I’ve recently come across an author for American Thinker, Robin of Berkley. I absolutely love her work and story telling style. Here is an ex-script from her post titled “Tiger, the Buddha, and me”: Here’s my favorite story about the Buddha: A grieving young mother from a poor background begged him to revive her dead son. Not only was she heartbroken, but she feared her husband’s wealthy family would punish and shun her for the child’s death. ...
Elroy Bosch has recently written an excellent post titled “A (not-so-secret) Secret to Great Church Life”. Here are a couple of highlights: Families Genuinely Take Care of One Another. Families Spend Time Together. Families Show One Another Affection. Families Grow. (Numerically and in maturity. But families do not grow exponentially because that would hinder the growth in maturity of all the members.) Families Share Responsibility. I think he sums it up nicely in the outset: ...
I recently happened onto a family dispute unfolding on Facebook wherein a young child, in the course of a seemingly unrelated debate, uttered the words “I think that guy is a fagot”. To which another family member, who happens to live in an openly homosexual lifestyle quickly reprimanded the kid for using offensive language. I’ve heard this line of reasoning before, but this time I took a minute to ponder what it is that constitutes offensive language. ...
Pascal seemed to think that mankind had 1. a divine nature of which we are inherently aware and 2. a bestial nature of which we were also inherently aware. Per the divine, we immediately recognize that we are of infinite worth, dignity, and value. Per the bestial, we are also immediately aware that there is something fundamentally broken in us. Pascal seemed to think that an acute and proper awareness of both natures is vitally important. An awareness of our bestial nature ought to spur us on to discover the origin of our divine nature. For the Christian, this is our being made in the Image of God which has been irrevocably marred by us. ...
think of technology itself as an animistic dynamic that filters through the individual machines, being an over spirit to them — an animistic spirit that’s way beyond what humans are comprehending on their own level. So says Britt Welin, quoted here from an excellent paper by Douglas Groothuis titled “TECHNOSHAMANISM: Digital Deities in Cyberspace” …when one is on psychedelic drugs “and you tune into a cyberspace environment, you lose your parameters and you find yourself entirely within the electronic environment.” Welin’s husband, Ken, also strives for union with cyberspace. He says, “Our video-computer system’s set up to ease us into a level of intimacy where we can use it in a transparent sense” and “enter into a trance relationship with it.” It then “ends up having a spiritlike existence.” ...
Many have heard the popular simplified version of Pascal’s Wager, “If there is no God then I do not stand to lose anything but a small amount of fun for upholding a strict moral standard. However, if there is a God then I stand to gain everything if I adhere to His revelation while I stand to lose everything if I behave otherwise.” While many are content to leave it at this, few understand that this is a minor point in Blaise Pascal’s larger argument. His main point was that everyone is already making a wager, and that in light of the gravity of the wager, we should take great care in placing our bets. ...
Cyberspace stands in sharp contrast to the book. The book is linear.Its very nature affects how and what we understand—and so does the nature of cyberspace. But they are very different. The communications medium employed shapes the message: “the medium is the message” is true, whether one accepts all the details of McLuhan’s communications theory or not. There are inherent characteristics in the very medium that do affectboth what can be communicated and how it is communicated. Technology is not neutral. ...
Here is a portion of an exchange I recently had via Facebook with Nigel, a friend of mine. The topic of this section is about whether the Bible can legitimately be used as an objective moral standard. The problem is, as I pointed out, the Bible can only be considered a universal standard if an individual interprets certain evidence in such a way as to suggest that it is. ...
We’ve recently undergone the task of teaching our daughter to ride her bike without training wheels. And through the tears we often hear the protest “you’re hurting my feelings” from our less than enthusiastic daughter. To her, riding a bike has gone from an enjoyable activity to a huge chore that her parents force her to undertake almost every evening. While working with my daughter I couldn’t help but think about the parallels between learning how to ride and learning theology and apologetics. ...
I love reading Alan Knox’s blog, Assembling of the Church, mostly because Alan provides clear insights into the Christian life as expressed in Scripture. Recently Alan has written a few posts on internet ministry wherein he explores the role technology, and social media in particular, plays in regards to evangelization and discipleship. Generally exploring what the life of a Christian in relationship with both believers and non-believers alike looks like when expressed in a synthetic communications medium such as the internet. ...