Entry #176

"We are 'taken out of ourselves' by the loved one while she is here. Then comes the tragic figure of the dance in which we must learn to be still taken out of ourselves though the bodily presence is withdrawn, to love the very Her, and not fall back to loving our past, or our memory, or our sorrow, or our relief from sorrow, or our own love." 
- C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed



"The belief that rational and quantifiable disciplines such as science can be used to perfect human society is no less absurd than a belief in magic, angels, and divine intervention."
- Chris Hedges, I Don't Believe in Atheists



"A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer



‎"If there is no God, then man and the universe are doomed. Like prisoners condemned to death, we await our unavoidable execution. There is no God, and there is no immortality. And what is the consequence of this? It means that life itself is absurd. It means that the life we have is without ultimate significance, value, or purpose."
- William Lane Craig



"All the idols made by man, however terrifying they may be, are in point of fact subordinate to him, and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them."
- Simone de Beauvoir



"I am no longer sure of anything. If I satiate my desires, I sin but I deliver myself from them; if I refuse to satisfy them, they infect the whole soul."
- Jean-Paul Sartre, The Devil and the Good Lord



"As I walk past a smile I cast, fervor in my stead. But my bones like plastic, do buckle backward now. I lay in this field by Judas and anticipate the plow. I cannot be forgiven, my wages will be paid. For those more lovely and admirable is least among the saved."
- Josh Dies of Showbread, Matthias Replaces Judas



"I'm fighting the war rather than war itself. I'm caught in the midst of no redemption. I'm fighting the war rather than war itself. Some say there's hope in this, there is love. Show me her eyes, I'll feel her hair.
I'll be back to déjà vu. Over and over. The same dream. The same question. Will I ever forgive myself?"
- Mike Hranica of The Devil Wears Prada, War



"Having a tree growing up out of me / Is often a worrisome thing. / I'm twisty and thorny and branchy and bare / But wait till you see me in Spring."
- Shel Silverstein, Headache



"Bring your secrets to me. Just give me your hands and I'll let you feel the wounds they put in me. If you believe in me how can I be dissolving? If you'd believe me, I'd tell you everything."
- Davey Havok of AFI, 37mm

Spin Glass

1 John 3:2-3
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Though his children are not who they ought to be, God still welcomes them with open arms. Not to say that his children are not figuring out who they ought to be, but they have not reached the absolute point. They cannot reach the absolute point because the earth is not absolute - the world is dying. Heaven, the true home of God, is where the children will reach the absolute point because Heaven is absolute. But is Heaven the objective? Well, it is God's home, I think? Heaven is eternal fellowship with God. That seems like it would be something worth striving toward, does it not? It sickens me when I hear questions like "would you still love Jesus if you did not get to go to Heaven?" I understand what the question is saying - do not "worship" God for the sake of wanting to obtain something out of your own selfish desires. I do not think that the question is bad all around, but I sense some fallacies within it. If you are going to take Heaven out of the equation, then you must be willing to make other cancellations. Did Jesus not die so that people could have eternal fellowship with God (Heaven), and avoid eternal separation from God (Hell) (Matthew 25:46)? I do not want to assume that these are the only reasons why he would die on the cross, but I sure think that these are some of the reasons (Romans 6:23). If Heaven is going to be taken out of the equation, then what exactly would be the purpose of Jesus' life on earth? Where would God exist if Heaven did not exist?

Now, getting back to the question "is Heaven the objective?" As disappointing as it may be, I do not have an answer to share. I can only provide what I have already provided: the aforementioned observations. I did not expect to come to a conclusion. Moving on ...

I have been wrestling with the fact that I do not completely trust anybody's interpretation of God. I have not seen God just as he is ... and nobody else has either. And now it makes sense - my problem - because I do not know the Solution in its completeness. God, I have not felt so mirthful about my lack of knowledge in quite awhile! All it takes is the hope to purify us. Pure ... and pure ... and .... PURE. Now is not the time for absolute truth though, because we live under limited restraints such as ... well, time. It will come though. And that is not my promise to you, but that is God's promise to us.

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

***I have yet to see a verse in the Bible that actually says that Heaven is God's home. That is more of a personal viewpoint than anything else, or rather, a finite piece of the imagination. Please correct me if I am wrong - I very well could be.

Longimanus Artaxerxes I

What defines a man? Imminence and waiting are less parallel than I would like to imagine. How often is the desired outcome undoubtedly coming my way? I feel uncomfortably somnolent right now. The outcome exists inside the mind, but the mind does not exist outside the self. Then again, perhaps the outcome was observed from a place that was outside the mind at some point in space and time, making the mind nothing more than a butterfly net. Yes, that makes enough sense for now. To quote René Descartes - "I think; therefore I am." Question! What is more vexatious: overzealous atheists or overzealous theists? Hold on for just a second though - I would not be, if it were not for God. At the very least, there is a possibility that the mind exists outside the body, because God exists outside my body and I am nothing in and of myself. What defines a woman?

The Ontological Argument

This is Alvin Plantinga's version of the ontological argument - in a restated format.

I discovered it through the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO-bTsMZQFQ&list=PL48F0C019551ADD08

1. It is possible that a maximally great being exists.

2. If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists in some possible world.

3. If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.

4. If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.

5. If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists.

6. Therefore, a maximally great being exists.