rare bird

File under shameless self promotion cross referenced with pointless vanity project. The journal of my month in China this Spring is online. Hope you can read my handwriting... and have decent bandwidth. I was there working from February 20th to March 20th. Quite a time.

It doesn’t, at least not at first. They are two separate, yet related experiences. The knowledge of God can come about without Scripture; the knowledge of Christ cannot. At the same time, they are not in completely different realms. The link between the two is the Holy Spirit, who is a Person in the Trinity, and who speaks to us of God’s existence in our experience. Through Scripture, he speaks to us of Christ. If you read the gospel of John, and/or the letter to the Romans, the link between your experience of God and the reality of Christ is made manifest through listening to the Holy Spirit. After that, the reality of Christ begins to be proven to you through your experience of Him, just as the reality of the Father was proven to you through your experience. But experiencing Christ is somewhat different. You are made aware that God is personable, not merely an overwhelming force. You can speak with God; this is the beginning of prayer. You can speak with God and are not bl...

My wife had an interesting comment on the Supreme Court yesterday. She said that she approves of the Court being the ultimate arbiter of legislation, because of its supreme competence. She said she can tell by watching Roberts that he is a competent man. I told her that his nomination probably means that the Court will overturn decisions that have struck down legislation from the states, returning the decision-making process to the states' Supreme Courts on important issues. She said she would not want this to happen. I then asked her if she would rather have a Court that overrides the decisions of Minnesota, giving decisions she did not agree with, rather than a court that defers to Minnesota, that would give decisions that she would agree with. She said she would rather have a court that decided to strike Minnesota decisions down if they thought it necessary. She said the Minnesota Supreme Court is less capable of making competent decisions than the national Court, because the ...

Your original Thomas Kelly post was by far the best posting on your blog. I've always thought this was strange (and always kept it to myself) but the only thing that makes me believe in the presence of God is scattered clouds on a sunny day. In fact, today I can look out the window of my cube and see just such a cloud. But I have a question for you that I have struggled with for some time... if these are the only time that we feel a divine presence then how does that equate to the "secret heart of Jesus". To me, I don't make the jump that Jesus has any place in my spirit. He was a tremendous historical figure and I'm a little embarrassed to admit how often the words "what would Jesus do" offers me guidance or helps me form an opinion (which by no means says that I actually follow up on those thoughts, I'm also embarrassed by how often I do exactly the opposite). But I can't rightfully say that I'm a Christian when I don't believe in one ...

Richard J. Foster: Have you ever experienced what Thomas Kelly describes as "a Light within," or "a speaking Voice," or "the Divine Center"?  Describe. YES.  I have experienced it near the ocean, near lakes, near streams, near rivers.  I have felt it in the thunderstorm.  It is the awesome power and presence of the Living God.  It is larger, wider, and deeper than any church.  It is the secret heart of Jesus, shown to those who open themselves to Him.  It does not force; but it overwhelms.  It is what Schleiermacher called "The feeling of absolute dependence."  Dependence - on an omnipotent, omniscient Lord of the universe whose ways cannot be known, but who stoops to reveal Himself to us. Why? I have struggled with this question.  I have asked God why he would give me such a feeling - it seems to have no relevance to the world.  If one other person disturbs this reverie, it is ...

This caught the eye of Boing Boing, king of the blogosphere: Guns, Germs and Steel on PBS The TV series Guns, Germs and Steel, based on Jared Diamond 's Pulitzer Prize-winning sci/history book, premiers tonight on PBS. The companion Web site covers a lot of thought-provoking ideas that are interesting whether you read the book, never heard of it, or, um, didn't finish it. From the overview: Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality. * Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet? * Why didn't the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead? * Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East? * Why did farming never emerge in Australia? * And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty? Link UPDATE: Jared Diamond is speaking in San Francisco this Friday as part of The Long Now Foun...

My wife is from Ukraine. My mother-in-law just got her permanent resident alien visa. The only glitch in her interview was that they did not believe the Canadian marriage certificate between my wife and I was real . When she tried to say it was, the officer (obviously, a Ukrainian) said "Why didn't you get a full size copy?" (Our marriage certificate is larger than a driver's license, but not by much. That's the official size of Canadian marriage ceritificates.) When my mother-in-law said, "Well, it kind of is full size," the officer said "Them, marriage certificates, don't come in no tiny sizes like that! Now I know it's fake!" Finally the officer went to the consular and was told that the certificate looked OK. Thanks to my wife for the anecdote.

Before War Of The Worlds blows Episode III into box office history, I had better get this review out there. This review will be focused on content , not technique. I'm not going to debate the merits of Lucas as a director, for example. I'll write a technique review after this one (assuming I have the time). Like the folks over at TheForce.Net , I have also read the book, by Matthew Stover , and recommend it to anyone disappointed by the movie, in any conceivable way. In 1977 I was five, and so truly grew up with STAR WARS. These movies have created an American mythology for my generation that previously had none. Having seen Episode III, I am forced to watch the originals with different eyes. Palpatine is downright satanic as a tempter. He rivals Screwtape in his delicacy. He hardly needs to do anything but nudge Anakin towards the path he wants the Jedi to take. It is a brilliant, persuasive, and contemporary portrait of evil. I think Lucas intended to do this with Vader in...

Here is the link to the mp3 by the Dutch priest who reviews Episode III.

Here is a podcast by a Catholic priest in the Netherlands who went to see Episode III. He just gushes over the thing, he was more impressed by it than anyone I know. He also provides a theological analysis.

Free as in beer... One hundred years ago, in a single "miracle year," Albert Einstein astonished the world by publishing major works in diverse areas of physics including the quantum nature of light and special relativity. To commemorate that landmark year in the history of science, The Teaching Company is releasing two free online lectures. "Einstein’s Miraculous Year" and “Relativity in a Nutshell” are presented by Professor Richard Wolfson of Middlebury College. I put them on my iPod and listen to them in the car.

ROTS trailer on tonight during the OC on Fox, 7 Central. Plus: Lucas is in the episode itself, playing himself.

You'll never guess who I had lunch with last Saturday. I was at a 3 day Java programming symposium and I was eating lunch with one of the panelists Ben Galbraith . It turns out that he an IT director for the Church of Mormon . Did you know the Church of Mormon has the largest Cisco network in the world? I did not! His opinion is that the reformation was caused partly by the inability of the central Catholic church to communicate and preach effectively over the vast empire of Catholic states, and the Mormons are now consciously focusing on technology to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to them. He said he has 15 projects, the smallest of which is 10 people. That's a ton of IT! (Now you Mormons know where your 15% goes). Not only can you download all the Mormon scripture from the lds website, but you can also have it read to you through your speakers. And the yearly meeting of the Prophet and apostles is simulcasted on the Internet almost in real time! Pretty impressi...

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Tired: FBI intelligence gathering Expired: CIA intelligence gathering

Interesting - the Economist favors another Labour victory in the UK's general election.

Wired magazine's cover story this month is on George Lucas. This is an online exclusive interview with the man behind the Star Wars franchise.

Check out these video previews for the coming game Auto Assault. They were edited by our friend, Matt James. If you have need of an incredibly talented video editor, email him: peacejames at aol.com .

Awesome... two free lectures from the Teaching Company . Kind of bad timing to release these though, at this point I'm pretty burned out on the whole Pope thing. I've been listening to the free lectures at ITConversations.com instead. Download it, transfer to mp3, and listen on your commute.