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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Friday, July 06, 2007

  • Finally, an update...

    So, I'm sort of answering my sister's question about why I haven't posted in a while.

    First of all, my main blog is likelierthings.com, and I have posted there. My Xanga sort of tends to get used for more personal stuff, and right now I'm not all that anxious to post to the world a whole lot of stuff about my personal life. I don't have a lot to say that wouldn't involve a sort of tearing as it came out of me, and to fling onto a public forum the bloody pulp of a personal observation torn out by violent means would be unfair to pretty much everybody. And that doesn't mean that everything's going badly, just that I want to be careful whom I share this all with. I'm not sure I'm happy in a culture where, apparently, some people exist solely for the purpose of being the subject of gossip *coughparishiltoncough*

    Anyway, if you wander over to likelierthings.com, know the following true things:
    1. I do think Evolution happened (as in macro-evolution, as in "life started from chemicals and evolved into us").
    2. This does not mean God does not exist. The evidence for God's existence comes from other sources than as an explanation for what we can't completely describe scientifically.
    3. Scientists who think that Evolution proves (or suggests) that God does not exist are delusional. Their judgment is not based on science but on their own atheistic philosophies.
    4. The official "Intelligent Design" guys: Dembski, Behe, Johnson, et al, are barking up the wrong tree. They are wrong about some things. Nevertheless, the universe does show signs of "intelligent design".
    5. I fully believe everything God teaches us in Genesis. I also believe that he was not teaching us about the length of time it took for him to create. But there are some good books that tell us about what he was teaching us in Genesis.We need to be veerry careful when we read ancient texts not to make distinctions that they didn't make. The ancient Hebrews didn't think about "science" or "reading literally" the same way we do. (This does not mean that the Bible does not have true history in it. The Bible has many different kinds of literature in it: poetry, epic, parables, history, proverbs. We need to be careful we do not mistake one kind of literature for another.)
    Anyway, I know that quite a few of my former students occasionally read my Xanga, and I don't want to undermine parents' and teachers' authority. I might be wrong. I truly believe that if we respectfully submit to the Truth that is found in Jesus Christ and discuss these things in charity, we will come to know the truth about all of God's Creation, and in doing so we will find out more about the One who created it all.
    Currently Listening
    Beethoven: The 9th Symphony / Solti
    see related

Saturday, May 12, 2007

  • And in other news...

    Dawkins says religion is "like sucking a dummy"

    Must be a British thing.

    I think ... I think "dummy" is a British word for "pacifier". Maybe? Let's hope so.

    Speaking of Dawkins, though. You really should check out this review by Terry Eagleton of Dawkins's book The God Delusion. The fascinating thing about Dawkins is that he spends so much time arguing against the kind of religion that Christians have never believed in, the kind Christianity came into existence to abolish. (And the rest of his time is apparently spent arguing the sort of mystical scientistic, progressivistic crap that imagines that there's some kind of inevitable and Godless cosmic impetus in the direction of bestest bestness that will somehow deliver all the goods - moral and material - that mankind's been craving. Which is an impression I'm drawing from Eagleton's review. I haven't actually read Dawkins.)

    I did, however, catch the last half of a Terry Gross "Fresh Air" interview with him about a month ago, and all I could think of was "This guy doesn't know what Christianity is." I would really like to be a fly on the wall at an intense discussion (but not an argument) between Dawkins and a really knowledgeable theologian who could set him straight on what exactly Christianity is.

Friday, May 11, 2007

  • Close your eyes, boys! It's the Marlboro Man.

    When I was a kid my mother occasionally held her hand up in front of the screen so that we wouldn't see stuff she disapproved of. I always figured it was a scantily dressed woman or something. Turns out, it might've just been a pack of Kools:

    Smoking to affect movie ratings system

    LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Filmmakers now might get an R rating as a thank you for smoking.

    The Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) said Thursday that its rating board will consider film depictions of smoking among the criteria for assigning movie ratings. Anti-tobacco activists have been pressing for an automatic R rating for films with smoking scenes, but MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman rejected the proposal for a more nuanced approach.

    Um, how dumb can you get? Talk about majoring in the minors.

    I don't understand our culture.

    And it's not like all the actors and actresses in Hollywood aren't going to actually be smoking. They all do it. It helps keep their metabolisms up, their appetites down, and the weight off. It's a lot easier to be a skeletonized waif with a pack-a-day habit.

    In other news, I'm in NH for a week before I head out to Chicago.

    Oh, wait. Yeah, and my brother's engaged. Congratulations to him.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

zzz03246

  • Visit zzz03246's Xanga Site
    • Name: Jon
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 1/5/2005

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