Evolution is like a Muscadine Vine & Jab at Dennett's Skyhook Metaphor

Been reading back through A Third Window: Natural Life Beyond Darwin and Newton by Robert Ulanowicz. It is a difficult book. I recognize a kernel of value in many of the things he says but I'm not knowledgeable of things in depth enough to connect the dots in many of his arguments. But here I present a useful idea.

One of today's most strident reductionists is Daniel Dennett who says that evolution is a series of machine cranes stacked up on one another and that no skyhook (God) is involved. Here's what Robert says

Overall, however, I eschew his metaphor as misleading. Like Elsasser and Bateson, I believe that many, if not most , mechanical analogies are procrustean, minimalist distortions of the dynamics of living systems. Paraphrasing the analogy of Oliver Penrose (2005), living dynamics only look rosy (mechanical) because most insist on looking at them through rosy (Newtonian) glasses.

Robert describes an observation from his muscadine grapevines that grow in his garden. The vines grow up from the ground to two levels of horizontal support wires and spread sideways. Eventually, at some point, they send down roots at other locations. Next, the original trunk dies.

It struck me like lightning that here was a more appropriate metaphor for the dynamics of evolution! The muscadine plant represents an evolving system across several hierarchical levels. No skyhooks are involved because the system always remains in contact with a foundation of bottom-up causalities that remain necessary to the narrative. ... later, higher structures create new connections that eventually replace and/or displace their earlier counterparts. Such displacement is a key element in solving the enigma of how emergent structures and dynamics can influence matters at lower levels that had played a role in their own appearance.

To read more you can google-book it over to circa page 100 for further details.

The above provides me with an analogy/metaphor that can begin to explain how human thoughts can control physical body actions. We are provided with a way out of bottom up causality. And, Laplace's conjecture can be tossed aside. This is one aspect of an emergent explanation for our existence. Emergence, for me, is a useful concept for reconciling science and religion.

The Biologos Foundation

Francis Collins and friends have a presence on the web known as the Biologos Foundation.

"We believe that faith and science both lead to truth about God and creation."

and

The BioLogos Foundation promotes the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms seeking harmony between these different perspectives.


They discuss what role God has in evolution HERE. Some prominent Christian thinkers are referred to at the web site including Alistair McGrath, John Barrow, Timothy Keller (who has a hit on his hands with The Reason for God), and Ron Numbers.

LifeSpirals

I've been a member of the Stone-Campbell listserve for about 10 years and Harold K. Straughn is likewise a member. His early life involved time at Abilene Christian University and the Herald of Truth. Following many life adventures he is now a Disciples of Christ minister. His book LifeSpirals arrived yesterday. I think I'm gonna like it. Here's what's at Amazon:

Product Description
LifeSpirals assimilates revolutionary discoveries in brain research, learning techniques, and the new field of "wisdom psychology." More than just a self help book, LifeSpirals guides readers through the seven major stages of adult learning that mark the achievements of history's greatest leaders. All the reader needs to maximize his/her own achievement is a greater awareness of how to make use of what he/she knows, which lies buried among your early memories. LifeSpirals shows the reader how to access these lost memories and reconstitute them into a new vision for his/her life that can make the boldest dreams so far seem like tame compromises.

Review of Wilber's The Marriage of Sense and Soul

In October of 1999 I attended a conference at Purdue University on pressure sensitive paints (I spoke on a related topic: temperature sensitive paint) and one evening spent some time in a Barnes and Noble bookstore looking for something interesting. I came across Ken Wilber's The Marriage of Sense and Soul. It had a definite effect on me and initiated my journey toward an appreciation of the postmodern. Here is a review of the book. I recommend the review but, interestingly, what I took away from the book that was important to me was not discussed in the review. It was where I learned about the Great Chain of Being and the principle of emergence. Here for a Wikipedia explanation. It might not seem to follow but it does. The book prepared me for A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren.

Visuwords

Visuwords TM is an online graphical dictionary and thesaurus tool that I discovered through Stumble! It appears to be a great way to improve vocabulary and word useage.

The Case for Working With Your Hands

Marvelous article, The Case for Working With Your Hands, by a young scholar who is now a motorcycle mechanic.

For me, at least, there is more real thinking going on in the bike shop than there was in the think tank.

I make my living as an engineer and can identify with some of this.

Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud

From an NYT editorial.

Reading aloud recaptures the physicality of words. To read with your lungs and diaphragm, with your tongue and lips, is very different than reading with your eyes alone. The language becomes a part of the body, which is why there is always a curious tenderness, almost an erotic quality, in those 18th- and 19th-century literary scenes where a book is being read aloud in mixed company. The words are not mere words. They are the breath and mind, perhaps even the soul, of the person who is reading.

The only reading aloud I experience is the scripture reading at church and in Bible classes. It seems we are afraid to show depth of feeling when we do that. Its as if we are trying to set some kind of speed reading record.

A Scientist's Postive Use of 'Postmodern Constructivism'

Robert Ulanowicz's view of postmodernism from page 10 of his introduction to A Third Window: Natural Life Beyond Newton and Darwin

He promises to write in the spirit of "postmodern constructivism". About which he says:

However, a relative few among the postmodernists are picking up elements from among the rubble left by deconstructionists and using them to build new ways of visualizing reality. Although narrative no longer requires that one abide by all the Enlightenment restrictions, neither should one forsake rationality in the process. Viewed in a poisitive light, the postmodern critique frees the investigator to search among classical, Enlightenment, and contemporary thought for concepts that can be woven into a coherent rational whole."

This book promises to be pretty good.

Origins of Political Correctness

From page 145 How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith by Crystal Downing.



"Maintaining binaries - sometimes by inverting them - is so easy that many of Derrida's followers strayed from deconstruction by stumbling into "political correctness". Welcoming his message that those traditionally marginalized by dominant culture - gays, blacks, women - should be given voice, these followers missed Derrida's point and merely inverted the heiarchy, repudiating straight white males. As postmodern theologian Mark C. Taylor stated in his obituary for Derrida, " Betraying Mr. Derrida's insights by creating a culture of political correctness, his self-styled supporters fueled the culture wars that have been raging for more than two decades and continue to frame political debate." In contrast, Derrida argued that "it is necessary to recognize the unavoidable limitations and inherent contradictions in the ideas and norms that guide our actions, and do so in a way that keeps them open to constant questioning and continual revision. There can be no ethical action without critical reflection."

Yes, I think perhaps we should be open to and practice constant questioning and make continual revision and correction of ourselves.

Two New Books

How Postmodernism Servies My Faith







Third Window

Neat Insight into Blogging/Twittering & Real Life

So many good blogs and so little time. I need to get to work but here's a neat snippet from Ambivablog

VI. I still don't think the Internet is a bad drug. On the contrary. The blogosphere and the Twitterverse are places of amazing ferment: a hive mind to which each brings a dab of nectar; a teeming sourdough starter for the next culture. Their genius -- and their jonesiness -- is being at once a place to chatter and brag and play for laughs, as comes so naturally to us tribal primates, and a place of contagion and mutation, an agora where ideas cross-fertilize as fast as viruses swap genes.

It's just that, like anything, it isn't everything. And when it starts to become everything, it's time to turn off, tune out, and drop in. Real life is the mother lode. The more you go there, the more you'll have to bring back.

Ezekiel in a Nutshell

Ezekiel left Jerusalem in 597 BC, taken captive by Babylon.

In about 593 BC he receives his vision of the "chariot" and call to his vocation.

Half way through the book, the major event is the destruction of Jerusalem in about 586 BC.

He puts down his last vision about 571 BC

Major Message: Bad news for folks in Jerusalem

A contrast with Jeremiah: J is emotional and expresses his emotions. He feels. E is not like that. He does not use the words lovingkindness, graciousness, forgiveness, compassion.

Where Jeremiah is disorganized chronologically and a hodgepodge of different genres and sections, Ezekiel's book is the most organized of the prophets.

Jeremiah and the other prophets before him were recorded by others.

Ezekiel actually wrote all or most of the book himself. It is mostly prose. You can sit down and read it and make sense. That is very difficult to do with much of the other prophetic writing. There, one is required to do background study and consultation with commentaries and scholars in order to make any sense of it. The poetic language and oracles take a lot of effort. Of course, it is good to do all of that with Ezekiel too.

He uses "I" a lot. But still he is more detached emotionally. As an example, God does not allow him to express the normal emotions when his wife dies. No mourning or showing sorrow. It is meant to convey how the same will of necessity happen in Jerusalem.

The book of Ezekiel is the best dated of all the prophets. He is careful to give dates quite often.

In the book, there are four major visions, 12 symbolic acts, and 5 parables according to one source I read somewhere.

One theme "Then you shall know I am the Lord" occurs some 65 times.

One important teaching that emerges from E is the responsibility of the individual. Ezekiel 18:20 - the soul that sins shall die. The father is held accountable for the sins of the son and vice versa.

Outline

Chapters 1 - 24 The impending doom to befall Jerusalem.

Chapters 25-32 Oracles against other nations

Chapters 33-39 Oracles of consolation for Israel

Chapters 40-48 The Vision of the New Temple

Ezekiel is distinctive for his visionary experiences. And he gives vivid details.

The vision of the chariot eventually served to ignite Merkabah Mysticism among some Jewish thinkers. The rabbi's reserved the study of this part of Ezekiel only to the mature and properly apprenticed.

Something I think needs to be explored: the apostle Paul's relationship to Jewish mysticism.

The most macabre writing of all the Bible: The Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones.

An obvious effect on the New Testament: clear references in Revelation eg. where Gog and Magog are discussed (see Ezek. 38)

The last section gives a vision of a New Temple and one can almost make a blueprint from it. Then, in rhapsody, he describes a river flowing from the Temple to the east to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea will begin to host life, fish will thrive. And fruit trees in the desert will grow and produce fruit monthly. Oh what a day that will be. I think this must connect with the gospel of John 4 and John 7 where we have reference to "streams of living water". Rather than physical it is spiritual. Ezekiel must have meant that as well.

Science and the Coming of Christ

OK, I'm gonna leave the postmodern theme of the last couple of posts. Remembering, after all, a lot of it has rightly been called "fashionable nonsense".

I've been fascinated by the book Christology and Science by LeRon Shults and came across this interesting quote that explains what Teilhard de Chardin was up to:

As in our case study on the incarnation and evolutionary biology, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin stands out as one of the early courageous voices to engage these cosmological shifts; many other proposals at the intersection of these sciences have engaged his work to some extent. As a theologian Teilhard wanted to think through the implications of the Pauline idea that Christ will incorporate all things in himself and bring them into relation to the Father so that God will be "all in all" (ICor 15; cf. Eph 1:10 Col. 1:20), and to express this in a way that illuminates our scientific understanding of an evolving universe." page 140.

Some of the relevant Bible passages are below.

Ephesians 1:10

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (NIV)


Colossians 1:19-20

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (NIV)


We discussed de Chardin in a class back at Harding many years ago and I remember wondering at the time where he possibly got his idea. I can perceive where this is coming from a little better now.

Modern versus Postmodern Science

I'm seeing this kind of thing more often now. This is lifted from The Postmodern Adventure (see previous post). This author makes a distinction between "modern" science and the type of science that is now developing. According to this type of thinking (and I think they are on to something) the mechanistic science exemplified by Isaac Newton which co-developed with the industrial revolution is giving way to something else, a science characterized as follows:

Many scientists and cosmologists began forsaking modern models of the universe for new paradigms that reject atomistic logic for relational understanding and replace static laws with history and evolution. The new cosmological theories also abandon necessity for contingency, go beyond the logic of simplicity and determinism for new theories of complexity and self-organization, and renounce realism in favor of a hermeneutic approach to scientific understanding. p137

...what is remarkable is the general fact that science, which has done so much to alienate human beings from nature, is now in a position to help reconnect us with the cosmos as it advances ecological and life-sensitive values and challenges modern theories of mechanism, determinism, reductionism, and dualism. p. 139



Could it be that finally, science is now making room for the Spirit?

Gravity's Rainbow and a Postmodern St. Paul

In the year 1976, for reasons I do not remember, I bought and read "Gravity's Rainbow". I'd just completed my course work and qualifying exam for my degree and just getting started on my research. The book was interminably long, disjointed, with a cast of characters I couldn't keep up with and plots within plots, and short vignettes thrown in just for fun, and allusions to a great many things. Thomas Pynchon, the author, covered a lot of ground. But not only was he verbally gifted, he had some education in engineering physics, which it so happens was the degree I was pursuing. Science and technology references and inside jokes were a part of the narrative and it was fun to follow that aspect of the book.

I knew that my comphrehension of the book was greatly lacking. Occasionally through the years, (that was 1/3 of a century ago!), I'd think about getting back to it and re-reading.

When I ordered The Postmodern Adventure: Science, Technology and Cultural Studies at the end of the Third Millenium I was hoping to learn more about how the postmodern turn to things affects science and technology, after all, that is how I make my living and I'm trying to keep up. I discovered upon receiving the book that the authors devote quite a bit of space to a chapter called Thomas Pynchon and the Advent of Postmodernity. And Gravity's Rainbow is presented as something which "vividly illuminates a phase between the modern and the postmodern. ... In addition, Pynchon's texts exhibit the postmodern turn in the arts, science, and theory, as he cultivates a mode of postmodern writing, epistemology, and vision." p.23


The authors describe how Pynchon presents a character ,Mr. Pointsman, who represents the old "modern" way of thinking, those who condense the world down to a Pavlovian model of stimulus response and a character, Roger Mexico, who is counter to that (postmodern was not a term of use then.) Below is lifted from The Postmodern Adventure (blue) which also contains quotes from Gravity's Rainbow (GR)(in red). The pronoun "His" refers to Pointsman.

"His faith ultimately lay in a pure physiological basis for the life of the psyche. No effect without cause, and a clear train of linkages. Mexico answers that "there's a feeling about that cause-and-effect may have been taken as far as it will go. That for science to carry on at all, it must look for a less narrow, a less ... sterile set of assumptions. The next great breakthrough may come when we have the courage to junk cause-and-effect entirely, and strike off at some other angle" That "other angle" leads to a postmodern science that suspends the modern paradigm for less determinist models."... Thus, GR signals that randomness is a fundamental part of existence, and that underlying connections may not be perceivable or even accessible to the diligent investigator." p 41

Cause and Effect. That is what technology is based on isn't it? My technical training, in my Harding University physics classes and my U. of VA engineering classes directed us to model the world using deterministic equations. Can there be any effect if there is no cause? Can there be free will? What IS free will? This has always vexed me. Still don't have the answer to that. But, Mexico is right, randomness is not an accident, randomness is a fundamental part of reality. It is necessary to the evolution of the universe since the Big Bang and necessary to the evolution of life on this planet. It is necessary for our continuing lives. Randomness, interconnectedness, non-deterministic thinking. These are qualities of more importance to our everyday, postmodern story we are now living. And I'm glad. Breaking out of the cause/effect prison gives meaning/validation to the spiritual side of life.

And now, I know what your are thinking. This is clearly what the apostle Paul was writing about in what we know as the 2nd epistle to the Corinthians where we read:

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter (binary 0/1, yes/no, unyielding sets of rules, instrumental rationalism, determinate physical law) kills, but the Spirit gives life. II Cor 3:6 NIV

GraceConversations

A blog discussion between different perspectives within the Church of Christ is GraceConversations. It is

"A conversation regarding the disagreements that separate the conservative and progressive branches of the churches of Christ"

and they ask

"Please help us publicize this conversation as widely as possible within the Churches of Christ — among all elements of the Churches.

If you participate in a Christian forum or maintain a blog, please post a notice iniviting readers to read and comment. For this sort of dialogue to truly work well, it needs the broadest circulation possible.

Thanks."

update april 02 2009

Trekked to Raleigh this past weekend for round 3 of NCAA. Saw my niece play her last game for Baylor. Parents followed us home. Dad wasn't feeling well and the next day was diagnosed with pneumonia. Have been very busy at work. Will be a few more days before posting.

Excited about Emergence

I am excited about emergence. Check this clip from Philip Clayton over at Mike's Progression of Faith.

God of the Gaps/Finding God in What We Know

This is cited from an Answers.com article on God of the Gaps

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said

"...how wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. If in fact the frontiers of knowledge are being pushed further and further back (and that is bound to be the case), then God is being pushed back with them, and is therefore continually in retreat. We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don't know. God wants us to realize his presence, not in unsolved problems but in those that are solved.(1) and (2)



(1) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997 (ISBN 978-0-684-83827-4) "Letter to Eberhard Bethge", 29 May 1944, pages 310-312.

(2) The last sentence comes from this talk at Calvin College's Christian Perspectives in Science Seminar Series.

Job, Augustine, Nietsche, and Kierkegaard - Truth

The book of Job, we are told, is about the problem of suffering. Why do bad things happen to good people and vice versa if God is Good? So what, in a nutshell, is the answer that Job gives?

Job does not give us and answer that can be summarized in a nutshell.

I am a modern person accustomed to filtering and distilling information in order to arrive at a succinct and useable conclusion. I often need an easily stated and justified rationale for spouse and employer for decisions and requests. In my occupation as an R&D engineer (a quintessential Enlightenment discipline) I couldn't function without this way of thinking.

So why didn't the author of Job trash chapters 3-41 and replace it with one chapter that gives the standard answer? Which is that if you are good, you will go to heaven and experience bliss for eternity thereby making any suffering endured in a short life insignificant. End of proof, QED.

Evidently such would not have been the right thing to write because we do have these chapters with relentless complaint about pains physical and mental, grasping for explanation, elaboration of images and arguments and wrestling with living in the present world.

And near the end of it all what does God say by way of answer?

Look at the world! It is great isn't it? Aren't the stars, mountains, rocks, rivers, and animals way cool? I think they are. You don't know how I did it do you?

Is this a direct answer to Job's suffering? God does not spell it out to Job, nor to us. And it is not direct because the most important truths cannot be directly stated. It calls to mind my June 4, 2008 blog post which presents a Karl Jasper's lecture quote about Nietsche and Kierkegaard and their use of what he calls Masks.

For them masks necessarily belong to the truth. Indirect communication becomes for them the sole way of communicating genuine truth, indirect communication, as expression, is appropriate to the ambiguity of genuine truth in temporal existence, in which process it must be grasped through sources in every Existenz.

And this correlates with a post by Fr. Stephen's blog titled Augustinian Surprises. He starts with quotes from Augustine.

God is He Whom we know best in not knowing Him. - St. Augustine

It is He about Whom we have no knowledge unless it be to know how we do not know Him. - St. Augustine

I have come to a greater appreciation of paradox, contradiction, and mystery. It seems that the further east one travels within the Christian geographical world, the greater is the appreciation fo rthis sentiment. The Orthodox tradition of "apophaticism" emphasizes the unknowability of God as a means of, paradoxically, understanding God. Further West, Protestants and especially the Evangelical types are taught the facts. We must understand everything and make it fit in tight logical bundles. The syllogism quickly wraps up the issues at hand. List the classical proofs of God and we are done. Little about mystery and the indirect.

How to Enjoy the Book of Job

Remember that most of the book is poetry. The introduction that sets up the story is prose. The last chapter is prose. In between, we do not have a logical and rational development of the problem of evil. No, we have an ancient middle eastern love for coming at a problem with a profusion of colorful images and metaphors. The same thing is sometimes repeated but in different combinations and permutations.

The author, whoever they were, lived in our world and loved it. They were not a denier of the flesh as some would be in the early Christian centuries. God and all the interlocutors draw upon what we call the natural world for many of their lessons. Notice how God loves his creation and describes the activities of creatures he has created. He derives much joy from them.

The book is about sense. Imagery from and about all the senses is there. Among his many ills, Job complains about not being able to taste.

We men often have difficulty with expressing ourselves, what we see and how we feel. Job, Jeremiah, and the other prophets are ancient examples of men who expended great effort and spoke from out of the depths of their being. They were not evidently afraid to tell God they hurt and they did not like what He was putting them through. These guys were emotional. They were generally way ahead of contemporary ancient literature in this.

Happy Thoughts on the Book of Job: Nature and Theodicy

My assignment for our Sunday Night Bible Study was Job. Now when you think of Job or you hear that occasional reference to him in a religious setting, you don't usually break out and sing "I'm Happy Today" or "I've Got the Joy Joy Joy Down in my Heart." Or do you?

But in preparation for the class I found something that did make me feel good and start me thinking down a positive and uplifting path. I came across an article by Harry Hahne titled Nature and Theodicy in the Book of Job. His web site links to it.

Here's the opening:

The book of Job has more to say about nature than any other biblical wisdom book. Concepts of nature are woven into the dialogs throughout the book -- in the mouth of Job, Job’s friends, God himself, and in the prologue. Much of the theology of nature is in the form of implicit assumptions that inform the book’s teachings on many subjects.

More later. The morning is moving on, 5:14 am, and I need to get to work.

Experiential Versus Creedal Religion

From Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing by Jordan Stratford.

Gnosticism is an experiential, not creedal, religion - you can't simply announce that you agree with a list of ideas and be saved from the illusion of our separation from God.

While I have some problems with aspects of gnosticism (a catch all term that covers a wide range of sometimes disparate things) I see some value in this statement. The lists of ideas to believe in serve for boundary maintenance between those outside and inside the approved group. They become internalized so that they become crucial to a person's very identity.

With this I promise to move to more positive and uplifting rather than critical comments in the near future.

Theology and Propositional Statements

Theology has too often given in to the temptation to allow propositional statements about Jesus to function as idols, distracting us from what he himself taught - a way of life that rightly orients us to God and our neighbors.

from the Reforming Christology chapter of F. LeRon Shults "Christology and Science".

Some Gnostic Plato

This gnosis is not something that can be put into words like other sciences; but after long-continued conversation between teacher and pupil, in joint pursuit of the subject, suddenly, like light flashing forth when a fire is kindled, it is born in the soul and straightaway nourishes itself.
---- Plato, Seventh letter

Lifted this from Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing by Jordan Stratford. It is a type of gnosis to which I can relate. This is not elitist in the way we are told that the ancient gnostics were elitist. I've known that flash of insight and knowing that comes with the aid of both considerable effort on my part and guidance of a teacher. It is why mentors are important.

Christology and Science

What an unlikely title for a book by F. LeRon Shults. Thanks to Mike Leaptrott for referring to it a few weeks ago. I'm fourteen pages into it and there are lots of pithy statements to reflect upon. Like this

Theology has too often given in to the temptation to allow propositional statements about Jesus to function as idols, distracting us from what he himself taught - a way of life that rightly orients us to God and our neighbors.

A Critique of the Church of Christ

Here's one perception/critique of the Church of Christ. About half way down in this blog post, Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, Fr Stephen Freeman describes what he calls Christian Atheism.

Surprisingly, I would place some forms of Christian fundamentalism within this category (as I have defined it). I recall a group affiliated with some particular Church of Christ, who regularly evangelized our apartment complex when I lived in Columbia, S.C. They were also a constant presence on the campus of the local university. They were absolute inerrantists on the subject of the Holy Scriptures. They were equally adamant that all miracles had ceased with the completion of the canon of the New Testament. Christians today only relate to God through the Bible.

Such a group can be called “Biblicists,” or something, but, in the terminology I am using here, I would describe them as “practical atheists.” Though they had great, even absolutist, faith in the Holy Scriptures, they had no relationship with a God who is living and active and directly involved in their world. Had their notion of a God died, and left somebody else in charge of His heaven, it would not have made much difference so long as the rules did not change.

I realize that this is strong criticism, but it is important for us to understand what is at stake. The more the secular world is exalted as secular, that is, having an existence somehow independent of God, the more we will live as practical atheists - perhaps practical atheists who pray (but for what do we pray?). I would also suggest that the more secular the world becomes for Christians, the more political Christians will become. We will necessarily resort to the same tools and weapons as those who do not believe.

That's a little harsh maybe but he gives a basis for an observation I've made. From my experience in the past, I think it has been easier for disenchanted ex-church-of-christers to go the way of the skepticism or atheism than perhaps those of other christian groups.

A Wonderful Music Site - Pandora

A son of mine recommended a music site to me. Pandora creates a "radio" station based on the music you request. I typed in Depeche Mode and it proceeds to play several of their pieces interspersed with the Cure, Pet Shop Boys and other similar things from that era and style. I now have the following radio stations:

Thievery Corp., Tangerine Dream, David Parsons, John Tavener, and Arvo Part. Am just getting started. Some of these are momentary curiosities. I'll park them and go on to others, in time. We'll do some classical, world, and jazz next up.

What a fantastic world we live in. It is now the case that virtually any piece of music that I have ever heard, even once, is now accessible on demand. Between this site and YouTube, and with help from the internet it is possible. Several times I've found things despite not knowing the song title and artist. With a few clues like a key word, genre type, time frame etc., it can be found and brought back to life. Sometimes I've found it to be the case that the song wasn't as good as I'd remembered. But sometimes I'm captivated.

Jesus: The Poet, Rebel, Healer and Fighter

I was reading about a critique of the Jesus Seminar approach to the Historical Jesus at April DeConnick's blog: The Forbidden Gospels and ran across this quote in the comments from a fellow Tennessean, John Shuck.


"I like that poet/rebel/healer fighter for peace and justice who sticks it to the man. He lives his integrity to the death and thus inspires change and hope."

Lemonade, Atheists, and Doubt

This is good from Mike Leaptrott. And here is a quote from Mike.

Lately, I've come to see faith and doubt as complimentary ingredients in our cocktail of thought. When was the last time you enjoyed a glass of lemon juice or a spoon full of sugar? We may disagree about the perfect recipe for lemonade and some of us may opt for more experimentation over more traditional mixtures, but most of us will agree that the bitter-sweet sum of these ingredients is much better than its parts.

Wish I had things like this to read when I first experienced doubt all those years ago as a college student.

Inauguration Day

How can a person not be moved by all the happiness one sees in our nation's capital these last couple of days? Simply wonderful.

Do You Understand Christmas and What it Means to Everyone?

Then check this out, a series of stunning pictures from around the world. They teach more than I could possibly say.

Is God a Thing or an Experience?

I was out of town this week. Check this out from Science and Religion Daily by V. V. Raman:

Finally, and most importantly, God is not so much an entity hiding somewhere like an Easter egg, to be uncovered by an eager searcher, but rather a deeply felt experience that humans are capable of. God, like music, is to be experienced, and no analysis of musical notes can prove or disprove the joy and ecstasy that comes from listening. Like the colors of the rainbow, God is a resonance in the conscious soul to an aspect of the world that instruments and theorems, syllogisms and scrutiny, can never unravel.

I have a hard time with depending on "feelings". It is not because of an atheist background but ironically from my particular Christian upbringing and perhaps my personality style.

Recently Read Posts

1. Mike Leaptrott's series of posts on the book Christology and Science by LeRon Shults here.

2. John Morehead's interview with Carl Raschke is at Morehead's Musings. I've read Carl's The Next Reformation and GloboChrist. You'll find a succinct description of how Evangelicalism and Postmodernism are congruent.

What Obama, Tchaikovsky, and Dante Have in Common

I like it when different kinds of things are brought together. What Obama, Tchaikovsky, and Dante Have in Common is a great title for a blog entry from Ed Gilbreath, an editor-at-large for Christianity Today. You Tube video of Tchaikovsky's symphonic music is included. I'll quote the last segment of his entry:

Then I thought about the fact that here I am, an African American nerd listening to young Venezuelan musicians perform a classical Russian composer’s interpretation of a medieval Italian writer’s epic poem. This, of course, speaks to the power of great art to transcend time, genre, and culture. But, for me, at least during this historic time in our nation, it also says something about the power of diversity, bridge-building, and multicultural harmony—the notion that we’re all connected. The same values and ideals that first got me excited about Barack Obama way back when.

The title of his blog is Reconciliation Blog.

Absolute Proof of Markan Priority (from E. Laerton)

Here you have it. A combination of Enlightenment and Post-Modern teaching tools give us the final indubitable answer. Between these two, which one does Mr. Potato Head fit under?

Do Chocolate, Wine, and Tea Help Our Brains?

Unless they've Blinded Me With Science, they sure do according to this article. And, this includes prevention of dementia-producing things like Alzheimers.

But they left out coffee.

The Kids are Alright

Terry Mattingly's latest column continues reporting on youth. Last week concerned their ethics. This week their view of religion. He reports on a survey that summarizes their view as "Moralistic, Therapeutic Deism" which is reflected in the maxim "don't be a jerk" and the way that God is off on the sidelines at a distance except when you need something from him. Youth have this silly notion that in this life we should be happy and its good to feel good.

So far so good I say. Don't be a jerk is a good start.

Well, they are young and I'm happy to cut'em some slack. The interpreters of the survey felt they should be more conversant with terms like trinity, eucharist, sanctification, holiness, sin, etc. But it should be pointed out that trinity is not in the Bible, not the NIV anyway. Eucharist is a greek word and therefore not in the NIV though it is in the Greek text (Our church practices it every Sunday though we have never called it that). Santification is not even in the NIV, though other forms of the word are. My point is that it is easy for us older folks to criticize youth not only because they are immature and have improvements to make, they are a work in progress after all, but because they are not carbon copies of us older geezers, they aren't understanding of things we have invested so much of ourselves into and don't have the precise same concerns as we do.

I'm more of an optimist when it comes to the young. And fortunately I recently came across a book review in the Nov 15 issue of the Economist that shows I'm not alone. The book is Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World by D. Tapscott. The title of the review is The Kids are Alright. I'll quote from the article:

“As the first global generation ever, the Net Geners are smarter, quicker and more tolerant of diversity than their predecessors,” Mr Tapscott argues. “These empowered young people are beginning to transform every institution of modern life.” They care strongly about justice, and are actively trying to improve society...

Mr Tapscott identifies eight norms that define Net Geners, which he believes everyone should take on board to avoid being swept away by the sort of generational tsunami that helped Barack Obama beat John McCain. Net Geners value freedom and choice in everything they do. They love to customise and personalise. They scrutinise everything. They demand integrity and openness, including when deciding what to buy and where to work. They want entertainment and play in their work and education, as well as their social life. They love to collaborate. They expect everything to happen fast. And they expect constant innovation."

Jim West and Public School Bible Classes

Its hard to keep up with Jim West's 20 posts per day or thereabouts. I liked this quote from the recent On Bible Courses in Public Schools. He notes there is good and bad about the low enrollment of public school Bible course. Bad because the subject matter is important and should be known. One good thing is that assistant coaches or other equally less qualified people will not be teaching them.

Because learning theological literature outside a theological environment is like eating cotton candy at the bottom of the deep blue sea.

Response to Jason

Jason Middlekauf continues his thoughts on the Afterlife on his blog. I responded there and on his Facebook.

Kirk pointed me to the following from a widely read local blog by an Orthodox priest in the area called "Is Hell Real".

http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/is-hell-real/

Here is something I wrote about the matter earlier which includes a reference to Joseph Campbell and the Zoroastrian description of Hell.