"Eternal Games of Chance"

Eternal Games of Chance...

“Except, it is not a game, it is deadly serious—eternally deadly serious!”

Apathy

What kind of a person goes to a game of chance puts down a bet and does not care about the outcome?  Could it be that such a person is an apathetic and/or indifferent individual—one who does not have an emotional investment in what he is doing?

Apathy or indifference is defined as follows,

 Apathy …1. Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference.  2. Lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness….”

The American Heritage Dictionary

The definition goes on to trace the word back through history noting that it comes from a Greek word that means without feeling (a = against or without, pathetic = pathos or feeling).  Simply it is an attitude of just not caring—not having emotional “buy in” thus no emotional investment in a situation or circumstance. 

Apathy in the extreme, results in one detaching from life and ending up in some kind of a pathologically detached state.   However, one must keep in mind that such indifferences as listed above are not without consequence. 

Imagine the Outcome of Indifference

Imagine being on a freeway with apathetic drivers—those who just do not care.  How far do you suppose you would get without injury or fatality?  Not far.

Imagine the same for one’s work place or profession.  There would be dire outcomes for working in and among the apathetic.  Maybe it might not make much of a difference in some jobs but imagine working with an apathetic logger, an indifferent fork lift operator, an unconcerned emergency room physician, or riding in an airplane with an apathetic pilot.

Apathy and Ethical Restraint

Dissolute or lacking in moral restraint is one outcome of apathy.  Since the notion of morals comes from societal mores, the worst outcome that may accrue is to fall out of favor with those of similar moral belief. 

However, there is a much more serious outcome and that is indifference to ethics and the attendant ethical restraint.  An ethic is a transcendent, universal, objective standard.  The very essence of well-being, both cultural and personal is derived from living within the boundaries of ethical standards. 

What is the outcome of ethical apathy?   To know about but face ethics with apathy is to chance chaos in one’s personal life and as well in culture. 

Apathy and Bondage

Some years ago someone observed that the last step before a people falling into bondage is apathy.  It would appear that even if a people can identify but are indifferent to the trends and practices of a greater power, then they soon will fall prey to that greater power.  History abounds with examples.

So then in these and other situations apathy or indifference goes well beyond simple emotional detachment from circumstances and/or one’s situation to consequences.  Often those consequences are most dire.  However, none are more dire and with less influence than those which follow.  

Spiritual Apathy

There is no more serious apathy than that of religious/spiritual matters.  In fact, it is of the greatest of impacts and therefore the most serious in outcomes.  It is so because of God’s design of Judeo-Christian tradition is that it is to influence if not impact every area of a person’s life.

Judeo-Christian tradition is not just to influence but it is to be the anchor point around which all else in one’s life is to revolve.  If one cares not where they anchor, then one cares not about that around which their life revolves. 

If there is religious/spiritual apathy, the consequences are in the areas listed above as well as others.  Reading the Bible and spending time in prayer, if at all, is tedious.  There is a lack of interest in things of spiritual significance.  There is a lack of concern for others and their needs.   Christianity is seen as an exercise in boredom.  Such a person is suffering a lethargy that leads to spiritual laziness.  It gets worse!

Eternal Apathy

This is the person who knows that there is a God and may well be able to tell you all about Him but does not care about his eternal future.  Again, it is that person who knows that there is an eternal future for which one must prepare but does not care and in fact is indifferent to an extreme.   

Thus the outcome of their choice:  Since such a one does not have an investment in the eternal “then,” they simply do not invest in the temporal “now.”  

 

 "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper...and although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." (Romans 1:28-31in part, NASU)

National Healthcare - "'The Danger of 'Superior' Truth"

National Healthcare

The Danger of Superior Truth
(Article 1 of 3)
Note:  Lack of interest warrants efforts into other areas than follow up articles

Rampant in American culture is an attitude that is most destructive.  However, one should not assume that this attitude is exclusive to America or to this time for it has been rampant throughout recorded history.  What attitude might this be?

One does not have to listen in Academia or to the Media for very long to hear this attitude.  It is the attitude of superior or exclusive truth. It simply says in one way or another, I know something or hold a position that is superior to what you think or think you know!

What is the effect of such an attitude?  This is a little difficult to explain but try this.  In addition to giving the person or group possessed of such thinking a sense of superiority, this attitude does something much more destructive--it gives a certain permission to do such things as deal in false and misleading information.  After all, superior attitudes mean a person lives above the normal person.  Such an attitude divides people from one another.  Further, people even die because of this most destructive attitude.

Again we see this today in politics, some religious denominations or other "faith" groups, and in some "superior" people. That precisely is the reason that some have felt it their right to publish revisionist histories, engage in underhanded activities, cause the death of others or take certain other "corrective" actions.  Take for instance the 9/11 attack on America.  Those who perpetrated such dastardly action believed they had a religion superior to all others and thus they could do as they chose and 3,000 people died.

Another case far more reaching but a great deal less obvious are those who believe they should revise the truth of history to support their political and social ambitions.  Such believe they are of superior purpose and such a purpose means that they have no responsibility to accurately reflect the past.  Thus the lessons of said history are distorted to fit the revisionists aims and purposes.

Make no mistake, no matter the revision's attempts at distorting the truth of what occurred, what occurred  remains constant.In other words, the truth of what happened in history remains constant no matter how one chooses to write, teach, or talk about it.  However for the revisionist the burden of conforming one's "truth" to the genuine reality of history is lost from view because of "special" or "exclusive" truth reasons. 

Prayer During Constitutional Convention

For example, the Founding Fathers recognized that there is for every man across the earth, certain God designed, ordained, and instituted rights, indeed responsibilities.  Among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The Founding Fathers of our country, most of whom were men of deep faith and religious conviction, believe such to be so or such wording would not be in the founding documents.

In the Capital Rotunda in Washington D.C. hangs four paintings commissioned while most if not all of these men were alive which gives the painting credibility as to their accuracy.  One painting in particular shows that these men found prayer a necessary part of the deliberation process.  Indeed they knew that God was a necessary part of the founding of our country.  Sorry historical revisionists, the facts of history once again do not support your "superior truth" secular agendas. 

Even so, there have been for the last 50-60 years, those who do not believe in the God who shed His grace upon this great country.  They reject the importance of Christian ideals to our country.  They have made it their business to at every opportunity stand against American Exceptionalism.  Therefore they are intolerant of those three basic rights as being universal to all.  Such an attitude is so since they unlike the Founding Fathers, have devalued the Divine and the man created in His image.

Such brings us to the point that it is the responsibility of every American, indeed all of every culture, to know the truth and to defend that truth along with such values as made this country and other countries great.

How does that happen?  The first and primary activity is the seeking of the intervention of the Divine in the affairs of our country.  Second, it is then when one is empowered and directed address these issues with their government.  Then one should do all else that is necessary.  Such necessary may even mean that one joins those heroes that gave their full measure of their devotion in the defense of the country that once embraced these ideals.

President Obama signing National Healthcare

Oh, where we began, "superior" truth.  It would appear that the leadership in Washington D.C. believe they have superior truth when it comes to the matter of Healthcare.  They certainly act like they believe such to be so.  So it is we are about to be saddled with law that incrementally and subtly will fundamentally change the American experiment.  If all is enacted the American we used to know will be lost in the dust of history.

Yet those most affected, the American citizen, glibly go about their pursuits of leisure, entertainment, and pleasure oblivious to the great evil that soon will befall this great nation.  Soon another piece of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness will be lost--all because there are those in Washington D.C. who believe they have special and superior truth.

As one observed most Americans are apathetic and do not care that they are so.  Instead of singing that prayer "God Bless America" we do well to sing a new prayer, "God Wake-up America" followed by "God Help America!"