The Oracle Soup
I was in Barnes and Noble tonight, doing the browsing thing which I love to do. I have a teacher's discount, so occasionally I'll pick up a book I'd like, as I did tonight.
Couple of books caught my eye, and I may or may not read them.
One was The Entitlement Cure by John Townsend, who was quite the formidable influence on my young adult life, teaching me about bonding and boundaries. He's an extraordinarily wise man, and this latest looks like more of the same regarding something I've thought for quite some time. I did leaf through it a bit, though not much because I don't think it is quite right to read whole sections of a book that isn't purchased.
The part I did see though confirmed what I thought. That when you think people owe you something, life is pretty miserable. Among those few words I caught were "entitlement pockets", meaning there are at least some things we think we're owed no matter how gracious and deferential we are. It would be good to identify the things we think we're owed and examine them, ultimately laying them at the feet of Christ.
The other book was The Spider Network, and this was about the LIBOR scandal and how it was birthed and grew. Amazing that a few people were given the task of setting interest rates that affected the capital movement of so much by so many. The LIBOR exploiters decided they could make some big money by shifting those rates to favor their own portfolios.
What so many don't get here is that this is just another form of human sacrifice, and as much as this truth is sloughed off as religious fairy tale folderol, more and more people get away with murdering others because they can.
This morning while doing some desk work I needed to do, I listened to Greg Koukl's weekly podcast, and he interviewed Douglas Axe, a biologist who's essentially proven Darwinian evolution false. Fascinating interview, but the last thing he mentioned was an illustration he called "Oracle Soup."
If I came up to you and said, hey, here's alphabet soup in this bowl, but this is great because it will spell out the instructions for an invention you can make and profit from. Simply cover the top of the bowl, then swirl the soup around, and take the lid off and there you see -- the instructions. Take a picture, then repeat. Look again, further instructions! How about that.
Not even halfway through you'd be thinking me insane.
The point Axe made is, why do we so readily accept the primordial soup explanation for the origin of life? It is really no different than the Oracle Soup explanation.
I've recently thought, what if someone found out I'm a follower of Christ and they said, very politely mind you, "Do you actually believe that?" See, it isn't a matter of belief in the truth of a thing, it is true no matter what I believe. Jesus and His life and His work are factually, forensically, historically truthful things. Therefore, I think I'm now going to say in response, "Huh, you sticking to the ground, why is that?"
"Um, gravity."
You can see what I'm going to say. "Do you actually believe that?"
The someone I'm speaking with would most likely be aghast. "What are you talking about?"
"Prove gravity."
"Umm..."
Now I'm pretty okay with gravity, but it still has all kinds of assumptions attached to it. What's the actual truth about things?
While the Oracle Soup story is meant to show that the Darwinian explanation is sorely lacking yet pretty much just assumed, it can't end there. For you see, there are actual words in the soup.
It is just they were arranged by God. That's the main take away, really. God spells out a lot of words, not only in the design of nature (what biologists like Axe are doing) but in the words of Scripture. God is true, and every man a liar -- unless they genuinely acquiesce to The Truth.
In my devotional time I'm reading Jeremiah, again -- I like Jeremiah because of his fortitude in speaking with people who were tremendously dense. He loved them with God's love -- telling them plainly what was what.
Every time I read Jeremiah I am struck by something I didn't see before, something amazing. This one was in verse 18 of the 18th chapter. Here's Jeremiah telling everyone the bad news, telling them to get ready and, in a sense: unload all their senses of entitlements -- and guess what they said. Go ahead, look there, in that verse, go ahead. It's right there in plain English from the Hebrew:
"They said, 'Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priests will not cease, nor the counsel of the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.'"
There may be a lot more to this, yes, I'm not the scholar on this or anything, but I can't think this isn't much other than people being told the truth and then refusing to accept it based on the idea that a whole bunch of smart-sounding people emphatically tell them to never-mind.
They did it back in 600 B.C. with Jeremiah, and they're doing it now.
Some things never change.
___
Couple of books caught my eye, and I may or may not read them.
One was The Entitlement Cure by John Townsend, who was quite the formidable influence on my young adult life, teaching me about bonding and boundaries. He's an extraordinarily wise man, and this latest looks like more of the same regarding something I've thought for quite some time. I did leaf through it a bit, though not much because I don't think it is quite right to read whole sections of a book that isn't purchased.
The part I did see though confirmed what I thought. That when you think people owe you something, life is pretty miserable. Among those few words I caught were "entitlement pockets", meaning there are at least some things we think we're owed no matter how gracious and deferential we are. It would be good to identify the things we think we're owed and examine them, ultimately laying them at the feet of Christ.
The other book was The Spider Network, and this was about the LIBOR scandal and how it was birthed and grew. Amazing that a few people were given the task of setting interest rates that affected the capital movement of so much by so many. The LIBOR exploiters decided they could make some big money by shifting those rates to favor their own portfolios.
What so many don't get here is that this is just another form of human sacrifice, and as much as this truth is sloughed off as religious fairy tale folderol, more and more people get away with murdering others because they can.
This morning while doing some desk work I needed to do, I listened to Greg Koukl's weekly podcast, and he interviewed Douglas Axe, a biologist who's essentially proven Darwinian evolution false. Fascinating interview, but the last thing he mentioned was an illustration he called "Oracle Soup."
If I came up to you and said, hey, here's alphabet soup in this bowl, but this is great because it will spell out the instructions for an invention you can make and profit from. Simply cover the top of the bowl, then swirl the soup around, and take the lid off and there you see -- the instructions. Take a picture, then repeat. Look again, further instructions! How about that.
Not even halfway through you'd be thinking me insane.
The point Axe made is, why do we so readily accept the primordial soup explanation for the origin of life? It is really no different than the Oracle Soup explanation.
I've recently thought, what if someone found out I'm a follower of Christ and they said, very politely mind you, "Do you actually believe that?" See, it isn't a matter of belief in the truth of a thing, it is true no matter what I believe. Jesus and His life and His work are factually, forensically, historically truthful things. Therefore, I think I'm now going to say in response, "Huh, you sticking to the ground, why is that?"
"Um, gravity."
You can see what I'm going to say. "Do you actually believe that?"
The someone I'm speaking with would most likely be aghast. "What are you talking about?"
"Prove gravity."
"Umm..."
Now I'm pretty okay with gravity, but it still has all kinds of assumptions attached to it. What's the actual truth about things?
While the Oracle Soup story is meant to show that the Darwinian explanation is sorely lacking yet pretty much just assumed, it can't end there. For you see, there are actual words in the soup.
It is just they were arranged by God. That's the main take away, really. God spells out a lot of words, not only in the design of nature (what biologists like Axe are doing) but in the words of Scripture. God is true, and every man a liar -- unless they genuinely acquiesce to The Truth.
In my devotional time I'm reading Jeremiah, again -- I like Jeremiah because of his fortitude in speaking with people who were tremendously dense. He loved them with God's love -- telling them plainly what was what.
Every time I read Jeremiah I am struck by something I didn't see before, something amazing. This one was in verse 18 of the 18th chapter. Here's Jeremiah telling everyone the bad news, telling them to get ready and, in a sense: unload all their senses of entitlements -- and guess what they said. Go ahead, look there, in that verse, go ahead. It's right there in plain English from the Hebrew:
"They said, 'Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priests will not cease, nor the counsel of the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.'"
There may be a lot more to this, yes, I'm not the scholar on this or anything, but I can't think this isn't much other than people being told the truth and then refusing to accept it based on the idea that a whole bunch of smart-sounding people emphatically tell them to never-mind.
They did it back in 600 B.C. with Jeremiah, and they're doing it now.
Some things never change.
___
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