Diary, Astute Observations
The Economist reviews two books on the idea of paradise throughout human history. By historical standards, people in the industrialized countries are close to paradise in a material sense. The trick is to feel spiritually this way. The Germans have proven in the past few weeks that possessing a good national soccer team helps a long way to take the final step. But then the Italians, who seem to be closer to God with the Vatican in Rome, showed the Germans that full Paradise remains one step, that is one small goal away.Where is Paradise?
Diary, Astute Observations
The followers of Jesus have been fighting about the proper way to interpret his teaching from the very beginning. Since Jesus did not write down his philosophy the writers of the ghospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) that made it into New Testament had signficant interpretative flexibility to write up his message, making it all the easier for church leaders to disagree on what should be official doctrine. If you don’t agree (and it does not matter here whether you are right or wrong) and if you have leadership skills you simply split with mother church. Today there are at least 300 different Christian demoninations, with every single one telling their children that they are being taught the correct faifth, and this means that there must of been hundreds of groups that broke away from the mother church over the past 2000 years.How Christian Dominations Reacted to Modern Science
Diary, Astute Observations
I always found it curious that fundamental Christians preferred in large numbers Republicans over Democrats. After all, the core values of the democratic party seem to be much more in tune with Christianity. At least one evangelic pastor woke up recently and remembered that Christians are supposed to support peace and not war. Read this interesting Op-ed piece in the NY Times of January 20, 2006.Is Christianity Compatible with Republican Values?
Diary, Astute Observations
What makes it so difficult to interpret how people in former times have thought about the human condition is that words change their meanings over time, sometimes morphing into the exact opposite of what they originally meant. As I just learned by reading in ‘The Economist’ a review of “Happiness: A History, ” the word “happiness” has changed its meaning considerably. I didn’t quite realize until today that if God wants speaks directly to people or at least their prophets, he or she has to master the idiom of a given age. To come across as really cool, God could walk up to a woman today and say, “Hey man, what’s up.” If God had done this two thousand years ago, a woman would likely have replied: “Almighty, I am sorry, but you are mistaken. I am a woman and not a man!”Happiness Through the Ages
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