Christian Libertarianism, Consciousness, Paul

Minimalist Christianity

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Here’s a snippet of a conversation I had earlier today.

C: You’re a christian, so of course you believe in a disembodied consciousness.

Me: That’s a non sequitur.

C: You’ve got me beat then. I’ve never heard of God having a body before.

Me: Heard of Jesus? (John 1:14)

C: Well yes, but God was around before Jesus.

Me: Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8)

C: And that’s supposed to tell me what? That God had legs? God was the creator of the Universe, apparently, so he was around before there was any need for legs, before there even was legs.

I find it hard to get my head around the idea of a disembodied consciousness. I’m pretty sure that my consciousness can’t be disembodied and remain … conscious. As for the mind of God … I have absolutely no idea.

But I reprise this snippet of a conversation to make the point that the label ‘Christian’ makes people assume all sorts of unwarranted things. It gets annoying after a while. I’m not given to angry outbursts and acts of homicidal violence, but please don’t push your luck with, “You’re a Christian, so you must be a socialist!”

Anyway, in an apparent synchronicity, blogger Glenn Peoples posted an excellent post today on something he calls minimalist Christianity. Here are a couple of paragraphs (but do make sure to read the whole thing).

A number of times the Apostle Paul warned first century Christians about getting into foolish controversies over doctrine. This isn’t to say that they shouldn’t believe what they find most convincing about a whole range of things, but they were taking it further, making those things points of contention that threatened to divide the church. When writing to Timothy, a young church leader, Paul urged him no fewer than five times to stay away from – and to urge others to stay away from – unproductive quarrels over such things. But this is what really grabbed my attention recently, prompting this blog post: When Paul was in Athens preaching the Gospel, a number of philosophers asked him to come and speak to them because, here it comes, they wanted to know what the Christian faith was. They were accustomed to examining different worldviews but they had not yet heard of Christianity, so they said to Paul, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean” (Acts 17:19-20). Every evangelist and apologist reading this passage should be on the edge of their seat: They are about to get a bona fide New Testament example of what it actually looks like to sum up the Christian faith. And what does Paul say? I assume that Luke’s record is not intended to be verbatim, and only sums up what he thought was important (which in a way helps me to make the point even clearer). Here’s the whole talk as recorded in Acts 17

Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Every time I have made this observation, I have been met with almost immediate misunderstanding, so let me labour the point: Nothing that I have said here implies that Christians should believe as few things as possible – or even that it’s a good thing to only believe the bare essentials. I think holding a lot of bad theology is bad for you. It has “knock on” effects into other things you believe and do. When I talk about theology at the blog and podcast, hopefully I make it obvious that I do care about what I believe – and what others believe too – beyond the bare essentials (just as a dietician cares about what you eat beyond the bare necessities needed to keep you alive). There is much growth, intellectually, spiritually and practically, in moving beyond the bare essentials of Christian thought and into the riches of biblical theology. But I have become convinced of this: The acceptance of the Christian faith does not require that anyone shares your convictions (however important they might be to you) on everything you believe that you have found among those riches.

The post in its entirety is well worth reading. Thanks, Glenn.

Here’s some further reading.

I am a Christian
Jesus, Jesus, what’s it all about?
Contentious Christians (exploring the faith)
What if I strongly disagree? … (explorefaith.org)
Christian Agnosticism (Beliefnet Forums)

P.S. Don’t expect Paul’s advice not to get into “foolish controversies over doctrine” to be taken much notice of around here!

Black Sabbath, Intellectual Property, Intelligent Design, Old Testament, Property

Nothing new under the sun

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What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?

It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them. (NIV)

Intellectual Property, Property

Boy takes swing at US patents

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Boy takes swing at US patents

A five-year-old kid from Minnesota has patented a way of swinging on a child’s swing. The US Patent Office issued patent 6,368,227 on 9 April to Steven Olson of St Paul, Minnesota for a “method of swinging on a swing”. Olson’s father Peter is a patent attorney.

The award has generated a mixture of chuckles and frustration at an overworked patent system unable to catch absurd applications. The patent covers moving a swing side to side or in an oval pattern. Children can get bored by swinging back and forth, or by twisting the swing to make it spin, the patent says.

“A new method of swinging on a swing would therefore represent an advance of great significance and value,” it reads. Olson’s alternative is to pull on one chain at a time, so the swing moves towards the side being pulled.

Peter Olson told New Scientist: “I had told him that if he invented something he could file a patent.” His son had not seen sideways swinging because the swings at his school are closely spaced, so he asked his father to file the application.

The patent office initially rejected the application for prior art – citing two earlier patents on swings – but Peter Olson appealed, noting that neither was a method for swinging sideways. The patent was then issued.

The US swing patent does not match an Australian patent on the wheel for sheer absurdity. However, in that case, an Australian lawyer was able to sneak the wheel patent through a fast-track application system. The US patent went through the full application procedure.

Peter Olson says he was not trying to prove anything, just show his son how inventions and patents work. The Australian lawyer who received a patent on the wheel was trying to point out how poorly the system operated.

The US Patent Office says it does not comment on individual patents, leaving it unclear how such an obvious idea won approval. A spokeswoman did say that the patent office uses a legalistic definition of obviousness: “That is not necessarily the conventional definition.”

The swing patent could face reconsideration at the request of the inventor, third parties, or the patent director.

When the laughter stops, silly patents filed by individuals are less a problem than trivial ones filed by large corporations, says Gregory Aharonian, publisher of the Internet Patent News.

As an example, he cites US patent 6,329,919, a business-method patent issued in December 2001 to four IBM developers for a system that issues reservations for using the toilet on an aeroplane.

Intellectual Property, Intelligent Design, Property

Lawyer moves to patent wheel

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Lawyer moves to patent wheel

An Australian man has registered a patent for a “circular transportation facilitation device” – more commonly known as the wheel.

Melbourne patent lawyer John Keogh said he registered the patent to show flaws in an intellectual property law that came into effect in May, the Australian newspaper The Age reported.

The new law established the “innovation patent” system, which Mr Keogh said did not require sufficient oversight from the patent office.

The new innovation patent can be prepared without professional help and only requires claimants to show “innovation”, not “invention”.

Mr Keogh said it represented the government caving in to claimants who said it was too expensive to obtain a standard patent.

“The government decided to find a way to issue a patent more easily,” he said.

“The patent office would be required to issue a patent for anything. All they’re doing is putting a rubber stamp on it.”

But Commissioner of Patents Vivienne Thom said: “To obtain the patent the applicant must make a declaration that they are the inventor.

“Obtaining a patent for the wheel would require a false claim, which would certainly invalidate the patent,” she added.

Compulsion, Democracy, Freedom, Hell, Nanny State, Propaganda, Slashing Bureaucracy, Slavery, Socialism, State Rape, Tax, Totalitarianism, Tyranny

Spawn of Satan… The Forked Tongue of John Key.

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Who ever believed John Key when he promised to deliver a budget surplus by 2015?
Only Chumps!

Via spin in the media we are told John Key now says that the global meltdown in Europe threatens to ‘delay’ his promises of a Budget surplus … Yet I say *This is Bullshit* fit only to be swallowed by dung beetles!
Why?
Because we all knew there was a major meltdown in progress at the very moment he made his Bullshit claims!
This Crisis is not a new Crisis… it’s the same crisis!
*Key and the National party are a bunch of dirty Politic-ing LIARS!*
Who voted for these vermin?
While I think a Key/ English zero-increase in expenditure is much better than a Labour/Shearer Big spend up ‘stimulus’… The truth is debt will still be increasing at the current criminal rate! (400 million per week).

Wail o ye Pitiful souls!
What? You say that you were forced to choose between The greater or lesser evils?
*YE FOOLS!*
The truth is you have had Honest Libertarians on your Ballots for over a decade!
Yes! I refer to those Pesky Seers of ‘Economic Hellfire and Socialist damnation’ you spurned as ‘Nut bars’… the Fringe dwellers the Media ignored… they were right… they are still right!
The Global meltdown is a Giant testimony to the Failure of socialism and the Regulated Economy!

That Millions sit with baited breath awaiting ‘the Budget’… as if awaiting a proclamation from Almighty God Just goes to show how politically enslaved….How deceived …. How un-self reliant the entire country has become!
In reality… if we were a healthy nation of free and self reliant people, The Government Budget ought to be of minor significance… Not as it is today… a matter of life and death!
This is a testimony to the tyranny and Nannyism We have accepted.
It is a testimony to our slavish / childish / pathetic worship of Little Gods Like Key and Shearer… at whose feet we grovel!
What a shameful pathetic people we have become!
Will you continue to swallow their filthy lies rather than face the truth?
We Must stop borrowing Money to feed the Beast!
We Must slit Nannys scaly throat and Liberate Lady Liberty from her Gulag!
We must Man up!
We must Slay the Beast for our children’s sake…and Face the world as freemen!
Lest you sell your children to Satan!
How can Freedom be any worse than this?… You are slaves of fear!
When will you realise that Big Government is millstone shackled around our necks?
When will you grasp the truth that the font of prosperity is not centralised political power… but the industry of a free and enterprising self-reliant people?
Tim Wikiriwhi.

John

Rebooted

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Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (NIV)

Compulsion, Labour Party, Nanny State, Propaganda, Slashing Bureaucracy, Socialism

Salesman Selling Flies… David Shearer

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NZ Labour Leader David Shearer may not want to sell State assets, but He sells BULLSHIT by the truck load!

Go Read this:

Zero Budget means zero growth – Shearer

Here we have the Big Lie!
Ie That Big Spending Government is the source of Prosperity.
Shearer thinks he can spend your money more wisely than you can!
He thinks if he was elected PM that would give him the right to sink you deeper in debt.

Yet This bullshit is music to the Ears of those whom suck off the state tit and are today faced with mass redundancy and being kicked off welfare.
These are the Parasites whom throw fire bombs at protests against austerity.
They violently reject Reality… the reality that they have sucked the productive sector to death… And Shearer sees Power in pandering to their Lunacy.
This evil bastard is playing the same fiddle as the new French President used to get elected

This Idea of Big spending ‘stimulus’ is a Failure which ends up creating more poverty and debt not jobs and growth.
This is the lesson we ought to have learned from Barack Obama.. who also won the American Presidency by promoting Stimulus instead of Austerity.
While he did included some Tax relief they were nullified because instead of being accompanied with austerity He … ” “Unfortunately, the trillion-dollar spending plan authored by congressional Democrats is chock full of government programs and projects, most of which won’t provide immediate relief to our ailing economy,” House Republican Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) said yesterday in his party’s response address.”

Thus It Failed.
” On this day in 2009, President Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill into law.
Three years and $825 billion later, the results are clear. Instead of producing an economic recovery, the stimulus produced only broken promises and massive debt. The stimulus failed—and by the president’s own standards at that.”

As time passes, the math on Obama’s stimulus plan gets worse — even if you accept the most optimistic analysis of how many jobs it has created.

David Shearer is counting on the wooly headed sheeple of New Zealand not to aprehend what a monumental failure Barack Obama Big spending interventions have proven to be.

The reality is We must now endure a period of pain to pay for all the overspending of decades of Shearer type socialism… The longer Austerity is postponed… the longer and greater will be the recovery.
Libertarians around the Globe have known this time of reckoning was coming. They have tireless worked to prevent it, yet to no avail. The sheeple thought they were getting a free ride… a free lunch…
Wrong Bet Morons!
Its time to pay the Piper!
If your children suffer today it is because you sold them out!
We must slay the Beast!
Kill That King Kong Socialist Gorilla on our Backs… not keep feeding the Freak!
We need to downsize Government.
We need to remove heavy Taxation.
We need to removed burdensome Regulations and compliance cost.

Easy Listening

Power

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In the beginning was the Mash-Up.

Wikipedia says

[John Oswald’s] 1975 track “Power” married frenetic Led Zeppelin guitars to the impassioned exhortations of a Southern US evangelist years before hip hop discovered the potency of the same (and related) ingredients.

Amen!

Give me Liberty, or give me Death!