Careful Thought

It’s official - Nick and As I Lay Dying ’s latest release An Ocean Between Us  is now the Number 1 on the BillBoard Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Album lists.  It’s also #8 overall on the Top 200 .  I wasn’t sure if dedicated metalcore fans would appreciate their new direction on this album.  I guess they do.

Technorati Tags: music , As I Lay Dying , metalcore , Billboard

Report Accuses Hezbollah of Indiscriminate Attacks on Civilians in ‘06 War

The 126-page report found that “as a party of an armed conflict governed by international humanitarian law,” Hezbollah had “violated fundamental prohibitions against deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians.”

I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you!

Oh.  My.  Gosh.  You need this.  Here are several incredible recipes.  I had the  flocons givrés last week and can cook up an excellent  pain grillé  or even a pretty tasty  poche chaude, if I have to.

Technorati Tags: recipes , humor

Martin at Sun and Shield has two interesting posts about the fate of dinosaurs.  He presents several options for what happened to dinos:

Dinosaurs never existed at all. This is difficult to believe, because of the fossil evidence.

Dinosaurs existed.  In which case, they became extinct at some time in the past . . .

If that’s true, why?  There are three possibilities.

1) The earth is very old, and mainstream science, which claims that dinosaurs became extinct a long time ago, is correct.
2) Dinosaurs (and presumably many other forms of prehistoric life) were destroyed before the creation events described in the six days of Genesis 1. This would be consistent with gap theory . It is probably consistent with mainstream science, also.
3) Dinosaurs were rescued from Noah’s flood, but have become extinct since, probably because conditions on earth changed*.

Or they didn’t [go extinct].

The evidence cited on the web pages proclaiming that they still live is correct, and some dinosaurs still exist. Perhaps the Loch Ness monster exists, and is one.

*Dinosaurs would have taken up a lot of room on the ark, if there were very many species of them, plus the room needed for their food.   Genesis 6 says that Noah was to take a male and a female of each animal, and doesn’t mention anything about eggs being brought aboard. If somehow the dinosaurs were represented by eggs, rather than young dinosaurs, where did the eggs come from?  As the KJV puts it (Genesis 6:20) the animals were to “come unto thee.” (to Noah)

Hmmm.  Dinosaurs are very problematic to a Young Earth interpretation of Genesis, because they don’t fit nicely.  Hence, you have get creative and assume they were either on the ark, or that they were simply large lizards and still exist today.  After all, the reasoning goes, people - and dinosaurs - lived to great age before the Flood.  Reptiles, in theory, will keep growing until they die.  So a gecko would inevitably turn (evolve?) into a T. Rex or iguanadon.

It comes back to the issue of credibility.  As Scripture points out , non-believers are going to think Christianity is foolish no matter what we say, and I accept that.  We don’t have to make the job easier for them.  One of Martin’s commenters says,

The kids in the church now sing, “Behemoth” was a dinosaur.  [Realize] one day these children will read a real science book are realize the church lied to them, and walk away. Look at the recent statistics published that show a mass exodus of children from the church when they reach college.

I would suggest that, if there is such an exodus, it exists because we shelter kids from ‘real science’ and don’t give them the tools to evaluate the evidence for themselves.  Creative Young Earth ‘fables’ that make dinosaurs out of old lizards are more dangerous to our kids that anything Charles Darwin ever came up with.  Why not instead give our kids the tools to understand that a Young Earth understanding of the Creation account is going to be colored by a bias against science?

Technorati Tags: dinosaurs , faith , religion , young earth , old earth , creationism

Had a great week in England rummaging through the National Archives and National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.  If you have an interest in Naval warfare in the age of sail, the Archives and the NMM are The Font of All Knowledge .

I missed the monkey, but this is HMS Trincomalee at Hartlepool, the oldest European warship afloat.  She was launched in 1817 and is made of Malabar teak.  They had some scrap teak blocks laying about from the last refurbishment, but they wouldn’t fit in my luggage.

I’m in London, nominally at the British National Archives at Kew, but also hopping about a bit to see if the rumors that the Brits make beer are true.  Let me put that one to rest - the rumors are true.  Actually the Archives are pretty amazing, as well.  Today I was rummaging through the hand-written record of a naval court martial from 1796.  A bloke next to me was working with scrolls of tax records from the late 1500s.  Yikes.  They have stuff going back to the Domesday Book from the year 1086.  Tomorrow I’m off to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and Saturday up to Hartlepool, to see the HMS Trincomalee (and the Hartlepool monkey ).

Still haven’t seen any Marmite, yet.

They have to blame someone, I suppose.

(HT: Spiegel )  The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of methane a year — equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey. Now poor moose are being blamed for global warming.

Norway is concerned that its national animal, the moose, is harming the climate by emitting an estimated 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year through its belching and farting.

Norwegian newspapers, citing research from Norway’s technical university, said a motorist would have to drive 13,000 kilometers in a car to emit as much CO2 as a moose does in a year.

I’m off to England for a week or so working on the great unfinished novel, so posting will be light until I get settled.  I’ll try to get some pictures up as I can.  TTFN.

“Of course, you are not such wiseacres as to think of ways that you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have labored before you in the field of exposition. If you are of that opinion, pray remain so, for you are not worth the trouble of conversion, and like a little coterie who think with you, would resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility. It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others.” (C. H. Spurgeon, “ Introduction to Biblical Interpretation” )

Translation: Use a good commentary, because you’re not the only person the Holy Spirit speaks to.

(HT: Euangelion )