“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” -John 3:16-17

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. -Romans 10:8-9

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” -Matthew 7:13-14

Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” -John 14:5-6

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” -Romans 13:1-2

As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
“Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;

“The poison of asps is under their lips”
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. -Romans 3:10-26

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. -Hebrews 11:6

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. -Luke 11:9-10

I stood upon a hill one night
And watched the Great Creator write
His autograph in Lightning strokes
And there was I, a witness to this
Magnificent, Momentous, Divine event!

I stood one morning by a stream,
As day was waking like a dream;
The fields were fair as fields may be in spring,
A golden mystery of buttercups;
And God came on and wrote His autograph
in the Dawn!

One afternoon, long years ago, when glacial tides
had ebb and flow,
I found this cliff, God’s hand had smitten,
I scanned its face where God had written,
With some great glacier for a pen
His autograph for time and men!

One night I stood and watched the stars,
The milky way, and ranging Mars;
Where God in letters tipped with fire,
The story of His tall desire had writ in rhyme
and signed His name;
A stellar autograph in flame!

Creation’s dawn was deep in night,
When suddenly “Let there be light,”
Awakened grass and flowers and trees
The wind, the gales, the raging seas,

And to complete creation’s plan,
In His own image God made man;
And signed His name with strokes most sure,
Man is God’s greatest signature!

-William Steiger

I can’t fly in the design for an airplane. I can’t drive the design of a car. The design of a watch won’t tell me the time. Dear ID advocates, please tell us by what means the intelligent design of nature became implemented. I know how the design of a car gets translated into a car by means of industrial production processes. How does the design of nature get translated into actual nature? Remember, you’re trying (or at least some of you are) to present ID as a scientific idea.

Heresiarch

To Heresiarch:

Imagine that your perception of time was different and you could see a universe such as ours being formed in the blink of an eye; to your eye it would have simply materialized. The design could have been contained in the very substance of the matter that was formed, and there could have been a specific signature on each element of nature that was inherent to it’s purpose in the formation of the whole. The forces acting on each would appear much less random, but completely intentional. Whoever had signed those elements would therefore be the designer. You as an element of that design would be unaware of the design itself, as it had originated from outside of your universe, but to your naked eye, the signature would still be apparent.

Simply because you have the intelligence to reverse engineer something, as time was slowed down enough for you to comprehend it (mildly), doesn’t make you as intelligent as the original designer. Somehow through the increase in our understanding of the laws of the universe, we have made the false assumption that our having “discovered” them somehow negates the reality of the one who had first established them, as if the mere comprehension of the design somehow destroys the reality of it having been designed in the first place. Where our appreciation of the designer should be increasing as the beauty and elegance of the universe is revealed, we take the opposite prideful response which is to attempt to disregard the designer, as if we could have invented such a thing ourselves.

As much as the designer of the airplane “materializes” his or her design by forming and fashioning its parts from the forces and elements available, the airplane itself is seemingly unaware of its having been designed. Oddly enough many humans fall into a similar condition. As an aside, ask me if that same airplane would have materialized without a design and I would say it would be a highly unlikely event at best. Even if it were possible, I would attribute the event to the original designer of the universe within which it had been created. That designer being God.

-Me

The original article can be found here.

My response to which is here:

Rationality and scientific objectivity are two different things (for the layman). The belief in witches does not defy logic nor rationality, it simply defies observation. Just because you can’t see a spiritual realm with your own eyes, doesn’t mean it is non-existent; one possibility is that you are limited in your perception of that particular aspect of reality. If Mr. Muthee was accurate in his knowledge that this woman was harnessing the power of evil spirits (however strange that may sound) in an effort to further her own agenda, then that would make anyone who didn’t believe him a fool and Sarah Palin a wise woman. My point is that the devil may (or may not) exist regardless of your belief in him (or her/it). Unless you’re absolutely certain to the contrary (which you really can’t be), it would be wise to leave open the possibility. From there you can imagine a world where both good and evil (not so good to downright wicked) spiritual entities (I’m sure they prefer to be called beings) exist and assert themselves on physical reality accordingly. Does that defy logic or rationality? No, it simply defies observation, especially if those entities are very good at avoiding being detected. I hope that helps.

Peace,
Brian

In response to http://an-archos.com/about:

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32

Nice WP plugin. Interesting but (and forgive me) naive social philosophy. I don’t know if I have it in me to start a debate right now… not sure if I should — well — I suppose I could say that there is no such thing as true freedom in a material sense of the word. We can only approximate it, and even then it’s deceptive because it’s like a double-edged sword. On one side it plays into a libertine ideal with human creation and accomplishment as its seeming end, the other side leads to complete depravity and a loss of the will to the lusts of the senses and flesh. Ultimately the flesh wins out, because “freedom’s” ultimate goal is truly nothing more than to satisfy the desires of the flesh — which can never be accomplished. It simply enslaves the human spirit and soul into a never-ending battle with material and sensual need, which is something you are currently witnessing as your philosophy plays itself out as the political mantra of today’s culture and society.

Freedom has come to represent the human “right” to carry on selfishly and without any regard to morality or decency. Oddly enough, the worldly pursuit of it ends as a negation of the human will, the assertion of which was actually the goal it had initially set out for itself. At its best it will leave you living like a backwoods transcendentalist, which is a selfish and Godless pursuit if ever there was one. Humans are invariably a fallen and devolving creature, and without the intervention of God Himself, will ultimately lead themselves to doom — with, or “without” the influence of decent political leaders. True freedom — or the lack thereof — is a spiritual matter at its core. Liberty and “happiness” can and will only be found in having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the messiah, The Saviour — however offensive that may seem to one’s intellectual sense.

Regardless, may God bless you in your search and I truly hope and pray that you eventually come to know what it is you are looking for. Thanks again for the cool plug-in.

Humbly and earnestly,

Brian

p.s. You truly cannot serve two masters at once, and to believe you are serving none at all is to be serving the devil, whether you believe it or not. Only God knows what is best for humanity and unless you know (and obey) His will, then you are simply shooting in the dark, no matter how good you believe your intentions and understanding to be.

p.p.s. Not that it matters, but I considered myself to be a libertarian and an anarchist in the past. I did study a fair amount of political philosophy and I remember it was disputed as to whether or not true anarchy, like true democracy, was even possible. It appears as if no matter how much society attempts to beset itself of leadership, leaders (or tyrants) just keep popping up out of the woodwork… like flowers or weeds I suppose…

p.p.p.s. “In terms of libertarian anarchism that would require every individual taking full responsibility for their own well being whilst always recognising a mutual benefit in the well being of others.” – Interesting statement, but communism shows us that humans in their natural state will often fail to recognize the mutual benefit in the well being of others when the self is seemingly put at risk. I say seemingly because perceived risk is a subjective thing, whereas most humans consistently see themselves as being “at risk”, we have this (although well-intentioned) objective rarely being realized in actuality. On the other hand, acting in an effort to realize some mutual benefit to oneself seems rather loveless to me. I understand the logic behind collective action, but it requires certain environmental conditions to be constantly met. In the absence of coercion, and in terms of game theory, the cheating individual always wins in a game where the winning strategy benefits the whole to some extent, yet the cheater to a slightly greater extent. Honestly, I’ll give you the fact that people appear to be “selfless” in this way when most, if not all of their basic needs are being met, but strip them of those comforts (or the possibility that they may never be realized in this lifetime) and the system breaks down entirely, and becomes one in which individuals are coerced into acting accordingly. …anyway, I’d rather not take any of these up as talking points… unfortunately, your ideals are based on a significant misrepresentation of whom and what we are as human beings, unless you assert that some of us are in fact “demigods” and are somehow exceptions to the rule… in which case I will tell you that you need to re-read what I wrote above (in my first postscript) a few times at least…. anyway, that’s a lot of p.s., and I feel like I’ve said a lot here. If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read it. God bless you and forgive me if I’ve misspoken in some way.

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