Or Why? I hope this answers Jason’s question.

Utilitarianism can be summed up in one little phrase or question; “Do the ends justify the means?” An example would come in a similar question, was Robin Hood really a good guy? I will now both defend, and deny utilitarianism using Robin Hood as my main line of reason.

Robin Hood was a character in a novel written many years ago. He was the son of a noble man who was falsely accused of witch craft and killed while Robin was away from home. Robin (Rob from this point out) would come home to find his people taxed beyond belief and the poor becoming poorer while the rich became richer (some things never change).

Rob took it upon himself to “rob from the rich and give to the poor” to help people make ends meet. He did not have a lot of choice in the matter as there were no free elections. He would end up killing the antagonist and winning the heart of the kings daughter (or sister, or niece depending on what version you read) before dying in battle.

Rob used what a Christian would say was a sin to help the people along in life. He was stealing what was not his to help people. And on the surface this seems noble and just. But in reality, it is not.

There was a man long ago who was in a similar situation. He was homeless and had very little to no money. One day a man came to him and asked him should a man pay taxes as the government system of the day was corrupt and often robbed men through taxes. The homeless man looked at the coin and saw that it had a picture of the current leader at the time (Julius Caesar) and said “yes, give to Caesar what is his.”

You caught me, the homeless man was Jesus. And Jesus told us to pay taxes, even if it meant losing our lively hood. This same man would tell us not to worry about what we would wear, or the food we would eat because God would take care of us. At this point, we can say Rob was wrong. His ends did not justify the means as they stole (sinned) to help others. We should NEVER sin to help others. One should not sin to help himself or his family. A question to challenge our ethics would be this; “should a man steal food from a store to provide for his family?” The ethical answer would be “no.” This shows an inability to rely on God to meet ones needs. On top of that, there are many places the man could go to get what he needed, shelters, churches, friends, families, etc.

On the other hand, was Rob correct in challenging a tyrannical leadership? Yes. His goal of over-throwing a corrupted government was a good goal, and he had the means (warriors who would and could fight) to justify the ends (a fair and peaceful rule). In the USA we have the ability to vote (the means) to change a corrupt leader (the ends).

***side note***

I still believe the way the early reformers did. If we are Christians, than the form of government does not matter. We will always be free men in Christ.

***end note***

Another part of Utilitarianism asks us to make a decision that brings the greatest good to the greatest amount of people. So, if you are on a life boat in the arctic circle that has 10 people on it, and only 5 can row the boat because the other 5 are too weak, and they are causing a risk of frost bite and death to the other passengers, do you throw the weak ones overboard to save the lives of the remaining five?

I say, I hope the five weak ones can swim.  My reasoning is this; Jesus was one man who could have ruled the world through power and miracles. He brought a lot of good to a lot of people while he was on earth. But His death was the important part that saved billions of people.

Sacrifice is important for all people who follow Christ. We should be willing to sacrifice our lives in order to help others in any capacity so that they may see Jesus Christ as the Son of God. So in this respect, Utilitarianism is a good thing.

So, if the means are not sinful and justify the ends, I am all for it. But total utilitarianism (if you are not happy, you are worthless, and animals are as important as people) I deny. I also do not think the happiness of man is the most important outcome (another branch of Utilitarianism) and is a pretty lame philosophy. This leads to hedonism, quickly. Bought this is a broad topic to cover.

In the end, utilitarianism is good and bad. We have seen human rights reach great level, but we have also seen ridiculous criticism and hedonism birthed from total utilitarianism. If you are worried about the “greater good,” just follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, for there is none greater. If you want to join the greatest good, sacrifice your life for the cause of Christ.

I hope this helps.

Join me next time as we discuss evil. 

-Don-

Hello childrens.

I am back from my week away, and it feels good to be home. It would be better to be sleeping, but I have to work I guess.

I planned on having pictures posted and all that, but I am lazy and do not want to right now. I may post using a flicker account or something similar later.

Over-all, it was a good vacation. I relaxed a lot, played a ton of pool (lost more games than I won), ate tons of food, and watched my oldest little guy learn how to go down stairs (*tear*).

I have a ton of ideas for posts coming up, including my answer to Jason’s question. I am finishing up one of my classes and may actually have more time to post soon.

Until next time,

-Don-

************EDIT*************

Look for my book reviews coming soon!  

But I will be back.

From Wednessday, June 25th to the following Tuesday, July 1st, I am leaving. Jill and I have been blessed to spend time at a cabin in the woods with some of her family. So we will. I wanted to leave you with fun stuff to read; so here are three links that I find interesting and in some cases disturbing (like the first one):

America is losing it.

That dinosaur guy is a genius (Michael Crichton interview about the media).

A good friend and his beans, I mean blog.

I will see you all in a week.

Feel free to comment while I am gone, and get ready for my next exciting challenge to be announced.

You know what would be fun? If people emailed me questions to answer. Then we can discuss the questions and my answers (both right and wrong!) You do not even have to email, just leave them in the comments. I dare you. It can be about theology, life, money, anything. If it is too personal, I just wont answer it, what have you to lose?

-Don-

You knew it was only a matter of time.

I put $25 worth of gas in my car today. There was a time, about a year ago, this would fill my tank. I would then drive about 260-275 miles, and repeat the tank filling ritual.  As a matter of fact, when working on our budget for baby Eli, we took into account two $25 gas gift cards we received for Christmas as helping us make it thought a couple of weeks. Silly us. The money spent today got me a little over half a tank.

I understand prices are going up, and I do not want to get too political, but if “W” leaves office and prices start to drop, I am going to Texas and punching him in the face; respectfully of course as he would be a former president.

But it is not really the politicians that burn me on this issue. What really gets under my skin are all the people who send me emails about how to cut gas prices.  I would like to make a suggestion, before sending me your email, read an econ book and debate if your idea is really plausible. Let us look at the suggestions I have received in the last week and my response to them.

Boycott Speedway/BP/Exxon/or other gas stations.
The boycotting of gas stations only leads to less competition. The basics of the economy state this: competition drives prices DOWN. Failure to have competition drives prices UP. So, when Chevron and Exxon merged, prices saw an increase due to the elimination of competition. So go ahead, avoid BP, but remember, Speedway is going to love the fact they have better control over prices.

Drill in Alaska! And the golf gulf! (I am sure the PGA wants us to know the distinction)
It would take about 20 years to get permits, build rigs, drill deep enough, and start “harvesting” oil from these places. We would also have to build more refineries to handle the influx of oil. Maybe, just maybe, we should look for alternatives. Oh, and there is that whole “we call it a nature reserve for a reason” argument. I remember seeing an off-shore oil rig on our honeymoon. Nothing spoke romance like looking out on the ocean and seeing a rig… We may see a short term decrease, but while awaiting construction, we would actually, most likely, see an increase as the construction costs would have to be offset somehow. (Thank you Jilly baby for the research on this one!)

Boycott gas stations on this date!
This is just dumb. You are still driving, and you have to fill up anyway. Any savvy owner would jack up prices the day after a “boycott” and win in the end.

Truth be told, the only way to lower gas prices is to stop driving! Or better yet, get a motorcycle. As a matter of fact, if you would like me to sponsor your motorcycle company, I would gladly do it. Just send me an email and I promise to ride it at least three days a week.

Or maybe we could look for alternative fuels. Or we could walk our fat rear ends to some of the near by places we need to go.  Or even better, if you are driving an SUV, stop flying around me at 90MPH.

I now step off my soapbox.

-Don-

Part Five, Real Jesus vs. Cultural Jesus, or Hippy Jesus.

I have deviated from the original plan to do a couple more posts on Christian Culture and its strangeness. I would love to get back to these for a while. I often feel as though I could fill a book about this stuff. I also know I owe Lew a post on real Jesus vs. our cultures view of Jesus.  Since I have started to look at the different sources of Jesus, I have found there is already a lot out there on it. Please forgive me as I cannot cover everything, but I have summed up what I already believed. So be prepared to dig in, this is a long one.

I would like to first tell you all a story.

 The Story
I was at a Bible study with a group of pretty post-modern friends.  I did not know it at the time, and this study would really open my eyes to their actual beliefs. The question brought up by a self-proclaimed atheist (who was a guest of one of the regular participants in the study) was this; “If Jesus was born during our current time period, what would He do today?”  
I swear, a fight almost broke out.  People started jumping down each others throats about Jesus and what He would be doing.  For my part, I thought Jesus would assemble a group of close friends, preach, be crucified, and rise again.  However, this was not agreed on as some said things like, “He would teach school children.” Another thought was, “He would start an organization to help the poor” and still another, “He would bring peace to the Israel / Palestinian conflict and the Middle East.” Most agreed He would be a missionary and work quietly in Africa. Others still said He would join PETA and Green Peace. No one would mention Jesus as the atoning sacrifice, or the fact that He fashioned a whip. I never once heard the verses about Jesus not brining peace, but a sword.

Our Atheist guest would leave the study early while the attendees would sit around and argue for two hours.
End Story

Since that time, I abandoned the study and picked up a new favorite verse. It would be John 2:15 “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.” That right there is what they would say “is beast.” It takes a pretty strong man (read: bad ass) to make a whip and chase people from a temple.  Think about it, if there where hundreds of people and their animals, you would think someone could stop Jesus from going postal on the temple. After all, He only had a whip. But instead He would go crazy and most likely leave marks on people.  Imagine this, there could be someone who actually said, “yea, I got this scar from when Jesus fashioned that whip…”

This is not some hippy wearing a dress, acting like Snow White and singing songs to animals.  This is a man with heavy emotions who was not afraid to express his anger. This is the man who looked at the demons who possessed people and told them to “shut up.”

This flies in the face of those who think that God in the Old Testament was angry and needed to take a trip to the Buddhist Monks and learn anger management with controlled breathing only to come back sedated and kind as Jesus.  

I know of others still who like to think of the crucified Christ.  They only identify with the persecution and forget about the resurrected (bodily, not spiritually) victorious Christ.  I have seen Christians take this “victim” stance before.  They feel that they are to be martyred.  Laying in the fetal position is often their favorite pass time. They forget about the verses in Revelation 19 that talk about Christ as the victor.  Verses 12-16 say:

“His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

That sounds like someone who overcame death and is NOT a victim. He is in turn victorious. This is not some pacifist who will just accept a trouncing at the hands of the enemy.  He did that once, He won’t do it again.  We often forget the trouncing was what actually leads to his victory. And he is coming back to take what is His, and nothing will stand in His way.  He is going to strike down nations.

 Finally, people think that Jesus was just a good teacher, and not the Son of God.  I will default back to the “Lord, Liar, Lunatic” argument brought to us by C.S. Lewis.  This is to say, Jesus can only be one of the above.  We will work backward through the list.

Lunatic- Jesus was a raving mad man (like Nietzsche) who thought He was God and started a cult.  This would mean He was not a good teacher.  Very few people call David Coresh (sp?) good. 

Liar- If Jesus said He was the Son of God, and stuck to the claims He made, but was not the Son of God, He is a liar.  We do not know any pathological liars that we call good.  As a matter of fact, if we know a person who has a tendency to stretch the truth, we often think of them as a bad person.  We cannot call a “bad” person a “good” teacher.

We can deduce that if Christ is Lord.  If we do not, we contradict all reason.  We cannot ascribe to the teachings of a man and call Him a good teacher if He is both a liar and a lunatic. We can say he said some good things, but we could in no way call Him a good teacher. If we cannot call Him a good teacher, than we should say He is not worth reading about or studying. We can get great moral teaching from people who are not Jesus. If we are insistent on calling Him good, we should be prepared to bow our knee and call Him Lord.  It is the only way that “good” can work with His claims to be God.

 Wow, this was a long one.  I hope some heads did not explode.  As usual, please comment, disagree, and conversate.

Also, I have a fun post for next time, stay tuned.

-Don- 

Firefox is trying to break the record for most downloads of one piece of software in a 24 hour period today (June 17th, 2008).

Wanna help? Download Firefox at 1:00P.M. (if you are living in Eastern Standard Time) or press the link below for more information.

Being a dad is awesome.
I am a dad of the two BEST boys ever. Justice is 16 months and his brother Elijah is 3 months old. This is my second Father’s Day as a dad and I could not be happier to have the title bestowed upon me.

One of my gifts was the book, The Dangerous Book for Boys. I asked for this book months ago, and my wife remembered. Here are the reasons I love this book:

• It’s for boys Thats right, Alfalfa would be proud as I would fit in with the He-Man Woman Haters Club (but I don’t hate women, I love my wife and she is a woman)
• It takes boys out of the video game mindset and helps them learn to build forts, paper airplanes, bow and arrows and go-carts.
• It teaches the histories of some of the most famous battles ever!
• It helps boys learn about girls! (Finally, I can relate better to my wife. She will be happy I read this)
• It comes with a list of things all boys need to survive (Swiss Army Knife, compass, handkerchief, box of matches, a shooter, needle and thread, pencil and paper, small flashlight, magnifying glass, band-aids, and fishhooks)
• It gives us (my boys and I) things to do as they get older that are intrinsically masculine

If you have read my site for any length of time, you know I feel there is a very stark contrast between boys and girls. When I was a boy, the things in this book excited me. I have watched as kids now-a-days waste away to video games and T.V. Too many boys act like animals around girls and treat them poorly. I have also seen too many guys forget the important parts of history we learned in school. This book covers a lot of these basics that one can springboard off of. So, if you are a boy, have boys, or just want to learn about the things boys find fascinating, go ahead and buy the book (buy from the above link to support this site) and reminisce about a simpler time when our biggest fear was pirates and whether or not our code could be cracked by the enemy.

Oh, and to all the dads (especially mine), happy Father’s Day. You all rock.

-Don-

Good thing I think like a Calvinist. Here is the update on the j-o-b.

Last week Thursday I submitted a counter offer to the school who had offered me the job. Let me explain how the offer worked.

They sent me the salary I could expect, the benefits information, and said “think about it and let us know.”

Things broke down right after this.  I recievd an email that stated something like; “We cannot match the offer and do not feel comfortable employing someone who would not be able to make the amount of money they requested. Thanks for your time…”

I read that email like, WTF?

I was a little upset so I emailed back a response about how I felt a little disrespected and how their actions were a tad unprofessional.  I also asked them to re-evaluate their negotiation skills.  I actually sent the email without really re-reading it and it was a tad sarcastic.

About five minutes after I sent the email, and I wish I was kidding, I received a phone call from their HR department and was asked if I would still actually want the job despite the smaller offer.  I told them I would talk to the wife and let them know. Here are the advantages:

• Less busy in the summer (we bust our butts in the summer currently)
• Marginally better pay
• Longer breaks for Christmas, Easter, and spring break
• More student interaction
• End of the year party hosted by Carl Lindner (this is a huge deal as this man is a multi-millionaire and the guest usually get a great gift after the party)
• Immune to failed a failed levy as they are privately funded

But I feel the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits, and here they are:

• Longer commute ($4/gallon=$1.56/day more in fuel)
• Less time with family because of longer commute, one extra hour added on to end of day
• Benefits are being renegotiated, but currently pretty lame with no promise of improvement.
• If they cannot negotiate properly, why would I feel they have better business practices all around.
• I want to go to grad school in Florida

So I have elected to decline the job over-all.  I guess I was mostly soured on the negotiation aspect of it all.

So there you have it.  This chapter is closed for now and I can get back to theological rants.

-Don-

I will be back.  Busy week/month.  I will be back and write more stuff later. Just letting you know I am still alive.

-Don-

Just an update; I was offered the job and I am awaiting the benefits information.  I have already been given the salary.  Unless the health benefits are something tragic, I will most likely take the job.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

-Don-