Mark Pendleton sent me an email on Tuesday:

“It sounds like each of us is a unique expression of God… Maybe even of the person of God.  Sort of makes you wonder where He starts in us and we (our egos) end…Or vice versa… Hence the need to “die” to ourselves daily.”

maybe. who knows? but, evidently one of three things happens, in the end, as it were…

• something magnificent, transforming, and probably unimaginable;
• something awful and unimaginable; or,
• nothing, which is almost impossible for us to imagine.

dying is rarely easy. in fact, it’s often painful. thats why so many pray they die in their sleep. have you ever seen someone die? it’s always awful. always.

then of course, the concept of an afterlife, and then God (buffered by Christ), to make sense of it was realized by the fear of death, and our own ego’s inability to surrender to the notion that perhaps the slide into darkness with our final breath is where it ultimately ends.

that is the ultimate terror.

the unimaginable.

or, maybe the prospect of death, our mortality, ignited our awarenesss of God.

so, the Bible requires an ultimate surrender leveraging our desperate hopes for salvation, which is another word for more options other than, nothing.

It’s literally, all-or-nothng.

so, I choose, all, and am hoping for, and working towards, the best.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

Related posts:

1. death is morbid but Meaningful and we need to be Ready
2. how does God pull us to Him?
3. texting and driving to death
4. you have to understand evil to appreciate goodness
5. Faith and Fear
6. swine!
7. not Bored to death
8. pointing toward some truth best left unspoken – or, God and that numinous thingy
9. A WORD of love can make a WORLD of difference.
10. two sides rhymes with suicide

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I don’t know, yet (anyway), if my recent post: prayer and change (everyone is talking about. I’m flattered, just skeptical unsure as to why) upset or inspired Butch (“RW”) Nicholson. But, it certainly initiated, or possibly provoked the following point and question:

“Many people pretend to be Christains? Really? People believe what they believe, including you. I am interested in what you have to say. I am not interested in what you think others pretend to be. I would submit we all pretend most of the time. What do you pretend?”

I’m now pondering precisely why, but the question made me recall another of my posts: drink heartily from the cornucopia of fear.

This is an exercise in assigning words that might read pretty to a feeling that is ugly. To recognize what we don’t like, so that it can be replaced with what we want or dare hope for.

And, also, the widely read and certainly debated: Christian Ambiguity.

There is nothing worse than a Christian on the defensive. They become less tolerant and more judgmental when they get insecure.

And, somehow, from the dark reaches of my own mind, there emerged a response to Butch’s query:

“well… there is always the implied contention that the demonstrable inadequacy of any argument from analogy for the existence of other minds is sufficient to reject introspection as a method of determining one’s own mental state(s). there is always the position in the repudiation of an argument from analogy, but disagrees with knowledge of one’s own mental state(s) does not require introspection

so… relative to my blog post, I simply don’t pretend to have an answer like – for example – people with fish (symbols) on their cars. I only believe (in the context of this rapartee)  that prayer can help anyone answer most questions as it aligns mind, body and spirit with most circumstances.”

I strive, and daily, to live the authentic life. I may fear hypocrisy, but I pretend little (other than, perhaps the pretense of no fear, itself).

This is a line-of-thinking that may have no end. But, you can’t lose for the attempt and effort – although there may well be no clear win. That is, until you fade to black, or see the light, in a manner of speaking.

Peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

Brian Patrick Cork

Related posts:

1. prayer and change
2. Faith and Fear
3. drink heartily from that cornucopia of Fear
4. praying for fear so I have the courage to Hate?
5. God and fear and darwin and light and discernment, and a lens
6. Christian Ambiguity Part II
7. Christian Ambiguity
8. swine!
9. i'll have none of that Grey
10. riddle, or paradox, or what ever

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I haven’t been myself of late.

I’m going to die, and it’s hard understanding comprehending that.

All of which means that I am out of my element and doing a great deal of reading, almost none of it pleasant.  I have forced myself to make time to care about other things, and I’m disinclined to fiddle about even with leisurely pursuits, except when I simply can’t take it anymore. That’s when I run, and hard, like few mortal men are capable of.

Aside from that milestone, and considerations abounding what happens next, there is a lot happening in my life – and more or less importantly, in other people’s lives. And, I worry about all of them. It’s a self-imposed burden. I might also pause, here, and ponder if it might be self-evident, but others, will most certainly call it, now or later, self-indulgent. But, regardless of my legacy, be it evident today or tomorrow, I feel responsible – for everything and every body. Just so we are clear on the subjects, I don’t feel guilty about what’s been happening with Brett Michaels (the former lead singer for the 80′s “glam band” Poison), although the ecolological travesty unleashed upon us and the shorelines of  the Gulf Coast by British Petroleum has me on edge.

However, I see a glimmer of hope. Nearly four hundred years after the death of William Shakespeare (some called him Bard, while I know him as impish), scholars are ready to add a new play to his canon.

It’s true. You can read something about the events, unfolding by the hour, here.

The play is called Double Falsehood, or the Distressed Lovers and it’s believed, by the Prudent Gentlemen, anyway, that Shakespeare wrote the play, but found itself improved upon by, another dramatiste, John Fletcher, a Jacobean Playwright (The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James I (1603– 1625) of England, who was also James VI of Scotland.) who followed Shakespeare as official playwright for the King’s Men.

The play is apparently based on an earlier work by Shakespeare, based on an episode from Cervantes’ classic Don Quixote. Rest assured, this is naught less than a cause celebre for the Prudent Gentlemen, and an object de gravitas for myself. Consider my passion for Quixote, here: tilting don quixote.

“Double Falsehood has thrills, spills, sword fights, violent sexual assault and to, most modern ears, the potential for a terrible ending.”

I’ll trust that Haley Anne and Emma Jo will read these words, perhaps one day. Without the eye-rolls I suffer today, the effort that is Double Falsehood, will be evaluated, with conviction, remembering the face of their father, and perhaps with fondness over his keen sense of proprieties.

Anyway, whenever it is, I’ll surely await its coming with unseemly interest.

Peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

Brian Patrick Cork

Related posts:

1. tilting Don Quixote
2. dangers of the authentic Life
3. my daughters name is not Charity
4. those Jewish Basterds!
5. How Long Is Seven Days?
6. Failure – Part I
7. the life of being a Hero
8. the Fearless keith waterhouse
9. kids can't be Sinners
10. obama and gates Write the Book on racial profiling in america

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Preamble:

The (deservedly) immortal Dr. Nick Pappas at Radford Univerity called those of us that yearned to be learned “swine!”. This might mean brutish, possibly contemptible, certainly ignorant. But, a badge of honor, as it turns out, because Dr. Pappas knew we had merit based on the desire to change for the better. We sought enlightenment.

There! I’ve set the stage…

But, and just so you know, I started drafting this post on Sunday while it was, potentially, apropos. But, I wanted my thoughts around Bill Pope to run a certain course. And, so they have. Then of course, many of you know I struggle, and mightily so, with the Jesus element. Although the example, as established by those two men, both now otherworldly, continue to abound.

Thusly, I had these words that I intended to post. But, none of them seem sufficient in the face of the enormity of the events of which that day (Easter Sunday) is a commemoration.  I probably don’t have to tell you that Jesus was killed, in the worst possible way, for the stupidest possible reasons, by, as Chesterton has pointed out, elsewhere, and paraphrased here, an unholy coalition of all that was more or less the best in both government and religion at the time.

Travesty is an insufficient descriptor. Or, opportunity. Because, yet another stage was, therefore, set.

In the midst of this, a thought: Love is the visible attribute of an invisible God.

So… If you are a Christian then you are of the opinion that the Lord is Risen!  So, rejoice, ye swine, for something greater than we had ever hoped is at hand.  No grave could hold Him.  No earth could keep Him down.  Hell itself was merely a brief sojourn; and, He didn’t come back alone. (According to the Bible and Gale Jackson) After forty days of gathering darkness, and the great falling blow of Good Friday, we may finally stand up tall again with our splendid and appalling King.  He brings not peace, but a sword; He brings us to a fight, but it is a good fight and, well worth the trouble.

I’m not a Christian, mind. you. But, I WANT to believe this can happen – or, has occurred.

Many of you raised your glass Sunday (but why not each and every day?), wherever you were, in honor of the One who conquered death and gave us life in abundance.  Take the Bread and the Wine, if you are able.  Be in fellowship.  Love your families, your friends, your colleagues, and even your loathsome, miserable enemies.  You may fling them to the ground, when the time comes, but on this day of days it is best to hope for better outcomes, and more noble.

This might lead us to take the position that it’s apparently faith, not proof, that makes Christians believe in Jesus Christ’s resurrection, the central tenet of the religion.

Well… Possibly until now.

I offer this because it’s being reported that Oxford University professor Richard Swinburne (I don’t know if he is or was a swine, but close enough!), a leading philosopher of religion, has seemingly done the impossible. He is using logic and mathematics to create a formula that he says shows a ninety seven percent (97%) certainty that Jesus Christ was resurrected by God the Father. This information reported by The Age and Catholic News (However, I pulled it off MSNBC, again). NOTE: Meanwhile, nothing particularly original here, as I’m confident you’ve read about this elsewhere (on this very Blog, to be sure),

Nonetheless, as a reminder, this stunning conclusion was made based on a series of complex calculations grounded in the following logic:

1. The probability of God’s existence is one in two. That is, God either exists or doesn’t.
2. The probability that God became incarnate, that is embodied in human form, is also one in two.
3. The evidence for God’s existence is an argument for the resurrection.
4. The chance of Christ’s resurrection not being reported by the gospels has a probability of one in 10.
5. Considering all these factors together, there is a one in 1,000 chance that the resurrection is not true.

“New Testament scholars say the only evidences are witnesses in the four gospels. That’s only five percent of the evidence,” Swinburne said in a lecture he gave at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. “We can’t judge the question of the resurrection unless we ask first whether there’s reason to suppose there is a God. Secondly, if we have reason to suppose he would become incarnate, and thirdly, if he did, whether he would live the sort of life Jesus did.” He says that even Jesus’ life is not enough proof. However, the resurrection is “God’s signature,” which shows “his approval of Jesus’ teaching.”

I’ve called the good fellow, to verify his sincerity, but he has yet to return my call.

By way of reference, the calculations that Swinburne says prove the resurrection are detailed in his book, The Resurrection of God Incarnate. Download it to your Kindle, or iPad, I have. Do it!!!

In closing, as I round out my point… We know why God took Jesus (providing you follow the Bible, and Gale Jackson). However, we are still asking ourselves why God felt He needed Bill and Bryce more than we did. Unless the simple answer is the establishment of a compelling example, driven home, if you will, with an awful and dramatic flourish. Our attention is caught. Now we have that scienter in our lives.

This means we need to be ready.

Peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

Brian Patrick Cork

Related posts:

1. Do the Math
2. God feel I
3. my daughters name is not Charity
4. perhaps Jesus should be a bit more Noble
5. there might be demons and there are ALWAYS questions
6. riddle, or paradox, or what ever
7. what is changing My mind: Part III
8. death is morbid but Meaningful and we need to be Ready
9. How Long Is Seven Days?
10. but who gets to design the Billboards?

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