An Introduction to my Blog

As a web developer, you’d think that I’d create my own blog application.  After all, my writing is actually why I became a web developer.  I learned to create websites because I wanted to put my writings online, and I didn’t want to pay someone else…then things snowballed on me, and that’s what I do for a living.  So, one of these days, I will probably create a blog application on my own website.  For now, though, the shoe maker’s children have no shoes, and the web developer’s websites are going to get neglected.

As to why I’m blogging…some current events have inspired me to start a blog even if I can’t update it as often as I’d like.  I will try to blog something at least once a week as time allows.  Some of the things that I write will be controversial.  So, I want to be clear that I do not write to antagonize people.  However, I do like to challenge people to think about things.  Whatever you believe, you shouldn’t just believe it because people told you that it’s true.  You shouldn’t believe something just because it’s ‘easier’ to believe it than something else.  You shouldn’t believe something just because it’s the popular belief.  Whatever you believe, it should be something where you know the full ‘why’ of your belief.

Basically, what I’m saying is: God gave us brains, so we should use them.  Growing up, I would often ask my dad what he thought about something, and he would often say something along the lines of telling me to go form my own opinion and once I have an opinion, then we’d discuss it.  Instead of telling me what to think, he taught me how to think.  Having this outlook that I do, I have had to revise my beliefs a number of times.  For instance, I changed from believing that the earth was 6000-10000 years old, which is the popularly voiced Christian perspective to, instead, believing that the earth is dated well past 4 billion years and that the ‘days’ in Genesis 1 are not literal.  I still acknowledge the fact that strictly based on Hebrew “literal days” is the best interpretation, and so if you want to go with the argument “Well God said it so that settles it”, then you’ll likely disagree with me.  My point in using your brains is not to say that if you disagree with me on ‘days’ that you’re not using your brains, but rather this is what I mean:

The world has the ‘appearance of age’ as even the most devout young earth supporters concede to.  There are stars 16 billion light years away and based on everything we know, that means that the universe is at least that old.  So, then, if God created a 40 year old man in front of 2 men, and those 2 men started arguing over whether it was a 40 year old man or a newborn baby…how stupid would that argument be?  One man argues that it’s a 40 year old man because it looks, talks, and acts like a 40 year old man…the other argues that it’s a newborn baby because it started living only moments before.  Talk about futility…  Yes, God “could” create the earth in 6 literal days, and He could create it with the ‘appearance of age’.  However, if He did create it with the appearance of age, then trying to argue that the earth is really only 6000-10000 years old becomes a pointless argument.  Beyond that, the belief in a literal 6 days is not a fundamental belief.  John 3:16 does NOT say, “For God so loves the world that he gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in [a literal six day creation] shall receive eternal life”.

There are additional things that I will write on creation at some other point.  However, for the time being I hope this gives you some idea as to the spirit in which my blogs will be written.  I do not necessarily seek to convert readers to thinking my way, but rather, I simply want to challenge people to think, and to understand ‘why’ they believe what they believe.