don’t forget this book

Joshua Foer’s true story is worth knowing and remembering. It’s recorded in his thought-provoking book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. This NY Times best-seller chronicles Foer’s journey from your average run of the mill investigative journalist to U.S. World Memory Champion.

For me the most fascinating and telling chapter is entitled The End of Remembering, in which Foer details the path from a human population of memorizers to the world of ‘external memories’ we live in today.

Trust me, this is a good read. Just make sure you write down the title – there is a good chance you’ll forget it.

Excerpts:

“Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. You can exercise daily and eat healthily and live a long life, while experiencing a short one. If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound to blend unmemorably into the next – and disappear. That’s why it’s so important to change routines regularly, and take vacations to exotic locales, and have as many new experiences as possible that can serve to anchor our memories. Creating new memories stretches out psychological time, and lengthens our perception of our lives.”

“William James wrote (in Principles of Psychology in 1890): ‘In youth we may have an absolutely new experience, subjective or objective, every hour of the day. Apprehension is vivid, retentiveness strong, and our recollections of that time, like those of a time spent in rapid and interesting travel, are of something intricate, multitudinous and long-drawn-out. But as each passing year converts some of this experience into automatic routine which we hardly note at all, the days and the weeks smooth themselves out in recollection to contentless units…’ Life seems to speed up as we get older because life gets less memorable as we get older.”

What Jesus?

By late in the first century AD, opinions on Jesus were already beginning to vary. With some saying he was just a man upon whom the divine essence descended to others who decided his physical body was just an illusion [Jesus only seemed real], many ignored what Jesus said about himself and what his closest friends and eyewitnesses said about him and his mission. For these and other reasons, the Apostle John wrote to churches denouncing such nonsense emphasizing the real historical Jesus.

The more things change the more they remain the same. Last week, Andrew Sullivan wrote the cover story for Newsweek: “Forget the Church; Follow Jesus.” Sullivan – self-described as British by birth, American by residence, politically conservative, Catholic, and openly gay – offers his perspectives as an author, editor, political commentator and blogger. Along with many before him, Sullivan serves up his personalized version of Christian faith in an a la carte – just a little Jesus without church-on-the-side fashion.

While I honestly appreciate Mr. Sullivan’s interest and faith in Jesus, he clearly embraces a Thomas Jefferson type version of the Savior and with scalpel in hand, slices and dices at will to create God in his own image. By denouncing the church and endorsing a cut-and-paste approach to the Scriptures, Sullivan embraces an idea of Jesus that reflects his own subjective sensibilities that in his opinion need not agree with the teaching of historical Christianity or at all harmonize with a faith community organized as a “church.”

In many respects Mr. Sullivan’s gets it right. Organized Christianity has its flaws and falls short of perfection. Sadly a good chunk of American Christianity embraces a gospel of prosperity, which teaches that living a Christian life will make you successful and rich. So many self-proclaimed Jesus followers either forget or simply reject Jesus’ call to self-denial, sacrificial generosity and to love even our enemies.  Sullivan is spot on in asserting, “something inside is telling us we need radical spiritual change.”

This is the difficulty. So many people want a Jesus who they like and feel good about. The historical Jesus known, described and quoted by the Apostle John is not particularly popular because he offends just about all of us in some way or another. Did John have him right?  Did Jefferson? What about Andrew Sullivan who sees him as one who “fled from crowds” and whose death on “the cross was not the point.”    In short, when it comes to Andrew Sullivan’s idea to “Forget the Church; Follow Jesus” I can’t help but ask “What Jesus?” In a culture steeped in relativism there seems to be so many of them around to chose from.   Just to be safe, I’ll stick with the Apostle John’s Jesus who he asserts to truly be “The Christ.”

Please relax Bill

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and those opinions should be respected.  But, I’ve got to say, and maybe it’s just me but I find it sadly if not pathetically ironic how people like Bill Maher can stand up in public and belittle Christians and hatefully berate them for trying to “force” their beliefs on others while he himself attempts to “force” his beliefs or lack thereof on anyone who will listen to his empty droning.

If Maher was as rational as he purports himself to be, he would recognize that for someone to argue “it’s wrong for a person to try and persuade others of their belief” is at that very moment violating his own argument. But it seems Maher allows his seething anger to overwhelm his self-acclaimed intellect. Which begs the question – why is this guy so enraged all the time? Sure – it’s a funny shtick when it is actually a shtick. But once Maher gets on the topic of religion, especially Christianity, the shtick seems to end as he verges on apoplexy. For someone who hates religion and deems it foolish, he spends a lot of time, energy and money making television shows and movies about it. Who then is the fool?

Perhaps his anger rests with the unavoidable fact that atheism limits itself to a surface reading of things and continues to lose the public debate on God. For surely if atheism was winning, such Maheric vitriol would be unnecessary. Instead the opposite is true. Even Michael Shermer, president of the Skeptics Society admits not only is God not dead as Nietzche proclaimed, but he has never been more alive.

For atheists like Maher, religion is a threat. The only way to deal with and neutralize its influence is by attempting to deconstruct its intellectual foundations. But again, not a lot of people are actually listening. Besides, if the world is simply the meaningless result of an ambiguous big bang and the random collision of coalescing matter then what Maher thinks is equally as meaningless.

Frankly, Maher’s own anger betrays his belief system. As Richard Dawkins often emphasizes, atheism just sees a meaningless world, devoid of purpose. The claim is nothing is responsible for everything. If true, how can one be so angry at anything or nothing? Anger assumes something or someone is responsible for something and a violation of that responsibility has occurred. Some standard has been breached. Yet, if everything comes from nothing, nothing is responsible for anything. There are no standards and there are no responsibilities. In short, Maher needs to relax because none of it matters anyway if all is indeed meaningless.

Fortunately for Bill Maher, historically speaking, atheism has always found its strength in being considered plausible in contexts where religious belief is considered too powerful. With the growing number of Americans believing in God perhaps Maher has some reason to hope in atheism’s future – which would then paradoxically place atheism’s potential success in the hands of believers? Wow, nothing more would send Bill on a caustic vulgar rampage than that realization.

Questions

One thing I like about TED is they address fascinating issues and take on big questions. Most recently they started a series, Questions No One Knows The Answers to. 

While I would challenge the assertion that all such questions have no answers – I’m glad TED is asking these types of questions.

Whenever I hear people say, “God and religion is not that important to me. I don’t want to really think about it or try and figure it all out. I’m content to live day to day, try to find some meaning in life and just be happy.”  To a degree I get why people say such things. Primarily it’s because thinking takes energy and a lot of people are lazy. Ignorance is bliss as the old adage goes. But here’s the thing — at best it’s naïve and at worst intellectually dishonest to say, “I’m not going to think about God or my existence or any other religious type stuff” because everyone has to think about it at some point or another. It’s both an intellectual and pragmatic issue one simply cannot avoid.

Every day the debate rages all around us on the question of how did we all get here, where did we come from and does my life mean anything? How does one answer that? It is legitimate to consider – are we the result of an ambiguous Big Bang whereby the universe exploded into being [at an absolutely perfect rate] and everything that exists is simply a random accident with humans on this planet being nothing more than a highly evolved biological consequence of chance process? i.e., we have no meaning? Or do all we see, know and experience start with a creator God? Although even a big bang needs an agent of cause.

That aside, ultimately what it comes down to is quite simply really — our existence is either an act of intelligent and intentional creation or an unbelievable and unexplainable fluke of coalescing matter exploding out of the darkness of nothingness. Either we are an accident without meaning or we are beings of complex design and purpose. At one point we each have to decide which we believe.

French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal argued how as human beings we cannot live with any true sense or judgment unless we decide whether there is a God and an afterlife or whether our lives are freak accidents. He suggested some people abhor such questions. They despise religion because the fear it’s true. In his classic work, Pensees, Pascal proposes, “There are three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy.” In which group are we?

Perhaps the Apostle John offered the clue as to where all answers originate when he wrote, “This is the message we received from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

I give up

Although I’ve been avoiding it for a while now, I suppose the time has finally arrived for me to, reluctantly I must admit, read Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins. My rebellious nature more often than not refuses to get caught up in the frenzied trends and hot topics of Christian sub-culture. Whenever there is a big what to do about some book, movie, church or Christian leader, I tend to wait until all the blustering is over — then consider the issue objectively while the rest of the crowd moves on to the next new thing.
Unable to isolate myself from all the ecclesiastical chatter, I’ve come to realize this much about the book. Some readers applaud Bell’s writing as an attempt to stir up critical thinking and discussion on the theology of hell. Some welcome and embrace what they believe to be his Universalist position [everyone goes to heaven]. Others condemn him a heretic who denies a clear and particularly important biblical doctrine. Who is right and who is wrong? Is Bell saying what many are accusing him of?
As I prepare to cross the proverbial Rubicon and crack open its pages, two “if” questions loom heavy in my mind.
If…Bell is proposing a Universalist position, why is that? What has he read, uncovered or finally understood about the nature of God, the teaching of Jesus and the Scriptures overall that nearly 2,000 years of Church history and critical exegetical thinking have missed? The matter is not simply about love but also about truth. Love without truth never wins.
If… in spite of what Bell and others may or may not say about it, you and I believe Hell is a reality — how does that reality influence our daily attitudes and actions? Could it be that some who are the strongest proponents of Hell’s reality fail to live as if it is a reality? Is it possible the only time Hell has a practical impact on even the most theologically orthodox and conservative Christians is when its existence gets challenged?
I don’t know exactly what Rob Bell thinks or what he has written but I know how many Christians have responded. Once I’m done reading I can then enter into the dialogue or whatever is left of it. But one way or another, I’m committed to the admonition of the Apostle Paul who said, “Let your conversation be always full of grace.”

History twice made at US Open

History was made at the US Open yesterday as Rory McIlroy broke record after record on his way to winning the prestigious event. Congratulations Rory! History was also made by NBC at the start of its championship coverage by twice altering the readings of the Pledge of Allegiance omitting the phrase “under God” both times. Congratulations NBC for eliminating God from our nation’s pledge. The omition, however, did not go unnoticed by many angry viewers who flooded the network with complaints. Congratuations viewers on holding NBC accountable.

see you on the 22nd

For those who are interested, next Sunday is lining up to be a pretty normal one for me. And yes, I know what is being said about May 21st being Judgment Day. As far as I’m concerned, whenever anyone applies a date or time to that event – I make dinner plans. Hopefully I’ll feel up to eating but I have to admit this kind of prophetic twaddle makes me feel a bit sick. Seriously, why are some people obsessed with predicting the end of the world? I just don’t get it. Even more perplexing [not to mention embarrassing] is why do they insist on doing so in the name of Jesus? This kind of capricious and vain speculation is erroneous and without any Scriptural merit. It simply invites a media circus in which “Christians” are portrayed as the clowns. The wreckage left in the wake of such nonsense is extensive and significantly undermines legitimate attempts of the Christian Church to love and share truth to a culture already steeped in skepticism. 

I’ve had numerous emails asking my opinion on this matter. So, if the previous paragraph isn’t clear enough, here goes. Not only do I think those  making this prediction are sadly misguided but this kind of nonsense is simply not helpful for anyone and their foolishness risks doing irreparable damage to the cause of Christ and his Gospel of grace.

I’ll take Jesus at his word. He said to his followers, “You do not know the day or the hour.” That comment is pretty hard to dismiss. See you on Sunday, May 22nd.

the big picture

Just got news

As always, there is apparently now a new way to get high. But it comes at a HUGE cost. Have you heard of “bath salts”? Here’s what you need to know.

illegal in Louisiana, North Carolina, Florida

Some in the US Congress are seeking a nationwide ban on a pair of recreational drugs being sold as “bath salts.” The plan is to introduce a bill that would outlaw the drugs mephedrone and MPDV [Methylenedioxypyrovalerone]. The substances, banned in the European Union and three US states, are widely available and are used as legal substitutes for cocaine, ecstasy, or amphetamines.

Why are we not hearing more about this stuff? These so called “bath salts” contain ingredient that are basically narcotics, and are being sold cheap to all comers, with no questions asked, at store counters around the country. The result is a serious and growing addiction and overdose problem among students and young adults.

a seized stash of Bath Salts

Be listening for word on this stuff [AKA] — White Rush, Cloud 9, Ivory Wave, Ocean, Charge Plus, White Lightening, Scarface, Hurricane Charlie, Red Dove, White Dove, Uncle Charlie.  Reported side effects of MDVP include: increased heart rate, nosebleeds, hallucinations, severe paranoia, seizures, and kidney failure and even death.

Help for Japan

Japan’s damage and loss of life resulting from the traumatic earthquake and tsunami are generating prayers and support from Christians around the globe. As relief efforts get better organized and underway, let’s keep in mind the Apostle Paul’s words to the early church:

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it.”
-1 Corinthians 12:26

If you are interested in helping, the following are credible organizations through which you can contribute, I have worked alongside and supported all of them in the past – just click the logo to find out how you can make a difference…