There are lots of battles about the existence of Jesus. Some are scholarly battles, some are emotional battles and some are simply two entrenched sides that simply cannot communicate.
I humbly offer my thoughtful argument about the existence of Jesus.
What would you do (WWYD) if you had Jesus capabilities?
Make a list.
Then compare it to what Jesus did.
Decide if you could have been a better Jesus than Jesus was. If you think you could have been a better Jesus, then perhaps, the all-powerful, all-knowing Jesus did not exist. Clearly if you can conceive of what you would do as Jesus and Jesus didn't accomplish those goals, he either didn't exist, wasn't as powerful or knowledgeable as people claim.
So, I've come up with my own list.
1) I'd create a series of books containing the knowledge of science that can be attained with a human mentality. These books would be written in all the existing languages of the time and all future languages, because as the son of god, I'd be able to do that.
2) I'd write many stories showing the commonality of human existence and that tolerance of others is really tolerance for yourself.
3) I'd live for as long as possible to ensure that my healing abilities and wisdom would be available for as long as possible. Consider, that since Jesus was the son of god he should be able to live as long as Methuselah, Noah, or Adam. So, Jesus should be able to live for hundreds to a thousand years with no problem. In fact, Jesus should be able to live longer since he's the son of god and not just your ordinary human.
4) I would be able to change the minds of the leaders of humans whenever they were going down the 'wrong' path. By wrong, I basically mean the path for fighting over resources, ideology, etc. This power is demonstrated by god against Pharaoh, so it should be no problem. Even if, as Jesus, I wouldn't have complete control over the country's leader's mind, at least highly influence would help prevent some death and destruction.
5) I would note in any common calendar form (of the present or the future) the time and place of natural disasters that would result in massive loss of life. This way, people would have full knowledge of their decisions in terms of Earthquakes, hurricanes, meteor hits or any other natural disaster that foreknowledge would result in saved lives.
6) I'd have lots of children. Since Jesus is 1/2 god, then his children would in turn, be 1/4 god. That presumably would be more god than the rest of us have. The children of Jesus, I should think, would have better capabilities than ordinary humans and could serve to fill the Earth with people who are healers, can read and write, have knowledge beyond the knowledge of the average person and can act as judges in conflicts to preserve the existence of humanity and the improvement of humanity on in to the future.
7) I would take the time to educate people personally and found institutions for learning. Further, I'd bless or aid the graduating students who have learned a lot with good luck (better than the normal person) so that they too, could be a path to helping other humans.
8) I'd teach about and in turn have others teach about basic hygiene. God might not want me to prevent disease totally but paradoxically allow me to treat disease; however, I can do what I can to prevent disease from spreading. If I could I'd have a powwow with god and request that diseases not be of the lethal variety.
So, did you have any good ideas on what you would do if you were Jesus (WWYD)? Better than my ideas or in addition to my ideas? I'd love to hear about them.
But the critical questions should be asked. Why didn't Jesus do them? Why did he foolishly waste his life when his living for hundreds of years was more than possible and the amount of people he could have helped directly could have been many times greater than committing suicide by governmental execution? Having a line of Jesus descendants through time helping humanity - is there some reason this would be a bad idea? If there was one person that needed to have a few hundred kids over his lifetime, it would be Jesus.
If he offered proof of his existence to the people of his time and they did not need faith, his existence on through time wouldn't have affected people being able to go to heaven (if in fact anybody gets to go to heaven) so why not choose to live?
Showing posts with label Death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Brutal Supidity
A woman is killed in an accident by a roller coaster at a Lego-Land amusement park.
This might be good enough for a Darwin award. It isn't that it was something not in her range to control. She wasn't a customer. She was the ride operator. A ride takes several operators. At least 2 people, if not usually 3 people. One to operate the controls, one to make sure the people are on the ride and give all clear and one to make sure everyone got off the ride and give the all-clear.
Well, this woman was probably one of the people helping people on or off the ride and giving all clear. I've been a ride operator at Six Flags Great Adventure. I remember the training. If her training was anything like what I received, they probably send something like 'Never get on the tracks. If someone losses something, you have to call maintenance and they may get it.'
So, some guy says to her (and this guy is the epitome of stupidity as well) that he lost his wallet and that it fell on the tracks. Who in their right mind would ask someone to get their wallet from the tracks of a running ride? At most, he should have said that please, I hope that when the ride isn't running there is a way to get my wallet back.
Certainly not go jump down there and get my wallet please.
Or maybe, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and he mentioned it to her and she took it in to her own head to go down there and get the wallet.
The net result of all of this is that this woman is dead. It is a sad thing when people die for stupid reasons. My heart goes out to her relatives, her parents and her friends.
Blame also goes to all of these people. You have to have appropriate decision making abilities to work a ride or do just about anything in life. Somebody didn't teach her those decision making skills well enough to be doing what she was doing.
She was 21 years old. So, she wasn't some little girl. She should have known and valued her life enough to tell this guy to bugger off.
I'm sure there will be major lawsuits against the park and the ride manufacturer and that everything about what a person does in the process over there will be reviewed by legal people.
Really, though, what it comes down to in this case is a person having the sense not to jump on tracks of an operating ride. The same kind of sense that involves not walking on railroad tracks of an operating railroad or not walking in front of moving cars.
This might be good enough for a Darwin award. It isn't that it was something not in her range to control. She wasn't a customer. She was the ride operator. A ride takes several operators. At least 2 people, if not usually 3 people. One to operate the controls, one to make sure the people are on the ride and give all clear and one to make sure everyone got off the ride and give the all-clear.
Well, this woman was probably one of the people helping people on or off the ride and giving all clear. I've been a ride operator at Six Flags Great Adventure. I remember the training. If her training was anything like what I received, they probably send something like 'Never get on the tracks. If someone losses something, you have to call maintenance and they may get it.'
So, some guy says to her (and this guy is the epitome of stupidity as well) that he lost his wallet and that it fell on the tracks. Who in their right mind would ask someone to get their wallet from the tracks of a running ride? At most, he should have said that please, I hope that when the ride isn't running there is a way to get my wallet back.
Certainly not go jump down there and get my wallet please.
Or maybe, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and he mentioned it to her and she took it in to her own head to go down there and get the wallet.
The net result of all of this is that this woman is dead. It is a sad thing when people die for stupid reasons. My heart goes out to her relatives, her parents and her friends.
Blame also goes to all of these people. You have to have appropriate decision making abilities to work a ride or do just about anything in life. Somebody didn't teach her those decision making skills well enough to be doing what she was doing.
She was 21 years old. So, she wasn't some little girl. She should have known and valued her life enough to tell this guy to bugger off.
I'm sure there will be major lawsuits against the park and the ride manufacturer and that everything about what a person does in the process over there will be reviewed by legal people.
Really, though, what it comes down to in this case is a person having the sense not to jump on tracks of an operating ride. The same kind of sense that involves not walking on railroad tracks of an operating railroad or not walking in front of moving cars.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The archetype - The Hero
Watching the video of Cho Seung-Hui on the computer with my wife and I was reminded of something from you youth. Fantasies of being the hero were something that went through my mind often. I guess it was because physically I always felt inferior to others (at 135 pounds and 5' 9") and emotionally I felt that I wasn't going to participate in the "dream" of well being married, having a wife, children and indeed a future.
The fantasy, in general, goes like this: Love interest of the moment (and there were many, sometimes I wonder if I 'loved' all women to a certain extent in my youth) was in terrible danger (oh, no!) and there I was at location that I normally see her and there are many enemies, in fact enemies all around me! Hah, then I do x, y and z and beat those enemies to a pulp destroying them utterly. The fantasy would end around there with the corny - you know what's going to happen next as she falls in love with her hero.
I see echoes of this in books, comics and movies all the time. It is a common theme. It is the fantasy I think in some exaggerated form which drives terrorists to suicide bombings and Cho Seung-Hui to kill a bunch of his 'enemies'.
This archetypical fantasy has many benefits to the young male mind. You get the satisfaction of doing something for your cause (be it a woman, your country or your religion), you get to prove your physicality by beating foes who are typically in a stronger position than you are and of course you attain your goal. It is nice and simple. It is the format of some first person shooters like Doom. You have enemies that are far more powerful than your actual self. There is a goal which will save lives, etc. You acheive this goal by pounding the enemy to a pulp in various ways. Eventually, you succeed and become the 'hero'.
These fantasies I think are partially driven by the helplessness in general young males have with regard to their lives. We all feel to some degree that we are nameless parts of a billion person body and we move with the tides and inertia of that body. By becoming this hero we achieve control over our destinies and we achieve our goal - the thing we want most at that time.
Of course, there is a huge difference between having a fantasy of killing to achieve your love interest or country's freedom or religious goals - or playing a video game in which you perform violent actions to become the hero and actually fulfilling your fantasy in a more active manner and actually running around killing innocent people to realize your fantasy in the real world.
At least that is my theory why Cho Seung-Hui became a mass-murderer and my theory on why people do things that otherwise normal people can't even consider, like suicide bombings or flying planes in to inhabited buildings.
These people all want to be the Hero. And they have discovered that this is the way they can achieve hero status in the real world.
I don't know if there is really a way to battle this fantasy except for each young male to engage in normal activities to gain a sense of achievement to understand that their goals are not unattainable.
Hell, it seems part of Cho Seung-Hui's problem was that he couldn't get a relationship with women. I'd rather he went and found a high-class hooker willing to act out some of his fantasy then believe that what he wants in life is utterly unattainable.
In the end a hooker or a sense of achievement might not have been enough for Cho Seung-Hui. The achetypical fantasy lived in him, that much is clear from his video, but he probably had mental problems or chemical imbalances that exaggerated this fantasy until such point that he felt he 'had' to act it out - maybe to protect his imaginary girlfriend from the pollutants of the students on campus. The pollutants, that I suspect Cho Seung-Hui felt were going to pollute him and turn him into a frivolous college student.
The fantasy, in general, goes like this: Love interest of the moment (and there were many, sometimes I wonder if I 'loved' all women to a certain extent in my youth) was in terrible danger (oh, no!) and there I was at location that I normally see her and there are many enemies, in fact enemies all around me! Hah, then I do x, y and z and beat those enemies to a pulp destroying them utterly. The fantasy would end around there with the corny - you know what's going to happen next as she falls in love with her hero.
I see echoes of this in books, comics and movies all the time. It is a common theme. It is the fantasy I think in some exaggerated form which drives terrorists to suicide bombings and Cho Seung-Hui to kill a bunch of his 'enemies'.
This archetypical fantasy has many benefits to the young male mind. You get the satisfaction of doing something for your cause (be it a woman, your country or your religion), you get to prove your physicality by beating foes who are typically in a stronger position than you are and of course you attain your goal. It is nice and simple. It is the format of some first person shooters like Doom. You have enemies that are far more powerful than your actual self. There is a goal which will save lives, etc. You acheive this goal by pounding the enemy to a pulp in various ways. Eventually, you succeed and become the 'hero'.
These fantasies I think are partially driven by the helplessness in general young males have with regard to their lives. We all feel to some degree that we are nameless parts of a billion person body and we move with the tides and inertia of that body. By becoming this hero we achieve control over our destinies and we achieve our goal - the thing we want most at that time.
Of course, there is a huge difference between having a fantasy of killing to achieve your love interest or country's freedom or religious goals - or playing a video game in which you perform violent actions to become the hero and actually fulfilling your fantasy in a more active manner and actually running around killing innocent people to realize your fantasy in the real world.
At least that is my theory why Cho Seung-Hui became a mass-murderer and my theory on why people do things that otherwise normal people can't even consider, like suicide bombings or flying planes in to inhabited buildings.
These people all want to be the Hero. And they have discovered that this is the way they can achieve hero status in the real world.
I don't know if there is really a way to battle this fantasy except for each young male to engage in normal activities to gain a sense of achievement to understand that their goals are not unattainable.
Hell, it seems part of Cho Seung-Hui's problem was that he couldn't get a relationship with women. I'd rather he went and found a high-class hooker willing to act out some of his fantasy then believe that what he wants in life is utterly unattainable.
In the end a hooker or a sense of achievement might not have been enough for Cho Seung-Hui. The achetypical fantasy lived in him, that much is clear from his video, but he probably had mental problems or chemical imbalances that exaggerated this fantasy until such point that he felt he 'had' to act it out - maybe to protect his imaginary girlfriend from the pollutants of the students on campus. The pollutants, that I suspect Cho Seung-Hui felt were going to pollute him and turn him into a frivolous college student.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Death Segment 2
This is just going to be a brief post. I know often people will remark that a specific dead person that was close to them helped them through this or that or guided them through something.
I know one thing for sure dead people don't do anything at all. My mother-in-law used to watch my first son anytime we needed her. No spirit can do that if spirits exist.
If spirits cannot be responsible for something simple like watching my 3 year old, how can they be responsible for anything else?
And so... days before my mother-in-laws death my wife became pregnant. My mother-in-law will never know her second grandchild. And who knows, perhaps there will be a third in the future? I can't say. Right now it seems hard enough to deal with two kids and it seems unlikely that any of her siblings will have any children.
I know there are a lot of people that claim that dead people do things. But you don't see dead people doing anything important. You don't see these people that believe in dead people going around doing things depending on these spirits or whatever to go to work for them today because they are sick?
You can believe in spirits or whatever all you want. In the end, what you do is on a daily basis is no different than what a person does that doesn't believe in spirits. The belief in spirits does only one thing for you - gives you a nice fuzzy feeling that the ones you loved in life that have died are somewhere around doing useful things.
I know one thing for sure dead people don't do anything at all. My mother-in-law used to watch my first son anytime we needed her. No spirit can do that if spirits exist.
If spirits cannot be responsible for something simple like watching my 3 year old, how can they be responsible for anything else?
And so... days before my mother-in-laws death my wife became pregnant. My mother-in-law will never know her second grandchild. And who knows, perhaps there will be a third in the future? I can't say. Right now it seems hard enough to deal with two kids and it seems unlikely that any of her siblings will have any children.
I know there are a lot of people that claim that dead people do things. But you don't see dead people doing anything important. You don't see these people that believe in dead people going around doing things depending on these spirits or whatever to go to work for them today because they are sick?
You can believe in spirits or whatever all you want. In the end, what you do is on a daily basis is no different than what a person does that doesn't believe in spirits. The belief in spirits does only one thing for you - gives you a nice fuzzy feeling that the ones you loved in life that have died are somewhere around doing useful things.
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