Rich Sorensen's Blog

We do not believe in immortality because we can prove it,
but we try to prove it because we cannot help believing it.
~ Harriet Martineau

In the winter and early spring of 2007-08, my mother and I spent her last days together.

She was 93 years old, but still mentally sharp. Macular degeneration had reduced her vision and a congestive heart condition slowed her down, but despite those issues she refused nursing home care, and still lived in the same house that my father had purchased for them in 1978 when they had moved to Rhode Island. She hated the thought of losing her independence; when I took over her finances after she received a $58.00 bill from the gas company and wrote a check for $5,800.00, her comment to me was that she felt like she had reverted to being “just a silly teenager again with no responsibilities!”

The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer
~ Marcus Aurelius

Introduction

Using the words “Religion” and “Eroticism” in the same sentence generates a number of different responses, depending on the perspective of the reader. Some will immediately be suspicious, and consider the combination of those two words as the sum of corrupting influences on what to them should be austere and holy. Others will perhaps smirk and replay their feeling of disgust with how traditional religion has supposedly trashed eroticism. Yet others may think that we must be discussing some type of new-age, free-love movement.

There is only one happiness in life – to love and be loved
~ George Sand

Introduction

Some people question the institution of marriage and think that it an anachronism in today’s society, because they feel that the power of males and females should be made equivalent, and their roles made interchangeable. Furthermore, some people feel that marriage needlessly limits their sexual expression and spoils their erotic fun.

Eat Friends! Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers!
~ The Song of Solomon 5:1

Introduction

One of the most basic aspects of human existence is the male/female relationship and the associated issues—marriage, sexuality, parenting, and family life. The family always has been, and always will be the foundational building block of society; as goes the family, so goes the society, for better or worse. God is the designer of the human mind and body. He is the one who created sexuality and the one who gave us our sexual nature. We should therefore expect that He would advise us on how we should live.

Darwinism in Distress

Most people are familiar with Hans Christian Andersen’s classic children’s story The Emperor’s New Clothes, which is a tale about authorities and their beliefs – how the public can be coerced into believing what the authorities wish them to believe, what happens when the beliefs are shown to be false, and how even the most intelligent people often remain in denial and persist in holding on to untruths even after they are exposed.

How can God be good if there is so much bad?

Introduction

Around 300 BC the Greek philosopher Epicurus stated the following:

If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to, then He is not omnipotent.
If God is able, but not willing, then He is malevolent.
If God is both able and willing, then where does evil come from?
If God is neither able nor willing, then why call Him God?

It is the greatest art of the devil to convince us he does not exist
~ Pierre Charles Baudelaire

In the 1997 movie Conspiracy Theory, Mel Gibson played a mentally unhinged cabbie named Jerry who lived in a world of conspiracy theories, where a shadowy “they” were supposedly behind everything significant that happened. The “they” were variously said to be:

• The US government.
• The communist party.
• The Italian, Chinese, and Japanese mafia.
• Islamic/Arab militants.
• The CIA, NSA, MI 5/6 and/or other clandestine government groups.
• Multinational corporations.
• Labor unions.

Neytiri of the Na'vi

I recently watched the DVD “Collector’s Special Extended Edition” of the movie Avatar, by James Cameron. He is one of my favorite directors, having made Terminator I (which I consider to be one of the best action/adventure movies ever made), Titanic, and Aliens.

Avatar is a science fiction/fantasy/adventure flick set on the planet of Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. In many ways this movie surpassed all of Cameron’s others in a brilliant combination of human acting, CGI effects, military battles, and a convincing love story between a human man and an alien woman. But what interested me most were the theological aspects of the movie.

The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power.  You just take it.
~ Roseanne Barr

If you say that the history of the Church is a long succession of scandals, you are telling the truth, though if that is all you say, you are distorting the truth

~ Gerald Vann

To a large degree, the Bible and the church have been lumped together in people’s minds and the frustration that some have felt with the actual “institutions of Christianity” have made them question and throw out the church, the Bible, and even Christianity itself. Many of the criticisms are overblown, but the church does have things to answer for. Here are some examples: