UnderAgeThinker

I am generally a moral absolutist.  I believe that there is a right and wrong path to take on moral issues.  However I also believe that decisions must made completly on a case by case basis.  I believe that in the exact situation, defined by the exact parameters X, there is a right and a wrong.  X parameters will never exist again, so you cannot use X as an exact precedent for any future situations.  X can at best be an imperfect analogy to learn from. 

An interesting facet of this is that, two very similar situations in two different times or locations could have opposite correct answers.  This starts to sound allot like relativism but it is not.  I will use an example that most of us are familiar with, getting a job. 

1. You submit your CV to Mr. Z, HR manager for the company you want to work for.

2.  You make a follow up call to make sure Z got your CV, and he did.

3.  You hear nothing from Z.

4.  To get a job you will need to be persistent.

5. Calling again would mean that you believe that (A) Z is incompetent or that (B) he has rejected you and you don’t care.
           (A) is insulting
           (B) is dehumanizing

6.  There is a moral imperative to support yourself and your family.  Unless you have deep pockets or some other means of making a living that, means you need a job. 

In this case, I believe that (6) trumps (5) and you should be persistent.  However in a more Utopian world, where people have progressed mentally and ethically, there would be no (4) and so you should notcall again.  This is because the man on the street and Mr. Z alike, would both be aware of how rude it is to call someone after they have dealt you a de facto rejection.  We do not live in this world and so Mr. Z actually expects you to follow up several times if you really want the job. 

So in a more perfect world there are more exacting standards of right and wrong.  I do believe that society (or humanity) can progress to higher level, where the higher standards would apply.  I also believe that we can regress, and have been doing allot more of that lately.

So I believe there is an absolute right and wrong relative to the exact parameters of the situation.  If there were no absolutes, it would be an amoral world.  If there were absolutes irregardless of the parameters, legalism would determine right and wrong.  This is one reason why Christianity is the only major world religion that is plausibly right.  In Christianity there are absolutes but there is not legalism.  This is because Christianity is a relationship, Christians are to seek council from God on issues, rather than citing case law.

*I know Uniquanatismis not a word.  I also know that it does not mean anything.  The point is that there are absolutes and every situation is absolutely unique. 

I went to see the Golden Compass yesterday, as I said I would.  I thought it was a good movie overall and I expect that the book is much better.  It did suffer from what I call Lord of the Rings syndrome,or LOTRS for short.  LOTRS occurs when a production team attempts to fit a long and complex story into a movie.  The LOTR all told, was at least nine hours long and an incredible movie but it did not do the story justice at all.  It was like a condensed children’s version of the story but, to do it right they would have had to at least double the length.  No one wants to sit through that so, they did the best they could.  I suspect the Golden Compassis the same way, though I still have not read it.  They had to tell the story, introduce the audience to a foreign universe, introduce new characters, and get the audience emotionally invested in the characters’ individual plights all in less than two hours.  Still it is more than worth the price of a movie ticket.  The polar bear fight is worth the price of a movie ticket. 

So what is my fundamentalist Christian take on the movie?  Well, one of the primary reasons I wanted to see the movie was to see if they could make a entertaining good v. evil story, without it being an allegory for Christ.  They could not.  I think this is telling.  It was (and is, it is a trilogy so the story is not over) a beautiful messiah narrative.  The Christian undertones where at least as strong as the Chronicles of Narnia. C.S. Lewis would have been proud to call it his own. 

I find it interesting that the Magisterium, the organization that represents the church or religion and evil looks more like a secular anti-religious organization than a church.  The truththat the Magisterium is attempting to stamp out is a world filled with the supernatural and the mystical.  The most poignant example of this is the daemons.  In Pullman’s universe, the souls of humans walk beside them at all times in the form of animals, known as daemons.  They are like the person’s spirit.  They are part of what makes a person who they are.  The Magisterium preforms experiments to deprive children of their daemons, that is their souls.  So, the Magisterium is working to rid the world of the spiritual.  That does not sound like any religion that I know of. 

The heroes of the story are attempting to preserve the truth and the villains are persecuting them, in an attempt to smother the truth.  This is exactly the story of the early church and persecution by the Roman Empire and others.  It is the story of the protestant revolution and persecution by the Vatican.  It is a Christian story. 

I still await the day when some one will have the creativity to make a good and evil story with out paralleling reality. 

See also my previous post on the Golden Compass, The Compass and the Cross

First I would like to say that Mormons deservedly have the reputation of being highly moral people. It is true that Mormonism shares a common ethic with Christianity. However that does not make them Christians and they are not. My goal in writing this is not to offend but rather to inform. I think it is important to understand what twelve million people believe. This is perhaps more true today than ever before, with a Mormon running for president. Please interpret what you read below as written with the humblest intentions in mind and check the facts for yourself.Mormonism or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) was founded by Joseph Smith. Mormons will claim that the Church was founded by Jesus Christ and merely restored by Smith. Smith claimed to be a prophet who received visions starting in 1820. In his first vision God and Jesus appeared to him and told him that all modern churches were an abomination. Subsequent visions were mostly from an angel named Moroni.Moroni directed Smith to a hill with “golden plates” buried in it. On these plates was inscribed an “account of the former inhabitants of this continent and containing “the fullness of the everlasting Gospel” as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants of this land.” The inscription was in a language known as “reformed Egyptian.” Buried with the plates were “seer stones” for aiding in the translation of the plates. Smith spent around three years translating the work. His primary method of translation was to place the stones in his hat and place the hat over his face. Upon doing this, the words would appear to him in the darkness. He would then dictate them to an aid. He did not need to look at the plates in order to translate them and often they were not even in his presence while he was translating. Smith’s translation of the plates became what is known today as “The Book of Mormon” and is considered divinely inspired scripture by the LDS church.

There are several problems here.

Smith’s highly unorthodox method of translating could be viewed as a problem. Why did he need the plates at all if he could translate them by looking at rocks in a hat?

The continent Smith is speaking about is North America. The former inhabitants were Hebrews who migrated to North America in 600 BC and lived there until 421 AD. They left no trace except the plates and other objects Smith found with them.

The Book of Mormon was supposed to have been written by the North American Hebrews who migrated 600 years before the birth of Christ yet it contains what appear to be direct quotes from the New Testament of Jesus. Not only that, but the quotes are from the King James version which was written in 1611 AD, 1811 years after the migration and 1190 years after the Hebrews were killed off.

Reformed Egyptian is not a language or writing system known to linguists. At one point Smith transcribed some of the “reformed Egyptian” and the transcription was taken to the linguist, Charles Anthon for examination. Anthon has been quoted as saying, ” the paper contained any thing else but ‘Egyptian Hieroglyphics.” It appears to contain characters from Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and a host of other writing systems, including Gregg Shorthand.

Later in life Smith bought four mummies and some papyrus scrolls from a traveling exhibit. He translated two of the scrolls and claimed that Abraham and Joseph (the son of Abraham) wrote them. They even had Abraham’s signature. The scrolls told stories about Abraham’s life including how he was nearly sacrificed to a pagan god and how he taught the Egyptians astronomy. These scrolls as translated by Smith became “The Book of Abraham” and are included in the “Pearl of Great Price.” The “Pearl of Great Price” is part of the cannon of scripture in the LDS church.

In 1968 three Egyptologist made separate but consistent interpretations of some of the scrolls after they were rediscovered. They found that the scrolls were funerary documents. They included such things as instruction on how to wrap a mummy properly. They were also 1500 years too young for Abraham to have written his signature on them.

All in all the Mormons hold four books to be scriptural including the King James Version of the Bible “as rightly translated“, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Because the Bible is said to have been mistranslated and abridged, it is the least authoritative of the four books. The Living Prophet is the Head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and he is considered another source of doctrine.

Mitt Romney has said that the leaders of the LDS church would not inform his presidency, and I am tempted to believe him. However it seems that for him to not listen to the Living Prophet would be to go against the very doctrines which he holds so dear.

According to the official magazine of the Mormon Church until 1970, Improvement Era,

“When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they propose a plan-it is God’s plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give directions, it should mark the end of controversy.”

Also note that, according to Ezra Taft Benson (former Living Prophet) the Living Prophet is “more vital to us than the Standard Works.”

There is one Mormon doctrine which I would like to touch on before closing out this post, that of God.

26 And Zeezrom said unto him: Thou sayest there is a true and living God?
27 And Amulek said: Yea, there is a true and living God.
28 Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God?
29 And he answered, No.
30 Now Zeezrom said unto him again: How knowest thou these things?
31 And he said: An angel hath made them known unto me.
                                                           -Book of Mormon, Alma, chapter 11:26-31So clearly for all their faults Mormons believe in one god, they are monotheists. Here are the words of Living Prophet, Joseph Smith, more vital than the Standard Works. “I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods.”
                                                                    – From Joseph Smith’s “Plurality of Gods Sermon” 1844So they believe in three gods, the three people of the trinity. This is heresy to Catholics and Protestants alike but at least they are not polytheists in the traditional sense. Here is Smith, the Living Prophet again.“and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you“
                                                                       -From Joseph Smith’s “King Follet Sermon” 1844

Do we as Americans really want a president who either does not know how many gods he believes in or believes in a contradiction? Do we want a president who believes that a man in the 19th century translated a sacred book given to him by an angel in a form of writing that does not exist? Do we want a president who believes that a race of ancient Hebrews lived in North America for over a 1,000 years and left no trace? I certainly hope not.

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8 ESV, bolding mine.

“But though we, or an Angel from heauen, preach any other Gospel vnto you, then that which wee haue preached vnto you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8 King James Version 1611, bolding mine.

I have placed links to an online Bible, Qur’an, and the Standard Works of Mormonism on my sidebar.  I’m sure some of you are a bit surprised.  Why would a Christian want to place links to these non-Christian scriptures on his blog?  Honesty is why.  It keeps me honest and it demonstrates that I am being honest.  In the future when I quote from whatever scripture and you think I am taking it out of context, misinterpreting it, or making it up completely then, just click on the link and read it for your self. 

Furthermore, I am confident that if everyone studied all the various religions honestly then, we would have more people coming to faith in Jesus.  I encourage everyone to read the Bible, read the Book of Mormon, read the Qur’an and the Hadith (if you can get through it, it is loooong).  They cannot all be true and the truth cannot be stamped out. 

A proper post is coming soon and it will be on Mit Romney and Mormonism, so hold on to your hat.  For now I have to get some Christmas shopping done.  Merry Christmas, y’all.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my previous two posts entitled, The Barnyard Dialogues, “Part I, Two Chickens Take on the Problem of Evil” and “Part II, Two Chickens Take another Swipe at the Problem of Evil.”  .  If you have not then, click the links and enjoy them. 

If you have read them then I’m sure you are aware that they are written as satire and not merely for entertainment value.  I want to present here a partial explanation of what was meant by the stories.  I want to say here, what I meant to say there, only this time without any talking chickens.  So here goes.

As the subtitles say, the story is about the problem of evil.  For those of you who are not familiar with the problem of evil, I have placed the “Logical Problem of Evil” below.  It is taken from Wikipedia.

Logical problem of evil

1. God exists. (premise)
2. God is omnipotent and omniscient. (premise — or true by definition of the word “God”)
3. God is all-benevolent. (premise — or true by definition)
4. All-benevolent beings are opposed to all evil. (premise — or true by definition)
5. All-benevolent beings who can eliminate evil will do so immediately when they become aware of it. (premise)
6. God is opposed to all evil. (conclusion from 3 and 4)
7. God can eliminate evil completely and immediately. (conclusion from 2)
   1. Whatever the end result of suffering is, God can bring it about by ways that do not include suffering. (conclusion from 2)
   2. God has no reason not to eliminate evil. (conclusion from 7.1)
   3. God has no reason not to act immediately. (conclusion from 5)
8. God will eliminate evil completely and immediately. (conclusion from 6, 7.2 and 7.3)
9. Evil exists, has existed, and probably will always exist. (premise)
10. Items 8 and 9 are contradictory; therefore, one or more of the premises is false: either God does not exist, evil does not exist, or God is not simultaneously omnipotent, omniscient, and all-benevolent (i.e. God is omnipotent and omniscient but not all-benevolent, omnipotent and all-benevolent but not omniscient, or omniscient and all-benevolent but not omnipotent).

To be simplistic and brief, the problem of evil says that a good god and evil cannot co-exist, therefore one or the other must not exist.  Because most people have experienced evil in some form, it is used to make a case against the existence of god.  A solution to the problem of evil is called a “theodicy”.  Though many different theodicies exist, what I have tried to demonstrate through the Barnyard Dialogues is a particular theodicy based on semantics.  I suspect that others have noticed it before me and, I believe that this should only lend credence to it.  I will explain it below.

Evil is not an entity that exists on its own merit.  Evil exists as a parasite to good.  In the absolute absence of good there could be no evil.  The opposite is not true, good does not require evil in order to be good.  Something is good when it fulfills the purpose it was meant to serve.  Something lacks goodness when it fails to fulfill the purpose it was meant for.  Something is evil when it fulfills a purpose contrary to what it was meant for.  Therefore, having a good purpose is a prerequisite for being evil. 

So in order to call something evil someone, must first give it a purpose for it to pervert.  So Evil must be defined in relation to somebody.  The vast majority of the time evil is defined in relation to either man or to God. 

In the first illustration with the chickens, Clare defines Evil (missing eggs) by chickens (man).  She then comes to the conclusion that because evil exists, the farmer (God) must not.  She sees this as a mistake when she learns that the farmer is the one taking the eggs for his own good purpose.  In the Problem of Evil, it is a mistake to define evil on man’s terms and then apply it to God.  God is by definition a greater being than man, just as the farmer in the story, is a greater being than the chickens. 

In Part II, Clare defines evil in terms of the farmer (God) but this also is a mistake as it presupposes that the farmer does in fact exist.  If evil as defined by God exists then, God must exist.  If God does not exist, then neither does evil as defined by God and the whole argument falls apart as, evil must exist in order to be a problem. 

It seems to me that the problem of evil is that it cannot be defined in terms that would cast doubt on the existence of God. 

Click for Barnyard Dialogues Part 1 

The Scene: Two Chickens in nesting boxes at night.

Clare: You still awake, Marsha?

Marsha:

Clare: Marsha!

Marsha: Hu! What?

Clare: I’ve been doing some figuring again

Marsha: The kind you do with your toes, or the kind you do with your brain?

Clare: The brain kind.

Marsha: Clare, the last time you did brain figures, you set my rheumatoids off into a scuttle and I laid pear shaped eggs for three weeks!  Besides, I talked to Herman the Goat, and he told me all about the eggs.

Clare: You spoke with Herman the Goat?  What did he say?

Marsha: He said that you’re just an afarmerist and he’s seen your kind before.  And he told me what really happens to our eggs.

Clare: Well out with it!  What did he say?

Marsha: Well, you’re not going to believe this but… I didn’t believe it either when Herman the Goat first told me but…

Clare: Marsha!

Marsha: OK. Herman the Goat said that what really happens to the eggs is that… that the farmer takes em!

Clare: What?!  What would the farmer want with our eggs?

Marsha: He takes them in the house so that his wife can sit on them.  Herman the Goat says that she can’t lay eggs.  It has something to do with the blue jean overalls getting the way, but he reckons that a woman of her girth could sit on at least three dozen at a time!

Clare: Well I’ll be!  If I had teeth, I’d whistle through em!  How did Herman the Goat get to be so smart?

Marsha: The beard and the trash.

Clare: What?

Marsha:Its the beard and the trash.  That’s what makes him so smart.  Just think about it for a second.  The beard is what Herman the Goat has that no other animal has.

Clare: Hmmm.  Makes sense, but what about the trash?

Marsha: Well, important documents and manuscripts and such get put in the trash.  Herman the Goat, he eats the trash, see?  Well when he finds an important manuscript, he doesn’t eat it straight away. 

Clare: He doesn’t?

Marsha: Nope, he reads it first.  Then he eats it.

Clare: He never ceases to amaze.

Marsha: And you know the farmer’s wife tells him important stuff too.  Just the other day, she had to tell him something so important that she yelled it out the kitchen window instead of walking outside to tell him.

Clare: What was it?

Marsha: “Herman, zen tha turn up patcha gin!”  And do you know what he did?

Clare: What?

Marsha: He kicked up his hoofs and ran off as fast as he could to take care of whatever emergency it was that she told him about!

Clare: What a trooper!

Marsha: So, the point is that, the farmer takes the eggs so that his wife can sit on them.  That is not evil and, that should be the end of your nonsense about the farmer not existing.

 Clare: Oh, but that is what I was going to tell you.

Marsha: What?

Clare: I have another theory about the farmer.  This one has nothing to do with eggs.

Marsha: What is it this time?

Clare: Its Old Stella.

Marsha: What about her?

Clare: Well, didn’t you hear?

Marsha: No?  I don’t think so?

Clare: She finally kicked the bucket!

Marsha: No! You don’t say!

Clare: Yep, she just up and keeled over, by the windmill yesterday mornin’.

Marsha: Was it the droppsies?

Clare: I heard it was cold feet, but of course I can’t be sure.

Marsha: Well that’s a shame.  She was a good hen.

Clare: That’s my point.

Marsha: What’s your point?

Clare: That she was a good hen.  She was a prize layer.  The farmer paid sixteen dollars for her at the fair.

Marsha: Sixteen!

Clare: Yes, sixteen.  Least-ways, that’s what Thelma told me.  So, my theory about the farmer and the eggs didn’t work…

Marsha: No, it sure didn’t.  The farmer exists and he is the one taking the eggs, so its not an evil after all.

Clare: Well I’m still not convinced.

Marsha: Oh Clare!  Give it a rest!

Clare: Just hear me out.

Marsha: Remember my rheumatoids.

Clare: The farmer needs chickens, right?  Its part of being a farmer, right?

Marsha: Makes sense.

Clare: So, Old Stella, being what she is…

Marsha: MmmmHmmm.

Clare: Well that’s an evil that even the farmer would see.  He’s out sixteen dollars!  He’s got to replace Stella!

Marsha: Clare, I’m starting to get goose-pimply again.

Clare:  How could the farmer allow such a thing to happen?

Marsha: Clare.

Clare: The farmer cannot exist!

Marsha: Clare!

Clare: At last! I have proved it!

Marsha: Oh oh! I just don’t know what to think!  Now you’ve got me thinking like an afarmerist!

Clare: Yeah?  How’s it feel?

Marsha:  Oh, My feathers are all in a tizzle!  I need to talk to Herman the Goat about this.  I’m sure he’s got an expla –Ploop– You’ve made me go and lay an egg!

Clare: Is it pear-shaped?

Marsha: No. Its more like a potato! 

Clare: Well, the truth can be difficult to swallow at first. 

The scene: Two chickens (hens) in a barnyard, early one morning, happily pecking away at grain and grasshoppers.

Clare: (pausing from pecking) Marsha,?

Marsha: -Peck, peck- Yes, Clare? What is it?

Clare: I’ve been doing some figuring, and…

Marsha: (Interrupting) Do you count with you back toes too?

 Clare: What?

Marsha: When doin your figures…do you count on your back toes or just the front three?

Clare: No. No. Not that kind of figuring.  I mean, I’ve been thinking about something.

Marsha: Well -Peck- do you?  Use your back toe, I mean.

Clare: Well…I, only when the numbers are greater than six.  But that’s not what I was talking about.  I was thinking about our eggs.

 Marsha: What about them?

Clare: They were gone again last night, when we went back into the barn.

Marsha: Well, so -peck, peck- what?  They’re gone every night.

Clare: Yes, that’s just it.  We spend all night laying eggs and sitting on them and the next night they are gone again! 

Marsha: Clare Honey, you have a brain smaller than a shelled pecan.  Leave the thinking to the goats, and use your back toes when doin your figures. 

Clare: No.  Don’t you see what I’m getting at?

Marsha: I see what you’re not getting at.  Grasshoppers, that’s what.

Clare:  The farmer.  I’m getting at the farmer!

Marsha: Where is the farmer any way? -peck-

Clare: Oh, I think he’s in the barn, cleaning out our nesting boxes.  But, what I was saying was… The farmer is good right?

Marsha: There’s one!

Clare: (turning quickly) -Peck- mmmm… thanks, Marsha. -Gulp-… So the farmer is good, right?  I mean he gives us cracked corn, he cleans out our nesting boxes, he keeps the fox away…

Marsha: Yeah?

Clare: And, he is powerful.  No one else can drive the tractor, or get cracked corn.

Marsha: -Peck- Or -peck- kill snakes.

Clare: The dog killed a snake, last April.

Marsha: That’s true.

Clare: But, the dog works for the farmer, so that still counts.

Marsha: Good, I thought so.

Clare: So the farmer is good and he can do all these things.  Why doesn’t he save our eggs!

Marsha: What!?

Clare: He is good, so he wants to save our eggs.

Marsha: Well, yeah.

Clare: And, he should be able to.  After all, if he can drive a tractor and kill snakes then surely he can save our eggs!

Marsha: So what exactly are you getting at?

Clare: Well what I was thinkin was that maybe, the farmer doesn’t exist at all.

Marsha: Oh, Clare! shhh.  Sit down. You are giving me the heebie-jeebies!  Of course the farmer exists, he is in the barn right now!  I told you to leave the thinking to the goats.

Clare:  Maybe we just think he exists.  Maybe our primitive ancestors made up the farmer to explain where the cracked corn comes from.  All this time we have been deceiving ourselves into thinking we see the farmer when in reality he does not exist at all! 

Marsha: Oh, oh, I just don’t know what to think of all this!  You’ve made me goose-pimply all over and made my feathers stand on end! 

Clare: You said it yourself, we have brains the size of a shelled pecan.  We have been deceived all this time! 

Marsha:  I said you had a brain smaller than a shelled pecan, and I’m sure of it now!

Clare: (gazing up) I feel as if I have broken through a glass ceiling and a new age has begun! -peck-

Barnyard Dialogues Part II

Much has been made of the identity of the god of Christianity and the god of Islam and whether they are the same being.  Many people want to claim that they are the same in hopes that this will foster brotherly feelings, tolerance, and in time peace.  Those who deny the same-god theory tend to be fundamentalist on either side who have little or no desire to associate one faith with the other.  I however contend that the whole controversy is one of semantics and largely meaningless and I intend to demonstrate it below. 

Muslim’s do not worship Jesus.  Christians worship Jesus.  Therefore Christians and Muslims do not worship the same god. 

Christians claim to worship the god of Abraham.  Muslims claim to worship the god of Abraham.  Therefore Christians and Muslims do worship the same god. 

The law of non-contradiction says that a thing can not, be and not be at the same time.  In the above two arguments all the premises are true and the logic is sound; they are both true and valid statements.  Yet they contradict one another.

The reason for this is that the English word god is being used to mean two different things.  Like I said before, it’s semantics.  From an anthropological perspective Christianity and Islam are both monotheistic Abrahamic religions and the god is the same.  From a theological perspective Jehovah shares very few characteristics with Allah.  Additionally, the two faiths are not even remotely compatible to any but the most extreme liberals of either faith.  They are mutually exclusionary.  So they do not worship the same god.  That is the semantical difference in the anthropological definition of god and the theological definition of god. 

Those outside these faiths and liberals within them will continue to claim that Christians and Muslims worship the same god.  However, liberals and outsiders are not the driving force in any religion or belief system, the fundamentalists are.  Outsiders are by definition outside the faith.  Liberals are by definition far from the heart of the faith.  If it were not so, then they would be fundamentalists.  And no informed fundamentalist Muslim or Christian would claim that they worship theologically the same god.  Muslims do not worship Jesus Christ and Christians do not worship an unknowable god, as Allah is described in the Qur’an.