Opus 2012-48, Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis

What does it mean to have your thinking grow, to mature in your understanding.  We learn new things and come to a deeper and better understanding as we get older.  We have a wider foundation.  At least that is the way it is supposed to progress.

If you stayed awake in the philosophy class you took years ago, you remember that a guy named Hegel had the idea of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.  Someone has a proposal.  That is the thesis.  It runs into real life, the antithesis, and is modified by experience.  This leads to a new, modified idea, the synthesis.  It makes sense.  Most of us can relate to the concept.

This mantra has become the god of modern science.  All he did was take what is obvious to any farmer, carpenter or thinking person, put some fancy words on it and elevate it to a universal principle that is going to change our lives.  He had a good ad agency and publisher.

The place we err is in paying too much attention to his ideas, pro and con and then elevating his proposal as if it is a universal principle of the universe.  We need to learn to use good ideas.  We need to learn to not throw them out just because they were made famous by a pagan or heathen philosopher.  We also need to see that they are not universal truths worthy of our reverence. 

One weakness of this formula is that it can lead to rejecting eternal truth and insisting that all things are relative.  Just because some things do change doesn’t mean that everything can be improved.  The problem is not the idea itself but in the application.

Happy thinking, growing and clinging to the eternal.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-47, On the Street: Pray for the Troops

Today I pulled up behind the proud mother of a United States Marine.  You could tell by the bumper stickers and decals.  I wanted to jump out, run up to her and thank her for his service.  I also did not want to be arrested.

So instead I spent a little time in prayer for her son.  I offered the standard prayer for safety but I am aware that safety is not the environment that soldiers and marines are called to.  I added a prayer that I usually pray for those in uniform:  That God would keep them from doing anything in the heat of the moment that they will be ashamed of later.  People fighting to keep us safe cannot always be safe, but they can be proud of their service.

May God make it so in this young mans life.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-46, Eyes in the Back of Your Head

A kid expressed how wonderful it would be to have eyes in the back of his head.  I wanted to tell him that would make him an insect.  I restrained myself.

In reality though, think about how eyes are placed and what it says about how you fit into the world.  Creatures that have eyes facing forward are predators.  Those with eyes that can see in all directions are prey. 

Take your choice and be careful what you wish for.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-45, Spiritual Gifts: Who Me?

At our men’s Bible study on Saturday I received a valuable insight.  We were studying the beginning of John 13.  Jesus is washing the disciples’ feet and teaching about servanthood.

I am not gifted in mercy, helps or service.  I really get tired of helping people who are always in need because of what looks to me to be poor planning, bad habits or just plain laziness.  That is not the insight.  A couple of the men present are loaded with the gifts of service and helps.  One of them said something to the effect that there were times when he really did not want to help some people because they did not deserve it. 

I was surprised and asked him if I had heard him correctly.  He said, “Yes, at times it is really hard to help people.”  That was a valuable insight to me.  If merciful people feel that way, I am not so weird.  Of course I need to realize that should not be an excuse for me to not help.  That is another lesson I need to learn. 

Just because I don’t have a gift does not mean I don’t have a responsibility.

It was a morning well spent.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-44, On the Street: Shameless

I had a quick glimpse of the side of a bus as it turned onto a side street.  I saw the big title of “Shameless” and had the impression of a bunch of big muscles, long hair and outdoors.  I assume it was advertising some TV program.  Since I don’t watch TV, I am just guessing.  My impression was that those three qualities sum up what the show was about. 

I work with middle school kids and educators.  While most are likable people, young and old, they seem to have no moral foundations.  The kids will let loose a string of words that would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap and seem genuinely surprised when I call it cussing or foul language.  It is what they hear in their “music,” see on their screens and often hear in their homes.  The adults are not much better.

We are already a shameless culture. 

If you are over 50 you made your contribution to this lack of shame.  You have let your kids watch and listen to entertainment that has been on a moral decline for years.  It started with “I Love Lucy” and her constant lies and deceptions, supported by a laugh track.  Now we are accepting “friends with benefits” as a condition that doesn’t even raise eyebrows.  Adultery still gets a little criticism for some reason but fornication is now the default setting.

It may be too late.  In some ways it is.  We may be forced to go through the debauchery and chaos that we have seen in Sodom, the Roman Empire, Pre-Methodist England, Nazi Germany and modern West Hollywood.  Sometimes God can only get people to wake up using pain.

It may not be too late.  The Wesley revival kept England from bloody chaos.  Our country has gone through two Great Awakenings. 

Pray for a third.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-43, Green Pieces: Cooking the Frog, The Ultimate Bad Breath

Are you aware that the government, your government, has labeled carbon dioxide a toxin that needs to be controlled by government.  Remember it is for your own good.  You need to be protected.  Do you remember your high school biology?  Carbon dioxide, CO2, is the gas given off by breathing animals.  You are a breathing animal.  Every time you exhale you put out what the government is calling a toxic gas.  This is not because you have bad breath, it is because too much carbon dioxide can kill you. 

Don’t panic.  People also are confused about what makes up the atmosphere.  They are given the impression that most of what we breathe is oxygen and too much carbon dioxide is going to kill us.  Most people don’t realize that the most common gas they inhale is nitrogen, 78%.  Oxygen is next with 21%.  Carbon dioxide comes in far behind at 0.039%.  In case your math skills are lacking or you are reading too fast, that number is approximately four-one hundredths of one percent.  If we were writing it in fractions it would be 1/25%.  That is not much.

What they fail to point out is that green plants breathe carbon dioxide in and exhale oxygen.  More carbon dioxide makes for healthier plants.  More and healthier plants mean more oxygen is produced.  God made it to work together in a marvelous cycle.  It is self correcting and flexible.

We have had times when massive volcanoes have reached a critical point and exploded into the atmosphere.  We have in recorded history years where there was no summer because of this.  The problem was not because of the massive amounts of carbon dioxide but because of the ash and dust spewed into the air.  The amount of debris dwarfs what people and industry can do.  Things returned to normal in a few years. 

Remember that God designed this world we live in.  It has all kinds of corrections going on constantly.  We are not aware of most of them.  Have a little trust here, not in the government or their scientists but in your God.

Or you could breathe less.  Or you could hold your breathe.  Their answer will be to have a breathing tax.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-42, Is Slavery Illegal?

I am sure that most people believe that slavery is illegal.  While it may be true in practice, it is not correct.  Look at what the 13th Amendment says

Sect. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Sect. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

If you take out the middle phrases, then slavery is illegal, but that is not what it says.  Technically slavery would still be legal if it is a result of crime.  Historically this covers two of the most common sources of slaves:  Convicted criminals and debtors.  Both groups received due process and entered slavery as punishment for their crimes.  We still put murderers and thieves into situations of involuntary servitude.  It is legal to draft people into the military.  As a teacher I am required by law to remain at school until dismissed in the case of a major disaster.  On the other hand we tend to forgive people who declare bankruptcy. 

In reality the Constitution already contained the phrase that could have dealt with the slavery problem.  It is found in Article 3, Section 3, paragraph 2.

2.  The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attained.

The discussion is treason and how it will be punished.  Notice that little phrase “corruption of blood.”  In 1787 people knew what that meant.  All we can say is, “Icky!”  It makes us think of zombie movies.  In reality it meant that you cannot make the children pay for the crimes of the parent.  If this had been applied to slavery, the children of slaves would have been free.

So keep in mind that the courts could decide to bring back slavery.  They ignore the constitution on other issues.  For instance, the Second Amendment makes a clear statement: 

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

And yet we have waiting periods, Brady Bills, limits on how many cartridges a magazine can hold and so forth.  Why not decide that in the cases of loud-mouthed bloggers, slavery is perfectly acceptable.  Or how about arresting your pastor for saying that God does not approve of homosexuality?  Oh, wait, that is already on the books in some states. 

Remember that they just want to make the world safe for everyone and they are here to help you.

homo unius libri