These are the things I know and surmise about quantum physics. It’s not much, I’ll admit, but it is elemental and well sourced. The fact that physicists often refer to the Higgs Boson as the “god particle” is kind of a leaping off point for me. The fact that light sometimes behaves like a stream of particles and sometimes behaves like a wave is another. Theoretical physics can be as opaque, confusing, and malleable as theology if you dig deep enough. As I like to say, since God is the author of religion and of the laws of nature that are the subject of science, whenever science and religion seem to disagree, either the science is incomplete or the religion has been wrongly interpreted.
Continue readingDeep Thoughts or Daft Ideas? Part IV
Does the Holy Ghost Really Need Another Job?
Short answer? No, He does not. The Holy Spirit already carries a LOT of water for the Trinity.
Continue readingDeep Thoughts or Daft Ideas? Part III
Less an Introduction Than Yet Another Excuse
This is the third installment of my rambling and quite possibly heretical attempt to reconcile Trinitarian theology with string theory. It’s taken me two years to get to this point, which is not entirely my fault…but mostly. At this rate I will never catch up to the voluminous output of the Early Church Fathers and Doctors, but then a lot of them had secretaries and stenographers. I have a 10 year old laptop, an open-source word processor, and I’m not as likely to be put to death or exiled for my flights of theological fancy. Even so, the very thought of being tortured by Tomás de Torquemada, that most notorious Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition and primary designer of the modern bicycle seat, and subsequently burned at the stake for my sloppy logic and leaps of misguided faith has given me serious pause. Please accept my heartfelt apology.
Deep Thoughts or Daft Ideas? Part II
Some Thoughts on the Trinity
(I made the mistake of deciding to check my work before I published. Not that the checking itself was a mistake, far from it, but the notion that I could do it quickly and without a lot of head-scratching and ponderments may have been. This is difficult stuff to grasp, and when I went to the early Church Fathers: Augustine, St. John of the Cross, Origen, Hilary, Ambrose, and others for guidance, although I found a wealth of wisdom and depth of analysis, a lot of it is about as interesting to read as tax code. It’s taken a lot longer than I thought it would, and I’m beginning to wonder if theoretical physics, particle mechanics, and string theory are going to be any easier. Plus, it’s just damn difficult to make this breezy, humorous, and irreverent as is my usual style . Bear with me.)
I’m going to start with some thoughts on the Trinity. I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a long time. It resonates for me. It makes sense to me, although it may not make the same kind of sense to you. I accept this. I already know from whence some of the arguments against what I have to say are going to come.
Continue readingDEEP THOUGHTS OR DAFT IDEAS? INTERLUDE
Buzzkill
The inestimable creativity of Douglas Adams notwithstanding, the answer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” might be something other than “42”
The astute among you will have noticed that my last post was well over two years ago. If you were waiting for the second installment of my thought project linking Trinitarian theology with String Theory, you have no doubt been scratching your head and wondering if I’ve been felled by some kind of personal tragedy. I have, but it is way less serious a matter than you imagine.
What happened is this: I went to work on the next post almost immediately. I did quite a bit of research, poring over the writings of early Church Fathers to glean an authoritative understanding of the Triune God, His component persons, and their inter-personal relationships. It was difficult work. Reading the early Church Fathers is not unlike reading U.S. tax code, slightly more momentous perhaps, but dry as a Baptist county. When I was finished, I went back over the text to make a few adjustments and ended up accidentally deleting the whole thing in a disastrously irretrievable way. Continue reading
Deep Thoughts or Daft Ideas? Part I
I Think. Therefore I Might Be.
I like to think that I think deep thoughts. They might not be as deep as I imagine them to be, but that realization does not dissuade me from thinking them. Nor should it…I think.
My latest thought project is trying to link string theory with the Christian mystery of the Triune God. (As you can plainly see, I do not lack for ambition.) Continue reading
Heaven and Hell
Contemplating the Stick and the Carrot
Twelve Signs of Depression – Trumping Neurosis
Depression: The Prison of Our Own Devising
I haven’t been very active here of late. Even though I’ve managed two posts over the last several days, it was nearly two months between posts before that. There’s a good reason for my lack of productivity. I thought the reason was Donald Trump, but it turns out that I’m probably just depressed. Continue reading
Humility and The Book of Job
Favorite Lines
My favorite passage from A Cup of Pending is this one from Chapter 3:
“… and that’s the third great lesson of Job. There’s no justice in a world where God makes bets with the Devil for his own amusement.”
Irreverent, sarcastic, a little caustic – this is the kind of line that defines my writing and my usual demeanor. My second favorite passage comes a little earlier in the same chapter when Blanche offers to pray for Cliff and makes a mockery of Christian charity in the process:
She still had a grip on Cliff’s hand. A crowd had started to gather around them, circling like sharks sensing blood in the water. Blanche looked up toward the ceiling, suspended acoustic tile punctuated with fluorescent light fixtures. So fervent was her gaze Cliff almost believed God must be on the other side of the tiles, hiding in the conduit and duct work, just waiting for the chance to bless a petitioner. Continue reading
Six Steps to Perfect Humility – No Effort Required
Two Approaches to Humility
The Hard One
Real humility is a virtuous ideal embraced by most religions and theologies. There are spiritual exercises and practices designed to engender humility in the individual seeking enlightenment and improvement. Humility is a virtue, a first step, a fundamental principle. Humility is the foundation for charity, piety, discernment, justice, and even faith. Continue reading