Origins: Inevitable Presupposition

My mom and dad just went to see that new Ben Stein move ("Expelled") and Dad told me about it in an email, so I did what every good little xian daughter does when she lives in Korea and can't go see the movie yet...I looked up trailers on youtube.com.

Of course this action brought up video after video from both sides of the argument. Most of the creationist videos were from old, white haired pastors who use things like bananas and peanut butter to make their points. I read the comments people posted at the ends of them, and most of them say, "You're a pastor! You're not a scientist!" and on and on about how pastors are uninformed about observable data, and should leave God out of it. Okay, point taken. So of course you would expect the evolutionist videos to be by scientists...but oddly most of them were of teenage/college age boys in their basement with a camera, three big words they learned in philosophy class that they repeat over and over (see: "inconceivable" from The Princess Bride), and...of course that old staple "the f bomb." Always a valid point maker. Experts the lot of them. Not that they stand for all evolutionists...but...honestly, pastors don't stand for all creationists either.

Now,.....Let me move onto my real point. Everyone who likes to sound smart in these arguments likes to use the word "presupposition." As in, "Your very argument is based on your presupposition that there is a Creator, and that means God, and He has nothing to do with science." Likewise, "Your argument is based on presupposing that chaos is more intelligent than its result."

So why read on? So why bother to read anything that anyone has to say about the subject? My point is that, there is no way to avoid presupposition when it comes to things we can't/didn't observe. Like...I have to presuppose that the Sumerians invented the wheel, b/c all the history books say they did. Was I there? No. Were any of my teachers there? No. Were any of the textbook authors there? No. Then how do we know? B/c of ancient records and archaeology. That's what we have to go on. Does anyone question it or have a problem with it? No. Why should they? Valid research has gone into it. However...it could change at any second. All someone would have to do is to find an earlier wheel. Even if we had a stone that had the words "Hey, guys! I'm a Sumerian and I can tell you that we were the first!" If archaeologists found an earlier wheel...we'd have to believe the facts and not the written record.

So why believe the Bible if scientific fact proves that the Bible is wrong? Well, the Bible can be backed up by hundreds of other sources, as well as archaeology, as well as human nature, etc... Though, I guess if you don't believe the Bible, you hate that I am using the Bible's historical record to back up science. Well, it might interest you to know that nothing we have observed, tested, or discovered in science contradicts the Bible. Actually, it ends up backing it up. The only contradictions happen when we start making educated guesses that are based in evolution's presupposition that everything started from one organism that grew by itself to what we have today. But most of what evolution guesses at, the Bible already explains. Did the earth start in chaos? Yes, that's not an evolution discovery. That's in the Bible. Did everything come into being from nothing? Yes, that's not an evolutionary discovery. That's in the Bible. Were there dinosaurs? Yes....in the Bible. However, we can make scientific guesses from here to kingdom come...and they can all be based on math and science and whatever...but what you believe is going to come from a presupposition that you had before you started your math and science.

For instance. There is a certain kind of gene they have discovered recently called a "pseudogene". These genes seem to have no specific use and so that's where they got their name. Yet, they are there. Evolutionists say that these prove a parent ancestor b/c they were leftover from the transitional phase, but now have become "junk DNA". However, they are finding that these genes actually have a function, just not the same function as a regular gene. The very name for them was based on a presupposition that they served no purpose. It's like on Jurassic Park when Sam Neil's character was trying to prove that reptiles came from birds by saying, "and the very name 'raptor' means, 'bird of prey'." You can't prove something based on a name you give it from a presupposition you want to believe.

Okay...that's all I'm going to get into here about the debate. I'm not going to get into the age of the earth, b/c that has nothing to do with evolution by definition (i.e. if the earth is billions of years old, it still doesn't mean that man came from monkeys)...

So my point is, that whatever side you are on, you are either presupposing that there was a Creator, or you are presupposing that chaos can create intelligence...but there is no way around presupposing b/c no one was there to observe it. Unless there was a God, in which case...it would be really smart of Him to write a thing or two down about it...

Post Adam, Pre-Flood Disbelief

According to Genesis 5:5, Adam died when he was 930. And if you look at a timeline, http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/life-span-of-patriarchs-from-adam-to-noah.html you can see that Adam was still alive by the time Noah's father, Lamech, was born. According to the Bible, it was during the time of Noah that people became so evil that God had to destroy the earth and start over--save for Noah, his wife, three of his sons and their wives.

Now...I know there are millions of doubters and haters out there that complain b/c they have never seen "proof" of God. They weren't there to see Christ, so...logically...they don't believe He existed. They weren't there at creation, so...logically...they decide to believe in evolution. That is the thinking of current times. Now, imagine being part of a society that turned on God while there were people still alive who had met the first man He created!

Think of it. Adam is out there populating the world and you'd think he'd be telling people about how it all started. You'd think. I mean...he had to have, right? The Bible doesn't really say. We hear about Enoch and Noah walking with God, but...after the creation episode, we hear nothing about Adam's relationship with God. Not that he didn't have one...but we aren't told. In Genesis 4:26 it says, interestingly, that it was in the days of Enosh (Seth's son) that people began to call on the name of the Lord. But...it was only a matter of time before mankind got so bad, so fast...so soon after Adam's demise.

When I say "so soon," I'm really talking about a period of several hundred years. Like..from the time of Shakespeare to now. That's a long time. I suppose men could easily deviate when given that amount of time. However, is Shakespeare still alive? No. That would change things, you'd think! There were people alive that intersected these "good" and "bad" eras of man's history, who would have known first-hand who Adam was. But, evidently, that didn't matter, b/c no one--except Noah--seemed to care that the Creator existed.

(Side note: Lamech, Noah's father, died in the flood--apparently, he was not righteous and didn't believe his own son's warnings.)

I mean...these weren't just "bad" people. People had exploited their freewill to such a degree that God actually had to resort to, not just killing the people, but the animals too...Why this extent? Perhaps this means that the people were committing bestiality on such a regular basis that animals were also tainted. I mean, it is true that later on God would make laws to put to death any animal that a person had sexually abused--an innocent part of God's creation would have to die to show the effect of sin (and, practically, to cut down on disease). Is this what made God angry enough to destroy the earth? Was the Flood in part to protect any further animals from man's sinfulness? Who knows...and...Probably. At any rate, I'm sure this was the LEAST of the problems. People were intensely fallen, yet the Bible does not explain details. What we are told: the Nephilim, that man was wicked in every way, and extreme violence. That's it. The fact that we aren't told any gory details is an eerie use of understatement.

Think of your own heart and how you stay pretty well out of trouble on a day-to-day basis. Of course, you don't want to suffer huge consequences--so your avoidance of evil is not really to your credit. You have a propensity to think insanely wicked thoughts, but fortunately, most of the time you don't act on them. What if you could get away with them though...

Imagine an infant world. When people are living to be almost a millennium old, death isn't such an impending doom--except for murders. Think of the ways modern man uses his idle time to do wicked acts...Now think about how addicting wickedness is--once is never enough...Now imagine 900 years of life--a virtual eternity to think of new and debased ways of topping prior sins! The gene pool is extremely new and not yet filled with the many disorders or diseases of today, so there is very little worry about STDs--especially since people HAVE to reproduce with family members. God hasn't yet laid down any major covenants or Torahs to worry about. The tropical green-house environment aids in the breeding of strong, resilient humans--capable of what we might consider super-human acts of sin. The earth is a lush, unadulterated paradise--a veritable consequence-free playground of debauchery.

People knew the difference between right and wrong, but God's wrath was just not something they cared about or even considered.

Now...we are told specifically that things got this bad in Noah's day, not Adam's day necessarily...but still! Adam was the first man created. The man God Himself had breathed life into, had JUST been walking the earth and people were already THIS evil! This just shows that people will do just what they want to do and believe what they want to believe no matter what proof is out there.

Obscure Passages

Have you ever been in a church service where a pastor makes you turn to a minor prophet or like...Philemon or Jude and then calls it an "obscure passage?" Do you find that strange? I mean, it sounds like he privy to information that the rest of us aren't, which is strange, b/c the last time I checked, the Bible was the best-seller of all time...

There should be no "obscure passages" in the Bible.

Okay--in the pastor's defense--most Christians are lazy and would rather wear a W.W.J.D. bracelet (see Lisa's blog: http://arecoveringchristian.blogspot.com/2008/04/spirit-of-excellence-part-1.html ) than read the Bible, so telling them that a passage is unknown is not far from the truth. But it's not the obscurity of the passage, it's the ignorance of the church. This ignorance is a hole that becomes deeper and harder to get out of the less a congregation is fed--or encouraged to feed themselves.

The remedy is surprisingly simple. The message of Christ is energizing. It quickens the mind. Very little needs to be "done" to make it exciting. Since agenda fades after time and God's Word lasts through the ages, preaching strictly from the Bible makes for a much stronger sermon...The stronger the sermon, the easier it is for the hearers to nail down these passages in their minds and write them on their hearts...Then the passages would no longer be "obscure."

Being a pastor is a hard job, but it is only made harder when the pulpit becomes a forum. Passages like: the Psalms, Proverbs, Matthew 5-7, I Cor. 13, Hebrews 11, Ephesians 5, etc....are great, but...they are preached so often they become sounding boards for agenda, especially when the rest of the Bible is neglected save for "salt and peppered" cross-references. The Bible is a big book. If talking down to a congregation's Bible knowledge is necessary, then "lesser known" passages are a great way of educating the flock.

Fertility gods...Fathomable

I was listening to a sermon at church about a week ago, and the pastor was talking about early man in Genesis. He was discussing how God had to make Himself known to people b/c they were forgetting Him and worshipping other gods. Anyway...I started to think about something.

Fertility gods make a lot of human sense. I can see why people created them. I mean if I had been a pagan nation leader, this would be my reasoning:

1.) Pleasure: Sex is debatably the greatest human pleasure on earth...To some, it seems like the highest divine ecstasy.

2.) Proof of Higher Power: Procreation is the luck of the draw. Sometimes, even with protection, people still get pregnant. Some people can't get pregnant no matter how hard they try. There must be some greater force at work. I mean Mr. and Mrs. Jones had a little idol in their boudoir...and it worked for them...

3.) Power: Procreation is how civilization is made. The larger the civilization, the more "worker bees" you have. The more "worker bees" you have, the more industry and greater economy you have.

4.) Respect: The greater your economy, the more fear you can put in the hearts of other countries. The less you have to actually worry about wars and losing your "worker bees" (Except wars can sometimes boost your economy...so...make sure you can rally your "w.b.'s" over an issue the majority will be willing to die for.)

5.) Food: Without fertile soil, your plants don't grow. Without a good harvest, your civilization can't eat, and you all die. So...rain dance...obviously.

6.) Money: Without crops you can't export anything either. The more fertile your soil the more you can grow on it and make other dependent countries give you money for your crops. If you don't have money, you can't buy from other countries the stuff you can't produce, and you'll have to come up with a plan "B"...And let's be honest. When it comes to economy, plan "B's" just prolong the inevitable.

7.) Classes: If dependant countries can't pay you for your exports, you keep them as slaves. See "worker bees"....

8.) Does anyone else wanna play that caveman version of "Sim City" right now?

9.) Life: Procreation is the power of life. Not just all that economy stuff. It's life itself. No one fully understands life. Life is...like...the highest magic ever! *Note* you can't control or plan for death at all, so...if you keep your people happy they will have a lot of kids, and you can compensate for deaths.

10.) Military: The more procreation, the more man power, the bigger your military. Then...the more land you can conquer, the more fertile soil you get, the more women you capture, the more babies they have to be your slaves and do your work while your patriotic "worker bees" (I'm sufficiently sick of that word now... ) are out fighting more conquests for you.

11.) Love: Sex is not only pleasurable, but it gives people a feeling of closeness and love. It is such a strong force that people will do it nearly every time the feeling of love comes on and they can't control themselves anymore. It's like a drug that's totally free. Just don't let your people realize how irreversible irresponsibility is.

11.) Caution: You have to have a healthy respect for fertility. B/c if you focus on lust and pride all the time, and you start taking it all for granted and don't cover your bases--like...say...from internal uprisings and stuff...the outcome will be less than pleasant. (see "Rome").

Yeah...I can totally see why people created fertility gods...you can wrap your head around them...However, there is no answer for the ultimate questions: "Why is serving myself so fun at first and then ultimately unfulfilling?" and "Why am I worshipping a god that is no different than me?"...among others...

Fertility is pretty powerful, but...what about a God of Everything? Obviously, if scientists are finding out new things about me and the world around me every day, and there is no chance of that information ever being tapped dry by human minds, then there must be Somebody who transcends it all, otherwise nothing would make any sense, and there would be no point in even being a scientist who finds out new things about me and the world around me. Wow. I have no idea how to begin making that up....I wonder if He's interested in me. I wonder if He has some way of communicating with me about who He is and why I'm here...oh wait...

Though He slay me...

"Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him." (Job 13:15) (NASB)

I had always heard the first part of this verse, but for some reason I never bothered to look at the second part.

This was my thought process:

"Though He slay me..." Well, that's depressing. It sounds like that doom and gloom message that people say fills the Bible.

The verse continues, "...yet I will hope in Him..." Now, that just sounds like fuel for a martyr syndrome. "Even though God makes all this bad stuff happen to me, I guess I'll just stay faithful to Him. Even though He wants me to suffer to the point of death--I know He really loves me...somehow... Ho-hum. Waaa-waaa-waaaa."

The context of this passage is Job telling his friends (and what little family he had left) about how God was merciful and deserved praise even though He was allowing Satan to put Job through all these trials. Still,...that doesn't make the above words sound any better. In fact, it sounds down right sadistic of God, and it sounds like Job is a masochistic pawn.

But that's not where the verse ends.

"...Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him." Well, that sounds pretty proactive for a martyr. The KJV says "maintain my ways before Him." Young's Literal Translation even says "to His face, I will argue"!!! This is quite a contrast from the supposed down-trodden spirit in the first part of the verse. It gives the idea that Job is applying the concept in Hebrews 4:16, even though the verse wouldn't be written for several millenia. It completely changes the mood of the verse.

This tells me two things. First of all, that God doesn't change. He was the same from Job's Antideluvian Era to the Apostolic Age. Not only did both Job and Paul come before God boldly, but also that was the right thing for them to do.

Secondly, We can know that God wants us to come boldly before Him not only because this principle is all over the Old Testament (see Judges, the Psalms, prophets,...everywhere...), but also because places like Galatians 4 in the New Testament where it tells us that we are not to act like slaves of Christ, b/c we are His children. We are not to say, "um...umm...Lord?...God?...um...are you busy?....'cause I have to ask you something...but you probably won't want it answered once you hear it...so...um..." We are to say, "Abba Father! You are the only one who can help me! Listen to me."

Now, this is not to say that complaining is right. Look at cases like Jonah or Moses where they made excuses and complained. Look at how God reacted. He was patient, but His wrath was kindled--and rightly so. Here is the God of the universe saying, "Go. Speak. I will be with you," and here are Jonah and Moses going, "Oh, no You won't!" That's not coming boldly...that's disrespect. In Moses' and Jonah's defense, though...I'm not sure how any of us would react. Their doubts were sin, but extremely human. However, they (especially Moses) are regarded in other parts of the Bible as men of righteousness. This shows that while God is holy, He is forgiving.

Also, This is not to say that Job didn't ever complain. He did, and God reprimanded Him...but for the most part, Job remained faithful during intense trial...and for that, he is remembered.

However, regarding the point at hand: there is a huge difference between saying, "God, I am weak, and You are strong. Give me Your strength," and "God! I can't trust you, because it's too hard!"

The difference is faith. Complaining is not placing faith in an infinite God. Requesting boldly is. We are saying, "God, I know you can do it. Please do it." That requires TONS of faith. It doesn't make God obligated to do what we WANT, but it tells Him that we have faith that he CAN.

Anyway, back to the verse. If we only ever look at the first part of the verse, we get a very different idea of God than if we look at the entire verse. In context, this verse displays--instead of a masochistic martyr--a man full of faith. A man who says, "God has the power to kill me, but that doesn't matter. I will still trust in the Creator's power, and I will show Him my trust by pleading my case before Him. I will remind Him of my faithfulness and I will appeal to His faithfulness."

Amazing.

How Can God Love People?

Think about how stupid humans are. Just think about it...why does God bother to love us? Even people who write really deep books on philosophy and science...it's all childish. Even when you are trying to be humble about it...you are still so childish. Think about it. We can only use words. We can only think about concepts that are in some way related to what we already know. We are so nothing. I mean...sin is our obvious flaw, but forget about even the stupidity of sin. Just think about the stupidity of our intelligence! I mean, think of how long it took for us to develop indoor plumbing. Yeah, we can clone, but...we are still using fossil fuels and chopping down the rain forest. We aren't that smart. Why does God bother?

I'm living in Korea right now, and I ride the subway quite a bit, and there are just millions of other people on the subway--sometimes the breath is pushed out of you when they all pack in. And I think..."How can God do it? How can he love ALL of us?" B/c...I hardly care about anyone in the car I'm in--let alone the entire train! Let alone an entire high rise apartment! Let alone a block of them! Let alone the city of Seoul in a country the size of Indiana on an entire planet!!

How is it possible?

And it's not just the current people. It's all of them throughout history and the ones yet to come.

I look at an ant. It shares come characteristics with me. It's alive. It needs food. It wants to survive...but...I'm so much smarter than an ant, I could care less about it. It fascinates me for like...two seconds before I step on it. How can God love us?

And the thing is...God even cares about the ants! How?

How is that possible? Yes...I know it's all that stuff about how we are made in His image. I know that we are supposed to glorify Him. I know that He loves it when we seek Him. I know THAT He loves us....I know the answer! I just have no idea WHY. Just hover over that question for a second before you let the answer take over...I'm with the angels on this one. I don't get it. It's so impossible.

A Good Future

I'm studying through the Torah right now and it's really interesting. (If you wanna know what i'm talking about go here: http://torahclass.com/download.html)

Anyway, I was thinking about how God blessed Abraham and how God blessed Isaac, and how God blessed Jacob and Leah and Rachel and blessing and blessing and blessing and then i'm like....

...so where's mine, huh?

And then I thought, Jessica, you idiot...you wanna be blessed like Rachel and share your husband with your older sister? Or...maybe you wanna be blessed like Abraham and wander around all your life? How about Joseph and be in prison for years?

So...that nipped that pity party in the bud...

But then I got to thinking about some other stuff. But before I get into that...this is something Tom Bradford (from Torah Class) pointed out. Have you ever thought about how God really didn't talk that much to people in the Hebrew Scriptures? Like...to us, we get this idea that all God ever did back then was appear to guys and tell them stuff. So we think, 'Yeah, if God appeared to me constantly, of COURSE I would believe in Him!' But the funny thing is: think of all that dead space in between. I mean...they didn't have a Bible they could just open. They had to rely on these chance meetings and no specific time scheduled for the next one. Abraham lived well over 100 years and only talked to God a handful of times! I don't think about that very much.

But I digress...

My point is blessing. What does it mean? Our idea of blessing is very different from God's. I always think that blessing should happen--not only on this earth--but immediately. And when I see others getting things and money and fame, and I'm not getting them...I get jealous and covetous. These are probably two reasons why God could care less about material things. Not only are they not lasting, but we fall into the sin of resentment when we do not have them.

But then there is that nagging idea of, "But God has promised me a good future if I obey Him! So...if I'm obeying Him...why am I still suffering?" The answer is relatively simple. Number one, this earth is a place of sin and there's really no escaping it's pain. However, unlike hell which is totally a place of punishment and suffering, the earth is a place of learning and maturing.

Number two...okay, so you are living for Him. But...have you obeyed the whole law? Yeah, didn't think so. Only One completely followed and fulfilled the law...and what happened to Him on this earth??? So, it probably has nothing to do with how good we think we are on this earth. Nor does the blessing probably have anything do with being blessed on this earth. I would venture to say that "good future" has nothing to do with anything on this earth.

But where is Christ now? Sitting at the right hand of God...so it all works out. And if we trust Him, we'll be with Him for all the rest of eternity.