Existential Threat - Enemy of Rational Discourse

I can be having a normal rational conversation with another person, and suddenly I respond with what seems like an over-blown emotional response.  One of the reasons that can happen is because they said something that I consider an "existential threat".  An existential threat is something that threatens my basis for existence or identity or the foundation that I have built my life on. 

According to Tim Keller, anger is love in motion toward a threat to what is loved, so if I feel angry, I can use that to learn what it is I love by examining what that person or idea threatens.

The operational identity / basis for existence of a real Christian is: God the Father is our foundation, Christ is our daily food (and he said his food was to do the will of His Father), and the Holy Spirit is our air supply (breath on me breath of life).  Our existence is founded on the "I Am" that was and is and is to come.  "My hope is built on nothing less..."

Based on the above, I should be able to talk more rationally about all sorts of topics without feeling threatened. 

• If people lie about ideas or even people I care about, such as my family, I can respond passionately with the truth, but need not be desperate, because those ideas are not my life, and my family is also defended by the same God.
• If people ruin my reputation I can and should be angry, but not in an oversized way, because that isn't my life support.  My name is written in the book of life.  
• If people question the existence of God, I want to correct them but not in a desperate sort of way because what others think about God is not what my life is based on.  It is based on His existence, which doesn't change.  
• If people even blaspheme the name of God or mis-characterize God, I will ask them to stop and defend the truth, but I need not destroy them, because I know God is real and He will defend His name (so actually objecting is an act of mercy toward the speaker and the other hearers).

The next time I feel an emotional response to something someone says, I need to ask the questions:

• What god am I defending?  
• What good is a god that needs my defense?

Interesting Historical Article on Diets

Europe has been sticking to this Calories-In Calories-Out / Calorie counting theory since 1850, even though it works against human psychology and requires people to starve themselves to work.  William Banting wrote a book that would have stopped this mandness, but unfortunately for obese people everywhere, the calorie counting theory had gained traction and even though Mr Banting lost weight easily on his low-carb diet without needing to exercise, he was just dismissed without getting the attention he deserved.  Gary Taubes recently took up the banner and put some better science behind it.  I agree with Gary on a basic level, but his diet just doesn't seem very balanced.  His obsessive avoidance of carbs results in very little vegetables, and we need that fiber to keep going (sorry, bad pun).  However, his basic point that obesity is linked mostly to insulin and over-indulgence of carbohydrates seems to ring true to me.  True, calories-in does match calories-out, but that assumes the body has no control of this.  For myself, when I eat extra fat, I get hotter, and when I eat less, I put out less heat, so my body seems to have a set-point weight. 

God and the Turing Test

I don't remember how I got to thinking about this, but I've been thinking about how a person comes to a belief in God, and I think the atheists are coming at the problem in the wrong way. To say that since I haven't actually seen God's face, God does not exist, is like saying I believe your computer is an intelligent being just because I've heard its voice. Computer Scientists know that intelligence is more interesting than that, and much more difficult to pinpoint. A very smart computer scientist came up with a test called the Turing test, where if a person that interacts with the computer can't tell that it isn't another person, then the computer program has reached artificial intelligence. I think the process of reasoning that God exists needs to follow the same lines as that persons search for intelligence in a computer program. God isn't a thing that can be touched, just like intelligence isn't a thing that can be touched. What I'm really trying to say, is that us computer scientists can only prove that a computer is "intelligent" through a relationship with that computer. We relate, and if we can't tell we are not relating with another intelligent being, then we must be relating with an intelligent being, even if that intelligent being happens to be artificial. The scientist just begin with a leap of "faith" that allows the "relationship" to start. We have to keep talking to allow the Turing test to work. What if we apply this test in a relationship with God? Just like above, we need to start with a suspension of disbelief, so that the relationship can be tested. Perhaps God is like an intelligent software program with no hardware requirements? (I know I'm lisping here... because God is much more, but perhaps you can start there...)

Candidate Matching Results

68% John McCain 64% Mike Huckabee 60% Chris Dodd 58% Tom Tancredo 57% Mitt Romney 57% Ron Paul 55% John Edwards 54% Hillary Clinton 54% Bill Richardson 52% Joe Biden 52% Barack Obama 51% Rudy Giuliani 49% Mike Gravel 49% Fred Thompson 41% Dennis Kucinich 2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Ron Paul 2008

I'm lovin' the Libertarian slant of this guy... FREEDOM!!!!!

Execution of a Teenage Girl

On August 15th, 2004 a 16-year-old girl was hanged in a public square in Neka, Iran, a small industrial town by the Caspian Sea. Her death sentence was for crimes against chastity. Her name was Atefah Sahaaleh. The only evidence against Atefah was her own forced confession. Atefah railed against her judge in court for its unfairness, but this was her undoing. Judge Haji Rezai, who was also the local mullah, prosecutor and head of the city administration, personally obtained permission from Iran's Supreme Court to execute her, and put the noose around her neck himself before she was hoisted on a crane jib arm to her death. Using undercover footage, eyewitness accounts and drama recontruction, this film tells an unforgettable story of the life and tragic death of an ordinary teenage girl under Iran's mullahs.

Moving!

So those color choices a couple of posts back... that is what I chose for my new condo. I'm moving this weekend. Packing tonight, first trip tomorrow (GR to Holland!). Much thanks to a good friend from work for tomorrow's trip.

Then an old friend is borrowing his dad's pickup and I can move my queen-size bed (its a monster, but my feet still hang off the edge... I sleep diagonally... thanks to my dutch heritage.)

Gotta pack.

(I'll be offline for a bit during the move, but I doubt I'll let that last too long.)