Sermon Central
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The Ultimate Reality Show
Contributed by Bill Bowdle on Aug 1, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: God, our Creator, is the ultimate, final reality behind the veil of mystery that scientists, philosophers, and seekers of every stripe, seek to penetrate. But God initiates his own search to reach out to us in Christ, and to connect us with his Ultimate
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:
