The paradox that is presented by foreknowledge and free will is one that would seem to be a nice contradiction to the idea of prophecy and free will or an All Knowing God and free will. Determinism vs. free will seems to always take into account that because something CAN be, it SHOULD be. For example, if God said to me that I was going die in a car accident on Tuesday, my human nature would tell me to avoid getting into a car on Tuesday. More than that, I could even take it a step further and opt not to leave the house at all on Tuesday. After all, I could be in a car accident where a car hits me as I am walking down the road right? Yet even if either or other alternatives are good alternatives that may prevent the foretold death, does it mean I should take those routes?

Every logical thinking person would say yes. After all, we don’t want to die, right? But can you say you would have thought of all of the possibilities to avoid the death that is ‘fated’ you? Did you think of the fact that a car could come crashing through your house and kill you? Sure you did, right? So you’ll stay on the 2nd floor all day. But what if someone came into the house and pulled you out by gunpoint? Impossible right? Else God would have told you that part too…right? As improbable as the examples may get to be, they are no more improbable than an All Knowing God.

First let’s stay on the examples of different possible scenarios that could lead to your foretold death. Has no one ever heard of a car crashing through a house? Has no one ever heard of a person being taken by gunpoint from their own home? Why then could these things not happen to you?

In “Oedipus Rex”, the characters are motivated by the oracle’s words on their fates. They attempt to prevent their foretold futures by intentionally changing their ‘paths’. And yet still they end up fulfilling the fates they tried so hard to avoid. Does this mean that free will is an illusion? That determinism in the end is what truly dictates our life? After all, if no matter what we do, we still end up with the same results, how are we truly free?

Yet the true question is not ‘how are we truly free’ more than it is ‘why can’t we free ourselves from our fates?’

Trouble is, we have created this idea of ‘fate’ such that if it is destined or meant to be, it will be ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. There is always more than one path to the same goal/end so for us to believe that we can change our ‘fate’ based on our foreknowledge is putting a lot of stock in our abilities.

But “[we] can do all things through Christ who strengthens [me]“, right? Include “moving mountains”? Well, let’s not jump ahead. We’ll get there.

The whole theory that we could change our path if we truly had free will is first off based on the idea that God would tell us that X,Y, and Z is about to occur in our life. After all, how can we presume to change our ‘fate’ as we call it if we do not know what our ‘first fate’ is? It is also based somewhat on the idea that our foretold fate is foretold based on what MAY happen if we were to continue as we are, but seems to forget to factor in our actions based on the new knowledge of our predestined fate.

Did I lose you there? Stay with me just a little longer:

We have all heard the saying that ‘hindsight is 20/20′ right? But have you have ever played a hand of hold-em poker and folded it only to see your straight flush flop on the board? And you think to yourself ‘damn! I knew it! I should have called!’? Had someone told you with absolute knowledge that you were going to get that straight flush, you most certainly would have called; especially if that someone were God, right? Sure! God knows everything! So had you known, you would have called and won money rather than folded and won nothing, right? Thereby changing your future.

Notice first off that I said your future, not your fate. But before we address that, let’s address God telling you that a straight flush will form on the board. First of all, whether He tells you or not, it’s going to happen. You see that it did even though He didn’t tell you, but if He did and you acted on that knowledge, you would have been just that much richer.

But that is also something up to you to decide: to act on that knowledge. You could trust that you are hearing the God you worship and that He is telling you this and go all in. Or you could second guess God and still fold. One action makes you richer while the other does not. Two different futures, right?

Futures. Again, first off let’s address that idea. Future vs. fate. You would think they are the same right? I would argue they are somewhat different. Your future can change depending on your decisions, whereas your ‘fate’ is just the result of your decisions. Same difference right? Ever heard the saying ’six of one, half dozen of another’? It implies that you are saying the same thing in two different ways. Yet mull on the ideas for a minute:

1. Future: if you make decision a, you will lead to future b. If you make decision b, you lead to future c.
2. Fate: the result of your decision whether it is a, b, or c. What could be translated as then your future, but doesn’t change like your future can.

So now you are going to want to address a fate that doesn’t change. But hold on just a while longer and we’ll get to that too.

Say God told you that you would get a straight flush. And because of that very knowledge, you go all in and you win a big pot that changes your life. You could go on with the rest of your life arguing that armed with only that information alone, you changed your future. But you are missing one HUGE aspect here: the straight flush. Regardless of whether or not God told you it would be, it occurred. Regardless of whether or not you chose to go all in or fold, it occurred. God’s information to you that a straight flush would form on the board was not altered by your actions or foreknowledge.

So you may say that example is dumb. Well excuse me, but if you are allowed to use logic, why can’t I?

Or you may say that what if God said I would never be rich in the future? To which I would say ‘why would He say that if wasn’t true’? To which you may say ‘but if He did, and I called that straight flush, He’d be wrong’. To which I would say ‘but you wouldn’t call it–you already proved that in your initial scenario when you didn’t call it. Furthermore, would you really go all in before the flop if God told you that you won’t be rich in the future? Wouldn’t that knowledge alone make you want to not lose your chips just so you can stick it to Him?’ No matter what way you look at it, God is right. So you may say ‘well what if God told me a straight flush was going to form and I was going to win big, and I decided to fold?’ Human nature dictates that you in all reality would not do such a thing, but if you want to go to the most extreme of hypothetical situations, I would also have to say a few things to that as well:

1. Maybe He didn’t mean you would win big on that hand.
2. I think God is smart enough not to say something that isn’t true. Just because something CAN be said doesn’t mean it WILL be said. Like I said in the beginning, just because something CAN be, doesn’t mean it WILL be.

Thing is, you want to present a situation where a paradox can be created and God can’t win. That’s what you want so you try your best to develop it. Problem is, your scenarios are more extreme and improbable than mine first of all. But second of all, I think He who has absolute knowledge will always be a step ahead of you.

Now let’s get back to moving mountains and a fate that doesn’t change being in conflict with the idea of a free will:

If we can do all things through Christ and move mountains, we should be able to do that which opposes the nature of God. And we should be able to do nothing and still receive the same fate because, after all, if it is not going to change, nothing we do or do not do will change it, right?

First off, you are still going on the assumption that God will tell you what your ‘fate’ is. But let’s assume He does for your argument’s sake. How realistic is it that you will do absolutely nothing for your whole life just to prove God wrong? Not very realistic at all actually. Is it then not possible that the interactions and day to day on goings that you do have will lead to the fate that God foretold? But let’s say you want to contradict me when I say that God would not say it if it were not true and just totally contradict God’s ‘truth’. God tells you that you will be a wealthy husband of two. You then do everything in your power NOT to make money. NOT to get married. NOT to have kids. You have successfully contradicted God. How logical is that again? I mean, because you would voluntarily give up your happiness here just to prove God wrong? Ok. Just checking…moving on then: God wouldn’t say something like that. Plain and simple.

So you are now mad because I’m saying that God wouldn’t say anything along the lines that may support your whack theory, right? But really, who do you think you are? You want to come at me with pure logic and ’sense’ and expect the same in return, but when it gets down to it, you end up making the least amount of sense!

Yet if God told you that you would be a married, wealthy, father, couldn’t you take more than one path to get there? Couldn’t you get married first, have kids, then win the lottery? Couldn’t you build an empire for yourself, get married, then have kids? Couldn’t you save, and save, and save until you are a millionaire and have a family later? Are there not endless possibilities that lead you to that same fate? And aren’t you free to choose which ones you want to utilize?

But you are saying because the end is still the same, the means carry no weight? Why?

Besides the fact that God is outside of time, life is like a movie: No matter how many times you watch it, the scenes never change and the end is always the same. No matter if you would like for there to be a happy ending or not, the movie will always end the same. God has watched our movie over and over; He knows the ending. Just because He does, doesn’t mean we have any less of a role in it. Nor does it mean He has to tell us how it ends!

We keep debating free will and determinism and fate and prophecy based on the idea that some day God is going to tell us what’s up with us–how our movie is going to play out. But He’s not; in the very least not in the way we would like it play out.

Take the betrayal of Simon Peter the day Christ was arrested: even having the foreknowledge that he would deny Christ three times before the rooster crowed, he did nothing to stop himself. He didn’t stay in his room all day until the rooster crowed, and he certainly didn’t NOT deny Christ when he had the chance. Yet you may say that because Christ foretold it, he had some sort of control over the opportunities presented to Peter; that he made way for the betrayals by having the situations present themselves as they did. Yet you cannot accept that perhaps He saw this part of the movie before? And was just telling it like he saw it? May have spoiled the movie a bit for you, but just as anyone else spoils a movie for you, did it not come to pass as they said?

Many think of Oedipus Rex as a clear example of fate being devoid of free will–that they are mutually exclusive (meaning they cannot co-exist), but I contend that there are many paths to the same ending (what we think of as ‘fate’); how you get there is up to you (free will).

No, I’m not saying I have any power over anyone. Other than the power of manipulation. Not manipulation in the ill sense of the word; just in the sense that if I want you to believe my point or in the very least leave thinking I may be right, I can.

I’m scared of my mind. I’m scared of what I am capable of because I’m still young, but my thoughts are progressively scattered. I don’t want to be lost to my mind. I don’t want to have it take me captive. But I fear it will.

I’ve been sick for now over a week and it is as if there are no signs of recovery. I feel like I’m half in this world already. One foot in and the other foot out, but not really like bordering death…just bordering ’something’. I’m not that sick–not like deathly sick–just not all here. I don’t feel here.

When I was a kid, I would have what I used to call a ‘realization of self’ moment every once in a while to where I would feel almost out of body–like I was looking through my body, but it was not really my body. Like I was in this costume that is me. I would look at my hands so intently, tug on this skin that was my cover, and try to convince myself that I’m really here even though I felt like I was not.

I’m having more and more of those types of feelings lately.

And it scares me.

I fear I’m losing my mind. I fear I will not be able to control it. I fear no one can.

I need to write these thoughts out. I need to. I have to make heads or tails of them. Or at least just get them out of my head.

And that’s only the beginning…

I very much believe in God. God. Not the God of any man’s religion, but God the Creator. God the Father. GOD!!! I can’t even put into words how great of a matter this is to me. I believe in God. I believe.

So then I lose my mind. I feel like I’m in battle with evil. That something big and bad is going to happen and I of all people will be in the midst of it. No, not destructive on my part. No attacks or wrongdoings on my end at all actually. Just that I’ll be in the battle.

And sometimes I wonder which side I’ll be on.

I question myself. Not my God.

But I question God in this: why? Why me? Why no answers? Why not show yourself as you did in the Old Testament?

And then I’m reminded that we just cannot bottle up God. We cannot constrain Him to man’s ideas of what ‘is’. His very Word tells us that we should not question Him, but that we just will not be able to understand anyhow.

I know that huge feeling of not being able to understand.

Every time I speak with God, He answers me. It gives me new questions, but He still answers. Call it what you want. Accuse me of wanting to justify a God presence, but it is true. And one thing you can never do is convince me otherwise. God answers.

I pray to God more now, but still not as much as I used to. I pray for protection through the night. I pray for strength against forces I do not know. I pray for Heaven.

My mind can believe the conspiracies it conspires and that scares me. I have to manually tell it that they are not true. I have to manually tell myself that I am no one of any sort of significant influence to where the forces of Good and Evil would need me for either side. Not to say God’s Army is only comprised of significant beings, but just to say, I don’t feel like I’m a real soldier yet. And I’m not sure I will be.

I feel fake. I feel like my faith is not real. Not real enough to bring others in at least.

No, it’s not the Devil at work. Stop you simpletons. It is not as clear as you may want it to be! Stop giving pre believers these damn Sunday school answers! You will not lead people to Christ with those rehearsed lines. Because they are not real. They are not true to you. They have no depth. No meaning. No feeling.

I simply feel fake because while I love God, praise God, and call on God, I still voluntarily sin. And before you OTHER simpletons come at me with the bullshit talk about religion and sin and God and how I shouldn’t feel guilty because that is just “bad religion”, it’s not that either!

Stop the games Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, and Others. Stop just trying to jab at each other and break the other down. Sit down and think. Sit down and mull over just God. Not religion. Not theists or dissenters. Sit down and think about You and God. Contemplate the world. Contemplate creation. Play your word games and manipulation some where else.

I’m tired of Christians spitting recycled lines and of everyone else just trying to get a rise. For what? Do you really have nothing better to do in your life than to poke at something you claim not to care about? If you supposedly do not believe in the Creator, why are you so hell bent on getting someone to convince you otherwise? Don’t give me that you just want to convince the Christian that God does not exist. You are better of spending your time having fun, making money, or sleeping. But you get a rise out of controversy and you just want to laugh at the little baby Christians spit their rehearsed garble at you.

Baby Christian, stop damning the dissenter to hell. We are ALL damned to hell. Just because you are fortunate enough to have a hall pass out, does not mean you have been therefor given the golden key to the city! We are ALL sinners. God loves us ALL. Who are you to say otherwise? I’m so sick of this “I’ll pray for you” or “get behind me Satan” mumbo jumbo. Instead of saying that which you know is just going to give a chuckle to the dissenter or make him even more engaged and mad, why not try and talk with them. Befriend them. You know; be a true Christian and eat with the heathens as Jesus did.

I’m not finished. I have barely even begun. No longer will I hide. No longer will I hold my tongue. I’m tired of concealing myself so that others can feel comfortable. I’m tired of being quiet so that no one will think I’m disturbed. I’m tired of being fake.

I have been through hard times where I thought the only choice I had was to take my life and I tried. I did. I did not succeed, but the peculiar thing about it was the doctors said there were no meds in my system. Despite the completely empty bottle and my very lethargic state, the doctors could not find any trace of the meds in my system. It was from then on that I thought for sure that God wanted better for me.

But I know the state of mind. I know how it feels to look everywhere around and see nothing but “signs” from the universe telling you that you do need to end it all. In my states, I did not think about the “better place” or any good, but just that life was just not worth living.

Yet I was driving in my car today and thinking about a commercial that came over the radio about depression. I thought about why others might have the same thoughts as I did and want to take their life. I thought about the alternative to life: death. What is so great about death? What is on the other side that these people would think death is better than life?

And then I thought about Heaven. What a great place that is made out to be. I am constantly at battle with myself as to what I specifically believe, but I do want to believe in Heaven and it’s eternal pleasures. But with talks of Heaven and a better place, why wouldn’t someone in a rut turn to death? I mean think about it: live a life of lonely solace, or die happy and arrive in paradise? Which would you choose?

I know there is so much more to the person’s state of mind and surroundings, but I was just wondering if maybe the suicide rate would be reduced if they knew they only had one chance at life. I wonder if they would think twice if there were no Paradise.

Dissenters say that because the world as we know contradicts a loving, all-powerful God, that God cannot exist. After all, He would do something, right? Loving us means protecting us, right?

Let’s examine each argument fully for a minute.

If God was so loving, why would he allow babies to be killed and people to be hurt?

I was raped awhile back, and I felt disgusting. I felt horrible, wrong, invaded, and even invaluable. My friends urged me to file a report and get a rape kit done. I did. It did not make things any better, but I did it.

In college, I met a chick who’s sister had been killed when she was younger. She said her sister was an overall great person: moral Christian, pretty, had everything going for her. Some druggie shot her and took her away from her family. My friend still grieved her loss even 8 years later.

I do not have parents, but my friend does. And if anyone knows anything about being a parent, they know that they would do anything and everything in their power to protect their children. It is because of this fact that dissenters say that God cannot possibly be the loving God we claim him to be and still be able to allow his children to suffer. Yet what do parents do when their kids are wronged? Even though they would like to take away the pain, take away the wronged incident, or avenge the wrongdoer, they know that nothing they do or say will take away the pain. They cannot prevent wrongs at all times. But this does not make them any less loving of a parent, right? You would not say that my friends were not good friends in telling me to get a rape kit and file charges as this would be the ‘right thing’ to do. You would not say that my friend’s parents were not loving, good parents because their child was murdered either.

So why do the rules of man not apply to God if we are trying to box God into man’s thinking? I mean we are trying to compare the spiritual with the natural and somehow justify our complete lack of infinite knowledge [that God has]. So why are we holding God responsible for the wrongdoings of others to His children when we do not hold our own parents accountable [on most bad things]? Oh that’s right, because while the parents are not able to control another man’s actions, God is, right? Ok…let’s look at that.

Since God is Omnipotent, He should be able to stop bad things from happening.

1. Nowhere in the Bible does it say he can’t. Let me just first put that out there because what confuses me about this statement is that somehow someone is getting the idea from somewhere that God cannot stop bad things from happening. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that we will have troubles, we will have afflictions, and we will suffer. God does not say that life will be sunshine and daisies all the time so why should He make it so? [and of course if He did, you certainly would not be complaining about Him contradicting what He said because this is really all about making life easier for you isn't it?]

2.  I suppose you want Him to intervene while at the same time keeping your free will in tact? You know– that thing that allows you to do what you want, think what you want, say what you want, and be want you want… Oh…..that’s right….God can do the impossible! Well then let’s examine that for a second.

God is Omnipotent so He should be able to do the impossible including intervening on our free will without it intervening on our free will…

Sure. God can make the world a pretty pretty world with everyone happy. You will not know it, but you will not have the ability to do what you want because He is going to do that for you. Or perhaps He will give you the knowledge of what you could have. Now you are stuck complaining that God will not let you do what you want. What a mean God to control your every move. He should be able to do both. Really??? HOW?

I’m sick of seeing people tell me what God should be able to do without telling me how. Obviously you say He should be able to do it so you should know how, right? Oh that’s right… He’s all-powerful so he can do it [love how all your work is done merely by using that excuse rather than actually answering my questions--as I am doing for you--but oh well, guess ya'll are under even different rules than we are].

Ok guys. We are about to enter a cluster fuck. It will all make sense if you think about it clearly enough, but it is indeed a cluster fuck. Only created because we as finite humans just have to understand an infinite God [Whom by the way states in the Bible that no man can understand His ways]. I mean, God tells us everything we need to know, want to know, and should expect out of life, but we still insist on dissecting Him. I don’t know why, but I will still continue to try and help others understand as best as I can express in words [finite as I am].

Moving forward…

I assure you I will address the rest of this post in my next post, but for right now, I wanted to get this post posted because it has been in my drafts for months now. I have much more to write, but not the time right now.  If you would like me to address other issues in other posts, I certainly will, but as far as this post is concerned, do remember that it is not complete. I cannot say when my next post will be [as tomorrow is my only off day], but I will try and get it completed soon.

Tags: God, Atheists, Agnostics, allow, Omnipotent, pain, Bible, troubles, intervene, free will

The constitution was formed with the intent “to form a more perfect Union…” and to establish a creed for the United States of America. What is often used (or misused in many cases) in debates is the first amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances.

Often because what is being debated is one’s right to say or write whatever they want without fear of repercussions. But why is the first part of the statement ignored? I mean, in order to ban gay marriages, we have to respect the establishment of religion known as Christianity…or more specifically, Catholicism. I mean, Christianity encompasses many Christian religions that have preached acceptance so I cannot accurately say it is just Christianity. Unless I am missing another part of the constitution, I cannot see how gay marriage bans are being deemed constitutional at all. I mean, apart from breaking a law that is only made to support the Roman Catholics, it breaks no laws and asks for no special bonuses. All we want is for the same rights as a straight individual. How is that asking too much????

Moreover, we ask legislature to examine abortion laws and seek to have them in place such that a woman cannot be afforded the right to choose. The very God-given right that the Christians want to take away…. Why does everyone want to have their cake and eat it too? They use the argument that America was founded on a Christian foundation (I find debateable, but oh so for another post), and therefor we should ban gay marriages or stop abortions because it is against what the Bible teaches, but we want to take away a person’s God given right to choose. Free will is the very concept of being able to choose God; that God has given us the free will to choose to come to Him and/or do what we please. And we want to take that away? [sarcasm]Good Christian[/sarcasm].

Look at all the wasted time, money, and energy guys! We are paying our politicians to waste our money! Why can’t we see that the money would be better put to use paying off our national debt, feeding the homeless, researching alternative fuel options, and more productive venues than trying to take away God given rights that harm no one. As I stated in a previous post, gay marriages could prove to be better for everyone’s pockets in the long run.

The world makes no sense to me. I think we need to abandon ship and start anew again.

Tags: constitution, gay marriages, gay marriage ban

She tells of when she read the note from her son that she had to call him and talk to him. She says that she made reference to Romans 8:38-39 where the Bible explicitly tells us that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. STOP!

There is nothing.

Now wait a minute. Is it not the Christian advocate that dooms a homosexual to hell for loving another of the same sex? Is it not the Christian advocate that says that God does not love that homosexual? Yet the Bible poses a different stance? The Bible is saying that my God loves me no matter what!?!?! “Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God.” I would think that the all-knowing and all-powerful God would first know what He is talking about, but second have the power to still love me. Do you doubt His power? Cause I don’t.

Sure, God may not condone their actions (again, another debate for another post), but nor does he condone the actions of any sinner. And that is what we all are: sinners.

Back to the story. She goes on to say that she tried to tell her son that he needed to renounce this lifestyle. She did some investigative work and apparently found an organization of ex-homosexuals who had essentially come back to God. Hoping her son would jump on the opportunity to be reformed, she presented him with her newfound knowledge. He told her that he did not feel trapped, and moreover that he was born gay. To which she writes of her sorrow over his deception. STOP!

Does not the Bible teach that we are all sinners at birth? Therefore if we are born sinners and to be gay is a sin, how is it wrong to say that some were born gay? Born with this sin (again, a debate for another post) that is homosexuality?

Back to the scared sinner. She goes on to tell about these wounded souls that her son brings home from time to time; whether or not she is convinced that they have turned gay because of the scars they hide or wear is not apparent, and I do not want to make assumptions, but the direction was there.

I was abused as a child. My mother would beat us with whatever she could get her hands on the quickest. If it was the vacuum chord or the stainless steel spatula, she did not care so long as it was readily available. Yet, my sister got the real brunt of the abuse. My mother knew it would hurt me so much more than any beating ever could– to see her hit my sister and me not being able to do anything about it. She beat my sister once with this belt that was made of crushed jewels. It had no protective covering over it so even the slightest touch might prick you. I wanted to lunge at my mother that night.

So why is it that my sister has two beautiful kids and is about to marry the man whom she thinks is the world? She was horribly abused, but didn’t seem to turn gay. But the Christian advocate wants a homosexual to turn away love? The very love that they seek out themselves but can embrace because they get it from the opposite sex?

There is wonderful read by Bertrand Russell called Why I Am Not a Christian. Every time I read it, I leave with something new. While it is not really relevant to the topic of homosexuality, it does address ‘the church’ and ‘religion’ as he sees it and more. I could never denounce God and will make a post in the future about my thoughts on this particular read, but I believe that Christian advocates are a great reason why I should not be a Christian. It is just a shame that I know the truth far too well not to not be one.

Tags: homosexuality, Bible, God, Christian, Christian advocate

No, I am not a different person around my different friends, but I am more open with some over others. Yes, they happen to be my non-Christian friends 99.9% of the times, but it is not because of their religious beliefs at all. It is because of who they are. Most non-Christians are more free thinkers, independent, and care-free. I like this personality because it means I can be 100% me.

See, while I am a Christian and adhere to the teachings of the Bible as best as an imperfect human can, I do not conform to organized religion too well. I actually believe the Bible when it tells me not to judge my brother. I listen when Christ teaches me to eat with the sinners (after all, I being a sinner myself should not hold myself above them). I try to follow in His ways when he showed me how to be servants of man.

Yet I missed the part when God told me to picket my neighbor’s house for committing a sin that I do not approve of. I must have fell asleep in Sunday school when my teacher was handing out the how-to booklets on judging. I forgot to take notes when my Pastor taught us how to hide our own sins while condemning our brothers. And I know I missed the part in the Bible that tells me I need to say ten Hail Marys for every sin I committed against my body….

But I believe in God. At times I hate that I have the knowledge of who He is because it is very true that ignorance is bliss. At least being ignorant to the word, I could join the world in their stupidity. Don’t get me wrong; I can do everything I want to do now. Sure, it is not always pleasing to my Maker, and I will have to repent for my sins, but I do it. No, I do not do these things with the guarantee that my sins will be forgiven; please do not misread me there. I do them because I am an impulsive person: I act and then I think. I talk to God often and apologize, but it does not stop me from having my fun. I am like any other person: I want to have fun.

This one particular friend who sparked me to write this post tried to figure out why me of all people would believe in this God that the Christian community promotes. But I tried to get her to understand that my God is not their God. Yes, He is a father figure and yes, He is a ‘he’, but only because that is what the Bible represents him to me to be. He could be asexual, but He definitely has ‘male’ in Him. Why? Because Jesus was male. And Jesus was God as the Son. The Bible says that God presented Jesus to us as His son. So while it could be that God as a female mother presented Jesus as her son to us, I believe because Jesus was God personified, God is male. Or in the very least, asexual. But I prefer to think of Him as male. Oh…and He’s not white…He’s Hispanic…lol…just kidding….I don’t picture His race…that’s just my God.

Bottom line is that I believe in the Bible. I believe what it says so therefore I believe in God. But I believe in the Bible because it makes sense. It just makes sense. I can look around and see that this earth is too ‘perfect’ not to be divinely created. To say we are all a huge coincidence is what makes no sense to me! I mean to have a Maker makes more sense than coincidence in my opinion! For every cause, there is another cause; but there has to be an ultimate uncaused. The first domino but yet more because see, in order for that domino to fall, it has to be pushed. But to restrict an infinite God to a finite reasoning? I just cannot do it. So when my friend asked me to explain God essentially, I paled in comparison to Him. I just do not have the absolute truth and knowledge that He has to be able to explain Him.

The Bible says that even those who have not heard the word or been taught know that He is. That has to stand for something. That someone in a third world country who does not even know the Bible let alone organized religion just knows that there is a Divine Creator is awesome. Comparing in previous posts, man’s nature to God’s word, I cannot help believe that the Bible was divinely inspired. I asked my friend who is a manager for a small company to think of something for me: if the owner told her to create a new set of rules for which the office has to follow (herself included) or be terminated, would she write such rules as ‘no smoke breaks’ or ‘no talking to your neighbors’? Rules that she herself could not follow? She scoffed of course not; that would go against her nature–who she is (which is what she was trying to tell me religion does in forcing us to believe in this God figure, but I was trying to tell her that point was moot with the fact that my God is not the God of organized religion). To which I said: EXACTLY! So why would man write a book that tells him he must go against his nature in order to reach eternal happiness (or heaven…but that’s a debate for another post =P)?

I had a great conversation with my friend. I loved it because there was no raised voices, no judging, no name-calling, no negative vibes at all. It was pure conversation, purely intellectual, and just plain real. I cannot stand a Christian that tries to shove Christianity down another person’s throat, and I cannot stand an atheist who thinks that just because I am talking about God and the Bible, I am trying to conform them. After all, if they can state their opinions on God and the Bible, why can’t I?

I like for my faith to be tested; it reassures me that I truly believe. And I like intellectual discussion because it does get me to think. And as we already know, I like to think.

Tags: atheist, Christian, God, Bible

What they say: How does that make any sense?! How can God be someone that He isn’t? One moment He is the Son, but the next He also isn’t? How can God be flesh and killed when God cannot be destroyed, and the Bible says that no eye has ever seen His face!? Oh, but because we have seen God the Son instead of God the God, we still have not looked upon..His..face… If God is omnipresent, what is the need for the Holy Spirit? God is everywhere inherently, right?

If God is the Son, why did he pray to the Father asking that he not have to take on the yolk that God the Father put on him? Jesus asked that the cup be passed away from him…but why ask himself? If Jesus was God the Son asking God the Father, wasn’t he really just God himself asking God himself to spare…himself? And if Jesus was God the Son, a manifestation of God the Father, how could he have the flesh to be spared (after all…God has no beginning or end..)? Either Jesus was a good man, faithful servant, loyal prophet, or he was a liar. Newspapers are filled with the lies and corruption of man; just because it is in print, does not make it valid. The Bible telling us that Jesus was God does not make him God.

What I say: When a born again Christian proclaims to have recieved Christ in their heart, they say that Jesus is in them; that he lives in their heart. Does Jesus really live in their heart? Of course it is silly to get so legalistic, but why get legalistic about the terms of God being both Father and Son?

The Bible says that man cannot look upon the face of God, but yet man was constantly looking for their Saviour. How could God make himself shown to man if not to change how He shows himself to man? God as the Son was the way to bridge the gap; from man to God, Jesus stretched out his arms for us.

There are many men that can be called great, good, loved men; but Jesus was perfect…how many other men are noted to be such? Sure we can discount him as just another good prophet…but was Mohammad perfect? Is there any other documents of another man, let alone a prophet being perfect? Perfect! We seem to let that concept escape our reasonings; who else but God could be perfect?! It’s like a cruel joke on us really: God can say ‘I know it can be done because I did it’ anytime we say it’s too hard.

I’m going to have to take a TBC (to be continued); like my other posts, these are just ‘openers’ to themes to come. Kind of like ‘Answers 101.’ Stay tuned for the rest of the semester when we hit Intermediate Answers.

Tags: God, Father, Holy Spirit, Trinity

What they say: If God just ‘is’ and has always been, then why can’t we use the same argument for the existence of man? That the earth and its creatures just ‘are’ and always have been? Why is one argument good for the Christian but not for others (an idea explicated by Carl Sagan an adopted by atheists and agnostics alike). After all, since there is no concrete proof of ‘God,’ how can we say that He existed post-creation and that creation was not before Him?

I can freely say that a Minotolo does not exist because it does not– not because it does, and I choose to deny it. I do not first have to admit that something exists in order to say that it doesn’t; all I have to do is call you an idiot for thinking that a Minotolo exist. You have to define a Minotolo before telling someone it exists so that I can then again call you an idiot and prove that a Minotolo is actually something totally different or still does not exist.

What I say: The first problem that atheists run into in using an argument such as the Earth always being just as God always has been is that they are trying to compare a holy deity to an anthropomorphic (like man) being. In other words, we are comparing apples and parachutes. The Bible tells us that God is a spirit (John 4:24) and that God never was man. It tells us that God is in a whole other dimension by saying that He is beyond time (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8) and is in fact in control of time (Acts 1:7). How can we even begin to compare the Creator of time to imperfect man???

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Revelations 21:4 tells us what Heaven will be like– the Heaven that God offers to us and where He is seated on His thrown. Such a place is like the antithesis of what we have created here on Earth. How can we compare what we have created to what God has created?

To simply state that there is no evidence of God is like a hollow excuse; all I would have to contend is that there is a God then and I would be right? It is science that for every effect there is a cause, and this argument has been used by the Christian community to show that creation (effect) came by means of God (cause). Atheists will say then what caused God, but what they forget is that there has to be an ultimate uncaused; moreover, that there has to be a ‘first domino’ to knock down all the others, and God is that domino.

You don’t have to call me an idiot for saying a Minotolo exists; you merely have to discuss with me what a Minotolo is**. Once I have told you what a Minotolo is and you still don’t believe me, you can deny that exists, but that doesn’t have to mean that it doesn’t. But if I say to you that I have seen a Minotolo, how can you who have not seen it say it does or does not exist? In the same turn, I can say I have seen God, but you denying His existence does not make it any less true or that God does not exist.

**I will dive further into this ‘idea’ in further posts, but being at work at the moment, I cannot. For the sake of the topic, though, I did want to touch on it briefly.

Tags: God, Alpha and the Omega, uncaused, atheists, agnostics, holy deity, anthropomorphic

I recently read an opinion article of a young man who thought it fitting to propose the title ‘You Can’t Protect Everything.’ My disdain for the article has nothing to do with its title however. Let’s take a look at an excerpt from that article:

Let me express the voice of those thinking students who understand what nondiscrimination really should be about.

If you look carefully at the list of things which the university does not discriminate against, they are all things that one is. They are not things that one does.

In other words, I did not choose to be born male. Nor did I choose to be born white. In fact, with ever more shrill cries for affirmative action, I might have chosen to be born neither.

The policy states that the University does not discriminate based on “race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability or veteran status,” according the article.

Each of these affiliations relates to things that a person is. A person is black. A person is female. A person is old. A person is disabled. One doesn’t choose to be these things. One simply is.

Though religion isn’t something you are, freedom of religion is protected by the First Amendment, so it’s there for that reason.

While this point shouldn’t have to be made, homosexuality is not something that someone is. It is something that someone does.

There is no such thing as a gay gene. It only demonstrates the agenda of humanist, liberal scholars that this hasn’t been made clear.

But, let’s say there was a gay gene. How would this gene be inherited? How would this gene last for more than one generation?

I was so taken aback by this ‘educated’ man’s ignorance that I simply had to post a reply to his column in the comments section. My comments on his opinion:

“Though religion isn’t something you are, freedom of religion is protected by the First Amendment, so it’s there for that reason.”

Why is it justifiable to make exceptions to a point that you are attempting to make so as to merely support your side? You attempt to make a point that we do not choose to be a sex, race, or age, etc. and therefore should rightfully not discriminate against those, but not homosexuality. Yet, you realize that your point does not hold water when it comes to the aspect of religion so you are quick to make the First Amendment comment. What about ‘veteran status’? Don’t we have those who choose to go into the military, thus choosing this status?

“While this point shouldn’t have to be made, homosexuality is not something that someone is. It is something that someone does.”

Really? I didn’t know I ‘do homosexuality.’ I was under the impression that I ‘am’ a homosexual. So do you ‘do straight’ or are you just straight?

“There is no such thing as a gay gene. It only demonstrates the agenda of humanist, liberal scholars that this hasn’t been made clear.”

There is also no such thing as the religion gene or the veteran gene for that matter. But that’s not what is up for discussion is it? So why bring up a moot point?

And then to go on to compare homosexuality to body piercings! I love it! Let’s not stop there, though. Let’s not forget about clothes! The government should not protect us from being discriminated against because of what we wear! That’s our choice after all! But wait… does not a nun wear a habit and priest wear their vestments? So we can discriminate against them because they are wearing silly clothes…no wait, we can’t because they are religious people who only wear them because that is their religion so to discriminate against them would be to discriminate them based on their religion…wait…right?!

The thing with clothes and jewelry and any other accessory you choose to adorn for the day is that these are all accessories! These are not who you ‘are.’ But then you will say that you can choose not to be gay, right? But then you still have to admit that being gay or straight is just that: ‘being.’ You are comparing inanimate objects to a state of being. This is like comparing apples and parachutes.

All in all, you attempt to bring up several points as to why rights of homosexuals should not be protected, but when you apply the vacuum test, they fail. You cannot apply one logic to homosexuality, one to religion, and then yet another to veteran status.

Do a little more research before you post illogical barbel. After all, even an opinion should use some logic; because if it doesn’t, it’s really just a load of bull.

I would like to point out that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Sure, many think that being gay is a choice. So today I’m gonna choose to be gay. Tomorrow I think I’ll choose to be bi. Maybe next week I’ll dabble with ‘other’. I’ll choose to be straight only every other weekday though….

Obviously the author and I have different opinions on what our choices are, but it is not for lack of knowledge or research that I make the statements that I make. An educated opinion, while still an opinion, allows for educated debate.

Just as when I spoke on children growing up raised by gay parents, I think it is highly illogical that someone would choose to be chastised all their life. That even as a young child, that they would go against peer pressure and love someone of the same sex. So when someone says to me that being gay is a choice, I have to wonder why? Why would someone choose to be the outcast? Perhaps because I don’t choose to be an outcast, I will never understand it, but I still want to. I try to put myself in other people’s shoes; play devil’s advocate so to speak, but I still can’t understand the ‘why’.

I must say, I enjoyed one follow-up editorial that another student wrote. There were a couple of others who wrote in reply to the editorial as well:

Offensive Column Took Guts

Sexuality, Rights Are Who I Am

All in all we realize that no one will ever have the ‘right’ answers; that in a world where relativity and opinions allow us to be the ignorant race that we are, we cannot find the happy medium that is unity.

Tags: discriminate, homosexuality, ignorance, gay, rights, opinions, choice