Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

• 2 Corinthians 13:5

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

• Lamentations 3:40

for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

• 1 Corinthians 2:16

“ ‘We are ourselves the entities to be analyzed.’ – Martin Heidegger”

• Bryan Magee, The Story of Philosophy

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

• C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was a German philosopher.  He is known for his works in phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism.

The concept in the quote is that I am the best judge of my own existence.  Thus, all else is foreign matter, or phenomena.

We do not have an intimate understanding of the chair we sit on or the table that the jigsaw puzzle is spread out on.  So, what else can we really analyze other than ourselves?  The table and chair and jigsaw puzzles are phenomena.

But thinking of existentialism, what is essential in our existence?  We must breathe.  We must consume nourishment.  Thus some of this phenomena out here is useful and essential for us to exist.

Yet, when I read over something that I have written, I can easily overlook an error.  I knew what I meant to write, and sometimes, I read that paragraph with my mind hearing what I should have written instead of what I wrote.

Thus, am I a good analyst of myself?  No.  Not hardly.  I will analyze myself as being kind of special when I cannot find a simple typo in what I write.

So, Heidegger has painted himself into a corner.  We cannot evaluate ourselves without giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt.

So, if we cannot analyze ourselves impartially, and no one else can analyze us, do we exist?

Those who hang onto evolution and millions of years have seen the flaws of the Big Bang Theory and Evolution.  One of the latest concepts is that we are in a big fishbowl, and an alien from some other dimension is controlling things.  Otherwise, the data that they have recently gathered makes no sense.

Odd how some people want to prove their theory right by creating a giant alien from another dimension, yet they do not believe in God.

Mark Lowry once said that he doesn’t have enough faith to be an atheist.  And inventing alien’s to smooth over problems in the data is proof that some people would believe in anything just to ignore God.

Yet, Heidegger ignored God.  God is qualified and capable of analyzing us.  God knows that we exist.

And God wants us to love and obey Him.  Trust in Jesus.  He is the only way to the Father.

And then let Jesus analyze us.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.