Playing Catch Up: Atheism, Predestination, Books, Music, Mice and Governmental Spheres
On Saturday, August 6, 2005, some guy named Alex Harris started a blog called Conscientious Contemplation, with this as his first post.
I probably should have started this some time ago… As it stands now, I have a lot to catch you up on. Because of this, I will not be discussing each topic at the depth that I would like. As a further note, please forgive me for being URL happy on my first post. I should calm down, somewhat, within a few months.
To begin, I would really like to get my two latest writing projects (the first a practical and philosophical critique of atheism and the second a nearly 10,000 word argument for the Calvinist doctrine of predestination) on here, but I haven’t figured out a way to host them where they can be downloaded. I’ll let you know when I do.
More recently my primary focus has been a semi-intense reading plan my father put together for Brett and I, the details of which are outlined below:
Current Reading:
‘Future Grace’ by John Piper
‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree’ by Thomas L. Friedman
‘America and Vietnam’ by Albert Marrin
‘Winning the Future’ by Newt Gingrich
Completed Reading:
‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell
‘Joshua Generation’ by Michael Farris
‘The Radical Reformission’ by Mark Driscoll
‘The Fabric of the Cosmos’ by Brian Greene
‘The Enemy Within’ by Kris Lungaard
‘The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination’ by Loraine Boettner
‘God’s Lesser Glory’ by Bruce A. Ware
Coming Up:
‘The Underground History of American Education’ by John Taylor Gatto
‘The Harsh Truth About Public Schools’ by Bruce Shortt
‘The World is Flat’ both by Thomas L. Friedman
‘The Most Real Being’ by J.A. Crabtree
Suffice to say that the great wealth of knowledge that my mind is being forced to digest is having a profoundly positive effect on my overall understanding and awareness of the world around me. Philosophy class (coupled with my own theological study and my current reading) has really served to connect a myriad of things in my mind.
Moving on: In the world of music we are currently enamored with the British band Keane. The trios unusual makeup of only piano, drums, and vocals makes them unique by itself, but their musical talent and maturity is what sets them apart, in my opinion. Their album ‘Hopes and Fears‘ is one of the few where you come to love every track.
As a random fact, I wish I could get one of these, even though I have a laptop.
To conclude, I recently read Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker’s dissenting opinion in a child custody case that has been making headlines recently among the legal and judicial community. The attention is due to several unique aspects of the decision. First, 7 of the 9 justices wrote opinions on the case (unheard of numbers). And second, several justices made multiple references to Scripture to support their decisions. However, it was Justice Parker’s lone dissent that I found most compelling and true to both the Founder’s intent and biblical teaching on governmental spheres of authority. The AP article on the decision can be found here. Fellow blogger Chad Degenhart links to the full text of Justice Parker’s opinion and includes a few (though not all) of the more relevant excerpts here.
There you have it: a highly condensed summary of my recent contemplations. Soli Deo Gloria
Two days later (August 8, 2005) Alex was pleased to announce the availability of his most recent writing projects (mentioned above):1.) A Practical and Philosophical Dissertation on Atheism
2.) A Treatise Regarding the Supposed Incompatibility of the Divine Sovereignty and the Human Will
March 25th, 2006 at 3:50 am
FYI, The link to the treatise on predestination leads to an unformatted page of text. I look forward to reading it.
March 25th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Thanks for bringing that to my attention, Bryce. The link should work now. The problem was that it did not have the .doc extension on the end. If you changed that, even on the previously linked file, it works.
March 25th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Really interesting stuff Alex, I wish I had been reading the stuff you are when I was a teen. I was wondering about stuff you wrote about in your papers (and maybe you’ve gotten feedback on this stuff originally, I don’t know)–you argued for the rejection of atheism because of its failure in the categories of experiencing reality, and of logical consistency. But wouldn’t you say that in many ways our experience of the issue of the will, and the logic of the calvinist position don’t seem consistent? In the sense that we can’t get outside our will to observe it objectively and its experience of decision making, and also that the calvinist position of allowing divine sovereignty and human responsibility to both stand at the same time is technically illogical? It just seems to me that with many things in the bible we can’t produce an appropriate algorithm for the entire issue in words and so sometimes its odd to reject something because of its lack of logic (like with atheism).
March 26th, 2006 at 1:57 am
Alex, thank you for fixing the link. After reading your well-written treatise, I decided to link over to it. It thoroughly expresses truth on a subject which is so often misunderstood. Thanks for sharing it.
March 28th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
My mother got to go and hear John Taylor Gatto speak; she really liked him.
May 27th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Hey Alex!
I don’t know if you remember me, but I met you and Brett at the CO National Open tournament last year. I had a question about your article on predestination. Would you say that Jesus only died for those he predestined, or the entire world? Thanks!
-Hannah Buell
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Alex,
Your artile on predestination was very thought-provoking. My family has recently been discussing some of these issues and have listened to some of John Pipers sermon’s on Calvinism, free will, predestination, etc.. I would say that I agree with your article as a whole but there were a couple parts that I would slightly disagree on. In section 5 of the article, you said:
“A father often knows how his son will act under given circumstances and by controlling these he determines beforehand the course of action that the son follows, yet the son acts freely. If the father plans that the son shall be a doctor, he gives him encouragement along that line, persuades him to read certain books, to attend certain schools, and thus presents the necessary inducements so that his plan works out. In the same manner and to an infinitely greater extent, our omniscient and omnipotent God controls our actions so that they are certain although we act freely. His decree does not produce the event, but only renders its occurrence certain… ”
However, if the son really had free will. He would have the option of choosing not to become a doctor. Free will means that we always have the ability to do the opposite. Yet as Jonathan Edwards said we always act according the strongest inclination at the moment. So I believe this would mean that man really doesn’t have true free will. Because as in the analogy, the son would want to become a doctor yet he couldn’t choose otherwise because being a doctor would be his strongest inclination. Man is either a slave to sin or a slave to God. If a man is a slave to sin, he cannot please God (Rom 8:8). Yet I do not believe this makes man irresponsible. Erwin Lutzer said in his book, The Doctrines That Divide,
“…. Fallen man acts voluntarily but not freely. There is a distinction. Freedom always means the ability to do the opposite – if man were really free, he could choose to live a completely righteous life on his own, or at least he could choose Christ on his own. But he cannot, so he is not free. But he does act voluntarily, that is, he acts according to his desires; he does whatever he wants to do. An alcoholic may not be free to quit drinking – he lacks free will in respect to this habit. Though his is not free, he does act voluntarily – he goes to the bar simply because he wants to. Fallen man therefore is largely self-determined; he is not forced into doing evil by external forces but does so voluntarily…The evil man’s desires arise out of his own heart.”
Therefore I would say that instead of trying to find a nice sounding way of combining free will with God’s soverignity. We should accept that man does not have true “free” will, but he is still responsible for his sins, beause that is the way God decreed. Romans 9:19-21, “One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?’ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lunp of clay some for noble purposes and some from common use?”
Sorry, for such a long comment. But these were just some of my thoughts.
CJ