One of my favorite recreational activities is hiking along a forest trail on a cool, sunny morning. The peacefulness of the forest, the crisp feel of the air, the beauty of nature all around—it all combines in my mind and spirit to form a sense of connectedness to God and His creation. Just wonderful! Here I am hiking up 4-Mile Trail at Yosemite National Park in June 2017. What a great morning—cool mountain air, lots of sunshine, and a magnificent view of Half Dome greeting m

I went to my doctor's office the other day for a routine checkup. They're very modern there. They ask you to fill out your patient information using an electronic device with a stylus rather than old-fashioned paper forms. Nifty. Of course, there's that section where they ask you to report your patient history. "Please indicate whether you or an immediate family member has been treated for:" and then a long list of medical conditions, right? So I was completing that section:

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." Stephen Covey I know logically there should only be one Main Thing, but in Stephen Covey's delightfully whimsical quote above, there are at least two, and maybe three main things. That's because really: Main Thing(s) = Thing(s) We Value Everybody has values. And for every individual, determining what values to incorporate into his or her value system is an act of absolute free will. We all get to choose what we value.

Why can't we figure out what is real? Why does the true nature of reality elude us? Are we overlooking something that's right there in front of us? Yes, we're overlooking something. We have a blind spot. The blind spot is caused by a sin-stained brain. We can't make out what's right there in front of us because our view of much of reality is obscured by our sin. The sin stain doesn't just obscure our view, it also acts like hallucination-inducing poison. Everything in reality

Can we talk for a moment about this predicament in which we find ourselves? I mean, come on guys, haven't you noticed? Do you ever consider how everybody ends up dying? Every day our last day here in this realm draws one day nearer. Look around carefully. Do you see anybody getting out of here a different way? Okay, sure, abducted by aliens. Given. And then there's uploading our total consciousnesses to the Internet, so we can download them periodically to ever-more-sophistic

I recently watched the Academy Award-winning animated movie Coco. Spoiler alert: It's good! (Editor's note: Will's a little confused on what actually constitutes a "spoiler." I think he just really wanted to use the phrase "spoiler alert.") So I don't want to ruin the movie for you too much, but some of the scenes take place in the Land of the Dead. (Parents, it's actually a very cute and cuddly Pixar/Disney-style Land of the Dead, so it's not really scary, even for youngster

Do you ever consider what you will experience after you die? I suppose some people are resigned to the idea they won't have any experiences after they die. Maybe they don't really believe in an afterlife. Making a choice not to believe in an afterlife is still an act of faith, though—because they don't really know. Here's what I believe: If I die a physical death, my body will be dead, but my soul and my spirit will not die—and my soul and spirit will be conscious. I'll know

It was French philosopher and Renaissance man René Descartes who famously said "Je pense, donc je suis," better known as "Cogito, ergo sum," and best known by English speakers as "I think, therefore I am." What Descartes had reasoned out was that by the very act of thinking, he was participating in some version of some reality somewhere. Furthermore, Descartes realized his thinking was part of whatever reality he was participating in. That is, there existed at least one reali

Writer's block is the condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing. What can one do when writer's block strikes? Well, one must strike back, as best as one can! The results are sometimes phlegmatic, but rarely obsequious. The other day the pilot light on the water heater went out, so I found myself up in the attic seeking to rekindle it. While I was up there, thinking about unusual words like phlegmatic, obsequious, and rekindle, I looked

I need to be an astronaut. If that's not possible, I need to be a surgeon. And if that's not possible, I need to be wealthy. Will Malpass, Age 14 Have you heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? Psychologist Abraham Maslow devised the hierarchy, usually pictured as a pyramid, in a 1943 article entitled “A Theory of Human Motivation.” This needy pyramid shows life-sustaining necessities like food, water, and shelter at its base. The next level of needs is things like personal sa

Imaginary subscriber to this blog, THE MAIN THING: "Will, I believe in God and I'm basically a good person. Of course I make mistakes, but who doesn't? My good deeds definitely outnumber my bad deeds. For this reason alone, I should certainly be on my way to heaven when I die. Sincerely, Boris Slagman, Eugene, Oregon" My reply: Boris, you seem like a very nice person. Good job on the whole believing in God thing. That's pretty great, in my opinion. And I think it's super dupe

Okay, okay, settle down now. Yes it's me, Will Malpass, renowned creator of THE MAIN THING, the blog that searches for reality's deeper truths in a mostly-lighthearted-but-occasionally-serious way. Please calm down though, okay? Look, I understand I have my own website. Sure, that's impressive—I get it. But I'm just a regular guy, really. For example, I live in an ordinary house in a characteristic suburban neighborhood. And if I were to invite you over to old "Malpass Manor"

Here at this blog, THE MAIN THING, we're doing our best to stay open-minded to different ideas about reality. I think to some people open-mindedness means rejecting outright anything traditional in favor of the new, the modern, the "trending now." But for me, true open-mindedness means investigating all the ideas, even those that have fallen out of favor with the "popular kids." For example, some people don't have a very high opinion of the Bible. Perhaps they feel the ideas

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit... Ephesians 1:13 Even if you sincerely believe you're a Christian, you might sometimes find yourself asking "Am I saved?" In my opinion, it's a completely reasonable question—I've asked it myself numerous times. Over the years in fact, I've developed a short checklist that helps me keep straigh

What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. Romans 3:1-2 I've said it before: the Bible is quite mysterious, really. Consider: It took 1500 years to write. Its central message is profound enough to challenge the most learned scholars, yet simple enough to share with a third-grader. For most people, when they first start studying the Bible they'r

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. Genesis 5:3-5 It makes sense to me that Adam could live to be 930 years old. After all, he was fashioned directly by God. Same thing for Eve. Genesis doesn't say specifically, but it seems likely Eve was also around for centuries, givi

The scientific theorist is not to be envied. For Nature, or more precisely experiment, is an inexorable and not very friendly judge of his work. It never says "Yes" to a theory. In the most favorable cases it says "Maybe," and in the great majority of cases simply "No." If an experiment agrees with a theory it means for the latter "Maybe," and if it does not agree it means "No." Probably every theory will some day experience its "No"—most theories, soon after conception. Albe

One of the primary goals of this blog, THE MAIN THING, is to show how reasonable it is to believe wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ is the Rescuer of all mankind. Presenting reasoned arguments in defense of this central tenet of Christianity is sometimes called apologetics. The word comes from the Greek word apologia. According to Bible.org: In ancient Athens it referred to a defense made in the courtroom as part of the normal judicial procedure. After the accusation, the defe

Hello. Will Malpass here. Today I'm pretending to be fabulously wealthy. As such, I simply must share a perfectly amusing anecdote with you. The other day I was driving around my vast estate in my luxurious German automobile looking for one of the many servants' cottages that dot the countryside I call "Home Sweet Home." Now I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but every now and again when I get out of sight of Malpass Manor itself, I sometimes lose my way. (In my defense, o

He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Okay, that quote's misleading. Why did legendary author F. Scott Fitzgerald write such a thing? Jay Gatsby didn't literally glow. He wasn't incandescent, nor fluorescent, nor even luminescent. Was he even merely effervescent? Or was he simply just plain happy? I know. I know. It's a figure of speech. And who am I t