Faith and Knowledge

This word Postmodernism has had a great many definitions attached to it, from the ideas of architecture, literature, music, art and philosophical thought. Many have taken the term to attempt to describe themselves in a pious and intellectual “I’m smarter than you, so deal with it” mentality.  C. Boundas defines Postmodernism as “a particular set of philosophical, intellectual or epistemological allegiances, positions and strategies, or, most generally of all, as a periodising concept akin to ‘postmodernity’.” [1] This still really doesn’t tell us what it means. Breaking it down we see two basic words, “Post” and “Modernism”. To truly understand what a Postmodernistic perspective on the 20th century looks like we really need to have a grasp on what Modernism itself is, then we can move to the “Post” portion of the era.  Going back prior to the Postmodernism movement we see Modernism which is a name given to the movement that dominated the arts and culture of the first half of...

It's the end of the world as we know it.... Michael Stipe was a bit ahead of his time with the '80's hit.... Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down. Watch your heel crush, crushed. Uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier. Renegade steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. So the end didn't come like the billboards said it would, I can't say I'm not surprised. And I know what some are saying, see there goes those crazy Christians again. I think that even in many of the staunch atheist circles, this is rec...

So what's the deal here, I mean we see all this press about the New Atheists, which I have to say is a bit of a misnomer, considering most of what they are spewing are old rehashed or outdated arguments.  Take Hitchens book Portable Atheist, it's a mashup of clips from men of old that spout the antiquated musings of premodern England. Now there are a few that have a bit more current statements but still nothing that really changes the course if you will. Dawkins book God Delusion really was nothing more than sophomoric belly aching, and whining that even most right minded Atheists said wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Stenger while a bit more scientific in his approach still lands himself in s bit of science fiction with his view on   "life force" referring to ESP and chi (not chai) along with psychics (listen I can't make this stuff up, read for yourself in God: The Failed Hypothesis- pg 85) keep in mind all these guys endorsed his book too....  I ...

I'm reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, again, and my mind is being blown away by the Biblical/Scientific idea of relativity. Einstein’s theory of general relativity gives us an interesting perspective of space-time and what is called geodesic, basically the view of the earth is curved and if we were to view an airplane in the sky, while it looks like (from the perspective of the earth) that the plane is flying in a straight path it is actually  flying in a geodesic curve following the earth. Hence the reason that it may appear to fly over the curve of a far off mountain, while in the plane one still feels the sensation of straight line flight, but the farther from the earth you move the more evident the geodesic curve becomes. Light rays follow the Geodesics in space-time. Meaning that as gravity diverts or bends the rays of light when they pass by the sun it may appear that ray is moving in a straight  three dimensional line when really it is following...

Basically the story of the resurrection of Jesus has some major flaws from our modern believability perspective and commercial appeal. The Gospel writers had the idea all wrong,  if they were going to make up this story about a resurrection it should have looked totally different if they wanted it to be easily accepted by everyone. There are 7 basic points raised by New Testament Scholar and historian N.T. Wright as to the perspective of the Christian Resurrection story verses the Jewish traditions. Remember the people of the time of this situation were Jewish and this idea of Jesus as the Messiah was not only THE single most radical thing to happen in their history, this includes a burning bush, parting of the Red Sea, world-wide flood, plagues of  hemorrhoids (1 Samuel 5 look it up) but it was also challenging everything they had believed up to this point. Their heads must have been swimming a...

So I have always wanted to be a blogger, you know the glamorous life of the elite, the name in lights, notoriety, the fame, the fortune, all this and more that comes with being a blogger..... or was that being Charlie Sheen?? Winning!!! I never can remember, but until then I will attempt to make this happen, you see my problem isn't that I don't have really interesting and engaging things happening all around me, or that my life is such a wreck that I can't seem to find the front door. Really what it boils down to is that I just don't think to type it all down, you know so that the huddled masses can linger and awe over the revelry of my life. Plus I just think I "over-think" it a little to much. Now not in the same way that my wife does, see she will think and think about a situation and may end up worrying about it (but only a little... love you hunny) but then when she does whatever it is she has thought about it turns...

Dear 2011, So I will be honest, I thought your predecessor 2010 went by WAY to fast, do me a favor and lets try to slow things down a bit. Now I know some others are probably saying just the opposite but this conversation is between you and I, so you can deal with them later. I would like to see some changes in my life this year, I am trying to lose weight, I have done a good job so far but I am not able to get into my 195 fighting weight that I wrestled at in 8 th grade, I would like to get back to that, (but without all the other 8 th grade drama).   I also am going to be graduating this year (super excited about that) with that comes some plans of teaching more. As you know I have been teaching now for 2 1/2 years and I love it, but I really want to teach more in the field that is dear to my heart (not that CPR isn’t… there are many jokes to be made here). My heart is to teach on the subject of Philosophy, World Religions, and Apologetics. I look forward to the fun that is goi...