New Tests

Yesterday I had Windows XP installed on my new computer but am still unable to get to my website to update it. The technician, also a friend, is doing this for me for next to nothing. The upgrade took longer than he anticipated but he stayed with it; he will be back in a day or two with the proper drivers to finish the job.
His brother, also a friend, is a preacher of the Evangelical persuasion and we have had a few heated discussions about the Bible. Heated but friendly, and this is a new experience for me. While I have avoided Fundamentalists of every stripe in the past, the discussions I've had with this man have been very enlightening. And to some extent disturbing.
The philosophy of http://timeoftheend-faithandreason.net is precisely as the title suggests: the union of the two principal faculties of our species. The main difference between our beliefs is that this Christian preacher denies the efficacy of the mind in dealing with spiritual matters. Hisview, as is that of so many, is of a God who rules as in the words of Emmett Fox, an Oriental potentate who constantly interferes in the lives of men, favoring some, condemning others, and in general demonstrating a personality and temperament that has caused many to turn away from the spiritual path. That is unfortunate, as the only path remaining to many seems to be the hedonistic, materialistic ways of the world. The line drawn in the sand is between faith without reason on the one hand, reason without faith ( or faith entirely dependent upon reason ) on the other.
I was a great fan of the original Star Trek television series. Great show; they did it all and did it right the first time, and the subsequent revisions just didn't measure up. Compared to the original, these "new generation" versions were of a darker hue, more somber, and resembled soap operas rather than adventures at the " final frontier ". But there is one character from the original that has influenced thinking with regard to intelligence.
Mr. Spok was portrayed as a mental giant but without normal human emotions. Still, there was something ungenuine about Spok; while presented as the supreme pragmatist, he did what was needed to save the Enterprise and it's crew from the dangers encountered in the many episodes. He was loyal to captain, crew, and ship: a human emotion. A purely reasoning being would have made the best choices in his own interests, quite independent of any other concern. So it seems that the Vulcan wasn't as devoid of feeling as he has been interpreted. And this brings us back to the Bible and the " literal interpretation " given it by Fundamentalists. Just as Spok was seen from one view, disregarding the subtleties that pointed to another interpretation of his character, so do the Fundamentalist Christians hold to one view of the Bible without any regard for alternative views: It's the "word of God" and that's all there is to it! This position is flawed in very much the same way as Spok's personna, and the discrepancy is just as subtle. The key to understanding is basic and involves the " literal interpretation " of the Bible. There can be no such thing.
If a huge volume of water is falling from the sky in droplets, it's raining. This is a fact, not an interpretation. Now suppose someone borrows money from you and promises to pay it back at a certain time. It's a loan; right? No: that's an interpreatation because if the amount is not repaid it's a gift, regardless what you call it. Scams are promoted in ways that invite specific interpret-ations; become wealthy with little or no work, earn big money while sleeping, fire your boss, and all that buzz. The "marks" who fall for these rackets interpret them as " opportunities " when in fact they are con games. People who avoid these pitfalls ask questions, and investigate these so-called opportunities before committing. These wiser ones know the difference between what you can earn and what you probably will make: they know that " up to " also includes zero.
I our work we have distinguished between Good and Evil; Good is Truth, Reality is Evil - not bad, just Evil, which we equate with the appearances of the material world. Truth is Knowing, Reality is Believing, the difference being that Truth is constant, Belief changeable. The Heart is the seat of Truth, the Mind the Realm of Reality, and the union of the two is the object of our effort. Reality is about appearances, appearances are often deceiving, therefore Evil. Jesus told us to "Resist not Evil": in other words, don't pay attention undue attention to appearances.
The chief difference between Truth and Reality is that Appearances may be molded to craft a particular belief: one only has to look at the pathetic dog and pony show that Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State, put on at the UN Security Council, claiming Iraq's possession of "weapons of mass destruction". When these proved untrue the administration cast about for other reasons to justify the war that has so fat claimed over a million lives; and this very fact alone decribed the lie as clearly as any hard evidence could: Only Reality requires justification; Truth is its own justification.