Elzonire

Christian, Eagle Scout, ZNG member, linguaphile, Nintendo fan, and a highly outdoorsy dude.

[Elzonire @Elzonire2]

Job 1:21 The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Maximus Minimus
05/08/05 - 11/13/20

[Alexander Duncan @AlexDuncanTX]

@SalmanBhojaniTX No, we do not want Islam in Texas, and Islam is not a religion, it's a totalitarian political ideology.

[𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚖𝚊𝚗 @shagbark_hick]

One of the things I like the most is the contrast between a flat gray windblown subzero world and a cozy warm house. Pecks on the cheek, steaming teapot, dinner all warm and cheesy in the oven.

Just like building a perfect bubble of joy on the surface of a lifeless gray planet.

And if it weren't for the glow of the furnace or the stove, you'd be dead, frankly. So it makes the love that sets the home aglow all the more special; it makes you feel like you're sneaking something by Old Man Winter, like you're getting away with some wild caper or gamble with death.

If you have ever wondered why there are "winter people," I think this is why. Some of us are just addicted to that feeling. Add in long days on the snowmobile, or maple syrup on breakfast ham, or beers out on the ice as your uncle catches a steelhead on the frozen lake, and you'd be in love with it too.

I'm glad it's summer -- we've earned it -- but boy am I glad to know that in just five days, we're headed back down the slope to the subzero temps and blowing blizzards. I miss them already.

[Fight4DemocracyNow @ElkeHollings]

@LolaPatolla
My sweet boys turned 10 today! As you can see they are hard at work! 🤭

[Nuclear Pastor @PastorKuyaDaddy]

As predicted, the ideological left’s anti-racist and anti-misogynist crusades have done one thing: produce racists and misogynists.

And that’s the thing that these self-proclaimed ‘Christian nationalists’ and the woke right fail to understand.

They aren’t the solution to leftist ideology. They’re a feature.

[Joshua D Phillips @JoshPhillipsPhD]

This is basically how I feel about 15-minute cities. I love the idea. Everything is walkable. Can walk to work, stores, doctor’s office. Awesome

But I don’t trust the motives (or long term plans) of those people who are pushing for it.

[Elzonire @Elzonire2]

@kennymartinlive Dang. What did you weigh here?

[Elzonire @Elzonire2]

@StrengthDebates Huge arms!!

[𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚖𝚊𝚗 @shagbark_hick]

Americans cannot tolerate the idea of voluntarily earning less money under any circumstances whatsoever.

Even if making such a choice would be righteous -- as with taking a paycut to move back to your hometown in "Dollar General America" -- they condemn it.

Even when Jesus repeatedly preaches about the dangers of money, most Americans recapitulate these teachings such that they come to believe "He didn't mean that I shouldn't go out and earn big bucks". If you even suggest that *maybe* He did mean we shouldn't chase the big bucks, they become exceedingly angry.

This seems like a major flaw in American culture. There are simply times where one has to, for righteous reasons, spiritual reasons, political reasons, or whatever -- take the pay cut and accept contentment with less.

Once you remove that ability with immense social pressure, endless commercialism and materialism, and an aggressively status-obsessed culture -- you weaken a people considerably, because they can only go where the market allows, and can only do things that allow them to accumulate money.

[Bella, Mags , Brie and 🌈Bentley 🐞🐞 @ddoggiesmommy]

This is why I love beagles…was playing with Brie and Mags. While recording, caught this move by Brie and just started laughing so hard. Beagles are just joy personified

[ZUBY: @ZubyMusic]

Having a son is so freaking cool. The number of laughs per minute is very high.

[Bella, Mags , Brie and 🌈Bentley 🐞🐞 @ddoggiesmommy]

MOOOOOOM! Where is that crazy Brie?! #beagle

[Scott Forsyth @Coach_Forsyth]

Today marks the beginning of Peak Week for my bodybuilding competition on Saturday. From 263 lbs b/w on January 5th to 216 lbs today.

I took a ride on the bench for a one rep of 500 pounds followed by 315x19 just because I could. Crazy how much strength I've maintained through the cut.

@StrengthDebates @bryk_squuaadd @MashElite

[Bella, Mags , Brie and 🌈Bentley 🐞🐞 @ddoggiesmommy]

Brian just asked who changed the new WiFi network to Beagle Circus! Cannot
imagine who would come up with that most appropriate name🤷‍♀️

[Anya @ZxckFair_]

good morning, I love spider aerith.

[Aaron Chapple @big_daddy_chap]

I used to think believing in God meant you weren't that bright.

I'll own that. I looked at faith as a shortcut — a simple answer for people who hadn't thought hard enough about a complex universe. That was my arrogance talking.

But here's what actually happens when you go deep enough:

The deeper you push into physics, cosmology, and philosophy, the harder it becomes to dismiss God. Not easier. The science doesn't close the door on God. It opens it wider.

The Universe Demands a Cause

The Kalam Cosmological Argument follows a simple but devastating logic:

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause
2. The universe began to exist (confirmed by Big Bang cosmology)
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause

That cause cannot be physical, because it existed before physics. It has to be timeless, uncaused, and immensely powerful. That's not a gap in knowledge. That's a logical conclusion from the evidence.

Physics Points to a Designer

Then there's fine-tuning. The fundamental constants of the universe, gravity, the strong nuclear force, the cosmological constant, are calibrated to a precision that staggers physicists. Alter any of them by the smallest fraction and there are no atoms, no stars, no life.

Out of an incomprehensible range of possible values, they landed exactly where they needed to be.

The three possible explanations are necessity, chance, or design. The more you study the numbers, the less satisfying the first two become.

Scripture Saw This First

Paul wrote in Romans 1:20 that God's "eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." That wasn't poetic language. It was an epistemological claim. Creation itself is evidence.

Proverbs 1:7 anchors it: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Not the end of inquiry. The foundation of it.

Real wisdom doesn't stop at the edge of what science can measure. It asks the deeper question: why is there something rather than nothing?

Reasoned Faith Is the Hard Road

C.S. Lewis made the same journey, from confident atheism to Christian faith driven by reason. He called the conflict between science and faith a misunderstanding of both. Science answers how. Faith answers why. They're not rivals. They're different instruments measuring different dimensions of the same reality.

Blind faith that ignores evidence is weak. But a reasoned faith, built on cosmology, philosophy, logic, and Scripture, is actually harder to arrive at and harder to knock down. It costs more intellectually, because you had to demolish your own assumptions to get there.

That's not a small thing. That's the work.

[Elzonire @Elzonire2]

@JoshPhillipsPhD @artofmanliness That's awesome. 💪

[Joshua D Phillips @JoshPhillipsPhD]

@Elzonire2 @artofmanliness I’ve always just been good at benchpress. I don’t know why. I have to assume it’s partially genetics 🤷‍♂️

[Elzonire @Elzonire2]

@JoshPhillipsPhD @artofmanliness You pressed over double your weight? Dang. I expected you to be at least 240. Though 210 is still definitely a big man.

[Elzonire @Elzonire2]

@JoshPhillipsPhD @artofmanliness Dude I still can't believe you can bench 480. That's massive. What do you weigh man?

[🌈Angels Eddie & Ella, Winnie, Johnny, Ziggy & Axl @and_beagles]

Together in heaven 🌈♥️🐾🕊️.
Eddie never loved another dog more than he loved Ella. Forever loved my darling duo ♥️♥️♥️🐾🐾🕊️