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"The Good Life"

Hey… I’m back.

Back into the swing of things at school and been in classes for a week now, so I figured it was time to resuscitate the blog. One of my classes this semester at Biola University is Introduction to Philosophy.   One of the first books that we are reading is Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, a book in which Aristotle asks the question: what is the good life and how can we live it?  Sorry to spoil the book for anyone, but Aristotle defines the good life essentially as human flourishing (its a whole lot more complicated than that, but I don’t really want to go into it). An in class discussion off the good life and Aristotle led to a discussion about what a majority of American people would define the good life as today.  My classmates began to answer with the standard answers of, people think fame is the good life, or wealth, or pleasure. My professor called on me after all the stereotypical options had been discussed, so I thought about it for a second and came up with this thought: (In generalities) “the good life” is a life lived without consequences. The good life is one that contains no consequences or reaction for anything we do.

At first this didn’t sound quite right to me, surely even as contorted as society is becoming people would still want positive reactions to well-intended actions. But as I began to ponder the words that had escaped my mouth I realized it rang truer than I had initially thought. In order to have a well-intended action it would have to be directed at someone else. Western/American-culture is becoming so much about the me that in “the good life” it wouldn’t be about anyone else, everything is about me. The coffee was too hot and I burned my tongue off because I didn’t sip it, it was not my fault therefore I will sue you. We are entertained by the televised undisciplined life of a group of young guidos. We are entranced by games that draw us into a world without consequences. We try to legalize all sorts of harmful habits through democracy. People who win the lottery are spending every penny on themselves and become broke in a matter of months. Our society has envisioned this scene of the good life, a life lived without consequences. Our culture has defined the good life as the god life. People want to do whatever they feel without anything ever coming back to them.

This is the way in which my thought scared me… because I realized the amount of truth behind it. We are no longer in the days of Aristotle when some like Plato considered the good life to simply be a life of virtue. We are now in a time when the good life consists of being a personal god over your own kingdom.

Application? I don’t know. I know that humans aren’t meant to be Gods. I also know that it can be hard to tell a god that there is a God who is far superior to them. People have created idols out of themselves. How do Christians become similar to the Kings like David of old and tear down the idols without tearing down the people. By Example! If humans were not made to be gods, then living like a god is not the good life. Though it has been forgotten; we were created to be joyful creatures that give worship, honor, and praise to our creator, this is what we were made to do. Through showing that we can be full of joy and worship while living out what we know to be the good life, even as a servant of the king, we can begin to tear down the temples to John and Jane Doe. And in those spots it is my prayer that temples to the true King would begin to be built.

The End of the New Beginning

Take a moment and consider that one of the last groups of people that can meaningfully recall 9/11, are my peers.  Those of us born around ’92 are some of the last ones to actually remember why we are in the wars that we are in.  Most of those born after ’92 may be able to recall 9/11 as an event that was replayed and talked about, but the raw emotion that most Americans felt while seeing the attacks live will be lost on the upcoming generations.

Of course I remember events from my childhood prior to the year 2000, but 2000 was when I started to take notice of the world; the 2000’s are going to be what shaped my worldview.  Just like the wars of the 60’s came to define how the hippie generation would behave, I believe that the 2000’s have shaped what my generation will become.  So as of late tonight welcome to the end of the new millennium, the end of a decade.  (last year many claimed that 2000-2009 was the end of the decade, but seeing as there was no year 0, the decade was 2001-2010)

I can clearly remember the night of December 31, 1999.  There were a massive amount of festivities and some of the greatest fireworks shows ever executed were televised across  the world, for one night the world truly seemed that it was one.  All the news anchors spoke of the changes that would come in the new millennium.  Some spoke of the persisting fears of y2k, others talked about the new president, and more gave predictions of what would occur in the new millennium.  Yet truly none foresaw what the first decade of the new millennium would eventually become.

• Terror: Terrorism had already been a  tactic for decades before the 2000’s, yet as radicalists realized its potential to control both populations and the government terrorism became more rampant and widespread.  September 11th was not the first terrorist attack, but it became a realization that even a localized attack could change how a country worked.  Just as September 11th was not the first terrorist attack, terrorist attacks were not unique to America.  England, Spain, Germany, and many others have all been deliberately attacked by terrorists.  Around the world extreme religious and political groups used fear to create power.  Out of this strategy of fear Hamas, Hezbollah, and even Al Qaeda came to power in countries around the world.
• China: In 2001 most of us considered China fairly in a similiar way as to how we consider North Korea now.  Americans thought of it as backwards, communist, third world country.  However in the past ten years China has had an unprecedented Economic and population growth.  Even in 2001 it was no secret that America was no longer an industrious power, but no one knew how much of the manufacturing load that China would take on.  China has gone from being, while China, to now; they currently have trillions of dollars invested in both American debt and African infrastructure.  They have invested so much into African countries and their governments, for what you say?  Chinese Extraction agencies have gained massive contracts for rights and exclusive rights to African resources and minerals.  So while China appears to be running out of natural resources within its borders they have secured their spot as a superpower for ages to come.
• Disaster: Natural Disasters shook the world during this decade.  Hurricanes in America killed thousands, created hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage, and destroyed entire regions that are still empty.  The Indian Tsunami (2004) killed 230,000.  The Earthquake in Haiti (2010) killed 220,000.  An earthquake in China (2008) may have killed up to 100,000. A 2003 earthquake in Iran killed 25,000.  In 2008 a cyclone in Myanmar killed 138,000.  Most of these disasters brought out the sinful nature of humanity with riots and looting following the disasters, yet among the tragedy many of the Lord’s redeemed were allowed to help rebuild and support areas that had been previously closed to the gospel, allowing the light of the Lord to shine even in the midst of horrible diasters.
• Economics: Its been a roller-coaster.  We started low started being pulled up the chain by the Bush tax cuts(2001), and then we were let go into a free fall.  America has lagged behind in manufacturing for many years now, but for the first time America is dropping rapidly in its gross domestic product.
• Technology:  Technology is what my generation knows.  We grew up with the explosion of the internet.  The reason we were able to learn about Diasters, Terror, and Foreign Affairs as they happened was because of the internet.  Computing technology has undeniably advanced considerably; considering that an Android phone from 2010 has far more power then an imac from 2001.  However, I believe the reason that technology has advanced so quickly is the internet.  The internet is where ideas were shared and innovated.  The internet has brought about some horrible side effects, but it has tied information together like nothing ever has.  From dialup in 2001 to gigabit connections in 2010 the internet has exploded into a vital tool for  your social life (facebook, 2004), your shopping (Amazon, 2002), and your business (your-business-name.com, 2001-2010).  Frankly the easiest way to tell the importance of something is what life would be like if it suddenly disappeared, and if the internet disappeared I doubt that this country and most businesses would have the infrastructure to continue on properly.

The end of a decade, Time has called it “the worst decade ever” others have said it was, “plain bad”.  Some Christians believe that the end of times will come sometime in the next couple decades.  Yet this is no reason to give up.  If anything, if something appears to be the worst, it is an incentive to step up for what you believe in.  If you believe that it is the end times then step up to the plate and share the gospel.  If you believe that this decade was a result of bad politics, do something to fix it.  If you thought it was great, think about what parts you liked and how they could be replicated.

I believe the reason that generations like mine are becoming harder to define is because we are a part of the information age.  We have the resources to find out the facts and then make our own decisions.  We no longer like “talking heads” telling us to what to believe, rather we choose to find our own information.  As my peers and I go to college and off out into the world, I can’t help but wonder how we are going to respond to the future adversities that face us.

Welcome to a new year, welcome to a new decade.  Welcome to 2011.

Happy New Year

Its been a little bit…

and it will be a bit longer, school is pretty intense right now, but fear not the blog will eventually be revived. (just probably not in the next week or two)

 

The Delivery Method, and its not UPS

How a person talks can tell you a lot about them. Often simply by listening to a person talk a sharp ear can tell what region a person is from and their education level. By digging a little bit deeper with loaded questions you can discover a persons inner beliefs, what (if any) religion they adhere to, their political beliefs. These ideals can be found simply by listening for distinct vocabulary words, even when a straight answer is not given.

So what does it mean when a person changes the way they talk. I began to think about how I changed my speaking patterns based upon the people I was around. I started considering how the bible says let your yes be yes and your no be no, and I wondered if what I was doing was in some shape wrong. Yet as I began to think about speech pattern changes, I realized that speech change is one of the most effective means of communication.

I’m sure almost everyone has been in an environment where someone has three PHDs but no one can decipher a single word the “intellectual” is saying. Compare that with teacher who only has a bachelor’s degree, yet speaks to the level of the audience. Is not the smarter person the one who can take grandiose concepts and make them understandable to their audience. If a person has all the knowledge in the world yet is incapable of expressing it properly what good is that knowledge. We change how we speak to be able to express our area of knowledge to those listening on an appropriate level.

Use big words only when necessary, communicate. Change your speech pattern to suit your audience, it will lead to less misunderstandings and a greater mutual respect of the communicators. (imagine if you spoke to your mother in the same fashion as you did your best friend, the end result would not be pretty) Always stay true to your core beliefs, do not let them sway; yet do not be afraid to change your outer shell, in order that your message can be delivered and understood on the same plane.

The Holiness Pentecostal West Los Angeles Chruch of God in Christ

So tonight I went to Church. It was not my choice. There were other things I could have been doing. I didn’t even get to choose which church I went to. I was assigned by my public communications class to go to a church and analyze the speaker. The twist in this scenario is that the church you went to was supposed to push you outside of your comfort zone. West Los Angeles Church is a black church in west L.A., I was excited and nervous coming in at the same time (it is in west LA after all).
I’ve visited many churches from many cultures and denominations, but never have I felt so welcome as a visitor. Nothing out of the ordinary was done, the reverend didn’t call us out (there was a group of five of us), nor were we given any kind of ‘different’ treatment because of our color. Rather one lady made sure that we had a good time from beginning to end, we told her that we were Christians from Biola and why we were visiting, but she simply responded that as guests to the church and family in Christ that we should feel welcome. She didn’t do anything extraordinary, but you could simply feel her love for Christ, and in turn her church; and she wanted to make sure that everyone felt welcome in the house of God.
To top it off there was awesome gospel worship, and a great sermon. The preacher had a PHd, but unlike so many other academics who flaunt their knowledge and vocabulary, he used his knowledge to express larger concepts in basic language.
Yes, pentecostal churches can sometimes go overboard; but isn’t it better to go overboard, to leave the boat, to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes as Christians we are so cautious about what nonbelievers might think if they saw us speaking in tongues, prophesying or proclaiming the truth of miracles, yet are these not signs and gifts poured out to us through the Lord. Our faith is a rational faith, we have been provided with truths of our faith, yet we are hesitant to let these signs be known.
Let’s go overboard, lets get out of the boat like peter; yes, he failed, but Jesus was right there to pick him up. Let’s be witnesses to the family of God, it is said that we will be known through our love for one and another (John 13:34), I knew that the spiritual mother who made sure we were at home was a Christian, can that be said for all of us. If not, just take a step overboard.

A fancy new theme

Yup.

 

Its still pretty ugly right now.

 

It will get better.

Behold: Emotional Pain

I may get too attached to my sports teams; for the most part I am a pretty good sports analyst because I like many teams, but do not have extreme favorites. Yet when it comes to Fresno State, I lose my emotional control; I go all in, nothing withheld I root unashamedly for my team. Yet, I’m rooting for Fresno State: you don’t know the pain of rooting for Fresno State until you actually dive all the way in. Its like rooting for a supercharged go-cart in a stock car race, we’ve got the cocky driver who doesn’t care about how large the other cars are. This causes deep springs of pride to well up within the supporters of the go-cart, knowing that our driver will take on anyone, anytime, anywhere. Before the race the crew chief always talks about how the new revamped go-cart is better then ever before and how it spits out triple the horsepower for ton over the competition. The really cool thing is that often the go-cart wins, based on its precision handling and ridiculous amount of horsepower per ton if it pulls ahead it easily outdistances opponents. However the problem is that our driver is still in a Go cart if our driver lets the stock cars hang around for even a second to long he literally gets run over.
Its painful to see your driver in the lead and then get squashed.
Here ends the metaphor

Here in lies the pain of a Fresno State fan, well we are still competing just like any other team we approach competition in a wholly different way than others. By racing in a go-cart we experience awesome thrills when we win, but squashing pain in defeat.

This last Saturday, we were ran over. We were turning into the checkered flag with the lead and our engine stalled for one second, allowing Nevada to win. As I boldly proclaimed last week I thought we were going to go (10-3)
I can no longer make such a bold prediction, Fresno State must now reside itself to the New Mexico bowl yet again. Yet once again we have been presented a unique opportunity to remind the nation of the quality of football that Fresno State plays.
This Friday Fresno heads into Boise for what many expect to be a beat down, yet maybe just maybe Fresno can earn redemption. The year was 2001, Fresno was expected to be the first one to bust the BCS, but one loss sent the season into a tail spin. What people don’t renember about the 2001 season is that at the time we beat a borderline top 25 team in Colorado, that loss would go on to prevent an 11-1 Colorado from playing in the national championship game.
Nothing is expected of us going into this game other than a 30 point blowout (the line) yet even in the midst of a loss when most fans have lost their faith in the Go-cart, I feel a little bit of swagger.
Boise may win, and it may be a hard pill to swallow if you cost your team a cool million simply by playing a close game (NC vs. BCS money)

Look for some swagger in Boise and not from the Broncos.

Political Zombies

Don’t be a political zombie.  You may ask, “what is a political zombie?”  That is a great question, a political zombie is: a person who has many political ideas that are not of their own accord, but they insist on going around trying to eat the brains of the uninfected. Just like real zombies, political zombies tend to wander the streets spewing their uniformed blood everywhere, thereby infecting everyone except those who have the antidote.  The ever precious antidote, informed knowledge.  Those who are informed are the only ones who can safely walk the streets and bring back the loved ones that they may have lost.  Yet just as every character who has ever cured a zombie infection has had a role in creating/spreading the infection, so has every informed politico had a hand in creating the herds of zombies that now walk the streets.  For many years we thought it was just fine to tell a citizen to believe in a political stance without ever informing them why they should believe, and now we are paying the consequences; herds of the voting contingent go to the polls and vote the way that a brainless zombie would, with unquestioning allegiance.  The time has come for those with informed knowledge to take a stand, we must stop making bad decisions, letting the pretty girl go outside alone, choosing the worst place to defend ourselves, not checking people for zombie bites.  Today, those who are informed must take such a valiant and intelligent stand that it won’t even be worth making a movie about, because there will be no drama in our annihilation of the zombie infestation through use of the cure.  Therefore go out all ye informed people, you already understand that fox news is not fair and balanced but you also know that msnbc isn’t balanced either.  Spread the cure, inform people that they can see issues for themselves beyond what any politician or television host tells them.  An informed voting block free of zombies, is a democracy that truly represents the people.  Right now the political game is a game of who is the best mad scientist zombie creator, but we can cure this democracy, spread the knowledge!  Simply because we have the liberty to be uniformed does not mean that we should be uninformed.

On The Orgin of Morality

Where does morality come from?  Where does the human sense of right and wrong originate from?  Has it been implanted in our brains through millenniums of evolution that those who do things that are considered to be right succeed more than those who are immoral?  Is morality a learned trait; does our environment (parents, family, and friends) teach us everything that we know about morality?   Is it a synthesis of learned and instinct? Or does morality lead us to the belief of the existence of a supernatural creator? (you can tell which way I lean)

I believe that there are very few, if any explanations which satisfy the quirks of human morality quite as well as a supernatural creator.  “Morality” is not exactly the same in every culture, but it appears to me that rather than being taught or learned morality can be forgotten or to use improper English, unlearned.  People can be told, nay trained, that what they naturally believe and feel, is wrong.  A child may be confounded as to why an honor killing of their sibling was justified, but the adults have disregarded their notion that murder is wrong in exchange for the belief that their reputation is more important than any life.  I believe that we all have an inane spark from God that leaves even those who do not believe in Yahweh with grace.  This grace not only to allows sinners to do what is wrong,  grace allows the sinner to know what they are doing is wrong.

Cultures have built societies around unlearned morals, most of India believes that lies are not wrong because they protect reputation.  Some of the Indian ruling class have been told and told themselves so many lies, that they believe that the caste system actually is good for the poor.  This is just one example of how degraded morals lead to a broken society.  However, the new generations are rising up, because they know that what is being done to them is not right.  Which brings us to the fundamental question (behind the question) what is right and wrong and how is it defined.  Those who are religious have a very easy pathway to answer this question, they can say what is right in God’s eyes is right and what is wrong in God’s eyes is wrong.

Yet there are many who do not believe in any religion and in fact believe that all religions are parasites (oh, hi there Sam Harris and Peter Joseph).  Those who wish to take God totally out of the equation must define morality as, the scientific state of well being.  This definition of morality has been tried and tested, and it has failed.  Nicolae Ceauşescu attempted to furnish  a state of scientific well-being in his country through fertility, equality, and atheism; however anyone who looked at his orphanages could say that they were not “moral”.  To see the consequences of removing God from the equation we must simply look at the communist experiment.  These countries attempted to become the perfect society, free of God, want, need or inequality, but I don’t have to say much as to how they turned out.  They all tried to take God out of the morality equation, and their societies collapsed because they were dependent on having a moral country.  I find it intriguing that over time Communism began to look more and more like a religion itself.  They believed that they could replace God and religion, but as time wore on they began saying pledges, singing songs of praise, dancing, and holding a singular book to be “holy”.  Which brings me to my point; any movement that tries to promote a certain moral agenda, will soon look like a religion.

I believe that morality points back to the creator.  The communists wanted to praise the ones who were leading them and giving them morals because it has been installed in our human nature that the one who gives us our morals is greater than us and worthy of pledges and praise.  Yes, both nature and nurture do provide us a sense of extended cultural morality, but at its very core it seems that the one who instills morals is worthy of praise.