ThinkThru

2005-07-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute finds God through books of C.S Lewis.

Francis Collins, the head geneticist on the Human Genome Research project, and both a medical doctor and a leading gene scientist who was part of the team which discovered the genes for cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease, talks about his finding his faith and the Human Genome Project.

Read about the interview here. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/012/2.42.html

Religious Road Trip

2005-06-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

commandmentslarge
Originally uploaded by tosh913.

I just heard a interesting story of a professor who took his family on the road to see religious attractions in the American south. He chronicles it in a new book called Roadside Religion. Places like Golgotha Fun Park, the World's Largest Ten Commandments, Paradise Gardens, Ave Maria Grotto, Holy Land USA and, yes, Cross Garden.Now if only I can do an American version and an International version, anyone have any suggestions for a book on religious attractions of the world? To hear the interview on NPR, click here.

2005-06-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

Ravi Z. and the Four Questions and Mahatma Gandhi

I read these and thought them to be quite profound. "There are four questions in life, origin, meaning, morality and destiny, when you look at the person of Christ these are all answered.

Even Mahatma Gandhi said this, “Of all the dispositions and teachings of thinkers and ethicists, the one doctrine that I have no sufficient counter for is Jesus on that Cross.

GK Chesterton

2005-05-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

GK Chesterton
Originally uploaded by tosh913.

G.K Chesterton

I read a great article on G.K Chesterton, on his writing and some of his retorts to evolutionists.

It's said he was always writing—wherever he found
himself, and with whatever he could find to write on.
So in the tearoom he scribbled on napkins. On the
train, in front of a bank teller, or in the middle of
a lecture he was known to jot hurriedly in a notebook,
even on the cuff of his sleeve.

He was apparently quite a character walking the streets of London with a black cape and top hat and a swordstick.

Here's some quotes I found interesting that you may
enjoy.

"There are those who hate Christianity and call their
hatred an all-embracing love for all religions." To
the convicted agnostic he said, "We don't know enough
about the unknown to know that it is unknowable." To
the social Darwinist he said, "It is absurd for the
Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an
admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of
nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable
that nothing should turn itself into everything."

See the full article here.

Quote from William Blake

2005-05-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

Blake
Originally uploaded by tosh913.

Interesting quote.

This life's dim windows of the soul distorts the heavens from pole to pole and goads you to believe a lie when you see with and not through the eye.

-William Blake, poet

2005-05-20T01:36:00.000-07:00

U2 and the Spiritual Revolution.

If any of you have not checked out MacLaurin Institute audio archives yet, run over there and check them out.

The most recent I listened to was so keenly insightful about the direction our culture is going I am tempted to make hard copies for our web uninitiated friends.

The speaker is Andrew Fellows from the L'Abri Fellowship.

I believe this gentleman is describing something of farther reaching implications than we might presently be able to see on the surface.

Do not be fooled by the ambiguous title referencing U2. This is not a mere music critique. Its better described as an evaluation of the tides of culture as manifested by their expression in the cultural art forms.

For those of you with the freedom to peruse online, go look this one up! I highly recommend a listen.

U2 and the Spiritual Revolution

2005-04-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

What does the J.R.R in J.R.R Tolkien stand for?

I just heard a good discussion on Apologetics.com with a reading of Lord of the Rings and the music from the movie running in the background. Find out what the J.R.R means and hear why Tolkien hated allegories and more, you can download it here.

Ernest Shackleton

2005-04-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton

I heard something that I thought would be interesting to post. Ernest Shackleton, the famous explorer of the Antartic Expeditions, always carried with him two things, the Bible and the words of "Abide with Me, I need thy presence every passing hour", a hymn written by the Rev Henry Francis Lyte. When he was buried in one of the exploratory expeditions, these were clutched by him, the bible and the words of "Abide with me".

If you'd like to read the words of the Hymn and read about Henry Lyte, go here

2005-04-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

Ravi Zacharias Q & A at Mormon Tabernacle Online!.

I just listened to the Q & A at the Mormon Tabernacle, there's some great questions that are asked, and Ravi gave some great answers. Take a listen here
For your info, the last christian invited to speak there was 1899! That guy was Dwight L. Moody!

Also check out the latest sermon from Ravi Z., its called the Uniqueness of Christ in World Religions. Great stuff! Download it here

akianeart_03

2005-04-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by tosh913.

Akiane- 10 year old painter extraordinare

Here's Akiana's website. If you don't already know about her, she's a 10 girl who can paint amazing portraits among other things. If you haven't already seen her Prince of Peace painting, here's a photo of it. Also check her website to see her process of painting the masterpiece Prince of Peace. See it here

2005-04-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Aint that the total Truth.

This book looks to be a real winner, after hearing a interview with Nancy Pearcey, I'm even more eager to read it. Here's a blurb about it.

About the Book

Does God belong in the public arena of politics, business, law, and education? Or is religion a private matter only—personally comforting but publicly irrelevant?

In today’s cultural etiquette, it is not considered polite to mix public and private, or sacred and secular. This division is the single most potent force keeping Christianity contained in the private sphere—stripping it of its power to challenge and redeem the whole of culture.

So check it out here.

You can listen to the interview with Nancy Pearcey here

millions

2005-04-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

millions
Originally uploaded by tosh913.

Faith in Millions

I've just see this great film a 2nd time, and truly love this film. The innocence and faith of this one child just transcends the screen.. and who can't love this adorable kid. See the trailer here

This truly is such a brilliant film that I just can't recommend it enough, please go and see this film. Read about it at the site, here

2005-04-03T01:44:00.000-08:00

With Pope John Dead, who and how is the next pope going to be elected

I can't answer the who, but as far as how the next Pope will be elected, well the Teaching Company has graciously allowed for us to download two lectures by Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute and Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, who happens to know a thing or two on Rome and papacy. The titles are How to Elect a Pope” and “Papal Elections: Then and Now.”

Download them here

2005-04-03T01:34:00.000-08:00

Rc Sproul on on Terry Schiavo's Death.

As some of you may know, Rc Sproul is my favorite apologist and theologian, who on his site now, has just posted his thoughts on Terry Schiavo's Death. To me, he clearly and succintly describes what this event may cause. Download it here

2005-03-27T10:19:00.000-08:00

Maclaurin Institute

I just happened upon this site that is chock full of resources. Its a Christian study center whose motto is to "Bring God into the marketplace of ideas by communicating the Christian worldview
with its transforming potential"

They have a ton of mp3 lectures, including heavy hitters like Dallas Williard, Philip Johnson, and Ravi Zacharias. Check out here

2005-03-23T02:52:00.000-08:00

Cracking the DaVinci Code

FREE Audio Download: An Interview with Peter Jones

Free mp3 interview with Peter Jones, author of The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back and co-author of Cracking DaVinci's Code. get it here

Peter Jones, Cracking DaVinci's Code

2005-03-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

Benny Hinn on Dateline.

We discussed Benny Hinn in a previous meeting, I thought I should post this report on
Dateline NBC on it at MediaSoul.. Read it here

Submitted by David Sutherland.

Carlos Fuentes

2005-03-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

Carlos Fuentes
Originally uploaded by tosh913.

This I Believe

Carlos Fuentes, a novelist who's book"The Death ofArtemio Cruz" established him as a central figure of the Latin America literary boom writes about Jesus in a book called "This I Believe"

"Jesus extends the values of eternal life to the values of earthly life and that is where he becomes something much more than a fragile God who becomes man. He becomes the God whose power resides in his humanity. And, "Jesus is the eternal reproach to the Church"

2005-03-10T09:11:00.000-08:00

Charles Towne

2005-03-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

Physicist Wins Spirituality Prize

Co-inventor of the Laser and shared winner of the 1964 Nobel in physics talks about intelligent design.

Read about it here

2005-03-08T09:28:00.000-08:00

Mars Hill Audio

Mars Hill Audio has deeply impacted my thinking over the years, and I've been blessed by there crossing of Christianity, post modernity,current issues and culture. They have covered topics such as Bradley J. Birzer, on the mythic roots of Middle Earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion,Sir John Polkinghorne, on lessons for theology learned from the inductive nature of the work of science , and Craig A. Bernthal, on the theme of judgment in the plays of Shakespeare. They cover quite a bit of what is going on in the world now in terms of movies, literature, politics, science and music.

Order a free sample CD here!

Here's a little blurb on them.

MARS HILL AUDIO exists to assist Christians who desire to move from thoughtless consumption of modern culture to a vantage point of thoughtful engagement.

Read more about them here

There also having a great up to 50% off there stock now!

go to it here

2005-03-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

Tolkien on Sex?

I just saw this on Leo Partible's site FilmPR

Fascinating article on Tolkien's view of sex, marriage and love.

From Father to Son -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Sex:

In 1941, Tolkien wrote a masterful letter to his son Michael, dealing with marriage and the realities of human sexuality.
The letter reflects Tolkien's Christian worldview and his deep love for his sons, and at the same time, also acknowledges the powerful dangers inherent in unbridled sexuality. "This is a fallen world," Tolkien chided. "The dislocation of sex-instinct is one of the chief symptoms of the Fall. The world has been 'going to the bad' all down the ages. The various social forms shift, and each new mode has its special dangers: but the 'hard spirit of concupiscence' has walked down every street, and sat leering in every house, since Adam fell."

Read the entire article here

2005-03-01T22:29:00.000-08:00

Korn Co-founder and Guitarist leaves to follow Jesus

Yep, its true. Read about it here

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2005-03-01T19:40:00.000-08:00

Pillars and Props

I read this on Sewardstreet.com and realized I have way too many props!

Sometimes we think we need this and that to make us better artists, when all we need to is just have plain paper and pencil.

Creativity without Props

No, I don't mean when someone looks at your scene and doesn't give you the "props" you think you deserve.

I'm talking about this section out of Hugh MacLeod's post "How To Be Creative" entitled "The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props."

Ouch.

I know world-class animators who have trouble using a fax machine or reading their email. Me?

I've just spent the last couple of weeks building my own Media Center PC, buying all the parts, hooking it all up together, making sure I had the right drivers, the right software - all in an effort to have a really cool interface to quickly access animation scenes.

Supporting that, I've got a TabletPC with Alias Sketchbook Pro, a Rio Karma (MP3 player), an XM MyFi, hundreds of DVDs and laserdiscs, and every screenwriting/moviemaking software/outliner tool devised. All of them purchased with the idea that they would help inspire and motivate me to create my own Secret Project. (A Secret Project is the thing you work on after hours - your own personal vision that you keep a secret because it's so great nobody can know about it, lest they try to steal it from you!)

With all of these props how many Secret Projects am I currently working on?

Zero.

Hugh is big in the blogosphere. His site gapingvoid is one of my favorite to read, although he's so prolific that it's hard to keep up. I've been working my way through "How to be Creative" and when I hit this section about props it sounded way too familiar.

The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me.
Meeting aperson who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would SERIOUSLY surprise me. Abraham Lincoln wrote The Gettysburg address ona piece of ordinary stationery that he had borrowed from the friend whose house he was staying at.

James Joyce wrote with a simple pencil and notebook. Somebody else did the typing, but only much later.

Van Gough rarely painted with more than six colors on his palette.

I draw on the back of wee biz cards. Whatever.

There's no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership. None. Zilch. Nada.

Actually, as the artist gets more into his thing, and as he gets more successful, his number of tools tends to go down. He knows what works for him. Expending mental energy on stuff wastes time. He's a man on a mission. He's got a deadline. He's got some rich client breathing down his neck. The last thing he wants is to spend 3 weeks learning how to use a router drill if he doesn't need to.

A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind.

Which is why there are so many second-rate art directors with state-of-the-art Macinotsh computers.

Which is why there are so many hack writers with state-of-the-art laptops.

Which is why there are so many crappy photographers with state-of-the-art digital cameras.

Which is why there are so many unremarkable painters with expensive studios in trendy neighborhoods.

Hiding behind pillars, all of them.

Pillars do not help; they hinder. The more mighty the pillar, the more you end up relying on it psychologically, the more it gets in your way.

And this applies to business, as well.

Which is why there are so many failing businesses with fancy offices.

Which is why there's so many failing businessmen spending a fortune on fancy suits and expensive yacht club memberships.

Again, hiding behind pillars.

Successful people, artists and non-artists alike, are very good at spotting pillars. They're very good at doing without them. Even more importantly, once they've spotted a pillar, they're very good at quickly getting rid of it.

Good pillar management is one of the most valuable talents you can have on the planet. If you have it, I envy you. If you don't, I pity you.

Sure, nobody's perfect. We all have our pillars. We seem to need them. You are never going to live a pillar-free existence. Neither am I.

All we can do is keep asking the question, "Is this a pillar" about every aspect of our business, our craft, our reason for being alive etc and go from there. The more we ask, the better we get at spotting pillars, the more quickly the pillars vanish.

Ask. Keep asking. And then ask again. Stop asking and you're dead

2005-03-01T13:41:00.000-08:00

Antony Flew's "change of heart", or "change of head" causes concern in skeptic's camp.

It would appear that Antony Flew's new position threatens to refute the popularly projected concept that science is composed of one complete "United Front of Evidence-Convinced Naturalistic-Origin Acceptors".

It would probably bring much derision down on anyone, should they publicly attempt to suggest that this united group had anyone in it's influential ranks but those totally bereft of subjective interpretation from the facts.

However, the disconcerting thing is that the "unrefutable facts" seem to be that whatever data we may eventually have, what we do with what we have today seems derived through many less-than-objective steps.

Be it today or a century beyond, we will still not have the ability to mark and measure the phenomena of the "origin of the universe". With no measurements, we can simply propose our own derived theories after the fact.

After proposing the theory it will, of course, be used as a model to propose certain observable conditions which ought to be present, consistent with that theory.
We can then test to see if our current data contradicts or co-incides with what these theories predicted.
If we don't see any contradictions we may conclude our theory is sound.
And, if not, as the saying goes,
"If the data doesn't fit the theory, fit the theory to the data..."

Human error can invade in many different places, but worse are the areas that seem to have no option but to depend on subjective human judgement.

Referencing back to the Seminar by Michael Shermer, it would seem that despite its positive contributions, one very disturbing quality of the process of apprehending truth through scientific "revelation" is highlighted through its historical failure rate.

It was posed to Michael Shermer by the host, as a question, something similar to,

"How do you respond to the times when this scientific system, with peer-reviewed error-checking precautions, seems virtually unanimous in indicating something as true, which later is proved drastically mistaken?"

The presenter, apparently in conversation with a Medical Historian, reveals that history contains many incidents of scientifically supported theories, commonly considered as sound, being accepted into basic practices for the field. Yet, historically the practices get revisited and re-evaluated as critically flawed. Many so flawed as to cause the presenter to mention that in our modern times, it was "safer in the past not to have gone to the doctor for a great many years rather than to go."

The question being posed might be stated as,

"If you wish to test a theory, yet do not have all of the information regarding a subject at hand, how can you determine conclusively which data is actually relevant to test?"

and

"If the relevant data might be overlooked, what degree of proof does any test, regardless of results, actually yield in regards to its *actual relevancy to our world?"

"Might the currently accepted 'sound' theories get revisted and refuted in light of future additions of unanticipated evidence?"

"If so, what does it actually mean to say that a theory seems to fit all of the currently available evidence?"

For balance, I think we'll include this skeptic's reply to the news of Flew's change of thoughts.

-G-

*(Actual relevancy, as opposed to its isolated test-metric relevancy.)

2005-03-01T11:13:00.000-08:00

Anthony Flew becomes a theist

Sunday night we had talked about Anthony Flew, the noted philosopher and atheist who has become a theist, there's a great interview with him here

Also if you like to buy the DVD "Has Science Discovered God"., where he first made the announcement in a symposium on science and religion, that the discoveries of modern science have led him to accept the existence of God, click here . We'll be watching the video in the near future with a discussion to follow.

2005-02-28T15:57:00.000-08:00

Woohoo! Brad Bird gets the Oscar for Best Animated Film.

Here's a great interview, he tells it like it is.. check it out here.

2005-02-28T14:18:00.000-08:00

One Skeptic's Argument Against Intelligent Design

Since we stayed around after the Oscars and discussed evolution and intelligent design; here's an interesting article from the New York Times on "intelligent design" being introduced into schools in addition to Evolution as a theory.

NYTimes

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW

Unintelligent Design
By JIM HOLT

Recently a school district in rural Pennsylvania officially recognized a supposed alternative to Darwinism. In a one-minute statement read by an administrator, ninth-grade biology students were told that evolution was not a fact and were encouraged to explore a different explanation of life called intelligent design.

What is intelligent design?

Its proponents maintain that living creatures are just too intricate to have arisen by evolution. Throughout the natural world, they say, there is evidence of deliberate design. Is it not reasonable, then, to infer the existence of an intelligent designer?

To evade the charge that intelligent design is a religious theory -- creationism dressed up as science -- its advocates make no explicit claims about who or what this designer might be. But students will presumably get the desired point.

As one Pennsylvania teacher observed:
''The first question they will ask is:
'Well, who's the designer? Do you mean God?'''

.

From a scientific perspective, one of the most frustrating things about intelligent design is that (unlike Darwinism) it is virtually impossible to test.

Old-fashioned biblical creationism at least risked making some hard factual claims -- that the earth was created before the sun, for example. Intelligent design, by contrast, leaves the purposes of the designer wholly mysterious. Presumably any pattern of data in the natural world is consistent with his/her/its existence.

But if we can't infer anything about the design from the designer, maybe we can go the other way.

What can we tell about the designer from the design? While there is much that is marvelous in nature, there is also much that is flawed, sloppy and downright bizarre. Some nonfunctional oddities, like the peacock's tail or the human male's nipples, might be attributed to a sense of whimsy on the part of the designer.

Others just seem grossly inefficient. In mammals,for instance, the recurrent laryngeal nerve does not go directly from the cranium to the larynx, the way any competent engineer would have arranged it. Instead, it extends down the neck to the chest, loops around a lung ligament and then runs back up the neck to the larynx.

In a giraffe, that means a 20-foot length of nerve where 1 foot would have done. If this is evidence of design, it it would seem to be of the unintelligent variety.

Such disregard for economy can be found throughout the natural order. Perhaps 99 percent of the species that have existed have died out. Darwinism has no problem with this, because random variation will inevitably produce both fit and unfit individuals. But what sort of designer would have fashioned creatures so out of sync with their environments that they were doomed to extinction?

The gravest imperfections in nature, though, are moral ones. Consider how humans and other animals are intermittently tortured by pain throughout their lives, especially near the end.

Our pain mechanism may have been designed to serve as a warning signal to protect our bodies from damage, but in the majority of diseases -- cancer, for instance, or coronary thrombosis -- the signal comes too late to do much good, and the horrible suffering that ensues is completely useless.

And why should the human reproductive system be so shoddily designed? Fewer than one third of conceptions culminate in live births. The rest end prematurely, either in early gestation or by miscarriage.

Nature appears to be an avid abortionist, which ought to trouble Christians who believe in both original sin and the doctrine that a human being equipped with a soul comes into existence at conception.

Souls bearing the stain of original sin, we are told, do not merit salvation. That is why, according to traditional theology, unbaptized babies have to languish in limbo for all eternity.

Owing to faulty reproductive design, it would seem that the population of limbo must be at least twice that of heaven and hell combined.

It is hard to avoid the inference that a designer responsible for such imperfections must have been lacking some divine trait -- benevolence or omnipotence or omniscience, or perhaps all three.

But what if the designer did not style each species individually? What if he/she/it merely fashioned the primal cell and then let evolution produce the rest, kinks and all? That is what the biologist and intelligent-design proponent Michael J. Behe has suggested.

Behe says that the little protein machines in the cell are too sophisticated to have arisen by mutation -- an opinion that his scientific peers overwhelmingly do not share. Whether or not he is correct, his version of intelligent design implies a curious sort of designer, one who seeded the earth with elaborately contrived protein structures and then absconded, leaving the rest to blind chance.

One beauty of Darwinism is the intellectual freedom it allows. As the arch-evolutionist Richard Dawkins has observed,
''Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.''

But Darwinism permits you to be an intellectually fulfilled theist, too. That is why Pope John Paul II was comfortable declaring that evolution has been ''proven true'' and that ''truth cannot contradict truth.''

If God created the universe wholesale rather than retail -- endowing it from the start with an evolutionary algorithm thatprogressively teased complexity out of chaos -- then imperfections in nature would be a necessary part of a beautiful process.

Of course proponents of intelligent design are careful not to use the G-word, because, as they claim, theirs is not a religiously based theory. Sobiology students can be forgiven for wondering whether the mysterious designer they're told about might not be the biblical God after all, but rather some very advanced yet mischievous or blundering intelligence -- extraterrestrial scientists, say. The important thing, as the Pennsylvania school administrator reminded them, is ''to keep an open mind.''

Jim Holt is a frequent contributor to the magazine.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

2005-02-28T03:58:00.000-08:00

Evolutionists are jumping on the comic book wagon, check it out.

Holy Evolution, Darwin! Comics Take On Science

2005-02-28T03:14:00.000-08:00

Quick note from previous blog about Michael Shermer

Here's a transcript for a debate with noted creationist Dr. Hugh Ross

And here's a debate to hear, in real audio that was held Boise State University, Idaho between Dr. Hugh Ross and Michael Shermer,that you can listen to by clicking here.

2005-02-28T02:43:00.000-08:00

Last week (Wednesday), 7 of us went to see Michael Shermer speak on his new book "Science Friction"at the Los Angeles Public Library, I found some interesting closing remarks about a debate he had with a Professor at Talbot Seminary,on "Does God Exist? Where Does the Evidence Point?" It was held at the Church of the Rocky Peak in Chatsworth, CA, in the northwestern end of the San Fernando Valley

Finding Meaning in a Pointless Universe

"I am often asked by believers why I abandoned Christianity and how I found meaning in the meaningless universe presented by science. The implication is that the scientific worldview is an existentially depressing one. Without God, I am bluntly told, what's the point? If this is all there is, there is no use. To the contrary. For me, and for many of my colleagues, quite the opposite is true. The conjuncture of losing my religion, finding science, and discovering contingency was remarkably empowering and liberating. It gave me a sense of joy and freedom. Freedom to think for myself. Freedom to take responsibility for my own actions. Freedom to construct my own meanings. With the knowledge that this may be all there is, I was free to live life to the fullest extent possible.

For me, and not just for me, a world absent monsters, ghosts, demons, and gods unfetters the mind to soar to new heights, to think unthinkable thoughts, to imagine the unimaginable, to contemplate infinity and eternity knowing that no one is looking back. The universe takes on a whole new meaning when you know that your place in it was not foreordained, that it was not designed for us, indeed, that it was not designed at all. If we are nothing more than star stuff, how special life becomes. How inspiring it is to share in the sublimity of knowledge generated by other human minds, and perhaps to even make a tiny contribution toward that body of knowledge that will be passed down through the ages, part of the cumulative wisdom of a single species on a tiny planet orbiting an ordinary star on the remote edge of a not-so-unusual galaxy, itself a member of a cluster of galaxies millions of light years from nowhere. For me, the Hubble Telescope Deep Field photograph WFPC2, revealing as never before the rich density of galaxies in our neck of the universe (and reprinted in countless magazines, including the cover of Skeptic, Vol. 4, No.2), is as grand a statement about the sacred as any medieval cathedral.

Skeptics and scientists cannot experience the numinous? Nonsense. You do not need a spiritual power to experience the spiritual. You do not need to be mystical to appreciate the mystery. When I stood in Chartres cathedral with my soul mate, lit candles, and promised each other our eternal love, it was a more sacred moment than any I ever experienced. My unencumbered soul was free to love without constraint, free to use my senses to enjoy all the pleasures and endure all the pains that come with such love. I was enfranchised for life, emancipated from the bonds of restricting tradition, and unyoked from the rules written for another time in another place for another people. I was now free to try to live up to that exalted moniker--Homo sapiens--wise man."

To read more of this transcript check out. http://www.baptistwatch.org/content/shermer.html

2005-02-22T12:38:00.000-08:00

Recently, Arthur Miller, the great playright died.

Last week they had several past interviews shown on Charlie Rose that proved to be really quite interesting...

One particular question that Arthur Miller answered proved to be really telling.

Charlie Rose asked

"If all of the famous writers, playrights, like Chekov, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neil, Shakespeare and other greats from other times and nationalities were put on a pedestal, what would they share in common?"

Arthur Miller replied,

"I personally think that what the big ones have in common is a fierce moral sensibility, which is unquenchable and they are all burning with the same anger at the way the world is.

The little ones have made a peace with it, and the bigger ones can't make any peace. "

Gman's edit: NPR's got a series of Arthur Miller stories.

2005-02-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

I find this site fantastic...

Renewing my faith in Public Radio, Last week they had a great segment on Moral Man and Immoral Society. Its about 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.

Reinhold Niebuhr wrote the famous Serenity Prayer that is recited today by millions, but in his time he was one of America's most influential thinkers and activists.

His ideas about history, war and politics were heeded by religious and atheist Americans alike.

In our time, there are calls on the left and the right for a "Niebuhr of our day".

Check it out. He was a friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/niebuhr/

Here's a interesting quote for you to ponder over by Niebuhr.

"Religions grow out of the real experience in which tragedy mingles with beauty and man learns that the moral values which dignify his life are embattled in his own soul and imperiled in the world."

2005-02-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

Heh. Proving conclusively, once-and-for-all which is mightier, the pen, or the sword?

"GoogleFIGHT!"

This is a site that pits the search returns on Google against one another. And in Google land, the one with the most search results wins!

-G-