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Split Focus
Photo by Nazar Strutynsky on Unsplash
I say this to now say that we sometimes went to church (at least until the elders came to the house to collect offerings and ticked off my mother), I didn’t go to catechism, and in third grade, I was best friends with a Jewish girl who had never heard of Jesus until I told her about Him while playing out in the field near the school’s monkey bars. I don’t remember exactly when I found Him, except maybe the one summer I went to vacation Bible school in Farmington and we used felt-covered boards and characters to show Jesus running down the hill away from the big boulder chasing Him from the tomb. The young teen-aged teacher was creative even if not theologically sound.
Despite my less than perfect “churching,” there were four things that I “knew” early on.
- God loves me, is interested in me, and will never forget me.
- God has a plan for my life regardless of how things might look.
- God is present and if I get quiet, I will hear Him and He will show me what to do.
- God is behind things, engineering and allowing my circumstances to move and flow to His liking, revealing His hand in it all, but only in retrospect.
I’ve also learned that I can’t measure God’s love by the degree of ease and pleasure my life might offer. Ease and pleasure have nothing to do with God’s love. Well, sometimes it does, but only when that ease and pleasure points to Him.
Another thing I’ve learned is that He’s perfectly fine with allowing me to live with uncertainty about my own future and safety. I don’t like it, but He seems to have gone out of His way to put me through the boot camp of uncertainty at different times throughout my life, and now I wonder if there is a moment fast approaching when I will understand why.
I’m like anyone else. We want to control what happens, to protect ourselves, to pursue our own dreams, to make stuff happen. And for many of us that means we watch, study, calculate, prognosticate, anticipate, make plans, chase after the heroic, and obsess about what we’ll do to get through.
Don’t do that.
Why?
Because when you do that, when you read the news, listen to the podcasts, and allow the increasingly distorted perspectives of truth come into your mind, it will distract you from the only voice you ought to be seeking right now.
God is always talking. His word is alive and powerful.
Take time to hunker down and listen, be encouraged, and do that of which He asks. Your assignment may not seem like much, but it doesn’t matter. You will only find the strength to stand by doing that which He requires of you … you specifically … no more and no less.
Don’t split your focus. Be all in.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
Henry, yes, it’s not going to work. The Chinese are already stealing our best intellectual genes. Meanwhile the genes they are selling us are substandard knock-off genes, and stealthily edited to instill brooding apprehension and petty pique.
So while we are becoming more “geneurotic”, physically clumsy, and less interested in the STEM sciences, the Chinese population is becoming more irrational, competitive and idiosyncratic. And though they can balance a checkbook in their heads and balance on their heads, in China right now the number one song that everyone is singing is Tears for Fear’s “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. Yet when they gather together in midnight discos and twist their lithe and trim bodies all night in novel displays of interpretive dance to this song, all they show is emotional sterility. And then they invariably turn to angry competitions of 4-player Global Thermonuclear Chess.
It’s not working.
I can’t tell if you are joking or not.
I assume it’s both.
As pointed out above, this would be an inhuman exercise. This is the stuff of Hitler and Mengele. This is defining what is and is not “good” genes. By the way, G-d does not make any “bad” genes. And we are always able to break free from our past or our predecessors genes. G-d gave us free will and we can learn what not to do, as well as what to do from our parents/ancestors (so-called ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ genes). Choices and behavior can override animal-like impulses if we are intentional about it by seeking virtue.
Otherwise, any earthy attempt to “fix” G-d’s creation is foolhardy and fraught with future negative consequences that no one can even imagine. This is eating from the prohibited tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And its consequence is death.
Yes, you’re right, I was just joking. Genetic engineering. What could go wrong?
I could not have said this better.
You and Mark Steyn … making me laugh and think at the same time.
That is kind of Steynian, isn’t it? Thanks for the big compliment.
It totally is! You’re welcome! Get your radio voice in shape.
And @flicker looks like the World’s Most Interesting Man!
I am in love!
Nice couch AND a well-trimmed beard.
So … I’d say this thread has traveled further and wider than ever thought possible. But I appreciate the sentiment.
Yes, that’s me in all my furniture.
God made us body and soul. And the flesh is at war with the spirit. A constant challenge and tension to struggle with.
Isn’t it interesting that Man was created a lifeless object, a body, and then God breathed spirit into it. And he became a living soul. And yet the Holy Spirit is capable of dividing asunder soul and spirit. And we are all considered spiritual vessels. And our spirits can change from one time to the next.
And we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, which can be grieved by our thoughts and actions but does not apparently move out.
Henry…this has been quite the thread and I wanted to get back to you with a book recommendation. It’s probably not like anything you might choose, but I found it to be an amazing experience in reading. It’s called “Chance or the Dance?” by Thomas Howard. Please consider reading it. I think you will enjoy it even if you don’t see the pictures the author is painting.
Exactly! It is the loudest nagging thought in my mind – I want to scream “WAKE UP!” For me, it means challenging the humanistic notion that man has the brains, intellect, skills, and talent to play the role of the Almighty and bring us into a state of perfection. Christ has already done that.
Col 1:19-23 For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile Himself to all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul became a minister.”
Within the context of our discussion around genetic engineering, I must point to the phrase, “He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him …” I think that means we’re good, despite our struggles against sin in our current state.
Soooo interesting … Infinitely interesting Thanks be to God … I’m so glad He doesn’t move out. He gets quiet sometimes, especially when I’ve moved out of my lane, but He’s always there, waiting patiently while working diligently in the deeper regions of my wounded and corrupted soul.
I must say I have received an enormous outpouring of encouragement because of you and the rest of the folks on this thread. It is good.
But G-d doesn’t make people believe in capitalism or evolution. If G-d doesn’t bring people into the most important Truths of our reality, shouldn’t humanity try to step up?
Isn’t capitalism just one name for an intellectual construct? God initiated private ownership. And God upheld private ownership. And moreover God says that one can give away what he wants without interference. And by implication at least, God justifies selling what one owns, and buying what one wants to own. What about capitalism or free market did God leave out?
I definitely need to tighten and focus my argument on that one.
Henry! Your response made me smile. I like Sir Flicker’s response but I want a bite of that apple too. But tomorrow. It’ll give my subconscious time to hear from the collective unconscious while I sleep. 😄
Every thing you said was wrong. If G-d is responsible for every gene. He is responsible for Genghis Khan’s thousands of rapes and his children raping other women.
Those genes probably still influence the number of rapes committed be Asians today. What in the world does G-d have to do with that? Also, does G-d want children to die from a multitude of miserable genetic diseases? That sounds like cults that don’t treat sick people with modern medicine.
I do not have the I.Q. to become a physicist no matter how much I research. I simply don’t have the mathematical I.Q. for that. I never will. I could never have become a Professional basketball player either. We are deeply limited by our genes.
These two studies are part of a growing body of research that suggests that our beliefs are genetic. To begin to address Flicker’s point we don’t freely choose our beliefs. None of us could have thought that slavery should have been abolished before the Scottish Enlightenment. We never had the chance to be that intellectually free.
In a similar fashion, much of our beliefs are determined by our genes and our environment. Maybe we have the spark of free will but it isn’t very big. 30% genetic, 40% cultural 15% chance and 15% freedom if we are lucky.
You are correct that religious faith does lead to some support of capitalism. Study after suggests that Church attendance increase support that free-market policies. However, I don’t think that Christianity necessarily supports the scientific method or Empiricism or the very best of free market philosophy.
G-d and religion doesn’t make people in what is scientifically true from what I have observed. What Christianity does quite well is that it diverts our human desire religion into (usually) positive social institutions. As G.K. Chesterton put it, “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in everything.” Socialism is more of a religion than a political philosophy and it is demonstrably worse than Christianity. What Christianity does not do is focus on the Scientific Method or an empirical analysis of anything.
G-d does not motivate people to think like Thomas Sowell or to learn history or to understand how to interpret scientific data. In a very important way, humanity’s religious impulse is insufficient for the pursuit of knowledge.
I’m not going to argue with you. You apparently are set in your fusion of exaggerated science, primal supernatural spiritualism, and the highly speculative field of religious anthropology. And that’s fine for a start.
Alright I will argue with you a little bit. You deserve a response. Firstly, let me say that we have a difference in world views. You’re trying to assemble a world view from the bits and pieces; from the ground up. I’m trying to explain the pieces from a completed world view, from the top down.
Firstly regarding capitalism. You see a religion that to some degree supports existing capitalism, as if capitalism exists and religions may acknowledge it in some way. I see a God-given right to ownership and to buy and sell, that preexists and is fundamental to what has developed into “capitalism”.
Christianity not only necessarily supports the scientific method, or empiricism, it is its understanding of the nature and character of God that stimulated and is the direct result of knowing God. This is why Christian countries even today excel in science and engineering (Chinese intellectual theft notwithstanding).
What Christianity does quite well is institute the positive social institutions you praise. And human desire to religion is a corruption of the human desire to be with and adore God. Your Chesterton quote actually emphasizes this.
God does motivate people to understand history. Historicity is fundamental to Christianity. Even the Apostles’ Creed includes historical references to make clear that Christ’s life suffering on earth under Pontius Pilate was historical fact. Christian history is documented back 3,500 years and this history is studied by various Christians every day. It is, if anything, non-Christians who have little interest in history.
And again Christianity’s understanding of an ordered and knowable world expressed the confidence in and was the founding impetus of what you cherish as empirical science.
It is not God that should inspire us to interpret scientific data, it is the data that should challenge us to know God.
Christian societies succeed at science because the Catholic Church incorporated Aristotle into their tradition. The Catholic Church did support the idea that the physical world can be understand through the reason given to us by G-d. However, I don’t know if Christianity would be a pro-science religion without Aristotle. A very different counterfactual.
Why does Christianity argue more for empiricism than Aristotle?
Religion existed for thousands of years before the Jews showed up in Sumeria. Humans were religious before anyone ever thought about an Abrahamic G-d.
Christianity inspires people to study history from a moral perspective. Not necessarily an empirical one.
No idea what you talking about there.
Our religious impulse is written on our hearts by our Creator. St. Augustine memorably stated in his Confessions that “our heart is restless, until it rests in You.” [link]
Go outside and look at the sky, the trees, the sun and imagine the earth spinning on its own axis (one revolution equal 24 hours and a day) and imagine the sun and the fact that this same earth is rotating around this sun and that when it completes a full revolution that signifies one year.
Then step back and imagine any other explanation for all of this creation. This was no Big Bang that accomplished this. And next, listen to a NASA scientist explain the creation of man, from conception to birth:
It’s good to have a civil discussion instead of getting shut down before anyone has a chance to explore further.
First, Christians aren’t science deniers as implied in your responses. I would not have been as successful in my career in software/hardware engineering without God’s gifts of wisdom, insights, and capacities to develop specialized skills. My intellect only goes so far.
I’m trying to meet you where I think you are … your world view of reality is science based and you believe that views about reality must be rooted in empirical science alone. Here, I offer examples of Christians in science.
Francis Bacon – English philosopher and statesman who developed the scientific method. According to Wiki, “He believed that philosophy and the natural world must be studied inductively, but argued that we can only study arguments for the existence of God. Information on his attributes (such as nature, action, and purposes) can only come from special revelation.
Gregor Mendel – Founded the science of genetics, identified many of the mathematical rules of heredity, identified recessive and dominant traits.
Ronald Fisher – Unified evolution and natural selection with Mendel’s rules of inheritance, defining the new field of population genetics. Invented experimental design, devised the statistical concept of variance.
Charles Barkla – Believed that science was part of his quest for God. Discovered atoms that have the same number of electrons as their atomic number and that X-rays emitted by excited atoms are fingerprints for the atom.
Carl Friedrich Gauss – Believed that science revealed the immortal human soul and that there is compete unity between science and God. Revolutionized number theory and invented the method of least squares and the fast Fourier transform. Contributed Gauss’s Law and Gauss’s Law for Magnetism to the physical sciences.
John Eccles – Believed in a Divine Providence operating over and above the materialistic happenings of biological evolution. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the physiology of synapses.
Humphrey Davy – Said that God’s design was revealed by chemical investigations. Discovered the electrical nature of chemical bonding.
Ernest Walton – Said science was a way of knowing more about God. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics after he artificially split the atom and proved that E = mc2
Francis Collins – Invented positional cloning. Took part in discovery of genes for cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, and neurofibromatosis.
George Washington Carver – His faith in Jesus was the mechanism through which he carried out his scientific work. Improved the agricultural economy of the US by promoting nitrogen providing peanuts as an alternative crop to cotton to prevent soil depletion.
Blaise Pascal – Devised Pascal’s triangle for binomial coefficients and co-founded probability theory, invented the hydraulic press and the mechanical calculator.
Leonhard Euler – Published more mathematics than any other single mathematician in history.
A handy list of over 30 examples that you may refer to here.