Deepak Chopra on Jesus

This is over a year old, but Time magazine interviewed New Age guru Deepak Chopra about a novel he wrote on Jesus’ life.  It’s tremendously sad and misinformed (that is, the interview, but I’m sure the novel takes the cake).  Here’s a few of the more interesting questions and answers:

You write “making [Jesus] the one and only son of God leaves the rest of humankind stranded.”

Because we end up worshipping the messenger instead of the message and excluding all the theologies that existed before Jesus was born.

But it’s also the one thing that inspires Christ’s most fervent followers: that Jesus was God’s only son, who died for them and so took away sin. Isn’t your premise of an acquired godhood heretical to orthodox Christians?

It may be. Fundamentalist Christians always quote Jesus in the Gospel of John saying “I am the way. I am the life. Nobody comes into the kingdom of heaven except through me.” But what does Jesus mean by “I”?” In his language, Aramaic, the word is translated as “the I within the I.” So he may be speaking about himself as a universal spirit. In that case he can’t be squeezed into a body or the span of a lifetime.

Read the whole thing.

You Can’t Make Science to Mean Something it Doesn’t Mean

I’m not a scientist.  My science classes in college were geology, meteorology, and food science.  The best I did in high school was a B in honors physics at a public school.  And even that grade should be investigated.

So allow my non-scientific mind to think through something with you.

Often in debates about evolution and creation, I hear people argue for evolution (that is, the origin of the universe via big-bang) by saying, “Science proves it.  Science is not faith, it’s fact.”   They do this by talking about carbon dating, fossils, and the fact that Noah couldn’t really have had all those animals in the ark.

Well, science is “fact” if you are talking about how a tree grows, how a car moves, or how my heart works.  You can prove those things.  But science cannot prove the origin of the universe.  “Yes it can!” people tell me.

No.  It can’t.

Why?  When we refer to science, we usually mean “systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.”  We come to this knowledge of the physical world by using the scientific method, which Merriam-Webster defines as “principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.”

You cannot re-create a universe as vast, complex, organized, and beautiful as ours in a test tube in order to collect data about how it began.  It just can’t happen.

So if you hold that the origin of the universe is due to a randomized explosion of atomic particles, that’s fine by me.  Just don’t call it science.  Call it what it is: faith, belief, and religion.

Some arguments are better than others, and this one is just bad.

Check out the video below of Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens, stars of the new documentary Collision, appearing on the Joy Behar show.

During the video, Behar asked Wilson if he really believed “that all those animals were on the ark” with Noah.  That puzzles me.  Out of all the things that happened in the Bible (like say, God becoming a Man, being killed, and rising from the dead) she wants to know about animals on a boat?  Seriously? That’s not the most miraculous and mind-boggling thing you’ll read in the Bible.

Hitchens comes across as a bitter, arrogant, angry, lonely man.  As I watched, the famous C.S. Lewis quote that he ended Mere Christianity with comes to mind:

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay.  But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

One day, Christopher Hitchens (and every other person) will stand before Jesus to be judged after the resurrection.  That’s sobering.

New iPhone App to Allow Driving from Mobile Phone

German researchers have developed an iPhone app that will allow the user to drive a vehicle via their mobile phone.  Here’s a snippet:

The iDriver has individual accelerate and brake buttons and a virtual steering wheel that utilises the phone’s motion-sensor technology. It interfaces with a specially equipped car which receives messages from the iPhone and relays them into the vehicle via wireless technology. The virtual driver allows driving from a distance through the use of live video streaming from a roof-mounted camera

I swear that some people already drive as if they were sitting on their couch in boxers, iPhone in one hand, a bag of Cheetos in the other, singing along to VH1’s pop-up video classics.

Thankfully, the app is not expected to be commercially available any time soon, or at all.

Separation of Church and Sport?

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was critiqued in a USA Today editorial for believing Jesus is the only way to God.  Erik Raymond and Kevin DeYoung (among others) have written responses.

The USA Today writer, Tom Krattenmaker, said in the editorial:

According to a December 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, 65% of American Christians believe that many religions can lead to eternal life.  Our pluralism is a defining and positive reality of American life — but not one that is much valued by those who define the faith coursing through the veins of sports culture.

The comments about this in particular have been interesting.  Here are two:

• From Dale LaRoy Splitstone: “Honestly, do you really think God gives a damn what the majority of American Christians think about salvation? At the judgment day, there’s only one opinion that’s going to matter.”
• From DonAW: “The 65% of American Christians who believe that many religions can lead to eternal life had better take a closer look at their ‘playbook.’  Someone is wrong, and I am betting it is not the Maker of the World.”

HT: Justin Taylor

Is that…? (#5)

Is that the late Heath Ledger…

…or Joseph Gordon-Levitt

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Abortion…a Blessing?

In a World Magazine blog from last Friday, Marcia Segelstein comments about Episcopal church Reverend Katherine Ragsdale’s remarks on abortion from a speech a few years back.  Ragsdale said:

When a woman wants a child but can’t afford one, because she hasn’t the education necessary for a sustainable job, or access to health care, or day care, or adequate food, it is the abysmal priorities of our nation, the lack of social supports, the absence of justice that are the tragedies; the abortion is a blessing.

And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe affordable abortion, there is not a tragedy in sight; only blessing.

The ability to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality without compromising one’s education, life’s work, or ability to put to use God’s gifts and call is simply blessing. These are the two things I want you, please, to remember – abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done.

According to Ragsdale, Jesus’ poor, helpless, husband-less, jobless, teenage mother should have had an abortion.

I can understand a non-Christian saying, “I don’t give a rip what God thinks.”  Well and good for you, my friend.  But this is coming from a self-proclaimed “Christian”!  In order for us to know what God thinks, we need to actually read the Bible.  Here’s a sampling:

• For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13).
• The king of Egypt said…”When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”  But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live (Ex. 1:15, 16-17).
• “For he [i.e. John the Baptizer] will be great before the Lord.  And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Lk. 1:15).
• And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb…she exclaimed with a loud cry…”For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (Lk. 1:41, 42, 44).

So what do you think?  Is abortion a blessing? (Non-Christians feel free to weigh in, too.  Everyone, please be gentle.)

Truth is Truth is Truth

From the urban philosopher Lecrae:

Man, see some folks say, “All truth is relative, it just depends on what you believe.” You know, “Hey man, ain’t no way to know for sure who God is or what’s really true.” But that means you believe your own statement: that there’s no way to know what’s really true. You’re saying that that statement is true. You’re killing yourself. If what’s true for you is true for you, and what’s true for me is true for me, what if my truth says your’s is a lie? Is it still true? Come on man!

…See, there’s this thing called “Secular Humanism”, it says man is the source of all meaning and all purposing. You know what i’m saying? We’re just the result of a big cosmic explosion. We don’t really have a purpose or meaning, so we just come up with our own purpose. We’re the source of our meaning and our purpose. How can a man, which is the product of chance, a finite being be the source of purpose and meaning? You can’t! You’re created with purpose man!

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Is Lack of Education Really Our Biggest Problem?

If lack of education was the primary reason for the world’s brokenness (such as poverty, crime, hunger, disease, war, heartache, etc.), then universities and colleges would be the most moral and ethical places in the universe.   In case you haven’t noticed, they aren’t.

There must be a more fundamental reason for problems in our world.

Mark Driscoll on Idolatry

A guest post by Andrew Reiners

Well Hello everyone.  My name is Andrew and I will be one of two guys that will be guest posting for James while he is back in the United States for several weeks.  I don’t know what his deal is ( something about spending a little time with his fiance who he hasn’t seen for 5 months getting in the way of his blogging).  Just a note, I am nothing special, in fact I do not think I am worthy of posting on such a blog as Beneath the Cross, but I will try.  I am currently working in Lincoln, Nebraska as a social worker helping teens and families deal with very real and troubling issues.  Its a great job but tough at times.  I will try my best to stay consistent with the posts so here goes.

Last night I was watching a conference message by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle about the subject of idolatry in our personal ministry.  Now I know that Mark Driscoll has rubbed some people the wrong way with his preaching style and often very candid sermons.  Whether you like Mark Driscoll or not, this message had a very different tone than most of his conferences messages have had in the past.  This message titled “Ministry Idolatry” was given by Pastor Mark at the Advance 09 conference in Durham, NC two weeks ago.  In this message Mark addresses the very seriousness of every human’s problem with idolatry and the ways that it fuels other sin issues in our lives.  The statement that had the strongest impact on me was when Mark said something like this “People don’t have sex problems, money problems, drug problems, or alcohol problems; people have idolatry problems”.  I highly encourage you to take an hour or just half an hour and watch some of this message and let it take hold of you and convict you of some of the things that you idolize in place of our Lord Jesus.  Listen to the message.

Here are a few notes I took from this message:

• Pastor Mark explains that idols are usually good things that we turn into God things and in turn become bad things.
• Idols such as money, sex, alcohol, relationships, education, even blogs act as functional saviors that if we allow to take precedent in our lives take us away from our real problems and insecurities and give us a false sense of worth and joy that can only be found in the light of Jesus Christ.
• What is my ultimate source of delight?  Is it in my girlfriend, my job, my car, my church, my knowledge?  Jesus needs to be my ultimate source of delight.
• Even sports can be an idol.  A football stadium is simply a temple where people can gather and worship their idols. (I may post more on this topic in the coming days.)

• Those who idolize must also demonize.  Those who find their identity and worth in an idol, must also demonize the very things that contradict or compete with that idol.