Reading Time: 4 minutesIn a post-lapsarian world which is increasingly dark, with headlines such as, “Transgender Man Gives Birth to Non-binary Partner’s Baby with Female Sperm Donor,” it can be surprising to find out what really bugs some folks—and I mean this sincerely, as in, ‘haunts the consciences of some’—in various Christian environments. This post is about something that truly does hurt and anger some Christians, and as a person who has felt…
Reading Time: 4 minutesHats. Praying. Fight! Fight! Fight! Take this post with a grain of salt. 1 Cor 11 gets a ton of people in a tizzy. It’s hard to understand. But hey, even 2 Peter mentions that somethings written by our “beloved brother Paul…are hard to understand.” (15-16) But what about this stuff! Can a guy wear a hat while praying? What about women? (Uh oh…why are women praying and prophesying in…
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhy do we fight over little things so often? Sometimes we have to “read between the lines” in order to even find something to fight about, but then we choose that hill to die on. Have you noticed that? Parkinson’s Law of Triviality, also called the “bike shed effect,” notes that organizations focus on trivial issues and neglect weighty ones; that is, they give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. C….
Reading Time: 3 minutesBe careful of who you choose to be your “in-group,” and try to keep folks around who will give you those little nudges in the right ethical direction.
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe moral high-ground can be a wildly vicious place, especially when we have no actualized skin in the game. Have you ever noticed anything like that? I have, and it sometimes makes me think of who I actually am. Not just what I think, but what I do. Not just my beliefs about which practice is good and which practice is bad, but whether or not I truly, physically interact…
Reading Time: 7 minutesSomeone once said that a man was sinning because he said a prayer while wearing a hat. I did some research, and my very rudimentary notes are below. Please note: the article’s picture is nonsense. The Origin The thought mentioned above comes from 1 Corinthians 11:4, which says, “Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head.” OUCH! Hats are right out! But…is there…
Reading Time: 13 minutesIn this post: ➤Introduction: The Use of “Worship” We are searching for the truth of the word and meaning of what Jesus said in: Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. “But an hour is…
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn this post: Learning about Worship I was talking with a man today about the term “worship.” He had determined that “New Testament worship” must be a set number of physical actions that one must complete at a certain time of week, and one must be careful to do so correctly. It seemed quite persuasive. Here’s what he said: “Many Bible passages make it clear that not everything that we…
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhy are shortcuts in thinking important to recognize? Because they can not only be funny, but they can also win—or lose— wars.
Reading Time: < 1 minute“Genetically modified microwave ovens have been shown to help cause cancer in people who have been vaccinated with autism.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson
Reading Time: 2 minutesPeople can be pretty mean to each other when they think they’re right and someone else is wrong. Famous atheist Richard Dawkins once said of religious yokels, “Don’t interact with their arguments, instead mock them, ridicule them, in public … with contempt.” Sadly, religious people can be pretty good about doing that to one another. I used to become upset when a Christian would call me a damnable heretic or…
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Reading Time: 2 minutesToday, be thankful. Be thankful for the overwhelming smile that lit up your heart when your son saw you while he was playing in the yard when you got home from work, and he ran to hug you, for the love you felt when you last embraced your mom, though she was too weak to hug you back, for the warm sound of your dad’s laughter as he greeted you…
Reading Time: 2 minutes“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMy heritage has a history of viewing a certain hour-or-so per week as the hour in which one really “lives for God.” Instead of viewing worship as something which occurs from full-moon to full-moon (Isaiah 66) as the result of a spiritual prostration (John 4), some of the early Restoration leaders viewed it as something to be done only intermittently, and with great asceticism. That is, they viewed it as…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteDivorce can be the hardest thing on a Christian. I’ve seen people who have tried so hard, and yet the marriage didn’t work out. You can’t force someone to freely love you, nor to honor their commitments. And from what I’ve seen, divorce can make Christians feel like they’re second-class—you know, they have “that thing” in their past. One gal mentioned to me, “It’s just so hard, because God hasn’t…
Reading Time: 2 minutesI was talking with my wonderful coworker Darla once, and she had some good advice about love and choosing the right person. Darla told me a story that I’d like to share with you below: A student asked his professor, “What is love?” The teacher said, “In order to answer your question, go to a wheat field and choose the best stalk of wheat you can find. Pick the one…
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Dreaded “C” Word I have a problem that will be a visual delight for your mind to envision, and that problem is chafing! Yes, I said the C-word. If there is one thing that makes me miserable in this life, it’s my wretched sister, but if there is another thing that makes me miserable in this life, it’s chafing while hiking. And I don’t really care where. Are those…
Reading Time: < 1 minuteI’ve been working with a man over here who is perhaps the most positive, thoughtful, kind guy I’ve ever met. In my head, I call him “Good Barry!” He’s already retired early with a big paycheck, but works here to make some extra money, and he is very focused on giving back what he’s earned. Furthermore, his wife is from Kyrgyzstan, where he has now relocated. He loves not only…
Reading Time: 2 minutesIn 2009, the Pew Research group surveyed the American Association for the Advancement of Science with the goal of ascertaining levels of belief in God or a transcendent “spirit.” Surprisingly, 51% of scientists believed in some type of higher spirit or God, while 41% didn’t believe that such existed. Perhaps more surprisingly, in 1914, a similar survey was conducted among scientists by psychologist James Lueba. Of 1000 American scientists in…
This is a sensitive topic about murder, so please be warned.
The mass murders in the news are just terrible. In discussing murderers with comedian and avowed atheist Ricky Gervais, famed biologist Dr. Richard Dawkins said,
“I feel as though I have free will, even if I don’t. […] It wasn’t “me” that did the murder…it was my neurons and my genes.”
Under the view of atheism, we know all about the physical universe, and we know that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. As such, free will is a mere illusion. Why?
Because there is no disembodied “spirit” telling your body what to do. How could this invisible “force” control the chemical reactions in the brain to guide it into doing anything? How can there be such a thing as a spirit? It may seem that we have one, but on determinism, you are really nothing more than an equal and opposite reaction of incredible complexity.
As the late Stephen Hawking remarked,
“Given the state of the universe at one time, a complete set of laws fully determines both the future and the past. […] It is hard to see how free will can operate if our behavior is determined by physical law, so it seems we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion.”
So mass murders, under the view of atheism, are rationally neither evil nor good, but mere working of biological machinery; actions in response to stimuli, albeit complex.
With love, always,
-Luke
Reading Time: < 1 minuteArgo is a 2012 sci-fi-suspense-drama-history-Tehran-1979-crisis movie featuring Keanu Reeves, John Goodman, and Kerry Bishé with red hair. The red hair makes Kerry incredibly beautiful, which she is not as a blond. Although it does not feature Jean Luc Picard, it does take place in the Star Trek universe. Argo features Keanu Reeves impersonating Ben Affleck by wearing his skin, but the ruse is up when we see that his facial…
Reading Time: 21 minutesI recently saw some people talking about whether or not it’s a sin to talk with someone visiting the assembly during “the worship.” For many, “coming to worship on Sunday” is important, but is it at all what is described in the New Testament? What, exactly, is “worship?” Does the New Testament even mention a “worship service?” Turns out, it doesn’t! What’s going on here?
Reading Time: 2 minutesCan God make a rock so heavy that He can’t move it? No doubt you’ve heard this, and it raises certain paradoxes of omnipotence that are tough to consider, and perhaps frustrate you. Let’s start with this: does God’s being all-powerful mean that God can act contrary to His own moral nature—are there moral impossibilities for God? Specifically, could God, for example, make another God (an idol, let’s say) and…
Reading Time: 3 minutesHey DudeBro! Are you busy writing online dating profiles while safely hiding from the hateful sun in your basement computer room? Are you spewing paragraphs upon paragraphs out, explaining why, and you’re just not sure, but life hasn’t somehow coalesced a hunk or meat and star stuff together that would seek you out like a rat to cheese? In other words, are you busy hammering away at your keyboard, typing…