Nihilism and squirrels

If there is no one to impose meaning upon us, we have to choose our own. Some people seem to insist that this is depressing, instead of the central challenge that makes us human. Those people obviously don’t climb enough trees.

((In case it is not obvious: the above comic was not drawn by me. Click on the comic to visit the owner’s site. Click here to visit the associated store. Buy one of everything. Thank-you.))

Christian magic, Part II: the Sacraments

When I was ordained as a pastor of a church with a strong sacramental theology, I spent a lot of time thinking about the difference between sacramental ritual and ritualistic magic. In my mind, the difference between magic and prayer was who was in control. If we were trying to compel God to act in some certain way through our ritual, it was magic. If we were celebrating and participating in God’s action through our ritual, it was prayer and worship, and thus okay.

Suddenly, I was looking at Baptism, Communion, Marriages and Funerals very differently. What happened if we refused to baptize someone? If we could not compel God to include someone in His family, could we, through our inaction, compel God to leave someone out?

Christian magic, Part I: Prayer and prophecy.

Spellcraft, divination, magic, I believed in it all. I believed that it was possible to communicate with spirits and affect the physical world with the right words, thoughts, actions and equipment. After all, in the bible, Saul consulted mediums, Pharaoh’s magicians met Moses with their own versions of his miracles, et cetera, et cetera. Magic was possible, certainly, but dangerous and untrustworthy. The spirits dealt with did not have your best interests at heart. Trying to affect the world by will alone I saw to be similar to trying to conduct electricity with an up-raised golf club in a thunderstorm: possible, but likely fatal. We simply do not know enough to mess with such power, and need to leave it all in God’s hands. His will be done. That’s what I believed. I could not understand how anyone who believed magic was real would choose to play with something so potentially dangerous.

In university, I met Wiccans, neo-Druids and others who claimed to be magical practitioners. As I spoke with them and tried to tell them of my concerns

Campus Ecumenism

When I first went to university, the campus seemed large and confusing. I had classes all over the place, and did not know where anything was. But the hallways were lined with tables where students sat and advertised their organizations, trying to get people to join. When looking for something, I would stop at the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), Campus Crusade for Christ (Crusade) or Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) tables, where friendly Christians would help me find my way. I signed up with all three groups, and attended bible studies, prayer meetings, praise gatherings, and fellowship gatherings with all three groups. As I went from group to group, I realized they each had a common complaint. Each of the three groups averaged twenty members apiece, and were troubled that they did not have enough members to truly reach and affect this campus.

During the summer between my first and second year at university, I

A conversation with Zachary

Over on the de-con site, Zachary and I have been having a prolonged conversation in the comments to a wonderful article. We haven’t been on the topic of that article, though, except incidentally. After a little encouragement, I decided it would be best to continue on my own blog, so here we go.

Zachary’s last message to me:

1) The uncaused cause:

“If it is a subdivision, it is finite (limited to within that subdivision).”

Your right! Thats why true infinity is only God. God is Infinity in quality, order, and quantity. As i said before though infinity, as we use it, is God in reference to quantity only.

Sizing up the fence

Longing for a Holiday has a link on her blog to a *.pdf file of an article by Tim Keller titled, “How Can I know God?” It ends by suggesting, “Make a list of the issues that you perceive to be barriers to your crossing the line into faith” and provides some sample headings.

Sounds like a worthwhile exercise for me. Here’s my list, off the top of my head:

Grumbles

As unemployment enters its third month, I grow more stressed. I need out of here. I need to get my wife out of here. We can’t live in this rectory much longer- it’s not ours. We can’t live in this town much longer- too many people coming up to show they care and ask, “Is it true what I’ve heard?” or “What are your plans now?”

Everything is up in the air. I have skills, experience, education. I’m willing to work days, evenings, nights and weekends. I’m willing to move anywhere in the country. But it’s looking more and more like I’m going to move back to my old home town and get whatever minimum wage position I can manage to talk my way into. It would be nice to have friends around again. My wife especially would like her friends and family around as she grows more stressed. But I feel like such a failure for having lost my faith and stepping down from my position with nowhere to go to, and I dread seeing everyone I knew and telling them why I’m back, and wearing my collar the right way around. The people from the four youth groups I attended, the Catholic highschool I went to, the three Christian college groups I was a part of, my old Sunday school teachers- heck, the kids I taught Sunday school now all grown up (one of which found me on Facebook the other day, startling me. Last time I saw her, she was six. I guess that was twelve years ago, now).

Job hunting, tax time, moving, and the funeral just past, along with spiritual struggles… this is not where I want to be. This is not who I want to be. God. My God. I miss you so.

This may save some time, if not souls…

I found this comic today (click on the comic to find the site I found it on). I’ve been discussing things online as if I were an atheist (still not quite ready to admit I am one) for only a month, and this already looks painfully familiar.

Ecclesiastes 1: 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.

Edit: I wish I knew how to make that more easily readable for you.
April 20 Edit: Ha! Figured it out.

110 Best Books?

Following a link on Question Monkey’s blog led me to a list of the 110 best books in someone’s opinion. From that list, I have read eighteen:

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, The Lord of the Rings by J.R. R. Tolkien, Babar by Jean de Brunhoff, Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

I still prefer my list, but I see why some of these could be included. I wasn’t expecting any of my top books to be on the Telegraph’s list, but I was hoping to find Kipling’s Kim, Scott’s Ivanhoe or Dumas’ Three Musketeers. I mean, if you want to read something more than a century old, these at least have some really funny bits.

I suppose there’s no accounting for taste. *smirk*

Sex and Violence

“You can show a dozen guys murdering each other on TV,
but you can’t ever show two people making love.
A naked blade is reckoned less obscene
than a naked woman.
Isn’t it about time we started trying to get a handle on love,
from any and all directions?”
– Spider Robinson

When I first read this quote years ago, it stuck with me and really made me think. What sort of world do we live in? I don’t know how it is wherever you live, but here we have violence in cartoons, sitcoms, and movies that are targeted to children, but sex education tends to be handled through locker room gossip (where the biggest liar gets the most respect).

As I was preparing a Good Friday sermon last year,