I don't know how many out there have heard of Quantum Theory and the concept of Schroedinger's cat, but the topic actually came up in a facebook discussion I had and I wanted to blog about it.
Schroedinger's cat is a representative analogy that attempts to concisely describe the concepts behind quantum theory. In quantum theory, all possibilities- even mutually exclusive ones, coexist and have a reality of their own. Schroedinger's cat is a quantum cat, in an opaque box, with a switch in it that will either feed the cat food or feed the cat poison. The switch is triggered by the random decay of a radioactive sample - if the decay particle hits one switch, the cat is fed food. If the other, poison. The quantum science comes in in the act of observation, which in itself affects the experiment and by itself determines the state of the cat. In a quantum world, the cat is both/and alive/dead. When we observe the cat, he becomes one or the other.
This experiment has never been executed, and does not exist in either the observable or quantum worlds - but it is an example of what has been observed in quantum physics.
At the fundamental level, quantum theory is, indeed, a collection of mathematical formula used to describe the indescribable world of subatomic particles. The following is a terrific laymen's description of the theory and its development.
http://www.thebigview.com/spacetime/uncertainty.html
What is so striking about this theory is not the theory itself - it is essentially confirming what Christianity has always taught - that we cannot know the mind of God (Isaiah 55:8). Much of the subatomic world seems to change with the method or means used to observe it, however, like Einstein and several others - I just think we haven't learned the proper way to observe its true nature - much like we cannot think exactly like God.
That being said, our current culture's love of relativistic morality has taken cues from quantum theory and attempted to apply that theory to concepts of truth and what is right and wrong. What I saw on facebook was a person taking the concepts of quantum theory and applying it to the concepts of moral truth and tolerance. Unfortunately, he contradicted himself within his own discussion and effectively abrogated his own argument, however, his initial foray into the topic is worth repeating simply for its shock value.
The assertion goes something like this: since Reality exists only in our observation of it, concepts of right and wrong only exist in relation to our observation and assertion of what is right and wrong. In the dialog I had, the person in question then explained this by saying that he believes a certain type of gas is good, and his wife believes a certain type of gas is bad. He says that both ideas are true, because no matter what he says to the contrary, his wife sees the gasoline and its effect on her vehicle as bad.
I have to point out that this is a summarized view of his argument - but it captures the gist.
Most of what is wrong with this starts with extrapolating our inability to effectively observe atoms into the world of morality and ethics. There is no correlary, as our world of morality is not measurable in the physical sense at any level - I cannot say my right thought is 3 inches long. This might seem to be a ridiculous statement until you dig deeper into what quantum theory's goals and pursuits are - they are not attempting at any level to do anything other than describe the different states of matter. Morality doesn't come into their realm of discussion. Applying quantum theory to discussion of right and wrong is like trying say 'love is about as big as a grapefruit, but smaller than a watermelon'. Its ridiculous. You cannot measure moral values with physical measurements. Again, as I write this it seems ridiculous, but this is exactly what the relativistic fringe is attempting to do.
When pressed, we all have moral absolutes. We all have a strong grasp of what is right and wrong in our realms of endeavor. We also have conflicts in our views of what is right and wrong. We must stand on that ground - it is intellectually dishonest and eminently desctructive to allow diametrically opposing viewpoints to go unchallenged - this is relativism. Additionally, it is immoral to reject other people's ideas simply because they conflict with your own - this is bigotry. True and lasting peace comes with a dialog driven by intellectual honesty and principle, and backed with a plan for resolution if the opposing viewpoints cannot be resolved. We must defend our lives from people whose goal is to destroy us. Any idea about 'tolerance' that rejects right and wrong is intolerant of solutions, community, and lasting peace - it allows for bigotry, hatred and inflexible thinking to continue to exist and to breed destruction.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Lord, Save Us From Your Followers
I had the distinct pleasure last night of watching a film by Dan Merchant called 'Lord, Save Us From Your Followers'. It is a documentary of his travels around the United States trying to dialog with people about christians and Christianity. His perspectives were nothing new, and the ideas he represents are not new to the Christian community as a whole; however, it was astounding to me how fundamentally blind many of the christian people he interacted with were to the world at large.
Those christians that were clearly engaged in the culture and were making a difference were the ones that were getting their hands dirty. Here in Portland, there is a ministry Mr. Merchant highlights called 'Bridgetown Ministries' that perform 'Night Strikes' under the Burnside bridge - a place where a significant number of destitute people spend their time because the Portland Rescue Mission, the Union Gospel Mission and the Salvation Army are all located proximal to the area, and the bridge itself provides shelter from the weather. Being a 'Christian Ministry', it would be easy to assume that these 'Night Strikes' are filled with prosletyzing and preaching. This is not the case - the ministry provides hair cuts, clothing and most striking of all is the foot washing. The voluteers come and provide the homeless with a hands on foot washing - just like Jesus did with his 12 disciples that lived, breathed, and ate with Him when He lived on this earth in human form. What is even more surprising is that one of the volunteers is quoted as saying the foot washing is difficult for her not because it is dirty, or smelly or gross - but because she has to wear protective gloves. She was homeless and was treated as untouchable by people she interacted with and she feels that using the protective gloves enforces that feeling some homeless have of being 'untouchable'. Wow.
For those of you out there that are christian - I am not going to try to tell you that what you are doing is wrong, but if all you are doing is making sure your bills are paid and your stomach is full you aren't following Jesus. Try getting dirty in the streets with the destitute and you will find yourself closer to God than you could ever be anywhere else.
Those christians that were clearly engaged in the culture and were making a difference were the ones that were getting their hands dirty. Here in Portland, there is a ministry Mr. Merchant highlights called 'Bridgetown Ministries' that perform 'Night Strikes' under the Burnside bridge - a place where a significant number of destitute people spend their time because the Portland Rescue Mission, the Union Gospel Mission and the Salvation Army are all located proximal to the area, and the bridge itself provides shelter from the weather. Being a 'Christian Ministry', it would be easy to assume that these 'Night Strikes' are filled with prosletyzing and preaching. This is not the case - the ministry provides hair cuts, clothing and most striking of all is the foot washing. The voluteers come and provide the homeless with a hands on foot washing - just like Jesus did with his 12 disciples that lived, breathed, and ate with Him when He lived on this earth in human form. What is even more surprising is that one of the volunteers is quoted as saying the foot washing is difficult for her not because it is dirty, or smelly or gross - but because she has to wear protective gloves. She was homeless and was treated as untouchable by people she interacted with and she feels that using the protective gloves enforces that feeling some homeless have of being 'untouchable'. Wow.
For those of you out there that are christian - I am not going to try to tell you that what you are doing is wrong, but if all you are doing is making sure your bills are paid and your stomach is full you aren't following Jesus. Try getting dirty in the streets with the destitute and you will find yourself closer to God than you could ever be anywhere else.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sometimes 'Nice' is not 'Good'
Early in my married life I was under the mistaken impression that God had it in for me to be a pastor. I love church (little c) and all that comes with it - the people, the ideas, and oh yeah - God. I go to church to meet God - not to say that I can't meet Him elsewhere; He is everywhere after all. At church, He comes to us in a special way. The scriptures say that 'where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.' (Matt. 18:20, NKJV) He promises, without question, His literal presence whenever we gather together as believers in His name. That is what makes church special - and makes Church (big C) decidedly un-special; but that's another topic for another time.
Considering the fact of God's literal presence in our midst, one would think we would experience church differently. After all, the very creator of all things is there with us - shouldn't we sing louder, or dance better, or experience more miracles or something? It could be argued that a worship experience that lacks vitality is evidence for the fact that a church is not actually meeting in Jesus' name. After all, His presence in our lives is transforming - isn't it? Churches (little c) I have attended sometimes begin to work to leverage that idea when they find their Sunday mornings coming into a slump - their people seem bored. They begin to expend much effort making the 'big show' on Sunday something to remember and to insure a positive experience for their congregants. They justify this by saying 'this is the way the big boys do it down the block; the churches out there with 10,000 - 15,000 members - in those churches its all about lights and music and video and drama and, and, and,'...Jesus? Not so much.
My point is really very simple, but is hard to accept for those of us whose lives have gone through a transformation because we know where we have been - and it didn't look pretty. We know that what Jesus' offers is better than anything we ever had and we expect our lives to feel different - its difficult because when we start living our lives after we know Jesus, all of those 'nice' feelings go away and reality sets in. Life is, after all, life. Our mistake is in refusing to accept that reality; we sometimes start faking it to try to get those 'nice' feelings back. The staggering thing about this is that the reality I am asserting we refuse to accept is truly a completely new reality - we are new beings; reborn as children of God. Nothing in our past lives compares to what Jesus has opened up for us. Its just that it doesn't feel that way - and that feeling (or lack thereof) creates all kinds of goofiness in the name of Jesus.
I can already hear the nay-sayers response, and several of them are from the Word of Faith movement. 'If you speak it, the tongue has the power of life and death and you are speaking death to yourself - Mr. Yonko. Your life SHOULD feel different - you are a Kingdom Kid now - put on your crown and start behaving like you are saved!' Nonsense. Speaking the truth of the reality you see is the first step to understanding the True Reality - and the True Reality I love in today hasn't put any crown on my head. The biggest downfall of folks that hold on to that verse from Proverbs (18:21) is their eminent inability to see the forest for the trees. The forest is beautiful, but it is full of trees that have nasty pokey needles on them. The 'good' of that forest is that we are strangers here. The world, created by God, was originally beautiful and still has glimpses in it of God's beauty - but it has been and continues to be corrupted in equal parts by both man and Satan and his minions. Our home is in a different land, and trying to assert that the life we have today is anything similar to what our life will be when He returns cheapens that new life that is coming.
Perhaps I am being too harsh on those that hold to the truth of Proverbs 18:21 - we can, after all, build people up and tear them down with the words we speak. The problem is, if you gnash your teeth and tell lies to someone whose ears are only attuned to the truth of God's word, all of the 'death' in your tongue will come to naught. Case in point is Stephen - first martyr after Jesus death; he never believed the lies the Jewish council he was brought in front of told about him - he held on to the True Reality to his death (Acts 7:54). That was good - it most decidedly was not 'nice', and it certainly didn't feel good. In the end, the words of his tongue brought him death, even though they were truth. No - in the True Reality, Stephen was brought to the real life - and Jesus was there waiting for him.
You see, we put way too much focus on today - we try to make ourselves have all those 'nice' feelings we seemingly lost, and not step on each other's toes and we make our churches feel good so that tons of people come to them...and in the end, we lose all that is truly 'good'. Jesus is most certainly there in the midst of us, and His presence is truly transforming - but when we speak those words do they fit into our definition of 'nice' and what 'reality' is? Or do we hear Jesus and allow the transformation to complete its work, even in our perceptions, and speak those words knowing the true definitions that come from the True Reality? This life is a glimpse, a wisp, a puff of smoke - we have only so much time to do what Jesus has called us to do on this earth and all the effort we put into being 'nice' keeps us from being 'good'.
Read the scripture. There aren't very many 'nice' people immortalized in that text. They weren't all 'good' either, according to our definition of the word, but I believe that if we listen to Jesus and accept the True Reality our worship will be vital, and it won't change one bit. Our lives will be made holy - and we will simply be doing what seems natural. Our compassion will deepen because our focus is on Him, and not on us. We must begin to accept that Jesus is truly sovereign and that following Him sometimes just feels normal - and that is good.
Considering the fact of God's literal presence in our midst, one would think we would experience church differently. After all, the very creator of all things is there with us - shouldn't we sing louder, or dance better, or experience more miracles or something? It could be argued that a worship experience that lacks vitality is evidence for the fact that a church is not actually meeting in Jesus' name. After all, His presence in our lives is transforming - isn't it? Churches (little c) I have attended sometimes begin to work to leverage that idea when they find their Sunday mornings coming into a slump - their people seem bored. They begin to expend much effort making the 'big show' on Sunday something to remember and to insure a positive experience for their congregants. They justify this by saying 'this is the way the big boys do it down the block; the churches out there with 10,000 - 15,000 members - in those churches its all about lights and music and video and drama and, and, and,'...Jesus? Not so much.
My point is really very simple, but is hard to accept for those of us whose lives have gone through a transformation because we know where we have been - and it didn't look pretty. We know that what Jesus' offers is better than anything we ever had and we expect our lives to feel different - its difficult because when we start living our lives after we know Jesus, all of those 'nice' feelings go away and reality sets in. Life is, after all, life. Our mistake is in refusing to accept that reality; we sometimes start faking it to try to get those 'nice' feelings back. The staggering thing about this is that the reality I am asserting we refuse to accept is truly a completely new reality - we are new beings; reborn as children of God. Nothing in our past lives compares to what Jesus has opened up for us. Its just that it doesn't feel that way - and that feeling (or lack thereof) creates all kinds of goofiness in the name of Jesus.
I can already hear the nay-sayers response, and several of them are from the Word of Faith movement. 'If you speak it, the tongue has the power of life and death and you are speaking death to yourself - Mr. Yonko. Your life SHOULD feel different - you are a Kingdom Kid now - put on your crown and start behaving like you are saved!' Nonsense. Speaking the truth of the reality you see is the first step to understanding the True Reality - and the True Reality I love in today hasn't put any crown on my head. The biggest downfall of folks that hold on to that verse from Proverbs (18:21) is their eminent inability to see the forest for the trees. The forest is beautiful, but it is full of trees that have nasty pokey needles on them. The 'good' of that forest is that we are strangers here. The world, created by God, was originally beautiful and still has glimpses in it of God's beauty - but it has been and continues to be corrupted in equal parts by both man and Satan and his minions. Our home is in a different land, and trying to assert that the life we have today is anything similar to what our life will be when He returns cheapens that new life that is coming.
Perhaps I am being too harsh on those that hold to the truth of Proverbs 18:21 - we can, after all, build people up and tear them down with the words we speak. The problem is, if you gnash your teeth and tell lies to someone whose ears are only attuned to the truth of God's word, all of the 'death' in your tongue will come to naught. Case in point is Stephen - first martyr after Jesus death; he never believed the lies the Jewish council he was brought in front of told about him - he held on to the True Reality to his death (Acts 7:54). That was good - it most decidedly was not 'nice', and it certainly didn't feel good. In the end, the words of his tongue brought him death, even though they were truth. No - in the True Reality, Stephen was brought to the real life - and Jesus was there waiting for him.
You see, we put way too much focus on today - we try to make ourselves have all those 'nice' feelings we seemingly lost, and not step on each other's toes and we make our churches feel good so that tons of people come to them...and in the end, we lose all that is truly 'good'. Jesus is most certainly there in the midst of us, and His presence is truly transforming - but when we speak those words do they fit into our definition of 'nice' and what 'reality' is? Or do we hear Jesus and allow the transformation to complete its work, even in our perceptions, and speak those words knowing the true definitions that come from the True Reality? This life is a glimpse, a wisp, a puff of smoke - we have only so much time to do what Jesus has called us to do on this earth and all the effort we put into being 'nice' keeps us from being 'good'.
Read the scripture. There aren't very many 'nice' people immortalized in that text. They weren't all 'good' either, according to our definition of the word, but I believe that if we listen to Jesus and accept the True Reality our worship will be vital, and it won't change one bit. Our lives will be made holy - and we will simply be doing what seems natural. Our compassion will deepen because our focus is on Him, and not on us. We must begin to accept that Jesus is truly sovereign and that following Him sometimes just feels normal - and that is good.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The Cost of Spirituality
It's time to get real. The core of life is in our relationship with God. Having a relationship with God requires knowledge of who He is. Knowing who He is requires a little work, and the work is never something you think up to do, but it is something He guides you through to bring you into an understanding of who He is.
Isn't that the way it is with your friends? You don't get to know them by telling them how to behave and then fabricating interactions with them that substantiate a preconceived notion you have of who they are. You invite them to dinner; you call them on the phone; you play baseball with them; you give them gifts. You get mad at each other and you laugh with each other. As time progresses, you begin to know them more and your interactions move from superficially polite nothings to long walks through the valley of the shadow of death and inspiring flights through the ethereal worlds of the spirit that lift your soul and give you purpose. Your life becomes defined by the moments you have with those people you know and love.
God wants to be your friend. Understand me now, He is God and doesn't have anything in mind for your friendship but what is best for you - so in that sense He isn't anything like your next door neighbor or your mom or your best friend. He can't do anything for you but love you completely and He can't be anything to you other than God and all that that implies. He is perfect - which is a concept we will literally never understand. In His perfection He is just - the absolute definition of perfect justice; thus he must punish crimes against His order or He is no longer perfect. He is also love - the absolute definition of perfect love. In that He hates that He must punish us with death for the crimes we commit and so He sent His son Jesus. That is the simple gospel for those who don't know it - the gospel of the Christian religion, but also the pure truth of life.
I should probably stop right there - I am sure it galls some who may read this to hear me saying that the Christianity is the 'pure truth of life'. But hang in there - it gets better. Its not about Christianity at all - Christianity has, in fact, probably done more in the last century to dilute the pure truth of life than they have to advance it. There, now I have offended both sides of the fence and should probably stop ... but I can't. I am a glutton for punishment.
In our lives, we walk in a world created by the very God I described above. Jesus conveyed to us in the flesh a clear idea of who God is - perfect, just, loving - and He died (taking on God's punishment that needed to be meted out, like I mentioned above) so that we could crawl out of the hell hole we have created for ourselves in all of the mistakes we have made in our lives and have joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control...a real life.
This all has nothing to do with Christianity (big C) and everything to do with christianity (little c). The thing that makes the difference is the case of the letter c - the word christianity has at its root the word 'christ' which is a greek word meaning 'anointed one'. In Judaism, the anointing they talked of was the anointing of leadership and they looked to the christ to lead them out of their subjugation to the Romans at the time Jesus walked the earth. The term 'christianity' simply means 'followers of the anointed one'. Our culture and our world has made 'christ' and Jesus synonymous, when they most certainly were not - Jesus was much more than just the anointed one. We took one aspect of His identity and made it our religion's defining term - of course we could have chosen worse aspects of Jesus' identity such as suffering one, lamb of God, or man of sorrows to identify with; my point is that Jesus was more. I think we are more apt in calling ourselves followers of the Way. This is the core of what Jesus was saying - its not religion; its the Way.
He was life - and the words He spoke were the way to life, which was the way to Him. Kind of circular reasoning; but bear with me. In truth, it isn't about the word 'Jesus' per se either - if He would have been a normal man and spoke the words He spoke, what He spoke would have given us the manual for an incredible life. What is the key to this is that its not about the word 'Jesus' but it is entirely about Jesus. The manual to life that he gave us is useless without the fuel of life to keep the engine running - and that fuel is Jesus.
You see, we are all really very much the same in the core of our being. We want life, and that more abundantly. Being molded from the same clay, we all have similar needs. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprising considering our similarities, we all really want the same things - joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control. These are the things that have lead scholars to develop the theory that all religions in the world came from a single source, far back into the beginning of our pre-recorded history. I would contend that they are partially correct - our desire for joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self control does have a root cause; because we are all molded from the same clay by the same God that died for us.
The gospel - the pure truth of life - is the most accurate description of the essence of who we are. Notice that that description does not include Christianity (big C). We use Christianity to help us get closer to that identity we have in the gospel under Jesus - its not about the church, the church is about IT. It is not about how much you give, but it is entirely about how much you give - without knowing or caring if anyone is looking.
If you are afraid to stand up in front of an audience and tell them the truth about who you are you are human - but if you don't come to grips with the truth of who you are in a way that is obvious for all to see you are a demon - and you will never have a part in the full life.
Jesus is about being real - not about Christianity (big C).
Isn't that the way it is with your friends? You don't get to know them by telling them how to behave and then fabricating interactions with them that substantiate a preconceived notion you have of who they are. You invite them to dinner; you call them on the phone; you play baseball with them; you give them gifts. You get mad at each other and you laugh with each other. As time progresses, you begin to know them more and your interactions move from superficially polite nothings to long walks through the valley of the shadow of death and inspiring flights through the ethereal worlds of the spirit that lift your soul and give you purpose. Your life becomes defined by the moments you have with those people you know and love.
God wants to be your friend. Understand me now, He is God and doesn't have anything in mind for your friendship but what is best for you - so in that sense He isn't anything like your next door neighbor or your mom or your best friend. He can't do anything for you but love you completely and He can't be anything to you other than God and all that that implies. He is perfect - which is a concept we will literally never understand. In His perfection He is just - the absolute definition of perfect justice; thus he must punish crimes against His order or He is no longer perfect. He is also love - the absolute definition of perfect love. In that He hates that He must punish us with death for the crimes we commit and so He sent His son Jesus. That is the simple gospel for those who don't know it - the gospel of the Christian religion, but also the pure truth of life.
I should probably stop right there - I am sure it galls some who may read this to hear me saying that the Christianity is the 'pure truth of life'. But hang in there - it gets better. Its not about Christianity at all - Christianity has, in fact, probably done more in the last century to dilute the pure truth of life than they have to advance it. There, now I have offended both sides of the fence and should probably stop ... but I can't. I am a glutton for punishment.
In our lives, we walk in a world created by the very God I described above. Jesus conveyed to us in the flesh a clear idea of who God is - perfect, just, loving - and He died (taking on God's punishment that needed to be meted out, like I mentioned above) so that we could crawl out of the hell hole we have created for ourselves in all of the mistakes we have made in our lives and have joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control...a real life.
This all has nothing to do with Christianity (big C) and everything to do with christianity (little c). The thing that makes the difference is the case of the letter c - the word christianity has at its root the word 'christ' which is a greek word meaning 'anointed one'. In Judaism, the anointing they talked of was the anointing of leadership and they looked to the christ to lead them out of their subjugation to the Romans at the time Jesus walked the earth. The term 'christianity' simply means 'followers of the anointed one'. Our culture and our world has made 'christ' and Jesus synonymous, when they most certainly were not - Jesus was much more than just the anointed one. We took one aspect of His identity and made it our religion's defining term - of course we could have chosen worse aspects of Jesus' identity such as suffering one, lamb of God, or man of sorrows to identify with; my point is that Jesus was more. I think we are more apt in calling ourselves followers of the Way. This is the core of what Jesus was saying - its not religion; its the Way.
He was life - and the words He spoke were the way to life, which was the way to Him. Kind of circular reasoning; but bear with me. In truth, it isn't about the word 'Jesus' per se either - if He would have been a normal man and spoke the words He spoke, what He spoke would have given us the manual for an incredible life. What is the key to this is that its not about the word 'Jesus' but it is entirely about Jesus. The manual to life that he gave us is useless without the fuel of life to keep the engine running - and that fuel is Jesus.
You see, we are all really very much the same in the core of our being. We want life, and that more abundantly. Being molded from the same clay, we all have similar needs. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprising considering our similarities, we all really want the same things - joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self control. These are the things that have lead scholars to develop the theory that all religions in the world came from a single source, far back into the beginning of our pre-recorded history. I would contend that they are partially correct - our desire for joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self control does have a root cause; because we are all molded from the same clay by the same God that died for us.
The gospel - the pure truth of life - is the most accurate description of the essence of who we are. Notice that that description does not include Christianity (big C). We use Christianity to help us get closer to that identity we have in the gospel under Jesus - its not about the church, the church is about IT. It is not about how much you give, but it is entirely about how much you give - without knowing or caring if anyone is looking.
If you are afraid to stand up in front of an audience and tell them the truth about who you are you are human - but if you don't come to grips with the truth of who you are in a way that is obvious for all to see you are a demon - and you will never have a part in the full life.
Jesus is about being real - not about Christianity (big C).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)