The Violent Ones

What is potential? Potential to me is using less energy a person is actually capable of, or something near that notion. Whatever the case, potential exists in everyone. Like faith, you either have a little or a lot of it. I will again note a scene from the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

The Scene
There was an instance in the documentary where Bill Maher was featured. He was talking about weapons and violence and stated something to the effect of "If we're to rid the world of violence and weapons, then I say we do away with religion!"...Afterwards there was a small uproar of applaud from the audience he was speaking to, and the documentary went on. I have a bit of an itch to what Mr. Bill Maher said.

The Itch
There have been countless wars because of differing world views on religion, there's no doubt about it. We can all point to European history and give examples, like The Great Crusades, the slaughtering through the country side by a queen, otherwise known as Bloody Mary; all of which have religious basis. But what about WWII and Hitler's regime? Did that genocide occur because of religion, or was it about survival of the fittest (based on Darwinism).

Viewpoint
Lets put things into perspective. The Holocaust and theory of evolution are so similar if you consider the terms of evolution being "survival of the fittest". Hitler slaughtered so many Jews, Gypsies, and other races and backgrounds in the hopes of creating a superior race. Now, having that fall in line with evolution, I would think that's more dangerous than anything, and here's why.

Let's say that Bill Maher got his wish and religion was tossed out the window. Along with religion are morals, you know, that thing in the back of your head that tells you what's right and wrong. Let's say that was tossed out the window as well. All there is, is evolution and the process of natural selection. You're born and you die. Okay, so we're intelligent beings and we want to advance a society, we study the sciences inbetween birth and death. WHAT'S TO SAY I'M DOING SOMETHING WRONG BY SHOVING A KNIFE IN SOMEONE'S HEAD SINCE I'M GOING TO DIE ANYWAY AND RETURN TO THE GROUND FROM WENCE I CAME? Having asked that question, wouldn't that bring more violence, more bloodshed, and more weapons into the world?

I think Bill Maher has it wrong because there is much more potential for violence if religion was tossed out the window. Evolution is just a theory and makes no room for any type of philosophy. If religion itself was out of the picture, then how do WE as a species decipher what's right and wrong? What would be the point in advancing ourselves? Would it be to survive, because I see that as a contradiction seeing as I'm going to return to dust anyway.

Engine of Atheism

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a very interesting movie. Many people may question the content but it's basically about how neo-darwinism scientists are "expelling" scientists who are advocates of I.D. or Intelligent Design.

About 48 minutes into the film, I figure it out. I figure out the reason why people would even throw Christianity or even religion out the door. Basically it's that people stop caring.

You see, you have religious conservatives and religious liberals. When the two are in disagreement with each other, a rift develops between the populous. Then skeptics say "hey, why do you believe in that stuff anyway, if you were an atheist you wouldn't be caught in the middle of this religious politics". Well...that's one hypothesis anyway; people just stop caring and join in with skeptics without fully knowing what they're throwing away and conforming to secular ideas.

Why Should People Care
People should care because losing your religion is actually a big deal. The big deal in my opinion, is that people will lose their identity, and make the world harsher than it already is. It's really not that hard to grasp, look, people are throwing away their faith, things that they used to believe in for what? Nothing?

Lets take it from a financial perspective. If I put my money into stocks knowing I'll get the greatest return to support my family and put my kid through college, why on earth would I throw that away? It's the same thing with Christianity, if you know that you're putting your faith into a belief knowing the that you are guaranteed supreme happiness, why would anyone in their right mind pass that up for nothing?

How do you know that God does not exist? You don't know or you don't care?

The Commoners

All my life I have been a Christian. My denomination as a Catholic introduced the Christian faith to me since I was born and I furthered my studies through bible study Fridays with a youth group. It wasn't until my junior year in high school when I started to learn about the secular ideas that didn't flow right with my faith. So I asked questions, and got answers. I asked more questions afterward, and got more answers. I repeated this cycle, and what I found were things that actually affirmed my faith. Not only did I learn new things, but my faith grew as a result. What you may be surprised about is that some of the questions I have, you too have. So lets begin.

Open Mindedness:

Open-mindedness is usually considered a virtue in our society, but when it comes to religion, often it seems to be close-mindedness that is considered virtuous, and this is often the basis for religious belief.
- Dave Bruemmer of the Daily Titan 2007

What's funny about the quote above is that I could say the same thing about atheists. But Dave has a point. I've encountered many questions where I did not know the answer to and I would just recite what was taught to me about God. For instance, to "How can you tell me that God is real when he let's others like me suffer in pain watching my loved one die?" I would say "God makes you suffer so you can grow closer to him," then I would go into an example. Now I would say that Dave's viewpoint may be correct in this sense that a reasonably cliche answer was given.

Though God wants us to grow closer to him, he definitely doesn't want us to suffer doing it. But that's what this blog is about, logical answers to logical questions on faith. "So tell me Mr. Know-it-all, why does God allow suffering?" It's quite simple really, we live in an imperfect world. More on that later, for now, just take that into consideration. The point is that there are open minded faith based answers to those hard questions people have in the back of their heads. Though science may try to point out fallacies, to each their own. Christians may give cliche answers, but that doesn't mean it's false and most certainly doesn't mean Christian's are close minded.

My Faith's Armory

What does being armed mean? Someone generally can say being armed means to have weapons. For instance, sometimes you'll hear on the radio or TV that police have suspects at gunpoint who are armed and dangerous.

Let's take that concept, being armed and dangerous, and apply that to Christian Faith. It's important for all Christians to have faith, but equally important, is for them to arm themselves. The scripture refers to this as the "Armor of God". Better explanations of the armor can be found here at www.realarmorofgod.com.

Christians will typically take up the armor, but tend to falter against a new enemy. Nowadays, Christians are faced with new challenges in life, but I'm not talking about regular life problems that everyone faces. I'm talking about ideas that stick to your head, threatening what I and other Christians believe in. Some call these ideas evolution, atheism, and even agnosticism. If you fall in any of these categories, I hope to excite you and invite you to spar with me as we take up this journey of challenging faiths. We will then be able to see who is better armed in their truths.

I implore everyone to follow along and keep an open mind. You may not agree with what I have to say and I may not agree with you. However, if we all keep an open mind, everyone can benefit as we might be able to learn from each other.