Science has it Backwards

A fellow associate and myself have taken those few minutes of free time at work to rethink the theory of evolution. I believe we make a strong case for monkeys evolving FROM humans. Let me lay it out for you.

1. We have no tails. We carry what is called the tail bone, but no actual tail. Tails would be immensely useful! Balance, grabbing things, “Gibbs slapping” others in the back of the head. Most monkeys have them. Us nope. Tails evolved from the tailbone. 
2. Real birthday suits. We have to make clothes and buy clothes and give clothes to the Salvation Army. Monkeys are born with theirs. They change size as the primates grow. They shed for heat and thicken for cold, a definite evolutionary advancement over our pathetic efforts to cover ourselves. Fur evolved from clothes.
3. Jungle lost cities. These ancient ruins found deep and far from current civilization are evidence that ancient monkeys have left behind as they have evolved past the need for them. With coats and tails and prehensile toes as well as fingers they foot waved “goodbye” and made their life beyond the grind that you and I now toil in. Deserted cities.
4. So called lack of language. I can hear it now, “But we can talk and make cool stuff, what about that?”  I would like you to think (irony) on this. Monkeys have evolved past spoken and written words. As all good Star Trek fans know advanced races speak telepathically. They only reduce themselves to speech for the backwards humans. Same here. Its all in their head.
5. Cavendish demise. Both National Geographic and Science are reporting a new strain of virus that renders Cavendish bananas sterile. My associate and I are convinced this is the work of the monkeys. They have determined this popular banana was the key to their evolution. Prolonged daily exposure to the fruit brought on the tail and the fur and other changes of which we are in the dark about. They have been experimenting for decades to isolate a way to “take out” the Cavendish and have finally succeeded. We will continue to hit our heads against the evolutionary ceiling of humans, while they evolve in peace.

Evolution turned on its head, and remember “It’s Steaming” in a pile right on this page.

Fill the Earth

I have been studying Genesis and writing sermons to keep the mind strong. In my studies I have noticed that God was pretty serious about humankind spreading out across His creation. As I was working at Walmart one day I began to see why, I think.

While working out in the boonies of the Endless Mountians in Pennsylvania, I see a cross section of Bradford County's population. Great diversity lives all around me. I have seen ladies wrapped in Indian Sari's beright colored and regal. I have heard several different languages and taken in a variety of skin colors.

I believe God was so insistent on humans filling the earth because the Lord built into each of us the ability to adapt to our surroundings AND pass these adaptations on to our offspring. It reminds me of the song I learned in United Methodist Sunday School. "Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."

My Blessings

Recently I have gazed back at my life. Maybe I do so because the house grows quiet from the family jostle. As the kids  move into wider places, I have finally focussed a realization which I want to share.

Less than one month before my 14th birthday I raised my lever action 22 cal rifle to take a bead on a skittering squirrel. Sitting 20 yards down hill Rick was lowering his rifle after a couple missed shots. In that moment I realized that my cousin sat too near to my line of fire. In that fraction I chose to move the rifle with my finger still on the trigger. BANG! He was gone to heaven before the ambulance could even arrive.

A reasonable life after killing a cousin would have made me a lonely little man, mostly broken yet soldiering on. I would have expressed extreme cynicism and sarcasm so that few would want to be around me. Which would have been fine with me, I would have rather be hermited away from others. Surrounded in a wall of depression I might have lived out my days isolated from everyone.

A worst case scenario would find me drowning in alcohol in a ditch after fatally hitting a tree at high speed.

Look what God encouraged instead. David Souder, Larry Youse Jr. and I led a prayer meeting in our public school that reached many kids with the hope in Jesus. I sang in our church group, The Revelation Singers. We toured a bunch of churches and shared that same hope with many more. I graduated college and seminary and pastored in multiple churches.

In my first church I met my wife at my thirtieth birthday party and we have enjoyed almost 24 years together and been granted the privilege to raise 4 kids. I have taken more than one youth group on missions trips to Chicago, South Dakota and Tijuana. I enjoyed singing in the Houghton College Choir my senior year (which took a lot of voice lessons to get there). I have met many great saints of the church most unsung now.

I have certainly struggled over the years. Depression shoves into my life repeatedly. The sheer weight of it has turned many a day into a marathon of push just to get the basics of living done. Other days my thoughts are a battle between self condemnation and moderation. The weapons of the one barely blunted by the right reason of the other. 

A few years into my first assignment in Canada, I began hearing voices. At this I sought counseling. After several sessions with a caring Christian counselor I dealt with one of the more painful aspects of Rick’s death.  The voices ceased without return. 

My poor young bride had to console a tearful groom as many old pains felt safe to surface during our first few years of marriage. My most recent counseling experience allowed me to step off “The Healing Journey” Bible Study in a small group over the course of a year. 

With a distance of 41 years I need to right some theology. God didn’t cause Rick to die, my mistake did. If I had waited one more second and involved one more thought, I likely would safely brought the gun down. I panicked for the right reason, but with the wrong result. For years I tried to convince myself that God wanted Rick dead. I don’t believe that now. It may have been a case like Job where God said, “Look at that Ed Ross.” Then after the shot God responded, “Sit down, Satan, that was way more than enough.”

I think even more likely God cried as Rick was hit. I believe God teared for Rick and his pain. I believe God wept for the upheaval of all involved. Then I believe God decided that as far as He was able this shot was only going to be the end of one life. Thank you, Lord.

Samson and Easter

A recent discussion got me to thinking about Samson as a type for Christ. There are several types of Christ in the Old Testament. Isaac the only son almost sacrificed on the mountain by his faithful father. Joseph left for dead comes back and saves his people from death. Jonah rises from the belly of the whale.

picture from Westgate Branson Woods Resort

Samson was a miraculous baby who came from a womb that was dead except for God's intervention. Samson was a Nazirite from birth. He was fully dedicated to God and God's purpose even before birth. The Spirit of God came on him and was a powerful influence on Samson.

The other types I mentioned didn't die to represent Christ. They came near death or should have died or were considered dead. Samson extended right arm to a temple pillar and extended his left to another. He died in the shape of the cross and in his death took the oppression from Israel by destroying the leaders of their enemy.

So why did he live such a lousy life beforehand? I don't know. I wonder though if God's giving of great strength and a great mission might have gone to his head. From birth he was likely told he would save Israel. Once the Spirit of God came on him, he gained great physical power. Didn't Jesus face such temptations in the desert? "Turn these stones to bread . . . Jump off the Temple and let angels catch you." Those are some pretty heady powers and temptations as well. How would I have lived with the same mission and powers as Samson? Samson shows us the tempations Jesus faced and successfully overcame.

Notre Dame leggings

The mother of a male Notre Dame student likely embarrassed him royally when she “encouraged” the female students to consider jeans instead of the more revealing leggings that are now in vogue. As I read the reaction to this mother’s plea, I turned over the question, “How could it be wrong for a woman to wear leggings?”

Now certainly in the last several years society has made clear that one is not responsible for the choices of another. Pornography, rape and incest have all been sickly justified as “she made me do it.” That’s a lie from the pit of hell. These are all sinful choices by the person acting. The choice to violate another’s body is never excused by the clothing they don. Certainly, this good Catholic mother raised her son to deal with temptation by turning to God for help. 

As I kept flipping thoughts around I landed in the first few verses of Genesis 3. Here the first couple chose to go for the forbidden fruit. The first reaction of the couple after eating was to cover up. Why? Because their eyes were opened. Does that mean Eve felt ugly? Did Adam try to suck in his gut? A More reasonable take would be that each saw something first in themselves, then in each other that demanded they hide. 

In fact, when God came on scene and asks where they are Adam responded, “I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Disobedience immediately induced the need to hide the body. God provided the couple their first set of clothes at the cost of the lives of innocent animals. Innocence was sacrificed so that this first couple could know evil as well as good.

As parents we enjoy the privilege of seeing flashes of that lost innocence in our children. Oh, they are not perfect, yet their lack of knowledge of certain evils reveals what innocence has been lost. Wide eyed they trust and laugh and  accept others no matter their appearance. That privilege doesn’t last long, a few years. When those kids head out into a world devoid of innocence we parents worry. This mom turned her worry into action with a letter to the editor. 

But innocence is out of the bottle. The purity of nudity has fallen underfoot to selfish sin. Now all we can do is cope in a world more likely to misunderstand, take it the wrong way go too far. Like generations before us, our children have to learn how to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit to guard and guide our thoughts and reactions. In Christ this is possible.

Choice and mitigating consequences

A couple of months ago I read a book about killing. The author, Lt Colonel Dave Grossman, spoke with soldiers who fought in various wars. He also tapped into various research to help the reader understand how difficult it is to get one human to kill another. In fact between World War 2 and the Vietnam war the armies of the West, including the US Army, changed their weapons training. Previous to the Vietnam conflict, soldiers learned to use their firearms on paper bullseye targets. Rounds were shot then the targets were examined to see who made marksman.

For Vietnam new soldiers shot at human shaped targets that fell over when hit. This training brought the experience much closer to the reality of combat. The object for those so trained is to get proficient at knocking down as many human shaped targets as possible. According to the Colonel firing rates climbed from 15% in WW2 to as high as 90% in Vietnam. The book is titled "On Killing" and is available on Amazon Prime reading.

As he brought the book to a close, he touched on societal violence in the United States. He observed that the murder rate has gone down since the turn of the 21st century. He also observed that violent crimes and mass shootings are on the rise. He wondered if the widespread entertainment of First Person Shooter video games, which closely resemble military training, and the violence in media could be encouraging those whose natural aversion to killing to act out.

On other statistic he drew out was the decline of the murder rate. He postulated the cause of the decline of the violent attacks that result in murder was likely from our medical system and first responders' ability to restore life to a dying human, not from a more altruistic populace.

I would postulate that one of the factors in the rise of violence might be technology's ability to mitigate the consequences of our decisions. We know that our hospitals now have life flights, mobile hospitals called ambulances and a bevy of drugs, equipment and procedures to restore health. "Joe survived that last drive by. He shouldn't, but he did." We can act out our feelings instantly and even violently, while the mechanisms of society can cover for the worst of us. So, if the consequences of even the most enraged acts are offset by technology, then what sort of society is emerging from this new freedom?

Hang on, we are about to jump again. Nineteen states, the latest of which is New York, now allow women control over their bodies as far as medical science will allow. In this new technology a passionate choice can be undone with little physical harm to the woman. It is now possible and legal to mitigate the consequences of heated passion that is now growing inside a woman unwanted. Safe and legal abortions have likely reduced the death rate from back alley deaths of both woman and child. Unwanted children are no longer born to woman who aren't prepared to love them. Legislators cheered when this freedom was passed into law.

With killing of other human beings in combat, new technology and training allowed soldiers to overcome a natural prohibition against humans killing humans. With young woman aborting the babies they are carrying, technology and training allows woman the freedom to bypass a natural tendency of mothers to care for their children. What kind of society are we birthing into the 21st century as we mitigate the consequences of choices without any thought to the results on those making them?

For decades our veterans, especially our Vietnam vets, have struggled to find some sort of normal after repeatedly breaking this ingrained stop. Many never made it back. Drugs, alcoholism, suicide claimed many of these warriors.

So what kind of society are we willing into being by offloading the consequences of choices to techology? If we as a society assures women that they can use techology to get rid of that consequence coming down their birth canal? Yes, sometimes the consequences of our choices mean children are born with physical cost in their bodies. What struggles will these young women face as they try to find some sort of normal? What about the doctors, nurses, midwives and others who have to dehuman a baby into a fetus or organic tissue, as they dispose of it? The images of burned and dismembered tiny humans have to be normalized somehow. Do those medical professionals experience PTSD as intense as a front line grunt?

What society are we creating, calling into being, molding and shaping, liberating, indoctrinating, dreaming?