SOMETHING 

Not dated but before 2008.  I think written while in my car at a lunch break.

There is something wonderful here——-

 I am surrounded by something,  what is it?

Why does it not jump out at me and proclaim it’s presence?

I can reach within and feel the nearness of God.  He says “open up, free yourself, let yourself loose from your petty concerns”.

I’m missing the boat.  I’m caught up in myself and my world.  I can’t get free.  I need HELP.

And God says, “You’re fine.  You don’t need anything.  I gave you what you need.  It’s inside you.  It’s there”.

“Look at the beauty of my world and the beauty of my creation, even you.  You are surrounded by it and are a part of it”.

Life is a mystery.  Full of wonderment and unsolved questions.  Perhaps one of the foolishnesses of Man is to believe we have the capability to understand the true nature of things.  But we try, and our human knowledge base increases.  I think that the net results of this “Intellect” is to help us truly understand and appreciate the complexity and genius of our creator.  

To be alive and think is to know the miracle of life and feel blessed by this gift.  It is given to us to totally understand or comprehend the nature of being.  We may have the ability and tools to learn to appreciate and define how awesome the things we are given truly are.

When given something of great beauty, why is it our nature to take it apart and try to understand what makes it tick, rather than to accept and reflect on the incredible act of generosity in the giving?  We may have missed the boat.

                          Living by PRINCIPLE

I was 14 years old when I laid the foundations of a philosophy of life. I remember the moment well.

I lay on my back, in the cool grass, beneath a giant elm, it’s leaves dancing from a gentle breeze.  Rays of golden sun stream down through the branches and leaves, sending bright beam of light through them.  The leaves shine and come alive with vibrant colors.  Above the tree, bellows of  clouds slowly move across a deep blue sky, creating a panoramic living picture. 
In the wonderment of the majestic beauty in my vision, I ponder the mystery of my existence.

A profound thought plants itself in my consciousness.

       “THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD RESIDES IN  ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES  NOT                                          THE PRACTICAL REALITIES OF LIFE”
                                         
This will define me.  This will be the focus that helps create who I am.  Principles will be a priority in my life.
                    _____________________________________________________

The individual survives by practical reality.  You cannot get away from the time tested “rules and laws”, established  by societies and legal systems to regulate behaviors for the good of all.  They are the reality the individual must comply with to be comfortable and acceptable in society. Society judges, enforces, and rewards practical behavior. To exist in society, the rules and laws must be followed.  LIFE necessitates conformity.

Principles are standards of thought and behavior that have moral and ethical roots.  They are decisions based on “rightness”. They are pure and idealistic.  They are not easy to live and can be counterproductive to a comfortable life. Principles are abstract ideas that are controlled by the conscience and integrity of the individual. Their reward is within a person; self-satisfaction, self-esteem. 

The need to conform is so compelling that it is difficult to live a life that focuses on abstract principles.  The personal challenge is:

     To establish sound principles 
    To make principles a foundation of my character.    .
        To require a standard of righteousness as a foundation of principle.
            To stay focused on my purpose and personal conviction
                To have courage and perseverance
                    To be willing to pay the cost of a life of principle   

    
     A measure of the beauty within me is my ability to live up to the principles that lie at the core
     of my identity.  

FRUSTRATION

Chaos weakens the process of the mind and constant turmoil clouds rationality. The persistent march of time makes the stage we act on a vanity. We are a finite microcosm in an evolution made static by our shortness of life. The realities of the human condition forces us to practicality and a sustained substandard existence. Survival wearies the tired spirit. We persevere but are spoiled by the unpleasantness of our environment. Rules and laws, meant to protect us from the lowest standards of Man, become our standards to live by. Our life seems to have no sanctuaries and our futility is only rescued by mindless apathy. Our wisdom is confused by the overwhelming scope of human knowledge, and yet we struggle to understand and hope to learn. Beauty and heroism surround us, but unrecognized, we are left searching and yearning rescue. This is the state our frustrations leave us with.

The enlightenment of Man is conquest of frustration. We overcome the darkness by our beliefs and hopes. We conquer death by living the moment. We vanquish defeat by principled courage and face our enemies with mindful optimism. Our salvation comes with searching out and living ideals and incorporating them into our character. Ignorance and reality crushes, but the spirit of Man soars with higher standards of value. The richness of righteousness lifts us to reach for the beauty and heroism we did not see and our struggles with justice and truth become the promise of our humanity.

REFLECTIONS

There exist affairs of the mind and affairs of the heart. The mind acts to set the plan- to decide- to survive- to put into motion- to react. The heart is passive- it is response.

A person should try to understand the affairs of the heart. It exist as a function of who that person is. A person is defined by his ability to recognize the affairs of the heart- to be open- to be honest-to handle the things he carries inside him. When the heart, with it's feelings, needs and desires become inconvenient and conflict with the practicality of the mind, that is when the character of the person is fundamental to his processing. The way he maintains balance is critical.

The measure of a person is often seen in how he handles himself in situations of conflicts of the heart. How does he balance integrity, responsibility and fairness with needs and desires.

The mind always leads you in directions of what you should do. The correct, best action. The direction of the heart results in honest action without ulterior motive or hidden agenda.

The Measure of LOVE

Words are limited and their message speaks to the moment.
Actions can convey purpose and intent, but are not conclusive and are subject to insensitivity and misinterpretation.
Gifts are definable by the relative pertinence of cost, but lack personal intimacy.
A more accurate measure of love is the CONSISTENCY of words, actions and gifts over TIME.

Risk is such an admirable quality. Not the kinds of risk that border on stupidity, but the risks and daring to seek out life and it's abundance. The safe way leads to the well traveled, known paths.

Their is a word "Empathy". It is interesting because it conveys a character trait. It is not something a person can generate easily. It is something that is a reflection of the character of a person. The capacity, the ability, the willingness, the effort to generate "empathy", lies in the existence of those feelings within that person. It's existence is a fact only in the individual capable of creating it.

The nature of a person is a product of many factors. A person is not born kind- he becomes kind. A person becomes who he is. Empathy does not exist in the person who is so self-centered and self-absorbed he could never get inside another's feelings. On the other hand, empathy is a beautiful and productive trait to the individual who is kind, generous and sensitive.

There are some very interesting factors to the concept of empathy. It puts a person in a very vulnerable position to reach out to another's pain. It cries out against instincts of self survival and well-being. It contradicts the practicality of taking care of yourself. From this fact it is apparent that one of the conditions to becoming a person with empathy is becoming a person with enough courage and self confidence to be able to sacrifice. To be invulnerable enough to allow yourself to be vulnerable. To have confidence inside yourself, of yourself.
Synonymous with empathy is "caring. The naturalness of the caring person is again a product of becoming. Do we naturally care, or do we learn to care?

There are forces that drive a person. They come from many sources and carry powers to control and direct a person's life. The power within a person to be in control of himself is predicated by his energy, courage, and strength to assert himself against opposing forces. To overcome, in spite of.

To see the person:
fighting, opposing, asserting against the flow, A rebel without selling out, decisive, purposeful, taking risk. The courage to face life, accepting who you are. Taking care of agenda important to you. Expending enormous energy.

Courage is one of the most beautiful components of Man. The risk in spite of possible failure. Conquest of fear. Self assurance, self esteem.

In between a man's reality and fantasy lies his true nature. Strangely, it is not what he is, as perceived and conditioned by his real world around him, or even what he wishes to be in an imagined non-real world. His nature is really a product of abstract ideas and the extent of his abilities to incorporate them into his persona. Herein lies the foundations of his actions, whether in the real practical world, or the perceived fantasy world, or various mixtures of both that exist around him.

We have words for a dreamer- "out of touch with reality", "head in the clouds", "in wonderland"
And for the realist- "shortsighted, Narrow-minded","Lacks vision", "feet on the ground".
The problem is that neither of these describe what a man really is. This way to look at a person with neither "his feet on the ground" or "head in the clouds", acknowledges that the factor to identify what a person is may not be under what is seen, said, heard, or dreamed, but what underlies his actions, his principle, his character.

The real world is full of fallacies, lies, poor perceptions, and deceptions, and is never is seems to be. The fantasy world is also full of fanciful dreams, wishes and non-truths. It really does not exist. Taking these concepts to the identity of a person is similar to the real and fantasy worlds. The person is NOT either of these concepts- real and fantasy. It follows then, to look into the true nature of a person or even yourself, the place to look is not in these directions. Where then lies the way to find the true nature of yourself or another? Actions are deceptive- they are often inconsistent and ambiguous. I would not wish to be judged by my actions. My actions fail me. Also, many times I am restricted to inaction. I would not wish to be judged by my inactions. As I battle myself, I realize the realities as seen by my actions is not who I really am. I do not believe anyone does "everything" they want to or should, nor, does not do everything they wantto or should not.

In the same way the fantasy explanations and perceptions one conjures up about actions and thoughts is so and unreal that it is foolish to let yourself get carried away with wishful mockeries.
I wish I was the fantastic person I want to be, and can try to be, but I know these concepts and beliefs of myself are not true, just wishful. I would not believe the grandiose nature of another and know that these things are not me either.

The concepts that makeup a person are the key to who he is. The nature of that person is best defined by his ability to live up to or incorporate these concepts. (Concepts=principles, philosophies, abstract beliefs, ethics, integrity, etc.). Realities are failures. Fantasies are frivolous ventures. The beauty in character is the ability of the person to be who he is conceptually.

THOUGHTS

I am born to a time and place that becomes the beginnings of who I am. It is a finite part of infinity, marked with such short duration in the scheme of all history, but defined by all that came before. I am taught all the rules of my time and learn the game of survival. I am not only the pawn of when, but the product of where and what. My life will evolve from this start and be well defined before I ever start knowing, or wondering, who I am. All learning, maturation, ideas, and dreams are controlled by the time and place I was born to. It is only in the individuality that I assert in my life, that I can ever be more than the recipient of the things I was born to and the chances of opportunity within that life. My fate is not sealed and I am not without my free will.

History is a great teacher. The present is no more then evolving History. Within History is stored all the lessons, knowledge and education of Mankind. The present state of humanity is the sum total of lessons learned and forgotten, technology used and abused, and the ever growing complexity of religions, mores, societies and cultures, jumbled together to make a world. Into that PRESENT is thrown the individual, the newborn, to learn, to be taught, to a lesser or higher degree.

Your best memories are not of the times you were sensible, and "safe" can be the path of the coward. Tis why regrets are often the things you don't do, rather than what you did badly?

Do not fail to notice the beauty that is life.

Of all of the senses to hone- sensitivity is the best.

All those beautiful stories nobody heard.

Opportunity does not always knock, sometimes it just whispers in your ear.

Good is better than evil. To accept this can set the stage for your life.

Strive to be the best you can be.

Don't let life pass you by- be aware of life around you- see beauty- stay in touch with your environment.

Don't let things get you down/ be cheerful/ be optimistic
.
Be sensitive to others/ hear their story/ be just/ be kind.

Don't take things for granted/ be thankful.

Conquer fear/ be brave/ be strong/ don't give up

Worship God/ recognize creation/ see the power and authority of God/ Be prayerful/ study/ be aware of the spirit.

Can I take my mind and soar to new heights, do something, be something- new, better?

Am I only a product of influences in my life? Can I not create and be different?

Are generations after generations always the same and individuality non-existent?

This I know- that my last breathe and this breathe and the breathes to follow were all a different times. An the time to come is not the same- it can be created and is unique.

I change with time- with each heartbeat and breathe and blink of an eye. I age- I tire- I think an evolve
.
The limits of my body are much more finite than my mind. That is free and bound only by the limits my intellect put on it. The freedom of the mind is the door to creating, not in reality but in fantasy.

Do not run from reality- face your truths- conquer your fear- that is the noble way.

It is not the unasked for adversity that is the problem- it's existence is an unfortunate reality.
But the strength inside you to standup to this reality and squarely defeat it is the noble way.

Nobility is comprised of your tools inside you that hold you together in battle.

                               TRUTH


Truth is not found by  rationalization, speculation, or even realization, but by INSPIRATION.  What that means is that our quest for truth does not lie in our intellect or discovery by science, but as a gift from God. 

I searched for Truth by reason.  I studied and found God as as a very reasonable explanation for creation.  By making reasoned decisions based on whatever supportive knowledge and experiences I could,  I pursued  Christianity.  The  experience of believing in Christ and finally accepting something beyond facts and provable evidences, through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, was the path to Truth.  It is my Faith that sustains me in that Truth.

I am fascinated by Science, History, Theology, Philosophy, and all the other products of the human mind (like medicine, cosmology, politics, etc.).  I have loved and take pride in the accomplishments of human intellect.  I have always pursued these things in my search for answers, to give meaning and purpose to life.  With such high regard for humanities ability to Discover and Reason, it was surprising to find that these pursuits were in vain.  The ultimate answers lie in my beliefs, beyond the scope of evidence.  The mind receives the knowledge of the Truth through God’s  gift of the Holy Spirit.

The ability to accept Jesus is so hard for the rational, intellectually driven, evidence driven, scientific mind to do.  The scientific mind is so based on factual evidences and rational theories, that will not easily surrender to unprovable beliefs.  In addition, this mind set can become so conditioned as to actively resist and disapprove of anyone thinking differently.  For such a mind the word Belief becomes synonymous with Stupidity. Without an open-mindedness and a heartfelt search for truths beyond hardcore evidences, the scientist is not compelled to find God. Even the many mysteries that lie beyond our current “science” present no credibility for the existence of God.  The semantics says it all.  Faith relies on Belief in the absence of evidence and the foundation of Science is Facts, proven by supporting evidence.  

The underlying difference of the Faithful and the Scientist is the use of reason.  The existence of God is reasonably apparent to the Faithful in everything; beauty of nature, the complexities of life, the vastness of the universe, and the written Word of God.  The Scientist does not see God’s hand in creation, nor believes the Bible, and so, reasons that future discovery will prove God is  a myth.  Both the Christian and the non-believing Scientist have intellect and the ability to reason, but come to entirely opposite conclusions.  In actuality, a grey zone exists with the agnostic scientist and the extremes of some sects of Christians.  Also, since many people believe scientific evidences do not contradict Christianity, and even help support the existence of God and Christ,  the disparity is hardly a simple I believe and you don’t.

It is always hard to be “labeled”.  My experiences with religion and science are very personal and unique.   I do not have to be like all Christians or all Scientist.  My individuality cries out for the freedom to express myself and not be grouped with fanatics, skeptics, or even identified with any  organizations.  I weary of the battles that wage between scientist who “label” and lump all Christians together as naive, unreasonable, non-thinking, self-denying, conditioned followers: and Christians who “label” all non-believing scientists as arrogant, self-centered, unenlightened,  pseudo-intellectual, heretics. 


               

PREMISE
There are two basic premises that I have made a part of my life. One is that I will take responsibility for my life and beliefs. The second is that I believe I was created by God, whose nature is Love, as exemplified by Jesus. Once I decided to make these two premises become major factors in my life they have defined my identity. I have attempted to make them more of an influence then other things, like my country and culture I live in, or family and society. This mentality controls my life and is the foundation for the development of my character. I can establish myself much clearer, having accountability only to myself and God. I can make decisions based on my beliefs, negating the frivolous type reasoning of governments, religions, bureaucracy, and even society. I can establish an identity that is unique to my beliefs.

The act of taking personal responsibility for myself is very liberating and allows more independence and exercise of free will. The basic premise of believing in God leads me into a realm of accepting things in terms of "Principles", rather than the "Practicalities" that exist in life today. I believe principles are superior and I define them as benevolence, composed of ideas like love, generosity, goodwill, forgiveness and serenity. Practicalities are defined by ideas like power, ambition, conformity, wealth, and other factors that define modern survival in Man. I know it is not easy to live a life based on principles and the battles in my life will be to not sell out.

REASON
The ability to reason is man’s heritage. The problem is that it is a predisposition, that, if not exercised, is inert. We surrender reason as a society by letting others do the thinking for us. We surrender reason to "unreasonableness" for conformity, for laziness, for fear, for insecurity, for malicious intent, for convenience, and when we relinquish our own personal qualities of leadership, direction, and courage. The loss of reason leaves us defenseless to the worst of mankind, and we become controlled by the bigotry, aggression, tyranny, and the greed or opportunism of others. We accept things that are against our own judgement and intellect, allowing us to not take responsibility for behaviors that go against our own reason. This has long been the problem of Man’s malicious behavior; the cause of wars, the cause of injustice, the cause of inactivity against prejudice and bigotry. The evil within Man is freed by the unwillingness or inability to exercise reason. Man is a creature of habit and is pulled by needs of survival and biological drives. Our reason and free will are our heritage that separates us from rest of the animal kingdom. The freedom to exercise reason is the best in Man and can rescue us from actions against the good of our species. We possess a benevolence that can oppose the forces of malicious intent. As long as we continually surrender reason, we are subject to a nature of evil that is unreasonable and counterproductive for the harmony and survival of Man. 

The mind can reason the best way, the right way, the correct way, but when we act against ourselves and others, we are selling out. The ultimate goals of cooperation, getting along with others, showing kindness, finding peace, and protecting the well being of oneself and others, are reasonable; the acts of war and destruction, prejudice, hate, and jealousies, are unreasonable. When we are controlled or are forced to react with unreasonableness we negate our intellect. The free man lives by reason. The unreasonableness of man puts us in chains. We can survive by reason, we are doomed by unreasonableness. A conscious regard for reason is a path that leads to the best of mankind. The fool surrenders his reason for others. The fool acts without reason. The fool sells out the best in himself for the unreasonableness that surrounds and seduces him. He will surrender his conscious goodwill to the forces of prejudice and greed. 

BELIEF
Belief should not be blind. Belief should be an extension of reason. If reasonableness is an intellectual process then belief should have a foundation of intellect. You should have reasons for beliefs. 

Beliefs exist in the absence of facts. The need for facts to define your truths can create a deficit in your potential as a person because many things cannot be confirmed or addressed by facts. The ambiguity of interpretations of data leaves a nebulous, ill-defined gap in the intellectual process that produces facts. There are also a huge variety of abstract ideologies in life that are never definable by facts. These include the ideas of love, righteousness, justice and spirituality which are vague and interpretative. These are the higher qualities a person establishes as part of his character and are enforced by his beliefs. If a person’s character is made up of higher abstract ideas and principles, and those ideas consist of reasoned out beliefs, then the foundations of that person’s character are strong. The rationality of reason as the basis for beliefs produces a consistency of the mind, as opposed to a blind or conditioned reasoning process, that is both ambiguous and subject to change of conditions. Since the interrelationship of what we know and what we believe is what makes up who we are, the use of reason for forming beliefs increases your control over your identity and character. 

A person processes his beliefs from data that falls far short of absolute truths, such as believing in love and belief in God. Looking at belief from a reasoning perspective, it follows that the more thought and energy a person puts into his beliefs, the stronger and more definitive his beliefs are. It is as irrational for a person to believe "blindly" as it is for a person to act blindly. Both blind belief and blind action negate reason, and undermine the heritage of intellect in Man.

The natural inquisitiveness of Man (his need to know) is the power pushing the pursuit of knowledge, asking questions, attacking mystery, and creating a tension and restlessness about the shortcomings of what we really know. A belief system is an extension of inquisitiveness that is an attempt to find satisfaction and credibility in the absence of absolute truths. Blind beliefs are circumvented by the pursuit of information and supportive mental process to supplement the acceptability of beliefs and is a much more rational approach to forming beliefs . 

1. All Stories by Gordon H. Hisayasu 

12-29-18. Compelling Belief

My continuous theme is that God created and designed everything for humans. I can even feel that God had all of us, even as individuals, in mind when He created. There are so many factors and unexplainable conditions that make the creation of even myself and the life I live possible. In reality, I know my life best. In a very short 75 years, all my thoughts and beliefs were formed. The beauty and wonder of the discoveries of creation made it impossible for me to ignore the conclusion that God is not involved. I came to this conclusion over many years of studying science, reading the Bible, and trying to understand meaning and purpose for existence of the universe, and of myself. The extreme complexity and design unveiled by science made the most reasonable answer for creation to be God. Everything leads me to an undeniable conclusion that creation is far beyond what humans can comprehend.

Searching for truth required me to get past prejudice, biases, cultural and social influences, or relinquishing my own reasoning to others. I tried for the most part to rely on my own intellect and reason to come to conclusions. I sought data to be as discerning and rational as I could be. It required trying to avoid basing beliefs on seductive influences, perceived and real fears, weaknesses, and even emotions.

My life reflects the ambiguous nature of religion, science, philosophy, and life’s experiences and environment. I went from Christian, to agnostic, to atheist, and back to Christian. Ultimately, it may not matter where you’ve been, but where you end up. What all my life is about may be to explain how I came to the conclusion that God is in control of everything. I know my reason will be unreasonable to others, and my personal ideas will offend others, and I could be wrong, but I will trust God that I am where He wants me to be. Since I write so much, and it is so repetitive and differs over many years, I will try to define this “Compelling Belief”.

1. Science.

I have made numerous writings and even a video trying to describe how science has made discoveries that lead me to believe God is the best, most reasonable explanation for creation. The “could be”, “maybe”, and “we don’t know” in the numerous theories expounded are sometimes so speculative, strange, and weakly supported that I have become very disappointed in the intensity of which science tries to assert it’s theories. They inflate their theories like gems of elegant wisdom and on TV have the same showmanship as commercial news or politics. They desperately use sensationalism to expound their fantasies as truth and reason. Theories like the multiverse, parallel worlds, extra dimensions, and the idea that possible exoplanets are compatible for life without solid evidence has shocked me at these things being called science. They are wild ideas based on extreme theories. All totally unprovable. So I become left with discerning if God is not more reasonable.

The phrase “life as we know it” has become so repetitive and abused by science that after awhile it is embarrassing to hear. This is because the existence of life is so very complex and of such ingenious design that none of the sciences have come up with plausible ideas to explain it. I would like to know what kind of life they imagine with water and a habitual zone? What is a model for simple life, not to mention complex life without DNA? The conditions for “life as we know it” are so unique that science continually states without our large gaseous planets, sun, moon, extinctions, plate tectonics, magnetic fields, DNA, the Higgs boson, etc., etc., there would be no life. Science leaves such large gaps when trying to explain “origins” like the singularity, abiogenesis, consciousness, and evolution. The Anthropic Principle, both weak and strong, implies our existence is the results of properties unexplained by our known scientific data, but we know we exist because we exist. Science doesn’t know where life came from, or even has good theories trying to explain our origins. The probability of unusual, improbable coincidences, lucky circumstances, and the multitude of fortuitous facts and fine tuned conditions make it virtually impossible for any life like ours to exist elsewhere or at all.

Envision if we wanted to create life, and had to start with nothing. It is not like making a robot because we need to also create the materials, tools, and design to bring this life into existence. We would also possibly need to create a universe that has trillions upon trillions of planets to create one suitable as a home for our creation. Also, one additional thing to remember, our creation is not alive, so we need to figure that out. The robots we humans create from the materials we have on hand are not alive. Makes you think about how smart God is, and about how deficit our intellect is.

There is a reason I started with science. It is something I emphasized all my life. It is something I always wrote about. It is science that brought me to the conclusion that God (a God) created everything. God is undefinable as creator because science and myself don’t really know what or who He is (a force of nature, a supreme intellectual entity, a magician?). Science defines God, to me, as beyond comprehension, of such wonder, mystery, and power as to be able to create. Scientific discovery reveals the complexity, genius, and, seemingly, directed purpose (human life?) of His plan of creation. My “Anthropic Principle” says, “We exist because God made it possible”. Science is the beginning of my compelling belief. The rest follows.

1. Religion

Religion is a topic that has always been on my mind throughout my life. I wanted to study comparative religions but never really got around to it. While science pursues “what” and “how” things are and came to be, it essentially ignores “why”. Religion is one way Man tries to understand “meaning and purpose “. Religion is a quest for answers of “why”. Ultimately, my curiosity is to determine what is my place in creation.

I have been told that humans throughout the ages have always sought religion. This may be to bring meaning and hope for life beyond the apparent finality of death. I am a human and also do not want to accept the apparent surrender of “ashes to ashes” of the atheistic scientist (scientist say, “stardust to stardust”). If belief is thought to be a “crutch” against fear of death, then it is welcome, especially if the belief is true. I do not look at religion as a crutch, but as a hope. It is optimism and gratitude of not only a life given, but of an escape from the vanity of death.

It is hard to discern if religions are a bunch of fables and myths because, frankly, they sound like them. Advocating reasonableness as opposed to blind faith, I attempted to define my beliefs as a product of intellect and reason. Reason is difficult to use to rectify unprovable beliefs. Religion as an unprovable belief can be thought of as similar to an unproven theory of science. I used study and discernment to come to my most probable belief. This turned out to be in God as creator. Atheists tout “In Reason We Trust” as their response to the fallacy of religious faith. This seems ludicrous to me given the historic “unreasonableness” of humans. I suppose trusting in God seems equally ludicrous to atheists.

My belief as a Christian is also guided by revelation and inspiration, so a compelling belief needs further explanations.

1. Bible.

I went to church in my youth and initially developed a foundation in Christianity. The Bible was a part of my life, though not a strong study component until later in life. I lost my faith through doubts, many having to do with science. As I returned back to my belief, I felt that some part of God was with me, guiding me. I could not surrender reason for belief, and so, constantly studied science and the Bible to help me understand my commitment to God. This is when the Bible helped me find “the” God.

It is the Bible that describes the character and plan of God in human terms. It is the Bible that demonstrates a personal God, invested in His creation. The Bible introduces many mysteries about life that I normally don’t think about. I found everything there. Topics like sin, heaven and hell, a spiritual realm, holy, and Jesus add to my confusion about life. It is the Bible that tells me that God is love, as exemplified by His grace.

The Bible is described as the Word of God by Man. As a conscious, intelligent human being I needed to know what the Bible is to me. As I study more and more, I realize that the Bible seems to have insight beyond the wisdom, words, and understanding of Man. This is subjective, but becomes more reasonable as I study into the depths of context and meaning in the Bible. The credibility of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, written by Man, is by belief.

I became disillusioned when learning how the Bible was formed (canonization) and the many controversial translations by so-called bible scholars. Now I have reached a compromise within myself, accepting what I can reasonably understand, not discounting what I can’t believe, and letting unresolved things remain as mystery to me. A thing science easily does. It is not to say I don’t trust God for understanding, but more, that I don’t trust human interpretations. This makes my study of the Bible a maturation in progress.

The word compromise is looked down on by Christians who think anything that appears contrary to traditional biblical beliefs is wrong. By their standards, can a scientist ever be a Christian? The Big Bang theory, physics, evolution, cosmology, genetics, paleontology, and even many aspects of biology and human physiology are seemingly contradictory to parts of the Bible. Do we also throw out seemingly controversial aspects of history and philosophy we don’t like? The Bible, to some, seems to contradict itself. What does that mean?

To me there are two categories of people that I choose to ignore, the closed-minded scientist and the dogmatic biblical scholar. I can live with questions and not surrender my faith to irrational, unreasonable interpretations of scientific theories or overzealous biblical beliefs. I remain faithful by God’s grace, not my own understanding, or anybody else’s.

The compelling nature of the Word of God is in the deep insights and revelations it reveals about creation and Man’s history and destiny. It is an act of faith to let the Bible establish the conclusions to my quest for answers. Strangely, as doubts diminish with a growing relationship with God and the assurance of my belief is confirmed by strength of conviction, I am finding peace within myself. It is not the Bible that is so compelling, but is the story it tells. Christianity is the final solution.

1. Jesus

Jesus Christ is a historic figure, compelling and pertinent to our present world, and relevant in my life as describe in the Bible, mainly the New Testament. The character of Jesus is what first drew me to him. There is not even a close equal to Him in my life. What He did in His ministry to God is amazing and truly does glorify His Father, but what He said is even more pertinent. Jesus said for us to be humble, meek, and to surrender ourself to God. The world says to be self-sufficient, have self-esteem, survive and take care of yourself. Jesus said to be generous, kind, and to love your enemies. He said He was sent by God to pay the price for our sins. He said that to believe in Him is to receive everlasting life. Then He followed up His words with the sacrifice of His life by crucifixion. Believing in Jesus as the Son of God is what defines me as a Christian.

There is evidence of the historic Jesus, inasmuch that His life was followed by more written validation than for any human ever born on Earth. It is not hard to believe Jesus the person and the record of his words. Believing what He said about himself, God, and our relationship with God is hard because it is without concrete evidence. Believing in Jesus as the Son of God is beyond the scope of rational and reasonable, and, in addition, His words carry with it an inferred obligation to be a follower and to serve God which makes belief harder still. It is a choice some say you make and others say God makes for you. Either way from your point of view you must discern what you will believe.

I never wanted to be a follower type person and am a loner and independent by nature. Also, this world was always calling me to take what I can from life for my pleasure so I became part of this world for a time and lost my initial conviction for Christ. I reassessed my life and reinstated my Christianity. I strongly feel that God made this possible because, frankly, I strongly feel I would not have made that decision on my own. A path to God is so different to all persons. The route to or away from God varies with each individual. I am a Christian by God’s grace. I am a Christian because I chose to believe that what Jesus said is true and He is the Son of God.

Believing in “a” God, “the” God, the Bible, and Jesus as the Son of God are all a part of who I am. In my lifetime, these beliefs were influenced by numerous factors. I am the sum of many parts. These may be summarized by my philosophy of life.

1. Philosophy

Life is full of many things that make you who you are. It is a process of adapting to the many changes and lessons encountered throughout the different phases of growth and maturation. I wanted to study philosophy but it ended up much like my interest in comparative religions and never really happened. However, the concept of developing a set of ideas to live by appealed to me. In my youth, the life of Christ influenced me. His standard of life was so moral and idealistic it created an unreachable goal to aspire to. My very early philosophies of life were founded on the idea of the pursuit of abstract ideas like love, kindness, gentleness, and humility, as opposed to the principles of practicality like goals, security, rules and laws, and conformity. I focused my life on “character” and decided I could be who I wanted to be. I just had to decide who that was.

Life is like running through a gauntlet. I strove for idealism’s, like integrity and righteousness, and was victimized by my harsh realities. My weaknesses and vulnerabilities got in the way of my path to “who I wanted to be”. My initial persistent idealistic “head in the clouds” ideas were not religious. They were philosophical by my standards. Ideas and principles pulled from a lot of reading and a complex, diverse life I think everybody lives. Like a snowflake, no two lives are much more than similar, and mentally probably miles apart. So like Confucius, Taoism, Proverbs, or just plain Benjamin Franklin I wrote my thoughts, draw from and most likely stolen from their minds and writings. I owned my thoughts, without wondering where they came from, so many things like the following sprung to my mind:

Pieces of knowledge, lying like fragments of a puzzle, even when put together, create a picture we cannot comprehend.

Of all the senses to hone, sensitivity is best.

Do not fail to notice the beauty that is life.

Opportunity doesn’t always knock, sometimes it just whispers in your ear.

If you minimize and eliminate some of your neediness, you will be less unsatisfied.

Pages and pages of these insights were written, but I also wrote essays on things like Responsibility, Love, Character, Frustration, and even one titled “Normalcy”. These were not religious, but I later started writing about Creation, Belief, Vanity, Life, Death, and many other topics that were part of my Christian discovery.

Living up to manufactured ideas and principles was very similar to trying to live up to God’s commandments. There was a major difference. The high ideas I manufactured were often in direct conflict with my opportunistic personal desires in life, while my living up to the high standards of God required obedience. They can somewhat be thought of as being similar fights with human nature, but the motives are entirely different. One is to serve self while the latter is to serve God.

How does reason standup to a “compelling belief” devoid of the type of evidences required by the logic of science?

6. Reason

Reason is an ability we inherited with our intellect. If belief is a product of reason, it carries a responsibility to be part of an intellectual process that is honest and not biased. Seeking truth should not be a surrender of conscious reasonableness to pressures of fears and prejudices. Searching for answers that have no evidence requires a need to use my brain in a rational yet speculative manner. My beliefs should be logical and the best possible explanation to my questions.

So how does a rational person believe in something so mysterious and irrational as God? This question is not frivolous. Who is God? What is God? Where does He live? In Heaven? Where’s that?

I recently thought about how does God keep track of me (as in GPS)? We are constantly in motion, rotating on Earth, circulating around the sun, spinning around our galaxy the Milky Way, and our galaxy accelerating through space. I found out we are moving at about 3 million miles/hour. Does God abide in us, or with us? Is He omnipresent? How does He know where I am? I don’t know.

I can go on and on about questions in cosmology, abiogenesis, anthropology, genetics, evolution, etc., etc., etc.. Many things science doesn’t know, and I don’t know.

From what I infer from science, God must be so intelligent, powerful, and ingenious to create. I rationally don’t suppose of God as a magician, which means creation was not a snap of the finger. When I try to paint, since I’m a lousy artist, things never come out like I plan. I ask myself, what kind of genius is necessary to start with an explosion of a singularity and end up with the creation of me? I don’t know.

Not knowing does not stop science from making many “theories” to answer questions. In a like manner, not knowing does not stop me from “believing”. That belief is based on the realization that God exist as the most rational, probable, possible answer to questions.

So after much thought, because I don’t advocate blind faith, I chose to believe in God. My path to God is by reason, which may have been necessary for someone like me to have a stronger faith.

1. Revelation

Revelation is a surprising turn of events for a person of reason. It is hard to surrender reason, so when the Bible says, “Lean not on your own understanding”, I tend to rebel. The mind is a great gift from God so why ignore it? For me the turn from the “compelling worldly life” to “compelling belief” was by act of God because I couldn’t do it on my own. I had to recognize something so irrational as the Spirit of God leading me in the direction of Faith. Since I think living a life of Christianity is not easy in this world, the act of believing was indeed hard for me.

A believing Christian will never seem rational to an unbeliever. Belief is by no means easy. The path is not only “narrow”, but difficult for most, and impossible for some.

I am one of those difficult, reasoning type believers. My path was not only filled with the doubts of a “doubting Thomas” but also of the modern, doubting scientist-like person. Is revelation and inspiration an epiphany sent by God? Is “compelling” from God? I think so, but I don’t know. So revelation to me is a trust in God as the source for my belief in Jesus. Trust in God succeeds reason. If you know me, you know that relinquishing reason is not easy.

I do not want to run from hard questions. Questions like: defining Israelite biblical history in conjunction with opposing archeological discoveries; resolving different contradictory biblical interpretations from each other; or simply trying to make sense out of the Tower of Babel, create unanswered conflict. Even harder questions in science or Christianity revolve around the questions of “why”. Science hardly tries to answer questions of “why” and the Bible almost says it is not for us to know. I can listen to the conjecture of others or try to come to my own resolution, but ultimately I must surrender to the fact that I will not know answers for many questions. Reason cannot provide answers. The revelation from God is that I don’t need to know. My curiosity and seeking answers is vain. The destiny for my life is in God’s hands. I will still ask questions. I am built that way. However, I have been given Truth through the grace of God and answers can wait. I have received an unshakable, compelling belief.

Sent from my iPad

3-19-2019

Science, the Bible, and Me

In my thoughts, study, and writings I just came upon something that really bothered me.  As a Christian do I need to defend the Bible? Probably just as important, can I?

Science disputes the Bible in relationship to the Bible’s truth about creation, history, and the existence of a divine entity. How can I believe in the Bible and maintain a sense of reasonableness for science?

I read too much to not be aware of the intellectual and scholarly battle science and religion wage. I feel, and sort of know, where I am in this immense and historical war of the minds. I am a naive and undereducated outsider. That is true, but I still have my opinions and have spent a lot of my 75 years thinking and writing my thoughts. Those opinions have always been to myself and unshared, except for more recent attempts to type and utilize the internet to record my ideas. Strangely, I now write to be read.

I just read an article (2-19-2019) “Can Christians add the Big Bang to the Bible?”. It exposed the apparent discrepancies of Genesis’s timeline of God’s 6 day creation to the Big Bang Theory. From a personal side, the article exposed my shortsightedness in the Bible and science. I pulled the article today because I just happened to be writing and thinking about the “singularity” of the Big Bang Theory. I have always felt open to criticize science theories but the bothering question was do I critique the Bible?

I have an answer, of sorts, that I should clarify to myself. This is scary because I have easily said, “I will trust God to help me discern the truths in the Bible”. I also readily acknowledge to myself that there is much I don’t understand in the Bible or about God. My prevailing bale out is I will leave the things I question in the Bible for God to enlighten me about, or, I just won’t know. This is not very acceptable because I never go against the Bible, even when I don’t understand it, but will vigorously dispute science’s claim on truth.

So let me try to be honest, at least to myself. If you take a claim that Genesis says the Sun and moon were created after the Earth, and compare it to all the cosmological data of formations of solar systems, Genesis seems very wrong. I really don’t think science is wrong about the way planets are formed, so is the Bible wrong in my eyes? My normal “I don’t know” is a good answer. To be more honest, I must admit that the way creation is described on day 4 makes no sense. I will examine what the phrase “makes no sense” means to me in relationship to the Bible.

I am not an advocate of the idea that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. At least not the Bible we have. This makes me a bad Christian, but I have studied the Bible hard enough, and argued about interpretations frequently enough to feel there are contradictions. Many of these are product of flaws in translations, or maybe flaws in my interpretations. However, I think it is very naive to think that the canonization of the Bible was flawless or totally inspired by God, or that transcription errors were not made. I think what makes me a good Christian is that I believe the Bible reveals who God is and what His plan of salvation is through Jesus. What “makes sense” to me is I know of God and Jesus through the Bible, and believe.

If you ever hear a man say believe me because I’m perfect, or a scientist say believe me because I’m smart, beware. If the Bible says every word in the Bible is true, are you so conditioned as to believe it just because that’s what it says? I am not sure when we started to call the Bible the “Word of God”. Was it before Revelations was written, or after? I’m not sure that what we call the scriptures is exactly what Jesus or the apostles call the scriptures. I wish I knew for sure who wrote Genesis because it doesn’t sound the same as the other books of the Pentateuch. There are so many hard to believe stories in the Bible. I have trouble with God using the rib of Adam for the formation of woman, or the Tower of Babel, or Sampson’s long hair as the source of his strength, and probably many others if I think about them. I don’t really think about them because the Bible is an amazing book of God, definitely inspired by God, not necessarily written by God, and one source God uses to reveal Himself to humanity. I do believe God reveals Himself in many other ways, one of which is science. If I were to say I am a Christian because I believe Jesus is the Son of God as revealed in the gospels, is that enough? Do I also have to say, without a doubt, I believe every word in the Bible?

I need to follow up with a clarification. I don’t think the Bible disputes science much. I have a strong tendency to feel that science needs to defend science much more than a Christian needs to defend the Bible. The history of theories is not good. Science’s defense of theories seems so desperate and, at times, contrived. I defend the Bible because it may be a vehicle for the salvation of the scientist. The scientist defends for the sake of their own sense of rightness. I will ask the scientist denying God, do I need to believe you so my ashes will rest in peace?

3-19-2019

Science, the Bible, and Me

In my thoughts, study, and writings I just came upon something that really bothered me.  As a Christian do I need to defend the Bible?  Probably just as important, can I?

Science disputes the Bible in relationship to the Bible’s truth about creation, history, and the existence of a divine entity.  How can I believe in the Bible and maintain a sense of reasonableness for science?

I read too much to not be aware of the intellectual and scholarly battle science and religion wage.  I feel, and sort of know, where I am in this immense and historical war of the minds.  I am a naive and undereducated outsider.  That is true, but I still have my opinions and have spent a lot of my 75 years thinking and writing my thoughts.  Those opinions have always been to myself and unshared, except for more recent attempts to type and utilize the internet to record my ideas.  Strangely, I now write to be read.

I just read an article (3-19-2019) “Can Christians add the Big Bang to the Bible?”.  It exposed the apparent discrepancies of Genesis’s timeline of God’s 6 day creation to the Big Bang Theory.  From a personal side, the article exposed my shortsightedness in the Bible and science.  I pulled the article today because I just happened to be writing and thinking about the “singularity” of the Big Bang Theory.  I have always felt open to criticize science theories but the bothering question was do I critique the Bible?  I have an answer, of sorts, that I need to clarify for myself.  This is scary because I have easily said, “I will trust God to help me discern the truths in the Bible”.  I also readily acknowledge to myself that there is much I don’t understand in the Bible or about God.  Am I really rationalizing and am afraid to criticize the Bible?  My prevailing bale out is I will leave the things I question in the Bible for God to enlighten me about, or, I just won’t know.  This is not very acceptable because I never go against the Bible, even when I don’t understand it, but will vigorously dispute science’s claim on truth.  

So let me try to be honest, at least to myself.  If you take a claim that Genesis says the Sun and moon were created after the Earth, and compare it to all the cosmological data of formations of solar systems, Genesis seems very wrong.  I really don’t think science is wrong about the way planets are formed, so is the Bible wrong in my eyes?  My normal “I don’t know” is a good answer.  To be more honest, I must admit that the way creation is described on day 4 makes no sense.  I will examine what the phrase “makes no sense” means to me in relationship to the Bible.

I need to follow up with a clarification.  I don’t think the Bible disputes science much.  I have a strong tendency to feel that science needs to defend science much more than a Christian needs to defend the Bible.  The history of theories for science is not good.  Science’s defense of theories seems so desperate and, at times, contrived.  I defend the Bible as my means for the revelation of God’s plan of salvation from sin by my belief in Jesus as the Son of God. The scientist defends their theories for the sake of their own sense of rightness.  My belief serves and glorifies God.  Science’s theories glorify human intellect.  

The man of science supposes that human intelligence can eventually expose the truth and the fallacy of false beliefs.  The Christian searches for confirmation of his beliefs and finds that the Bible (his source of truth) says that God will assist his understanding. Resolution lies in conviction and the ability of the individual to assert his view of the truth.  I have certainly found that resolve strong for both sides.

Also for some reason science seems drawn to condemn the Christian as foolish and mislead.  I have never seen science try to prove God.  Instead, science actively pursues it's naturalistic theory of creation and mocks the Word of God.  As a Christian I strongly oppose the aggressive, dogmatic criticism  that Christians have among themselves and others.  It is not scriptural.  As for the scientist who actively attack belief in God, I wonder why?  Can they be so sure they are right as to lead people to a position of disbelief that offers little in the way of purpose and hope.  Is their intellect and reason so superior?  This is why I can't steer clear of this topic.

The arrogance of Humanity is to feel that they are the great wonder of the universe.  They take the greatest, most complex design of nature and proclaim that their intellect can unlock the mysteries of existence.  They throw into high gear the so called "God spot(s)" coupled with their superior ability of free-will (or to choose) and decide their is no God.  For some reason they don't need proof of this like they seem to require of all else to establish credibility and reasonableness.  After all, it isn't a theory.  Now they can teach their children that the highest purpose of Humanity is to serve Humanity.  That survival only encompasses our brief, finite life ("dust to dust"), so make the most out of it.  There is a truth in the Bible that says "eat, drink and make merry for tomorrow you may die".  They can relish the fact that they have truth and life can be fun. They can tell their innocent, vulnerable child about the foolishness to have Faith and the Hope of a life after death.  Tell them the brain of Man is the source of higher abstract ideas and moral purpose.  If their higher purpose is reality and facts, they should not forget to tell them Humanity isn't all that great.  Tell them how Man is in the process of killing off most other species of animals (Anthropocene extinction?), and hopefully are smart enough to not kill ourselves off in the process (the suggestion is to find another home). Tell them how we use our intellect to create tools to dominate, conquer and destroy everything, even ourselves.  How we use our greed, vanity, and competitive nature, call it ambition, to get fame and fortune.  How we use our ability to be cruel and malicious to punish and kill our enemies.  How we manipulate natural selection and intellectually create technology to select our own interest over all others.  How we have a short, but great time, without God.  We may have been formed by the  process of Naturalism, but what we humans have done seems far from natural.     

The Bible- Reality

I realized in a bible study I have been a part of for the last three years that I have very different ideas about the Bible.  I don’t express these often but they reveal a wide gap I created in my ideas about Christianity from my questions.  This is due to the inquisitive nature I developed with processing religion and science.  When I started to write about the Bible and science I found it very difficult.  The abundance of unanswered questions accented the difficulty in accepting the Bible as the unqualified Word of God.  Reason needed to be addressed to validate my assurances and credibility of my own Christian beliefs.  I do not accept “blind” faith in myself so I needed to be honest about the questions and process of my reasoning in studying the reality of the Bible.  This writing is a revelation in process.

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THE BIBLE TO A CHRISTIAN

The Bible is “the greatest book ever written”.  It is the most read, copied, and quoted book ever published.  It is the inspiration for Christians and the foundation of their Faith.  It is God’s message to Mankind and paves a path to the ultimate fate of each and every person.  Life is vain without the Hope that the Bible gives Man’s destiny.  The wonder of expression, insight, revelation, and divine narrative is the reflection of the mystery of God.  What the Bible says to us is unbelievable and the following is just examples.

The Bible is the means God uses to reveal Himself to Man.  

The Bible is God’s message that characterizes God and tells how He revealed a  concept of one God to the Israelites.  

The Bible describes God as creator, of unlimited knowledge, control, and power over  everything.  

The Bibles’s scope encompasses the beginning of the cosmos, to the prophecy of the  end times of the world.  

The Bible describes God’s plan for the world and presents an account of the fulfillment  of His plan through a historic journey of the Israelites, His chosen people.  

The Bible is a story of God’s relationship to Man and describes a sinful, constantly  disobedient humanity.  

The Bible is a harsh story of Man’s disobedience to God and our weakness as humans. 

The Bible tells us God hates sin and the penalty for sin is death.

The Bible teaches us that perhaps we have a special destiny and purpose and we are  not just another more intelligent animal.  

The Bible presents each of us with an alternate reality of what life is and what it’s  meaning may be.  

The Bible exposes a novel reality that we are created for a relationship with God.  

The Bible reveals God and Jesus as the Truth.  

The Bible reveals a benevolent God who loves us and offers us a means for a  redemption of sin through His son, Jesus Christ.  

The Bible personifies God and describes Jesus in human terms.  

The Bible tells how Jesus was crucified to be payment for our sins and how He was  resurrected to exemplify His victory over death.  

The Bible clearly states that our salvation and victory over death is contingent on our  ability to believe in Jesus as the Son of God.  

The Bible tells us our belief is the beginning of our journey with God.  

The Bible explains the details of our path to  redemption and salvation and how to  please God.  

The Bible answers questions of “meaning and purpose” for us, the “conscious and  sapient life” (Anthropic Principle) on Earth.  

The Bible is the “greatest book ever written”, when you believe it.  

The Bible is the Word of God, leading us to Christianity and our salvation.

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THE BIBLE AND THE MIND

It is interesting to me of how many Christians have bridged the gap of belief and truth by circumventing or surrendering reason.  When the Bible states that human wisdom leads to foolishness, understanding is though the Spirit of God,  and fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, it is infers that Man is deficient and God is the guiding influence for truth.  Some “blindly” accept this.  For myself, not being able to blindly accept anything, and believing that one great asset God gave to humanity is our ability to reason, my journey to God involves my mind for exploring and trying to understand.  My curiosity, asking abundant questions, drive to study and learn, need to try to be open and honest with myself, and constant pursuit for a reasonableness of my beliefs, are part of my nature.  Even though my intellect creates hard questions, contradictions, and conceptual and interpretive problems in my Christian belief,  I accept the challenge and feel God will help me.  

The Bible says "seek and ye shall find".   It takes a curious mind to seek, discern, and to believe.  There is a philosophical sense to our intellect for me.  I have always reflected on the superiority of the human mind.   We love and hate, imagine and speculate, create and destroy, and do many other special things with our mind.  Our mind gives us the ability to be curious.  Curiosity is just one special function Man has from his superior brain.  The brain allows humans unique talents like, being able to memorize events and data, process complex ideas, have wild imagination and speculations, reading and writing, building and creating, and communicating with each other, among many other things.  I emphasize curiosity to highlight it's importance.  It is innate in Man, sort of a predisposition, like a compelling need to climb a mountain.  If we were not curious, and could not visually "see" creation with our eyes and invented technology, we would not discover the wonders of God. 

The ability to reason is a gift from God, but it is also a burden.  Our God-given superior human intellect allows us to be reasonable, rational, and hopefully as openminded as possible.  Reasonableness makes it hard to find Truth.   Our mind is filled with unresolved questions, irrational theories, unfounded speculations, unsupported conclusions, and unprovable data.  Answers are seldom fulfilling or complete. Truth is often unsupported by facts and data.  The “Truth” is elusive, undefined, abstract, subjective, and hardly recognizable “absolute”.  Our reason as a tool for belief may be the closest way to find a credible Truth, of sorts.  With our mind comes the curiosity that compels a search for the elusive Truth. 

Beliefs are hard to justify because it is hard to ignore things that make no sense to you.  When the Bible “makes no sense” an explanation or understanding is warranted.  With the abundance of questions, the rarity of answers, and the pursuit of reasonableness, comes the difficulty in forming beliefs.  Though questions may not be answered, the credibility of your belief lets you put explanations and understanding on hold.   The Bible ask us to “lean not on our own understanding”,  to surrender our will to God, and to acknowledge the authority of God. Using intellect to “chose” a path to God (perhaps led by God) and defy, or surrender, your reasoning is indeed humbling to arrogant Man.  A believing Christian will never seem rational to an unbeliever.  The span of not believing in God runs from the committed atheist to the agnostic that does not want to totally say no.  The span of believing Christians is also diversified, as exemplified by the amount of time and effort they put into practicing their belief, as seen by the degree of priority they put in God in the face of the many distractions throughout life.  Belief is by no means easy.  Our inherited, or evolved, or given intellect is the essence of our search for the credibility of our beliefs. The path is not only “narrow”, but difficult for most, and impossible for some.  With the reality of Christianity comes the realization that “all things are possible for the Lord” and “the Lord sure do work in mysterious ways” (movie- Sargent York).

There is always doubt in belief.  It is that incredible mind of Man that makes decisions and discernment so hard, and feeds the seeds of doubts.  The Bible says to study and to trust.  The very complexity, difficulties of understanding, and commitments demanded by God in the Bible require presence of mind.  Surely we are not given a mind to acquiesce to mindlessness.  Perhaps, only the assurances received after death will alleviate doubts?

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THE BIBLE AND THE SECULAR WORLD

To say the Bible is difficult to believe has always been understated by Christians.  While it is hard for Christians, it is almost impossible for the secular world to accept the authority of the Bible as the Word of God.  The Bible makes this really clear, stating about how hard it is and how few people will accept God’s Word over the temptations  of a carnal, secular world.  The secular world becomes especially disenfranchised when Christian explanations seem to be mostly quotes from the Bible.  It becomes easier to understand the polarization this causes when stated differently.  The unanswered questions that arise for Christians require them to trust their reasoning to God. The secular world trust their intellect (“In Reason We Trust”).  They use reason to intellectually challenge the credibility of Christians, pointing out the contradictions and their incredulous claims of Biblical truths.  Christians respond with the Bible and spiritual inspiration for answers.  The secular world wants you to believe in the power of human intellect and the Christian wants you to believe in God’s Holy Spirit for understanding.  Neither side offers definitive proofs that can give convincing resolution to critical questions.  Both sides claim the reasonableness of their claims.

It should not be too hard for the Christian to understand the skepticism of the secular world for the Bible because we do not surrender our sinful human nature when we become a Christian.  We are Christian because of a “change of heart” and a willingness to surrender our will to God.  As such, we can understand the mentality of the secular world because surrender of our “will” does not mean we are surrendering our human nature.  That human nature is still present to tempt us to sin.  The Bible says we are in the world of the “flesh”, but as Christians we are “reborn” into a “spiritual” world.  We can understand the secular world because we still live in the world of flesh until death.  

The Bible states that Man is given dominion over all animals on the Earth, but also that Satan has dominion over the evil, carnal, hedonistic world.  The intensity of a Christian’s battle with sin is seen in our efforts to believe and serve God against the forces of Satan.  The Bible makes Satan real.  The secular world, and even some Christians, tend to look at Satan as a symbolic figure of evil.  Many Christians don’t easily acknowledge demons, possession, and the devil.  Jesus did not face evil in the desert as temptations of fame, wealth and power.  He was presented these temptation through Satan, an evil entity.  Satan is not a cartoon character or Halloween costume.  How can the secular world recognize a Christian’s battle with sin if they are skeptical of the existence of a Devil.  How can they understand the sinfulness of worldly temptations?   Before the Bible, Christians did not accept sinfulness as disobedience to God’s Laws.  The Bible makes realization and confession of your sinful disobedience a necessary step for becoming a Christian.  

The secular mind boldly and arrogantly acknowledges the wonder and scope of  it’s discoveries of the cosmos.  It proclaims that their superior intellect can unlock the mysteries of existence.  Their trust in human reason allows them to declare  there is no God.  They allow themselves to maintain the credibility of their declaration of no God without proof.  It is not stated as a theory, but an inferred fact.  The secular philosophy is that the intellect of Man, not God, is the source of higher abstract ideas and moral purpose.  They teach their children that the highest purpose of Humanity is to serve Humanity.  They teach that survival is the goal of human’s brief, finite life ("dust to dust").  Life is short, so it is best to make the most out of it and have fun. 

The secular world tells their innocent, vulnerable child about the foolishness to have Faith and the Hope of a life after death, because there is no life after death.   Some state that they do not fear death.  The secular world bravely attempts to be be honest with themselves, even unto death.  Death is an inevitable conclusion to life.  The secular world not believing God gave them life, why should they think God can give them eternal life?

However, if the secular world wants to honestly portray reality and facts, they should not forget to tell their kids that Humanity isn't all that great.  They should confess how Man is in the process of killing off most other species of animals (Anthropocene extinction), and maybe ourselves.  They could also mention how we use our intellect to create weapons of mass destruction to dominate, conquer, and destroy.  How our greed, vanity, and competitive nature (envy, jealousy,and ambition), are maliciously used to get fame and fortune.  How we use our ability to be cruel to punish and kill our enemies.  How we manipulate nature and create technology to greedily pursue our own human interest over the welfare of the world.  They should also confess they do not intellectually know what life is, much less death.  Their conclusions are suppositions. 

The question for the secular world is do they have the Truth?    Humanity chooses between the Bible and the reality they live in.  In fact, most don’t choose.  Reality often ignores the question of belief in God or Jesus.  A world without God is before our eyes.  Satan has dominion.  Life is hard enough as it is.  Survival and distractions are the tools of the devil.  We are brainwashed by the secular world.  It does not matter what Truth is if you don’t seek it.  If you don’t seek God it is hard to find Him.  That is the major strength the secular world has, apathy.  The secular world easily teaches the lessons of false religions, atheist, and agnostics, and the world listens.    

The Bible tells us to live a spiritual life with God and to not be part of the secular world.   Jesus says “I am the Way, the Life, and the Truth”.  It is the victory of the Bible to find God in a Godless world.  The value of the Bible is to teach humanity the Truth.  

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THE BIBLE AS THE WORD OF GOD

I am not sure when we started to call the Bible the “Word of God”.  Was it before Revelations was written, or after?  How does calling Jesus the “Word” compare with calling the Bible the Word of God?  I’m not sure that what we call the Scriptures is exactly what Jesus or the apostles called the Scriptures.  I wish I knew for sure who wrote Genesis because it doesn’t sound the same as the other books of the Pentateuch.  It is hard to discern if the stories in the Bible are a bunch of fables and myths because, frankly, they sound like them.  The Bible is not clear on many things. If you ever hear a man say believe me because I’m perfect, or a scientist say believe me because I’m smart, beware.  If the Bible says every word in the Bible is true, are you so conditioned as to believe it just because that’s what it says about itself? 

The credibility of the Bible makes more sense because it is so real.  The Bible certainly doesn’t  try to sugarcoat itself.  It is written to get a message out and doesn’t edit or protect itself.  It could be less controversial and easier to understand.  In the Old Testament, God is portrayed as a vindictive, jealous, harsh deity, to be feared, and demanding worship.  God destroyed most of Man with a flood and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire.  With stark reality the Bible predicts and tells of wars, famine, and disease.  It is not a message we want to hear.  God’s actions are painful and hard to take.  God makes no excuses, demands strict obedience, punishes, and ask Man to go against his nature.  God teaches a very hard lesson to Man.  It’s message is written and given to Man as an honest and stark reality.  

The Bible could be easier on itself.   For one it could write of it’s heroes without exposing their innate sins and weaknesses.  Most or maybe all of the humans in the Bible were very flawed.  Moses killed a man and rejected God at first.  Adam and Eve both disobeyed God directly.  Abraham “took” his handmaiden and gave his wife to a king.  David, Solomon, Jonas, and Sampson were all very flawed.  It could also tell more credible stories that are easier to believe.  Thinking of God using the rib of Adam for the formation of woman, or the Tower of Babel as the source of the confusion of languages, or Sampson’s long hair as the source of his strength, is troubling. It could eliminate the pages and pages of repetitious, mundane, details of Israelite history, culture and genealogy.  It could eliminate the intricate laws, hierarchy, and minute instructions of many things, like the building of Noah’s ark, or the arc of the covenant structure.  Even some of the poems and songs seem repetitious and strange.  However, given the centuries of study and dialogue the Bible creates, these mundane things may be part of it’s credibility and design.  It seems God message to Man is not for credibility, but Truth.  

I am not a total advocate of the idea that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God.  At least not the Bible we have.  This may make me a bad Christian, but I have studied the Bible hard enough, and argued about interpretations frequently enough, to feel there are valid contradictions.  Many of these are product of flaws in translations, or maybe flaws in my interpretations.  However, I think it is very naive to think that the canonization of the Bible was flawless or totally inspired by God, or that transcription errors were not made.  I think what makes me a good Christian is that I believe the Bible reveals who God is and what His plan of salvation is through Jesus.  What “makes sense” to me is I know of God and Jesus through the Bible, and believe.  I do not require the Bible to answer all questions for me.  I can live with unanswered questions, even those I that make no sense and I don’t understand.  I don’t know if parts of the Bible are in error.  The Words of God are clearly stated in the Bible but human error may play a part of faulty interpretations.  This may be God’s intent and I am left to trust God.

There are many conflicts and questions that will never be fully answered but I am now fully resolved.   If we all had the same understanding of the Bible, or believed alike, then maybe things could be clearer.  But it is hard to know the truth, even if the words are in the Bible.  I don’t really think about them because the Bible is an amazing book of God, definitely inspired by God, not necessarily written by God, and one source God uses to reveal Himself to humanity.  I do believe God reveals Himself in many other ways, one of which is science.  If I were to say I am a Christian because I believe Jesus is the Son of God as revealed in the gospels, is that not enough?  Do I also have to say, without a doubt, I believe every word in the Bible?

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THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE

I spend my life studying and writing about the controversies of science and belief in God.  The realization that this is very different than studying the Bible in respects to science was driven home last month (May, 2019) when I ran into a video by Dr. Hugh Ross.  I read his book “The Creator and the Cosmos” many years ago and remember it as one of the foundations of my personal passion with science and the Bible.  Now, my past of not reading works of experts, trying to form ideas without being over invested in controversies and debates, and not trying to memorize everything, seems exposed.  Wanting to form my own thoughts without undo biases left me very naive and uninformed about the depth and scope of scholarly discord.  Again Dr. Ross is foundational to this epiphany.  I cannot go back through over 50 years of study to try to read books, remember names, data, and references, and follow any person or institutions specific ideas on various topics.  I wanted to be a fairly educated, well-studied layperson on science and the Bible.  Thinking I could create my own understanding, without too many outside influences, is arrogant.  I have a broad understanding of science from journals, TV, internet articles, and some books.  I have read the Bible all my life but am far from being a Bible scholar.  After exposure to the intellectual scientific assessment of the Bible and science by a scientist, Dr. Ross, and seeing some responses by true Bible scholars, I realize how simple my layperson perspective is.

The idea of experts gets lost in science by the real fact of the specialization of sciences,, hence, Dr. Ross, a astrophysicist, references a staff member of his foundation “Reasons to Believe, as a biochemist, in his talks.  Additionally, the Bible scholars usually have little formal science background.  Even so, unlike my mentality, they use experts and many prominent people to empathize their points of view.  Although I have not yet taken advantage, their lectures, books, articles, and TV dialogues are readily available.  As such, my ideas about this section of writing is now deferred to the opinions of experts.  

Experts in science and the Bible are very intellectual and comprehensive about how the Bible confirms science.  They discuss how the Bible addresses the cosmos, nature, life and the human species.  The topics are similar to a discussion of the credibility of God’s hand in the design and complexity of creation.  It is enlightening to find how the Bible can be used to address things like the Big Bang Theory, Inflation and the expansion of the cosmos, Abiogenesis, Evolution, Particle Physics, and even areas like extinctions, plate tectonics, and genetics.  It is a little disturbing how these experts disagree about so much.  If these are looked at in the same vein as the many different kinds of Christian Churches that exist, then perhaps, they reflect Man’s confusion, not the Bible.  

I actually have many writings on why I write.  Mostly, in the past, it was to just write my thoughts and ideas for myself (nobody has, or will read most of these).  Later I typed and started putting things on the internet in various forms (Author’s Den, a blog, and a video series) with my wife’s help.  It was started to just put some of my writing in a savable form.  It became much more as I wrote more and thought maybe God made my life as it is with a purpose.   My awkward strangeness is partly explained by the reality, “I never had a cell phone in my life”.  That exemplifies, by today’s modern standards, how backwards and isolated I am.  I never joined an organization, corresponded with anyone, or shared my independent thoughts.  I think the internet may be me trying to reach out to society.   Since this is not supposed to be an autobiography, I’ll just say I pray that God will somehow use me, and my strangeness, for His glory.

AuthorsDen.com  - Gordon H. Hisayasu

Blog-  scienceofgodscreation.blogspot.com

Video series-  How Science Reveals God’s Creation....YouTube- Gordon Hisayasu

Turning “theories to facts” in science, is like the Biblical concept of turning “Words into belief”.   The Bible is not written as a science book, or science proposed as a theological discourse on God.  Scientist use reason and evidence to support theories, and theologians use inspiration and revelation to support belief.  In a sense the Bible addresses the meaning and purpose of Man as revealed by God, while science is the accumulation of empirical data to try to explain the mysteries of existence.  There may be little overlap of the two.

I heard a biblical scholar describe how science is a source of doubting the Scriptures for children. My youth was bombarded with questions of God, evolution and the origins of life.  Likewise, the religious scholarly community responded with “Intelligent Design” and a very defensive posture.  The predicament for a realistic assessment is to try to look at data and be reasonable, open-minded, and honest. There is much we may never know or understand, but even in confusion we can try.  God’s gift of intellect leaves some with no alternative but to try to figure out who God is.

The state of the world and mankind makes it hard to understand the relation of science to the Bible.  We do not know how things are made or why things are as they are.  Science leaves many mysteries unanswered and gaps in knowledge, especially origins.  The Bible describes why God lets things happen, what His motives are, what God’s lessons in the Bible and life mean, but still God is clouded in mystery.  If we all had the same understanding of the Bible, or believed alike, then maybe things could be clearer.  It is not hard to imagine nature, or the Naturalistic Model of the cosmos, is the product of God’s creativity.  What we see and discover (science) can reasonably lead to belief in God.  Relating the Bible to science is different.  The days described in Genesis, the “stretching” of the universe, the Flood, the history of Species and Humans, and many other things are not clear or are ambiguous.  Believing in the abundance of scientific evidence to prove God as “Creator” is easy when compared to using the Word of God to scientifically prove God “created”. 

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THE BIBLE AND WORDS

The Bible says, “There exist FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE, and the greatest of these is LOVE”.

The Bible says about JESUS, “. Whosoever BELIEVETH in me shall not perish but have EVERLASTING LIFE”.

The Bible says, “The HEAVENS proclaim the GLORY of GOD”.

And the words continue.  SATAN tempts.  All have SINNED.  None are RIGHTEOUS.  By God’s GRACE we are SAVED.  God is HOLY.  God gave His COMMANDMENTS and established a COVENANT with His CHOSEN PEOPLE.  Jesus is our SALVATION.  The HOLY SPIRIT is with us.  

The words in the Bible do something few books can.  They present a separate reality outside the apparent circumstance and environment that surrounds us. The words reveal concepts that stimulate a lethargic, worldly mind to think about what life is really about.  They are words that reveal the Holiness, Character and Will of God.  They reveal God’s plan of salvation from sin and death for Man.  They teach us of God’s divinity and grace.  They help us make difficult decisions that can change our lives. The words are outside words of daily conversation and train of thought.  The words are strange, or used strangely, that present innovative ideas about the meaning and purpose of life.  These are the words the Bible uses to tell us we can have a relationship with God.  

Words are why Humanity does not live in caves today.  The ability to communicate makes us collectively and individually who we are.  The words of the Bible are a good reflection of how differently we “hear” words.  To those who “hear” the words of God, their lives are changed.  When words of the Bible becomes “The Word of God” the Bible becomes a revelation and inspiration leading to Christianity. 

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