Proving the Existence of God? August 7, 2006
Posted by gospeltalk in Uncategorized.2 comments
The following is a comment from Huffington Post. The discussion was about, among other things, the existence of God. Several skeptics were doing the usual needling. Then this appeared and seemed to cry out to be shared. Many thanks to the person who wrote it!
I do believe in God however, your statement that the “burden of proof” is on me for believing God exists is indeed your own “straw man” argument. I have no “burden” when it comes to what I choose to believe. I don’t attempt to change people’s belief system through circular arguments which can never be answered with certainty. For me the evidence of a caring “creator”, or “life-force” or “God” is everywhere. For others, maybe they need more definitive “proof” in their own lives, maybe these are the people who can’t see anything they can’t put their hands on; who can’t put their hands on what they can’t see. For me, the Bible isn’t representative of a Book which should be viewed as a “text book of literal history”. It is filled with parables, stories of inspiration as well reflecting the societies and culture of the times. Whether people except it for the word of God or not is entirely up to them. I do believe it is the word of God, but……if you don’t, so be it.What gets me is these people who question if Jesus ever existed. All you need to do is look at the historical writings of the Roman Empire to find documentation of a person named “Jesus” being sentenced to death coinciding with the Biblical account. If the Bibles account is “make believe” so must be the account of the Roman Empire.
I forget who wrote the following little “story”, prominent physicists whose name escapes me but, I have to agree with the sentiment.
“There was a time when I used to visit the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. I would spend hours fascinated by the carp, which lived in a very shallow pond just inches beneath the lily pads, just beneath my fingers, totally oblivious to the universe above them. I would ask myself a question only a human child could ask: What would it be like to be a carp?
What a strange world it would be! I imagined that the pond would be an entire universe, one that is two-dimensional in space. The carp would only be able to swim forwards and backwards, and left and right. I imagined that the concept of “up”–beyond the lily pads–would be totally alien to them. Any carp scientist daring to talk about a third dimension “above” the pond–would immediately be labeled a crank.
I wondered what would happen if I could reach down and grab a carp scientist and lift it up out of the “pond”. I thought, what a wondrous story that scientist would tell the others! The carp would babble on about unbelievable new laws of physics: beings who could move without fins; beings who could breathe without gills; beings who could emit sounds without bubbles.
I then wondered: How would a carp scientist know about my existence? One day it rained, and I saw the rain drops forming gentle ripples on the surface of the pond. Then I understood.
The carp could see rippling shadows on the surface of the pond. The third dimension would be invisible to them, but vibrations in the third dimensions would be clearly visible. These ripples might even be felt by the carp, who would invent a silly concept to describe this, called “force.” They might even give these “forces” cute names, such as light and gravity. I would laugh at them, because, of course, I know there is no “force” at all, just the rippling of the water.
I’m here to say, you are the carp, swimming in your tiny pond, blissfully unaware of invisible, unseen universes hovering just above you. You’ll spend your whole life in three spatial dimensions; confident that what you can see with your telescopes is all there is, ignorant of the vast possibilities. Although the higher dimensions are invisible, their “ripples” can clearly be seen and felt. You call these ripples gravity and light.”
By: ThePacifier on August 07, 2006 at 11:11am
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/08/05/filmmaker-james-cameron-f_n_26613.html?p=7#comments
Prayer April 1, 2006
Posted by gospeltalk in Uncategorized.add a comment
This is a reprint of a comment from Huffington Post in response to an article on prayer. It's heartfelt. Thanks so much to the person who wrote it.
Let us not confuse earnest, faithful prayer, and a solid Christian understanding of prayer, with the general human thought about prayer. We are taught that God indeed answers prayer, but, like the good father that he is, the answer isn't always "yes". Perhaps a good way to appreciate prayer is to look at it from the perspective of a parent. When my child asks for something, anything, I know that granting it, while well within my power, may not be in his or her best interest at that moment, or ever. I might be well able to afford a car for my 16-year-old, but in my judgement, that child may not yet me mature enough for the responsibility of being the primary operator of a motor vehicle. I do not exist to grant every desire of my child; I am responsible for taking loving care of my child, and sometimes that means saying no. Now, that may not be the perfect example of what we have here, but it does go to a very important point of Christian faith. We believe in a parenting God who has the best interest of all his children in mind, and who uses all things, good and bad, to his plan and his glory. I often wondered as a child why Jesus just didn't heal all the sick in the world during his lifetime. As I understand it today, the healing Jesus performed was not really about healing in and of itself, but about demonstrating to a sceptical world the love, grace and power of him who had sent Jesus. Prayer, true prayer, as we learn from even a rudimentary study of scripture, is not about "name it and claim it", as so many would have one believe.
When my mother was dying from cancer, I prayed for her healing, until I saw that it wasn't going to happen. And I got truly angry with God, so angry that I almost lost my faith. Then I saw how God was using that cancer to change hearts and lives by changing my mother. The grace and strength and dignity she displayed during her last few months were inspiring. And she died happy, fulfilled, at peace, and full of more joy than I had ever seen in her. This from a woman who was struck down literally in her prime. So God said, "No, I will not heal her from her cancer, but I will use it to bless her, and you, and your family, and your congregation, and every single life that she touches." No, I do not have my mother anymore. But I do have peace and grace that I would not have known had she not died how and when she did.
I do not expect many of you to understand or appreciate that. Nor do I expect that this will change any minds or hearts today. I would ask that you simply consider this: If there is a God, wouldn't you want him to be much more than a "wishing well"? And if God does indeed have all within his power, why would he not use every tool in his power to accomplish what is in his will? Simple faith does not make us simpletons.
And please keep this in mind, my liberal and progressive brothers and sisters: Not all Christians are "Red Staters"; not all evangelicals are conservative; and not all of us who believe the Bible is the eternal word of God believe it should be taught in public schools. And the best way for me to share the Gospel with you is not to try to choke you with it.
By: WalkByFaith on March 31, 2006 at 04:03pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/03/30/study-prayer-has-no-medi_n_18204.html?p=4#comments
Pro Choice or Pro Life February 14, 2006
Posted by gospeltalk in Uncategorized.2 comments
Pro Choice or Pro Life? There are more than just two sides to this argument.
First, let’s look at the underlying act, abortion. The debate over when life actually begins… At conception, the genetic pieces of father and mother are combined to create the blueprint for a totally unique human being. Cells divide and grow. In 2-3 weeks we see a beating heart and closed circulatory system. In just over a month the brain is functioning. Soon there is movement. A fetus responds to light, heat, sound, pain. They even think and dream. Someone said the “definition of alive is that a being is growing, developing, maturing, and replacing its own dying cells.” Some would argue that life doesn’t begin until birth, and before that the fetus is a part of the mother. The old “if it’s wanted it’s a baby, if it’s not wanted it’s just tissue” discussion. It seems to me that if an unborn child has a unique genetic makeup, its own body parts and systems, a pumping heart and a brain that works and responds, then it must be alive, more so that a person in a coma. Of course it depends on the mother for nutrition, warmth, safety and waste removal, but it’s a separate entity from the mother. If allowed, it will continue to grow and develop as any human being.
Abortion terminates pregnancy, which is a nice way of saying it destroys the fetus. Regardless of the method used, the fetus reacts, responds and most certainly feels it. When does life begin? Few Americans would hold a baby in their arms and kill it. But millions of fetuses are destroyed every year. I think if more people really understood and thought about the developing unborn child, there would be far fewer abortions.
Americans tend to be very active when it comes to their rights. They’ll argue, fight, even die for them. If you want to get folks behind something, tie it to a rights issue. They did it with cable tv years ago. There was an uproar over showing porn on cable. Someone cleverly took the focus off the filth peddlers and made it an issue of free speech. Many decent people unwittingly supported the porn industry and infected their homes because they got sucked in to the pretense that they were fighting for freedom of speech.
Women’s rights have come a long way. Deservedly so. It’s no surprise that abortion has been made a part of that movement. But to make it successful, you must use a few tactics. Semantics- No country would give people blanket permission to kill their children. So you must dehumanize the child with words like tissue, fetus, unwanted pregnancy. And then you mustn’t use the word kill. Rather use abort, terminate, remove. Instead of being a growing, living being, make it a piece of tissue that might someday be human. That way it can just be ripped out, like a tumor, without any consideration, reason or remorse.
“It’s my body.” Women have every right to manage their bodies. But what about the rights of the unborn child? Who protects them? Their fragile bodies are their own, not their mother’s or father’s. They have a right to grow and live a normal life, don’t they? Yet we seem more worried about the care and rights of animals than we do our children. Which is stupid because children are our primary responsibility, a tremendous source of joy and our hope for the future.
Alternatives-
All people need to be responsible for their actions. If you can’t afford a child, don’t have one. If it’s inconvenient to have a family, don’t. Prevention is the best alternative to abortion. Use birth control, self control or both.
Continuing with responsibility, men have got to be held accountable for fathering children. There’s no excuse for leaving a woman to fend for herself and her children. If he won’t willingly support his kids, he should be forced to.
Rapists and other sex offenders should also be forced to pay for damages, treatment and child support. In addition, they should be sterilized.
Adoption- there are countless couples who want children, many are childless. A good, loving home is so much better than tools and a garbage can. Please, if you’re pregnant and don’t want the child, consider touching the lives of someone who yearns for children!
Fire station- If all else fails, drop off the baby at a fire station or hospital. They’ll know what to do.
Sure there are exceptions. Most agree that in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother, a woman and her doctor should discuss alternatives like abortion.
We need to start thinking before we act. Inconvenience, money, time, school, and dreams are poor excuses for killing our children. It’s not just about women’s rights. It’s also about children’s rights. They, too, have a right to live, to dream, to have a future. Denying them those rights demeans us as human beings.
Original Sin? February 11, 2006
Posted by gospeltalk in Uncategorized.add a comment
We are judged on our own actions, not for those of others. A just God wouldn’t condemn me for something you did.
When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were innocent. They didn’t know right from wrong, obeyed everything God said and would have remained that way. If they had, we would never have been born.
They needed to learn free agency, and God wanted them to make the choices that would allow us to be. To do that, he gave them two conflicting commandments. Don’t eat the fruit of knowledge, and multiply and replenish the earth. They chose the greater of the two. For breaking the first, they were kicked out of the garden and would eventually die. But for obeying the second, they learned, grew, had a family. They understood joy because they felt sorrow. Knew pleasure and pain. Developed faith because they were no longer in God’s presence. And they made it possible for all of us to be born.
That’s the original sin. Their choice. And that’s the way it actually impacts us. No one is born with Adam’s sin on their heads. We’re not cursed because of him. Baptism need not be done to babies who are perfect. It should be done when you’re old enough to be accountable on your own.
God is a loving father. We still need redemption through Jesus for our sins. And that is another gift of love.
Welcome to Gospel Talk February 11, 2006
Posted by gospeltalk in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Welcome to my site. I’ll be sharing some of my views and beliefs. Positive discussion, questions and comments are encouraged.
It’s not my intention to offend anyone. Sometimes religious differences are a sensitive matter to discuss. If you are bothered by anything I post, please accept my apology.
Gospel Talk 