Today his family and community will begin the process of burying Billy Graham and will honor his body. This is a good and proper thing to do. We honor the body, because it was part of the man. Humans are souls embodied, eternity in our heart, but death in our immediate future. Some philosophers have tried to slip this tension by forgetting the body and looking only to the external. We cannot live this way, because the demands of our... Read more
Malcom X never grew as old as I am now. Instead, he was gunned down in the (seemingly) eternal racial conflict in America. Like John Brown, you can admire much about Malcolm, if you cannot ever agree with him. He is an American original: the product of this Republic, deeply flawed and great. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was must reading when I was a young man, then faded into the background for a time, but is now considered must reading... Read more
This is a post from a former student responding to something I wrote about the potential dangers of socially isolating college education. Eric Holloway received a solid grounding in classical education at the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University. Eric continued schooling to complete a MSc in Computer Science at the Air Force Institute of Technology and a PhD in Computer Engineering at Baylor University. ————————————————- It is said our greatest strength can become our greatest weakness. The engineer’s great... Read more
She never met Billy Graham, though everyone of our generation knew his name. She is just old enough to have enjoyed his foray into movies (The Hiding Place is an underrated film) and just young enough to recall being irritated when his Crusades preempted her favorite television. Still, she trusted him, because Billy Graham was an evangelist—but not the Elmer Gantry kind. He was not (to our generation) cool, but sound and solid as the savings bond your grandmother got you... Read more
Growing up more people knew Mari Evans than I encounter now, but then more people used to read all kinds of poetry. You can even make jokes about poetry that everyone knew. (“The boy stood on the burning deck/eating peanuts by the peck”) They say poetry is going extinct, which is rather like hearing that the heart is being phased out of the body. If we want to do our heart a favor, then Mari Evans is heart-healthy and delicious.... Read more
Yes, there are replies one can use to put a brake on this hasty argumentativeness, a hastiness which is dangerous in all manners, but especially in discussions about God. * If an idea draws reasonable controversy, or deals with difficult problems, then here is a safe rule: nobody can master that idea quickly or solve that problem with a homemade YouTube video. Want to know how to spot a person who does not wish to learn by argument, but is... Read more
Heretics: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design* is the story of a bioengineer in Finland who dared to think differently. His life story makes a good case that embracing the heresy of intelligent design and having doubts about evolutionary theory does not put a stop to good science. Certainly, his skepticism about materialism and Darwinism has not kept him from publishing important work while also provoking some interesting interactions. Professor Leisola is full of good cheer despite having faced the... Read more
We created a model of undergraduate education that may not work well. In fact, is our failed model a source of bad revolutionary ideologues? Over the weekend I was reading a brief history of Ethiopia. That proud nation faces martial rule for the second time in the recent past. Pray for Ethiopia. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Ethiopia was poor, but headed in good directions. It is easy to imagine a constitutional monarchy with a South African style... Read more
Myth is powerful and every people needs tales to picture what could have been or what might be. Yet there are also true events that are so important, so powerful, so symbolic of deep truth, that they take on a mythic quality. March 1 near a place called Adwa the facts are so inspiring they became legendary: a myth that is true history. Racist colonizers were whipped by an unconquered African Empire in the Name of Christ. The Christians were surrounded... Read more
Gregory of Nazianzus wrote, Conviction you see of a thing’s existence is quite different from knowledge of what it is.* A child can ask for candy without understanding what candy is. She can even love candy, have a favorite candy, and still have only the subjective notion that “candy is the sweet food I like.” As she grows older, she will want to learn what candy is so she can predict what she might like in the store. A jar... Read more
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