Back on Track

Sorry...it's been awhile, but it has been pretty crazy around here.

Anyways, we closed last night on the house and it went a lot better than we thought it would. The papers were processed at the court house today and we received the keys to our first house. I am taking off the next three days of work to move and get things ready around the house. My dad and I are painting a few rooms tomorrow and doing some things around the house. On Thursday, the carpets are being cleaned, the air ducts are being cleaned, and the carpets are being restretched. We will have some friends and family helping us out with the moving and cleaning since Meg won't be able to do much (grape-sized baby in the stomach region). What a blessing God has given to us. We couldn't be happier.

Also, on a side note, I read an abstract and review about a book called "The End of Faith." Seriously, it is people like this (and the people who read it) that are running this country into the ground. Now don't get me wrong, I consider myself a Democrat...but soley based on the intentions of the party. It is the Liberal left that is slowly making this country into a whimpy-stepping stone for other countries to walk all over. This is a country that is saying abortion is a choice, that men can marry men, that I could get arrested for punishing my kid, for classrooms having an LD, ESL, teacher aide, and tutor in the same classroom, that if my kid can't sit still I have to put him on medication,...need I go on??? The last thing that this country needs is less religion.

Then we have people like Sam Harris (excuse me while I pause to laugh....not done.....Ok....wait one sec....Ok, I'm done) That come up with the ingenius plan to end religion based on the increase of world violence. Sweet buddy, where have you been since...oh say, THE BEGINNING OF TIME? I don't care if you are a Christian, a Buddhist, a Hindu, Muslim, or an athiest, everyone (yes everyone) believes in a higher being (whether it is your god or a person that you look up to for guidance). A person that says they do not believe in anything is a fool.

In the words of Rob Bell, "The idea that some people have faith and others don't is a popular one. But it is not a true one. Everybody has faith. Everybody is following somebody. What often happens is that people with specific beliefs about God end up backed into a corner, defending their faith against the calm, cool rationality of others. As if they have faith and beliefs and others don't. But that is not true. Let's take an example: Some people believe we were made by a creator who has plans and purposes for his creation, while others believe there is no greater meaning to life, no grand design, and we exist not because of some devine intention but because of random chance. This is not a discussion between people of faith and people who don't have faith. Both perspectives are faith perspectives, built on a system of beliefs. The person who says we are here by chance and there is no greater meaning has just as many beliefs as the person who says there's a creater. Maybe even more. Think about some of the words that are used in these kinds of discussions, one of the most common phrase "open-minded." Often the person with spiritual convictions is seen as close-minded and others are seen as open-minded. What is fascinating to me is that at the center of the Christian faith is the assumption that this life isn't all there is. That there is more to life that the material. That exsistence is not limited to what we can see, touch, measure, taste, hear, and observe. One of the central assertions of the Christian worldview is that there is "more." Those who oppose this insist that this is all there is, that only what we can measure and observe and see with our eyes is real. There is nothing else. Which perspective is more "closed-minded?" Which perspective is "open-minded?" We are all followers of somebody. We are all believers."

Sam Harris looks most specifically at the religious aspect of one major area. Violence and religion. Does he focus on anything else? Does he have any more ridiculous, substanceless, evidence to support his theory? Religion is the glue that holds MANY things together. The seperation of church and state has killed our public education system. Our kids are growing up as needy, cry babies that cannot problem solve a situation to save their lives. They have no discipline, motivation, or will to do anything but sit around a coffee shop and talk about the evils of...well...religion.

Look at our perverted society that is obssessed with sexual advertising and pornography. We have politicians that are wasting their time coming up with a law for strppers to stay 6 feet away from their customers for God's sake. That's the best thing you could be doing? We have a society that breeds child predators. Ever looked at that website that shows you a map of where they live. Look it up. I don't care who you are, I bet there is AT LEAST one that lives within one mile of you.

This is what happens when you take religion out of the world. This is what happens when children do not grow up to know who God is. This is what happens when you live in a world that is affraid to believe in something. People are coward into thinking the same way Sam Harris does because they have nothing else to go by. Basically, they do not know any better.

So, to wrap this up...because I could most definitely go on, I urge ever Chrisitan or person of faith to read this book. Just so you can see where other people are coming from. It will make you mad. It will probably piss you off, but at least you can be equipped to talk about the issue. Religion is the cause of world violence?? You have to be kidding me. If it wasn't fighting over religion, it be fighting over fresh water, or medical supplies, or fresh food, or OTHER beliefs not associated with a god. Please, I feel less intelligent for having wasted my time with this topic.