I try to boil things down to basics. What is the basis, the ultimate foundation of Christianity? To put it another way. What is the single stone that everything else is built on?

There is the physical world…..and there is the non-physical world…….the spiritual world. The physical world is easy. We can reach out and touch it. We can measure it. We can manipulate it (for better or worse). The spiritual world is tougher. Most of us believe that there is something beyond the physical……though we vary widely in the details. But, a growing number of us belief that there is no spiritual world at all…….you die and you’re dirt. The difficulty is the point at which the physical world and the spiritual world intersect. It is really important that we get this right. Our decision to accept the spiritual world or reject it…….or, worst of all……ignore it altogether, will have consequences that will extend far beyond our brief 80 years.

What exactly is at the intersection of the physical world and the spiritual world?

Christianity teaches that at the intersection of these worlds is Jesus…….a being who is fully human (physical) and fully God (spiritual). This is pretty radical. Obviously, this changes everything. What is it that proves that Christ is both man and God? There is solid evidence that Christ lived. There are historical accounts of his crucifixion. I think that the vast majority of people, both Christians and skeptics, can agree on that. We accept that Christ was a man……that he operated in the physical realm. But, is he God? That’s where we get into trouble.

So…… the crux of it all is the resurrection.

This clearly crosses the line from the physical world to the spiritual world. In the physical world, the resurrection simply is not possible. The resurrection proves that Jesus operates in both the physical world and the spiritual world. More importantly, the resurrection gives Jesus ultimate authority. In a word, it means that we have to take what he says seriously. And what he says is the basis of Christianity……love God and love your neighbor.

The resurrection either happened……..or it didn’t. There is no middle ground. Either there is a spiritual realm as Jesus said……or there isn’t. And we have to pick a side…….ignoring the question is to deny the spiritual realm by default. The consequences for you……and for me…..are extreme. We have to get this binary choice right. And the simple fact is that most of us don’t take this critical decision seriously. We spend more time working on our “play list” than on this foundational question.

The resurrection happened. It is a fact…….and it establishes the divinity of Jesus.

Hundreds of people witnessed Christ after the resurrection. They talked to him, touched him, ate with him.

11 ordinary practical working men, men who were there, died gruesome deaths rather than deny the resurrection.

There are multiple texts that support it.

The primary reason for denying the resurrection today is that we don’t want to deal with a supernatural God who tells us what we can and cannot do. A human boss is bad enough; but……for many of us, a divine supernatural boss is intolerable.

So there it is.

There is solid testimony that the resurrection happened.
The resurrection proves that Jesus is God.
When Jesus speaks, God speaks.

We need to pay close attention, because what Jesus tells us to do is far more important than what we want to do.

Fortunately, what he tells us to do is easy.

Love God and Love your fellow man.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light .”

Jesus, NIV

I was recently in a hotel. A man walked up to the front desk. He was extremely angry because the free breakfast that he had received was not what he had expected. He berated the clerk, dropping the “f” bomb repeatedly then became verbally abusive to others in the room. His wife stood by and said nothing. I got the sense that this was a fairly routine performance for her husband. He was pretty much the poster child for anger. He was not a happy camper.

I began to consider anger and how it affects us in living the life that we want to live.

So, look at the list below. Pick one thing from the list. Pick the thing you want the most…the thing that you would give up all of the others to achieve.

Wealth
Health
Power
Happiness
Respect
Love

I bet most people would choose happiness. Everything else on the list is a stepping stone toward happiness, but not a destination in itself. To look at it another way, what good is wealth, health, power, respect, or even love……..if it leads to unhappiness?

I often tell people that I have the most valuable skill set on the planet……..I have learned how to be happy. And yet, there are a great many people who are not happy. Being happy, it turns out, is not a common skill. Why?

Here is another list:

Anger
Jealousy
Vengeance
Greed
Laziness
Lust

These are things that we actively choose to do that lead us away from happiness. I would go so far as to say that the things on this list are incompatible with happiness. And yet, for the most part, they are things that we make a conscious decision to pursue. In effect, by choosing to pursue the things on this list, we are making a concious decision to be unhappy. The guy in the hotel that morning made a concious decision to be angry and the result was that he became unhappy. I can’t be sure, but I bet he is often unhappy.

Are there better choices that we can make…….choices that will lead us to happiness?

Here is the final list:

Kindness
Generosity
Love
Truth
Faith
Hope

Here is a list of things that we can choose to pursue that will lead to happiness. I am convinced that the surest road to happiness in this life is to love and actively care for your fellow man. And the converse is also true……….the surest road to unhappiness is anger.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you”

St. Paul, NIV

So…… what do I do when somebody attacks me or treats me badly? My first job is to protect myself and the best tool for protecting myself from angry people is distance. This includes angry bosses. After I put some distance between me and my attacker, then I should consider that my attacker must, almost by definition, be unhappy. It’s hard to do……..but there is room in my heart for a little sympathy for people who habitually make bad choices that cause them (and the people around them) to be unhappy.

What do you do when you find that you are angry……that you are hanging out on list #1? Just remember……….every minute of your life that you choose to be angry is a minute of happiness that you have intentionally thrown away………and you can never get that minute back.

It’s hard to beat St. Paul’s advice.

Think of words that you might use to describe God.

Big, strong, just, angry, fierce, friend, father, avenger, protector, redeemer/saviour, punisher, creator, teacher, destroyer, guide, rescuer, distant, absent, judgemental.

In the Bible, God shows us a lot of faces. Many of them are quite different from one another. Each face shows us a different facet of God’s “personality”.

I think that how we react to God, how we relate to him, is deeply colored by the face of God that we see most often…..the vision of God that we carry with us every day.

If the face of God that you carry with you every day is an angry, fierce, distant, judgemental, absent, punisher……. then it is not hard to understand why you would not seek him out. It is easy to see why you would distance yourself from him. This is the face of God that Dawkins sees in his book “The God Delusion”.

Many people find this vision of God so disturbing that they go one step further. They either ignore him completely……or they deny his existence.

On the other hand, if the face of God that you keep in front of you is a friend, protector, teacher, guide, rescuer…….a loving father, Abba, then I would expect you to pursue him.

This dichotomy, I think, is at the heart of the division of our culture into primarily secular and primarily religious camps. It is why these two groups have such a hard time even talking about God. They choose such different “faces” of God that it is almost as though they are talking about different Gods.

So….. which of these faces of God is the truth? You probably have already guessed…….it is not as simple as it seems. Each of the descriptions in the second paragraph has roots in the Bible. Each of these descriptions of God has some truth in it. How do we sort through them? More importantly, how do we use them to guide our actions………our thoughts……our lives?

What we are talking about here is relationship and what that relationship looks like from our side. I believe that relationship is the primary driving goal of our lives. It is the thing that we value the most. It is the thing that is the main determinant of whether we are happy or sad. I believe that the desire for relationship is at the center of our lives. It is “written on our hearts”. It was put there by our creator for our use……and for his. How we act on our need for relationship is the main thing that will determine the success or failure of our lives.

The most powerful relationship in our lives is the parent/child relationship. From the child’s side……..dependence, respect, honor, love, obedience, service, even worship. From the parent’s side…….love, self sacrifice, teaching, nurturing, protecting, promoting, and if necessary dying for your child. The fact that the parent/child relationship looks just like the human/God relationship is no accident. I believe that this incredibly strong instinctive relationship was built in to us by our creator. So……if you want to understand your relationship with God…….look at your relationship with your parents and your children. Some parents and some children do not do this well so you may have to look around a bit.

So…..what does this have to do with the “face” of God that we carry around with us?

If the face of God that we carry with us shapes our relationship with God…….then we had better choose our “face of God” carefully. If you want your relationship with God to be angry, confrontational, judgmental…….if you want to push God off into some remote corner of your life where he won’t cause you any trouble……focus on the face of God that Dawkins chose in his book. If, on the other hand, you want a joyful, peaceful, successful, loving parent/child relationship with your father, your creator, choose the “face” of Jesus……gentle, loving, forgiving, self sacrificing…….the face of God that wants success and happiness for you……over the long haul.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God, NIV

In a way, you are choosing whether you want to be joyous or angry……..because, like it or not, you can’t be both.

As I watch the world…….and the people around me. I see a lot of conflict and misunderstanding around the topic of religion. This comes from a lot of different sources and I can’t deal with them all here. I believe that a lot of this conflict stems from a misunderstanding……. either intentional or not…….. of our relationship with God.

I once saw an interview with Robert Deniro. Somebody asked him if he believed in God. He said something like “I don’t know….but I’ll tell you this……he’s got some explaining to do”. This was probably just a snappy “throw away line” and may not reflect Mr. Dinero’s theology. But, it does reflect the way that many people see their relationship with God. A lot of us act as though we get to approve or disapprove of God and what he is up to. We act as though we have a veto over God’s rules and over his plans. We act as though he needs our clearance before he acts. In a word, we act as though we are a higher authority than God.

We give him a daily “to do list”……we accept the things that he does that we like and toss out anything that he does that goes against what we want.

You will hear lines like, “I can’t accept a God who would let my child die”. Or….”I don’t believe in hell”. Or you talk to otherwise solid Christians who pick through the Bible……they accept what appeals to them……and they discard anything that they don’t like……anything that restricts their behavior………anything that goes against their political party (left or right).

I think that understanding our relationship with God may help us to better fit into our place in the cosmos. It might even bring us some inner peace as well.

So how do I stack up against God?

He is big……I am small.

He knows everything…….I know a little.

He loves everyone all of the time….l love some people some of the time.

He operates on an eternal time frame…… I’m limited to 80 or 90 years (I hope!).

He created me……..I create furniture.

He desires joy for all of us…….I often desire pain for those who harm my family and friends.

He can and will forgive just about anything (if you only ask)……I can forgive small things some of the time.

He is perfectly just and cannot be approached by evil…….I am fairly comfortable functioning in a world that is full of evil.

He always does what is right……….I often do what is wrong.

In short…….God is ultimate love, power, knowledge, justice, righteousness, and mercy. He is eternal. I fall short in every one of these areas.

In light of that, here are some guidelines that I try to follow when I read the Bible……..pray……..or react to God and the things that he is up to.

God is vastly superior to you and me……be humble.

God has a good plan………don’t critisize or second guess him.

God loves you……..trust him in the good times and in the bad.

God is eternal……be patient…. he will “fix” things in his good time; but, on his terms……not necessarily on your terms.

God is merciful…..when you fail, get up, brush yourself off, say I’m sorry, and move on.

God is generous…….he has something fabulous waiting for his people…..waiting for you……..be happy.

I am a smart and capable guy. By many measures I have had a “successful” life and a “successful” career. But, when I approach God……if I am being honest…….I approach him as a weak, naked, ignorant child who will die very soon.

Humility not hubris.

3 different approaches to managing the world

Republicans:

Lower taxes
Small federal government
Strong army
Secure border, limits on immigration
No abortion
Right to own guns
Strict original interpretation of the constitution
Limited entitlements
Protect the environment when financially feasible
Against recreational drugs
Sex in marriage is between one man and one woman
Nationalist (America first)
More business friendly

Democrats:

Higher taxes
More expansive federal government
More open borders, few restrictions on immigration
Right to choose
Gun control
Flexible interpretation of the constitution
Generous entitlements
Protect the environment even if it is costly
Legalize marijuana
Sympathetic to LGBT
World government
Less business friendly

Christianity:

Love God
Love your fellow man
Help the poor, the prisoner, widows, orphans, and children
Treat the “soujourner” (visitor, transient, alien) well
Give 10% to the Church
Spread the good news (sell paradise)
Be kind……even to those who attack you
Be honest in what you say and do.
Do not be sexually promiscuous
Do not envy others
Take the day off on Sunday
Take care of the planet and everything on it.
Obey the law and pay your taxes
Avoid intoxication

Each of these approaches does many good things. Each of them is in conflict with the other two.

We need to choose. But, unlike the angry talking heads on TV…..unlike the politicians on the extreme left and right……. it is not “pick one side and destroy the others”.

Rather, I think that we need to prioritize these three approaches. In other words…….what are you…….first and foremost? Christian…….Democrat…….Republican. Look at the three lists and ask yourself which list best matches the world that you want to live in…….and the person whom you want to be. When you get involved in an argument about the things on the three lists………which list do you defend………which list(s) do you attack?

As for me……I want to be a Christian first……..and only after that……a Republican or Democrat. When a politician tries to sell me an idea, I want to measure it against list #3 first. Only after that should I consider lists #1 and #2. Far too many of us use only list #1 or list #2. Far too many of us get angry with others because they choose a different list.

I would love to see a third political party.

Imagine a voting booth where you can vote for individual candidates……….or vote the “straight ticket”.

Which “ticket” would you choose?

Republican. □

Democrat. □

Christian. □

So…….first and foremost……..what are you?

I believe that there are fundamental…..foundational truths in life. These are universal……they do not change……..they are eternal. Knowing them is the key to happiness. Violating them causes us pain.

These truths are so critical that they are “written on our hearts”…..we were born with them………they were put there by our creator to guide us. If you cast aside your desires, your politics, your emotions, your physical wants and needs………if you strip away everything that our culture, your computer and your TV tell you and carefully search your heart you will find these truths. It should be no surprise that the greatest truths in life are built into us……programmed into us.

In our busy lives, these universal truths often get buried beneath layers of ideas that our culture feeds us. The ideas that the culture sells us may very well have some truth in them. They are certainly pounded into us every day by an endless stream of politicians and other “talking heads”…….but, they are not universal……. and they are not eternal. The ideas that the culture feeds us are like a fashion that comes and goes. In a word, the moral framework that our culture accepts…..the rules that our society insists that we follow……are constantly changing. No wonder we have trouble keeping up……no wonder we get into fights over which rules to follow. Every day we get beat up because someone says that we should follow the latest rule instead of following the rule that was “fashionable” last year.

In my search for peace, I have tried to seek out the foundational truths of life…….and I doubt that I have been completely successful. But, here it is………my list of universal truths:

There is something………a form of existence……after physical death. In a word, there is an element of spiritual immortality in each of us.

We are driven by love…..the need to be loved and even more so, the need to love others. The love of a parent for his/her child is the purest earthly example of this love.

Pure good exists. There is some good in all of us. But there is also a reservoir of pure good that is external to us.

Evil exists. It is everywhere around us…….it also lives inside all of us……..it lives inside me. But, there is also an external reservoir of evil.

The good that we do……..and the bad that we do……… will return to us…….either before……or after we die. We have an abiding trust that there will be justice……..in the end.

We know that on the spectrum from good to evil, we are somewhere in the middle. We want to be good…..we want to avoid evil……..but we just cannot get all of the way there. In a word….we know that we are flawed. We need outside help.

We have a drive to promote ourselves as well as a need to help others.

So…..there they are……..the fundamental truths that are built into all of us. We often ignore them. Sometimes we run from them. But…….. if we search deep in our hearts……..we know that they are real…….that they are true.

Life….death….immortality…..love……good…….evil…….justice….failure

In the Bible, we see these ideas codified.

Creation…….death……..paradise……..love………God…..Satan……judgement……mercy

This is why the Bible is the most enduring piece of literature in the history of man. It touches on the fundamental truths that we sense deep in our hearts. It gives us a moral compass that is stable……..one that just works better than the current…… and transient …….moral fashion of our culture.

That is why I trust the Bible. That is why I use it as my moral code.

A friend was recently told by a pastor that she couldn’t become a member of my church unless she was baptized by immersion………she had been sprinkled……….. but sprinkling doesn’t count.

Another friend is gay………many churches are are not receptive to him.

Both of these things trouble me. In both cases the rules are pushing somebody away from Christ.

So…..I’ve been looking at the “rules”………and how we use them.

Arguing over the rules is a huge cause of strife. It is a source of divisiveness within the Christian faith. It is also at the heart of open hostility between Christians and the LGBT community. Arguably, it is one of the biggest problems that we, as Christians, face. It divides us internally. Even worse, it drives non-christians away from us…….away from God.

How do we, both Christians and non-Christians, handle this?

There are a great many rules/laws/ideas that we must deal with. They form a spectrum from foundational ideas that we cannot abandon or negotiate to ideas/rules that are meaningless today. We tend to draw lines dividing the list of rules/ideas into important ones that are non-negotiable, ones that we can discuss, and unimportant ones that we don’t worry too much about.

Let me begin by clarifying my perspective. I think that my job is to market Christianity to the unchurched. As such, I worry about any rule/idea that puts a wall between the seeker, the unchurched, the committed atheist, and God.

So…… what does this spectrum of ideas look like. Beginning with foundational/non-negotiable and going to unimportant.

God as creator
The divinity of Christ
The resurrection of Christ
The holy spirit lives in Christians
Salvation by grace
Love God/ Love your neighbor
The 10 commandments
Abortion is murder
Premarital sex is prohibited
Baptism must be by immersion
Male/Male and female/female sex is prohibited
Pornography is bad
Welcome the soujourner(immigrants)
Social security/ Medicare/Medicaid/welfare
Gun control
Legal recreational drugs(including alchohol)
Equality of the sexes
Things you cannot eat
Things you cannot wear
Things you cannot say
Places you cannot go
Don’t boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk (Exodus 23:19)

Please don’t complain about the list………it’s mine……..and it’s nowhere near complete. Furthermore, the details of the list are not the point.

How do we deal with the list? Pretty basic. We fight for the non-negotiable, we discuss the discussable and we ignore the unimportant. So far so good. So how do we get into so much trouble? We get into trouble when we draw the lines dividing up the list. We damn people to hell over this. We drive a wedge between God and the unchurched over this. And we allow ourselves to believe that we are better than the other guy……. because we have more rules on our “non-negotiable” list.

There has to be a better way.

I will focus on the line between non-negotiable and discussable, because this is where we get into the most trouble.

The free thinker, some would say liberal, might say that nothing is foundational/non-negotiable. The legalist, some world say conservative, might say it’s all non-negotiable.

It seems to me that where that line is drawn may be different for different people. FWIW……I have noticed an unmistakable trend. We all tend to draw the line so that the non-negotiable items do not interfere with the way that we want to live. This is either human nature or hypocrisy. The line also moves depending on where we are in our walk. A mature Christian may draw the line low on the list. A non-Christian or a new Christian might draw the line higher on the list.

As for me, I want as many people in paradise as possible. To alienate a non-Christian or even worse, a seeker over a discussable idea is self defeating. On the other hand, you can draw the line so high on the list that you stop being a Christian. “If you don’t stand for something……… you’ll fall for anything”.

I have come to the conclusion that where I draw the line should depend on who I’m dealing with and what I’m trying to accomplish.

As for my personal use…… today….. in this broken world……. with my limited perspective………. I will draw the line somewhere above many of the old testament household restrictions. In my dealings with others……especially with seekers…….I will draw the line just below “Love God/Love your neighbor “. Below this line I will not push the rules/ideas so hard as to alienate others. Below this line, my guideline will be relationship before rules…… love before legalism.

You will have to decide where to draw the line for yourself. In the end, we will get the answer……. to this delimma and many more……. straight from God.

But, the point here is this…… To beat somebody else up over a rule and in the process drive them away from God…….is not “winning” the argument.

Imagine a phone call from your child. As a parent, I’ve had a lot of these.

Here are 3 examples:

Dad, I really messed up. I went out after the game with some friends. We had some beers. As I was driving home I ran a light and hit another kid. I don’t know how he is. They took him in a helicopter. The car is totaled and they are putting me in a cruiser, they said I was DUI. Help me!

Dad, how are you? It’s Sunday and this is my weekly call. I’m fine and the kids are healthy. See you next week.

Dad, it’s been a wild week. We had a big problem at work. They told me to fix it……. and I did! They were so happy with me that I got a promotion and a raise. I want to thank you, because it was the things that you taught me and the example that you set that gave me the tools that I used to fix it. You’ve been a great father. Love ya’.

The relationship of a parent to his child is very much like the relationship between God and his children. This relationship is “written on our hearts”. When done well, the parent/child relationship is our best “window” into the heart of God.

Think of the 3 phone calls:

The first is a desperate cry for help. The second is a perfunctory “check the box” type call. The last is a call that didn’t have to be made. It is a grateful conversation between 2 friends.

Now….think of your conversations with God…….your prayers. We will all make call #1 and cry out in desperation from time to time. Unfortunately, many of us routinely make call #2…..a rote memorized prayer that requires no thought at all. For some of us, it is the only call we ever make. Call #3 is the real deal……a heartfelt conversation……it should be a daily thing. As a parent, imagine getting call #3. How great would that feel?

Think of these conversations from God’s side. He is going to field your desperate cry for help. He will listen to your mindless recitation and he’ll probably be just as bored with it as you are. But don’t you think he would love to hear from you when things are going great……..to hear a compliment and a thank you…….. to know that you value him and appreciate him………. his teaching, his example, and his leadership……….his gift of relationship?

God is not a sterile collection of rules, conditions, and punishments. He is your parent……….your Dad. He made you for one thing and one thing only……….relationship. We need to be sure that we are holding up our end.

I’m going to try to live my life as a grateful son……….to nurture and enjoy my relationship with my Dad.

I’m going to try to make call #3 a daily thing.

Eternity, Righteousness, & Perspective

Many of the problems people have with Christianity revolve around perspective.

We operate in a time perspective of about 80 years, give or take. God operates over eternity. When something bad happens today……..we get mad at God. Or, we say that we can’t believe in a god who would allow that. It was wrong, it hurts, and there is no remedy in our 80 years. And yet, God has promised to make it right……in his eternal time frame.

So, be patient…….trust that God will “fix” it…….but, on his schedule, not on yours.

We operate on a righteousness perspective that stretches from Adolf Hitler to mother Teresa. God operates on a vastly wider spectrum. It’s like the light spectrum. We see only visible light. But, there are vast frequencies of electromagnetic radiation that we cannot see. We look at the heroin addict shoplifting to feed her habit. We say, “I’m better than she is.” Well……..there’s some good news and some bad news. The good news is that you probably are better, that is, more righteous, than she is. The bad news is that, on God’s spectrum of righteousness, the difference between you and her is of no consequence. “All have fallen short.”

Sooooo………

Never allow yourself the luxury of believing that, in any consequential way, you are better that the other guy……..because you aren’t.

A great deal of our confusion about God, flows from our assumption that God operates within the same limitations in time, space, and righteousness that we do. This is not the case.

Lord

Throughout eternity past, I was an idea in your mind.

For a brief span of a few decades you put me in this place to perform a task……..whether I accept it or not……. whether I accept you or not.

After that I return to you for eternity future……..one way or another.

Help me to keep an eternal perspective.

Help me to accept the fact that on your scale of righteousness, there is no meaningful difference between me and Jeffrey Dahmer.

Amen

First, let me be clear………I am not smarter than God. The fact is that I spend a lot of my time trying to understand my world and what is going on in it. To paraphrase a not so famous politician……….”my ignorance is encyclopedic”. But, at least I recognize my limitations.

What I’m angling toward is this: do you believe that you are smarter than God? Do you believe that we, as a species, are smarter than God? Don’t laugh yet……..If you believe that there is no God, then by default you are answering yes. If you find yourself saying……”I can’t believe that God would (fill in the blank)” then you are answering yes. If you are angry with God because of something that has happened to you or somebody close to you, then you are answering yes. If you reject “organized religion” then you are answering yes. If you believe in God but also believe in Darwin then you are saying yes…….by proxy.

One of my sons used to say that he was the smartest man alive. He was, in fact, very smart…….so smart that it was sometimes scary. He was, of course, wrong. However, just for the purposes of argument, let’s assume that he was right. Let’s go one more…….. let’s assume that you are as smart as he was.

How much, out of all that there is to know, do you have command of? If you are honest, you must say that you understand a tiny fraction of the universe. In reality, you rely on the understanding of others to extend your reach. This brings us to the next question.

How much, out of all that is out there, do we communally……..as a species…….know?

All of it………most of it………some of it………….or have we just scratched the surface. If you consider how much we learn each year……..if you look at the increasing pace of scientific discovery………you must conclude that there is a vast reservoir of knowledge that is beyond our current understanding. Either that or we will soon learn the last thing that is to be learned and our knowledge will be complete and perfect.

I’m asking you to place your personal knowledge and, as a species, our communal knowledge on a scale between hubris and humility. This is going to be hard. As humans, we like hubris a lot more than humility. Hubris is a lot more fun. Furthermore, and far more importantly, hubris allows us to do whatever we want. After all…….as smart as we are……we must be right……….right?

If you believe that we pretty much know it all, then you will no doubt find Darwin appealing. On the other hand, if you believe that we have just scratched the surface………. that we have the understanding of children…… then you are open to possibilities beyond what we, as a community, can explain…….today.

As I said at the top, I am not very confident that I have reached the highest levels of understanding. I am willing to accept that there are things that exist, that are completely beyond my comprehension, beyond our communal comprehension. As a corollary, I will not exclude the existence of God because I cannot see, touch, measure or understand him.

To reject God, you must believe that you are……. that we are…… close to the top of the scale of understanding. This, in spite of the fact that we, as a species, are well on our way to destroying this beautiful planet.

And that is a good working definition of hubris.