Lewis and His Answer

C.S. Lewis was asked for his answer to the following question: Many suggest that the solar planetary system and life as we know it was brought about by an accidental stellar collision. What is the Christian view of this theory?

Please read and enjoy Lewis as he answers this question in much the same way a key starts the engine of a car.

Lewis:
"If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents - the accidental by-products of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else's. But if their thoughts - i.e., of Materialism and Astronomy - are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It's like expecting that the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk-jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset."

Beautiful!

The Great Quotes Collection

Here is a quote from me. While it might not be great or deserve admission to the great collection, it still makes a point.

"Humility and humiliation are close cousins for the Christian; failure in the first often leads to the latter."

The Great Quotes Collection

As I stumble on great quotes, I will start sharing them in a section entitled, The Great Quotes Collection. Enjoy pondering the first one.


The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Thinking Christianly in a Postmodern World IV

Thinking Not Rooted in the World: Part I

The world is all that there is: that is the message sent to all of us these days. Yet, despite that message there is a tension between what we know as real, and what we are told is real. That tension is the world vs. the Word.

In John 1:1-5 we find that the Word, the Logos, actually refers to the deity of Christ Jesus. Logos, in the Greek, refers to reason or logic - an abstract force that brought order and harmony to the universe, at least that is what the Greeks posited. John gathers all of these qualities and attributes them to Jesus. There are many other references to Jesus that are just as compelling. My point in this line of thinking is this: a mind focus on Christ is a mind that can think Christianly.

A mind focused on Christ must be oriented in several ways, and these ways are found in Romans 10:9-10. First, it must believe in the Word. In believing the Word, we who do so must believe what it says and live by what it says. Second, we must also live and believe the Word by way of the way we live. And finally, we must live, believe and think the Word.

But, this mind focused on above must live in the world. In order to do that safely, we must understand the world in which we live. In the same way a soldier can navigate a mine field with a map, so to we Christians can navigate the world with a better understanding of the landscape in which we live.

Reality is composed of three cultural spheres. The first sphere occupied is the secular sphere which represents the world by way of the current culture. This realm is composed of the cravings of sinful man and hostile to our Lord. The second realm is the Judeo-Christian sphere. Today, this only means that this sphere is some what moral and not necessarily Christian. And the third and final sphere is the evangelical realm of true Christianity. It is the smallest sphere. We live and worked in all three at once. We run the risk of being most influenced by the sphere in which we dwell most. What is the answer?

Thinking that is Christian is of course is our calling and our answer. This begins with living a life that is consistently Christian. How?

1. Avoid living a dualistic life of placing things in sacred and secular categories. Jesus is Lord of all.
2. Know Christ and Honor Him. The path to this is through His Word.
3. Think in Christian categories. Knowing your Bible and work to build a habit of putting your Lord first in all things.
4. Citizenship must be the kingdom first and foremost. A house divided can not stand. You must know Jesus as Lord and Savior. To do so takes a simple prayer between you and God asking to be a child of the King. Once you have prayed this prayer, go find someone to tell and then find a Christ-centered Bible-believing church.

What do we do with all of this now? We ask some questions.
Do you feel the tension in your life between the world and the truth?
Do any of us truly desire to fully think Christianly all the time?
How do we get to the point of thinking Christianly?

If you have some good answers leave them for the rest of us in the comments section. Happy Christian thinking!

Insightful Thoughts of Steven Wright

The humor of Steven Wright makes me think. Here are a few of his best!

"If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?"

"Whose cruel idea was it for the word "lisp" to have an "s" in it?"

"Do Roman paramedics refer to IVs as "4's"?"

"Why are they called buildings, when they are already finished? Shouldn't they be called builts?"

"Anywhere is walking distance, if you've got the time."

"Someone asked me if I slept well. I said no, I made a few mistakes."


By the way, I send everyone warm belated Easter blessings! Rejoice for He lives and is coming again!

March Madness

I love college sports, especially college basketball. Today begins the madness of March. One of my favorite college players was the Big O, Oscar Robertson, and this is one of my favorite college basketball pictures.

How are your brackets? Here are my picks; compare them to yours. To my friend Phil, this will have to suffice. Enjoy the games!

My final eight are:

UNC/ Mich. St

UT/ Texas

KU/ UCLA

USC/ Xavier

Final Four

UT (Sorry Phil)/ Mich. St

KU/ Xavier

Final

KU vs. Xavier

And the winner is .................................KU

Thinking Christianly in a Postmodern World III

Today's Thinking: Postmodern

As we read the newspaper or listen to the news, we get a steady dose of postmodern thought. Dr. T. David Gordon of Grove City College believes that we are in the midst of an oral culture that reduces all knowledge to that which is cultural. Dr. Gordon believes that today's thought is marked by three things:
1. Thought that must produce memorable items through shock and controversy.
2. Thought that must communicate through linguistics that are dynamic.
3. Thought that is marked by quantity and not quality. More is better.

Is this a big surprise? According to the Apostle Paul, it should not be because he offers us a warning in Romans.

In Romans 1:;21-23 Paul stresses many things. For our purposes today, I will focus on four.
1. Paul stresses that humanity has the opportunity to know God through general revelation. In Romans 1:20, he states that all men are without excuse. The point here is that knowledge still flows from a Holy God and not from culture or creation.
2. Paul also points to the very real fact that general revelation yields real knowledge. Our sin is our refusal to acknowledge what we already know to be true about knowledge and are ourselves.
3. Those claiming to be wise became fools. Look at what is considered wise and acceptable today; you will find those same things considered foolish not 20 years ago.
4. The worship of God will be exchanged for the worship of man. Look at what is considered wisdom and knowledge today, and you will find the worship of man.

As we examine today's thinking, we find four fundamental flaws in the foundation of postmodern thought.

Flaw 1: Logical Fallacies
A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning. If you will take the time to examine a list of logical fallacies you will recognize today's thinking. Daily we see red herrings, straw man fallacies, and so many more. According to a well known logic textbook, if you try to persuade someone else to adopt a position, based upon a poor piece of reasoning, you commit a fallacy.

Flaw 2:Rhetoric instead of Fact
Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing and the art of persuasion. It is rooted in language and how language works in writing and communication. Rhetoric divides form and content, what is being said and how it is being said. Plato said rhetoric deals with "the superficial at best, the deceptive at worst." Rhetoric was never meant to stand alone as a way to think; today the "how" is more important than the "what" of thought.

Flaw 3: Appeal to Ridicule
This appeal of ridicule is a fallacy of sorts where ridicule or mockery is substituted for evidence or fact. Ridicule or mockery of a claim does not prove that it is false, yet in today's world both are more effective than fact or truth.

Flaw 4: True Logic vs. False Logic
When it comes to the logical argument it is important to have in place a solid deductive method leading to a valid syllogism. What is a syllogism? It is merely a logical argument in true form. Syllogisms are made up of at least two premises, which are true, leading to a conclusion which is also true. The classic example of a syllogism is:
a. All men are mortal.
b. Caesar is a man.
c. Therefore, Caesar is mortal.

As we examine this idea of thinking Christianly, we must come to grips with the current status of the current state of thought. These are just four of the major flaws. As we pray about how to think Christianly, consider these questions we wrestled with in our class.
1. What are we to do with this information?
2. How do we respond to this type of thinking?
3. How did Jesus respond?

Thinking Christianly in a Postmodern World

Part II: Our Current Culture: Postmodernism

How do we know that our culture is postmodern? Current examples can be found in art, music, literature, and all other areas of culture. Modernism is the lament of the brokenness of life; postmodernism is the celebration of that brokenness.

II Timothy 3:1-5 states that those without Christ will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, ungrateful, abusive, arrogant and this list goes on and on. Matthew Henry states that they will be "lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God - that is a carnal mind and it is full of enmity, against Him, which prefers anything before Him." This is our current culture regardless of what we call it.

Stanley Grenz in his book, A Primer on Postmodernism, describes five presuppositions inherent and believed in the postmodern world.

1. The quest for truth is a lost cause - postmodernists argue that objective knowable truth is mythical.

2. A person's identity is constructed by forces of the surrounding culture.

3. Languages of our culture literally construct what we think of as real.

4. Reality is created by those who have power.

5. All language is made of beliefs opposite of all made statements. In other words, there is no right or wrong.

If one looks at a postmodern culture one will see three distinct traits. First, a postmodern culture is one that is in a dilemma of reproductability with a lack of original thought and creativity. Second, there is a consumerist aura that extends to anything and everything nostalgic in a way that reduces things first, to past tense and next, to insignificance. And third, image consumerism takes the place of reality and replaces it as hyper - reality: if you say it enough it will become true and real.

What are the consequences to this postmodern shift? First, it is a major shift away from the ideas of the mind and heart and a movement towards the ideas of language in which thinking is expressed by sheer volume and quantity instead of substance. Language then comes under attack and semantics are manipulated and used to promote self and relativity.

What is next? Frances Fukuyama, an American historian, paints a clear picture for us. He believes we have come to the end of history as we know it. History, in which Marxism played the major role, is all but gone. The supreme goal of liberal democracy, according to Fukuyama, has been reached. It is the Good News which is this alliance of liberal democracy with a free market economy; it has occurred in other parts of the world, but will it continue in this country is the real question. Why is this alliance a good thing: it allows for a natural progression of causation - cause and effect without man manipulating the effects in ways he has done in the past. As a Christian, this is a good thing.

What are we to do with all of this?

We are to be Matthew 22:37 Christians! Love the Lord with our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths. What does this mean? We are called to live a consistent Christian life! May God give us strength to do so always!

A Trip to Remember for All the Right Reasons

The Senior Trip is over, and I am happy to report that there were no major incidents. Did the students want to stay up past curfew? Of course! Did the students eat...all the time? Yes! But, they are seniors! Did they stay up past curfew? Of course...not! Did they eat? Ahh, we all ate all the time.

Overall, the trip went very well. Our students were the best behaved group on the boat. I was proud and honored to be a part of them. During the course of the trip, many people commented on how well mannered and kind our students were. My day was made as we were checking out of Customs. The Customs agent asked if we, another student was with me at the time, were part of a group; we said we were part of Westminster Christian Academy. Her response was typical of the trip: we were one of the best groups ever, and you would not believe the things they deal with daily regarding students.

Check out the pictures below!

Our guys can dress well when needed! Two of us take our eating very seriously.

Our girls know how to pick out hats! I think sunscreen would have been cheaper.

Formal night was a smashing success; do they not look good!

Mr. Noel and friends are about to eat another large meal. You tend to smile a lot when you come to dinner every night to eat more than you have eaten in the last month.

I praise God for this class and the opportunity to have conversations with them that will prepare them for what all of them will face soon...the world. It was a great trip!