Christmas (A Celebration of the Creator)

It floors me that I grew up in church, here in the "Bible Belt" even, and somehow never put it together that Jesus was around for Creation Week.  Perhaps, I was just a bad listener back in the days of Bible School?  I'm not sure.  At any rate, I've come to realize the truth of Colossians 1:16.

For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.

With Christmas only days away, I thought it only appropriate to have a Christ-centered blog to write.  I think that most of my confusion on the eternal Jesus started with my understanding of Christmas being the birth of Jesus.  Naturally, I treated His birth as being His beginning.  But, scripture shows that this was not so.  John 1:1 puts it this way.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

So, Jesus created the earth and everything in it.  The Holy Trinity is definitely a little difficult for us to understand at times.  This verse says three things:

1. Jesus was in the beginning already.
2. Jesus was with God.  (in other words: distinct from, yet connected to)
3. Jesus is God.

This blows our little finite minds.  But, this is a pillar of Christian (and Biblical) theology.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all the same God yet distinct from one another.  1+1+1=1 in this case.

Recently, I saw this article on Google News.  There's been a lot of speculation about life on Mars in the scientific community and all sorts of things are being tossed around as possibilities.  This article tried to summarize what the scientists all agree upon.  I don't know if you can make out the text in the photo but is says this:

For lifeless chemical compounds to organize themselves into something alive, scientists generally agree, three sets of things must be present.

■ Standing water and an energy source.

■ Five basic elements: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus and nitrogen.

■ And time, lots of time.

I would like to point out that which has been pointed out by many already and yet is still not very well known.  Invoking "lots of time" as a supposed catalyst for creating life is transferring Creation from God to a mindless randomness.  It is, in essence, creating a new god.  Because, to believe time and chance created all we know, is done so with faith, faith in time and chance.  It robs the true and only God of Creation of the glory that only He deserves.

What I find ridiculous is that anyone with any amount of education could so easily fall for the illusion that time is a solution to bettering one's chances. 

A simplified model can make the somewhat difficult model easier to understand, so I'll give you a simple one.  Suppose there are three overturned cups like in the photo to the right and I put a coin under one of them.  I ask you to choose one.  Obviously, you have a 1 in 3 chance in choosing the one with the coin.  Suppose you got it wrong.  Then, without changing anything, I ask you to choose again.  Now, your chances have become better because, as an intelligent being, you won't pick the same cup you did previously.  Thus, you will have increased your chances of choosing the cup hiding the coin to 1 in 2.

Notice that this model has a requirement of an intelligence being present in order to have an increase in the odds of success.  If the exact same scenario ensued, but I made you turn around while I rearranged the cups after you initially got it wrong, then your odds would remain 1 in 3 regardless of how many times we repeated the exercise.

Now, with 1 in 3 odds, it is likely that sooner or later you'll pick the correct one.  But, that doesn't transfer to impossible odds.  This is where people get confused.  If your chances are 1 in a million, and those chances never get any better, it's a very safe bet that you'll never get it right regardless of the amount of time you dedicate to trying.

Scientists that propose time does in fact help the chances of life creating itself, have to first propose that there is a chance that it could happen in the first place.  In 1953, the Miller-Urey experiment attempted to prove the possibility and they failed.  With all the advances we've made since then, it's still not ever been shown that life could be created by time and chance.  Yet, articles like this one show that somehow, despite all knowledge and logic, the scientific community still insists that it is a possibility.  Why?  Because, all of their models are based on the assumption that it is.  And, wouldn't that turn out to be a foolish waste of resources?

The author of the article makes it known that "scientists generally agree" that "time, lots of time" can replace intelligence in the equation.  Furthermore, all involved assume that water, an energy source, and a list of some basic elements all happened to exist in a suitable environment just to start this impossible scenario.  They don't even bother to try to explain where the elements originated, how they were organized or why they adhere to natural laws of molecular structure.  For that matter, where did the laws of nature originate?  Can laws of physics organize themselves?

Attempting to create origin models without God the Creator only leaves one having to build models on assumptions that defy all known logic.  Make no mistake.  God the Father created all things through Jesus Christ.  So, this Christmas, celebrate Jesus who not only was born in a manger, not only died on a cross, not only substituted himself for all of our shortcomings so that we could be reconciled to the Father, but also created you, the earth, and everything in it.

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Health Insurance (Wealth Redistribution)

I know I've discussed this before, so sorry if you've heard it before.  But, I've got to get something off my chest.

We live in a free country, so we're told.  But, I have been threatened to be fined by my government if I continued to decline purchasing health insurance for myself.  I went without health insurance for years and I'm no worse off then I was when I had it.  And, neither are my fellow citizens.  I didn't use any medical services nor did I require any.

Now, maybe you're asking sarcastically "Well, aren't you lucky?".  My answer is "no".  I'm not lucky.  I'm healthy.  I choose healthy eating habits and healthy foods and pay for them with my own earned money.  I use products to maintain my health that I purchase with my own earned money.  I feed my children good foods and encourage physical activities for them some of which are organized and I pay for with my own earned money.  I limit my children's time to be inactive.  I'm an active guy because I choose not to be an inactive slob.

I'm a responsible human being with my health and with the health of those in my charge.  How am I rewarded for this?  I get used.  As demonstrated here in this snippet from personalhealthinsurance.com, my government "mandated" (made mandatory, a.k.a. forced) me to buy insurance.  Why?  Because, they know I won't use it.  The money I pay in, therefore, can be used by the insurance companies, to pay for other people's bills.  It "dilutes" the risk (reduces the risk, a.k.a makes more profitable) for the insurance company.

So, insurance companies, who already make up a billion dollar industry, are going to be able to make more money with less financial risk.  According to this same site, "Fortunately, the insurance market will be different by then (2014), ... insurance prices should begin to decrease." (emphasis added).

So, we healthy people are forced to join in the fray so that they can use our funds.  If we don't join in, they will forcefully take our funds.  Either way, they take our money and give it others.  But, at least the price will come down in 2014, right?  Because the market will be different by then, right?  No.  As the House of Representatives were told by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius back in March, "Health insurance rates in 2015 are likely to increase."  And, they have.

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