“In reality, conservatives and liberals need each other: Conservatives maintain many lines that should never be crossed, while liberals destroy many lines that should never have existed” (Tony Campolo, Red Letter Christians, p.36). Read more

“One of the main reasons I became a Christian was that I was told I would be joining an army that was doing battle with evil forces, powers that were all too evident and often in control of the world around me. I was told that I would be joining with other Christians and participating with God in revolutionizing society. Such a calling whetted my appetite to do something heroic with my life! But once recruited, I was told that... Read more

I’ve posted a summary of what we covered in my Sunday School class this morning, in the first introductory session on the subject “When Christians Disagree”, on the church’s blog. Read more

I just watched the LOST season 1 episode “Deus ex Machina“. It was great to finally see the other end of the transmission I heard soon after I started watching the show, when the “tailies” heard a voice on the other end of a transmission, claiming to be survivors of Oceanic flight 815. What is the reason for the title? What is the “machine” and what deity arises from it? The plane? The dialysis machine? Is the island itself a... Read more

I recently bought the M-AUDIO Session KeyStudio. For less than a hundred dollars on Amazon.com, you get a 49-key keyboard MIDI controller and Session software. I already had Mixcraft installed, and so I tend to use that for recording. It also includes drum and other loops. The keyboard is just a MIDI controller – it doesn’t have a built in synthesizer or speakers, so it needs to be connected to your computer’s USB port (and your computer needs to have... Read more

In the episode of LOST from season 1 entitled “Outlaws“, Sawyer meets Christian Shepherd in a bar in Australia. Christian tells Sawyer that he is too weak to do that which could fix everything – call his son and tell him that he loves him, and that he’s grateful and proud because of what he did, rather than feeling betrayed. Christian talks about fate, and we learn that he had a saying, “That’s why the Red Sox will never win... Read more

Thanks to everyone who helped identify my blog in its blog network on Facebook. It seems I need a mere two more fans of my blog’s network in order for them to add my feed to it. If any two regular readers who are on Facebook could oblige, I’d be most grateful! Read more

A friend of mine sent me links to a number of YouTube videos in which respectable individuals speak about extraterrestrials. I’ll just reproduce them here, and invite comments on how convincing or unconvincing these testimonies seem. I know we have a community here interested in (among other things) distinguishing science from pseudoscience, and distinguishing scholarship from apologetics. What do you make of these? General video about the Disclosure Project Daniel Sheehan -Disclosure Project Sgt. Karl Wolf – Disclosure Project Dr.... Read more

There is an online survey of how (and how well) people understand the scientific theory of evolution. It is probably worth contributing to, although the possible answers are constricting in places. The only type of God that is asked about is that of classical theism, and so they will inevitably have significant numbers who end up rated as very religious and yet unsure whether such a deity exists. Read more

My viewing of season 1 of LOST continues. The episode “Not Raised By Another” shows again just how much of later developments were indeed in mind early on. We’ve already been told that the finding of “Adam and Eve” in the caves was an important clue intended to ensure that, whatever twists and turns might follow, some element of the originally-intended plot line could be shown to have been intended from the outset. In this episode, Claire has a dream... Read more