My Misconceptions of God

Before I begin, I would like to apologize for my tardiness in updating my blog, I hope you all enjoy this post, so here is my latest post:

"Dear God, what went wrong? We hate ourselves, we hate our brother/We so desperately want to find our way, and all You say is 'love one another'"

A couple weeks ago I went with my friends to Savannah to see a free show of an awesome band called Showbread. They're a Christian band and their music is pretty awesome so it was a great show. At the end, Josh Dies, the lead singer, gave a spiel about his Christian faith. He quoted a study done in California about what people think about when they think about Christianity. Among other things, he mentioned that people think of gay-bashers, ignorant, political agendas that are willing to go to war about anything, etc. He then said to anyone in the room who was not a Christian that "that is not our Jesus."

Josh said that as Christians we are called to love people, even those different than ourselves. We are not supposed to hate and condemn people just because of their sexual orientation or religion. He even said that we should be against war because you can't love someone and kill them at the same time.

This shocked me. I mean, it sounds nice, but God's against gays, He's for our war in Iraq, he wants us to only hang out with other believers right? I began to think about it, and so I've decided to go through what Josh said and see was the Bible says.

The first thing that shocked me was the fact that we are supposed to embrace and love homosexuals as our equals. Let's see what the Bible says about this:

"Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable." Leviticus 22 (NIV)

This is what Leviticus, the book that outlines the entirety of the Law says about homosexuality. It doesn't even say anything about stoning them! However, if you look at Jesus' message, it can be boiled down to "love one another." No "love only those who are completely sinless," or "love only those who are like you." Also, if you are to condemn those who are homosexuals because of this verse, we should also condemn those who have tattoos: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or tattoo your skin..." Leviticus 19:28. After thinking about this for a good bit, I realized that if I was to judge those who are homosexual and completely shun them, then I should do the same to myself, as I have a tattoo. I am by no means saying that homosexuality is a good thing, what I'm saying is that just because someone is homosexual does not mean that we can hate them. We can not completely forsake those who have sinned, if we were to do that, then we are forsaken the message of Christ: love one another.

The other part of Josh's message that I had to think about was his anti-war message. I mean the Israelites, God's own people, had an army, God has to be pro-war right? At least when it's for a good reason right? I mean so many people were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we had to go in and attack them right? I sat thinking about this for a long time. I know many people in the armed forces and will always support them, but I had to put my thoughts aside as I thought about this topic. Retaliation has to be justified right?

"But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also." Matthew 5:39

By the way, that does not continue "turn to them the other cheek also to wind up for a sucker-punch." It is meant to say to allow the enemy to slap your other cheek. And Jesus didn't just talk the talk:

^"50 Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. ⁵¹ With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. ⁵² “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." Matthew 26:50-52.

"When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." 1 Peter 2:23

Jesus does not tell us that it's ok to fight back, in fact, he told us to keep letting them attack. So I guess that that's just one more misconception I had. Unfortunately, I think it will take me a bit longer to accept this. The idea that we should be completely against war is a hard thing to accept. Not really the idea that war is bad, but the idea that after something like 9/11 we should refuse to retaliate is so hard for me to grasp. That we are supposed to love others so much that even when thousands are killed, we are supposed to let it happen without retaliation is crazy to me! But that's Jesus, we are supposed to love each other at all costs, be it our lives or anything else.

Everyone has their ideas of who Jesus is and what he accepts, myself included. I want to challenge everyone, myself included, to give up these ideas and let Jesus speak for himself on what He does and does not want.

p.s. I really want to get back into this blogging thing, so please comment and give me some ideas on what to write about.

Wolverine: Immortality Destroys Humanity

"I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice."-Wolverine

All right, I think that this will be my last comic-character-oriented blog for a bit, so here we go:

Wolverine may be one of the most famous super heroes out there. A mutant with a healing factor, retractable bone claws, enhanced senses, and an adamantium-covered skeleton, Wolverine is probably the most efficient killing machine in the Marvel Universe. However, because of his healing factor, numerous mind-wipes, and a few shots to the head his memory of his past is almost non-existent. Also, because of his healing factor, he ages extremely slow, which makes estimating his age almost impossible. According the the 2001-2002 miniseries, Origins, Wolverine was born James Howlett in the late 19th century to rich plantation owners. He then left home for a mining colony, adopting the name Logan. He then left for America, joining up with Captain America (my hero) during WWII. Eventually he gets kidnapped by the Weapon X program who lines his skeleton with the strongest metal known to man, wipes his memories, and trains him as an assassin. He gets out, gets back to Canada where he becomes Wolverine, Canada's first superhero. Eventually he winds up at Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters as a member of the X-Men and later heads up the X-Force, which does the violent stuff the X-Men can't do (like killing and what-not).

O.k., I skipped a lot but that's his basic over view. Let's rewind to WWII. In the miniseries Death of Wolverine, it explains why Wolverine always lives through whatever deadly blows he sustains. During an exceptionally harsh battle in WWII, Wolverine was the only man left standing. As he surveys the battle scene, he sees a mysterious figure in the distance. This stranger tells him that he has killed more people than any one person should be able to. This angers Wolverine, and naturally Wolverine attacks the stranger. In the end, Wolverine kills this person, only to discover that the stranger is the Angel of Death. So now, Wolverine basically has immortality, but every time he dies he is forced to fight the Angel of Death and if he wins, then his soul is allowed to return to his body, which heals itself thanks to his mutant healing power.

However, this immortality comes at a price. As a natural killer, Wolverine has little respect for human life, and since he's basically immortal he has nothing to fear. This leads to his main solution to problems being killing. Example: there was an entire comic story where Wolverine was trying to find someone and instead of asking people about his query, he immediately killed every lead he had. This obviously leads to more problems. Whenever Wolverine attempts to have a normal life, get in a relationship with someone, or even try to make a friend, the people around him immediately become targets for his enemies. And the more loved ones who get killed, the less reasons Wolverine has to not kill people. This immortality has forced Wolverine into a vicious cycle of death and killing.

This teaches us a valuable lesson: when you have little respect for human life, life has little respect for you. It's almost a karma-like idea, if you don't respect others, or think before you hurt those who seem to hurt you, you will eventually only be hurting yourself, and often it is those you love who will pay the ultimate price.

So how can we apply this to our own lives? It's not like we go around killing people all the time (or at least I hope not). Well, this principle can be used in every day life. Don't hurt others just because you think that what they are doing will hurt you. Think before you confront those around you, look further in time at the consequences in your interactions with people. Follow the Golden Rule every now-and-then. But above all: don't kill people, it's just not nice.

So that's the end of my short superhero miniseries. I'm gonna try to get back to writing about whatever random though pops into my head. However, if you have any superheroes that I didn't write about that you would like me to do a blog on, then put up some comments and let me know. Hint: try to keep it to Marvel comics or really well-known D.C. for optimum insight. Also, if there are any other topics you want me to write about then just let me know!

Magneto: The Ends Don't Justify the Means

“I wear red, the color of blood, in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside, to find the gentler path, the more irresistibly I am drawn back. I should have died myself with those that I loved. Instead I carted the bodies by the hundreds, by the thousands, from the death house to the crematorium, and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking myself now what I could not then—Why was I spared?”-Magneto, Uncanny X-Men #274

Holocaust victim, mutant outcast of an unforgiving society, terrorist: all these words describe one man: the controversial Max Eisenhardt (a.k.a. Magnus, Erik Lehnsherr, Deus Maximus, and of course, Magneto). As a small jewish child, Max and his family were captured, lined up into a trench, and shot by Nazi soldiers. Although his parents were killed, Max's mutant powers over magnetic fields emerged just enough to deflect the bullets from himself, he was later recaptured and taken to Auschwitz, one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps. After his release, he married, and had a child, who died during a fire. Trying to save his wife and child from the fire, he found about his mutant ability and was able to save his wife, however his daughter died when Max was attacked by a mob who saw him use his powers. His wife, pregnant with his twins (whom he later found and tried to take care of), left him, fearing his abilities, and Max was continually discriminated against for being a mutant.

The next time he appeared in the public eye, he was wearing red and going by the name of Magneto. Because he had been mistreated so badly by the humans, he intended to extinguish the species of homo sapiens to "free" and bring up the species of "homo superior" (mutants). This is what I want to talk about. Magneto has been mistreated his entire life, whether because he was a Jew or because he was a mutant, and I can see why someone would want to try to right those wrongs. What the Nazis did to the Jews is, in my opinion, unforgivable, and what some humans were doing to the mutants were horrible as well. I mean, all Magneto wanted to do was make Earth a better place for his fellow mutant right?

Although I agree with the idea that Magneto had, that mutants deserve to be treated just as well as humans (if not a little better since they have superpowers), but the way Magneto went about it was not only wrong, but also, in the end, had an extreme negative consequence for mutants. First off, Magneto did not just have public demonstrations, his idea of a demonstration was to attack politicians and other human areas regardless of innocent bystanders. He even formed a "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" to help him fight against his old friend Charles Xavier's X-Men. It's not like there weren't other groups trying to do the same as him but in a better way either. Charles Xavier and other well-respected mutants were often in Washington politically fighting against any anti-mutant agendas (often inspired by Magneto's terrorist acts). However, Magneto's past and his hate for humans has blinded him to all other ways to advance mutant kind, so he makes himself a villain. In an attempt to help their father be happy and love them (Magneto had often neglected his children in as his goal of mutant domination consumed his life), Magneto's son, Pietro (a.k.a. Quicksilver) has his twin sister, Wanda (known as the Scarlet Witch, able to create alternate realities), create a reality in which Magneto was the ruler of the mutant nation of Genosha. Although all was essentially well, it was not the true reality, and when the X-Men realized that none of it was real and attempted to put a stop to the Scarlet Witch, Magneto angered her to the point that she took away 98% of the world's mutants' powers, including Magneto's.

In the end, Magneto's attempt to get his way through force failed miserably. Not only did the world hate him, but he forced his agenda to a point where there were almost no mutants left. This shows a key moral. Sometimes, things must be done to change the world for the better. How this change comes about, however, is almost as important as the change itself. Magneto tried to destroy human kind to help the mutants, but in the end destroyed the mutant species. As we go about our lives trying to obtain different goals such as a good career, a good family, a good life, we must make sure that the way we do it is also good. There's a famous quote: "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." Just because the goals is a good goal, that does not mean that the goal justifies any means.

For further insights into the lessons taught by Magneto, please check out http://www.magnetowasright.com/. It has other lessons, quotes, biography, etc. Also, as with all my posts, I'm always open to feedback, so please let me know any thoughts, ideas, or even arguments.

Spider-Man: Responsibility, Confidence, and the Difference between Right and Wrong

"With great power comes great responsibility." -Uncle Ben

WOW! I just realized that it has been way too long since I've posted on here, and I would just like to apologize to anyone who was looking forward to this sort of mini-series I mentioned in my last post, about 3 months ago. Hopefully you didn't all forget about me and are still interested in my thoughts.

Anyways, I thought that I should start off this comic-based mini-series with one of the most popular superhero of all: Spider-Man, the radioactive spider-bitten teen geek gone super hero. He has the proportional speed, strength, and agility of a man-sized spider, as well as a helpful "Spider-Sense" that allows him to sense impending danger in time to avoid it. Through reading of his comics and watching his movies, I have learned quite a bit about responsibility and sacrifice, humility and confidence, and the difference between what may seem right and what is right.

The first point is sort of obvious. The famous line from any Spider-Man comic/slash movie is "With great power comes great responsibility." This line is very true. Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man for the un-initiated) learns very quickly that when you are put in power, you have a responsibility to help those who don't have power. In an attempt to get back at a greedy T.V. executive who cheated him out of money, Peter allowed the executive to get robbed. The robber, looking for a quick ride, car-jacked and killed his Uncle Ben, who had raised him like his own son. Realizing that he could have easily stopped this from occurring if he had only put forth the slightest effort, Peter decided to quit using his abilities for selfish monetary gain and start using them to better the lives of those around him as the crime-fighting Spider-Man.

This is where the story gets sad. Spider-Man more than any other comic hero exemplifies how being a masked crime fighter can almost ruin your life. Having to be able to disappear and change into hero mode at any instant makes it almost impossible to hold a job or a relationship for very long. The job he has is as a photographer for a newspaper whose job it is to make Spider-Man look like a menace. One of the only steady relationships he has had (Gwen Stacy) was ended when the Green Goblin found out that she had a relationship with Spidey and threw her off a bridge. In his attempt to save her, Spider-Man shot some webbing to stop her fall, but ended up instead causing a whiplash effect bad enough to snap her neck, killing her. The other relationship ended when Spider-Man had to choose saving the world over his marriage to actress/model Mary-Jane Watson. Alone, working for a crappy newspaper company, and hated by the city, why continue to fight crime when a better life could be found anywhere else? It's because Spider-Man has learned what many of us have failed to: when we have the power to help someone, no matter how much it inconveniences us, we are obligated to help them, no matter what.

The second point comes from many of Spider-Man comics. Spider-Man is not the most powerful, fastest, or even coolest superhero in many people's opinion, including his own. In many instances, when faced with a seemingly impossible task, he will attempt to call in more powerful heroes than himself. Of course, the Avengers are always out fighting aliens or some other planetary threat, and the Fantastic 4 are always in a different dimension, so he ends up having to rely on his own smarts. One of my favorite things about Spider-Man is how similar he is to me. We both love a good laugh, and we're both decently smart, although we don't always see it. Spider-Man often does not believe that he is good enough for certain things, but always pulls through no matter what. In one issue of The New Avengers, Spider-Man felt as if he had nothing to bring to the table. All of the Avengers are high-powered heroes, and he's just a webbed-up geek. However, Captain America pointed out that one of his best qualities was one that wasn't super. He reminded Spider-Man that although he might not have been a Reid Richards (Mr. Fantastic) or a Tony Stark (Iron Man), he was very intelligent and that sometimes the way you can help best is by using the gifts that God gave you. This shows that although humility can be a good thing, you also have to look at the abilities that you have and have confidence that you can get over any struggle.

The final point came into play the most during the Civil War of the Marvel Universe. Super heroes are fighting over a law that has passed stating that all heroes must give their identities to the government and become licensed or they will be arrested. Unsure of which side was right (Spider-Man has probably one of the ferociously guarded secret identities), he was convinced by Tony Stark to become the figure head for the Registration Act and unmask himself on national television. After doing this, Spidey helped round up his former friends and send them to a special prison just because they were fighting crime illegally (ironic? Yes). This continued until he discovered that the Pro-Registration side was enlisting the help of notorious super villains (including the Green Goblin). Although Spider-Man wasn't completely sure of what was right, he knew what was wrong. He knew that using super villains to round up super heroes would end up not working out. He also knew the consequences of going rogue and teaming up with Captain America on the Anti-Registration side, but he did it anyways. In our lives we come to points where all choices seem to be good. However, when we see something that we know is wrong, we absolutely know it, and we must never choose to go against our morals, even if it would be the easier choice.

So that is what I have learned from reading Spider-Man comics. Keep checking in for the next installment of the Super Hero Mini-Series. I promise to get it in this month!

Introduction to Some Interesting Philosophy...

So, I was in Books-A-Million the other day when I saw a book entitled Iron Man and Philosophy. I thumbed through the pages and, although I did not buy the book (I left with a book called Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter), I came up with a great idea. Over the past year and a half I've been an avid reader of Marvel comics. Now, if you ask my girlfriend she will tell you that I have a knack for for finding, or making up, a deeper meaning in something that seems lacking in that area. So I've decided that the next few posts will be about different Marvel characters and the lessons that can be learned from them. However, since I've already written about Captain America, I won't be rewriting about him. I hope you enjoy!

Batman: Not a Superhero

That's right, I said it, I don't think Batman is a superhero. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Eli, how could you say that? Batman does so many great things and helps so many people, plus, he could easily kick you're @$$!"

I agree. Although now-a-days I strictly read Marvel comics, the first comics I really read with zeal were Batman comics, so Batman holds a special place in my heart. However, I can not consider Batman a superhero, and here's why:

The dictionary on my Mac defines a superhero as "A benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers, such as Superman." I added the bold for emphasis on superhuman. To be a superhero you have to have abilities that are impossible for a human to obtain, i.e. flight, super strength (not strength you can get from working out all the time), super speed (not speed you can get from running everyday), heat vision, etc...

Now, pro-Batman-as-a-superhero people would say something like "Batman is super intelligent." Not true! Batman is intelligent, yes, but any person can be as intelligent as him if they study enough, Reid Richards (or Mr. Fantastic) can be considered super intelligent because he can literally stretch his mind to allow for more intelligence, more memory capacity, and more retained information than a normal human can. Tony Stark (Iron Man) can only barely be considered a superhero when he integrated his body with the Extremis program, allowing his mind to become literally a computer, so he made himself into a superhero. A man with a suit with fancy gadgets does not make him a super hero, it makes him a hero with super gadgets.

Other's will say "he's super cunning." Again, not true, any person with enough training can become super cunning, just look at snipers and special agents, although they are definitely heroes, they're not super heroes by definition.

Now, I am NOT saying that this makes Batman less of a hero. He saves lives and fights bad guys, he just doesn't have any superhuman abilities. Super abilities, sure, but not superhuman, so in conclusion: hero yes, superhero no.

Now, since I hold these standards to Batman, I have to admit, the new Captain America (Bucky Barnes) is not a super hero. He is solely a man with a robotic arm, but he is definitely a hero, personally one of my favorites, but again just a man.

HOWEVER! The original Captain America (Steve Rogers) is a superhero. He has the peak condition in every aspect of himself. Although, from my understanding, it is the optimum strength, speed, agility, and reflexes of man, he is still super. Why? Because of the combination. It's fact that the strongest man can't be the fastest man or have the best reflexes or be the most agile, our bodies don't allow that. The fact that Captain America is the strongest, fastest, agilest, and has the best reflexes of any man (not including specialized superheroes) makes him a super hero.

I would like to hear other's thoughts on this so please tell me what you think.

God and Science

"What a thrill it is, then, to discover that the scientist, too, can legitimately believe in the existence of the spirit."-Wilder Penfield

First off, I would like to apologize for not posting anything in a while, I've been pretty stressed with school stuff lately, but I hope that this is a post you will enjoy.

As you may know, I'm a college freshman majoring in Biology and minoring in Religious Sciences, crazy mix right? My first classes in biology seemed to try to do everything it can to tell me that creationism is wrong and that life appeared through random processes and that intelligent life was formed through random natural selection from single-celled organisms. An interesting thing to think about is that originally, science was seen as a way to understand God, a window to look in at His creation and understand how awesome He is. However, recently there have been huge debates between theologians and scientists. Scientists say that science disproves God, Lee Strobel did some research to see whether or not science actually does that.

The Case for a Creator is a very interesting book in which a former atheist interviews brilliant scientists to see if science actually disproves God. An interesting thing I noticed was that many of the scientists interviewed were atheists, but after long years of study they realized that there was just too much scientific evidence for creationism. In this post I'm going to go through some of my favorite points and add some thoughts of my own. If you find some problem with what I'm saying please let me know, I'd love to have a conversation about it.

WARNING: THIS MAY GET SCIENTIFIC

Biology

So, this book started with my subject of choice: biology. Many biology professors will tell you that evolution is a proven fact. That's not correct, it's just a theory, there's just as much evidence against evolution as there is for it. Now, while I agree that there is proof for natural selection and descent with modification inside a species, I find it very hard to believe that intelligent life came from a single celled organism that crawled out of some primordial ooze, but maybe that's just me.

In Principles of Biology II, we learned about a period of time called the Cambrian Explosion. During this time, millions of different species of organisms suddenly appeared. My professor told us that this is due to increased oxygen in the atmosphere or allopatric speciation (which means different environments formed because of Pangea splitting up and different organisms evolved from the adaptation to different niches). He did not tell us, however, how sudden it was. "Okay, imagine yourself on one goal line of a football field. That line represents the first fossil, a microscopic, single-celled organism. Now, start marching down the field. You pass the twenty-yard line, the forty-yard line, you pass midfield, and and you're approaching the other goal line. All you've seen this entire time are these microscopic, single-celled organisms. You come to the sixteen-yard line...[t]hen-boom!-...all these other forms of animals appear." This quote, from Dr. Jonathan Wells, PHD, PHD describes how sudden the Cambrian Explosion occurred. This completely contradicts Darwin's slow process of evolution. In fact, there is a lack of any intermediate fossils between the Cambrian fossils and the single-celled fossils. So that's one thing.

Another point: in the book it states that we have 98% of the same genes as monkeys. That shows evolution right? Actually, that would mean that this difference between us and monkeys is in 2% of our genes, however, the 2% of our genes that are different don't have anything to do with anatomy, so why aren't we covered in fur?

Another point that I really like: the similarities between wings, flippers, legs, and hands. Looking at the bones of these limbs, there is a definite similarity. Undeniably, we have the same bone structure in our hands as dolphins in their fins and bats in their wings. However, the similarities can be explained through Darwinism and Creationism. Darwinists say that it shows how although outside there are differences, the insides just show a common ancestor. Creationists state that the similarities are just like the way an architect uses the same design for different buildings. In fact, the original person to discover this said that it was a testament to God's creativity, interesting right?

There was a lot more in biology but I want to move on, if you want to learn more ask me or go find the book.

Cosmology

So, apparently, scientists say that the "big bang theory" actually does point to Creationism because it implies a finite beginning to the universe. The reason a finite beginning implies a creator is proven in something called the kalam argument. The kalam argument has 3 points:

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause

2. the universe began to exist

3. the universe has a cause.

I thought that was pretty interesting, and it makes a lot of since. The universe has to have a beginning because through some mathematical thing described in the book it's impossible to have an infinite amount of happenings, I didn't really understand that part because it was all math stuff. Then it's very difficult to find anything that's created without some cause, in fact it's impossible. Therefore, through the transitive property of mathematics, the universe has a cause.

Now there is a lot of evidence in other scientific disciplines, but I decided to go ahead and publish this post, so if you're really interested in more than let me know and I publish some more about it, and again, if there are any problems with anything I've said then please let me know!