"My Thoughts on the Election" or "The Hat Comments on the Butt"

ROMANS 13:1-7 (NIV)
"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."

***DISCLAIMER: I'm not a full-blown liberal, or a full-blown conservative. I'm more of a semi-Libertarian kind of guy.***

Well, in case you haven't heard, Obama won the election in the US of A. To be honest, I was certain that Obama would win. For a while now, it's been said here in Canada that Obama would be the next president. Must be something in our Beer that gives us prophetic powers.

Anyways, on a more serious note, I've found that a lot of Conservatives are close to declaring that, "The Sky is Falling," just minutes after Obama has been elected. The guy hasn't even been sworn into office yet, and people are already starting to panic.
Personally, I think it's too damned early to panic, if there be a reason to panic at all. I'm not worried at all; not yet, anyway.

Why?

Because it's one thing to say that you will do something, and another thing to actually do the things that you said you would do. Obama can dazzle us with his speeches and claim as many times as he wants that he's going to bring change (Buzzword, much?). Now that Barack Obama is in office, we can see if he's going to carry out what he said, or if he was just another skin full of hot air. In other words those crying things along the lines of, "Oh no! America elected a Marxist!" can cool yer heels and wait a spell.

Now for the main event... I guess you could say that I'm ending with a question.

This morning, the College President said this about the US Election [Paraphrased, of course]: "I know who I want in office, but that doesn't matter. What matters is who God puts in Office." He was, of course, alluding to Romans 13:1-7 which I conveniently posted at the beginning of this entry.

Now that Obama is elected President, assuming he makes it to January 20th of 2009, and if the above statement is true (That God in fact does put people in Office), I leave you with this:

Why do you think God put Obama in Office?

To be honest, I'm not even sure of the answer myself. I plan on asking this question of the people of TheologyWeb tomorrow to get their opinion.

This is Chaotic Void taking off, eh?

"Update" or "I'm not dead yet!"

Yeah... I know... It's been a while since I've posted. Sue me. On second thought, don't sue me. I can't afford a lawsuit these days.

I figured I'd post a brief update on my life so far.
I'm in Bible College
More specifically, International Bible College in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Never heard of it? I'm not surprised. It's the only Church of God Bible college in North America, and it's in a small town.
There's 11 of us here right now, 4 of which are first-year students [myself included]. We're a great bunch of people, but we're all weirdos for our own unique reasons. Heck, we're so weird that one of us has a Mac! Not me, unfortunately.
We've also had to pick tasks to do around the campus. I chose to be one of the evening cooks; when I told my mother this, she simply laughed and said, "Can't escape from the kitchen, can you?" [A bit of BG information is needed here: I love cooking. Heck, I did most of the cooking back when I lived at home.]
I've also done my first ministry trip, which was actually my home church back in Regina. The College is doing these sort of things all year to show people that the money that they're donating to the college is not wasted. Needless to say, my church was pleased with the service. I helped operate the sound board and the slide show, which was enjoyable. I'm hoping to be able to do a sermon or two somewhere down the road. There was another trip down to Estevan, but I wasn't a part of that one [It was just the Drama Team]. Our next trip is to Manitoba.

I'm Diabetic
Yeah, My family and I figured I'd get it some time, but not this early. I've been a Type 2 Diabetic since Mid-August of 2008. Being type 2 means that I don't have to take insulin, but I've got more drugs in me than Keith Richards. But at least they're good drugs.

I figured this would be a sufficient update for now. I'll try to be more frequent in my blogging these days, since I've got almost 24-7 access to my computer.

This is Chaotic Void taking off, eh?

Does the Pro-Choice "Argument from Money" hold water?

Well, I'm back from my volunteering at Summer Camp, so I figured I'd start out simple and do an entry about a Pro-Choice argument that I hear a lot. Here goes:



The rawest form of this argument from the Pro-Choice side is,

"A young, single mother will be unable to financially take care of both the child and herself, therefore it's ultimately better for her to abort than to have the child and cause both to suffer."

I find this argument to be bunk, because even if someone is young on welfare/social assistance, they can still raise a child. It just requires more money management and a reduction of lifestyle expectations. For instance, you need a form of entertainment but don't "need" the latest and greatest computer/TV/Gaming console. You need clothing to keep warm, etc, but you don't "need" brand new clothes. You need nourishment, but you don't "need" brand-name foods. You need a way to get around, but you don't "need" a car to get from point A to point B.

Aside from that, even if I am completely mistaken in my above paragraph, the conclusion that abortion is the best option does not follow. There's nothing there to rule out adoption as an alternate option.

Chalk this one up under Canard...

Someone else's review of The God Delusion [and a danged good one at that!]

Been a While, eh?

I'm still going to read The God Delusion, but I'm not going to give a full-blown review of it. I might comment a bit as I read along, but that's all I'm going to do. Instead, I'm going to [Strongly] reccomend that you read ApologiaPhoenix's Blog, "Deeper Waters" for a detailed review of it.

Here's the links to the individual posts to save people some time.

Preliminary Thoughts
http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/preliminary-thoughts-on-richard-dawkinss-the-god-delusion/

Dawkins on Morality
http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/dawkins-on-morality-in-the-god-delusion/

Dawkins's OT Critique
http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/dawkinss-the-god-delusion-old-testament-critique/

Dawkins's NT Critique
http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/dawkinss-the-god-delusion-the-new-testament/

The Moral Zeitgeist
http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/dawkinss-the-god-delusion-moral-zeitgeist/

Hitler and Stalin
http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/dawkinss-the-god-delusion-hitler-and-stalin/

Concluding Thoughts
http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/concluding-thoughts-on-richard-dawkinss-the-god-delusion/

On a side note, ApologiaPhoenix is currently doing a review of John Loftus's book, "Why I rejected Christianity," and is doing one heckuva job on it. I reccomend you give that a good look-see too.

Chaotic Void is Taking off, eh?

Guess what I'm reading?

I'm planning on reading The God Delusion by Charles Dawkins. However, as I wouldn't buy that thing even if I were to use it to wipe my ass, I'm borrowing it from my local library. I'm also going to be reading The Dawkins Delusion? by Allister McGrath [I think that's how you spell it] either at the same time or after, depending on when my friend can lend it to me.

If I'm up to it, I might give a review of both. But you never know, considering all of my homework [Danged AP Calculus].

Stay Tuned, eh?

Messy Spirituality

A while ago, I bought this book called "Messy Spirituality" by Mike Yaconelli [of the Wittenburg Door] [may he rest in peace]. I'll give you a little tidbit of what the book is about. If you want to know more, go buy the book; it's worth it.

Mike talks about lop-sided, dysfunctional, and overall imperfect spirituality... and say's thats the way it should be. He points out how some of the people that God used in the Bible had their own problems; for example, Noah got drunk and naked, and look who built the ark. Then there's David, who commited adultery with Bath-Sheba then had her husband whacked so he could marry her [look who whacked Goliath and was the greatest King of Israel]. Let's not forget the apostles: They weren't exactly 'clean, pious holy-rollers' either...

What intrigues me the most, is that he says that spirituality isn't just about praying; you can simply talk about God and be spiritual. If that's true, then I'm a whole lot more spiritual than I thought I was, considering how much time I spend on Tweb and MSN talking Theology, and assuming that Discussing Theology is the Same thing as Talking about God.

Basically, the book is giving Spiritual Perfectionism a good ol' Trudeau Salute [if you don't know what that means, then you ain't Canadian], and says that "Perhaps true Christianity is admitting your imperfections". I reccomend it if you want a good book to discuss or to give as a gift to someone you know who struggles to be spiritually perfect.

Statements that Shoot Themselves in the Feet

First 'official' rant in my blog. I figured I'd start by talking about statments that shoot themselves in the feet. *please note that the statements I have here can be worded numerous ways*
Just to let you know: "Shooting yourself in the Foot" is the same thing as "Being Self-Contradictory"

Statement 1:
"There is no such thing as Certainties or Absolutes"
This statment is self-contradicting. If this statment is true, then that makes it a certainty and an absolute, also making itself false.

Statement 2:
"I believe that if you don't attack my beliefs, I won't attack yours"
Catch is, they just stepped on people's beliefs by saying that. If they honestly believed that, then they would not be saying that, for fear of stepping on other's beliefs.
-On a side note, I don't see how this belief accomplishes anything.

Statement 3:
"Don't Force your beliefs on others, and mind your own buisness"
Anyone who's been in [or read] a debate between pro-lifers and pro-choicers have come across this or a variation of it at least once... It's a very blatant case of shooting oneself in the foot.
Basically, if one believes that we shouldn't force our views on people, then why are they trying to make us 'mind our own buisness'? Isn't that forcing your belief on others?


Anyhoo, those are the only three that I have come across. And if you believe that any or all three of those statements are true [and if you voice them publicly on the internet], the figurative foot bandage company must make millions off of you.