The Cracked Acorn: Thinking

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

I am thinking about “thinking” this week. With the quick advancement and application of technology to all our needs and wishes, thinking has taken a blow to the neural system. Oh, I don’t mean the kind of thinking that leads to those really good jobs and a promotion or maybe a pat on the back for work well done. In my past work life, I enjoyed the thinking that went into writing programs that solved surveying problems and made fast searches of databases, far quicker than one could ever turn pages or apply the Helen Wood Speed Reading Method.

No, I am thinking of “thinking” as I mentioned before, this is not irrational or rational thinking, but random thinking- the kind that lacks any definite plan or order or purpose. Random thinking does not have an assigned value or may not mean anything at all, it just exists for the moment and then is gone. Thinking does not solve any or all or even the smallest of our worries or lend itself to any of our pleasures..one of the tenants’ girls that gathered with me at the school bus once told me that I could get into trouble for doing my own thinking. Does that mean that we should get others to help us do our own thinking…eh?…this is a question to ponder.

Random thinking may appear to be nonsense or lackadaisical unprecedented thoughts. People that can think in a random fashion may have fewer problems understanding the outside world. This type of thinking may not have a definite aim or purpose and is not sent or guided in a particular direction; it should occur without our prompting. Random thoughts have no weight and may not have a value or a defined direction; they happen and go off into space on an indefinite and infinite and undefined path of travel, even if space is curved, such thoughts have their own way.

Martin Luther believed that there was nothing random in understanding the Bible. As an outcome, he believed that free will was limited to low-level human decisions. So when one sins against another, they are limited on how to respond through forgiveness and loving actions. To sum up, he believed that unbounded randomness is severely limited to the point that our behaviors that are patterned and ordered step in and that is the end on anything close to a random response.

Donald Knuth from Stanford remarked that God exerts dynamic control over the world without violating any laws of science, and it suggests that what appears to be random to humans may not, in fact, be so random. “We may not agree with Martin or Donald about their views but know that God does not operate from a base of chaos or spin a wheel to decide that some random action or decision should be taken. If God then does not do the aforementioned, then out of the window goes the “theory” of evolution.”

Maybe it is time to go out on a hillside somewhere and unclutter our minds of why the sky is blue or why fish cannot swim backward or why if I eat enough green vegetables will it make me any smarter or why isn’t yodeling a written language or if the Bible is so clearly written then why are there in today’s society, so many various translations of God’s Word.