Jesus apologetics

Regardless of my lack of posting on this blog, my religious search has far from ended. Even with my new and very time-consuming artwork endeavors that have used much of my time and mental resources, I am still always seeking out new information, trying out new experiences, and asking questions. One habit I’ve developed since getting an iPhone is finding interviews and lectures on youtube to listen to while driving to/from work. Fantastic way to spend a boring 30+ minute drive. Found a really good lecture the other day on proving the Jesus story, which gives insightful details into the Jewish culture, fleshes out much of the context of gospels themselves, and compares Christian beliefs to other religions. There are 7 parts, but they're pretty short. I found it was very worth time spent. Just FYI, the last video is a little worship-y (especially when the piano comes in), but I guess that’s to be expected from a Christian apologetics topic. Otherwise it’s very intelligently argued.

Jesus Apologetics: part 1, Why believe?


Part 2: Legend


Part 3: Story, lie


Part 4: Gospels contradict


Part 5: No corroborating evidence


Part 6: Miracles


Part 7: Ending

Eat or be eaten

I think about the food chain a lot. I know people who span the entire spectrum of vegan and carnivorous lifestyles. Among political and economic issues, a big concern for vegans and veggies seems to be that they don't want to take the life of an animal for their own eating pleasure. And some carnivores are quite proud of their position at the filet-mignon-eating end of the food chain. However there is still one thing they both have in common: they have to kill if they want to eat. In fact, the same goes for every living organism on the planet. In order for any form of life to survive, it must constantly end the life of other organisms and ingest their bodies.

Even a level-five vegan (you know, someone who doesn't eat anything that casts a shadow) still, at every meal, kills and consumes other living organisms. Theirs just happen to be plants that don't seem to care or fight back. However, ironically enough, plants themselves could technically be considered the most carnivorous of us all. Because what else is good black soil but the massive decomposing graveyard of billions of organisms. Plants could even be said to eat people, if one of them has access to our yummy body as we turn back into soil. They could also be considered cannibals, if you consider the fact that they absorb the remnants of their own fallen flowers and leaves.

I guess I'm not really arguing a point here, just throwing out a perspective on an unavoidable truth: death is an absolute necessity for life to survive. And it's a beautiful thing, because we are a part of that circle. And the tragedy of death is completely relative. If it's your father, you could be devastated. If it's a deer you killed in the woods so your family can eat and survive the freezing winter, you could rejoice. If it's a cute fluffy white bunny rabbit that got torn to pieces and eaten by a pack of ravenous wolves, you could feel sad. But hey, those wolves are rejoicing.

It's safe to say that we humans have more control over when and how we die than any other species of life on this planet, but it's still just cleverly delaying the inevitable of course. And all life is designed at its core to avoid death as long as possible, so let's face it - death is by far the most fearful experience we will ever endure or witness. Most of us are spared the terror of dying in the jaws of another animal, but that's how most of life on this planet gets to spend their last few moments, so we should consider ourselves lucky.

I think the only thing that makes death bearable for some people is the possibilities of where we could end up when we discorporate from this pile of ripe yummy meat. For some, it brings them hope and calm when none can be had. Whether it's true or not, none of us truly know for sure what happens after we die, so I say let people embrace their hope. Because who the hell are we to know death well enough to say they're wrong.

Anyway it's unavoidable. One day you will die. And then you will be eaten. So smile, order up another juicy prime rib, and enjoy your life. And praise Jesus if you want. Or don't.

Why do atheists believe in love?

I think atheism can perhaps go beyond the lack of belief in god. I think it could extend to the disbelief of any supernatural or spiritual force whatsoever that exists outside the provable material universe – karma, fate, the soul, or spiritual detachment from any material matter. The universe is mathematics, end of story. To be an atheist means to be the ultimate materialist. For these atheists I have some questions. Please keep in mind the tone of these questions is not meant to be patronizing in any way. They're 1/2 my own thinking out loud, and 1/2 "devil's advocate" (haha, no pun intended). Humor me:

How can you fall in love?  Why do you even believe in love? To an atheist, love is just the chemical by-product of humans attempting to find a suitable mate with which to reproduce. Cows reproduce too, but they don't write sonnets. Also love extends far beyond just reproduction for survival, as evolution would imply. Once past the point of reproduction, a couple's love can evolve into a complex and difficult beast, and can be beautiful and inspiring as the decades roll on. And I believe homosexual couples are completely capable of falling in love, with no physical way of reproducing at all.

How can you believe in art? After all, a stunning painting is nothing more than light reflecting off a mix of pigments smeared onto a flat surface. Does a provocative film create rivers of tears from an audience all because of an optical illusion of innumerable still images flashing on a blank white screen for two hours?

How can you enjoy music? Thousands of sound vibrations coming from a bunch of metal strings stretched over a hollow piece of wood can't be anything but air molecules bouncing off your eardrum.

How can you have hope in anything? The outcomes of the future are mere statistical probability without purpose.

Why do you care if you ever hurt anyone else? I've heard atheists speak of their moral foundations as sort of a common-sense "moral rules of man". In a nutshell, don't do anything if it's going to hurt anyone else. But everyone's definition of "hurt" varies so greatly that's hardly a common-sense law. Plus, but why do you even care? If you hurt someone, there's nobody to punish you or hold you accountable other than the law that governs your place of residence, and if they don't see you do it, more power to you. Is it because you wouldn't want anyone to hurt you, so hopefully if the law applies to everyone than no one will feel motivated to hurt you?

Where do you find grounds for such a romantic idea as kindness? If the universe began with random chaos, it will end in random chaos. And so will your human life. With no justice or purpose. So why bother trying to justify any acts you do with morality or kindness for your fellow man or for the earth? There is no punishment for any ill act you do, if you are the ultimate definer of justice. And it makes no difference to make the world a better place, because it will all end in uncontrollable chaos anyway.

And forget something as silly as beauty. The reason a man finds a woman beautiful could be a mate-search honed by millions of years of evolved survival instincts. But who gives a shit about a sunset? Sitting on a sandy beach and being enveloped by a burning red and pink sky certainly never helped any species survive being eaten by another. In fact, you'd think it would be a detriment. I don't know why some ravenous animal hasn't developed a camouflage of a beautiful sunset. As some dumb human stops to admire, they get torn apart and gobbled up.

Humans have the ability to transcend these worthless and otherwise chaotic tangible things into a spiritual experience unlike any animal on earth (so far as we know). And it is unlikely that many of these spiritual experiences had any effect on our chances of survival as a developing species. So it seems they may exist for another purpose (or come from another source). For one to admit that they encounter any of these human states can be admitting to experiencing a non-material, non-mathematical facet of our universe. Give me all the formulas you want, but you just can't prove love.

Why focus on Christianity?

During my search for truth, I must admit that I have mainly been investigating and pondering God from a Christian viewpoint. My long-time friend and accomplished atheist Michael Doss pointed this out to me after my last blog post about the Christian apologetics conference I attended. Despite the fact that much of my search is rooted in aspects of a "god in general" (or lack there of), I must admit that Mike is right in my leanings toward Christian research. I think the main reasons for the general Christian perspective of my search are foundation and availability.

Ever since I can remember, the Christian god has been present in the culture surrounding my life. My family is Italian, so we're naturally Catholic, and we attended church regularly until I was about 5 or so. After my parents got divorced about that time, my mom started feeling like the church walls would collapse on her if she returned, so we stopped. Nonetheless, we still celebrated Christmas, complete with references to Jesus' birth. Although in our house it still felt like a pretty secular holiday, my mom still made plenty of Christmas decorations with angels and cute little baby Jesus Christmas cards. I've also had many religious friends throughout my childhood, and if I were to number them, I'd say they were about 80% Christian of some permutation, 15% Jewish, and 5% something else. And the influences of Christianity in current American culture are more pervasive than tweed jackets in the '70s. So the ambient exposure was certainly present.

Currently, I'd say Christianity among my close friends still heavily outweighs any belief system by similar proportions. I think I've been exposed to a few more involved ideas to say the least (including Mormonism, Wicca, Buddhism, and Atheism), however Jesus and the canonical Christian bible are still the pervasive ideas among my peers. That alone doesn't make them true necessarily, just very available.

So why would one commit their life and their eternal soul to something, other than the fact that their mom made adorable Christmas ornaments and their friends are doing it too? I'm discovering that Christianity has a very big differentiating factor: faith based on a foretold historical event, versus mere philosophy or the visions of one charismatic founder.

The one event is of course the execution and resurrection of Jesus, the prophesied Messiah of the Jewish people. Note: this article is not about the provable historicity of that event, I'm just using it as a point if reference for comparison.

Most other religions seem to share one general attribute: they are mainly based on philosophies, traditions, rituals, and sheer faith, and don't seem to rely on even remotely provable (or even implied) historical facts or events. Many of them also seem to have one visionary "founder". This includes Hinduism and most related Eastern religions (Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, etc); many of the ancient religions of the Celts, Egyptians, Greeks, Aztecs, American Indians, Mayans, Incans, etc; even current sects of Christianity such as Mormonism (and their sole visionary founder Joseph Smith) and Jehovah's Witnesses (sole founder Charles Russell). And I think everyone can agree that Scientologists are just freakin' wackjobs who buy their way into enlightenment.

It is in my personal opinion that the idea of betting your immortal soul on a tangible event allegedly witnessed by thousands, and then recanted under pain of torture and death by countless thousands has more grounds for consideration than one man's dream about the nature of the universe. Especially when the event in question was allegedly foretold hundreds of years before it took place. I'll add that the canonical texts of Christianity have had numerous, unrelated and widely varied authors over huge periods of time.

I feel Atheism is the only other considerable belief system, because it is based on nothing BUT historical events and provable facts. It also has countless contributors and scrutinizers of its texts over vast time periods.

I will still take interest in other major religions, because I'm on a journey for truth in whatever form (plus there is something very artistic I find in many ancient and exotic religions). However Christianity and its antithesis of Atheism will bear the brunt of my research, focus (and scrutiny for that matter).

Apologetics conference

My friend Christine informed me of an apologetics conference at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa that took place this past Friday/Saturday. Apologetics is sort of the discipline of proving and/or teaching why Christianity is a true and valid way of life. Since I've been on this complicated journey for the last several years, I decided it was right up my alley and I went. I must say it was very engaging.

I won't go into details about all the speakers we saw at the conference, but I will go over a few parts that stuck out in my mind. The first speaker we saw was Stephen Meyer with "Signature in the Cell: Evidence for Design". He was examining cellular and molecular biology for scientific proof of intelligent design. His biggest focus on "intelligent design" vs "naturalistic evolution" was the creation of the very first life – the first living cell in existence. He showed, quite compellingly, that the first cell complete with replicating DNA structures, proteins, functioning RNA, etc, was far too complex to have been brought together by random chance from random elements floating throughout the entire universe, let alone from a primordial soup on ancient earth. He also showed that usable and functioning information must be created by some pre-existing intelligence. For any information available to us today – WE are the pre-existing intelligence that created it. And DNA is ultimately, at its core, a living piece of information with a very specific purpose, which suggests that a pre-existing intelligence created it. And add that DNA and the functions of a living cell are more advanced than any technology humans have ever created. Meyer's presentation used many different scientific and logical approaches, without one quote of scripture.

Another moment that stuck out was during Norman Geisler's talk "If God, Why Evil?". This was a much more philosophical talk of course (and some scripture to boot). No science here, but quite a lot of general logic. One subject he discussed was why pain exists and how it is seen by many as an evil of the world and something that God should eradicate if he truly loves his people. He argued that God allows pain to exist because of this concept: pain is more effective of a teacher and builds more character than any pleasure. He used the example of a study done with people suffering from leprosy. Nerve damage is a common effect of leprosy, and many lose the use of their hands and feet due to repeated injury resulting from lack of sensation. A device was developed and attached to the hands of patients that would deliver a slight electric charge when the hand was about to be injured by something. The electric shock wasn't enough, and patients continued to injure themselves. The shock was increased dramatically (to be quite painful in fact), and it would work only the very first time, until the patients turned down the intensity themselves, to the point where it was no longer effective and they would injure themselves again. He said this proves three points about pain: 1) it has to exist to keep us out of harm; 2) it has to be strong enough to be effective; and 3) it has to be out of our control.

And Lee Strobel spoke about the legal investigation he undertook proving that Jesus Christ was in fact executed to the point of full death, and became alive again and interacted with approximately 515 people. He elaborated on the Romans' efficient ability to ensure death during their brutal executions, and the eyewitnesses who first discovered his tomb empty and later interacted with him. He quoted sources both within and outside of the Bible. I was hoping he would also touch on the historicity of Jesus (was he a real-life historical figure, or a compilation of myths from the ages), but that was not for this discussion apparently. Nevertheless he presented a good argument.

For any of you atheists out there who are shaking your head and automatically preparing your rebuttals, all I can say is maybe you should have attended the conference yourselves (I know I invited some of you!), because:
A) you might have had some widely-held misconceptions intelligently and justifiably challenged (as I did)
B) you should always continue to ask questions and seek new information
C) It's harder to justify arguing against something you didn't attend

I want the truth – both what's true in the tangible world and what's true in my heart. The information I got this weekend pushed some very strong arguments for not just Christianity, but even intelligent design. And I have to admit there have been many moments on this journey that tug at my heart like nothing in the physical world ever has; things that people say about God, or corrected misconceptions I've had about God's role in life, or what I see it do to people that make my eyes go wide like some life inside me is taking a breath for the very first time. I'm not getting all gushy or saying I love Jesus Hallelujah, I'm just calling 'em as I see 'em.

And to be fair, I'm willing to attend a seminar for atheism if there is one locally. Because how can I truly be looking unless I hear both sides of the argument?

Faith gives my life meaning

Whenever I'm in a time of severe hardship in my life, I recite to myself my favorite bible passage. It truly fills me with hope and gives my life meaning. It confirms 100% that my God is eternal and all-powerful. I mean, with that kind of God protecting me, I have the power to accomplish anything I want!

"The Lord is He, other than Whom there is no other god;
who knows both what is hidden and what can be witnessed;
He is the Most Compassionate and Merciful.
Lord is He, other than Whom there is no other god;
the Sovereign, the Holy One, the Source of Peace,
the Guardian of Faith, the Preserver of Security, the Exalted,
the Compelling, the Supreme.
Glory be to God, beyond any associations.
He is Lord, the Creator, the Evolver, the Bestower of Form.
To Him belong the Most Beautiful Names:
whatever exists in heaven and earth declares His Praise and Glory.
And He is Exalted in Power, the Wise."

Whenever I begin to doubt my religion, its historicity and tangible validation, the existence of God, I try to look for real evidence to prove it all. Then I read this passage and realize I don't need any evidence. All the proof I need is in my heart, and in my faith, and in my hope of God.  It reminds me that whatever troubles I could possibly experience in this world, Jesus has already– wait, Jesus? Oh crap, just kidding. That passage isn't from the bible, it's from the Qu'ran. 59:22-24. I must have accidentally replaced the word "Allaah" with "Lord". Sorry about the mixup.

A little religious Shanghai surprise for ya. Now that I've guaranteed myself a lightening bolt from one God or another, here's where this is coming from: I was contemplating all the beautiful passages in the bible that make me genuinely want to believe in something so hopeful and wonderful. You can talk about God's beauty and wonder and power in a thousand different ways, and it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, and it can suddenly be very motivating to take a leap of blind faith and give yourself to God. But I'm afraid I need something a little more substantial. If religion were a gorgeous, fresh-baked and aromatic cake, then I need to see all the ingredients – the flour, the fruit, the milk, the lard. I need to scrape the cake pan and taste the burnt underside and oily coating, and know that it's real, before I can appreciate and get eternally lost in the decadent icing and sugary sweet decorations. If you can do that for me, then I'm all for it.

After all, how will I not be led astray by false religions when they all endlessly spout such tantalizingly hopeful prose?

Prayer is an interesting animal

When people pray, it's said that they are asking God for something. Which I find kind of confusing. God allegedly already knows what's going to happen for the rest of eternity, so whatever you're asking for, he already knows whether you will get it or not. So if you are indeed going to receive what you're praying for, it will be at a specific time already known by God, and he just won't give it to you until then no matter how many times you ask. It's like a kid begging for his birthday present two months early, when his parents know 100% it ain't coming down from the top shelf of the closet for two more months. And, if God already knows that you will NEVER receive what you're praying for, then no amount of prayer by every human on earth will change that. So why bother asking God for things at all?

I've heard people say that prayer is a way of talking to God, and that he wants us to communicate with him. However it sucks for God because a lot of people's communication with him can be pretty one-sided, since they often only pray when they want something. They pray that God helps them get this new job, or keeps their mother safe during her flight home, or grants them the strength to discipline their kids properly, or heals their best friend's cancer. Which isn't to say that praying for what you want is a completely selfish motive – as often times these prayers are for the benefit of others. But if God has an infinite plan for the entire universe, who are we to ask him to alter it? Seems kinda selfish, even if it's for a seemingly good reason at the time.

However, what I've been discovering by learning more about the Christian faith, actually reading the bible, hearing quite a few people speak on the subject, and a shit-load of internal reflection, is this: the Christian faith offers countless instructions for people to NOT think about themselves, but to think about God and other people first. This is pretty counter-intuitive to human nature, since we only survived as a species by tending to our personal needs above all others. We've had 10,000,000 years of training on how to be selfish, but it would seemingly take an act of God for us to transcend from our animal selves into truly spiritual and selfless beings (pun kinda intended). For example, the typical, instinctive prayer of asking for what you want just doesn't make sense, both from a logical and selfish standpoint. If you were to do the exact opposite and instead use your prayer to thank God for the things that he has already given you, it might be a little more satisfying experience. Or, if you find that God has withheld your most burning desires even after much prayer, you could try to find the lesson to be learned from not getting what you wanted, and thank him for making you the wiser by not simply handing things out at your slightest whimper.

So all this being said, a perfect prayer might go something like this: "God I want to communicate with you, so I would like to please ask that you let this event play out according to your plan, which I already know it will. So I thank you if I get what I want, and if I don't get what I want, I also thank you for the lesson you taught me, and for the things you've already given me in the past."

Why not just say that one all the time? I think it could fit just about every circumstance.