Wednesday - December 03, 2008Gee, Can We Be Rational for a Minute?Global Warming alarmism just continues unabated, and the media, demonstrating another area where they now next to nothing (added to religion, science, economics, and statistics), are fanning the flames. Sunday - November 30, 2008Thursday - November 27, 2008Thursday - November 27, 2008Thursday - October 30, 2008Saturday - April 05, 2008Wednesday - November 07, 2007Tuesday - November 06, 2007Monday - July 09, 2007Its a Dog's LifeAs we are considering getting a (expensive)
pooch, I'd like to provide a few pictures of what we're looking at, which is an
Entlebucher Sennenhund , or the smallest of the Swiss Mountain
Dogs.
We were recently privileged to attend the Entlefest by the Sea in Chula Vista, which provided me the opportunity to meet with some breeders, and the children to meet with the dogs . The dogs are amazingly intelligent, and quite active. Wednesday - May 30, 2007Religion QuizTry this quiz (answers are at the
link).... Couldn't get the Buddhism answer. The scarier part is how many of
this guy's students, regardless of their religious affiliation, perform on this
quiz.
What Is Your Religious Literacy? ...Name the four Gospels. List as many as you can. ...What is the name of the holy book of Islam? ...Where according to the Bible was Jesus born? ...Bush spoke in his first inaugural address of the Jericho road. ...What are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or the Christian Old Testament? ...What is the Golden Rule? ...“God helps those who help themselves”: Is this in the Bible? ...“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God”: Does this appear in the Bible? ...Name the Ten Commandments. List as many as you can. ...Name the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. ...What are the seven sacraments of Catholicism? List as many as you can. ...The First Amendment says two things about religion, each in its own clause. What are the two religion clauses of the First Amendment? ...Match the Bible characters with the stories in which they appear. Draw a line from one to the other. Hint: Some characters may be matched with more than one story or vice versa. Wednesday - May 23, 2007Thursday - April 19, 2007The Kitchen Saga ContinuesWhen last I blogged on the subject,
the kitchen was dried out, but in need of some help. Well, we rendered it
somewhat functional, but since that post (posted at the end of July of last
year), we've been fighting the remodel fight. Mostly centered around getting
plans drawn up and approved by the city.
Saturday - April 14, 2007Memory Eternal, Little KatieJust about a week ago, our niece was
born into this world several months before her
time.
...When the life of someone who has lived a good many years, comes to an end, we all shed a tear for the loss of someone who we will not have a chance to speak with again this side of eternity. When that someone is a child, we wonder about all of the events of their lives that we will not experience, and risk plunging into despair. God, in his providence, allowed Katie's birth to occur on Pascha, the celebration of the passing from death to life of our Lord and Savior.... When we need someone's prayers, she is before the throne of God doing just that. ...For during all of the trials we will face in the many years ahead, there is yet one more person praying for us. When we come the resurrection that is the hope of our faith, we will at last have the longed for chance to meet Katie, along with all of the other children in the family we have not really been able to meet. God's timing is wonderful, because in this season we will sing, again and again, the great Paschal hymn, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and bestowing life to those in the grave." Tuesday - December 12, 2006Wednesday - November 22, 2006This is the World Dawkins Wants?A wonderful description of what
happens when the atheists take over.
Wednesday - November 22, 2006But Why Dr. Dawkins?Interesting story over at the New York
Times on a conference held here in San Diego regarding science and religion....
Richard Dawkins, among others, looks forward to the day that religion disappears
from the scene.... I have a colleague at work who, like many, looks to the
ideal secular state - often times people cite Turkey, which was established as a
secular state back in the
'20's.
...Read this analysis by the State Department, keeping in mind that the U.S. is highly motivated to shed a positive light on an ally in the Middle East whose air bases they desperately need.... At any rate, it should be noted that the Orthodox population in Turkey is where its at because all of the Orthodox were transferred to Greece in 1923, and since then there has been little freedom to practice, and little opportunity for advancement in the workplace for non-Muslims. ...The largest, most successful secular states in the last 2 centuries have the Soviet Union and China. The Soviet Union was responsible for the deaths of some 30 million Christians, some 9 million Jews, and countless others. China is most well known these days for forced abortion, sterilization, and the selling of organs from executed prisoners. ..."As I have said in answer to the previous question, I think that it is generally a greater wrong to kill such a being than it is to kill a being that has no sense of existing over time. Newborn human babies have no sense of their own existence over time.... It is, but that is because most infants are loved and cherished by their parents, and to kill an infant is usually to do a great wrong to its parents." Now, the thing to note is that the non-religious states have been responsible for more killing, pain, and suffering in the last 200 years than you can probably accuse any religious institution of in the last 2000. So, I don't know if there is much to say for this brave new world that Dawkins and others are proposing. Dawkins wants a religiously free world where decisions are made about right and wrong not based on divine law handed down from an all knowing being but rather by the "fashionable" thinking of whichever ethicist is in vogue. ...Similar to Singer's reversal of position when his mother was involved, I would love to see Dawkins opinions when someone decides that its his time to go because he is no longer publishing enough and perhaps has become expensive to care for. ...To get the new and improved world of the Soviet state? Or perhaps to get the society we see the U.S. turning into where angry children slaughter their schoolmates and slightly overwhelmed parents have no issue with the killing of their children ? Saturday - July 29, 2006Saturday - July 22, 2006All Right Get to WorkProvidence is a funny thing, if you're
not prone to whining.... At any rate, I had set out with great intentions when
I got home from the hospital, but haven't done terribly well in losing weight or
getting in shape.... Not from Claudia, mind you, but from the folks running the
conference. There was a big write up on the be fit aspect of the conference and
the need to manager our weight and stay in shape. Then later that day while
driving down to PT I put on some podcasts of an Orthodox radio program I like to
listen to, and ended up listening to a program about fasting and dieting. The
upshot of the program was that fasting is not about limiting certain sorts of
foods (which is what you do, but not what the focus is) but rather about
controlling the passions and the tendency toward gluttony.
Saturday - July 22, 2006Traveling AboutJoshua is currently finishing up his
stay in England at the UK Sailing Academy and will soon be off to France.
Claudia, Andrew, and Lislott are in Omaha at the OIF conference where Claudia
has met a bunch of doctors and gathered a lot of good information - especially
for me now that I've started fracturing again.
Saturday - July 22, 2006The Mold Problem Worsens!Apparently Catherine has contracted a
rare disorder now which causes chocolate sauce to dribble down her
chin.
|