Why? - To Mature

For reasons other than "lashing out" for the pain one has felt as being caused by God, why do people hate Christianity?

I believe I understand why people characterize some Christians as 'jerks", but here in America why is Christianity so despised by so many?

Why do those who despise Christianity spend so much effort (especially in the academic field) "proving" Christianity as false?

Why is there a war between those who are Christians and those who are not?

Providence - God provides everything - creator of all
Necessity - There is no arbitrary (i.e., fate) then there must be an order (the best possible way)
Freedom - The best possible world means to be free means to be free to choose the wrong thing
Negativity - Choosing the wrong thing has harmful effects on us and those around
Maturity - Choosing to do the right response in the mist of negative stuff

Providence - 1 Cor. 4:7
Necessity - Eph. 2:8-9
Freedom - Gen. 3:21
Negativity - Matt. 8:5-13
Maturity - Phil. 4:6-8

Thoughts from afar!

Freedom of Thought

I am so thankful that we live in an age where so many ideas can be brought out through the internet. I am so thankful that I can read these ideas and then investigate the validity of the thought provoking concepts. I find this especially relevant in the discussion of Theology as I am quite interested in the subject - from The Gospel Coalition Blog to an atheistic blog of Unequally Yoked and everything in between. I find their philosophical and the Biblical questions fascinating and causes me to perform that all important activity, lost in much of our culture, that being to THINK. Much of what I read concerning the Bible falls into 4 categories:

1. Water Skiing approach - simple surface reading and then drawing life conclusions from the surface.

2. Snorkeling approach - searching just beyond the initial reading and then drawing life conclusions from the surface.

3. Scuba Diving approach - searching deeper into what we have read and beginning to ask the infamous "why" questions with a general comparison of Philosophical concepts and then drawing life conclusions from the surface.

4. Deep Sea Exploration approach - the result of unanswered questions from the Scuba Method and as the character of Morpheus in the first Matrix movie describes it as the "splinter of the mind". The questions drive us deeper and in this search we find the Answer of Life.

I am so thankful, and as the character Trinity of the movie Matrix says, "Be honest".

The scene that describes this quest for truth is where Trinity takes Neo to meet Morpheus:

The Matrix Scene from YouTube

C'ya
Eagle Driver
check 6

The Alamo

As I am located at the lay over hotel in San Antonio, I am cognizant of what happened in this city back in 1836. Men and women stood against tyranny with the knowledge that General Santa Anna would give "no quarter" (no mercy, no clemency in effect all would be killed). So how does one make the decision to stay knowing death arrives tomorrow? Where is the "instinct" to self-preserve?

According to the Bible, man is created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis chapter 1). This includes an important distinction from the other animal life - intelligence. We are intelligent of the eternal. When we look up at the stars at night we wonder, whereas a cow looks up and simply continues cud chewing.

Intelligent of the eternal - there is something more and this is not the final destination. The eternal facilitates our sacrifice. The Alamo where a few gave their life to save the many. The cross where one died to save all.

Intelligent of the the eternal - do what we ought, not simply what we want.

Food for Thought, If you are Hungry
Eagle Driver
check 6

One's Heart is set on What?

I recently finished two books on the Spartans and the Battle of Thermopylae as I had recently watched the movie 300 again. Being a military man I was impressed with the tactics to further the strategy that King Leonidas demonstrated in holding off the Persian hordes, reminiscent of the Battle of the Alamo. King Leonidas, along with James Bowie and William B. Travis had set their mind on defending the greater good of their nation. These men did what they had to do to protect the freedom for others. We have heard it spoken in terms of: "Duty, Honor, Country".

The time-line of the Battle of Thermopylae got me into the Old Testament book of Ezra and I was taken aback by what I read in chapter Ezra 7:10

"For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel."

Wow, what an incredible statement that reflects the questions I have posed on my previous posts:
What have we set our heart on?
What do we practice?
What are we teaching the generation that follows us?

Profound questions requiring honest answers.

C'ya
Eagle Driver
check 6

Hate Sells

Half the year is over and we are that much closer to 2012, where the world will end as we know it (I know because I saw the movie). I find it very interesting how many people really hate this or that. Those who are of the "tolerant" camp hate those who are intolerant and are not like them - intolerant of the intolerant (as Mr. Spock of Star Trek would say, "Illogical."). There are those who are intolerant of the tolerant (again Mr. Spock, "Fascinating."). Seems to me everyone is simply intolerant and employing their view as the "Only Correct" position (again by definition - intolerant).

So I propose that everyone stop with the "tolerant/intolerant" facade and acknowledge the hate that is spewed. Will someone explain to me how the current rants of hate (from the tolerant and intolerant camps) solve anything? Has it ever solved anything in history? This current rant of "tolerance" is simply disguised Hate! Once again we are guilty of not learning from the past and now we are destined to repeat it with the Hatfields and McCoys, the North and the South of our past Civil War.

We are (or use to be) a nation of ideas not ideologies. I guess Hate Sells - wasn't it a simpler time when it advertisers said that sex sells? Disagreeing without being disagreeable is a mark of civilized behavior within a society. Spewing hate from the Right to the Left and from the Left to the Right accomplishes the Hatfields and McCoys ideology.

I am free to believe; however, I am not free to harm. Freedom is not free and carries significant responsibility. The question we must ask ourselves (as opposed to demand from others) should be something to the effect of, "Are my actions generated from my beliefs physically harming others or the society at large?" The key words are My Actions and Harmful.

Hate, disguised in any form, is unequivocally harmful! Are our actions/words spewed with hate?

On page 246 of Power vs Force - The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior (Carlsbad, Calif., Bay House, Inc., 2002), Dr. David R. Hawkins writes:

"Frequently, the only way one can reach this willingness to change [from hate] is when one "hits bottom," that is, by running out a course of action to its end in the defeat of a futile belief system. Light can't enter a closed box; the upside of catastrophe can be an opening to a higher level of awareness."

If the pen is mightier than the sword (along with our words) and actions speak louder than words, then where does our hate-filled language take us? Or as Mr. Spock said in the TV series Star Trek from the episode titled "Errand of Mercy":

"It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want."

C'ya
Eagle Driver
check 6