Planet B Redux

In my post “Planet B” I lamented the Evangelical “Temporary Earth” Theology.  As if on cue, Santorum spewed this little ditty on the national campaign scene:

“…Energy, this idea that man is here to serve the Earth, as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the Earth. And I think that is a phony ideal. I don’t believe that that’s what we’re here to do – that man is here to use the resources and use them wisely, to care for the Earth, to be a steward of the Earth, but we’re not here to serve the Earth…The Earth is not the objective.  Man is the objective. I think a lot of radical environmentalists have it upside-down.”

Man is the objective?  Really?

Eye of the Beholder

How does one talk about their experience with the word “I?”

How does one talk about their place in the world, in the universe, without the word “I?”

How do we share our thoughts, our concerns, our pains, our worries, our griefs, our joys, our discoveries, our hopes, our dreams, our failures, our mistakes, our defeats, our triumphs, our victories – all the things that make up our lives, without the word “I?”

Is it conceited to share your thoughts by expressing them through your own eyes?  Whose eyes would you use?  Would you speak for yourself, or would you dare speak instead for another?  Wouldn’t that be its own conceit?

I Think, Therefore…

I am not a sinner.

I am not a saint.

I am not a wretch.

I am not lost.

I am not alone.

Who Do You Trust?

“Every one of the world’s “great” religions utterly trivializes the immensity and beauty of the cosmos. Books like the Bible and the Koran get almost every significant fact about us and our world wrong. Every scientific domain — from cosmology to psychology to economics — has superseded and surpassed the wisdom of Scripture.” – Sam Harris

Let’s consider the development of human knowledge.

First, that is certainly an enormous topic.  The most expansive topic in the world, right?  It’s all-inclusive.  But we won’t be taking the whole thing on, thankyouverymuch.

Instead I want to consider the one-way nature of human knowledge.

Planet B

I’d like to discuss two specific aspects of the Christian economy (common to all the Abrahamic religions, but most prevalent in Christianity.)

1. Specific Purpose External to the Individual.
2. Specific Finite Historical Timeline.

In the second half of the 20th century many Christians were won over to Christ with the aid of a small orange booklet titled “Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?”  For many people, myself included, the allure of an all-powerful creator having a particular purpose for my life was hard to resist.  Who wouldn’t be comforted in the midst of a chaotic and troubled world to know that God was working on a grand plan for each individual person?