Evolution vs. Christian Faith

At Quintessence of Dust, Stephen Matheson has posted an interesting article about biological evolution (i.e., common descent) and whether it poses a “threat” to Christian faith. I’m not a biologist, which is why I won’t go beyond what is common knowledge to professional scientists when writing about evolution. With that caveat, I’ll make my position clear for anyone who’s interested:

SiCKO

Last night, the Genera Education Film Series at Longwood University featured SiCKO, Michael Moore’s comparison of the US health system with those in Canada, England, France, and Cuba. Most sensible people know the US is hard on poor people–especially in Alabama, which has, to my eyes, the most extraordinary polarization of wealth and political power in North America. Sick poor people have it especially hard in this country. Moore’s documentary raises several interesting questions.

TiVo and the New Advertising Frontier

In his New York Times op-ed, Damon Lindelof laments the end of commercial television as we know it. The up-shot: TiVo allows you to store your favorite TV shows on a hard drive, and watch them any time you wish–fast forwarding through the commercials. Now, you could do the same thing with video tape, but not as easily. Lindelof writes:

This probably sounds exciting if you’re a TV viewer, but if you’re in the business of producing these shows, it’s nothing short of terrifying. This is how vaudevillians must have felt the first time they saw a silent movie; sitting there, suddenly realizing they just became extinct: after all, who wants another soft-shoe number when you can see Harold Lloyd hanging off a clock 50 feet tall?

Eventually, everyone will have TiVo, or identical technology. But will commercials simply go extinct, since no one is watching them? Of course not. Commercials pay for television, which is why TiVo could be the worst thing that ever happened to television.

A Scientific Experiment of Self-Evident Importance

This is Molly, our beagle:

This is Molly’s crate, where she sleeps:

One night, when Molly was in her crate, but not sleepy, I, in a moment of great scientific inspiration, decided to stick random objects through the bars to see whether Molly would (1) lick the item, or (2) just sniff it. I now share the results.

What is the Bible?

Sitting in church before the service today, I was reading the preface to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For me, the last paragraph raises two interesting questions about the nature of the Bible and the meaning of the phrase “Word of God.” It reads:

Indoor Training

So my indoor trainer arrived last week, and I actually blew off two nice days over the weekend to stay in my basement and try it out. As the weather changes, especially the earlier sunsets, indoor training is the only option I have to maintain my aerobic base until spring. I’m figuring things out on the fly, but here are my initial observations: