I went to see Ben Stein's movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed [Web site], this afternoon. It was well-constructed, and his interviews were well-done, showing respect for the evolutionists he interviewed and asking the hard questions of the intelligent design representatives he interviewed.
You should see this movie.
The movie is not about Creationism. The movie is not about the theory of intelligent design. The movie is about academic freedom.
Students are being oppressed in this country by those who would deny our God-given right to ask questions (partially guaranteed by the First Amendment in the redress of grievances clause). It is not whose idea is right or wrong or valid or invalid. It is that we have the right to ask questions. It should be self-evident that God has given us the right to ask questions about anything and everything. It is most profitable to us if we ask questions in humility and in the search for truth, but we can ask any question.
Except in the classroom. In the classroom, the Right of Inquiry is being denied.
That is why this movie is important. We need to be aware that the Right of Inquiry is being denied, and we need to demand that institutions and governmental bodies respect our rights of inquiry and discourse. We need to demand that theories be taught in the context of discourse and rigorous criticism.
I do not believe Creationism should be taught in a classroom funded by taxpayers. I do not believe that Intelligent Design Theory should be taught as the only theory of the origin of life. I do not believe that Neo-Darwinian Evolution Theory should be taught as the only theory of the origin of life. I believe that these theories should both (or in concert with other theories) be honestly discussed as theories put forth by their respective authors, honestly criticized in a discourse of examination and inquiry, and honestly set to rest at the end of the unit or class as exactly what they were at its beginning: theories. And let the students decide for themselves what theory they feel has the best basis in fact, evidence, logic, and their own personal worldview. Anything less is a disservice to science and to the students of our educational institutions. To teach one theory and only one theory in a classroom is to preach a dogma, not to teach an informative course in science or anything else that falls under the heading of education.
Any theory that cannot exist in an environment of discourse, criticism, and inquiry is not a serious theory. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, "Truth is a strong tower and never requires to be buttressed with error."

This evening, there was at OWC's Arts Center a lecture by Nancy Pearcey on the cultural implications of the evolution theory. This was part of the reason I chose to watch the movie today. The newspaper indicated that the movie was the subject of the lecture. It was called "Beyond Expelled"
One of the interesting things she pointed out is that roughly 80% of this country believes that an intelligent designer (either through guided evolution or through direct creation) was involved in the origin of the forms of life we see in the world today. Only 10-20% believe evolution without any supernatural force is the source of today's diverse world of life. And then she said something I thought was noteworthy:
"The public schools have a responsibility to respect the public."
Now, if 80% of the nation believes there was a designer involved, why do the school systems teach as though it were uncontested a theory of naturalistic forces without the input of a designer?

Something that occurred to me while she was speaking was the realization that the environmentalist who fights to protect the planet from polluter-humans and the amoral business that pours toxic sludge into the rivers both take their worldview from the same place. Darwinism is the belief behind both the personification of the environment, or less extremely, the dignity of the environment, that the environmental movement holds central and the contextual erasure of the exploitative business or social pragmatist. They both rely on this idea of man as an evolved animal who has no higher spiritual calling than to either fulfill his animalistic passions or to protect nature as an example of all that is pure and natural.
Neither the environmentalist nor the unscrupulous corporate raider has respect for both human freedom and dignity and for stewardship of the earthly realm. In fact, I would suggest that only a worldview based on the Bible (an economic model of Biblical capitalism, which relies on both stewardship and individual self-determination) can respect both humanity and natural stewardship.
In other words: If there is no creator, if we came from non-living matter purely by chance or natural laws, but either way without a creator, then we have no responsibility to each other as humans with dignity, nor do we have anyone to be responsible to in the question of whether to practice good stewardship of the land, because without a creator, we have no one to be stewards for... and since I have already said that without a creator there can be no responsibility to each other, there is likewise no responsibility to hold the land in stewardship for our descendants. This is the logical consequence of a worldview wherein people came from evolutionary processes alone.

By the way, she also mentioned in passing the practice in many schools of telling children that all ideas have equal validity. This is a precept of postmodernist philosophy. I immediately thought of this comic: Hard Onions: Marketplace of Ideas
So, go see the movie, and check out the writings of Nancy Pearcey.

Edited to add:
Freedom of Inquiry means being able to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
There is a false dichotomy between science and religion. I believe honest scientific exploration in search of the truth will always lead to a deeper understanding of the truth of God's word.
Freedom of Inquiry means encouraging questions and seeking of the truth.
Students have the right to know that what they are being taught is accurate. How can they discover that if they can't ask questions about the validity, truth, and accuracy of what is being put forth?
"The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." --Albert Einstein

Worrying is worthless.
I spent the whole year worrying, and nothing I worried about happened. It's not even as though there were things I worried about and because of the forethought was able to prevent. The things I worried about didn't happen. And God took care of me. I'm sure there are many things I'm not even aware of that could have happened that God prevented.
But going back to the things I worried about that didn't happen, I can say this. All the worrying has done in this year is rob me of joy and sleep and make me feel older.
I should not worry. Jesus said, "Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Therefore, that is, since God watches over the grass of the field and the birds of the air, and since we are worth much more than these things, Jesus is saying, don't borrow troubles from tomorrow. You'll have to cross the bridge when you come to it, and there's enough bad stuff in today for today. The bad thing about borrowing trouble from tomorrow is that tomorrow will forget you borrowed from it and pay you what the day demands even though you got an advance, so by worrying ahead of time, we must face our worries again if they do come to pass. And if they don't come to pass, we've worked ourselves into a tizzie for nothing at all.
Don't worry. God loves you, and God takes care of his children.

I was extra tired last night, so I did what I sometimes do when extra tired. I didn't read on where I was but flipped over to the psalms or the proverbs. Last night, it was proverbs. In Chapter 13, I ran into a very familiar verse: "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." (v12)
Now, I'd always thought of this verse, when I tried to apply it to my life, in relation to my future wife. But I was thinking last night that it could relate to my writing.
Certainly, my heart has been sick, for fear looms up on me, especially death without having done much for the Kingdom. I had been thinking of hope deferred in the search for my wife, but what of my writing? Has not that been deferred? Have I not delayed in bringing its publication to pass? And is not that a means of furthering the Kingdom? Is this delayed hope the cause of my heart-sickness?
I do not know, but I think it right I should focus my energies on these four goals now and forward; 1, to publish my first novel, 2, to help churches put forward a sincere, professional, and elegant face, 3, to get out among people to increase my exposure to potential mates, and 4, to finish my degree. But above all, to follow God's will. For I am chasing a tree of life.
Verse 19 says desire accomplished is sweet to the soul. I would taste that sweetness continually in seeking God's will and blessing others. Let it be so, O Lord. Let it be so.

I've been struggling lately with what to do with my life.
I've been adrift on this question, more or less, since I left high school. Except for mission trips and my first two years of college, I guess I've been wondering what I should be doing the rest of that time.
See, my family has no family business. My mother taught elementary school, and my father was a sheriff's deputy. There was no family business for me to follow in. I want to live and work for Jesus in whatever I do, but that does little to make the decision clear, because Christians can serve God in their work in almost any field. I asked God what He wants me to do for a career. I asked my friends to pray for me and tell me what God told them about me. The response I got back more than any other response was that God wants me to pick a path; that He will help me with it.
I have multiple talents. It's sort of nice that I can help people in a variety of ways, but having multiple options for a career is not pleasant. I know that may seem crazy to some people, but it stinks to have so many options you don't know where to start. I'm sort of a jack-of-all-trades. I'm not skilled enough at enough things to be a Rennaissance man.
And I have limitations. Because of certain factors of my life, I am uncomfortable with the prospect of handling food preparation for strangers. Because of my body thermostat, I can't work outside regularly. Because of my lack of depth perception, I can't fly fighter planes and am uncomfortable with driving large vehicles. Because of my sinus problems, I will probably never become a DJ, not that DJs do what they used to.
I'm not complaining I can't do anything. Far from it, these limitations still leave an intimidating number of options on the career buffet. They just represent a few of the things I might have chosen to do.
My best skills, for what it is worth, better or worse, are in thinking about things and then talking about them. Ironically, that seems to be, from the hype in the media and in the classroom, a large part of the new economy. Unfortunately, no one has offered me a job doing it.
And I must have work. I cannot simply do this for a side ministry, because I must eat, and no one has offered to support me as a missionary to... the Internet? I don't think I could accept the offer if it came. And in addition to supporting myself, I still need a fairly stable income to be attractive to a responsible woman.
I have not met my wife yet, but I want her to be confident I can support my family, however many people end up being in it.
I have a pressing, even haunting desire to not waste this time I've been given. And in all of this, I am still, though I have been an adult for over a decade, a small and frightened child, watching and listening to hear what would please my Father.
I want my life to be wholly devoted to God.
Which is my current question. Am I going in the right direction preparing for a stable job in a career as a copy editor? Or am I wrong in that, and should I instead be focusing all my efforts on completeing more novels, on getting them published, and on getting people to buy them and read them?
Nothing is clear to me between these two. And the nagging question comes whether the choice should even be between these, or if I should be doing something else. It is a terrible burden to have an important choice under your umbrella of responsibility.
Who am I? And what should I be doing with this life I have?

Here are some notable parts of my journal of the trip to Poland:
  "I've been thinking a lot about single-field missionaries, those lovely people who visit a place and fall in love with it and its people and go back year after year to the same place. I've never really been one of those. I've been a lot of places. This thinking seems to be leading somewhere for me.
  I also reflected that I do have a fierce love of the people in Poland. One of the things I have often prayed in recent weeks is that our team do no harm to the people in Poland, to the reputation of our church or Pastor Kris' parish in Poland, to the relationships between Poland and its Methodist churches and the UMVIM churches in the States. I am at enmity with harm."
  "While I was looking through my devotional book, I ran across a note I'd written on an entry. I had prayed that God would bring me to live out my love of the English language by teaching it OR guide me in a different direction. And I just laughed. How often do we ask God to do this or that, I reflected, and God answers with AND instead of OR? After all, here I am in Poland teaching English, AND God has led me in a different direction, Journalism or something else in Communications."
  "I'm having stronger wonderings about where God is calling me.
  I think that I'm being called to a ministry of drawing people out into the mission field. Obviously, my going many places is not going to make a huge difference, but if I can get many people to go many places for God's mission in the world, that will make a huge difference."
  "Late in the evening, I found myself rattling around and thinking about a calling to draw others into missions. Missions is important, and more important is doing missions the right way."
  We got back on Monday. On Wednesday, there was a meal and presentation by the Peru team, which had left and returned shortly before the Poland team went over. It was interesting to me to see how the light of missions was in the eyes of the team members. That excitement was good for me to see, but I didn't put it there.
  I think that's the first thing God wants me to realize about getting others involved in missions: I can't do it.
  See, I've been trying for years to get my church more involved in missions. But it was another missionary from our church who got this Peru team started. And it was that trip, not mine, that gave them that excitement for God's work.
  The second thing I think God wants me to understand is that it's okay that I can't do this.
  My job is to do what He's called me to do. The results are up to God, so the results are not my responsibility. My responsibility is to do the task God gives me to the best of my ability.
  This idea is a bit freeing, because I don't have the slightest idea about what to do first or next. But it's also scary, because I can't cling to my inability to decide the outcomes for myself, lest I should lose sight of the importance of doing the task God has given me.
  I think my first step, then, is to sit down and make notes about all the things I know about missions. I expect this will take a humblingly short amount of time.
  I wish you well. May God richly bless you.

A Good Witness is like a good window. A good witness is a hole through which people can see, with as little distortion as possible, what is on the other side of the glass, or in the case of a witness, on the other side of a measure of time and distance.







My lip has broken out again. I pray this outbreak will be short.

There is a great misuse, in our society, of questioning.
( We are told... )

Most churches and most Christians claim to base their theology and doctrine on the Word of God. And yet, sometimes, because of the influences of culture, personal tastes of self or friends or social leaders, and repetition from memory, the teachings of the Word of God have gotten distorted. One common example of this is the saying that money is the root of all evil. The Bible doesn't say that, but people often quote it that way.
Here, then, is a little sampling of questions about Biblical teachings for you, if you are so inclined, to use to test your own knowledge or the strength of a religious leader's basis in what the Word of God actually says. These are in no particular order, and you can decide for yourself whether they are equally important or which ones should have what weight. I present them only because this is something I've been thinking about for a while. At some point, I will leave a comment on this entry with some verses to use as hints.
What does the Bible say about the root of evil?
How many of each animal did Noah take onto the ark?
Who cut Samson's hair?
Was Samson's hair the source of his strength?
What was Onan's sin?
Was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil an apple?
What was Job's error?
Does the Bible teach that God helps those who are self-reliant?
How many wise men visited Jesus?
Did the wise men visit Jesus in the stable?
Are rainbows mentioned in the Bible?
Did Jesus carry his cross all the way to the crucifixion site?
Do works have any bearing on salvation?
Does hell exist? Does God want to send people to hell?
Do we need the Law or the old covenant?

Quoted: In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Explanations:

You scored as Sloth. </td> Sloth 50% Gluttony 38% Pride 19% Wrath 19% Lust 12% Envy 6% Greed 6% Seven deadly sins created with QuizFarm.com

    Seems appropiate, considering how little I got done this weekend. I spent most of the weekend playing a game.
    It was a somewhat interesting weekend, though. ( Read more... )

Talk to me: What's your favorite game? or, What game do you play most often? (specify which question(s) you answer.)

Link of the Day: I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!!!
[Ed: Thanks to fumby_girl for the link. Also, let me say that I'm not a glutton; I just have a high metabolism. BBL... gonna eat something...]

Quoted: "Everyone has music in them. Only the talented have the ability to share it with the rest of the world." --Unknown

Explanations: I was reading a few days ago a book about health, and the author talked about a discussion he had with some people in which he asked which commandments, when broken, affect our health. The most common answer, of course, is, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery', but that day, someone said, 'Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.'
This is a profound thing. In our society of 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week, 52 weeks-a-year availability of goods and services, we often overlook the need our bodies, minds, and spirits have for rest. I'm not saying that it is bad to have services available all the time, but we, as individuals, need to set aside one day each week to rest and spend time with God. The original delivery of this commandment includes the important expansion explaining that God worked six days on the creation of all things, then rested one day, and that we are to do likewise. When we do not take time to rest, we weaken our bodies and allow disease and sin an easier barrier into our bodies.
The book went on to mention people who talk about worshipping God in a place other than a gathering of the Faithful. Quite simply, when we do not attend a weekly worship service, we are not properly observing a day of rest and worship. While I do feel that anything done to the glory of God is worship, when we do not set aside one day to worship God in congregation with other believers, we are partaking in a form of rebellion. We are attempting to serve God on our own terms, and that is not surrender, and it is not resting in God in faith.
I am very sad to see that we Christians have gotten so selfish about worship. We'll move to a different church if we don't feel the worship service is feeding/filling us. Worship, my brothers and sisters, is not about us. It is about God. If you don't like your church's worship service, examine yourself, whether your dislike stems from a lack of Biblical foundation in your church's worship service (which is grounds for a change) or if it stems from a selfish focus instead of an attitude of serving God (which is not).
I'll probably write more later about worship, but right now, all I need to say is this: I'm making a change in my routine. I've been staying up too late, and my body has started to complain about my mistreating it. I haven't been taking care of my body by giving myself enough rest, and that needs to change. Starting now, I plan to get offline by 23:00 and in bed by midnight. That will give me adequate sleep to get up with my alarm instead of snoozing seven or eight times. I also plan to incorporate more structure into my day. The morning will be spent in checking email and doing my daily online reading, followed by whatever writing I can do before lunch. After lunch, I want to spend from 1-3 (or 3-5, depending on when I decide I'll be having lunch) writing. I want to get a book ready for publication by the end of November.
Consequently, I'll have less time for writing in my LiveJournal, but I'll write about that in detail when I get through posting the next few entries. In other news, I'm considering a major update to my website, but that can wait until another entry. I expect to make some more changes soon, and I'll probably chronicle them in this journal. I'd like to mention here that I'm pleased to have a new user helping me critique my story. Her comments have been very insightful, and I'm glad she's helping me. That's all for now.

More explanations later...

Talk to me: What comments do you have on the new 5 essays/week format of my journal?

Link of the Day: Check this out

Quoted: "You live and learn. Or you don't live long." - Robert Heinlein

Explanations: I was browsing journals trying to find some new prospective friends, and I came across one in which the user talked about an assembly he'd attended where homosexuality was discussed. In the comments, someone indicated that he thought the discussion was hateful, when it was obvious (to me) that the discussion was actually loving. The person seemed to be saying that in order to love people, you can't point out anything in their lives that might be unhealthy, dangerous, and by all the founders of PC, never anything that is sinful. Well, I spit on the tenets of political correctness. There is nothing of love in PC. Love is patient, and PC is biting one's tongue and subverting one's feelings and beliefs. Love is kind, and PC overlooks things that harm people. Love is not arrogant, and PC is puffed up and sanctimonious. Love does not rejoice in evil, and PC demands that we give everything, no matter how evil, a pretty name. Love delights in the truth, and PC calls good evil and evil good. So, I denounce political correctness. Love is faithful, both to its object and to the truth. If people want love, they must accept that love is protective. Love does not allow its friends to walk into danger unknowingly, reminds its object of what is true, cares about more than today's pleasure, looks to the future good of its beloved, and speaks against things that will destroy its object. For a man's friend to watch him stick his hands into the fire and burn his flesh off in its flames, and to do nothing to stop it, to say nothing to dissuade him, to ignore it as though it were the proper order of things, is for that friend to deny both love and the poor man who is being licked by the flames of the fire. Dishonesty has no place between friends.
Friends are honest with each other. My friends will tell me the truth. It doesn't matter if it's something I'll like or something that will make me uncomfortable. It doesn't matter if the spelling or grammar are bad. Those who love me will tell me what they think of me.

More explanations later...

Talk to me: I want to hear from you. Please comment with what you think of me. It can be positive, negative, or neutral. Please form your comments in the third person ("Skreyola is" instead of "You are") so I won't have to edit them. I'm going to post them on my picture pages. There are a few empty slots on those pages, but once those are filled, I'll add an extra picture page (with two photographs of me) for every three people who comment. The current pictures (which are sorely outdated) are here. Unidentified comments will not be posted, so if you comment anonymously, leave your name.
[edit: If you want me to quote you by something other than your LJ username, or if you want me to link to your website/livejournal, please include that in your comment.]

Link of the Day: I Do Exist "is a documentary that delves into the lives of five former homosexuals and asks whether change is really possible..... The real answers, this film seems to say, may not be easy."

"God is subtle, but He is not malicious." --Albert Einstein

Last year, I came across a LiveJournal entry stating that the user had a gift of prophecy, and that 2004 would be interesting, because by the end of the summer, there would be a terrorist attack that would rock such-and-such cities, along with some other nasty things. The user, in addition to seeming positively gleeful at the thought of thousands of naughty people suffering great torment, appears from other entries to be mixing into his strict (but sadly misquoted) KJV religion such things as Nostradamus, astrology, and wild numerology. I left a comment urging the user to be loving, not bloodthirsty (to which I never received a reply), and I waited. I waited eagerly for the end of the summer (according to the dictionary, summer is June, July, and August), because I didn't believe the user had his prediction correct. He did not. Though his predictions were appropriately worded and vague, I do not see anything that fits his words. It took me a long time to figure out why this false prophecy made me so angry, but today, I realized that it's the same thing that told me it was a false prophecy in the first place: It was the glee at the suffering of others, the lack of love, which is contrary to the character of God. I hate false prophecy, I hate misquoted and abused use of the Holy Scriptures, and I hate attitudes of hatred toward people. The writer of the journal is lucky we don't follow the Bible, because the Bible says that we know a prophet is false when his prophecies do not come true, and it says that a false prophet must be stoned.
I love the Bible. It is the word of God. I believe God gives prophecies to people He chooses. But God's Word says to love one another.
I was originally planning to link to the entry in question in denouncement, but linking to a kook only gives them a megaphone for their misguided message (e.g., the real miserable failure!). But I hope he sees this entry. I hope he sees it and realizes how far from the straight and narrow his hatred has taken him. I hope he puts away the occultic nonsense he's using and relies wholly on the Word of God for direction. I hope he turns from hating to loving and works to convince people to turn to God. Short of that, I hope he removes me from his friend list, because I don't know why he wants to read my journal if he's so consumed by hate that he would rather pop popcorn and watch the tragedy happen than run into the flames and help his enemies in their time of trouble.
You look at the Bible. We are to love our neighbors. We are to do good to those who hurt us. We are not to be prideful. We are not to glory in the destruction of human life and human souls. Jesus said, by this will all men know that you are mine, if you love one another. A man who hates his brother does not know God. Turn from hate. Love one another. Help those who hate you, for the kindness of Christ flowing through you will convince people who would never be convinced by argument.
I'm done. More explanations later...

Link of the Day: Five Minutes with God - On this site, you can download and print a bookmark to remind you to pray every day for your nation.

Once upon a time, an elderly man was travelling on a train in France. A young man was seated in the compartment with him. During the journey, the older man opened his Bible and began reading. Eventually, the young man wished to begin a conversation to pass the time, so he asked the other what he was reading.
The older gentleman replied that he was reading from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John.
The younger man asked what it said.
The older man said, "It's the story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. John writes that a crowd had been with Jesus for a long time, and that he saw they were getting hungry but had no food. A young boy produced a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Jesus fed over five thousand people with that, and his disciples gathered twelve baskets of the leftovers."
The young man was incredulous: "Surely you don't believe that!"
"I certainly do," replied the older man.
"Well," said the younger, "I can see that you've been brainwashed with this ancient superstition, but I won't be. It goes against the facts of science! I won't believe anything that can't be proven scientifically."
The train slowed down, and the young man stood up.
He said, "This is my stop, but I've enjoyed speaking with you, Mr.-- I didn't get your name."
The older man reached in his pocket and handed the young man a business card, which read: Louis Pasteur.
The young scientist had been speaking with one of the greatest scientists in the world, and Pasteur knew that laboratory measurements are not the only source of truth.

(Paraphrased by memory from Attitude is Your Paintbrush by James W. Moore)