Submission to Governing Authorities

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. KJV Romans Chapter 13: 1-2.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves. NIV Romans Chapter 13: 1-2.

The above Bible verse seems plain to me. Christians are to accept our new President whoever he/she may be. If it turns out to be a person we weren't supporting then we were wrong and not God. I personally believe that if Hillary is chosen as our next President God is bringing judgement on America for taking him out of the schools and public places and allowing the Muslim faith in his place.

I believe the above verse does not preclude our working to abolish abortion, placing God and the Ten commandments, that have served us so well in the past, back in our schools. And above all else Christians should be earnestly praying: Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.That particular part of the Lords model prayer is asking Jesus to return soon and put an end to all this madness on earth.

TELEOLOGY

Does the universe have a purpose?

According to Aristotle, everything has a telos, which is an inner goal it is "meant to be.". An acorn has a telos, which is an oak tree. It's what an acorn is "meant to be." Birds have one, bees have one.

Does human life have a telos? Aristotle thought so. He thought the telos of human life is happiness. St. Augustine, seven centuries later, thought the telos of life is to love God. Martin Heidegger a twentieth-century existentialist thought man's telos is to live without denial of the true human condition, particularly death.

I personally go along with St. Augustine and believe that we were designed to love and worship God. The human condition is hopeless without Jesus Christ in our lives.

MY MADONNA

I haled me a woman from the street,
  shameless, but, oh, so fair!
I bade her sit in the model's seat
  And I painted her sitting there.

I hid all trace of her heart unclean;
  I painted a babe at her breast;
I painted her as she might have been
  If the Worst had been the Best.

She laughed at my picture and went away.
  then came, with a knowing nod,
A connoisseur, and I heard him say;
  "Tis Mary, the Mother of God."

So I painted a halo round her hair,
  And I sold her and took my fee,
And she hangs in the church of Saint Hillaire,
  where you and all may see.

Robert Service

That Damned Confederate Flag

Thank God that damned confederate Flag is finally being removed from the South Carolina capitol and elsewhere. It's comforting to know that racism will finally be ended by pulling down this flag and blacks will now be free to live the American dream; free to keep their families together, free to value education; free to support their own children, free to stop murdering each other, free to graduate from high school, free to get married before having babies, free to stop crime in their neighborhoods. Now we can all rest easier knowing that those problems caused by that flag have ceased to exist.

Capacity to Believe

This capacity to believe is the most significant and fundamental human faculty, and the most important thing about a man is what he believes in the depth of his being. This is the thing that makes him what he is; the thing that organizes him, and feeds him, the thing that keeps him going in the face of untoward circumstances; the thing that gives him resistance and drive. Let neutrality, confusion, indifference, or skepticism enter this inner place, and the very springs of life will cease to flow.

Hugh Stevenson Tigner

I enjoy reading  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,  Voltaire, Paine, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington,  Einstein, Twain; the list goes on and on of great thinkers and I have learned a great deal from each and every one of them. But when it comes to the depth of my being; I believe with all my heart in the message of the New Testament ( the Christian Bible) with no neutrality, confusion, indifference, or skepticism.

Advice from Socrates and Jesus of Nazareth

"The secrete of happiness is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature." 
 Socrates

"You cannot serve two masters: God and money. For you will hate one and love the other, or else the other way around. So my counsel is: don't worry about things - food, drink, and clothes. For you already have life and a body and they are far more important than what to eat and wear. Look at the birds! They don't worry about what to eat  they don't need to sow or reap or store up food - for your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are. Will all your worries add a single moment to your life?" 
 Jesus of Nazareth,  (Matthew 6:24 - 27).

The Greatest Battle

Chess has been represented, or should I say misrepresented as a game - that is, a thing which could not well serve a serious purpose, solely created for the enjoyment of an empty hour.  If it were a game only, chess would never have survived the serious trials to which it has, during the long time of its existence, been often subjected. By some ardent enthusiasts chess has been elevated into a science or an art. It is neither, but its principal characteristic seems to be - what human nature mostly delights in - a fight. Not a fight, indeed such as would tickle the nerves of coarser natures, where blood flows and the blows delivered leave their visible traces on the bodies of the combatants, but a fight in which the scientific, the artistic, the purely intellectual element holds undivided sway.

Emanuel Lasker, World Chess Champion (1894 - 1921)