On Science
- It seems associating lonely/cold and sinful/unclean is now the focus of some psychological research...Now go read Psalm 51 - God has been using this metaphor with us for hundreds of years...
- Seriously, I didn't make this one up - 'Fart gas' link to blood pressure - this one if from the BBC. Odd title indeed.
On Philosophy
- I am very sad that this book is 95 dollars. I am even more sad that I really want to buy it. Just say no, Just say no...Consciousness and the Existence of God A Theistic Argument
- An interesting British piece on a return to virtue ethics rather than mere assertions of rights and individual volition. Yet one problem remains for the virtuoso of virtue ethics - how do you ground goodness? Aristotle grounded it in "the good man" - but there seems to be a circle he runs into there...unless the "good man" really exists. Jesus and virtue ethics do go hand in hand. Virtue is grounded in the being of God who became incarnate and demonstrated true virtue in Jesus Christ. Yes? Interestingly enough this essay ends with describing environmentalism as a religion - I agree with such an assessment - worship of creation rather than creator has indeed become the case for many.
- More "brave atheism" stuff over at the NY Review of Books. You know that it is a virtue to some to believe in meaninglessness...if only you can be "brave" about it. The end of this article has this good news offered to us all: Not only do we not find any point to life laid out for us in nature, no objective basis for our moral principles, no correspondence between what we think is the moral law and the laws of nature, of the sort imagined by philosophers from Anaximander and Plato to Emerson. We even learn that the emotions that we most treasure, our love for our wives and husbands and children, are made possible by chemical processes in our brains that are what they are as a result of natural selection acting on chance mutations over millions of years. And yet we must not sink into nihilism or stifle our emotions. At our best we live on a knife-edge, between wishful thinking on one hand and, on the other, despair. What a great worldview that offers wishful thinking and despair as two great options! Wonderful news...the gospel solution offered? Well just try and laugh a bit, look at pretty flowers and go to the ballet! OK, I feel better now.
- Looks like some brewmasters have gotten religion- CNN - Beer Lovers: What Would Jesus Brew?
The Church
- Bob Kauflin gives his Top 10 ways to write a bad worship song (Hint - don't do this and you might write a good one)
Technology
- Sprint may be getting better with customer support. If you are like our family, and stuck as a Sprint customer, there may be hope for us yet.
- If you are young...the Internet may be turning your brain to mush. Short attention spans, lack of ability to focus...etc. Yet for older people - it may help out old brains...