Material vs Spiritual

This division of the unseen and seen has been at the root of more philosophical, moral, and religious issues than any other concept. Inevitably, those who are proponents of this dichotomy begin to prioritize or raise up the unseen while viewing material things as lesser elements of creation. This is the cause of almost all of the early heresies of the church. Whether it be Gnosticism, Arianism, or Manichaeanism many of the heresies that brought massive amounts of conflict were derivatives of the separation of body and spirit. It also has led at least in part to the misunderstanding of the meaning of an ascetic life. Monks and hermits do not or at least should not reject their bodies and needs for the sake of trampling down bodily weakness. It is not "Mind over matter." Both soul and body together make up all living things. Of course taken to the other extreme, idol worship in pagan times was the worship and consecration of material things with no soul. Both extremes should be avoided.

The Devil and Demons

St. Anthony the Great was and is well known for his remarkably ascetic and holy life. He was the first great desert hermit and is also known as the father of all the desert monks. But what he is most known for is not his battle against Arianism or his wonderous miracles, but rather his horrific battles with the devil. Of his 38 famous sayings a good number refer to the devil or temptation, and the stories surrounding the saint are almost universally based on his titanic and constant struggle with demons so much so that he should could as easily be called the saint of madmen as desert monks.


Many praise Anthony for his constant struggle with demons and devils, and his triumph over them, but it should be asked if Anthony had nothing but inner turmoil and temptation. Whether it be physical assault by the devil or a particularly difficult temptation to do evil, the demons are always with St. Anthony. Even as a monk with the goal of defeating temptation, shouldn't it be God not devils that Anthony spends his time with?
For many saints and Christians in general, Satan, the devil, demons, and a host of other malefic beings have become an excuse to explain away their own temptations. Just as Eve blamed the devil in the form of a serpent for her sin, so to do all Christians 'pass the buck' so to speak to others who are 'evil' and easy to blame. Seen in this context the devil and his helpers has been the cause of every crime and sin since the dawn of time and mankind is simply a victimized plethora of fools. It should be realized that evil spirits are a figment of man's imagination created in order to soothe our collective consciences.
Throughout the Bible and other religious writings demons are fought, cast out, killed, defeated, victorious, or worshipped. Indeed, if all religious writings were gathered together, the devil and his minions might well be more popular than God. If such beings exist, our obvious fascination or obsession with them would do far more damage than they ever could. The only devils that anyone should worry about are those that are a part of us.

Science and Religion

It is an ancient conflict. The war between science and religion has been waged for centuries. The most well known example is Darwin and his Theory of Evolution vs the biblical Story of Creation. However, the conflict is as old as Christianity itself if not older. Many stories were told in the early church of the defeat of magicians and the like by the apostles or other saintly believers. These magicians along with the astrologers and medicine men of the time were the Roman Empire's equivalent of scientists. This seems to be a recurring theme. In most cases, scientists are the ones under assault by those of a religion. Whether it be because evolution contradicts the literal sense of Genesis, the ordering of the solar system hurts the pride of men, or because of the belief that science is magical and demonic in nature. However, despite the fact that these two understandings of reality have been constantly at odds, it should be possible two mesh the two. Science is not magic and it never pretends to prove or disprove the existence of God or any other spiritual being. By the same token, the findings of science especially in the modern day are overwhelming convincing and cannot be ignored. Indeed, only those who are far too close minded in respect to either philosophy can wholly deny the necessity of the other.

A Syllogism

Eating and having food to eat is a gift from God.
The rejection of God's gifts is evil.
So, fasting is evil.

The Fall and Salvation

In St. Athanasius' book On The Incarnation he speaks about the role of Christ in reversing the effects of the Fall, but what do these words like the Fall and Salvation mean? In the Bible, God created the world and everything in it. In the whole of creation only man was given the likeness of God and free will. Strangely enough it is this very trait, the ability to make the decision to follow God or not, that is the root of all the problems in Creation. God gave us free will so that we could choose to do good over evil making us truly good. Instead, we chose evil. This first sin seemed to somehow change the whole of creation dooming it to death. God is life, and when we chose evil over him, we began to die. A common metaphor depicts the poison of a venomous snake entering man's veins killing him slowly despite the fact that the snake has been driven off. Even if creation once again turns to God, the poison in us will still kill us. In order to destroy this poison, an antidote is needed. This antidote to the poison of sin that causes death is brought to creation through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Christ's Incarnation is key to the salvation of creation, but not the most important. By entering creation Christ links it with God. By doing this he in a sense reunites us with God, but the poison of sin was still present and as a result death was still inevitable. In a very real sense all of creation is part of God. It is by this that Christ was able to destroy death. By dying, Christ as God caused all of creation to die concluding the effects of the poison, but by rising from the dead, Christ gave life again to all creation. While not the prettiest part of Christ's coming the death of God was central to everything else. Only by this act could God end the power of all sins past, present, and future forever. Since God cannot be dead, he revitalized all of creation in his resurrection.

It is interesting to note that while many believe that creation was made for the benefit of man, this is far from the case. All of creation was made for its own sake and man was placed as its keeper and guardian. Many also say that the greatness of man is shown by the fact that God became man. This is also a flawed notion. Christ came to save not glorify. That God became man is as far from a cause for self-glorification as there can be. It simply shows that out of all of creation man is the part that needs help. It is through the fault of man that sin and death came into the world. The rest of creation must suffer our fate as well. Those who work against the damage that our sins have caused to rest of creation seem to have a far better relation with animals and other parts of creation than others who do not. It may be that this closeness to creation comes from being close to God, but it may also be that those who attempt to undo damage done to creation by the Fall become closer to what they were meant to be. Far from trying to be the lords of creation, we should attempt to alleviate the pain that we have caused in any way possible.

Athanasius

St. Athanasius was the patriarch of Alexandria in the 4th century living from 293 to 373 AD. His most notable accomplishment and what he is usually remembered for is his strong stance against the Arian and Meletian heresies, but he also wrote several books which have added greatly to his noteworthiness. These include a life on St. Anthony the Great which is for the most part our sole source of information on the Great Desert Father, several volumes on Arianism, and his first two works: Against the Heathen and The Incarnation of the Word of God. Due for the most part to his work against the Arians, Athanasius was banished, exiled, or stripped of his title several times. Appointed a deacon in 319 Athanasius worked as secretary to Alexander, the patriarch of the time, in 325 at the Council of Nicaea. Not long afterwards in 328, St. Athanasius was made the patriarch of Alexandria.

Help Yourself

'A brother said to Abba Anthony, “Pray for me.” The old man said to him, “I will have no mercy on you, nor will God have any, if you yourself do not make an effort and if you do not pray to God.”'

This is the sixteenth of St. Anthony's famous sayings, and it is one of the few that I wholeheartedly agree with. Certainly, there is no help for those who do not try on their own. It does not matter how many people pray for you or of what status they may be. One will only improve if the effort to do so is willingly put forward. God helps those who help themselves. Often in St. Anthony's time and now those both religious and not ask for a blessing to change something they know to be wrong. But these same people will never actually go out and change what needs to be, instead waiting for some 'miracle' to save them.

Space Cannon

The idea of using a large gun to propel a payload into space is almost as old as guns themselves. Newton using his newly formulated calculus was the first to explain the concept. A gun could deliver enough speed to get a projectile into orbit or even attain escape velocity. Now in reality, it is almost impossible for a cannon to put an object into a stable orbit due to complications in the projectile’s path, but it is possible to shoot a rocket high enough that the final adjustments to enter a stable orbit are comparative child's play. In recent times, the big name for "space gun" enthusiasts is Gerald Bull. A brilliant ballistic engineer Gerald Bull graduated from the Institute of Aerospace Studies at the young age of 23. He was obsessed with the completion of a "space gun." Throughout his career, Gerald tried to find patrons to finance his dream, and eventually found one in the now deposed Saddam Hussein. Saddam agreed to fund two of Gerald’s space cannon and a miniature test gun for $25 million on the condition that Gerald also help him develop his SCUD missiles. Gerald agreed and would have built the first working space guns, but due to his work on the missiles, Gerald was assassinated in 1990. Without him the project fell apart, and no serious work has been done since to build an orbital gun.

Lightcraft

Perhaps the most promising earth to orbit system has at its root the power of lasers. Leik Myrabo is a professor of aerospace engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For 30 years, Leik Myrabo has been pursuing the ambitious venture of laser based space travel. In simplified form, Leik’s lightcraft uses the power of an earth or possibly orbit based laser to super heat the air underneath the lightcraft. As the temperature rises to something on the degree of five times the temperatures of the sun, the air turns into a plasma and explodes creating upward force. Although many believed his lightcraft to be constrained to the confines of science fiction writing, Leik proved them wrong by levitating his lightcraft in a series of tests. The most recent of these, propelled a 1.8 ounce lightcraft to a height of 233 feet. While this is nothing compared to Leik’s final goal, it should be pointed out that these records are close to the first rocket launch heights.