‘Let me explain the problem science has with religion.’The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.
‘You’re a Christian, aren’t you, son?’
‘Yes sir, ‘the student says.
‘So you believe in God?’
‘Absolutely.

Is God good?’

‘Sure! God’s good.’

‘Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?’

‘Yes’

‘Are you good or evil?’

‘The Bible says I’m evil.’
The professor grins knowingly. ‘Aha! The Bible!’ He considers for a moment. ‘Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?’
‘Yes sir, I would.’
‘So you’re good…!’
‘I wouldn’t say that.’
‘But why not say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn’t.’
The student does not answer, so the professor continues. ‘He doesn’t, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him.. How is this Jesus good? Can you answer that one?’
The student remains silent.. ‘No, you can’t, can you?’ the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. ‘Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good?’
‘Er..yes,’ the student says.
‘Is Satan good?’
The student doesn’t hesitate on this one. ‘No.’
‘Then where does Satan come from?’
The student falters. ‘From God’
‘That’s right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?’
‘Yes, sir…’
‘Evil’s everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything, correct?’
‘Yes’
‘So who created evil?’ The professor continued, ‘If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.’
Again, the student has no answer. ‘Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?’
The student squirms on his feet. ‘Yes.’
‘So who created them?’
The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. ‘Who created them?’ There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized. ‘Tell me,’ he continues onto another student. ‘Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?’
The student’s voice betrays him and cracks. ‘Yes, professor, I do.’

The old man stops pacing. ‘Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?’
‘No sir. I’ve never seen Him.’
‘Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?’
‘No, sir, I have not..’
‘Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?’
‘No, sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.’
‘Yet you still believe in him?’
‘Yes’
‘According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist… What do you say to that, son?’
‘Nothing,’ the student replies.. ‘I only have my faith.’
‘Yes, faith,’ the professor repeats. ‘And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.’
The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. ‘Professor, is there such thing as heat?’
‘Yes. ’
‘And is there such a thing as cold?’
‘Yes, son, there’s cold too.’
‘No sir, there isn’t.’
The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain. ‘You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don’t have anything called ‘cold’. We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.’
Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.
‘What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?’
‘Yes,’ the professor replies without hesitation.. ‘What is night if it isn’t darkness?’
‘You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it? That’s the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?’
The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. ‘So what point are you making, young man?’
‘Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.’
The professor’s face cannot hide his surprise this time. ‘Flawed? Can you explain how?’
‘You are working on the premise of duality,’ the student explains… ‘You argue that there is life and then there’s death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought.’ ‘It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.’ ‘Now tell me, professor.. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?’
‘If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.’
‘Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?’
The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.
‘Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?’
The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided. ‘To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean..’ The student looks around the room. ‘Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor’s brain?’ The class breaks out into laughter. ‘Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain, felt the professor’s brain, touched or smelt the professor’s brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir.’ ‘So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?’
Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. ‘I Guess you’ll have to take them on faith.’
‘Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,’ the student continues. ‘Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?’ Now uncertain, the professor responds, ‘Of course, there is. We see it Everyday. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in The multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.’
To this the student replied, ‘Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.’
The professor sat down.
If you read it all the way through and had a smile on your face when you finished, mail to your friends and family with the title ‘God vs. Science’

PS: the student was Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein wrote a book titled God vs. Science in 1921…

This is exciting. I’m sitting on a beach in Florida, while writing a blog on my iPhone, about one of my favorite guitar chords. What a crazy world …eh! When I was a kid we thought it was cool to stretch a string between two tin cans. This is way… better!

Anyway… Em9 has always been one of my favorites. It has a sound that just draws me in. I throw it into songs whenever it seems to fit and I never grow tired of it. The notes that make up an Em9 are… E=Root note, G=b3rd, B=5th, D=b7th, F#=9th. Notice that the D, E, F#, and G (the flat 7th, the root, the 9th, and the flat 3rd) are all very close in relationship to each other on a scale. If they were all played within the same octave the sound could be very dissonant; full of tension. But spread them out into a couple octaves and it’s all very beautiful. You’ll find that in the guitar world you can look at things (like chords) in more than one way. For example you could see this chord as an Em7 with an added 9th. Another way would be to view it as an Em chord on the bottom and part of a D chord on top. If you think about it that could mean that while one person plays an Em concentrating on the lower strings, another could play parts of a D triads in the higher registers. Here’s a few more ways to play it.

 What other chords would sound good around it?

Try these progressions…

Em9 Am7 Em9 Am7 B7 Em9

Em9 A7sus A7 (x2) D

Which one of the chord inversions is best?

You’ll have to use your ear to decide which of these you like best. It’s a matter of personal choice.

Where would you use it?

Well it fits great in the key of G or E minor… How about the key of D.

When playing lead what scales would you use?

The first choice might be E pentatonic. But even then I’d have to through in an F# now and again to bring out that 9th sound. That would Lead me to an E Aeolian scale. Which is an E pentatonic scale with a C and F# added in. Or another way to see it would be to play the G major scale but focus your playing on the notes within the Em9 chord instead of on the G. Another possibility would be E Dorian… That’s playing in D major, but again centering around the notes in the Em9 chord. Here’s some pictures of these scales.

That’s it for now. This blog is sort of an experiment. I want to see what the general response will be… Do I need to explain more basics, or is this at a good educational level. My guess is… both.

The day I got “saved”…

Everyone there had to know that my salvation was only by Gods grace. I mean… I walked in so overly full of the worlds aftereffects, that I’m sure it was hard for most, to relate to much of what I had to say. At the time I was an ex-professional musician and was always trying to connect with the saints in the only ways I knew… secular music, bars, and rock-stars. Needles to say, I received my full share of uncomfortable, why aren’t you more like us, stares, coupled with the traditional moments of awkward silence. …That never went well. But that’s where it all began. Right there in those early, impressionable years, when I was what was then called a “baby Christian”, I received my first lessons on “conforming to the image of Christian”. I’d like to say that I stopped them in their manipulative tracks, but I didn’t. I simply learned from my experiences that I needed to change if I was to fellowship with these fine people. And they were fine people. Some of the best I’ve ever known. People that is…

Note: When everyone’s going on, about Jesus healing the leper, it’s not a good time to bring up Pink Floyd.

    As time clicked on there were other lessons to be learned. For example, if I wanted to be taken seriously, I instinctively knew that I’d have to shed that “newborn again” label. And the best way to accomplish that was to pursue a major in “Christian-ese” with a minor in Bible study. So by working diligently toward my goals, I eventually became fluent in the use of many handy catchphrases such as, “If the Lord wills…”, which means… I’ll decide later; or I could throw in “God told me…”, a subtle way of suggesting that no one should challenge what I’m about say; and my all time favorite “I’ll pray about it”, which loosely translated, and if taken back to the original Greek, breaks down to… No!

It’s all very funny but the question is, why do we do these things? In my opinion it starts out innocently enough. We have a desire to know and to Love this wonderful God-man who gave us His eternal life… as He took on our death. But somewhere in the fog of life we lose track of the one who rendered us dead to the law and we start trying to “be”. We try to be holy, to be righteous, sanctified, and worthy. And then we start following “the rules”… Bible reading, church attending, tithing, and praying. We become so busy at being “good Christians” that we miss the fact that He loved us way before we ever started performing.

Gal 3:3  Are you so foolish? Having started out with the Spirit, are you now ending up with the flesh?

Now don’t get me wrong… I believe in reading my Bible and prayer… but I can not read or pray enough… no amount of self effort will draw Jesus one inch closer, because I already have all the things I’m trying to be. Jesus is… my holiness, He is my righteousness, my sanctification, and it’s His life that dwells within me. I don’t have to reach out to draw in His presence. He lives inside of me. How much closer could He get? And don’t forget that nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Rom 8:38-39)

That’s why when some well-meaning Believer asks me to come to their new church where the Spirit is really moving, and then offers me the promise that if I come I will never be the same again. I take their hand, look with care into their eyes, and humbly say, “I’ll pray about it”.

    

    Some would say, I’m not afraid of God.” But that’s easy to say until you see Him face to face. Three young men went to a zoo a few months back, and they weren’t afraid of the lion. So they proved it by yelling and taunting him. The lion got angry to the point where he jumped out of his enclosure, something nobody believed he could do. He chased, caught, and killed one of his agitators. The other two ran and got away with some deep cuts. When faced with that lion, I can say with certainty, that they were wishing they had just left him alone. That would have been a wise choice. In the same way, only much worse, it would be wise not to fall into the hands of an angry God.
    Notice that it says, the fear of God is the Beginning of wisdom. Beginning, as in starting off place. In other words we can’t get wisdom until we know where to start, and since most are oblivious to the commands of God and live without this healthy fear of God… well… what can we expect to come from such a position. It reminds me of a mouse I saw. He was standing on the back of a snake and trying to jump out of the cage. The snake struck at him but missed. The mouse ran to the corner and shook in terror for a moment… and then he went right back to standing and jumping on the back of his hungry (but forgotten) roommate. The snake didn’t miss the second time. My point (in case I’m being vague) is that people (like the mouse) are in real danger but they’re numb to it, when what they really need is some wisdom and discernment. Unfortunately, that only comes after we are willing to recognize God for who He is, truly. For some of us that will never come.
    My family and I go out to the streets to witness all the time, and my personal belief is that until someone recognizes the fact that they are naked, wretched sinners who are in danger of facing an angry God… then they are not yet ready to start the journey carrying the precious name of Christ. There must be a brokenness; and a repentance before anyone will go from being an enemy of God to being His adopted Son or Daughter.
    As a believer I am aware, at all times, that God is not someone to consider casually or lightly. But at the same time I don’t live in dread or terror of Him either. I have full confidence in His character and goodness. Also, He balances it out (at least for me) when He refers to Himself as my Father. So, we all need to understand that God is not tame… but He is good and He gives to us His Grace… Favor we do not deserve.

    As of today, when sharing the Gospel, I forsake the way of the intellectual debate.

    Ps 34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

con•trite adjective
1 : grieving and penitent for sin or shortcoming

You who know me might say, “Sure you needed forgiveness… If I did the things that you did I’d need it too.” Well, I know that you’re right, but I take comfort in knowing that Jesus said… Lk 7:47b …to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. My point is, that from now on instead of making an appeal for the Gospel to someone’s mind, I will speak to their conscience. The Bible says… Ro 2:15 They show that what the law (God’s Law – 10 Commandments) requires is written in their hearts, a fact to which their own consciences testify… The conscience is in the heart, and that’s where we will find a person’s need for God’s forgiveness. The mind loves to conceal and cover sin but unless a mans conscience is seared it will not let him excuse himself.

1 Ti 4:1-2 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

Now I know what Paul meant when he wrote… 1 Co 2:1-5 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

    I use to be afraid of what people would think about me.

Before I had a chance to say… God… is that You? This guy is standing in front of me and he’s saying… “That’s the smallest bible I’ve ever seen. What version is it?” Well, we had quite a long talk about God and His word. I gave him a gospel tract and my card. We said goodbye and he left.
I know this isn’t much of a story, but the point is, that since we started going out into the streets to witness for Christ, my fear is no longer a problem. My attitude has been altered and I didn’t even notice it changing. Before… Coming from a position of weakness, I felt the need to explain why I am a Christian… But Now, from a newly discovered strength, I feel that they should be explaining to me, why they aren’t one. I don’t mean this in a harsh way. I say it with Gods Love, for them, in my heart. I am being changed bit-by-bit. You see God is unceasingly working on conforming us into the image of His Son, Jesus… and I, for one, am grateful. What a blessing!.