Lent

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday which signifies the beginning of Lent. the time in which the people of God Corporately fast. Fast from what ever they choose but still fast. It is a tradtion that has only recently become popular for the protestant church to participate in. however it has a long standing history.

this semester I am taking a class called history of the sacriments and for class yesterday the reading was on lent and it's origins.

it has its roots in the Fast day before Pascha, a christian celibration of passover with the crusifiection and the day in which people were baptised. those who would be baptised on Pascha were encouraged to fast for the day, many were encouraged to fast for a week. in the 3rd centrury it was common for people to fast for the three weeks prier to thier baptism was they were going through the Catechumens (teachings about the christian faith). in the fourth century from the influence of the monastic-asetic movement it became custemary for the faithful to goin in the pre-baptism fast as a way of taking a kind of refresser course on what they belived. this was when it extended to begin on the 6th or 8th sunday before easter depending on where one lived.

It is called a 40 day fast because at the time (and continuing today) people did not fast on sunday, and in some places they did not fast on saturday either. the Forty days became offical in the 7th century. This is also when ashes were added, which originated in Gaul (modern France). and that was conected to penince for someone who had commited a grevus sin. this however was not the prominent reason for the fast.

it was orignially a way to get people to fast, fasting is an importaint disopline of the church and through scripture we see that God works through fasts. it also became a method of teaching. during this fast people would learn and be remeinded about what they belive as christians.

most importaintly though, i belive, is that it was a way to promote unity in the Church Universal. after the church became the religon of the empire there became many slack christians, Lent was to be a corporate even of the church in which everone fromthe bishop down to the humblist catechumen lived at least for as season as a member of the ody of christ.

during this time of nominal christians the purpose of lent was to also remind the careless and the sinful christians of the claims of the christian standard:

"Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind"
Romans 12:2

So as you enter this lental season may God bless you and may you always be a member of the body of Christ.

Evil, what is that

Okay bare with me a little here because i did something very fun the other day after my philosophy class. I proved that evil does not exist. that there is no such thing as evil, that evil is actually good.
(disclaimer this is more a fun thing to play with the philosophies of others not what i would actually hold to, and yes there are probably holes in my logic)

we start with David Hume. Now David Hume is not a christian. he looks at the world and says this about God:

• If God is willing to prevent evil but Not able to prevent it then he is Impotent (and there fore not really God)
• If God is able to prevent evil but not willing to prevent it then he is Malevolent
  
• If God is neither willing or able then He is both Impotent and malevolent
• because if God is both willing and able then why do we have so much evil in the world

so that is where we find Hume, Not claiming that there is no god, but rather that he has the power to stop evil but does not desire to do so. god is not the all powerful, Good, and righteous designer.

Hume Proves his idea that God is not good by using the following scenario:

• lets say there is a person who has no part of this univers. they are in a completely different universe then this one. (a parralle universe if you will)
• lets say that he is assured that this universe does in fact exist.
• next he is assured that this universe was Designed
  
• and that not only was it designed but the designer was an All powerful, wise, and good being
• this would give the person an idea of what our universe should look like
  
• however that notion would be different then what the universe really is (because Hume figures that if the person is convinced that the designer of this Universe was all powerful, wise, and good then the universe must be a paradise were no evil is. after all a good, wise, all powerful designer would not allow evil into his world.)
• so now the person is able to come to our universe.
  
• this person (becasue of what his preconcived notion of what the univers should be like) would be surprised by the vice, misery and disorder in this world.

My question for Hume is this, if this theoretical person is from an other dimetion or parrallel universe why would he have the same idea of what Good is? for the sake of clarification were are Going to name this person in the other universe steve.

• let us say that steve is from a world that is an evolutionary world. all things in it have evolved to the state were they now curently are. his world came about by chance rather then beign desined as our universe was.
  
• Steve's understanding of the world then is that all systems work toward the evolving of a species.
• So for Steve the way the universe works is like a watch. all the moving parts work together to achieve that goal.
• Steve comes to our universe knowing that it was designed, and that the designer is good. why should he expect our universe to not have death destruction and despair?
• afterall when animals mall something or some one is it not simply the cycle of life?
  
• are not natural desastors the natural world coming back into alinment?
• when a whole population is wiped out by famion, or plague is it not the land contolling the population?
• now if we add in Neichie's idea that the most importaint thing for ever person to pursue is dominonce and or power to this mix suddenly Murder, War, rape, and so on are just a person expressing his dominance as the stronger of others.
• therefore should Steve be surprised that our world is the way it is when he would have a much different idea of what good and evil are? it is not more likely that steve would agree with J. L Mackie who said there is not objective good or evil.
  

V-Day

most people know how much i love Valentines day. and I still did celebrated in my own way. Lets Face it i love going a little Gothic and i look good doing it.

My Birthday!

Yeah I love birthdays. but really who doesn't? well my birthday was on Wednesday andbecasue i live in a dorm and the RA desided that Wednesday was a good day for the all dorm meeting i did not get to actually celibrate with my friends. we are doing that tonight. (yeah for bowling) any way i did comemerate the day by doing something that most people would concider... rebelious, or maybe Subversive. take a look:



Yep I peiced my Eyebrow. and I love it!

Superbowl

sadly the end of the holiday season. but was in not a good game? a spectacular game. considering that the cardinals are considered one of the worst teams in the NFL. the last time they were at the super bowl was 1944, back when they were the Chicago cardinals.

as usual this year i rooted for the underdog. for some reason it is just more fun to root the underdog on. i watched the super bowl and the huge TV in one of the boys dorms. there was pizza and pop, chips and dip and of course wings. (even if they weren't from dash inn, which made me slightly home sick.)

my good friend Lisa decided that foot ball is not nearly as exciting as hockey and would randomly start yelling fight during a tackle. (do not that one of the Steelers did through a punch at a cardinal and when one of the steals went out of bounds on the red side he almost got clobbered.)

there was only two people in this party who were rooting for the Stealers, and only one of them was incredibly vocal about it. he mocked the rest of us at the end of the game when we were all hoping for a miracle. even though it is the super bowl and miracles are known to happen.

all and all it was a great party. we laughed, we joked, we jumped, and screamed. and really what else can you ask for from a super bowl party?