realized it, turned back, and He blessed them all over again. In many ways reading some of the books of the Bible are like watching a scary movie. We find ourselves screaming at the screen saying, "Look behind you! Have you never seen a scary movie?"

Typically speaking, we gloss over the law especially as it relates to the part of the law we no longer practice. Sacrifice a bull for this, a goat for that, two birds for this. Only clean animals without blemish, sprinkle the blood here, burn the fat there. When you start to think about what the temple looked like, it had to be a bloody, sticky, gooey mess. And the tabernacle was a bloody, sticky, gooey, portable mess. It was like a slaughterhouse floor at times. The gods that the Israelites periodically switched to follow had similar rituals. They had graven images, idols, statutes and didn't care if the animals were clean, unclean, or human, but their altars were just as bloody, sticky, gooey and all around messy.

There are some places in the world where no matter what religion you follow, or even if you don't follow one, just seem to exude holiness. Granted, some more than others. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is one. Any of the medieval cathedrals, and many of the cathedrals in the US demand respect. You don't walk in and sit down talking on their cell phone. Even if you don't follow that denomination there is a hushed reverence, like a library on steroids. This is more so in the highly organized or structured denominations/religions. And yes, some has to do with what you believe in. A Catholic in a cathedral is more reverent than a Baptist. Daddy Byrd, when he worked at the Church of the Redeemer, would bow toward the altar when he crossed the nave of the church, even when he was working. To a lesser degree, that is why I can't text or Twitter in our sanctuary while the pastor preaches (I can do it at services in the MPR-Baptist for gym).

So, when you add up reverent location with similar looking, smelling, and feeling it was not that large a leap for the Israelites to switch. Some of those coming to sacrifice may not have even realized the difference. It still looked like the tabernacle or temple, it still smelled the same, it felt the same, the priests were the same, what was that new statue on the way out again?

It is often easier to see the mistakes of others than it is to see our own. We rail against the Israelites while we read not realizing the ease with which something can be substituted until the original is no longer there. Subtle changes that taken in part are not much different but taken holistically have the opportunity to completely change the context of the subject matter. Perhaps we are too hard on the Israelites. Hundreds of years of slinging fat and blood against the altar they may not have realized how far off they were straying. Have we strayed in our religious practices, too? The answer is probably not what you first think, but if you honestly evaluate it, the beam in our eyes interferes with us seeing the Israelites' specks.

Reset

Over the course of the last twenty years my wife and I have taken many trips. We have gone to a few weddings that were out-of-town, family reunions, trips to sick relatives, deliver something, or to drop off/pick up the kids. We've gotten to some destination spots like Washington DC, Orlando, Savannah, the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Tombstone, or Victoria. We've taken some road trips including 8 different trips of greater than 2500 miles one way, by car mind you. The one thing we don't do a lot of is relax on trips. Typically our trips have been work related. My employer sent me to a conference, meeting, or training session and I was able to bring my wife and/or family along. Sometimes I stayed a little longer, sometimes we were only there for the length of the reason I was sent. Rarely have we had a time when we didn't have somewhere to be or something to do. This can be quite annoying at times.

Including our honeymoon (which after 19 years still isn't over yet) we may have had 6 trips with nothing planned. This trip we are currently on is one of those 6. At least now, upon our arrival to pick up my oldest children from their aunt and uncle, we had to take my middle child about 150 miles west to meet her church group. We drove for 6 hours then my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, daughter and I went another 2.5 hours there and back. Other than that, no plans.

This morning I woke up and opened the balcony door to hear the Gulf while I read my Bible. It was drowned out to some extent by the sprinklers watering the grass. Then the tractor came by leveling the beach. Now the staff is preparing the pool for the day. Everything needs a reset. The pool, the beach, my family and me. It may be daily, it may be once in a blue moon, but never neglect the effect of getting a minute to reset, start over and recharge.

"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc., and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons." - Douglas Adams

Update: Is an updaet to a post called Reset a Re-Reset? Anyway, I didn't properly proof this one this morning, and was on my iPhone typing, so I only just fixed some of the glaring errors of this morning.

The Spoiled Ariel

This morning as I sip coffee, read the Bible and contemplate what to do with the day I stumbled upon the word ariel. I'm reading the English Standard Version, Dr. Thweatt finally got me to switch after literally a lifetime of reading NIV (my lifetime up to then anyway). In 2 Samuel 23:20 it describes that Benaiah "struck down to ariels of Moab." Being a modern-day scholar of useless information (it's really only useless if you never use it) the word intrigues me. In addition to occasionally converting useful numbers into metric I also from time to time have been known to convert things into cubits or furlongs. An ariel, while sounding like a name or misspelled antenna, appears to be a unit of some type. Anxiously I glance down to the footnote only to read that the meaning of the word is unclear.

Knowing the section was translated from Hebrew this started me wondering, what was the translator thinking? I speak American English, a smattering of the Queen's English and Southern (pronounced su-thurn). The rest of my lingual skills include a few sayings occasionally trying to decipher German, Spanish or french instructions and dialectic variations to include sarcasm or smart aleck-ness. My limited experience with translating does afford me the knowledge that sometimes a word in one language doesn't exist in the other or needs multiple others to approximate the more succinct foreign word. This is a word that confounded the scholars that brought us, not just the ESV, but the book of 2 Samuel. The meaning of a word, in a non-dead language is unknown, even though it translates to ariel in English.

In Moby Dick there is a scene where the nets are emptied and a "spoiled serpent" is noted by the narrator of the story. The existence and meaning of this serpent has been examined and over-analyzed for decades, over a century. There have been paragraphs, term papers and theses written about it but the only one I really remember is the one that supposes the printer either couldn't read Melville's writing or just created an errata that was not caught but copied repeatedly.

These two thoughts are combined for your contemplation. Meanwhile, I'm back to see what happened to Ben. 

When Life Gets in the Way of Life

I am a writer. This is different then being an author, because an author gets paid. It is also different then someone who writes, because a writer has been published. Now my 2 published works consist of a Master's Thesis, which sits on a shelf in the university library collecting dust because the though of a book on a shelf in a library with my name in the spine is more important than me checking it out and not returning it so I can own a book with my name on the spine, and an article in a Nationally published scientific journal. So in other words, unless you are a geek, researcher or a close friend you won't ever stumble across my published works-yet. I threw the friend in to feel better, they don't want to read them either. Writers write, or they lament about not being able to. It has been a busy time so I have not had much time to write. With a wife, three daughters ranging from 6 months to 14 years, a 38-year-old house on the lake, 3 cars, and a job (or is that being redundant?) there isn't a lot of time left over. Especially if you are into things like regular sleep. I'm not particularly, but often need it anyway.

So this morning I woke up (late) about 5:30 and thought today's the day. It's time. The story is burning a hole in my brain. So after making coffee, reading my Bible and finding where the laptop got put before yesterday's birthday/end of school/swim/aw heck everybody's invited party, I browsed to where my current, active story is and realized that I have not worked on it since 27 Apr.

A lot has happened since that day. First off, I saved the file a half hour before straight line winds blew through downtown and made it look like a hurricane had hit. They were, after all, hurricane force winds. That afternoon was the powerful tornado storms that has knocked the State for a loop. I have replaced the dryer element, twice. I have built a deck, installed a hot tub, changed the spark plugs, EGR valve, rotors and brake pads. We had a birthday/end of school/swim/aw heck everybody's invited party. I started this blog and have made all these posts since then (not a bad activity since I started it to sharpen my writing when I don't have time to continue my story). I have again spoken at a church business meeting and probably angered some older members (not just old people, old members, there is a difference). I joined a new Sunday School Class, comforted friends whose parents have passed, and gone fishing twice. I interviewed for a new job at work wearing blue jeans and without having shaved. I have drunken a lot of coffee. And we have all grown a month older.

The only thing that hasn't progressed in the last month is the story that burns inside my head. The thing I want to work on most is the one thing that has not moved forward. Life gets in the way of life. It moves at the speed of life, and keeps us from our life. But in the end, it's only life. I've forgotten now who said it but for the Christian this life is the closest they will ever get to Hell, but for the non-Christian it is the closest they will ever get to Heaven. Life moves fast, but it is a terminal disease.