Who enjoys life more?
Continuing with my them of the popular Atheist slogan…
I think I handled the “There’s probably no God” reasonably enough in my last post. Now for an intelligent exposition of the second half…
Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.
The phrase implies that those that believe in God… A) worry and B) don’t enjoy life.
It is said that the person with the experience is never at the mercy of the person with the argument. So, speaking from experience…
I worry exponentially less now as a follow of Christ, than when I lived for my own selfish desires. I enjoy my life exponentially more now as a follower of Jesus, than when I lived for my own selfish desires. I know I’m not an isolated case.
I get extremely annoyed at secular media propagandizing that Christians live dull, boring and pleasure-starved lives. It’s a lie.
I know people living life to fulfill their own selfish desires – and most of them (although they would rarely admit it) aren’t truly fulfilled. Sure, they have a form of happiness, but it is never lasting and is only shallow at best.
Is the porn addict really happy?
Is the P user really happy
Is the adulterer really happy?
Is the tycoon really happy?
I really don’t think so. I’m not saying all of these people are atheists, but I dare say most of them would claim to have no faith nor belief in God. The truth (that we again rarely hear) is that sexual liberation does not bring happiness – only a downward spiral into more degrading practices. I have never met a drug addict who loves their life. Does Tiger Woods look like he’s enjoying his life right now? How many of the rich and famous are confused and depressed? To be quite honest, why does a person crave the bottle, the needle, the encounter? Isn’t it just to serve as a temporal reprieve from an otherwise sad life?
In stark contrast, I know people who are genuine followers of God – who have such a deep sense of fulfillment that suffering couldn’t dislodge. I think that is true happiness.
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. (Jesus Christ)
So, please let me know (and be honest about it) who you follow and if you are truly happy with your life. I’d love to know 
.
There are probably no atheists…
The first of the Atheist Bus messages have now started rolling out across Britain, the most popular being:
“There’s probably no God so stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
The “probably” just cracks me up. It’s as if the non-theists responsible for the slogans aren’t totally convinced themselves. Imagine if John 3:16 read:
“God probably loved the world so much that He more than likely gave His only Son so that all that believe in Him probably won’t perish but quite possibly might have eternal life.
Not very convincing is it. The Dictionary defines ‘Probably’ as ‘being without much doubt’ which is an alternate way of saying that there is still some doubt. The slogan might as well read:
“There is a possibility that God exists and your eternal destiny depends on how you respond to His message.”
Which brings me to Pascal’s Wager. Pascal’s Wager is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason (debatable), a person should wager as though God exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Put another way, If God does not exist, one loses little by believing in him and gains correspondingly little by not believing. If God does exist however, one gains everything by believing in Him and loses everything by not believing.
The wager is fascinating to study (for some), as Pascal’s reasoning can be proved true mathematically. In fact, according to decision theory, the only rational path to follow is to live for God. As you can imagine, Pascal’s Wager is a hotly debated topic, and has been a nasty thorn in the Atheist’s side for hundreds of years.
One might argue that giving your life to God based on mathematic probability is not the most heart-felt or sincere thing to do. After all (and speaking from experience), trying to follow God, without having a relationship with Him is frustrating to say the least. Pascal to the rescue (again). Pascal never treated acceptance of the wager to be in itself sufficient for salvation. Placing the wager, he argued, is unavoidable. However, it alone isn’t a justification for faith. Rather, the wager is an impetus toward faith.
And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul? (Jesus Christ)
Free Willy?
Many years ago I watched old documentary footage showing a blue whale being slowly bitten to death by a pod of killer whales. It had a lasting impact on me as ever since then I’ve always regarded them as extremely dangerous (perhaps the 70′s Jaws ripoff ‘Orca’ influenced me a tad also).
I couldn’t find the footage on youtube but did find a clip where a pod of 15 killer whales spent over 6 hours trying to kill a grey whale calf and leaving the carcass after only eating its lower jaw and tongue.
Killer whales. Beautiful, definitely, but killers nevertheless. People try to make them cute and cuddly by parading them at sea-parks, demand that they be be called Orca and not the dreaded ‘K’ word, and making cheesy kid movies about them, but as we heard last week, Killer whales actually kill (funny that).
Here’s where I am confused.
- Toto the Terrier bites a kid (fictitious but true)… The dog is destroyed.
- Abu the rare White Tiger mauls keeper to death (Zion Wildlife Gardens, NZ)… The tiger is destroyed.
- Tilikum the Killer Whale bites, mauls and drowns trainer (is also responsible for 2 deaths previously making it 3 altogether)… The whale is not destroyed.
In fact, Tilikum is allowed to live as the alpha male of Sea World’s breeding program. How’s that for mixed signals? Poor guy probably thinks that killing humans equals business time with the lady Orcas.
Unlike wild killer whales, captives have attacked and even killed people such as their handlers or pool intruders, with nearly two dozen attacks since the 1970s. Tilikum, an orca, has been involved in three fatalities. (wikipedia)
