We live in a time when "peering into the future", "personal speculation",and "knowing what is to happen" is in style. Just today there was a technical report that predicts that all human disease will be cured by 2050 and that human life expectation will be well over 134 years. The report continued with the promise that the mind and body will continue "undiminished". I would like to live in the comming age - but I won't- I am well into my 7o's-and time is brief.
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This is not the 1st time we have had a technological revoultion and there is one I would like to discuss.
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Israel, in the reign of King David, a man of great creativity, innovation, and leadership,lead his nation through a tremendous and dramatic change that made Israel a great power in the mid east.
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About 200 years before David, the Hittites - the neighboring tribes- had discovered the secret of smelting and processing IRON. And, slowly this skill spread but the Hittites would not allow Israel to have the technology. But, King david changed all that ... he introduced the Iron Age to Israel. Now, instaed of crude tools made of sticks and stones- The Bible reports- that Israel had iron plows, hoes, and military weapons. In the course of one generation Israel complety changed and was transformed.
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The introduction of Iron was in many ways has had the same impact on our generation as the "micro-chip" had on theirs.
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And, David found that there were many problems that his technology could not solve.
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There were problems still left - these problems are still with us. And, our medicine, our science, and our religion have not solved them. How do we solve these three Great Problems of hunakind?
THE 1ST PROBLEM: EVIL
Where does Evil come from? How do we control Evil? What is the solution to Evil?
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The Psalms is where King David describes the Evil in the human race by saying:
"He restores my soul". Have you ever thought about the contradiction we are?
On one hand we probe the secrets of the Universe and on the other hand dramatically open the frontiers of technologies in every field of human initiative.
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We see beneath the seas - 3 miles down- we look into the past- into the great galaxies and see 100 billion years into the future.
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Yet, something is terribly wrong.
Our battleships, solidiers, and leaders are promoting the destruction and the death of war.
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Now, I ask: What causes this? Why do we have these wars in every generation and in every part of the world? The politicians are promising another Revolution.
We cannot get along in our families, we find ourselves in a paralyzing grip of destructive behaviors that we are unable to break.
Racism, infustice, and violence now sweep our world bringing the tragic harvest of heartache and death.
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Studies of the most sophisticated philosphers- those of the past and the present- seem powerless to describe for us the solutions that we might use to break the cycles.
"Man," Mark Twain said, " is the only creature that can inflict pain and suffering for the mere pleasure of the experience."
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My hope is that one of us might come to the solution of: "How do we change man so he does not lie and cheat, and that our newspapers are not filled with stories of the fraud in business, labor, government, or athelitics or whatever."
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We see people taking beneficial technology- the internet-and twist it into something that corrupts our youth. Brilliant people design virus that brings down the whole system.
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The problem is not technology- it is the people using the technology.
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Scripture teaches that the problem is in us - within the heart and the spirit-our problewm(scripture says) is that we are separated from the Creator ... GOD.
And, it is the soul that needs to be restored- something that only God can do.
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Evil lurked in the heart of Cain at the Gates of Paradise.
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Christ taught: 'out of the human heart come evil thoughts of murder, sexual immorality,theft, false testimony, gossip, and slander.'
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Bertrum Russel (certainly not a religious man) said:
"I is in our heart that evil lies and it is from the heart that evil must be plucked out."
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Albert Einstien made this comment:
" It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil in the heart of man.:
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I have these past months puzzled over these things- maybe you have also.
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We are unable to free ourselves from our personal problems that include lying, gossip, theft, larceny, adultury, or murder. Science helps with the "talking" cure, and targeted specialized drugs- and this is a good thing. It was the wisdom of David to seek forgiveness from God: " You who can restore my soul."
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We are body, mind, and spirit and there seems to be something inside of us beyond our intellectual experience we yearn for God- something we cannot and do not find in our love of technology.
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We yearn to know the meaning of our life:
Truth, Life, and Love are the fundamentals of purpose and meaning.
The Fundamental Questions Asked from the Sickbed.
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No matter who I have visited in the home or hospital at the bedside of the sick and dying- I hear the same questions:
Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? What is life all about?
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Even those who do not have a religious belief there is a wonder:
" Is this all there is or is there something else? "
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Thomas Edison said:
" When you see everything that is happening in the world of science- and the workings of the Universe you cannot deny that there is a captian on the bridge."
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Even Grobochv answered a question on what he should talk about- he said:
"Ask me about religion and philosphy - there is something up there higher than we are."
THE 2ND PROBLEM: SUFFERING and DISEASE
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All our greatest doctors, priests, theologians, and scientists have realized that they are not able to solve the problem of human suffering.
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Science has done much to push back certaian tyes of mental and physical suffering and disease. Yet, in the most advance society of the world our policies and initatives produce poverty, families that self-destruct, and unbearable psychological pressures bear down on us.
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Have you ever met a person who did not have a problem, illness, or worry?
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The age old questions we have not answered:
"Why do we suffer?" " Can we solve suffering?"
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( Note:The chaplain refers to the Psalms as we turn to God: " The Lord is my Shepherd.")
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THE 3RD PROBLEM: DEATH
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Death is a problem that we have not solved. Some people feel that Death is something that should not be discussed, conversations about dying are to be avoided, death is a subject difficult for us to face.
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As chaplains we meet many people who live as if they are never going to die- they feel immune to the "sting" of death. And, why not? Our technology, hospitals, medicines and the implied promises project the myth of our immortality. Any disease can be "fixed" these days- just look at the advancement of drugs and therapies.
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We hear and see people on the TV, movie screen, and radios like Marylyn Monroe, Clarke Gable, or president Reagan who have just a powerful presence as they had in person. In fact, my grandchildren believe that these people are still among the living. They do not know that Marylyn, Clarke, or Reagan are dead.
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It is inevitable that all will die and it is very difficult to understand that we will die. There are scriptures, of course, to remind us ...' every activity under heaven there is atime to be born and a time to die'.
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How often have we carried the prayers to the deathbed and witnessed the agonizing moments when the person before you was scared to death? Only a few months earlier - death never crossed their minds.
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I met a doctor in the ICU room 334, who never talked about God- did not believe in God- he was an atheist. He said that was the first time I have ever thought of the inevitable- and about God. He asked me: " Is there a God?"
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The university students who come to our church asked me a question: " what is the biggest surprise of your life?" My response: " The biggest surprise of my life is the "brevity of life"- it passes so soon and is so fragile."
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We stand around the dying " ... light the lamps with the holy oil ... so that they may live again ...". This is the sacred moment when the sane is witness to the terrible agony that we call regret - the sacred moment we see the regret in that man before you is dying. How should we live so not to have regret when dying? What are the rules? What is the formula? This is the "contradictons" found on the battlefields of Evils, Disease, Suffering, and Death.
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People can achieve extraordinary heights in science, the arts, human enterprise and at the same moment filled with hypocrisies, uncontrollable anger, and self-hatred.
We are a mixture of :
Angels and Demons. Genius and Delusion. Good and Evil. Life and Death.
More to come
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE AFTERLIFE
QUESTION ONE: Is there life after death?
Is Death the end or is there something more?This is the ultimate question.There is no more of an important question that we will face. All other issues are trivival.
The normancly we invent is a sham. Death destroys everything. The "Great Wrecking Ball".
Everything we have accomplished , everyting we are doing now, and all of our plans for the future are destroyed at our death.
Why then think about the issue? I cannot do anything about it so why should I be bothered with this issue : Life exists after death? This is the intellectual condundrum. We should be content with the more realistic forms of life: Objectivism. Politics. Pop-Culture.Art. Memories. Children. Enterprises. and the like.
Bogus forms of immortality: Write a book. Work of Art.Make a film.Your name on a building.If your life was to double from 70 to 140 years or your life would end in 6 months… you cannot be neutral.
How odd to say: “I do not care one way or another”. Is this a profound denial?People do not want to go to funerals and confrontb the dead in a box. They want to “Get on with their lives”. They do not want to say name of the dead … they say: “The dean played their part and now have left the stage.” Or: “ He is not dead … he has dissapeared and is alive … in Heaven. People do not die they disappear”.
QUESTION TWO: What do our scientists say?
" As biologist Richard Dawkins puts it in his new book "The God Delusion," faith is a form of irrationality, what he terms a "virus of the mind." Philosopher Daniel Dennett compares belief in God to belief in the Easter Bunny. Sam Harris, author of "The End of Faith" and now "Letter to a Christian Nation," professes amazement that hundreds of millions of people worldwide profess religious beliefs when there is no rational evidence for any of those beliefs. Biologist E.O. Wilson says there must be some evolutionary explanation for the universality and pervasiveness of religious belief."
QUESTION THREE: What do you think?
Position A: In the secular account, "You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach 3 1/2 billion years ago. You are a mere grab bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You came from nothing and are going nowhere."
Position B:
In the Christian view, by contrast, "You are the special creation of a good and all-powerful God. You are the climax of His creation. Not only is your kind unique, but you are unique among your kind. Your Creator loves you so much and so intensely desires your companionship and affection that He gave the life of His only son that you might spend eternity with him."
Only good things
robert Lackney, chaplain
