Extraordinary Defense Spending

I am troubled and seriously concerned by a news story I heard this morning on NPR. This isn’t exactly a surprise, because it’s no real secret that things have been getting out of control. Nonetheless the actual figures are staggering. While the story was about defense spending, the real issue is runaway government spending, and the serious economic trouble we may be getting into. I don’t like to be one to run around saying the sky is falling. There hasn’t been any really serious economic depressions since the great depression, and while there are a number of economic stabilizers now that didn’t exist then, that doesn’t mean the economy is never going to crash.

Anyhow, no matter what your political stance or stance on the war on terror, Continue reading →

Ron Paul Ignored in Race for Presidential Bid

I get kind of sick of hearing people saying that the media is biased this way or that, when many times it seems that they are only really upset that the media simply isn’t reporting things exactly according to that person’s view point. That said, I am certainly critical of the media as well, though I don’t often voice it.

One thing I did find quite surprising was that, at least according to one paper I read, Ron Paul, while in forth place, was a head of Rudy Giuliani in the bid for the Republican presidential nomination. I find this to be concerning because I haven’t heard Paul mentioned at all by the media, while Giuliani has been mentioned just as much as the other candidates. The press would likely argue that Giuliani is more of a Continue reading →

Church Burnout

During this past year I felt like I sort of got burned out with church. It’s kind of strange, because I’ve gone to church regularly my entire life. At first I was concerned, wondering if this indicated a spiritual problem within me or if I was still a Christian. While I don’t have all of the answers, I have received encouragement from one of my close Christian friends.

As I’ve been thinking about it more recently, I believe I’m feeling that I want church to be something more and other than religious services, which is about the only thing it seems to be most of the time. True, Christianity is more than this, but I don’t believe people often think about church as being more than this. It seems like church is the place/meeting you go to, Continue reading →

What is the Core of Christianity? What is the “Good News”?

Talking to a friend the other night, it occurred to me that there are basically two big questions that I’ve wrestled with for years in regards to Christianity. One is, “What is the core of Christianity?” or “What are the essential elements without which you don’t have Christianity?” The second question is, “What is the “good news”, really?” I know that to many if not most Christians, these questions have obvious answers—it’s clear cut and black and white. But I always seem to be digging deeper, trying to make sure I really have a solid and correct understanding of things.

I think I’ve wrestled with the question of the good news, because it often hasn’t felt like good news to me. As I’ve looked into it, I have found that indeed it is Continue reading →

Experience as Proof?

I heard a guy speak recently. He asked people to describe the Christian life. Somewhat to my surprise, people used words such as struggle, tough, and battle. I thought these adjectives were going in the right direction. I think about stories considered Christian classics, such as Pilgrims Progress and Hind’s Feet on High Places, also Paul’s speaking of spiritual armor, etc. But this speaker, after taking these responses, basically said if that’s what you think then something is wrong—you’re not living the “abundant life” that God wants you to live. He then gave everyone what basically amounted to a track for Christians.

At first I was just like, “I don’t believe this at all.” One thing that got me is that he was talking about how you Continue reading →

What is Christianity Really?

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Christianity and things that bug me. I hesitate somewhat to expound here, because I’m not sure I’m correct in all of my thinking. Take it into consideration that this is my working through my thoughts.

There was a social science professor speaking the other day in one of my classes. He was talking about religion in a twentieth century American town (nearly all religion in that time and place was Christianity). He said the most important idea was consolation—that the main function of Christianity for the majority of people was consolation. I know this is still a popular thing. Many people seem to find the purpose of Christianity in it bringing them comfort.

This sits ill at ease with me for a Continue reading →

The Key to Life

A few days ago I was thinking and believe that I figured out the key to life. It’s thought. Life is basically an infinite number of events perpetually happening. In order to try and explain, I’m going to diverge for a moment.

I came to this thought by thinking about “reality” TV. What is called “reality” TV is of course not very “real” in many ways but is rather a semi-scripted program making use of nonprofessional actors and actresses. I tried to think of what would be more “real”. Reality TV would be watching one of the traffic cams they have set up around the city. What you would see is an unending stream of cars driving by, looking much like the ones that just passed by. It would be very monotonous. On a rare occasion you might see Continue reading →

Three Books Summarized

I recently read three books which were interesting. The first was, The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know by Andrew L. Shapiro. It looks at some of the things which the internet allows people to do, and some of the ways it has been used. It looks at the consequences of the internet, and what some of the drawbacks maybe. It is good to see that, in addition to all of the benefits of the internet, there are also problems to take into account.

The second book was Disconnected America: The Consequences of Mass Media in a Narcissistic World by Ed Shane. He examines how our intake of media has evolved, and the consequences of the current way we experience media. We have gone Continue reading →

Choosing a Mate

(Note: my writing here has to do with my wrestling with what the reality of matter seems to be, not what I might think is an ideal.)

A while back I was wondering how people choose who they want to marry. This may seem obvious, and of course there are the people who say, “You’ll just know,” but I’m not sure it’s so straight forward. I think in part that the ideas you have about marriage and who you want to marry go into “knowing” when you come to that point.

I think perhaps the biggest factor affecting who you might want to marry is tied to the answer of the question, why get married? It’s my understanding that marriage was more of a practical necessity in the past. Due in part to less technology and affluence, it generally took a Continue reading →

Unity ’08

This looks quite interesting: www.unity08.com All those of you who complain about current politicians but won’t vote for a third party because you think that it won’t make a difference should check it out.