The “Goodness of Man”

“Hate the sin, love the sinner.” -Mahatma Gandhi

I had the opportunity, while I was riding the bus home, to talk with a young lady on capitalism and socialism. Needless to say, we had different definitions for both words. Another thing we disagreed on, which probably was a major cause for our other disagreement, was the inherent goodness of man. Gandhi was obviously coming from the same perspective that this girl was coming from. However, I disagree with both of them.

“We are concerned not with evil in the abstract, but with the evil person. Jesus bluntly calls the evil person evil. If I am assailed, I am not to condone or justify aggression. Patient endurance of evil does not mean a recognition of its rights. This is sheer sentimentality, and Jesus will have nothing to do with it.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship

Bonhoeffer was speaking against revenge and the necessity to endure evil. I was reading a passage in Scripture this morning that also speaks along the same lines as Bonhoeffer.

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” -I Peter 4:12-19

This young lady claimed that evil comes into the world through society, but if humanity is good, how does a society of good people make those people bad? Wouldn’t society also be good? I don’t know, it sounds a bit stretched to me.

Are logical fallacies used in science?

I have a proposition to make. I am currently taking a sociology class and I find that their whole science is based on what could easily be construed as a logical fallacy. The science of sociology (a lot of the time) could be classified as a non sequitur.

For instance, a boy named Johnny grows up a truant, joining gangs, stealing, doing vandalism, and so on. He ends up in juvenile prison. What is the cause? Many sociologists would attribute it to things like his dad leaving his family when he was young or his mom working all the time to make ends meet with no time left over for him or some other such cause.

None of these would “logically” cause criminal activity. However, it doesn’t make them untrue. Anyone who has experience with human nature knows that they are very likely to be true.

I will show several quotes I found interesting in a moment. I must say first that they come from folks with a different worldview than my own.

“Firstly, logical reasoning is not an absolute law which governs the universe.”

“Secondly, logic is not a set of rules which govern human behavior.” -Source

I find these quotes interesting not because I agree with them (because I don’t), but because I usually find those statements to be true with “logical fallacies” not logic. I would even be so bold as to say that the “fallacy” of a non sequitur is made everyday by people in order to survive. Not to assume that logical fallacies are unimportant because they are important and useful, but to make it clear that because something fits the criteria for a fallacy, it does not necessarily make it invalid. (Wow, there were a lot of negatives in that last sentence. I hope you all can follow it okay ). I know that this is bold because it goes against what a lot of logic and other kinds of teachers would tell you, but I find the view very practical in many academic spheres.

I am finding this sociology class very interesting and I will probably post on it more at another time.

Psalm 14

[1] The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
[2] The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
[3] They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
[4] Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
[5] There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.
[6] Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
[7] Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

(Copied from “Bible: King James Version“)

School has begun!

I have officially started school again. I actually really like school because (this may come as a surprise to some of you) I find those in my colleges academia a little more reasonable than those in the real world. For those of you who wonder what kind of school I go to, it is still very secular and liberal in its thinking, so I do face many opposing worldviews. However, they are less likely to (although sometimes they do it anyways) automatically discount you. Many people come by and say “I believe what I believe and nobody can change that. You’re wrong. You’re wrong. You’re wrong.” What most of the secular world tries to discount as completely false and block from the public eye is still allowed on campus. I don’t know if this is your college experience, though. Many schools do what they can to shut down anything that opposes the personal beliefs of those in charge. Fortunately, many of those schools are being identified for their bigotry and prejudices; even the major league schools are beginning to be identified as such.

Question of the day (for those of you who like to randomly comment) : What is/was the most difficult class you attended and why? Was it the work load or the battle of ideas? Please have fun when answering this question:).

Edit: Looking back, it appears that atheism/evolution is the most popular topic of conversation.

War in Iraq

Sorry that I have not posted in a few days. I got a little busy. Tomorrow, I will be starting school again, so I hope to have a little more meat to post with.

You may notice that I say the war in Iraq and not the Iraq war because the war with Iraq was over the year it began. Just to let everyone know, I do not intend to argue for the war because there are a lot of things concerning it that I disagree with (but I am not completely against it), however this is not the time for me to go into that. What I wanted to share was a personal experience I had the other day. I was talking to a colonel in the army and he told me a little about the time he spent in Berlin, Germany. The first time he was stationed there was in 1986. The second time was in 1991-92. He said that the difference between before the wall came down and after was amazing. He said that afterward, one could move about freely, but still see the effects of communism. The one point he made that I want to draw attention to is that he was stationed there because Berlin was an American military governed city for over 45 years after WWII. Some people I have heard compare the war in Iraq with WWII, mentioning how “short” WWII was in comparison. The problem comes into play when considering the fact that the time we spent actually fighting Iraq was much shorter than the time we spent in WWII. Our occupancy has also been, so far, much shorter (about 40 years shorter).

Anyway, for those of you who are going to start school or already have, I will soon be feeling your pain (actually, I enjoy school:)).

Atheism: A Religion

Something that I find many people misunderstand is that atheism is indeed a religion. Unfortunately, some folks try to say that only Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. are religions and Atheism is excluded. For this I will use the dictionary as my authority.

• “A set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe…”-Dictionary.com
• “A cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” -Merriam Webster
• “A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.” -Yourdictionary.com
• “System: an institutionalized or personal system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine” and “personal beliefs or values: a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by” -World English Dictionary

Atheism fits those definitions. Even the State recognizes Atheism as a religion (they grant Atheist groups the same status as religious groups).

September dawn

I haven’t actually seen this movie, but I found some of the comments people have made concerning Mitt Romney’s campaign in relation to it interesting. Plugged’n has a review and IMDB also has several comments.

All I have to say on Mormonism is this. Mitt Romney on the other hand, I believe he blew it as far as the presidential campaign goes. Even if he seriously changed his mind on homosexuality and abortion, one cannot be sure as a voter. One wouldn’t know what they were getting by making him president.

Atheism: Math is not needed

Ken Ham had a very funny post about the American Atheist magazine concerning an article they wrote on the Creation Museum. Fabrication isn’t a problem for someone who claims that there is no such thing as absolute truth.

Of course, the claim that there is no absolute truth is defeating in and of itself because that would mean that the claim is absolutely true.

Linked!

I was linked to by the “Real Liberal Christian Church” for my post on General Petraeus. Although being linked by them is pretty insignificant, I do find their name a little strange, which brings me to my next topic: “Liberal Christians.”

Note: I am not accusing the above group of anything. I have not read enough of their site to make any judgment. It is quite possible that they are the exact opposite of liberal Christianity.

I have often seen a bumper sticker that says, “Jesus was a liberal.” Frankly, that is a little sickening. Jesus was neither a “liberal” or “conservative” according to our modern day political jargon. Although, I do personally see more of what is called conservatism in Christ’s teaching, I would never attempt to place him in a political party. Nations rise and fall and political parties do the same. Christ is in complete control of that. We should rather trust him and ally ourselves with him instead of with a nation (or party). Follow that which is infallible, rather than that which is fallible.

Several good Scripture passages (KJV) concerning the nations:

• Psalm 47:2-3 “For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.”
• Psalm 22:27-29 “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.”
• Psalm 9:19-20 “Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men.”
• Job 12:22-24 “He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.”

(A Final Note: I will write later about the liberal church. It is a difficult subject with a lot of history.)

Bull Riding and Hillary Clinton

Just got back from our state fair with my family. My siblings are in 4-H dairy goats. At the start of the fair, we all got tickets to the rodeo (which was quite enjoyable). It turned out to be much cheaper than the county rodeo we went to earlier this year. The only thing that the county rodeo had going for it was this one comment that the announcer made:

While he was joking around with the clown, Hillary Clinton’s name came up and he stopped joking and said to the audience, “Whatever you do, please make sure that women doesn’t make it into the White House. She was there before and didn’t do any good.” I guess one could expect that sentiment to run amongst a bunch of cowboys, but it was still rather funny.

Even the announcer at the state fair rodeo mentioned that he likes rodeos because you don’t have to be politically correct.

I guess cowboys will be cowboys (and always fit their stereotype).