Great Email

The following is a great email forward I received recently. I'm not very big on forwards but this is one that I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to read.

Science vs. God

"Let me explain the problem science has with Jesus Christ." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

"You're a Christian, aren't you, son?"

"Yes sir," the student says.

"So you believe in God?"

"Absolutely."

"Is God good?"

"Sure! God's good."

"Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?"

"Yes."

"Are you good or evil?"

"The Bible says I'm evil."

The professor grins knowingly. "Aha! The Bible!" He considers for a moment. "Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?"

"Yes sir, I would."

"So you're good...!"

“I wouldn't say that."

"But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't."

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. "He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?"

The student remains silent.

"No, you can't, can you?" the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. "Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?"

"Er...yes," the student says.

"Is Satan good?"

The student doesn't hesitate on this one. "No."

"Then where does Satan come from?"

The student : "From...God..."

"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?"

"Yes, sir."

”Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?"

"Yes."

"So who created evil?" The professor continued, "If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil."

Without allowing the student to answer, the professor continues: "Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?"

The student: "Yes."

"So who created them?"

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. "Who created them? There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized.

"Tell me," he continues onto another student. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"

The student's voice is confident: "Yes, professor, I do."

The old man stops pacing. "Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?"

"No sir. I've never seen Him"

"Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?"

"No, sir, I have not."

"Have you ever actually felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?"

"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."

"Yet you still believe in him?"

"Yes."

"According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?"

"Nothing," the student replies. "I only have my faith."

"Yes, faith," the professor repeats. "And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith."

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of his own. "Professor, is there such thing as heat?"

"Yes," the professor replies. "There's heat."

"And is there such a thing as cold?"

"Yes, son, there's cold too."

"No sir, there isn't."

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet.

The student begins to explain. "You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it."

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.

"What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?"

"Yes," the professor replies without hesitation. "What is night if it isn't darkness?"

"You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?"

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. "So what point are you making, young man?"

"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed."

The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time. "Flawed? Can you explain how?"

"You are working on the premise of duality," the student explains. "You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it."

"Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?"

"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do"

"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?"

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

"Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?"

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.

"To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean." The student looks around the room. "Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?" The class breaks out into laughter.

"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelled the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?"

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.

Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. "I guess you'll have to take them on faith."

"Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life," the student continues. "Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?"

Now uncertain, the professor responds, "Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

Source: Unknown

Roasting Marshmallows

Things have been pretty par for the course around here lately, but we were able to have some fun this weekend. Friday night Josh broke out his new fire pit and we had a campfire with Makenna after Maryn went to bed. It was a perfect fall night outside and Makenna absolutely loved it! We roasted marshmallows and of course had to make smores! It was so cute to see her enjoying herself so much :) We hope to have many more fun family nights around that fire pit.

Saturday we went to Jakson's 2nd birthday party (our nephew/cousin). Makenna LOVES playing with her cousins so she had a wonderful time :) And Maryn is getting to an age where she can play and interact more and she enjoyed herself as well.

Other than that, I don't have much to report. Have a good week!

In The Spirit...

In the spirit of the season, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the girls' past Halloween costumes and pumpkin pictures :) I don't have anything from Makenna's first Halloween when she was 3 months old (we didn't have a digital camera yet), but we have two fun years worth of pictures to share!

This year Makenna wants to be a cowgirl... we already bought her the cowboy boots (which I think is really her motivation behind all of this) and we still need to find an outfit. We have a bunny costume that fits Maryn and is adorable, but I was thinking it would be awfully cute to dress Maryn up as Makenna's horse :)

Enjoy!

Fall 2005 - Makenna, 15 months old

Makenna and Daddy picking out pumpkins


Makenna enjoying the corn maze at the pumpkin patch


Our little chicken!


She even waddled like a chicken :)


Fall 2006 - Makenna 2 years, Maryn 7 weeks

Mommy and her girls at the pumpkin patch!


Daddy and his girls at the pumpkin patch (and yes Maryn did sleep through the whole thing!)


Carving pumpkins! Lots of messy fun!


Our big M & M!


Our little M & M!


Aren't they adorable?! Maryn hated that costume and was only in it for pictures ;) We thought the whole M & M idea (actually my dad's idea) was pretty clever because we now had two little girls whose names began with "M".

Our Guardian Angel

Our family deeply believes in guardian angels and yesterday one of our angels was hard at work. Maryn was in her crib supposedly taking her afternoon nap when I noticed that the monitor had gone dead. I didn't think much of it at the time (in hindsight I know I should have) and she was being quiet so I didn't check on her for about 20 minutes. When I walked in her room I was shocked to find her body tightly wrapped up in her monitor cord and her chewing on the cord. She had somehow managed to slip her hand down under her crib, pull the monitor out of the socket and pull it up into her bed. When I saw her laying there my heart just sank into my stomach and tears immediately filled my eyes. I knew how close she was to being in extreme danger. I just stood there and repeatedly THANKED GOD that my baby was okay. She is perfectly fine and was oblivious to the fact that she was in any danger. We are so blessed to have our guardian angels watching over our family.

Maryn's Favorite Things

Maryn has a long list of favorite things, many of which I have written about on this blog before (ie. the toilet/toilet paper, pup pup, daddy). But there is one favorite thing that I have failed to mention and I think it deserves a little attention since it is probably in her top 10 favorite things .... the pantry. Maryn is obsessed with our pantry and its contents. This child has some type of radar system in her body that tells her exactly when someone has accidentally left the pantry door open even just an inch, and she will make a beeline for it. Most of the time she is not allowed to play in there as the recycling bins are on the bottom levels and I'm afraid she could hurt herself on something. But on the rare occasion that she is begging to get into the pantry on garbage day or the day after (when the recycling bins are empty), I occasionally let her indulge. Well tonight was one of those nights. See the chaos that ensued...


She managed to pull down all the cereal boxes and seemed to be having harmless fun shaking the goldfish crackers bag...


You can't imagine the shear delight in this child's eyes when she saw goldfish crackers surrounding her. She started grabbing at them with both fists and trying to shove as many as possible into her mouth. She was very disappointed when Daddy and I decided that pantry time was over ;)


I tried to get a picture of her standing up in the pantry and going through everything (which is just an adorable sight), but lost my shot the second the goldfish landed on the floor. She was like a little scavenger on the lookout for crunchy orange crackers and lost all interest in the other food in the pantry :)

I'm A Stinker Too!

We're seeing it more and more with each and every day... Maryn's mischievous ways are starting to creep out :) She was such a laidback, easy baby for so long, that now I think she has something to prove! She has now developed a "I want my way now" scream that is quite unpleasant. On top of getting into everything and wanting her way (which I guess could be considered pretty typical of this age), she has also decided that she doesn't like to eat much of anything. My "I'll eat anything you put in front of me" child now only wants grilled cheese, carrots, peas and pancakes. Okay that's an exaggeration, but it feels like that some days. Ahhhh! You have no idea how frustrating this is to a person whose pet peeve is picky eaters! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is all due to her teething and that it's not here to stay for long :)


Caught in the act...


Feeling quite proud of her climbing abilities... (Don't worry I was right there ready to catch her if she fell)


"Really Mommy, I'm not full of it!"


"Yes MarBear, this is the correct way to sit in the chair"

They Remember Their Name

Whenever I ask Makenna someone's name (ie. one of her friends, teachers, dance instructor, etc) and she doesn't know it, the common response for the last month or so has been - a few quiet seconds of pondering and then "She remembers her name." Every time, without fail, this is the response I get. Wouldn't that be nice if that's the response we could give as adults when we can't remember someone's name?!

Below is a picture of some evening fun at the Budke household - an empty laundry basket, two energetic little girls and a willing daddy provided for lots of giggles and shrieks at our house last night!

Dada Dada Dada

If you've been around Maryn lately, you know that her favorite word (and person) is definitely Dada. She talks about him ALL the time, even if he isn't around. This morning Josh was gone to work before the girls even got up so Maryn immediately started searching the house for him saying "Dada Dada Dada" right after she woke up. When I pulled up the blinds to our big windows facing the backyard she immediately went over to the ledge and started peering out looking for him. It made me smile because on the weekends she stands there and watches Josh work out in the yard and he'll always play peekaboo with her and jump up and say "hi" to her. She stood there peering out that window for at least five minute this morning looking every which way for her dada, all the while repeatedly screeching "Dada! Hi Dada!" Finally I just had to call Josh at work so she could hear his voice :)

Then this afternoon we were driving home from the grocery store and Maryn was once again talking about Daddy :) In my rearview mirror I caught a glimpse of Makenna waving her arms towards Maryn (like she wanted to hit her) so I told her sit still and not bug Maryn. As if I didn't even say anything, she yells at Maryn (as Maryn is still chanting "Dada Dadada") "Be Quiet Maryn! Can't you tell Dada's not here! You're driving me crazy!" And that was their conversation verbatim :)

As I'm writing this Makenna is in the bathroom with the door closed and Maryn is standing outside pounding on the door saying "Dada Dada Dada." Makenna yells back "I'm not Dada! I'm Kenna!" To which, of course, Maryn replies with "Dada Dada Dada." A screaming match ensues with Maryn and Makenna going back and forth with "Dada" "No Kenna" "Dada" "No Kenna." How ironic that they would do this at the same time that I am typing about all the Dada stories :)