fruitful faith

John Cleese.

October 26th, 2009 | Tags: belief, god, life, science, web | Category: atheism, philosophy, www | Comments (4)

This poem was read to open a counselling class I’m currently in – I found it wonderful.
“Life Unfolds” By Macrina Wiederkehr
Life unfolds
a petal at a time
slowly.
The beauty of the process is crippled
when I try to hurry growth.
Life has its inner rhythm
which must be respected.
It cannot be rushed or hurried.
Like daylight stepping out of darkness,
like morning [...]

October 21st, 2009 | Tags: life, poetry | Category: christianity, philosophy | Leave a comment

Cheers to Bryson for directing me to an essay, which I discovered was one over several over at The John Templeton Foundation.
The essays are comprised answers to ‘big questions’ from a variety of perspectives – theist, atheist and agnostic.  They make for interesting reading whatever your beliefs are.
Two of the ‘big questions‘ essays were of [...]

September 14th, 2009 | Tags: atheism, belief, creation, debate, evolution, faith, god, life, philosophy, science, theism, web | Category: atheism, christianity, philosophy, science | Comments (2)

Thanks, Ian Luxmoore…
…for a friendly, respectful, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable conversation about life, god, the universe, morality and all the rest.

September 2nd, 2009 | Tags: atheism, belief, debate, evolution, faith, god, life, order, philosophy, religion, science, theism, truth | Category: general | Comments (4)

In addition to ‘normal’ things happening…
Had first day of classes for Intro to Counselling (Phil Halstead) and Insights into Church History (Laurie Guy) at Carey today.  They both look to be fantastic courses.  Random thoughts about both: The counselling class had me reminded again just how ‘objective’/’real’ the various ’subjective’ human problems can be; The [...]

July 20th, 2009 | Tags: busyness, life | Category: general | Leave a comment

In chapter 10 of his gospel (or not far into the Jerusalem journey narrative as he would have seen it – he didn’t divide his gospel into ‘chapter and verse’), Luke presents an exchange between an expert in the Law (of Moses – i.e. Torah) and Jesus.  The lawyer is first trying to ‘test’ Jesus, [...]

July 14th, 2009 | Tags: interpretation, jesus, Law, life, love | Category: bible, christianity, ethics | Comments (5)

The word ‘teleology’ (from Greek τελος ‘telos’ – meaning ‘goal’, ‘end’, ‘purpose’ or ‘that toward which things tend’) is not a street-level term.  However, the concept of a purpose, goal, function or ‘end’ to things most certainly is.  It’s a common as anything.  Teleology is blindingly relevant.

May 26th, 2009 | Tags: abortion, advertising, belief, busyness, change, community, conflict, consumerism, creation, dignity, ethics, evil, god, humanity, Law, life, love, morals, order, pain, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics, relationships, science, sexuality, spirituality, technology, wisdom | Category: ethics, philosophy | Comments (31)

The effects and pervasiveness advertising is a good example of both the power and fragility of the imagination.
We are (almost always subconciously!) actually affected by some hyper-loud voice telling us something in the ad-breaks of whatever TV show we’re watching or by some image we see on a billboard, in a magazine, etc., etc. ad [...]

May 1st, 2009 | Tags: advertising, discernment, imagination, life, morals, porn, relationships, spirituality, temptation, wisdom | Category: ethics, philosophy | Comments (6)

Friggin’ hilarious…  and a bit true as well

April 29th, 2009 | Tags: busyness, complacency, consumerism, culture, life, technology, truth, web, wisdom | Category: general, philosophy, technology, www | Comments (10)