Quote of the Moment

My google homepage gives me a quote of the day and today's was particularly poignant. We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real? -Ray Bradbury So...when was the last time you were bothered? And by what? Read more about the picture here.

School is cool!

"Back to school! back to school, to prove to Dad I'm not a fool!" Name that movie, anyone*? No one asked me to do this, not even my dad, I promise! But I've been working towards a M.A. in Intercultural Leadership studies now for a little over a year and I can't believe what Crown College offers and I haven't been able to find it anywhere else. With a little too much time on my hands and an amateur passion for graphic design I decided to create the ad I would run, just for fun. Seriously though, if you're reading this and you've finished a Bachelor's and have always thought about getting some more education then ask yourself where else can you keep learning, work on a Masters, one course at a time, without leaving home, incredibly affordable, to help take your leadership to the next level, open doors, and potentially even make more money which at the end of the day is ultimately what it's all about? Until the next time I design an ad that will never run, peace out! *Answer-Billy Madison

Movie Review: Blades of Glory

One of the most highly anticipated films of the year...from director Steven Spielberg and...just kidding. Will Ferrell and Napolean Dynamite, does he have a real name? Oh that's right, Jon Heder*. Ferrell: (in regards to some of his personal issues says) "Night is a very dark time for me." Heder: "It's dark for everyone, idiot!" Ferrell: "Not for people who live in Alask. Or people with night-vision goggles." What I think the author was trying to communicate there was the existential struggle of the postmodern mind trapped in a metanarrative with no absolutes. Absolutely...brilliant! Seriously though folks, one of the harder parts of my job is when I have to take time on student's spring break away from my desk and hang out with them on 'their turf.' I'm trying to contextualize the gospel and practice incarnational ministry and that usually involves sacrifices such as going to arcades, playing xbox, visiting ColdStone and sometimes even going to a movie. Trent, Kyle and I enjoyed a spring break day a bit ago and caught the movie Blades of Glory. I laughed out loud, many times, and all as I wrote this post recalling some of the more poignant moments. All the funny parts are not in the previews and I think that because God is more passionate about his glory that this film in some way could be a spiritual discipline for the postmodern disciple, give it a try! *Jon Heder, (Napolean Dynamite) actually went to high school in Salem, Oregon, the city in which I make such sacrifices as the one mentioned here.

God or Not

Just read a fascinating article on Newsweek.com that featured a debate between Saddleback's founding pastor and the author of the Purpose-Driven Life, Rick Warren and the atheistic author Sam Harris. I wouldn't normally suggest the non-academic type such as Warren go head-to-head with someone getting a PhD in neuroscience. While they can discuss the same topic they approach it from such different angles and use such different language to do so that I really feel it puts Warren at a disadvantage, even though on Newsweek's site a poll shows 90% of readers believing in some form of God. The article is fascinating and highlights some valid points coming from the other side. There is, understandably, a fair amount of technical jargon but I really appreciated the place Sam was coming from when he made this comment:

How is it fair for God to have designed a world which gives such ambiguous testimony to his existence? How is it fair to have created a system where belief is the crucial piece, rather than being a good person? How is it fair to have created a world in which by mere accident of birth, someone who grew up Muslim can be confounded by the wrong religion? Harris is different than most atheists in that he is not a moral relativist (i.e. he believes in a moral law). My question is, how can you have an objective moral standard that all humans are under with it having a source? Am I wrong on that? My other question is, how can anyone know for certain that there is no God? I understand how many could not be certain there is a God, the word for that is an agnostic. But how can you be absolutely positive there is no God? Even if there is no evidence there could still be a God. Even if the world was created via the big bang and we all evolved completely seperate from God there still could be a God, right? Little humans believing with all passion, "No, I promise, I know absolutely, 100% for sure, there is no God." You can't know that, can you?