Awesome Dude

This guy, while reviled by some, is pretty awesome.  Sometimes I wish as I had changed my mind I could have done something like this.  Luckily I was not close enough friends w/ Molotov cocktail making retards to have done much. 

Problem of Evil: Natural Disasters

While we can explain the evil of this world based on idea that man has fallen, how do we connect this to 'Acts of God'?  Does God kill people?  Well.  Here we should turn to Genesis three again, and Romans 8 as I mentioned before.  The natural world, thanks to man's sin, is cursed. Paul says that creation cries out for Christ's return. So do we (that is the feeling of oughtness I referenced before).

The long and the short of it is that no one is free from sin, the wages of sin is death, and therefore a natural disaster that kills people just brings about the inevitable: this life is limited.  There is no righteous man, not even one.

It seems to me that where folks get bolluxed on this one is that they think of themselves as 'basically good.' Well, I am not basically good.  I am wretched and fallen. When you encounter someone who thinks that bad things shouldn't happen to 'good' people, ask them where they set the bar for 'good people.' You will inevitably find they always set it a little conveniently lower than where they are. 

Problem of Evil: Another World is Possible?

Is another world possible?  Not until Christ metes out perfect justice.  Don't get me wrong, I think Shane Clairborne is an admirable guy.  I agree that we should focus on living our own lives as Christ-like as possible.  I also agree that our hope is not in this world.  That just doesn't lead me to 'anarchism'—whatever that even means.  (An 'anarchist' world would make ours look like sunshine and lollipops, but more more on that later). 

Let's put 'Christian anarchists' aside for now since I think we more wish to argue with regular old God-hating anarchists/punks/activists/leftists.  The message we need to deliver to these people is this:  capitalism, democracy, or whatever is not the right enemy.  Sin is. 

People concerned primarily with social justice often completely lack personal justice.  Activists I know are not only the most sexually immoral people I have ever met, they are also the most, disloyal, lying, stealing and cheating.  They have elevated their feeling of oughtness about social justice to the point where it had drowned out their feeling of outness (otherwise known as a conscience) in their personal lives.  You cannot escape Genesis Three. 

Problem of Evil: Genesis Three

This is one of the most common apologetics for atheism/agnosticism. How can a loving personal God preside over a world with so much cruelty and sadness—not just at the hands of evil men, but also from natural causes?  I introduced this topic below with a personal anecdote b/c I believe this is when it becomes most trying to faith. 

The cold unfeeling hand of cruelty and death seems to be more at home in a random, purposeless universe.  However, it more clearly leads to God.  This is because we live in a Genesis Three world.  The earth is cursed by our rebellion (Romans 8). 

Each of us feels an ought-ness about this world that remains woefully unfulfilled.  The activist is simply a loud reaction to this universal impulse.  They feel, falsely, that there are material conditions that are keeping the world from being the way that it should be.  So they march, write books, and create political parties, societies, kibbutzim, communes, and utopias.  They all fail.  There is no one you can elect, there is no system you can put in place, no material need you can satisfy that will rid the world of evil–natural or anthropogenic. 

Maclash?

Funny.  I was just thinking to myself the other day that Mac has gotten so popular that there is going to be a backlash.  I even thought that if times were different I might bet in favor of MS in the market.  Then I see that the Glenn Reynolds has already of course identified the trend.  

O'Doyle Rules!

So I was reading this post from Rod Dreher and it reminded me of what I said to my wife yesterday while we were spending an unfortunate afternoon at Tyson's Corner mall.  Looking around at the pornographic, anti-Christian, anti-American propaganda that passes for ads these days, and the way rich suburban teenagers dress and talk, I said to my wife: remember that scene from Billy Madison?  Where he tells the O'Doyles that he has a feeling they are going down soon?  It's hard not to get that feeling looking at these people.  Also a very funny clip.

Keffiyeh

When you see a hipster wearing a keffiyeh, this is what they are knowingly or unknowlingly supporting.  Genocide of the Jewish people is not cool.  The fact that it is still so fervently sought by so many of all manner of non-Christians is also a powerful apologetic.  Why would the Jewish people be so hated by all of the non-Christian world if there were not some veracity to their status as God's chosen?