Class Redundancy Considered Harmful

I'm starting to get sick of learning the same thing over and over again. I feel like the first week and a half of all my classes (except maybe one) where I am supposed to learn something has been nothing but a waste. Last week I got an introduction to Perl regex in a 300 level course, and yesterday marked the 4th time I have officially "learned" about finite state machines.These are the things that should be taught in a freshman level intro to computer science course. Come on profs, we already know all this stuff! Not that it isn't useful, but teach us something we don't already know!

And to make matters worse, professors at Christian colleges like to require attendance, as if class time was actually used for learning...

Pfargtl

Everything wants to happen at 7pm on Tuesday. Is there something special I don't know about?

I Can't Wait...

...for when the hardware abstraction layer software on linux reaches version 9000...

Semester

Yay, the semester has started, and I'm taking it (relatively) easy this time with only 15 credit hours! Here's what's been keeping me busy lately, in no particular order:

• Getting a gf
  
• Spending time with gf
  
• Reading, reading, reading
  
• Going to classes
  
• Differentiating already which classes are going to suck and which ones aren't
  
• Spending more time with gf
  
• Applying for summer overseas missions trip
  
• Applying for passport
  
• Making two trips to Indy in three days (including drinking Starbucks, listening to the symphony, reading at Barnes & Nobles, losing the airport...)
  
• Changing my major to art education
  
• Refusing to eat my vegetables
  
• Working on my 1.5 year plan
  
• ROFLing at today's xkcd. (gotta love stats jokes...)
  

Ok, so I am not really changing my major to art ed. But I did fill out the form because I'm declaring a math minor that's already finished but not yet declared (plus my major concentration that hasn't been declared yet). So I tell people I'm changing my major and see what their reactions are. Things on the agenda for next week:

• Finish application(s)
  
• Broomball
  
• Opera
  
• Homework
  
• Sleep (10pm bedtime!)
  
• More reading
  
• Small group/FOSO Fellowship/Gentleman's Club
  
• Slashdot
  
• Minix
  

Should be fun.

The One

Lyrics of the Week:

I am here and I'm with You now
And I didn't think I could feel this way
I am here and I'm with You now
'Cause You found me somehow

I can be the one tonight
When everything seems out of sight
I will follow You with all my life
I can be the one tonight

Jesus, You are the one
That makes me smile over and over again
I am here and I'm with You now
I want to hear you somehow

I can be the one tonight
When everything seems out of sight
I will follow You with all my life
I can be the one tonight

-Everyday Sunday

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

(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>