prescription for a skeptic

A book arrived from Amazon.com today sent by a friend who thought I needed to read it. He'd heard through mutual acquaintances (our wives) that I was skeptical about the chain of evidence for today's modern Bible and the impact it had on fundamentalist beliefs.

In particular, I thought there are a lot of folks who argue endlessly about the literal meaning of words in the Bible as the word of God but never ever talk about God's divine hand in choosing which books should be included or not included in the document. Did God almighty inspire the Easter letter of Athanasius or the Council of Carthage? Was it direct divine intervention that caused Martin Luther to reject the Apocrypha 1200 years later? It's hard to reconcile a singular focus on the meaning of each individual phrase and word with various historical decisions to strike or add entire books ... unless you assume God's hand in it.

The book is "Scripture Alone" by James White, and my friend's thought was to help me work through these doubts. So far, although it's very interesting, it seems aimed at slightly different issues: specifically stripping away Catholic and Mormon claims to divine messaging beyond the four corners of the King James.

I'll keep reading through. Overall, it's a thoughtful gesture to send the book unbidden, whether it hits the mark or not. So I appreciate it!

worthiness

What is a worthy goal of life? I’m running out of time to figure this one out because, even by generous estimates, I only have 60 – 70 years to act on it, even if I figured it out today.

Solomon had an answer in Ecclesiastes: “Everything is vanity.” In a weird way, that gives me comfort because it tells me just to be at peace with not being at peace.

My goals for the year 2007, and perhaps the first half of 2008:

• Break into the 90s for my golf game;
• Learn to play guitar and write a strummy folk song;
• Get a general grasp on world history, starting with European and American history and then branching out to Asian, African, Latin American, you name it. Also trace the general progression of philosophy over the ages … with the purpose of putting today’s politics in context and discerning the broad patterns of human affairs;
• Run 3 miles at a 10 minute pace or better without having to breathe hard, then set more grandiose goals;
• Be an active dad who helps the kids with homework every night;
• Start taking at least one great vacation to somewhere I’ve never been at least once a year;
• Master “book play” for Texas Hold’Em and Seven Card Stud, after which I can get fancy looking for peoples’ tells.

I’ve made incremental progress on each of these, jogging on a regular basis, getting out to the driving range, reading a few history books, etc. … but it always begged the question: Then what? What if surpass all these? Then where does it lead me?

Sounds shallow and silly, but my limited reading of history tells me it’s not an uncommon issue. European nobles from medieval times through the enlightenment were driven by the need to alleviate boredom.

In the end, even if I never answer the worthiness question, at least I can hope to have a pretty good run of things.

At peace with not being at peace.

invitation to stunning originality

With the whole world now at liberty to pick over this minimus opus, I can issue an invitation to the masses to post the craziest thoughts and theories imaginable in my "comments" section, or answer questions for the ages :

* Why is religious belief so durable, especially the commanding influence of Christianity on European and American history for the last 1700 years?

* Do you believe in historical "progress," or is modern history just a depressing series of cycles and repetitions?

* What are the great challenges of our age? Global warming? Asymmetric warfare and technological trends that make WMDs ever more easily available? The flagging career of Hall & Oates?

Thx,
Tommy

writer's block

Great, I created a blog and I now I suddenly have writer's block. I suppose that was a good reason to do it anonymously (more or less).

Seriously though, this is supposed to be my outlet for daily observations about politics, religion, law, sports, etc. Sometimes when I sit with a cup o coffee and the paper in the morning, I actually have thoughts worth repeating, or at least questions for the world, so I'll post them here.

I've been through some of the other blogs out there and it looks like "comments" are hard to come by, so I'll accept the fact that although this blog is available to billions, it will probably be "alone in a crowd"...