Author Archives: dcarr

Faith and the Super Bowl

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Having just moderated a debate between an atheist, a rabbi, and a Methodist minister over the proposition: “You don’t need God to be good.” (You don’t.), I am still compelled to consider the question of faith. I took license to not only moderate the debate, but to serve as the Devil’s Advocate (“Why be good at all?”).

None of the speakers took the bait. But that leads to the question of faith. The best question of the night went to the atheist: “Since you can’t prove the non-existence of God, aren’t you still acting on faith?” Skilled debater that he was, the atheist filled the air with some clap-trap, but the question resonated.

Later in the debate, the atheist allowed that he might be wrong on his position, and upon meeting God, he would ask Him why all the bad events were permitted, and then the atheist might consider forgiving God. Hmmm. Does that suggest who the atheist’s God really is?

As the Devil’s Advocate, I might suggest that my “client” would readily approve of such a position. So it seems faith can’t be avoided. You either have faith in God, or you have faith in “no God” which may be a whole lot more convenient, but not more intellectually compelling. Stephen King, the horror writer, once had one of his protagonists, in the novel “IT”, utter this phrase: “Given all the wonders in this world, it takes a whole lot more effort to not believe God, than to believe in God.”

True? I lean toward both Pascal’s Wager, and the beliefs of Christian Mysterians, and now I also line up with Stephen King. In the sweet by, and by, we will know. “Now we see but through a glass dimly, now we know in part, then we shall know in full, just as we are fully known.” I Corinthians 13:12

Perhaps it all stands more perverse than that. Consider the words of Father Zossima in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov:

Never be frightened at your own faint-heartedness in attaining love. Don’t be too frightened even at your evil actions. I’m sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.

Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in sight of all. Men will even give their lives, if only the ordeal doesn’t last too long. But it’s soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on a stage.

But active love is labor and fortitude and for some people, too, perhaps a complete science. But I predict just when you see with horror, that in spite of all your efforts, you are getting further from your goal instead of nearer to it–at that very moment–I predict that you will reach it and behold clearly the miraculous power of the Lord who has been all the time loving you and mysteriously guiding you.

Which brings me to the Super Bowl. My sons and I attended the 2007 Super Bowl won by the Indianapolis Colts. What enthusiasm! What excitement! Yet I found myself pierced by the religious protestors. Truly, what was I worshipping? “Where your treasure is, thereto is your heart.” (Luke 12:34) Glad the Colts won, but I’ll never worship at that alter again. How trivial and contrived!

Too much real work to be done before I rest.  In that conclusion, I have faith.

 

Copyright 2011–All rights reserved–David J. Carr

Congressman Weiner’s Hot-Dogging Fall from Grace Reveals True Nature of Adultery

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Congressman Anthony Weiner’s fall from grace highlights the transcendent nature of Christ’s teachings. Long before “sexting”, the Internet, electricity, or even the printing press, Christ warned that those who lust in their hearts commit adultery.

At the sad end of the Weiner sexting scandal, the Congressman took refuge in the defense of “no physical contact” with any of the various interns, porn stars, and housewives with whom he shared inappropriate and racy photos and comments.

Christ nailed it 2000 years ago, like a Michael Jordan three point shot. It is the heart and mind that matter. “You have heard it said ‘Do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks upon a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart.'” Matt. 5:27-28.

For Christians, the line is not drawn at physical touching. Reverend Jimmy Swaggert found that out the hard way years ago, when he found himself caught in a tawdry tryst that also involved no physical touching (of him by anyone else anyway), but involved a whole heap of inappropriate conduct in a motel room.

For men, who reportedly think about sex every 15 seconds, is there any hope? First, understand where the line needs to be drawn. Physical touch? Way too late in the game. Bill Graham holds to a rule for his ministry that women and men should not be alone in a closed office together or even share a car ride. Better, but try that in a modern workplace! The key remains to set the boundary at your heart, and way before sexting, or the more traditional “innocent flirting.”

Second, get your Christian wife in the game. Just because you are married, you don’t have to be boring! Show me where the Bible says that! Quite the contrary, take a gander at Song of Solomon. Mix it up. Flirt with your spouse. Pick her up at a bar. Talk her into a “long lunch” once in a while. Sext her, for God’s sake (literally)! Take it as far as you both feel comfortable taking it. Shocking raw lust for your spouse–perfectly legal! Get creative. Then get very creative! (Just make sure mutual respect
and mutual consent remain part of the equation.)

Adultery ruins marriages, harms children, ruins lives—in all its forms. Recognize it and steer clear. If you find yourself in an adulterous relationship of any kind, seek help from Christian friends and professional counsel. You deserve the real thing, and so does your spouse. Don’t be the next Congressman Weiner!

Copyright 2011–David J. Carr–All Rights Reserved

An American in Scandinavia

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Happy 4th of July! What follows provides a brief report of what this American found upon a recent visit to Scandinavia and England.

London, England

Great Britain, wracked by hard currency concerns, now rents out Stonehenge. Summer solstice brought out the Druids and their cash for a drenching at the historic monument. Ordinary tourists could merely gape in wonder as the white-clad tree worshipers did their thing. Oddly enough, as soon as the Druids left, the drenching rain stopped. Our guide claims wheat circles happen frequently in the area, and remain unexplained except for the occasional prank event. Downtown London offers a multi-cultural experience. We found ourselves in Lebanon West. Not what we expected!

The North Sea

Not listed on the itinerary, it still made its presence felt. Final tally: AJ, sea sick; Alex, badly sea sick; Jake, not sea sick but threw up in the room from alcohol sickness (he claims–smelled no better, nonetheless); SSC, deathly sea sick, skin really can turn green!; DJC, nope, brain too numb to get sick, but just call me the old sea dog. Took care of everyone else including a trip to the ship physician for SSC.

Copenhagen, Denmark

We biked with Mike through downtown Copenhagen. Our existentialist guide took us to the park dedicated to Kirkkegaard, and bragged about how Denmark offered the highest tax rates in the world, as well as very high rates of smoking and drinking, both of which bore heavy taxes. He waxed poetic on the great health care and high standard of living these taxes created and then took his fee in cash, most likely so he could avoid said taxes. Rank hypocrisy aside, this place ranks as first rate 21st century living. Downtown moats restored so well you could drink out of them (try that in St. Petersburg). Huge emphasis on bike riding as a means of transportation. Running trails galore. The people all struck you with their trim fitness despite the apparently heavy smoking and drinking. You also sense the happiness and optimism of the people. Overcast skies and a big emphasis on that little mermaid in the harbor, but you feel strongly of a nation on the rise.

Stockholm, Sweden

The “Venice of the Baltic” proved to be all of that and more. Built on and around a series of small islands, and at the back of a long, narrow natural harbor, Stockholm presented a postcard vista at every turn. We will never forget the cruise out to sea in the evening, as we passed close by to endless small “lake” cottages on both sides of the channel. Happy people, tasty food, and not too proud to build an entire exhibit around the wreck of the Vasa. The 1628 pride of the Swedish navy sunk on its maiden voyage in the harbor, and was raised, intact, 350 years later. The restoration and preservation both sparked accolades, but none of us will ever forget the rumors that the “malice of Poland” caused the sinking. In fact, poor engineering did the deed (top heavy).

Helsinki, Finland

Heavily advertised in the tourist literature: Finland kept out the Soviet Union Commies in the heroic “Winter War” of 1940-41. Not heavily advertised: Finland sided with the Nazis in WWII, and had to pay heavy reparations to the Soviet Union as a result. What a hell hole! Easily the “Gary, Indiana of the Baltic,” the bus tour included the driver running a scam where DJC handed him a 100 Euro note and he switched it with a 10 Euro, and then claimed he was shorted. Rather than getting in a fist fight in a foreign country, DJC simply told him that God knew what he had done, and he should give the money he just stole to the Church or he’d be sorry. Better than DJC spending time in foreign jail. (Any one else see “Midnight Express”?) Giant flea market downtown–very white trash. Total waste of a stop, although the salmon at lunch was mighty tasty!

St. Petersburg

On to the the jewel of the Baltic (not), St. Petersburg, for two days, no less. If you observe the port security, apparently the Cold War never ended. After a process similar to the “soup nazi” episode of Seinfeld, we received reluctant approval to meet our private guide. No tourists possess the right to visit the city without official escorts. And what a city! Having been born in 1958, I missed most of the glory of the ’50’s, but obtained a pretty good taste of them in St. Pete. Traffic jams, smog, pollution, all in the wake of the “Glorious People’s Revolution” as our brain-washed, but pleasant, guide kept calling it. We visited the spectacular, but oppressively crowded, Hermitage, situated on the banks of the very polluted canals. We then ventured via hydroplane to the spectacular, but crowded, summer palace of the czars. No wonder these people revolted!!! Obscene opulence in every room.

On day two, the kids revolted, and were left on board the ship. Good riddance! We visited the summer residence of Catherine the Great in the suburbs–no wonder these people revolted! (See prior comments.) Amber room was spectacular, as was the photo montage showing how the Russian people put the palace back together after a total trashing by the Nazis. I’ll give the Russians credit for pure grit. We then visited the Church of the Spilled Blood (not making this up) where Czar Nicholas the First was assassinated by anarchists in the 19th century. The inside was Russian Orthodox iconography to the extreme. We also visited another church of extreme beauty, Church of St. Isaac, which would have been bombed by the Nazis, except they used it as a reference point for their bombing missions.

St. Petersburg remains a work in progress at best. We saw Putin’s official residence and, surprise, it is no less than a restored Russian czar’s palace. Bad visual; bad judgment. Many signs of wealth in terms of Mercedes and Lexis cars on the streets. However, the very unpleasant temperament of the locals, the terrible poverty of our guide, and expressions of frustration with Putin, combined with the inability to articulate what policies Putin failed to implement, other than limiting his term in power, all bode poorly for Russia. Short Russia!

Tallinn, Estonia

You just knew in your bones Estonia would be awesome. 1.3 million people in the entire country, so we are talking about a country the size of central Indiana. These people just got their freedom in 1991, and they are on fire for democracy. They have the best internet access in the world, and they teach English from 4th grade on. An Estonian invented Skype, and this place beams its happy face at everyone, with a certain vampire flair. Great food (pork loin, sauerkraut, and mustard–yum!), pleasant old world charm, better prices than Russia, and an astonishing number of striking young women on the street. Our attractive tour guide told a very moving  story of their bloodless singing revolution of 1991, as they threw off their Soviet oppressors. She showed us the KGB headquarters, where they found a “mincer” when the people took over the building. DJC visited the ELA affiliate, and received a very kind, if puzzled, reception. Forget the stories about white slave trade, this place seems ready to take off. Buy Estonia, the Baltic’s little gem!

Gothenburg, Sweden

Arrived Sunday morning after a day at sea. Very clean alleys, very little going on. Volvo headquarters nice but hardly worth the stop. King Gustuff Aldolpho needed a window to the West (who doesn’t?), so here we are. At this point, the Carr family could care less. DJC had a nice conversation in French with somebody until SSC spoke to DJC in English. Then the Frenchman said in English: “You speak English, too?” and proceeded to conduct the rest of the conversation in English, to show off that he could speak English as well. With such attitudes, DJC’s French will never get better.

Ready to head home. Really great time in many respects, but it re-enforced the issues that caused our ancestors to get the hell out of Dodge, and head for a new land, away from monarchists, socialists, and communists. A land where the government didn’t tell you what to do, allowed you to breath free, and make your own success. We return believing in American exceptionalism more than ever. Turns out, we live in the greatest country on earth after all, although it wouldn’t hurt to start charging a fee to use the restrooms, and finding some super power to safeguard our freedoms for us at no charge. Perhaps we could balance the budget after all.

Copyright 2011–David J. Carr–All Rights Reserved

EQUIPOISE

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By David J. Carr

“to equal or offset in weight; to balance”

Proverbs 28:1—“The wicked flee though none pursue; the righteous are as bold as a lion.”

As a Christian, I often wonder if an invisible balance exists to life. Faced with sin and temptation in the past, I admit to sometimes taking the wrong path. The sin felt great for a while. Yet, then the anxiety started. A work assignment goes badly. Was this my retribution from God? Why not? I certainly deserved it for having strayed from the path.

My good friend snaps at me. Oh, so this is my retribution from God. He doesn’t know of my sin, but I certainly deserve his reproach because I have, you know, strayed from the path.

My favorite sports team loses; I miss a three foot put and lose a bet on the last hole of my golf game; I slip and fall while running in the snow and twist my knee. All these events stress me, make me anxious, bother me.

Even my successes haunt me. This can’t last. It will catch up with me. Winner today, but what about tomorrow? I flee though none pursue.

Sometimes, maybe more frequently these days, I eschew sin and the easy path it offers. I pass on the low hanging fruit that my talents might easily acquire, because the act involved plainly constitutes sinful behavior.

How do I feel? Perhaps frustration pokes at me. (I deserved that pleasure!) But now when that work assignment goes poorly, I just hunker down and aim to do better next time. My friend snaps at me; I snap back and cajole him out of his poor humor.

My team loses; the other team played better. I missed the putt; I aimed it incorrectly, and will do better next time. I twist my knee running; thank God I didn’t break anything!

Same events; the very same events—yet I feel no anxiety. In fact, I feel great. My food tastes great; the air smells fresh; tomorrow offers the chance of a better opportunity. America’s best days, and mine, lie in the future—despite my obscenely old age (52).

It almost feels like I am superhuman, as if an impenetrable shield surrounds me. I may not be bold as a lion, but I feel a power of enormous strength.

John 12:26 promises that whoever follows Jesus will be honored by His Father. Maybe that means in heaven, but I am not so sure. I find that following the path in this world already seems to pay powerful dividends, whatever may come in the next world. Try it, and see if you perhaps you suddenly develop “superhuman” happiness powers. I suspect if you find the equipoise I describe; you will not easily be knocked off balance.

Copyright 2011—David J. Carr—All rights reserved

God Created Baseball

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Sure God created everything. Yet, in a world of free choice, where we all choose to follow the light or the dark, many temptations seem well-designed to send us down the path of destruction. I note this in particular when I am on the road for business. Pleasures abound that sport thistles of trouble. Alcohol, tobacco, paid sex, “medical” marijuana, all sing their siren song to this poor traveler.

Where might one find a haven? One place always satisfies. The ballpark. Everyone welcomed. Food and beverages for a somewhat reasonable price abound. Young, old, disabled, minorities, all there for an event, a microcosm, a singularity, that will never be the same as any other game past or future. Grandparents with grandchildren. Whole families. Dates. Even lonely out-of-towners looking for a way to bear the loneliness, all congregate to join in the common experience and enjoy the good-natured camaraderie of the event.

And on the field—art; beauty; danger; skill; performance of the highest quality. Even for the crowd, the opportunity exists to demonstrate skill with the catch of a foul ball, create comedy with a poor effort, balanced with the inherent thrill of the danger from a line drive foul ball.

The game. No running out the clock. In theory, no deficit too great to overcome. The game truly not over until actually over.

Never ever certain as to what might happen or what never before seen event may occur. Milton Bradley throwing the ball into the stands with only two outs and runners on the bases! Are you kidding me! Tulowitzki hitting two three-run homers in one game! Wow! A one hundred mile per hour fastball! Hazaah!

Three hours away from the stress of day to day life. Three hours to see an entire historical event, in its entirety, from creation, in the glory of the national anthem, to the final culminating, orgasmic out.

Satan must hate baseball. So many souls protected from his appealing traps. Addictions avoided. Affairs thwarted. Suicides prevented. Joy embraced. Elation enhanced, and the purity of performance plainly and objectively rewarded.

There can be no doubt, when the toil of this world lies behind me. If I make it past the Pearly Gates, you can look for me, three rows up, behind the first base dugout.

Copyright-2010—David J. Carr

Christian Mysterian

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This past May, Martin Gardner, the renowned “recreational mathematics” (an oxymoron if ever one existed) columnist, died. Unfamiliar with his column, I listened with interest to an NPR recount of his life. Known for his enjoyable treatment of mathematical puzzles, paradoxes, and conundrums, he apparently left his mark on popular mathematics. In describing his life, NPR produced footage of someone asking him about matters of faith, given his unusual mind and interest in mathematical puzzles. His response intrigued me. He replied that he counted himself as a “mysterian.”

What in God’s green goodness is a “mysterian?” I mused. He kindly explained. Earth, existence, science, even his beloved mathematics, contained so many mysteries for which he simply found no answer that, in the end, he could dismiss nothing. He found atheism intellectually unsatisfying in light of all the precision of the Universe, Yet, he counted Christianity and all the other religions, at best, unlikely and far fetched. Where did that leave him?
That’s right, it left him a mysterian. He just didn’t know, one way or the other.

Wikepedia defines the “mysterian movement” as a philosophical position proposing that the hard problem of consciousness will never be explained; or at the least cannot be explained by the human mind at its current evolutionary stage. The irresolvable problem is how to explain sentience and qualia and their interaction with consciousness. While not described as mysterian philosophy, per se, I did overhear a scientist once say that the human mind cannot understand itself any more than a lawn mower can understand how it cuts the lawn.

Adherents to the mysterian movement apparently include the likes of Samuel Johnson, Gottfried Leibniz, and Thomas Huxley. Huxley wrote, “How it is that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djinn, when Aladdin rubbed his lamp.”

Is this so strange? Albert Einstein mused that the most inexplicable aspect of the Universe was it very “explainability.” Why did physical laws work so well and precisely to explain physical phenomenon.

The philosopher Pascal offers us “Pascal’s Wager.” Bet that Christianity actually provides the “truth.” What do you lose? If wrong, you’ve led a life guided by tested and sound moral principles. You missed out on a bit of debauchery and fun, but perhaps you’ve avoided hurting a lot of your fellows as well. If right, you’ve inherited the kingdom of heaven to boot. Why not take a chance on Christianity?

This may work for some intellectuals, but others will say this makes no more sense, nor presents no more satisfying path for your life, than believing in the Easter Bunny, Santa, and the Great Pumpkin. As Socrates stated over 2400 years ago, “an unexamined life is not worth living,” and this feels pretty unexamined.

As a thoughtful Christian, how difficult is it to say that this whole “rose from the dead” business seems pretty silly? Easier to say something quite out of the ordinary occurred in Jerusalem 2000 years ago with this Jesus fellow, and then quite a franchise followed in his wake. Must we believe that the immutable laws of science took a holiday for the carpenter from Galilee?

Plainly though, something happened. No other explanation explains the rise of Christianity from nothing. It gives me goose bumps that in the 1950’s most astrophysicists and scientists believed that the Universe possessed no “beginning” but always existed. The Bible said emphatically that a beginning occurred. Fast forward 50 years. Science now confirms that the Bible was right; the 1950’s scientists wrong. The “Big Bang” occurred 15.3 billion years ago, and it all started then—just as the Bible states.

How can the ancient (read outdated) Bible ever be more correct than prevailing science? Something fails to fit here. It feels like a paradox. Ditto for humiliating and crucifying another trouble-maker, something done routinely by the Roman Empire, and now we have one of the world’s great religions based, not on the great Roman Empire, but the target of a standard (for the time and place) crucifixion? Not right. Not rational.

Count me a Mysterian. But count me a Christian Mysterian.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7 (BIBLE, NIV Version)

Copyright 2010—David J. Carr

On Turning 50

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Johnny_Cash-Ring_Of_Fire

[Remarks delivered at 50th birthday party; Zionsville, Indiana]

            I was recently asked if I felt old now that I have turned 50.  I pondered this and thought back to when I turned 24.  It was New Year’s Eve, 1982.  I sat at home in Goshen, Indiana, alone.  My fiancée had recently dumped me, and I sat alone in the living room of my parents’ house, watching Dick Clark’s Rock’n New Year’s Eve Party.  My younger brother was out with his friends, my oldster parents were out at a New Year’s Eve party.  EVERYBODY in the world was out at a New Year’s Eve party.  Pathetically, I called my ex fiancée to see if she’d reconsidered her position.  She was at a New Year’s Eve party and not available.  

            Enough, I thought to myself, I gathered myself, and headed for the true hot spot of Goshen, the Holiday Inn bar.  Any lonely person, no matter how rejected by the world, could at least find some fellow losers at the Holiday Inn bar with whom to fend off the crushing burden of loserdom.   I drove my pathetic green loser Pontiac compact car to the Holiday Inn.  I walked up to the bar’s entrance.  “CLOSED FOR PRIVATE PARTY” read the sign on the door. 

            Sad, but not hopeless.  Goshen’s twin city, Elkhart, boasted an equally hopping Holiday Inn bar.  Elkhart, while being a bit more seedy and blue collar than Goshen, actually possessed a more “cosmopolitan” atmosphere (by Indiana Mennonite standards anyway), and so braced to bite off an even bigger slice of life at the wild, urban Elkhart Holiday Inn, I drove on into the night.  A twenty minute drive later, I faced another sign:  “CLOSED FOR PRIVATE PARTY.”

            Now officially crushed, I returned to the living room, and Dick Clark’s rockin good time.  As I sat there, it occurred to me that I felt “old”—old to the core.  This is what it feels like to be an old person, sitting alone, with no friends, no purpose, nothing to look forward to but further old age and death, nothing to look back on but being a loser.  I don’t imagine that I could ever feel more old—24 years OLD.

            Now I look at 50, and I think of my two favorite movies:  Apollo 13 and It’s A Wonderful Life.  I mention Apollo 13 because at 50 it would be easy to look at your life and identify all of the ways you have fallen short.  I am not a billionaire, I am not a professional athlete, I haven’t gotten my manuscript published, and oddly enough, I am not ruler of the Western Hemisphere. 

            In the movie, James Lovell, the commander of the space craft, who never got to step on the Moon, but successfully returned the crippled space craft to earth with no fatalities, referred to the mission as a “successful failure.”  I look at my own life and my meager accomplishments, compared to my goals, and say, yes, my life is also a successful failure.  Many childhood goals remain unfulfilled, but I look at my three successful children, my beautiful and vibrant wife, and pleasant home with no holes in the roof, and say it hasn’t been a complete bust.

            This brings me to my second movie, It’s A Wonderful Life.  At the end of the movie, after George Bailey had thought his life a failure, he is surrounded by friends who come to his rescue in the nick of time.  As he ponders this, he receives a message from his “guardian angel,” Clarence.  Clarence’s message:  “No man is a failure who has friends.”

            So tonight, surrounded by about 80 friends, my three children, and wonderful wife,  I reject any impulse to consider myself a failure or a loser.  In fact, tonight, in sharp contrast to that 24th birthday, I do not feel 50 years OLD; I feel 50 years YOUNG!

            Thank you all for coming tonight, and may God bless you in the year ahead!  Happy 2009, and God bless us all, every one of us!

Copyright 2009—David J. Carr

Warren Buffett, Genius Porn Stars, and Treasure

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Warren Buffett, Genius Porn Stars, and Treasure

 

Even with the economic decline, Warren Buffett’s net worth stands at $37 billion dollars, give or take a few million.  At the outset, please understand I hold nothing against Mr. Buffett.  Having recently devoured his authorized biography, Snowball, I fully note his genius, his wit, his consistency, in the modest life he lives.  I even intend to follow his investment methods.  Yet, this highly favorable, unabashedly fawning biography highlights some significant lowlights to Warren’s magnificent life.

Specifically, of his three children, none graduated from college, even though one attended prestigious Stanford University and almost completed his degree.  His three children managed to wrack up four divorces.   At 50, his wife Susie moved out, and left Nebraska for good, establishing her own separate life in beautiful Laguna Beach, California.  She established various separate relationships with old flames, and her one-time tennis instructor, among others.  While Warren and his wife continued to be married and affectionate until her death in 2006, Warren established a common law marital relationship in Omaha with Astrid Menks, and made no bones about it.  After his legal wife’s death, Warren and Astrid married. 

Money, it seems, guarantees neither perfect children, perfectly happy children, or serene and blissful marital harmony.

Asia Carrera, studied piano as a child, played Carnagie Hall at 14, starred as a state spelling champ, Math team champ, and won a full ride academic scholarship to Rutgers.  Where is she today?   She recently announced her retirement from the world of pornographic films, where she scored many leading roles in films with titles not appropriate for a Christian newsletter.  Why?  According to her web site (I boast of no familiarity with her films), she cites demanding parents who never found her successes sufficient, who pushed her too hard until she snapped, and just ran off into the night, and ultimately, pornography.  With brains and exceptional beauty, it made for easy money to be a porn queen.

Asia’s hero?  Warren Buffett.  She follows his successes as a true fan, and, like me, hopes to emulate his financial investment success.

Brains, it seems, guarantees neither automatic financial success nor contentment with choices made by others, including parents, no matter how well-intended, and apparently wise, compared to the choices made by the aforementioned genius.  Will she treasure her legacy?

Jesus, of course, offered a few words on treasure.  According to the gospel of Matthew 6:19, he warns:  “Do not store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up yourselves treasures in Heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

To his credit, Warren announced a spectacular foundation that will receive the great bulk of his wealth upon his death.  No Christian he, I wonder if some of Jesus’ ideas seem to be making more sense to him as he heads towards the end of the trail.  Does Warren regret the early pursuit of wealth that may have contributed to the tribulations of his private life?

As we ourselves abruptly now come to the end of our gilded age of financial aggrandizement and look at the cost of our wealth acquisition spree, individually and as a nation, does a different sort of treasure now possess more appeal?  While we breath, it’s never too late to seek a better sort of treasure.

Copyright 2010 – David J. Carr

Thank Goodness for Al-Qaeda

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Thank Goodness for Al-Qaeda

 

 By David J. Carr

With the Haitian earthquake came the immediate response of Al-Qaeda .  The calls for aid created an outpouring from the organization and those who support its worthy goals and ideals.  Literally within hours of the quake, aid began pouring in from Al-Qaeda :  cargo planes loaded with food, water, temporary shelters. 

People, boots on ground, followed as well, although more than a few Al-Qaeda  members already were in Haiti when the disaster occurred.  Indeed a number were casualties themselves, having been involved in ongoing relief and missionary work directed towards the perpetually beleaguered nation.  In a particularly highly publicized move, Osama Bin Laden himself, being a multi-millionaire, flew his own personal 747, filled with donated supplies, into Port-Au-Prince airport to the cheers of millions across the world.

In small towns and villages controlled by Al-Qaeda , religious groups took up special offerings exclusively for Haiti relief.  All over controlled areas, special prayers went out, even children of Al-Qaeda families raised thousands of dollars for Haiti.

Meanwhile, the world cringed as the United States, with little or no mention of the heartbreaking suffering of the Haitian people, proudly took credit for a Ramadan season attempted bombing, by munitions-loaded underwear, of an Air Arabia airlines flight loaded with men, women, and children coming home for the holiday.

 Since that cowardly episode, the U.S. continues to be conspicuously absent from the world Haitian rescue and relief effort.  No planes of relief, no food, no supplies, no shelter, no relief workers, not even any mention of prayers toward the poor suffering people.  All indications point toward, if anything, renewed attacks against the peaceful civilians of the Middle East–attacks designed to maximize the deaths of non-combatants, including women and children.  Rumors continue that the U.S. may even try to fly a commercial airline into the world’s tallest building located in Dubai.

Is it any wonder that the glorious Ayatollah Khomeni repeatedly referred to the United States as the Great Satan?  Thank goodness for Al-Qaeda . 

Copyright 2010–  David J. Carr

This I Believe Essay

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This I Believe Essay

 

I believe in the undiscovered.  I never cease to be amazed at the overpowering arrogance of prominent, well-educated citizens as to their omnipotence.  If I spend much time listening to the media or academics, it seems easy to come away with the impression that current civilization knows just about all the important stuff; that no significant mysteries remain.  The current laws of nature and logic explain all, reveal all. 

Except they don’t.

Science still struggles to explain the absence of a “Grand Unification Theory.”  Such a theory would harmonize our scientific laws for very small objects with the apparently inconsistent laws for very large objects.  As Stephen Hawking still searches, he notes in A Brief History of Time that there seems too little matter in the universe to prevent it from flying apart.  This missing “dark matter” remains a theoretical mystery.  A the other end of the spectrum, quantum mechanics tells us that there is a one in a billion chance that you could walk through a solid wall.  How magnificent!

Shakespeare spoke of the “undiscovered country” as the future.  Yet, we today live in an “undiscovered country.”  While popular culture leads us to conclude that anyone clinging to any spiritual notion qualifies as a rube or wishful thinker, one of the world’s top molecular scientists, Francis Collins, the leader of the U.S. Genome Project, finds the “Language of God” in the DNA code of the human genome.  He fully embraces both the science of evolution and the scientific possibility of God.  C.S. Lewis speculated over 50 years ago that Jesus Christ represented a new direction in evolution, a curious mix of science and spirituality.

Physics now shares with us that according to “String Theory” there may be as many as 14 dimensions to reality, even though we perceive only three (height, width, depth) in addition to the passing of time.  Gravity may only “partially” be in our reality, and this explains why it is such a weak force compared to, say, electromagnetism.  What might exist in dimensions we can’t perceive?  How fanciful!  Yet, is this any stranger than the binary number system which has now evolved into the coursing streams of billions of bytes of ”on-off” signals  that make up the wonders of the Internet?  Those who worked with computers in the early 1960’s surely didn’t imagine what would ultimately be discovered in computer science by the early part of the 21st Century.

As so much remains to be discovered, I retain both my sense of awe, and my realization that wild claims and beliefs remain potentially realized as tomorrow’s scientific fact, and logically inescapable reality.  This makes me humble, but also supremely joyful.

Copyright 2009—David J. Carr