God loves fools

As you may have figured out if you read my April post, “It’s a Miracle?”, I enjoy thinking about what the Bible and Christian tradition have to say about the value of knowledge, intelligence and analysis. In the earlier post, I wrote about how even a children’s song reflects some Christians’ lack of interest in how the world works beyond “God did it.”

Lately, I have been reflecting on what the Bible actually says about intelligence. If God created humans and their functions, including thought and reasoning, would he not value brainpower and encourage us to use that faculty to the best of our abilities?

Let’s look at these verses from I Corinthians 1:18-31…

hey dudes

Sometime ago I developed an interest in Mormonism. I am open-minded but my interest was and is more a scholarly pursuit than an attempt to find religion. I am interested in why anyone does anything. Thinking about religion makes the brainbaby kick, especially in the area of motivation. It seems to me the great motivators are religion, biology and money, in no particular order. Sometimes those run together. Sometimes I put biology at the top and consider religion and money as products of our flawed genes. However, most reasons given for one’s behavior can often be traced to these three general headings. I am consistently amazed and horrified at the behavior of the faithful.

My interest in Mormonism either began or was fueled by three things. (Isn’t three such a nice religious number?) The three things were Mitt Romney’s (now unsuccessful) bid for the presidency, the book Under The Banner of Heaven and the television series Big Love. I don’t remember which of the three came first. Depending on who you listen to, Mormonism is one of the fastest growing religions in the United States. I have heard a similar claim about Islam. It seems Mormonism, Islam and atheism are claiming the defectors from other religions. By the way, I highly recommend Big Love and Under the Banner of Heaven. I can not, however, recommend Mitt Romney for the highest post in the land.

It’s a Miracle?

My brain is composed of at least 30% music lyrics. And at least 12% of those are songs I learned during 18 years of faithful church of Christ attendance (including church service 3x/week, youth group outings and summer camp).

Here’s a delightful jewel I found myself humming the other day: