Tag Archives: emotions

head-heart

Posted on November 20, 2009 | 7 Comments

head and heart, thinking and feeling, rationality and emotion, yeah?

I’m interested in ideas/responses to the following four questions…

(Read ‘em slow enough to actually properly think and feel! And also… even though they obviously relate/overlap/interlock, the questions aren’t meant to flow on from one another, but rather are meant to be stand-alone… ish.)

What do you think about how you feel?
What do you think about what you think?
How do you feel about how you feel?
How do you feel about what you think?

Any thoughts (head) or feelings (heart) about thinking and/or feelings that come to mind reading these?

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Posted in general, philosophy

Tagged compartmentalisation, emotions

on science/faith blogging…

Posted on April 23, 2009 | 8 Comments

miscellaneous thoughts…

if the time we spend is to be at all worthwhile, we need to accept that words matter enough to use them and work at our use of them (some key words in science/faith include: ‘knowledge’, ‘evidence’, ‘explanation’, ‘natural’, ‘reality’, etc).
it occurs to me that aiming for mutual understanding is infinitely more helpful than aiming to ‘win’.
it seems a good idea to avoid the trap of straw-man argumentation, or presenting someone else’s perspective in its worst form – which is often (mostly?) done with little quips or with sarcasm (often the more sustained an argument is, the less ‘straw-man-ish’ it is).
don’t post a comment while you’re angry/frustrated (and this obviously does not mean that comments should be –or even could be– totally void of emotion).
that is all for now (and I don’t claim to do all these all the time)…

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Posted in philosophy, science, theology, www

Tagged atheism, belief, conflict, debate, emotions, faith, god, philosophy, religion, science, theology, truth, web

caption competition

Posted on January 26, 2009 | 5 Comments

I thought it would be a bit of fun to put this INCREDIBLE (but I’m not biased) picture up and let people try out some captions for it…
Have fun! Continue reading →

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Posted in general

Tagged dignity, emotions, family, humanity, interpretation, life, love, random

validated

Posted on January 18, 2009 | 2 Comments

I admit it. I began to tear up at the end of this 15-minute short video called ‘validated‘ (couldn’t work out how to embed it) … :)

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Posted in general, www

Tagged creation, culture, dignity, emotions, fellowship, film, humanity, life, love, pain, spirituality

worldviewing

Posted on October 22, 2008 | 10 Comments

There are different ways of understanding what a worldview is, or what questions it seeks to answer or how it is gained or what it is shaped by.

When people of different perspectives, beliefs (and yes, different worldviews) discuss what a ‘worldview’ is, it is easy for their own worldview to influence things. I freely admit the likelihood of my Christian worldview/perspectives/beliefs to influence me in this process, and I’d hope others would admit the same tendencies. Continue reading →

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Posted in philosophy, theology

Tagged atheism, belief, creation, culture, dignity, emotions, ethics, evil, faith, god, humanity, life, morals, philosophy, religion, significance, theism, theology, truth, worldview

here’s looking at (our) kid

Posted on September 12, 2008 | 10 Comments

(Click the post title to see the 19.5 week scan!) :) Continue reading →

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Posted in general

Tagged belief, change, creation, dignity, emotions, family, humanity, humility, identity, life, love, miracles, order, soul

oh baby…

Posted on July 30, 2008 | 17 Comments

Now that we’re out of the 12-week ‘danger zone’, I can (happily) share that my wife and I (well, really just her!) are expecting a baby in late Jan / early Feb!!!

The little guy (we actually don’t know the gender – and might not choose to find out before birth – but I’m going with ‘boy’ all the way!) is about 5cm at this stage… :)

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Posted in general

Tagged change, dignity, emotions, family, general, humanity, life, love

‘carnage?’

Posted on July 20, 2008 | 19 Comments

I briefly met someone recently who was supervising a group of youth who were attending the ‘Get Smart’ conference in Auckland, NZ. He asked if I had been attending the conference. When I said no, he replied, “Oh man, it’s great. We were just there and when we left things were still going. Carnage, man. Just carnage.”

I was genuinely confused.

“Carnage?” I said.

“Yeah man,” he replied, “Carnage. Kids everywhere. All over the floor.”

I — having realised now that I had (unfortunately) learned a new piece of spiritual mumbo-jumbo jargon — bit my tongue.

I’ll keep this post short and to the point.

I see no reason whatsoever to believe that people rolling around on the floor in ecstatic states of consciousness is anything close to the kind of human behaviour that moves the heart of God. I have no reason whatsoever to endorse or support such behaviour, much less encourage it.

(Sigh…)

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Posted in christianity, theology

Tagged compartmentalisation, discernment, discipleship, emotions, god, Holy Spirit, interpretation, religion, spiritual gifts, spirituality

the groaning language of prayer

Posted on June 13, 2008 | 4 Comments

The other day, a friend of mine at Carey college was sharing with me and a few others how grieved he’d been lately (due to various tragic things happening to people close to him). He mentioned lying in bed and trying to pray, not knowing what to say, and eventually just offering an extended, rumbling, inward groan to God…

Now, prayer is both a simple and mysterious thing. It’s simple – in that it is simply a giving-sharing-offering of one’s thoughts, concerns, feelings, stresses, hurts, anxieties, etc. to the One who we believe ‘hears’ prayer (more on ‘hearing’ in a moment). But it’s also a complex and mysterious thing, complicated by various (mis)understandings about both God and prayer (not least the popular ‘magic genie’ [or fairy] idea of God). Continue reading →

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Posted in bible, christianity

Tagged belief, emotions, faith, god, humanity, jesus, life, prayer, soul, spirituality, suffering, theodicy, theology

sexual identity – again…

Posted on May 8, 2008 | 38 Comments

I’ve posted before on this topic, and thought I’d share a bit more about it. Hopefully, these thoughts will be helpful in aiding fruitful discussion…

I’ve observed a distinction between 3 things that I feel are necessary to distinguish between in order to most helpfully discuss the topic of sexuality. Actually, these three things can, I suggest, be distinguished helpfully when discussing other topics as well… See what you think…

Continue reading →

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Posted in christianity, ethics

Tagged belief, conflict, culture, current event, debate, discernment, emotions, ethics, humanity, identity, imagination, life, morals, relationships, sexuality