We talk about it a lot, but we are not in any worse shape than in previous eras of exceeding brokenness. “The falcon cannot hear the falconer.” It comes down to the individual soul unplugging and trying to connect or reconnect to God (or even the idea of God, because we all struggle with it). Knowing our history: Athens and Jerusalem, and how Christianity emerged out of Judaism. And also knowing and accepting that people of today are no more intelligent, and in important ways less intelligent, than people of old. Humility, kindness, curiosity.
Science and particulars pointing to God and how much he cares for us: Thank you for this reminder. It pulls together so much of what I'm usually thinking this time of year as I prepare for fall.
Living in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, (which I wish would literally shade me all day today), and having studied how mountains form through plate tectonics, I am amazed at how God formed this earth so perfect (try studying deep into plate tectonics, water and all of the minerals that make up our rocks and you still come away amazed at God's wisdom and power). If we consider that God put everything in motion purposely shaping the mountains and valleys, filling them with good things and that everything the various Indian tribes needed to survive were here in California when they got here, not to mention the way these mountains and this great valley have provided water and good soil for eons to support us even today (the breadbasket of the United States), I see a good God who loves us and is deeply concerned for our needs.
Dr. Michael Ward in a speech at Hillsdale talked about the relationship between the rational impulse and the spiritual in a way the sheds a lot of light on our current situation. Analysis, the process of taking things apart to examine them, is only half the story. It is equally important to then impose the religious, the tying back together of things. Facts about the natural world are vital and necessary to survival, but living requires the synthesis of the material and the spiritual.
One philosopher has given us a thought-provoking answer to the question of how human existence 'really' appears: Somewhere in infinite space a tin speck may be seen whirling about it: earth. On its surface appears a thin coating of mold otherwise called landscape, life, civilization, habitat of barely visible motes known as people. The whole thing lasts only a moment, then it is over. Schopenhauer is right. Seen from the cosmic point of view, we actually appear so, and it is often difficult to rid ourselves of the feeling that any other conception is illusory. But in events like those just described, the perspective shifts. It becomes evident that for God those mites on the grain of sand lost in immeasurable space are more important than all the light years of astronomy. The few years of human existence, the ten years of solitude that a widow perhaps has before her, weigh more in God's eyes than all the aeons that solar systems require to evolve and decline.
"He too must have his separate nature or he cannot exist for us at all but as an amorphous generality."
I am bothered by the fact that I am much more comfortable engaging in conversations with atheists for there being a divine intelligence behind the world, but I'm much less comfortable talking about the particulars of Christ Jesus being that Divine Intelligence that sits beyond the universe.
I think because in the first instance it is perhaps easier (less uncomfortable) to talk of the generally amorphous He. There is a nice ambiguity about it that I can wiggle my way through, convincing myself that I sound sophisticated. Hmmmm...
We talk about it a lot, but we are not in any worse shape than in previous eras of exceeding brokenness. “The falcon cannot hear the falconer.” It comes down to the individual soul unplugging and trying to connect or reconnect to God (or even the idea of God, because we all struggle with it). Knowing our history: Athens and Jerusalem, and how Christianity emerged out of Judaism. And also knowing and accepting that people of today are no more intelligent, and in important ways less intelligent, than people of old. Humility, kindness, curiosity.
"Astronomy does not change the fact that the heavens declare God’s glory." I may now have a new mantra. Beautiful.
Science and particulars pointing to God and how much he cares for us: Thank you for this reminder. It pulls together so much of what I'm usually thinking this time of year as I prepare for fall.
Living in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, (which I wish would literally shade me all day today), and having studied how mountains form through plate tectonics, I am amazed at how God formed this earth so perfect (try studying deep into plate tectonics, water and all of the minerals that make up our rocks and you still come away amazed at God's wisdom and power). If we consider that God put everything in motion purposely shaping the mountains and valleys, filling them with good things and that everything the various Indian tribes needed to survive were here in California when they got here, not to mention the way these mountains and this great valley have provided water and good soil for eons to support us even today (the breadbasket of the United States), I see a good God who loves us and is deeply concerned for our needs.
Dr. Michael Ward in a speech at Hillsdale talked about the relationship between the rational impulse and the spiritual in a way the sheds a lot of light on our current situation. Analysis, the process of taking things apart to examine them, is only half the story. It is equally important to then impose the religious, the tying back together of things. Facts about the natural world are vital and necessary to survival, but living requires the synthesis of the material and the spiritual.
One philosopher has given us a thought-provoking answer to the question of how human existence 'really' appears: Somewhere in infinite space a tin speck may be seen whirling about it: earth. On its surface appears a thin coating of mold otherwise called landscape, life, civilization, habitat of barely visible motes known as people. The whole thing lasts only a moment, then it is over. Schopenhauer is right. Seen from the cosmic point of view, we actually appear so, and it is often difficult to rid ourselves of the feeling that any other conception is illusory. But in events like those just described, the perspective shifts. It becomes evident that for God those mites on the grain of sand lost in immeasurable space are more important than all the light years of astronomy. The few years of human existence, the ten years of solitude that a widow perhaps has before her, weigh more in God's eyes than all the aeons that solar systems require to evolve and decline.
- Romano Guardini, The Lord
Jesus speaking to Nicodemus:
John 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
I liked it when you interviewed that scientist who was a Christian. That’s kind of like this I think.
"He too must have his separate nature or he cannot exist for us at all but as an amorphous generality."
I am bothered by the fact that I am much more comfortable engaging in conversations with atheists for there being a divine intelligence behind the world, but I'm much less comfortable talking about the particulars of Christ Jesus being that Divine Intelligence that sits beyond the universe.
I think because in the first instance it is perhaps easier (less uncomfortable) to talk of the generally amorphous He. There is a nice ambiguity about it that I can wiggle my way through, convincing myself that I sound sophisticated. Hmmmm...