Einstein’s God

 

I’ve been reading (and barely understanding) a really interesting book from a guy named Anthony Flew called “There is a God.” The guy was one of the leading voices of philosophical atheism for years (back in the day he debated with C.S. Lewis), but in 2004 changed course and became a deist. If you can make it through the first 60 pages or so the book is fascinating.

Anyway, the guy has some really interesting quotes from Albert Einstein about the existence of God* that I thought I’d pass along. Hope you find it interesting.

death be not proud

by John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have callèd thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better than thy stroake; why swell’st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

 

Romans 6:9-11 (NLT)
⁹ We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
¹⁰ When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.
¹¹ So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

Revelation 21:3-5 (NLT)
³ I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.
⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
⁵ And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”

Revelation 22:3-5 (NLT)
³ No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.
⁴ And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.
⁵ And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.

hypocrisy: in 100 words or less

I once heard someone say ”the traits we find annoying in other people, are traits we see in ourselves.”

“That’s stupid,” I muttered in return. “I can’t believe how arrogant he is in saying that. How annoying.”

Which of course meant he was right … and that realization’s really messing up my life. I want to judge people in peace, not learn a new exercise in self-awareness.

Jesus said “Pull the plank out of your own eye before removing someone else’s speck.” I suppose because there’s a good chance you’re looking in a mirror.

black swans

I read this book a while back called The Black Swan. I don’t remember much from it — mostly because I wasn’t smart enough to understand it –  but I remember the writer’s main idea. He told how for centuries people believed all swans to be white. If something wasn’t white, it couldn’t be a swan. But then scientists discovered a rare breed of black swans, and what defined a swan as a swan changed forever …

The author’s theory was that humans are consistently presuming that because things have always been a certain way, they always WILL be that way. So no one sees a terrorist attack coming in 2001, even though there was plenty of evidence pointing to it, because most of us had never lived through an attack. And no one saw the epic housing collapse coming because the economy had largely been stable for the last 20 years.

Our inability to know what we don’t know limits us from seeing the truth.

I say this because when I look at the stories of Jesus in the Bible, He seems to be saying something similar.

• In the story of the Prodigal son, he sets up the audience to THINK the second son — the “good” one — will be the hero … and then he becomes the villain.
• In the story of the Good Samaritan, the “heroes” are the priest and levite … but they ignore a man and need. The real hero is a Samaritan who were despised as religious heretics.
• In the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Pharisee – the most faithful religous man in all Israel — is seen as pompous and self-serving, while the tax collector — who allied himself with a tyrannical government to cheat his own people — is the humble one whose prayer God hears.

math problems, flying erasers, broken bones

 

I was bored through most of elementary school, mostly because my teachers kept saying the same things over and over again.

“2+2=4″ they’d say.

“Got it,” I’d say.

5 minutes later …

“So remember, 2+2=4″ they’d say.

“I’m tracking with you on this, we’re good.”

10 minutes later …

“So — and this is important — there’s 2 … and then there’s, you know, another 2 … and then those together — and this is important — equal FOUR.”

And I couldn’t very well scream out “I GET IT!!!!!’ in the middle of class — I would have lost two stars from the behavior board for that — so I’d just stop listening and pretend my eraser was a flying car.

***

I was talking with a friend last night who’s had a rough couple days. It seems like everywhere this person turns they are being forced to deal with the same issue over, and over, and over. At one point in the conversation she said “Okay God, I get it! You can stop now!” And I totally understood the sentiment. I was saying the same thing a month ago, when financially things were falling apart, and I couldn’t find work anywhere. It seemed like every moment of every day God was bludgeoning me with the same message: “trust … financial responsibility … trust … financial responsibility … trust … 2+2=4.”

And I think Christians know we’re supposed to learn something in these moments, and so we try real hard to figure out the lesson. But being in a relationship with God isn’t like an elementary school classroom. God isn’t a losing-her-patience early-30s 2nd grade teacher, and His goal isn’t to teach us spiritual formulas via painful life repetition.

doubt

Matthew 11

After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.^[a]

 

 ²When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples ³to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

 ⁴Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: ⁵The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy^[b]are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. ⁶Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

This is a really weird passage to me. It’s an exchange between Jesus and John the Baptist, the guy who:

• started jumping around in utero when he sensed the equally-unborn baby Jesus nearby.
• took on the role of “preparing the way of the Lord” by rallying the nation of Israel to repentance and prayer.
• cried out “here is the one who has come to take away the sins of the world!” when he sees Jesus one day.
• who tells his followers that he’s going to fade into the background, so that Jesus can become greater.

In other words, if any guy in the world gets Jesus, it’s John. Add to this that Jesus and his followers have — right before this passage — finished a particularly intense period of spiritual butt kicking (chp. 10). The sick are healed. The dead raised. Leprosy cured. Demons cast out. The exact things Isaiah prophesied a thousand years before that the Messiah would do.

You’d think John’s response to all this would be “I TOLD you! You thought I was just a crazy insect eating guy in the desert, but I TOLD you!!” But instead he sends his followers to ask Jesus “are you really the guy God sent to save the world, or should we be looking for someone else.”

the worm: a ridiculously complex allegory about computer viruses and original sin

My history with TV shows is like my history of crushes throughout high school: I’m fairly picky up front, but once I get hooked I’m a little too obsessive.* To my point: I once watched 18 episodes from season 2 of 24 in one day. If the season premiere of Lost’s upcoming (and final) season was shown in a theater I would seriously consider waiting in line all day for it. And most recently, I crashed my entire computer trying to watch season 1 of Fringe online.

*After a long debate over whether to keep that sentence I’ve decided the humor of it trumps the creepiness … I’m not fully confident my judgment’s accurate.

I was watching episodes of the show on a reputable web site, but for reasons that are as unclear as they are unjust, it only contained the first half of the season. So I’m in the middle of this great plotline, and since disconnecting from a good mystery without resolution is to me like pulling someone out of the Matrix without them being at a landline, I had to finish.

And so I started looking through Web sites that were — ahem — a shade less than legal in their adherance to copywrite laws. My justification was that I had to know the ending. That stupid web site was holding out on me, not putting the whole season on there. The universe owed it to me … or something.

Eventually I found a site that — well – if the internet were a city then this wasn’t the red light district, but probably a seedy alleyway within shouting distance of it. I knew it wasn’t a Web site I could trust, but I thought I could get the best of both worlds. I figured I could watch my beloved show Fringe, find out what I was missing, and then jump back into the safe zone of Hulu.com unscathed. But my deal with the devil didn’t work …

christmas thoughts while hiding from an ice storm

Philippians 2:3-7:

 ³ Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

 ⁵ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

 ⁶ Though he was God,^[a]
      he did not think of equality with God
      as something to cling to.
 ⁷ Instead, he gave up his divine privileges^[b];
      he took the humble position of a slave^[c]
      and was born as a human being.

I’m back in Kansas City — home to two horrific pro sports teams, the best BBQ in the world, and my parents — spending Christmas Eve in hiding from the -10 degree wind chill outside. Earlier I was picking up some last minute gifts as 30 mile-an-hour winds were turning normal non-violent sleet into icicle slivers of death. In other words, I’ve already had my fill of winter.

Tonight as a family we read the above passage from Philippians, and my dad talked about how amazing it is that the God of the Universe became a human. What stood out to me is where it says that Jesus didn’t consider being equal with God something to hold on to … to be grasped … he didn’t care so much about his rights.

The irony being that every, single person ever to live — those of us who aren’t God — try to grab hold of being God all the time. I’m not God, and when life proves that by not giving me what I want, I get bent out of shape. It’s not fair. If I were God things would be run better …

But Jesus came down — the one guy the universe really DID revolve around — and he gave it all up. He submitted His life to the will of the Father.

And so while Christmas IS about peace and hope and love and goodwill and all that … it’s also about realizing that — as that Rick Warren guy said — “it’s not about me.”

Not sure this is anything revolutionary, but it’s what I’m thinking about this Christmas Eve.

Avatar (no spoilers)

 

A few thoughts after seeing the movie Avatar last night.

1. James Cameron used 12 years, a few hundred million dollars, and promises of an innovative, revolutionary, epic movie-going experience to build hype for this project. Factor in that his last film was the highest grossing movie ever – literally, ever – and you’d think there was no way Avatar would live up to the promise. But it does. It’s a very old story – Dances With Wolves in a lot of ways – but told perfectly, and with the most impressive visual effects I’ve ever seen. 80% of the movie has to be CGI but I couldn’t tell you where what’s real leaves off, and I forgot all about the distinction 30 minutes in. As an exercise in movie-making, this film’s incredible.

2. Cameron – and I’m just guessing here – but he probably voted for Obama … which is just my ironically understated way of saying this movie has a message about environmental conservation, and the war in Iraq, and America’s track record at dealing with indigenous people … and he beats that drum early and often and – as is the case with most drum beating – it’s not very subtle.  And that’s all well and good, but it seems to me that movies with blatantly Christian/religious themes — the ones that seem to be a bit a preachy and over the top — often get blasted by critics for being heavy-handed. I just think there should be some equal opportunity recognition that movies — political or religious or otherwise — all have their moments of unsubtle agenda-pushing.

1. 3. The way Avatar approaches spirituality is very much in the Buddhist/Native American/Yoda “the spirit of god lives in everything” vein. I was thinking about why this idea appeals to people, and have decided that most people want there to be a god that gives us a purpose or destiny or whatever. AND we want that god to make us feel connected to the people around us, and give us a sense of community. BUT we don’t want that god to be a god with a personality, because that kind of god might expect something out of us. We want there to be a god, but we want him to be there only when we need him/her/it. And I used to say things like this with a wagging finger pointed outwards, but I’ve realized lately I’m the same way. I love the sense of identity and calling that Christianity offers, but I really struggle day in and day out with a God I’m accountable to. That’s the cool AND hard thing about Christianity: it offers a God you can know … but who can also know you, and expect things from you.

Chronicles of a starving artist … and a loving dad.

This isn’t something an aspiring writer-type such as myself is supposed to admit, but …

I usually only write when I feel like it. I’ve heard enough quotes from real writers to know this disqualifies me from their club, but it’s true nonetheless. Real writers, I think, are supposed to be miserable as they write. Writing for them brings self-loathing, and painful introspection, and torturous editing and rewriting and – well – there’s a reason Hemmingway was an alcoholic.

But this particular post – the one you’re reading right now – is different than normal for me. It’s not something I WANT to write exactly. I more feel compelled. I feel like not writing about this would be wrong.

***

 

It started with me sitting in my broken down car, complaining/petitioning/kinda-yelling at God. Now generally I don’t argue with God, for the same reason I try not to argue with Calvinists – I just end up frustrated, and with more questions than answers, and a nagging sense they’re more right than I want to admit.

But at this particular moment, right after my car broke down for the 7^th time in two and a half years, I decided I’d had enough – not just of the car, but in general. I was tired of my failed attempts to get a career going as a writer and a speaker. I was tired of opportunities drying up, stalling out, or sitting frustratingly out of reach. I was tired of wondering how far, exactly, my car could go with the low fuel light on and of wondering how I’d pay my credit card bill. I was tired of overdraft fees and uncomfortable silences when I deposited checks at the banks followed by the ominous words “teller assistance!”

And above all I was tired of complaining about how tired I was of all this.

The self-employed career path wasn’t working – at least not quickly enough – so I had already turned to Plan B a month ago, which was unfortunate for me because, like most  plan b’s, mine was like a fire extinguisher sitting on the wall of a public place: it’s nice to know it’s there, but you always hope it won’t be needed. Plan B was to find a part-time job to supplement life while I got things going. Plan B was my easy out if things fell through.

 But Plan B wasn’t working. I couldn’t find a job anywhere, and when I say “anywhere” I mean that in the Green Eggs and Ham sense of the word:

I could not find one as a cook, I could not find one reading books.

I could not get one in a store, nor selling products door-to-door.

You get the idea.

The pressure – as tracked by debt and bills and email notices from my bank – was building. And then, as I was driving back to the apartment I still owed rent for, my car broke down. So I called for a tow truck using my cell phone that would probably be shut off in a couple days, and sat alone in a Shell station for an hour waiting.

That’s when I lost it.