Abbreviations: wc= western christianity & WC=Western Civilization. OT=Old Testament & NT= New Testament (in case, someone reading this is new to this forum and Christianity)

     I thought I'd experiment a little and give the Reader's Digest version of how I became heart-led, along with a brief jaunt into why everything is screwed up. It is also parabolic in that my writing is indicative not literal, objective, propositional because reality is not built that way and the latter are constructs of a fallen mind. I'm hoping that others will share their stories. The experiment is to find out if there are any commonalities to what is a God tuned just for you.... "Thing". 
   WC at this juncture has two foundational principles;
   Rationalism and Empiricism, the love children of this unholy union is Humanism and Science, the latter being WC's religion. wc is the faith of the OT and NT washed, filtered and freeze dried through WC.
Before you continue, if you are not familiar with Radix Fidem; STOP and go read the posts that define the tenets of RF, because to get the rest, you should familiarize yourself with it. Indulge me for a moment, I am going into "silliness withdrawal". If I stay serious too long, I get the jones........zoiks!!!
   

  Better, that should filter out those who take our temporary condition too seriously. 
  God created the Heavens and Earth perfectly, it remains so, sinless and unfallen. The original first couple couldn't keep one simple rule and fell, whatever the curse is it altered their genetics and so passed on down to us. We cause creation to groan, cough and sneeze because we are like a virus infecting a healthy body. In a sense, it's one thing environmentalists get right although it comes from a malignant source. "Worshipping the creature rather than Creator" St Paul in Romans 1. 
  The farther we become removed from the Garden, the more detached we are from our natural state of oneness with Creation and the deeper we fall into the pit of reliance on our on reason and intellectual abilities.
  As far as recorded history is concerned; WC is founded on the statement of the ancient Greek Sophist Protagoras "Of all things the measure is Man..." If you wish to go to the Bible, it would be The Tower of Babel and it you're appealing to the convictions of an adherent of wc, it's a good starting point whether it actually happened or is a parable of humans replacing divine revelation with reason, I  say "whatever floats your boat".
    If not for my love of history and questioning nature I would probably still be what I call a "white knuckle" Christian man grimacing my way to sanctification by sheer force of will. "Nietzsche, you got a lot to answer for, PAL!" That typical approach wore me out. The "better man, husband and father" philosophy of the likes of Promisekeepers, inevitably leads to hypocrisy because it is impossible for wc'n men to maintain such standards within the context of WC. Every man I knew who was involved, no longer are. I'm not sure PK is still around. Eventually, wc & WC became bizarre to me.
   One day I picked up my Bible, closed my eyes and flipped back and forth enough times to be truly unsure of where I was. I had stopped in Ecclesiastes and thought "Wisest man who ever lived mmm, good enough" after reading it two or three times it dawned on me "where's the mind?" In twenty-five years of flopping around trying to please God through the mind, following every twist and turn of wc I come to find Solomon the wise, son of the man after God's own "heart"(say whaaat?) writings on Supreme, Holy hard earned Wisdom kept referring to "my heart". I started digging and it was almost like physically being on an archaeological dig. My first assumption, quite natural considering wc, the heart was the OT version of WC mind. That idea got shot full of holes and went down in flames as I dug into the meaning in the original languages. 
End of Part One. More to follow whenever.
Same Bat time* Same Bat Channel   POW! SZLASPLAT!
* Anytime. Excuse typos andand bad punctuation/grammar.

Let's get logical here. We at Radix Fidem are mystics, but that doesn't mean we can't discuss ideas where they stand, using peoples' own rules for discovering knowledge. We don't follow the world's way of discerning reality but we are fine playing devil's advocate to expose the failures of worldly philosophies.

There's a funny little theory that has been going around, existing in slightly different versions, proposing that the universe we know is really a simulation or a projection* created by, to some, extra-dimensional life forms. Essentially, it's as though we literally exist inside a vastly complex computer program. The theory relates somewhat to quantum physics and the idea that the mere act of perceiving can change how subatomic particles "perform" in space. If true, the implications are probably far-reaching, but no one can really do much about them. We go on with our daily lives.

What's not stated--and this is perhaps exemplary with ideas like this--is that the simulated universe theory is a metaphysical belief that people will claim is a conclusion drawn from physical evidence and ideas (i.e., theoretical physics), using physical ways of knowing things: logic, the senses, etc. Truths fundamental to things outside of the universe, by their nature, cannot be determined by such methods of knowledge, so essentially the "creature" of the simulated universe belief is really religious in nature underneath a skin-costume of pseudo-science.

It's "pseudo-scientific" because there is some science tangentially involved, but undergirding it is a very important assumption: that the universe is a projection does not come from the workings of a physical human mind, but a disembodied mind that somehow exists independently and transcendentally. But we know that if this were the case--if physical minds did in fact conclude this fact about the universe--then the minds are a part of the projection and thus could not be trusted, as the simulators (whoever they are) can simply make those conclusions part of of the simulation. We would have no way of trusting our brains.

With this information it must be pretty obvious by now that this is one the latest forms of idolatry of the human mind: the elevation of the workings of fallen human reason to the level of God--knocking God off the throne and putting ourselves in its place. A projected universe would answer a lot of things that folks find inexplicable otherwise with what we know of the physical world; the theory helps people reject the divine realm outright and replace it with simply another level of the physical. In this sense, it's an intellectual extension of what many already believe. We should be prepared to answer this philosophy as we feel lead to, but we should also not be surprised when our words are rejected.

* Rationalwiki is, as you may guess from its title, a wiki-type of site, born out of a strictly materialist worldview. They do, however, provide an excellent summary of the simulated universe idea.

Testing!

Graham (who is actually a member here) posted this on his blog. I thought it had some good observations.

Quote:The best walks are those where one does not pay any attention to their thoughts at all. To meditate on the colour of the sky, the technology one has (hopefully) unplugged from, or any noise is all fine and well. But meditation means to be fixed upon particulars, thereby removing the wholeness of the practice of walking. Walking remains whether one passes by a tree, a dog, or an automobile. Walking is not found in any of the objects one comes across within the practice, but instead, it is found in its very transience - the detachment from those objects. Walking must be taken for what it is, that is to say, motion, in which neither internal nor external stimuli cause one to stumble. This is what it means to walk in contemplation.

Again, it is not thinking in itself while one walks that is problematic, but paying attentionto one's thoughts. If the body is in motion, so too should be the mind. Abilities like reconsideration are appropriate for sitting down, but never walking.

The Spirit of God that hovered over the waters when the world began, as recorded in Genesis 1.2, is the same wind that surrounds me today. I am aware of God in and through the wind as it commits to a makeshift dance. I may feel cold, distracted, agitated even, but God has found me in the moment, and in a way so irrefutable unlike most other moments.

When one walks alone, it can be comfortable to fall into a solipsistic universe. I choose when I leave the house; I decide when to return; I know which path I most desire to take, etc. Avoid eye contact and communication with others as best you can, but eventually, a bell from a tower so high will toll, and upon hearing it, you will realize that hiding is a great mistake. Even if you deny others to your utmost ability, this in no way indicates that they will deny you in the same manner. This facade can shatter at the simple utterance of "hello." You have been found; your existence has been affirmed.

A few years ago I went back over my income from 84-99 and calculated that I had pissed away, quite literally because I was a beer drinker, about $150,000 on partying. That is a nice house in a good community in Caldwell county, NC or a mansion if you don't mind living close to a dairy farm or a dirt racetrack or a main highway or Freedman, Dulatown or West End Lenoir (African-American dominant) or Valmead (white trash). 
   I had a friend who for under $100,000 bought a 3 br, 2 & a half bathroom, full basement, attached 2 car garage, swimming pool  and a 20'x36' workshop on 3/4acre lot, brick home. And, it was less than 5 years old. However, on one side was a ratty trailer park and the rear was split on one side a dairy farm, the other Tri County Motor Speedway. On Fridays and Saturdays you were deafened by the roar of stock cars and the rest of the time the outside smelled like cow dung, droppings & pies. "You don't notice it after a while" said Tom "and it's camouflage from the DEA" Yep, Tom was a drug dealer. He was also honest, decent and charitable even if he looked big and mean enough to eat baby bunnies, ALIVE!
No kid in that trailer park went hungry or without clothes & Nikes. In summer those same kids played in the pool, run in and out of the kitchen getting their fill of "kiddie cocaine" that is; popsicles and Kool-Aid. He kept the counties elite scions well supplied with high quality dope, put money in the right pockets and was never busted. I got the best pot at wholesale price. He grew up poor and abused by alcoholic parents, which was why he was the benefactor of those trailer park kids. We met when we were moonlighting for JG Enterprises and became fast friends then buddies "You're the only person I've ever let get close, why is that?" He asked. I told him I'd lay down my life for him if it came to it and I meant it. We had a lot of fun being bad. Sadly, Tom died of a massive heart attack at only 41. I've been friends with a lot of "Toms" in my time. Salt of the Earth guys who slide into the grey area between legal and illegal, right and wrong. Churchies condemn them cross the road and cast them out as irredeemable.
      Why am I writing about this? I dunno, maybe it's to explain why I am drawn to minister to the Toms of the world, to show compassion and grace. Maybe it's because I feel like I failed a friend, because  I was completely disgusted with religion and had given up on God at that time.
   Nonetheless, God had not given up on me! He rebuilt me unto good works, to help restore those who feel abandoned like I did. I've lost many a friend who could have been so much more. It is one of the things that truly grieve my spirit. There is nothing I can do about the past. I can only determine in my heart to listen and obey the Spirit when directed to someone who is redeemable.
  May ALL that I do be to the GLORY OF GOD, Amen.

My team won second place in the hackathon! Thanks for your prayers. I wasn't concerned with winning so much as maintaining sanity, since we were doing a lot of work non-stop for about a week leading up to it. The day of the competition, the other developer and I worked through the night without sleeping.

This may be my last competition. These sorts of things generally aren't for family guys.

Now to catch up on real life this weekend...

I had an interview this afternoon at Fairfield Chair Company, where I started back in 1984. It went well and they want me back in the morning to see things as they work. Apparently the upholsterers cleared the floor and left early, it happens when there is gravy, that is pieces they can make good money on. Anyway, there are still people there I know. I'd like the job and ending my career where I started has a certain symmetry to it.
 Y'all can pray that I git it. It would most certainly make for a thaw at home.

This is inspired by Ed's Friday blog post. 
  I testify of my own experiences, so if I "me & I" a bunch forgive me. I am richly blessed and sing praises to the Lord .
If a complete stranger sits down across from you in a diner and knows everything about you, freaking out is a reasonable reaction. If the same thing happens but you are filled with indescribable peace and are given an intimate word from God, chances are you've met an angel. This happened to me in Oceanside, CA in 1987. At the time, I filed it under Unexplainable Occurrences, of which I already had several. From childhood I was aware of things outside "reality"so I knew there was more to existence than what could be known through the five senses. During my crazy years I had "trouble radar" that sensed danger and I usually would slip away before bad things went down. I didn't have faith at that time but the Lord knew I was in line for that gift and I believe he sent angels to keep me safe until then. There were so many times when a normal person would have croaked but I didn't. I kept finding new bottoms of the barrel until faith took root and began to bear fruit.
  I'm still surrounded by them they watch over home and hearth. They make their presence known and even call my name at times, sometimes I think they do out of joy. Angels are not automatons, they serve our Father out of love, compassion and devotion. They are invisible to the mind but, clear to the eyes of your heart.
  God wants us to know Him with our hearts not through the vanity of fallen reason.

I can't tell you if this is just for me or for a lot of other folks, but I've had a very heavy burden over the past 24 hours. It's a biggun. I've felt the deep need to pray an awful lot and worship with music. My inclination is to think it's connected with national politics, so just pray with me.

I've applied for a job at Samaritan's Purse in housekeeping, simple no pressure job. It's what I need right now. I haven't worked much since I injured my shoulder three years ago and it's been 11 months since my surgery and the house cleaning I do is "whenever I feel like it" as long as it's done before visitors arrive.
 I took a walk round one of the upholstery plants where I used to work, the boss was I guy I upholstered with back in the day. The noise and machine gun cacophony of staple guns reminded me of all the stress that goes with piece work, gotta make that $ hustle. I confess it freaked me out. I'm not ready for that. All I've ever done is high pressure, stress filled work. When I was a Maintenance Mechanic I worked on the most profitable machines they had so, when one was down I had to get it running pronto. That was when I started having panic attacks.
Yeah, it don't pay much but, that is good. I have a junior and a senior in HS and for good or ill there are more scholarships and financial aid for poor people. When they graduate college, perhaps I'll  do something more lucrative maybe even start my dream job building custom motorcycles. Or, pack my stuff and ride wherever the road takes me, a country boy can survive.
Pray as led for God's Glory to shine, that's all I care about everything else is fluff.

Addendum: I've seen so many men over the years who worked production, slinging those pieces out just as swooft* as they did in their 30's up until they retired, only to drop dead of heart failure within a year. I've seen others, younger men in their 40's and 50's die of heart explosions. Good guys who were my friends that I laughed and horsed around with and have a cold brew with. Family men who busted their butts to bring home the bacon. Production work is hard on a man it wears them out. But, the assholes, like my uncle Gene 82, seem to just keep on truckin'. It's the age old question, why do wicked prosper? They do because they're made for this world.

*swooft= country fried expression for someone who works fast. 
" Dang it! Cooter is twice my age and builds 3 pieces to my 2, no matter how hard I try, why fer is that Johnny? " 
" He's swooft, Hank"
 " Well, when he ain't looking' I'm a gonna spike his Hawaiian Punch with shine! "
 " It won't slow him down none Hank, it'll just make him mouthy"
An Uncle Hubert tale "Song of the New South"