Scriptorium Archive
for December, 2004

Our Chums in Asia

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.31.2004

Of course no one human being is more important than another, but some members of our Torrey family were in the general area of the tragedy. Here is a letter on their safety. I know many have been very worried. We continue to pray for the hurting in Asia.Dear Friends,I called Daniel's parents' house in Davao, Philippines a moment ago. Daniel and Katie and their family were not at the house, but I spoke to someone who said... Read More...

Prayers

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.31.2004

I have delayed posting on the tragedy in Asia until I discovered whether one of my students had perished in the horror. It appears now that he and his family are in a "safe" location. Thank God.Still my own personal joy is tempered by the sorrow all humanity must feel in common suffering. God be with those people hurting today. Let's dig deep and help the Relief Victims. Hugh Hewitt has a good list of sites to visit to d... Read More...

Additional Scriptorium for December, 2004

A Thoughtful Response

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.31.2004

Rand Simberg has posted a very thoughtful response to me on ID and related theories. There is more charity and wisdom in it than one hundred years of writing from the Washington Post. I don't agree with some of it and I have responded below. However, on the whole this seems the sort of position that is sensible and would create "live and let live" harmony if widely adopted. We... Read More...

Other gods?

John Mark Reynolds | Philosophy, Theology | 12.28.2004

I am sometimes asked how I know my God is the true God. How do I know the Aztec god or the gods of Olympus are not real gods?Here is a short (blog length!) response. People curious about more information should read Scaling the Secular City.First, we must ask ourselves what was claimed about the god in question. If we take Zeus as an example, we can see that beyond his anthrop... Read More...

pandagon.net

John Mark Reynolds | Education | 12.28.2004

pandagon.net: "A forensic scientist doesn't go into a potential murder scene playing a fancified version of Pascal's Wager mixed with Pascal's Redundant Argument. I don't have the energy to go through how awful the argument is right now, but it's like reading a first-year philosophy student try to run circles around their professor armed with the inviolable knowledge that they... Read More...

Death of Main Stream Media

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.27.2004

One of the chief problems with the old media is the refusal of most of legacy media to adopt the new format. Go to Hugh's site and start reading his links on ID. Now go read the Washington Post story that started it all. Which leaves you feeling better informed? Hugh does a better than able job blending the strengths of old and new media (radio and blogging). This is the comb... Read More...

Some Typical Comments on ID

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.27.2004

From the blog Transterrestrial (linked above) comes the following. Thanks to Hugh for point me to it. The original blog is in black (with an introductory paragraph removed) and my comments are as usual in a lovely Packer green.At the risk of setting off another evolution debate here, while his point about the MSM making ID defenders out to be gap-toothed sibling-marrying Bible... Read More...

A Dialog on ID

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.27.2004

Hugh Hewitt has a friend who should have a blog. This friend, Dafydd ab Hugh, has written on the ID (Intelligent Design) issue. I have commented after numerous paragraphs. I hope we can continue this discussion. As Hugh points out the main stream media deals in stereotypes, the blogosphere has the chance to carry on stereotype busting discussion. It is just a more flexible sty... Read More...

ID and Evangelicals

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.26.2004

Hugh Hewitt commented on ID today. . . which provoked me to post the following thoughts. I hope they help. Other information on ID is available under the articles section of this web site.Introduction:There is, perhaps, no topic that generates more public and scholarly passion than that of origins. Few scientists or theologians have the modesty of Plato's Timaeus who states in... Read More...

Holy Night

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.24.2004

Holy NightMy house is very quiet. The children have gone with their mother to do last minute shopping at the Dollar Store, the Mecca for bargain Christmas presents. This is the last moment of quiet this father will experience until late tomorrow night. From seven to fourteen, four children are slowly winding up for an explosion of celebration. We moved last week, so Christmas ... Read More...

I am not Fluffy

John Mark Reynolds | Philosophy | 12.08.2004

Jane wants a dog. That is a problem. Aristotle, the Wonder Dog, is already with us and he is enough to torment any family. At seven years old, Jane lacks the rhetorical and cleaning skills to make an effective argument to She Who Must Be Obeyed. Therefore, Jane has solved her problem in the good-old-postmodern American way: I am now her dog "Fluffy." Every day she comes and fe... Read More...

A Painful Merry Christmas

John Mark Reynolds | Culture | 12.06.2004

Our society is hard on cheerful people. Smart people are cynical,"ignorance is bliss." Go to a serious movie and you are in for a tough emotional time, happy movies tend to be silly. No one says, "get real" to someone sad, though often our sorrow is as false and self-indulgent as our happiness. Pessimism and cynicism, about most everything, sound clever on television while an ... Read More...

Christmas Lady

John Mark Reynolds | Culture | 12.03.2004

My mother is one of those rare natural aristocrats. We had very little money to spend on clothes when we were growing up. Dad worked as a pastor . . . and in my experience no one does that for money. Mother would shop the used clothes stores with care, make do, recombine old outfits, and create wonders out of nothing. She had, Dad would tell us, "class." This way of carrying o... Read More...

Preventing Death versus Killing

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.01.2004

All over the blogs, one reads people worried that traditional morals force us to keep people alive with machines who are dying. There is great fear that we prolong death.Christians ethics do not demand that we prolong dying. Allowing nature to take its course is acceptable, killing is not. Holland is now killing babies, not just allowing nature to take its course. The very sic... Read More...

The Death of Holland and Christian Democrats

John Mark Reynolds | Misc. | 12.01.2004

When I was a little boy, my elementary education in Upstate New York was dominated by a sort of liberalism that seems to have disappeared. These good teachers were mostly Catholic, some had served in the Second World War, and all loved humanity. Like the Protestant William Jennings Bryan they thundered a Biblical message and refused to allow mankind to be crucified on a cross ... Read More...