Can death disprove God?

Of course, when people die, atheists come out in droves, imagining they’ll score a quick point for their team by protesting that such “senseless” death—especially the death of children—necessarily proves God doesn’t exist. (Just as predictably, by the way, politicians come out in droves, hoping to score a quick point for their respective teams. So far, the deaths from the Oklahoma tornado have been publicly blamed on global warming and Congress’ sequestration.)

I saw one comment on a news article about the recent tornado that left dozens dead: “If Yahweh exists, he sucks at his job,” the commenter said. He at least left room for God to exist; I guess he’d call himself an agnostic. But the atheists tend to go all out; for them, the Moore, Ok. tornado is another proof that God is simply not there.

The problem with trying to logically connect a tornado with a proof of God’s non-existence is that… well, there’s no logical connection.

I’m honestly not quite sure how such a syllogism would even function. Perhaps:

Premise 1: If God exists, children won’t die in tornadoes.

Premise 2: Children died in tornadoes.

Conclusion: Therefore God does not exist.

This is actually a valid argument (in formal logic, it’s a common structure called Modus tollens), but it is ultimately unsound. In other words, the reasoning within the argument works, but the main premise is false. The atheist here claims that if God exists, children won’t die in tornadoes. That is not true, but the atheist needs for it to be true. That brings us to the problem.

The Problem

The problem is, the atheist is forced to make an arbitrary value judgement—an arbitrary definition about how God must or mustn’t be—in order for him to even attempt to argue something about God.

To define is to create, in the most basic sense. It is to separate a thing from out of other things and distinguish it, set it apart. For example:

Here’s a box.

There’s nothing in it.

Now here’s the same box, and inside it I have drawn a human shape (or something like it).

I created that shape, defining it as something OTHER THAN the box. By drawing its outline, I gave it definition; I gave it substance (as much as it can have on a computer screen, at least). I am the creator of that specific human shape.

When I define a human shape on a computer monitor, I am (at best) an artist.

But when the atheist defines God (“If God exists, children won’t die in tornadoes.”), he does something immense, with a rather surprising outcome.

Because to define is to create, the atheist, in a sense, creates God (though only in his own mind) when he defines God. Besides the fact that such a creation threatens to undermine the atheist’s entire argument (he would at the very least need to say, “If God exists outside of my mind, then children wouldn’t die in tornadoes…”), it really puts him in a pretty serious pickle.

If the atheist thinks that God—if he exists—would be the most powerful being in all of existence, it then becomes self-contradictory to say that the atheist can define (and therefore create) God.

Unless…

The atheist is actually much more devious than he appears. Because in this logical quandary, it so far appears that God (the most powerful being in all of existence) has been created by the atheist (and strangely, for the sole purpose of the atheist’s proving that God does not exist at all). But it turns out the atheist has set God up all along.

Because, in the atheist’s argument, he has defined (and therefore created) God, that God simply can not be the God the atheist wants us to think of when we read his argument (namely: the God who is the most powerful being in the universe). Rather, the God the atheist has created is some other imaginary (we must assume) being whom the atheist has named “God” in order to confuse us. That’s devious.

For clarity’s sake, we’ll change the atheist-created-God’s name. We’ll now call him Goad.

So to summarize up to this point, the atheist has created Goad, but is calling him “God,” and says that a necessary prerequisite for Goad’s existence is that children mustn’t die in tornadoes. That’s devious. And since some children did very recently die in a tornado, the atheist has quite neatly proven that Goad therefore can not and does not exist (at least, not outside of our minds).

But, it gets worse for the atheist, who may be devious, but who is clearly not very clever.

Accidental Proof

The atheist has created Goad—just some imaginary thing (some logicians might call him a “straw man”) that he’s going to use for the sole purpose of destroying. But he’s calling Goad “God” because he wants us to think he is really talking about the Christian God.

(As a side note, never has any Christian theologian or prophet ever definitively concluded that the death of children would disprove the existence of God. And never have any of the canonized communications from God given that stipulation [of course, that would be quite odd, anyways].)

And by what we can assume is the atheist’s expectation of our definition of God (that God is the most powerful being in existence), it would seem the atheist, in offering his own definition of God (that if God is to exist, children can not die in tornadoes), has created God.

In other words, in creating Goad, the atheist (probably accidentally) posits himself as actually having created God. And if the atheist created God, then God just got bumped down to second place in terms of his power among all things in existence. For who would disagree that the creation is higher than the creator?

And if God got bumped down to second place, then who is in first place? Well, the atheist.

Now the atheist is really in trouble, because he has actually proven that God does exist (since he, the atheist, is now God by his own declarations, and surely he would not attempt to argue that he himself does not exist! Anyways, Descartes would have an absolute conniption) while attempting to prove God does not exist!

But I doubt very many people can accept that God (in this case, the atheist) could be confused about his own existence—he ends up proving it while trying to disprove it. So I don’t think this atheist will garner much of a following.

And that, of course, does not even matter, since it is not up to human beings to define (and therefore create) God. Rather, God is self-defining, as he says to Moses: “I am that I am.”

Conclusion

The deaths in Oklahoma are tragic. And for those who deny the existence of God, such seemingly arbitrary, senseless, inexplicable death must reinforce the view that life itself has no inherent order, sense, or meaning.

But for those who believe in God, who know God and are seeking to know him, such tragedy moves us to pray for the hurting and to press deeper into the infinite mystery without which God would only be Goad.

A friend of mine has blogged about a Christian perspective on the recent deaths. It’s very helpful. I hope you’ll read it:

Why I (still) believe in Jesus when children are killed

An open letter: Responding to 'Right to Farm'

Reblogged from Osage Beach Farmers Market:

Recently, one of our Market Managers, Nathan Bechtold, wrote an article for LakeExpo.com that addressed the dangerous nature of a bill that is making its way through the Missouri legislature. It has been deceptively called the "Right to Farm" bill, but in reality it is far from that.

Today, the sponsor of that bill, House Speaker Pro Tem Jason Smith, sent out a newsletter announcing that bill will likely pass this week.

Read more… 1,247 more words

How to butcher a pig

Recently we killed one of our American Mulefoot hogs.

He was about 2 years old, and weighed, on hoof, probably about 350 lbs.

I enlisted the help of a friend, Mark Bales, as well as Mark’s time-tempered neighbor, Bud. Bud used to work at a meat processing operation as a meat cutter. So he guided us with his words, and we made the cuts.

This video isn’t perfect, and regrettably, the camera died (and I didn’t know it) before we were done. But a lot of the cuts are displayed here, and if nothing else, it’s proof that a total amateur can butcher a pig without totally ruining it.

I love homesteading, because we know so much about this pig. We fed it from the time it was a piglet. We chased it back into the pen when it managed to escape. It tilled up our garden. And now it will grace our table.

We took around 200 pounds of meat from this pig, including 20 pounds of bacon!

Raising him and butchering him was an amazing experience — one that makes us glad of life on the farm. We’ve already been enjoying home-ground breakfast sausage and some pork steaks!

How to unlock iPhone 4

This is a bit of an uncharacteristic post for us, but it’s pertinent because I just endured quite a bit of agony trying to unlock my iPhone 4, and I want to save others from it.

I use Straight Talk cellular service. That’s provided by Walmart, and has thus far been pretty reliable and comparatively inexpensive.

I obtained my wonderful sister’s iPhone 4 and proceeded to purchase a Straight Talk micro-SIM card (that was quite a chore, actually!) and cellular plan.

I contacted AT&T to have them unlock the phone, so I would have more control over certain features. You can find the prerequisites for obtaining permission to have your phone unlocked here.

AT&T approved my unlock request with an email containing the following instructions:

Thank you for contacting AT&T Customer Care about unlocking your iPhone.

We have reviewed your request and confirmed that you are eligible to have the requested iPhone unlocked.

Please allow 24 hours upon receipt of this notification to complete the unlock.

To complete the unlock, simply:

• Open iTunes on your Mac or PC and verify that you have Internet connectivity.
• Ensure a SIM card is inserted into your iPhone.
• Connect your iPhone using the dock connector to USB cable that came with your iPhone.
• Backup and restore your iPhone using iTunes. For information on backup and restore, please visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414.
• After restoring, your iPhone will be unlocked.
• Additional information on unlocking can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3198

You may also check the status of your unlock request by clicking the link for AT&T’s Device Unlock Status Portal.

For questions regarding AT&T’s wireless service and iPhone, please visit the Phone/Device Learning Center.

We thank you for your continued business.

I followed those instructions. Three times. And I never got the message from iTunes that I knew I was supposed to see, saying “Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked.” So I knew it wasn’t unlocked.

Turns out, I was missing one crucial step.

I found a forum in which a person explained what I needed to do.

Here’s the trick:

Take your microSIM card out of your iPhone 4 (you’ll need a paperclip to eject the SIM tray). Then connect the cable to your computer and iTunes will load. Make sure your phone is backed up, and then use the Restore Phone option.

The Restore process will happen, but you’ll hit an error when the phone restarts and iTunes tries to activate it.

So then, you need to unplug the phone from your computer, and insert your AT&T microSIM (NOT your Straight Talk or other carrier microSIM). Then plug the phone back into the computer and proceed with activation. You’ll get the “Congratulations, your iPhone is unlocked” message. Then unplug the phone and take out the AT&T microSIM, and insert your Straight Talk or other carrier microSIM.

GOLDEN.

Obamacare Employer Mandate: Harder to avoid than we thought

I recently blogged about 5 tips to avoid the Obamacare health insurance employer mandate. That’s the one that requires employers to offer health insurance to their employees if they have 50 or more full-time employees.

Since that time, I have learned more about the law. Of course, it turns out to be a killjoy. It’s not even that it eliminates loopholes. It’s that the law crashes into seemingly every employment scenario like an iron fist, forcing you to go along with it or be shattered.

Again, disclaimer: I’m not a professional, so consult with one before you do… anything…

Here were my 5 suggestions:

1) Split your business in two

2) Fire a few people

3) Outsource a few tasks

4) Contract laborers

5) Move some/all of your employees to part time

Here are the reasons why most of those, it turns out, won’t work:

1) The law understands businesses as “Control Groups.” And for the sake of the 50-employee count (if you have 50 employees, you have to provide them with healthcare), it doesn’t look at each business separately; it looks at each business-owner separately, and asks, “How many employees, total, is he or she over?”

In other words, if you own a construction business where you employ 20 people, and also a restaurant where you employ 30 people, you fall within the 50-employee minimum requirement for providing them health insurance.

2) This will probably not work. Because it’s probably too late… you should have done it several years ago.

What I mean is, the IRS has what’s called a “Lookback Period.” They can look at your employment rolls and other info for a period of 3–12 months, or even longer. And if they suspect that you fired people just to avoid the mandate, WHAM!

This is what the law calls “Anti-Abuse Provisions.” The question remains as to who’s really being abused.

3) You could possibly do this. But again, be careful of those Anti-Abuse Provisions.

4) Same here.

5) This is actually a real possibility. But it’s also possibly a real headache.

Note that Obamacare is a historic bill not only because it was signed by a black man and because it means national healthcare, but because IT IS THE FIRST TIME “FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT” HAS EVER BEEN LEGALLY DEFINED IN THE USA.

Full-time employment means working at least 30 hours per week.

Now that you’ve finished laughing… and crying… here’s what that means:

You’re going to have to do a lot of shuffling around to get lots of people under 30 hours per week. Also, your employees are going to be less than satisfied, and you’ll likely have a higher turnover rate.

Additionally, you should be aware of a little something called “Full Time Equivalency,” or FTE.

FTE is another neat trick in Obamacare that magically turns your part-time employees into full-time employees, without giving the employee any added value. Here’s how it works:

You add up the total number of hours worked by all your part time employees in a month, then divide by 120 (which is the minimum hours a “full time” employee would work in a month – 30hrs/wk for 4 weeks = 120 hours a month). The number you end with is the number of “Full Time Equivalent” employees you possess.

SO…

If you have, say, 35 full-time employees (working 30+ hours per week), and 20 part-time employees working 24 hours per week, here’s how that looks:

20 x 24 x 4 = 1920 total hours worked per month by your part-timers. 1920/120 = 16 Full-Time Equivalent employees.

So you have 35 actual full time employees, and 16 FTE employees. That puts you at a total of 51 “full time” employees. And you have to provide health insurance.

Just a few other things:

-The individual mandate begins next year! Make sure you’re insured, or Uncle Sam will tax-smack you.

-By 2015, you, the employer, are going to have to report to the federal government the employment status and hours worked for every single employee… every single month. This is, of course, so the government can know whether or not you deserve a penalty.

-Employer’s shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming they can offer a low-value insurance plan and be okay. The government has a formula to determine if the health plan you offer is affordable for your employees. If it’s not, you pay a penalty.

Welcome to Obama’s America.

GMO OMG – a new film helping to tell the truth

Reblogged from Osage Beach Farmers Market:

This looks to be fantastic, and will help really shed light on one of the most pressing agricultural issues of our time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynyB2fNn8kQ

A film revealing some important truths about Monsanto and GMOs.

Doing the GAPS diet

We care a lot about food and health. But we’re not big fans of any of the “fad” diets that move through culture. We like eating simply – unprocessed (or minimally processed) foods that come from a source we trust (or that we raised ourselves!). More on our food philosophy here.

But today, we officially began the GAPS diet.

If you’re not familiar with GAPS, you can learn more about it here.

The gist of it is this:

Our gastrointestinal (“gut”) flora (bacteria) is super important to our digestion and overall health. But certain things (like antibiotics, for example), can do harm to those beneficial bacteria (since antibiotics, for example, are designed to kill bacteria indiscriminately). Additionally, some people (perhaps naturally, or perhaps because of their poor gut flora) have allergies to certain foods. That can take on the form of major reactions, or just some unpleasant indigestion.

But all of that can do harm (or reveals the harm that has already been done) to your gut, leaving your body in a state of disease (just not at your peak health). A host of diseases have been blamed on poor diet; we’re not medical professionals, and we don’t have evidence to link any of that stuff definitively. But we do believe that what you put in your body affects your health.

So GAPS begins by putting foods in your body that are easily digested and have minimal risk of causing allergic reactions (again, this is not just peanuts… it’s the [temporary] elimination of grains, dairy, sugar, etc.). This gives the gut a chance to heal from any damage that might have been done to it, and restore its healthy flora.

One of the big focuses of the GAPS diet by its creator and proponents is that it can heal autoimmune-related diseases, such as Crohns, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, asthma, ADD, and more.

Here’s how it looks for us:

For a few days, we’re basically eating homemade chicken & vegetable soup. For every meal.

Then, we slowly add foods back in, observing how our bodies react to them. In fact, one test we’ll use to see if we have a specific food allergy is to rub a little bit of that food on the underside of our wrist in the evening. If there’s any skin irritation in the morning, that means we either rubbed the food way too hard    or we likely have a slight allergy to that food.

There’s quite a bit more to this, but that’s the long and the short of it.

We’ll be doing GAPS for two months. Kate is eager to heal any issues in her gut before we get going with Baby #2 (no, this is not an announcement), and I think it will be good for all of us.

I will, however, miss a few non-GAPS-approved items. But I’ll survive somehow…

We’ll discuss the results of our GAPS experiment as time goes on, and definitely at the end.

We’ll see. Kate is much more educated about it than I. She’s firm and confident with it. I’m cautiously optimistic. I don’t anticipate a panacea, but perhaps some notable improvement in digestion.

And I probably won’t be interested in chicken soup for quite some time…

Gardening on a snowy day

Sure, we may have gotten probably 4 or 5 inches of snow today.

Winter’s last cleansing before spring springs

But that doesn’t mean we can’t do a little gardening!

A few hopeful tomato and pepper plants strive toward the fluorescent light.

Those are some tomatoes and peppers we started a few weeks ago. Yeah… germination rate not great.

Today, we started some lettuce and squash seeds indoors. Now, they’re all hanging out together in our fodder room – a heated, not-currently-used bathroom filled with fluorescent light!

It’s not high-tech, but it works!

Warmer weather is just around the corner. We’re ready for some fresh, homegrown salad! Though, surprisingly, we managed to overwinter a few spinach plants and some carrots in the garden. Occasionally I pull a few carrots out of the ground. They’re so sweet and crisp.

C’mon, spring!

Toddler talk

I know some of our friends on Facebook may have seen this, but I figured we’d post it on the blog too.

This is a very interesting conversation we had with our two-year-old over dinner recently! Enjoy…

I Love Spam, pt. 2

In grade school, Mom would sometimes send in my lunch bag a SPAM and mustard sandwich. Nostalgia.

WordPress does a great job of filtering out the spam comments on our blog. However, the downside is that the incredibly artful rendering of those spam comments goes unappreciated, and our readers miss out on some pretty entertaining reading!

So here they are. Round 2 of “I Love Spam”: our favorite spam comments from recent days, with my (italicized) replies. No, I don’t have any fun with this at all…

SPAM:

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It sounds like you and your office workers have been spending company time to catch up on your personal reading, and I can not condone that. Change your ways, friend, and be an efficient worker.

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