Category: Christianity Page 6 of 7

War

On Sunday, April 19, 2015

I am one of those people who has not had to deal with much suffering in this life. Last night we, Lorena, Grandma Sarah, Grandpa Milo and I, were at the home of some old dear friends, Gary and Dru. Grandpa Milo and his generation fought in the Korean War. Gary, just a few years older than I, fought in the Vietnam War. They were both drafted into the army and had no choice about whether or not they would go to war. My generation, on the other hand, never went to war and, arguably, has done more to foul up our country and turn our culture into an entitlement culture than any previous generation.

We talked about this last night. Gary has been reading in the book of Judges in the bible and pointed out something I had never before noticed. Enemies were left in the land to teach war to the children of Israel who had never faced it.

Judges 2:21-Judges 3:2 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;

We lived just North of Ft. Bragg when we lived in North Carolina and daily rubbed shoulders with many people who had seen war. There is a world of difference between the culture there and the culture in where we find ourselves now in Portland. The only observation I have about this is that for people who have not known or been touched by war, there are many “unknown unknowns” and an unrealistic sense of entitlement that seem to add coarseness to our culture. I count myself among those who have never seen war and want to be wary of thinking I deserve something I do not.

Betty Blonde #301 – 09/11/2009

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Humility is a good thing

By Dad

On Monday, April 13, 2015

In Christianity, Work

Proverbs 18:12 – Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.

A couple of events over the last couple of days reminded me of the fact that humility is a marvelous thing. The first was a pair of comments (here and here) made on this blog. A young lady (rightly) castigated me for something I wrote about tuition costs, but she did it in such a humble, complimentary manner, there was no way I could do anything other than appreciate her kindness in giving me the correction. I responded to her and she responded back with an additional comment that just left me very impressed.

In this day and age, when the pride in self is the accepted, even expected, perspective for young people to embrace, she said, “Thank you. I know I’m not the smartest college student out there but I know a lot about the school systems.”

She then goes on to explain that, with hard work (she did not call that out, but that was the crux of the thing), she got a great educational start at a great price. She did all this with an endearing sense of humility leaving me to believe that she must be, at least on some very important levels, one of the smartest college students out there. Intelligence is not immutable, hard work helps and humility is a great quality in any context.

The second event was an engagement, a series of meetings, with a team of engineers working on a hard, very technical image processing problem. Everyone is wracking their brain to figure out a way to solve a problem for which there might be no good solution. The engineer who has worked longest on the problem spends all his time in the meetings explaining how his approach is the scientific approach and that if the other engineers do not cite articles from academia that describe how to do even the most mundane task, there is no reason to try them, well-known, well-tested algorithms in the field. His contribution mostly consists of aggrandizement of his own contributions that have yet to work after six months.

The sadness is that I often find myself adopting the second attitude. It will take humility to over come that.

Betty Blonde #295 – 09/03/2009

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Even older extant manuscripts of the New Testament

By Dad

On Friday, February 13, 2015

In Christianity

I have been following this story about a new find of what might be the oldest extant manuscripts of the Biblical New Testament. That something had been found was known to the general public several years ago, but it was not known that the partial manuscripts were from papyrus used to make mummy masks in Egypt until very recently. One of the manuscript fragments is from the Gospel of Mark and dates back to 90 A.D. Here is an excerpt from the article:

[Craig] Evans says that the text was dated through a combination of carbon-14 dating, studying the handwriting on the fragment and studying the other documents found along with the gospel. These considerations led the researchers to conclude that the fragment was written before the year 90. With the nondisclosure agreement in place, Evans said that he can’t say much more about the text’s date until the papyrus is published.

Betty Blonde #259 – 07/16/2009

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Blogs of buddies trying to be a help

By Dad

On Friday, January 9, 2015

In Christianity, culture

For those of you who know Larry C. and or Karl O., I thought it would be good to put up a link to their blogs. Both of them have signed up for stints on faraway islands to be a help. Both of them have blogs with pictures. Larry is just starting so he does not have much yet, but Karl has been at it for awhile and has some very interesting posts along with some great pictures. Here are the links to the two blogs:

Betty Blonde #239 – 06/16/2009

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It was never between you and them anyway

By Dad

On Saturday, January 3, 2015

In Christianity

A cousin shared this quote from Mother Teresa on Facebook. There is really nothing to add. It is just a great quote for the start of a new year.

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Betty Blonde #233 – 06/08/2009

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Losing faith in Elon Musk: True artificial intelligence is not happening any time soon

By Dad

On Tuesday, October 28, 2014

In Christianity, Technology

Christian and I have an ongoing discussion about the current state of artificial intelligence. Some of it is in the context of the second beast of Revelations 13:15 that is given power to speak by the first beast. We make no claims about what all that means, but use it as a point of reference for discussions about the current state of artificial intelligence, consciousness and the mind-brain problem. We do not believe artificial intelligence is anywhere close to enabling the “person-hood” of inanimate objects.

I said all that to say we think that even though Elon Musk is an amazing business man and promoter, he has some pretty unrealistic ideas about artificial intelligence. Here is a quote from an article at CNet where he waxes apocalyptic on the subject:

“If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that,” he said, referring to artificial intelligence. “I’m increasingly inclined to thing there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.”

This is not to say something like this could not happen someday. We know it happened at least once with humans. That being said, science has no idea at all about what consciousness even is. When we understand that, maybe I will start worrying about this a little more.

Do liberals hate Christianity?

By Dad

On Saturday, October 25, 2014

In Christianity

In quite a good article titled Why do so many liberals despise Christianity?, liberal author Damon Linker describes what I honestly believe is the current liberal zeitgeist. It seems like people who hold what would have been considered traditional liberal, Christian values not too many years ago are are no longer welcome at the table of the liberal “elites” who currently reign over much of government and higher academia. There are many reasons why this might have happened, but an argument can be made for the idea that scholarly rigor in the social sciences at the highest academic levels is dramatically diminished relative to what it was even before World War II. I enjoyed Linker’s article very much and believe the situation can only improve if views like his hold sway. He rightly notes that the preponderance of help in the current war against Ebola has come from Christians, but that that help is viewed with skepticism by many of the liberal elite is just wrong.

Betty Blonde #193 – 04/13/2009

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Near death experiences

By Dad

On Friday, October 17, 2014

In Christianity, culture, Health

I am not sure what I think about near death experiences (NDE), but they surely are interesting. An article with the sensational title Have scientists proved there is life after death? Research into ‘near-death’ experiences reveals awareness may continue even after the brain has shut down reminded me of some talks given on NDE’s by Gary Habermas to which Kelly and I listened a couple years back. Although he does not perform scholarly work in that area, as a hobby, Dr. Habermas has been collecting NDE data and stories for many years. The thing I like about Habermas is that he avoids “just-so-stories,” and sticks to stuff that has been documented vetted in a more rigorous fashion. He has a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Religion (Michigan State University, 1976), is a Research Professor at Liberty University, and has many, many refereed journal articles, books, etc. under his belt, so he knows phony stories when he sees them.

I thought it might be good to put up a few links to those stories. Do not ask me what I think about them because, like I said, I am not sure what to think. One thing I do know is that it is surely very interesting. All of the following links comes from Gary Habermas’s website.

What Near-Death Experiences Do and Do Not Reveal
Near Death Experiences – An interview with Dr. Gary Habermas:
— Part I
— Part II
— Part III
Near-Death Experiences: Evidence for an Afterlife?

Betty Blonde #187 – 04/03/2009

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Consciousness, artificial intelligence and the image of the beast

By Dad

On Monday, October 13, 2014

In Christianity

Denyse O’Leary often writes about the mind-brain problem. Her most recent article over at Evolution News and Views is titled Would We Give Up Naturalism to Solve the Hard Problem of Consciousness? I was reminded of a discussion Christian and I had the day before yesterday about Information Theory and one of Christian’s graduate school projects. At one point the discussion turned to Christianity, eschatology, and artificial intelligence. Christian made the comment that the current state of Artificial Intelligence was no where close to what would be necessary to create the conscious image of the beast described in Revelation 13.

O’Leary’s article gives a good explanation of why we are so far from any understanding of how to create a conscious entity. It centers on an idea articulated by philosopher and cognitive scientist David Chalmers in a paper titled Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness published in 1995. He divides the problem of consciousness into those parts that are tractable with our current understanding and abilities and the really big problem for which we do not have a clue. The part he calls the easy problems include things like the deliberate control of behavior, the ability to discriminate, categorize and react to environmental stimuli and other measurable phenomena.

For the hard part of the problem, I recommend a reading of the entire article. It set off a firestorm of response and really framed this issue for our generation. Here is the paragraph that starts his description of the part on which naturalistic science is stuck:

The really hard problem of consciousness is the problem of experience. When we think and perceive, there is a whir of information-processing, but there is also a subjective aspect. As Nagel (1974) has put it, there is something it is like to be a conscious organism. This subjective aspect is experience. When we see, for example, we experience visual sensations: the felt quality of redness, the experience of dark and light, the quality of depth in a visual field. Other experiences go along with perception in different modalities: the sound of a clarinet, the smell of mothballs. Then there are bodily sensations, from pains to orgasms; mental images that are conjured up internally; the felt quality of emotion, and the experience of a stream of conscious thought. What unites all of these states is that there is something it is like to be in them. All of them are states of experience.

I think Chalmers did a great service in framing this problem properly. Almost two decades have passed since this paper was written. Many people, including Chalmers (see the bottom half of the linked paper), have taken a run at providing a naturalistic explanation of this hard problem of consciousness and failed. O’Leary has spent a good chunk of her career writing about these failures. The upshot is that the image of the beast described in Revelation 13 is beyond the scope of our current understanding. I do not know whether that is a relief or not.

Betty Blonde #184 – 03/31/2009

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What should one do with their life?

By Dad

On Saturday, October 4, 2014

In Christianity

Kelly and I had a long talk last night. A lot of it centered what one should do with their life when there are many options. We actually talked about Katie Davis of Amazima Ministries in Uganda, Mother Teresa, and, even more particularly, some of our dear friends who have given themselves wholly to ministry with little or no hope of appreciable recognition from an ungrateful world, at least in this life. It is a difficult discussion. I think I might write more about this going forward. The upshot of last nights discussion is that you cannot push a rope. The only thing one can do when they are young, have options and do not know what to do is wait for direction from God, keep preparing and have a hopeful, thankful spirit.

Betty Blonde #178 – 03/23/2009

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Be wary of Biology professors at University of Washington if the rest of them are anything like this guy

By Dad

On Monday, September 29, 2014

In Christianity, Education

Commie professor alert!* I just sent Kelly (UW graduate student) a note that said, “http://www.thinkingchristian.net/posts/2014/09/david-barash-speaking-with-authority-on-what-he-knows-next-to-nothing-about/ — Don’t take Biology at UW. You might get that guy.”

She wrote back and said, and I quote exactly, “ha ha i won’t” with precisely that punctuation and capitalization.

I fear for the reputation of the graduate schools at UW. While there is a certain amount of hipness associated with IM’ing people with little regard for grammatical convention, I do not get why people like the good Biology professor do not realize how foolish they look (and actually are) in making outdated, absurd, discredited philosophical, historical, and theological statements outside their area of expertise. Tom Gilson over at ThinkingChristian explains in painstaking detail (see the linked article) why this is so ridiculous. It seems like it has reached epidemic levels amongst atheists credentialed in one area (Biology, Physics, Zoology) and an abysmal lack of knowledge and training in the areas on which they are opining (Philosophy, History, Theology). Here is a snippet, but I recommend you read the whole thing. And while you are out it check out the blog; there is always something interesting going on there, too.

In his Talk, [David Barash] also says,

Adding to religion’s current intellectual instability is a third consequence of evolutionary insights: a powerful critique of theodicy, the scholarly effort to reconcile belief in an omnipresent, omni-benevolent God with the fact of unmerited suffering…. The more we know of evolution, the more unavoidable is the conclusion that living things, including human beings, are produced by a natural, totally amoral process, with no indication of a benevolent, controlling creator.

He does not say, “I have observed and reflected on animal pain and death as a biologist, so therefore I am qualified theologically to pronounce every explanation for the goodness of God to be inadequate.”

*Just kidding. I WISH that guy was at UW or ASU. I would have a ton more interesting material if he was. On the other hand, Lawrence Krauss of ASU got his hat handed to him in debate with William Lane Craig at NCSU for much the same reason that David Barash has clowned himself, so maybe there is hope for good material at the kids’ new schools.

Is Information the Fundamental Substance?

By Dad

On Thursday, September 25, 2014

In Christianity, culture, Science

Several years ago, I described a theory to the kids that makes the proposition that the smaller the things we are able to see the more it looks like that matter is really just thought. That is, the closer we look into what makes up electrons, neutrons, protons, and other subatomic particles the more that it looks like there is not substance to the substance of matter. I am not really sure whether that is something I just read in the cheesy science fiction novels that I voraciously read starting back in the late sixties and running into the nineties.

Now, it turns out that there might have been some truth to the speculative stories I told to the kids. In William Dembski’s third scholarly monograph, Being as Communion, he makes a strong case for the idea that the information and not matter is the fundamental substance of reality from which everything is made. Dembski is highly qualified to make this case. He has earned PhD’s in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and Philosophy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has spent his life investigating the role of information and design in God’s creation from the perspectives of both science and philosophy.

His first two books, The Design Inference, and No Free Lunch laid the ground work for this third very important work that makes the case that information that must have come from an intelligent designer is required for all things material and life in particular to exist. From the pre-release reviews, it appears that some of the mathematics in the book are not for the faint of heart, but the book as a whole is tractable in the sense that a layman can get the big picture. That being said, the laymen might be best served to just skim the deep math that gives the minutiae that makes the technical case.

I have ordered the book and plan to review it here after I have taken the time to read through it.

Betty Blonde #171 – 03/12/2009

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Is America thinking about God again?

By Dad

On Tuesday, September 23, 2014

In Christianity

I ran into an article the other day titled It Turns Out Colleges Aren’t Actually Atheist Factories. The article basically says that a long time ago, if you went to college, there was a greater likelihood that you would “disaffiliate” with whatever religious institution with which you participated. It appears that is no longer true. The quote I liked the best in the article was from the last paragraph:

There are a lot of sociological factors at work here, but all of them puncture the stereotype of perniciously secular higher education. Clearly, those God-defying philosophy professors need to work a little harder if they want to build their armies of atheist young people.

It is implied that while fewer people are going to church, that does not mean they do not, at least nominally, believe in God. This is not one of those articles that talks about increased spirituality. This article is about the more specific and much more hopeful subject of the belief in God. There is a good argument to be made for the idea that the mainline denominations have turned into pop-culture clubs that are more interested in “spirituality” than the more specific and hopeful idea that there is a God and he is worthy of worship. I am not a big fan of the organized church or mushy, new-age spirituality so this is quite a positive development.

Betty Blonde #169 – 03/10/2009

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Karl on Samos, Greece

By Dad

On Tuesday, August 19, 2014

In Christianity, culture

Karl on Samos, Greece I have an old friend who has recently retired and moved from Oregon to the island of Samos in Greece. He has started a blog that usually includes a lot of pictures. He writes very well on a plethora of topics, too. He has always been a history buff, especially with respect to the ancient near east as well as Greece and Turkey. I have started visiting the site daily. His most recent excursion was to the Isle of Patmos. I stole the picture of a local market on his island from his blog. To suggest that I am a little envious would be a vast understatement.

Betty Blonde #154 – 02/17/2009

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Our house for sale on Realtor.com

By Dad

On Wednesday, April 16, 2014

In Christianity, House and home

Day 967 of 1000

Here is the link to the house on Realtor.com. It all seems official now. Christian came up, looked at the pictures and got a little sad. We have to wait to see if it sells before we can really think about leaving, but I am headed out to Arizona to work again today and Lorena will follow me on a house hunting next week. With graduations, house selling, house buying, 3000 mile moves, and graduate school at new Universities, life is pretty much in upheaval right now. We hope the dust will settle by July or so. Our real estate agent says this house is priced right and looking at comparable houses, we might even be a little bit low. The point, though, is to get the house sold with the minimal hassle possible and we think we have a great agent. His wife came over to put up the sign and the lock box. She is a very, very sweet Southern Christian lady. Before she left, she took Lorena’s hands and prayed with her. That was very emblematic of our stay here in North Carolina as well as a very kind gesture.

Betty Blonde #101 – 12/04/2008

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There is some stuff we do not know and that is OK

By Dad

On Monday, March 31, 2014

In Christianity

Day 951 of 1000

I remember with joy the days when Kelly and Christian were little and I could give them a satisfying answer to all their questions. Those days are now long gone. They both have deeper knowledge in their respective fields than I could ever hope to attain in my limited remaining time on this earth. I make heavy use of both math and statistics in my work, but that use is confined to algorithms that apply to my little corner of image analysis, manufacturing, and feature based classification. Their knowledge is not only deeper, but broader and it makes use of the most modern math and statistical tools (Maple, SAS, R, etc.).

So I frequently have to say, “I am really sorry, but I just do not know the answer.”

It frustrated all of us for awhile when the kids first had to hear that answer. The kids had to look someplace for an answer and I had to admit I did not know, nor did I have the time or sometimes even the intelligence and resources to figure it out. There is just too much stuff to know and some stuff is just unknowable, at least for now. I got to thinking about it all when I read this article about creation. Of course I believe in creation by God; I am a Christian. Some people actually get offended because one does not take the correct position as either an old earth or young earth creationist claiming an understanding of scripture and/or science that must be accepted to be right with God. That smells somewhat like gnosticism to me.

The reality is that I lean toward one and not the other, but I know that I do not really know. I am pretty well convinced that the whole neo-darwinist creation story (evolution by gradual natural selection, universal common descent, etc.) did not happen, but it has nothing to do with whether that is compatible with my Christian beliefs. Even in that, I am comfortable with the fact that I do not know nor do I have much chance of finding it out in this lifetime. The thing is, neither does anyone else.

Betty Blonde #95 – 11/26/2008

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I Corinthians 13 – agápe

By Dad

On Saturday, February 15, 2014

In Christianity

In my normal read through the Bible, I just happened to be on I Corinthians 13 the day after Valentine’s Day. It talks about charity or love and is some of the most profound prose ever written or translated into the English language. It is nice to be reminded that there are different kinds of love. The love in this chapter is not romantic love. The Greek word agápe is translated to the English word “charity” in the King James Version of the Bible and refers to the unconditional love of God. It is good for me to be reminded of this frequently. There is nothing more important.

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

My sentiments exactly

By Dad

On Wednesday, December 4, 2013

In Christianity

Matt Walsh does it again. I feel exactly the same about this as him–especially the last several paragraphs. Here is a link to his article on abortion.

A very good list

By Dad

On Wednesday, December 4, 2013

In Business, Christianity, culture, Work

Day 835 of 1000
Betty Blonde #17 – 08/08/2008

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We are big fans of Dave Ramsey. He put a list up on his website that I like very much. Virtually every item on the list is a worthy habit to engender. The only thing I do not like about it is that it is characterized as a list of the differences between rich people and poor people. I am sure the statistics for the calculations were made with some arbitrary definition of rich and poor. That is fine, and I have a good level of confidence that they are true. My problem with it is that the rich-poor distinction makes the list way less interesting.

I think of poor people who would be characterized as rich if they were measured against the items on the list. Those people are WAY more interesting than the people who are rich that have established those habits. Examples of such people might include Mother Teresa and other Christian ministers who have left everything to help people they had never previously met. It might also include academics, authors, and artists who, for the love of knowledge, literature, and art, have given up more lucrative careers to follow their passions.

There are other examples, but my sense is that engendering such habits for the purpose of getting rich is not so worthy. The nobility of a goal has little or nothing to do with how much money one earns in doing it. I suppose it could be argued that riches will come if one establishes these habits, but it is a secondary artifact, not a noble goal in an of itself. I do not want this to be misconstrued to suggest, one should not pay their own way. People need to be financially responsible for themselves. Nevertheless, riches will get no one into heaven. The habits list stands alone, as a noble goal, whether or not they lead to riches or to something else, a lot more noble.

Matt Walsh – two days in a row

By Dad

On Tuesday, November 19, 2013

In Christianity

Day 820 of 1000 – Betty Blonde #5

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This blog post by Matt Walsh is stunningly good. This is my second post in a row about something he has written. Yesterday he wrote about consumerism vs. capitalism. That is kind of a pet peeve with me. That consumerism is bad, capitalism is good, and the two should never be conflated is something I never really articulated, but seems pretty important. Walsh nails it. Today, he writes about family leadership and a trap into which I often fall–joking about getting permission from “the boss” meaning my wife. Like most guys in our culture, I had never given this much thought. It almost seemed like an honoring thing, but Walsh is right, real men should never do it. It is dishonoring. There are a lot of people who will hate the article, but society needs men to be men and women to be women or we will continue to fall apart. The article is worth a read and will resonate with men and women who want to do the right thing for their marriage, their family, and society.

Update: Wow. I went over to Matt Walsh’s facebook page to read some of the comments about this blog post. Most of the people who commented were women and liked the post. Still, there were a lot of women who hated the article, but had obviously read their own cultural bias into it. Walsh explicit said that the husband is NOT the “boss” of the family, but the leader. He goes on to say the husband is equal to his wife not above his wife. Almost every objection was to a strawman: the husband should not be the boss or if the wife is more capable, she should be the boss. I am getting more and more convinced that progressivism causes brain damage.