After Earth After an injured Ranger Corps officer and his son survive a crash landing on a depopulated Earth, they must contend with the hostile environment and feral Ursa creatures to survive. There was something incomplete going on here, like M. Night Shyamalan just gave up halfway through directing the thing. I want to invoke … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 43
I built a house in Minecraft. On all the gate entrances I put up my banner. It’s a cross, because Jesus, with a red skull over it, because death (lots of plants and animals need killing in Minecraft). I am very dark and poetic, you see. I wish you could see the banners from far … Video: My Minecraft House
In all my decades of church going, I’ve never heard a pastor or priest preach on this parable. There are reasons for this: it doesn’t provide the Hallmark feels that parables like the Prodigal Son do; pastors can be lazy, and organizing a sermon with this material requires some work to brush away some assumptions; … The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
Futile Philosophy 4 (mirrored on archive.org): Futile Philosophy 4 23 October 2021 If you rely on what your senses and reason tell you, you’ll never understand reality. From our human capabilities, we surmise that nature is totally unconcerned about us, if not outright hostile at times. This is false. Jesus boldly spoke to supposedly inanimate … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 4
Futile Philosophy 1 (mirrored on archive.org) Futile Philosophy 1 20 October 2021 This may be a little too cerebral for some readers. It’s normally pointless to discuss philosophical basics. Most people don’t understand the discussion, and those who do often don’t actually walk by it, and cannot seem to translate it very well for those … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 1
There was a meme image, screenshot from a Twitter post, I saw a while back. It was a woman mentioning the fact that Jesus never told women to cover up but told men to pluck out their eyeballs to avoid sexual temptation. The implication is that the onus is all on men, though the idea … Catacomb Resident: Indecent Exposure
Creed 2 Creed fights the son of his father’s killer, Ivan Drago. Rocky IV was a big staple of my childhood, so it was neat to see Dolph Lundgren in the role again, even though he wasn’t a huge part of this particular movie. I also liked that Viktor, Drago’s son, wasn’t as cartoonishly villainous … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 27
The Minds of Men | Official Documentary by Aaron & Melissa Dykes A rather exhaustive documentary on the MKUltra program. The link leads to a timestamp later in the video that offers a decent summary. It “feels” like all that research went nowhere, but you can be sure there were things discovered about the mind … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 44
1. Removing delineations between the Old and New Testaments. A good reason for the removal of the Old and New Testaments as categories or delineations has two parts. The first is superficial: God’s revelation and dealings with men are neither old nor new, but looking at the writings from a high level, those dealings are … Two Ways Christianity Could Be Better
If you’re a working stiff like me, you will have seen a printout of the moral alignment chart tacked up in the break room somewhere, assuming your co-workers have a base level of humor. The printouts feature characters from a fictional universe (I refuse to use the word “fandom”) and the characters’ perceived alignment. If … What Is God’s Moral Alignment?
WARNING: 91 photos on this page. I didn’t get sick this time, unlike last year. I’m going to update this post with more photos after today’s gathering.. Updates added! Forgot to mention two key things: 1 – I participated in a world record-setting effort, for the most number of people spinning a Beyblade at once. … Photos: Tekko Con 2019, Pittsburgh
One of the beating hearts of material philosophy is the strain to derive universals from particulars: i.e., what could we derive about phenomena, a posteriori from experiencing instances of observed phenomena? This goal might be a good fit for science but in ethical philosophy its application can get dicey. “How ought we to live?” is … Gay Jesus Cake
Azure had a comment on “Monoculture and Diversity“: I was thinking of Romans 10:12 – “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him…” And maybe I’ll throw in Exodus 22:21 – “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you … Monoculture and Diversity, Redux
Plenty of metal band releases nowadays feature a track, usually in the middle or at the end, that’s a little quieter or more contemplative, probably to break the sonic elephant-gun onslaught of everything else you’re hearing/have heard. If the metal band is Christian, this track is the time to let listeners know you are, in … One Weird Trick for a Worship Band to Make Their Album Go Platinum
Authors Respond to Brexit on Twitter – I am shocked—shocked—that rich elitists would sympathize with soulless bureaucracies. Fit for a King singer faces backlash for comments on race – AKA: People are oversensitive sissies. Aristotle’s 2400 Year Old Tomb Found at Stagira – Found next to Plato’s Cave. Anyone? Yes? No? I’ll see myself out… … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 15
Well, to provide a tl;dr answer to the question posed in the blog title, He might shoot a lot of B.C. Egyptians, particularly first born sons. He’d also maybe shoot Canaanites—all of them. Lots of the contextual “What would Jesus do in x situation? Let’s find out,” hypotheticals end up being an ad absurdum argument, … Who Would Jesus Shoot? AKA, Stop Putting Jesus in a Clown Suit
The Real Reason We Need to Stop Trying to Protect Everyone’s Feelings Sic et Non, Souls and Pre-existence – I’m in the middle of reading Plato’s Phaedo, and the soul’s pre-existence was forefront. Instead of bumbling through a post about it, JT’s writing is much better. A classic formula for pi has been discovered hidden … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 9
I remember watching the Rocky movies countless times when I was younger, and I never thought the semi-iconic scene in Rocky III where Rocky finally out-sprints Apollo Creed was implicitly homosexual. Watching it now, one has to wonder how much attitudes have changed, such that the filmmakers back then (1982) never thought twice that this … Rocky and Mutual Male Touching
Short answer: no. Longer answer: watch video. Guest speaker’s at my church last Sunday, Austin Hohn. Jesus is God from Discovery Christian Church on Vimeo. To be clear, I think you can get some vague idea of what Jesus’ divinity was because, as the famous phrase goes, “words mean things.” I think Chalcedon is about … Can You Understand Jesus’ Divinity Via Enlightenment Reasoning?
I’m already sort of breaking my “no more posts until the book is done” rule already, but this was too delicious to pass up: “The Case for Idolatry: Why Evangelical Christians Can Worship Idols”. Secondly, and even more significantly, we need to read the whole Bible with reference to the approach of Jesus. To be … Coming Out of the Idolization Closet