sarkakaiaima

I have endeavored to be a student of Church history. This study has led me to one dominant insight which is very helpful in understanding my own behavior and that of others. Namely that the conception a person has of God will determine how he or she understands reality. The clearest examples of this come from people who hate others or even kill because of a specific ideology (tribalism, racism, Marxism, radical environmentalists) or theological beliefs (radical Islamic jihadists and sects within other religious traditions who persecute others to enforce what they believe upon others). In the case of those who would deny any specific category of belief in God there is a belief system which has a binding force upon their mind and allegiance. The truth of this phenomena is almost too obvious for us to notice. Perhaps we would not note it except that there are those who are so “extreme” in how they interpret and practice their ideology or theology. They are so dedicated to their underst...

            Recently I went to do some target shooting with hand guns. This is something I do occasionally with friends or family. While getting set up for the shooting practice someone noted that the use of a scope is not particularly helpful when attempting to hit a target that is close to you. For the scope is designed to assist the person using the firearm to see a target from a distance with clarity and thus be able to hit it. This is the functional usefulness of the optics of the scope. However, the power of the scope to focus on the image works against the shooter if the target is too close because the shooter ends up seeing only one small portion of the target and can easily lose sight of where on the target he or she is aiming the gun. Thus the shooter’s ability to accurately see the target is inhibited rather than enhanced by the use of the scope.   Something like this happens to us humans when we utilize our own rational and emotional i...