Sunday, July 27, 2008

What do you think?

This weekend Kris had to go to a PTA leadership training conference. So I took the boys to Houston to see Gran'mom and Gran'dad and Aunt Kerry all three of whom have had a lot of health problems over the past few months. Thankfully, grandchildren seem to be good medicine. I think we all had a really good time. We laughed a lot. I hope the aftershocks of having two busy little boys in the house were worth the fun for Mom, Dad, and Little Sister.

Now for the what do you think question. Consider Genesis 1:28, "
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." I remember hearing a radio show several years ago on which the guests shared his opinion that we have pretty much completed the command to "fill the earth". He was advocating for zero population growth.

Considering the billion people with no access to sanitary water, and the millions of children who die every year from causes related to poor nutrition, and the vastness of our waste stream, and the tons of carbon dioxide we're pumping into the atmosphere, and the number of extinctions we've seen in the past 100 years, I'm inclined to agree with him.

I know it is typical for very conservative Christians to argue for big families. I've even heard some preachers (not mine) imply--just imply mind you, not come right out and say--that people who only had one or two children were less spiritual than those with big families.

Let me be clear, I'm not prepared at this point to say that having a big family is wrong. I'm just saying I think the idea of zero population growth is a good one.

So, what do you think, have we obeyed that command or should we still be trying to fill the earth?

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Camp Update

Ok, we're home from camp. It was a good week. Wanted to let everyone know that despite the very unusual situation with the "preaching" at camp last week God still worked.

Not to be critical of the camp pastor. He worked hard and did a good job, it was just very different than what one expects at youth camp.

Anyway, quite a few teens responded to God by receiving Jesus for salvation. There were also some who rededicated their lives to Christ. A great many others prayed at the altar and got relationships right in within their youth groups. I also know that within our group almost all the teens said they felt that God had worked in their lives during the week.

It was an exciting week from a spiritual standpoint. So, thank you Jesus.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

And now for something completely different...

So I'm at youth camp this week. Those of you who have been to a Baptist youth camp, either as a camper or worker, will totally understand what it is like. It is a lot of fun, but also has a serious side. The goal is for people to really connect with God.

One important part of that is the Camp Pastor. The Camp Pastor is usually a professional "youth communicator" or "youth evangelist". This week, the camp director wanted to try something different, which I admire him for, and he hired a stand up comedian. It is not quite as weird as it sounds. The guy is a media minister at a big church in Colorado Springs, and does stand up comedy too. But I don't think he has a lot of experience preaching at youth camps. His first night was completely a comedy routine. As you can imagine if you are familiar with camp, that really freaked all the leaders out.

Last night he actually used the Bible a little to talk about the Messiahship of Christ. Plus, he gave a personal testimoney so I think folks are feeling a little better. Over all it has been a good camp so far. Our kids are being very good and discussing during church time. I think they are having fun too.

Gotta run, more later, I hope.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Couple things

Here is another interesting article about global warming, http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/ .

Earlier this week I read a great article at Christianity Today by William Lane Craig related to philosophy and the existence of God. Its long but really interesting; I recommend it.

A while back I wrote a little satirical post called "An Emergent Teaches Math". It must have been late at night because it made me laugh at the time. I never really finished it and therefore did not ever publish it. It was not intended to be mean, just a silly little satire to make a point. Some of the things that Craig said in his article seemed to affirm the point I was making and therefore reminded me of the unposted post. So, after you read Craig's article, then just for fun, here is "An Emergent Teaches Math"...

"Good morning fellow travelers. Today I'll be facilitating a conversation about an idea known as the Pythagorean Theorem. I had hoped that we could continue all sharing our stories of how we came to be math students. However, my department head was rather disturbed that no one scored higher than 62% on the last examination.

"Now, now, let's not be judgmental. I tried to tell him that he is just being an old fashioned linear thinker and that he really does not understand how to function in the post-modern world. But for now, he is the boss, so we need to explore this concept.

"The Pythagorean Theorem is a formula that applies to right triangles. A right triangle is a triangle that contains one angle of 90 degrees and two lesser angles that add up to 90 degrees (he displays one on the camera projector). Of course, you might not be comfortable with that. I guess there are a couple of things you might do. You could go down to Starbucks and begin a discourse about what a right triangle ought to be. Or if you don't have that much time, you could just recalibrate your protractor so that you have 90 degrees at any point you are comfortable with.

"The sides of the right triangle that form the 90 degree angle are called legs and the side opposite the 90 degree angle is considered the hypotenuse. The hypotenuse is the longest side. The Pythagorean Theorem gives us a way to find the length of one side if the other two sides are known. Specifically, it says that the sum of the squares of the legs is equal to the square of the hypotenuse. We represent it as a2+b2=c2 . Where a and b are the lengths of the legs and c is the length of the hypotenuse."

The class practices the formula a time or two and then little Johnny has a question. He says, "Mr. Teacher, you said we could recalibrate our protractor to make 90 degrees something we are comfortable with?"

"Yes Johnny."

"So, what if I were, say, I don't know, designing a bridge and I was using triangular shapes to determine various areas under the bridge and then I wanted to use the Pythagorean Theorem to determine the heights of the supports. With me? Good. But if I wasn't comfortable with the constraints of 90 degrees so I changed my protractor to suit me, wouldn't the supports end up being the wrong height? and then the bridge would not connect properly, and there could be a big waste of materials or worse, we could end up with an unstable bridge and people could die?"

"Well Johnny, I suppose that's one scenario. You've obviously only experienced a strictly Euclidean metaphysic. You're being a little arrogant to think that there is only one way of looking at things. You need to open your mind to what others on your journey may be comfortable with...

Monday, July 7, 2008

Quickie

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted. I've been meaning to, but tend to fall asleep before I can get on line and write something. So, today I'm cheating and posting at work--so it is going to be really quick.

All two of you who read this know how much I like the Evangelical Outpost . Well, today Joe Carter has really outdone himself. You gotta go check out his list of 33 Things; they're really good. Especially the first one, and I liked the one about English evolving or devolving, and some others too, but I gotta go.