And So God Taught Them Mercy

The second half of the book of Joshua is little better than a list of cities, regions, and borders, as they were divided amongst the tribes of Israel. To someone as unschooled in Middle East geography as me, these chapters may as well be in the original Hebrew, I cannot even begin to guess the size of the areas the Bible draws out in these areas. Amid all this division of land, though, come 6 verses that fascinate me to no end.

“Then the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying ‘Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, “Designate the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, that the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally, without premeditation, may flee there, and they shall become your refuge from the avenger of blood. He shall flee to one of these cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city; and they shall take him into the city and give him a place, so that he may dwell among them. Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, then they shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor without premeditation and did not hate him beforehand. He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the one who is high priest in those days. Then the manslayer shall return to his own city and to his own house, to the city from which he fled.”’” – Joshua 20:1-6

How absolutely fascinating! A system of law that looks at the heart and intent of the wrongdoer and not just the action. How just like a God who saves. Intent is everything here. If the manslayer is proven to be without intent, he is free from punishment under this system. God taught the Israelites mercy by establishing these cities, he taught them the power of forgiveness. God had never supported the “wrong for a wrong” principle, and now He was setting up plans that frustrated such fleshly goals.

Imagine for a moment that we live in ancient times. While hewing wheat in the fields, I accidentally scythe your brother rather than the wheat. The males in your family would hunt me down, and kill me for what I had done. My family would then rise up against yours. Welcome to the classic blood feud. However, what is plain to the reader of Joshua is that the Israelites power, just like humanity’s power before the fall of Babel, lies in unity. By destroying the presence of blood feuds, God retained the unifying strength of His people. By teaching them how to forgive, He kept them from killing each other.

And so God taught them mercy…have we learned the lesson?

Shining One

The sound of her soft voice echoes inside
As the twinkle in her bright eyes brings tears
I think of the light dance in her smooth glide
The shining smile of hers allays my fears.

Illuminate my heart dear princess mine
Cast out the lonely shadows filled with gloom!
Recall the spark of life ensconced in thine
And mine dark hearts laden, a heavy doom.

Missing each freckle will take me some days,
The ephemeral clouds may break by then.
I’ll turn and look as stars shine in my gaze,
And see your golden yellow locks again.

O radiant mistress, o maiden bright
My world seems dim without your light tonight.

Strong or Stubborn?

Today, I have felt the most odd string of emotions. This mornin, at 5 AM, I felt completely content and at peace with the world. By seven, I felt stressed. So far, all was normal. Then, though, at 9 I felt warm-fuzzy. LAter, fatigue set in. Happy returned for a period, then a period of darker sensations settled over me. At dinner I felt content, and the for no reason unbridled fustration rose in me. As I looked at my friends list on facebook, I was unwarrantedly overcome with tears. I have felt every emotion today.

Every emotion, that it, except one. My mind refuses to feel lonely. Loneliness is right there, poking and pordding me, reminding me that she isn't on the other end of the phone if I pick it up, that she won't answer the text if I send it. We're e-mailing back and forht, but her voice isn't there. Loneliness so desperately wants inside my head for the next week.

So, my mind is occupying itself with other emotions. They make no sense at times, and I've laughed at the upheaval of every single one, but it's a sobering thing to figure out why I'm doing this.

I care about her a lot. A lot more than I've realized before.

Evolution's Ethical Problem: Creator's Prerogative

Hey All,

So, I'm working on an argument for why Evolution and Christianity cannot meld from an ethical perspective. Emphasis on WORKING. This post is the first of probably a lot to reach a complete argument, but I decided to throw my thoughts out there, and start getting feedback. After all, that's how philosophical arguments get refined. So, here we go:


A man goes out and buys gears, pulleys, a battery, a smoth flat disc, some black paint, a chain, some sheet metal, and two thin strips of iron, one slightly longer than the other, but both short. He begins constructing what he hopes will accurately keep measure of the passage of the day and marcate the different sections of a day by numerical distinction. After weeks of effort, he creates his prototype pocketwatch. He puts the battery in, and it doesn't work as he wanted it to. His first thought is to try another battery. When that doesn't work, he begins refining the gears and pulleys to try and fix the problem, until eventually the watch works. He will now expect the watch to perform its function as long as he supplies battery power. If it doesn't, he will consider it broken and will either fix it or discard it, whichever he chooses.

Here's my argument based on the above thought experiment:

P1: The Watchmaker has invested everything needed to create the pocketwatch
P2: The Watchmaker has a specific purpose and function in mind as he creates this watch
P3: Once it is successfully created, he continues to provide everything the watch needs to function properly
C: The Watchmaker has the right to expect the watch to function properly without exception

I would like to call this conclusion the Creator's Prerogative, the sole right of any inventor, maker, or creator to put expectations, purposes, and even requirements into the existences of their creations. Generalized, the principle looks more like this:

P1: The Creator has invested everything needed to make their creation
P2: The Creator has a specific purpose and function intended for their creation
P3: The Creator continually provides everything needed for the creation to function according to the Creator's intentions
C: Therefore, the Creator has Creator's Prerogative, the right to expect and require the creation to function according to the purposes and intentions of the Creator, and even to create consequences in the event of failure to do so.

Ok, that's what I have so far. Major roadblock already: this argument works flawlessly for any inanimate or animate thing loacking a will of its own. That means it doesn't work for things with a will of their own, such as humans, so I'm still working on that.

Barring that roadblock, what issues do you have with this argument? Where is it weak? What do you like about it so far?