The Fish Wars <><
Posted on Feb 26th, 2007 | 6 Comments | Read This Article »
In 2005, a new religion was created. The Pastafarians worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who created the world as well as planted the evidence supporting evolution. The religion was created in protest to the decision in Kansas that required intelligent design be taught as an alternative to evolution. Regardless of your own thoughts on this, you have to admit that it is pretty funny. It has become so popular that you might even see the FSM logo on cars, parodying the ichthus. This made me wonder, where did this tradition of the ichthus come from? And how did it become so popular that protesting against Christianity means replacing the emblem on your car?
God spoke to Orlando, Florida in 2004. Not to their hearts or symbolically, but He actually left a message for the city that gave us Disneyworld. In the middle of August of 2004, Hurricane Charley worked it way through Florida with a swift 106 mph wind. The hurricane destroyed Orlando homes, trees and pretty much everything else to the tune of nearly $15 billion. There was however one billboard that survived and God spoke to Orlando through it. Charley ripped off the most recent advertisement to reveal the ironic message from the previous advertisement. God said to Orlando, “We need to talk.â€
We Christians go crazy over new evidence that might prove our system of beliefs to be legitimate. A trip to the bookstore will provide a hundred different books that prove Christianity. In the last century there has been an increased look at archaeology to provide evidence for Christianity. Generally when I think archaeology, I immediately flashback to Indiana Jones finding the Holy Grail (”You have chosen wisely”) or the Ark of the Covenant (”Bad dates”), but the majority of these finds are significantly less concrete than that. Many of them are small and point to certain details from the Bible. There have been some major discoveries as well, but they are almost always surrounded by controversy. Let’s take a quick look at some of the archaeological finds in recent years.
I am not a perfectionist. I am rarely accused of overworking myself. If I make mistakes then I just shrug it off and maybe I’ll try harder next time. Of course that is me and there are those of you out there who love perfection. We’ll call those people “nerds” or in the words of Sandlot, “a square, Benny, the kid’s a square.” Don’t worry. You are not alone as history is full of perfectionists who just beat themselves up until they get it right….literally. Flagellants are always popping up in church history trying to beat the sin out of themselves.
Ever since pulling back Santa’s curtain to reveal the true identity, I think Christmas lost almost all of its wonder. But in recent years I have seen a new tradition introduced that helps me to regain my child-like anticipation for Christmas. This new tradition is the always comical “War on Christmas.” For those of you unfamiliar, there is a movement towards Happy Holidays and away from Merry Christmas. If you watch some of the news about this then you would think, for Christians, no greater blasphemy has ever occurred in the history of mankind, because after all, Jesus is the reason for the season, right?
