Truth

A recent discussion along with reading of Josh McDowell’s “Right from Wrong” brought something interesting to my mind. That is the inherent hypocrisy that relativists have, and yet don’t realize it. Relativists believe there is no absolute truth, and seem to almost thrive on arguing that with anyone. Yet, for them believe that there are two problems inherent in relativism. First, to believe that there is no absolute truth is contradicting, because you are in fact believing in an absolute truth…that there is no absolute truth. My mind kind of rebels over that, being that it’s circular, and self-contradicting, but that’s how it is. To believe there is no absolute truth is to acknowledge that you believe something that applies to everyone everywhere, that is, there is nothing that is true for everyone, what is true for that person may not be true for another, which is an inherent belief in a contradictory absolute.

The second fallacy is that a relativist can not debate someone and maintain their position. You see, if you truly believe in relative truth, then you can not ever say the other person is wrong. After all, you believe in relative truth, so I am right for me. You can never say someone else is wrong, lest you contradict yourself, because to state so is to say some other form of truth that is absolute. If I believe you’re wrong, you can’t even argue with me there, because that may be what’s true to me. You can’t argue tolerance, because intolerance for others could be my truth. You see what I’m getting at?

No one truly believes in relative morality, they just like to argue it. In practice, most everyone believes in some sort of absolute truth, if only “Live and let live,” which seems to be what most people really mean by relative truth and morality. And if you disagree, you can't argue with me, because this is true to me! :P

Following

I am currently facing large questions about God's call for my life in the immediate future. These questions arise not because of doubting God's call, so much as the arise from the questions in the details involved. There are things about the calling I feel that make me doubtful that make it difficult to bare. And yet I am certain that it is the right way.

I am reminded of a saying my sister once had on her bedroom wall. "What is right is not always easy, but it is always right!" I have come up with my own similar saying "Following God is rarely easy, but it's with God." And it is so true. It is sometimes hard to follow the Lord's will. Largely the difficulty comes, to me, in the form of my understanding. You see, my understanding why I do something is not always required in my life following after God. And that scares me sometimes. But God reminds me of Job, suffering, beaten down by Satan. All he wants to do is vindicate himself before God in front of his friends. And the whole time I'm reading thinking, "Go on, God, explain it to him, let him know what a great thing he has shown by showing up Satan." Instead, God tells him off for thinking to question His sovereignty. And...I'm left humbled. You see, God doesn't require my comprehension, He requires that I commit to Him and His will. And time and again it's shown to be the absolute best way.

He also reminds me that He truly does know best, and that to seek Him I must throw off my fears and hopes in anything but Him. That is the beauty of it, to me. I must give it all up, and I gain more than I could ahve imagined. By seeking I don't mean the casual," ho hum, yeah, whatever you want God...as long as it involves me marrying a hot chick." Or whatever else, you know what I mean, putting these plans together and claiming you're trusting in God. Now I'm not saying plans are bad, I'm saying that we all to often make plans, then claim they're God's will and anything that deviates from them can't be God's will because they're not part of the plan.

God's will is not a mystical secrecy that we don't get to see, despite the way our attitudes seem to be. God wishes us to know His will, but the problem is that we don't really want to know it. God isn't some fortune teller to answer questions about whatever items we wish. Rather he is "a lamp to our feet" which reveals the next few steps. Think of it, He does reveal the next few steps, but not the context. We are in the dark about our lives and its grand meaning, and God never promises us to understand it. Rather, He promises that we can trust Him, and that though we can't see the way or what's around us, He will lead us to the best thing in the end. We want to know where we should buy our home next year, but God is trying to get us to focus on the guy accross the office. We want to know who we will marry, but God wants to show us where best to focus our ministry.

These things go again any man's nature, or at the very least, mine. We want to know. We want to be confident and secure, independent and strong. But to trust God and truly get the good stuff, we have to be dependent and weak, and it sometimes is down right scary. But in the end, my life isn't worth beans if its in my hands, because I am weak compared to a massive world of which Satan is the prince. I must follow God and put my faith in Him, or there's nothing left for me.

Faith

So I've been reading this book, "How to Give Away Your Faith" by Paul Little, and I have to say it's good. It's also rather convicting. It begins with the reader, telling me (in this case) how I have to have my act together.

What's most interesting to me is its take on 3 types of faith that people who have enough genuine Christian feeling to actually read an evangelism book. The first is based on surrounding, place, and isn't really faith. These are the christian kids that 'go wild' once they're out 'from under thumb'. Upon removal from the surrounding, they realize they have nothing, no real personal faith, they simply lived life by osmosis. These can be the seed that sprouts on the rocks. They're just sort of week, because they don't know what they believe, it was just what everybody else was doing. Unfortunately, I think this largely describes a huge chunk of the mid-western US christians. This I think is a large problem in modern youth groups also.

The next is a sort of intellectual faith. They know all the hymns, the right words, they can even sometimes argue the apologetics, the different doctrinal interpretations, and the harmony of the gospels. But they are like the former, they don't really know more. These are the ones to whom it refers when it says "Even the demons know there is a God, and they tremble."

The last is a faith based on knowing God. A true, heartfelt, knowledge, or even more accurately, a yearning to know him more throughly every dya. This is the faith that a true christian is supposed to have. The question is, do I? Do you? I was impressed by the very pointed remark to examine myself before evangelizing.

Okay, I'm done rambling for now.

Missles and Spinach

Don't Fear the Spinach



This very nice little article from the Moscow Times (see sidebar) sums up a very stupid situation very nicely, as well as reflecting my own opinion on the issue. Yulia Latynina, my favorite Moscow Times opinion writer since Masha Gesen left, sums up pretty well both the US and Russian flaws in the issue. America is impudent, then again, that's not unusual. Russia is down right psychotic, believing it's somehow back in the Cold War when it comes to its power. And maybe it is technically, but relatively its behind, because in the past 15 years the rest of the world has moved on. Moscow may have more money than ever, but its lost most all its influence. And when it tries to flex its oil and gas powered muscles, rather than intimidating its neighbors, it irritates them.



Sadly, I don't see an end in sight for Russia in this. The country needs to realize how much it has to learn, and that, and it's no longer cock-of-the-walk. Now, US has the same problem, but seems to be handling it better. The rise of multiple nuclear powers, the formation of the EU, the emergence of India, China, and Brazil have all redrawn the power map, and the old rules don't work. The game isn't about nuclear arsenals and simply saying "It's us or the communists/capitalists." It's different, and the sooner everyone, especially russia, realize this, the better.

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Irony

I read something incredibly ironic Monday in the Moscow Times (see sidebar). According to an article, Russia has been playing host to member of the Hamas faction of the Palestinian Authority. You know Hamas, it's basically a terrorist group that is bent on destroying Israel, and it recently won majority within the PA. Since they won't acknowledge Israel's right to exist, nor renounce violence, the west ceased all aid to Palestine.



Now, here's the ironic part. Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas, was speaking to a press conference in Moscow, and said, "Our goal is to encourage the international community to start cooperating with the Palestinian government and to exert pressure on Israel to recognize the Palestinian state's right to exist." Whoa...wait, you, a pseudo-government of a non-sovereign territory that has as its stated goal the annihilation of Israel and meanwhile won't even acknowledge it should exist, you demand acknowledgment and support from Israel? Do you know see the irony in that statement? Or the hypocrisy?



Honestly, the election of Hamas into the government killed any legitimacy of the government in both my eyes and, I believe, in the eyes of Israel. It would be like Ireland voting in the IRA, the IRA stating that it still has the right to blow bombs up in Britain, and then demanding the UK treat them as if they were an acknowledged stat with legitimate goals and policies. You just don't do that!



And here Putin is hosting them, acting like some big diplomat. I think they're trying to play a game and come out on top as a big deal peace broker for the middle-east, not, I suppose, understanding the concepts of isolation and shunning. Honestly, the purpose of isolation was to show that there are limits. You cannot spew the sort of idiocy that Mashaal does and be recognized as a legitimate ruler. Except apparently in the Russian Federation. Because, this is the same country where the President dropped gubernatorial elections, and has managed to re-write election laws to exclude all but the so called "center-right" and "center-left" parties, which just happen to BOTH be yes-men groups for the Kremlin. These along with other political bizarrities (yes, I made up my own word) make the words of Mashaal look almost sane.



Then again, maybe it just shows itself to be foolish.

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Some Additions

I'm excited...somebody is actually reading this, judging by the fact that I have comments. I'm almost positive those aren't from me, so I guess it's stuff to be excited about.



Anyway, some additions to the sidebar: I added two new comics I started reading. Looking for Group is about a-ah-interesting group of characters adventuring. I really can't call them heroes. You'll have to read it to understand what I mean. It's loosely based on the Blizzard game World of Warcraft, if I understand correctly, but as I don't play and I still think I get the humor.



The other comic is Order of the Stick, an absolutely hilarious comic about dungeons and dragons table top role playing. It's downright, laugh out loud hilarious, especially if you know some about DnD. It's got a LOT of archive to fully read through, but having just finished it myself, I can tell you it's worth it. If you know dungeons and dragons stuff.



The other new bit on the side is links to one of the people whose comments I mentioned above, JCM. We both post a lot at the PvP message board (see side bar, comics), and I guess he followed my link here at one point. Anywho, thought I'd post link to his stuff.



Have fun people,

Alex

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Wheee for firefox

As I write this, I am not even logged onto my own blog, I'm perusing the add-ons section of Mozilla Firefox.



I'm having fun with this. Plug-ins are cool is my opinion so far. Of course, Firefox has been pretty consistent to me in its superiority to IE. In fact, it's easily arguable that IE 7 is just a big ripoff of Firefox.



Anyway, back to browsing.

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