Thursday, November 29, 2007

Who Should Have Grace?

A good quote by Jeff Noblit at the Building Bridges conference in Ridgecrest, NC:

"Those of us who hold to the doctrines of grace* should have some."

A hearty "Amen" from this 5-pointer.

* "doctrines of grace" refers to Reformed theology or Calvinism in particular.

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The Arminian Flower

Here's some humor from David Dockery, President of Union University, at the Building Bridges conference this week:

"If TULIP is the flower of the Calvinists, the Arminian flower is the daisy: 'He loves me, He loves me not, He loves me, He loves me not."

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I’ve Just Discovered Bela Fleck

I love fusion. Fusion is jazz after the style of some other music or instrument. In the early days of jazz, the banjo was a key instrument, but lost its standing among the trios or jazz orchestras and was relegated only to bluegrass and some of the dives that specialized in old-fashioned Dixieland music. Dixie Dregs, led by guitarist Steve Morse, came along and made country fusion popular, but their key solo instrument was anything but the banjo.

Now we have Bela Fleck who brings the banjo full circle with bluegrass fusion. He has been credited with redefining the instrument. I found so many clips I can’t possibly share them all, so I’ll include this one as a sample. This is grown up jazz, boys and girls

Hear more here.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Glory of God Is Under Debate

Ben Witherington has sparked a debate with a reaction to Thomas Schreiner’s New Testament Theology. Timmy Brister is “keeping score” with his list of links to the primary contributors to the debate.

Here’s the quick summary: Thomas Schreiner stated in his book that the most basic theme of the New Testament is, “God magnifying himself through Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit." Ben Witherington responded by saying that this implies that “God worships himself”. He argues that man was created in the image of God to be “other-directed” and that the fall made us to be “narcissistic” implying that for God to seek His own glory would be likewise narcissistic. He also claims that the notion that God seeks His own glory is an attempt to “recreate God in our own self-centered image.” The argument has underpinnings in the Reformed/Libertarian Free-Will debate.

There have been many bits spilled already over this and I could hardly add to the discussion. However, I find that Ben Witherington’s contentions first indicate a misunderstanding of God’s purpose in creation and second incorrectly equate God’s nature with our own.

If God is the Creator of all there is, then this creation fully exists according to His purposes and intentions. What does it mean that God is “glorified”? Is He to be glorified only to Himself? To be fair, the statement in Schreiner’s book is a reference to the true revelation of God in the New Testament. Does Witherington claim that the New Testament does something other than reveal God to us? Does it reveal God to be anything other than glorious? At this, if God created all that is, including the human race, would He have created us for any reason that didn’t glorify Himself? If so, then we would have to say that God is the author of sin. If God created sin, or at least the possibility of sin, then how could we not say that in some way God intended to use sin, or the possibility of sin, to His glory? Can we separate His glory from His purposes?

If God is the Creator and he created us with a will of our own, whether or not we agree that our will has any autonomy aside from God’s creation, then God’s purposes are bifurcated from our own. If God is the Creator and we are not, then His purposes are not equivalent in any esteemed value to ours. We may have an account in the bank, but God created the bank as well as the mint. He also serves as the foundation for the value of our deposit. The glory and purpose God gives us cannot in any way be compared to the glory and purpose of God. This goes beyond a mere category error. It is not merely a difference of degree. God’s glory, purpose and will are absolute. Ours are temporal and contingent on His. There is no comparison.

Read through Timmy’s list that I’ve linked to above and keep these things in mind.

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Monday, November 26, 2007

Pumpkin Chunkin'

Earlier, I had mentioned my cousins who have built a punkin' chunkin' catapult for competition. I finally got a video together from the footage I shot at the Iredell County Pumpkin Festival last month:



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Family Photos 2007

My side of our extended family just got together for photos. it's been five years since we've had these taken and it's remarkable to see how everyone grows and changes. This is the whole family:






1. Luke - the oldest son of Lois and I
2. Lois - my wife
3. Morgan - the daughter of my step-brother Mike and his wife Lisa
4. Yours truly
5. Mike - my step-brother
6. Lisa - Mike's wife
7. Mark - my brother
8. Carrie - Mark's wife
9. Hope - the daughter of Lois and I
10. Paul - the youngest son of Lois and I
11. Martin - my dad
12. Ruth - the oldest daughter of Mark and Carrie
13. Diane - my step-mom
14. Anna - the youngest daughter of Mark and Carrie
15. Landon - the son of Mike and Lisa



Grandparents and grandkids. (What is Hope looking at?)


Dad and Diane and their three muchachos.


Lois and I and our three kids.

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Friday, November 23, 2007

Star Trek and the Veracity of the Bible

I'm a Trekkie. For the most part I have enjoyed the character development, pseudo-scientific context and problem-solving, and situational continuity in the series. That said, Star Trek has hardly been written from a Christian worldview. The storylines influenced by Gene Roddenberry were typically innocuous. Despite storylines that have involved Nazis, historic American freedom, native American religious practices, etc., there was enough divergence from modern religious and political maneuvering and argumentation to be relatively innocuous. Since Roddenberry's death, this pattern has slipped somewhat. Perhaps the discipline is lost on most writers. (I wonder if these are the writers now on strike.)

Today is the SciFi channel's Enterprise marathon. I've watched a few of them between the initial run and the re-runs on SciFi, but I haven't gotten into the series like I have some of the others. The series doesn't appeal to me because of the overt propaganda the writers have embedded in the action. The most obvious is the political similarities between the wise and lovable Doctor Flox and the platform of one of our political parties. He often discloses things about his people that resemble current political ambitions or anti-moralistic sentiments that are otherwise flawed. For example, he addresses the issue of marital commitment as thought the concept was immature. It is more “enlightened” to have multiple sexual partners. The manner in which he shares this information parallels arguments currently made in the U.S. public arena. However, the flaws in the arguments are not discussed except to be mis-portrayed as straw men. On top of this, the ostensible “maturity” of Flox's race is presented as a group that we should emulate. Flox is only one example.

I just watched a double-episode where Dr. Noonian Soong, the creator of Data and his brother Lore, had followed in the footsteps of the genetic engineers that created Kahn (discovered in the original series). At this point in time, he had created some “children” of his own. They were fighting over the fate of some genetically engineered embryos. Sound familiar?

Right now, I'm in part two of another two-parter that involves the framing of the leader of a Vulcan religious sect. The difference between the sect and the religious system upon which the rest of Vulcan society and culture are founded is a dispute over the accuracy of the copies of the writings that the founder left behind. Implicit in the storyline is a common textual criticism of the Bible, that we cannot be certain that the copies we have of the Bible are accurate. The further implied conclusion is that we cannot be certain of the veracity of what we have.

Many of the refutations of these arguments I read are adequate, but not very refined. To be sure, the Bible reveals the truth about ourselves. Inasmuch as we admit to this truth, we realize the intrinsic veracity of the scriptures. This is the rub for those who do not wish to accept the truth.

The question remains, however, whether we can know the scriptures are given by our Creator. I've gone into this before, but the question remains. It is a matter of philosophical reason. It is one thing to reason that if I have one apple and obtain another, I now have two. It's altogether...well...the same thing - to realize that there is a unified eternal first cause. The only difference is in degree. One can incorrectly reason that 1+1=3. It's less likely because the intelligence required to arrive at the correct answer is considerably low. The intelligence required to wade through the derivation of the attributes of the first cause to where one can logically conclude that the Christian scriptures are accurate is considerably high. Add to that the motivation of many to distort the rationale and it becomes sociologically burdensome to agree on it. This, by the way, is the source of the disagreement over the precise meaning of the scriptures even among those of us who agree that they are accurate.

As it is, Captain Archer has brought to the Vulcans the original writings of the founder of Vulcan society as well as his “katra” - his mind (just like Dr. McCoy did with Spock's katra in the movies). Well, we don't necessarily need the original manuscripts of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures to determine their accuracy – or veracity. It was nice for the fictional Vulcans, but the truth is that if our Creator bothered to leave word for us of the Truth, we would expect that He would preserve the veracity of that word.

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Monday, November 19, 2007

The Greatest Thing I Don't Know

"Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies." I Cor. 8:1

There are those who generate knowledge and those who use knowledge. Ultimately, all knowledge is created by God. Some knowledge is discovered like the laws of physics. The laws of physics as they are discovered are described using contrived means of mathematics and language. This is generated knowledge. Art can be said to be created. However, art is created with minds and lives influenced by no means outside of God’s created order. Inasmuch as art communicates anything, it must rely on some common frame of reference. So, all knowledge comes from God and is discovered and generated by people.

What good is knowledge? People claim great knowledge for the purpose of appearing worthy of praise and honor. If a truth is discovered, what purpose does it serve just to know it? This question has been asked by students for generations. A well-rounded education, we may say, is necessary to help us to apprehend and apply useful information. Without the practice of having learned information and having learning how to apply the information, even if we will never use the information later in life, it provides a foundation and framework for understanding the world around us within which we can use to correctly identify, place and utilize new information.

Aside from this, knowledge is useless unless used. What should we do with one who seeks to share knowledge? What good is the work of a physicist unless an engineer applies the knowledge he generates? What good is the work of a composer of music without musicians to perform his music? What good is the study and theorization of theologians and philosophers without ministers and politicians to apply it to the lives of people for good or for ill? What good is the work of an author without a publisher to distribute his words to those who will read it and be edified? What good is a teacher without students? What good is a cartographer without people who don’t want to get lost? What good is it when the King of Glory comes with knowledge of the Father and we do not recognize Him? "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Mat. 25:40

We must worship God in spirit and in truth. What good is the knowledge of the truth of God without worshippers? What good is love without the least of these?

If a physicist theorizes and has no engineer;
If an economist reports trends and has no businessman;
If a composer composes and has no musicians;
If musicians perform and have no audience;
If a philosopher speculates and has no politicians;
If a scholar compiles information and has no teacher;
If a teacher teaches and has no students;
If a theologian struggles with God and has no ministry;
If worshippers do not worship the true God…

…then what's the use?

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Fall Pictures

As dry as it's been, the leaves have really been pretty. The other morning it rained (yay!). When I walked out, it had stopped, but the rain had scattered some of the leaves and the morning sunlight filtered through the clouds had created some nice hues. I snapped a few photos from my phone before heading to work, so the pictures aren't great quality, but it should give you an idea of the autumn here in Statesville, NC.









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Friday, November 16, 2007

Humorous Christian Choir Pronunciation

Anyone who has sung in a choir for Christmas has been admonished to sing Hallelujah as such: "Hah - leh - loo - yah" rather than "Haw - lay - lew - yuh". But having sung in church choirs much of my adult life, I have built several humorous mis-pronunciations. Here are a few off the top of my head:


"Praise we the Lore..."
or "Lore, have mercy." (This would be Data's brother from Star Trek TNG - don't forget the final "d")

"God of gray sand, God of glory" (Well, He did make all the sand, even the gray colored sand.)

From O Holy night: "O knight, de-vine" (It's the only way to save the tree.)

Lead On, Oh Kinky Turtle (Not really a pronunciation issue, but listen to this choral sound-alike next time you sing this one in church - you won't hear this one the same ever again - I've warped your ear for life.)

The Lord's Prayer: "...lead a snot into temptation..." (This one is hard not to sing. Almost unavoidable.)

"Amazing grey sow, sweet the sound" (Oink? This is another unavoidable sound-alike.)


If any of you are choir members and have similar ones you've noticed, feel free to share.

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Thursday, November 15, 2007

A "Beautiful" Movie: Bella

I haven't seen this movie yet. It has won the coveted People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Rebecca Hagelin made the comment in her article that "Usually, when The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Detroit News trash a moral movie, it’s code that you should go see it." It's just made it to my area in Charlotte and Hickory and I'm planning to see it.

What is it about? An erstwhile soccer star goes to work in his brother's restaurant and takes up with a waitress in need. I understand that this is a pro-life movie somehow and I'm curious as to how it plays out. I also understand that the movie breaks all the Hispanic stereotypes. I would also look forward to seeing a movie show Hispanics as real people rather than the caricatures we normally see coming out of Hollywood. Here's the trailer that was uploaded to YouTube:

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

I like my coffee like I like my women: [fill in the blank]. The very statement is suggestive without the punch line. Some answers I’ve heard are cute – others pretentious or suggestive. All in all, I like coffee enough that I keep a cup with some to sip on it throughout much of the day. Generally, I’ll take it any way I can get it, but I prefer it sweet with cream and any of a variety of flavors. I can say that I like my coffee like I like my women. Since I’m married, I should qualify this: I like my coffee like I like my wife:

Strong

Over the years I have come to appreciate strong coffee. You may think of strong coffee as being highly caffienated. Granted, caffeine has its benefits as well as its drawbacks. But The strength I like has more to do with taste. I don’t like watery coffee. It’s bland. I like espressos and dark roasts for the fullness of strength in aroma and taste.

The strength I refer to is not the mere strength of body or intellect, although I can appreciate both. It is the strength of character. We like to see strong people in positions of leadership. However, we often confuse confidence and bullheaded opinion for strength of character. Confidence is a dubious word anyway. The word “confidence” literally means, “with faith”. Too often, however, the faith of someone who has confidence is in themselves. A godly leader, by contrast, realizes his flaws and does not have faith in his self. A godly leader has faith in God. We do a great disservice to our fellowship by following leaders who have confidence primarily in themselves and failing to follow people who have placed all their confidence in God. I desire my wife to have that confidence in God, recognizing her own flaws in humility and seeking to grow according to our Lord and His commandments. That’s what it means to be “with faith”: confident; strong in the Lord.

Fresh

I like fresh beans, freshly roasted, freshly ground, freshly brewed. Only then can you get a good sense of the intention behind the blend of beans.

People are best when fresh. When we get caught up in the status quo, we tend to stagnate. Christians will become less effective as ministers. The truth must remain fixed, but the truth remains fresh despite its steadfastness. We may claim to be steadfast while dying the death of irrelevance. The weightlifter once arriving at his desired strength or form doesn’t proclaim that he has arrived and promptly stop working out. He will become flabby. He must continue to lift weights afresh each day to remain strong. A good woman likewise recognizes that she must continue her life each day in prayer and praise to our Lord, ministering according to the needs of those to whom she is called. Otherwise, she will become bitter…

Not bitter

A poor blend of beans, beans that have not been grown properly or coffee that is old will grow bitter.

As people age, their hearts may also become old. I know it’s anachronistically cliché, but there’s something to the “Young At Heart” at many churches. But one doesn’t have to have many years to have a heart that is old and bitter. It is not simply an attitude of being young, but of being able to adapt to the changes that God has for us to undergo, for these changes are here to improve us like aging a wine rather than by placing new wine in old wineskins. I like a woman who heart has remained steadfast in the Lord, but pliable enough to be used as an instrument to guide younger people without spoiling or souring them with bitterness.

Sweet

I’ve been using artificial sweeteners long enough to prefer them to sugar. Either way, I like my coffee like southerners like their tea – thick enough with sweet stuff to stand a spoon in.

Doug Savage of Savage Chickens recently drew a panel where a chicken was walking through “happy land” and everything was sickeningly sweet. This sort of sweet is sickening because the sweetness is disingenuous. I’ve known church members like this. Fortunately, none of the people I know in my church right now are like this to any discernable degree of sickening-ness. There is a sweetness to a heart that is genuinely concerned and compassionate for the needs of others. There is no degree of sweetness in this regard that is sickening. I like a woman who has this genuine sweetness that is so thick, honorable men are happily emboldened to arise and stand in her presence and her children learn the courage to stand on their own.

Warm

Coffee is best made when it’s hot. However, I hate having my tongue burnt – you can’t taste the coffee very well with a burnt tongue. You have to wait until it is warm and cozy. I like the mug to be inviting for me to wrap my hands around when it is cold.

When the world is lonely and cold, it is good to have a wife who will give a warm hug and a kiss and invite her husband to a comfortable place in his home where the chill of the world is dispelled.

Smooth and Creamy

I'm a vocalist. Drinking coffee with a lot of cream coats my throat and gets into my vocal chords. It's not good to sing with all that cream all over my throat. Nevertheless, I love good cream in my coffee. It really takes the bite off the coffee.

I can appreciate the fact that people who are raising their kids alone have a difficult task. Even just being single without kids can be difficult without a partner of some sort. When you have a partner, the idea is that the work is split up between the two of you. You can even get used to not having to do a lot of things. A good wife makes it possible for all things to be covered so that life goes smoothly.

Firmly grounded

Good coffee has been ground to perfection for the method of brewing. It takes more than the cheap little coffee grinder I have. It does well enough, but a good grind will make the perfect cup.

A good woman as far as I'm concerned is firmly grounded in the Christian faith. Learning and applying the truth of the gospel of Christ revealed in the Bible is the key method by which the Holy Spirit perfects us.

Spicy

I like coffee with a lot of flavor in and of itself. However, I also like flavor added. There are many that I have enjoyed. Vanilla and hazelnut are common favorites. I like raspberry and white chocolate, ginger or nutmeg, cinnamon or chai spice. There are many others. Spice is the little creative something that keeps things interesting.

Not only can a person stagnate, but a relationship can stagnate. When you get used to a routine, the fun you had learning and establishing a routine goes away. Spice is when you get creative and break out of your routine. It keeps the relationship interesting. A date night can do this as long as your date nights are not always to the same places doing the same things. I like it when my wife and I do something a little different. In Venezuela one evening, my wife had worked out that we would go to a fancy restaurant across town - alone. This was a bit of a surprise to me. Some of the church members helped out as far as breaking us away from the team, transporting us to the restaurant and helping us order some of the fancy foods they had there. The interesting thing was that the restaurant was completely devoid of patrons save for us. We had the entire wait staff to ourselves. We ditched the kids for our anniversary. I got a room with a jacuzzi here in town and spent the afternoon decorating the room with flowers, petals and night time refreshments. These are the things that make life spicy.

The kind you can wake up to… …and the kind that can keep you going all day long…

Yes, caffeine can enhance your energy usage. If I drink coffee after supper, it's decaffeinated. I have trouble enough sleeping without adding to it. However, I'm not much of a morning person and my mind is rather muddled until I get a good dose of oxygen flowing through it. Caffeine helps kick the body into breathing deeper by requiring more oxygen.

This is where the similarity ends. Coffee keeps you up because it's a drug you use. But my comment here refers to a woman who knows how to commit and to whom I am willing to commit. I am comforted because my wife has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to me and our marriage. I have made a similar commitment to her and have striven to demonstrate it. In the morning when I wake up with my bride asleep next to me, I know that I can go to work and she will be with me. For I do not belong to myself. I belong to my Lord and He has given me to my wife for as long we both live.

I thought this video was neat. Coffee as an art form. That's a little more cream than I would use, though.

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Monday, November 12, 2007



Team Tominthebox, of the satirical blog Tominthebox News Network (TBNN) held a competition for an honorary doctorate for readers who commented with a short satire of their own. I entered, but didn't win - yet. Here was my entry:

Joel Osteen Repents In a new book by Joel Osteen, entitled Still Living an Average Life, Osteen reveals that a study by the Barna Research Group discovered that the people who followed his teaching were no wealthier than people who didn't. In the book Osteen wrote, "I repent that I have not spoken clearly enough in the past. The fact that I have the largest church in the United States is evidence that the message of prosperity works. However, my followers must not be applying this truth effectively." Osteen says he plans to restore the use of his church as an arena for sports and concerts during the week and give the money to the people who attend his church so they can show financial gains. "God will bless this effort and prove that He wants us to have all that we desire," said Osteen in a press release following the release of his book in stores.

Congratulations to the winner, Lance King. You can find Lance's site at http://nhoriginal.blogspot.com/. This was his entry:

Since 1987, the United Church of Christ (UCC) has been following its mandate to be an open and affirming fellowship. In recent years the UCC – whose roots include various Reformed traditions – has generated considerable media buzz with its ad campaign depicting church patrons being ejected from their pews. The UCC has prided itself in its open and affirming posture towards people of all sexual orientations. So it came as no surprise this week when UCC spokesperson Rev. Jenda Ambigus announced the UCC's latest strategy to add conservative Christians to the list of affirmed people.

“We realized we couldn't continue to call ourselves open and affirming if we didn't include all theological options. Beginning next month, we'll be welcoming our first token conservative into our fellowship. We're not sure why he wanted to join us, but we welcome diversity as long as he joins us for our gay pride parade.”

Reaction to the news has been mixed. Exuberant conservatives from other churches hope for great reforms in this mainline denomination. Longtime UCC members, however, are skeptical.

“We're open and affirming,” said Houston church member, Mauri Bund. “But I'm not sure so sure about these conservatives. The way they insist on getting in your face with their Bibles just makes me feel sick. If they want to read Paul or Peter behind closed doors, that's fine. Just don't subject me and my partner to that kind of stuff. We don't want to see that sort of thing out in the open.”

Rev. Ambigus sympathizes with such concerns, noting that the UCC is currently designing a mandatory sensitivity training course which will aid conservative pastors in creatively “reinterpreting” key biblical passages that might otherwise create disunity.

You can read all of the entries here.
http://tominthebox.blogspot.com/

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Thursday, November 08, 2007

Recent Articles by AiG

Answers in Genesis (AiG) came out with a couple of notable articles yesterday and today.

First, a team of creation scientists have been studying radioisotope methods. The efforts of this team has been called the RATE (Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth) project. AiG has been reporting on their findings over the past week or so. Yesterday, they disclosed that the group found carbon 14, which is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere and finds its way into living matter through plants. It has a relatively short half-life and after only a million years no carbon 14 would exist in a sample of deposited bio-matter. If such a sample is tested to have carbon 14 in it, then it should be less than 1 million years old. If there is a significant amount of carbon 14, then the sample couldn’t be more than a few tens of thousands of years old assuming the earth is old enough for the ratio between carbon 14 and carbon 12 to have reached atmospheric equilibrium at the time of death of the bio-matter. If the earth is not old enough for the ratio to have reached equilibrium, then the age of the bio-matter could be considerably even younger.

The RATE project has found significant amounts of carbon 14 evenly distributed in all the coal and diamond samples they have tested.

They also found logical inconsistencies of the analyses of University of California when they performed similar tests.

Read the whole article here.



Second, a quick test. Who said the following?

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes . . . will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian [Aborigine] and the gorilla.

You know the man who said this. Try to guess. Here’s the answer when you’re ready (highlight to see the answer):

Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (New York: A.L. Burt, 1874, 2nd ed.), p. 178.

Lest you think that this sentiment died with him, observe this recent quote:

I am prepared to fight and die for my cause, . . . I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection. No, the truth is that I am just an animal, a human, an individual, a dissident . . . . It’s time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks! - Pekka-Eric Auvinen in an e-mail before a shooting rampage killing 7 students in Helsinki November 7, 2007.

Now, I in no way mean to imply that Darwinists are intrinsically racist. However, naturalism in no way provides a basis for any kind of morality. Perhaps Jeffrey Dahmer said it best in his interview with Stone Phillips on Dateline NBC (Nov. 29, 1994):

If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then—then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we, when we died, you know, that was it, there is nothing . . . .

To whoever reads this: If your goal is to justify your own evil, then Darwinism is a great way to do it. If you are willing to admit that there is evil in the world, then be prepared to discover how evil you truly are when you try to derive a consistent and defensible foundation for morality and find that one exists.

Read the Aig article here.

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The Rhythm of Life

My old drama instructor encouraged me and my fellow thespian hopefuls to perform with rhythm. As we rehearsed, she would clap her hands to indicate the tempo into which we were to place our actions on stage. Inasmuch as art imitates life, the art of acting must imitate the natural rhythms of life.

My high school band director taught me everything from how to appreciate and interpret music from the Romantic period to the philosophies of jazz improvisation. His lesson was that music, with its vast variety of rhythms, tempos, tones and timbres, is a form of acting. That its artistic imitation of life had a sense of rhythm: the placement of events in time with a certain regularity; the dramatic tension and release of melodies and harmonies.

God created order in this universe. Although we have polluted it with our rebellion against God, His creation yet breathes, inhaling and exhaling, and its heart beats. All this is still evident through the fog of our sin.

The following presentations are good examples of the art that imitates the rhythm of life.

Stomp Out Loud:




Animusic


This was "Animusic - 06 - Acoustic Curves"
The Animusic series is a fantastical rendering of various types of instrumental music. There are too many to include, so I offer this index of what I have found:

Animusic - 01 - Future Retro
Animusic - 02 - Stick Figures
Animusic - 03 - Aqua Harp
Animusic - 04 - Drum Machine
Animusic - 05 - Pipe Dream
Animusic - 06 - Acoustic Curves
Animusic - 07 - Harmonic Voltage

Animusic 2 - 01 - Starship Groove
Animusic 2 - 02 - Pogo Sticks
Animusic 2 - 03 - Resonant Chamber
Animusic 2 - 04 - Cathedral Pictures
Animusic 2 - 05 - Pipe Dream 2
Animusic 2 - 06 - Fiber Bundles
Animusic 2 - 07 - Gyro Drums
Animusic 2 - 08 - Heavy Light

Animusic - Beyond the walls

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Friday, November 02, 2007

What Does It Mean To Be Cool?

If you have to ask, then you aren't cool. I had to ask, so I'm not cool. Actually I'm generally copacetic which means "Very satisfactory or acceptable; fine" according to Houghton Mifflin. This is probably the first definition of "cool" that most of us think of. But the use of $10 word that has a fixed definition with very little connotative value versus a $0.25 word that exists on nothing but connotative usage and no definitive value is yet another indicator that I'm not cool.

Those of you who delve into the comment strains of this blog see that I often chat with a friend named Kim. We got into a discussion about whether we're cool or not after my boss stopped by the office and handed me a pair of Harley-Davidson brand tinted safety glasses. Apparently, our supplier brought by samples. These things are good enough to be worn as sunglasses. They look "cool".

I speculated that I might look like I was cool if I wore them. So here is a picture of me with them on:



Cool, huh? My boys ran in and got a picture with me. We all look cool, right?



Those who know me, know that I look more like this:



BTW, go here if you want to be Simpsonized. It's cool. Actually, it's only cool to those of us who aren't so cool.

You know, when my wife saw me wearing the cool Harley safety glasses, she had a good burst of laughter. Then I asked her if I looked cool. She had another burst of laughter, followed by another, followed by another. It took a while for her to regain composure. I speculated that she knew I really wasn't cool and the juxtaposition of the cool glasses on the geeky husband was too much to bear.

It's not what's on the outside that counts. If opinion matters, I think people who are genuine are cool because you know who you are dealing with. The glasses aren't me, but they're fun to play with.

I'd like to be popular and have people seek me out because they think that knowing me will improve their status in this world. But honestly, I'd rather be meek and have people seek me out because they think that knowing me will improve their status in the next - that I have the real answer for their loneliness: yet not I but the One who lives within me; the One who gave Himself for me. Accepting that means laying aside sore attempts to be something you're not in trying to gain acclaim and being broken before the One who can make a new creation in you.

That's cool.

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