Observe and Learn

The Muratorian Fragment - Da Vinci Code and the Canon of Scripture

2006-05-20T00:27:00.000-07:00

The Muratorian Fragment

In the Da Vinci Code, Brown asserts that Constantine, emperor from 312-337. But this is pure intentional ignorance. For example, the Muratorain fragment is accepted as written about 170AD. The fragment lists the books of the bible starting by saying that Luke is the third gospel and listing the remainder of the books with the exception of Hebrews and it only mentions two epistles of John and he seems to not mention James. Other than that this list is extremely close to our current bible.

As for the disputes regarding the Canon which were discussed until the time of Constantine, these are with respect to the

(e)mergent Voyageurs - The Errors of Venting and the Need for COnfession

2006-03-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

(e)mergent Voyageurs :: Venting vs. Confession.

New blog for me at least is emergent Voyageurs. Here is another example of a person on the journey looking to discern the path between being transperant and veering into anger and gossip.

It is very important for us to grow spiritually to learn to discern the movements of our heart and this requres confession. We model this discernment by sharing our hearts with others BUT we learn to still let the words be constructive and without any judgments about others.
Good post Jamie...

(e)mergent Voyageurs - On Venting Vs Confession

2006-03-30T05:51:00.000-08:00

(e)mergent Voyageurs :: Venting vs. Confession

Dancing with Morrissey in the Fishbowl of My Life

2004-07-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Am I the only person out there who thinks that the new Morrissey record is the greatest thing to come from Great Britain since Winston Churchill?

The new Morrissey record is just pure poetry and pop romance as only Morrissey can do.
You are the Quarry aims again to help the English redefine themselves. Morrissey is on a mission to make a more balanced and romantic world for all of us to live in. As for me and my household, we will ballroom dance to Morrissey all hours of the day and night.
Just last night, we had a family “lets dance around with Dad to the new Morrissey record” frolic in the living room. It is really funny because I am a pastor and I live on the Church Campus, which is quite the fishbowl. But lets throw all caution to the wind and swoon with the great swooner. I looked up the word swoon. It means “To be overwhelmed by ecstatic joy.” Ah, to swoon.

The album has its hits like, “Irish Blood, English Heart” and “The First of the Gang to Die” which are quite catchy. But, oh, the old despair of Morrissey is so rich and full-bodied on “The World is Full of Crashing Bores” and my personal favorite “Let Me Kiss You”.

Why does Morrissey make us feel so good? Well the answer is in the question: "What does it mean to be a poet?"

Why do some of us want to be poets? Ahh, it is because the poet is trying to make something beautiful. To Morrissey, it appears that what is beautiful is being authentic about your struggles with desire, the desire to be loved, the desire to be safe. Morrissey explores his self loathing and his navel gazing as to why no one loves him. Needless to say, Morrissey and I connect. I just want to launch into romantic verse:

Regrets, regrets, regrets. That is the story of my life.
But I can dream of the day.
Of the day when you embrace me and tell me
Tell me something other than the regrets I tell myself
"Self, you are a loud-mouthed bore.
Self, you are no more aesthetically inspiring than the local convenience store."
So tell me something or say nothing at all if you have nothing nice to say.
If you have nothing nice to say….

See I told you Morrissey is inspiring.
passthebread

My other Blog - visit

2004-07-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

here is a link to my other blog:
http://21stcenturyreformation.blogspot.com/

visis and learn.
passthebread

To Blog or not to Blog - OK I've made the decision!!!

2004-07-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

I was reading the paper today and I read the letters to the editor in the LA Times. the story is basically that Robert Reich wrote a new book, "Reason: Why Liberals will win the battle for America", and Charlotte Allen wrote a critique of Reich's book in the LA Times. Today, Robert Reich wrote back, saying Allen mischaracterizes his arguement. Reich says he thinks the end of democracy could be foisted on us by those who, 'believe that human beings owe their allegience and identity to a higher authority and who disdain reason and logic in favor of religious dogma'. As I continued to read the letters to the editor on this topic, I came across another opinion written in typical American mis-education fashion which asserted that Hitler was a catholic and was loyal to "God". Pure shallow lunacy!! Hitler was a German young Hegalian. Such a philosophical perspective is overtly anti-christian. Please!!!
So I am compelled to enter the arena of this battle for ideas and truth. America, and even the intellectual left, are so either ignorant on the one hand or simply to partisan to understand history on the other. I really beleive Reich is sincere in his beliefs, and I trust that he really believes that beliefs in absolute truths that indeed trump all other arguements is a real bad thing and that such beleifs are all created equal!!

Well Mr. reich, explain to me how Martin Luther King's commitment to non-violence was not, first, a belief in a higher authority which he believed dogmatically, and, secondly, explain to me how it was not a faith he held against all the logic and reason of his detractors!!! It is unreasonable to have such a strong dogmatic faith that God will win if we trust Him as Martin Luther King did. It is such unwavering and unreasonable faith that empowers the Christian to turn the other cheek. This is blind faith, and it is the root of all courage and moral beauty. It is the content of one's beleifs that are either good or evil. I think therefore I BLOG!!! The battle lines have been drawn. I have decided to take off the gloves and fight!!!

I will take the following strategy. I will blog as often as possible in two blogs. This one and another to be created shortly. This blog will deal with the following topics all epistimological in nature.
1. The anti-rational views of the political conspiracies and speculative theories of both the far left and the far right which currently divide our nation.
2. Bad Science and how the American mis-educated fall for such tripe.
3. The Positive role of observation as the true method of learning.

My Second blog will be on
1. Christian Discipleship
2. The Present Management Revolution and its effect on the church.
In this second blog, I will journal my current book developments and the morning devotions that make up my Sunday Sermons at the church I pastor.
So there it is. I am committed to the process.
passthebread

Very Funny Dream About Michael Moore - No Lie

2004-07-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

This actually happened last night. The dream went as follows:

I was watch (in the dream) what appeared to be The Tonight Show but the host wasn't Jay Leno. The host was Cal Thomas. Cal Thomas if you don;t know is a syndicated columnist who is strongly religious right. On the show being interviewed by Cal Thomas was the venerable Mr. Michael Moore. The catch was that as he spoke his mouth opened really wide. It was a gag put on by the shows producers. It was very funny because the point was they were saying that Michael Moore was Charlie Brown. You know how Charlie Brown goes "AARGH' when he gets tripped up by Lucy. That was the picture. Mr. Moore's mouth would open up like a cartoon "AARGH" whenever he spoke. Then, to my great surprise, the producers also added in a not so subliminal video of a turnip truck driving off as Mr. Moore spoke. At this juxtaposition of images, I woke up laughing.

"So, Yoda, what does this all mean", you ask. Well, let me tell you my padawan learner.

Ok, well last night I was having a conversation with a boyfriend of a distant cousin at a party at my sister's house. He is a young "fresh outta college" kinda guy. Well, he was telling me how Israel was the bad guys and how America is so corrupt and how Bush inadvertently caused 9/11 and so on. After this conversation, I went to my brother in law and I asked him, "How on God's green earth do these guys learn to tie their shoes?" That is the burning question. So as I went to sleep the question in my heart was how do people come up with these opinions and lo and behold, I had a dream.

You see the answer is that the Mr. Moore, moral equivalence crowd are like Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown is the proverbial naive child. He falls for Lucy's old tricks. They actual did "just fall off the turnip truck". Meaning their education in the world is very minimal. They are not too street wise. They be "fresh outta college" as opposed to "fresh outta Compton". Here is how I think it works. When you are pre-pubescent, you think, if you are born in an average home, that life is pretty nice and people are generally OK. Then you grow up and learn that the nice world is full of very not nice people. In fact your whole saccharine view of America is pretty much blown by the fact that America is run by selfish people who want to make a lot of money. You think to yourself, "Self, you are very smart. You have discovered something altogether new. America is not so nice. Politicians are corrupt." So now your view of the world has gone from white to black, and ya know what my parents never told me this great revelation. The pendulum has swung, and you have a college degree.

Here is the key. These young inspired intellects think they have discovered something new. What they do not realize is that everybody has already been down this path and seen these stains on the American tapestry. The Charlie Brown "AARGH" happened like so twenty years ago. The emotion has been tempered by many other expereinces in life. You see our pendulum swung twenty years ago. We don't just see that a lot of water has gone under the bridge, we have seen people try to blow up the whole damn bridge. We have stood our ground and defended the bridge even though the bridge ain't too pretty and the river is filled with sewage. When you have expereinced people try to blow up the bridge, the fact that the water is polluted just doesn't seem relevant. The severity of the potential for evil is just categorically different.

I work with Saddam Hussein every bloody day. Some people are completely untrustworthy.

Charlie Brown, you got to see a hell of a lot more pain and suffering before you realize that we may not be as pure as the driven snow, but that doesn't mean we are going to say that there still isn't a great difference between Ho chi Min and LBJ or Joseph Stalin and FDR or OBL and "W". Those who believe in moral equivalence and can't seem to tell their right from their left are truly the Charlie Brown's of the American political scene.

Junk Science

2004-07-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

I realize I haven't blogged for a bit. But this caught my eye!! Is there a landslide of speculation about causes of basic phenomenon. Like the decline in some otter population in Florida. Is it caused by off-shore drilling or is it caused by fishing? Well, the answer it seems is what ever your pet political bent is!! If you are an anti-gun guy or gal, then the answer is fishing. Those hunter fishermen are the root of all evil ya know. But if you are anti-oil, which is all the rage these days, then the answer is off-shore drilling. Who cares that the drilling is over 100 miles away from the otters and the currents don't support your theory. Actual causes are not the point. What do you think this is science? This isn;t science this is politics.

When I was at Stanford, Stanford began the big push away from "classical education" to "inclusive education" in the Freshman Western Civilization classes. Basically, in the Western Civilization series that all freshmen are required to take, a bunch of special interest groups said that their role in the culture was being overlooked. "We are part of the culture, so where is our role in the development" The problem is just because a group exists now in the culture does not mean that to understand our society and its evolution, you must understand the role of that group. Sure every one plays a role but was Sitting Bull a mover and a shaker compared with Thomas Jefferson. Who do we include in our reading list Alice Walker or Rene Descarte? Well, there are enough white males so of course Alice Walker. She did win a pulitzer ya know!! But she didn't change the world. Alice Walker did not provide the intellectual force to move the culture. WHO CARES ABOUT CAUSES THIS IS POLITICS!! Well, that is the point isn't it.

In all areas of life, the key is the proper assignment of cause. If we are talking about Sea Otters or the evolution of the culture, you have to prove that the cause you assign is accurate regardless of your political agenda. Here is a key to knowledge!!

I Can See For Miles - When it comes to how #$@*^$ Michael Moore is

2004-06-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

In our home Stupid is a bad word.

Anyway. Mojoey gave me this link. It does all the research I do not have the time or expertise to do. This guy is actually smart and informed. READ THIS and LEARN what intellectual laziness and propaganda is all about:

It's about Trust Stupid.

2004-06-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Leadership is about trust. The BIG, BIG, BIG question for this election is trust. I do believe few people have much trust for either candidate in the 2004 presidential election. Bush has completely fumbled the ball, picked it up, and ran the wrong way on the trust issue.

A little poem I wrote right after 9/11;

On Higher Ground

Bless your father and kiss your sons.
Trade your dimes for a smile from your little ones.
Let the land lie fallow give the servants a rest.
It’s not an inalienable right to be forever blessed.

It can slip from your fingers and tug at your sleeve.
A guilty mind, a beggar’s please
Can haunt your soul and bring you down.
Cause to win a war you must stand
On Higher Ground.

We’ve been taught to listen to both sides of a fight.
It’s never an issue of who’s wrong or who’s right.
“What’s good for you ain’t good for me”
“Live and let live” and “let it be”.

Pimps in the white house and CEOs
Like gangsters running Vegas Casinos
Like assault and battery without the blood
Like an underage runaway strung out on drugs
Like a gold ring in a pigs snout
Like a tree in the forest, a child’s shout
Like labor laws in a far away land
Like a silk dress on your old man
Like a sick priest and an altar boy
To tell a lie and have it then be found
That to win a war you must stand
On Higher Ground.

It's about Trust Stupid!!!!!!

I work with Flat-earthers

2004-06-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

It is so hard for people to change their paradigm. I work at a manufacturing facility. I have attempted to assist other sites in our company with change. The process is so often confused by ego that people become obstinate, stubborn and ultimately unprofitable. The process is like the following:
Say you have a test to take. The test is tomorrow. So you study. All your peers realize that the test can be taken every month. They have many chances to pass. So they do not study. When you get to the test, you realize the test is a group test (isn't everything). So the first question is "4+4=?". You raise your hand. "I think the correct answer is b:8". The guy with the MBA stands up with a dry erase marker and says: "No, Think about it. If you have 4 fingers and you add four more fingers, how many fingers do you have? Ten. Every one knows you have ten fingers. The answer is d:10!!!." Everyone is quite impressed and the group marks the test "d".

I think it is an important question to ask oneself: "How do we remain cool when we are living in just such a circumstance?"

Often people lack emotional intellegence or have other hidden motives for thinking the way they do. I have observed that the political dynamics of a situation often has more weight in some people's minds than the truth. Political dynamics becomes the enemy of truth. Ego and insecurity undermines peoples ability to simply come to the right decision and move forward. We sure are strange creatures. For me, I say: "No, matter what the politburo says "the earth moves"!!

Extremism, Michael Moore and Education

2004-06-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

OK here is my observation of the day. I saw that Michael Moore's new "documentary" film received a standing ovation at its premiere in the US. OK admittedly, I have not seen the movie, BUT.. I do know that M.&M.'s movie is saying there are ties between the Bushes and the Saudis. The implication is somehow they are all colluding for some monetary end or maybe to rule the world (which is a bad thing). Here is a simple observation. "W" is a fundamentalist, evangelical Christian. Fundamentalist, evangelical Christians in the 21st century do not tend to trust Muslims. To imply that there is a covenant between the two parties is simply grassy-knoll, conspiracy-wacko logic. OK, so the moon could be made of cheese "under the surface", but it makes no logical sense that it is. So M&M's theory is just a few minutes beyond of the twilight zone - it isn't the brightest. The point is, "why do Americans in the 21st century applaud this stuff like a bunch of raving Nazi's"? I say it is a sign of the failure of our educational system. We think conspiracy and lack of trust in what we see is critical thinking. To be critical is somehow to make speculations about what lies hidden under the surface. No!!! That is superstition. To be a critical thinker is the exact opposite of superstition. Hitler had superstitious theories and so does Osama. To be a critical thinker, you doubt speculation and superstition. Newton said the heart of science is humility. We do not in our ignorance pretend to know things that are actually just superstition. It is conspiracy and ignorance that is the hotbed of extremism. Such intellectual darkness leads to these "beyond the twilight zone" conspiracy theories. The root of our current political hatred is our failure to teach our children to think. As long as M&M keeps demonizing the opposition, can fascist intolerance be far behind?? Extremism is the superstition that demonizes our enemies. We must open our eyes and teach ourselves to "observe and learn".

Feminists against No-fault Divorce

2004-06-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

OK so I had a moving experience this weekend. A friend of mine is going through a divorce. Her husband starting taking steriods about 7 years ago or so and he has been a pig ever since. He sleeps with prostitutes, drinks vodka every night and tries to get her to go play with him in kinky-town Mexico. They have together a four year old and a one year old. She has not worked for many years as she has invested all her efforts into caring for the children. Well, she is being told by the county clerk that the estate will be split fifty-fifty and his total disregard for their marital contract and his responsibilities is not relevant to her rights to the estate. Wait a minute here!! Has not this man violated some civil law?? Is not his total disregard for the legal contract to which she invested her life into a TORT?? Well, I do not know the law in California but I am going to look into it. If you know the law please inform me. As it stand I think no-fault seems like saying marriage is no longer a binding contract. Maybe I will start a new radical feminist group: "Feminists against No-Fault Divorce"!!! I am serious. This woman and the others like her (men included) need some one to advocate for them. Lord only knows Lawyers make pretty piss poor advocates these days!!!

How did we get here?

2004-06-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

What am I into. As if you all care. I am into the scientific method. Therefore, the title "observe and learn". What I really do not like are people who talk a lot about things they just think in their head. Like Journalists. Or conspiracy wackos. Or that guy mojoey.blogspot. Just kidding.

So today's thought is:

Leftist wackos under the reagan-era. When I was at Stanford, I was a "leftist-wacko". I hated Reagan because he said, "America Good; Communists bad." Now today, we realize "America OK Communists a lot worse than we thought". So, the fact is the "journalist college-kid crowd" thought the ideas of communism were kinda neat, but they didn't take into account that these guys kill lots of people. So what should win the war for the truth: 1) Our observation of reality or 2) Marxist theory. As always Observation WINS.