Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
INTRODUCTION
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Reality TV has risen
in recent 4-5 years
to seize the Entertainment World.
Survivor - captured huge ratings
2-3 yrs ago- a show called the Mole
burrowed into the home of Kate Pahls
a Mariemont grandmother,
and a member of this very church
and the Mole captured a large Cincinnati following
for Reality TV as they competed for the money prize
Temptation Island, Big Brother
And a whole series of spin off imitators....
used ordinary people in a competitive situation
where often there’s some process of elimation
till the final victor emerges with the prize.
What is real?
What is reality?
Question is as old as Aristotle
It makes for fascinating science fiction
like the book I read as a teenager
"The Universe Between" by Robert Heinlein
The disciplines of Philosophy, Science, Theology
have a huge interest in answering the question
"What is reality?"
The world view you adopt about reality
will determine your ethics
your search for meaning & significance
Fasten your seat belt:
We’re going for a ride.
Diving to the microscopic depths of knowledge.
Rocketing to edges of the universe.
We are wide-eyed explorers
on the edges of our seats
hunting for truth, digging for knowledge,
searching for reality.
We want solid foundations, solid facts
We want to find
Knowledge & know it
Truth & Trust it
Reality & Rely on it.
But we fear our Beliefs are Baseless
Convictions are illusions
We wonder if we live in the Matrix world.
1999, co-writers/directors
brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski
produced an action/adventure
science fiction, mind bending movie
called the Matrix:
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Basic story line: The world was being run
by a powerful, mechanized, artificial life form,
that totally enslaved human beings,
and strapped people down to harvest them
as a source of energy.
In return, human beings were fed
a computerized world of total illusion
that pumped their brain with the illusion
that they were living an ordinary life of
work, play, love and beauty.
In The Matrix, Neo’s guerrilla training
is conducted via computer simulation.
When Neo asks, "Is this real?"
Morpheus responds,
"What is real? How do you define real?
If you’re talking about what you can feel,
what you can smell, what you can taste and see,
then real is simply electrical signals
interpreted by your brain."
This exchange is what the film is all about.
And it points to a major cultural watershed
that we as Christians dare not ignore.
Cypher (Joe Pantoliano), the Judas figure
in The Matrix, meets with the evil Agent Smith
(Hugo Weaving) at a virtual restaurant and
eats the best-looking virtual steak you’ve ever seen.
"You know," he says, lifting his fork
and eyeing what appears to be
a tasty morsel, "I know that
this steak doesn’t exist.
I know when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain
that it is juicy and delicious.
After nine years, do you know what I’ve realized?"
He takes a big bite. "Ignorance is bliss."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/9b5/9b5027.html
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What is reality?
Head for the microscope, and the universe
becomes a mini verse
Peal back the layers of reality
and you find compounds
molecules, atoms, protons, electrons, neutrons
subatomic particles.....
Head for the telescope
and the universe becomes
a maxi verse of ever enlarging bodies
the earth, the moon, the sun, our solar system
suns / stars, galaxies
The visible matter of stars, planets and dust
makes up only 4 percent of the Universe
© Sloan Digital Sky Survey Andrey Kravtsov and Stefan Gottloeber
(Remnant made up of "dark matter" )
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In 1998, observations of exploding stars
showed that the Universe is
expanding at an ever-increasing rate.
This was a huge surprise - most experts
thought that the expansion should be slowing down.
More elusive still is dark energy,
a force that makes up roughly three-quarters
of the Universe and is pushing the cosmos apart.
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030519/030519-10.html
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Black holes!
Anti-matter!
Dark matter!
Is there any ultimate reality:
any first cause,
any sufficient explanation?
In our limitationshow can we know anything
about that first cause?
In our simplistic understandings
how can we ever hope to rise above
our mental limitations to know our ultimate origin.
Will our search pay off
will our quest find an answer?
Whether you peer through the microscope
or the telescope, I submit to you
that the reality awaiting us.
At the end of the search is adequate cause
an intelligent cause
a personal cause
and that reality is God.
The Bible announces good news.
The Creator, the Cause, the Originator
hasn’t waited till we find him.
God the Creator is seeking to Connect with us.
Gen 1:1 NIV In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Notice what it doesn’t say:
In the beginning - Nothing
In the beginning - It
In the beginning - Mysterious Unknown
In the beginning - Supercompressed,
infinitely small, infinitely massive matter
ready to explode in the Big bang
No, it says: In the beginning - GOD.
Peal back the layers of reality
trace back to our ulimate origins,
and you’ll find yourself
face to face with God.
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TIME magazine on 2/5/79 article
mentioned a book, God and the Astronomer,
by Robert Jastrow, then director of NASA’s
Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
Goddard suggests that the Bible
was right after all, and that
people of his own kind,
scientists and agnostics, by his description,
now find themselves confounded.
Jastrow writes, "For the scientist
who has lived by faith in the power of reason,
the story ends like a bad dream.
He has scaled the mountains of ignorance;
he is about to conquer the highest peak;
as he pulls himself over the final rock,
he is greeted by a band of theologians
who have been sitting there for centuries."
Title of the Time Magazene article?
= "In the Beginning: God and Science."
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I grew up with a special
fascination for a part of the insect world
the world of Ants...
Can remember teasing and playing with ants:
Capture one on my hand;
It would try to walk away... (demonstrate)
It walked through the canyons and crevices
and hills of my hand, w/o comprehending me
or my power over it or why it was there
or what it was doing, or the
nature of my power over it.
My friends, we live our lives
on the finger tip of God’s grace
We’re like the color blind man
who looks at the rainbow
but does not even begin to know
the beauty he is missing..
Reality may be beyond our comprehension
But reality is not bigger than God
God defines reality and God defines
the boundaries of reality.
We must live within the reality God defines.
We must absorb the boundaries
God has established.
Gospel of Jesus Christ
is about God’s search
to save you from temptation island,
and to make you an eternal Survivor.
(Acts 14:15 NIV) We too are only men,
human like you. We are bringing you
good news, telling you to turn from
these worthless things to the living God,
who made heaven and earth and sea and
everything in them.
(1 Cor 13:12 NIV)
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face. Now I know in
part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
1 Cor. 13:12 (The Message: )
We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting
in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t
be long before the weather clears and the sun
shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as
clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just
as he knows us!
Are Christians deluded fools
who cling to an make-believe outdated myth
of a fantasized heavenly father figure
that offers a delusion of comfort
in a brutal world?
Are human beings just animated chemical beings
in a Matrix world of illusion,
with an inward delusion
that life is meaningful
and that persons are real?
Are we blind to our own insignificance?
The Bible pulls back the curtain
on the Ulimate reality Show.
Behind the curtain of mystery is not the Matrix.
Behind the curtain of mystery is God.
And if we do not connect with God
we are blinded by unbelief.
If we do not seek God, we are hardened in sin.
If we do not find God we are lost in eternity.
If we do not know God, we have no other hope.
Bible Opens: In the beginning, God...
Bible closes with God’s invitation:
(Rev 22:17-21 NRSV) The Spirit and the
bride say, "Come." And let everyone who hears
say, "Come." And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
You’re Living Life on the finger tips of God’s grace,
Walk carefully on the hands of God.
You’ll see they are nail scarred
from when Christ was nailed to the cross.
Hymn of Invitation
Open My Eyes, That I May See
1. Open my eyes, that I may see
glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
place in my hands the wonderful key
that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
2. Open my ears, that I may hear
voices of truth thou sendest clear;
and while the wavenotes fall on my ear,
everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine!
3. Open my mouth, and let me bear
gladly the warm truth everywhere;
open my heart and let me prepare
love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine!
