The trees of the LORD are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the pine trees.
The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the coneys.
The moon marks off the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.
You bring darkness, it becomes night,
and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
The lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
The sun rises, and they steal away;
they return and lie down in their dens.
Then man goes out to his work,
to his labor until evening.
How many are your works, O LORD!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures. (
Psalm 104:16-24
, NIV)
He takes care of them; he’ll take care of you.
I yam what I yam. A sinner saved by grace.
News Forge
carries a piece on the further devolution of the church [can we call it that anymore?] into random, postmodernist swill. The current flavor of the day is tagged “open source theology”. The title is derived from
open source
software, which refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit.
Now that idea has been extended to religion.
[Open source theology] is an offshoot of the
emergent church
branch of Christianity. The founder of the open source theology movement, Andrew Perriman, says he started it “out of the conviction that if there is such a thing as the emerging church … it urgently needs an emerging theology. In the narrative world of the emerging culture, open source developers are the good guys — quirky, generous, iconoclastic heroes — and the commercial producers are the bad guys, with Microsoft dominating the axis of evil.” Perriman says that in this postmodern culture, the Christian church is struggling to “rebuild credibility” and
needs to change its theology from one that has generated by so-called “experts” to an open source theology that is the product of “public conversation
.
It is exploratory, open-ended, incomplete, less concerned to establish fixed points and boundaries than to nurture a thoughtful and constructive dialogue between text and context.”
Perriman first encountered open source software and philosophies when he began using
Postnuke
. “I had been looking for a way to post some theological articles on the Web and see if I could generate some discussion around them — this was before blogging really took off,” he says. “The search for low-cost software solutions coincided with a growing awareness that theology —
evangelical theology in particular — was going through some sort of transition or crisis, and was on the lookout for new methods, a new rhetoric, new ways of formulating old truths, and perhaps even a quite radical overhaul of old truths.
“
Sounds like the same old song and dance: truth is what you make it and we certainly can’t be bound by the authoritarian dictates of Scripture. Yechh…
“For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.” (2 Cor 2:15-16a, NIV)
Did you ever stop to consider how you smell? Penguins and other critters can distinguish their young from among hundreds or even thousands of others by their scent. As Christians, we are infused with the scent of Christ, and as Paul says, believers and unbelievers will respond differently to the smell. At times I find myself trying to cover up the scent with churchiness or other things that mask the strong pungentness (?) of Christ within me. When will I learn
to let the scent through, unfiltered and unashamed?
Admit it, these guys have no clue what’s going on…
(
BBC News
)
Global warming could be causing some glaciers to grow, a new study claims.
Researchers at Newcastle University looked at temperature trends in the western Himalaya over the past century. They found warmer winters and cooler summers, combined with more snow and rainfall, could be causing some mountain glaciers to increase in size.
The findings are significant, because temperature and rain and snow trends in the area impact on water availability for more than 50 million Pakistanis. Researchers focussed on the Upper Indus Basin, which is the mainstay of the national economy of Pakistan and has 170,000 sq km of irrigated land - an area two-thirds the size of the UK.
Dr Hayley Fowler, senior research associate at the university’s school of civil engineering and geosciences, said: “
Very little research of this kind has been carried out in this region and yet the findings from our work have implications for the water supplies of around 50 million people in Pakistan.
“
Did you catch the money quote? Little research has been done, but it’s time to begin the wailing and gnashing of teeth. The agenda is to induce panic to further social and political ends. Give it up already….
Stop what you’re doing and go visit the
Russell Croman Astrophotography
page. There are few alive that can do justice to capturing the incredible beauty of the creations of heaven, but Russell Croman is one.
Continue reading “Colors of the Moon”
Pluto no longer a planet, say astronomers
(
CNN
) PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) — Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.
After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is — and isn’t — a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.
Pluto is no stranger to controversy. In fact, it’s been dogged by disputes ever since its discovery. Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh of Arizona’s Lowell Observatory, Pluto was classified as a planet because scientists initially believed it was the same size as Earth. It remained one because for years, it was the only known object in the Kuiper Belt, an enigmatic zone beyond Neptune that’s teeming with comets and other planetary objects.
Tags: astronomy, pluto
Loading ...
