Heaven as a paradox between fact and faith

Belief in heaven is a human necessity; however its existence cannot be proven.

We do not have empirical data that could supply us with prima facie evidence to render it as there. Its existence cannot merely be proved by mere deductive reasoning.

The reality of heaven as fact is also a necessary human impossibility, because it helps us look beyond the complexities of the present, but rather look forward to what is beyond. Factuality is in the realm of science, and for Will Durant science is 'the captured territory' in the battle for knowledge while 'philosophy is the frontlines in the epic war' for wisdom.

Heaven as a justifiable reality

Believing in heaven is a human necessity.

We believe in heaven because human experience renders it necessary for us to hope for a better world beyond this life. Our existence in this world tells us that this life isn't what it must be, thus there has to be something better to look forward to --even if that place can only be found beyond our mortal existence.

We believe in heaven because living through this life also gives us hints of this better world whenever our human faculties of sensory perception and experience shows us beauty as well as make us encounter acts of charity that are motivated by sheer love --we conclude that these things come from a place beyond this realm: God's abode, up there in a place beyond our reach...

...at least for now.

Not 'I' but 'Us': a counterpoint

Yesterday I finished writing a reflection about interpersonal-relationships as the soul and purpose of our humanity wherein it is in relationships that can be found in life that is shared in relationships –relationships that can be found in that of parents, grandparents, children, siblings, relatives friends, comrades, kindred spirits and lovers that the wholeness of our being is found as creatures created after the image of God.

It is in relationships that we are animated into living life and enact love because love is a feeling that begs to be expressed and life is the arena upon which we enact love in our relationship with God, to one another, and to all creation. Thus giving us a to live and make meaning in living.

Here I would like to offer a counterpoint upon which what is the consequence of following self?

If life’s wholeness is found in relationship what then is the ultimate goal of life that stands over and against this design of wholeness?

The Black Button is among the finalist of the YouTube Award 2007 for Best Short Film that was made Lucas Crandles.

The film’s premise is simple yet intriguing: if you couldn’t get caught, would you kill a stranger for $10 million?

The last line is a killer: "the evil can be saved. the good can still be condemned!"

Not ‘I’ but ‘us’ | Relationship as the essence and goal of human wholeness

I remember ending my week with a goodbye that underscored a sense of lonesomeness as it means that for a time life will be lived apart from a loved one. While, the following day I started the week with a celebration of my father’s 85th birthday that also coincided with Father’s Day.

Thinking about it now further reinforces my conviction that our humanity if we are to look at human life it can be summed up in terms of relationships. It is in relationships that we discover ourselves and our tenacity to live and make meaning in living –because to be human is to stand in a unique relationship to God, to one another, and to all creation. This, of course is because God, as Trinity, is relational. The perichoretic God makes perichoretic people. God’s being-as-communion overflows in humans’ being-in-community. Therefore we as humans have no being apart from others. Humanity is co-humanity.

Read more >>>

ut haud lacrima can exsisto effundo.

Why can’t I cry?

Does the absence of tears mean that I have gone past the point of crying?

Have I totally lost my humanity that I am not totally devoid of emotion?

I have gone past the point of crying…one can only wonder why the things hoped for are the things that blow up onto our faces with a resounding “no!”

I have gone past the point of caring. For the nth time I have been burned and rendered broken for caring.

I have gone past the point of living.

I’ve done so much.
I’ve hurt so many.
I’m a miserable person.
God help me now…

cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit, cras amet

Pain.
Such must be the language of love.
There was this line in this movie that I know that says:
“Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more? 1”
As much as I hate to admit it there is truth in that
But the problem lies in the idea of love itself.
Is love really about that of feeling that we are loved?
Or is it about the idea of getting way past the point of caring
whether we are loved or not?
Love hurts that much is obvious.
But what is life without pain anyway?
And what is love good for if it is only something we desire from the other?
It is indeed a perpetual struggle to want to be loved.
And yet to discover that the one we love would be happier, better off without us
Or even longing for love from another…
Perhaps to say: “I love you”
Really means: “You’re free as far as my desire for finding my personal completion in you is concerned…”
If that is the case...
...Then it is no wonder that “the Cross is the necessary contradiction of all we know in life. 2”

1. Celine (Julie Delpy), Before Sunrise (Columbia Pictures: 1995)
2. Robinson, David. Rappings (Grand Rapids: Tyndale 1971). P.47