Weighed and Found Wanting

DANIEL5:25-27

"25 And this is the inscription that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN -- numbered, numbered, weighed, divisions.

26 This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingship and brought them to an end;

27 TEKEL, You are weighed in the balances and are found wanting;"

"You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way ... people look at reality, then you can change it." James Arthur Baldwin~

Someday in the future, history will look back on our generation and judge us very harshly. We will be condemned for allowing a whole generation of children to perish from lack of education, lack of positive role models, broken, dysfunctional homes devoid of love, respect, leadership and values; we will be accused for indulging in all manner of vices - debilitating drug abuse, alchoholism, dogmatic religion, gossiping, slander. Make no mistake, our media will indeed be ridiculed for delivering news that bares no marked difference from what we call the tabloids. Headlines that read: "Lindsey Lohan enters rehab AGAIN - See the Pictures She Wished She Never Took!" will be held up as condemning examples.

Our TV stations will be held accountable for airing reality T.V. shows which indulge vociferously in what can only be viewed as almost a celebration of the misfortune of others. Our cinemas will be challenged to justify the depiction of murder and mayhem which we paraded before our very impressionable children. Our leaders will be chastised unforgivably for dragging our nation into war under false pretenses for the sake of increasing the wealth of the wealthiest. We will be found guilty of the crime of allowing millions of our brothers and sisters to suffer without proper healthcare, hunger and malnutrician, inhabitating delapitating living conditions and inhuman housing. We will be called to respond to our ignored genocide, the incarceration and miseducation of the most underprivileged of our society. Oh, yes this generation will be judged most harshly.

However, knowing this I watch television and listen with a wry smile to what the T.V. networks call news not with a sense of impending doom but with a preminition of vast, sweeping change, one that I welcome and long for, understanding as well that such change will call attention to the gaps and holes in our society specifically in order to fill them.

"A nation that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is my opinion that on a large scale, we - this generation, will all have to confront the worst parts of ourselves before we can become the best that we can be. Yet predictably, while having a conversation on what I consider to be the sad state of affairs this generation finds itself in I was confronted with a "welcome to the real world" attitude by the person with whom I was conversing. His attitude was that this was the way things were and I had better get used to it. I often hear ideas like that, promoting what I consider to be a very defeatist attitude. But that does not resonate with me at all. My response to him was: "Not in the world that I live in". But make no mistake I am not Pollyanna living a magical world of faeries. I do live in the real world and I am most certainly a realist.

Yet even as a realist I don't live in a world where it is okay to air people's dirty laundry on the nitely news and pass that off as responsible journalism. It is not okay. I do not live in a world where it is okay to create a sub-class of Americans and turn a blind eye to their suffering. I don't live in a world where it is okay to starve ourselves spiritually and yet indulge in every carnal whim and want we have without recognition of the dyer consequences we will soon face because of it. In my world there will be a day of reckoning.

"In the end the aggressors always destroy themselves, making way for others who know how to cooperate and get along. Life is much less a competitive struggle for survival than a triumph of cooperation and creativity." ~Fritjof Capra

In my world, there are people who can and will stand up for what is right and do create change. In my world there are those who understand that they can make a difference and who further understand that they must first be the difference that they seek. In my world there isn't just hope for the future, the future is hope!

"Every morning is a fresh beginning. Every day is the world made new. Today is a new day. Today is my world made new. I have lived all my life up to this moment, to come to this day. This moment--this day--is as good as any moment in all eternity. I shall make of this day--each moment of this day--a heaven on earth. This is my day of opportunity."~Dan Custer

I will never reconcile myself to the idea that the world is full of predators, abusers and vultures who are set on destroying themselves and anyone else who happens upon their path and stop and live there. To do so would be to sentence myself to a life filled with misery - a miserable reality where I encounter exactly what I am looking for.

"We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them."~Elbert Hubbard

Let's look at a very simple example. If I enter a gathering armed to the hilt with the expectation that I WILL meet someone looking to take advantaged of me; if I am hypervigilent, waiting for any hint that someone might cross my boundary or hurt me then not only would I be focused only on meeting those types of people but I would also present a very unwelcoming, dare I say frightening face to those who are NOT like that.

When we look at the this concept on a microcosmic scale and then apply the same ideology on a macrocosmic scale we can begin to understand that when we see the world as a hostile, unforgiving, evil place that is exactly what it will be. The secret is living in the balance. I see the world for what it is. I see the reality of what goes on. I see the wrong and the evil and the hurt and pain. But I also see the bigger picture.

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."~Thomas Jefferson

I see the pain as a catalyst, the evil as a mirror of what is good. I see the hostility as a symbol of need. I see the call to people who can change the world. I understand that they serve a purpose and what is wrong in the world is calling them to that purpose. I see where the world is heading and know without a doubt that it can only lead to one place - change. A world hell bent for destruction will only find itself eventually engaged in regeneration. Even as death is only the beginning of another state of living, so does birth and regeneration ride on the wings of destruction.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." ~Sir Winston Leonard Spenser Churchill

Intelligent Design

What is Intelligent Design?

"Intelligent Design is an alternative to evolution. It is based on the idea that the world is so complex that it cannot possibly have come into being through random chance. As the name implies, Intelligent Design suggests that some intelligent guiding force assisted in the creation of the world and everything it contains."

What are its implications?

"Intelligent Design is a middle ground between science and religion. It is religious in that it implies a god figure guiding and shaping the development of the Earth and its environment. However, it is not like creationism, because while it suggests a guiding force, the force guides only, it does not create. In that way, Intelligent Design is similar to evolution. Do not make the mistake of confusing the two ideas though.
Evolution is development by superior traits and abilities, leading eventually to a superior creature in the specific environment that it was developed in. Intelligent Design suggests that things are guided towards an ultimate goal, but that goal is not specified."

I find the concept of human beings arguing the concept of evolution over the existence of God amazingly humorous. It is sort of like a computer, having achieved intelligence, arguing AGAINST the existence of it's creator, that is, human beings. Can you imagine that? If such a thing were to happen it would be the height of irony. Since we created the computer and gave it all of it's working mechanisms one could surmise intelligently, I believe, that the computer would have an inferior level of intelligence in comparison to it's creator. To put it plainly, the computer couldn't possibly be "smarter" than a human being, right? Right????

Well, I suppose we would have to tackle the question of what we mean by intelligence to answer that question. Intelligence is defined as:

1. intelligence .n:
   
   
   1: the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from
   experience [ant: stupidity]
   2: a unit responsible for gathering and interpreting
   information about an enemy
   3: secret information about an enemy (or potential enemy); "we
   sent out planes to gather intelligence on their radar
   coverage"
   4: new information about specific and timely events; "they
   awaited news of the outcome" [syn: news, tidings, word]
   5: the operation of gathering information about an enemy [syn:
   intelligence activity, intelligence operation]

So now, looking at the first definition of intelligence, "the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience" I can point to the first flaw in the argument for evolution against intelligent design or in support of an atheist point of view. If we look at human history over all, and I will not limit us to American history or European history but looking at our existence on this earth in its entirety human beings are slow to learn, have an amazing inability to comprehend the most simplistic ideologies and seem to find it very difficult to profit from experience; that is, learn from our mistakes. We repeat the same mistakes over and over again. We seem to lack understanding of the most basic, clear truths. We live in hostility with each other and have done everything in our power collectively to destroy the earth rather than promote life.

The use of the term "intelligent design" began in response to a 1987 United States Supreme Court ruling involving constitutional separation of church and state. I will go out on a limb and suggest it was a way to advocate for the teaching of God without mentioning the name God. Why was that necessary? Well, because of the constitutional law which commands that there must be separation of church and state. In response to the proposal that "intelligent design" be taught in schools, scientists rejected the proposition of teaching a science that points to an origin outside of nature - which I find just down right insulting. It should be clear that the nature in and of itself was created by God.

The problem I have with the theory of evolution is not what it suggests but it's exclusion of the existence of God as our creator. What I am suggesting is that the theory of evolution is not opposed to the theory of intelligent design. Is it not possible the an intelligent designer could have designed a system of evolution?

Why does one theory necessarily have to obviate the existence of another? Science is based on theory, supposedly supported by confirmed data; that is until the data changes or we learn more and understand the data differently. Our understanding of the data we use to support our beliefs changes when our understanding changes. Our understanding evolves as we evolve. So we are, in fact, evolving as we speak - our understanding it evolving!

I personally dislike having conversations about the origin of life. I find the concept that a human being, with such limited capabilities of understanding how to live in harmony with it's neighbor, such an inability to understand the working of it's own body (as is evidenced by our self-destructive behaviors) attempting to tackle the idea of the origin of life as simply ludicrous. How can I, if I do not understand the simple workings of a car, how to shift the gears to get from park to drive, how to turn the wheel to move from point A to point B then roll up my sleeves and attempt to try and not only understand but explain with authority how the car was made! I would suggest to do so would be putting the chicken before the egg.

Evolutionists always challenge believers in "intelligent design" to PROVE their theory. So here it goes, a report in April of 2007 explores mounting concerns of Swiss beekeepers over the mysterious disappearance of Swiss bees.

"Fears among Swiss beekeepers and experts remain high following reports from other countries that many bees have died or mysteriously disappeared during the winter. The bee mortality rate in Swiss hives has been above average in recent years and it is still not known what is killing the insects, which are important for the ecosystem and the rural economy.

In the United States, many beekeepers have reported that they opened their hives after the winter to find the colonies were either completely empty or that only the
queen bee and a few workers were left . . . Other countries, such as Spain, Germany and Britain, have also confirmed higher than average bee mortality rates, although not as high as in the US. The problem also affects Switzerland"

The concern is real because without the bee the whole surrounding ecosystem will be turn on it's head. Without the bee the flowers cannot be pollinated, without pollination, organisms and animals higher up on the food chain will not survive.

The bee and the flower have a symbiotic relationship. One cannot exist without the other. Therefore they must have both evolved at the same time.

The argument of the evolution verses intelligent design is a political one, designed to maintain the separation of church and state. It is a personal one, a refusal to accept that a being greater than ourselves created life and the earth, the solar system and everything that surrounds us. Why such a refusal? One can only wonder. What could possibly be the benefit of arguing AGAINST God?

Matthew 13:43 Then will the righteous Let him who has ears [to hear] be listening, and let him consider and perceive and understand by hearing.