God’s creation reflects artistic creativity. God did not just create birds, but birds of many colors and sizes and songs. But is any one bird better than than another? Why create such variety unless to express artistry. We assume that since God created humans last in an iterative series, that humans must be the apex of creation. Arrogance and nonesense. God designed humans the way that God desired. Why did God give humans two legs and two arms? Why not design humans with four arms or with suction fingers or with two front eyes and two rear eyes? The human shoulder is a very complex and complicated joint. It is masterfully engineered, yet susceptible to so many dysfunctions. Evolutionists will argue that no deity would engineer such a fragile joint. I will reply that evolution should have bred out a fragile joint. God created humans according to God’s creative pleasure. God was an artist before a blank canvas and created what he pleased in the manner that he pleased. For God to create humans with inferiority, and for God to create humans with imperfections does not mean that God’s design is flawed. We exist according to God’s design, not according to our opinion of improvement. Just as we need not be immortal to be created by an immortal God, neither need we to be perfect to be created by a perfect God. In his cubist period, Pablo Picasso painted some pretty zany portraits to deconstruct and contrast the human form. God designed us the way God wished. That does not make us perfect. It makes us what God designed.
Trouser Tyranny
I just saw this turn-of-phrase and thought it needed more publicity. Then I googled it and found a Medium story on it. It’s not directly on-point but it carries an adaptable message.
But then Medium also showed me “The Tyranny of Pants” and it was cooking with gas.
Comfortable with uncertainties and unanswerables
When I was younger (as in my teens and twenties) I had an abiding need (perhaps compulsion) to argue the veracity of scripture, to reduce all mystery to sensible candor. In my thirties, my great uncle (a Duke Divinity M.Th. and M.Div.) told me that when the answer to every question is faith, the explanations become irrelevant. Now in my forties, the more mature that my faith has become, the more comfortable I am with uncertainties and unanswerables. My faith is now rooted in the fact that God is so far superior to me that my mortal mind could never satisfactorily explain God. Scripture endeavors to communicate the nature of an infinite God through inadequate words. And so I find myself happier with an understanding that every articulable thought is completely and utterly irrelevant. In fact, the more abstract the thought, the more comforting I find it. Everything understandable must be wrong so only in recognizing that I am wrong can I know that I am correct.
Zerubbabel’s Deliverance
Zechariah 4:6 records God’s message to Zerubbabel that success would come “‘not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Out of the blue a modern rephrasing dropped into my consciousness: not by struggle nor by strength, but by God’s deliverance.Show more ›
Unintended Consequences
NBC news reports that abortions increased nationally after SCOTUS decided Dobbs v. Jackson in 2022. This unexpected outcome reminds me of a Libertarian Party video titled, “unintended consequences.” Show more ›
Why not male tunics?
I have at various moments stated my fascination with single-garment clothing. (a thobe today, just being practical, envisioning with ai). Striking the right balances of fit and form is nearly impossible when the only item on the menu is the dress. Unlike skirts, there are substantial anatomical considerations. Show more ›
Madonna’s take on gender norms
Wilfully Lost
You’re a self-righteous sell-out who pawned his moral compass to open a door and grew too comfortably cowardly to retrieve it. —Vox
Pink Pony Club
Purple Rain Adventure Kilt
Superior Preferred Pronoun
@npcbubbles So many people have used they/them for me at it makes me so happy #bubblegoof #genderfluid ♬ My preferred pronoun is bitch – Renny
And apparently it’s a voiceover trend.
Not Not Muslim
Muslim originally meant (and still means) “one who submits to God.” That sounds like a pretty awesome designation. I desire to be wholly submitted to God. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Muslim later acquired its second meaning of “one who practices Islam.” As I pointed out previously, Islam means “peace through submission to God.” I desire that peace.
So I am Muslim, but not Muslim, or maybe just not not Muslim.