Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Yea...I'll tell you about the absolutely awesome fencing tournament sometime, but not right now. Right now I have other things on my mind.
It was reading Bill's blog that got me thinking initially, then it went from there. People trying to give quick fix answers to tough questions along with the Jeremaih 6:14 verse (if you don't know that verse I'd recommend looking it up. I hadn't ever heard it before). It reminded me of Michael and I's conversation on the van ride back from PA. I was trying to keep him awake, and asked him about his philosophy class (I love asking people about their philosophy classes and can't wait to take one myself). At one point in the conversation (while discussing existentialism and nihilism), I asked him for his opinion on a particular point that did not really have anything to do with accepting one main philosophy. "Both points actually work logically, it just depends on how you look at it." This reminded me alot of my biology class. The professor is always saying that it muts be evolution because look at how well this trait has adapted to help the organism survive and therefore evolution must explain the origin of the earth. And to that I respond similar to Michael. True, when you look at a trait that helps an organism to survive you can easily see that as evolution. But another way to look at it is why would a loving, intelligent, omniscient creator create organism that did not have the ability to adapt and survive. Do they think that he would just create an earth and let it die out completely after about a thousand years and say "ooops" and start again? I find it so fascinating to sit in class and see what the professor is saying but from a different perspective. I thought I would come to college and be confronted with far more then I could reconcil. Although there are some things I've had to struggle through, I am amazed at how much the creation/Christian world view actually makes sense. I guess I've been living in a bubble for too long. One thing I have found that I love to do is to ask people what they think or believe and simply sit and listen. At the begining of the semester I would jump in, and get into so many debates on everything. But now I'm finding how fascinating it is to hear someone else's perspective (as I did for about an hour or two on the way back from Temple). Its so interesting to hear what people believe and why they believe it and what holes they see in their own beliefs and what repulses them about Christianity. One guy I talked to wrote a whole paper on why Christianity is, oh I forget what it's called. In existentialism, there is no meaning to life, you have to create the meaning. The worst thing you can do is to let someone else define your life for you, and they would say that Christianity does this the most and is therefore the worst. Later on in the trip, I asked him what he believed. "I don't know". My first reaction was to think, that must be an aweful feeling to not know what you believe. But then I thought about it some more. I believe in God, but making that belief more certain will take a lifetime. I believe, but strengthening that takes a life time. Finding out everything I believe about God and truth cannot be decided in a day. If it is, then I probably either don't understand what I'm talking about or just latched onto the first thing I heard. Finding truth is a search and takes effort. It takes wrestling with what you believe over and over. Its amazing how here at Clemson there are so many people who "say" they are Christians and don't live by it, are hyper conservatives, and those who are so utterly repulsed be the first two groups. Having met some people, I can see why other hate Christianity so much. Seeing myself somedays, I can see why others hate Christianity so much. Its so hard to know what to do. I am realizing the truth of the saying "preach the gospel always, and when necessary use words." It is so much better to live genuinely and only talk about God when asked. I'm not saying that this is the way to do it on every campus, but here the people are so sick of being beaten over the head with the "God thing". One girl I talked to said she was actually followed by a guy with a bible who was trying to witness to her and she was trying to run away! God, guide me in what to do. Please live through me. Help me not to write off the tough questions with the easy cheesy answers, but help me to struggle with them. Take away my arrogance and teach me to be humble and listen.
"They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.
'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace."
Jeremiah 6:14
It was reading Bill's blog that got me thinking initially, then it went from there. People trying to give quick fix answers to tough questions along with the Jeremaih 6:14 verse (if you don't know that verse I'd recommend looking it up. I hadn't ever heard it before). It reminded me of Michael and I's conversation on the van ride back from PA. I was trying to keep him awake, and asked him about his philosophy class (I love asking people about their philosophy classes and can't wait to take one myself). At one point in the conversation (while discussing existentialism and nihilism), I asked him for his opinion on a particular point that did not really have anything to do with accepting one main philosophy. "Both points actually work logically, it just depends on how you look at it." This reminded me alot of my biology class. The professor is always saying that it muts be evolution because look at how well this trait has adapted to help the organism survive and therefore evolution must explain the origin of the earth. And to that I respond similar to Michael. True, when you look at a trait that helps an organism to survive you can easily see that as evolution. But another way to look at it is why would a loving, intelligent, omniscient creator create organism that did not have the ability to adapt and survive. Do they think that he would just create an earth and let it die out completely after about a thousand years and say "ooops" and start again? I find it so fascinating to sit in class and see what the professor is saying but from a different perspective. I thought I would come to college and be confronted with far more then I could reconcil. Although there are some things I've had to struggle through, I am amazed at how much the creation/Christian world view actually makes sense. I guess I've been living in a bubble for too long. One thing I have found that I love to do is to ask people what they think or believe and simply sit and listen. At the begining of the semester I would jump in, and get into so many debates on everything. But now I'm finding how fascinating it is to hear someone else's perspective (as I did for about an hour or two on the way back from Temple). Its so interesting to hear what people believe and why they believe it and what holes they see in their own beliefs and what repulses them about Christianity. One guy I talked to wrote a whole paper on why Christianity is, oh I forget what it's called. In existentialism, there is no meaning to life, you have to create the meaning. The worst thing you can do is to let someone else define your life for you, and they would say that Christianity does this the most and is therefore the worst. Later on in the trip, I asked him what he believed. "I don't know". My first reaction was to think, that must be an aweful feeling to not know what you believe. But then I thought about it some more. I believe in God, but making that belief more certain will take a lifetime. I believe, but strengthening that takes a life time. Finding out everything I believe about God and truth cannot be decided in a day. If it is, then I probably either don't understand what I'm talking about or just latched onto the first thing I heard. Finding truth is a search and takes effort. It takes wrestling with what you believe over and over. Its amazing how here at Clemson there are so many people who "say" they are Christians and don't live by it, are hyper conservatives, and those who are so utterly repulsed be the first two groups. Having met some people, I can see why other hate Christianity so much. Seeing myself somedays, I can see why others hate Christianity so much. Its so hard to know what to do. I am realizing the truth of the saying "preach the gospel always, and when necessary use words." It is so much better to live genuinely and only talk about God when asked. I'm not saying that this is the way to do it on every campus, but here the people are so sick of being beaten over the head with the "God thing". One girl I talked to said she was actually followed by a guy with a bible who was trying to witness to her and she was trying to run away! God, guide me in what to do. Please live through me. Help me not to write off the tough questions with the easy cheesy answers, but help me to struggle with them. Take away my arrogance and teach me to be humble and listen.
"They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.
'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace."
Jeremiah 6:14
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