St. Augustine's doctrine of Original Sin has been challenged by post-modern thought and creativity. According to Augustine, humanity has fallen from his original condition because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. To recover human's original condition, Augustine claims, our faith in Jesus Christ can rescue us and help us recover the image of God.
One professor of post-modern thought and creativity, however, told his students that "creativity is about making mistakes. In fact, there is no such thing as 'mistakes', in the creative process; there are only different ways of doing things.
"We should not be afraid to make mistakes. The moment we are afraid, we limit our chances of exploring new creative avenues. If our mistakes, or sins, do not lead us to anything creative this time, at least we can learn from them. Next time we'll know which steps to avoid to be closer to our goal."
"Do you mean Augustine was wrong?" his student asked.
"He didn't know he was wrong," his teacher answered. "That's always been the problem of Christians ever since," he concluded.
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*Source: CreativXpert.com/travel/accidental-discovery-port.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Christian Fudamentalism
The term refers to central elements of the traditional Christian teaching, such as the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Second Coming, heaven and hell, and inspiration and authority of the scriptures. It holds firm its belief in the doctrine of personal salvation and literal interpretation of the scriptures.
Because of its insistence that the scriptures are the word of God, fundamentalism stands in radical opposition to Roman Catholicism, and the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation. The roots of fundamentalism go back to the denominational orthodoxies of the 17th century and the revivalist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. The conservative evangelicals or fundamentalists of the present era share with their forbears an apologetic mode of theology reflecting an historicist notion of truth as well as an insistence on the "fundamentals", especially creation, sin and redemption, the second coming, the Virgin birth and the divinity of Jesus, and the literalist interpretation of miracles. Their point of view is represented through preachers such as Billy Graham and Herbert Armstrong, Pat Robertson, and most of the American televangelists, as well through the press, for example, Biblioteca Sacra, the Evangelical Quarterly, and the publications of the Intervarsity Press.*
But many of their constituents are becoming more enlightened and they move out to seek other progressive church groups. One other reason they leave their church is they discovered their church leaders as involved in extra-marital relationships, and they also are secretly using their church funds for their own personal use to enrich themselves. That's why most of them have become multi-millionaires.
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*Source: The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology. Alan Richardson and John Bowden, eds.
Because of its insistence that the scriptures are the word of God, fundamentalism stands in radical opposition to Roman Catholicism, and the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation. The roots of fundamentalism go back to the denominational orthodoxies of the 17th century and the revivalist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. The conservative evangelicals or fundamentalists of the present era share with their forbears an apologetic mode of theology reflecting an historicist notion of truth as well as an insistence on the "fundamentals", especially creation, sin and redemption, the second coming, the Virgin birth and the divinity of Jesus, and the literalist interpretation of miracles. Their point of view is represented through preachers such as Billy Graham and Herbert Armstrong, Pat Robertson, and most of the American televangelists, as well through the press, for example, Biblioteca Sacra, the Evangelical Quarterly, and the publications of the Intervarsity Press.*
But many of their constituents are becoming more enlightened and they move out to seek other progressive church groups. One other reason they leave their church is they discovered their church leaders as involved in extra-marital relationships, and they also are secretly using their church funds for their own personal use to enrich themselves. That's why most of them have become multi-millionaires.
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*Source: The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology. Alan Richardson and John Bowden, eds.
Physics of the Future, by Physicist Michio Kaku
Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives, by Michio Kaku (by a book reviewer):
In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku - the New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible - gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilerating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over 300 of the world's top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs. The result is the most authoritative and scientifically accurate description of the revolutionary developments taking place in medicine, computers, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, energy proiduction, and astronautics.
In all likelihood, by 2100 we will control computers via tiny brain sensors and, like the gods of Greek mythology, move objects around with the power of our minds. Artificial intelligence will be dispersed throughout the environment, and Internet-enabled contact lenses will allow us to access the world's information base or conjure up any image we desire in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, cars will drive themselves using GPS, and if room-temperature superconductors are discovered, vehicles will effortlessly fly on na cushion of air, coasting on powerful magnetic fields and ushering in the age of magnetism.
Using molecular medicine, scientists will be able to grow almost every organ and cure genetic diseases. Millions of tiny DNA sensors and nonparticles patrolling the blood cells will silently scan our bodies for the first sign of illness, while rapid advances in genetic research will enable us to slow down or maybe even reverse the aging process, allowing human life span to increase dramatically, perhaps even ten times longer.
In space, radically new ships - needle-sized vessels using laser propulsion - could replace the expensive chemical rockets of today and perhaps visit nearby stars. Advances in nanotechnology may lead to the fabled space elevator, which would propel humans hundreds of miles above the earth's atmosphere at the push of a button.
But these astonishing revelations are only the tip of the iceberg. Kaku discusses emotional robots, antimatter rockets, X-ray vision, and the ability to create new life-forms.
He also considers the development of the world economy, and addresses the key questions: Who will be the winners and losers of the future? Who will have jobs, and which nations will prosper?
All the while, Kaku illuminates the rigorous scientific principles, examining the rate at which certain technologies are likely to mature, how far they can advance, and what their ultimate limitations and hazards are. Synthesizing a vast amount of information to construct an exciting look at the years leading up to 2100, Physics of the Future is a thrilling, wondrous ride through the next hundred years of breathtaking scientific revolution.
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*Michio Kaku is a professor at the City University of New York; cofounder of the string field theory; the bestselling author of several widely acclaimed science books, including Hyperspace and Physics of the Impossible - the basis for his Discovery Channel Science TV show, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible - and the host of two radio programs, Explorations and Science Fantastic, broadcasting to over 400 radio stations.
In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku - the New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible - gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilerating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over 300 of the world's top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs. The result is the most authoritative and scientifically accurate description of the revolutionary developments taking place in medicine, computers, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, energy proiduction, and astronautics.
In all likelihood, by 2100 we will control computers via tiny brain sensors and, like the gods of Greek mythology, move objects around with the power of our minds. Artificial intelligence will be dispersed throughout the environment, and Internet-enabled contact lenses will allow us to access the world's information base or conjure up any image we desire in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, cars will drive themselves using GPS, and if room-temperature superconductors are discovered, vehicles will effortlessly fly on na cushion of air, coasting on powerful magnetic fields and ushering in the age of magnetism.
Using molecular medicine, scientists will be able to grow almost every organ and cure genetic diseases. Millions of tiny DNA sensors and nonparticles patrolling the blood cells will silently scan our bodies for the first sign of illness, while rapid advances in genetic research will enable us to slow down or maybe even reverse the aging process, allowing human life span to increase dramatically, perhaps even ten times longer.
In space, radically new ships - needle-sized vessels using laser propulsion - could replace the expensive chemical rockets of today and perhaps visit nearby stars. Advances in nanotechnology may lead to the fabled space elevator, which would propel humans hundreds of miles above the earth's atmosphere at the push of a button.
But these astonishing revelations are only the tip of the iceberg. Kaku discusses emotional robots, antimatter rockets, X-ray vision, and the ability to create new life-forms.
He also considers the development of the world economy, and addresses the key questions: Who will be the winners and losers of the future? Who will have jobs, and which nations will prosper?
All the while, Kaku illuminates the rigorous scientific principles, examining the rate at which certain technologies are likely to mature, how far they can advance, and what their ultimate limitations and hazards are. Synthesizing a vast amount of information to construct an exciting look at the years leading up to 2100, Physics of the Future is a thrilling, wondrous ride through the next hundred years of breathtaking scientific revolution.
_____________________________________________________________________________
*Michio Kaku is a professor at the City University of New York; cofounder of the string field theory; the bestselling author of several widely acclaimed science books, including Hyperspace and Physics of the Impossible - the basis for his Discovery Channel Science TV show, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible - and the host of two radio programs, Explorations and Science Fantastic, broadcasting to over 400 radio stations.
LETHAL GIFT OF LIVESTOCK
Doctor asks his patient the wrong question which enrages his patient's wife. Here's what Professor Jared Diamond reports:*
"The links connecting livestock and crops to germs were unforgetably illustrated for me by a hospital case about which I learned through a physician friend. When my friend was an inexperienced young doctor, he was called into a hospital room to deal with a married couple stressed-out by a mysterious illness. My friend was also stressed-out from a long week of hospital work, and from trying to figure out what unusual risk factors might have brought on the strange illness. The stress caused my friend to forget everything he had been taught about patient confidentiality: he committed the awful blunder of requesting the woman to ask her husband whether he'd had any sexual experiences that could have caused the infection. As the doctor watched, the husband turned red, pulled himself together so that he seemed even smaller, tried to disappear under his bedsheet, and stammered out words in a barely audible voice. His wife suddenly screamed in rage and drew herself up to tower over him. Before the doctor could stop her, she grabbed a heavy metal bottle, slammed it with full force onto her husband's head, and stormed out of the room. It took a while for the doctor to revive her husband and even longer to elicit, through the man's broken english, what he'd said that so enraged his wife. The answer slowly emerged: he had confessed to repeated intercourse with sheep on a recent visit to the family farm; perhaps that was how he had contracted the mysterious microbe."
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*Source: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, pp. 195-196
"The links connecting livestock and crops to germs were unforgetably illustrated for me by a hospital case about which I learned through a physician friend. When my friend was an inexperienced young doctor, he was called into a hospital room to deal with a married couple stressed-out by a mysterious illness. My friend was also stressed-out from a long week of hospital work, and from trying to figure out what unusual risk factors might have brought on the strange illness. The stress caused my friend to forget everything he had been taught about patient confidentiality: he committed the awful blunder of requesting the woman to ask her husband whether he'd had any sexual experiences that could have caused the infection. As the doctor watched, the husband turned red, pulled himself together so that he seemed even smaller, tried to disappear under his bedsheet, and stammered out words in a barely audible voice. His wife suddenly screamed in rage and drew herself up to tower over him. Before the doctor could stop her, she grabbed a heavy metal bottle, slammed it with full force onto her husband's head, and stormed out of the room. It took a while for the doctor to revive her husband and even longer to elicit, through the man's broken english, what he'd said that so enraged his wife. The answer slowly emerged: he had confessed to repeated intercourse with sheep on a recent visit to the family farm; perhaps that was how he had contracted the mysterious microbe."
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*Source: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, pp. 195-196
Monday, February 18, 2013
Jesus' Dualism and the Early Church's Theistic Understanding of Jesus as Savior or Rescuer*
Jesus was very definitely dualistic in his worldview. Fundamental to his entire religious understanding were the two opposing pairs of soul and body, and God and the Devil. The Gospel of Mark stands as a key to his basic viewpoint: "What will it profit one to gain the whole world and lose one's soul?" (Mk. 8:36).
The "world" to which "soul" is opposed consists of two separate entities: the "world" of the body and the "world" of the Devil. Both worlds are intended in the passage from Mark just quoted, for Jesus had just said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Mk. 8:33). Both views of the world appear in Jesus' most famous parable as well, the Parable of the Sower. The Parable of the Sower sows seed on four types of ground. Three types fail to bear crops: the first because the Devil takes away the seed; the second because of persecution; the third because of the worries of the world and the lure of riches (Mk. 4:14-20). The types of ground - that is, the hearers of Jesus' teaching - are faced with two major obstacles, one internal and one external. The internal is the natural desire to have a good life in this world, a desire that often draws one away from following the gospel. The external is "the world" as a spiritual system run by the Devil, opposing anyone wishing to follow Jesus.
Faced with these obstacles, human beings needed help from outside. It was no longer a case of being obedient to the law while living in a good "place," the world created by the God of Genesis. The world was, in reality, not such a good place anyway: life was short and difficult, full of diseases and hardships. But now people had souls that they could lose and did not know their danger; in addition, they were living in the enemy's camp. They were trapped.
That is the point of the scriptural story about tying up the strong man cited in Chapter 4: "No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered" (Mk. 3:27). the "strong man" is the Devil; his "house" is the world system he rules. Jesus came as the Savior, as the Devil's opponent from outside his "world," to plunder his house; he came to rescue his people. Those who came to have eyes to see, as in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, could say, "This is truly the Savior of the world." (John 4:42).
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*Excerpt taken from The River of God: A New History of Christian Origins, by Gregory J. Riley, pp.217-218.
The "world" to which "soul" is opposed consists of two separate entities: the "world" of the body and the "world" of the Devil. Both worlds are intended in the passage from Mark just quoted, for Jesus had just said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Mk. 8:33). Both views of the world appear in Jesus' most famous parable as well, the Parable of the Sower. The Parable of the Sower sows seed on four types of ground. Three types fail to bear crops: the first because the Devil takes away the seed; the second because of persecution; the third because of the worries of the world and the lure of riches (Mk. 4:14-20). The types of ground - that is, the hearers of Jesus' teaching - are faced with two major obstacles, one internal and one external. The internal is the natural desire to have a good life in this world, a desire that often draws one away from following the gospel. The external is "the world" as a spiritual system run by the Devil, opposing anyone wishing to follow Jesus.
Faced with these obstacles, human beings needed help from outside. It was no longer a case of being obedient to the law while living in a good "place," the world created by the God of Genesis. The world was, in reality, not such a good place anyway: life was short and difficult, full of diseases and hardships. But now people had souls that they could lose and did not know their danger; in addition, they were living in the enemy's camp. They were trapped.
That is the point of the scriptural story about tying up the strong man cited in Chapter 4: "No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered" (Mk. 3:27). the "strong man" is the Devil; his "house" is the world system he rules. Jesus came as the Savior, as the Devil's opponent from outside his "world," to plunder his house; he came to rescue his people. Those who came to have eyes to see, as in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, could say, "This is truly the Savior of the world." (John 4:42).
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*Excerpt taken from The River of God: A New History of Christian Origins, by Gregory J. Riley, pp.217-218.
Preachers Misusing Funeral Sermons
Howard Thurman tells of being seven years old when his father died, and he has never forgotten the trauma he experienced when the guest preacher delivered a funeral sermon that did violence to his father's memory. That guest preacher handling the funeral had not known Saul Thurman. Yet that preacher dared to assess Saul Thurman's nonmembership in the local church the family attended as evidence that he was a nonbeliever, and he forthrighly declared him lost and in hell. That preacher wanted to make the occasion an object lesson for all who were "outside the church."
As young Howard sat on the mourner's seat, he kept saying to his mother beside him, "He didn't know Pappa? Did he? Did he, Momma?" Alice Thurman, Howard's mother, held her calm through the service and gently patted her son's knees to comfort him as the verbal violence ate away at his young mind and spirit. It was the handling of that sermon by that preacher, Thurman tells us, that turned him against the church for awhile during his youth. Lacking intimacy with the family, that preacher would have been wiser and more helpful if he had chosen to comfort the family rather than interpret the life of the deceased. That preacher used the occasion as an evangelistic opportunity. This type of sermon is common among fundamentalist Christian preachers.
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(Source: Excerpt taken from Designing the Sermon: Order and Movement in Preaching, by James Earl Massey. William D. Thompson, editor, pp.78-79)
As young Howard sat on the mourner's seat, he kept saying to his mother beside him, "He didn't know Pappa? Did he? Did he, Momma?" Alice Thurman, Howard's mother, held her calm through the service and gently patted her son's knees to comfort him as the verbal violence ate away at his young mind and spirit. It was the handling of that sermon by that preacher, Thurman tells us, that turned him against the church for awhile during his youth. Lacking intimacy with the family, that preacher would have been wiser and more helpful if he had chosen to comfort the family rather than interpret the life of the deceased. That preacher used the occasion as an evangelistic opportunity. This type of sermon is common among fundamentalist Christian preachers.
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(Source: Excerpt taken from Designing the Sermon: Order and Movement in Preaching, by James Earl Massey. William D. Thompson, editor, pp.78-79)
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Love described or love defined
TO DESCRIBE LOVE OR DEFINE LOVE are not similar statements. The latter can define or possess you; but the former cannot, as it is only a description of what is at work in you. Once you absolutize this "love" that is at work in you, you can either die for it or hurt or kill others for it. That's why there are people who are willing to die because of it, and these same people can also hurt or kill others for it. So never define or absolutize this "love" that is at work in you, so it cannot possess or define you, for once you absolutize or define it, it becomes your "God" who can possess you absolutely. Once this happens in you, you turn this God or "love" into a monster at work in you. Unlike the love that you describe that is at work in you and, therefore, it cannot define or possess you, as you cannot fully possess it. Only by defining it, not describing it, can it possess people or by people possessed by it. So love as described, is preferably better than love defined. Or, another way of saying it, God (or love) described, is preferably better than God (or love) defined. Both, however, are continually at work in each person's being. It is also at work in the life of each community, or nation, Christian or non-christian.
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