CADRE Comments

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. Psalm 53:1 - The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good. In my last two posts, I have looked at the question of whether Christians have weaponized Psalms 14:1 and 53:1 (they have) but whether the Biblical concept of fool means stupid or silly (it doesn’t). But now I want to turn to the remainder of these two verses because the verses add additional information that Mr. Cline found objectionable in his article, Myth - Atheists Are Fools Who Say "There Is No God": Are Atheists Foolish? Are Atheists Corrupt? Do Atheists Do No Good? Mr. Cline kicks up a great deal of dust over the fact that Christians only like to quote the first part of Psalm 14:1 but not the remainder. Mr. Cline writes, Calling someone a fool simply because they don...

I never realized that actress Kiera Knightley was a comedienne. The only problem is that she probably doesn't think of herself as a comedienne either. She probably thinks of herself as a serious thinker. Allow me to elaborate. In our adult education program last Sunday, the teacher used the meme above in the class PowerPoint as part of a discussion of world views and atheism. In the event the reader is unable to see the meme above, it shows a photo of Ms. Knightley with a quote that reads, "If only I wasn't an atheist, I could get away with anything. You'd just ask for forgiveness and then you'd be forgiven. It sounds much better than having to live with guilt." Now, I didn't comment about the quote in class, but whether Ms. Knightley realizes it or not, her thoughtful words are basically a retelling of a joke that Emo Phillip s (an acknowledged comedian - and a very funny one, at that) shared as part of his stage act in the late 1980s or early 1...

Sometimes I'm asked to try to explain the Trinity simply -- sometimes for the humor of watching me try it! {wry g} And sometimes for the perceived apologetic value in my acknowledgment that the doctrinal set of trinitarian theism isn't simple, as if simplicity of a doctrinal set was itself evidence of truth (tell that to an astrophysicist of any flavor), or as if the complexity in itself should be regarded as evidence of unnecessary (and thus false) over-complication. There are only distant analogies to the Trinity in Nature, and that doesn't help, although that ought to be expected since we're supposed to be talking about the one and only self-existent ground of all reality. The Latin phrase sui generis is sometimes used here; that just means it's one of a kind and so every analogy to it for illustration will bring built-in differences from it. But one of my nieces (not yet ten years old) started catechism training this year, with some portions of doctrine (re...

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the drive-through ATM to get some cash so that my daughter and I could get some lunch.  After waiting a few minutes for the woman in the car ahead of me to complete her transaction, I finally pulled up by the machine. The ATM screen read, “Do you want another transaction?” Another transaction? Uh oh, the woman in front of me had failed to make certain that she had completed the banking process (including making sure she was logged out) before leaving the ATM. (Surprisingly, this same thing happened to me the previous week also. So twice in two weeks, I had other people leave their bank accounts wide open to me as I arrived at the ATM.) What should I do? Since she left her bank account wide open for me, it would have been very easy to access whatever monies she had in the account. It was like leaving all of her money sitting on a park bench for whoever wanted it. Naturally, I hit the button that indicated that the transaction was completed. Stil...

Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. ~ Lutheran Service Book, Divine Service, Setting One Sin is a basic concept of Christianity. Christians speak about how we have sinned and how we need forgiveness from sin. Yet, Christians are inordinately bad at explaining sin. As a consequence, many non-Christians struggle with the concept of sin...or discount it all together. They equate sin with some action that society considers wrong. So, some people believe that as long as they don't lie, cheat, steal or kill they haven't sinned. This understanding of sin is shallow and unbiblical. So, how can we describe what sin is to others in a way that is Biblical and which non-Christians can readily grasp? The Biblical Words for "Sin" To begin with, what is the source of the word "sin"? Several words have been translated as "sin...

[Note: The contents page for this series can be found here. The previous entry, Chapter 56, can be found here. ] [This entry constitutes Chapter 57.] God. Is. Dead. God is dead!! Just as we always knew: He can die! Now we are free, free of Him, free to be the gods we want to be, free to be our own laws, our own inheritance! Free to decide what is good or evil! We live, though God is dead! We have overthrown the Highest, beat the Invincible! ...well ...we didn't actually 'beat' Him; He gave up the game. But we always wanted to make Him give up on us anyway, yes? Then we would show Him that we didn't need Him, that we could outlast Him! Ah, but this is even better! We showed Him that His hope is futile, that the Truth which surrenders itself will be digested and expelled as waste! He put Himself at the mercy of His own creations, and we killed Him! What did the Great Fool think?? That people would just fawn over Him for showing up late to the party!? That af...

[Note: The contents page for this series can be found here. The previous entry, Chapter 55, can be found here. ] [This entry constitutes Chapter 56.] It's only fair--isn't it? God will intentionally set Himself up, to be rejected by all His people: by His special chosen who carried His light, and by His other children who perhaps have been doing the best they can with what they have. Not only those who we might consider desperately evil will reject Him, but those we would be inclined to consider the very best. For even the best of us have sinned, abusing the grace of God Most High. He will have done plenty of things, to show He is good; but He will also give them just enough rope to hang Him, if they want to--on His own timing, if not theirs. And the unjust of this world--very likely even some of the (relatively) just ones who just don't understand!--will want to hang Him. The unjust of any worlds intersecting this one, will certainly want to hang Him, too. Why, you ask, w...

[Note: The contents page for this series can be found here. The previous entry, Chapter 54, can be found here. ] [This entry constitutes Chapter 55.] I have no clear idea of how this Child would think, as He grows into manhood. God will have poured Himself out, continuing to enact His own specific part in the story of humanity. We might say the finger of God will be gently touching the earth; a mere hum of His voice; a finite trickle out of the river of His eternity. I can only use metaphors, and I am well aware of the problems involved in imagining this accurately--which, I am also well aware, is likely to prove a stumbling block for an honest sceptic. But I appeal to the reasonableness of what I have said before. I am quite sure God exists, and has particular characteristics including a particular personal character. I am quite sure of my own sin and corrupted character. And I am reasonably sure of how this all fits together. Consequently, I am quite sure that sooner or later, God ...

[Note: The contents page for this series can be found here. The previous entry, Chapter 53, can be found here. ] [This entry constitutes Chapter 54.] To this lynchpin people, at the heart of a world ready to hear the news, God will act, and send Himself, to be God with us, Immanuel. A great Light will shine in this wilderness, a light for all the chosens: for those whom God had told they were chosen, and for those still searching, and for those who have trudged or have flown past hope into outright despair; for the good men and women and children, such as they are... ...but most especially for the enemies of God--who are all of us, sinners. Within all the work God does, He lets us sinners have our own way, because He loves us too much to let us be something other than real boys and girls. But this produces a hideous disparity. It looks like God doesn't exist. It looks like God doesn't care. It looks like God is a monster. So what, if I say that God suffers, too!? That is a ...

[Note: The contents page for this series can be found here. The previous entry, Chapter 51, can be found here. ] [This entry constitutes Chapter 52.] It is the beginning of a history--not of all humanity’s history, not of Nature, but of a particular story enacted by God, with us and for us, within the Nature we inhabit. God is beginning His greatest adventure: giving us hope in this life. For we --live-- in this life!--and God is committed to this Nature and to us, the synthetic persons He has molded, shaped, grown, begotten, within the womb of our mother. But quickly or slowly or some combination thereof, God will do it in His own time; for His purpose is not to provide some technical 'method of salvation'. Salvation from sin is a personal act, an act of God to co-operate with us as persons, and act of ours in response to the graces of God the Merciful and the Compassionate. But He wants people in this history, sooner or later, to know more about Him and what His love t...