A philosophy of singleness: part 3

Whitby Abbey and Saint Mary's Church, England (photo from trekearth.com)

There are some persons that downplay physical attraction’s importance in romantic relationships, and I am not one of those people. A few people that do not know me well have suggested that I am looking for a supermodel (supermodel type). They are incorrect and this is not an aspect of my romantic philosophy. At Chucky and Philosophy Man’s birthday party, a friend of Chucky’s sarcastically suggested to me that a certain supermodel was now single, but that she was probably too old for me. I am looking for a woman with whom I can have mutual spiritual, intellectual, and physical attraction. Some in my family would suggest that I should lower my physical standards in attraction, especially since I have doorman and not pretty boy looks. I attempt to look for a young woman that is at least minimally significantly physically attractive to me, and not maximally significantly attractive to me, but there must be significant physical attraction, although I view spiritual and intellectual mutual attraction as more important in romantic relationships. An important part of my work in theodicy is relevant here. Can I really be significantly satisfied by becoming romantically involved with a woman that is below my minimal physical standards? Are physical standards simply a matter of choice, or are they a matter of both nature and choice?

W. Tullian Tchividjian explains the view of Jonathan Edwards, where Edwards writes that people in their fallen state are freely able to choose what they most desire. Tchividjian (2001: 1). Edwards notes that because of corrupted human nature human beings are free only to sin. Tchividjian (2001: 2). Human beings therefore freely choose within their sinful nature to disobey God. The choices of acts made by human beings do not depart from the motives and desires which fuel them as the motives and desires come from human nature. Edwards (1754)(2006: 4.4: 3). Within Edwards' system God's sovereign will would influence the nature of the elect in order that they would have motives and desires leading to following Christ. John S. Feinberg reasons that desires and not free will are the cause of human rebellion against God. Feinberg (1994: 128). I speculate that human nature and consciousness (the ability to have self-awareness) does not choose to be as it is, but was created by God, and has been corrupt since the fall of humanity. From consciousness and self-awareness, human beings would develop motives and desires, and eventually make limited free will choices. The primary cause of human acts is determined by God who creates the human nature, and influences human choices. The secondary cause of human acts is the individuals that act according to nature, consciousness, motives, desires, and a limited free will influenced by God. It may be correctly pointed out that what God determines and causes must necessarily (logically must occur) take place. However, I do not think that God coerces or forces individuals to commit actions.

My point here is that the desire known as physical attraction comes from our God given human nature, and consciousness, and is expressed in motives, desires, and a limited free will where by which we make our choices. In general terms, and not only with physical attraction, God is willing what occurs in an individual by influence, and willingly allows the person to sin for God's divine purposes. God can also influence both the regenerate and unregenerate person for his purposes. Physical attraction can be traced back to an individual’s nature. By nature an individual will not be attracted to each and every person of the opposite sex. It seems that most persons are not attracted to the majority of persons of the opposite sex. A problem is that sin greatly complicates the matter. A partial remedy I have for this problem is for Christians who are single to only hold out for those they find minimally significantly physically attractive within their own nature, consciousness and desires.

Therefore the person can choose a person to potentially date that is minimally significantly physically attractive and pay more attention to the spiritual and intellectual aspects of the person. I reason that far too many Christians, especially ones considered very attractive in Western society, are rejecting those for which they have minimal significant physical attraction, in favour of those for which they have closer to maximal significant physical attraction. These persons may at times ignore spiritual and intellectual qualities in others. It is therefore no surprise that from my findings on dating sites and interaction with Christians personally, that many Christians date and marry non-believers, since Christians are a minority in Western society and it would be more difficult in the Christian community than in secular society, to find someone close to the standard of maximally significantly physically attractive. It would also be easier to meet minimal standards in the secular world, but the secular world cannot provide persons that spiritually and intellectually belong to Christ.

EDWARDS, JONATHAN (1754)(2006) Freedom of the Will, Flower Mound, Texas. Jonathanedwards.com.http://www.jonathanedwards.com/

FEINBERG, JOHN S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.

TCHIVIDJIAN, W. TULLIAN, (2001) ‘Reflections on Jonathan Edwards’ View of Free Will, in IIIM Magazine Online, Volume 3, Number 51, December 17 to December 23, Fern Park, Florida, IIIM Magazine Online.

thekingpin68 is rated

http://mingle2.com/blog-rating

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

death (134x) hell (65x) pain (57x) dangerous (13x) dead (11x) murder (7x) hurt (4x) abortion (3x) dike (2x) kill (1x)

Thanks to Lawrence of Arabia from Revolt in the Desert, in my links, for the link to this amusing site that rates blogs. I looked at the ratings for all my linked blogs with both of my theology blogs, my blogs excluded, and one other blog had a NC-17 rating, and two other blogs were rated Restricted.

Please check out my other theology related blog for its rating:

http://satireandtheology.blogspot.com/2007/07/satire-and-theology-is-rated.html

Pray Harder!

Central, Wales

1 John 5:14-15 from the New American Standard Bible

And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us.

And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked before Him.

Henry Clarence Thiessen writes that asking things according to God’s will is an aspect of abiding and having confidence in God. Thiessen (1956: 399). It suggests that the person praying has a correct condition of the heart. Thiessen (1956: 399). In his article, Theology of Prayer, Alan Richardson explains that from Jesus’ perspective, all of our prayers are answered, but not necessarily in the way we would have chosen. Richardson (1999: 458). D.G. Bloesch notes that God wants his followers to be in partnership with him, but prayer is fundamentally about sharing personal needs with God and being conformed to his divine will and purposes. Bloesch (1996: 867).

I reason that theology from 1 John 5:14-15, should conclude that Christians should ask God that they will pray and make requests along the lines of God’s will. Prayer should be primarily made for personal fellowship with God, and secondarily for personal requests. Even if an individual Christian is primarily being guided by the Holy Spirit in life, there is no guarantee that each and every heard prayer request will be answered according to the will of the human follower, but will be answered according to God’s will and purposes.

On Sunday, I had a discussion with a well-meaning young woman at church. She is one of these people that is always trying to be positive. She was telling me how she had been very down in an earlier part of her life and she prayed and God significantly lifted her spirits. She strongly believes that the Lord assisted her, and I am not trying to intellectually challenge this claim. My disagreement with her is when she tries to make her experience, theology for every case. She stated that in regard to me being single, I should not discuss or list legitimate reasons why I am single, but simply pray about it. I informed her that I have prayed about it for more than 20 years, and that God is sovereign and does not have to answer my prayers the way I want them to be answered. She then stated, pray harder! I am not using ad hominem here and attacking her personally with a name, but this really struck me as ding-dong theology. I am basically stating that it is foolish theology. God seemingly answered her prayer and gave her significant blessings when dealing with problems, but many believers throughout the ages, and today, have many problems and her theology is presumptuous to assume that persons simply need to pray harder to overcome difficulties. In regard to theodicy and the problem of evil, this type of theology is an example of the difficulty of placing too much emphasis on human free will, instead of God’s sovereignty, as if in every case, persons are suffering because they are doing something wrong, and not praying hard enough. 1 John 5:14-15 does not state that if we pray hard enough all of our prayers will be answered to our satisfaction, it states that our prayers will be heard when made within God’s will. Requests, as Richardson states, will be answered, but not necessarily according to what we as Christians desire. It must be remembered in regard to theodicy and the problem of evil, that God meets the needs of Christians in order to fulfill his purposes, and not necessarily in order to provide maximal human fulfillment in this present earthly realm.

BLOESCH, D.G. (1996) ‘Prayer’ in Walter A. Elwell (ed.) Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books.

RICHARDSON, ALAN (1999) ‘Prayer, Theology of’ in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, London, SCM Press Ltd.

THIESSEN, HENRY C. (1956) Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.


My latest Facebook Graffiti

Questionnaire feedback finale: Dealing with anger

Prince of Wales Hotel, Alberta

Happy Canada Day!

Since I have presently have 210 questionnaires in my possession and 190 processed on my SPSS data file, there is no urgent need for me to further ask for completed questionnaires. However, my goal is to not reject one survey that is returned to me, and so I shall keep accepting questionnaires until the day I am ready to email the results to my advisor at Wales. Thank you!

The process of emailing out questionnaires over the internet has been interesting. I learned a little about the Christian landscape in various parts of the world and emailed out over 1000 questionnaires. I very much appreciate the persons that returned questionnaires by email, and regular mail. I also somewhat appreciate those that politely declined to assist in an email response or just deleted my email.

I have discussed in previous articles, for the sake of clarification, some of the negative feedback I received from persons of the religious left and right, and some accusations made against me. From a couple of sources, it was suggested that there may be a hidden agenda with this project, as in somehow behind the problem of evil questions there is another topic I wish to deal with, for example, to discuss women in ministry. It has been stated that I might wish to catch people blind. Based on the denominations, these people were likely of the religious left and were implying that I had an agenda against feminism, which I do not with this project. I responded to these accusations in a friendly email, but received no reply.

From a leader from an independent fundamentalist church that is likely of the religious right, there was the suggestion that my research was a feminist propaganda tool. I corrected this person in a friendly email, but received no further reply. There is no anti-feminist or feminist agenda with my questionnaire or dissertation. My University department is not Reformed. It is secular and has required me to add some women related questions, as they originally wanted me to review a feminist theodicy. I informed them that as far as I could tell there was no such thing. I am required to meet certain academic standards, including presenting viewpoints that are not from my particular theological tradition.

I was not furious with these accusations, but I was angry for a few hours each time. After the second event, I also found these accusations humourous as they contradicted each other! But, these incidents also made me think about the concept of anger, in regard to the problem of evil. Millard J. Erickson points out that God’s reaction to sin in anger is not primarily emotional, as his temper is not out of control. Erickson (1994: 605). Erickson states that God in his anger should be described as being disappointed with sin. Erickson (1994: 605). I am by no means able to handle anger in a way equal to God, but I was angry with these accusations and accusers, not in a furious manner, but was disappointed that men that claim to be Christian pastors did not give me the benefit of the doubt in regard to my motives in producing this PhD problem of evil questionnaire and emailing it out world-wide. I realized that even though I was not emailing them for commercial gain I may have been viewed as an irritant and/or it may be that since I am not in within their perhaps extreme religious views of the left and right respectively, that I was deemed as an outsider and a threat.

From the New American Standard Bible:

Proverbs 14:17 explains that a quick-tempered man acts foolishly.

Ephesians 4:26-27 notes that a person will be angry, but is told not to sin, as sinful anger gives the devil opportunity.

I have often looked at human sin metaphorically as a fire and Satan and demons as beings that pour gas on that fire. This all occurs within the sovereign will and purposes of God. All that occurs within creation is willed and allowed by the infinite, and omnipotent God, but I would rather follow God’s will by being obedient as opposed to being disobedient, and so anger is something that should be dealt with in prayer quickly. I was angered by these accusations and accusers, and soon asked God to help me to forgive these accusers and as well understood in the situation the opportunity to produce humourous blog material and to clear up misconceptions which some would have concerning my project, and perhaps me personally. R. K. Harrison describes God’s Biblical anger as a deliberate reaction to all that violates his holy nature. Harrison (1996: 48). It is explained that human anger can be righteous, but can also be selfish, or a combination of both and if human anger is not righteous alone, it may face the condemnation of God. Harrison (1996: 48). Righteous anger against false accusations and accusers is therefore something that should be overcome quickly through the power of prayer and the leading of God.

ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

HARRISON, R.K. (1996) ‘Anger’, in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books.