Valuable Quotes
Sunday, February 06, 2005
The Nicene Creed (with scriptural references as it is based on the Bible)
We believe in (Romans 10: 8-10; 1 John 4: 15)
ONE God, (Deuteronomy 6: 4, Ephesians 4: 6)
Father (Matthew 6: 9)
Almighty, (Exodus 6: 3)
Maker of Heaven and Earth, (Genesis 1: 1)
and of all things visible and invisible. (Colossians 1: 15-16)
And in ONE Lord Jesus Christ, (Acts 11: 17)
Son of God, (Mathew 14: 33; 16: 16)
Only-Begotten, (John 1: 18; 3: 16)
Begotten of the Father before all ages. (John 1: 2)
Light from Light; (Psalm 27: 1; John 8: 12; Matthew 17: 2,5)
True God from True God; (John 17: 1-5)
Begotten, not made; (John 1: 18)
of one essence with the Father (John 10: 30)
through whom all things were made; (Hebrews 1: 1-2)
Who for us men and for our salvation (1 Timothy 2: 4-5)
came down from heaven, (John 6: 33,35)
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary (Luke 1: 35)
and became man. (John 1: 14)
And He was crucified for us (Mark 15: 25; 1 Corinthians 15: 3)
under Pontius Pilate, (John 19: 6)
suffered, (Mark 8: 31)
and was buried. (Luke 23: 53; 1 Corinthians 15: 4)
And on the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, (Luke 24: 1 Corinthians 15: 4)
and ascended into heaven, (Luke 24: 51; Acts 1: 10)
and sits at the right hand of the Father; (Mark 16: 19; Acts 7: 55)
and He shall come again with glory (Matthew 24: 27)
to judge the living and the dead; (Acts 10: 42; 2 Timothy 4: 1)
Whose Kingdom shall have no end. (2 Peter 1: 11)
And in the Holy Spirit, (John 14: 26)
Lord, (Acts 5: 3-4)
Giver of Life, (Genesis 1: 2)
Who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; (John 15: 26)
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; (Matthew 3: 16-17)
Who spoke through the prophets. (1 Samuel 19: 20; Ezekiel 11: 5,13)
In one, (Matthew 16: 18)
holy, (1 Peter 2: 5,9)
catholic*, (Mark 16: 15)
and apostolic Church. (Acts 2: 42; Ephesians 2: 19-22)
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins**. (Ephesians 4: 5; Acts 2: 38)
I look for the resurrection of the dead, (John 11: 24; 1 Corinthians 15: 12-49; Hebrews 6: 2; Revelation 20: 5)
and the life in the age to come. (Mark 10: 29-30)
AMEN. (Psalm 106: 48)
*The word "catholic" refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
**This can be interpreted to mean that baptism is a matter of obedience and not a requirement for salvation or a regenerating ordinance.
The Modern Cosmological Argument: William Lane Craig
"Now from the very nature of the case, as the cause of space and time, this supernatural cause must be an uncaused, changeless, timeless, and immaterial being which created the universe. It must be uncaused because there cannot be an infinite regress of causes. It must be timeless and therefore changeless - at least without the universe - because it created time. Because it also created space, it must transcend space as well and therefore be immaterial, not physical."
--William Lane Craig, in God? A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist, p.5; Oxford University Press, 2004.
I contend that the essence of what it means to be moral lies in just one question, one choice between two opposing views: whether we should act in a way that is self-interested or one that is non-self-interested, i.e., whether we should be selfish or altruistic. Although many of the moral codes proposed by various people throughout history have been very dissimilar, I assert that they can all be largely summed up by their answer to this question. Though different moral codes may counsel combining selfishness and altruism in varying proportions in different situations, whether we should live for ourselves or for others, and why, is the fundamental question that every proposed moral code seeks to answer. Of course, as far as most people are concerned, selfishness needs no additional justification; to say that an action is in your own best interest is itself a reason for undertaking it. Moral philosophy, if it is needed, is needed precisely to explain why we should not be guided purely by self-interest - why we should not always do the things that produce the maximum benefit for us, regardless of their effects on others. The key question, then, is whether there is good reason not to be selfish - whether there is a rational reason to be altruistic.
odd source
http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/carrot&stick.html
Finally, some might ask, why should we care about morality at all? Why is it important to live ethically? To this, my answer is simply as follows: because actions have consequences. If we care about the outcome of our decisions - if we want to make the best choice in a given situation - then we need a set of principles to guide us whenever we are faced with a set of options to choose from. Granted, not all decisions a person might make are moral decisions, but most are. In fact, morality is deeply interwoven with everyday life, to the extent that there is scarcely a decision one can make that does not have a moral dimension, even if that dimension is not always obvious. Very few decisions are of the type that can be made on a whim because there is no importance to the outcome, and this makes it all the more important for us to formulate and live by a set of principles calculated to guide us to the best choice in a given circumstance.
interesting source
an atheists site
http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/carrot&stick.html
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Behe has conceded that evolution could have created the intricate macroscopic structures Paley so confidently held forth as evidence of design, and instead has shifted his focus to microscopic systems within the cell, molecular relays that perform functions such as allowing bacteria to swim or causing blood to clot. These structures, Behe claims, are too complex for evolution to have produced. Behe calls his criterion "irreducible complexity" - if a system is made up of multiple interacting parts of which all are required to perform its function, then such a system could not have been created through a process of gradual evolution and must have been designed.
unsual source an athists site http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/unmovedmover.html#design:classic
The Modern Design Argument: Michael Behe
"The result of these cumulative efforts to investigate the cell - to investigate life at the molecular level - is a loud, clear, piercing cry of 'design!'.... Why does the scientific community not greedily embrace its startling discovery? Why is the observation of design handled with intellectual gloves? The dilemma is that while one side of the elephant is labeled intelligent design, the other side might be labeled God."
--Michael Behe, Darwin's Black Box, p.232-233; The Free Press, 1996.
The Classic Design Argument: William Paley
"In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone and were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer that for anything I knew to the contrary it had lain there forever; nor would it, perhaps, be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place, I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that for anything I knew the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone? Why is it not as admissible in the second case as in the first? For this reason, and for no other, namely, that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive - what we could not discover in the stone - that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e.g., that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, of a different size from what they are, or placed after any other manner or in any other order than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it."
--William Paley, Natural Theology, 1800
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg -- or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
-- C. S. Lewis --
INSIGHTFUL QUOTE
2-5-05
I across this quote many years ago. And I found much wisdom and insight in this long sentence. A few times each year I would recall it vaguely. This especially happened when I saw a video about world history or heard a commentary about the changes in the American society.
This cycle also occurs on the individual level.
Recently I came across it in print again. So I put it on two of my blogs and sent you a copy.
Man begins his existence in bondage,
and rises from bondage through spiritual faith,
from spiritual faith to courage,
from courage to liberty,
from liberty to abundance,
from abundance to selfishness,
from selfishness to complacency,
from complacency to apathy,
from apathy to dependency,
from dependency back to bondage.
Clarence Manion
Dean of Law School
Notre Dame
1941 to 1952
In order to share this will many others later I published it on these blogs
http://valuablequotes.blogspot.com/
http://gemcollection.blogspot.com/
