Prose – Page 33 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Sunday Walk 77 – Owen Barfield and the Evolution of Consciousness

If the eighteenth-century botanist, looking for the first time through the old idols of Linneaus’ fixed and timeless classification into the new perspective of biological evolution, felt a sense of liberation and of light, it can have been but a candle-flame compared with the first glimpse we now get of the familiar world and human history lying together, bathed in the light of the evolution of consciousness.
Owen Barfield, Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry, Harcourt, Brace & World: 1965, page 72

Owen Barfield’s literary estate associates him with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. When I was trying to understand Saving the Appearances in the 1970s as an undergraduate in a Catholic college I wrongly lumped him with theistic existentialists such as Gabriel Marcel or Martin Buber and social critics such as Jacques Ellul or Ivan Illich. As I saw it they were the good guys offering guidance. I recently read the book again to try to see what went wrong in my own thinking at that time.

Barfield has this to say about Jesus, “If we accept at all the claims made by Christ Jesus concerning his own mission, we must accept that he came to make possible in the course of time the transition of all men from original to final participation; and we shall regard the institution of the Eucharist as a preparation – a preparation (we shall not forget) which has so far only been operant for the sidereally paltry period of nineteen hundred years or so.” (pages 170-171)

As a philosopher with a captive audience he did not have to bother trying to convince his readers with much evidence, whether biblical, logical or empirical, for why we “must accept” his assertions. I wonder today if he had a clue what the mission of Jesus was. By “paltry period” I suspect he thought we still had millions, or even billions, of years of consciousness evolution before us. What I realize today is when one takes the ancient myths of evolution seriously, in spite of the evidence of entropy going against them, one begins dismissing or distorting the Creation, the Fall, the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus and the Last Days.

Why people find the myths of evolution believable, indeed why I used to believe them looking forward to some Age of Aquarius, is not clear to me. If one likes believing such things one might glibly talk about an evolution of this or that as Barfield does of consciousness. If one doesn’t, one could think of such beliefs as a centuries long buildup to the fulfillment of prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 where Paul predicted a rebellion preceding the day of the Lord.

Admittedly I did not understand Barfield as an undergraduate, but today I wonder just how much there was worth understanding. His stature as an authority made me think that reimagining his own beliefs was more important than reading the Bible. That helped lead me astray. I forgive him for that, knowing that I need forgiveness as well.

Weekly Bible Reading: Romans, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians
David Pawson, Romans, Part 10, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Part 11
Bible Project, Romans 1-4, Romans 5-16, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians

Weekly Parashah Readings
Parashah: Mishpatim 27 Shevat, 5782 – January 29, 2022
Torah: Exodus 21:1-24:18
Haftarah: Jeremiah 34:8-34:22
Brit Chadashah: Matthew 5:38-42; 17:1-11
Resources: Chabad, Hebrew4Christians, Weekly Torah Readings, Calendar

Shelter – Six Sentence Story

With so many things that could go wrong but wouldn’t, Brian was worried. Survival depended on manna from heaven. Having no control over heaven he wondered, What if the manna stops?

It’s not that Brian didn’t like walking on water once he knew he wouldn’t sink. It was the actual stepping out of the boat that bothered him.

Regardless of these concerns, needless perhaps but afflicting Brian’s mind, there was no other way to the shelter.

Denise offers the word “shelter” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Sunday Walk 76 – Uniformitarianism

³Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, ⁴And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2 Peter 3:3-4 King James Version

Belief in millions or even billions of years of deep time, rather than thousands, rests on assumptions of uniformitarianism. These assumptions include asserting that no global catastrophes occurred in the past such as a high-energy global flood that would have accelerated change, that only low-energy processes built the mountains and carved out the canyons, and that currently measured rates of low-energy change were constant throughout time.

Assuming no global catastrophes and constant rates of change would allow these low-energy processes to be used like clocks extrapolating billions of years of deep time into the past. However, this extrapolation works just as well into the future. The rates of change coming from erosion and entropy give us a maximum age of how long current structures would survive. That means the age of the present structures cannot be older than the amount of time it would take to erode them away.

For example, if the entire fossil record would be eroded away in 10 or even 50 million years, the fossil record could not be older than that. It might be younger, but not older. If someone claimed that a fossil was over 100 million years old, the first question should be how did that fossil survive the effects of day-by-day, low-energy, uniformitarian erosion?

Although low-energy processes can effect a lot of change over millions of years they do not explain how the structures we see today, the mountains and canyons, got there in the first place. To explain them one needs high-energy catastrophes working faster than the low-energy erosion that would wash them all away.

Deep time uniformitarianism attempts to discredit Biblical events that explain why the earth is as it is and where it is going: Creation, Fall, Noah’s Flood, Babel, the Resurrection of Jesus and His Second Coming. When one begins to see that the present state of the earth confirms the view that it is young then a creation and global flood account as described in Genesis becomes plausible. When that becomes plausible the rest of the narrative does as well. When one realizes that all of this is more than plausible one’s whole life renews.

³⁷But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
³⁸For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
³⁹And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24:37-39 King James Version

Weekly Bible Reading: Acts and Romans
Commentaries:
David Pawson, Acts, Part 8, Romans, Part 9, Unlocking the Bible
Bible Project, Acts 1-12, Acts 13-28, Romans 1-4, Romans 5-16
Weekly Torah Readings
20 Shevat, 5782, Yitro: Parashat Exodus 18:1-20:23; Haftarat Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5-9:6

Juice – Six Sentence Story

George cut the lemon into halves. He squeezed the juice from each half into his water container. Then he cut the squeezed halves into quarters and ate them.

Distracted by the harmony of clouds and ocean during the morning’s sunrise, he almost forgot. He thanked God for lemons, even the most bitter ones. He thanked God for the one he received today.

Denise offers the word “juice” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Eugenia offers the word “harmony” to be used in this week’s Weekly Prompt.

Sunday Walk 75 – Amoral Sexual Behavior As A Strong Delusion

Of men aged 18 to 49, 67 percent say pornography is morally acceptable. And of all Americans who say religion is not very important, more than two-thirds (76 percent) find pornography morally acceptable.
Joe Carter, Fact Checker: Do Christian Men Watch More Pornography?, June 8, 2020

But I want to argue that the sexual revolution is not actually about expanding the bounds of sexual behavior. It’s about fundamentally challenging the notion that there is such a thing as wrong or right sexual behavior. It’s about blowing apart the whole notion of sexual morality.
Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Lecture 1, starting about 21:55, May 1, 2021

Paul wrote in Romans 1:28 that God gives the disobedient over to a depraved mind. He wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 that God sends a strong delusion so the disobedient will believe the lie.

What lie might that be? Perhaps the lie is that there is nothing morally right or wrong with our sexual behavior nor how we deal with the consequences of it such as abortion or divorce. That means we don’t think we have to repent. That suggests that we don’t believe that there is any God to Whom we owe repentance. And all of that makes us forget about the “pursuit of holiness” that Jerry Bridges rightly pointed out is not an option.

The lie confuses us about repentance, God and holiness. The lie affects our beliefs and our beliefs affect our behavior.

If you don’t behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave.
Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen, quoted by revivedwriter

I am grateful to Michael Wilson for the link to the statistics source on moral attitudes towards pornography. I am grateful to Jim Lee and Mandy Sweigart-Quinn for calling my attention to Carl R. Trueman and Jerry Bridges. I am grateful to Jenna at revivedwriter for the quote from Fulton Sheen.

Weekly Bible Reading: John and Acts
Commentaries:
David Pawson, John, Part 6, Acts, Part 7, Unlocking the Bible
Bible Project, John 1-12, John 13-21, Acts 1-12, Acts 13-28
Weekly Torah Readings
13 Shevat, 5782, Beshalach: Parashat Exodus 13:17-17:16; Haftarat Judges 4:4-5:3

Express – Six Sentence Story

In the dining car of the express train to hell Ryan motioned for the waiter. When the waiter arrived he complained about the quality of the food saying, “Any decent chef would know how to prepare steak and don’t forget I’m riding your train first class.”

Sitting across the aisle from Ryan was a woman who escalated her protest of his butchery of sentient life forms as soon as she heard him order the steak special. Pointing to her with his thumb Ryan asked the waiter, “And could you, please, do something about that?”

The waiter apologized saying he would personally scold the chef, however, he regretted that he could not do anything about Ryan’s fellow passenger since she also held a first class ticket. Not wanting to further alarm the woman the waiter bent down and whispered an assurance in Ryan’s ear that shortly after reaching their destination he would never see her again.

Denise offers the prompt word “express” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley's six-sentence-stories icon — GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley’s six-sentence-stories icon

Sunday Walk 74 – Carbon-14

The half-life of carbon-14 is under 6,000 years. No carbon-14 should be detectable in fossils claimed to be over 100,000 years old. But that is what has been found. Carbon-14 has been found in both dinosaur soft tissue and also in diamonds claimed to be many millions of years old.

Ian Juby shows how the presence of carbon-14 undermines the reliability of dating methods in the video below.

Weekly Bible Reading: Luke and John
Commentaries:
David Pawson, Luke, Part 4, John, Part 5 Unlocking the Bible
Bible Project, Luke 1-9, Luke 10-24, John 1-12, John 13-21
Weekly Torah Readings
6 Shevat, 5782, Bo: Parashat Exodus 10:1-13:16; Haftarat Jeremiah 46:13-46:28

Charm – Six Sentence Story

Beatriz’ sister told her that she could get her six-year-old son healed from his stomach pains that often left him wincing and crying for a mere $70. The bill from the hospital had already reached thousands of dollars with no hope that her son would ever get better.

Beatriz had no doubt that what her sister offered would work since she knew many who were healed through those means. However, she also knew there would be hidden costs living under the charm of a deceitful lullaby.

Within two months her son breathed his last and was buried in the church cemetery attended by friends who had prayed for them seemingly without success. However, right up to her own death forty years later Beatriz was grateful for those prayers which gave her the strength to reject her sister’s screaming, blaming and hell-bound insistence that she exchange her and her son’s souls for temporary relief.

Denise offers the word “charm” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
Proverbs 31:30 (NASB)

Atlantic Ocean sunrise seen from Florida

Sunday Walk 73 – Contested Bones

The evolutionary view claims that some transition from animal to man occurred over millions of years. There are four general objections to this view: (1) the small amount of fossil evidence allegedly confirming the transition is contested even by evolutionists, (2) radioactive dating of the age of those fossils exaggerates the amount of time between fossil layers, (3) genetic evidence shows we have less in common with animals than previously suspected, and (4) genetic entropy shows that random mutations filtered through natural selection, the supposed mechanism of evolution, leads to extinction, not evolution.

The following video is a presentation by Christopher Rupe, co-author with John Sanford of Contested Bones discussing the contested fossils.

Chris Rupe, New Book Shows That Fossil Record Supports Biblical View Of Human Origins

The other author, John Sanford, added genetic entropy as evidence showing that there could have been no evolutionary path from animal to man through random mutations. Genetically we are too different from animals. Furthermore, random mutations are deleterious. What they lead to is mutational meltdown which precedes extinction.

Only from a Christian perspective is there any hope out of this mutational meltdown scenario for life on earth. We look forward to the second coming of Jesus, the new heaven, the new earth and our resurrection bodies.

John Sanford, Down – Not Up

After rereading this I wondered: Aren’t we already “animals”, even if evolution is false? To make sure I have a biblical worldview let me check what Genesis 1 says about creation order.

There I read that we were a separate created kind made in the image of God and specifically made as male and female on day six. We (adam אָדָם) have the same Creator as animals (behemah בְּהֵמָה) and we were made to live on the same earth where plants are food for both animals and us. This accounts for the similarities we have with them, but we are not animals anymore than we are birds or fish.

Weekly Bible Reading: Matthew and Mark
Commentaries:
David Pawson, Matthew, Part 2, Mark, Part 3, Unlocking the Bible
Bible Project, Matthew and Mark
Weekly Torah Readings
28 Tevet, 5782, Va’eira: Parashat Exodus 6:2-9:35

Fair – Six Sentence Story

Johnny didn’t trust anyone because he knew they were a lot like himself and knowing himself he knew better. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with his own behavior because when dogs ate dogs the rats better watch out.

After all, wasn’t it the point of the game, the purpose of life, to get more stuff than the other guy before one died? He just didn’t like it when someone pulled a fast one on him and wasn’t fair.

Surveying his wealth Johnny was proud of all he had been able to accumulate before he died. However, on the final day of his life, too weak to chase them off, he watched dogs fight over his treasures and rats clean up the crumbs.

Denise offers the prompt work “fair” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.