Monday, October 13, 2008
How to get a receipt
Find out how to "Request Read Receipt" in your mail client. When I receive the email, it will request that I send back a receipt. You won't know immediately if I got it, but you'll know as soon as I've read it. I think that's as good as we are going to be able to do for now. My vacation responder thing still isn't working out for me.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Relevant Science Articles
Christian Idiots
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=240446
Big Bang Machine
http://news.aol.com/article/10-billion-science-project-to-launch/167810
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=240446
Big Bang Machine
http://news.aol.com/article/10-billion-science-project-to-launch/167810
Hugh Ross
So...what do you think? Does Hugh Ross have to be right? Does Hugh Ross have to be wrong? It's not good enough to say, "We don't know" and leave it at that. Truth exists and it can be pursued. WHY does Hugh Ross have to be right? WHY does Hugh Ross have to be wrong? Don't just speak from your heart - your heart doesn't know much, but it may be useful in emphasizing a valid point about something you DO know.
For the concrete thinkers: Compare and contrast Ross's views with McDougal's views and with Martin Luther's views, and give the advantages to each. This will require a little bit of research on your own to insure you can properly represent each. Unless you're giving a direct quote from each, you may be out on your own and only THINK that they believe what you've said they do. Educate yourself to the point that you can speak with authority and confidence without fear. This assignment will be due Tuesday by 11:59:59pm. For those of you who have had the patience to read to this point, prove it by including two exclamation points and one question mark in your writing without giving away that that is somehow important.
Love ya. Good luck.
For the concrete thinkers: Compare and contrast Ross's views with McDougal's views and with Martin Luther's views, and give the advantages to each. This will require a little bit of research on your own to insure you can properly represent each. Unless you're giving a direct quote from each, you may be out on your own and only THINK that they believe what you've said they do. Educate yourself to the point that you can speak with authority and confidence without fear. This assignment will be due Tuesday by 11:59:59pm. For those of you who have had the patience to read to this point, prove it by including two exclamation points and one question mark in your writing without giving away that that is somehow important.
Love ya. Good luck.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
9/10 Science assignment
Okay. This one's easy. All you gotta do is look at the diagram on page 92 and tell all you can about that element. Don't use tricky terms like "atomic number" or "mass". Tell everyone what's actually going on with that element. Click to leave a comment on this blog and tell me everything you know about the element you chose based on the numbers on the periodic table. Make the first word of you comment the name of the element. If you need help, call someone. Good luck.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Animal Suffering Part 1
There is a problem with animal suffering: we can understand that humans suffer because they invited it in. In a really short version that doesn’t do the topic justice, humans could have had perfection, but decided against it, trying to pursue our own elevation to God-likeness – (a hobby from which we never recovered). For that reason along with others, we can start to understand why human suffering takes place. However, animals never chose to leave God and follow Satan; at least not that we know about. They also cannot improve themselves from suffering like humans can learn lessons and become more like Christ. So why must the animals suffer? Aren’t they innocent and we are right to feel sorry for them?
I must interrupt my own thoughts here to say that we know very little about animals. God has told us about ourselves – humans, and even that much information is an overload to us. We can hardly hold the realization of ourselves in our hands without the pieces tumbling out and crashing on the ground. Let me show you this in the drama of my own life:
"I see I should have my devotions, so I do. Almost the minute I do, I realize I should be spending more time volunteering in my community. So I do. I also realize my need to be more kind to my enemies. I work hard at, and even though it takes real work, I sometimes succeed, but only to notice out the corner of my soul’s eye that I have now neglected my Bible reading again just as before! How can I do all that I am supposed to do? It’s not possible! What? Tithe? Pray more? Be more organized? Exercise more often? Spend time with my family? Volunteer at my church? Cannot do! I shake my finger at God and tell Him it’s His fault I didn’t read the Bible and that He’s overly demanding. Ironically, this is when I realize I haven’t worked nearly enough on my pride. Okay, I’ll work on my pride, but what about everything else? I truly can’t win. I truly can’t succeed. It is then that I am reminded that God doesn’t expect me to do it on my own and that He wants me to depend on Him. Okay, God – what do you want me to do right now? You’re in charge. What’s that? You say I should read the Bible more? Okay…I’ll try…" and it all starts over.
If we have that much trouble with juggling our own responsibility and position before God, it’s no wonder that He would find it completely unnecessary and unprofitable to tell us anything about His relationship with animals! I don’t see anywhere in scripture (though I wouldn’t be surprised to have to stand corrected) that would prevent God and animals from having intimate relationships and communication of which we have never heard anything about. But I digress…
This lack of information forces us to use the only knowledge we have on suffering – our own. And now, to assume that animal suffering and our suffering is the same is probably ridiculous. We say that plants prey on others, or that certain animals are more ruthless than others. The truth is that the things of this life have very little to do with right and wrong. It is only in choosing to not give God His rightful place that moral breeches are made. All other aspects of life are irrelevant to “goodness” or “evilness”. Since plants and animals do not make such choices, none of their choices is in anyway related to “badness” or “ruthlessness” or “heartlessness”. Actually I take that last one back. That is precisely what they are: heartless. That is a terrible thing for a human because the heart contains nobility and the very value of man, but heartlessness is a very freeing reality for plants and animals. They are incapable of sin because they are, indeed, perfectly heartless (again, as far as I can see). This only once again brings us back to the original problem: isn’t it unfair that animals suffer if they can’t choose to be evil? And this context is the foundation for Lewis’s claims about animal suffering.
I must interrupt my own thoughts here to say that we know very little about animals. God has told us about ourselves – humans, and even that much information is an overload to us. We can hardly hold the realization of ourselves in our hands without the pieces tumbling out and crashing on the ground. Let me show you this in the drama of my own life:
"I see I should have my devotions, so I do. Almost the minute I do, I realize I should be spending more time volunteering in my community. So I do. I also realize my need to be more kind to my enemies. I work hard at, and even though it takes real work, I sometimes succeed, but only to notice out the corner of my soul’s eye that I have now neglected my Bible reading again just as before! How can I do all that I am supposed to do? It’s not possible! What? Tithe? Pray more? Be more organized? Exercise more often? Spend time with my family? Volunteer at my church? Cannot do! I shake my finger at God and tell Him it’s His fault I didn’t read the Bible and that He’s overly demanding. Ironically, this is when I realize I haven’t worked nearly enough on my pride. Okay, I’ll work on my pride, but what about everything else? I truly can’t win. I truly can’t succeed. It is then that I am reminded that God doesn’t expect me to do it on my own and that He wants me to depend on Him. Okay, God – what do you want me to do right now? You’re in charge. What’s that? You say I should read the Bible more? Okay…I’ll try…" and it all starts over.
If we have that much trouble with juggling our own responsibility and position before God, it’s no wonder that He would find it completely unnecessary and unprofitable to tell us anything about His relationship with animals! I don’t see anywhere in scripture (though I wouldn’t be surprised to have to stand corrected) that would prevent God and animals from having intimate relationships and communication of which we have never heard anything about. But I digress…
This lack of information forces us to use the only knowledge we have on suffering – our own. And now, to assume that animal suffering and our suffering is the same is probably ridiculous. We say that plants prey on others, or that certain animals are more ruthless than others. The truth is that the things of this life have very little to do with right and wrong. It is only in choosing to not give God His rightful place that moral breeches are made. All other aspects of life are irrelevant to “goodness” or “evilness”. Since plants and animals do not make such choices, none of their choices is in anyway related to “badness” or “ruthlessness” or “heartlessness”. Actually I take that last one back. That is precisely what they are: heartless. That is a terrible thing for a human because the heart contains nobility and the very value of man, but heartlessness is a very freeing reality for plants and animals. They are incapable of sin because they are, indeed, perfectly heartless (again, as far as I can see). This only once again brings us back to the original problem: isn’t it unfair that animals suffer if they can’t choose to be evil? And this context is the foundation for Lewis’s claims about animal suffering.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Monday, November 5, 2007
Acts 17
So now Paul is on his way. If you didn't catch what happened, read chapter 16. If your brain is half way on while you read, I think you'll find it pretty cool. But anyway, Paul is on his way. He comes to a new city and goes into the temple. Remember now, this is Paul...this is Saul, formerly. He was the police of the Christians...he made sure there weren't any. Everyone knew who he was. It would be, in many ways, similar to Osama Bin Laden hanging out at the capitol building. And what was Paul doing? Debating with the Jews about the validity of Jesus as the Son of God! So Osama is not only at the capitol building, but while he's there he's trying to pass bills to prevent terrorism! Paul is doing the exact opposite of what everyone was afraid of him for. First he kills off Christians, now he persuades them!
Now interestingly, the Bible gives us a poll of those who decided to follow Christ:
*Uneducated outcasts: Multitude
*Educated Jews: some
*Leading women: not just a few (woot! woot! for the ladies, representin' in scriptures!)
Hmmm...someone else had similar numbers as His following...now who was that??? That's right! It was Jesus. As it turns out, the people who are most confident in themselves tend to be the ones who don't feel comfortable giving control to "God." They would rather just do without. It's the people who feel like they don't have control who are more willing to give everything they have to a God who loves them. Case in point: the aftermath of 9/11! People feel completely unsafe and unsure and *PRESTO!* the church pews are full.
Another, more general example: take a magnet and some paper clips to a tribe of uncivilized people and they will think you're a God (okay, it's an exaggeration, but follow...). Take the same objects to a high school and they will explain how magnetic forces work and why it's NOT God. I'm gonna have to side with the tribe on this one. It is God who makes magnetic work. When He wants them to, they don't work. We would call that a miracle, but I think it's a miracle that He indeed keeps them working in a predictable fashion and still has time to oversee all the other "Laws of Nature" and answer my prayers. Yes, magnets are a miracle, just like gravity, just like light, and just like Paul and Silas being freed. Study them and learn how to calculate them, so you can use these miracles to invent new things and make your heavenly daddy proud, but never cease to be amazed at the faithful miracles of God.
One last lesson, from which I have strayed: don't worry about being able to debate about God. Paul was perhaps the greatest religious debater ever. He spent three weeks with educated theologians (Acts 17:2) and very few of them decided for Christ. However, he showed love for a jailer in Act 16, and he and his whole family were won to Christ on the spot - no debating, no arguing. You've been called, time and time again, to love others. Nowhere does Jesus call for you to debate with non-Christians.
Now interestingly, the Bible gives us a poll of those who decided to follow Christ:
*Uneducated outcasts: Multitude
*Educated Jews: some
*Leading women: not just a few (woot! woot! for the ladies, representin' in scriptures!)
Hmmm...someone else had similar numbers as His following...now who was that??? That's right! It was Jesus. As it turns out, the people who are most confident in themselves tend to be the ones who don't feel comfortable giving control to "God." They would rather just do without. It's the people who feel like they don't have control who are more willing to give everything they have to a God who loves them. Case in point: the aftermath of 9/11! People feel completely unsafe and unsure and *PRESTO!* the church pews are full.
Another, more general example: take a magnet and some paper clips to a tribe of uncivilized people and they will think you're a God (okay, it's an exaggeration, but follow...). Take the same objects to a high school and they will explain how magnetic forces work and why it's NOT God. I'm gonna have to side with the tribe on this one. It is God who makes magnetic work. When He wants them to, they don't work. We would call that a miracle, but I think it's a miracle that He indeed keeps them working in a predictable fashion and still has time to oversee all the other "Laws of Nature" and answer my prayers. Yes, magnets are a miracle, just like gravity, just like light, and just like Paul and Silas being freed. Study them and learn how to calculate them, so you can use these miracles to invent new things and make your heavenly daddy proud, but never cease to be amazed at the faithful miracles of God.
One last lesson, from which I have strayed: don't worry about being able to debate about God. Paul was perhaps the greatest religious debater ever. He spent three weeks with educated theologians (Acts 17:2) and very few of them decided for Christ. However, he showed love for a jailer in Act 16, and he and his whole family were won to Christ on the spot - no debating, no arguing. You've been called, time and time again, to love others. Nowhere does Jesus call for you to debate with non-Christians.
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