We Need God to Exist!

The other day I came across two stories in the newspaper, one was about this mother who had to called the police because she couldn't get her son to stop playing video games. The police men came to the residence and persuaded the boy to stop playing and go to bed. The boy was playing Grand Theft Auto. So many things are amazing about this story, one, that the boy was addicted to this game, two, that the mother had no control over her child, and three, that the police men actually responded to the call.

The second story is about these paramedics who were sitting in a restaurant on break. While they were there, a pregnant woman collapsed on to the ground. When asked to help the paramedics said they were on break and that the people should call 911. They then left the restaurant without doing anything. I think it's obvious what's incredible about this story, the complete lack of compassion on the paramedics part even to the point where they would not call 911. Oh and you should know that the women died later at the hospital.

I wish I had more details on these stories because that would be nice, one could easily say that police officers should respond to more calls like the one from the mother because we all know that they would just be sitting in their car otherwise. But that's not the point of this post. In addition, one could say that the pregnant women would have died anyways and that if the paramedics didn't take their break at that time then later in the day they wouldn't have been able to respond to another emergency. Yet again, that is not the point of this post. The point is that human being can have little to no dignity or purpose in life if we let ourselves fall to that level. Many of use are consumed by video games just like the boy in the first story, we gauge our happiness on what level our wizard is and whether or not he has the magic needed to defeat the undead legions attacking the city. I don't think much more has to be said to realize that that is a sad existence.

Now the paramedics show another characteristic that blankets all of mankind, that being selfishness. They decided that their coffee break was of more value than the woman's life. It's sickening to see how much we can only think of ourselves at the cost of others. Again I need not explain this more, but if you need more examples just go to your nearest coffee shop and act as you usually do and you will be your own example, whether it be by cutting someone off on your way there, or not holding the door open for the person with a coffee in each hand, or by sitting at a table meant for four people.

So somehow these two stories made me think of how in the great debate of whether God exists or not we really need Him to exist. Why? Because if God exists as the Bible says He does than we all have purpose. We are called to be more than video game players and heartless paramedics. If we all knew without a doubt that we were created in the likeness of God wouldn't we live a life more exciting than the mundane routine we call life now?

Atheists and evolutionists sometimes argue that why can't the purpose of existence simply be to exist? Why does meaning and worth have to come into it? Well this seems to be a valid argument except for that they just made their own statement meaningless by saying their lives are meaningless and that if we lived solely to exist wouldn't human history be marked more by apathy than ambition? What I mean is if we are alive to simple live then why would people strive to be great? Why attempt great things? Why push the envelope? Why risk death? Why sacrifice for others? Instead of just doing everything in life so that you just get by. After all, being alive is easy, it is truly having life at is hard. The reason we see this drive to be great is because we all are hardwired to do this. Whether we believe in God or not we are still made to pursue greatness. Why would we have childhood dreams if we are not completely capable of pursuing them? I'm not saying you will be an astronaut if you dreamed of being one but you are fully capable of chasing after that dream and you have the determination to do it. If we simply existed for the sake of existence what would serve as the heart felt determination to chase your dreams? The answer is nothing, you can't live for nothing but want to be something. It is because we all know deep down inside that we are meant to do great things that we actually do great things. And that innate feeling is from God. Even the most extreme atheists live by this, their life long determination to disprove the existence of God is fueled by the heart God put in them. And why is this from God? How can I make that jump from determination to be something great to mean that God exists? This can be said because if we actually live for a purpose then something had to give us that purpose, even evolution cannot explain why we work in jobs that pay next to nothing yet we do them because we love them. Evolution cannot explain why people sacrifice themselves for others. So if survival of the fittest cannot give us this purpose then faith or religion does. And the God of the Bible calls us to pursue a life of purpose. We still have the ability to be aim low and be video game players and self centered paramedics but God has given us the ability to be even more, to follow our dreams, to live in joy instead of complacency.

Don't Tweet About This

We are all aware of Twitter and peoples opinions of it are pretty black and white. You either hate it or love it. I for one hate it and will explain why but I find myself contradicting my views already simply by writing on this blog because after all Twitter is merely a micro-blog. My only justification for writing this is that it has meaning while Tweets about just arriving at work or having a doctors appointment are meaningless.

We are curiously entering a day and age when actually human contact is not needed nor is it necessarily wanted. We are friends on Facebook with people we have never met in person and we text our best friends more than we actually talk to them. And with most of our communication being via text, email, Facebook chat, or Tweet we are losing our ability to communicate in person. Case in point, look at most teens when they are out on a date, they sit there in silence and just stare at their food or date. If it were socially acceptable I'm sure they would text their date from across the table. Another example would be that now we are more aware than ever of "awkward" situations or silences. But five years ago none of us were doing the awkward turtle, no one was turning their head to their friend and whispering "awkward" when there was a prolonged silence. Why has all this changed? Well for one, there wasn't the amount of awkward silence in social settings in the past, back then we all knew how to carry a conversation. And also now with there being awkward silences we don't know how deal with them so now we just make a hand gesture like the awkward palm tree and all is well because now the awkward silence is now the focus of the setting.

Now back to Twitter, the use of Twitter marks the death of friendship. Sure some Twitter users do it for advertising, like bands, ok that's fine. And sure some users still have friends but not many who really care. Just look at how people respond to depressed posts. Like when someone has a status that says "Tomorrow can't come soon enough, today was horrible." And then you get the person's so called friends commenting on it saying "Aw, what happened?" "I hope everything is all right." Can't we realize that if any of these people were really our friends then they would actually call us to find out what was going on and not leave it up to you to respond to them. A little disclaimer is that I am forming this opinion off of Facebook use since I don't have Twitter. We have become reliant on the self affirmation that comes from posting your life on the web. Thus we become Facebook and Twitter exhibitionists and share every detail of our lives in hopes that someone will comment on it and give us the feeling that someone actually cares. One of the funniest things about Twitter is that no one actually cares about what other people are doing. You don't really care to know that your 'friend' found a parking spot, you actually couldn't care less. But you then still insist on putting up a post after you have had the best donut ever. Even though your friends, just like you, don't care. We feel the need to broadcast out lives to the world so that some how our mediocre lives seem worthy of attention.

So what to do now... what we should do is delete our Twitter accounts and stop looking to Facebook to define our relationships. Just the other day, my girlfriend and I were at the symphony and this married couple was sitting in front of use and both of them were checking their Facebook on their phones. Are you freaking serious?! Talk to you wife you idiot, you brought her to the symphony and now your just gonna sit there? And don't update your status to "at the symphony", the only person that cares is sitting right next to you updating their status too. Seeing this very much saddened me, that even romance has lost its place in life to electronic social networking. Later that night that guy probably text his wife to turn of the light on her nightstand since he was trying to sleep. Pathetic.

Thanks... for nothing.

I meant to write this post some time ago but I just never got around to it. As if it wasn't obvious already, I noticed even more this year just how worldly many American's are.

Every year families get excited about Thanksgiving and what it means. People get excited about time with family, big meals, good stories, and giving thanks for what they have. Even the least grateful of people will find themselves taken over by the spirit of the holiday and give thanks for everything they have been blessed with. In addition, families with little to no religious tendencies in their lives will find themselves praying before their Thanksgiving meal. I gives me so much hope to see how families respond to this holiday. I begin to think that there is a chance that our society is not solely based on immediate gratification and material goods.

But this thought is quickly crushed within only a days time. That is because the day following Thanksgiving is of course Black Friday. Our thankfulness for life and family does not even last the night and we rush to the stores as early at 4am. Only a day after we realize that happiness can be found in simply sharing a meal and a few hours with one ones we love, we quickly return to our old ways of trying to buy our happiness. It's sickening to see how quickly we can shift from being satisfied with knowing we are loved by our families to becoming a sale-seeking monster.

Now there are those who say, "What if I'm just getting up that early to find the best deal." or "Why can't I show that I love my family by getting them what they want for Christmas?" Those statements are justified and I can't lump everyone into the same category but I think it would be beneficial for you to honestly critique your intentions. Do you really have to leave your husband alone in bed at 4am to get him the DVD player he wants? I doubt it. So I do acknowledge that gift giving is a love language, but as with all things, it is best in moderation. Plus, hardly ever do we have only one love language.

With this all said may Thanksgiving be a time marked with love for family and friends and only that. Keep the commercialism out of it.