Stanford Limits Freshman Access to Alcohol

Beginning next year, Stanfords all-freshman dorms will no longer be allowed to serve alcohol at events in their lounges, hallways or outdoor areas.

I was both tickled and saddened when I read the news in the Stanford Daily today: Stanford To Ban Alcohol At All-Freshman Dorm Events.

Beginning next year, Stanfords all-freshman dorms will no longer be allowed to serve alcohol at events in their lounges, hallways or outdoor areas.

Seems reasonable to me, especially since almost all freshmen are way under 21 and therefore are not allowed to drink alcohol. Nonetheless, the move produced controversy: Junior Nic Kanaan, a resident assistant in Otero, said he believes the policy will have unintended negative consequences. “I think this new policy will make a kind of introverted drinking culture that could potentially be more dangerous, because its behind closed doors and you cant see whats going on…”

Fortunately, the university simply reiterated its logically compelling position: Administrators counter that allowing drinking in freshman dormitories is illegal, detracts from efforts to create a safe and comfortable atmosphere and has failed to prevent serious alcohol-related incidents among freshmen in recent years.

Personally, I can’t believe this is even an issue. It just seems clear to me that the university is obligated to prevent illegal behavior.…

John W Templeton Student Internship

Student Internship
John Templeton Foundation
Radnor, PA

The John Templeton Foundation and its new Division, Templeton Venture Philanthropy Associates, is seeking a student intern for the summer of 2003.

The Foundation awards grants around the globe for projects that involve science and religion, spirituality and well-being, character development in youth, and free enterprise. A flavor of some of this work is on the Foundations website. Suitably qualified students might assist in a range of research-related tasks that might include searches of the WWW, statistical analyses, project design and day-to-day management, survey administration, and econometric modeling. Interns work a minimum of 10 hours per week to a maximum of 40 hours. Compensation will be determined based on background and whether academic credit is being sought.

Interested students should send a brief resume highlighting skills and work experience and a short cover letter in Word format to Marta Oliver at moliver@templeton.org. Questions may also be directed to this e‑mail address. Please do not call the Foundation.

My Week At A Glance

Running around with my head cut off.

Last weekend I promised my dad that I’d put some personal news on the site, and I’ve been not doing that ever since. Sorry!

Last weekend was pretty neat: Paula and I got to share in two churches: Cameron Park Christian Center and Lakeview Assembly. They were both quite cool in different ways. It wasn’t even that much driving–they’re within two hours or so of one another!

The work week was pretty busy: the students returned from spring break, and I really felt that I needed to talk about the war head-on. What good is faith if it doesn’t inform your everyday view of the world?

At the same time, I don’t think it’s my job to tell people what to think; rather, I’m to help them learn to think in a Biblical way. So I opted to talk about the subject of warfare in general, what we should think about it, and what we should do in a time of war. All that to say, I had a lot of prep work to do!

I put my notes on the group website so they could follow up on some references I made.

As usual, we went to the Stanford Coffeehouse afterward and stayed up for far too long talking.

Wednesday I made a TON of phone calls. My ear still hurts (not really).

Thursday Paula and I decided to have some students over for a home-cooked meal and we stayed up entirely too late talking (notice the pattern).

Friday I was sick (no doubt due to the aforementioned pattern).

Which brings me to today. I got sunburn on my ears. I hope they don’t peel too visibly while I’m preaching tomorrow–I bet that would be distracting.

Genes and God: Contrasting Perspectives

London’s Telegraph had an unusually balanced article on how leading scientists think about God.

The occasion? The 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA.
The players? Watson & Crick (discoverers of DNA, both atheists) and Francis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project, devout Christian).

In Crick’s mind, “The god hypothesis is rather discredited.” Indeed, he says his distaste for religion was one of his prime motives in the work that led to the sensational 1953 discovery.

“I went into science because of these religious reasons, there’s no doubt about that. I asked myself what were the two things that appear inexplicable and are used to support religious beliefs: the difference between living and nonliving things, and the phenomenon of consciousness.”

And according to Watson, “Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely,” said Watson. “Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditionally to be the exclusive property of the gods might one day be ours.”

But Collins (who has succeeded Watson as head of the Human Genome Project), believes that religion and science “are nicely complementary and mutually supporting”, he said. As one example, his research to find the faulty gene responsible for cystic fibrosis provided scientific exhilaration and “a sense of awe at uncovering something that God knew before that we humans didn’t”.

“The tragedy is that many people believe that, if evolution is true, which it clearly is, then God can’t be true… God decided to create a species with whom he could have fellowship. Who are we to say that evolution was a dumb way to do it? It was an incredibly elegant way to do it.”

“Jim, who I know much better than Francis, avoids bringing this topic up when we are having a conversation.”

The article concludes with what I found to be a sadly amusing story of Crick’s antipathy to faith. You really ought to read the whole thing.

Just a Little Botox For the Site Header

I just redesigned the site header–if I did it correctly it should allow the page to load faster even though the header is larger and more complex.

I just redesigned the site header–if I did it correctly it should allow the page to load faster even though the header is larger and more complex.

Please let me know if you have any problems, because I’ve been doing some experimentation in Flash and I’m definitely at the beginning of the learning curve.

UPDATE: I’m getting some weird results from the individual entries–I’m hoping it’s just a cache problem. I’ll take a look at it again in the morning. Even if it’s doing what it seems to be doing it doesn’t make the site unuseable (just ugly).

The World Has Gone Crazy…

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn’t want to go to war.

I found this quote on Andrew Careaga’s blog, and I had to repeat it:

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn’t want to go to war.

We live in interesting times…

Some Remarkable Stanford Alumni In The News

Four Stanford alumni in news that has absolutely nothing to do with the war.

FYI: This has absolutely nothing to do with the war currently raging in Iraq. Go to http://news.google.com/ if you want up-to-the-minute info.

I just ran across four Stanford alumni:

The President of Peru Alejandro Toledo is a Stanford grad who will be speaking at the 2003 Stanford graduation ceremonies. He has three degrees from Stanford: two masters and one doctorate. read all about it

CNN anchorwoman Daryn Kagan graduated in 1985. She’ll be covering the Oscars. read all about it

Two of Stanford’s own will be helping investigate the Columbia space shuttle explosion. Nobel laureate Douglas Osheroff and Sally Ride (who also helped investigate the Challenger disaster). read all about it

They were once students here just as the students Paula and I minister to today. Touch a student, touch the future. Touch the future, change the world…

The Luck of the Irish

As you are no doubt aware, last night was St. Patrick’s day. Coincidentally, we were in Dublin, CA talking with the missions board of Valley Christian Center.

As you are no doubt aware, yesterday was St. Patrick’s day. Coincidentally, we were in Dublin, CA talking with the missions board of Valley Christian Center.

Anyway, they blessed our socks off. Thanks so much to the the missions board, the church they represent, and to pastor Ray Noah!

And I didn’t even have to kiss the blarney stone (although I did wear green–I figured that in a town named Dublin with little shamrocks painted on every street sign it was probably a good idea to wear green lest I be pinched mercilessly).

Great Software For Missionaries

If you’re a missionary responsible for raising the funds necessary for your ministry, download TntMPD. It’s a free tool created by Campus Crusade for Christ to help missionaries reach full funding. It’s remarkable, and I invite you to experiment with it yourself.

If you’re a missionary responsible for raising the funds necessary for your ministry, download TntMPD. It’s a free tool created by Campus Crusade for Christ to help missionaries reach full funding. It’s remarkable, and I invite you to experiment with it yourself.