Ecclesiastes

Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly Meaningless! Sound depressing? That's Ecclesiastes for you. Yet, this chapter of the Bible also has amazing insights.

Wise and stupid people alike share the same fate. Yes, Ecclesiastes states that there is such a thing as fate. Our fate as human beings, just like other animals, is to die. Wise people understand their purpose and fate more than stupid people, who pretty much just blindly move along, but it doesn't excuse them from death! Since wise people also die, what's the point of even trying? Ecclesiastes goes on to say that the point of living is to have fun working and going through the other parts of life, of which the most important is simply fearing God. Since being wise on this Earth entitles one to a fool's death, why not just be a fool? Well, Ecclesiastes asks: Is it really worth the risk? I think not.

Wisdom and money go good together. Proverb's compliments Ecclesiastes in this by saying that wealth is the crown of wisdom. Since we die in the end no matter how poor or wealthy we are, it's important to use our wealth to bless others and ourselves during our short lives. As an added bonus for all you capitalists out there, guess what else Ecclesiastes says regarding money? It makes the world go round!

Entering a relationship with God is wonderful and dangerous at the same time! Remember Aslan from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? He was portrayed as being a dangerous, but good, lion. In the same way, God isn't safe. Building a relationship with God to simply offer sacrifices is worse than no relationship at all. Could it be that we, as Christians, simply can't earn ourselves back out of the sin we willfully choose? In this case, what should we do when pursuing a relationship with God? Knowledge! According to Ecclesiastes, we should seek out knowledge while in the presence of God. In fact we should learn from all angles of reality, not just the comfortable parts. This will make us better off, just like crying and honestly searching one's own heart for ways to improve is better than laughter. Don't get me wrong though. We also need laughter, for what good is life if we're not enjoying it? This is why God made both.

While Paul wished we would all remain single, Ecclesiastes suggests that it's better to have a partner in life. Why? Since we're here to enjoy our work and then die, we might as well have someone to share it, and the wealth that accumulates from it, with. This is economically practical. When one falls down his or her partner can help him or her back up. Add God into the relationship and you get the Bible verse quoted at nearly every Christian wedding: A cord of three stands is not easily broken. All this and more is available to those who marry. What else could I be missing? Ecclesiastes also states, and rather truthfully at that, that married people get to sleep together. Hmm. Wasn't there also a Bible verse about appreciating the body of one's love while a couple is still youthful? Yes. Hey kids, guess what book is promoting sex? Hopefully, the kids reading this won't assume I'm promoting sex before marriage. We have a swear word for that, which is so shameful I shall not mention it here. Besides, is having endless amounts of kids really going to improve one's life? Ecclesiastes suggests that it will just make for bigger funerals!

In summary, if you ever wonder what the term "harsh reality" means, look no further than Ecclesiastes. If nothing else, it will provide some self-justification for capitalists and people who don't want to go too crazy over the idea of kids.

Love is a Choice

Today my friend, Delene, complimented me immensely by saying that I do a good job of loving people. That's only a life goal I have been attempting to carry out for the past several years! Although I am indeed becoming more skilled in the art of love, I don't consider my current degree anywhere close to ideal. Still this raises a good question: What did I do that caused my dear friend to take notice?

It all began late one stormy winter night... Wait was it night? Was it stormy outside? Oh, that's right! My spirit was dark. It had nothing to do with the weather. Continual harassment at school, promoted by the fact I couldn't defend my self-value of which I had none, left me in a state of hurt emptiness. This emotion taught me that life without love for myself which, when honorable, naturally promotes love for others, is a terrible life to live! One, such as myself, with a naturally happy disposition, will do anything to get away from a loveless state such as this. With a desire to change, the knowhow to do so will cause it to happen sooner or later.

My knowhow to love came through an irreplaceable relationship with a very special person by the name of Cassie. I still remember first chatting with her in ZJam, a Christian chat room, years back. Her display name was Sputnik. We chatted for a while before I realized she was actually female. It was nice to become her friend without thinking of her as a "sweet mystery girl". Anyway, as we continued chatting, and after I realized she was female, my excitement over her grew... and grew and grew and grew. I encouraged her to follow her heart and ask her friend Jake to date her without even feeling that much jealous. They began dating and I continued caring about Cassie all the more. I decided that I would like and love Cassie, although I would have simply called it love at the time, indefinitely. I still do today! Implicitly, this means that I must care about Cassie no matter what her actions could possibly be in return.

Filled with a passionately caring relationship toward Cassie, who lived just far enough away that I would probably never see her, at least as it was practical for me at that age, I realized that I could love her so much without even seeing her. Perhaps this also meant that I could have a loving relationship with God, even though I couldn't tangibly see him either. Deciding that this was indeed the case, the first true excitement I felt about God fueled the passionate start of another new relationship.

I began reading the Bible a lot more. Talk about a compilation of practical lessons for life! I remember dancing each morning, happy to be alive. I realized a major life insight week after week! Cassie's favorite Bible verse, at least at the time, was I Corinthians 13:4-7 which states exactly what actions make up love according to Christianity. These include caring more about others than self, not keeping track of wrongs, delighting in truth, trusting God, putting up with anything, hoping for the best, not wanting what isn't had, and so on. Perhaps this definition of love could be applied to everyone?

Years later with a clear biblical definition of love in mind, I think I have finally figured out how to love everyone! Since the Bible's definition of love is a set of actions, one can choose to act upon them or to act differently. Again, one can choose to be responsible for treating others with kindness and respect or to treat others indecently. Everyone has a choice! One has a choice when annoyed as to handling the situation in a positive or negative way. If one can only think of a negative way at a given time, one also has the option to wait and deal with another in a more appropriate way after thinking things through. The choice to love a person doesn't come from anyone else, besides one's self. Therefore, if someone treats one rudely, love can still be selected to be returned! Love can be an invincible action to those who really want it to be.

Proverbs

Reading through the book of Proverbs in the Bible, I noticed a few recurring themes.

Having sex with people who make a business of whoring is repeatedly warned against. Here are some drawbacks to wild premarital sex:

• AIDS causes people to die sooner and more painfully.
• Mistaken children cause emotional and financial hardship.
• Loss of trust with what could have been a more special spousal relationship.

Humility comes before honor. It begins and ends with respecting one's parents. To start, a child's best option is likely to be obeying his or her parents. Their experience is far greater than the child's, who has lived for a fraction of the time and is therefore extremely unlikely to have thought everything he or she does through as thoroughly as a parent would. Going out into the world, one can be perceived as smart, even if it's not true, by simply using words sparingly. It's to the grandeur of a wise person to pay little attention to insults. More importantly, a wise person sifts and weighs every single word before accepting it. Then using well thought out reason, a person who is able to exercise self-control is greater than a leader of a nation without it. When all is said and done, the parents of wise offspring are glad and themselves honored alongside one's self.

God isn't impressed with laziness. Getting the job done and putting food on the table involves getting up early and diligent labor.

Assuming Christianity is the One True Religion

AJ, a roommate and friend, Asks: When Christians say that their religion is the only true religion, do you feel that it's wrong for them to say so?

I am unable to prove my Christianity, but I assume it's true because it makes more sense than the alternatives to me. By principle, I wish not to place my assumptions on others as truths. Therefore it's not right for me to push Christianity on others as the most superior choice, among other things, with my current level of knowledge.

If someone besides myself has transferable proof that Christianity is the only true religion, I would hope that person is honest to what he or she knows and tells others. On the other hand if that same person doesn't have transferable proof for his or her statement that Christianity is the one true religion, I wouldn't understand why the statement would be presented as such, as it could possibly be a lie. By the Bible's definition of Christianity, it's wrong for Christians to lie. Therefore such a statement also risks hypocrisy . At the same time, I wouldn't be able to impose my assumption on that person that he or she doesn't know what he or she is talking about, because I don't know what the answer is either. If I were that person, I know that it would be wrong for me, though, to say that Christianity is (implying absolutely) the only true religion without first being able to prove it. I think it would be much more accurate for me to say that I think Christianity is the only true religion.

Assumptions

These past few days reminded me of what Steve Pavlina was getting at in a previous podcast released at http://www.stevepavlina.com in which he spoke of only being able to know that he was conscious at any given moment. Steve asks, "how do you know that your not just a part of a computer simulation where your past experiences never really happened?" Personally, I can't prove that this isn't my reality. If one can't prove this to be false it must then be possible. If even past experience is based off of an assumption, or as religious people, such as myself call it, faith, how can one then expect anyone to know that God truly exists or not?

Consider a person placed in some environment. This environment, through the person's perception, provides clues as to his/her reality. The person must certainly have the ability to seek out these clues, but can s/he create the clues? S/he could convince him/herself that the clues were so and so, but I don't believe that one can create them. I could say that gravity will instantly reverse itself, but that doesn't mean it will. Perhaps it just means I'm doing a handstand instead. It is therefore outside of one's ability to know anything that is assumed or that faith is put into, as religious people would say once again. Personally, I wish it were possible to know more things absolutely but there just aren't very many in the end. Most common knowledge "proof" eventually falls apart as it is traced back to an assumption somewhere back along the line of so-called logic that created it.

So where does knowing almost nothing get someone? Not very far! This is where assumptions come in. I don't know that my past really existed at one point in the past. I don't even know there is a past as I understand it at this split second, but I choose to assume that there is. Why? Because by assuming that I have experienced a past I gain confidence in my perceived experience of it upon which I can act in the present. In the same way, I have faith that my God is real because then it's easier to passionately try to follow his ideals. At this point, I openly admit that I don't know if he exists or not. I sure believe he does though. There are simply too many assumptions that haven't fallen apart yet for believing otherwise to make more sense.

Is it possible to fully believe something without knowing it? Yes! Beliefs are based off of assumptions. Knowing is based off of facts from the surrounding environment, which must go through one's perception to be consciously realized. Anything that goes through one's perception may be distorted by other assumptions and therefore becomes another assumption itself. With every new idea that packs itself into my mind, I can choose to assume it's true or doubt it. This is my conscious choice to make! Because I can choose to assume something to be true, I no longer have to play the game of "oh... I can't know for sure about whatever because of this tiny possibility that..." This game continues forever. At the end of the day there will always be some aspect of something that allows me to doubt or assume just one more thing.

Since it's my choice to either doubt or assume, I can assume that everything I haven't already realized about God is true just like the things that I believe already are. This makes God my personal number one! At the same time, since I can't change the facts of what I know, which so far isn't that much, if there is ever something to prove to me that God isn't real, there will be no amount of assumptions that could tell my mind otherwise. Again, I can't choose what I know, only how actively I look for it. Because of this, I can continue assuming that God is real without having to worry that I'll ever be mislead by false thinking. I just need to be honest to myself about what I'm assuming so that I don't confuse it for knowing. When I begin to know something new, anything I have marked as an assumption in the past, which contradicts what I know, will instantly fall apart.

God vs Human Logic

Delene and I went to Robin's Doughnuts for a spur of the moment supper. I brought up the idea that Atheists appear to have good reason for what they believe. I love and like Delene, yet our conversation felt terrible and frustrating to me. I actually said that perhaps it was best of me to dump my Christianity if Atheism or anything else could explain the world better to me. Why do I feel so terrible about the whole conversation, especially that? Assuming that ideas can't have the same importance as other ideas that leaves me with either putting my human reason above my religion or my religion above my human reason. If I put my religion before anything else, I may be required to accept what I don't necessarily know to be the most true in the future. That is my personal definition of being dumb. I feel terrible for saying that, but it's my truth. If I pick reason above Christianity, then am I really treating "God" like my god? Doesn't the idea of God also require that it be more important than anything else, even my human reason? If I put my reason first, does that mean I'm no longer a Christian by the Bible's definition? That's terrible in my current perception as a Christian. In Summary, I'm left with two unsatisfactory choices!

Would it be possible that the Bible's axioms of Christianity would allow for me to put God and logic on the same level? Hmm. That would be a nicer alternative. But alas, it doesn't. The Bible obligates Christians to not lean on human understanding. But seriously, do I, as a Christian, really need to have "blind faith?" I am just not a blind faith type of person by default. I value doing the best I can to much.

Is there anyone who has an idea of something I haven't yet thought of to fix this dilemma? Is there anyone I know whom I can talk to about it? Almost all my friends are Christians and, I'm guessing, would see me as being confused or an inferior person (yes, my ideas are part of who I am, especially when they are about my own personality) for daring to question my personal faith. On the bright side, hopefully my perception of my friends' perception is just because of what I think of myself. If this is the case, I have the power to fix that. Perhaps it would be best of me to not attach my human worth to my religion so much. If I go talk to an Atheist, I'll probably be looked down on for sure for being dumb. (Perhaps even rightly so?) In all of this, here's what I'm most sure of: It is not evil to ask questions! If it is evil to ask questions then Richard Dawkins, a smart/educated Atheist would be right: I would just be a Christian because that's what I was born into. Then if I were born into an Atheist family, I would believe in that religion. I, Samuel, don't want to just blindly go with anything. As I perceive my current Christianity to be the best religion then it would be terrible of me to never even consider it if I had been born into an Atheist family. I would like to talk with someone who doesn't care about my salvation about this. I would like to talk with someone who only cares about me being the best possible person I know how to be to myself, by my own definition, and everyone else. Is there such a person that I will run into in the near future? It would be so much easier if I didn't care about being accepted by anyone or any idea. Would that still allow me to have deep and meaningful relationships?

So here's what I'm left with: I'm going to fix this! Somehow.