| Using common logic to embrace Christianity

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The First Believers

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Terry Wayne

In the Easter season, we are faced with the ultimate question – was Jesus truly the son of God? Did He actually return from the dead?

The following is a reprint from the book “Finding Faith in a Logical World.”

After Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and final departure, His followers continued to spread his message. We can understand how they may have been inspired to follow Him during His time on earth. We can understand how witnessing miraculous works and His charisma may have kept them tagging along, but how do we explain their continuing efforts. What did they have to gain by promoting His cause after He was gone? Why would they devote their lives to a dead prophet? Unless the story is true.

Perhaps the strongest argument for the divinity of Jesus is in the existence of the writings of the New Testament itself. To those of us self-conscious about our public image in acknowledging Jesus, the idea of several educated men writing fervently about the life and works of Jesus is impressive.

Would you be willing to put your reputation on the line, unless you were convinced of the authenticity of this story? Would you be willing to risk ridicule? Would you or I be willing to put our lives on the line to promote unpopular lessons? I think the answer is obvious.

No, we would not risk ridicule, humiliation and scorn to declare our belief in such a preposterous story, let alone risk our lives. Yet these men did exactly that. More so, they dedicated their lives to spreading the news. Logically, we must conclude that these men were not just fans of Jesus, not just devotees of a new philosophy, they knew with absolute certainty that Jesus was the Son of God. How else could we explain their passion? How else could we explain their willingness to accept these risks?

Logic suggests that the strongest evidence is the fact that, when Jesus was arrested, his followers fled. Peter, in fact, denied knowing Jesus three times as predicted. The fear of His followers at that critical moment is a dramatic contrast to their courage later on.

We must conclude that the resurrection was the final proof that caused his followers to fully accept His divinity. Our logic should tell us that no other factor could be powerful enough to transform a group of people, in fear for their lives, into a courageous band of missionaries.

Your Sin Score

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Terry Wayne

One of the foundational concepts of Christianity is the principle of sin as the obstacle to reuniting with God. Defining sin is a question that haunts the faithful. How do we adjust our behavior to avoid sinning? How do we even know what sin is?

As is common, we tend to complicate the question by applying human standards to a spiritual question. Even if we use the original Ten Commandments as a guide, we immediately begin to apply conditions to the simple rules.

Thou shalt not kill? What about self-defense or in defense of family? What about war? The Bible is filled with tales of epic battles and conflicts that ended in death. Remember David and Goliath?

Honor thy father and thy mother? What if dad is a serial killer or mom is a prostitute? Do they still deserve to be honored? What if mom sacrificed her virtue to feed her family?

Thou shalt not steal? If your baby is starving and near death and you have no resources, should you ignore that baby food that someone forgot in their grocery cart?

The bottom line is that the Ten Commandments, the original sin list, is nearly impossible to accomplish in total. Who among us hasn’t engaged in a little coveting? Who among us hasn’t felt envious of the neighbor’s new car or our cousin’s new home.

When it comes time to count our sin score, we can easily conclude that it is beyond our ability. The reason is simple. Virtually every selfish thought that we entertain constitutes sin.

If we recognize God’s realm as perfection, we would conclude that those who dwell there would be free of all the imperfections that accompany the human on earth. There would be no reason to covet your neighbor’s assets when you have no need of material goods and have access to all that you do need. There would be no hostility where love prevails. In short, all the elements of conflict and temptation are missing.

Our efforts to acknowledge and correct our sinful nature is our feeble and futile attempt to achieve the personal perfection that we need to become citizens of God’s realm. And, while we may never achieve that level of perfection in our earthly existence, it should be our obligation to strive toward that goal.

The Ten Commandments represents the goals we should aspire to. Christianity is the salvation, the acknowledgment that humankind is incapable of achieving the ultimate goal. Christianity is, in effect, our last hope of meeting the standards of God’s spiritual realm.

Magic of Music

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Terry Wayne

Think of it. What purpose does it serve?

We all seem to enjoy music to some degree. Some are inspired by classical pieces, some by hard-core rock or country tunes. It’s a matter of what appeals to you. Appreciation of music is pretty much universal. But why?

If we analyze music from a scientific viewpoint, we would realize that music is nothing more than a compilation of sounds and rhythms that give us pleasure. If we were to remove a single note from a song and hear it independently, it would cease to have the same impact. If we were to jumble the sequence of notes into a random pattern, we would probably find the results to be more annoying than satisfying. If we were to scramble the rhythm, we would quickly tune it out.

This is where logic supports faith. This is also where logic cuts both ways.

Logic says that music serves no fundamental purpose. Hearing and recognizing sounds can certainly be a benefit. It would come in handy if you heard and recognized the sound of a predator sneaking up behind you. Music has no such noble function.

That same logic suggests that the appreciation of music serves as a connection to a higher purpose. If music serves no practical function, then there must be another reason we respond to it the way we do. Perhaps that higher purpose is to link us to the Creator in a language of the spirit realm.

If we reflect on our own responses to music, we would probably recognize that music is very closely tied to emotion. We experience an emotional response to love songs that enhance our feelings toward another. We mourn when a song reminds us of a lost love, a deceased loved one or another traumatic moment in our lives.

There is music of celebration, music of mourning, and music of nostalgia. Yes, there is even music of anger. Virtually every emotion can be linked to music.

Yes, the lyrics play a part in the process, but later, when we hear only the melody, we still respond to the emotional message.

We also respond to the beat or rhythm of music. If the beat is off, we find it jarring and it destroys our enjoyment of the piece. It is almost as if there is a universal rhythm or order to the universe and we need that order to satisfy our existence. When that rhythm is disrupted, it makes us uncomfortable.

While non-believers can explain away many of the natural phenomenon as functions of physics, biology or chemistry, there is no such explanation for the effect of music.

When we consider the fact that music plays no part in practical matters, we might conclude that music may have its foundation in another dimension. Perhaps it is the language of the spiritual realm that we aspire to occupy after our earthly existence.

Perhaps it is a language that knows no words.

Perhaps it is God’s native language, and we learn it throughout our lives.

Protection From Each Other

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Terry Wayne

The debate continues over whether or not there are other life forms in the universe, and whether or not they might visit our planet. Companion to this debate is the question – if there are other life forms in the universe, are they hostile or benevolent?

The science fiction writers are split on these questions. Likewise, contemporary theorists speculate on the same questions. While the theorists tend to believe that alien life forms have visited earth and aided humans in their development, the sci-fi writers are more inclined toward the view that we are at risk from interstellar visitors.

So, where how does this fit into our quest to reconcile faith and science?

When we apply our logic filter to the question, it would seem that both viewpoints have a degree of validity. If human history is any indication, the quest for power, riches, and territory is something of a universal trait. It is only within very recent history that humanity has even approached the ability to not covet his neighbor’s real estate. And that is an on-going effort that is far from accomplished.

We might also consider that, as our technology advances, we need to hone our social skills so that our technology doesn’t push us into escalated conflict. That too is an on-going, incomplete effort.

Is it possible that a Creator, who gave His creation free will, would recognize that conflict would be inevitable? Is it possible that the Creator coordinated advances in science with advances in moral and ethical standards to minimize conflict?

Perhaps the questions that arise from our intellectual evolution are a hint of God’s master plan. What better way to stave off conflict than to separate hostile parties by a distance so vast that they can never have a chance to engage?

Is it possible that the Creator would engineer the universe so that conflict between worlds was nearly impossible?

Perhaps one day our science will discover the means to bridge those vast distances. We can imagine that the ability to travel such distances would be accompanied by comparable advances in destruction ability. If so, we can only trust that God’s plan has given us the time to advance our ethics and morals to the point that interstellar conflict remains science fiction.

The logic of our existence in a vast universe makes it seem probable. Perhaps the plan all along was to protect us from each other.

Heaven’s Address

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Terry Wayne

When we speak of heaven, we look to the skies. We do so without considering that, from the earth’s surface, “up” is actually any direction in space. Only when we leave the surface of the earth do we recognize that there is no such thing as “up,” or down, east, west, etc. Heaven, then, is just “out there.”

In visualizing or understanding the concept of heaven we are handicapped by our human package of senses. We rely on our sight, hearing, touch and other senses to experience and understand the world we inhabit. When it comes to heaven, we are trying to grasp the concept with those same tools, but they are insufficient.

Heaven is beyond the reach of our commonly used senses.

Most of us are comfortable with the idea that the spirit or personality exists after physical death, but we are unable to grasp the structure of that existence. We imagine heaven to be a physical place where the sun always shines and we are surrounded by beauty. We envision reuniting with our loved ones in a perfect semblance of how we choose to remember them before their passing.

Once again, we fall back on past experiences we have had using our senses. It is the only frame of reference we have. We are unable to imagine a dimension of existence that exists outside of that frame of reference just as we are unable to imagine our personal existence outside of the body we inhabit.

Perhaps the easiest way to grasp such a perplexing concept is to compare it to a person who is deaf from birth. What terminology would you use to describe music to that person? You might attempt such communication by using visual cues, but where would you even begin? How would you even define sound to someone who had never heard as much as a whisper?

This is exactly the handicap we face when trying to imagine “where” heaven exists.

It is fairly certain that God and spiritual beings inhabit a dimension that we cannot see, hear, or touch. Perhaps that dimension resonates to a vibration that our senses just can’t detect. Perhaps our earthly senses create so much background “noise” that in drowns out the subtle input of the spiritual realm.

Perhaps heaven already surrounds us.

Perhaps physical death silences all our human senses so that, freed from the din of our human existence, we can at last experience the reality of the spiritual realm.

Heaven is out there. It just can’t be experienced while we inhabit a living human form, and death is the only way in.

God’s Master Plan

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Terry Wayne

God’s master plan isn’t truly a secret – if you are paying attention. It is, however, extremely complex, and ultimately beyond human comprehension. At best, we can use our science and our logical thinking to begin to appreciate the blueprint of our existence.

Once again, we must step back from our normal view, and see the miracle of our existence from a broader perspective.

We are all guilty of taking for granted many of the things that make our existence possible. Right at the top of that list is the evolving source of energy that provides us with heat, light, and transportation.

In the earliest years of our existence, we relied upon wood fires to provide heat, light and cooking fuel. At a time when human population was dramatically less than today, nature had little problem replenishing the trees that provided firewood. A tree harvested for that purpose was easily replaced within a few years.

As the population grew, and the demand for more efficient fuel expanded, coal became the preferred resource. But coal was not as easily replaced as wood and required considerably more effort to harvest. Coal was created by the transformation of vegetable material from huge swampy forests that died and decomposed. Add heat, pressure and millions of years, and coal is eventually formed. The critical element of time means that coal is not a renewable resource within the projected existence of humanity.

The difficulty of recovering coal, and the downside of pollution and other impracticalities makes coal a resource of diminishing importance.

Enter oil and gas. Like coal, oil and gas were produced from decomposed vegetable material, also requiring heat, pressure and millions of years of time. Gradually, oil and gas replaced coal as the most practical form of fuel. Harvesting this resource required even greater technology. Also like coal, oil and gas are not a renewable resource. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Nuclear materials which power reactors, are also in limited, non-renewable form.

Our most recent resource is solar power which, while non-renewable, will probably outlive human existence.

If we reflect on the evolution of our sources of power as humanity matures, we might recognize that the evolution of our options seemed to keep pace with our population growth and technological development.

It’s almost like there was a master plan for us. It was a plan that required a sequence of events in the history of our planet that would provide what humans needed, and the timing of discovery and utilization that humans needed. It was a plan that required millions of years and a specific set of geological events to develop the final resource.

If we rule out the probability that all the necessary steps were the result of random events, we must conclude that it was a plan that could only be orchestrated by an entity that had the patience to accomplish those specific goals. It also required the one element that mankind has yet to harness – time.

It was a plan that could only be accomplished by God.

God’s First Language

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Terry Wayne

How many of us have recited the Lord’s Prayer during a church service without giving it a thought? How many of us have even considered the language we use? It is a certainty that Jesus didn’t teach his followers the Lord’s Prayer in English, Spanish, French, or any of the other languages in the world today. But, we’re talking about God here. Certainly, the Creator can communicate in all languages.

What we are even more likely to overlook is the most common language we use in most prayers. It is a language that is universal to all nationalities. It is a language no tongue has uttered, no lips have ever pronounced. It is the language we unconsciously use in our every silent prayer.

It is the language of thought.

Every word we speak, regardless of language, has a counterpart in the form of some mental image. Even those words that convey an emotion or non-physical concept have some type of image in our mental dictionary.

There is an ongoing human effort to master the ability to communicate by mental telepathy. If we step back a moment, we realize that our silent prayers are exactly that – mental telepathy with God. While we may offer our prayers in words and sentences in our minds, it is the images that those words represent that we are “transmitting” to God in that universal language.

So, how do we persuade God to put our plea to the top of His list?

The Bible is riddled with messages that promote loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul. If we apply our logic filter to these instructions, we might conclude that the emotion of love contains the power we need to employ. Most of us have experienced that power in our relationships with those in our closest circle. Whether it be a spouse, child, parent, or special friend or family member, we have had the opportunity to feel the power of the passion of real love.

If we are disappointed by God’s response to our prayer, perhaps it is because we have failed to cultivate that loving relationship with our creator.

The passion of desperation may not be sufficient if we haven’t established a foundation of loving gratitude beforehand.

Perhaps the place to start is by recognizing all the blessings we already possess and expressing our appreciation and love for the source. That is the language God may hear loud and clear.

God’s Clock

Posted on January 20, 2019 by Terry Wayne

The correct time depends on where you are. Or perhaps, it depends on who you are.

In the ongoing debate between science and faith, humanity struggles to understand the mechanics of our existence. Science has successfully dissected much of the mystery of our universe and the physics that allows it to exist. Researchers continue to advance their understanding of chemistry, biology, astronomy, and other sciences. Much of this research has resulted in life-saving knowledge that contributes to human lifespan and quality of life.

There is, however, one element of our existence that God seems to keep the secret to Himself.

Time.

Our science and engineering have enabled us to overcome and manipulate many of the forces of nature that define our world. All we have been able to do with time, however, is measure it and find ways to define it.

Somewhere in human history, we determined the time it takes for the earth to circle the sun and for the seasons to cycle. Eventually, we divided it into 12 months, each of which was comprised of approximately 30 days.

We divided each day into 24 segments we label as hours, and each hour into 60 minutes and each minute subdivided into 60 seconds. With modern technology, we can further divide each second into smaller segments.

When we apply our science to estimating the age of the earth and the evolution of life forms, we start to imagine amounts of time that vastly surpass any human experience. At that point, we begin to substitute mathematics for human experience. We then use mathematics to describe interstellar distances in terms of time to move through that distance at the speed of light.

Looking at our home planet, we estimate how much time was needed to form our world and begin the process of transforming it into the world we know.

As we embrace the concepts of planetary formation and the vast distances light travels through our universe, we come to realize that the elements of time that we know are infinitesimally small in comparison. If we think of time as a tool of God’s creative efforts, we can begin to see that human existence is barely a tick of the clock on God’s time scale.

Armed with that understanding, we may be able to understand why it seems that God does not respond to prayers or act to right what we perceive to be wrongs. If God can spend eons creating the universe we see and the world we inhabit, a single human lifespan is less than a tick of the clock, and any human suffering is even less. If human existence continues indefinitely after physical death, then our moment of suffering may be but a blink of an eye.

The passage of time as we know it is one-way only. There’s no backing up.

Perhaps God can manipulate time. Perhaps He can take us back and right those wrongs and heal those moments of suffering.

After all, He has all the time He needs.

Everything Happens for a Reason

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Terry Wayne

Everything happens for a reason. It’s a common expression and suggests a belief in a higher power. For most of us, that Higher power is God. The logical conflict comes when we try to merge the concept of free will with the idea that God coordinates events in our lives.

So what is the truth and how does it relate to our purpose in life?

This question brings to mind the occasional reports from people who claim that they have died, gone to heaven, and were sent back with the statement, “It’s not your time.” Such an experience would suggest that we may each have a mission in our life, and we remain in an earthly existence until we have fulfilled our purpose.

Which brings me to a sad story about my friend, Joseph, who took his own life at age 44. If God oversees our lives, what could possibly be a reason to allow Joseph to end his life at such a young age?

One of the more prominent stories of the Bible concerns another Joseph – the Joseph of the coat of many colors. This Joseph was a man of many talents which led to his success despite the need to overcome extreme obstacles.

My friend, Joseph, was also a man of many talents, but unlike Biblical Joseph’s flashy coat, My friend Joseph found his talents hidden by a cloak of autism. Getting to know my Joseph was a challenge because his condition made it difficult for him to interact with others. That cloak made it difficult for us to see his many colors, his many gifts.

For those of us that made the effort, getting to know Joseph was rewarding. We learned tolerance. We learned patience. We learned the meaning of persistence and courage as we witnessed Joseph’s determined effort to overcome his limitations and conquer his fears. We learned compassion for those who may be different from us.

Perhaps most importantly, we learned humility and shame as we reflected on our ignorant youth and how we treated and abused other Josephs we knew in the past.

And for all we have learned from Joseph, I say, “Thank you, Joseph”

Just as God gave the Joseph of the Bible a gift of many talents and the opportunity to use those talents, God gave my friend, Joseph a gift of a different sort of talents and a built-in obstacle to overcome. It was that obstacle that allowed him to inspire others to overcome their prejudices.

Still, we question why such a person who has taught us so much was taken from our lives. Yet we must acknowledge that it is beyond our ability to comprehend God’s purposes.

If, in fact, God has a plan or a goal for each of us, perhaps my Joseph has accomplished his mission on earth. Perhaps he has earned his reward.

If everything happens for a reason, then perhaps the reason for Joseph’s early departure is because he was due to collect his reward in heaven.

Mission accomplished, Joseph.

Enjoy your heavenly reward. You earned it.

Finding Your Gift

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Terry Wayne

It’s highly likely that most of us have had a moment when we envied the talent, skill, or success of another. We may be moved by a particular song and try to sing it ourselves, but we lack the ability to recreate the pristine notes of the artist. We may struggle to get that fastball over the plate, make that three-point basket. We may envy the skill and celebrity status of that film actor.

It seems that in every endeavor, there is someone out there who can do it better than you can. And perhaps you may wonder what “they” have that you don’t. It seems that they have a gift.

The person you admire does, in fact, have a gift. That person was born with perfect vocal cords, perfect coordination, artistic vision, or some other trait that gave them the edge in their chosen field. They were born with a gift, and so were you. The difference is that the successful were able to identify their gift and refine it to perfection.

They practiced, rehearsed, and honed that special gift.

Like them, you were born with a gift, and you need to perfect that gift to succeed. You need to fuel that gift with the one element that God has left in your hands. Passion.

Passion is the difference between dreaming and doing. Passion is what takes a skill to the professional level. Passion is the drive that causes athletes to push themselves to exhaustion. Passion means singing in the church choir and waiting tables between auditions. Passion means never giving up.

Passion is also the key to identifying your gift.

It is up to each of us to search within ourselves for that spirit of adventure or artistry that ignites our passion until we find the vehicle that was our destiny, until we finally see our gift. Then, we must use our passion to refine that gift.

Finally, we need to stoke the fires of our passion by recognizing and appreciating the source of our gift. Perhaps it is as simple as embracing those lyrics – “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.”