Opus 2024-038: Male Assumptions

I was contemplating the issues of marriage and the relationships between men and women.  This rabbit trail was formed while thinking about a physical problem my wife is having and how I would work out a solution if it were me.  The important condition here is “if it were me”.  It isn’t me.  She doesn’t want to hear my ideas.  She would rather suffer than have my two cents worth.

This made me think of a mantra that has gone around and reinforces this idea.  My first contact with it was a book called Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.  I heard it repeated in other sources.  The idea is that women don’t want a man to solve her problems.  She just wants a man to listen.  To us men this is nonsense.  It is from Venus.  What do you expect?  It still seems to be an accurate summary.

Men problem solve by experiment.  We are rooted in what the scientific method was when it was genuine.  If something won’t turn left, try turning it right.  If your computer won’t start the first thing, you check is to see if it is plugged in.  You experiment and look at the results.  If that didn’t work, try something else.  Eventually you will get there.

Women problem solve by sharing their feelings.  I have no idea how this solves anything in the physical world but it seems to work in the pseudo-sciences like sociology.  Whether their solutions really work, men would question.  That does not matter because they don’t want our opinions.

Could this be another reason why there are more men than women in science?  Could the presence of more women in science be one of the reasons that science doesn’t seem to be working any more?  I would never ask these questions out loud.

At the risk of insulting your intelligence let me remind you that we are talking generalizations, not stereotypes.  We all know there are women who problem solve and men who talk about their feelings.  Feel free to problem solve without fear of losing your feminine mystique.  Men, feel away.  You can still be a man.  We are talking generalizations.  Learn the difference while I still have a head.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-037: A Straightjacket for God

Does God have free will?  Or is He bound by our theology?  

As I contemplate God in the mornings I come up with a lot of questions.  Many of them will only be answered in eternity because of my limitations.  Others are worth thinking about.  One is this idea of how different schools of theology look at the nature and character of God.  It involves how they understand salvation and apply it in their teaching.

I always have a love/hate relationship with people who claim that salvation has no volitional quality to it.  They take the statement that we are saved by grace and make our choice something that is totally out of our hands.  Their reasons are noble.  They emphasize the sovereignty of God.  Nothing can violate that sovereignty, except their theological declarations.  What gives them the power to declare that God cannot grant men free will?

Whom are we that think we can define God?  I guess the Psalmist asked the same question, “Who is man that Thou art mindful of him?”

We need to be careful to understand God as He reveals Himself, not as the theological gurus define and limit Him for us.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-036: Knowledge and Value

My thinking started with wondering how I would know about God if I were born in a pagan culture centuries ago. The Bible tells us that through nature we would know certain things. That would probably be limited to the attributes of God which are observable such as creativity, variety, and power. It would not include the moral qualities of God.

The moral issues I could learn by the work of the Holy Spirit speaking to a willing heart.  I could get the basics of the moral law by just the inward work of the Holy Spirit and willingness to listen.

From there I went to people who don’t know about Jesus and how they can be saved and how limited my knowledge is and my understanding. That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. The plan that God has given is clear involving Jesus and the blood and forgiveness and faith. That does not mean that there are is no other way that God has provided. It doesn’t mean that because I don’t need to know it.

Which brings us to the question of knowledge, and why we seek knowledge, and if we need knowledge. If I were given the information about the temperature at the bottom of a gravity well on an unknown planet, I would be able to intellectually look at the number and fit it into my knowledge base. I could add one and subtract two.  In spite of that, it would not mean anything to me, because I could not grasp it. Also, it would be totally immaterial because it would not affect anything, anywhere, at any time.

Much of the knowledge we gather is of this nature.  If knowing that temperature will allow us to develop technology to beat cancer, that changes everything.  If it allows us to build a faster than light starship that can be world changing.  If all it does is add to the list of numbers in an encyclopedia somewhere, it is totally useless information. Much of what we think we need to know falls in that category.

Don’t be impressed by knowledge.  Be impressed by knowledge that is applied.  That is often called wisdom.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-035: Soup Art

I see a business opportunity that is being missed.

I imagine you have seen some of the headlines about the deep thinkers who think throwing a can of soup at a famous piece of art will save the planet.  So far I think they have been foiled by a transparent sheet over the pictures that were put there for freak-shows like this.  

I think we should have an auction of the clear sheets that have the soup on them.  Sell them as some new type of modern art.  From what I hear about the showings at modern museums they would take this very seriously.  It would make the silly, destructive pawns names to go down in history.  They would be studied by the art departments at the Ivy League schools.  They would be as valuable as Hunter’s works.

I would like a commission, if you please.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-034: Does This Dress Make Me Look Female?

Which will history remember best, a man who put on a woman’s swimsuit and won medals competing against women or a woman who stood up to the cancel culture that cheered him on?

Who will get a chapter, Lia Thomas or Riley Gaines?

I guess it depends on who wins the culture wars that are going on now.  We often focus on the corrupt partisan judges and bought-off district attorneys.  We get hot under the collar at politicians and who is running the country.  At the same time we keep buying Nike’s and vacationing at Disneyland.  Put aside the idea of civil war and violence.  I have a feeling that if you are not willing to set aside Mickey Mouse and Ben and Jerry’s you would not be manning the ramparts any way.

As much power as they seem to have, understand that the deep state and George Soros could do nothing if we would not cooperate.  I just read how Hitler called off a boycott of Jewish businesses because their prices were so good the population did not cooperate.  Learn to make discerning decisions.  My family stopped passing any money to the Disney Empire years ago.  We won’t even buy their used stuff in yard sales and yet we keep hearing about the great time our friends had at Disney World.  They don’t seem to want to understand.  Disney finances their box office bombs with the ones that do well and the parks people visit.

Remember Mervyns’?  Many people don’t.  They shut down not too many years after Christians started boycotting.  Interestingly they were bought out by Target before they decided to kick out the Salvation Army and go woke.  Do you still have a K-Mart in your neighborhood?  We have an empty building that used to be a K-Mart.  They started declining after we boycotted them.  It may not make any difference if you don’t do anything but it will do even less if no one takes a stand.

There are inconveniences involved.  If we don’t go the extra mile now the inconveniences may become genuine hardships.

Pray.  Speak out.  Stand up.  Take a risk.  The chances may not come very often so keep your eyes open while you still can.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-033: The Ultimate UFO

There is a long list of Theophanies starting in the Garden of Eden.  Some are a voice from heaven, dream or vision.  Do those qualify as theophanies?  A theophony is the appearance of Jehovah in some sort of observable form.  He can appear as a man.  He appeared as a burning bush.  He spoke out of a storm.  The point is that God is spirit and His presence is so holy that it would kill anyone who saw Him directly.

We see this clearly in a conversation Moses had with God in Exodus 33.  God tells Moses,

(Exo 33:20 KJV)  And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

This is why Isaiah was panicked,

(Isa 6:5 KJV)  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

We have numerous times when God communicated with humans.  We have Him talking to Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He spoke to Cain.  From there we have a long list of communications.  It continues in the New Testament with Saul on the road to Damascus and Jesus appearing to John in the Revelation.  

You might think of Jesus as the ultimate Theophany but that would not work because He was fully man, God in the flesh.

I wonder if avatar an acceptable modern word for theophany?

Stay alert.  You may be the next to file a report.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-032: Invest in the Future

Now is a good time to remember to pray for the political leadership of our country.  We have an election coming up and we need more godly men and women in the seats of power.

I would say that we need to especially pray for Mike Johnson.  I have not been happy with everything he has done but we just saw something that would not have happened if he were not in the position of Speaker of the House.  We saw part of the Biden criminal gang at least called out publically.  It was mainly symbolic but it is a symbol that we have been waiting for.

I would also suggest that you spend some time looking into how your local representatives vote.  If you are not being served well then make sure that you do everything you can to primary people out.  Keep talking in the lines you stand in and the waiting rooms you frequent.  Plant seeds and extend your influence.  

We have nothing to lose but our country.

homo unius libri