Meanderings

J'Accuse

I just finished reading a short book of poetry written by Israeli author Ahron Shabtai and translated by Peter Cole called, "J'Accuse". It was a challenging read for me, not because the material was unfamiliar or complex, but because the point of view as so very different from my own. Shabtai is a man who deeply loves his country and is harshly critical of his government's policies. He is an idealist who sincerely believes that Israel's best course of action would be to demilitarize, throw open the borders of the Territories, and to embrace those who shout for Jewish blood.

While I can empathize with his revulsion at the violence (he mentions only violence against Arabs, but it obviously goes both ways), I cannot comprehend the thinking that would assume a positive outcome for Israel if his way were made national policy. To me this is analogous to the United States inviting Al Qaeda and Taliban members to reside here so that they can see that American's aren't so bad.

No, some relationships are not reconcilable and romanticizing about a Disney ending to the Israeli-Palestinian tensions is, just like Disney, the stuff of fantasy.

The Fall of Life

People I know are dying. Like the first leaves that catch a late summer breeze and float away, they are departing this life for whatever follows. It began in late 2009 when my mom passed away. Her death was timely. She had been sick for a long time and her body finally gave in to her many maladies. Last year marked the deaths of two guys who should have lived forever, Vince Lopez and Mark Jansen. This fall we lost two amazing women, Carrie Budd Naas and Suzanne Pierson Dunbar, both in their 40's, both to cancer, and both with two pre-high school aged children.

As I've tried to reconcile these deaths, I've grasped for a metaphor that would help me to understand the question, why now? This evening it came to me. I've reached the fall of my life. By fall, I mean autumn, not fall as in "The Fall of Rome".

In the fall, some of the things that were once vibrant with color begin to dim. Other things reach their full potential in the fall and only then are they able to share the full measure of their gifts with the world. And, unfortunately, some things die in the fall - especially some of the flowers that bloomed most brightly in the spring and summer their lives. This is the natural order of things and it helps me to understand, why now.

Provocative Words on the Eve of Ash Wednesday

Stephen Fry presents a scathing indictment of the Catholic Church in this 20 minute video. A thought provoking way to begin the Lenten season.

The Intelligence² Debate - Stephen Fry (Unedited)
Uploaded by Xrunner17. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

Divine Intervention?

When does God decide to get involved in the lives of humans and what are the circumstances that provoke or invites his involvement? It cannot be faith alone because there are millions of ardently faithful people who have not had a direct encounter with the divine. Similarly, there are people of tenuous faith whose lives have been changed forever as a result of a visit from the Almighty.

My mom was a passionately faithful woman. According to her beliefs, God and his emissaries were very active in the material world. She believed that laying hands upon the sick could bring about healing, she believed that anointing with oil repelled malevolent spirits, she believed in the gifts of the Spirit, and she believed that her son was far too analytical when discussing issues of faith. 

So here he goes again....

After her left arm and hand were paralyzed by a stroke, Mom went into overdrive in her efforts to manifest a miracle healing. She prayed, she fasted, she donated the food money that she saved by fasting to various religious organizations, and she told her grandkids that soon she'd be able walk and run and play ball with them at the park because God was going to give her a miracle.

Shortly after she died, Anthony posed the following question to me, "Grandma Ann said that she was going to get better and race me at the park, how come God didn't fix her like she said he would?"

I didn't, and still don't, have a decent answer for him.

Saturday's Philosophy Lesson

Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was a medieval philosopher who posited the notion that there are two classifications of beings: necessary beings, or those that must exist, and contingent beings, those that may exist but whose existence is not necessary. I find it an interesting intellectual exercise to organize things in this fashion.

Obama 5:7-8

In the days that followed the hundred, the Messiah went here and there spreading the good news. In his travels he spake unto the multitudes and he did say, "I will bring down the high and uplift the low, I will mend the sick, give rest to the weary, and bring peace to the lands. I will give sustenance to those who toil for my sake and smite those who stand against me."

The crowd murmured, wondering how one man could bring such miracles. Sensing their disquiet, The Messiah spake unto them again, "My children, let not your hearts be troubled, for you shall not bear the burden of my great works. They who worshiped the false gods and reaped the harvests of your labor shall pay for their iniquity. The sum of their greed shall kindle my vengeance. Their edifices, monuments, and institutions shall be rebuilt in my image and any who resist shall be consumed as tinder in a wildfire. Yea my children, tell thy bretheren that I am the Light and any who turn away shall be set upon as locusts to a field."

Thus endeth today's reading.

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.

The Prayer Paradox

I'll admit up front that I'm somewhat cynical about the efficacy of prayer. Too many people have spent countless hours in faithful supplication with limited results for me to run around evangelizing about the miraculous power of prayer. For example, how many man-hours have been spent praying for peace in the Middle East? By people of many faiths too, so if the Christian God isn't the real one then maybe Buddha could come through, or Ganesha, but so far, not so good.

Which leads me to today's dilemma: If two equally devout people pray for opposing events, whose prayer is answered? In the New Testament, the Book of James (verses 5:16-18) speaks of the prophet Elijah who prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain for three and a half years. Then he prayed for the drought to end and the rain fell and the earth produced crops. Well, what if, on the other side of the Kingdom families were praying for rain during the three and a half years of drought? Why were their prayers unanswered? The Book of Acts specifically says that God does not play favorites (verses 10:34-41), so the fact that Elijah was a prophet shouldn't have made a difference in God's responsiveness. So what matters?

1 John 5:14-15 tells us that we should approach God confidently and that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us and responds powerfully. If this is the case, then is prayer really just a crapshoot? Two people pray and the one whose prayer lines up with the will of God gets the payoff? That seems kind of random, especially if you add a third, a fourth, and an Nth variable. Tariq prays for the destruction of the Jews, Yitzhak prays for victory over Hamas, Cindy Lou prays for peace between them, and Ruslan wants God to stop focusing on Gaza and pay attention to Chechnya. How is that one sorted out?

And, if it is indeed the will of God that will emerge supreme in the end, do the prayers of the faithful matter anyway? If God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, is the stuff in the middle just meaningless noise?

No answers, only questions.

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.

The Latest Irony

Just a few days ago a group called Catholicvote.org posted this video on YouTube and began soliciting Catholic voters for funds to distribute it to commercial media channels. I find the irony of the video tragically ironic in light of the fact that President Obama just signed an Executive Order releasing funds to support abortions throughout the developing world.