Worshipping the mood
Check Bonnie's post,
Is it time to dance?, at Off the Top. She wonders aloud why our worship songs tend to focus so exclusively on our feelings. Her analysis of
I Could Sing of Your Love Forever is quite revealing.
Gratitude does lead to a good feeling, but that isn’t necessarily why someone could sing of the Father’s love forever. One can sing as an expression and as an offering but not necessarily while feeling happy or feeling like dancing. When something traumatic happens, the natural (and appropriate) human reaction is to feel terrible. Feeling terrible does not bring about happiness or dancing, usually. But can someone feel terrible while at the same time being able to sing, honestly, of the Father’s love forever? Of course!
Indeed. Consider the lyrics,
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul
- It is Well With My Soul, Horatio Spafford
Spafford wrote those lyrics
while onboard a ship at the approximate location where another ship had sunk, a few weeks prior, killing his four daughters.
Did he feel like dancing? Most assuredly not.
But he did feel like worshipping.
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Oops
Macht, over at
Prosthesis, has been providing well written blog posts for quite some time now. All the while he's had a link to New Covenant in his
Required Reading blogroll. And all this time I thought I had him linked in my
Blogs to Check blogroll.
Imagine my surprise, and dismay, when I discovered he wasn't on my list! Sorry Macht, I've corrected my error!
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SAHM
Checkout this past Time magazine article on
Stay-at-home-mothers.
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Charitable Chastisement
Joe Carter, ex-Marine (c'mon now, you
know there's no such thing as an
ex-Marine), has an excellent post titled,
A Tent Full of Tax Collectors: A Semi-Charitable Rant on Humility and Heresy. Go read the whole thing.
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Forget Middle-Earth
Go check
this site for a sneak peek at
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is due to be released December 9th. Follow the link to the movie trailer.
HT:
Prosthesis
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The Tilde
This is good.
1 comment:
re: Paul Nelson's Take this proposition:
1. All organisms on Earth share a common ancestor.
Now, put a negation sign in front of it:
2. ~ All organisms on Earth share a common ancestor.
Which means:
3. It is not the case that all organisms on Earth share a common ancestor.
According to many scientists and philosophers, proposition (1) is “scientific,” whereas propositions (2) and (3) are “religious.” Thus, putting a negation sign in front of (1) immediately transforms its epistemological status. Assert (1), and you have put forward a scientific proposition. Assert (2) or (3), however, and now you’re talking religion. Just like that. It’s a magical logical asymmetry, and all from that tiny little tilde.
Well, well. Paul Nelson is either a flat out liar or stupid. He can take his choice.
Actually both 1 & 2 are testable hypotheses. I think Mr. Nelson knows it. What's not testable in science is "God." That's what Mr. Nelson's ID is all about, but he won't admit it. And it's the constant lie of ID advocates by hiding their religious motivations that I think I find most irritating.
Not long ago I went to see a well-known (I believe) "young earth" creationist debate a scientist over evolution and creationism. The "young-earther" seemed a little zany to me, but what I appreciated is that he never lied to the crowd. We knew he was a good fundamentalist Christian through and through. He said so right up front and that he wanted to prove the inerrant truth of the Bible.
Why all the lying with the ID advocates? Why doesn't Mr. Nelson's blog begin the same way Rusty's "New Covenant" begins? "Evangelical Christian Blog based on clear thinking and sound philosophy..." Thank you, Rusty. I might disagree with you sometimes, but you put your faith proudly up front. To me that's honesty. I can't say the same for www.idthefuture.com of Mr. Nelson's.
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