Pastor Jennifer
Recent Activity
Pastor Jennifer commented on God created evil on October 29, 2008, 4:34 PM
I'm on Luke's side for once. I will play God's advocate instead of his usual counterpart! You have to allow for Luke's nuanced understanding of evil. If I may speak on his behalf... There is evil in the world - bad things happen to people, and people do bad things. The two are called physical (or natural) evil and moral evil respectively.Luke is arguing from the position that God gave us freedom, because (according to St Augustine), to have freedom is to have the possibility to become more like God. So we are morally evil when we don't use our freedom in this divinely approved way. The stuff cited by HerbieP and Ro - cancer, earthquakes etc are examples of physical evil. Now Luke has to do some explaining to do on God's behalf on that score!HerbieP mentioned the birth of a child being born into abject poverty. Just to complete the 'evil' story HerbieP identified the third type of evil that is usually neglected in most theodical discussions, and that is the evil consisting in a disproportion between virtue and happiness, between vice and misery: an evil exemplified when the wicked prosper and good people meet a grim fate. You can't pin that one on God either if it's a consequence of human agency and free will.So to put it in the old Humean/Epicurean chestnut:Is God willing but not able to prevent evil(ie impotent); or able but not willing to prevent evil(ie malevolent); is he able and willing to prevent evil? (then why is there evil?). If you accept the concept of free will as a gift from God the only evil you can really put on God's shoulders is physical or natural evil.I think I can resolve this problem for Luke by rejecting the categorization of physical or natural evil as an absurd projection of human values onto the physical non-human world. Hi Luke :-)Bye Luke :-(
Pastor Jennifer commented on Re: Oliver Sacks Believes Religion is a Human Invention on October 29, 2008, 11:17 AM
Hey HerbieP! I just snuck again. If you want to get a grip on how the New Age mind can construct a new religion, read Urantia .... as strange as Resonator's belief's are you will amazed at the extraordinary amount of trouble and detail the Urantia author went to. The ghost writer for the Aliens learned all his composition tricks from Seventh Day Adventist plagiarists. Hey, I have been thinking a lot about our conversations we had about numbers too... I talked with philosopher John Shook about it over the summer and it turns out that in the world of philosophical naturalism there are a few of like-minded idealist-naturalists out there as me when it comes to mathematics. Good to know I am not alone.:-)As for finances you have my sympathies...I'm so glad I have a couple of gold bricks under my mattress instead of dollars!Hi there Musycks ol' buddy! How come you guys aren't talking about the wonderful and illustrious Oliver Sachs instead of indulging in New Age ninnyness? Really, I am amazed at the enduring fascination it holds for you all. But then, here I am again, stoutly committed to resisting all insane conversations.Resonator: I'm glad HerbieP is applying his usual exercise of logic on your belief constructs. Give him a year or two! All the best.
Pastor Jennifer commented on Re: Oliver Sacks Believes Religion is a Human Invention on October 28, 2008, 4:46 AM
Herbie P:Are you still in here yanking the believer's chains? and pretending to be so respectfully interested in understanding what they have to say! Resonator - the more you try and elucidate your strange beliefs the deeper you will get and the more you will delight HerbieP, the connoisseur, par exellence, of New Age nonsense and irrationality. Nice to see you again Herbie... but seriously, don't you have better things to do?
Pastor Jennifer commented on Downloading the contents of one's brain to a floppy, can it be done? on August 6, 2008, 6:44 AM
The singularity is a just a wishful fantasy of computer geeks. Sorry, but Ray Kurzweil is just indulging in another fairytale variant of the fearful wish for an afterlife. The brain is simply too messy and not well enough understood for us to even consider downloading its contents into a super computer virtual reality at this point in time. It makes for entertaining science fiction though. Don't be surprised if you see a transhumanist church of the singularity opening on Santa Monica Boulevard sometime soon. Then we can all go pray for the downloading of Ray.Dream on geek boys!
Pastor Jennifer commented on England prays? on October 30, 2008, 2:01 AM
I actually thought it was rather touching that the C of E was attempting to assuage anxiety. It isn't calling for a supernatural divine intervention into the economic condition of the world, rather it is telling people that they can find joy in non-material values (in the CofE's case - joy in JC of course). It's not that much different from the advice a well meaning therapist might pass on. I can't find fault in that. I for one think, it is about time that our insane consumerism has the brakes put on it. The CofE's approach to personal finances is a lot healthier than the nutty Word Faith ministries in the US; they say that the covenant God made with his people entitles us to demand prosperity from God and God has to obey. Creflo Dollar has milked the gullible of millions with that magical message.The innocuous CofE prayer reads as follows:Lord God, we live in disturbing days:across the world,prices rise,debts increase,banks collapse,jobs are taken away,and fragile security is under threat.Loving God, meet us in our fear and hear our prayer:be a tower of strength amidst the shifting sands,and a light in the darkness;help us receive your gift of peace,and fix our hearts where true joys are to be found,in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.And in a final word of defense for the Anglican church they promoted the anniversary of Charles Darwin and stood fair and square against any attempts to introduce creationism into the classroom. Give credit where credit is due. If all the fundies in the US were converted to Episcopalianism instead of Sarahpalianism we would be in a heck of a lot better condition.