The Problem of Evil, Part 1 – Introduction

At first, it seems that if God is all good and God is all powerful, then there would be no evil, no wrong in the world. Now obviously there is evil in the world, so we have a problem. (A few people try to ignore or deny evil, but for the most part, all of us recognize this reality.) It appears we have only three alternatives: either evil doesn’t exist, God is not all powerful, or God is not good.

My impression is that, at least in the West, we define God primarily in terms of power. When we speak of God, we mean some supernatural being “out there” who has the power to do anything he wants. Because of this, I imagine the belief that God is not all powerful to be more or less equivalent to atheism. I can’t think of a good example of a Continue reading →

Psychology

I am far from an expert on psychology. However I think I’ve learned a few things which may be of some help. I think the basics are important enough that we should all be taught about this subject. As I understand it, psychology is essentially the exploration into the reason we do what we do.

(A word before I begin: thoughts and feelings aren’t two completely separate things. They are two aspects of one thing. We feel certain ways because of what we believe to be true.)

We all have certain psychological needs. These may not be as obvious as our physical needs. A lack of certain physical needs such as food can kill us. While we may not experience physical death if we don’t have our psychological needs met, we can experience a type of Continue reading →

2015 Year End Summary

Another year is coming to a close. I’ve had this blog for nearly ten years now. For most of this time, writing has just been a hobby. I’ve written only when I’ve felt inspired and have had the time.

I believe it was a bit over a year ago when I realized that I write more than anyone I know except for my published author friend. In recognizing this, I have been considering how I might make the most of this skill. Slowly over the course of time, I’ve tried to improve my blog and prepare for potential growth.

At the beginning of the year, I made a goal to publish a new article every week. I ended up only publishing only 33 new articles, well short of 52. The primary reasons for this are the fact that I moved to Nashville in May, and Continue reading →

Freedom Builders / Soulation

Sometimes I forget, since I don’t stay in these environments myself, that not all churches / spiritual communities are healthy. In fact, I expect that many are not at all healthy (though I don’t know how one could measure the extent of this). One big example is that many religious communities have the paradigm that they are the protectors of truth. From this perspective, any doubt or questioning may well be seen as a threat and strongly discouraged, most often through various social consequences. However, questioning and exploring is the way knowledge and understanding.

Another example is that religious groups may expect people to relate to certain others in unhealthy ways based how they’ve decided a passage in the Bible (or other Continue reading →

The Ridiculousness of the Crucifixion (Part 2)

In my previous article, I stated that we correctly desire to see the end of injustice and evil. At the end I observed that God is doing something about this. However, he does so in a previously incomprehensible way.

If you are on God’s side, Jesus’ crucifixion makes no earthly sense. (It makes perfect sense from the viewpoint of the powers of the world to subdue a disruptive person.) Why doesn’t Jesus come to earth with a display of force? Why not set up an empire with Jesus as emperor? Isn’t this what God was after—the kingdom of God? Jesus is perfect, right? So wouldn’t he have been the perfect ruler? Couldn’t he have made all the right decrees and fixed all the injustice in the world through ruling in this way? Greg Boyd argues Continue reading →

Judging People: Good Guys Fight Bad Guys (Part 1)

As I mentioned in my previous post, we all recognize that there is evil and injustice in the world. We correctly recognize when a person does certain acts which are evil and injustice. We desire for these to be corrected and the injustice removed. I think it is human tendency to judge people and place them into either the “good” or “bad” camp. However, there is a problem.

One of the problems stemming from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that we now think we can accurately judge people. We mistakenly assume that we know who is good and who is bad. Of course much of the time, the good guys look a lot like us while the bad guys are those who are different from us. Once we divide people into these categories, we Continue reading →

Judas Verses Peter (Part 3)

I’m picking up here where I left off in my last post, Judas Verses Peter (Part 2).

If Judas couldn’t be forgiven, I’d argue that it is only because he wouldn’t allow for it. If Judas is in hell, I’m not sure it’s because God is getting his revenge. At most I would suggest it is out of justice that God would do this, and with deep sorrow in his heart at that.

I imagine the notion that Judas could have been restored or that he could be in heaven will be deeply disturbing to some people. Why is this?

We all recognize that there is evil and injustice in the world. We correctly recognize that certain acts which a specific do are evil and injustice. We desire for these to be corrected and the injustice removed. However, there is a Continue reading →

Judas Verses Peter (Part 2)

In my previous post, I compared Judas to Peter looking at their big failures. I now continue by considering how Jesus responded to Peter.

Jesus’ harshest criticisms were directed at the religious leaders of his time. For this reason they often get a bad rap. However, a while ago I realized that, if we are to be consistent, we must say that Jesus loved the pharisees and religious leaders just as much as anyone else. Similarly, I think it would be inconsistent to hold that Jesus merely tolerated Judas, thinking “Well I’ve got to put up with this one punk so that scripture can be fulfilled—someone has to betray me after all.” No, I think that Jesus must have loved Judas as much as he did the other disciples. He must have honestly hoped Continue reading →

Judas Verses Peter (Part 1)

Judas and Peter. Both of these men were chosen by Jesus to be part of the twelve—the first sent ones representing the new Israel. Yet the two men had drastically different fates. I don’t believe this necessarily had to be so. Neither were perfect men. I mean, Jesus once rebuked Peter as speaking for Satan!

Judas led the religious authorities to Jesus betraying him and leading to his arrest. Soon after, Peter denies ever knowing Jesus, swearing and cursing in the process. This is perhaps just hours after Peter and the other disciples swore that they would fight to the death for Jesus.

Both Judas and Peter soon realize their grave errors. Peter crawls into a hole a weeps despairingly. I think when he and others swore they would die Continue reading →

Prepared to Fight…

The team had been working all year toward this one goal. Countless hours of practice, drills, weight training, and conditioning had been undertaken in an effort to be the best. Tonight they had a chance to make this happen. The championship game was only minutes away. The players huddled together. The team’s captain and Heisman winning QB fired them up. He had led them to this moment both through is play on the field and through his leadership both on and off the turf. Their competitor would be fierce but the team believed in themselves. They knew they could do this. Each player would put everything he had on the line tonight in order to be able to hoist the championship trophy in the air at the end of the night.

The kick off soared and Continue reading →