A collection of thought-provoking statements from various places.
"Apart from God the question of pain and death not only remains unanswered; it even defies justification."
― Ravi Zacharias on the problem the atheist has even asking the question about why there is pain and evil in the world. Taken from “Can Man Live Without God?” (1994, Thomas Nelson Publishing, pg. 49)
"All denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind and the modern skeptic doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. Thus he writes one book complaining that imperial oppression insults the purity of women, and then writes another book, a novel in which he insults it himself. As a politician he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then as a philosopher that all of life is a waste of time. A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself. A man denounces marriage as a lie and then denounces aristocratic profligates for treating it as a lie.
The man of this school goes first to a political meeting where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts. Then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is forever engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt becomes practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything."
― G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Doubleday, 1959; pg. 41)
"In today’s society, our animal instincts are suppressed by daily modern life, city-living and constant technological developments. Man is an animal, but he no longer acknowledge [sic] it. How do we re-awaken our bottled-up instincts to encourage and engage with who and what we fundamentally are ………..by putting all that is pure, natural and instinctive back into man……..because We Are Animals."
― Another example of how a humanistic worldview works it way out of the classroom and lecture hall into the everyday vernacular—in this instance being used to sell clothing on the new Wrangler Europe website.
I was reminded once again of this amazing chorus this past week.
"I have seen [many] eager to make the oft-repeated but ill-understood charge: What about the thousands who have been killed in the name of religion? This emotion-laden question is not nearly as troublesome to answer if the questioner first explains all the killing that has resulted from those who have lived without God, such as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, et al. The antitheist is quick to excoriate all religious belief by generically laying the blame at the door of all who claim to be religious, without distinction. By the same measure, why is there not an equal enthusiasm to distribute the blame for violence engendered by some of the irreligious? But the rub goes even deeper than that. The attackers of religion have forgotten that these large-scale slaughters at the hands of antitheists were the logical outworking of their God-denying philosophy. Contrastingly, the violence spawned by those who killed in the name of Christ would never have been sanctioned by the Christ of the Scriptures. Those who killed in the name of God were clearly self-serving politicizers of religion, an amalgam Christ ever resisted in His life and teaching. Atheism, on the other hand, provides the logical basis for an autonomous, domineering will, expelling morality."
― Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God? (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994, pgs. 22-23)
"It is important to notice what the analogy does not establish. There is no suggestion that children are innocent or sinless, no hint that their faith is intrinsically pure, no sentimental illusion that children have a better understanding of God than do adults. The primary point of the analogy is established by the context of the disciples’ argument. While they fret over who is greatest in the kingdom, Jesus is at pains to draw attention to members of society whom no one would think great. Children are such dependent creatures. They are not strong, wise, or sophisticated. They are relatively transparent. Proud adults, then, must humble themselves so that they may approach God as do little children: simply, in unselfconscious dependence, without any hope of being the greatest in the kingdom."
― D. A. Carson reflecting on Matthew 18:1-6, January 18th, For The Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word (Volume 1) (Crossway Books, 1998)
"In New York, marchers chanted, ‘This is what democracy looks like,’ but actually, this isn’t what democracy looks like. This is what freedom of speech looks like. Democracy looks a lot more boring. Democracy requires institutions, elections, political parties, rules, laws, a judiciary and many unglamorous, time-consuming activities, none of which are nearly as much fun as camping out in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral or chanting slogans on the Rue Saint-Martin in Paris."
― Anne Applebaum, “What the Occupy protests tell us about the limits of democracy”
October 17, 2011, The Washington Post
"PUBLICITY & MARKETING: Acceptance of any prize constitutes permission to the Sponsor to use the participant’s name, Facebook username, profile picture, voice, statement, image and likeness for purposes of advertising and trade, in any medium, without further compensation or notice, unless prohibited by law."
― Part of WENDY’S® Privacy Policy statement for their “Where’s The Beef?” T-Shirt giveaway. I’ll pass. My information is worth more than a t-shirt.
"In every area of life, we need to distinguish between the way God originally created the world, and the way it has been deformed and defaced by sin. Reformed thinkers label this structure versus direction. Structure refers to the created character of the world, which is still good even after the Fall—music, art, science, sexuality, work, the state. Direction refers to the way we “direct” those structures to serve either God or idols. In every enterprise in which we engaged, we need to ask: (1) What is the original structure that God created, and (2) how is it being distorted and directed to sinful purposes?"
― Nancy Pearcey commenting on the idea held by far too many Christians today that certain portions of this world are inherently sinful (music, art, dancing, media, sexuality).
Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (2004, pg. 85)
"The problem with [the] secular/sacred dualism is that it does exactly what Plato did so many years ago: It identifies sin with some part of creation (dancing, movies, tobacco, makeup). Spirituality is defined as avoiding that part of creation, while spending as much time as possible in another part (church, Christian school, Bible study groups). This explains why work in the spiritual realm as a pastor or missionary is regarded as more important or valuable than being a banker or businessman."
― Nancy Pearcey commenting on the continuing dualistic, Platonic beliefs that many Christians have accepted wholesale today, believing that there is an “upper story” of Grace (Spiritual Realm) that’s more important than the “lower story” of Matter (Nature around us).
Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (2004, pg. 83)
"The Fall did not destroy our original calling, but only made it more difficult … The lesson of the Cultural Mandate [create culture, build civilizations] is that our sense of fulfillment depends on engaging in creative, constructive work. The ideal human existence is not eternal leisure or an endless vacation—or even a monastic retreat into prayer and meditation—but creative effort expended for the glory of God and the benefit of others… When we obey the Cultural Mandate, we participate in the work of God Himself, as agents of His common grace. This is the rich content that should come to mind when we hear the word Redemption. The term does not refer only to a one-time conversion event. It means entering upon a lifelong quest to devote our skills and talents to building things that are beautiful and useful, while fighting the forces of evil and sin that oppress and distort the creation."
― Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (2004, pgs. 48-49)
"The need for religion appears to be hard-wired in the human animal,” writes philosopher John Gray (though as an atheist he bemoans the fact). “Certainly the behaviour of secular humanists supports this hypothesis. Atheists are usually just as emotionally engaged as believers. Quite commonly, they are more intellectually rigid.” In short, it is not as though Christians have faith, while secularists base their convictions purely on facts and reason. Secularism itself is based on ultimate beliefs, just as much as Christianity is. Some part of creation—usually matter or nature—functions in the role of the divine. So the question is not which view is religious and which is purely rational; the question is which is true and which is false."
― Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (2004, pg. 42) Emphasis mine.
"Basically, we are outsourcing our brains to the cloud. The upside is that this frees a lot of gray matter for important pursuits like FarmVille and “Real Housewives.” But my inner worrywart wonders whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity."
― Bill Keller joins the growing chorus of “credible digital Cassandras” voicing concern over the effect today’s media technology is having on us as a society — good or bad. (“The Twitter Trap”, The New York Times, May 19, 2011)
"The more that people depended on explicit guidance from software programs, the less engaged they were in the task and the less they ended up learning. [These] findings indicate, [Christof] van Nimwegen concluded, that as we “externalize” problem solving and other cognitive chores to our computers, we reduce the brain’s ability “to build stable knowledge structures”—schemas in other words—that can later “be applied in new situations.” A polemicist might put it more pointedly: The brighter the software, the dimmer the user."
― Nicholas Carr in The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (2010) on page 216.
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I don’t imagine that many Americans will care whether bin Laden was armed or not when he resisted the individual who confronted him in Abbottabad. His “nature” was revealed to us long ago.
But the “narrative” of his death remains of significance to those who might seek to follow in his foot-steps. That’s why its worth looking at these early reports with a skeptical eye.
"― Garance Franke-Ruta, a senior editor at The Atlantic, on the changing story from the White House on what actually happened with Osama bin Laden.
