Trees are getting their flowers
Tile floors aren't so cold
No more snow this year
*Correction*, Season, Not year
If you get picky
The sky is bright blue
Tell those overcast dark clouds
Hasta la vista
Friday, March 20, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Shane Martin vs Gollum
Riddles in the Dark II
Background:
The following fictional dialogue takes place in the temporal and special setting of JRR Tolkien‘s Middle earth. The atheist position is taken be Tolkien’s character of Gollum [though with a bit of a postmodern bent]. The Christian worldview is taken by Shane Martin; Worship and Outreach Director of Uptown Church. Prior to this dialogue Martin’s band Fishers of Men is playing at the Prancing Pony inn. Gollum, who is also at the inn, is curious about this “Fish Music” and listens to the concert. Afterwards Gollum asks Martin if they can meet later to talk about some of the ideas in Martin’s songs.
Shane: “Hey bro, sorry I’m late. Let’s order I’m
starving…they got anything good to eat at this place?” Martin says as he huffs red-faced to the table.
Gollum: “We were wondering if you were coming. Poor
Sméagol is always being forgotten”
Shane: “Well I’m here aren’t I? I knew I was supposed
to meet with somebody, but I couldn’t remember who. Anyway, what did you think of the music? It was pretty awesome wasn’t it?”
Gollum: “We don’t like music. Nasty howlings and
wailings. We only likes fishes. But we heard you sing something about ‘finding the way’ and we are looking for something; something that was stolen from us.”
Shane: “What did you lose?”
Gollum: “We didn’t lose it, it was stolen from us, ind
it is our precious! We got in on our birthday, it was our birthday present and we wants it back. Nasty filthy hobbitses stole it from us and we are looking for it. Tell us about this new way you said you found!”
Shane: “Bro you need to relax.”
Gollum: “Sorry.”
Shane: “What is this precious?”
Gollum: “Uhhh…well it’s about finger-width and gold…and
we wants it back!”
Shane: “Well I don’t know that I can help you. I was
singing a song about Jesus being the only way. Have you tried praying that you would find your precious?
Gollum: “We don’t need prayers or Jesus, we only needs
our precious and we will gets it back even if we
have to slit nasty hobbits throats!”
Shane: “Bro that aint right. It sounds to me like you
were seriously neglected as a child. Did your family ever say ‘I love you’?”
Gollum: “We doesn’t have a family. We don’t need love.
We only love our self and the precious! Stupid family hates us! What did we ever do to them? They cursed us and made us leave our home. We don’t need anybody!”
Shane: “I want to hear more about your family. What
happened That made you leave?”
Gollum: “Well it all started when we found our
precious. We…”
Shane: “Hold up a second bro, I thought you said your
precious was a birthday present.”
Gollum: “Oh yes…well…we found it on our birthday. Yes
yes! Our friend Deagol wanted it for his own,
but we told him it was ours. It was our birthday. We told him we wanted it but he wouldn’t let us have it. So we took it from him for ourselves! It’s ours!”
Shane: “And he didn’t talk to you after that?”
Gollum: “No, he didn’t talk to anybody after that. He
Went away.”
Shane: “Went away?”
Gollum: “We killed him. It was ours and he was kept it
from us. It was wicked of him to not let us have it! It was ours!”
Shane: “Dude You killed somebody!?!”
Gollum: “Yes…we ah…we didn’t want to, but it was for
our precious.”
Shane: “Gollum bro, you can polish a turd, but it’s
still a turd.”
Gollum: Gollum stares blankly at Shane “What’s it
saying precious my love?”
Shane: “What I mean is, you can’t kill people just
because they did something you didn’t like.
Where would you even get an idea like that?”
Gollum: “We wanted our precious and so we took it. It
was Deagol that wouldn’t let us have it. Wicked Deagol tried to rob poor Sméagol, so we did what we had to do to get our precious. This is what anybody would do. We only did what we had to do. Who can tell us we’re wrong? Who can tell us we can’t kill?”
Shane: “Bro the Bible makes it very clear that murder
is wrong. God made man in his image and it is a
sin to destroy that image.”
Gollum: “You don’t really expect us to believe that do
you? The Bibleses? Why should we believe in a book? Sméagol doesn’t read.”
Shane: “Well let me ask you this; what makes something
right or wrong? On what grounds can you say that Deagol was wicked and that you were good?”
Gollum: “Things are good when they help Sméagol and bad
when they hurt us.”
Shane: “That’s crazy…you can’t just…”
Gollum: “Who are you to tell us we are crazy? Why does
everybody always say that about poor Sméagol?”
Shane: “It don’t take a genious to figure that one
out.”
Gollum: “What?”
Shane: “Never mind. So are you saying that you are the
one Who decides what is right and wrong for everybody? Do people need to ask your permission before doing something if they want to make sure that they are being good?”
Gollum: “No…but things that hurt us are bad, and things
that make us feel good are good.”
Shane: “Dude there’s got to be something bigger than
you That determines what is good. What if it was Deagol’s birthday and he wanted the precious but you wouldn’t give it to him; could he kill you to take it?”
Gollum: “Of course not!”
Shane: “And why not?”
Gollum: “Because Deagol is dead!”
Shane: “I know that bro, but just pretend for a moment
that he isn’t. Reverse the situation and put him in your shoes so to speak. Could Deagol kill you to take your precious if it was his birthday and he wanted it? Could he take it from you if you wouldn’t give it to him? Would he be wrong? Or could he do it?”
Gollum: “No, because that would hurt us.”
Shane: “Ok, but bro, you got a problem there. You have
just admitted that it’s not okay to kill somebody just because you want something. But you also said it was ok for you to kill to get what you wanted. How can you justify this?”
Gollum: “Well in some circumstances it’s ok, but not in
others. It really depends on the case.”
Shane: “Who decides this?”
Gollum: “We don’t know really…it just is.”
Shane: “That is just messed up. ‘It just is?’ Bro there
has to be a better answer. How do I know it would be wrong for me to take that fish you’re eating and throw it away?”
Gollum: “That’s just wrong…everybody knows that would
be wrong.” Gollum looks apprehensively at Shane and quickly shovels the rest of the fish in his mouth and swallows it whole.
Shane: “That’s my point. If everybody knows that it
would be wrong then there must be something that is greater than they are to tell them that it is wrong. There must be some greater authority that is outside of us that we all know.”
Gollum: “Something that can help us find our precious?”
Shane: “Just hold on a moment. Do you agree with what I
said?”
Gollum: “Maybe…”
Shane: “Here’s the problem. You are living in a world
of ‘right and wrong’. You are happy when good things happen and angry when bad things happen. But you have not been able to explain what good and evil are. You have said that in the case of my taking your fish that my action would be wrong and that everybody would consent to that. But you haven’t been able to account for how everybody would know that or agree to that. And not only that, but earlier when I asked you if it would be wrong for Deagol to kill you for the same reasons that you killed him; you said yes. This demonstrates that on your own you cannot determine what is good. And you need some outside source for this knowledge. But you have not been able to give an explanation of what this outside source is. How can you explain all of this?”
Gollum: “We have never thought about it before…we don’t
have an Answer. We don’t need one.”
Shane: “But you do need an answer. You need an answer
because you are not living consistently. You want to be able to claim certain things are right and other things are wrong, but you have no basis for doing this. You have no basis for getting your precious back from whoever has it now. Who’s to say you wouldn’t be stealing it from them, and that would be wicked and wrong? What if it was their birthday when they found it?”
Gollum: “They didn’t find it. They stole it from us,
and we are going to get it back from nasty little Bagginses!”
Shane: “Bro you’re avoiding my question. On what basis
can you live the way you’re living? How can you justify your actions?”
Gollum: “But everybody lives that way.”
Shane: “Bro you can’t excuse your actions based on the
way other people live. If that were true there would be nothing wrong with me killing you on my birthday to take your precious.”
Gollum: “Then how do we know what is good?”
Shane: “We know what is good because God is good. And
he tells us in the Bible that…”
Gollum: “Why don’t we know what is good because Sméagol
is good?”
Shane: “Because we have already seen that Sméagol does
not live consistently. You do things that you have declared to be evil and bad if they were to be done to you. We have already agreed that in order for us to know what is good, the knowledge of good must be universal and it must come from outside ourselves from a being greater than we are.”
Gollum: “Why does it have to be a being? Why can’t it
be a part of nature?”
Shane: “This is the only way we can account for
everybody knowing about good and evil. The only way this could work is if we there was a personal being outside of ourselves that communicated this truth to us. The Bible tells us that God alone is good and we derive our knowledge of good from his character. God is greater than us and also in relationship to us. God alone is the one who is in a position to tell us what is good and what is evil.”
Gollum: “Sméagol does not know God. We don’t even know
if we want to know God. Sméagol is not in this relationship with God you tells us we are. How can you tells us we know good because we know God when we don’t know or believe in God? Aren’t you being inconsistent now?”
Shane: “In the Bible the book of Genesis tells us that
God made man in his image. So we were made reflecting the goodness of God. Then man sinned and that image was distorted. But there is still an imprint on our hearts that tells us what is good. We still know God. The Bible says in Romans 1 that you do know God. It says that knowledge of God is in the hearts of all men but we suppress the truth and hold it down. This guy Calvin, I used to read this cat when I was a session player in Nashville, he said in the first few paragraphs of his book Institutes of the Christian Religion that knowledge of God and knowledge of man are so intertwined that to know one is to know the other and to study one necessarily leads to knowledge of the other. We know what good is because God is good.”
Gollum: “Why is the Bible right? Sméagol doesn’t
believe the Bible.”
Shane: “The question is not whether or not you believe
the Bible. The Bible is true whether you believe it or not. The Bible is the word of God.”
Gollum: “Says who?”
Shane: “The Bible tells us that it is the very word of
God. And that…”
Gollum: “That’s not a good answer. You are telling us
that the Bible is the God’s wordses because it is his wordses. You are going around and around in a circleses and circleses, and Sméagol sees it! How can we know the Bible is the word of God? How can we prove it?”
Shane: “Well let me ask you this bro, if God is the
highest authority, if he is greater than we are, and the Bible is his word, then wouldn’t the Bible be the highest authority?”
Gollum: “Yesss…but that doesn’t answer our question. We
asked who said the Bible is God’s word. How do we know that?”
Shane: “That’s my point bro. We know it because it
tells us. The Bible tells us it is the word of God on the basis of the authority of God’s word. Where else would God tell us that besides his word? There is no higher standard to appeal to; God is the standard. And so he tells us that the Bible is his word where we would expect to find it; straight from God. The Bible is self-authenticating.”
Gollum: “But we still aren’t sure we believes in this
God you tell us about. We have never felt or seen God. We have never seen anything to make us believe in God.”
Shane: “Dude yes you have. You live your life as if you
do believe in God. You live life based on certain rules and standards, and even if you don’t always follow what you believe the fact that you live this way shows that you do recognize God. You need God to make any claim about moral absolutes. You can’t make sense of things without God.”
Gollum: “How can we be sure God is who we think he is,
and not something else? How can we be sure God is good?”
Shane: “Because the Bible tells us that God is good.
The Bible tells us that he is absolutely holy
and that he hates evil and that…”
Gollum: “Then what about evil?”
Shane: “What about it?”
Gollum: “If good comes from God…where does evil come
from? If God is above us and wants us to be his precious, why would he let bad things happen to poor Sméagol?”
Shane: “Are you asking if evil comes from God?”
Gollum: “No, we are asking why God would let evil
happen. If we are asking you to explain to us; if he’s God, couldn’t he stop evil?”
Shane: “Just because God can do something, does that
mean he is obligated to do it?”
Gollum: “Yes?”
Shane: “Bro I think you know where this is going…There
are all kinds of things God can do. The list would be infinite. Who would be the one to obligate God to do anything? If God is the ultimate authority, then by very definition he is not subject to anyone.”
Gollum: “Then how can God be real? If God is all-
Powerful and above everybody and all things, and God is good…we don’t see how God could let evil exist. Either God isn’t really good; and your argument for God falls apart, or God isn’t all powerful and you are still stuck because then God can’t tell us what good is. Ha-ha Sméagol wins!”
Shane: “Not quite.”
Gollum: “We were afraid you would say that…you don’t
give up too easily do you?”
Shane: “Your whole argument hinges on one problematic
point.”
Gollum: “What’s that?”
Shane: “You have decided that God’s very nature is
contingent upon your ability to understand him. You said that you ‘do not see how God could let evil exist’. And that is the problem. Is God’s ability to allow the existence of evil dependant on whether or not Sméagol can understand his reasoning?”
Gollum: “But it doesn’t make any sense.”
Shane: “Bro you are setting yourself up to be God. You
are limiting God to what you can understand. But if God is above you, if God is infinite and you are finite, doesn’t it stand to reason that there would be things about God that you can’t understand? God does not answer to anyone because he is God. And besides all that…”
Gollum: “But didn’t you say that God was holy and he
couldn’t stand evil? Doesn’t the very presence of evil then show that there is inconsistency within God?”
Shane: Bro you are objecting to God on his standards!
You have no basis for moral claims outside of God’s system. You have no outside source by which you can challenge him because there is no other source for determining good and evil. Your entire question is predicated on God’s terms.”
Gollum: “Then tell us what God says about evil. Why
does the Bible say God allows bad things to happen?”
Shane: “You are sort of rewording your original
argument. You are still asking God to give you an account for his actions. God does not owe you and explanation. He is not accountable to you. He does speak of evil, but he is not going to give you an apology for his actions. His ways are above yours.”
Gollum: “But if the Bible is his word, then wouldn’t he
say something about this?”
Shane: “He does bro.”
Gollum: “Where?”
Shane: “Paul writes in Romans chapter 9 ‘What then
shall we say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then, it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”
Gollum: “This is not very comforting How do we know who
God will have mercy on?”
Shane: “In Romans 11 Paul says ‘Oh, the depth of the
riches and wisdom of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or has been his counselor? Or has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things.”
Gollum: “So you’re saying we can’t know?”
Shane: “Bro it won’t be comforting until you fully
embrace everything the Bible teaches. You are living in a way that cannot account for a lot of things, and until you turn to God you will continue to live in darkness.”
Gollum: “Sméagol likes the darkness. We hates the nasty
yellow light in the sky! ”
Shane: “That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking
about your heart. Turning to God has made all the difference in my life and in Andrea’s.”
Gollum: “What’s an Andrea precious?”
Shane: “She’s my wife. We’ve had some really hard
times, and our only comfort has been knowing that God is bigger than we are and that his ways are higher than our ways. This is what I was singing about earlier. I can have comfort in not having all of the answers because I serve a God who does have the answers. You can never have this comfort apart from God.”
Gollum: “Sméagol likes the darkness. He likes to be
alone. We don’t want or need anybody…not even God.”
Shane: “But I’ve already shown you that you need God to
make sense of things and that..”
Gollum: “We don’t want to make sense of things. We only
want to find our precious.”
Shane: “How can you say that you don’t need God when
you have already conceded that you can’t make sense out of things apart from God? I’ve sat here and answered all of your questions for you haven’t I How can you go on and knowingly live in a lie?”
Gollum: Gollum pauses for a second and then says with
an evil grin “Because we are in darkness precious.”
Background:
The following fictional dialogue takes place in the temporal and special setting of JRR Tolkien‘s Middle earth. The atheist position is taken be Tolkien’s character of Gollum [though with a bit of a postmodern bent]. The Christian worldview is taken by Shane Martin; Worship and Outreach Director of Uptown Church. Prior to this dialogue Martin’s band Fishers of Men is playing at the Prancing Pony inn. Gollum, who is also at the inn, is curious about this “Fish Music” and listens to the concert. Afterwards Gollum asks Martin if they can meet later to talk about some of the ideas in Martin’s songs.
Shane: “Hey bro, sorry I’m late. Let’s order I’m
starving…they got anything good to eat at this place?” Martin says as he huffs red-faced to the table.
Gollum: “We were wondering if you were coming. Poor
Sméagol is always being forgotten”
Shane: “Well I’m here aren’t I? I knew I was supposed
to meet with somebody, but I couldn’t remember who. Anyway, what did you think of the music? It was pretty awesome wasn’t it?”
Gollum: “We don’t like music. Nasty howlings and
wailings. We only likes fishes. But we heard you sing something about ‘finding the way’ and we are looking for something; something that was stolen from us.”
Shane: “What did you lose?”
Gollum: “We didn’t lose it, it was stolen from us, ind
it is our precious! We got in on our birthday, it was our birthday present and we wants it back. Nasty filthy hobbitses stole it from us and we are looking for it. Tell us about this new way you said you found!”
Shane: “Bro you need to relax.”
Gollum: “Sorry.”
Shane: “What is this precious?”
Gollum: “Uhhh…well it’s about finger-width and gold…and
we wants it back!”
Shane: “Well I don’t know that I can help you. I was
singing a song about Jesus being the only way. Have you tried praying that you would find your precious?
Gollum: “We don’t need prayers or Jesus, we only needs
our precious and we will gets it back even if we
have to slit nasty hobbits throats!”
Shane: “Bro that aint right. It sounds to me like you
were seriously neglected as a child. Did your family ever say ‘I love you’?”
Gollum: “We doesn’t have a family. We don’t need love.
We only love our self and the precious! Stupid family hates us! What did we ever do to them? They cursed us and made us leave our home. We don’t need anybody!”
Shane: “I want to hear more about your family. What
happened That made you leave?”
Gollum: “Well it all started when we found our
precious. We…”
Shane: “Hold up a second bro, I thought you said your
precious was a birthday present.”
Gollum: “Oh yes…well…we found it on our birthday. Yes
yes! Our friend Deagol wanted it for his own,
but we told him it was ours. It was our birthday. We told him we wanted it but he wouldn’t let us have it. So we took it from him for ourselves! It’s ours!”
Shane: “And he didn’t talk to you after that?”
Gollum: “No, he didn’t talk to anybody after that. He
Went away.”
Shane: “Went away?”
Gollum: “We killed him. It was ours and he was kept it
from us. It was wicked of him to not let us have it! It was ours!”
Shane: “Dude You killed somebody!?!”
Gollum: “Yes…we ah…we didn’t want to, but it was for
our precious.”
Shane: “Gollum bro, you can polish a turd, but it’s
still a turd.”
Gollum: Gollum stares blankly at Shane “What’s it
saying precious my love?”
Shane: “What I mean is, you can’t kill people just
because they did something you didn’t like.
Where would you even get an idea like that?”
Gollum: “We wanted our precious and so we took it. It
was Deagol that wouldn’t let us have it. Wicked Deagol tried to rob poor Sméagol, so we did what we had to do to get our precious. This is what anybody would do. We only did what we had to do. Who can tell us we’re wrong? Who can tell us we can’t kill?”
Shane: “Bro the Bible makes it very clear that murder
is wrong. God made man in his image and it is a
sin to destroy that image.”
Gollum: “You don’t really expect us to believe that do
you? The Bibleses? Why should we believe in a book? Sméagol doesn’t read.”
Shane: “Well let me ask you this; what makes something
right or wrong? On what grounds can you say that Deagol was wicked and that you were good?”
Gollum: “Things are good when they help Sméagol and bad
when they hurt us.”
Shane: “That’s crazy…you can’t just…”
Gollum: “Who are you to tell us we are crazy? Why does
everybody always say that about poor Sméagol?”
Shane: “It don’t take a genious to figure that one
out.”
Gollum: “What?”
Shane: “Never mind. So are you saying that you are the
one Who decides what is right and wrong for everybody? Do people need to ask your permission before doing something if they want to make sure that they are being good?”
Gollum: “No…but things that hurt us are bad, and things
that make us feel good are good.”
Shane: “Dude there’s got to be something bigger than
you That determines what is good. What if it was Deagol’s birthday and he wanted the precious but you wouldn’t give it to him; could he kill you to take it?”
Gollum: “Of course not!”
Shane: “And why not?”
Gollum: “Because Deagol is dead!”
Shane: “I know that bro, but just pretend for a moment
that he isn’t. Reverse the situation and put him in your shoes so to speak. Could Deagol kill you to take your precious if it was his birthday and he wanted it? Could he take it from you if you wouldn’t give it to him? Would he be wrong? Or could he do it?”
Gollum: “No, because that would hurt us.”
Shane: “Ok, but bro, you got a problem there. You have
just admitted that it’s not okay to kill somebody just because you want something. But you also said it was ok for you to kill to get what you wanted. How can you justify this?”
Gollum: “Well in some circumstances it’s ok, but not in
others. It really depends on the case.”
Shane: “Who decides this?”
Gollum: “We don’t know really…it just is.”
Shane: “That is just messed up. ‘It just is?’ Bro there
has to be a better answer. How do I know it would be wrong for me to take that fish you’re eating and throw it away?”
Gollum: “That’s just wrong…everybody knows that would
be wrong.” Gollum looks apprehensively at Shane and quickly shovels the rest of the fish in his mouth and swallows it whole.
Shane: “That’s my point. If everybody knows that it
would be wrong then there must be something that is greater than they are to tell them that it is wrong. There must be some greater authority that is outside of us that we all know.”
Gollum: “Something that can help us find our precious?”
Shane: “Just hold on a moment. Do you agree with what I
said?”
Gollum: “Maybe…”
Shane: “Here’s the problem. You are living in a world
of ‘right and wrong’. You are happy when good things happen and angry when bad things happen. But you have not been able to explain what good and evil are. You have said that in the case of my taking your fish that my action would be wrong and that everybody would consent to that. But you haven’t been able to account for how everybody would know that or agree to that. And not only that, but earlier when I asked you if it would be wrong for Deagol to kill you for the same reasons that you killed him; you said yes. This demonstrates that on your own you cannot determine what is good. And you need some outside source for this knowledge. But you have not been able to give an explanation of what this outside source is. How can you explain all of this?”
Gollum: “We have never thought about it before…we don’t
have an Answer. We don’t need one.”
Shane: “But you do need an answer. You need an answer
because you are not living consistently. You want to be able to claim certain things are right and other things are wrong, but you have no basis for doing this. You have no basis for getting your precious back from whoever has it now. Who’s to say you wouldn’t be stealing it from them, and that would be wicked and wrong? What if it was their birthday when they found it?”
Gollum: “They didn’t find it. They stole it from us,
and we are going to get it back from nasty little Bagginses!”
Shane: “Bro you’re avoiding my question. On what basis
can you live the way you’re living? How can you justify your actions?”
Gollum: “But everybody lives that way.”
Shane: “Bro you can’t excuse your actions based on the
way other people live. If that were true there would be nothing wrong with me killing you on my birthday to take your precious.”
Gollum: “Then how do we know what is good?”
Shane: “We know what is good because God is good. And
he tells us in the Bible that…”
Gollum: “Why don’t we know what is good because Sméagol
is good?”
Shane: “Because we have already seen that Sméagol does
not live consistently. You do things that you have declared to be evil and bad if they were to be done to you. We have already agreed that in order for us to know what is good, the knowledge of good must be universal and it must come from outside ourselves from a being greater than we are.”
Gollum: “Why does it have to be a being? Why can’t it
be a part of nature?”
Shane: “This is the only way we can account for
everybody knowing about good and evil. The only way this could work is if we there was a personal being outside of ourselves that communicated this truth to us. The Bible tells us that God alone is good and we derive our knowledge of good from his character. God is greater than us and also in relationship to us. God alone is the one who is in a position to tell us what is good and what is evil.”
Gollum: “Sméagol does not know God. We don’t even know
if we want to know God. Sméagol is not in this relationship with God you tells us we are. How can you tells us we know good because we know God when we don’t know or believe in God? Aren’t you being inconsistent now?”
Shane: “In the Bible the book of Genesis tells us that
God made man in his image. So we were made reflecting the goodness of God. Then man sinned and that image was distorted. But there is still an imprint on our hearts that tells us what is good. We still know God. The Bible says in Romans 1 that you do know God. It says that knowledge of God is in the hearts of all men but we suppress the truth and hold it down. This guy Calvin, I used to read this cat when I was a session player in Nashville, he said in the first few paragraphs of his book Institutes of the Christian Religion that knowledge of God and knowledge of man are so intertwined that to know one is to know the other and to study one necessarily leads to knowledge of the other. We know what good is because God is good.”
Gollum: “Why is the Bible right? Sméagol doesn’t
believe the Bible.”
Shane: “The question is not whether or not you believe
the Bible. The Bible is true whether you believe it or not. The Bible is the word of God.”
Gollum: “Says who?”
Shane: “The Bible tells us that it is the very word of
God. And that…”
Gollum: “That’s not a good answer. You are telling us
that the Bible is the God’s wordses because it is his wordses. You are going around and around in a circleses and circleses, and Sméagol sees it! How can we know the Bible is the word of God? How can we prove it?”
Shane: “Well let me ask you this bro, if God is the
highest authority, if he is greater than we are, and the Bible is his word, then wouldn’t the Bible be the highest authority?”
Gollum: “Yesss…but that doesn’t answer our question. We
asked who said the Bible is God’s word. How do we know that?”
Shane: “That’s my point bro. We know it because it
tells us. The Bible tells us it is the word of God on the basis of the authority of God’s word. Where else would God tell us that besides his word? There is no higher standard to appeal to; God is the standard. And so he tells us that the Bible is his word where we would expect to find it; straight from God. The Bible is self-authenticating.”
Gollum: “But we still aren’t sure we believes in this
God you tell us about. We have never felt or seen God. We have never seen anything to make us believe in God.”
Shane: “Dude yes you have. You live your life as if you
do believe in God. You live life based on certain rules and standards, and even if you don’t always follow what you believe the fact that you live this way shows that you do recognize God. You need God to make any claim about moral absolutes. You can’t make sense of things without God.”
Gollum: “How can we be sure God is who we think he is,
and not something else? How can we be sure God is good?”
Shane: “Because the Bible tells us that God is good.
The Bible tells us that he is absolutely holy
and that he hates evil and that…”
Gollum: “Then what about evil?”
Shane: “What about it?”
Gollum: “If good comes from God…where does evil come
from? If God is above us and wants us to be his precious, why would he let bad things happen to poor Sméagol?”
Shane: “Are you asking if evil comes from God?”
Gollum: “No, we are asking why God would let evil
happen. If we are asking you to explain to us; if he’s God, couldn’t he stop evil?”
Shane: “Just because God can do something, does that
mean he is obligated to do it?”
Gollum: “Yes?”
Shane: “Bro I think you know where this is going…There
are all kinds of things God can do. The list would be infinite. Who would be the one to obligate God to do anything? If God is the ultimate authority, then by very definition he is not subject to anyone.”
Gollum: “Then how can God be real? If God is all-
Powerful and above everybody and all things, and God is good…we don’t see how God could let evil exist. Either God isn’t really good; and your argument for God falls apart, or God isn’t all powerful and you are still stuck because then God can’t tell us what good is. Ha-ha Sméagol wins!”
Shane: “Not quite.”
Gollum: “We were afraid you would say that…you don’t
give up too easily do you?”
Shane: “Your whole argument hinges on one problematic
point.”
Gollum: “What’s that?”
Shane: “You have decided that God’s very nature is
contingent upon your ability to understand him. You said that you ‘do not see how God could let evil exist’. And that is the problem. Is God’s ability to allow the existence of evil dependant on whether or not Sméagol can understand his reasoning?”
Gollum: “But it doesn’t make any sense.”
Shane: “Bro you are setting yourself up to be God. You
are limiting God to what you can understand. But if God is above you, if God is infinite and you are finite, doesn’t it stand to reason that there would be things about God that you can’t understand? God does not answer to anyone because he is God. And besides all that…”
Gollum: “But didn’t you say that God was holy and he
couldn’t stand evil? Doesn’t the very presence of evil then show that there is inconsistency within God?”
Shane: Bro you are objecting to God on his standards!
You have no basis for moral claims outside of God’s system. You have no outside source by which you can challenge him because there is no other source for determining good and evil. Your entire question is predicated on God’s terms.”
Gollum: “Then tell us what God says about evil. Why
does the Bible say God allows bad things to happen?”
Shane: “You are sort of rewording your original
argument. You are still asking God to give you an account for his actions. God does not owe you and explanation. He is not accountable to you. He does speak of evil, but he is not going to give you an apology for his actions. His ways are above yours.”
Gollum: “But if the Bible is his word, then wouldn’t he
say something about this?”
Shane: “He does bro.”
Gollum: “Where?”
Shane: “Paul writes in Romans chapter 9 ‘What then
shall we say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then, it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”
Gollum: “This is not very comforting How do we know who
God will have mercy on?”
Shane: “In Romans 11 Paul says ‘Oh, the depth of the
riches and wisdom of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or has been his counselor? Or has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things.”
Gollum: “So you’re saying we can’t know?”
Shane: “Bro it won’t be comforting until you fully
embrace everything the Bible teaches. You are living in a way that cannot account for a lot of things, and until you turn to God you will continue to live in darkness.”
Gollum: “Sméagol likes the darkness. We hates the nasty
yellow light in the sky! ”
Shane: “That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking
about your heart. Turning to God has made all the difference in my life and in Andrea’s.”
Gollum: “What’s an Andrea precious?”
Shane: “She’s my wife. We’ve had some really hard
times, and our only comfort has been knowing that God is bigger than we are and that his ways are higher than our ways. This is what I was singing about earlier. I can have comfort in not having all of the answers because I serve a God who does have the answers. You can never have this comfort apart from God.”
Gollum: “Sméagol likes the darkness. He likes to be
alone. We don’t want or need anybody…not even God.”
Shane: “But I’ve already shown you that you need God to
make sense of things and that..”
Gollum: “We don’t want to make sense of things. We only
want to find our precious.”
Shane: “How can you say that you don’t need God when
you have already conceded that you can’t make sense out of things apart from God? I’ve sat here and answered all of your questions for you haven’t I How can you go on and knowingly live in a lie?”
Gollum: Gollum pauses for a second and then says with
an evil grin “Because we are in darkness precious.”
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
What's so social about a butterfly?
So I was driving home today when the thought hit me; "social butterfly" is a complete misnomer.
Think about it for a moment...what's so social about a butterfly? I remember 7th grade science having to assemble an insect collection with a minimum quota of 40 insects. And do you know what? Butterflies are hard to catch. They do not want to talk to you. In fact if you walk over to one they not only don't respond but they in fact fly away.
True some misnomers are more easily overlooked than others. White Chocolate is not chocolate but it comes from cocoa butter. Chinese Checkers might not be from China...but the game isn't very fun so who cares what it's called. Grape Nuts taste like grapes and you have to deshell them before they can be consumed. All of these things make some sense.
Social Butterfly??? MAYBE you could get away with "social moth" if the context is a light...cause moths are very social around lanterns and such. So I could concede the term "Social moth in the vicinity of a light". But "social butterfly" has now been stricken from my vocabulary.
Think about it for a moment...what's so social about a butterfly? I remember 7th grade science having to assemble an insect collection with a minimum quota of 40 insects. And do you know what? Butterflies are hard to catch. They do not want to talk to you. In fact if you walk over to one they not only don't respond but they in fact fly away.
True some misnomers are more easily overlooked than others. White Chocolate is not chocolate but it comes from cocoa butter. Chinese Checkers might not be from China...but the game isn't very fun so who cares what it's called. Grape Nuts taste like grapes and you have to deshell them before they can be consumed. All of these things make some sense.
Social Butterfly??? MAYBE you could get away with "social moth" if the context is a light...cause moths are very social around lanterns and such. So I could concede the term "Social moth in the vicinity of a light". But "social butterfly" has now been stricken from my vocabulary.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Recipes
Due to the request of some wonderful guests that I had over; here are some recipes. [Note I usually use recipes as starting points/ideas and take off on my own...so measurements are not always exact. So these are what I do and not necessarily what recipes say]
Key Lime Pie:
Mix in a bowl 4 egg yolks, 2 14 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup of squeezed key lime juice. [If fresh keylimes are not available sometimes you can find bottled keylime juice, or use 1/2 cup of regular lime juice and 1/2 cup of lemon juice to aproximate taste]
Pour mixture into grahm cracker crust. Mixture will start to thicken immediately as there is a chemical reaction between the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Let it cool and enjoy!
Pesto rolls:
Make pesto by mixing 2 cups of basil leaves, 3/4 cup of pine nuts, 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan [perferably parmesan romano] cheese, 2 garlic cloves, salt and pepper to taste. Pesto can be made using a mortor and pestle [which gives it more diverse consistency and flavor] or a food processor]. Drizzle olive oil into the mixture and still until the desired consistency is reached.
Open a package of pilsbury style crescent rolls. Instead of seperating individual triangles use your fingers to press the perferations together making a long rectangle of dough. Spread pesto over the rectangle. Roll the rectangle up short end to short end. Cut the rolled tube into 1 1/2 in rolls. Bake at 375 until golden brown.
Tostones [fried plantains].
Plantains, unlike bananas, cannot be eaten raw. However you can cook plantains in all three states [green, yellow, and black]. Black plantains do NOT equivocate rotten fruit. Black plantains are sweeter than yellow plantains which are sweeter than green plantains. Pick the the ripeness of your plantain based on the flavor you want.
Cut 1 inch pieces of plantain and lightly fry in oil. If you want traditional tostones; fry each side for 1-2 minutes, dip fried plantain in water, and flatten plantain between two plates. Then refry the plantain until well cooked. Fried plantains can be seasoned with garlic and salt. For a variation of this try using yellow/black or black plantains and fry with brown sugar, cinamon, and butter!!! [platanitos].
Tamales:
Tamales are alot of work and are generally made in large batches of anywhere between 60 and 150 at a time. [They freeze very well which makes large scale production worth the time it takes]. There are alot of variations in tamale recipes so here is a generic pork tamale recipe that can be altered as desired [such as beef or chicken -or combinations of meat].
Put 6 lbs of pork shoulder [6lbs without the bones...more poundage if bones are in meat] in a large pot. Cover pork shoulder in a pot with water, 2 bayleaves, 4 garlic cloves chopped, and salt and pepper. Simmer for 2 hours or until meat is very tender. Shred meat with forks [or food processor!]. SAVE BROTH FROM THE MEAT!!!
Soak a package of cork husks in water to soften them.
Cut the tops off of 6 oz of dried chili anchos. Shake out most of the seeds. [Seeds are where most of the heat in "chilis" (peppers) come from]. Stew the dried chili anchos in water for 15-20 minutes. Puree the chilies with some of the water that they were stewing in until you have a consistency like pudding. Stir in 2 chopped garlic cloves, cumin, salt, and pepper to taste. In a frying pan heat on med-high heat a few tablespoons of olive oil. Spoon flour into olive oil and stir/whisk until a gravy is formed. Stir this mixture into the chili puree. Fold this sauce into the shredded meat until the meat is well coated.
In a large bowl combine a bag of 5 lb bag of Maza [corn flour -this is different than cornmeal], lard/shortening/corn oil [whichever grosses you out the least ;)], and hot pork broth [I told you to save it!]. The broth gives the dough a great flavor that some recipes that use hot water don't have! Mix these 3 ingredients until you have a consistency liken to peanut butter.
Take your corn husks out of the water and pat dry. Spread a thin layer of maza dough over the husk leaving about an inch and a half on the narrow end and a half inch on one long end open. Spoon a few tablespoons of your meat mixture onto the dough. Roll the corn husk lengthwise so that the ends of the dough meat. Fold the bottom [narrow end] up. Tie shut with string or strips of corn husk. Fill a steamer with water. Put tamales in a steamer with the open end of the tamale facing up. Steam tamales for 2 hours or until the tamale is cooked [the dough will seperate from the corn husk. Remove tamales and let them cool/dry. Enjoy your hard work! -Frozen tamales keep for months and taste almost as good as fresh tamales. Tamales can be served with salsa or fresh squeezed lime juice!
Some of these recipes are more involved than others, but all of them combine the comfort of good homecooking with flavors that are just a little bit different than what people typically eat in the States. If you try any of these recipes and like your results let me know...I may see about getting my own cooking show! [I could seriously rock a white chef coat] ;)
Key Lime Pie:
Mix in a bowl 4 egg yolks, 2 14 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup of squeezed key lime juice. [If fresh keylimes are not available sometimes you can find bottled keylime juice, or use 1/2 cup of regular lime juice and 1/2 cup of lemon juice to aproximate taste]
Pour mixture into grahm cracker crust. Mixture will start to thicken immediately as there is a chemical reaction between the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Let it cool and enjoy!
Pesto rolls:
Make pesto by mixing 2 cups of basil leaves, 3/4 cup of pine nuts, 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan [perferably parmesan romano] cheese, 2 garlic cloves, salt and pepper to taste. Pesto can be made using a mortor and pestle [which gives it more diverse consistency and flavor] or a food processor]. Drizzle olive oil into the mixture and still until the desired consistency is reached.
Open a package of pilsbury style crescent rolls. Instead of seperating individual triangles use your fingers to press the perferations together making a long rectangle of dough. Spread pesto over the rectangle. Roll the rectangle up short end to short end. Cut the rolled tube into 1 1/2 in rolls. Bake at 375 until golden brown.
Tostones [fried plantains].
Plantains, unlike bananas, cannot be eaten raw. However you can cook plantains in all three states [green, yellow, and black]. Black plantains do NOT equivocate rotten fruit. Black plantains are sweeter than yellow plantains which are sweeter than green plantains. Pick the the ripeness of your plantain based on the flavor you want.
Cut 1 inch pieces of plantain and lightly fry in oil. If you want traditional tostones; fry each side for 1-2 minutes, dip fried plantain in water, and flatten plantain between two plates. Then refry the plantain until well cooked. Fried plantains can be seasoned with garlic and salt. For a variation of this try using yellow/black or black plantains and fry with brown sugar, cinamon, and butter!!! [platanitos].
Tamales:
Tamales are alot of work and are generally made in large batches of anywhere between 60 and 150 at a time. [They freeze very well which makes large scale production worth the time it takes]. There are alot of variations in tamale recipes so here is a generic pork tamale recipe that can be altered as desired [such as beef or chicken -or combinations of meat].
Put 6 lbs of pork shoulder [6lbs without the bones...more poundage if bones are in meat] in a large pot. Cover pork shoulder in a pot with water, 2 bayleaves, 4 garlic cloves chopped, and salt and pepper. Simmer for 2 hours or until meat is very tender. Shred meat with forks [or food processor!]. SAVE BROTH FROM THE MEAT!!!
Soak a package of cork husks in water to soften them.
Cut the tops off of 6 oz of dried chili anchos. Shake out most of the seeds. [Seeds are where most of the heat in "chilis" (peppers) come from]. Stew the dried chili anchos in water for 15-20 minutes. Puree the chilies with some of the water that they were stewing in until you have a consistency like pudding. Stir in 2 chopped garlic cloves, cumin, salt, and pepper to taste. In a frying pan heat on med-high heat a few tablespoons of olive oil. Spoon flour into olive oil and stir/whisk until a gravy is formed. Stir this mixture into the chili puree. Fold this sauce into the shredded meat until the meat is well coated.
In a large bowl combine a bag of 5 lb bag of Maza [corn flour -this is different than cornmeal], lard/shortening/corn oil [whichever grosses you out the least ;)], and hot pork broth [I told you to save it!]. The broth gives the dough a great flavor that some recipes that use hot water don't have! Mix these 3 ingredients until you have a consistency liken to peanut butter.
Take your corn husks out of the water and pat dry. Spread a thin layer of maza dough over the husk leaving about an inch and a half on the narrow end and a half inch on one long end open. Spoon a few tablespoons of your meat mixture onto the dough. Roll the corn husk lengthwise so that the ends of the dough meat. Fold the bottom [narrow end] up. Tie shut with string or strips of corn husk. Fill a steamer with water. Put tamales in a steamer with the open end of the tamale facing up. Steam tamales for 2 hours or until the tamale is cooked [the dough will seperate from the corn husk. Remove tamales and let them cool/dry. Enjoy your hard work! -Frozen tamales keep for months and taste almost as good as fresh tamales. Tamales can be served with salsa or fresh squeezed lime juice!
Some of these recipes are more involved than others, but all of them combine the comfort of good homecooking with flavors that are just a little bit different than what people typically eat in the States. If you try any of these recipes and like your results let me know...I may see about getting my own cooking show! [I could seriously rock a white chef coat] ;)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Haikus for a Tuesday
Well I think it's time for some more Haikus. [Again for those of you who slept during 7th grade English class; a haiku is a poem consisting of 3 lines: the first and third line have 5 syllables and the 2nd line has 7 syllables].
Fall weather is here
This means cold tile when I rise
Making showers suck
Writing Haikus rocks
It is a great waste of time
Especially now
Bob Ross was the man
He is burried in a field
Under happy trees
Fall weather is here
This means cold tile when I rise
Making showers suck
Writing Haikus rocks
It is a great waste of time
Especially now
Bob Ross was the man
He is burried in a field
Under happy trees
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Fall
It's definitely Fall. There are several pieces of evidence that have brought me to this conclusion; allow me to share them with you:
1.) Leaves are changing.
2.) Weather is changing.
3.) Pumpkins are infiltrating.
It's the third point that I'd like to spend some time on. Now let me preface this by saying that I am not foodcist. I believe that God created all foods equal and I strongly support equal opportunity cuisine. However there are some foods that do not belong in certain culinary venues. For instance when did you ever see Jay the Juiceman [you know the dude with the bushy eyebrows and the nylon jogging suit that tried to sell you his juicers on infomercials] try to juice a New York Strip? Herbal Teas are great; but you don't see Dill flavor put out by Twinnings do you? So my question is "Why is it ok to put pumpkins in EVERYTHING?"
I love pumpkin. Roasted seeds, soup, and of course; PIE. Then you have pumpkin bread and muffins...ok if zucchini bread is allowed pumpkin bread certainly should be. But a few days ago I was at the store and saw Pumpkin Butter for sale. I find this disturbing for two reasons. First of all this is false advertising as there is no dairy in the product. If they marketed it as "pumpkin margarine" then I'd be less likely to raise a ruckus. Secondly I don't want to get mixed up and accidentally put a dollop of pumpkin spread on my cheesy garlic mashed potatoes.
However the most unusual thing by far is pumpkin coffee. This is nothing new -Starbucks has been doing it for years as has Caribou Coffee. "Pumpkin Spice" lattes and frapachinos. If I'm not mistaken, pumpkins are "Gourds" which is just a fancy name for "squash". Mmmmm A Grande Butter Nut Squash Latte with extra whip. Acorn Squash frapachino with an extra pump of summer squash sweetener. Iced Gourd Machiato. Why is pumpkin ok?
The only possible answer is that pumpkins are conspiring to take over the country. Pumpkins are breaking into areas where no gourd has dared to tread. And if we aren't careful we will end up becoming slaves to these orange autumnal wonders. Mark my words in the next 50 years pumpkins will be carving designs into people and putting candles inside of us and then leaving us on their front porches to rot.
1.) Leaves are changing.
2.) Weather is changing.
3.) Pumpkins are infiltrating.
It's the third point that I'd like to spend some time on. Now let me preface this by saying that I am not foodcist. I believe that God created all foods equal and I strongly support equal opportunity cuisine. However there are some foods that do not belong in certain culinary venues. For instance when did you ever see Jay the Juiceman [you know the dude with the bushy eyebrows and the nylon jogging suit that tried to sell you his juicers on infomercials] try to juice a New York Strip? Herbal Teas are great; but you don't see Dill flavor put out by Twinnings do you? So my question is "Why is it ok to put pumpkins in EVERYTHING?"
I love pumpkin. Roasted seeds, soup, and of course; PIE. Then you have pumpkin bread and muffins...ok if zucchini bread is allowed pumpkin bread certainly should be. But a few days ago I was at the store and saw Pumpkin Butter for sale. I find this disturbing for two reasons. First of all this is false advertising as there is no dairy in the product. If they marketed it as "pumpkin margarine" then I'd be less likely to raise a ruckus. Secondly I don't want to get mixed up and accidentally put a dollop of pumpkin spread on my cheesy garlic mashed potatoes.
However the most unusual thing by far is pumpkin coffee. This is nothing new -Starbucks has been doing it for years as has Caribou Coffee. "Pumpkin Spice" lattes and frapachinos. If I'm not mistaken, pumpkins are "Gourds" which is just a fancy name for "squash". Mmmmm A Grande Butter Nut Squash Latte with extra whip. Acorn Squash frapachino with an extra pump of summer squash sweetener. Iced Gourd Machiato. Why is pumpkin ok?
The only possible answer is that pumpkins are conspiring to take over the country. Pumpkins are breaking into areas where no gourd has dared to tread. And if we aren't careful we will end up becoming slaves to these orange autumnal wonders. Mark my words in the next 50 years pumpkins will be carving designs into people and putting candles inside of us and then leaving us on their front porches to rot.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Carolina [and Miami] in my mind
So I'm sitting in the Ft Lauderdale airport. In about 3 hours I will be flying back to Charlotte after spending the last week home in Miami. It's been nearly a year since I've been home. My first few years in Charlotte I went home for weddings, funerals, and random visits -but in the last 10 months I haven't had the ability to get back. Here are a few quick observations:
Things I like about Miami:
1.) Pollo Tropical -think cuban fast food
2.) Real cuban food
3.) Cuban coffee [on a completely different level from food]
4.) Fresh fruit; In the last week I've had fresh starfruit off of my neihbors tree and Avocado's from some friends that were the size of my head. It makes those California hass avocados that charlotte stocks look pathetic!
5.) Latin culture; I got off the plane upon arival to hear announcements broadcasted in Spanish and then translated into English. It took me a second to reacclimate :)
6.) Friends.
7.) Family.
8.) Clouds. -the clouds [and sunsets] down here are above comparison
9.) Plants....there's just something about tropical vegitation that is beautiful
10.) People acting normal. -I'm still more comfortable in Miami culture than I am in charlotte. I love charlotte and could easily see myself living there...but there something sterile about it. While people are nicer it's a more superficial southern niceness....there's something refreshing about being back down here where I can embrace people [both literally and figuratively]. People in Charlotte need to get over their affinity for "personal space".
Things I don't miss about Miami.
1.) Heat.
2.) Humidity.
3.) Changing my shirt 2-3 times a day as a result of heat and humidity.
4.) Higher cost of living.
5.) Traffic? -traffic down here seems normal to me, and I really don't mind it...but it took a bit to get used to again.
6.) Ok thats about it.....really 4 things I don't miss about it.
Oh....and I felt like you need to know how amazing the beach is....because it is.
Things I like about Miami:
1.) Pollo Tropical -think cuban fast food
2.) Real cuban food
3.) Cuban coffee [on a completely different level from food]
4.) Fresh fruit; In the last week I've had fresh starfruit off of my neihbors tree and Avocado's from some friends that were the size of my head. It makes those California hass avocados that charlotte stocks look pathetic!
5.) Latin culture; I got off the plane upon arival to hear announcements broadcasted in Spanish and then translated into English. It took me a second to reacclimate :)
6.) Friends.
7.) Family.
8.) Clouds. -the clouds [and sunsets] down here are above comparison
9.) Plants....there's just something about tropical vegitation that is beautiful
10.) People acting normal. -I'm still more comfortable in Miami culture than I am in charlotte. I love charlotte and could easily see myself living there...but there something sterile about it. While people are nicer it's a more superficial southern niceness....there's something refreshing about being back down here where I can embrace people [both literally and figuratively]. People in Charlotte need to get over their affinity for "personal space".
Things I don't miss about Miami.
1.) Heat.
2.) Humidity.
3.) Changing my shirt 2-3 times a day as a result of heat and humidity.
4.) Higher cost of living.
5.) Traffic? -traffic down here seems normal to me, and I really don't mind it...but it took a bit to get used to again.
6.) Ok thats about it.....really 4 things I don't miss about it.
Oh....and I felt like you need to know how amazing the beach is....because it is.
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