Kris and I have never intentionally gone to the City to see the Air and Water Show, but we’ve been there four times when it was happening. Cool stuff. Dave Diller, at Renovate, is doing a series on Philemon (1, 2, 3). LL Barkat sticks to her principles. This is a good illustration (and a good story) of “desultory” reading — the kind of reading that lets what you read shape what you read next. 13 ways to help your... Read more
Just in case you didn’t see this CNN.com piece, Mitt Romney (R), as governor of the Democratic State of Massachusetts, designed a mandatory insurance for all folks in Massachusetts. I hear about 97% are insured etc. (Just in case you are bent out of shape that R-Romney might have a good proposal, don’t be. What we want is what is best, whoever works on the proposal.) What do folks know about the health care of Massachusetts?Is this a better-than-Co-op alternative?... Read more
We are in a conversation and discussion about John Walton’s (professor at Wheaton) new book, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate. Proposition 9 is another big one: The seven days of Genesis 1 relate to the cosmic temple inauguration. Put this differently: the seven days are not about the duration of bringing matter into existence, but a period of time devoted to inaugurating the various functions of the temple. That is, they prepare the... Read more
Scot, Most days, as I leave my job at the community college, these people are standing at the intersection holding up very large posters of aborted fetuses. Yesterday, there was only one poster holder, but several students were holding up blankets to block the view of the poster. As the poster holder tried to move out of their way they also moved. I had my camera so I took some pictures (it’s a long stoplight). My questions: how do you... Read more
John Piper has connected the Minneapolis tornado to God’s judgment on the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s very public debate about homosexuality. I have clipped some of his post which you can read at the link at his name in the previous sentence. The issues here involve these questions: How do we know these things? How consistent are we in making such discernments? And this: Have you ever seen a calamity or a disaster and truly believed you knew why that event... Read more
Here’s my question for you, and I ask you to look inside and tell us what you think really do think: Do you think every American citizen is entitled to basic health care as a human rights issue? If not, why? If so, how do you propose the uninsured (45+ million) and unemployed — 30 million of us right now — be covered? There is a chaser question: Is it possible for universal health care to be provided to all... Read more
What happens when Pentecost happens? That’s our week’s question. What happens is that community happens? That’s our week’s answer. How does community happen? We’ll look at a fourth characteristic today. Again, the passage: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their... Read more
Today I start in earnest a series focused on Simon Conway Morris’s book Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe. This book is an exploration of the evidence for evolutionary convergence – the idea that there are islands of stability and that evolution will identify these islands. Conway Morris is Professor of Evolutionary Paleobiology at Cambridge University. He is also a Christian and puts some effort into integrating his science with a Christian world view. Maggie McDonald commenting on... Read more
David Bentley Hart, a historian of ideas, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies , examines “faith and reason” to provide historical context for what has happened with New Atheists. The New Atheists, he contends, propagate a myth in telling the story of (Western) civilization. Namely, that the Age of Faith was an age of superstition and the Age of Reason one of enlightenment, and the former is to be applauded for putting the former into the past.... Read more
Let’s say the analysis is accurate: that insurance premiums are too high, that drug prices are too high, that medical expenses in general are too high. Let’s also agree that these costs are hurting our country’s health care plans and the availability of medical care to some 45 million. Let’s agree that this approaches the biggest problems we are facing. Now let’s agree on one more: that competition with those insurance and drug companies could and would make a difference. ... Read more
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