Mark – action photographer… snap snap snap… He just takes you from scene to scene. Details ??? ehhh…. Just the facts maam!

Luke – Dr. Luke – details??? Is there anything else? It wasn’t just the wind or a hurricane that blew the boat – it was the Noreaster… and how like a doctor to be up and about details. I want my doctor to make precise surgical cuts at the precise place… and not miss. I want my doctor to be able tell me the details about the medicine I am taking – its nature and how often to take it. I don’t want him to get it wrong. So if your read Luke or Acts carefully – you will notice all sorts of things. These details may seem trivial, but they are not. They point to the historicity of the Bible.

Aside: And how like Luke – to be recording the Virgin birth. It’s one thing for any Joe Blow to record this… but how much better that a doctor recorded this? That says something.

Then there is John – the professor… his mind is in the clouds… pondering the grand things… “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…” John probably is a quiet guy. Until of course you press one of his hot buttons… ask that theological question and… his head lights up and then … then you cant get him to shut up. You talk to him about anything else … the NFL, a television show, and he probably will be on the quiet side. Hit that hot button and…

And theres Matthew … he is probably a non stop talkative guy. Yak Yak Yak. Always searching for ways to explain things. If you cant understand something one way – then he will look for another way… Lets try a parable or lets try a story of something that happened in Jesus’ life. Yak. Yak. Yak…

If these four guys lived in a house together. Mark would probably be in the garage. He would be a handy man type of guy. He needs things to do. Gotta keep moving. John would probably be in the office – i.e. his study… a little in isolation. John needs space… especially thinking space. Matthew would be in the living room. Talking talking talking. Luke – he probably would also be in the living room, but he really would be where ever the people are. If they are in the living room. He will be there. If they are in the kitchen, then he will go there. However unlike Matthew, he probably will be listening, listening, listening… being attentive to the details.

I have been wondering about the role of art and literature in shaping our moral beings…

I think that we all have some sense of God. From there we have some sense of good and bad, right and wrong, innately. *

The arts & literature force us to cultivate this sense of morality.

*Work on distinction later.

1. Christ is treated like a King by the crowds during the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

A few(?) days, He is crucified by that same crowd.

2. Paul is hailed as a god, Zeus, by the crowd, when he heals a paralytic in Lystra.

No to long after he is stoned by that very same crowd.

Emotions mean nothing. We all get excited at the start of a project. What truly lasts calls into attention all of our being, mind, soul, feeling, emotion, reasons, etc…

… and God’s hiddeness & silence…

Omnipresence…

work on later.

What is the difference?

If someone is selling something, and I take one and tell them that I will pay them later, then I owe them $$$.

Or if I borrow $$$ from someone, then I owe them that $$$.

Now while that person is owed some $$$, it does not mean that they deserve that $$$.

When does a person deserve something?

It seems that a person deserves something, when there is some kind of meritorious work in the discussion.

If I study hard for some exam, then I deserve a good grade.

It also seems that if you deserve something, then you also are owed that something. The reverse is not true.

If matter did not exist, could we distinguish light from darkness?

I suppose the response would be that light is made up of matter.

I don’t know what memes are… but I probably should look it up… Anyway … a thought to analyze later …

For better or worse, the genes of a culture are its sacred books. Without genes, what results is a loss of identity, existential ickyness, and culture-less-ness or some sort of a generic culture.

Example : Aurangzeb
Counterexample : Japan… no?

Of course you have to probably define or lay out what culture is, and that’s a pain in the lower extremities.

“A slave, Aristotle says, is someone who is by nature not his own, but another man’s property.”

—————————————————- Another example – modal stuff

[1] It is a necessary truth that if I know there is a fly in my soup, then there is a fly in my soup.

[2] But even if I know that there is a fly in my soup, it is not a necessary truth there is a fly in my soup; I can fish it out.

P1. A person has a being which has an element of relationality built into it.

D1. Deism posits that God created the Universe and then abandoned it.
D2. If Deism is true, then God is impersonal.
D3. If God is impersonal, then God cannot and did not create the Universe.
D4. If Deism is true, then God cannot and did not create the Universe.
D5. If God cannot and did not create the Universe, then Deism is false.

*The problem statements are (3) and (4).

T1. There is an ultimate and non-ultimate sense in which things proceed.
T2. From the personal, that which is personal and impersonal can proceed in an ultimate and non-ultimate sense.
T3. From the impersonal, that which is personal cannot proceed in any sense.
T4. From the impersonal, that which is impersonal can proceed in a non-ultimate sense.
T5. From the personal, the Universe (ultimate sense) can come into being.
T6. From the impersonal, the Universe cannot come into being, altho lesser things can come into being.
T7. Only a personal God can create the Universe.
T8. All religions that posit an impersonal God must also posit that that God did not create the Universe.

Tiananmen Square:
I watched this documentary on Christianity in China, and was struck by how what took place at Tiananmen Square (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989) had so shaped the psyche’s. So much of their actions, attitudes, beings, thoughts, and even policies were being shaped by this one event. In fact it is not too far to say that the students prevailed.

The Holocaust:
Likewise, it is interesting to note also how the Holocaust has shaped the actions and thoughts of so many Jewish people. The decisions that they make in life are often in reference to this one particular event.

The Red Sea:
I find it interesting that in the Bible, God makes grand events happen for His people, and therefore creates memories for them. These memories are also supposed to be a part of what shapes their identity as a people.

I think that in the Old Testament, the event/memory is the Exodus.

- Levit 19v.36: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.”
- Deut 9v.26: “I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Sovereign LORD, do not destroy your people, l your own inheritance m that you redeemed n by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.”

I think that in the New Testament, the event/memory is the Resurrection.

- Gal 1:1 “Paul, an apostle a —sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.”