What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

The proof I was looking for

Lately I have been running into a series of sermons about the "proof" that God exists.  Most of them I have heard before- scientific proofs that show the preciseness needed to even support life, let alone create it.  Logical proofs, such as the one I heard this morning.  The preacher said that, if as evolutionists claim, a simple life form (say a one-celled organism) given enough time would develop into a complex one (such as man), then "if I leave my 2007 Grand Marquis in the garage long enough, someday it will become a giant ocean liner!"  He then stated, as an evolutionist would, that this was ridiculous, apples and oranges, that the car was an inanimate object incapable of becoming a living being.  And then he slammed the trap shut by saying, "but evolutionists claim that very thing, that unliving chemicals, given time, became alive.  You can't have it both ways."

In the end though, he realizes- as I do- that faith is a personal thing, a one-on-one with the Creator, that atheists and agnostics refuse to admit.  "If God won't reveal Himself, if He won't come and PROVE His existence (by their standards), then He isn't a God worth worshipping."  That is an argument I have heard many times.  You can't argue with a mind closed by Satan, and that is not what this post is about.

Everyone struggles with their faith at times, even on a small, insignificant level.  And they sometimes need encouragement.  I got two examples of encouragement last night.  THAT is what this post is about.

Example # 1 came in a true story I saw on several news sources last night.  Long story short, a man is rushing his in-labor wife to the hospital in Sweden.  Two kids buckled in the back seat.  Suddenly, the baby pops out, lands on the floorboard at Mommy's feet.  Man looks down, runs off the road and into a ditch, rolls over several times.  The car stops.  Two kids in the back, belted in, okay.  Mom and Dad, belted in, okay.  But the baby, seconds old and fragile, no protection, which by all rights should have been battered about the car- what about the baby?

Safe and sound- underneath her Mommy's seat.  The only place she might have survived.  Possibly dumb luck slid that baby under the seat just in time.  However, I defy any atheist to do any semblance of an experiment and get that to happen.  I have no doubt that child had an Angel of God on its side.


Example #2 happened on a walk Scrappy and I took last night.  As we passed the "bark park", two little dogs were inside- a curly haired white guy about 2/3 Scrappy's size, and what looked to be a mini-Chihuahua mix about half the other one's size.  Now Whitey was willing to come up and touch noses with Mr. Boy through the fence.  Shorty, however, was in full tough-guy mode, barking a bark that wouldn't blow back a fruit fly, hopping with four stiff, straight legs.  He'd get within about a yard and then they'd both take off.  Scrappy would whine, walk a ways down the fence, and the scene would repeat.  Then, as we approached the far end of the park, they came at Scrappy from different angles, and Shorty t-boned right into Whitey.

And bounced off like a handball off a wall, landing on his butt.

Needless to say, everyone got a good laugh out of that.  And as I laughed, I thought.

How would chance and evolution create laughter?  Or humor?
It might make tear ducts and tears, but how would it arrive at sorrow?
It could make comfort, or satisfaction, through the right amount of mixed chemicals in the brain.  Heck, that's how atheists "explain" faith and belief.  But could it make joy?

How could evolution produce the bedrock concepts of our lives?  Fun, joy, pain of the heart, love, the sense of right and wrong?

Laughing proves that God exists. Surviving catastrophes show He cares.


And just to lighten things up, here's a couple of those lovely news stories I always run into.

In Kingston, in SW London (yes, that London)  a 27" by 19" sewer pipe was re-opened after a solid 15-ton (yes, that ton) ball of "congealed fat mixed with wet wipes" was removed.  Called the biggest "fatberg" in UK history, the removal company, which took ten days to complete the job, will be recycling the whole thing.

"We recycle everything that we remove -- the water is extracted and the remaining fats and oils are turned into products like soap, biodiesel and fuel," a CountyClean (Environmental Services) spokesman told AFP.

Sources at Thames Water encouraged residents, "Bin it- don't block it."


Second story- Once upon a time, Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman made a duck.  A very BIG duck.  Since 2007, Hofman's duck has travelled the world, and in May took up residence in Hong Kong.  The people loved it.  

Note the guy in the boat towing it.

Well, now there is a bit of a fight over the duck- or at least, replicas of it.  The city of Keelung in Taiwan wanted a duck, and signed an agreement to have a 59-foot-tall ducky in their harbor.  The problem is, they kinda are like Andrew Gold in his song Lonely Boy:

When they said he was an only duck, he thought it was the first one, too.  But, the city of Kaohsiung, also in Taiwan, wanted one too- and they are getting theirs in September, while Keelung doesn't get theirs till mid-December.  (would you believe that spellcheck LIKES "Kaohsiung"?)

The head of Kaohsiung's Information bureau says that no fewer than 23 Taiwanese organizations had approached Hofman for either a visit from his touring duck (a mere 54 feet and change) or wanting one of their own.  Given Hong Kong's experience, he estimates the duck will generate 37 million dollars worth of business, in tourism, toys, scale models, and restaurants finding new ways to serve duck.

9 comments:

  1. CWM:
    I think your take on "proof of God" hits the mark very well.

    And NO, a Grand Marquis would NEVER be considered a "life form"...LOL
    (that's reserved for Mercedes AMGs and Lambos)

    I also think what you speak to here today walks hand-in-hand with my quote this week.
    I just call it all miraculous, because our minds can't comprehend the perfection and balance that HE creates and manages.

    I find that encouragement comes in forms we often overlook, and it all boils down to never passing up all the little things in life.

    BTW, that GIANT duck would be a shoo-in to win the river race here...LOL.
    (wonder what the entry fee for it is?)

    Laughter has to be a product of HIS divinity working through us...kinda like "whistling"...
    (you'll know what I mean there)

    Great post.
    (except for that sewer schmutzball in London...ewww!)
    Stay safe up there.

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    1. "And NO, a Grand Marquis would NEVER be considered a "life form"...LOL
      (that's reserved for Mercedes AMGs and Lambos)"


      IDK, man. Impala knew just when a minor breakdown would screw us the most...

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  2. I BELIEVE in miracles. Some of the things my family has witnessed in the last few weeks with my Dad are amazing. We even said to each other in waiting room- how can anyone NOT believe in these miracles?

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    1. At least, then, you can understand "why God lets bad things happen to good people."

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  3. Damn it! Now I want a duck...

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    1. Drop a line to the local mayor and see if he can help you out... Or, buy a little one at Toys'R'Us.

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  4. Part 1:

    BROTHER MARTIN ~
    This was a very interesting post and I meant to comment last week but didn't find the time. There is an awful lot I could say related to what you have here, but I will restrict myself to just a couple observations:

    >>... How would chance and evolution create laughter? Or humor? … Laughing proves that God exists.

    There is a laughter that results from joy. That IS Divine. But then there’s humor and the laughter that results from it. The latter is what I will address here.

    Many years ago, I encountered something a person had written somewhere online in which he said that there is no laughter in Heaven because there's no humor there.

    My immediate reaction was that he HAD TO BE wrong. I was sure that humor was a gift of God and that there was probably THE BEST laughter in Heaven. But then the writer went on and explained why he believed as he did. I was surprised by the strength of his argument.

    All these many years I have periodically tried to find a good argument to oppose that writer's theory but I must admit that I have not really succeeded. (If you or anyone else can come up with an A-list counter-argument, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it.)

    His main point was that humor in "this world" - what makes us laugh really hard - is almost always based on a situation that has brought misfortune on someone, or the circumstances of the scenario are not something you would find in a spiritual (non-physical) Heavenly realm.

    For years I tried to find some good examples that would disprove that guy's theory, but he seems to have been correct. The best examples I have been able to think up have been clever puns or wordplay. Much of that, at least, does not make us laugh at another's unfortunate predicament. But then again, wordplay and puns are also based on writing or lips and ears - none of which we would expect to find in a solely spiritual realm. And most of it isn’t really A-list funny anyway; we chuckle but rarely laugh deeply and loudly.

    But think about it... the GREATEST laughs we ever get are founded on some sort of un-Heavenly negative scenario or circumstance. I've not found any good examples of other top-notch, non-negative humor. Tonight I plan to watch ‘Planes, Trains And Automobiles’, which to me may be the overall funniest movie ever made. But ALL of the comedy in it is based on some form of misfortune. The same goes for every other example of great humor I can think of: Laurel & Hardy; W.C. Fields; pick a stand-up comic, ANY stand-up comic.

    I still believe and hope there will be humor in Heaven, but if so, I think it will necessarily be based on some foundation that we, in our fallen physical condition, cannot even begin to imagine – in the same way that we can’t imagine a never-before-seen color.

    All the great humor (and thus all the heartiest laughter) is based on negative, physical circumstances. Is there humor and humor-induced laughter in Heaven? Maybe not. How much humor do we find in the words of Jesus, Heaven’s Representative on Earth? Very little. I can think of only two possible examples; the first based on wordplay (and not hysterically funny), and the second based on a seeming practical joke. That’s it.

    Continued Below...

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  5. Part 2:

    CW, for me, the Divine proof that YOU find in laughter I find more in music. Music is one of the most mysterious things on Earth. It’s based on invisible soundwaves that reach the inner ear. Are there ears in Heaven? No. But The Bible does tell us that there’s music in Heaven. Therefore I think of music as essentially spiritual in nature, despite the soundwave-to-ear manner in which we experience it here in our fallen (physical) state.

    I have often pondered and been amazed by music. It is so subjective, but clearly we are resonating to it at some unique, individual core spiritual level. There are certain melodies that give me goose-bumps; you might hear the same melody and say, “Eh. Whatever.” And vice versa. There are rhythms that fire us up; lilting harmonies that calm us down; and haunting melodies that can make us cry. WHAT INVISIBLE PART OF US IS THE INVISIBLE MUSIC TOUCHING AND AFFECTING?

    I’m not going to say which one, but there is a particular musical instrument that INSTANTLY reaches inside of me, grabs my soul – not my ears, not my feet, not my heart – grabs my soul and moves it! Add this particular musical instrument to ANY song and the odds that I will like the song instantly triple, at the very least.

    Some tunes make my foot tap; some melodies rub me the wrong way. Ask me to explain WHY my foot is tapping or WHY that melody disturbs me in a very negative way and I have no logical response. All I can say is, “I don’t know. It just does.” That is pretty much the dictionary definition of something spiritual – it eludes our normal, fleshly senses (we do hear it, but the “It” that is responding to what we are hearing is entirely unknown to us – at least it can’t be understood nor explained by reasoning via spoken or written language).

    What I have written above has been expressed more succinctly by someone else...

    “Music is spirit that becomes flesh when it's vocalized. ... What can you say about a melody, except that you worship the air it vibrates in?”
    ~ Paul Williams
    (from his book "Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys: How Deep Is The Ocean?")

    ~ D-FensDogg
    ‘Loyal American Underground’

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    1. I reject the idea of "no humor in heaven " for the same reason I accept your second point about music. You KNOW what we will hear in heaven will NOT be the stuff we have touch us on earth, by and large. Just because laughter (not just humor) is limited by our perceptions here on earth, that doesn't mean it will be so limited in heaven. And while I agree the Bible isn't just chocked full of laughs, it was never intended to be God's joke book. Outside of the incident in the temple, we have zero idea of Jesus' human life for a good 32 years of it. While I am sure he wouldn't sit at the fire beside the disciples and say, "A priest, a Pharisee, and a Rabbi go into a bar, " I'll bet he'd have laughed loud and long at my little doggie incident. Or at children playing. Or something that occurred in simple comradeship. Slapstick, maybe not so much.

      I have always had a pet peeve with "experts" who try to "understand" God by limiting Him. I think that anyone who says there is no humor in heaven is doing just that. But like the music, it will be a lot different humor than we imagine.

      So, in summing up, I think your first comment's second to last paragraph nailed it, and so did your whole second post. And the first paragraph after you quoted me. The laughter will be deeper, the humor more beautiful, and the music carrying us to heights undreamt.

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