About Two Years

I have had this blog now for nearly two years. Lots has changed - I hope for the better overall.

Things are looking up after a long dark period. Hope things continue on this path.

Happy Holidays!!!

The Brother of Jesus

I just finished this book on the "James Ossuary" controversy and the life of James the Just, said to be the brother of Jesus. This edition was written a few years ago (after the IAA report), but from what I can tell, the controversy still goes on today.

In case you don't know, an ossuary was found in Israel with an inscription that went something like, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus". If authentic, and it may well be, there is a good possibility that it refers to the New Testament James the Just, Joseph and Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, the ossuary seems to date from the right time, and statistics on name usage indicate that there is up to a 50% chance that the Jesus is the Jesus we know as Christ, the Joseph is his father and the James is his brother. The book details lots of other interesting evidence too. The naysayers points are explained, but are mostly weak.

There is also a large section on what is known of the life of James, who was head of the first Christian community, the Jerusalem Church. Not too heavy, but there are lots of interesting points here - like on the brother controversy.

In any case, it is an interesting book. Not too long or erudite if that suits you. Give it a try.

Quantum God?

This is not a book review, but some of my own thoughts on the (possible) nature of God. I admit that this is influenced by things I have read and what others have shared with me, but I guess it does have my spin on it.

First, God is said to exist beyond time. That brings to mind that the Theory of Relativity says that when something moves very fast, time really slows down for it. Maybe God is moving so fast in some sense that there is no time for Him. I like this idea for many reasons. One, it means we are "slower" than God, which I guess we are. It also means that we do not have to imagine that the laws of physics no longer apply when it comes to God - not a disaster if they didn't, but that would make me "nervous" about the "after-life". In any case, we can imagine that God created these laws, or they are part of His nature, so he is not really a mere subject to them as we are. What do you think? This means that science can give us an understanding of God - at least eventually. Why else do we have reason and curiosity about nature? Of course, we have a lot to learn about nature.

Second, God is said to be all knowing and powerful, but He has given each of us freedom to choose. Allowing that predestination would seem to defeat the purpose of giving us this choice, God seems to have decided to put a limit on himself in some respect. I guess He could do that if He wanted to, but that is hard to square with the all knowing and powerful thing, right?

Perhaps an aspect of quantum mechanics can help us out here. I refer to the there being an infinite number of possible outcomes in any situation, albeit, most have a very low probability. Remember that show on TV, Quantum Leap? Anyway, maybe God set things up that way so that we had choice and not only that, but that he could intervene when we asked him - by adjusting the probabilities so to speak. The more "faith", the bigger the adjustment.

Karma could be worked in here too. Bad karma skews you to worse outcomes and good to better. Everything constantly adjusting. Since this is all time dependent, but God is not, then maybe He can somehow still see how things come out, at least all the possibilities. A sort of ever evolving creation so to speak.

I admit there may still be some "problems" with this outlook, but it does have some nice features. Let me know what you think.