what a night....

oi...

re: the previous post, ben and i were both convinced that scott was really really mad at me earlier, and over something silly.... it didn't seem characteristic, but from the death look i got from him in passing at one point today, i wasn't quite sure what was up... so before i left the office for the day, he was still in class, so i left him a note (and folded it up all funny like in junior high or something :-P) and left it on his desk... on IM a few hours ago i got this response:

scott: yes, i did see your note :-)
scott: no, i'm not mad at you, and of course i don'e hate you, even if that's what you've been telling everyone
scott: i'm just busy and stressed out, that's all. we can talk more later
scott: your note definitely made me smile!

so all's well that ends well... honestly for awhile though i wasn't quite sure how i had managed to offend him so badly, but i'm glad his outward reaction was way more extreme than apparently his inward one was :-P

moving right along... eric is getting increasingly talented at starting long discussions late at night. tonight he emailed me a link about islam's beliefs about who jesus is. eric thought that i should completely freak out that there's a rather huge group of people who profess the islamic faith and thus claim that jesus was not crucified. eric's comment was: "if it's really true and historically documented like you claim, shouldn't someone who believes in islam have caught on by now and there be tons of muslims who argue that jesus was in fact crucified, even if they have different beliefs from you on who he was?" we went back and forth on this for over an hour.

regardless of my arguments, his blanket response is generally "i just find it kind of suspicious that 'western facts' seem to back up your faith... you should find it just a little too convenient too"

the thing is
(1) if i didn't think christianity was the best fit belief system to what i've seen and believe to be true about the universe, i wouldn't be a christian -- it's to be expected that the arguments i present are pro-christian when it comes down to a question of "either this happened or it didn't, no gray", and that's not being catty, grandiose, or thinking i'm better than other people. it's to say that i believe certain things to be true and christianity best models that set of truths, and thus i am a christian,... not the other way around
(2) that is to say... i evaluate what i think to be true and what i don't think to be true and THEN adopt my beliefs and theories about theology and about the universe at large to fit what i've seen to be true; i don't adopt a philosophy and then just choose to believe only the points that support it
(3) like it's good to be reminded (see yesterday's post: here), it's not just me intuiting my faith. it's a gift worked in me through God, not anything i do, earn, or study into myself. sometimes i wish it were that simple and that i could cut and dry be like "so look, this is why the evidence seems to stack up this way, think about it and you'll see and believe too", on days when i'm tired, that would take so much less energy :-P, but the truth is it's not that simple at all.

as always, i just have to remind myself to be as open to discussion (both with being willing to explain myself AND with actually listening to who i'm talking to) and keep on working doing just that.

5 more days of the semester... woo hoo... i'm going to sleep.