nevadans in nola

a guide for naming your daughter

2010-08-30T18:59:00.002-05:00

Here are some guidelines for naming your daughter. These have helped me wade through the waters of countless names and end up with a very short list for my child. Numbers in parentheses are the 2009 popularity according to the Social Security Administration.

1. Be wary of using a very popular name.
When I was in college, it seemed like every third girl I met was named Sarah (#21). I don't think that any of them liked being one of 27 Sarahs that their friends knew. In twenty years, all of the Isabellas (#1) will likely feel the same way.

2. Don't name your daughter after an ideal.

If your daughter is named Destiny (#57), I will nickname her Fate. What does it mean if you name your daughter Hope (#233)? Probably that your life has no hope, but you hope that your daughter's life is better. Along that line of thought, the name Charity (#876) probably means that you live off of other people's handouts.

3. Think twice before naming your daughter after a color, a plant, a city, or a standing weather pattern.
Amber (#186) might be a neutral color name, but what about something like Violet (#141).? Or do you really want her to be reminded of your favorite plant when she writes her middle name? (Yes, I checked to see if Sequoia was in the top 1000, but it hasn't been in the last ten years.) Or even worse, do you want her to often think of the city she was conceived in?

4. Never intentionally misspell a name.
Misspelling a child's name is like telling them that they will be too stupid to spell their name correctly. It is not a sign of creativity, but rather a sign of low expectations. For example, consider the names Ashlee (#624) and Destinee (#629). Thankfully most parents aren't that mean.

5. Don't take a male name and turn it into a female name.
I once met a girl whose name was Aaron. Yes, it was spelled like a boy's name. I felt sorry for her.

6. Make sure that the initials don't spell anything unpleasant.
Several name combinations were eliminated from our list thanks to this rule. What do you want your daughter to think about when she writes her initials?

Conclusion
Don't do anything stupid. Your child will have to put up with your bad decision for 18+ years if you do something dumb. The damage done during that time may be irreparable.

If these rules haven't been helpful enough, please let me know. Most of my advice is still free.

sabbath

2010-07-17T14:00:00.001-05:00

For most of my life, the concept of Sabbath has either been neglected or minimized. At best I have tried to spend Sunday mornings doing "spiritual" things, but a whole one day out of seven given to God seems a bit excessive. After all, there are plenty of things that need to get done.

In college my weekends usually looked something like this: Thursday night, Friday and Saturday were devoted to spending time with friends. Sunday morning was for church, and the rest of Sunday (often until late at night) was spent doing homework. This routine fit well with my social life and my ability to do my best work under pressure, but it didn't leave much time for God. (It probably also helped cause unnecessary stress and headaches too.)

Now I am out of school and have plenty of time to rest and enjoy God on Sunday...except there are new distractions that keep me from doing so. Most of the distractions are trivial, yet they somehow seem important when weighed against rest.

Recently I read Mark Buchanan's The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath (Thomas Nelson, 2006). It turned out to be a very helpful book. There are a lot of good points in the book, but for now I will focus on one - Sabbath frees us from the bondage of time (and all the demands for our time).

There will always be things to do, from trivial things like mowing the lawn to important things like pondering our finances. Sabbath teaches us that we can and should rest and commune with God, even that means leaving things undone. "The rest of God - the rest God gladly gives so that we might discover that part of God we're missing - is not a reward for finishing. It's not a bonus for work well done" (p. 93). In other words, Sabbath is not a luxury to be enjoyed only once everything else is done. Resting to commune with God is not slothful, but rather sanctifying.

Lately I've been trying to put this into practice. I've noticed that there is satisfaction to be found in leaving the to-do list untouched for a day. Perhaps you should try too.

book review - the last season

2010-07-04T14:00:00.001-05:00

In The Last Season, Eric Blehm tells the story of a man who grew up in the Sierras, became a successful seasonal park ranger, and then went missing during his 28th season on the job. A search started for Randy Morgenson after he was out of contact for a few days, but his fate remained a mystery for five years.

Morgenson grew up with a love for the environment in general and the Sierra Nevada mountains in particular. In telling the story, Blehm starts with the beginning of the search and then alternates between the search and Morgenson's early life. This format keeps the suspense up as the details of Morgenson's life come into focus.

There were many possible reasons why he disappeared. He had some altercations with people the previous year who could have meant him harm. Personal issues could have led to a desire to flee or even take his life. Or he could have simply had an accident somewhere where no one would ever find him. I will not spoil the story by saying what happened.

This book had two effects on me. First, it sparked my longing for being in nature. I miss the ability to take a short trip to somewhere beautiful. Morgenson's love for nature was contagious, and it is clearly communicated reading this book. I am looking forward to my next trip to the Sierras, whenever that may be.

The other effect was sadness. As I finished the book I was saddened by the latter years of Morgenson's life. He went through some tough personal issues, and his passion seemed to fade. His environmentalism and hints of Eastern religion (first embraced earlier when he spent time in Asia) couldn't help put his life back together. In that way the book ended on a low note - he died without overcoming his problems.

Overall this book was excellent. I am glad that a friend recommended it to me.

book review: to the golden shore

2010-06-13T20:43:00.001-05:00

I have read several good biographies in the past year. The latest one was Courtney Anderson's To The Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (Judson Press). Judson was part of the first group of American missionaries and spent many years working in Burma (now known as Myanmar).

Anderson's biography is long but well worth reading. You see how Judson perseveres through all sorts of trials and perseveres, eventually accomplishing more than he expected. At the end of his life he had baptized many Burmese believers, translated the entire Bible into Burmese, and finished a first edition of an English/Burmese dictionary. His life was also filled with difficulties and sorrows. He fell out of favor with the Burmese government, spent time in prison, and outlived two wives and several of his children.

One of the best parts of the story is how Judson dealt with the loss of his first wife. He spent a long time in mourning, living alone apart from the mission and trying to find some joy in a mystical relationship with God. Eventually he comes out of it, ditches the mysticism that utterly failed him, and embraces life. Later deaths in his family still impacted him, but he gained strength through that period of darkness.

I am glad that I made the time for this book. It is helpful to read about the lives of other Christians and learn from their experiences. Judson devoted his life to God and had an amazing life.

reading log - may 2010

2010-05-29T16:30:00.001-05:00

non-fiction

The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses by C.S. Lewis. Lewis has written some wonderful things and some things that I completely disagree with. This is a collection of several sermons/lectures, most of which are worthwhile. "The Weight of Glory" is one of Lewis' best addresses. On the other side, "Is Theology Poetry?" is the one that I had the most disagreement with. Lewis' idea about truths moving from myths to realities is particularly troubling:

The earliest stratum of the Old Testament contains many truths in a form which I take to be legendary, or even mythical-hanging in the clouds, but gradually the truth condenses, becomes more and more historical. From things like Noah's Ark or the sun standing still upon Ajalon, you come down to the court memoirs of King David. Finally you reach the New Testament and history reigns supreme, and the Truth is incarnate. (The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses [Harper Collins, 2001], p. 129)

Reading C.S. Lewis is probably worth your time. Just don't blindly accept everything he says.

fiction

Star Trek Terok Nor: Dawn of the Eagles by S.D. Perry and Britta Dennison. This book concludes the story of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. Several events mentioned in Deep Space Nine are included, including the kai sacrificing her son's resistance cell and Odo condemning innocent people to die.

By the end I was growing tired of the book and ready to move on to something else. Some of the stories from the in-between years really didn't add much to the overall plot. The authors could have taken a little bit of material out of each of the three books and had two solid novels. Instead, they tried to make more money by making a trilogy.

Star Trek Vanguard: Harbinger by David Mack. Harbinger introduces Starbase 47 (known as Vanguard) and the Taurus Reach, a region of space desired by the Federation, the Tholian Assembly, and the Klingon Empire. The story revolves around the Federation trying to quietly execute their secret plan for the Taurus Reach, which proves difficult when unexpected losses occur. Only some of the closely-guarded secrets come to light in the novel.

A new set of characters is introduced here. The main characters have more varied backgrounds than those in Deep Space Nine. Besides Starfleet officers, there is a lawyer, a journalist, and a smuggler. Some of the main characters face tough circumstances, like grief and the consequences of cheating on your spouse (of course those consequences are deserved).

Harbinger is fast-paced and easy to read. In the end the immediate crisis is resolved, but the much larger picture is still foggy. The conclusion is satisfying enough, but this book was clearly written with sequels in mind.

Gridlinked by Neal Asher. I tried to read this book since someone recommended it to me. I didn't get very far. The writing style wasn't very appealing. It felt like something I could have written in high school.

reading log - april 2010

2010-04-28T20:45:00.001-05:00

non-fiction

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders (second edition from 1994). A pastor gave me this book in 2002, and I have finally gotten around to re-reading it.

Sanders' book is easy to read and contains a lot of helpful pointers. It is relevant for all Christians, not just those in ministry. If you take the time to apply the topics and lessons to your life, you will find this to be a worthwhile book. You can also apply most of the content in the later chapters (delegating, training and replacing leaders, etc) to employment outside of the Christian world.

He uses a lot of examples, most of which are about leaders from a few generations ago. Probably the most cited leader is Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission. Examples from Taylor's life help give perspective relevant for missions.

Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff. This is a funny book about the Christian culture that has a lot of sarcasm and a few practical ideas here and there. More thoughts here.

fiction

Star Trek Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers by James Swallow

This book explains how the Cardassians came to Bajor and eventually annexed the planet. The Cardassians' plan was crafty from the start - they came under the pretense of peace and mutual understanding, but were secretly planning a takeover the whole time. The story is filled with deceit, political maneuvering, and oppression, with Bajorans responding in a variety of ways as their peaceful world begins to fall apart.

I particularly enjoyed how the Cardassians used the Bajoran faith as a tool for their ends and succeeded so well.

Star Trek Terok Nor: Night of the Wolves by S.D. Perry and Britta Dennison

Two female authors give this book a different feel than the first book in the series. More of the characters are women, and there is also a small amount of romance (compared to absolutely none in the first book).

This book chronicles some of the growing resistance and more of Dukat's self-serving behavior as prefect. Some of the Bajorans deal with the moral issues regarding the resistance, such as "collateral losses" among Bajorans and whether Bajoran collaborators deserve to be harmed. This gives the book more depth. On the Cardassian side, Dukat's sexual exploitations are referenced but not described in detail.

A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These are the first two Sherlock Holmes novels. One of the things that I noticed was how Doyle uses the character of Watson to give credibility to the situations. For example, "I have seen death in many forms, but never has it appeared to me in a more fearsome aspect than in that dark, grimy apartment, which looked out upon one of the main arteries of suburban London." There's probably some technical term for doing this.

brainerd's birthday

2010-04-20T17:00:00.002-05:00

Today is David Brainerd's (1718-1742) 292^nd birthday. He served as a missionary in the colonial days and died of tuberculosis before he turned 25. Last year I shared a little about his life, and this year I will share one of my favorite quotes from his Life and Diary.

Oh! I feel that if there is no God, though I might live forever here, and enjoy not only this, but all other worlds, I should be ten thousand times more miserable than a toad. - January 14, 1743

I don't know much about toads, but they don't seem very happy.

book review - stuff christians like

2010-04-19T19:54:00.004-05:00

Christianaudio.com gives away one free audiobook per month. This month's free book is Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff.

I was a bit disappointed when I heard about this book - not because I was uninterested, but because I could have wrote a similar book if I knew there would be an audience. Most Christians probably have stories about silly things that happen in church, from potluck routines to talks about abstinence. Stuff Christians Like is a book that makes fun of the Christian culture. Some of the topics are just jabs for the sake of fun, while others are followed up with application and a short talk about how things should really be. For example, the funny replacements for the (usually lying) phrase "I'll pray for you" are followed up by saying that instead of saying you'll pray later, you could pray now. Personally I'm more usually more comfortable with the lie than praying on the spot.

This book is a fun way to kill some time. You won't be challenged towards a deeper relationship with God, but you can have a mostly harmless laugh at some of the ridiculous things Christians do and the crazy things that Acuff makes up. With that said, you probably shouldn't buy this for your pastor, or youth pastor, or someone who isn't committed to the faith. They probably wouldn't handle the humor well.

Towards the end I started to grow tired of more of the same. I still haven't finished the book. Maybe it's better read or listened to in pieces, like half an hour a week. This isn't anything that is edifying for your faith or food for your mind, so use it appropriately.

young and idealistic

2010-04-11T14:00:00.002-05:00

One of the things I learned about Francis Schaeffer by reading Colin Duriez' biography of him (Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life [Crossway, 2008]) was that Schaeffer was very energetic about a variety of issues as a seminary student. Some of them were issues many would call secondary matters of faith, issues where there is not a general consensus among the Christian community. Schaeffer and some of his fellow students focused on the Christian's separation from unholy things like "drinking alcohol, smoking, theater attendance, and dancing" (Duriez, pg 43). Eventually his seminary and denomination split over these and other secondary matters.

It seems like being young and idealistic go hand in hand. In retrospect, I can think of several areas where I was a bit too far on the idealistic side with matters of religion. I was disappointed with my college ministry for not emphasizing church attendance. In seminary I was irritated by my dorm-mates who weren't as studious as I was - how could they be pastors if they played video games instead of studying on weekends? These are two of the most obvious cases that come to mind.

I wonder if everyone tends to start out on the idealistic side. Is this normal? Does youthful passion normally correspond with idealism?

reading log - march 2010

2010-03-30T19:00:00.001-05:00

I had a lot of time to read this month, thanks in part to two short trips.

non-fiction

Forgotten God by Francis Chan. Chan writes to not just relate truth, but to stir up your relationship with God. Knowledge without relationship isn't worth anything. One of the most helpful parts of this book was the discussion on obstacles to intimacy with the Holy Spirit.

Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity by B. Alan Wallace. I must start out by saying that this book is composed of chapters on meditation techniques and chapters on theory. I didn't understand most of the meditation techniques (they build on each other, and perhaps I didn't master the first one), so I eventually decided to read the theory chapters and get back to the technique chapters. So, I don't have a full grasp of the contents of this book.

Wallace writes from the Buddhist perspective. When it comes to science, Buddhism, and Christianity (the three items in the subtitle), science rates the lowest. This is because science has adopted a materialistic worldview that excludes any possibility for spiritual observation or knowledge. Since the mind cannot be fully understood by studying the brain, scientists prohibit themselves from coming to a full knowledge of the mind. I happen to agree with Wallace here. People are more than just the sum of the electrical impulses in their brains.

Christianity fares better than science since it isn't limited by the materialistic worldview. However, since Buddhism's insights into the mind are richer and more fully developed than Christianity's (as stated by Wallace), Christianity can only take a seeker so far. Buddhism alone can take a person farther in their journey.

This is where my beliefs diverged from Wallace's (for obvious reasons). Even so, it was interesting to learn more about the Buddhist perspective of meditation and consciousness. I should probably do a quick read of one of my world religions books and then go back to understand the details in this book.

Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life by Colin Duriez. The author does a fairly good job of discussing Schaeffer's life and ministry, from his college and seminary days through his 6 year fight against cancer. Schaeffer (1912-1984) is known for founding L'Abri, where students and seekers could ask honest questions about the faith. He also understood and engaged popular culture and philosophy, which made him stand out among fellow ministers of his day.

One of the main emphases of Schaeffer's life was his crisis of faith around 1950-1951, where he basically started back from agnosticism and worked out his faith. This experience helped him relate to others who were seeking answers.

There was one weakness for this book - I finished it without a clear understanding of Schaeffer's weaknesses and struggles (with the exception of the crisis of faith). There is much to be learned when it comes to people's flaws. I was hoping to learn about those as well.

fiction

Star Trek: Troublesome Minds by Dave Galanter. This is set with the original crew of the Enterprise, not the new movie crew. Kirk tries to save life and ends up in a conflict between the Prime Directive and doing what is best for a society. He chooses the latter and eventually sees the conflict to a resolution.

Star Wars: Jedi Academy trilogy (Jedi Search, Dark Apprentice, and Champions of the Force) by Kevin Anderson. These books were ok, but not as good as the Thrawn trilogy. There are two main enemies, but they aren't as sinister as Thrawn was. Also, the books have Solo and Calrissian gambling over the Millennium Falcon - not just once, but several times. Why are they so up in arms about the ship now if they weren't in the Thrawn trilogy? I don't get it.

reading log - december 2009 through february 2010

2010-03-10T18:30:00.000-06:00

Here's the latest installation of short comments on books that I have read recently.

non-fiction

Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray. I think that Murray had the talent of taking a great topic and analyzing it in a way that drains your enthusiasm. I struggled to get through the book. I'd rather write my own book on redemption (which I have no intention of doing) than read his ever again. Some people love the book though. Maybe I'm too hard-hearted to be able to get past his writing style.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This is a good kick-in-the-pants reminder of how to live. The best chapter title was "your best life...later," which is based on 1 Corinthians 15:19 - "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." (ESV) I don't think my life matches up to this standard.

Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough. This was entertaining and partly educational. I wrote a review here.

fiction

I have read more fiction in the past 6 months than I have in the previous 27 years before it. What that really means is that until last year, I rarely read any fiction.

Star Trek: Destiny trilogy (Gods of Night, Mere Mortals, and Lost Souls) by David Mack. These books are set after all of the movies. They contain references to some events in the timeline from the end of Deep Space Nine and earlier books that I wasn't familiar with (my wife would have been furious to have those details spoiled, but I was a good sport). The trilogy includes a variety of characters from several of the television shows (yes, even Enterprise). There is a prominent threat at the hands of the enemy that causes all sorts of political, interpersonal, and emotional tolls on a lot of people (the ones who don't die of course).

Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers. This book is set almost immediately after Return of the Jedi. The new bad guys have an interesting ability, but unfortunately a good portion of the storyline is spoiled by the title. It's almost like they had an engineer pick out the title.

Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command) by Timothy Zahn. These books were better than the previously-mentioned Star Wars book. There is a competent bad guy who knows how to cause trouble. Eventually the good guys win, but you probably already figured that out.

how to deal with the early church fathers

2010-03-02T21:15:00.002-06:00

One of the lingering issues in the back of my mind since my seminary days is how I should relate to church leaders who held unusual or unorthodox beliefs, particularly the early church fathers. I was reminded of this recently while reading a book that compares aspects of Christianity and Buddhism (Mind in the Balance by B. Alan Wallace). In one of the first chapters, the author points to Origen, an early church father who was born around 185 AD. I couldn't remember much about him, so I went to my church history text.

Origen was one of many early church fathers whose views were mostly, but not entirely, in line with what most modern-day Christians would call sound doctrine. One of his views that I don't agree with was his teaching that ultimately all rebellious persons will eventually repent and be restored to God. This includes people as well as spiritual beings like demons. But, he was very devoted - so devoted that he is believed to have castrated himself so that he wouldn't sin sexually.

There are all plenty of other examples of influential Christians who have held views contrary to mainstream beliefs or done strange things. When I first think about them, part of me wants to just gloss over their shortcomings, short-sightedness, and occasional ridiculous actions. I can learn about their strengths and forget about their weaknesses.

But when I reflect on it a little deeper, this reminds me of how everyone (myself included) has contradictions and issues in their lives. Early church fathers were not unique in their problems. I have some painfully obvious inconsistencies between belief and practice, and a little digging would probably find beliefs that aren't entirely what they should be.

It's so easy to pass judgment on historical figures and wonder how they could have been so messed up. It's a lot harder to admit that I'm plagued by similar issues and then deal with them.

book review - public enemies

2010-02-24T19:00:00.000-06:00

Bryan Burrough's book Public Enemies (Penguin, 2004) tells the stories of several professional criminals in the early 1930's. (Yes, this book was the basis for last year's movie.) I read the book since I knew nothing at all about crime in that time period. I was confused after seeing the movie (translation: the movie writers could have done a better job).

The book starts off with the events leading up to the Kansas City Massacre, where police transporting an arrested suspect were killed outside the train station. As the story develops, more criminals and their feats are introduced. There's almost always one gang plotting something big and another one laying low for fear of being caught. Law enforcement officers eventually catch up to everyone.

None of the major characters are praiseworthy or ideal role models, though some of the lesser-known agents were probably decent people. All of the criminals were bad. John Dillinger may have had some sort of charm or people skills (and he broke out of a jail using a wood gun!), but he was also a murderer. Baby Face Nelson is portrayed as enjoying shooting at law enforcement. Other criminals were drunks, and several weren't blessed with good decision-making skills.

The FBI agents weren't that great either. They started off with terrible crime-solving skills, giving up on stakeouts too soon and not processing information fast enough to make a difference. In time they eventually learned how to do business. They also profited from some stupid errors made by criminals, like having disgruntled girlfriends who knew a lot about their operations. The head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, embellished stories to make the Bureau look better.

This book is well-written and easy to read. I got lost a few times since there are lots of different people involved, but the gang index in the front and maps showing each group's activity made the massive amount of information manageable. If you want to break the stereotypes of 1930's bank robbers and have the time to read 550 pages, then this book may be for you.

video games

2010-02-07T14:26:00.003-06:00

This video by Desiring God does an excellent job of summarizing how playing video games makes me feel:

(Link here in case the script doesn't work.)

these people own guns?

2010-01-31T14:34:00.003-06:00

Some evil person signed one of my email accounts up for the National Rifle Association "Grassroots Alerts." After a few months of marking them as spam and them still going through the spam filter (thanks Gmail!), I opened one of them to see if there is an "unsubscribe" link. As I was scrolling through the state-specific news looking for the "unsubscribe" link, I saw that they apparently don't know how to alphabetize. Here is their list of states with alerts:

California
Colorado
Indiana
Iowa
Maryland
Mississippi
New Jersey
New Mexico
Nevada
Tennessee
Vermont
Virginia

People who can't properly alphabetize a list of states should not be allowed to own guns. The fact that they misplaced my home state on the list makes me think even less of these people.

it is finished

2010-01-26T17:58:00.005-06:00

Sometimes reading things that you disagree with helps emphasize what you believe. For example, take how Joel Osteen applies Jesus' words on the cross to financial problems (article here):

In "It's Your Time," he writes, "If you have a burden of heavy debt, you need to announce to that debt, 'It is finished.' Look at that house payment. 'It is finished.' Look at that college loan. 'It is finished.' Look at those unpaid bills. 'It is finished.' "

Next time I sit and think about the phrase "it is finished," I'll try to do a better job at applying the text to my life. Somehow I don't think that it is about being free from financial responsibilities.

Then the article finishes with another great quote:

"Years back at least, you know you had to be poor and to show you were holy," Osteen said. "You're supposed to sacrifice everything, and I'm all for sacrifice and I believe in that, but I also believe that God wants us to be leaders. He's put gifts and talents in every person, that they're supposed to come out to the full."

Christianity is about being leaders...I feel inspired already.

gambling, part 2 - an easy short-term solution

2010-01-04T19:00:00.003-06:00

It is interesting to see states propose expanding gambling to support budget needs. Our local parish (known as a "county" anywhere else in the country) briefly discussed allowing a waterfront casino. This didn't seem to be very popular, and several churches (including my own) publicly spoke out against the proposal. Now it looks like Pennsylvania will allow table games to help their budget. The governor directed state agencies to plan for forced furloughs unless additional gambling is approved in time (story and the memo here). No one wants to see people's jobs in danger, so why not expand gambling?

I wonder how often the long-term consequences of gambling are discussed prior to implementing short-term financial savings. When faced with a near-term deadline to make ends meet, do governments and communities have enough time to consider the downsides that accompany gambling? Decreased government services due to smaller budgets isn't very popular for most people, but who is willing to deal with problems like compulsive gambling? In Pennsylvania, 2% of winnings will go to local projects. Does that money outweigh the negative effects?

Increased gambling isn't the only political move that seems to be considered without acknowledgment of the long-term consequences. Consistently increasing the national debt is another good example - it may make sense now, but what will it cost us in the long run?

ethical stem cells

2009-12-05T11:00:00.001-06:00

This week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) approved the first stem cell lines that are eligible for federal funding. This is part of President Obama's decision to reverse policies prohibiting federal funding of stem cell research. A previously-enacted Congressional ban prevents federal money from creating stem cells, but now the federal government can provide research funding for stem cell lines that were not created at government expense.

Dr. Francis Collins is the head of the National Institutes of Health. He is also a Christian. A long time ago I reviewed his book The Language of God, which is his attempt to merge science and faith. The conclusion that I got from him was that Christian faith should be interpreted through the lens of science.

The NIH approved stem cell lines that are "ethically acceptable" according to Dr. Collins. What does "ethically acceptable" mean? It means that the cells were harvested from embryos that were donated by patients from fertility clinics. I interpret this to mean something along the lines of "since the embryos were going to be thrown away, we should at least get something out of them. We are not harming wanted embryos."

I do not agree with Dr. Collins' ethics. Discriminating between wanted and unwanted embryos essentially says that embryos have no intrinsic value. Instead, they are valued if they are wanted. So, scientists are free to use unwanted embryos because they are not valuable. Human desires determine the value of embryos. This does not seem to be a proper Christian response.

In case you are wondering, the NIH does have a webpage that addresses the ethical aspects of stem cell research (link here). It doesn't officially say how embryonic stem cells can be harvested and used ethically.

gambling

2009-11-18T18:50:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Kevin DeYoung wrote a post about gambling, which is based on an article from First Things. Both the post and the article are worth reading.

My parents taught me that gambling is a lot like using alcohol - it isn't inherently sinful, but it can be easily misused. We learned how casinos make their money (multi-billion dollar hotels are payed for by gamblers!) and how some people can become addicted and cause harm to themselves and their families. With this instruction, I grew up without ever gambling or wanting to gamble.

It seems like education is very important when it comes to gambling and casinos regardless of what you believe. It is easy to say that gambling is bad and that your children will be ruined if you go to the casino buffet (which I have heard), but it is harder to explain why gambling is inappropriate for Christians. Education probably works better than fear. Taking the time to explain the details helped me grow up in "Sin City" without the snare of gambling causing me harm.

book review - ancient word, changing worlds

2009-11-15T14:00:00.002-06:00

I decided to read Stephen Nichols and Eric Brandt's book Ancient Word, Changing Worlds: The Doctrine of Scripture in a Modern Age (Crossway, 2009) because of the discussion on biblical inspiration and inerrancy. These are two of the three main topics, with the third being interpretation. There are two chapters devoted to each topic - one chapter of background/discussion and one chapter of quotes from the primary sources related to the topics.

The discussion on inspiration and inerrancy begins with the modern age and the Princeton scholars who championed the doctrines (mainly B.B. Warfield and A.A. Hodge). The highlights since the 1880s are presented. I found the narrative to be interesting, mainly because it helped me figure out who the major players were and what they believed. For example, I've heard a fair amount about Karl Barth in the past, but I wasn't aware of his non-orthodox view of inspiration. This level of detail probably isn't very interesting for the casual reader of Christian theology.

The chapters devoted to quotes from the primary sources were the most helpful to me. They explain what the issues are really about and the implications of believing a certain way. Take inerrancy, which is the view that the Bible is true in all that it says. Inerrancy was also called infallibility in former years. Consider this view how it undermines the value of the Bible:

The Bible I read just does seem to me infallible, as I define the term. But I am open at any point to the possibility that the Bible is not infallible. Perhaps some future argument or discovery will ruin my doctrine of biblical infallibility. I hope this does not happen...
Stephen T. Davis, 1977 (page 93)

How much trust would you put into the Bible if you aren't sure that it is trustworthy?

This book is not an easy read by any means. Most chapters were hard to read, but the discussion of interpretation was painful to get through. If you want an overview of the doctrine of the Bible, then a good systematic theology text would be a better starting point. But, if you are interested in how the doctrine of the Bible has been viewed in the modern English-speaking world, then this is a good book for you.

brown spaces are good for you too

2009-10-16T11:25:00.001-05:00

The BBC reports that living near a "green space" has health benefits. Proximity to green space has the biggest effect on anxiety disorders and depression, with the biggest impact seen where people live within 1 km of the green space. The authors note that increased air quality and exercise are likely factors.

We recently returned from a quick trip to Reno. I agree that green space is good for you, but I think that the open space doesn't have to be green. Maybe I'm strange, but seeing the brown hills and empty high desert valleys is pleasing to me. Of course, probably everyone enjoys green fields, forests and mountains...

reading log - third quarter 2009

2009-09-28T18:55:00.001-05:00

I've seen a few people post logs of what they have read lately. The practice seems like it might be helpful, so I'm going to steal their idea. Thankfully patent law prohibits patents that are obvious (like writing down your thoughts), so this probably won't get me into too much trouble.

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley and Ron Powers
I read this during my business trip to Los Angeles in July. The story was interesting, but I wasn't very smart about when and where I was reading it. I started the beginning of the blood and guts killing on Iwo Jima during a dinner by myself at the Olive Garden.

Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ by John Piper
This is Piper's latest book of mini biographies. The theme is stated in the title - suffering for Christ. He tells the lives of William Tyndale, John Paton, and Adoniram Judson. Tyndale hid in Europe as his friends were systematically caught and killed for helping him as he translated the Bible into English and smuggled it into England. Eventually he was caught and executed. Paton and Judson were missionaries and suffered much as well. Their stories remind me of just how blessed I am and how reluctant I am to give up my comforts.

You can read download this book for free from Desiring God here.

God's Pursuit of Man by A.W. Tozer (formerly published as The Divine Conquest and The Pursuit of Man)
This was my second Tozer book (the first being the more popular The Pursuit of God). I found this book to be more helpful than The Pursuit of God. It is also more accessible to the postmodern reader - The Pursuit of God has a lot of references to people and things that made sense back when Tozer wrote it, but mean nothing to someone like me. God's Pursuit of Man isn't like that. The title of the book gives away the subject - God's work in saving people.

Tozer's discussion on the Holy Spirit made sense to me. He says that many people don't expect much from the Holy Spirit, so they don't receive much. "God will not surprise a doubting heart with an effusion of the Holy Spirit, nor will He fill anyone who has doctrinal questions about the possibility of being filled." (page 130) I probably fall into the category of those with doctrinal questions.

John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides by John Paton
I read this autobiography after reading Piper's mini-biography. Paton wrote this autobiography with the clear intention of stirring up people's interest in missions. He was a missionary in the New Hebrides (south Pacific) for many years and then became an advocate for the cause of missions in the English colonies. The people of the New Hebrides were cannibals and had killed a few missionaries before Paton arrived. He was driven off of the first island that he went to after a few years but then had many successful years on another island.

Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane
Once upon a time I was buying books on Amazon and was frustrated that I was about $3 shy of the magic $25 free shipping threshold. I didn't want to pay $4.98 for shipping on two books, so I looked for books that cost between $3 and $4.98. I found this book for $4.95. So, I saved three cents by buying this book instead of paying for shipping on the two other books. I was proud of myself.

This book is a memoir about Mullane's time as an astronaut. The story describing his childhood and career up to his first flight was interesting. After the first flight he talks a lot more about NASA politics in the 1980s and other subjects that weren't appealing to me, so I stopped reading it. It did prove to be a decent distraction during jury duty. On a side note - this book has a lot of crude and inappropriate humor. I think I would hide this book from a child who wants to be an astronaut when they grow up.

Skunk Works by Ben Rich and Leo Janos
Rich was the head of Lockheed's Skunk Works during the development of the F-117A (the first stealth plane). The book is a narrative of his time there. It starts with the story of the F-117A development and then talks about the rest of his time there. I learned that they did that because most of his time at Skunk Works was boring. I'm glad that I got this from the library and didn't waste money on it.

Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
I read DeYoung and Kluck's first book (Why We're Not Emergent) during last year's evacuation for Hurricane Gustav. Not having a hurricane coming towards my house while reading this was rather nice. This book talks about four main objections people have against the church - missiological (the church is going after the wrong things), personal (the church is full of bad people, Christians are hypocrites, etc), historical (Christians kill Muslims), and theological. They do a good job of addressing these concerns and make several good points.

One of the recurring points is that some people dislike the church because they want a different kind of church - a church that is outside the bounds of historic Christianity. Some object to church hierarchy and organizational structures that mimic corporations, but they forget that the early church had apostles and deacons who were in charge of the church. Some dislike sermons because they prefer "conversations" where everyone participates, but Jesus and Paul preached.

I already wrote one post about a topic in this book here, and there are a few other things that I may talk about in more detail later.

biblical authority

2009-09-27T19:45:00.003-05:00

Right now I'm slowly going through a book on the doctrine of Scripture (basically what we believe about the Bible itself). I'm reminded of the time that I spent a Sunday morning Bible study discussing Biblical inspiration and inerrancy.

I was teaching a small group that consisted of an interesting mix of people - a few college kids, a few old ladies, and a few folks who were getting their lives back together at the gospel mission. I was teaching through books of the Bible and wanted to something different in between books, probably because I wasn't 100% sure what to teach next. So, I decided to share a lesson that I had learned in seminary.

I talked about how Biblical authority is based on inspiration and inerrancy (as believed by good old Protestants of course). Inspiration refers to the way that God communicated the Bible - the words in the Bible are God's words and not some people's words as they grasped to understand God. Inerrancy refers to the trustworthiness of the Bible. Some claim that the Bible only tells the truth in regards to God but isn't accurate when it comes to history. Historically the church has believed that the Bible speaks truth in all that it says.

The foundation for Biblical authority is inspiration and authority. The Bible is authoritative because it contains God's words, and those words are true in all that they say. Therefore the Bible should be taken seriously. When I was talking about this, I was hoping that my small group would see the importance of this...

I realized that my small group was already ahead of all of the theologians who question the authority of the Bible. They didn't talk about plenary verbal inspiration or inerrancy, but they believed that the Bible contained God's words and was therefore true and deserved to be obeyed. It was almost like they were feeling like I was giving them a reminder in the basics, not some high and lofty truth that is only revealed to the professional Christians in seminary.

I find that I have two sinful tendencies when it comes to spiritual truths - either I forget them or I get lost in the details and forget the overall picture. I wonder where I am in regards to Biblical authority today...

spanking and intelligence

2009-09-25T16:02:00.001-05:00

New studies say that children who are spanked have lower IQs (story here). Of course, no one answers the kinds of questions that I have...for example, are kids dumber because they were spanked, or were they spanked because they were dumb to begin with?

jury duty

2009-09-05T20:30:00.001-05:00

A while ago I received a summons for jury duty. The envelope had the sheriff's name on it, which made me hope that it was another plea for money for some noble cause ("the sheriff's office supports this, so you should too"). Instead, it was a summons. This was the first time that I had to actually show up for jury duty. All of the previous summons came while I was in college, so being a full-time student who lived 500 miles away was a pretty good excuse.

I was randomly selected to be a potential juror for a criminal case that was expected to last one day. The judge asked the bailiffs to put 20 potential jurors in "the box" (the jury seating area). The name "box" sounds like the penalty box in hockey, but it was much better - the chairs swiveled and rocked and were fake leather as opposed to the wood benches in the audience area. We were then subjected to introductions and many questions to see who was fit to serve on this case.

A few people were not selected for obvious reasons. A retired NOPD officer admitted to having worked with suspects with similar charges, which probably made the defense attorney cringe. A Catholic priest was also dismissed, and no one seemed surprised by that. A third man admitted to a criminal offense that the defendant had on his record.

I ended up being one of the people seated on the jury. One of the other jurors was an older man who either wasn't seventy yet (the age at which you can choose not to serve) or didn't mind doing jury duty. We talked for a while in our down time, and I found out that he is from northern California near Auburn. This gave us more in common than anyone else, which helped the hour and a half lunch go by better. He had a full white beard, half a head of white hair, and the look of a mountain man. (Adam and company would have been proud.) We had a few interesting conversations. My favorite comment was when he said that he liked the "old Vegas" better. "We used to go to Vegas to sell our gold. It was better when the mafia ran Vegas. We'd take our gold into a casino and they'd offer us chips. If we didn't like the price, we'd go somewhere else." Who knows if he was being serious, but he was old enough to be an adult when the mafia ran Vegas.

The trial itself was relatively straightforward, and it didn't take long to see the outcome. The defendant was clearly guilty. In his closing arguments, the defense attorney said something along these lines: "There are thieves and murders who should be on trial now, but instead we're wasting our time on this unimportant case with (defendant name), who is clearly innocent." Those words were the worst defense imaginable. He assumed that these allegedly broken laws weren't as important as the laws prohibiting robbery and murder.

We retired to the jury room to deliberate. Someone asked "who wants to be the foreman?" I was one of the younger jurors, so I assumed that an older person wanted to do this. There was silence for a second, so I said that I'd be willing if everyone was ok with it. That made me the foreman. So, I led the discussion and helped everyone come to a conclusion that everyone was in agreement with. That was a fairly easy task given the abundant evidence we were presented with.

The trial took most of one day. After the verdict was read, we were dismissed to the deliberation room. Our cell phones were returned, which marked the end of being sequestered. The judge came a few minutes later and thanked us for our service, stating that our justice system would not work without us.

Overall this was a positive experience. I did notice that most people, including myself, were irritable when they showed up for jury duty. No one wants to "waste their time" at the courthouse. But now that I have served on a jury, I can see how having a jury is important. If I was charged with a crime (which by the way is not on my list of things to do in life), I would want a jury who wasn't upset to be there. My fellow jurors had a good attitude once we were seated on the jury, and no one made any complaints until we walked out of the courthouse at the end of the day. Our justice system needs jurors who can look past their own inconveniences and be objective during trials. So, next time the sheriff sends me a letter, I'll try to look past my own agenda and try to be a little less selfish.

confusing church and college ministry

2009-08-31T20:30:00.001-05:00

It's probably safe to say that everyone gets tired of church every now and then. In an effort to refresh my mind about the good things of church, I recently read DeYoung & Kluck's Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion (Moody, 2009). Maybe I'll provide a decent overview later, but for now I am going to focus on one insight that should be obvious to the average person (but I hadn't thought about).

Here's the amazing insight: many young adults grow tired with church since church doesn't look like their college ministry. I thought about it some and realized that all of my positive religious experiences have occurred as an adult. I grew up in church, but those years don't really shape the way I think Christianity should be (probably since I'm more interested in theology and relationships than punch and skits). The most influential times are those since I entered college.

College experiences aren't necessarily good indicators of how a church should be. In college, everyone lives nearby, is the same age, has few responsibilities and lots of free time. Most people don't have a clue about what they want to do with their lives. Now my time is spent with people who do things I never thought about doing (veterinary medicine) or never wanted to do (architecture). There are larger age gaps, even in the "young married" group. No one else lives in our subdivision that I know of. There are all sorts of trivial differences that when added up make getting to know people a little more difficult.

There's also the fact that old people go to my church. In college only a few "real" adults joined us on Thursday nights, and now I go to church with hundreds of older people. The differences between them and me are even greater (though obviously not insurmountable). This diversity is good though since the church shouldn't focus on one group of people to the exclusion of others.

One final note: College ministries weren't supposed to be a substitute for church. They were about additional opportunities for college kids to know God better. I don't think I was the only one who stayed with the same college ministries but wandered through many churches. My idea of church was shaped by college ministry. I wanted church to be centered on me.

Now it's time to put away the old self-centered mentality and embrace a more wholesome view of church.

fake moon rock

2009-08-28T19:44:00.002-05:00

Remember the moon rocks that you've seen in museums? Maybe they aren't real. A moon rock in the Netherlands is clearly fake...

Tozer and introversion

2009-07-29T20:11:00.001-05:00

Recently I read A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God and wanted to know more about the man who wrote it. So, I read Lyle Dorsett's A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A.W. Tozer (Moody, 2008).

Dorsett does a good job of summarizing Tozer's life and gives insights into his personal life. I was particularly interested in the fact that Tozer kept to himself and was very personal. Towards the end of his life, Tozer admitted that he'd had a lonely life. He had plenty of people who would have known him better if he'd let them, but he chose to keep to himself. Unfortunately, his wife and seven kids all felt distant from him. His wife remarried about a year after his death and was noticeably happier, going as far as saying that "Aiden [Tozer, her first husband] loved Jesus Christ, but Leonard Odam [her second husband] loves me."

Why was I interested to see this flaw in Tozer? Partly because it's always reassuring to see that God uses imperfect people, and partly because I have similar tendencies. I'm nowhere near as introverted (or intentionally secretive) as Tozer was, but I don't actively try to share my spiritual life with others. Seeing this flaw revealed in Tozer does not dismiss my negligence, but is rather a reminder of what can happen if I intentionally keep to myself.

you know you're in california when...

2009-07-22T23:19:00.001-05:00

seat belt law

2009-06-10T20:52:00.004-05:00

Another positive sign for Louisiana - this week the Louisiana Senate passed a bill that would require all passengers in cars to wear seat belts (story here). Currently only those in the front row must wear a seat belt.

Last month's "click it or ticket" signs didn't say that you can unbuckle if you're in the back seat. That would have undermined the message...

motivation and understanding

2009-06-09T20:00:00.003-05:00

In the living breathing cosmos there is a mysterious Something, too wonderful, too awful [i.e. 'awesome'] for any mind to understand. The believing man does not claim to understand. He falls to his knees and whispers, 'God.' The man of earth kneels also, but not to worship. He kneels to examine, to search, to find the cause and the how of things. Just now we happen to be living in a secular age. Our thought habits are those of the scientist, not those of the worshipper. We are more likely to explain than to adore.
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, chapter 6

"We are more likely to explain than adore." There is a natural desire to understand new things. There is also a natural desire to understand new things so that we can make much of ourselves.

It is good to be interested in God and His works: "Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them." (Psalm 111:2) Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way for me. Instead of studying about God because I delight in Him, I become driven by a (usually secret) desire to praise myself. The verse becomes something like this: "great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in their own knowledge." Delight in God is replaced with delight in self. Praise is shifted from its proper object (God) to the wrong object (me).

God's glory in His character and His actions are to be understood and rejoiced in. This is how Jonathan Edwards put it:

God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might [be] received both by the mind and heart.
Jonathan Edwards, The End for Which God Created the World

It is sinful to see the works of God and worship my intellect instead of God. I have no claim to a superior intellect if I can understand the mysteries of the faith. Instead, I need to see His glory revealed in His works and rejoice in it. The insights into God's character and His works can aid us in worship if we focus on God and not our ability to understand. Both our affections and our understanding are to be used to praise God.

david brainerd

2009-04-20T19:59:00.003-05:00

David Brainerd (1718-1747) was born 219 years ago today in Connecticut. He served as a missionary to Native Americans for a few years and died at age 29 of tuberculosis. His diary was edited and published by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).

The one thing that impresses me the most about Brainerd was his perseverance. He struggled with all sorts of doubts and discouragement. The beginning of his diary was hard for me to read since he was so down on himself (a characteristic that I happen to have in common with him, though in a lesser degree). He'd probably be diagnosed with a hefty dose of clinical depression if he was around today. Even so, his love for God continued to carry him on. Over time his discouragement was replaced with joy. His ministry wasn't very "successful" in terms of converts, but he was faithful and joyful anyway.

His death was very slow and probably painful. As his strength faded, his love and joy continued. These are the last words in his dairy:

My soul was this day, at turns, sweetly set on God. I longed to be with Him that I might behold His glory. I felt sweetly disposed to commit all to Him, even my dearest friends, my dearest flock, my absent brother, and all my concerns for time and eternity. Oh, that His kingdom might come in the world; that they might all love and glorify Him, for what He is in Himself; and that the blessed Redeemer might “see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied”! Oh, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.

I want my life to be filled with a similar perseverance and love, regardless of my circumstances. David Brainerd's life is a reminder that it is possible to persevere until the end.

would you rather be safe or brave?

2009-04-20T19:20:00.004-05:00

I recently read Gary Haugen's new book Just Courage (IV Press, 2008). Haugen is the founder of International Justice Mission, a Christian organization that fights against injustice throughout the world - slavery, sexual exploitation, illegal property seizure, etc. They work in many countries around the world.

In Just Courage he encourages people to make a difference in the world and not simply live for ourselves. We tend to use our faith as a means for our own comfort instead of a tool for helping others. "When we read that Jesus calls us 'the light of the world,' we picture ourselves more as a nice nightlight that will comfort the kids and keep us from stubbing our toe on the way to the bathroom than as a brilliant light saber that is heroically contending with the great evil of the world and driving out deep swathes of darkness." (p.33) Jesus desires us to live for more than ourselves, and the call to work for justice exposes just how selfish we are.

Haugen ends the book by posing a question - would you rather be safe or brave? This question has bothered me for weeks since I know my answer, and it's not the best one...I'd rather be safe. Helping others isn't on my agenda. My needs are met, and I'm relatively blind to the needs of people across town or in developing countries. So, Jesus is a nightlight for me. He keeps me safe and relatively happy in my own little bubble.

There is more to life than ourselves, and there is a deeper happiness to be found - the joy of helping others and being used by God.

an egyptian changing his official religion

2009-02-15T20:44:00.002-06:00

Here's an interesting story from the BBC about an Egyptian man who has been trying to change his religion from Islam to Christianity on his government documents. This kind of thing seems so far away from the predominant Christian culture that I live in.

casinos are bad...

2009-02-15T16:05:00.000-06:00

When I was growing up in Nevada, I thought that almost all of the legalized gaming in this country happened in Nevada. Then I learned about casinos on Native American lands, lotteries, and betting at race tracks. Then I moved to the New Orleans area. There are casinos on the waterfront, a Harrah's in downtown New Orleans, and casinos on the nearby Mississippi coast.

There are no casinos in our parish (= county), but the parish president has proposed a casino in our city to help gain additional revenue in light of the current economic recession. The reasoning behind it is simple - Louisianans go to the casinos on the Mississippi coast, so another casino in Louisiana may take away some of the Mississippi business and keep more money in the state.

This morning our pastor discussed why we should be against this proposal, and tomorrow he will be on a radio talk show explaining his position. He told us that gaming undermines the societal value of hard work - instead of working to support your family, you can take a bet and hope to earn money the easy way. I can sympathize with this position, though my work ethic has not been damaged by being raised in "sin city." (I try to hide the fact that I have been inside of casinos before - I don't want to get kicked out of church!)

We were offered "No Casino" stickers (purple and yellow, of course) and a list of elected officials on the way out of church. We are expected to be vocal against this proposal for the sake of our community.

All of this makes me ask one question - how come no one has said anything about the lottery? You can buy lottery tickets at almost every gas station in our parish, and the same is likely true throughout the state. I can see why preventing additional gaming opportunities in your area would be a higher priority than eliminating the current gaming, but why is everyone silent regarding the lottery? We have been repeatedly warned against going to casinos in the two and and a half years we have been here, but I have heard nothing about buying lottery tickets.

In case you are wondering what the warnings against going to the casinos sound like, here it is. If you take your children to a casino, they might see the lights, be attracted, and find themselves addicted to gaming later on in life. The same is true for us as adults. You might want a cheap meal, but you will end up spending more than you wanted. You will find yourself unable to stop.

This sounds a lot like a description of sin - sin takes you further than you wanted to go. Remember Screwtape's words to his nephew Wormwood? "Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), p. 61).

The assumption is that going to a casino in itself is sinful. Playing blackjack or betting on sports are additional sins that flow naturally from going to a casino.

book review: this momentary marriage

2009-02-04T20:00:00.001-06:00

This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence (Crossway: 2009) is John Piper's new book on marriage. The main point of the book is that our marriages reflect a higher reality - the covenant relationship between Christ and His church. God ordained marriage to be a symbol of the relationship between Christ and His church. This was hidden in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament.

This aspect of marriage is central to the book. Piper says that staying married is not primarily about staying in love, but rather about keeping the covenant relationship with your spouse. This is counter-cultural but biblical - Christ does not abandon the church, even though the church is rebellious and sinful. Christ keeps His covenant, so you should too. If you take one thing away from this book, know that marriage reflects the relationship between Christ and the church.

This book is not primarily practical - it isn't full of specific things to do that will make your marriage better (though there are some examples). Instead, Piper explains the biblical foundation for marriage and the particular roles of husband and wife. Application can easily be drawn from these chapters. Personally, I find this approach more beneficial than a "how-to" book. Understanding the specific roles of husband and wife helps you fulfill these roles faithfully.

Now, about particular roles for husbands and wives - I don't know about you, but I haven't heard many sermons about husbands that weren't on Father's Day or sermons about wives that weren't on Mother's Day. It seems like my churches were/are afraid of saying "yes, being a husband is different than being a wife." Piper is not afraid to describe the unique roles of husband and wife as defined in the Bible (see Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 3). The husband's role is given more attention, which is fitting since the husband is the head of the household. Remember that varying responsibilities do not undermine equality of personhood - husbands are equal to wives in the eyes of God, though husbands have greater responsibilities than wives. (This is one way in which marriage is not exactly like the Christ-church covenant - Christ is superior to the church, but husbands are not superior to their wives.)

One description of a husband's responsibilities was particularly helpful and challenging. After defining headship as "the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christlike, servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home" (p. 86), Piper elaborates on protection and provision. Both protection and provision are required, and both have physical and spiritual applications. Physical protection (having a house, keeping my wife away from New Orleans at night so she doesn't get murdered) and physical provision (being the breadwinner) are easy. Spiritual protection (keeping bad influences away) is a bit harder, but spiritual provision (helping sustain my wife's spiritual well-being) is the hardest. It would be so easy to say, "I earn enough money to meet our needs, and I keep my wife away from bad influences, so I am a good husband." Would anyone challenge me to do more? But, being the head of the family involves being proactive and working for the spiritual well-being of my wife. I have to ensure that my wife and I are both growing in the faith. This is a high calling and a noble responsibility, regardless of who your wife is.

This Momentary Marriage is one of many books by John Piper that you can download for free from Desiring God. Click here to go to their website to download the entire book in .pdf format. I recommend reading this book, especially since you can read the book for free on your computer. Hopefully it will help you take your marriage more seriously and purposefully.

book review: what really sunk the titanic

2009-01-28T20:30:00.004-06:00

I had no interest in the remains of the Titanic until I read a review for McCarty & Foecke's What Really Sunk the Titanic: New Forensic Discoveries (Citadel, 2008). I was interested because the authors are metallurgists, which in my mind makes them reasonable investigators. The main "discovery" of the book was revealed in a book review I read many months before I received the book for Christmas, but I was interested in their approach and conclusions anyway.

The book begins with information regarding iron and steel manufacturing techniques in the early 20th century. Since I have some knowledge of modern metallurgy (understatement of the day), the descriptions of the processes were interesting. This discussion helps the reader understand why the Titanic's shipbuilder used the materials and processes that they did. The authors emphasize the fact that the forward and rear fifths of the ship were riveted by hand using iron rivets as opposed to the hydraulically-driven steel rivets in the center section, mainly due to accessibility issues and the fact that these regions were designed to see lower stresses.

(Here's where to stop reading if you don't want to know the "new" discovery.) The analysis of the accident and wreckage leads McCarty and Foecke to believe that the iron rivets helped the impact damage to be more catastrophic than if steel rivets were used in the entire ship. This isn't surprising since steel rivets would have been stronger and therefore it is likely that fewer would have failed. Furthermore, they also argue that the iron itself was of low quality (relative to standards of that day, not just 21st century standards), which helped make things worse. So, the design and the poor quality rivets are what really sunk the Titanic. Had the ship been made of all steel rivets of high-quality material, it might have survived or at least sunk more slowly.

After they make their main points, they try to explain away other theories that contradict with theirs. Here is where the book loses some appeal - while their critique of the biologist who claimed that corrosion only occurs due to the presence of organic materials (i.e. metal-eating mold instead of simple chemistry) was amusing, other critiques were more harsh. Of course, slamming your competitors is probably a hallmark feature of this kind of book.

I'm not entirely sure who the target audience for this book is. Most of the technical details are described so that the average American could understand, but I know that people like my wife who don't have a metallurgy degree probably wouldn't be interested in the details. For those of us who can remember Charpy impact specimens flying across the room in the metallurgy lab, the descriptions are a little too simplified. I don't know if any of my non-metallurgist family or friends would find this interesting.

Overall the book was a pleasant break from the usual routine. I'm not fully convinced that their conclusion is correct, though it is technically possible. I wouldn't be surprised if no one is dying to borrow this book though.

a strange road sign

2009-01-04T19:03:00.003-06:00

I have repeatedly seen a rather interesting sign at the beginning of a road construction area. This is what it says:

SLOW DOWN
MY DADDY AND GRANDPA
WORKS HERE

The "S" in "works" is backwards (flipped horizontally).

When I first saw this, I was greatly bothered not only by the incorrect "S," but also by the improper conjugation - "works" should be "work" since the verb applies to both men. I assume that the sign-maker intentionally conjugated improperly since it's a rather glaring mistake. If so, did they find it cute? Why do people find bad grammar, misspellings (day cares with names like "kid's korner"), and misdrawn letters cute? If anyone understands this, feel free to enlighten me.

book review: the endurance

2009-01-02T13:27:00.003-06:00

I had never heard of Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) until a roommate in college told me about him. So, I finally got around to reading a book about his most famous voyage. Caroline Alexander's The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition (Knopf, 1998) tells the tale of Shackleton's voyage on the Endurance, which started as a trip to cross the Antarctic continent and instead became a fight for survival after the ship became trapped in ice and sank.

Shackleton had tried (and failed) to reach the South Pole on two expeditions and was knighted after returning from the second attempt. After Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911 and fellow British explorer Robert Falcon Scott died trying to reach it, Shackleton made plans to cross the entire Antarctic continent.

The narrative tells the story from the beginning to the end and includes the details of the ship being stuck and then destroyed in ice floes, wandering on the open ice, many weeks of waiting, and some risky sailing in life boats after the Endurance sank. The story is accompanied by pictures from James Hurley, the photographer on board. Shackleton's determination to see his crew through the ordeal is vividly portrayed. Hurley's photographs help explain the story, especially since I know nothing about ships or the geography of the Antarctic. Overall this is a good book to read if you want to get a feeling for this expedition and early Antarctic expeditions. You can also look up Shackleton's book or other accounts from the expedition itself.

One of the striking parts of the story was the fact that the men were separated from the world during a large part of World War I. They were aware of the start of the war when they left South Georgia in 1914. Shackleton expected the war to be over when he finally reached civilization in 1916, but the war was still going. The horrors of a long, wide-ranging conflict hit the men when they came back. Also, since Britain was in the middle of a war, Shackleton did not receive a hero's welcome like he had previously.

A sad part of the story is the epilogue that describes what happened to Shackleton after the expedition. He volunteered to serve in World War I, feeling that this would help his image for further expeditions. He wrote a book and gave lectures to pay off his debts. The author paints Shackleton post-Endurance as a man who was unsure of what to do with his life, which led to too much alcohol and disappointment. He eventually set out on a final expedition and died of a heart attack on a ship full of friends, but these years sounded very sad.

It seems like there aren't any epic feats to be accomplished or national heroes like there were in Shackleton's days. The world has been circumnavigated, the poles have been reached, the tallest mountains have been climbed, and man landed on the moon over 30 years ago. Humans have been just about everywhere and can see pictures and satellite images of most places for free on the internet. Because of this, it is hard for me to imagine the motivation behind these explorers. I can't think of any similar quests these days or heroes that capture a nation's interest.

book review - the numerati

2008-12-31T21:00:00.000-06:00

Stephen Baker's book The Numerati (Houghton Mifflin, 2008) discusses how our personal information is gathered and used by a wide variety of organizations, from the "evil" data miners that trace our path through the internet to grocery stores who compile lists of what we buy with our frequent shopper cards. The book features many interviews with technical people who work in this fast-growing industry that combines mathematics with disciplines like sociology and medicine.

Companies use our personal information (with and/or without our permission) for a variety of reasons. Web-based companies want to deliver targeted ads to people who are likely to respond to them. Retail stores can customize a shopper's experience so that they "find" new products that people with similar tastes also love. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies want to better diagnose and treat sicknesses, with the possibility of early detection that can save lives. Politicians want to understand the electorate everywhere so that they know what messages will be well-received by likely voters. The federal government wants to understand how terrorists organize and operate so that they can ultimately stop them.

Some of these applications seem harmless (who doesn't use the "recommended" section from online retailers?), while others raise important questions. Do politicians really care about the electorate, or are they just manipulating them so that they will be elected? What if your web-surfing pattern happens to match that of suspected terrorists? Baker acknowledges these difficult questions while allowing the reader to answer them individually.

The book was an easy read and fairly informative. It will probably be outdated in a few years as this field grows, but it made for a good choice from the local library.

christmas in our new home

2008-12-09T20:25:00.002-06:00

This will be the first Christmas that we spend at our home since we have been married. We already have a Christmas tree set up:

It is a ponytail palm tree. Isn't it wonderful?

fun with natural gas

2008-12-07T14:54:00.003-06:00

Here is a story that shows why you shouldn't trust your natural gas company.

A few days ago we had our natural gas turned on. The gas company required someone to be home when they came, which worked for me since I was too sick to be productive at work.

The representative came and opened the gas valve (something that I could have done myself if I knew what to do). We only want the gas for our heater, so I went inside to turn on the heater to ensure that it worked. When I went back outside, the representative told me to have a nice day and drove off before the heater came on. I was relieved when the heater came on and blew warm air.

The next day, we came home from work, opened the garage door, and parked the car. We were greeted by the rotten egg smell of the additive used to tell you that you have a natural gas leak. I called the gas company, thankful that my gas leak wasn't ignited by driving my car into the garage. Another representative came fairly quickly and found the root cause.

It turned out that my gas regulator was leaky. The regulator sits right next to the valve that had to be opened to activate the service. The man who activated my natural gas didn't bother to do a leak check, and since I didn't ask him explicitly if he had done one, the regulator had been slowly leaking natural gas for a day and a half.

Here is the lesson to be learned from this - don't trust any work performed by your natural gas company, especially if they operate in Louisiana (the land of laziness). Any gas company whose employees don't check for gas leaks when they activate service does not deserve to have customers. Unfortunately we don't have another choice in this matter.

the desire for an economic savior

2008-11-09T17:50:00.004-06:00

On Election Day Mark Driscoll noted two things that people were looking for in the election. The most obvious one is a savior - someone who will forgive them for their sins, particularly their economic ones. Our economy is built on greed and a desire for excess. Many have made poor decisions and now look for a leader who will rescue them from their self-made financial pit. Everyone wants to be forgiven, and no one wants to be held accountable.

The current belief is that if we hold banks, insurance companies, and homeowners accountable for their poor decisions, then more harm will come to the economy. The Secretary of the Treasury has repeatedly said that now is the time to take action to prevent further damage, not to hold people accountable and let the economy worsen. Taxpayers are lending hundreds of billions of dollars to banks to keep them solvent. Now the top 3 US automakers want $25 billion to keep them in business. When will the time come to draw a line and hold people and companies accountable?

Driscoll says that no one will be called to repentance, and I think that he is right. Unlike Christ, the desired economic savior will not ask you to repent:

Speaking of repentance, sadly, no matter who wins there will be no call to personal repentance of our own personal sins which contributes to cultural suffering and decline such as our pride, gluttony, covetousness, greed, indebtedness, self-righteousness, perversion, and laziness. And, in four years we’ll do it all again and pretend that this time things will be different. Four years after that, we’ll do it yet again. And, we’ll continue driving around this cul de sac until Jesus returns, sets up his throne, and puts an end to folly once and for all.

No regulatory changes or taxpayer-funded bailouts will change the fundamentals of the economy unless Americans change their ways. As long as we love stuff and spend money that we don't have, no amount of rules or dollars will prevent this from happening again. A much-desired economic savior who does not call us to repentance is not doing what is ultimately best for us.

the jehovah's witnesses' confusing flier

2008-11-02T13:00:00.005-06:00

The Jehovah's Witnesses were going through my neighborhood yesterday. I saw them walking around while I was driving home from running errands in the morning, so I expected them when I heard the doorbell ring. My wife drove off the last missionaries (who asked her if she thought God was responsible for the food shortages...literally), so I took care of this one.

The gentleman told me that he was going around to his neighbors (I didn't ask him where he lives) distributing fliers that address the most important questions of life. He handed me a flier, and I scanned the front and back of it until I found the word "Watchtower" (which of course signifies Jehovah's Witnesses). After thanking the man for the flier, he told me to have a good day and then left. I was surprised but relieved that he didn't try to converse with me.

After he left, I glanced at the flier to see how outrageous it is. This one has some interesting (or amusing) statements, so I will share them along with a few comments. The following quotes are taken verbatim.

What happens to us when we die?
"At death, humans cease to exist."

Is there any hope for the dead?
"Most people who have died will be resurrected. Jesus promised that "those in the memorial tombs will . . . come out." (John 5:28, 29) In harmony with God's original purpose, those resurrected as humans will have the opportunity to live on a paradise earth."

First, if humans cease to exist after they die, then how can they be resurrected? Are the resurrected people the same as the people who die? If so, then how did they cease to exist at death? If something exists, then doesn't exist, and then exists again later, then it would be better to say that the cessation is temporary.

Second, does the phrase "most people who have died" imply that people who haven't died yet (like me) will face a different fate than those who are already dead? If it doesn't imply that, then why use that language? A more straightforward wording would be "everyone" if everyone is indeed implied.

Third, what's the deal with the phrase "those resurrected as humans"? This sounds like there might be some who are resurrected as other things besides humans. Reincarnation as taught in Hinduism comes to mind as a possibility...did they really mean to imply that? If not, why did they use language that is similar to language used in Eastern religions?

This flier obviously wasn't made to convince people of anything, but rather to raise questions that the missionaries can then answer. I am familiar enough with the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses to understand what some of the nuances in their flier are referring to, but there are easier ways of saying what they mean.

I don't think that being confusing is the best way to stir up interest in your religion.

On a barely related note, my Hebrew teacher jaded me against the transliteration "Jehovah." She showed us how "Yahweh" was a better transliteration of the Hebrew and wouldn't let us transliterate the name of God as "Jehovah" or "the LORD" (as the New International Version does). I won't bore you with details.

my biblical purpose statement

2008-10-25T19:53:00.006-05:00

During my brief stay in seminary, I had an assignment to come up with a biblical purpose statement for my life. My first impression was that this assignment was too sentimental for me, but nevertheless I completed the assignment and presented it in front of the class. I think that hearing other people's statements helped me to see the value in personalizing a summary statement that describes why you exist. People's responses ranged from a personalization of the Westminster Catechism ("I exist to glorify God and enjoy him forever") to much longer statements, but they were all meaningful and deeply personal.

Here is my statement:

I exist to:
know and love God through Jesus Christ
find my ultimate satisfaction in Him
glorify Him in my life
lead others into a more meaningful relationship with Him

About a year and a half later, I was leading a small group at my church in Reno and was looking for something to talk about. We were in between studies, and I decided to spend one morning talking about putting the truths of the Bible in words you can memorize and sharing my purpose statement. The group was made up of two older adults, a few middle-aged people who were living at the rescue mission downtown, and a college-aged friend. They met the idea of a biblical purpose statement about the same way that I initially did - without much excitement. That was the last time I publicly discussed my biblical purpose statement. (I also mentioned it briefly in a previous post.)

A lot of things have happened since the day in northern California when I wrote that statement. I left seminary, got married, completed a different master's degree, and have lived and worked as a "professional" in the New Orleans area for a little over 2 years. My surroundings (with the pleasant exception of my wife) and my circumstances have changed. Does this mean that my purpose in life has changed?

The answer to this question should be simple. If you look back at my purpose statement, you will see that it focuses on my being, not my surroundings. God cares more about our being (who we are) than our actions - not that our actions are unimportant, but the manner in which they are done determines their worth. Changes in location, employment, culture, and climate do not change the reason why we exist. There might be a better way to express the reason, but the reason itself doesn't change. Even so, my biblical purpose statement sometimes feels outdated. Why is that?

There is a tendency in our culture to associate who we are with our external situations. We are defined by our jobs, where we live, and which college football team we love more than life itself (the last part is not applicable to me, but it's everywhere here). We feel that we "know" someone when they fit into one of the stereotypes we use. I am guilty of living this way, and these stereotypes sometimes help my ego since I have a job that makes me sound intelligent and perhaps important.

When we live this way, external circumstances seem to be the controlling factor of our lives. This is why my biblical purpose statement sometimes feels old and outdated - it reminds me of a younger time, a brief moment of trying to understand ministry and vocation that now seems thousands of miles away from where I am today.

I encourage you to periodically remind yourself of the reason why you exist. Perhaps writing a summary statement or memorizing a certain verse will help solidify the truth that you were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (as the Catechism says). He has called His people to be like His Son and reflect His worth. The manifestation of this might change as relationships, jobs, responsibilities, and zip codes change, but the fundamental purpose will not change.

public notice about bad water

2008-10-24T18:03:00.003-05:00

I received a "Public Notice" about potential contamination in the public water supply this week. This is the second letter that I have received since June. This one is particularly entertaining since it shows off the poor writing and word processing skills of the person who made it. Photos of this informative, professional letter are below. Try and see how many grammatical and formatting errors you can find.

Letters like this are why some people pronounce "Louisiana" in such a way that it sounds more like "lousy-ana."

columbia accident on nova

2008-10-19T20:34:00.002-05:00

NOVA recently aired an interesting program on the Columbia accident. You can watch it online here.

halloween decorations

2008-10-17T20:40:00.002-05:00

People in our neighborhood started putting up Halloween decorations on October 1. Inflatable orange pumpkin-like balls, cheesy fake headstones, and similar items started popping up everywhere.

The house on my left is owned by a retired couple. They also put up decorations early. There is a small Obama sign surrounded by plastic pumpkins around their small tree in the center of their yard. If I didn't know better, I'd assume that the patriotic-colored "O" was part of the Halloween decorations - the phrase "President Obama" is scary like the thought of zombies, vampires, and ghosts...

(No, I'm not brave enough to stand in front of their house and photograph it...they are probably the kind of retired people who look out their windows all day, like the guy across from the Muir house.)

Three houses in our neighborhood have also been toilet-papered this month. I don't know if that's a Halloween thing here or just a bored teenager thing.

rich people worrying about running out of money?

2008-10-08T18:17:00.004-05:00

The Wall Street Journal's Wealth Report blog tells us that roughly half of the population making $250,000 or more per year fear that they will run out of money. At first this seemed strange to me - $250,000 is several years worth of income for many American families, so why are they worried? Then common sense kicked in and reminded me that people tend to be materialistic and lovers of money. The more you have, the more you want since money and possessions don't bring lasting peace. You can buy lots of stuff with an income of $250,000 per year, but none of those things will ultimately satisfy you.

jonathan edwards' birthday

2008-10-06T18:43:00.002-05:00

John Piper's latest post reminded me that today is Jonathan Edwards' 305th birthday. He died in 1758.

Here is my favorite quote from Edwards:

God is the highest good of the reasonable creature; and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops; but God is the ocean. Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end and proper good, the whole work of our lives; to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labour for, or set our hearts on, any thing else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness?

- Jonathan Edwards, "The Christian Pilgrim"

how the media causes panic (and stays in business)

2008-09-30T18:44:00.004-05:00

What is carnage?

Merriam-Webster.com defines carnage as "the flesh of slain animals or men" or "great and usually bloody slaughter or injury (as in battle)." So why do news websites use the word "carnage" to describe the financial world? They do it to cause panic, which makes people more likely to stay tuned to the news.

Examples:

Associated Press, "Bailout bill slapped aside; record stock plunge": "The final stock carnage was 777 points, far surpassing the 684-point drop on the first trading day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."
The Guardian (UK), "Banking carnage continues" (it's in the title!)

I could go on and on and on about other disturbing words that the media uses in its stories to cause panic and hook people to the news (which helps them sell advertisements, which keeps them in business). Thankfully I have better things to do.

If you want cheap entertainment, then read the news and watch for words like "carnage" that are used to make things sound worse than they are.

electron microscopy and anthrax mailings

2008-09-24T19:34:00.002-05:00

Here's an interesting story at Scientific American explaining how researchers at Sandia National Laboratory discovered that the anthrax used in the 2001 mailings was not weaponized - and how they had to keep that a secret until the FBI's main suspect committed suicide this year. (Why would an innocent person kill themselves?) Ok, there is the possibility that the story may not be very exciting to those who do not understand electron microscopy...

bigger is better...?

2008-09-18T19:29:00.004-05:00

I attended a two-day class on presentation skills this week. This afternoon I drew a card at random and had to argue either for or against whatever the card said using a specific format. This was my topic - "bigger is better."

I sighed and tackled my topic, glad that I got such an easy card (some of the other ones were much worse). My message was simple - "bigger is better" is wrong since it breeds discontentment. It is the anthem of salesmen, but not content people. Instead of wanting bigger things, be content with what you have.

After my short talk (maybe one minute), the audience was asked if I was credible. "I think he believed what he said, though I don't agree with him" was the most interesting reply.

Why do we want bigger, better (and usually newer) things? We get tired of what we have, so we want more things - more books and movies, bigger houses, better cars, better televisions, etc. Satisfaction is sought in whatever is "new" or "better," even though what is new today will soon be old and what is better today will soon be outdated. I am not exempt from this desire.

Fight the "bigger is better" impulse. True satisfaction is rooted in contentment, not in chasing after possessions. This is very old advice, but that does not make it irrelevant. "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6) "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 5:10)

the christian doctrine of limited atonement

2008-09-09T18:55:00.005-05:00

The atonement is the central event in the Christian faith. One of the things that I hadn't thought much about until I read J.I. Packer and Mark Dever's In My Place Condemned He Stood (Crossway: 2008) was the doctrine that's called "limited atonement" or "particular redemption." Here's the idea - Christ's death saves those who will believe in Him.

This idea seems rather straightforward and Biblical - after all, Christianity is not universalism. Everyone is not already reconciled with God, Christ's death doesn't reconcile everyone to God automatically, and not everyone goes to heaven. So, Christ's death only really affects those who have faith in Him. Those people were redeemed by His sacrificial death. I've verbally agreed with the doctrine of limited atonement since I first heard of it since it just seems to fit with what I've read in the Bible.

The doctrine of limited atonement is one of the particulars of Calvinism or Reformed theology (it's the "L" in TULIP). The very name "Calvinism" seems to make the doctrine sound unimportant to normal Christians, but this doctrine is very important - it is central to the faith. Packer writes:

"The negative cast of the "five points" is misleading chiefly with regard to the third (limited atonement, or particular redemption), which is often read with stress on the adjective and taken as indicating that Calvinists have a special interest in confining the limits of divine mercy. But in fact the purpose of this phraseology, as we shall see, is to safeguard the central affirmation of the gospel-that Christ is a Redeemer who really does redeem." (page 117)

How does the doctrine of limited atonement "safeguard" the gospel? To see this point, consider the opposite - an unlimited atonement (the Arminian view for those of you familiar with Arminianism). This is to say that Christ's death made it possible for everyone to be reconciled to God, but it does not guarantee that anyone will be redeemed by His death. An unlimited atonement means that everyone can be saved, but it guarantees that no one will be saved. Does the Bible speak this way - that Christ died so that hypothetically we could be reconciled to God? The Bible speaks of Christ dying for us: "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." (Romans 5:8-10) It sounds like real people, not just hypothetical people, are redeemed by Christ's death.

The argument may seem academic, but there is another reason why an unlimited atonement is not biblical. If Christ's death secured the way for all people to believe on Him but didn't guarantee anyone's salvation, then was Christ's death effective? If His death was for everyone but everyone is not automatically saved, then there is something else that must be done in order for us to be saved. The Bible doesn't speak of any particular actions that must be done in order for those who have faith in Christ to be saved. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Saying that the atonement is unlimited is saying that it is not as powerful and effective as it really is. The doctrine of limited atonement is a way of summarizing what the Bible says - that Christ's death reconciled believers to God. Is "limited atonement" the best way to say that? Probably not, but that doesn't make it less important.

lessons from hurricane gustav

2008-09-06T18:36:00.003-05:00

We are back in town and had absolutely no damage from Hurricane Gustav (the stormed passed mostly to the west of us, and we got a tremendous amount of rain - only 4"). Here are some lessons learned from this experience:

Know how you will attach plywood shutters before you buy them. We got plywood cut to the exact dimensions of our 10 windows. Once we got home, we realized that having shutters the exact size of the window is great for recessed windows (our 2 windows in the front), but oversized shutters are better for the 8 windows that are flush with the siding...
Buy plywood shutters in the off-season. Paying $12 for an 8'x4' piece of 1/2" plywood seemed a but steep.
Grill covers can fly off of grills that are under patio covers. Thankfully ours ended up jammed in between the grill and the side of the house in the far corner of the covered patio.
My mailbox (which is on the street) opens in strong winds. We had wet mail when we returned!
Utilities aren't very reliable. Eighty percent of my parish (nowhere near the eye of the storm) was without power the day after the storm. We had power and phone service on Wednesday, but DSL came back this evening (Saturday).
Nashville is around 180 miles away from Birmingham, AL. I thought to myself, "since Birmingham is about 5 hours away and Nashville isn't much further, let's evacuate to Nashville and see family!" I was sadly disappointed when Nashville wasn't as close as I thought it was, though we did get to see family (which was worth it).

preparing for the hubble mission in pictures

2008-09-02T21:16:00.002-05:00

The Boston Globe has some interesting pictures showing preparations for STS-125, the last space shuttle flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

some people actually like louisiana

2008-09-02T21:08:00.001-05:00

Don't believe all that you read about Louisiana. The colleague that the New York Times' Dot Earth blog quotes as saying "I think I would argue that few people live in Louisiana because they like picturesque towns or spicy food" has obviously never lived in south Louisiana. Most of the people there that I have met enjoy living there (the weather, the small towns, the fact that everything grows) and enjoy the food. Coworkers, people at church, and even an old lady at Rite-Aid last week (while waiting for over 30 minutes to get a stockpile of drugs since Gustav was en route) talk about the wonders of Louisiana. Many of them even think that Louisiana is better than most other states, including Nevada (despite my attempts to persuade them with the truth).

Even so, you can believe all that you read about Louisiana from me...

logistics and the end of the shuttle program

2008-08-28T19:29:00.003-05:00

Wayne Hale is the manager of the Space Shuttle Program for NASA. His latest blog post describes why shutting down the Space Shuttle Program is inevitable and why adding extra flights to the manifest will cost lots of money and lots of time. The reason is simple - logistics. NASA started canceling contracts for this program years ago, and there is little chance that an extra External Tank (or five years' worth) could be built out of the excess inventory laying around.

If anyone seriously believes that adding shuttle flights will help close the gap between shuttle and Orion or provide an alternate to Russian resupply flights to the International Space Station, then they need to figure out how to build more external tanks with the limited resources left. I've seen some of the excess parts, and it doesn't look like there is enough to build five years worth of tanks so that we won't have to rely on the Russians to go to the International Space Station.

violence against christians in india

2008-08-26T20:48:00.002-05:00

In case you haven't heard, there has been violence against Christians in the Indian state of Orissa following the death of a prominent Hindu leader over the weekend (who was most likely killed by Maoist rebels). You can read about it at the Gospel for Asia website here.

who is rich?

2008-08-20T20:13:00.003-05:00

Over the weekend, Rick Warren interviewed Barack Obama and John McCain. One of the questions that he asked both of them was to define who is "rich" in the light of the candidates' tax plans. No one wants to be taxed more, so how much money do you need to make in order to be one of those rich people who are going to see increased taxes?

Thanks to CNN's transcript, here are their answers:

OBAMA: Look, the - here's how I think about it. Here's how I think about it. And this is reflected in my tax plan. If you are making $150,000 a year or less, as a family, then you're middle class or you may be poor. But $150,000 down you're basically middle class, obviously depends on the region where you're living.

MCCAIN: Some of the richest people I've ever known in my life are the most unhappy. I think that rich should be defined by a home, a good job, an education and the ability to hand to our children a more prosperous and safer world than the one that we inherited.

Obama's answer makes me feel like I'm in the middle class - my wife and I do not make a combined $150K. But, I think that McCain's answer is better than Obama's since it is qualitative instead of quantitative. His answer makes me feel rich, while Obama's does not. I have a house, a good job, a master's degree (and I started a second one a long time ago), health insurance, and the ability to give to worthwhile causes (whether or not I actually give generously remains to be seen).

In reality, I am rich, and so are you. There are billions of people who live in worse conditions, many of them hungry and/or on the edge of starvation. I can't comprehend the magnitude of this. All I know is that labeling myself as "middle class" is simply evading the fact that I am incredibly blessed. We might not make as much as some other middle class people, but that shouldn't stop me from calling myself rich (and being generous because I am rich).

a change in obama's space policy

2008-08-18T18:11:00.003-05:00

Over six months ago I pointed out that Barack Obama favored postponing NASA's Constellation program for 5 years in order to pay for his education initiatives. Now he's changed his mind on the importance of space and supports an extra $2 billion for NASA and an additional shuttle flight.

I still haven't changed my mind about the trouble of adding another shuttle flight, but it is interesting to see Obama change his mind..

the transcendence and rationality of God

2008-08-15T19:37:00.005-05:00

When you think about God, what excites you more - God being transcendent or God being rational?

In chapter 2 of In My Place Condemned He Stood (Crossway, 2008), J.I. Packer discusses how early Reformed theologians focused their defense of the atonement in rational terms and (probably) unconsciously adopted rationalism as the underlying basis of their theology. Making transcendence subordinate to human-based rationalism is dangerous. "Every aspect of God's reality and work, without exception, is mystery... And theories about any of these things that used human analogies to dispel the dimension or mystery would deserve our distrust, just as rationalistic theories about the cross do." (page 58)

God reveals Himself to be rational, but this rationality does not supersede His transcendence. He reveals Himself to be rational, and this is for our benefit: "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed." (Malachi 3:6 ESV) "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. " (Hebrews 13:8 ESV)

Personally, I tend to emphasize the rationality of God more than the transcendence of God. Rationality means that God is knowable and that I can at least somehow understand Him. A rational God isn't necessarily more personal, but He is more predictable. On the other hand, a transcendent God is higher than me and will always be bigger than me. Or, we can break down the contrast like this: I can understand a rational God and feel good about my knowledge of Him, but I will never wrap my mind around a transcendent God. When I think about God's rationality, I can be confident in myself; when I think about God's transcendence, the only thing I can be confident in is Him. Theology is supposed to lead us to praise God, not ourselves for knowing God.

Do you appreciate the transcendence of God? Do you reduce God into a box that is easier for you to handle?

quick trip to utah

2008-08-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

We recently made a quick trip to Utah for a family wedding. The trip was short, but we managed to get away and see some interesting things.

Kennecott Copper Mine

For scale, that tire is the size of the tires on those really small-looking trucks in the middle of the above image

Mountains

Inside Timpanogos Cave (not the best picture due to no natural lighting)

Unfortunately the pictures of the happy newlyweds didn't come out all that well since the ceremony was outside in the evening...

book review - freakonomics

2008-08-06T19:26:00.003-05:00

Freakonomics (Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, New York: William Morrow, 2005) is not a book that I would usually read, but a coworker recommended it to me. It proved to be a quick and interesting read. A background in economics is definitely not needed in order to understand this book.

Levitt is a professor of economics and puts his training to use to analyze a variety of things, from the economics of illegal drugs to sumo wrestlers. Each chapter has a main example and a point - some comical, others serious. Talking about the secret cheating in sumo wrestling was comical, but the thought of schoolteachers manipulating test scores to make their class look good was not (both examples from chapter 1). One important issue that is discussed is abortion and specifially its effect on the drop in crime in the 1990s.

Levitt and Dubner argue that the drop in crime in the 1990s was tied to the legalization of abortion caused by Roe v. Wade. After discussing many possible causes for the drop in crime, they say that the drop was mainly caused by the fact that many people who would have become criminals did not because they were aborted. "[T]he crime rate continued to fall as an entire generation came of age minus the children whose mothers had not wanted to bring a child into the world. Legalized abortion led to less unwantedness; unwantedness leads to high crime; legalized abortion, therefore, led to less crime." (page 139) They provide further rationale as to why they believe they are correct (which I won't discuss here).

Some parts of this book are sobering (the thought of millions of abortions causing a drop in crime), while others are entertaining. The book moves away from humor after the first few chapters, but there is still a balance between the humorous and the serious. The authors say that their main point is to make people ask questions and challenge what is called "conventional wisdom." They abstain from making moral judgments, which probably earns them more readers. I think that overall they succeeded with me in the short-term (it gave me interesting food for thought). We will have to see if it causes any long-term changes in the way I think...

mexico vacation

2008-07-12T17:56:00.002-05:00

The beach:

One of many iguanas:

Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza:

book review: the most reluctant convert

2008-07-10T16:53:00.004-05:00

When I finished reading C.S. Lewis' partial autobiography Surprised by Joy, I was somewhat disappointed. I didn't understand much of the culture of his childhood days or many of the literary references made in the book. So, I finally got around to reading a book that filled in the gaps for me: David Downing's The Most Reluctant Convert: C.S. Lewis's Journey to Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2002).

Downing traces C.S. Lewis' path away from Christianity and then back to it. He combines the material from Surprised by Joy with Lewis' journal, letters, and details about the influential authors and people along the way. Downing shows where real-life people and situations are represented in Lewis' later popular Christian fiction (The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and his space trilogy). He also shows where Lewis gained life-changing insights (for example, Samuel Alexander's Space, Time and Deity is where he got the idea that enjoying something and contemplating something are distinct actions, which helped him see that he had been over-examining his religious duties).

This book serves as a good overview of Lewis' younger years and his sojourn from Christianity to atheism to idealism to pantheism to theism to Christianity. It is more accessible than Surprised by Joy itself for people like me who aren't acquainted with English life in the early 20th century and the vast literature that Lewis read.

austin, part 2

2008-06-27T17:08:00.003-05:00

More pictures of the Texas Capitol:

(Senate chamber)

(House chamber)

From the Lyndon B. Johnson library:

(replica of Oval Office during his presidency - complete with a hideous green chair and matching ash tray)

(fountain outside the library)

One more picture: a newspaper stand for The Onion! It also doubles as a trash can...

One of the things that this trip made me think about was the importance of relationships (all kinds, not just romantic ones). I enjoy my work, but I mainly enjoy my work because I have good coworkers. Developing friends here in Louisiana has made my time here much more pleasant. Relationships with fellow Christians help us to grow in our faith and persevere though hard times. Without healthy relationships, life would be miserable. (This doesn't mean that my trip was miserable; rather it reminded me of how well off I really am.)

austin

2008-06-25T19:49:00.004-05:00

I am in Austin for a conference. I decided to do some exploring in my free time...

Downtown Austin really wasn't that fun being alone. There are lots of small restaurants and lots of people. It would probably be fun if you are with a group of people. I managed to find the side streets filled with homeless people in my attempt to find someplace to eat dinner yesterday.

Here's something that I rarely see anymore - new construction in a city. New Orleans doesn't have much of this going on.

A random church downtown:

Here are pictures from the capital:

Here is a random sign.

proof that i'm not the best gardener

2008-06-23T17:00:00.000-05:00

Not all hope is lost yet...

nasa and election year politics

2008-06-21T19:45:00.000-05:00

This week the House passed a NASA spending bill that calls for an extra Space Shuttle flight and an extra $1 billion to speed up development of the next space vehicle and launch system.

The extra flight would deliver the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station (currently it is not going to be delivered or used). This part of the bill is clearly an election year tactic to appeal to people working in the aerospace industry, especially the thousands of NASA employees and contractors who will most likely lose their jobs in a few years when the Shuttle program ends.

One of the questions that news stories haven't asked is this - can the Space Shuttle program deliver an extra External Tank and fly another mission before the end of fiscal year 2010 (the scheduled end date for the program)? I don't know the answer on this, but it would seem that a program that has had a targeted end date for several years would already be ramping down as the end approaches (stop ordering parts for new tanks, ending contracts with suppliers whose services aren't needed, not hiring new employees to replace those that leave or retire, etc). The practical implications of an extra mission probably aren't viewed as important as the political pleasure that lawmakers receive from those whose jobs will end when the Shuttle program ends. If your congressman will help you keep your job for an extra six months (or year or whatever), wouldn't that make you happy?

The extra money for the Constellation program to speed up development of the next-generation vehicle is wanted because after 2010, the US will have to rely on the Russians for access to low-earth orbit (i.e. the International Space Station). This part of the bill is to please those people who aren't trusting of the Russians and those who assert that the US should always have more (and better) space systems than anyone else. We should be able to do whatever the Russians can do, right?

Since my job isn't threatened by the end of the Space Shuttle program, I don't care about the extra mission. But, it makes sense to not rely on the Russians if we can speed up development of our own vehicle (especially since $1 billion is virtually nothing for the government). So, this political tactic makes me partially pleased. We'll see if the Senate keeps this extra money in their bill...

homeowner lessons

2008-06-21T13:50:00.005-05:00

Here are some of the first things that I have learned from being a homeowner.

1. Crooked salesmen prey on new homeowners

This should not surprise anyone. Somehow all of our personal information about the sale and loan (names, bank info, loan amount and terms, probably SSNs but I'm not sure) ends up in the hands of evil salesmen who send you "mortgage insurance," "homeowners insurance," or some other phony insurance paperwork while pretending to be from your bank or insurance company. The need for a shredder increases after you buy a home.

2. Rain isn't as evil anymore

When you live in an apartment, you get soaked every time you have to walk out to your car. So, having a garage decreases my hatred of rain - no more driving to work soaking wet! (Umbrellas and rain coats can't protect all of you if you are more than 3 feet tall.) Also, rain is equivalent to free lawn watering. Since sprinklers aren't common around here, watering the lawn becomes a regular task. When it's raining so hard that you can barely see out your windshield, you know that you don't have to water your grass tomorrow.

It's also easier to see where the low spots in the yard are when it has been raining hard. (You'll also notice that my lawn is not evenly mowed - this is because my new lawn mower broke and is currently at Sears waiting to get fixed or replaced...)

seminary reflections and lessons, part 4 - avoiding prison ministry

2008-06-09T20:00:00.003-05:00

John Piper recently wrote about Charles Wesley ministering to criminals the night before their execution two months after he became a Christian (1738). The story reminded me of the prison ministry at the seminary that I avoided.

San Quentin State Prison is located in Marin County, California just a short drive away from the seminary I briefly attended. Students started a basketball ministry there, and I would receive regular invitations to join them via email. I always had an excuse for not signing up - I wasn't good at basketball, I didn't have transportation (when my car broke down), I had to work, I was going back to Reno, etc. No one ever personally invited me, but I always felt guilty about avoiding that ministry.

Maybe my guilt sprang from my personality and a desire to not let people down. Or maybe my guilt sprang from a knowledge that I wouldn't be the same if I joined in that work...

how would you advertise for your church?

2008-06-05T19:48:00.003-05:00

I feel almost inundated with "Christian" things by living in Louisiana. There have been billboards of loving white Jesus on the interstate constantly since I moved here over a year and a half ago. Mechanics and Jiffy Lube post sayings about coveting and being good people. And, of course, churches try to get your attention by whatever means possible. Churches here have plenty of competition, so they must feel a need to stand out in order to draw people to them (since the health and well-being of a church is measured by the number of people who go to it, of course).

I try to ignore all of the advertising that I can, but sometimes my brain will unwillingly read something and an unwanted message from a billboard or a sign will come through. This morning on the interstate I caught a church's sign. This is what it said: "death is only the beginning!"

Unfortunately that church is across the street from the interstate, not a cemetery. I know what they are trying to say, but I just had to think of what someone unfamiliar with stupid Christian sayings would think..."come to our church, where death is only the beginning! Who knows what will happen to you after we kill you..."

If you were in a position of authority in a church, how would you advertise?

today's shuttle launch

2008-05-31T18:00:00.000-05:00

Space Shuttle Discovery launched this afternoon. In case you were wondering, its external tank (ET-128) was the first one to fly that I had spent time working on. The tanks look so much bigger when you see them in person (especially when you go inside them).

fetus vs. baby and a connection between abortion and euthanasia

2008-05-21T18:07:00.005-05:00

Yesterday British Parliament voted to keep the limit on abortion at 24 weeks. This was one of many recent decisions related to embryology and abortion. I am going to discuss the use of the words "fetus" and "baby" and then point out a connection between abortion and euthanasia.

The use of the words "fetus" and "baby" was carefully crafted in a recent New York Times article on the British Parliament decision. The article tells us that "members of the British Parliament passionately debated the right of women to choose versus the right of a fetus to live." Note how the debate is framed - a woman's choice versus the life of a fetus. The British health minister referred to a "fetus" as a "baby," so the following sentence refers to the fetus as a baby. The rest of the article uses the word "fetus" instead of "baby," especially when readers are told that "proponents of a reduction contended that it was immoral for fetuses to be terminated at 24 weeks when they could survive."

It seems like the word "fetus" is used instead of "baby" since "fetus" for two reasons. First, "fetus" does not bring about the emotional state that the word "baby" does. Second, "baby" refers to a living being, and in the case of humans, these living beings have a right to live. So, if you do not believe that abortion is equivalent to killing living beings, then you will use the word "fetus" instead of the word "baby."

Now consider the connection between abortion and euthanasia. The connection may not be immediately obvious, but it nevertheless exists. First, we go back to the New York Times article and read the words of the British health minister: "While there have been medical advances in caring for premature babies, only a small number born after 24 weeks’ gestation can survive." She continued to say that medicine has not shown that babies born after 24 weeks have a higher rate of survival than they were believed to have in 1990 when abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy became legal.

Here is the point: babies born this prematurely are not guaranteed to survive, so ending their lives is not any more morally challenging in 2008 than it was in 1990. Therefore, since ending their lives was acceptable in 1990, it should be acceptable today. (To see this point made by someone else, A BBC News article on this voting quotes the head of the Family Planning Association, who spoke to the same effect: "Cutting the time limit, even by a few weeks, would have directly contradicted medical and scientific evidence about foetal viability and would only have exacerbated the desperation of the small percentage of women needing later abortion.")

This argument basically says that ending the lives of babies after 24 weeks of pregnancy is not as morally challenging as ending the life of a healthy full-grown adult who has a higher rate of survival. This can be further simplified as follows: the moral opposition to killing a human being is lessened as their probability of survival decreases. There is strong moral opposition to killing healthy human beings, but there is less moral opposition to killing 24-week old premature babies or others with a low probability of survival.

The connection between abortion and euthanasia is clear from here. According to Merriam-Webster, euthanasia is "the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy." Euthanasia is commonly performed (or sought out) for people who are terminally ill or otherwise suffering. When the condition of a terminally ill person is thought of in terms of survival, they are on an equal standing with 24-week old babies. If killing 24-week old babies is acceptable, so terminally ill patients should have the right to end their lives. Abortion and euthanasia are not entirely identical since the former involves ending the life of the baby by a third party while the latter involves someone ending their own life. But, the premise still stands.

Now for the application. Should the being inside a pregnant woman be called a "fetus" or a "baby"? I would argue that "baby" is better since I believe that it has a right to live, but ultimately the name that you call an unborn baby does not determine its right to live. What about euthanasia? Ending your own life does not show appreciation for the gift of life. It is a sad way to end your only life. When we hear stories of people flocking to Mexico to buy cheap drugs to end their lives, we should be saddened by their desperation.

miscellaneous thoughts while on company business

2008-05-20T17:26:00.003-05:00

Flying to a meeting about fatigue and fracture reminded me that airplanes have round windows for a good reason, but I don't know of any websites that thoroughly explain why that is. The Century of Flight website simply says that the square windows doomed the Comet airplane without saying why, which is very unsatisfying. Wikipedia's article on stress concentrations is slightly more satisfying.
The first freeway intersection that I saw here in San Antonio warmed my heart - it was large and reminded me of southern California, not small with 30 mph turnarounds like in Louisiana.
The European gentleman who presented today read equals signs as "is". For example, "R=1" would be read "R is 1." I don't know why he does that.

soyuz reentry

2008-05-09T21:19:00.002-05:00

Here is an interesting article discussing the unexpected reentry path of a Soyuz capsule last month: Internal NASA Documents Give Clues to Scary Soyuz Return Flight. In case you can't remember what a Soyuz capsule looks like, here is a picture from the one in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

free will and a complete theory of physics

2008-05-06T18:30:00.003-05:00

In the last post I briefly described why I feel that a complete theory of physics does not prohibit the existence of God. Here's another good question - would it prohibit human freedom of the will? Here is how Hawking answers:

If there really is a complete theory of physics that governs everything, it presumably also determines your actions. But it does so in a way that is impossible to calculate for an organism that is as complicated as a human being, and it involves a certain randomness due to quantum mechanical effects. So one way to look at it is that we say humans have free will because we can't predict what they will do. (Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, A Briefer History of Time (New York: Bantam, 2005), p. 115)

He assumes that the actions of humans would be explained by physical laws. But what about the sense of freedom that people have? Don't our affections and our attitudes influence our actions, or are our affections and attitudes influenced by physical conditions that can be scientifically explained (even if we can't do the math to predict each and every action)?

There are no simple answers to these questions, but if Hawking is correct, a complete theory of physics would have many implications. Consider the conception of guilt. Would the legal system punish people for committing crimes if they do not have a free choice to obey the law? Imagine an alcoholic who drives while intoxicated and kills someone. The person is responsible for his actions, even if they have a genetic inclination towards alcoholism. Would the same alcoholic be held responsible for their actions if it could be shown scientifically that they had no free choice but were compelled to drive drunk? Would they be punished for their actions anyway, or excused because they could not obey the law?

Also consider the implications for the Christian doctrine of sin. Christianity states that God is justly opposed to certain behaviors and punishes those who commit these behaviors. If science can show that people always act in accordance with a set physical law (or laws), would people still believe in an individual's personal responsibility for their sin? Would people be truly guilty before God or just punished by God in spite of their inability to do good (or to turn to Him in faith)?

Many more examples could be found of things influenced by a theoretical lack of free will. This leads to a more general question - what is free will? What does Christianity teach about the freedom of the will?

God and a complete theory of physics

2008-05-05T20:12:00.003-05:00

Stephen Hawking's A Briefer History of Time (New York: Bantam, 2005) is really about the scientific inquiry into the existence of the universe and how our view of the universe (including time) has changed in modern times. Throughout this book he ponders what a complete theory of physics would be. (For those who aren't familiar with this idea, here is the idea: quantum mechanics describes things on a small scale, while general relativity describes everything else, and these theories are not compatible with each other. There isn't one theory that explains everything in the known universe.)

As I mentioned in a previous post, some people fear that a complete theory of physics (or a "theory of everything") would remove the need for a God to exist. Surprisingly, Hawking's concluding words do not rule out the possibility of God:

Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe...If we discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God. (p. 141-142)

It would be optimistic (or misleading) to say that Hawking is advocating the existence of a deity. His point is that a complete theory would allow people to be more educated in their discussion of why the universe exists, even though understanding the physics of the universe is not understanding why the universe itself exists. Without special revelation from a deity, what else do you have to point you towards the meaning of the universe besides the universe itself?

As a Christian, I am not afraid of a complete theory of physics. It doesn't seem like such a theory would prohibit the existence of God since God necessarily exists outside of the known universe. This point seems rather straightforward. If only convincing others was easy...

house

2008-04-29T19:39:00.002-05:00

Life isn't about having nice stuff. Most of the decisions that I make tend to emphasize this fact. Hopefully the latest major decision that my wife and I made doesn't smell of materialism...we signed a contract for a house on Sunday. If all goes as planned, we will move in at the end of next month.

Here's another reason to visit us - you could help us move...

expelled

2008-04-27T20:10:00.000-05:00

My wife and I saw the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed last weekend with friends from church. I was skeptical of going - the last documentary that I saw was by Michael Moore, so the genre didn't seem particularly exciting. (Now I'm going to get kicked out of church for admitting that! No, I didn't watch Al Gore talk about climate change, and I never care to.)

The movie started with interviews of academics who were censured or otherwise punished for publishing or advocating intelligent design, which in broad terms is the study of how parts of the observable world (especially in biology) lend themselves to being designed by some sort of designer. This means that there can be advocates of intelligent design who don't attribute the "design" to the Judeo-Christian God. After clips from five interviews, Ben Stein (the narrator/investigator) focuses on Darwinism and its effects on society.

The rest of the movie consists of interviews with people from a variety of viewpoints (he even got Richard Dawkins to talk with him) mixed in with "funny" clips to add humor and subtly (or maybe not subtly) persuade the audience that Stein (and intelligent design) is on the right track. Stein makes several points:

the scientific community assumes the truth of Darwinism and evolutionary biology, so people who oppose these tend to be silenced
Darwinism spreads from a theory on the evolution of species to a philosophical worldview of all of life
the natural outcome of a naturalistic worldview influenced by Darwinism leads to social evils

The first point was made by interviewing academics who were "expelled" due to their research clashing with Darwinian evolution and its logical outpourings. The second point is that Darwinism spreads to a naturalistic worldview, where survival of the fittest and a lack of higher power (since God is not assumed to be either non-existent or irrelevant to the process) influence the way people view the worth of other people as well as the way that they live their lives. If the existence of man was caused by natural selection, then God is either irrelevant or non-existent. Both conclusions lead to a worldview where there is no higher power or authority - instead, man is a by-product of impersonal laws and has no purpose in the universe.

On a related note, Stein mentions how some scientists speak of one day having a "theory of everything," which would further reduce the need for God to be behind anything in the universe. While it is theoretically possible that God could have made the universe in a regular way with fixed laws, the assumption is that if there are fixed laws, then there is no need for God to have caused anything.

This naturalistic worldview can lead to social evils. If humanity has no purpose in the universe, then there are no absolute rules or an absolute morality, and social evils can crop up. As an example of social evils that are caused by a naturalistic worldview, Stein mentions eugenics and visits a facility in Hadamar, Germany where the Nazis murdered people with disabilities. Hitler's belief in a superior race has roots in naturalistic evolution, and his annihilation of Jews and other inferior people fits with the idea that humans can now help further natural selection by preventing the unfit from reproducing. Stein carefully notes that having a naturalistic worldview does not make someone a Nazi or a murderer, but rather that this naturalistic worldview can naturally lead to the devaluing of human life. He seals the Darwin-Hitler relation by reading from Darwin's The Descent of Man afterwards:

We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man itself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.

The main points of the movie are valid and good (at least from my Christian standpoint). My main problem with the movie was that it was designed to stir up those who already agreed with its conclusions, not to change the hearts of the opposition. The little "humorous" clips inserted throughout the movie serve to lighten the mood and reinforce the viewer's convictions, but they take away any possibility of objectivity (and subsequently the likelihood that someone would have their mind swayed from a naturalistic worldview). This setup will likely reduce the number of people who will be led to question the naturalistic worldview that many of us have been taught.

nasa advertising

2008-04-22T20:45:00.003-05:00

You tend to see all sorts of ads for space flight when you work at a NASA facility. Recently I noticed a new trend in Space Shuttle crew posters. I think you can tell what the trend is by looking at some pictures:

Is this a good use of federal money? It's fine with me as long as they don't get sued by a money-hungry Hollywood corporation...

parts engineering is more important that you think

2008-04-15T19:49:00.002-05:00

I take special delight in reminding one of my coworkers just how boring parts engineering sounds. Being knowledgeable in nuts, bolts, and rivets just sounds really boring...but it is important, as a new book about the sinking of the Titanic shows. Some metallurgists found that the shipbuilders went the cheap route and used iron rivets instead of steel rivets in many places, and the iron tended to have particularly high levels of impurities. Steel rivets may have helped the structure survive.

So, next time you harass your local parts engineer, think of the Titanic...

rich christians, part 3 - long-term solutions to hunger and poverty

2008-03-27T18:32:00.003-05:00

Today a Scientific American blog discussed the possibility of increasing industry to solve poverty. Here's the idea - industrial jobs will help the GDP, which will create more wealth that can be used to feed people.

Does this work? I'm not smart enough to know the answer to that, but it reminds me that poverty and hunger have complex causes and don't have quick fixes. In Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, Ron Sider argues that helping the economies of poor countries might not solve the problem of hunger. Why? Because most of the owners of land and capital are the rich, so the hungry poor don't benefit as much as the rich. Many poor people are basically too poor to participate in the global economy, so the rich may see most of the fruits of economic growth. But that doesn't that mean that the poor aren't helped at all by increased industry or foreign aid.

This discussion points to the obvious fact that simply throwing resources won't solve these problems. Persistence and effort are required for long-term solutions, which means that those who work for the eradication of poverty and hunger have to care about the people in need once they are done reading a convicting book that makes them think. This is one area where I consistently fail. My care for these problems is so small that a good night's sleep can make me forget about the problem...this needs to change so that I can reflect God's concern for the needy and work for the benefit of others.

rich christians, part 2 - rationalizing affluence

2008-03-19T18:24:00.003-05:00

Chapter 2 of Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger paints the picture of just how affluent Westerners are. No matter how you define wealth, Westerners are some of the most affluent people in the world. Westerners aren't just affluent - we tend to rationalize our affluence, believing that material possessions are what really makes us happy and that it is normal and desirable to be incredibly wealthy while people in far away lands suffer from malnutrition and lack basic health care. There are many ways that people rationalize affluence, but in reality affluence is frequently desired out of selfishness, greed, and other sinful desires.

I am not very vulnerable to direct, obvious selfishness or a desire to be like everyone else. I don't care that most of the people at work have nicer cars (or at least cars that don't break down in the middle of nowhere during a huge storm at 10 pm like mine did two weeks ago) or expensive video game systems or other stuff. But, there is a silent expectation to receive a certain amount of compensation for my work based on my education, experience, and occupation. This desire seems normal at first (thoughts like "if I didn't get a raise comparable to everyone else, that would mean that I'm not doing well..."), but examination reveals its evil nature. If I want compensation for what I do so that I can support my family, be generous, and help meet the needs of others, then that desire can please God. But my expectation of compensation isn't coupled with a strong desire to help others, so the "blessed to be a blessing" (like Abraham, Genesis 12) mentality is a cover for selfishness and greed. What's even worse is the fact that I'm not as troubled by my selfishness as I should be.

It is safe to say that everyone who reads this is well-off and rich compared to people in developing countries. Do you have a religious cover story for the love of money and affluence?

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:6-10, ESV)

rich christians, part 1 - selfishness

2008-03-16T20:43:00.006-05:00

I recently finished reading Ronald Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005). This is the first in a series of posts describing lessons learned from it.

The first lesson learned is one that I don't like hearing - I am incredibly selfish. What do I know about the needs of the billions of people who live in poverty worse than I have ever seen? Do I care about their needs more than the "interesting" things I run across on the internet (like an article yesterday about the possibility of hackers reprogramming pacemakers)? Do I have an interest in reducing poverty, preventing deaths from simple things like diarrhea, and ending oppression, or do I just want to be entertained and comfortable?

When I read Jonathan Edwards' description of a selfish man this week, it sounded just like me:

A person of selfish spirit is ready to make much of the afflictions that he himself is under [migraines, not liking the weather, blah blah blah], as if his privations or sufferings were greater than those of anybody else; and if he is not in suffering, he is ready to think he is not called to spare what he has in possession, for the sake of helping others. A selfish man is not apt to discern the wants of others, but rather to overlook them, and can hardly be persuaded to see or feel them. (Jonathan Edwards, "The Spirit of Charity the Opposite of a Selfish Spirit," in Charity and Its Fruits [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2005, orig. 1851], p. 168).

Billions of people not only have worse living conditions than me, but have physical needs greater than I have ever seen in this country. When I ignore that fact and go about my day, I show the world just how selfish I really am.

another sign of our affluence

2008-03-05T20:52:00.003-06:00

I picked up a copy of USA Today from the hotel lobby this morning. On the bottom of the front page, there is an insert that says "Baltimore residents have highest utility bills." I wondered why the average utility bill in Baltimore is $371, so I read the fine print: "Utility bills include home phone, Internet, television, electricity and natural gas."

Since when did phones, Internet, and television become utilities? Do they assume that everyone has (or needs) these? Are people "poor" if they don't have these? This reminds me of just how rich we are as Americans...I thought that utilities were essential things like electricity, water, gas, and sewer, not things like communications and entertainment.

artificial hearts

2008-02-17T18:40:00.003-06:00

Here's an interesting article on artificial hearts. It's almost secretly an advertisement for a certain company who produces artificial hearts, but it is interesting anyway. Those familiar with my medical history will understand why I read things like this...and everyone else can just think that it's cool.

morally unacceptable nanotechnology?

2008-02-16T19:45:00.001-06:00

A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor released details of a study showing that only 29.5 percent of Americans believe that nanotechnology is morally acceptable. The percentage of people in European countries who believe that nanotechnology is morally acceptable is much higher (although still seemingly low) - 54.1% in the UK and 72.1% in France. The professor's conclusion is that prevalence of religion in America is the cause of the low acceptance rate. Here's how the article I read (linked above) describes it:

The catch for Americans with strong religious convictions, Scheufele [the researcher] believes, is that nanotechnology, biotechnology and stem cell research are lumped together as means to enhance human qualities. In short, researchers are viewed as "playing God" when they create materials that do not occur in nature, especially where nanotechnology and biotechnology intertwine, says Scheufele.

This seems to be saying that making things that aren't naturally occurring is troublesome in the minds of many people. But is this the proper Christian response? Consider the following:

God created the world and gave humans dominion over it.
God gave humans the ability to use their minds and their bodies to make tools, clothing, etc. People have been making things for a very, very long time. Our creativity reflects (in a small measure) God's creative activity, and we should be thankful for the gift of creativity and worship the One whose creation we are a part of. "God has so made us to enjoy imitating, in a creaturely way, his creative activity. And one of the amazing aspects of humanity-in distinction from the rest of creation-is our ability to create new things." (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], p. 272).
As civilization grew, people began to make many new things that aren't naturally occurring in nature. Rocks come from the ground, but they had to be made into arrow tips.; animals grow fur, but the fur has to be made into clothing; etc.
Most of the things that we use today are not strictly "naturally occurring." The metal in our cars was formed through knowledge of metallurgy - special alloys aren't mined as-is from the ground. You could go on and on with similar examples. So if something has to be "naturally occurring" to be morally acceptable, we need to throw out most of the things used in the Western world.
Nanotechnology is developed in basically the same way that everything else was developed. The difference is a difference of scale - we now have better tools (electron microscopes, computers, better fabrication techniques) to allow us to understand materials on a smaller scale and subsequently make materials that are tailored at that scale.
The creation and use of tools, clothes, etc. is morally neutral (some may argue that making bombs is always bad, but I'm not talking in a general sense and not about weapons in particular). A hammer can be used to nail boards together to build a house for a less fortunate family, or it can be used to hit someone on the head. God is either glorified or rejected by the hearts and actions of the creators (were they self-centered or thankful for their gifts?) and the hearts and actions of those who use the material.

So if nanotechnology is morally unacceptable, then most technology has to be morally unacceptable as well. Instead of being afraid of the possibilities of creating new materials at a smaller scale, we should be glad that God has given us the ability to create new and worthwhile things and also worship God for being even more glorious than we previously realized - His knowledge is far deeper than ours, and His creation is even more complex than people realized 100 or 1,000 years ago.

On a similar note - new research shows that people tend to agree with the technical experts whose values most match their own, regardless of the experts' views. Could it be that religious people (or maybe just Americans in general) can't relate to technical experts in the field of nanotechnology?

the flag of louisiana

2008-02-15T19:02:00.003-06:00

This week a coworker gave me great insight into the flag of Louisiana, which is shown below.

The flag shows a mother pelican, baby pelicans, their nest, and a banner with "union justice and confidence" written on it. My first impression of the flag (hanging inside Walmart when I went to buy groceries my first night here) was that it is somewhat ugly. My coworker (who is from here) told me of a revelation that he had in middle school. He found the (not very) hidden message behind the pelicans - welfare. The mother pelican is the state, and the baby pelicans are the citizens, who are helpless without their mother to provide for them.

Now you have an insider's description of the meaning of the flag of Louisiana.

a good reason to not vote for obama - i'd like to keep my job

2008-02-04T18:29:00.000-06:00

The Scientific American blog recently highlighted Scientists & Engineers of America's website section that highlights politician's stances on science. On their website I found a selfish reason to not vote for Barak Obama if he wins the Democratic nomination - he advocates delaying NASA's Constellation program by five years in order to help pay for increased education spending. If he does that, lots of technical people like me may be out of jobs.

Here's the link to Obama's Plan for Lifetime Success Through Education (sounds very political, doesn't it?). You have to go to the end of the last page to see that the Constellation program would be delayed to pay for his proposal. However, the technology section of his website says that "An Obama administration will foster home-grown innovation and ensure that we can retain and grow high-paying jobs in fast-growing sectors in the sciences and technology rather than exporting those jobs to lower cost labor markets abroad." Would he help create high-tech jobs for all of the NASA contractors who would lose their jobs because of the Constellation program delay?

the useless republican primary in louisiana

2008-01-23T19:13:00.000-06:00

I have heard enough news to know that the presidential primaries in Louisiana are happening on February 9. I foolishly thought that meant that the primaries were actually somewhat important, but now I have learned that the Republican primary doesn't mean a whole lot.

I registered as a Republican in Louisiana (go ahead, complain all you want...). I ran across an article on nola.com today that told me that the Republicans had a caucus to elect candidates to the state convention yesterday. Since I didn't receive any information from the party or the state or even from any candidates and I don't watch the television news, I didn't know about this caucus (and subsequently didn't drive to a nearby town to vote during the 3-hour window). But, I learned that my vote in the February 9th primary probably won't be worth much - if a candidate gets more than 50% of the popular vote, 20 of the 47 national convention delegates go to that candidate, with the rest uncommitted. If no one gets 50% of the vote, then none of the delegates are committed. The delegates to the national convention (with the exception of 3 head party officials) are selected by the state convention, whose delegates were elected last night. In other words, if there is no clear winner in the primary, my vote is absolutely meaningless!

On a related note - if you want to see a poorly formatted and terribly unhelpful website, go to the Republican Party of Louisiana website. Try clicking on "About Us," "Get Involved," or "Events" - you will find no information. The "LAGOP Platform" PDF link on the lower right-hand side is broken, so you can't see their platform. Or you can click on "About Us" and then click on "Welcome" to see another broken link!

how dirty are pigeons after all?

2008-01-19T19:21:00.001-06:00

Scientific American recently posted an article discussing the spread of diseases from animals to humans. They say that even though pigeons are dirty, they don't pose a high risk of transmitting deadly bird flu strains or other harmful diseases to humans. Instead, animal-to-human disease transfer is more likely among live bird markets and large farms. Here's the conclusion about pigeons:

As for pigeons: research has shown that even those infected with bird flu actually transmit very little. And they carry so little West Nile virus in their bloodstreams that they are unlikely to infect mosquitoes who could then infect humans, Kilpatrick says, making the birds more likely to slow an epidemic than spread one.

So, you are allowed (and I would say even encouraged) to hate pigeons for being dirty flying rats that are worthy of extermination, but don't worry about them spreading deadly diseases to you.

book review: the language of God

2008-01-06T14:46:00.000-06:00

One of the books that I received for Christmas is Francis Collins' The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (Free Press, 2006). Collins' main point is that a person can adhere to modern scientific beliefs as well as well as personal belief in a God. He reviews main scientific theories about the age of the universe and evolution and shows how faith can complement these theories.

One of the important things that Collins states is that faith answers questions that cannot be answered by science, such as "why does the universe exist?" Science provides information about the universe, but it cannot say why the universe exists.

He describes four possible interactions between science and faith: atheism/agnosticism, creationism (primarily young earth creationism), intelligent design (where God is needed to explain the gaps in evolution), and theistic evolution. Atheism is dismissed on the grounds of the near-universal presence of the moral law (he quotes C.S. Lewis' writings often), and agnosticism is viewed as safe only if the person is actively working the problems out (so it shouldn't be a satisfying position to stay in).

Collins dismisses young earth creationism because it is incompatible with what mainstream science agrees about the age of the universe and the age of the earth, saying that "if these claims were actually true, it would lead to a complete and irreversible collapse of the sciences of physics, chemistry, cosmology, geology, and biology." (p. 174) His other point is that some creationists have gone as far as saying that God could have made the earth look older than it was in order to test our faith, which is an argument so extreme that it assumes an interesting character of the God who made the world.

The main argument against intelligent design is that it sticks God in the perceived gaps in evolutionary theory, which could (and in his opinion will) later cause problems for the believers when those gaps are filled in with subsequent data. He cites examples used by intelligent design advocates of "irreducibly complex" organisms such as the eye and bacterial flagellum and then discusses how advances in science have led to better understanding of an evolutionary pathway for their development (you can see how in areas like this a book can become outdated rather quickly). In addition, intelligent design can't be theoretically proven since the predicted divine interventions cannot be measured or directly observed.

Collins' favored relationship between science and faith is theistic evolution, which he terms 'BioLogos' to avoid the words 'theistic' and 'evolution.' This is basically complete trust in science and a loose interpretation of religious texts that seem to contradict science - in the case of Christianity, the first chapters of Genesis. His support for an allegorical interpretation of the early events in Genesis is based on the variety of interpretations for these events that have been provided throughout the centuries. Since no uniform interpretation has come about, he is content to count the events as allegory, saying that the main point is that God is the one behind the creation of the universe and life on earth.

The main thing lacking with Collins' position is that he does not explore many of the theological implications for theistic evolution. This makes sense since he is a scientist and not a theologian, but it leaves unanswered questions. For example, if humans didn't have one common ancestor, what happens to the Biblical doctrine of original sin (also called inherited sin, where our first forefather sinned and therefore all subsequent humans are born with a natural tendency to sin)? The apostle Paul compares and contrasts Adam to Christ in the New Testament (Romans 5:12-21, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22) in a way that sounds like Adam is perceived to be real. If Adam didn't exist, what should we think of these comparisons? Collins refers to C.S. Lewis' work The Problem of Pain, where Lewis basically says that however it happened, people fell away from God: "We do not know how many of these creatures God made, nor how long they continued in the Paradisal state. But sooner or later they fell...They wanted, as we say, to 'call their souls their own.' But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own." (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain [HarperSanFrancisco, 2001], p. 75) Ultimately the fact that mankind fell into sin is more important than the mechanism by which it happened, but finding a satisfying mix of scientific theory and Biblical theology is left to the reader.

Collins did answer one theological implication of theistic evolution - if God used evolution to create humans, then how could He have purposely created humans? His answer is very good: God as the creator of everything is outside of time, so the "random" mutations that we observe and predict were not random to God. This view of God's foreknowledge should be accepted by all Christians regardless of their views on the age of the universe or the creation of mankind.

In conclusion, Collins does a good job describing how science and faith should not be at odds with each other (a view that I personally agree with). He describes the scientific reasoning behind a 14 billion year old universe, a 4.5 billion year old earth, and Darwinian evolution, showing where questions of faith are left untouched by science. He presents summaries of the main interactions between science and faith (atheism/agnosticism, young-earth creationism, intelligent design, and theistic evolution) and argues why theistic evolution seems to be the best choice. Since he approaches the discussion from a scientific view, he leaves resolving theological questions up to the reader. As one who can think of lots of questions and few satisfying answers, I will refrain from arguing for a specific theory at this time.

washington, d.c.

2007-12-18T20:26:00.001-06:00

Here are some pictures from our recent trip:

The building with the vice president's office

In front of the White House

Lincoln Memorial

The Spirit of St. Louis (do you remember your history?)

Apollo 9 (I think) crew module (the Apollo 11 crew module was in glass, so this was easier to photograph)

An exhibit at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

the role of faith in science

2007-11-25T15:30:00.000-06:00

Here's an interesting opinion article called Taking Science on Faith published in the NY Times. The author discusses the role of faith in science and correctly says that both science and religion depend on faith.

I don't know if I agree with his conclusion - "the laws [of the universe] should have an explanation from within the universe and not involve appealing to an external agency." As of today no one in science or religion can explain the laws of the universe without appealing to an external agency, whether it is God or a fixed higher level of laws. But, it is interesting to think about anyway - if there was an explanation for the laws of the universe from within the universe itself, what would it be? Would it answer all of our questions? Probably not.

street sign theology

2007-11-21T17:51:00.000-06:00

One of the interesting things about living in the south is that I see many more religious or moral sayings on signs in front of churches and businesses. For example, Jiffy Lube had a warning about gossiping for a few months. Here are two confusing signs that I've seen lately:

1. "The Christian life found difficult is often left untried." - in front of a church

I guess they are saying that people think Christianity is hard without actually trying it...but doesn't "finding" involve some sort of action?

2. "God doesn't need a reason to love you." - in front of an automotive store

If they are saying that God does not need a reason outside of Himself in order for Him to love you, then I would agree with it. But doesn't this sound like God has no reason for His action? How is this God rational? If His love does not have a foundation or basis for existing, then what other things does He do without a reason? How wise is this God?

The people who put these signs out are trying to influence the way people live their lives. They don't really change the way I live my life - they just make me confused.

some people think that nasa's budget rivals the deparment of defense's budget...?

2007-11-17T17:53:00.000-06:00

Slashdot points to an essay that says that people have no clue how big NASA's budget is. Some even think that NASA and the Department of Defense have comparable budgets. As someone who is somewhat affiliated with the aerospace industry, I find this scary - people are actually that confused? Do they really think that rockets are that expensive?

Imagine how much more NASA could do if their budget was even 1% of the federal budget (according to The Space Review's essay, as of July 2007 NASA's requested budget was 0.58% of the proposed federal budget - it's still in that general area)...maybe the post-shuttle gap in American human spaceflight capability wouldn't be 5 years, and maybe I wouldn't be working in a building that was built during World War II.

new study - louisiana residents healthier than mississippi residents

2007-11-05T19:34:00.001-06:00

The United Health Foundation released their America's Health Rankings report, and Louisiana fared better than neighboring Mississippi. For comparison, the "healthiest" state is Vermont, and Nevada is 39th.

Even more amusing than this is the fact that Fox News misread the report - Vermont Residents Healthiest, Louisiana Unhealthiest. People here may be less healthy than people in other states, but all of the people that I know here understand that 49th out of 50 isn't "worst" in the nation...(Fox will eventually figure it out and fix their headline though).

vicksburg national military park, ms

2007-11-03T19:58:00.000-05:00

We took a day trip to Vicksburg National Military Park, which commemorates the Civil War battle for Vicksburg, MS, which fell to Union troops in 1863. Vicksburg is on the Mississippi river west of Jackson (the state capital for all of you who don't remember from school).

The park has lots of memorials and cannons sitting around, but the size of the battle and the horror of war were lost on us because there is about 150 years of vegetation growing over the area. This meant that we saw some of the depressions made in the hills by the trenches (the trenches themselves are long gone), but we couldn't see anything more than small edges of the original battlefield. Most of the cannons appear to be pointing into the forest, not at a strategic town with Confederate troops in it. Also, none of the original structures remain, so it was very difficult to imagine myself there during the Civil War.

Here are some pictures.

One of many memorials

Another memorial

Statue of Ulysses S. Grant