Overwhelmed

Man am I going to be glad when this semester is over. I think that it has been the hardest yet. There are only two weeks left and I still have 2 papers, a book review, 250 pages of reading, a presentation, some scripture, and a final exam. I have been off of the blogging for a few days now and there will be few blogs between now and May 8th. I will get back in the swing of things after that. Just thought that I would let everyone know, who reads my blog and talk to you soon.

Scott

Life More Abundant

I just posted a new blog on my Embracing God site. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Atheism in America

I recently went to cinemablend.com and was looking at an article. I really like Cinema blend because they write great articles about upcoming movies, reviews, and other types of information on one of my favorite interests. Recently they had an article about Bill Maher and his upcoming movie Religulous. A wonderful movie about bashing religion. (Can you hear the Sarcasim) The article stated something like this:

He’s making a movie with Larry Charles, one of the brains behind the whole Borat phenomenon, and like Borat his movie is about Maher wandering around America interacting with random, and almost assuredly stupid, Americans.

and...

Instead, he’s taking on his favorite target, religion. Says Bill, “I often explained to people, I don’t need to make fun of religion, it makes fun of itself. And, then I go ahead and make fun of it too, just for laughs.”

I thought "It is funny that Bill Maher thinks that most people are stupid - maybe he thinks this because they believe in a God. I wonder what percentage of America is Atheist." So I looked it up and found an article "Atheism in America" that gave some pretty amazing figures. They said that an amazing 14.1% of America was non organized atheism or NON religious. That is pretty staggering until you realize that it says NON religious. I hope to tell this person that I have had many friends that were NON religious - but still believed in a God. They just hadn't settled on a specific one. I wonder what the percentage would be if they had asked specifically are you an atheist - which by the way means they don't believe in any God, not that they are just Non religious. They get there figures from a website: Positive Atheist. It has more figures on where "Atheism in America" got their numbers.

It is amazing how Hollywood is in the business to bash religion all the sudden. With the Golden Compass, and now this. I would expect more to be coming as well. The funny thing is that the atheists in these articles were talking about how they are being persecuted - and some of what they had to say is right. When people talk about God in a hateful way, how can you come against this. If we are going to reach people we definitely cannot be hateful about it. It is a sad factor and I feel for those who will believe that there is no God. We are not stupid, we just have hope, something that an atheist has none, and if they say they do have hope; then I wonder what it would be for.

I would ask Bill Maher, would you get the same answers if you were taking these same questions to people that are experts in the field. Sometimes asking about brain surgery to a nurse, seems kind of dumb, even if they have seen it done. Some questions regarding religion are just hard. It doesn't make that person stupid because they cannot answer it. It just makes them uninformed and maybe untrained. I guess anything to get a laugh at people's expense - sad thing is people will spend money to go see it, but this is the world we live in. Bat the idea and let me know what you think.

Shofar - Shogood

This morning when I woke up I felt better than I have in a long time. Some things in my life are difficult right now and I have been quite depressed because of it. Well when I got up this morning, I took my shower and went back into the bedroom to get ready for the new day. As I looked around I saw the Shofar that I bought while I was in Israel and thought to myself, "I wonder if I could get a sound out of that?" A shofar, for those that don't know, is a ram's horn that was used for religious practices. It could be a call to worship, or even to battle. I thought to myself, "It is a new day!" and blew my horn. At first I couldn't get anything out of it, but remembered what my wife said about the trombone, "You have to have the right ambiture." So I tried it and I actually got a sound out of it. I was quite impressed with myself. It was a new day!

That is when I got out into the living room where my wife was. She said that she was wondering what I was doing. At first she thought I was blowing my nose - No I don't think that is it. Then she thought that maybe I was harboring a pet elephant - but she decided that that was probably not it either. Then she thought, "OHHHHHHH! He is tooting his own horn!" Well not in so many words but we had a laugh and have started our new day. Anyway the days has been Shofar - Shogood! Hope yours is a blast. LOL