Do you know why second amendment people fight so hard? Because they are scared. They don’t have faith in God. Even though his love is the armor, they feel that they are weak. A gun gives them security. It reassures them that whatever it is that comes, a man made object will protect them. They feel that what God has given them, two hands and faith, is not enough. And to restrict others from guns removes the threat. They hate anything that is not like them because they think maybe God is on the other side. What if God is on the side of Muslims? Right makes might. Right makes might. The more convinced one is of his infallibility the more he will fight for it. Doubt is even more dangerous though. Doubt makes it a test. Then faith is not in the fact that God can and will protect, it is found in their works. The Crusades. The Jihads. The holy wars these cowards fight hiding behind taunts of “False God” to their enemies. And to prove how false their God is, they will destroy them. That’s what God wants.
The problem with science and religion is that the two don’t know they are saying the same thing in different languages. There are tons of these stories, but I’m gonna go with numero uno.
In the creation story, believe it or not, science and religion jive. It is real simple. The people who wrote the Old Testament are ancient Jews. More properly, Hebrews. They got a language. It is called Hebrew. Now I used to work in a Jewish Deli here in Houston. It never ceased to amaze me. To old Jewish women when coffee is lukewarm they can make it seem like ice crystals are forming at the top.
Asking some of them how their day was going often times lead to a story of their childhood and parents. If it was drizzling that day, they would relate that it was pouring cats and dogs. It is a charming feature many people have retained from a language that is poetic in its form.
In captivity the Hebrews thought they were going to be wiped out. They wanted to leave a record of them. They remembered all the old stories that had been orally transmitted with quite a bit of idiom and literary license utilized. Their work was metaphoric, but they understood what was happening in the world. They just hadn’t amassed enough data to relate it scientifically so they told a story.
First there was darkness than there was light:
3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
(Genesis ch. 1)
Well if you have outer space… It is dark.
A “big bang” is very bright…
6: And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7: And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8: And God called the firmament Heaven.
(Genesis ch. 1)
This is the atmosphere, now the molten rock that this planet was can cool, and the waters can freeze into ice at the caps and the lands seem to emerge from the depths of the ocean. Pangaea. So far bible and science line up. Next:
9: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so
(Genesis ch. 1)
Then plants come to the land. Scientists, are we still doing ok?
20: And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
(Genesis ch. 1)
Life in the water, then life in the air. Remeber in ancient Hebrew "Heavens" means everything above your head. That is why the Holy Spirit is symbolized as a dove. Because they can fly from "Heaven" to earth.
24: And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25: And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
(Genesis ch.1)
This is generational development. Even Darwin would agree that animals that can breed fertile offspring constitute a species.
Now this is where it gets tricky. Now we are in the second chapter and motive is needed.
9: …the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
(Genesis ch. 2)
Now the tree of life represents knowledge of good and evil. This knowledge is primarily found in the frontal lobe of the human brain. Phineas Gage is our case study here. When that pike flew through his head it went directly through his frontal lobe. After the accident he functioned fine. His other lobes had not been damaged, but his frontal damage made him an a$$ h*!e. He was inconsiderate and brutish. Less than human emotions. He had them before, now they are gone.
By science, the defining characteristic of anatomically modern homo sapiens is the frontal lobe. Our anatomic and symbolic, tree of knowledge.
17: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
(Genesis ch. 2)
Death is defined as separation from God in the Bible. Plants and animals in the Bible routinely “cease to bear fruit.” “Are offered as sacrifice,” but death is a distinctly human trait. The newer translations fuddle this some, but not too bad.
The Biblical creation story also thinks the Garden of Eden is in Ethiopia.
Scientists traced Y chromosomes, and Mitochondrial DNA and guess where they think original man and woman come from?
It is time for Christians to fight back. It is beyond belief what politics and arrogance have been able to do to our religion; the church scandals, the controversial friends. How do we allow this? How is it that a handful of church leaders like Falwell and Robertson managed to overshadow the efforts that good grassroots churches are doing in their communities everyday? Why have we allowed these extremists to create an image that Christians love America more than we love God?
True there is an element in our community that speaks optimistically about governmental murder plots, and yes there are those who think that a clash of cultures is inevitable BECAUSE of religion.
How have we managed to let ourselves descend to the depths of allowing our government to speak for us? Remember the Pharisees? That is the blend of politics and religion.
Christianity is a belief that begins in your soul and emanates from your very pores casting a glow that should be evident for all to see. We are not supposed to involve ourselves with politics. Jesus refused to march on Rome. What he did was to concern himself with feeding the hungry, comforting the impoverished, and loving Jew, Gentile, saint, and sinner. He drew people because condemnation was not in him. He asked for nothing and was want for nothing.
Christians, we need to leave philosophy to philosophers, judgment to God, and we need to reassert our role as community centers and safe sane asylums.
The term Evangelical is not a pejorative, but we are not being that right now either. We have shifted our eyes from communities and neighbors, and aimed our sights on politics and prestige. These are not the goals of Jesus, neither should they be ours.
In America, right now as I type, we have two year old girls showing signs of puberty; byproducts of decomposing plastics. A man is pregnant. Divorce is skyrocketing; especially among Christians. Like it or not the evils are here. These are exactly the issues we should be taking on right now. Passing judgment takes one minute. Working to better our communities is a lifetime of work. Does God love one minute of condemnation from us more than a lifetime of work? It is not our job to be politically intolerant of these people who define their lives differently.
In the Bible it says to give Caesar what is due him. Never does it say to bow before him and become his tool. The idea of separation of Church and state is as much about protecting the state from the Church, as it is protecting the holiness of the Church from the secular state.
