I note that Lao Tzu describes God as “Tao” (translated as the “Way”). I further note that Lao Tzu says that Tao could be called “the Mother of all things”. And finally, Lao Tzu gives Tao the name “The Great”. This is a profound chapter from the Tao Te Ching.

I am eager to provide this analysis, because it helps to solidify my understanding on these issues. To explain these things as you (Matt) have asked is a real blessing to me. I deeply appreciate the questions that you asked last fall. I keep these things in my mind and try to work through my understanding as I go about my day’s activities, and that is one reason it takes me some time to respond. I feel these things in my soul.
The Trinity issue is extremely important for disciples of Jesus to understand. I am afraid that too many believers in Jesus’ divinity, don’t understand what exactly, they believe. It is daunting to sit down with a Muslim, who is vehemently monotheistic, and explain how One God equates to a Father, Holy Spirit, and Son. The confusion for the Muslim is usually magnified by the power of three, in the disciple of Christ.

The nature of the three individuals of God, also explains another issue for which most Christians are uncomfortable in discussing.

The fact that God can forgive ANY sin is Amazing. It is Amazing Grace, to be precise.

Christ can transform men and women in miraculous ways.

Yet, Jesus tells us in Mark 3:28-29, “I assure you that any sin can be forgiven, including blasphemy; but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. It is an eternal sin.”

Let me say it…, Nuance & Paradox of God. I am advocating a Theology of Nuance.
God can forgive any sin and blasphemy except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
There are NO “hard and fast rules” with God.
Innocence is not determined by strictly following God’s Law and guilt is not determined by “technically” breaking God’s Law (Mt 5:27-30 & Mt 12:1-14). We are disciples of a God who demands a very loose Theology of Nuance.

I want to explain how my understanding of the individual character functions for the Trinity, will shed light on the Father’s inability to forgive blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Look below at the description for how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit function. I had this in the post of March 19, 2007.

1. The Father is executive. He is the planner. He sets the vision. His will be done. He administrates the purpose. He is the Captain of the ship. He is the General of the Army.
2. The Son is the labor. He is the active. He fulfills the vision. He completes the will of the executive. He is the XO for the Captain of Ship. He is the Cavalry and Infantry and Armor of the Army.
3. The Holy Spirit is the material supply chain. He produces & provides the power. He is the materiel supply line. He delivers the fuel to the Armor. He delivers ammunition to the Infantry. He provides counsel and support to the wounded. He is the Navy Corpsman & Army Combat Field Medic.

Now let me make a point from carnal brutality and violence of war. In war, Navy Corpsman & Army Combat Field Medics, will always have insignia on their helmets and arms, indicating their role and position in the battle. They are never supposed to be targeted by combat personnel, nor are they ever supposed to be exploited for combat purposes. It is an “unforgivable” sin to target non-combatant medical personnel. It is also an “unpardonable” sin to use them, hospitals, and ambulances for combat functions. This is in our human psyche. We feel it in our bones. It makes emotional sense, even while we cannot explain it rationally.
This is from God.
This is the design of our Creator.

The Holy Spirit is utterly defenseless in our spiritual battle with the demons and our adversary, Satan.
Just as when the Navy Corpsman steps onto the battle field where mortars are going off just a few meters away, he does not take up a rifle, because he has a nobler calling. So long as he is in an ambulance with a bright Red Cross, he is without protection. So long as he has a bright Red Cross on his helmet and arm band, he is acting as the symbolic equivalent God’s Holy Spirit.
When you take aim on the Army Combat Field Medic, you are shooting at the symbolic representation of He, who is the “Breath of Life” in the nostrils’ of “Adam”, i.e. Humankind. Genesis 2:7

• “And the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And the man became a living person.”

What do you have…, if you take aim at the very “breath of life”? Your heart is beyond repair.

God bless,
DSM

Humans do not suffer mysteries easily. This point has been unstated, but integral to most of my essays for the last month.

We are unable to let go of mysteries. If we see a car that has a “vanity” licence plate, we go insane trying to figure out what the thing means. So long as the car is in front of us, we will ponder the mystery of the unique order of the symbols, until the car turns or we figure it out, e.g. “LISINSPL8″ for licence plate.

The problem with denying God, is that the evidence for Him is everywhere we turn. So, God’s automobile is always before us, with the licence plate that says “GODSPACE”.

Therefore, if we tell ourselves that God is not driving the car, we are left with a big problem.

If He is not in the drivers seat who is?

We will fill the drivers seat with a “new faith.” Because the fact that we observe a “creation”, necessarily requires the existence of a “Creator” or a creator.

This “New belief/faith” has tangible tenets, which are set in the form of an implied creed, no less than any other religion that we might observe in our world.

Let’s briefly consider a portion of the canon of this religion, which is called Secular Humanism.

To become an adherent in the Religious Order of Secular Humanism one must adhere to the following TENETS of the Faith Please tell me if you think these are straw-man arguments. It is not my intent to spar with an imagined foe of truth. This list is my own creation, and is based on my personal struggles with faith.)

• 1. Disavow the God of Creation.
• 2. Disavow Jesus the Son of the God of Creation
• 3. Disavow all matters, which might imply, infer, or otherwise direct the Human consciousness to the possibility of a spiritual dimension. (In other words the only real Universe is the physical Universe.)
• 4. Accept the Physical Sciences as the only way to true Human Enlightenment. (Except when the Physical Sciences discover physical evidence, which might imply, infer, or otherwise direct the Human consciousness to the possibility of a spiritual dimension. In these cases refer to Tenet 3, 2, and 1 in that order and then have a bourbon & soda as due penance.)
• 5. Utterly Ignore the Theological Implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In other words the Religious Order of Secular Humanism must acknowledge the truth of the Second Law of Thermodynamics for the sole purpose of TENET 4, while at the same time denying that the statement “Any system which is free of external influences becomes more disordered with time. This disorder can be expressed in terms of the quantity called entropy.” has any bearing on the fact of the existence of a Creator.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics actually DEMANDS the existence of a Creator.

Look at the hyper linked language above in tenet #5.
· Our Universe should, to any rational mind, qualify as “Any system.”
· God Almighty, the Creator should, also to any rational mind, qualify as an “external influence.”

How might any system (a.k.a. our Universe) become more ordered without an external influence (a.k.a a Creator)? And still be in harmony with the Second Law of thermodynamics? Any ideas…?

I am waiting for an answer!

I have not received one.

Is there any rational Secular Humanist who will dare answer this?

I will wait and see.

Yet, the sciences tell us that there was a “big bang” that brought all visible order, e.g. galaxies, stars, planets, molecules, atoms, neutrons, protons, electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and now branes. All of this physical matter makes up everything that is observed in creation, including you and me.

Am I the only one who has noticed that our Universe/system is very very very ordered?

It is simply blind faith that leads anyone to disavow God, for this god of random luck. Try making a “big bang” and see how much order you get. As a kid I loved making small and big bangs with firecrackers. My purpose was not to achieve order, but rather I was in it for the chaos principle. I hoped to turn an ordered cardboard box into an vast pile of chaotic confetti.

Is it necessary to take this illustration any further? Need I tell you that I never once produced a ROLEX Chronograph timepiece with my “Black Cats” and “M-80s”? Or did you already guess that?

Never once, did I produce a Siamese cat from my “Black Cat” firecrackers. Did you guess that too? My…, you are presumptuous! Or maybe you are just following logic and evidence.

Folks, please remember that our solar system’s Sun has coalesced in an order that is so envied by the energy producers of our world that it would be revolutionary (Divine) if we could reproduce it.

Look at this quote about the order required for “Nuclear Fusion” of our Sun from the scientist Russ George in March 1999.

• “The number of people working in this field around the world has in fact declined from about 1,000 to around 100, because the reaction is very elusive. Cold nuclear fusion is not an invention, but a phenomenon of nature, which is very energetic. Nature, however, does not seem to use it on a very large scale, and the reaction is not normally seen as very robust or easily reproducible.”

Please, if you would permit me to paraphrase this quote,

• ‘Fewer and fewer scientists are venturing into this field, because we are finally beginning to realize the amount of “external influence” that is required to produce a sustainable and ordered “cold nuclear fusion” reaction. We are concluding that only a Creator can do this in an easily reproducible way and on the quantitative scale that is observed in all galaxies.’

My point, Matt, is that the universe is a very big mass of order, that is moving toward chaos and disorder, just as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, unambiguously, states. If it were not so, then our science would be useless to us. We depend on the Laws of Physics to sustain our continuing expansion of knowledge. If I can show a single example of disorder spontaneously moving to a state of order, then the Laws of Physics will collapse. Yet, that is what the religion of Secular Humanism states as a matter of faith.

It is really no different than if I can show a single example of dropping a brick and it floating into space. If this were to occur, the physical Law of Gravity would be dashed to oblivion. We are fools to claim that we can suspend various laws of physics for a single instant, just so that we can take comfort in killing God. We kill science if we do this, and still God will remain.

To disbelieve a Creator demands that I believe an absolute contradiction in the Laws of Physics.

Science, on this score, proves that the Religious Order of Secular Humanists, also known, as atheists could just as credibly claim that “Up is down and East is West.”

I do believe science is valid. Science confirms my faith in the Creator many times every day.

• Scientists however, let me down many times every week.
• They sometimes lie, just as I have done.
• They, are blinded by personal biases, just as I am inclined to be.
• They act and respond, with incongruity, to the science for which they prove and attest.
• They are human, just as am I. God bless them, they are as helpless as you or I, when we are acting outside of the Creator’s Laws.

I have no problems with Science per se, after all, the Laws of Science were established by the Creator.

So, you can see how my thoughts flow. I was faced with these irreconcilable TENETS in Secular Humanism, and yet, still I was obliged to “Believe” in something far less credible.

I couldn’t get away from this fact. Belief is compulsory for all human philosophy, even “Non-belief.”

Would I feel more complete by embracing a religion that is devoid of sincerity?

Mind you, I am not saying that this is a reason to trust in the Creator (that will come latter in my answer), but it is certainly a good reason to distrust the Secular Humanist’s veracity and good faith. (Pun intended.)

TO BE CONTINUED…

God Bless,

DSM