Category: Of Random Interest

We’re Geniuses (With A Preference For Bright Colors)

Our neighbor just referred to Paula and I as geniuses.

Which is something, given that she has a Ph.D. in early American history and her hubbie has one in electrical engineering.

I suspect the compliment was more in reference to Paula’s practical wisdom than anything else, but I’m still going to be telling all my friends that my genius neighbors think we’re smart, too. 😉

Now if only I can get Pablo to come around–he’s the other Ph.D. neighbor and he’s not quite convinced that I’m sane. His wife, Sri, has a great respect for Paula, though.

The lesson learned: Paula makes me look good and I should keep her.

The other lesson reinforced: there sure are a lot of people with doctorates around here (in fact, 1/3 of adult Menlo Park residents have at least a master’s degree).

Why Not Atheism?

I noticed that the webpage Why Atheism? is very popular on Populicious and so I decided to give it a look. There’s a lot of legitimate criticism that can be leveled against Christianity and against the philosophical arguments that many Christians use to explain their faith, and so I always seek to learn from sites like this. And I did learn a little.

But mostly, I was just shocked at how poor the level of argumentation was. Given that the page is so popular, I figured it would be a “best of breed” example.

‘Fraid not.

His arguments are mostly against positions that most thoughtful Christians (at least, the ones I interact with) don’t actually hold. I don’t have time to compose a detailed rebuttal of his essay (actually a transcribed speech), but as I have spoken on the general theme before I can highlight some inadequacies.

  • We don’t claim that our mystical experiences should be as convincing to others as they are to us. But we do assert that they are available to you and should be included in the evidence you consider.
  • We believe in the Big Bang. Our question is, what went bang? In other words, the Big Bang explains a lot about the state of the universe today, but it doesn’t tell us where it itself came from. All that it tells us is that the universe had a beginning, and our argument is that there was also a beginner who must be fundamentally different than the universe which was begun. He rebuts some weak versions of this argument, but there are much stronger versions to interact with (such as those offered by William Lane Craig).
  • A lot of Christians believe in one of the many theories of evolution. In fact, I’d say most of the well-educated Christians that I know are quite certain that the earth is billions of years old and that species change over time. They’re divided on whether or not naturalistic explanations adequately explain the origin of life. It would be nice for our cause if such explanations could be shown to be inadequate, but it’s hardly essential.
  • His response to the argument from morality misses the point completely. We don’t claim that people can’t invent moral systems–it’s obvious that they do so all the time. The central claim we are making is that morality is only meaningful as a concept if there is more to reality than matter and the forces that operate upon it. Moreover, we assert that any moral system which ignores this is necessarily arbitrary and inadequate.
  • The claim that there is no evidence Jesus ever existed is so ridiculous I’m tempted not to respond to it, but given that it is being recited with discouraging frequency I’ll direct your attention to a list of extrabiblical, nonChristian witnesses to Jesus who wrote before 200 A.D..
  • Since what seems to be driving his site is a fear that Christians have some plan to install some sort of theocratic government in America, I’d just like to make it clear that we believe in a separation of church and state–because the state corrupts the church. And besides, it’s a Biblical idea (1 Tim 2:1–2 — a prayer that the government would leave Christians the heck alone).

Anyway, he says a lot more in his essay. I certainly haven’t responded to it all, nor have I responded thoroughly to what I did take time to respond to. It’s mostly the same-old, same-old stuff you hear if you’ve done any investigation at all into the existence of God (there is evil therefore God’s attributes are contradictory, the Bible is stupid, religion always opposes progress, etc, etc).

If those arguments bother you a lot then dig around on the sites I linked to above and also listen to some of the relevant lectures at Veritas.org. There are reasonable answers to people’s questions.

Anyway, I guess I was just shocked that this page is so popular. I expected better of it.

Superfluity of Naughtiness

I rarely look at the King James translation, but today I happened to glance at it while preparing for a conference:

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. James 1:21, KJV

That’s right: we are to avoid a superfluity of naughtiness.

What beautiful phrasing.

Campus Ministry at the Ivies

One of our alumni, Elizabeth, emailed me this fascinating NYT article: On a Christian Mission to the Top. It’s an article about ministry at the Ivy League schools focusing on a group called Christian Union

. There’s a related NPR story.

I really appreciate their vision. I’ve often thought that someone ought to establish evangelical ministry centers at the top tier universities, so I’m glad to see that they’re running with it.

Anyway, this paragraph leapt out at me:

By the 1970’s, Assemblies churches were sprouting up in affluent suburbs across the country. Recent surveys by Margaret Poloma, a historian at the University of Akron in Ohio, found Assemblies members more educated and better off than the general public.

I’m speechless.

The Assemblies of God and education are not two concepts that are often linked in the minds of the populace at large (with reason, I might add: I’ve actually heard these words uttered at a ministerial gathering with absolutely no hint of humor, “The problem with the Assemblies is all this eddikashun.” Moreover, I saw several heads nod in agreement). Perhaps that instance has unfairly tainted my perceptions of the movement as a whole, but I’ve never been particularly impressed with our intellectual prowess in the Assemblies.

On the flip side, one of our AG ministers in San Francisco is a Harvard grad who lives in a bus and ministers to the homeless. And of my three district officials (bishop-equivalents) one has his doctorate and another just needs to finish his dissertation. A pastor I know in the San Joaquin valley was once nominated for a Pulitzer. Come to think of it, I know lots of sharp, well-educated ministers and even more sharp, well-educated laypeople.

I just always assumed they were a minority. I should really rethink that.

Trailer for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Shaowei just emailed me the link for the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe trailer

pathology divx movie online

.

It was stunning. I can’t believe how good it was from a purely cinematic perspective.

And from a theological perspective it looks as though they’re keeping way more of Lewis’ symbolism than I thought possible. “In this house there are many rooms” “only one door leads to another world”… those are explicitly Biblical allusions.

The Apex of Geek Humor?

Sean Wat has emailed me what may well be the apex of geek humor: the Klein Four Group performing “Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)” (Windows media file)

I’m not sure whether it’s cooler in my context to pretend that I get the parts that I don’t or that I don’t get the parts that I do…

I think that says a lot about me, my context, and society at large.

Dave Barry on France

I stumbled across this cheeky little observation at Glenn Vanderburg’s Quotations page:

[The French] have always hated us, of course … but now they REALLY hate us, because our culture has become so dominant that they’re having trouble completing so much as a single sentence without using American words. They’re always blurting out statements like: Le software de la hardware est un humdinger! And then they get so mad that they could spit.

I searched and discovered that it’s from one of the funniest Dave Barry columns I’ve seen.