Archive: Evolution: The attempt to cut God out of our lives!

I am writing tonight with a heavy heart, as I was doing some research for my lesson plan on evolution and creation for my teaching application – I found some downright disturbing facts. Actually, as much as they were on attacks on God they cried out to me as the ranting of bitter and cynical atheists. In fact, I find it somewhat comical that this is how they base their “lack of evidence” theory 1) “If God were to exist, then there would be good objective evidence for his existence.” 2) “There is no good objective evidence for his existence.” 3) “Therefore, probably God doesn’t exist.” (exert from : GOD- The Failed Hypothesis By Victor J. Stenger, 22)

Another one of my favorite quotes from this guys book: “The assertions that science does not study the supernatural and that supernatural hypotheses are untestable are factually incorrect.” (exert from : GOD- The Failed Hypothesis By Victor J. Stenger, 28)

My commentary on this: First he asks, if God were to exist there would be evidence, and then he says without fact or proof that ”probably” God doesn’t exist due to lack of evidence. However, he then goes on to say a few pages to the right that science does not study or test the supernatural how then can he say with certainty that the existence of God is “factually incorrect”????? Does any of this bother anyone else? I mean seriously, this man is suppose to be a prominent scientist or in other words an intellectual thinker and this is what he comes up with. Well, I am at least somewhat entertained by his apparent lack of common sense.

Here is another one from a prominent atheist/ scientist Richard Dawkins: “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of even, perhaps because of lack of evidence … faith, being belief that isn’t based on evidence, is the principle vice of any religion.” (Is Science a Religion? Richard Dawkins, 57)

Dawkins has forgotten that the evolutionary fossil records are far from complete. If we were to base things on fact- evolution could not withstand as truth due to the amount of holes that are present in this theory. I guess he is also saying that his belief in evolution is not based on faith as well? HAHAHA (good one!)

“There are good reasons to believe in God, including the existence of mathematical principles and order in creation. They are positive reasons based on knowledge rather than default assumptions based on temporary lack of knowledge.” ( The Language of God, Francis S. Collins, 93)

“Science is the only reliable way to understand the natural world and its tools when properly utilized can generate profound insights into the material existence. But science is powerless to answer such questions as “why did the universe come into existence?” “what is the meaning of human existence?” or what happens after we die?”. One of the strongest motivations of humankind is to seek answers to profound questions. We need to bring all the power of both the scientific and spiritual perspectives to bear and understanding about what is seen and unseen.” (The Language of God, Francis S. Collins, 93)

Another point I liked reading this weekend: “Agape or selfless altruism, presents a major challenge for the evolutionist. It is quite firmly a scandal to reductionist reasoning. It cannot be accounted for by the drive of an individual’s selfish genes to perpetuate themselves. Quite the contrary: it may lead humans to make sacrifices that lead to great personal suffering, injury or death, without any evidence of benefit. (The Language of God, Francis S. Collins, 27)

I think the implication of evolution is clear; it is the human attempt to say with certainty that this is how and why the world formed and how we as humans came to be. It is the attempt to say with seemingly good reason that because we can’t see God and don’t have “proof of Him” that he can’t exist. On the other hand, they are over looking the obvious fact that they don’t have all the answers themselves. It appears that in an attempt to find these answers they are reaching for anything that will seemingly explain all of these complicated questions and even the faintest absurdity will be considered as fact. In the process, a lot of these scientists / atheists are mad at God and see him as being a nonsensical entity. They blame God for all the worlds’ problems however can I lovingly remind everyone that it is humans that have caused this on their own. If you honestly think about it - a lot of human suffering is brought about by what we do to one another. It is humankind, not God that has invented knives, arrows, guns, bombs just to name a few. We should not blame God for the consequences of these instruments being misused. Also, we cannot criticize God because He gave us a free will to do as we please. He would not have been a loving God if He had made us His slaves – rather He wanted to have a relationship and fellowship with us. Therefore, we cannot blame God when we choose to use our free will in a destructive manner against our fellow man in any context. I am sure there are many more hardships that humans have created for themselves that God gets blamed for on a daily basis. It is incredibly sad that people turn their backs on God: who created them for a purpose. They would rather sell themselves short by not believing they have purpose and reducing themselves to being merely an animal with instincts. This is the very basis of evolution: if it feels good do it and what is best for you. It is a very heathenistic view of the world which will leave one thirsting for something more.

In my opinion, being a creationist means that you believe that the bible and true science are in full harmony with each other and that there is no need to “check your brain at the door” when entering a church. I could go into more details about how science and the bible coincide but that would make this post entirely too long! Perhaps, I will write that in the future. ;O)

I will leave this post with is a story written by William Paley in 1802.

In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone and were asked how the stone came to be there. I might possibly answer that for anything I knew to the contrary it had lain there forever. Nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer I had given before, that for anything I knew the watch might have been there …. The watch must have had a maker: that there must have existed at some point in time, and some place or other artificer who formed it for a purpose which we find it to actually answer; who comprehended its construction and designed it’s use. Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature, with the difference on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation.”

What are the points being made in this complex writing?

1) The watch is complex

2) the watch had an intelligent designer

3) life is complex

4) life has to have an intelligent designer

“The elegance behinds life’s complexity is indeed reason for awe and for belief in God.” Francis Collins – Head of the Human Genome Project

Archive: Walking With Eyes of Faith

What does it mean to have faith? Is it that thing that we cannot see and we choose to say because our physical eyes can’t see it – it can’t exist or do we say it still exists anyway? Do we discern this with spiritual or physical eyes? A couple of examples to illustrate where I am going with this: we can’t see the wind but does that mean it doesn’t exist? No for one can surely say they can see and feel the effects of the wind. We can see things being moved by this force but can’t see the force by which the object is being moved. What about gravity as another example? If someone where to say hey you know what I don’t believe in gravity and jumped off a building – we all know that would be a very foolish choice based on the evidence provided to us about gravity. They would jump to their emanate doom. Therefore, can it be said that because we can’t see something; that in itself has no implication for something not existing. The same thing can be said about God. Just because we can’t see Him does not mean he doesn’t exist as we can see the effects of God all around us. By the sun rising everyday, the birds singing in the morning, the beautiful blue sky cluttered with big white fluffy clouds to a brightly colored flower swaying in a gentle breeze right down to the stars that light the sky at night.

The bible defines faith this way: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 Another translation puts it this way: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Contrary to popular teaching, faith is not mental delusion, presumption or self-deception, but a work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. I came across a great quote by C.S. Lewis who is quickly becoming one of my favorite Christian philosophers: “The state of mind which desperate desire working on a strong imagination can manufacture is not faith in the Christian sense. It is a feat of psychological gymnastics." If we can perceive the effects of God: faith therefore is expressed in our certainty that He does in fact exist.

In conclusion, I think faith has two elements: 1) being convinced of the truth, being certain of reality, having evidence of unseen things, and 2) believing, hoping in, and embracing, seizing the truth.

Archive: Fruit of the Spirit: Love

One of the most challenging fruit of the spirit, in my opinion, is love. It is hard to constantly love when you do not see love in return. In Mark 12:30-31 it says “Love the Lord your God with all you heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength. And the second is like this “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This verse is talking about loving God with all that is in you and wanting to serve and please Him. Also, it says to love your neighbor as yourself. This to me is very difficult due to the human condition. As humans, we tend to look at others and unduly judge them. What we do to others is a direct reflection of what we do to Jesus. We also have to consider, would we want someone to do the same to us?

I have another practical illustration of this: Last week as I was on the train on my way home from work. I observed a very disturbing sight. For those of you, who have ever been on a subway it can provide an interesting array of situations, as you have many types of people and at times a large quantity of people crammed into a small space – kind of like sardines in a can. In this time spent on the train, you can observe people in so many ways and this is what I do everyday. Located directly in front of me was an older man on my right and one empty seat right next to him. When we stopped at our next destination more people entered onto the train; among this group of people there were two college age African Americans. One of which sat down directly next to this man in front of me. Yes, this is quickly going to turn into a discussion about race/color. The college aged kid was wrestling through his backpack filled with books and note books – he was obviously looking for something he could not find. In the meantime, the man seated next to him kept looking over at him with glaring and down right nasty / disgusted looks. The two boys began chatting to one another and everything appeared to be fine as they were not bothering anyone. The man looked at me to see what my reaction was and I simply smiled back at him as if to say everything was fine by me. To this moment, I just can’t understand how and why people can judge someone simply based on what they look like. After all, aren’t we all human? What makes us that much different one from another? We have a brain, heart, lungs, eyes, mouth etc. all the same – can a few different expressions of proteins automatically make a person less than another? The expression of protein I am referring to leads ultimately in determining skin color. We cannot infer good or bad of a person simply based on the external yet this man had already made up his mind about these boys. He did not like them and it was apparent by his looks, body language and his judgmental attitude. In this case, I felt anger towards this man but I realized that the bible tells us to hate sin but love the sinner. I realized here that it all boiled down to love our neighbor as our self. I then thought about how when we do things or think mean / evil thoughts about someone it was like doing them directly to Jesus – nailing him back on that cross. (What a visual huh?) I began to think what would really be the implication on the world today if everyone did abide by this simple truth?

To these boys, I would have dedicated this verse: Matthew 5:44 states “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” God will give you the strength to love and pray for those who come against you if He lives within you. This kind of response goes directly against your human flesh –you will need the Holy Spirit to accomplish this seemingly daunting task. Also, we should keep in mind that God loved us first; therefore, we should love others. 1John 4:10 says “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Broken down this means that God’s love was not dependent on what we as humans do, it was Him loving us first! Even when we struggle in areas of casting judgment against our fellow brothers/ sisters or whatever sin you are struggling with in your life – remember that God loves you and wants to see you victoriously triumph over sin.

In the Ten Commandments, we show love to God by: 1) trusting God alone for everything 2) worshiping God alone 3) not using the Lord’s name in vain 4) by setting a day aside to God.

We show love to others by: 1) respecting our parents 2) being faithful to husband or wife 3) not stealing 4) not coveting someone else’s property. This is found in Exodus 20:1-17.

I think personally, love can make us a better person. If you really love God you will try to obey His commandments and go out on a limb for others. God empowers you to show His love; we are called to be living examples of Christ so that others may know who He is. Being a living example means that we take our relationship with Him seriously! We are to be ready and willing to serve the Lord no matter the coast… this is the true test of what and who you really love and where your priorities truly lie. If we have a growing relationship with Jesus it is my firm belief that all the other fruits of the spirit will fall into place.

Archive: To doubt or not to doubt : That is the question

         Have you ever wondered why one day we are happy and the next day we can feel something completely different?  As I was on my way to work this morning, I was listening to a podcast from Pastor Bob Coy Form Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale his message was about Jesus and how he tries to communicate with his people and that sometimes we are so consumed by looking for an answer to a question we often times fail to see the obvious. This was the case for me this morning – I was thinking about my teaching application and my own thoughts of doubt that crept in. Was I really prepared to teach kids? Would I be a good teacher? As these thoughts passed through my mind I could feel my pulse start to rise and a lump form in my throat – what if this is just too big for me to handle? Then my mind wandered back to my recent trip to south Florida –I prayed during this trip that God would open the right doors so that I would know which way I was to go. He put old friends in my path that I haven’t seen in years from First Baptist - both my middle and high school youth pastors, friends from Highlands Christian Academy where I attended high school and old friends form Calvary Chapel. All of them wanted me to come back to South Florida; as there were a ton of things that they could really use my help with. In addition, I was granted the most fortunate opportunity to meet with a representative from the Broward County School Board – at which time I learned there was a great need for high school science teachers in south Florida. God reminded me that it was not just coincidence; before I even stepped foot on Florida soil the idea for me to teach high school was already becoming a burden on my heart.

I left Florida and came back to Boston to settle back into the mundane grit that has become my life. I started to wonder if what I experienced in south Florida was merely what I wanted to hear or was God truly intervening. It is dangerous ground when we question God - I realized as I was listening to Pastor Bob he was telling a personal story about how God had used various people and circumstances to grab his attention to the very thing he was asking God to reveal – at this moment I realized I too was doing the same thing. It’s like the answer is right in front of you but yet you can’t seem to see it. In my heart, this still small voice said to me – trust in me. In my heart, I said but God what about all of the things stacked up against me? Like location and timing was going to be really off and what about finances????? I prayed and God reminded me of this verse:

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Archive Writings: Hypocrisy in the realm of Christianity

"The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians -who acknowledge God with their lips and walk at the door but deny Him by their lifestyle.' 'That is what unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

Here is an exert of an article that got me thinking about how we as Christians can change the way the world see us – we need to live like we mean it!

MAHER: And that's a wonderful sentiment. Jesus as a philosopher is wonderful. There's no greater role model, in my view, than Jesus Christ. It's just a shame that most of the people who follow him and call themselves Christians act nothing like him.

O'REILLY: Most of them? Most Christians are bad?

MAHER: In this country. Well, most Christians don't act Christ-like.

O'REILLY: Most?

MAHER: If they would call themselves Christ-likes instead of Christians, maybe it would remind them to act like Jesus.

O'REILLY: OK, so the 65 million Catholics in this country, 85 percent of the population is Christian, 300 million of us, and most of them aren't doing a good job in their Christianity. Is that what you're saying?

MAHER: Well, most people who are religious in this country are like the cafeteria Catholics. They pick and choose from the religious parts that they want to follow.

I was asked how I would respond to this article and why Christians say one thing and yet do another.

My reply:

That is a tough question, but first I would examine the lives of those saying they are Christians. As scientist, I am always interested in the population sampled. How has Maher come to this conclusion? What people has he talked to / watched the lives of that have given him this impression? Were multiple places/ church goers sampled? Most likely not. Unfortunately, the American population as a whole tends to rely on what others tell them instead of earnestly seeking the truth for themselves. Laziness in many ways is a corner stone of our society- if it requires work then we don’t want any part of it. I do think this article most definitely reflects this fact. I can guarantee Maher has never earnestly sought after the truth about Christianity. If he can come to the conclusion that Jesus is a perfect role model he missed a boat load of truths on the discovery of this fact!!! It is a cop-out on his behalf for sure. However, there still is a correlation between what we (Christians) say we should do inside the doors of a church and the way we live when we walk out – there is a huge disparity. We should be challenged and strive that much harder to be more like Christ everyday. If we call ourselves a Christian it should not merely be a title but rather a way of life.

In light of this topic I have a recent example to share:

About two weekends ago, I was invited by a lady at work to help feed the homeless. She explained that it would be at St. Paul’s Evangelical Church in the heart of downtown Boston. I was so excited to get involved with doing God’s work and helping others – as many of you know this is where my heart as always been. At first there was a lot stacked up against me – the train I was taking broke down and then the directions given to me had me lost in the midst of a bustling city crowd. Those of you who have ever been to Boston you know what I am talking about here – it is insane to navigate! :o) I was determined to go I just knew God was going to teach me something! Once I got there I was rushed immediately into work. The people where herded in and out like cattle. I started talking to a couple of the men and women at a table and one of the church volunteers came over to me and said – “Don’t get involved with these people’s personal lives!” I was asked to wash down the tables in another area and not to talk to them. What was actually going on here? Was it out of obligation to feed the homeless that these volunteers showed up – to “serve time”? Aren’t we called to love and extend hope to the hopeless? – that was the reason I was there. I personally felt a nominal amount of love shown to these people. The only service done that day was a temporary need was filled - hunger. One could argue that it is God’s way of carrying out his provisions for the less fortunate. Yes, I would agree but what about telling them that Jesus loves them after all, isn’t this a church function? Or letting them know that they with the help of Jesus they can rise above their circumstances – whether that be drunkenness, drugs, disease – whatever the circumstances that have brought them to this place in their lives. To know you don’t have to walk this world all by yourself, to know there is a loving and caring God. It could have been more than just a meal to feed hunger – it could have been a life changing meeting with Jesus. Jesus gave us many examples of His love for those who in many aspects were the most unlovable of people. I realized as I left the church that day that they did not get nor did they comprehend the love of Christ. It broke my heart. What type of example is being set for the members of this church? Here is a practical example of what this article was talking about – preaching love but yet failing to truly show it! Just merely coming to the half way point just doesn’t cut it. The world watches these types of examples and shakes their head in unbelief when there is apparent hypocrisy.

In order to be truly representative of Christ you have to know who he is. How do you know who he is? You know through actively reading his word and praying. If you don’t give God the chance he will never be able to reveal himself to you because there would be no method of communication for which He could accomplish this. Saying that you have accepted Jesus as you Lord and Savior simply is not enough. Our sinful nature will always take the front seat to our seemingly good intentions. It is a constant battle between what we know what we should do and what we actually find ourselves doing.

However, I have come across a lot here in Boston where people think it is by good works or being good person will be enough to get to heaven – how can you be good when your sinful nature works against all that is good? You on your own you can’t be inherently good. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who think by their own strength they can be like Christ – here is where a lot of that double standard comes into play. However, with God and the Holy Spirit guiding you He can convict you to change your ways by being in His word, praying and getting to know His ways. This is how we as Christians measure what we do as good or bad – it’s all according to God’s word.

My challenge would be – let’s get to know God with a whole hearted fervor that when the world looks on they KNOW who Jesus is by our actions!!!! Let’s not live a double standard life!!!!

Archive Writings: A God Journey

We live in a technologically advanced world where no longer pen and paper are used to convey our thoughts but rather a word processor. By typing your most precious thoughts in a digital format you can mass produce them and share them with many people even around the world. This very idea got me thinking about sharing with family, friends and maybe even the occasional on looker who might somehow stumble upon my page - what I feel are important aspects of life and what God is trying to teach not only myself but maybe even you. And so it was the idea of a blog.

I have recently asked God to soften my heart and to reveal to me how I can be His light to this dark and dying world – that is so self consumed. It has occurred to me that I myself have been desensitized and did not even realize it. Once I asked God to reveal to me new things and to teach me about who He is and what He wants to do in the lives of his believers – it was like God hit the creative gas pedal. (so to speak)

"Ask and it will be given unto you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened unto you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8

I have asked and God has given me a lot to think about – and once again my vision is restored to a crystal clear image. What I see in our world today is heart breaking. I can only imagine that if I feel this way how much more does God feel for His people??!! He is deeply imploring His people to take a stand and make change happen. But are we willing to take the stand??????

A small background about me, I was born in Pompton Plains, NJ but most of my growing up years were spent in Sunny Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. When I was in 10^th grade I felt God was calling me into the ministry to work with teenagers and young adults. Until recently, I had no idea how God would carry out his plan for my life. I currently live in Boston, MA but I believe this is not where He has called me to stay, rather I feel a call back to my home in Fort Lauderdale. Admittedly, God is not ready for me to do this just yet. As I have been reading my bible and praying God has revealed to me there is so much more for me to learn. He has been using the people of Massachusetts as a “virtual learning quest” to train me about the way the world reallyis. I grew up in a Christian bubble and how was I ever expected to tell the world about Christ if I could not get down on their level? That is one morsel of truth God has revealed to me.

I live in the most liberal of places; there is no inherent right or wrong rather more like a “we have to tolerate everyone” kind of attitude. Everything is based upon intellectual thought processes from an individual - decisions of right or wrong are left up the individual to decide. Even this seemingly great idea about toleration is still very narrow minded and is not treating everyone fairly. If we are to tolerate everyone, if we are to not make any waves - are we then just forced back into a corner to just merely accept things for the way they are without the prospect of change? In essence that forces us into a corner of hypocrisy – where we are at war with who we want to be but we can’t because we are too afraid of who might see. How is that fair? Will those of us who live like this lose our freedoms all together because we never take a stand and do what’s right????

There are a million things competing for your attention how do you know which is the right one to follow? I submit to you that the only way to find the clarity I know to exist is through Jesus Christ – he brings light to the darkness. What does that mean – bringing light to the darkness? It means all other ways will be shown in their actual color there will not be anything to cloud your vision – you will see it for what it really is.

A personal example, I am a scientist and I have to deal with the theory of evolution thrown in my face at every turn. Evolution in my opinion is a way to explain the meaning and God - the creator - right out of our lives. When broken down both theories take some amount of faith – you have to believe there is a God or you have to believe that there somehow existed a few molecules that eventually made this complicated world in which we live.

Recently, I have been praying that God would hurry up in executing his plan to bring me back to South Florida -but this morning I came to the conclusion that I need to use my time here wisely. God brought me here to Massachusetts far away from my family and friends to teach me about the world in an attempt to teach me how I can better serve Him. In the end, this will ensure that I will be ready to communicate to the future young poeple how to survive the challenges they will face.

My hope for this blog is that I can share my journey in finding and understanding God in a deeper more meaningful way.

College Days: Is Poverty Really Necessary?

Poverty is a situation that millions of Americans find themselves in, despite the fact that they live in one the richest nations. Poverty can be defined as a lack of essential elements needed to survive, such as food, shelter and clothes. There are two views regarding poverty the structural and individualist view. The structural view looks at the causes of why poverty is occurring such as: sickness, education, low income jobs, and discrimination. The individualist view places the blame on the individual, in that, they don’t work hard enough, they were not born into privilege, and they are too lazy to get the help necessary to survive. The one fundamental question the individualists leave out: do people honestly set out to fail in life? Do they want to be scrapping the bottom of a garbage can for someone’s old food? Who’s to say that a person who was born into a rich family should rule over everyone else? This is the way capitalism in America has been proven to work. Capitalism essentially exploits workers to produce products, which get sold for a higher cost. The financial profits are then retained by the owners of the company rather then being equally distributed to all of those responsible for the creation of the product. Why is this the case? Shouldn’t there be some sort of regulation? With this philosophy in place the inevitable will occur; the rich will become richer and the poor will be come poorer.

A simple definition of poverty is an economic condition lacking both money and the necessities needed to successfully live such as food, water, and shelter. (Wikiedia, 2006) The question of how people find themselves in poverty varies: lack of education, health related issues, racial discrimination, divorce, war, crime and natural disasters etc. All of these various causes give a viable reason for poverty; in fact, this would be considered the structural view. The structural view is accepted by Europeans as a way of explaining poverty and why it happens. Their philosophy is that there has to be an explanation as to why so many people are in poverty, surely, they themselves do not want to be in this predicament. On the contrary, the American view is that of an individualist. The individualist approach places emphasis on the person, in that, it must be their fault. However, there is evidence that goes directly against the individualist’s view. For instance, the people who are termed “poverty stricken” make about eighteen thousand a year. (Shaw, 105) These people are working hard for every penny they receive by long forty hour weeks sometimes barely making minimum wage. In 1997, the minimum wage was increased to $5.15 an hour. (Shaw, 105) Without an education, most jobs will not offer you the types of salaries needed to break out of poverty’s grip. One could then ask, how could a person work so hard and not be able to pull themselves out of the poverty hole. There has been a prevalent misconception about people in poverty and welfare, the individualist approach: they deserve to be where they are and they should not be using governmental money. The fact is that people receiving welfare may receive fifteen hundred to six thousand dollars a year. (Shaw, 108)  Fifteen hundred dollars is barely enough to pay for 6 months of groceries, and this does not include rent and other necessary utilities. The idea that able bodied people are sitting around at home enjoying life on welfare is a huge misconception. In addition, it was also thought that there was a financial gain for families on welfare to have a lot of children. About 70% of welfare families have one or two children, and there is little financial incentive to have more. (Shaw, 108) “Half of the families who receive welfare include an adult who works full time and research consistently demonstrates that poor people have the same strong desire to work that the rest of the population does.” (Shaw, 108) If people on welfare have the same desire to work and in fact they are, why are they in poverty?  After all, the United States was built upon the idea that through hard work, courage, and determination one could achieve a better life; a life that would be richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity according to ability or achievement without limitation. “This is not a dream of motor cars and high wages, merely, but a dream of social order in which each man or woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable and recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth position.” (Adams, 214-215) The fact that America is one of the richest nations and yet one-third of the population, are children found in poverty is a humbling statistic. The children are our future, the American government needs to be called into an awakening by helping and investing in children. One necessary change would be to raise the minimum wage, so mothers can feed their children, buy them clothes and be able to send them to school. The fact that parents are working but not able to feed their children gives a reason to believe that the American dream of hard work equaling opportunity is no longer a valid “dream”.

Continuing on with the idea of the dead “American Dream” take for example the following scenario: the 13,000 richest American families have a combined income that is greater then that of the 22 million families who are at the bottom of the pay scales. (WNA, 2006) Even more dramatically, the richest 1% of the U.S. population makes as much after taxes as the 100 million with the lowest incomes. Among industrial workers in America, it is often the case that company CEO's make as much as 475 times that which is paid to the workers who actually produce the products.” (WNA, 2006) In essence, these figures represent a horrible injustice that makes a mockery of the principles and ideals our country was founded upon. There is no fairness, in fact, the gap between the wealthy and the rest of society just keeps getting wider. As a practical example, we can look at the Bill Gates, the CEO of Microsoft Corporation; he is worth approximately 28 billion dollars. That could almost if not entirely be the wealth of an entire country! Imagine when Bill passes how much money his children will inherit. The majority of people will be lucky if they inherit anything from their family, much less billions of dollars. In fact, that is how a lot of families in early America received their wealth by inheritance of money of a business. Over time, the children build upon the empires started by earlier family members and then you have a select few in the population born with privilege. The privilege I am referring to is a business, which can lead to limitless wealth if in the right industry. There are few companies compared to the population, therefore, this fact leads the wealthy to recruit workers for their businesses.

           This gap between the wealthy and the poor can be demonstrated by looking at capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system built upon the notion of profit with little governmental influence or regulation. Under this system, the means for producing and distributing goods are owned by a small minority of people. (WSM, 2006) The small minority of people who own these services are called capitalists. The majority of people would be classified as the working class, who in return for compensation will “sell” the ability to work. (WSM, 2006) It could then be concluded that the working class are being exploited by the capitalists. The capitalists are living off the money made and services provided by the working class. With capitalism working in this manner how can the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” be bridged? The fact that capitalists can make decisions about how they conduct business without any regulation is a scary thought, as shown in the Enron case. Enron, a fortune 500 company squandered money from investors, stole money and placed it into their own accounts,  paid top dollar to their executives, created false sister companies for their debt, created power outages to generate money from owned electric companies, false accounting records, false stock market options and many more infractions. “The new American capitalism that Enron exemplifies has failed to produce the economic justice it promised.’ ‘Its natural tendency has been to produce oligopolies striving to become monopolies.’ ‘This has happened in airlines, media, and industrial sectors.’ ‘It has also produced a huge and morally indefensible transfer of wealth and power from the workers who directly produce wealth to the executives and the stockholders who supply the capital.” (Fairbrass, 2006) In the end, when Enron declared bankruptcy what did the employees get? Absolutely nothing! They lost their 401K, stock, their job etc. Who was there to protect the employees of Enron? No one! Unfortunately, government involvement is necessary to some extent, not to interfere with companies per say, but to protect the employees. In fact in 1929 under the Franklin Roosevelt administration, such governmental regulations where placed on companies. “Investment companies, banks and publicly traded corporations were subjected to new governmental regulations to protect people from not only the unscrupulous, but the incompetent.’ ‘Security firms had to abide by the new rules, banks had to buy protections from small depositors, and insurance companies had to meet minimum requirements to be certified, along with a host of other financial reforms that emanated from Roosevelt’s New Deal.” (Zweifel, 2006) Over the years capitalists have been working on weakening these reforms, which is the primary reason the Enron scandal even occurred. In essence, Enron exemplified the flaw in the capitalistic system with out governmental regulation.

           In response to the Enron situation, I had heard the name being thrown around every time I turned on the television. It wasn’t until the movie: The Smartest Guys in the Room that I finally paid attention to what was going on. I use to have a tendency to stay in my own little world and whatever was of interest to me I investigated. I now know the importance of thinking and investigating outside my little “bubble”. The tendency to think inherently good about people goes down the drain, as soon as money and power come into the equation; it is as if people lose their humanity along with their minds. I felt horrible for the employees that truly had no idea what was going on and lost their retirement funds and job. The thought of them having to start all over again broke my heart. In addition, it makes me angry to know that Lou Pi for example, could get away free and clear. Where is the justice? I don’t see it!

           The cause of poverty in America can be contributed to many factors, which would include a lack of our government’s involvement, lack of community concern, and major corporations getting way too greedy. For example, capitalism would not be so out of control, as seen in the Enron story, if the government was able to regulate and protect the employees from squanderers; as shown in 1929 under the Roosevelt administration. In addition, the government should raise the minimum wage amount, forcing companies to pay their employees more equivalent to what they are worth. Rather than making their employees work with little rewards and the CEO’s and corporations pocketing all the money. For example, insurance company CEO’s get paid astronomical amounts of money but what happens to the patient care? They get the bad end of the deal because things are all of a sudden things are “too expensive” even when that treatment offers the best and fastest results. The question here is who is being protected? Unfortunately, the answer is the CEO. This should not be the case we should be promoting the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In particular, John Rawls idea of original position which stated that you go to a place in your mind when you didn’t know who you were or what your potential was. Then create a system that is fair for everyone this was a fabulous idea, in that, it would force the economic playing fields to be on an even level across the board. However, the flaw with this is our country has not accepted the principle of total equality, so to implement such a radical change is not a feasible option. A better alternative would be the difference principle where not everyone is equal but the lower portions have more, which ultimately leads into capitalism. It seems as though there is no simple solution except that the government get involved to aid in the poverty problem and individual people and corporations giving back to the community. Perhaps the government can tax a corporation based on total sales as to how much they should give to the community. We know that if a CEO had the choice of giving away some small amount of money or keeping it for himself his choice would be to keep the money. I think our focus as a country should be like that of a wealthy individual who wants to give their good fortune to their children. We should as a country want to help the children out of poverty, by giving them America’s good fortune after all, the children will be tomorrow’s future. If America is to be the land of opportunity shouldn’t the children be able to partake in all that America has to offer?

Works Cited:

Fairbrass S. 2002. Enron and Global Capitalism: Just Business

http://www.jusbiz.org/showpage.php?pagename=shownewsstory&storyid=226 (July 19, 2006)

Shaw W. Business Ethics. 2005. Poverty in America, CanadaWadson-Thompson Learning Inc.; 107-108 p.

WNA, 2006. Wealth in America & Poverty and Crime: Why Not America

http://www.whynotinamerica.com/main.asp?wna=Wealth+in+America

http://www.whynotinamerica.com/main.asp?wna=our+Mission (July 23, 2006)

WSM. 2002. What is Capitalism? : World Socialist Movement

http://www.worldsocialism.org/introduction/whatcap.html ( July 23, 2006)

Zweifel D. 2002. Enron Proves Capitalism Needs Regulation : Common Dreams News Center

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0216-06.htm (July 19, 2006)