Birth Order Bias

There was a story on the Today show this morning (I couldn't watch it because I had to leave for work) about scientific support of the theory on how birth order affects personality, etc. I was somewhat familiar with this concept, & I would expect you've heard of it, too. I looked it up on Google, which is how you find out things, & there are a lot of places that talk specifically about this theory. I picked the reference to Wikipedia, & it was interesting to read what some have said. I'm the first-born in my family, & I have to say that what they said about the first-born, both pros & cons, sounded like a description of myself. How far can you take this, though? I know several first-borns who are very different from me, but I'm guessing they would also identify with this description.
The problem with this study is that the people finding this stuff out are themselves either first-borns, youngest, one of the middle-children, or only-children, & that would give them a bias on their opinions of their own & other people's categories. The only way to get an objective viewpoint on this would be from a scientist from outer space. Even androids or computers with Artificial Intelligence would be influenced by the bias of their programmers. This can apply to many arenas of study, can't it?

Life Purpose

I'm reading a book called What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson, & while it's not from a Christian perspective, it gives you some interesting things to think about. An illustration that came up is of 3 men laying bricks. Someone asked one of them, "Why do you lay bricks?" & he answered, "To make money." The second man was asked the same question & he said, "To provide for my family," which sounds a little better. But the third man answered, "I'm building a cathedral." His job was for something he found worthwhile & valuable! I'm not "building a cathedral" with my current job, but I have to remember something else - everything I do throughout my life, while it seems pointless aside from paying the bills at this point, is preparing me for my greater purpose. I'm learning about myself & what is valuable to me. I already know what is eternally valuable, & I pursue those goals in other arenas, but I'm talking here about more temporal value, which is still value. The Lord puts us in situations to learn about ourselves & know better what we ought to pursue. For some it takes longer than for others, but "peoples is peoples..."

Analogy Explained

One of my favorite $5 DVDs is Muppets Take Manhattan. My favorite part of the movie is when the Russian owner of a NYC cafe gives advice to Kermit. He begins with, "Peoples is peoples..." & continues to use a bunch of metaphors that don't make any sense to Kermit. Kermit replies, with the confused expression only a frog puppet can make, "Thanks... That helps a lot." If you think about what the man said & use your imagination as to what the metaphors might have meant, though, you might actually make some sense of it.
I sometimes adapt this monologue to say, "Peoples is peoples. Is tomatoes, is pumpkins, is sea turtles, heh? Peoples is peoples." Here is what I mean: When people do things that don't make any sense to you, remember something I've heard Chip Ingram say, "Everybody does what makes sense to them." People are all different! This is where my analogy comes in (if you've read my previous blog "Grapes & Pumpkins", this is along those same lines). Some people are like tomatoes, in that they need structure to bear fruit. Some people are like pumpkins, because they will grow better if you leave them alone. The "sea turtles" fit more into the big picture. "Let me tell you what is:" hundreds of sea turtle eggs are laid on the beach every year. When they hatch, though, most of the cute little baby turtles get eaten by birds & lizards, what have you... but the ones that make it to the ocean can live over a hundred years! I'll just let you think about that one...
Let people be themselves; people are different, so don't be afraid when people don't do things the way you would do them.

Weasel Stomping Day

~Weird Al Yankovic~

Faces filled with joy and cheer
What a magical time of year
Howdy Ho! It's Weasel Stomping Day

Put your Viking helmet on
Spread that mayonaisse on the lawn
Don't you know it's Weasel Stomping Day

All the little girls and boys
Love that wonderful crunching noise
You'll know what this day's about
When you stomp a weasel's guts right out

So, come along and have a laugh
Snap their weasely spines in half
Grap your boots and stomp your cares away
Hip hip hooray, it's Weasel Stomping Day

[Sounds of weasels getting stomped on, with bone-crunching and rodent-screeching effects]

People love them down the street
Crushing weasels beneath their feet
Why we do it, who can say?
But it's such a festive holiday

So let the stomping fun begin
Bash their weasely skulls right in
It's tradition, that makes it okay

Hey everyone, it's Weasel Stomping
We'll have some fun on Weasel Stomping
Put down your gun, it's Weasel Stomping Day
Hip Hip Hooray, it's Weasel Stomping Day

Weasel Stomping Day
Hey!

"Lordship Salvation" is deceiving

From time to time I've listened to "Grace to You" with John MacArthur. We've brought up issues with him before, but I thought I'd give him a chance, & most of his messages I have no problem with. Today he started a series entitled "Examine Yourself", & some of his statements were true. In this message he said you have to come to salvation on Christ's terms, not your own, & there's no doubt about that. But he came out & said that believing in Christ is not enough to save you. If he was just thinking about how, "the demons believe & tremble", that can be backed up, but I think he was taking it farther than that. He said that true Christians live "righteously", which is true, except it sounded like he was implying that it's our own responsibility to live righteously - but we can't live righteously without the Holy Spirit! He was using the Sermon on the Mount as a pattern that Christians must live by, without saying that we can't live that in our own strength. I think because of when the Sermon on the Mount was preached - the context - it was like the Law, showing us that we don't meet those standards & need Christ to interceed. It's true that true Christians will bear the fruit of the Spirit, but that's the result of salvation, not the means of salvation. I guess my point is this: John MacArthur is preaching truth, but emphasizing the wrong things. He needs to better explain what the words "believe" & "righteousness" mean, because from the context of his sentences, one could get the wrong interpretation. The Law is a mirror to show us our sin, so we need that! But "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us..."

Just a thought

I was thinking about the way the King James Version of the Bible sounds. Sure, words like "Thee" & "Thou" are still recognized as synonyms for "You", & they sound more formal. But what about words like "cometh"? Did people really talk like that? I wonder if someone was dictating who had a lisp, & the scribes wrote it down like it sounded. He meant to say "comes" but it sounded like "com-th" so the scribe wrote "cometh". None of us were there to hear if English-speaking people spoke that way back then, hence this theory. Go ahead & prove me wrong & I won't be upset; it's just a fun thought.

Maybe some Christians reading this are of the "King James only" persuasion, & I don't mean to judge or offend you. I don't know why you feel that way, though. The Bible is inerrant in the original languages in which it was inspired by God, & while we don't have the actual original manuscripts (if we did, people would probably worship the paper instead of the God they read about), we have some mighty old ones, that when compared with each other are practically identical (some words might be different here & there, but it doesn't change the meaning anywhere). When scholars study the original & compare it with translations in different languages, they can tell whether the translation fits with the meaning of the original languages. English-speaking people needed the Bible in their own language so they could read it, & the KJV was one of the first, but even it has been adapted over time. If we don't speak that way anymore, why should we have to read the Bible that way? It's just another translation - not the original! It's fine, but other translations are fine, too, & people should read something that they'll understand what it means. There wasn't anything special about the people who translated the KJV - the Word of God is powerful, & it is meant to be understood. [On the other hand, we have a lot of English translations already, so translators should focus on the thousands of languages that have no Bible translation.]

Don't check your brains at the door

Our common culture has given the impression that faith & science don't mix, & the sad thing is, many Christians would go with that. They would rather ignore what "science" teaches & just say "I live by faith", but as a Bible-believing Christian & an analytical person, I want to discourage that. First, we have to understand what "science" means.
Here is a dictionary definition: science~ The investigation of natural phenomena through observation, theoretical explanation, and experimentation, or the knowledge produced by such investigation. Science makes use of the scientific method, which includes the careful observation of natural phenomena, the formulation of a hypothesis, the conducting of one or more experiments to test the hypothesis, and the drawing of a conclusion that confirms or modifies the hypothesis. If that's what science means, Bible-believing Christians have nothing to worry about. Don't be afraid to take Genesis 1-11 literally, either; there's factual evidence to support it!
A danger is, there is so much twisted material out there, people have a hard time making & defending decisions about anything. I found a website - www.truechristian.com - that sounds good until you actually open it. I don't know what the intent of the founder is, but it makes Christians just sound stupid!
Everyone is taught that macro evolution (Darwinism) is science, but by the above definition of "science", macro evolution can't be defended. Creation can't really be called science, either, because no human alive today was there to see it happen. But the Bible was inspired by Someone who was there! From what I've learned from objective study - Christian & secular - (as objective as can be expected, because everyone has biases), the Bible fits with historical & scientific evidence. Believe the Bible because it's true, & study the evidence. Anything you believe & practice takes faith, but I want to put my faith in something that can be defended!