Sunday, January 25, 2009

King

Lyrics of the Week:

Today I've finally found
A melody that fits
A melody that fits
Today I've finally found
A song that I can sing
A song that I can sing

You are my King
You are my King
I bow down before You
And crown You the King of all kings
Forever I'll sing
Forever I'll sing
I'll sing of Your mercy
And how I have been set free
All set free

The rulers of the earth
Will bow before Your throne
Will bow before Your throne
The nations You have made
Will worship You alone
Will worship You alone
They'll sing for You

You are my King
I bow down before You
And crown you the King of all kings
Forever I'll sing
Forever I'll sing
I'll sing of Your mercy
And how by Your love I'm set free
I'm set free
I'm set free

You are my King
You are my King
I bow down before You
You are the King of all kings
Forever I'll sing
Forever I'll sing
I'll sing of Your mercy
And how by Your love I'm set free
I'm set free
I'm set free

-Audio Adrenaline

Friday, January 23, 2009

(Hopefully) Last Words on Science and Christianity

I've ranted a lot about this, and maybe I'll quit for a while after this. I felt very prompted by the chapel speaker today to address the issue, for whatever it may be worth.

Our speaker stated that because of his worldview, he found it requires more faith to believe in macroevolution than to believe in the Genesis account of Creation. But I make this statement: because of my worldview, I find it takes much more faith to believe in the Genesis account of Creation than to believe in atheistic evolution, but I believe it anyway. That's what faith means. It's "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb. 11:1, NIV). See, science and faith are disjoint by design. True science does not require faith because of its very nature—I can sense things with my five senses and make rational decisions about what I sense and draw logical conclusions on those things. Faith, on the other hand, is diametrically opposed to this. Belief in God is not something that I come to by any measurements or experiments or logical deductions from what I sense with my physical body. God is outside of reason and rationality, and for me, belief in God is very irrational. That's what faith means, and that's how I am still able to call myself a scientist at the same time that I claim to be a Christian and an active follower of God. I can look at a rainbow and see God's promise to us, or I can see the refraction of the visible spectrum in miniscule drops of water; or (here's something radical) I can see both. When I look at a beautiful sunset, I can see God's wonderful artwork displayed for us to admire, or I can see photons being bent by particles through a polluted atmosphere to produce a range of visible colors; or I can see both. I can look at a nebula and see God's leftover fingerprint when He made creation, or I can see the remnants of a massive stellar explosion that happened millions of years ago; or both. I can see a waterfall as an outpouring of God's love as demonstrated by nature, or I can see the force of gravity and liquid equilibriums clashing to great effect; or both. Why then can I not look upon God's wonderful, masterful, loving design of the specially created human body and not also admire the eons of evolution and forces of natural selection that He used to produce it? To admire creation is to admire the Creator (Ps. 19, Ps. 104, Rev. 21, etc). Science requires eyes, not faith. God requires faith, not eyes (John 20:29, Heb. 11). If science claims faith is necessary for anything, it is no longer science (e.g., string theory); but if science requires us to use our eyes and minds to understand something (e.g. macroevolution), who's to say it's not a gift from God? God gave us science to study the world. Who are we to reject this gift? There is no dichotomy between the things of this universe and the things of God—He made it all and owns it all! I can seek God not only through Scripture, but also through a telescope, or through a microscope, or through deductive powers of reasoning and scientific fact that tell me how God formed the universe and how He designed it to work. Greg Johnson states clearly in his book The World According to God that "to say that something God gives us is intrinsically evil is to malign the character of God." I fear that's the level we Christians have stooped to.



</rant>

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Content With Enough

Our chapel speaker for MLK Day, Bryan Loritts, was far more than just a talented speaker. He had some amazing things to say about caring for the poor and needy, but he really struck a chord with me when he upturned the American capitalistic system of making money and maxing out our lifestyle so that we have no money to give away. In this except from chapel, he tells a story of John Wesley:

John Wesley, when he was a student at Oxford, he sat down and looked down at his finances and says "How much money do I need to live off of?" He says, "I only need to live off of 28 pounds." That first year, he gets 30 pounds, lives off of the 28 pounds, gives the other two pounds away. When he graduates from Oxford, he says, "Look, I'm still gonna do the same thing. I'm only going to live off of 28 pounds. Anything I get over that I'm going to give away." In his lifetime, you study John Wesley, he made a lot of money with the publication of some of his writings and works, but he says "28 pounds is enough for me. Anything I get over that, I'm giving it away."


These powerful words made me ask myself, "Is 28 pounds enough for me?" Do I define "enough" by how much I make, or by how much I need? Am I so dependent on myself that I need all this money, or should I be dependent on God to provide for me? Am I content with enough?

Friday, January 16, 2009

Leaked Code From Taylor's IT Department

This was found somewhere in the new student/faculty registration code, in a file called process_application.java:


...
individual.application.accept();

if (individual.type.equals("student")) {
individual.trust_level -= 1000;
individual.rights.clear();
bigbrother.add_to_watchlist(individual);
}

taylor.welcome(individual);
taylor.courses["new_student_orientation"].enroll(individual);
...

You can see where this is going...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Does it matter?

The topic of Creation and origins has come up quite a lot recently: online, in church, and in my JTerm class on historic Christian belief. The more I have thought about it, the more I realize how insignificant all our debate is over our ancestry and the age of the universe. I see a lot of unbelievers and believers alike tripping over this apparent controversy when both sides have got it very very wrong.

There's so much inter- and intra-faith debate over things like
  • How old is the earth?
  • How old is the human race?
  • How did the human species develop?
  • Was the universe created by God?
  • How involved was God in the creation of the universe?
  • What does the word day in Genesis mean?
  • How special are humans?
  • How "random" is evolution?
  • Are scientists right?
  • Is science itself right?
  • Did God lie to us?
...etc, and after years of thinking and debating and listening to all sides and forming and changing my own views, what I come to realize is that it doesn't matter! There are some key points that, because of my faith and who I believe God is, I must believe to be true. Consider them axioms.
  1. God exists.
  2. By definition, God is everything that is good and is the epitome of love, power, and selfishness.
  3. God created all matter and energy in the observable universe.
  4. God created humans to be different from animals, in that we are created in His image (meaning we have sentience, free will, intra-species relationships, and so on).
  5. Everything that God created was good and perfect, including us.
  6. We royally screwed up our perfection by disobeying Him (who is by definition good).
  7. Because God is good and because He is selfish, He can do whatever the hell* He wants with us.
    * literally!
  8. Because He is all powerful, we have no right to question Him.
  9. Because God is love, He offered His perfect Son to take our place in hell so we may live eternally with Him.
  10. Because the Son is perfect and everlasting, He was resurrected three days after death and will spend eternity with us and God.
Granted, these core beliefs span a greater range than just the topic of Creation, but I believe them to be essential to the gospel and essential to my faith. Whether or not God used evolution to form humans, or whether the earth is thousands or billions of years old...who cares? Well, I guess most people. But does it really matter? I don't think so. One can still be a Christian, good or bad, no matter his views on the origins of the universe. We Christians tend to keep condemning people for the fact that their beliefs about secondary issues are different from our own (and the details of Creation is certainly a secondary issue). What's worse, Christians condemn each other over this...a lot. Can this stop? Can we learn to keep an open mind when there is enough direct evidence from God (read: science) showing us we're wrong?

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Morning Waits

Lyrics of the Week:

All along it was me who changed.
Morning now waits for me.
What I have to gain does not matter
If what I give is all to You.

I have seen the stars fall
And the sun rise again,
But You are yet to change.
You are all that is worth living for.

-As I Lay Dying

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

RAOG

Random Attribute Of God (RAOG) that has become apparent to me lately, and something that I think is not paid a lot of attention to: God is sometimes depicted as mean-spirited and making us do things we don't want to do and not giving us things we want to have, but this is not true! Granted, the Christian life is characterized by hardship and sacrifice, but God loves his children, and he will sometimes give us what we ask for. Our desires and his will need not always conflict!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

If my life were a command line...

home-box:~$ export PATH="$PATH:."
home-box:~$ vacuum_car.sh
Vroom-vroom...done!
home-box:~$ collect_belongings.sh
* cat5 [ OK ]
* computer [ OK ]
* clothes [ OK ]
* food [ OK ]
* broomball broom [ OK ]
* guitar [ OK ]
* telescope [ OK ]
* sanity [FAIL]
* misc [ OK ]
home-box:~$ pack_car
home-box:~$ ingest_caffeine
HYPERHYPERHYPERHYPERHYPERHYPERHYPERHYPERHYPER^C
home-box:~$ start_ignition
start_ignition: Insufficient privileges. You need to be root to run
this program!
home-box:~$ sudo start_ignition
[sudo] password for jdenardo:
home-box:~$ cd Taylor
home-box:~/Taylor$ jump_for_joy.sh
home-box:~/Taylor$ sudo init 6
home-box:~/Taylor$

Vow

Lyrics of the Week:

Another year has come and gone
Nothing's changed
I wasted another year
Doing the same old things
I want to break out of this
Turn my life around
I'm going to make a vow
To repent and turn to You

I'm crying out to You now
As I make my New Year's vow
I'll tell You I love You
And I'll honor You somehow
Hear my promise to You in my New Year's vow
I give You all of me
You'll be all of my life
And I'll never think twice
To do all that You have for me
In my New Year's vow

Lord I'll do my best to do all that I say
I'm not perfect but I know it's okay
If I stumble You won't condemn my shame
I'm going to make a vow to repent and turn to You

I'm crying out to You now
As I make my New Year's vow
I'll tell You I love You
And I'll honor You somehow
Hear my promise to You in my New Year's vow
I give You all of me
You'll be all of my life
And I'll never think twice
To do all that You have for me
In my New Year's vow

It's a new year this year is different
From the other ones
It's a new year this year is different
From the other ones
It's a new year this year is different
From the other ones

I'm crying out to you now
As I make my New Year's vow
I'll tell You I love You
And I'll honor You somehow
Hear my promise to You in my New Year's vow
I give you all of me
You'll be all of my life
And I'll never think twice
To do all that You have for me
In my New Year's vow

-Kutless

Thursday, January 1, 2009

The collected poetry of As I Lay Dying

The other day I was struck by how poetic As I Lay Dying is, which is perhaps one of the reasons why I like them so much. I decided to collect all their lyrics together in one document (from the three albums that I own) and call them poems. I discovered that reading their words can sometimes be just as powerful as listening to their songs. Have a go:

http://denaje.gotdns.com/AILD.pdf (PDF, 67K)

I think my favorites are "Behind Me Lies Another Fallen Soldier", "The Pain of Separation", "The Darkest Nights", "Morning Waits", and "Within Destruction". But it's hard to pick just 5 :)

(Oh yes, happy New Year's too.)