When I was younger, I used to hold to the Apparent-Age-Theory that when God created the Universe it had a pre-designed-age built into it that would make it appear to be older than it is. I don't hold to this idea anymore because I see it goes against God's nature to not lie or deceive. The Apparent-Age-Theory says God created the universe to "look old" but that is like me taking a new piece of furniture, denting it, scratching it, putting on old varnish and selling it as being an "antique" when it really isn't at all. It's forgery. Same would be for the Apparent-Age-Theory only on a much grander scale.
Could God create the universe in 6 days? Yes. Absolutely! But God, knowing we would later create telescopes to probe the depths of space, would know we would look out and see the farthest stars are only 10,000 light-years away! He knew we would find ways to tell the age of rocks and see that they are only 10,000 years old or less. He knew we would dig the earth in our efforts to find fossils of ancient creatures only to find nothing older than 10,000 years. Everything would point to a very very young universe and that there would be no other answer to HOW we got here than for us to BELIEVE there is a God. There would be no alternative for him ponder or choose. We would HAVE to be believe.
That, of course, would make our jobs as God's children/disciples a lot easier wouldn't it! We would have science on our side. We could just point to hundreds of articles showing how there is no other answer and that God is very real and the Bible is 100% correct. Maybe that is what we want, but no matter how we look at it today we will always be at odds with the "alternative".
Why would God do it this way?
Because he wants us to seek him out in FAITH.... NOT FACTS!
As Paul says, "The righteous shall live by FAITH!"
Paul talks about how God in his wisdom has nullified the wisdom of the wise. He has essentially made it futile for them to know him through their own thinking. Yet we keep trying to prove the scientists wrong even though God already has sent them away empty.
Going back to idea of if God had made the universe in 6 days, 10,000 years ago, we could then conclude that the wise and learned would actually have a leg-up on the rest of humanity in their search for God. Their knowledge would make them more able to find God. The could proudly write long dissertations on how certain they are that God exists and how anyone who looks at the data could not think any other way. But God doesn't want the proud. He wants the meek. He wants the simple and the needy. Jesus says, "Unless you enter the Kingdom of God like that of a little child you shall never enter it!"
In order to "nullify the wisdom of the wise", there has to be an alternative for them to believe in. Of course no matter how well drawn up this "alternative" is, it will always run into a wall with a sign that reads "Where did it all start?". For example, the Big Bang was thought to be "the start", but then people asked "Where did the singularity come from?" and so they scientists have developed String-Theory to explain the singularity, but then the question becomes, "Where did the multi-dimensional strings come from?" and so on.... Science cannot think itself to God and it cannot (if it's truly honest) think itself away from God either. In the end, it's never "I CAN'T BELIEVE!" , it's always "I WON'T BELIEVE!". It always comes back to faith.
As Christians, we often wish there wasn't an alternative. God calls us to trust him and know his love for us. We want to be liked by the world and our faith always puts us at odds. But that is how it has to be. Jesus said that we cannot be friends with God and friends with the world. If they called Jesus, "The Lord of the Flies" (Beelzebub) how much more will they call us.
We are called to be loving and faithful as Christ was towards us. We cannot think our way to God and so we should not be scared of science or it's findings. The "alternative" is a false path and has no hope in the end. Jesus said, "When the Son of Man returns, will he find FAITH on the earth?" The answer to that question seems to be baked into the question. The answer is : NO. All of these "findings" serve God's design to bring this about. As we become more and more "intelligent" we will become less and less "faithful". Man will become the "god of his own making", in essence his own ideal view of what he thinks God should be.
This is not to say Christians should not be in the science fields or that we should ignore science. We just need to stop looking for science to back up our faith or to be in place of our faith. God doesn't need to be "proved" and neither do we need it either.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your MIND
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
The ONE thing evolution cannot explain....
I have seen many proposals from Christians who try to take on the Theory of Evolution. Most of these proposals play the game I call "Stump the Evolutionist" in which very complex systems we see are shown to the Evolutionist and then dared to find a way to show how such a complex system could possibly come about. Whether it's the Bombardier Beetle, or Blood Clotting or the Process of Vision the end result to the person who believes in Evolution is the same. All they do is re-iterate in the voice of Carl Sagan, "Billions and billions of years!" and off they go shaking their heads.
The problem as I see it is not playing "Stump the Evolutionist" in the first place. Or at least not playing by their rules. If I want to prove the Law of Thermodynamics wrong, I don't come up with some complex Rude Goldberg machine, instead I find something that violates the laws of thermodynamics. What is needed is not some highly complex system, but instead a system or species that exists that BREAKS the rules of Evolution and yet.... for some reason.... is still here. Such a system does exists and it's all around us.
First you have to understand the basic rules of Evolution. They are pretty simple rules.
Throughout our world, wherever there are male and female of a species, the male side wants to have sex and it wants it all the time. Whereas the female, on the other hand, does not want sex all the time and actually forces the male to perform sometimes trivial tasks before mating. These tasks, might be singing, dancing, gift-giving and fighting. All of these violate rules 2 & 3 of Evolution and yet are still here. It doesn't make sense that after billions of years of playing this game, no species has figured out the best and easiest way to win the game is to produce a species where both the male AND the female want to have sex all the time. If a species did, they would out produce any competitor species that is limiting its reproduction to a few days a year and only after some energy wasting processes has been accomplished.
Now some evolutionists, would say that the system of female sex limitations would possibly create a stronger mate or stronger children. But most species (and I would even throw in humans) are not future driven in their picking of mates. They are not looking at a mate and thinking about their great-great-grand-children and how strong they will be. Evolution does not have the LONG view of life but only the here and now. So you can't use the argument that the difference of the species comes from that.
The difference in males and females is what we call in engineering a "negative feedback loop" (NFL). Most people who don't have a science background would think that positive feedback loops (PFL) are good and NFL's are bad, but actually it's the other way around. PFL's explode and run out of control eventually. Take for example the famous Tacoma Bridge Collapse back in the 1950's. Tacoma Washington had built a bridge that was a small version of the Golden Gate Bridge. Because of it's smaller size it was more susceptible to lift from wind. The cross section of the bridge mirrored that of a planes wing and experienced lift from air-pressure difference. This lift was then countered by the tension of the road and it would swing back down. This caused a "feedback loop" which resonated and the lifting and falling became more and more pronounced until the bridge collapsed altogether.
Male and Females relationship needs are a NFL. Men want physical love and Women want emotional love. I am not saying Men don't love emotional love (sharing, caring, talking etc) it's just not as big of a kick to us. On a scale of 1 to 10, its' about a 5 or 6 but sex is a 10 all the time. Women on the other hand, give emotional love a 10 and sex more of a 5 or 6. This means that when men give emotional love, the immediate feedback to them is not all that great so there is not immediate "Wow! Let's do this again!". It's only when the woman returns it with sex that he gets his big payday. The same is for the woman. She doesn't get a big WOW out of sex (not to the same level as the man) but when it's returned with lots of sharing of feelings, thoughts, expressions of love she gets her real payback. Of course, neither is going to be willing to DOUBLE their efforts to get more in return, because what they have to give they are not really good at doing or get a real immediate satisfaction from doing.
That is the Negative Feedback Loop in action.
What is interesting is that the Rules of Evolution would never produce this NFL on it's own. Left to itself, it would only produce the PFL because that answers all the rules with best possible outcome. This is what we should get in our world, yet we see none of that.
Why is that?
Genesis gives us the clue, "And God made them male and female". It is an engineered system and not a randomly evolved system. Natural system move towards PFL's and engineered systems know to stay clear of these and move towards NFL's. Only an all-knowing God would know to create such a wonderful and self-balancing and self-regulating system.
The problem as I see it is not playing "Stump the Evolutionist" in the first place. Or at least not playing by their rules. If I want to prove the Law of Thermodynamics wrong, I don't come up with some complex Rude Goldberg machine, instead I find something that violates the laws of thermodynamics. What is needed is not some highly complex system, but instead a system or species that exists that BREAKS the rules of Evolution and yet.... for some reason.... is still here. Such a system does exists and it's all around us.
First you have to understand the basic rules of Evolution. They are pretty simple rules.
- Live as LONG as possible (i.e. don't get eaten)
- Make as MANY copies of yourself as possible (have lots of sex)
- Do all of this using the LEAST amount of energy (if you can escape a predator with camouflage then hide)
Throughout our world, wherever there are male and female of a species, the male side wants to have sex and it wants it all the time. Whereas the female, on the other hand, does not want sex all the time and actually forces the male to perform sometimes trivial tasks before mating. These tasks, might be singing, dancing, gift-giving and fighting. All of these violate rules 2 & 3 of Evolution and yet are still here. It doesn't make sense that after billions of years of playing this game, no species has figured out the best and easiest way to win the game is to produce a species where both the male AND the female want to have sex all the time. If a species did, they would out produce any competitor species that is limiting its reproduction to a few days a year and only after some energy wasting processes has been accomplished.
Now some evolutionists, would say that the system of female sex limitations would possibly create a stronger mate or stronger children. But most species (and I would even throw in humans) are not future driven in their picking of mates. They are not looking at a mate and thinking about their great-great-grand-children and how strong they will be. Evolution does not have the LONG view of life but only the here and now. So you can't use the argument that the difference of the species comes from that.
The difference in males and females is what we call in engineering a "negative feedback loop" (NFL). Most people who don't have a science background would think that positive feedback loops (PFL) are good and NFL's are bad, but actually it's the other way around. PFL's explode and run out of control eventually. Take for example the famous Tacoma Bridge Collapse back in the 1950's. Tacoma Washington had built a bridge that was a small version of the Golden Gate Bridge. Because of it's smaller size it was more susceptible to lift from wind. The cross section of the bridge mirrored that of a planes wing and experienced lift from air-pressure difference. This lift was then countered by the tension of the road and it would swing back down. This caused a "feedback loop" which resonated and the lifting and falling became more and more pronounced until the bridge collapsed altogether.
Male and Females relationship needs are a NFL. Men want physical love and Women want emotional love. I am not saying Men don't love emotional love (sharing, caring, talking etc) it's just not as big of a kick to us. On a scale of 1 to 10, its' about a 5 or 6 but sex is a 10 all the time. Women on the other hand, give emotional love a 10 and sex more of a 5 or 6. This means that when men give emotional love, the immediate feedback to them is not all that great so there is not immediate "Wow! Let's do this again!". It's only when the woman returns it with sex that he gets his big payday. The same is for the woman. She doesn't get a big WOW out of sex (not to the same level as the man) but when it's returned with lots of sharing of feelings, thoughts, expressions of love she gets her real payback. Of course, neither is going to be willing to DOUBLE their efforts to get more in return, because what they have to give they are not really good at doing or get a real immediate satisfaction from doing.
That is the Negative Feedback Loop in action.
What is interesting is that the Rules of Evolution would never produce this NFL on it's own. Left to itself, it would only produce the PFL because that answers all the rules with best possible outcome. This is what we should get in our world, yet we see none of that.
Why is that?
Genesis gives us the clue, "And God made them male and female". It is an engineered system and not a randomly evolved system. Natural system move towards PFL's and engineered systems know to stay clear of these and move towards NFL's. Only an all-knowing God would know to create such a wonderful and self-balancing and self-regulating system.
Friday, August 23, 2019
Dear Intel.... I forgive you
With Labor Day fast approaching I felt it was a good time for me to finally write this blog. Labor Day is the day we set aside to show appreciation for the workers in our country and all they do to make our world work. Appreciation is nice to have, but so often it is not shown the other 364 days of the year by our company heads. Too often they love the work we do for them.... they just wish it didn't cost them so darn much.... and they find ways to stop that from happening.
As Christians we are
taught to "Forgive others as God has forgiven you". That
is all good when you are sitting across a table from someone you have a
relationship with and they pour their soul out to you that they have wronged
you and want your forgiveness. It's a whole different thing when
you get a check in the mail from a law firm saying your company settled out of
court (along with Apple and Google) to a tune of $415 million because they got caught
creating a "No Hire List" to prevent workers from moving from one
company to another and driving up wages (this was done from 2005 to
2010). The money is nice, but where are the tears? Where is
the "We are soooo sorry!"? Where is the "We did
something wrong!" (by the way, part of the agreement was that they did NOT
have to admit to any wrong-doing).
To describe my
feelings when I got that letter I can only say it would be like coming home and
finding your wife in bed with your best friend and then finding out it's been
going on for 5 years (no, my wife has never cheated on me and loves me to
death... but that is the only comparison I could come up with). By
2015, I had worked for Intel for 25 years. It was a dream come true
to work for them. I proudly wore Intel Inside T-shirts and loved to tell
people I worked for Intel. I worked long hours at Intel and put in many
50 to 60-hour work weeks. It was so great it didn't even feel like
work most of the time. During the Microprocessor War years with AMD I
would urge friends and family to buy Intel over AMD and loved sharing our
latest product release information. I was one of Intel's best
cheerleaders. The check from the law firm was a gut-check and not a
pay-check.
Fast forward to
today and here I am writing about what some would call "ancient history"
or "water under the bridge". But I keep finding myself drawn
back to this like a dog to its vomit. After much soul searching and
discussion I realized the answer was in a past blog I wrote to my daughter
about graduating from college. The blog was titled, "Swinging
from the monkey bars". In the blog, tell her that moving
through life is like swinging on the playground monkey-bars. The trick to
making it across is to not lose your momentum and to "let go" of the bar
you are holding onto as soon as you "grab hold" of the next
bar. My advice to her was simple: Reach, Grab and Let Go! I
told her that if you don't let go, you will lose your forward momentum and you
will be "stuck between two bars". As I read that advice,
it occurred to me that I was the one that was "stuck" and not her. I
needed to "let go" of the past with Intel with forgiveness. Yes, I am
wiser now to the world and will never be 100% the same again, but I need to
move forward and let go of the bitterness.
Maybe someday I
will wear the Intel T-shirts again......after I put some distance between me
and the "2015 bar". For now, I am at peace with
myself. I love my co-workers, my projects and my work. I enjoy the
challenges that are given me to work on every day. I hope that maybe this
letter will serve as a guide to others who find themselves in a similar
predicament as me. I hope that maybe it will serve as a guide to
other CEOs or VPs who need to be reminded of the relationship they have with
their employees who work for them and to not take them for granted. Maybe upon reading this they will have a new appreciation for their workers who invest not only their time and energy into them but also their passion and emotions. Maybe they will see that money can't buy that kind of allegiance or fix all wounds.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Strength through Weakness.
Most Christians are aware of Paul's "thorn in the flesh sent by Satan to torment me" and that even though Paul prayed fervently 3 times to have it taken away, Jesus responds,
We love to hear of stories of people being healed or overcoming an affliction like alcohol or drug addiction. It empowers us to feel we can overcome as well. But that is not what we as Christians are supposed to be all about. It's not about our strength but God's strength. Paul says is was sent to keep him from becoming conceited because of God's revelation given to him. It was a blessing God was giving him and not a curse. It was the only way to keep Paul humble and remind him that he is only flesh. How many Christian leaders do we see today that are all puffed up. Paul could have easily become just like them and the thorn was there to pop his little ego-balloon.
What is interesting to me is Jesus words on "grace". Grace is loving someone who doesn't deserve that love. Grace is unconditional love. How does that play into Paul's thorn? I think everyone hates thorns. I have a lemon tree in my backyard. I learned quickly that lemon trees have very large and sharp thorns ( I did not know that before ). Even after you have moved away from the thorn you can still feel it's pain of where it has stabbed you. Pain brings out the worst in us, especially when that pain is constant and never ending. I have a friend with neuropathy of the feet. His feet will suddenly feel like he is being stabbed with a bunch of knives and he will utter the most foul words you have ever heard (unless there are women in the room). I too, can be a monster when I am in pain for a lengthy period of time and I have to ask forgiveness a lot of my wife. It is here we are reminded that we are sinners at the core. It is here that we must rely on God's grace. It is here that God's power is shown in our lives and not our own power.
I am reminded of the movie "Cinderella Man" where the main character, James Braddock , falls on hard times as a boxer in the Great Depression. He loses his license to box and must work as a loading dock hand to feed his family. He breaks his right hand during a car accident and is forced to use his left hand to lift the heavy bags off the ships. Later he gets a chance to box again and even though he hasn't fought or trained in over a year he knocks the other boxer out. His manager asks him about how he was able to improve his left hook so much and he says "I broke my right hand and had to rely on my left down at the docks!". His injured right hand was a blessing because it strengthened his left. Often that is how it is with us and God. God can't work on us relying on him until he has taken away the part of us we have relied on for so long. He perfects himself in us by making us less reliant on ourselves and more reliant on him.
I have learned what that means more and more as I get older. When I was young I was so self-reliant. I could do it all myself. I could always rely on my intellect to get me through life. Whether it as school, work, church or even home I could always figure things out. When I hit 45 something suddenly changed inside me. I went through a terrible time of what I can only describe as intense brain-fog. It was the most scary time of life I had ever gone through. I felt as if God had abandoned me. He hadn't. He just took away the part of me I counted on to get me through jams. I later found out I was Low-Testosterone and I had the brain of a 90 year-old man. Even after addressing the low-T I was never really ever the same again. I cried "Why Lord?? Why now??". I still don't have that answer yet. I am like Paul, hearing God's "My grace is sufficient" message. It's not easy but I know that God loves me and his grace is all that matters.
On a final note, I think Jesus points to his grace to show Paul that our situation, our pain, our suffering is not a measure of how much God loves us. We must trust that he loves us just as much when we are in the worst of pain than when everything is going great. We often have this sort God-math we use without knowing it. We think
We fall into the false premise that if you are doing great then you are being BLESSED and if you are doing horrible then you are being CHASTISED (or DISCIPLINED) for some wrong. I must admit I have often had this wrong view of God too. We see fellow Christians running around trying to "figure out" what they had done wrong to deserve this. They often think "If I can just figure out what God is trying to teach me then God will take all this away because I learned my lesson". I have felt that way too, but it's wrong. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Our suffering may just be a consequence of living in a sin-filled world. There might not be any "lesson" at the end at all other than we are mortal
What we can all take away from our suffering is this: God's love doesn't change. When Job was going through all his misery God was not there sitting by waiting for Job to "get it". He loved Job through it all. God's grace was unchanging and Paul had to accept that this problem was not going to go away and that God loved him. He loves you too.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"We don't know what the "thorn" was because Paul doesn't give us any insight into it. I think the reason for this is because it doesn't really matter what it is. It's meant for you and me to be a sort of "fill in the blank" or "insert your problem here" type of issue. This prevents us from tossing off our problems as either "nothing compared to Paul's" or just the opposite and assuming ours is so much worse than his.
We love to hear of stories of people being healed or overcoming an affliction like alcohol or drug addiction. It empowers us to feel we can overcome as well. But that is not what we as Christians are supposed to be all about. It's not about our strength but God's strength. Paul says is was sent to keep him from becoming conceited because of God's revelation given to him. It was a blessing God was giving him and not a curse. It was the only way to keep Paul humble and remind him that he is only flesh. How many Christian leaders do we see today that are all puffed up. Paul could have easily become just like them and the thorn was there to pop his little ego-balloon.
What is interesting to me is Jesus words on "grace". Grace is loving someone who doesn't deserve that love. Grace is unconditional love. How does that play into Paul's thorn? I think everyone hates thorns. I have a lemon tree in my backyard. I learned quickly that lemon trees have very large and sharp thorns ( I did not know that before ). Even after you have moved away from the thorn you can still feel it's pain of where it has stabbed you. Pain brings out the worst in us, especially when that pain is constant and never ending. I have a friend with neuropathy of the feet. His feet will suddenly feel like he is being stabbed with a bunch of knives and he will utter the most foul words you have ever heard (unless there are women in the room). I too, can be a monster when I am in pain for a lengthy period of time and I have to ask forgiveness a lot of my wife. It is here we are reminded that we are sinners at the core. It is here that we must rely on God's grace. It is here that God's power is shown in our lives and not our own power.
I am reminded of the movie "Cinderella Man" where the main character, James Braddock , falls on hard times as a boxer in the Great Depression. He loses his license to box and must work as a loading dock hand to feed his family. He breaks his right hand during a car accident and is forced to use his left hand to lift the heavy bags off the ships. Later he gets a chance to box again and even though he hasn't fought or trained in over a year he knocks the other boxer out. His manager asks him about how he was able to improve his left hook so much and he says "I broke my right hand and had to rely on my left down at the docks!". His injured right hand was a blessing because it strengthened his left. Often that is how it is with us and God. God can't work on us relying on him until he has taken away the part of us we have relied on for so long. He perfects himself in us by making us less reliant on ourselves and more reliant on him.
I have learned what that means more and more as I get older. When I was young I was so self-reliant. I could do it all myself. I could always rely on my intellect to get me through life. Whether it as school, work, church or even home I could always figure things out. When I hit 45 something suddenly changed inside me. I went through a terrible time of what I can only describe as intense brain-fog. It was the most scary time of life I had ever gone through. I felt as if God had abandoned me. He hadn't. He just took away the part of me I counted on to get me through jams. I later found out I was Low-Testosterone and I had the brain of a 90 year-old man. Even after addressing the low-T I was never really ever the same again. I cried "Why Lord?? Why now??". I still don't have that answer yet. I am like Paul, hearing God's "My grace is sufficient" message. It's not easy but I know that God loves me and his grace is all that matters.
On a final note, I think Jesus points to his grace to show Paul that our situation, our pain, our suffering is not a measure of how much God loves us. We must trust that he loves us just as much when we are in the worst of pain than when everything is going great. We often have this sort God-math we use without knowing it. We think
MY_SITUATION = Function( GOD's LOVE );
or
GOD's LOVE = Function ( MY SITUATION )
We fall into the false premise that if you are doing great then you are being BLESSED and if you are doing horrible then you are being CHASTISED (or DISCIPLINED) for some wrong. I must admit I have often had this wrong view of God too. We see fellow Christians running around trying to "figure out" what they had done wrong to deserve this. They often think "If I can just figure out what God is trying to teach me then God will take all this away because I learned my lesson". I have felt that way too, but it's wrong. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Our suffering may just be a consequence of living in a sin-filled world. There might not be any "lesson" at the end at all other than we are mortal
What we can all take away from our suffering is this: God's love doesn't change. When Job was going through all his misery God was not there sitting by waiting for Job to "get it". He loved Job through it all. God's grace was unchanging and Paul had to accept that this problem was not going to go away and that God loved him. He loves you too.
Monday, August 5, 2019
Losers can be winners too
In sports, there can only be one winner. In Super Bowl 51, the first ever overtime Super Bowl game was played. Before the referee flipped the coin to decide who got the ball first, he told both teams that overtime would be played until there was a winner. No ties are allowed in the Super Bowl. There has to be winner and there has to be a loser.
We read in Romans 8:28 :
The answer is in the 3 words "who love him".
When we love God, we love what he loves. We love what he gives to us and also what he gives to others. We are pleased because God is pleased. Maybe our "purpose" is to LOSE so someone else can WIN. Jesus gives us the best example of this. He loves the Father and loves us so much that for us to WIN he had to LOSE. He suffered hell so we could receive heaven. If God is pleased that someone else wins then I can be pleased that God is pleased.
In God's world the losers are really the winners. Their loss is someone else's gain.
Lord,
Please help me to love what you love and to want what you want. If my loss is someone else's gain and you desire it to be so, then let me be happy with whatever comes. In Jesus' name!
Amen
We read in Romans 8:28 :
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.Too many who read these words, read into the word "good" as meaning "rosy outcome" or "good ending" but is not always the case. Take for example of the Super Bowl I mentioned earlier. How can God work for the good of players who may be on different teams where one will go home "happy" and the other "depressed".
The answer is in the 3 words "who love him".
When we love God, we love what he loves. We love what he gives to us and also what he gives to others. We are pleased because God is pleased. Maybe our "purpose" is to LOSE so someone else can WIN. Jesus gives us the best example of this. He loves the Father and loves us so much that for us to WIN he had to LOSE. He suffered hell so we could receive heaven. If God is pleased that someone else wins then I can be pleased that God is pleased.
In God's world the losers are really the winners. Their loss is someone else's gain.
Lord,
Please help me to love what you love and to want what you want. If my loss is someone else's gain and you desire it to be so, then let me be happy with whatever comes. In Jesus' name!
Amen
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