Sea Sharp
In a basement, musician conspiracists are busy passing each other letters on notes
The hills are alive with the sound of Duckstack
Emergency Alert: All our Duckstacks are flat, and have no carbonation. We have been running around inflating them with bike pumps, but we have to be real with you folks: I’m not sure if they’ll be ready before inspection. So when the military general lines them all up to evaluate whether they were Duckstack, I hope you lie and just say “yes.”
The God of the Gaps
Nature abhors a vacuum and the Fall of Adam abhors nature
I once observed, that Catholics tend to play with the attributes of deity the same way children play with building blocks. “How does this omni attribute interact with this other omni attribute? Can they go on top of each other? Do I need to rotate one so that they can fit together?” and the general attitude, at least among the heavily theologian types1, is something like “The more awesome attributes we can stick on God, the cooler he will be, and the more Godly he will be, since the definition of God is “the most loaded being possible”2. I don’t wish to imply there’s anything wrong with this, other than that I do not believe God is like this. I stopped being a creedal Christian somewhere around 18 years old, when I noticed that my experiences with God and my theology weren’t quite matching. And this attitude of seeking out concepts to stick to God to prove he’s “more great” has always struck me as somewhat tower-of-babel-ish. And just like the tower of babel, the language of theology gets really mixed up and it becomes almost impossible to communicate your thoughts on God to each other.
It is a common complaint against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, to say we are “Not Christian”. This annoys us, because its kind of in the name, right? But the idea is that we worship a “different Jesus,” like the King James Bible has multiple Jesuses in it or something. But this is semantics- what they really take exception to is our idea that God was once a man. “What, like Jesus?” “No, its fine that Jesus was a man. But you think The Father is a man, which detracts from his glory and ooh-how-mysterious factor.” And I would think that if it isn’t blasphemous for Jesus to have been a man on a planet once, then it wouldn’t be blasphemous for his Father to have been a man on a planet once3, but what do I know4. I’m not really an expert in other churches theologies, nor can I be, because in many ways I am not charitable enough to see things from their perspective. I can’t accept enough of their premises to do the same math they’re doing to reach their conclusions. The point is that this conception of God is different than theirs, and if arbitrariness equals power then their conception of the trinity is certainly much more arbitrary5. We aren’t the same, though no sect is, but I am not going to get mad at them for finding our ideas outside what they’re willing to consider kin.
However, I believe there is risk in thinking about God in such a theoretical way- an attribute God who is too perfect, too pristine to be sullied by realtime. Because God’s actions are not always going to add up for human math. More than one person has lost their faith when they couldn’t reconcile real tragedy with a loving God. There are as many explanations for this as there have been theologians, blame without a channel goes everywhere. But the impulse keeps God at a distance, and an unknown God gives little benefit6. On the contrary, the message of Christ’s incarnation was to show us what God is like- and he went out of his way to emphasize how alien and above mankind he wasn’t.
Luke 24:39Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
It stands to reason that God does not want us to view him as so different, but instead that he wants us to view him as a Father. When I think of my God, I think of him as a person, who I serve. In my experience, things tend to go better when you do that, even if you don’t append the right “omnis” when you think about him. Because I think doing what he says is more important than getting all that right. But the question I have is what are you going to do when God hurts you? How are you going to weather that?
Some people will turn their backs on God, and hate him, and leave church, and become sort of forced atheists. But others will just throw their hands up and say, “God’s ways are mysterious”, abdicating judgement entirely. “God is so complicated that even horrible things are somehow secretly good, no point in even trying to understand them”. This is giving up on faith the other way- If that is your attitude, there is no point in even trying to read the scriptures, you are surrendering your faculties entirely to the currents of life- which often God manages, but often he does not, see for example the book of Job. Taking this sort of hollow faith and hoping it pushes you to heaven by happenchance is no way to become righteous. What God wants is for you to become one with him the same way he is one with Christ7, meaning he wants you to want the same things as him. To serve him, to work with him, you have to understand him. I'm not saying this is always possible, since you and He will have radically different vantages, but, if you want godliness, you do have to try. It will hurt. Exercise always hurts.
Extremely Emotional
I’d like to read you a poem, its called “footsteps in the snow”
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the snow
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed a set of footprints in the snow,
sliding all around and falling over
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the snow.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
the footprints were sliding all around and falling over
This really troubled me, so I tried to ask the Lord about it.
but then I stumbled and slid around and fell all over
and crashed through the ice into the frigid water (19.3 °F)
and was surrounded by penguins
who made fun of me (I could not understand them but I got the gist)
And then I got out of the water
And the ice hurt my hands
And then a polar bear ate me
And it was then that there were no footsteps
because the bear was carrying me
the end
ROCKS: A Review (?)
WHAT WE KNOW
Lets review the facts. We know rocks hurt, but don’t get hurt. We know rocks reproduce by mitosis. We know rocks do not respond to rock music. We know rocks are stoic. We know rocks have attained their nirvanic zen state through many years of deep meditation. We know rocks do not eat to survive. We know some rocks make fire. We know some rocks are on fire. And we also know that rocks are there.
So lets all be a little more careful around rocks, shall we? They’ve earned our respect
HISTORY
The toddler is learning to talk, and I’m sure if he had theoretical internet object permanence he would tell you all hello.
We told our son “hey lets give some carrots and apples to the chickens" and he was like no that's human food. And then he was like Oh I want human food!
The kid was being cute, curling on the floor with a blanket, and was like “maa, rest with me!” which, who can say no to that. So she curled up next to him and he was immediately like “Mama! This is no time to rest! We gotta do laundry!”
He has been very complimentary lately. My wife was telling him how proud of him she was that he ate his dinner, and he was like “and I'm proud of you! you ALWAYS eat your dinner!” Which, its good to be recognized! They also had a similar exchange about potty training
He paid his mom one of the best compliments of her life out of the blue last week. “Mama your braid looks beautiful! Your golden hair looks like a treasure”
He has been a little sick lately. He told us: “Yes, you can get me some throw up medicine, but not the kind that makes me throw up!”
The toddler has been getting into construction. Picture him, freezing, quivering, screaming that his mother took his screws away from him which were apparently delicious. He feels the call to build.
He also feels the call to paint. Our kitchen floor. By knocking over the whole paint bucket. But it gave us some time to work on a mutual project, and we got to spend some nice time together scraping paint out of the grooves and such. Which I’m sure was his plan all along
anyone who has ever read a church father
I’m being flippant but there are many who argue these things almost word for word. Consider the ontological argument for God’s existence, first proposed over 1000 years ago:
P1: God is a maximally great being.
P2: It is better to exist in reality than to exist conceptually.
C1: Therefore, God exists.
Is it fun? Yes. Is it convincing? No (because its not real)
John 5:17,19-20 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
I have had conversations with creedal Christians and I’ll be like “okay, you don’t like our idea here. But imagine some alternate parallel universe- God has done all these same things, made everything, ex nihilo even, Christ atoned for our sins, he’s still your Father and did all these miracles, everything is completely identical, except in this universe God was technically “caused” when two magic rocks sparked together or something. And they’re like, “Nope. No longer worthy of worship. Not God anymore.” and that seems like a really petty attitude to have towards someone who sent their son to die for your sins
Creation Ex Nihilo, the problem of trinitarian analogies, and trinity mathematics, are quite arbitrary, resting on singular authority at best. That’s not bad, plenty of good things in life are that way. But I suspect that the flow of causality is backwards, where there is an active desire to increase arbitrariness as if such increases holiness.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
John 17:20-21 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.