Kantology: Addressing Kant and the Ontological Argument

"You can learn the easy way or you can learn the hard way, but taking the easy way will become hard and taking the hard way will become easy... Is this Ontological?"

The problem with Kant's assertion is that he never affirms the negative. His argument follows as this: "If I say a triangle exists and I also believe in exactly three connecting angles, I am saying the same thing – a triangle and its property." If I deny one concept I am in contradiction of the other (ie. I can't say I believe in a triangle while not believing in three connecting angles). But, if you deny the triangle in its totality then you can deny both without contradiction. If a triangle does not exist, then the properties of triangles (three connecting angles) do not exist either. Thus denying the existence of God in its totality will have no outside contradictions. So what is the problem? Kant cannot say, "God does not exist."

Kant states that the problem with Anselm's argument is that the affirmation of a deity and then proposing that this deity must exist is similar to the argument of the triangle. If you assume the existence of a triangle it is only logical to assume the existence of three connecting angles. So if God exists, then the rational conclusion is that He must be the greatest imaginable being. That is fallible. But before we travel any further, what does Kant offer to deny Anslem's argument? What idea does he have that does not externally or internally contradict Anslem's presupposition? Nothing. If, for a moment, Kant assumes that God does not exist, and then says "there is no outside argument to contradict that statement." We must say "Of course!" It is only logical to say, "If a triangle does not exist, then there are not three angles." So if God does not exist it only makes sense that He cannot be the greatest imaginable being. Again, the assumption is fallible and you are left with the same paradox... An issue of assumptions.

So why does the Ontological Argument still exists as both an exotic and rare argument if it suffers an apparent paradox? The paradoxes of both Kant and Anslem stand upon different corners - one paradox is not accepted and the other is. Kant's paradox rests upon an attempt to unglue Anslem by a straight-out denial of God (which assumes the non-existence of God - a paradoxical argument, which, of course, Kant understands and thus refuses to use such terms), whereas Anslem begins his paradox with the assumption of the existence of the human intellect (an excepted paradox of the Mind/Body Dichotomy - "the 'I' must exist to deny itself" with no further evidence needed to support the argument). Thus the only arguement Kant may successfully achieve is one of possiblity, "God possibly does not exist."

In response to Kant's refutation, Dr. Alvin Plantinga contends that the Ontolotical Arguement has never been sucessfully refuted because the possibility argument is a way of saying nothing on the topic. If this is true, then why is it that most people shy away from debating it? It's because the greatest threat is itself. The Ontological Argument holds an extremely abstract paradigm. If you are not dealing with a well-informed individual, you will be pointlessly assaulted with the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Pink Unicorn; Stupid and irrelevant at best, but nonetheless, your opponent will still miss the entire point: That God exists.... So that's why I enjoy it. If you understand it, use it. You'll have fun.

Zen in the Art of Writing - Ray Bradbury's Rules to Writing

"Always Know Your Writing Mechanics.... Always.... No excuses.... No reasons.... Always, Always, Always, Know Your Writing Mechanics" - Ray Bradbury

Most authors know how to tell a soon-to-be-writer what he wants: smooth mechanics, solid vocabulary, clutter control, and clear thoughts. There are many books out there that describe, in simplicity, the stratagems of good writing and the wisdom discovered in error. But there is a scarcity of authors who explain the playground problems that every soon-to-be-writer needs constant reminders of – encouragement.

Though Ray Bradbury takes a small step to explain the foundations of writing, in his book Zen in the Art of Writing, he dedicates the rest in speaking to the reader on what writers need to over come; why criticism should be sought and not avoided, why dreams are always controversial, and, in his offensive rhetoric, why to keep on pushing. Time and again Bradbury determinedly goes out of his way to offend the largest groups of people only to demonstrate that writing is not about everyone else, but continuing to write despite everyone else. This is a book to help a soon-to-be-writer learn that good writers express what they believe.

For those who haven't had a chance to read his book, go and read Zen in the Art of Writing. For the less fortunate, below is a compilation of my study notes:

A. Write with Gusto and Zest

People often lack Gusto and Zest when they write. They write more automatically than a machine, and people realize it. Write words that describe what you are saying and don't be afraid to put zest and gusto into your word choice.

B. Write a lot, a lot, and a lot

You only get better by writing more often. Sit down and get comfy, because you need to write a lot, not only to gain confidence, but understand why writing is hard. Try writing a story per week at least 1000 words. From M-F write Rough Drafts 1-5. Then, on Saturday, hurl you r mess into a final copy for a friend to read.

C. Inspiration, The Muse, Poetry, Novels, Wants, Dislikes, Learn

Learn to gain inspiration from all sorts of literature and life experiences. Constantly read Novels for story and writing styles, poetry for cadences, similes and beauteous expressions. Read what you enjoy, so that you can improve, and read what you do not enjoy, so that you can expand your tastes and knowledge.

D. Write without Embarrassment

Don't write with embarrassment because then you admit to writing what others enjoy. It isn't their story, it isn't their life. If you want to write about pink elephants jumping over pancakes then do it. If you want to write about unicorns killing dandelions or birds killing people then do it. But whatever you do, don't write about what other people want to hear. Remember, if they want to hear themselves, they can write their own books.

E. Passion

Any story without passion is devoid of a honest reader. You may write a sci-fi book, but if you do not have passion about sci-fi, then don't write about it. If a story isn't inspired by a writer, by a person, then why would a person want to read it?

F. Not True does not mean Not Real

As Ray Bradbury stated, “The difference between science fiction and science fact is that one is a problem and the other a solution.” Writing about a problem doesn't mean it isn't true. Writing about a problem provides a way for a solution.

G. Search the Past for Today and write completely for tomorrow.

Inspiration is as plentiful as our past. Search your past and you will find the scarce moments you didn't believe existed. Memories that kept you walking at night and kept you sleeping during the day. Also, write completely. If you want to write about love, then give the audience something to love. If you write something sorrowful, then give the audience a reason to cry. If you write a mystery, then give the audience something to wonder for. If you write a book give someone a reason to read it. If you can't give a reason, then you don't have a reason to write it. Books are your dreams written down, and dreams have something to say.

H. Be a good Self-Editor, but don't drain your Character

Friends may give good ideas, but they aren't good editors - They don't know what you are trying to say. Read over your paper and edit it four or five times through by condensing your thoughts. Remove all unnecessary words, keep one or two thoughts per sentence, and one subject per paragraph. The process will help pull all the annoying cotton balls out of your paper and will straighten your tangled mess. Keep condensing until you have done the impossible, then have your friends give their good ideas on how to improve and expand your work. Start by making your point clear, start by editing well.

Delusional

“The mark of an educated mind is to be able to entertain a belief without accepting it” - Aristotle

My earliest memories were always about pitting my thoughts against someone else. It doesn't matter who it was, I was like Sam-I-Am: I was persistent and loved doing it. I could speak to a Mormon out in the cold or an Atheist in the warmth of my house. My audacity even ran afoul with my parents too. But I kept at it because I enjoyed ever bit of it. I enjoyed the chess-like imagination of two ideas engaging and re-engaging. A fight to mental death or immaterial mercy. It was a realm like that of the Roman Colosseum, with two warriors and the silent clashing of thoughts, of shields and swords. When I wasn't debating, I was preparing. And as I went on, I felt the need to peer over that forbidden curtain and see what my opponents were doing. What consumed all his time? Where did his training come about? Since the publication of The God Delusion, I wanted to read its contents and see for myself what books my opponents were reading, what training manuals filled their libraries and, if I were wrong, what books I would follow myself.

Two days ago, after coming home from work, I sat down, read the preface, and thumbed through the contents: A Deeply Religious Non-Believer; The God Hypothesis; Arguments for Gods Existence – this caught my attention; Why there almost certainly is no God; The Roots of Religion; What's wrong with Religion? Why be so Hostile?; Childhood, Abuse, and the escape from Religion. So far? My first impression hopefully will not be my last. I expect to see a book of words without thoughts. Chapters filled with rhetoric used to call out the atheists from the shadows of society and proclaim the superficial doubt of religious intellectualism. As Dr. Plantinga has previous stated, I would thus far agree, “I am not afraid of the New Atheists. The only thing I can say is that the older Atheists had better arguments.” But my purpose isn't to weigh value, it is to find answers.

As I read through The God Delusion, I will be discoursing on each chapter. My contending points, fallacious quotations, or any imperative information will be complied after finishing each chapter. The final compilation should resemble something of a personal nature – a war of ideas.

So, what do I expect out of this book? I expect to find answers: I expect to see the God argument from the other side; To read, research, counter, or believe whatever may be found. If this book fulfills my first impression, then let the goal of this book be to become a compilation of resources to counter those who find the necessity of reverberating Dr. Dawkin's claims. Until then, we must wait and hope.

"180" Movie - A Living Waters Ministry Production

"Where was the World? Where was everyone?"

There will be a time when a book's appalling words and chilling facts describe a world too ready to be embraced. A time when individuals will stand alone calling out, "Where is the world? Where is everyone?" As a lonely star in a cold winter's night their voices will find no warmth. The silence will bring no comfort. Until the world has changed and time begin again, they will only find despair. But those times are not our times and those words are not our words.

Today is the time where men and women are fighting against the appalling words and chilling facts too ready to be embraced. Every day they are standing against the American Holocaust and fighting against the deaths of over 53 million of America's children. Will you let them stand alone? Will you let your hopes become regrets? Will you be left calling out, "Where was I?"

If you have a moment please take the time to watch this video.

A Midnight Caller

My first full length poem. I hope you enjoy.

A Midnight Caller

I walk every night to the street-lit corner

hoping and dreaming the return of my lover

My hand turned out, my face turned queer

I skip and dance because I have found her here

But tonight the stars are not glowing and yellow

The night is cold and brisk and quite mellow

A man, A man approaches in the midnight hour

Death is known as the midnight caller

In the night as I wait

I can watch every step he take

Alone in the street-lit corner

I know, here comes my lover

He greets me with a smile and extends out his hand

I know it is time, I know what he wants – tonight we see a far-away land

We ride in a carriage down a cobblestone way

Death sits and he stares as God told me to stay.

The street-lit corner has passed and gone

For now death and I have left for yester's dawn

The carriage has stopped, and death has not spoken

He extends out his hand and delivers a token

Outside the carriage I see my friends at play - warm with glee

But death's carriage door will not open, I am forced to watch those who are free.

I see myself outside at play

I see my friends, my mother, my father, my family in the day

My youthful memories begins to glide and vapor

The door of my heart begins to taper

I shake and fight, I know what is next

Death smiles and laughs he knows it's my turned to be vexed.

The carriage carried us into the darkness beyond

I shake and quiver, knowing we will go on

The night is still dark save for a street-lit corner

The carriage stops for a moment near a murmur

This was the house of me and my lover

The moment has come that I wished to cover

I began to cry and weep for all the regrets I lived to keep

Then Death, glaring and smiling, held out his hand and began to speak

At first he spoke low and piercing

Then his voice rose and split my soul, he was cursing

Death enchanted,

“You were brought a wife

Gleaming and glow

To love and cherish

over the moonlit snow

Every night she waited til the stars struck hours

Sleeping before her Charming was in her towers

Always alone to the end

Always dreaming for an amend”

I never stopped crying until he finished his last word

I wanted it to stop, I tried any way, I wanted something but what I heard.

He pulled me out of the carriage with hands as old as iron

He brought me into my lovers bedroom to see my wife's heart burn

I tried to hold her and I tried to speak

But time had run out, and death for us all, for now I couldn't be meek.

Death seized me by my skull

He called and brooded into me a lull

“You ask your crime?

T'is Ignorance

And the wish for time”

Then he threw back my head and let it fall

The darkness became darker and I felt the death of all

The carriage began again, traveling down the cobblestone way

I would not have known, but because Death told me a place we were to stay.

Again we stopped, but I didn't look out the iron of the door

I knew whatever it was, I wasn't prepared for what was in store

I layed and I waited hoping death wouldn't seize me again

but I awoke to the dawn, the sun over the horizon, a day to begin

I stepped out of the carriage whose door was open wide

I was happy to see everything, the sky, the earth, it was an overwhelming tide

Looking around I knew where I was – it was all over

My life was no more, but so was my hoping and dreaming and street-lit corner

My wife was there with tears no more

I seized her and felt as if I would let go nevermore

She smiled and asked if I had received a token

Wondering if Death was near me and had spoken

I had forgotten death and the carriage

I felt for the token and pulled it out with all my courage

I read it once and have always felt rotton

For those who are yet alive, I write the words so they won't be forgotten

“Imagine if you would have spent a little time

Imagine eternity with reminisce of joyous chime”

Focus, Focus, Green

Focus, Focus, Green

“What are you doing?!?! You forgot?” I vividly remember my football coach yelling at us in his picture enhancing words, “You don't forget what's important... Do you forget to wipe after using the restroom? Walk around stinky?,” he paused to point, “No, you do what's important. Make your football job important.”* Life is the same way. You can't do or remember everything. You have to prioritize, choose which cards to hold and which to discard. The quicker you do it the better because your competing against time - he hasn't lost yet.

In my accelerated college course the first thing I took was a course on memory. It was an audio course taught by a man whose name I have misplaced, but I do know he had a funny voice that was feinted – like speaking with your nose plugged – and achieved a few awards for his ability. One of his lessons showed that the mind remembers the objects you focus on. The lesson went something like this:

Look around the room. Find everything that is the color green. Keep looking, find all of them, every single one of them. Look at your clothing, look at the ceiling, look everywhere. Now close your eyes. Your mind should be black and void. Now slowly visualize all of those items. Do you see them now? Keeping visualizing them one by one. Are they all in your head? Do you see them all? Keep your eyes closed and tell me how many red objects are in the room. Sound unfair? Can't remember any red objects? It isn't unfair – you only remembered what you focused on.

The course continued on explaining and teaching me how the mind more willingly remembers pictures over text. Need to remember a license plate? Assign a picture for each character. Say the license plate is 4QRW421H. That might be long for remembering a sequence of random numbers and letters, but there is a way to make it easier, less random. Picture (Four) (Q)ueens (R)unning (W)ildly (for) (twenty-one) (h)ours. Maybe they are getting tired and slowing down, or drank too much coffee and still going strong – why would they be running for twenty-one hours? Make it into a story. Conversely, to make another example, you could say Four Quilts are Ripping William into four-hundred and twenty-one pieces of human-burgers - the more dastardly the easier to remember. But the entire idea of the course was to find the things worth remembering, focusing on those things, and sticking them into your memory – a license plate is important to remember if you are at the DMV.

As Christians we are fortunate to have the Bible with commandments and histories that converges on God's will. So why aren't Christians perfect? We have God's will spelled out for us – literally in most cases. Sweeping aside sin and its intrusion, by far and wide the single reason is focusing on the wrong things - I did not say bad things.

Most confusing is that there is a difference between wrong things and bad things. There are many good things in our lives and many bad ideas, but focusing on good things in the wrong place should be equally avoided. Working hard is almost proverbial, it is the quote of every failed husband. Working diligently is proverbial. Working without sacrificing your family. Loving your family without sacrificing God. Everything is balanced on a slim edge of time and eternity.

Time sits unnervingly. He hasn't moved and never sleeps, tapping away on the table he is counting your remaining life. Breaking down under the glare of time, I get lost in the frantics of deadlines, wants, places to go, remembering, forgetting, while everything around me seems to be falling apart. Sometimes I fix that by working extra hard to complete my “To-Do” list. I feel better at night to have a list of accomplishments thanking me. But Time is still the victor. I focus on “To-Do” lists for the wrong reasons. I become economical and extricate all the “fluff.” Instead of posing for my little sister so she can draw a picture of me, I am in my room, door closed, trying to finish up a job. Instead of coaching my little brother's football team, I am trying to catch up on my reading. I focus on the wrong things because I have the wrong reasons.

To defeat time you must focus on the one who can break it: God, who was before and will be after. God provided Ten commandments, but, in comical fashion, Christ understood we couldn't remember that – He stated two: Love our neighbors as our self and love our God with all of our hearts, with all of our soul, and with all of our mind. Our family is our closest neighbor, not the job to make us feel better. Working hard was never something God commanded us to do, He commanded us to work hard for Him. When we focus on God, we focus on the right things in the right place. Time can only claim victory when we focus on things constrained by time. But when focused on God and family we grab Time by the neck and place it in the right place – not tapping away our life, but collecting moments that will last forever.

I started off college learning how to learn. When we live our life we must begin by learning how to live. We need to focus on what is important and remember. Don't be looking for green when you know we are asking for red. If you don't know what color to look for, look for which color to look for. Spend time focusing on what is right. So next time, when you use the restroom take your Bible with you.... As I said, the more dastardly the easier to remember.

*No, that is not a word-for-word quote of my high school football coach. You wouldn't know it, but he was an English teacher. On the football field he religiously held a few choice words that I omitted or replaced.

The Count of Monte Cristo: A Book Review

The Count of Monte Cristo
A Novel by Alexander Dumas

“...All human wisdom is contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.”

          A man may walk into the halls of Chateau d'If, but out of her chains a man never returns. A sailor by trade, a captain by gain, fortune has spoken differently to the virtuous. In the shadow of trust his betrothed is seized by his friends, his rank stripped by the ones he loves, and his weary father cast aside to the harshness of his son's betrayal. In the darkness of Chateau d'If he finds the enchantments of vengeance and a lord willing to teach him its ways. Here are the chronicles of Edmond Dantes, the Count of Monte Cristo.

          Traveling through the toils that assail the human soul, the reader is confused and dazzled by the complexities of ancient society. The book begins at the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire, Napoleon banished to the island of Elba, and a betrayal of a man in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the central story doesn't begin until the entrance of a mysterious figure into the Parisian aristocracy; A man with God-like powers, one who holds the caprices of life and death, and guides the providence of heaven. The Count of Monte Cristo is warmly received and the story begins: find and punish those who plundered his heart.

          The daunting question is, “who can contain the cup of retribution?” Some books have stood against generations of criticism because valour has been championed, but this book has stood because vengeance is eternal. The reader is not merely shown how a shard of fervor can ravage a man, but how vehemence, wholly in the grasp of the anguished, can break the soul of society. Can a man seek revenge without ravaging himself? That is the story you must read to the end to find out.

          But don't believe you will finish it quickly. The unabridged edition, which I recommend, is not for the feint of mind. Weighting at over five pounds, the book is over twelve-hundred pages and mounts a vocabulary that will require an excellent dictionary. Don't let that deter you, there is an exception and with patience comes a reward. In a brilliant fashion the presumptuous consequences of a long book – forgetting characters, unable to recollect specific events, complex story lines, and simply the terrifying look of a book larger than any encyclopedia – is played to an advantage. Have you ever been left to yourself when, suddenly, you remember something of sentimental value? Whether it is sad or comforting there is a special feeling of excitement in remembering. Like so, Alexander Dumas guides his reader through a lost memory. Always looking to the past, the reader will be intrigued at how much of the book is forgotten only to be remembered in the splitting pages to come. No one is left with a book – perhaps it wasn't written to be so - they are left with an experience of a long forgotten memory.

          I was left with a small dirt-grinned piece of glass reflecting the tarnishes of life and shimmering with a sparkle of happiness. The French aristocracy and their liveliness, the intimate feelings of barons and baronesses, and the transformation of the entire story. One seeks vengeance and one finds the answer. There is a price for every choice we make, but the difficulty is finding out that you never knew the final cost. There isn't anything to disregard about this story, it is a masterpiece.

          However, before I leave this book on my shelf, there is one more thing I would like to say. There is something special I was told. Too often people prostrate themselves on a lonely island watching their hopes dip below the horizon. You may become one of those people when you try to finish this book, you may be one of those people already; not knowing if good will come, if good will ever come. To those people there is a word of encouragement... Wait and Hope.