The Serial Thinker Blog

What Makes Good Friday, "Good"?

Someone asked, with a measure of contempt, "What makes this Good Friday? It doesn't seem so 'Good' to me."

My response to them:

For Christians, this is one of the most important days of the year. The sacrifice of the Lamb of God as a surrogate for the sins of all mankind. The love that underpins this gift is beyond my reckoning. Sacrificing one's own perfect child, to a horrific torture and death, as a permanent offering to create a pathway to Heaven for the most wicked humans to ever walk the Earth is unfathomable. In the Bible it says, "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

This is why it's Good Friday.

Judas Is Christianity's Fall Guy

The story of Jesus' last week on earth in carnal form takes a dramatic turn when one of his closest associates and confidantes, Judas Iscariot, betrays him to the Roman army. This leads to Jesus' trial, scourging, and ultimately his execution upon the cross on Good Friday.

My eternal dilemma for today is whether or not Judas REALLY could have altered the course of events. If God knew from the beginning of time that he would send his son to atone for the sins of man, then what power did Judas have to stand in the way of that occurring? If Judas had been a more moral man and refused the Pharisees' bribe, would it have prevented the redemption of mankind through Christs' sacrifice on the cross, and if so,wouldn't that have been a colossal win for Satan? How odd a situation that would have been for Satan to have intervened for a superficially moral purpose. "Save your Master, refuse the bribe," and in so doing cause the fall of all mankind. If Judas had refused and remained loyal to Jesus, I think that someone else in Jesus' inner circle, possibly Peter, would have been compromised and the prophecies fulfilled.

Ironically, John 15:13 tells us, "No greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Isn't this precisely what Judas did? Didn't he sacrifice his reputation and ultimately his life to facilitate the redemption of all mankind?

I wonder why, then, people do not look beyond the act of betrayal to the critical role that Judas played in the salvation of the world.

Moses Was An SF Soldier

Proof that Moses was an SF Soldier. He wrote about asymmetrical warfare in Leviticus.

"If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,....In fact, you will chase down your enemies and slaughter them with your swords. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand! All your enemies will fall beneath your sword." Leviticus 26:3, 7-8.

Future Career Plans

 

Depending upon how it's apportioned, being a regional commander of Hell might not be a bad job in the afterlife. I like warm weather and tormenting people for eternity seems like a pretty good gig. I think better than polishing halos and singing Lutheran music. That said, I wouldn't want to be in charge of the democrats. They'd be all whiny about how unfair it is, not understanding that that's the point. And then there are the people who got screwed over in this world by changes in religious policy. I wouldn't want them either. They really did get the shaft and piling on isn't my style. And I don't seek the notoriety of the high profile cases - someone else can have Hitler, Idi Amin and all of those clowns.

I think I'd want to be an Imagineer in the "Hurt dogs and kids" section. It would be very rewarding to come up with ideas about how to inflict suffering on people who hurt innocents here on Earth - particularly since the 8th Amendment wouldn't be around to limit my choices.

Truth Is Bigger Than Religion

One of the aspects of religion that I have been aware of for a long time, but have been studying/observing closely for the past several years is how certain denominations of every faith are certain that their practice/belief/orthodoxy is the ONLY true way and that God will condemn all others to the flaming pits of Hell. This is absolutely true of Christians, Jews, and Muslims and may be true for others - I haven't looked closely enough to say with certainty.

When you listen to or read what is written by the religious absolutists, they sound exactly the same, regardless their overarching belief system. On Youtube there is a series of videos that I've seen in which the Salafis argue with the Wahhabis about who is the most pure follower of Allah. I've heard Baptists and Pentecostals make the same arguments about who follows Jesus more closely. Many Orthodox Jews do not consider Reform Jews members of their own faith because they do not adhere to the rules closely enough.

I believe that God is bigger than all of this human pettiness and that his truth transcends all of these practices. Over the years, the people have manipulated his truth to control others and to suit the needs of their own hierarchies. That's what humans do. I don't lack a belief in God, I lack faith in humanity.

Another Christian university sells out....

 

 

Harvard's Chief Chaplain's An Atheist

Absolutely perfect choice. They are clearly not contaminated by any religious dogma or preconceived ideas about a supernatural entity or entities moving humans around the terrestrial chessboard. Their leadership will be grounded in empiricism and logic and free from mysticism, mythology, and orthodoxy. Kudos to Harvard for keeping it 'real'.

The New Chief Chaplain at Harvard? An Atheist. – DNyuz

 

Thinking Aloud - Wednesday Morning

Good Morning Thinkers - Today is the 84th day of the Biden Kakistocracy. Biden has set September 11th of this year as the targeted withdrawal date of all troops from Afghanistan. September 11th is an anniversary for the Taliban and al Qaeda, too. Setting 9/11/21 as our withdrawal date -- and effectively ceding the country to the Taliban -- is another win for them; earning Biden another ignominious title: Capitulator In Chief. 
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Today's quote from someone way smarter than me:
Ayn Rand writes, "The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see."
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This is from awhile back, but the question is still interesting and relevant:

There has been an interesting convergence of science and philosophy this week in NASA's discoveries about the Saturnian moon Enceladus. They hypothesize that the existence of H2 (molecular hydrogen) in the icy plumes that are emitted from fissures in the moon's surface create conditions that are critical to fueling life. So the question arises - how do you define life? I've researched numerous NASA and other scientific publications about this question and find that even these eminent scientists do not have a single agreed-upon definition. I find this interesting because in their examination of the 'What is life" question, their ability to restrict it to a checklist of characteristics eliminates creatures and species that are clearly alive and promotes processes (like computer viruses) to a proto-living status.

So this leaves me with a couple of questions: How will they be able to identify extraterrestrial life if they cannot clearly define it? What implications does this absence of clarity have on the definition of human life on Earth?
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From a year when Easter Season occurred this week:

Someone asked, with a measure of contempt, "What makes this Good Friday? It doesn't seem so 'Good' to me." My response to them:

For Christians, this is one of the most important days of the year. The sacrifice of the Lamb of God as a surrogate for the sins of all mankind. The love that underpins this gift is beyond my reckoning. Sacrificing one's own perfect child, to a horrific torture and death, as a permanent offering to create a pathway to Heaven for the most wicked humans to ever walk the Earth is unfathomable. In the Bible it says, "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

This is why it's Good Friday.
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This also popped up in my social media memories. It's also still relevant. Israel trolls pro-Palestinian activist loudmouths. Am Yisrael Chai!!!
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From the Notebooks of Lazarus Long: "If it can't be expressed in figures, it's not science, it's opinion."
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Patrice Cullors, one of the founders of the BLM organization has spent millions acquiring properties and other investments, all while whining about her oppression and lack of opportunity as a Black woman in racist America. Here is an article in which she tells college students that capitalism is more 'tragic' than Covid and defends rioters who destroy our cities. 

The article is here_
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Did you know that cheese is now racist and should be banned from schools? According to an environmental activist, the fact that some Black people are more prone to lactose intolerance means that all cheese and other dairy products should be banned from being served in schools. Because doing so is systemic racism. 

Full disclosure: I love cheese and other dairy products. We have a niece that showed Brown Swiss cows competitively in fairs and 4H competitions around the Northwest. And, I fully support the dairy farmers of America. 

Call me what you will. 

Article here__________________________________________________

Free To Choose....

 

This is a big one with me because it explores the nature of the relationship of God and man. Here's the issue as I see it: If God is omniscient, all knowing of past, present, and future, then it does not seem possible for humans to be independent agents. Why? Because if God is the author of all things then he knows what happens at the end of the story, there is no mystery, no surprise ending, no wicked plot twist. As characters in the "Great Cosmic Novel" we interact with our environment as though we have free will, but in the grand scheme of things our actions have been preselected so that the hero can ride into the sunset, victorious, as the final chapter reaches its end.

 

Within the scope of any great story, the individual players experience tragedies and triumphs, but none of these are a surprise to the author as she is the one who contrives them. For example, Harry Potter's actions are at the whim of J.K. Rowling. Had Rowling chosen a different dramatic device, Harry could have impregnated Luna Lovegood thereby causing Ginny Weasley to join Voldemort in a fit of jealousy. At the Yule Ball, Ginny hooks up with Malfoy and nine months later bears a child that looks strikingly like Tom Riddle. The fate of the wizarding world is then left up to a proxy battle between Knackspurt Lovegood-Potter and Aracnus Malfoy.

 

 

Crazy? Not if you're the author and you just want to cause a little mayhem in your characters' lives.

 

How many of our lives have taken freakishly random turns? Is this our doing or is the author of the story just screwing with us to move the plot along?

 

On the other hand, what if the author (God) is working out the story as he goes along, creating scenarios and then watching as the story evolves. Sort of like putting a snake and a mouse in different parts of a maze with an exit in the middle and then watching to see if the mouse escapes or the snake gets a hot lunch. He knows that the outcome will be one or the other, but leaves it up to the players to determine the specific result. The creatures' choices determine the outcome, but there is only a finite number of possible results. This view imputes ominscience as God knows what the outcome will be - either this or that - and gives the creatures in the maze free will. Is this how it works? The Almighty playing a little semantical probability with us down here on terra firma? Sure he knew what the outcome of this scenario was going to be, it was the snake or the mouse, the Lady or the Tiger.

 

Einstein said famously, "God does not play dice with the universe." In this statement he was arguing against the seemingly unpredictable nature of subatomic particles proposed by the quantum physicists of his day, principally Heisenberg and Bohr. Einstein contended that the fault was with an incomplete knowledge of the system, not with the system itself. Extrapolating this argument to the metaphysical realm, perhaps the same thing exists. Omniscience and free will may be able to co-exist, but as observers within the system we cannot reckon the manner in which they do.

Prayer for Our Country

Good Morning Thinkers - This morning I ask the Blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints and you my brothers and sisters to pray for the United States of America to the Lord our God.

Ideo precor beátam Maríam semper Vírginem, omnes Angelos et Sanctos, et vos fratres orare pro Civitatibus Foederatis Americae Foederatae ad Dominum Deum nostrum.

Les pido a la Bienaventurada Virgen, siempre virgen, a todos los ángeles y santos, y a ustedes, mis hermanos y hermanas, que oren por los Estados Unidos de América al Señor nuestro Dios.

Je demande à la Bienheureuse Marie, toujours vierge, à tous les anges et saints, et à vous mes frères et sœurs de prier pour les États-Unis d'Amérique auprès du Seigneur notre Dieu.

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