Reading Meme...

Some seminary blog friends tagged me with a reading Meme.  So here goes.

What are you reading on Spring reading days?

Spring reading days...hmm...don't have that as an external but here is what I am currently picking through.  I am about six chapters into Keller's book The Reason for God.  I am also reading a book from the UK entitled Total Church by Chester and Timis.  Not sure if this counts but I am also listening to The Mystery of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill - a strangely ecclectic volume. 

What do you wish you had time to read?

Gospel in Pluralistic Culture by Leslie Newbegin, Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard, One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches by George A. Yancey

What have you decided NOT to read that you were assigned to read.

I'm only in one class so I am gutting it out and reading it all :)

What is one great quote from your reading?

This is odd - I heard a great quote from Francis of Assisi from Cahill's book.  It is on the third audio MP3, thirty minutes in...I do mean to go back and transcribe it. I think it is this one though:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;where there is hatred, let me sow love;where there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt, faith;where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light;and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;to be understood, as to understand;to be loved, as to love;for it is in giving that we receive,it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Why are you blogging? (You’re supposed to be reading!)

As anything we do, I think I am blogging because I want to...and I think God wants me to as well. I blog primarily to think and write about things that interest me - mainly the gospel, theology, technology, philosophy, culture and stuff that makes me laugh out loud (stuff like this).  As such my blog is a work of eclecticism - shallow enough in many spheres as to perplex those who read the site.  Is this a tech blog?  Is this a theology blog? Is this a Christ and Culture Blog? Apologetics?  No - well, maybe a little.

I want to tag Owen Strachan with this (even though he is now at Trinity) 

The Loneliness of Immortality

I just jumped off the plane from Newark, NJ for a medium sized three hour layover in the Chicago airport.  On the flight into the windy city I read through an article on a persona I have followed a bit over the years.  The article was in WIRED magazine and was simply titled Futurist Ray Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity. Well, maybe that title is not so simple nor the ideas being discussed therein.  Let me try to summarize, in a few words, the work of Ray Kurzweil.

In my opinion, Ray Kurzweil is one of the intellectual geniuses of our times. He has been a bit of a legend in the computer science and artificial intelligence worlds.  I know, that is probably something like .00001 percent of the world's population but he has contributed greatly in inventing technology that has changed the world.  His work has been mainly in pattern recognition and machine text/speech recognition.  He has invented software that can read books out loud to the blind and answer you phone calls for large companies.  Well, maybe the latter one has been a bit of a frustrating experience to some.  Kurzweil's more controversial work however has been as one of the leading proponents of what is known as Strong AI. 

Strong AI holds that human intelligence (even consciousness for that matter) can be reduced (read my previous post on reductionism) to processes similar to a very complex computer.  In other words, if you can mimic human thought, decision making...even emotions, you then have consciousness and self awareness. So in his theory, there will be a day when computers are powerful enough for Skynet to "wake up" make its own decisions and take over the world. Many of you have been exposed to the Strong AI view in pop culture through cinematic exploration.  The aforementioned Skynet of the Terminator lore, HAL2000 of 2001 a Space Odyssey, the weird boy robot flick AI, the bizarre world of Minority Report, Will Smith's rambunctious robot romp in iRobot and the new theistic, philosophical cylons of the new Battlestar Gallictica.

Kurzweil believes that as computational power increases the ability to write a brain simulating, consciousness simulating algorithm draws nearer in time.  In other words, given enough processing power, computers will some day be as human as you.  Hence, his earlier works evolved from The Age of Intelligent Machines to the book I read some years ago entitled The Age of Spiritual Machines.  Now, Kurzweill did not suddenly become a dualist in changing his language to "Spiritual Machines."  His point is simply that future computers will appear to be every bit as conscious as ourselves - they might even worship and read books by the compuDalilama (my term, not his).  His latest update of the book and its ideas deals with what he calls the singularity, and according to Kurzweil, it is near.

In the work, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (Viking Penguin), he speaks of a soon coming day where a radical shift in life as we know it will take place. At this singularity, we will all be uploaded as software into the network, with non perishing "bodies" (if you want) and live forever.  Immortality, the fountain of youth and becoming as gods all in one push of a brain upload button.  Now, if you believe this narrative (and many do not - read the sidebar in WIRED, Never Mind the Singularity, Here's the Science, featuring research of those that think the whole scheme of things is flawed) you will want to stay alive long enough to reach this glorious land.  If you die before we arrive, so to speak, you will not get to gather at the other side with the other comphumans. Interestingly enough a Physicist Frank Tipler in The Physics of Christianity is writing about similar ideas though from a theistic perspective; though I found it very bizarre. If all this sounds a bit nuts, you are not alone. 

One of the philosophical problems with computing=consciousness is that of self-knowledge.  Computers, by nature of their design, perform by processing tasks according to algorithms.  Even the learning and evolving systems, do so according to predetermined rules of logic placed upon them from minds - in this case programming.  In other words, computers process data and symbols , they do not "know" anything.  I actually thought of this over the weekend observing the functioning of a GPS navigation system in a car.

Our realtor during our house hunting in NJ would punch in an address and then a kind woman's voice (perhaps using Kurzweil inspired technology patents) would tell us precisely where to turn to arrive at our destination.  In our case it was usually a small, dumpy, overpriced house...but I digress.  Let me do a bit of a thought experiment with you at this point.  Imagine for a moment that you were in a vehicle where you could not see where you were going yet you could cause a car to turn right or left based upon the cues from a GPS system processing your location.  You would receive data, act upon it, then arrive perfectly at your desired destination.  I felt like I actually did this many, many times sitting in the back seat of a car zipping around New Jersey this weekend.  Now, in our experiment, you would seem to have a great knowledge of the area and a great sense of directions.  Yet there is one glaring problem - you actually have no idea where you are.  You have zero knowledge of New Jersey or any conscious sense of direction.  You simply processed input and data.  Computers process symbols and data, they do not know anything.  They can do many things, appear intelligent, etc but they do not know.  For a more sophisticated argument John Searle's now famous Chinese Room Problem is similar and much more cogent.

I also find massive ethical problems with this view because it will mean the rich and technological persons will keep themselves alive while others will languish in the pre-singularity world of death and decay.  A new elitism will be even more severe in the imagined world of Kurzweil's future.  It seems like a world that will have more selfish people, concerned only about the perpetuation of their own lives.  God forbid the poor masses ever decide to pull the plug (literally) on the machines - we all know that will mean war.  I've seen the Matrix you know.  Or perhaps we will be self-deluded once again that we will make the world perfect this time around.  Perhaps we have forgotten what happens in reality, as well as literature and film, when human beings think they can make the perfect world in their own image.

So what is Kurzweil doing besides promoting his vision of the coming singularity? He is taking hundreds of supplements a day and trying to experiment with any life lengthening idea just to keep his biological existence intact so he can make it.  He is quite wealthy and is spending massive amounts of resources on keeping his ticker going as the clock ticks forward.  Unfortunately none of this can keep one from getting hit by a bus, shot by a crazy person, or succumbing to disease. Yet it does seems that hope for immortality, even eternal life, lives even among materialists.  Many today hope in aliens, hope in getting off this mound called earth by a coming Starship Enterprise and many hope to create our descendants and be transferred into machines by fiber optic transfer (or whatever high bandwidth technology is available at the singularity).  Sadly, some may choose suicide. 

What does all of this reveal about the human soul? I think we see that we long to live, not die.  We long for a better future where the harsh realities of life outside of Eden are brought to an end.  Some choose to trust in the promises of God and resurection for the hope of eternal life.  Others seek to become godlike themselves.  Where does this leave a human being?  In Kurzweil's own description - it has left him lonely.

Note

For all one of you interested in wrestling with these ideas further I recommend the work
Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I. edited by Jay Wesley Richards.

Overtime...

Many thanks to all of you who rallied behind POC in Blog Madness...you have shocked the world, stood with me among the Baptists, saved kittens and monkeys and kept my kids from crying.  Perhaps you learned about some sweet blogs as well. 

Today, is a new day - in fact, the madness just went to Overtime.  Unlike my Tarheels, we need to show up and vote once more to make the POC comeback complete. 

You can vote here - time is short, vote today...

New Jersey House Hunting

 

Kasey and I have been up here in NJ since Thursday looking for a new home for our family.  The house hunt has been discouraging as things are either really expensive or really shack-like.  We found a nice ranch and made an offer which was countered.  We have another offer in and awaiting a reply.  Please pray as there simply isn’t much here in our price range even though we did pretty well on our house in Tennessee.  Pray for Kasey and me as this has been a strong dose of reality for us this weekend.  Thank you so much.

Many infallible proofs...

More evidence has emerged that shows that those who use Macintoshes are religious devotees.  There is a show dedicated to those who have "born again" - delivered from PC Hell into Mac Heaven.  Again, I love the Mac and Apple products, but since I still confess Jesus as Lord and God I must...with conviction...call to my brothers to resist idolatry.  Worshiping a good thing as an ultimate thing is not good for the soul - MacIdolatry must be added to all "cult watch" ministries as many are becoming born again.  Which everyone knows is a term for "holy roller weird." 

To all those moderate, mainline Mac users - who owned Mac classics, talk to your brothers about moderation.  It is a good thing. 

Why Science in a Theistic Universe Does Not Suck

In preparation for some Thoughts in Time (I am renaming a series called Tuesdays in Time, Thoughts in Time because sometimes I am just too busy on Tuesdays) I wanted to post overall on one of the current worldviews prevalent among Western intellectuals.  In this essay I want to do just a few things.  First, I want to lay out a worldview which I am calling naturalistic reductionism - what Richard Dawkins has described as "dancing to our DNA."  Second, I want to give an example from a recent wired magazine article, of how this leads to some rather absurd thinking.  The short article, Why Things Suck: Science, demonstrates well that while attempting to explain everything - this worldview  explains no-thing at all.  Third, I want to describe why the scientific enterprise, when engaged as a believer, in no wise sucks.  So let us begin our dance...maybe with more than just our DNA.

Over the course of time ideas develop and evolve.  Thinkers influence one another and create problems for systems of thoughts.  When problems emerge, other thinkers seek to solve those problems and rescue the system.  At times the system becomes so beaten and questioned that it is jettisoned altogether for other views.  Such is the history of ideas.  In our current situation we stand at an interesting point in Western ideas.  Many have rejected concepts such as supernatural entities, God, angels, human souls - in favor of a a world made up only of energy.  We are just bits of organized information, matter/space/time/energy rearranged ordered according to the laws of Physics.  Here is where it gets interesting.  The universe, so we are told, is a random occurrence of space/time/matter combined with chance.  There is no order to the order any longer in many people's thinkers we are in a random process which in no way had us in mind.  This view of life; that we are all but the result of nature and her laws can be called naturalism and it has ancient roots.

Interestingly enough, the study of nature and her laws had led to astounding blessings and profound burdens for human kind.  Science has brought us both vaccines and atomic bombs, modern sanitation and weapons of mass destruction.  Yet because of the success of the scientific enterprise it has been extended to literally explain everything; as if everything can be reduced by the word "JUST"

• A human being is JUST a bundle of matter organized by law and DNA
• Love is JUST an exchange of chemical signals by specialized apes
• Ethics is JUST something our species created in order to pass on its genes and survive
• God is JUST localized activity in a sector of your brain

Let me be clear.  Scientific investigation is a great gift to humanity.  The very fact that our thinking and the ways our universe functions correspond is a great clue to the design of God in us.  Yet when we take a good thing such as science and extend it to all every of knowledge we go much too far.   As the late British journalist Malcom Muggeridge once remarked we run great risk of simply educating ourselves into imbecility. 

In C.S. Lewis' book The Pilgrim's Regress, a man name John is in prison - captive as it were, to the spirit of the age.  In his pit he is brought things to eat at which the jailer would explain what they were eating.  He tells John that when eating meat they are just eating corpses, when partaking of milk they were just downing the secretions of a cow, and eggs were just the menstruum of a verminous fowl.  John finally rebels against this, calling out the madness of his jailer.  The reductionism of his jailer was far too much for his experience of eggs.  John's objection was that some things in life seem like gifts, others do not.  There is a difference he says between a cow's dung and a cow's milk.  One seems like Nature's gift, the other does not.  We know what an egg is scientifically, yet they are also pleasant food, gifts in creation...  The materialist of course will say at this point - nope, just an unfertilized ovum. The problem with reductionism is not that it says so much - but rather that it says too little.  There is more to life than just the fluctuations of quantum foam.  For human experience, human consciousness, human relations, human spirituality cannot be reduced to the simple, elegant laws of Physics. Yes, they are very much a part of who and what we are - but it is only a partial story...one that impoverishes the human experience and hinders flourishing.  My purpose here is not an argument against metaphysical naturalism, rigorous argument can be found elsewhere, my point is an existential one...that we are left with an impoverished reality when we say we are JUST a bucket of lucky DNA.

Now to our example.  Wired Magazine recently ran an article with a pithy little title - Why Things Suck - 33 Things that make us Crazy.  Interestingly enough, one of the things that sucked was Science - as one who studied in the hard sciences during my undergraduate work at UNC, this was of some interest to me.  Personally, I like science and think it sucketh not.  Upon reading the little segment by Thomas Hayden, I realized why it sucks for him.  Let me copy his entire piece in for you so you can read it in context - really, it is actually quite brief.

Morality, spirituality, the meaning of life — science doesn't handle those issues well at all. But that's cool. We have art and religion for that stuff. Science also assumes predictable cause and effect in a world that's a chaotic, bubbling stew of randomness. But that's OK, too. Our approximations are usually good enough. No, the real reason science sucks is that it makes us look bad. It makes us bit players in the Big Story of the universe, and it exposes some key limitations of the human brain.

Look at it this way: Before science, we humans had dominion over Earth, the center of the universe. Now we're just a bunch of hairless apes on a wet rock orbiting a minor star in a marginal galaxy.

Even worse, those same cortexes that invented science can't really embrace it. Science describes the world with numbers (ratio of circumference to diameter: pi) and abstractions (particles! waves! particles!). But our intractable brains evolved on a diet of campfire tales. Fantastical explanations (angry gods hurling lightning bolts) and rare events with dramatic outcomes (saber-toothed tiger attacks) make more of an impact on us than statistical norms. Evolution gave us brains that crave certainty, with irrational fears of crashing in an airplane and a built-in weakness for just-so stories about intelligent design. Meanwhile, the true wonders revealed by the scientific method — species that change into new species over time, continents that float around the planet, a quantum-mechanical world where nothing is for sure — are worse than counterintuitive. To a depressingly large number of us, they're downright threatening.

In other words, thanks to evolution, half of all Americans don't believe in evolution. That's the universe for you: impersonal, uncaring, and ironic.

Now, I hope you realize why science sucks for Hayden - for in its reductionistic forms it makes us idiots.  All can be explained by science, even those idiots who think that all inexperience cannot be explained or reduced to naturalistic understandings.  Hayden is locked inside a materialistic prison, with artists and priests around...and proponents of intelligent design.  Yet he cannot really hear them - it is as if his ears are tuned only to hear the dance of the DNA.  Scientific or naturalistic reductionism leaves us in a universe that is impersonal, uncaring and ironic.  In other words, it just sucks - so you better laugh about it.  Yet what if you are like John and are tired of the naturalistic jailer telling you HIS just so stories about eggs.  Perhaps there is another view in which science sucketh not.  To this view we now turn.

It is no coincidence that the achievements of science found their cradle in the academy of Christian Europe.  For in the Christian worldview you do not have an impersonal, irrational, uncaring universe - even if it is a bit ironic.  To have the rise of the scientific method you must have certain intellectual presuppositions to pursue the scientific quest.  First, you must believe that the universe is itself rational rather than random.  That it displays an intelligibility.  The Christians of Europe and their deist children understood the world to be the creation of a rational mind - the mind of God.  As such they expected it to be orderly and rational - available for study if you will. Second, you must think that our minds are capable, even made for, such a task.  In other words we must expect that Reason is reasonable - not chaotic - our minds must be able to function in such a matter to arrive at True truth.  Nancy Pearcy and Charles Thaxton explain the rise of science in western culture much more thoroughly in their work The Soul of Science.  Highly recommended. 

In this universe, the one seen by the eye of the Christian believer, the world and all that is in it cannot be reduced to its material fluctuations.  It is highly personal, rational universe, yet with mysteries and puzzles which require both thought and trust.  It is a universe where we can pursue science without ruining your scrambled eggs or saying that love between persons is an illusion which is JUST our beastly urge to simply mount the opposite sex.  This is a prison to which we need not to submit...for a worldview where science sucks seems to suck even more.  Perhaps we need a prison break of our own.

The New Top Ten List for Voting for the POCBlog

The Blog Madness has come down to the final four blogs over at Said at Southern. Reid happens to be the only blogger in the final four who also graduated from a school who is in the actual final four. That is just a cool fact for the journey - the top 10 (ok, I snuck in 11) new reasons to vote for Power of Change are included below. Just so you know - that cute little monkey's life is in danger so you need to vote today. Thanks for supporting us in this noble effort. Power of Changers - unite - it is time to vote today.

• Ask not what your blog can do for you, ask what you can do for your POCBlog – vote now!
  
• Steve McCoy – aka the Reformissionary, is already spending the prize money…help me by voting to demonstrate that pride cometh before a fall.
• You all vote for American Idols…clear your conscience and vote for something other than idolatry.
  
• I just blogged about Mixed Martial Arts – ever hear of a guillotine choke? I am not a violent man, but I would vote today.
  
• The Kittens you already placed in heaven during the last round of voting are lonely. Every time you vote this round, a little baby seal will join your kittens. Additionally, if you know what capuchin monkeys are – well, I hear your vote saves them too (see my picture above...what did she say? save me!). 
  
• A vote for the POCBlog will slow global warming – Al Gore has confirmed this inconvenient truth!  Save your friends living on the coasts of Great Britain today!
  
• Did I mention that three Baptist blogs are ganging up on me? If you are a Baptist and a Baptist has ever made you angry, take out your frustration in a godly, non violent manner - vote POCBlog.
  
• I might end up spending grocery money on books if I don’t win – my kids need to eat – vote for the starving children!
  
• If I win and you are, say vote #500, I’ll buy you a book of your choice with the gift certificate – is this bribery? Not sure, but a book may be in it for you – vote today!
  
• All the other guys in the race are fine men with fantastical blogging skills. Most of them have lots of other bloggers and RSS subscribing people reading their sites. Our site is read by you – the people, our friends. Let’s win this online competition with an old fashioned people network. Do tell a friend…vote for Reid today.
• Finally, I am a church planter...a vote for us contributes 50 dollars towards church planting in the Northeast. 
  

Many thanks to all of you for your support - we are an underdog in this journey, but even though Davidson was eliminated tonight, Cinderella still lives if you vote for us today.

Edwards - searchable, downloadable...sweet

The complete works of Jonathan Edwards are now on prepub for the Logos Libronix system. The price is a very reasonable 69.95 for both downloadable and CD-ROM versions. The Logos Blog has more information for those who are interested...but the following is what most of you will want to know.

Soon you will be able to have access to Edwards' most important writings in your Libronix Digital Library System. The Logos edition is based on the standard 1834 edition that was reprinted by Banner of Truth and Hendrickson, both of which are still in print.

You can put your order in now at the prepublication page. 

Black Liberation Theology

There is a short video interview with Anthony Bradley discussing Black Liberation Theology availble on YouTube. This appeared on CNN's Glen Beck program.

(HT - Darin Patrick)

Consumed by Mixed Martial Arts - A Biblical Apologetic for MMA

I recently read a post by my not so punchy friend Owen Strachan over at his blog Consumed.  Owen has been wrestling out loud about Christian believers and their relationship to (or non relationship to) Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).  MMA has become wildly popular through the Ultimate Fighting Championship, aka the UFC.  He was provoked by an article in NY Times Magazine and some comments made by Mark Driscoll - a pastor and fan of MMA. His main question could be surmised by some simple questions: Should Christians beat the hell out of each other or enjoy watching other men do so?  Does being tough and masculine mean an endorsement of barbarism? Now he might not say it that way, but this seems to be the essence of his struggle.  I think this is a valuable struggle as our relationship to violence is a long tragic part of the tale of human history.

This question gets to the much larger issue of the role of violence in life and in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ.  This post does not seek to raise the pacifism/just war discussion in any detail but let me state at the outset that I do not see pacifism as tenable either practically or biblically.  Let me just say that the if you are a pacifist you will probably find much to disagree with when reading the coming reflections on ultimate fighting and mixed martial arts.  But I will make one promise to all the pacifists reading. If the evil horde invades; those who believe in a civil and noble defense will protect you, your home and family.  You’re welcome.

So, to reflect on fighting in general and ultimate fighting in particular I propose just a few things.  First, I will make some observations which I will call my recommendations.  These will be a few small reasons for “why we fight.”  Second, I will offer a rejoinder to qualify the beastly urge in all people to desire license rather than morality when dealing with delicate issues.  Fighting is not a good thing, but it is a real and unfortunate permanent feature of human existence in a fallen state.  I wish I could just shout - STOP FIGHTING, can’t we all just get along and the whole universe would realign to our wishes.  Yet because the world is full of human beings, like you and me, there may be times when it is necessary, in defense of what is good, to punch someone in the throat. 

Recommendations

My first recommendation is this.  There are times when men (and I do mean male men) must fight for what is good, right and true. 

The great philosopher Kenny Rogers once used a thought experiment called The Coward of the County to explore the struggle that men have in relationship to violence.  A violent father who had made bad choices and caused great harm teaches his son:

Promise me, son, not to do the things Ive done.
Walk away from trouble if you can.
It wont mean you’re weak if you turn the other cheek.
I hope you’re old enough to understand:
Son, you don’t have to fight to be a man.

The advice is well taken by the son until the life and limb of a loved one is violated by a group set on evil doing…the boy, having learned the lesson from his father and become a man, ends the treatise with the similar but slightly different chorus:

I promised you, dad, not to do the things you done.
I walk away from trouble when I can.
Now please don’t think I’m weak, I didn’t turn the other cheek,
And papa, I sure hope you understand:
Sometimes you gotta fight when you’re a man.

When do we fight…it must be in defense, for what is right, when there is no other option and when we must win.  Sam Wise Gamgee once encouraged his good friend Frodo with words I recommend for all men and women. 

Frodo: I can’t do this Sam.

Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.  

Some things require a fight.  Not all things - not greed, lust, covetousness - things all too often fought for in the world of men.  But the misdeeds of the vile and violent does not mean that others should never fight - in fact, it is precisely the reason we must. 

To learn to fight, you must fight…

It is my opinion that certain men should be trained to protect the common good and provide peace so that human society can flourish in goodness, truth and beauty.  Additionally, Christians have a great interest in a just state and a protected citizenry due to the commands and structure found in Romans 13.  Historically Christian thinkers Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and many others have argued that defensive, just wars are sometimes necessary.  I found this message to come through powerfully just last night as my wife and I finished up Season 1 of the CBS television show Jericho.  In the finale, men were called to fight an aggressive invader with life and limb on the line (perhaps another post, but I find this to be a great show).  Yes, there was the token blond girl with the gun, so feminists you can be happy to fight as well, but the reality in the show demonstrated a common theme in history.  At times a band of brothers must be arrayed to fight and physically beat back a sinful invasion.  If this be the case, men must learn to fight during peace time as well as war time.  Those in the military are taught fighting techniques - martial arts, wrestling - lets just say they learn MMA.  Where are these techniques developed in peace time?  Where do men grow in toughness, discipline and fortitude when the enemy is at bay.  They learn through hard work, training, drills and sport.  In fact, in sport, better ways to wrestle are actually developed in relatively safe, controlled sporting environments.  As a wrestler for most of my life, I know this to be true.  Come try and take me - I am more prepared than most.  I suppose we could eliminate every sport but, say, golf…but I do not think that would be used by the marines to learn to fight and win war.

So we do not want a culture of violent thugs and brutes without honor.  What we really need is a society of men who live in meekness and strength, virtue and passion and strength under authority.  I will grant it is here that mixed martial arts is a very mixed bag.  It has both thugs and men of character slugging in the octagon.  Such is life.  Pull for the guy that is not a thug. 

The Bible uses fighting as a metaphor for life and spiritual growth

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:11-12 

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

It seems to me if this be the case than God’s Word expects us to know what fighting actually is and that we should know how to do it.  Now this is one of those chicken and egg problems in theology.  Did God use fighting to accommodate a violent people in order to teach them of our greater spiritual battles with the world, the flesh and the devil?  Or did God understand he made the world and we would have to fight while living life outside of Edenic perfection?  In other words, because of the fall there will always be some sort of fight.  My thought would be the latter.  For humans to grow food…it is work, a fight.  For humans to create order out of the thorny, thistled world of sin…it is a battle, sometimes literally.  For humans to communicate, have honest commerce, to act according to conscience…it will be a fight.  For humans to overcome sin, find forgiveness, live in righteousness, be reconciled to God…it is a fight, but the battle is the Lords.  For followers of Christ to deny the flesh and turn their wills to God daily…it is a spiritual fight. 

If you hold to the presupposition of an inspired Scripture then you must see that God wants all of us to know what “fight” means.  It is human to struggle - internally and externally.  It is a wrestle with our own depravity and that of others.  Robert Hawkins, one of the characters on Jericho, was asked a question by his teenage daughter: Who are the good guys and who are the evil guys? His answer - there aren’t any such thing.  Some my take offense to that, but I find it biblical.  A human being is always a mixture of good (imago dei) and evil (sinful depravity and rebellion).  Jesus said it this way: there is none good but God.  If this be true, there will be a fight and God desires to teach and shape his people in the midst of the battle.

One last note is appropriate before moving on.  It is interesting that Paul is telling his younger padawan Timothy that he is to fight the good fight of faith.  As such I feel it is the fathers of a culture which must teach young men to respect and honor women, walk in self control and know when to fight and when not to.  Hence Kenny Rogers. Fatherless societies become base and excessively violent.  When Dad is at home young men can be strong and self-controlled…respectable - such men are exactly what we need.  They are in my opinion what every radical feminist desires. Unfortunately she has seen too much of the former to find much use in men.

Some Reservations

Now to MMA.  Any sport that involves the movement of the body risks to some degree bodily harm.  My Mom will testify that she freaked out every time I wrestled and played a football game.  As such any sport must have rules designed to make the competition as immune from death as possible.  Yet sometimes this too is unavoidable.  People die every year playing football, soccer and walking across the street.  We can do as much as we can to prevent death but it is simply not avoidable - it is amazing that I made it to 35 without wearing a bike helmet growing up!  So football has rules to prevent very dangerous contact (head to head, hits on QBs etc). Amateur wrestling, even soccer, have rules to prevent this type of contact.  There are underground MMA arenas without such rules; I find that deplorable and do not recommend any of this barbarism.  UFC has evolved from its early, more deplorable days, to have many rules.  The UFC now has just these type of rules; a very long list of fouls which are designed to protect the combatants.  

One final rejoinder about MMA culture.  Let me be very clear.  The culture surrounding the UFC is base.  It is hyper sexualized, full of some non thinking men and there is much disrespect for competitors and opponents.  If tattoos bother you, the UFC will provide lots of them to see.  Maybe the one place in the world that has more than the NBA.  Like boxing, basketball, football, etc. there is also a huge gambling culture that surrounds it as well.  I believe the UFC’s ownership is connected to the gambling industry.  I do not support this any more than I do people betting on the Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament.  Additionally, there is also an offshoot of the fighting culture that will likely continue to spiral downward into madness and barbarism. 

Yet does this culture’s existence not mean that it is precisely the place for the gospel?  Would it not be good to enter and tell of Jesus the saving one in such arenas?  Could not respect for opponents, civil sportsmanship and godly masculinity provide a contrast in the middle of the UFC world?  Could it not mean that Matthew 5:16 - so let your light so shine before men that they might see your good works and praise your father in heaven - might be true in UFC world as well?  If such worlds are not engaged - the only direction they can go is downward. Or one may conclude that it is unredeemable.  Some human activities do degrade to this status.  I do not think this is so of the UFC.  So I watch the UFC with guys I teach and lead; I also discuss it as a fan with non Christians.  I also teach godly masculinity and I believe we need to be able to mature and be able to discern and live the difference.  To do otherwise is to put one’s holy head in the sand. This course of action seems to quench any mission in culture and is pretty lame as well.  I would rather put my hand in the hand of God and walk out into the darkness…and let him light the world.  Yes, even the world of ultimate fighters.

Blog Madness 2008 - Vote POCBlog

OK, some of the men over at Said at Southern have created a sort of NCAA tournament for blogs associated with Southern Seminary.  The POCBlog was included and received enough votes to make it out of round one.  Now it has come to the second round and it has gotten a bit crazy.  I think the 50.00 gift certificate to an online bookstore has fired up the theology book guys.

So, I decided to do my own, very public, shameless plug.  Here is what you need to do.

• Go to this web site and vote for POC - we are in the South Division
  
• Vote, then get your family members to vote - your spouse, each of your children - you need not be a land owner to vote
  
• Then put it out to all your friends on Facebook and MySpace - ask all of them vote
• Then send it to any e-mail list you have - have all those people vote

It is time to hear the roar of the POCBlog - men and women - let's get to work.  There is great power to create real change.  Not convinced?

Top Ten Reasons to vote POCBlog 

1. Help out the minority - almost all the other guys are Baptists
2. Stand with the POCBlog - we are a family here - a family that votes together, stays together
3. I know how to apply UFC fighting techniques
4. Owen Strachan once called this blog "punchy" - it is time to punch back
5. Support Reid's addictive book buying habits
6. Every vote for the POCBlog saves a kitten...and that kitten will get to go to heaven
7. Jesus loves you
8. Because Friends are friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them
9. If that song makes you sick - go do something about it - vote Power of Change
10. My kids want me to win - they will cry if I loose - you don't want to make my kids cry - please vote on behalf of Kayla, Kylene and Thomas Reid

Here is the link - you know what to do (-vote-) 

Ecclesiological observations of a six year old

This past Sunday my six year old Kayla and I were walking into our church.  Our church is a large church in a wealthy suburb of Nashville, Tn.  It is somewhat in the middle of the evangelical universe - Nashville and Dallas probably compete for the title "buckle of the Bible Belt."  We have been here for almost four years and my relationship to the community has been difficult but very good.  In my opinion this area needs prophets - nice ones though...so people might listen to them.  I realized a couple of years ago that I am not that guy; that God was calling us to different lands.  To be honest I didn't know that would mean New Jersey, but I am thankful for that assignment.  Anyway, back to six year old ecclesiology.

Ever since my kids were old enough to understand anything I have worked to teach them that the church, the New Testament ekklesia, is a people not a building where you go on Sunday.  I call our current church buildings - the buildings where our church meets, etc.  I really work hard on this because there are church buildings everywhere here.  For the most part I think Kayla (6) and Ky (4) are getting it.  Tommy of course is 20 months and doesn't have a clue yet - but he sports a mean head butt.   Anyway, this past Sunday I almost had a debate of sorts with my six year old about what the church actually is.  Too fun. 

This year we have talked quite a bit about the life we will soon be living in New Jersey "as the church," namely it will be in our living room.  No matter how much we talk about this, it will still likely be a very different experience than a big church with a multi-million dollar budget that is reflected in our surroundings here.  Maybe that was an understatement.  In our conversation this weekend I told Kayla that the church is called into existence by Jesus through the gospel, so a church gathering will be a Word-centered gathering that will include the Bible.  Second, I told her that the church visibly lives the gospel together in community "marked" by the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Table. The sign of baptism marks entry into the community when one repents and believes the gospel and that the Lord's Table is the sign of God's covenant faithfulness and our sustenance by Jesus over time.  In it we proclaim the gospel visibly, participate with Jesus, receive sustaining grace, remember his work for us on the cross, etc. So this means a church gathering is not only a Word-centered gathering it will also center on communion.  At this she disagreed...I was actually encouraged because I want my kids to think.

She basically said this: At church we hardly ever do communion so it cannot be central to the church's gathering.  She was concerned that Jacob's Well would participate in the Lord's Table every week in New Jersey as part of our life together in the gospel. This seemed strange to her. I reassured her that historically and biblically there was great precedent for the Table every week.  We see this in the first century church and of course historically, most Christians celebrate the Table weekly.

Justin Martyr's book Apology has a reflection on church gatherings from the 2nd century.  I wanted to tell her about that.  Here it is for those interested:

And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.

Justin Martyr The First Apology, chapter LXVII

Additionally, I wanted to tell her that the early pastoral manual of sorts known as the Didache, had this to say about our gatherings:

But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one who is at odds with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: "In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations."

I thought of some of the reformed confessions of the church which say of gatherings and ordinances:

The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear; the sound preaching, and conscionable hearing of the Word, in obedience unto God with understanding, faith, and reverence; singing of psalms with grace in the heart; as, also, the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ; are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God. - Westminster Confession

Also they teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered. - Augsburg Confession

Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution, appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver, to be continued in his church to the end of the world.  - London Baptist Confession

Yet I chose to simply listen to her thinking out loud about "the church" and it was beautiful.  I then told her that when the church observes the table it is doing more than having a memory or an object lesson - it is meeting with the risen Jesus who is spiritually present with us.  She thought that was a good thing to do every week...I agreed.  I am thankful to hear the buzz around our church to make communion "more central" - thankful indeed.  Yet I fear in many evangelical houses of worship that if you never came to the table it would not even be missed.  It has become such a small part of Christian worship and I think this is a great loss. 

My six year old reminded me of this - thank God for six year olds who see simply what we do (or don't do) in life as worship.

POC Bundle - 3.25.2008

A smallish POC Bundle today... 

Reviews

• Tim Challies reviews John Eldridge's new book Walking with God - though I am more charismatic (continuationist) than Challies, I think this review makes some very important points.  
  
• I just started reading a book out of the UK called Total Church.  So far the thesis of the book is great.  Churches should be centered on the gospel word, gospel mission and the community.  The community is where life is lived and the fruit of the gospel is observed.  So far, so good.  It seems to want to avoid the ditch of Emergent by focusing on community and loosing the biblical gospel.  At the same time it seems to want to reject the hyper-individualism preached in some conservative churches. I'll try to review it some day here on the POCBlog. 
  

Theological Reflection

• Mars Hill Seattle has a cushy, seeker friendly Good Friday video which begins their message on atonement.  Who said the mega church has to water down the message of the cross...now I do know that this would offend the sensibilities of many church folks - but God on a tree - humiliated, brutalized, suffering shame, crucified and raised for sinners is our message.   Strong stuff.
  

Just for Fun

• If God made you a hairy person, wookie-like even, and you like technology...this little device may be for you.  Silk'n - the light based, hair removal system - FDA approved and coming to a hairy back near you.  
  

ESV Study Bible

The ESV translation of the Scriptures is getting a big boost this fall with the release of the ESV Study Bible.  To be honest, this has been in the works for quite some time and it seems Crossway went the extra mile to do this right.  Justin Taylor, former theology director for Desiring God was brought in to Crossway to manage this project (among others). 

Anyone interested in this work will be happy to know that a new web site (sort of) has gone up in advance of the Bible's publication.  The site only devours e-mail addresses of those who want to be up to date on the news surrounding the release.  I entered mine this evening.  Looks like details will be coming in mid April.

Here is the link - http://www.esvstudybible.org/ 

(HT - Taylor) 

Dawkins NOT Expelled

Apparently Richard, I am an atheist, I am smarter than you and wish I could be the theists worst nightmare, Dawkins slipped into a recent pre-screening of Ben Stein's documentary Expelled.  For those not familiar with the upcoming release here is a super trailer for the film.

The Discovery Institute Press release has all the details about Dawkins' crash of a screening in Minnesota.  Interestingly enough, it appears Dawkins might believe in design after all...only by aliens.  This thesis is actually becoming quite popular today. Really.

Here is the release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS CONTACT: ROBERT CROWTHER
DISCOVERY INSTITUTE
(206) 292-0401 X107
ROB@DISCOVERY.ORG

Richard Dawkins, World’s Most Famous Darwinist, Stoops to Gate-crashing Expelled
by Bruce Chapman, www.evolutionnews.org

Like many films im pre-release, Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is being selectively screened around the country to develop a buzz.

There is a growing fear by the producers that Darwinists may be trying get into the showings to make bootleg copies (for the Web?), possibly in hopes of damaging the commercial value. Others may be crashing because they want to trash it before it even gets reviewed by the media. P.Z. Myers, who was not let into a showing last night in Minnesota, probably falls in the latter category.

Amazingly, the best selling Oxford scientist/author Richard Dawkins also crashed a showing of Expelled in Minnesota last night and he not only was let in, but introduced at the end of the showing.

Dawkins apparently acknowledged that he had not been invited and did not have a ticket. A sophomoric side to his ideological is thus revealed.

Dawkins, understandably is nervous about this film, among other reasons because Ben Stein has him on camera acknowledging that life on Earth may, indeed, have been intelligently designed, but that it had to have been accomplished by space aliens! This is hilarious, of course, because Dawkins is death on intelligent design. But it turns out that that view applies only if it includes the possibility that the designer might be God.

Myers, of course, relished being expelled from Expelled, but objective observers know that Myers is the most vociferous advocate of expelling Darwin critics from academia. Not from movie pre-screenings where he wasn’t invited, mind you, but from their jobs. Too bad the film doesn’t show (and I wish it had), his promotion of advice to attack teachers and professors who dare question Darwin’s theory. The whole point of Myers is that he is a take-no-prisoners, crusading atheist scientist who has made it his purpose in life to harass people who disagree with him. Dawkins turns out to be his buddy and mutual admirer.

Frankly, I wish the producers would have a special pre-release screening for the Darwinists who are interviewed in the film — and invite some of the rest of us who have seen their depredations up close. We’d be glad to debate right there.

Among other things, I’d like to read some of the Darwinists’ statements and charges back to them and ask them to defend themselves. One of the most preposterous is that the well-funded’ Discovery Institute is funding this film! ( 1-They seem to have far more money available to them than we do, and 2-We are saving our pennies for the upcoming Broadway musical comedy, Darwin’s Folly.)

I have to say something else, personally. I have been sandbagged by one TV and documentary crew after another. So have Discovery-affiliated scientists. The interviewers all say they just want to understand the issue. Going in, they are quite clear about definitions, for example, and only start using Darwinist definitions of our positions when they report. They never provide questions in advance and even if they say they will stick to science questions and public policy, almost all sneak in questions about personal religious beliefs. Then, of all the footage, guess what gets on TV or in the documentary?

So it really is pathetic of Dawkins, et al to complain that when they were interviewed for Expelled they didn’t know that the film was inherently unfriendly. These are interviewees who received pre-agreed questions, signed release forms after the interviews were conducted, and actually got paid for their time.

I am getting more excited about Expelled myself and can’t wait to see the finished version. I suspect I’ll wish that the film was twice as long and had twice as much from Dawkins, P.Z. Myers, et al. From what I already have seen, they really expose themselves as the anti-intellectual, bullying poseurs they are — small men who above all are afraid of a fair contest.

###

Stations without a Cross

A few interesting articles in this easter season.  First, my friend Tim Dees sent me an article on Slate.com which talks about the Episcopal Relief and Development agency's "new" stations of the cross exercise. For those of you who don't know the stations of the cross is a long traditional exercise found in catholic and some high Protestant traditions. It is used to remember the passion of Jesus Christ, particularly during holy week.  Now here's a new twist from the ever creative Episcopalians...just a short excerpt from the Slate piece.

This year in time for Lent, Episcopal Relief and Development, the relief agency of the Episcopal Church, began offering a variation on the Stations of the Cross called the Stations of the Millennium Development Goals. It features eight stations, one for each of the global priorities identified by the United Nations in 2000, from eradicating poverty to promoting gender equality. Where each of the 14 stations of the traditional Stations of the Cross represents an event leading up to Jesus' death—"Jesus is condemned to death" and "Jesus falls the first time," for example—the alternative version, promoted by Episcopal Relief and Development, shifts the focus to righting global problems. At Station 8, "Create a Global Partnership for Development," participants are reminded that a "fair trading system, increased international aid, and debt relief for developing countries will help us realize" the U.N. goals. An optional activity at Station 7, "Ensure Environmental Sustainability," asks that "pilgrims calculate their carbon footprint and come up with three strategies to reduce it."

Interestingly enough even Slate understands why this is just goofy and trivializes the sacred:

The value of liturgy lies in its ability to unite people around powerful ritual moments. But the Stations of the Millennium Development Goals appropriate the form of the old-school Stations of the Cross service without retaining the sense of sacred mystery that makes it so powerful. That's no sin—but it is a bit of a shame.

I just think it is possible to worship the God-man Jesus Christ and care about global development too.  Maybe its just me. It seems some denominations cleverly invent new paths to loosing one's way.  You can read the whole thing here.

Easter Madness 2008

This time of year the easter eggs, bunnies, chocolate and fake green grass fly around in a consumeristic frenzy making all the little kids happy.  I remember how much I loved getting an Easter basket this time of year.  This year I have wrestled quite a bit on the season and how easy it can be lost to each of us.  Let's make it clear - there is no commandment in Scripture to have a celebration/feast called Easter. The observance does however have a long history and such celebrations hinge upon what it is we are celebrating.  At Easter the church celebrates something extremely important, in fact the central kernel of the gospel.  Easter is the celebration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to bring sinful human beings back into relationship with God.

Every year people come out with opinions, articles and documentaries about the life and death of Jesus.  The usual experts are paraded around on both sides to say that Jesus was or was not this or that.  Yet the central tenet and claim of Christian faith is remembered annually at this time - God became a human being and died himself for rebellious human beings.  The question for me - is this lost to the church at Easter in our day?  

This year I have struggled a bit in soul with a sort of goofy reality.  This year Easter came early in the church calendar which also meant it coincides with another religious activity found on the American cultural landscape - March Madness.  Now you may think - Reid, basketball does not compare to Jesus.  Not so fast friend.  My guess is that Good Friday and Easter will not cause a blink away from the massage celebration of the round ball in America.  In fact I have struggled with what to do with the NCAA Tournament because I am a huge fan.  I am a sports guy, love the tourney, but feel awkward about Easter and talk of Sweet 16s in the same breath.  Maybe because I sense that I am actually a worshipper of both God and basketball games.  Thank God for Easter – as it demonstrates God’s grace to me as an idolater.   

My fear is that in our culture of show without substance we might miss, and our neighbors will certainly miss the incredible, radical implications and claims of the gospel.  Many will do their hat tip duty of church attendance for family this year at Easter - yet what will they hear in the churches?  My hope is that sin, death, the cross and the resurrection might be on full display.  My hope is that people will be corned by good news and choose to turn to God for his forgiveness...or they will have to wrestle with the gospel in its biblical form - not the "here are three things to make you happy this Easter" drool that some churches will peddle. 

May Christ dwell in each of your hearts richly through faith this Good Friday.  May his love and wrath, mercy and justice, grace and severity be real to each of you in these days.  And please don't shame yourself for watching basketball games with friends.  I will be cheering for the UNC Tarheels in the tourney and have a few brackets I will check.  Yet do examine your hearts if you are feeling that Good Friday and Easter celebrations are "in the way of your getting back to the games" - such would be a huge adventure in missing the point.  My hope and prayer for this weekend is that my life, love and worship will be found in Christ alone...even amongst Easter eggs and Easter hoops.

Googling The Reason for God...

At risk of jumping for joy, the two things I like to write about most, technology and theology have strangely converged at Google.  Now I don't want to risk being labeled a Tim Keller groupie or fanboy by over posting Keller videos here at the POCBlog...so I'll let someone else do that work for me.  Everyone knows that Steve McCoy is a Keller fanboy so he has linked to Dr. Keller's recent lecture at Google. Here is his link at the Reformissionary.

Google has some cool intellectual culture where they bring in authors, host discussions for employees etc. (as a parenthetical, if you have not watch Merlin Mann's inbox zero e-mail presentation you need to for your e-mail sanity).  On March 5th they hosted Keller for a discussion of the ideas in his new book The Reason for God.  Very good - similar to the Berkeley deal, but in my opinion much better - but at Google as well - which in my mind, is much cooler. 

OK, I'll go ahead a risk fanboyism and embed it here too.

New Developments in the Church of Steve Jobs

Today there was a surprise announcement from the Temple of Mac in Cupertino.  High Priest Steve Jobs has done something unprecedented - he has allocated some of his priestly duties to another.  Upon hearing of the recent dedication of one MacIdolator Jobs himself investigated this paragon of devotion.  Upon obtaining precise details of the supereragatory act, Jobs announced that Charlie Rose would be named Associate High Priest of the Church of Appletology.  MacIdolators have been rejoicing with light beer and spontaneous iPhone calling and texting.  They were, however, unable to text the photos of Rose to one another due to technical limitations.  Job's announcement was brief but to the point:

If anyone would give up their face for the new AIR, and he makes a living being on TV where people look at his face, this sort of dedication has not been seen before in the annals of Mac history.  Rose's sacramentalism, to receive bodily pain in order to continue to receive grace from his AIR has touched all of us in the Mac economy worldwide.  We do hope and pray that his influence would be deep and wide in our community.

Rose refused to comment.  Insiders said that he always knew he was called to be a prophet and that his AIR save was out of calling, not self promotion.  Unrevealed sources say the only real statement obtained from Rose has been: Don't make me a hero, it was just the right thing to do. Full news of Rose's amazing, self-denying act may be found here.

(HT on the Rose story - Tim Dees)