Expedition 327: Juan De Fuca Hydrogeology

Greetings landlubbers, from the decks of the JOIDES Resolution, where we're sitting 150 miles west of Victoria, BC, above the Juan De Fuca Ridge. The title of this post is the official IODP name for this expedition. Google it to find out more.

It's been a long while since my last post. In that time, we've left behind the beautiful mountains, lakes and forests of the Great Northwest, and to College Station, TX, with it's blistering heat, expansive skies, awesome lightening storms, and polite, friendly citizenry.

The move was very, very difficult (especially for my lovely wife Molly, who ought to get a special crown jewel in Heaven for what she went through while I was iceberg-spotting down under), but we've now got us a nice house, some great neighbors (I was serious about the friendly people here), and now I'm back out at sea, not so far this time from my old stomping grounds.

Above, you'll see a nice image (taken by someone else - I don't have my camera this time) of the crew dropping a re-entry cone into the ocean through the moonpool. The moonpool (I usually see it written as one word like that) is a hole that extends clear through the ship, through which the drill string can extend from the tower down to the sea floor. The re-entry cone is like a big funnel-shaped target about the size of a large jacuzzi. As you can see, it's strung through the drill pipe like a bead on a string. They drop it through the moonpool, and it free-falls all the way down to the sea floor, where it nestles into the hole. They can then pull up the drill string, refit it with a different bit, perhaps, or some other equipment, and be assured that they'll be able to find the hole again when they go back down.

They also sometimes leave these on holes they might want to come back to on some future expedition. In this case, I believe we plan to leave this site for now, go to another for a couple of weeks, and then come back here to put down a CORK.

What is a "CORK", you ask? CORK stands for "Circulation Obviation Retrofit Kit", which I swear is just jibberish that some clever oceanographer came up with so that they could call it a "CORK". What it actually is, is a very, very expensive (one million dollars each, I'm told) piece of hardware that fits down into the drill hole, and is equipped with all kinds of monitoring and measuring devices that continuously transmit data back to the surface. It's battery powered, and the batteries last for about 2 years, so they have to come back every once in a while to change them.

While all this interesting - but painfully slow - science is going on, I mostly sit down in the developer's office (lovingly called "The Dungeon") and work on software projects. For me, that's where the excitement is! So far on this cruise, I've made many much-needed improvements to "SampleMaster" and the "MegaUploadaTron", and started a brand-new project to streamline the Moisture and Density process called "MADMax" (The Moisture and Density process is called "MAD", and of course my new application will "MAXimize" the efficiency and accuracy of the process, so the name makes sense, while at the same time fitting in with our other goofy names).

We've yet to encounter any bad weather. In fact, every day I've been out here the ocean looks exactly the same - like a big lake, but without any visible shore anywhere. There's hardly any wildlife to see. My favorite nighttime activity is to sit out on the decks and try to spot the little white birds that fly about the ship sometimes (always in threes for some reason...). Once I saw a whale spout way out on the horizon, but other than that, nothing. Ok, some people reported seeing a sunfish near the ship, but I missed that.

Well, that's it for this post. Time for me to get back to MADMax.

Two Weeks at the Bottom of the World

Greetings, ye land lubbers!

Well, it's been two weeks, so it's time for a blog update.

After setting sail (ok, it's not a sailboat, but you understand), it took us a few days to pass by the lower parts of New Zealand. These were wonderful days of relaxation and enjoyment. During those happy times, I often reflected upon my good fortune, in securing this excellent job, while sitting on the warm, peaceful decks watching the sun rise, or set.

Once we passed New Zealand, the winds and waves of the open sea struck us, and everything changed in a rapid free-fall descent into the gaping maw of Hell itself. A ice-cold, watery, constantly moving roller-coaster Hell.

I got seasick. I knew this was coming, so I'd prepared for it. I'd brought several different brands of motion sickness medicine, and the on-board doctor had some others for me to try.

I suppose if I'd been in a car going over a few miles of winding road, or in a plane experiencing a few hours of choppy weather, or even spent a whole day at an amusement park, these medicines would have been sufficient to restore my equilibrium. But I was in a ship at sea, in a storm that lasted most of a week!

Yes, it was a storm. Probably most of my experienced shipmates thought it was a minor sqall, but to me it was the very wrath of God poured out. I'm not sure what he was angry about, but I must've done something!

I took a few pictures of the waves while it was still ok to go outside, but they fail to capture the immense terror of the roaring ocean. Some of the waves were high enough to strike the highest decks of the ship. At one point I saw a wave roll over the drill floor (that's the low deck between the poop and forecastle decks) and completely cover it, making it appear for a moment that the ship had split in two. The official report was that the waves reached 40 feet in height. For days, they struck the ship, sounding like bombs going off -- sounding like the ship was coming apart around my ears, as I lay either in my bunk, or in the ship's little hospital, or at times on whatever couch was nearest, or even the floor.

Eventually the storm abated, and calm weather came again. I'm told that we can expect to pass back through high seas and winds again on our return trip to Tasmania, but I'm hopeful that by that time I'll have my "sea legs" and it won't be as bad. We did have a few hours of bad weather one day last week, and I didn't feel anything, so there's reason to hope.

Once we arrived at our first drill site, the real work began. We drill out length after 9-meter length of core from beneath the ocean floor. Currently we're drilling at a depth of about 3 miles below the surface of the ocean (that's three miles below our ship), and about half a mile beneath the sea floor. I'm told we might be here a few more days yet, and get to a depth close to 2 miles beneath the sea floor. Pretty amazing. The hard-packed sediment we're bringing up has been sitting (mostly) undisturbed for 30 million years or so, and now we're mucking around in it, subjecting it to intense light, x-rays, gamma radiation, and all sorts of other tests and experiements. I put my eye to a telescope and looked at little foraminifer shells that drifted to the ocean floor 15 million years ago.

Once we finish at our present site, we'll be heading back to another site that was supposed to be our first, but was surrounded by huge icebergs. We're hoping it will be accessible now. After that, there's a site near the mainland of Antarctica that should offer some beautiful scenery.

That's it for now! Until next time!

Update on my Seagoing Adventures

Greetings land-dwellers!

Today is our last day in port. Tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM we set sail for Antarctica!

I've been hearing some scary predictions about the weather for our transit from New Zealand to Antarctica: gale-force winds and very high seas. I talked to the doctor today and he's prepared to take care of me should I have problems with motion-sickness. They're telling everyone to secure everything -- anything free to move, will move!

I've spent the last few days -- since Jan 4th -- helping with the unloading and loading of the ship. It's been VERY exhausting work! Unloading core samples and trash and other stuff from the previous expedition, and loading all the stuff we need for this one. We've got everything imaginable that one might need for a two-month trip to Antarctica. The ship and all it's lifeboats could all sink, and I'd still be able to survive in my full-body survival suit.

I've been given a developer's laptop, with all the software development tools the IODP uses, and access to their source code. When I'm not directly employed as a Core Technician (and not sleeping), I'll be learning the ropes and experimenting with the tools and projects. I may even get a chance to fix a bug or two while I'm out here.

The people here are all very nice, and great to talk to! Some of my favorite times of the day are mealtimes, when I can sit down with some of the scientists or other IODP people and learn what they do, what they're hoping to accomplish on this mission, or just talk about where they're from or what interests them. There are about 25 or so scientists on board, and just about every one of them is from a different country. Then there are the lab techs, crew people and so on, who are also from all over. It's very cool!

I attended a meeting with the scientists this morning, and they talked a lot about what they are hoping to accomplish. A lot of it went way over my head, but one thing I found interesting is that some scientist somewhere has made a prediction based on some theories that he's proposed, and we will be doing some experiments to either validate or falsify his predictions. Kind of like when Einstein predicted, based on his relativity theory, the precise way light would bend around a star, which was later verified when telescopes were invented that were powerful enough to see the effect directly.

There is a ton -- actually several tons -- of cool scientific equipment on board. Just the little bit I've learned about that so far has my mind spinning.

I'm really excited, and somewhat scared, about leaving port in the morning. Well, it's not the leaving port, but the high winds and waves that has me scared. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get seasick. The ship's doctor is ready to help though. He's got several kinds of meds for me to try, and says I shouldn't worry.

Keep checking back here in the days and weeks to come for more updates! Also, you can search YouTube for "IODP 318" (that's our expedition number) or maybe "IODP Wilkes Land" for videos. The videographer says he plans to release an update on YouTube every week. They should be fun and interesting, and you might catch a glimpse of me now and then!

My Day in Wellington, NZ

Greetings once again to all y’all out there in the blogosphere.

 

I spent the whole day today (Sun., Jan. 3) in Wellington, New Zealand.  After eating my free breakfast that came with my room, I decided to visit two places: Weta Studios, and the Te Papa Museum (which someone on the plane last night had told me about).

 

So I went out of my hotel, hailed a cab – ok, the cab driver was just sitting there waiting for a rider, so I didn’t have to “hail” anyone, but I would have! – and told the driver to take me to the Weta Studio.  Turns out you can’t really go into the studio itself, but they have a little mini-museum and gift shop called “Weta Cave”.  The driver took me there.  I gawked at all kinds of LOTR-related stuff.  A life-sized statue of Gollum was awfully cool.  Lots and lots of exorbitantly priced figures, toys, etc.  A new comic book soon to become a movie caught my attention, and I wanted to buy an issue, until I found out that a single copy of the comic went for $15.00!  Since I can still remember when a comic book cost 25 cents, I wasn’t about to pay that.

 

I took tons of pictures there, of course.  It started raining while I was there, so I had the friendly cashier call a cab for me so I wouldn’t have to walk around looking for one.  The Weta Studios are in a very nondescript-looking residential neighborhood, and there’s a Christian school right across the street. 

 

To be honest, the highlight of the Weta Cave visit for me wasn’t the LOTR stuff (although that was really great).  The place was mostly filled with stuff having to do with a movie they’re working on now about some kind of retro-futuristic scientist/adventurer and his hot-chick sidekick.  I wasn’t very interested in all that, since I’d never heard of it, but the place was full of that.  The coolest thing there was the stuff related to the Halo movie that never got made.  They had some life-size Covenant weapons on display that were very cool (see picture above), and some as-yet-unreleased statuary that is going to be available later this year featuring the Halo characters.  If I had about $1000 to spend, I’d definitely have spent it on a couple of pre-orders for statues of the Master Chief and Arbiter, and one of the Master Chief attacking a Flood character.

 

They also had the actual gigantic pistol prop that Hellboy used in the movie, and lots and lots of other cool stuff.

 

After visiting Weta, I went to the Te Papa Museum, which is a huge place, showcasing native New Zealand art and history, and lots of really cool stuff.  Lots of interesting information about how New Zealand was settled by Europeans and what it was like there in ancient times.  One interesting thing that made me grin was a huge wall-size animated view of how the continents formed.  I’ve seen something like it before of course (but smaller) – how the continents broke apart millions of years ago through the shifting of the tectonic plates or whatever.  As the display showed the continents breaking apart, a voiceover was talking about “our land”, and “our country”, and I was unconsciously focused on North America when the display started fading out and a section of land in the southern part of Australia was highlighted.  I confess I was confused for a moment.  What’s going on?  The North American continent just sort of scrolled off the edge of the screen as the Island of New Zealand became the focus of the presentation.  It made me smile.  I’m so provincial!

 

They also have the complete skeleton of a giant squid on display.  I didn’t know squids had skeletons (thought they were like octopuses – octopi?), but there it was.  And a functional station wagon made entirely of corrugated roof material.  It got very windy while I was there, and I was almost blown over a few times as I walked back to hotel.

 

For the first time, I met someone else involved with the IODP expedition on the elevator today.  He wasn’t one of the software engineers, and to be honest, I didn’t even understand what his function on the ship was.  Some kind of assistant to one of the scientists I think.  When I got back to my room, I found an old email with the name of one of the software engineers and left a message for his room for him to call me later.

 

Tomorrow morning at 8:00 am a bus comes to the hotel to take us to the ship.  I’m very excited, but I also wish I had more time to spend in Wellington!  It’s so beautiful here, and I’d like to rent a car and drive out to see some of the countryside I could see from the airplane.

A quick update from Wellington, New Zealand before I leave to explore the city

Greetings from New Zealand everyone!

I’m in the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor in Wellington, New Zealand.  Room 2009, if you want to call!

New Zealand was magnificently beautiful from the air, but here in the middle of the city it feels a lot like Seattle – only with different details.  The people drive on the wrong side of the road.  Everything’s closed on weekends for some reason (at 7 pm last night – a Saturday – nothing was open.  No restaurants, no shopping, nothing!)

If you walk out of my hotel, straight down to the water, there’s a nice little spot called Lambton Quay.  It’s not exactly a resort beach – there are loading docks and big cranes on either side.  But it’s nice.  I’ve included a panoramic picture I took (with my new camera).  I sat there with my legs dangling into the water for an hour or so last night just reading and watching the light fade as the sun set behind me.

Unfortunately it’s been overcast so I still haven’t gotten a glimpse of those strange and wonderful southern-hemisphere stars that I’ve never seen before.  I’m excited about that.  Hopefully it won’t be overcast tonight.  Down near the pole I think the sun will never set, so this may be my last chance to see the stars for two months!

Keep checking back, faithful readers!  More to come!

Thoughts on the flight from LA to Aukland, NZ

Greetings once again to all who read this.

I’m currently sitting in row 57K on a gigantic  (two stories!!) plane over the wide ocean.  Ocean is all I can see out my window, right to the horizon.  This is a 12 hour flight, so I’ve been sleeping (got a whole row to myself, so I can stretch out!), and watching movies (The Taking of Pelham 123 and The Hurt Locker), and reading (starting The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman).  According to my laptop’s clock, it’s 8:37 AM, so I’ve been on the plane now for 9 hours.  3 hours left.

Of the two movies I watched tonight, I liked The Hurt Locker better, even though Pelham 123 was a bit more entertaining, because it felt like (can’t really say whether it really was) a realistic depiction of military life, and it made me think about Josiah, even though he’s in the Marines, and these were Army guys, and Josiah isn’t in Iraq.  Anyway, it’s a story that makes you both proud to be an American, and sad that young people have to go through such things.

The movies are free.  Every seat-back has a video player, and a remote control built into the arm rest.  There are a ton of movies and TV shows you can watch, in several languages.  Every 15-20 minutes or so, a smiling flight attendant pokes a tray in my direction filled with snacks, which so far have been nothing but dried fruit, fruit juice, and apples.  These Qantas people eat healthy!

The book – The Accidental Time Machine – caught my attention in the bookstore this morning, because (1) it’s by Joe Haldeman, who wrote The Forever War, which is one of the best sci-fi novels ever, and because it’s about time travel, which is always entertaining (I just finished Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt a few weeks ago.  A fun read.)  So far all I can say is it’s caught my attention.  I’m in chapter 3.

Oh, I forgot to mention New Years!  Midnight passed tonight just as we were taking off from LA, and it was a bit of a letdown.  A few people throughout the plane did a countdown, and there was a smattering of applause, and that was all I heard about it.  Sadly, no free beer or champagne.  As we took off, I saw a couple of fireworks from the air, and tried to get my camera and take a picture, but by the time I fished it out of the bag, we were over the ocean, and I couldn’t see anything.

It’s starting to dawn on me now that this is really going to happen.  In a few days, I’m going to board a ship and sail to Antarctica.  I’m going to live aboard a tiny ship down near the south pole for two months.  Honestly, at every step up to now a big part of me has been waiting for something to happen to spoil this.  There’s still part of me saying that I’ll get turned back at customs, or that the expedition will get cancelled at the last moment.  It’s that cynical, jaded part of me that’s grown so loud over the years.  Nothing really cool can happen to me.  I sit in a cubicle working on software I only marginally care about – if that much.  I don’t go sailing to cool places, doing amazing things.  Surely this is all some cruel joke God is playing – he’s gonna hold out a carrot, but when I go to take it, it’ll disappear, or be rotten.

Really, aren’t all carrots rotten to some extent, here on Earth?  It’s true: they are.  This job will have a shovel, like all jobs.  I’ve got to remember that, but still, a brighter, more youthful and idealistic part of me that’s been stifled for many years is starting to perk up again, and I’m glad to hear from him again.  Once he gets a taste of that salt air, he’s gonna be harder to ignore.

Expedition Trailer Now Playing On YouTube!!

Hey everybody, check out the “trailer” for the IODP expedition I’m going on! It’s so awesome – my excitement now officially knows no bounds!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHE34BgebgY

I fly out of Seatac tomorrow evening (12/31) at 5:30 for New Zealand, where I will join this very expedition, and set sail for Wilkes Land, Antarctica! This is so mind-bogglingly cool – I can’t almost believe it’s actually happening!

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

Greetings to all who read this.

 

Everything is now go for me to go with the Texas A&M University Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (TAMU IODP) to Antarctica for two months.  My plan is to update this blog as frequently as possible (supposedly I’ll have internet access aboard the ship, but it will be slow) with my activities, and pictures. 

 

I’ll be flying first to Wellington, New Zealand, where I’ll board the IODP’s ship, JOIDES Resolution, and go south to a spot off the Antarctic region called the Wilkes Land Glacier.  The ship is named for Capt. Cook’s ship HMS Resolution, and “JOIDES” stands for “Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling”.

 

We’ll do science for two months out at sea, then head back to Hobart, Austrailia (actually on the island of Tasmania, so I’m hoping to snap a photo of a Devil there), where I’ll board a plane and fly home to Seattle.  Then I get a whole month off to spend with the family I’ll be desperately missing by then, and hopefully work toward moving to Texas.

 

In order for me to learn the ins and outs of life aboard the IODP’s ship, I’m going this time not as a software engineer, but as a “core tech”.  As I understand it, the job of a core tech is to carry the core samples brought up from the sea floor around the ship to the different lab stations for whatever scientific experiments are to be done upon them.  I guess these things come up as long, narrow cylinders, and I have to carry them around, chop them up, carry the pieces around some more, chop them up some more, and finally carry the pieces to a holding area where they remain for the duration of the voyage.

 

It’s really nice of them to let me go on this expedition.  Aside from the wonderful adventure, and learning experience, the extra bonus pay will help Molly get the house ready for sale!  Molly’s getting the short straw this go-round: she’s gotta stay behind and oversee the preparations for our big move, while I get to go gallivanting around the globe.

 

The one downside: I’ve been told that during the expedition, everyone works 12 hours per day, 7 days per week.  That sounds crazy to me, but that’s what I’m told.

 

The nearest I’ve come to a sea voyage in my 46 years is …, let’s see, the Seattle ferries, and one short whale-watching cruise.   This is gonna be some adventure!

 

In addition to this being my first post about the new job, this is also my first post via email – a method I’m trying out because emails can be written up offline, and sent later, making it easier for me to post.  We’ll see if I can keep up regular posts for the whole two months.  I’ll do my best!  I hope it’s interesting!

 

-Tim

 

 

Fantasy And Reality, or...

The Problem With Fantasy That Tries To Be Too Closely Tied To Reality

-or-

Why "The Lord Of The Rings" is Fundamentally Superior To "Narnia"

-or-

Why I Am Moved To Tears Every Time I Watch "The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe"

This morning I had a long, very enjoyable conversation about "The Shack" with an old friend. He liked the book, I didn't. I was trying to put into words why I didn't like it, and I'm not sure I did a very good job. Later, during a walk around my office building, it suddenly dawned on me what my difficulty with the book was, and then, like a flood on realization, I realized why it is -- why it really is -- that I've been moved to tears every time I've seen "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". Suddenly, stuff was dawning on me left and right, and I knew I had to blog about it (but I couldn't decide on a title, hence the above).

I think my wife and kids think I'm so cute when my eyes tear up at the Narnia movie. They must think I love that movie, and I do, but really it's not that great. Until now, I don't think I could have put into words what is so moving about the film for me (the second movie, "Prince Caspian", doesn't have the same effect, but it's more about the fact that I never liked that book as much, and the movie just isn't as good, from a Narnia-lover's perspective -- even if it might have been technically superior).

But let me get back to "The Shack". I remember picking it up at the bookstore, and reading the blurbs on the back cover. Michael W. Smith was on there promoting the book, along with other names I recognized. The gist of all the promotional material was: "Here's an edgy, hard-hitting book that confronts the issues and questions people struggle with who've had to go through seemingly random, meaningless pain and suffering in life, and wonder where God was through it all." So I picked it up. I've had some pain and suffering. Not as much as the guy in the book, thankfully, but I've got some issues and questions about it. I thought there might be something to it.

So this morning I'm talking with my friend about my feelings about the book. I told him what I've been telling everyone who asks me about it: that I liked it at first, but as soon as "God" shows up, and one of the first pressing issues the guy wants answers to is the precise meaning and function of the "Trinity"... suddenly the whole thing seems exposed as fake. Suddenly the book seems like yet another excuse for someone to hide a treatise on orthodox Christian theology in the trappings of a fictional story. Really, the only thing "edgy" about the book is that "God the Father" is represented by a black woman (or, more precisely, the black woman who represented The Oracle in the first Matrix film, complete with profound-sounding witticisms and cookies just coming out of the oven).

But, as I said before, that's not really the root of my problem with the book. The truth is, even if the book had been really great -- that is, even if the meetings with God had really lived up to the promotional hype of the back-cover blurbs, and what I thought was the very promising beginning part of the book -- even then, I wouldn't have liked it.

Imagine this scenario: Let's say there's a guy who's suffered in life. Let's call him George. Maybe George has suffered the loss of a child some seemingly random way, like a traffic accident. Some kind of painful loss that has him hungering for answers to some deep, troubling questions about God, justice, and the meaning of life and death.

So George is in the bookstore, and picks up "The Shack". He starts reading. Let's say "The Shack" is a well-written, edgy, hard-hitting book that deals head-on with the issues troubling George. He begins to feel consoled and comforted by the things God is represented as saying to the book's protagonist.

But later on, George starts to have troubling thoughts. He's not feeling as consoled anymore. Why not? He remembers how cool it was, in the book, when the guy gets a personal note from God in his mailbox. How the guy initially believed someone was playing a trick on him, then started to question his own sanity, until finally God himself shows up to confirm that yes, the note really was from Him, and what other questions might he have?

When George goes to his own real mailbox, there's no note from God waiting for him. Nothing but bills and junk mail. The thing is -- the pain is real, but the note, the meetings with God -- those things are just fictional or at best metaphorical. In the real world George really has experienced the pain and anguish felt by the protagonist of "The Shack". George's loved one really did die. That part resonates with George. But God hasn't left George a personal note in his mailbox inviting him to a face-to-face meeting. What gives?

If George is like me (and thankfully, not everyone is), George will start to wonder about the God presented by the author of "The Shack", and the consolation he provides. Like the God of "The Shack", the real God really does allow little girls to be raped and murdered by psychopaths. In fact, this really has happened all over the world many, many times. But unlike the God of "The Shack", the real God doesn't leave personal notes in the girl's dad's mailbox. The real God doesn't appear to the dads in a tangible way to answer their questions.

Now when George goes back to the book, the words of "God" in there seem hollow. This is not really what God does. This "God" is a fantasy. And George's pain is still with him. His questions (unless he was really struggling with the meaning and function of the "Trinity") are still unanswered.

Now let's change the topic a bit.

When I was a kid, I read "The Chronicles of Narnia" many times. For a time, I lived and breathed Narnia. I can remember praying that God would open up some kind of door behind the gym, like Aslan does for Jill Pole in "The Silver Chair", when I was suffering at the hands of some bully or other, as I often did at school -- like Jill Pole in "The Silver Chair". How silly I was! How foolish to pray to God for such a thing!

I loved those books -- they are ingraved upon my psyche in some significant way. That's why I was in the theater with my whole family (at significant cost, I might add) on opening night for "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". There's a point in the movie toward the end, where the four Pevensie kids are revealed in full regalia before the four ancient thrones in Cair Paravel. For some reason, tears were coming out of my eyes! My own feelings surprised me! What was I crying about? It must just be my own deep psychological connection with this story, I reasoned.

And maybe that's what it was, but it was something else, because the tears weren't tears of joy, exactly, or even tears of awe and wonder, which are what I remember feeling as a child engrossed in the books. The tears were sad tears. They had to do with loss, and something like lonliness. A feeling of being abandoned.

See, as much as it pains me to say this, there isn't a Narnia. There are bullies. They can hurt you. There is a gym to hide behind and cry out in pain, but there isn't a door opening. The bombers flying over the city at the beginning of TLTWATW are real; the cracked, treasured photograph of the missing father is a real thing, but the wonderful, rescuing Aslan of Narnia is not real. The kids who really suffered were never made kings and queens of Narnia. They just died when the bombs landed. That's why I cried.

So, to move on, that's why "The Lord of The Rings" is better than the Narnia stories. Because they are completely seperate from reality, they're impact upon our reality can be greater and deeper. In Middle-Earth, the problems they're facing, as well as the solutions and answers they find, are all completely unlike anything we experience. Their problems can be metaphors for our problems, and their solutions can be metaphors for our solutions, so there's no disillusionment waiting when we realize the problems are real, but the answers are fantasy.

This problem of reality vs. fantasy in media holds for things like "Touched By An Angel", "Left Behind", and so many other well-intentioned but ultimately empty attempts to confront real-world issues in a story laced with fantastical elements. They sabotage themselves. The "angel" who appears to help the suffering man on TV ultimately drives the real, suffering viewer away from anything to do with angels.

And so...., if you've read this far, I'm truly impressed. You are the reason I wrote this. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope you are moved to leave a comment below (or on facebook, where this also appears).

-Tim

Eureka! I've Figured Out Why We Can't Detect Alien Communications!

You heard it here first, folks.

It has just dawned on me why in all our years of searching the skies, we have not been able to detect any communications from an alien civilization. I've read just about everything by Carl Sagan on this matter, and several other authors, and I've never heard this from any of them, but it seems suddenly obvious to me!

Consider this:

1. The universe being so big, with new planets orbiting far away stars being discovered all the time, and billions of billions of stars out there, it seems reasonable (whether you're a creationist or an evolutionist) to expect there to be innumerable civilizations out there, at all levels of development.

2. Radio is the fastest, and indeed only, way we know of for these civilizations to communicate with one another, and with us, over the vast distances of space, so we have been scanning the heavens for an alien signal for quite a few years now looking for an extraterrestrial signal.

3. In all our searching we have not been able to detect a single artificial alien radio signal.

Why?

The reason is: there exists a means of communication over large distances that is faster and more reliable than radio! That's it!

Imagine a Native American living several hundred years ago. He looks up into space and somehow deduces that the stars up there are far away suns with people like himself living near them. What might he do? He might call to them, shouting at the top of his voice, then listen carefully for some dim response. But what is his best means of communication over such large distances? Smoke signals! His people communicate over distances far too large for shouting by means of smoke signals. Of course, he knows that the people living out near those stars won't understand his own tribe's signals, but they'll use something similar. So he'll look carefully at the star, looking for some detectable signals. He'll climb up the highest mountain and try to send some signals of his own, hoping they'll be looking.

It might seem absurd, but what's wrong with his idea, really? Maybe with time this Native American and his fellow believers will develop powerful telescopes able to see far away planets, so that they can scan them for any answering signals. Yet after years of scanning planets at the far reaches of the galaxy, he still hasn't detected an alien smoke signal. Why?

The reason is simple: any civilization that develops smoke signals as a means of communication will shortly (within a matter of a few hundred years) develop radio. When they do that, the value of smoke signals for communication over distances will immediately disappear. So the odds of actually witnessing a smoke signal anywhere in our vast universe is extremely remote.

So, here we are, probably the laughing stock of advanced civilizations throughout our universe, as we scan the heavens for radio signals of all things, while all along the universe is crowded with... subspace, or whatever... signals everywhere you look!

So, the obvious conclusion of all this is that whatever money we are spending today to search for extraterrestrial radio signals ought to be immediately diverted to research into faster-than-light means of communications, so we can join the party!

Why Do So Many People Search For "Sunday School Questionnaire"?

Of all my informative, witty, ingenious blog entries, the two most visited are my review of Anne Rice's first "Christ the Lord" book (due to it's being linked on Anne Rice's reviews page), and an obscure post in which I mention a questionnaire I filled out in Sunday School. That seems strange to me.

I guess this post will now be frequented as well, since I mention "sunday school questionnaire" in it.

Sunday school questionnaire!

There. It's in the title. It's in the text of this post three times. This should cement my immortality in the blogosphere, if past activity is any indication.

According to StatCounter, which is what I use to monitor activity on my blog, three people have arrived at this website as a result of googling the phrase within the last week alone! I guess I've probably received 100 or more hits from that search phrase in 2008. What's up with that? Are these lazy sunday school teachers looking for ideas or what?

Don't People Get Superpowers This Way?

Next week, in the interest of science, and in the interest of making a quick $2100.00, I'll be injesting an investigational medicine for the treatment of Type-2 Diabetes as part of a clinical study.

The drug will have a little bit of radioactive material mixed in, and I'll be staying at the clinic for 10 days while the researchers use high-tech gadgetry to track the drug as it goes through my body.

I'm trying to decide what superpowers I'll gain by doing this. Perhaps a little spider DNA will accidentally get mixed in with the radioactive material and I'll soon be swinging through the streets of Seattle fighting crime. Or maybe I'll sprout wings, or become elastic, or be able to fire energy bursts out of my hands, eyes, or feet.

I'll let you know.

My Review of Anne Rice's "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana"

Ok, the time has come for me to review this book.

I must admit, I finished it over a month ago, but I've been putting off writing about it. I don't know how to put this -- the task of writing about this book has seemed daunting to me. When I approach the task, it seems to grow as I get close, and scares me off. Not because I didn't like it -- far from it! Just... well, read on.

I gave the first book in this series, "Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt", a glowing review in a previous post. That book was about Jesus as a child, and in my review I compared it to Harry Potter, and joked about the possibility of a tie-in video game. That was a great book.

What do I think of this one? This one's also great -- better maybe --but this one doesn't make me want to joke about Harry Potter and video games. How to review this? "Out of Egypt" started out slow. The first couple of chapters just about made me want to put it down. It ratcheted up slowly, pulling you in. This one's slow toward the beginning too, and the fact that it starts out with Jesus at 30 somehow put me off at first. I guess I expected it to pick up right where the last one left off. But this one didn't grow on me like the last one. This one suddenly reached out and took me by the throat.

There's a scene toward the beginning, where Jesus is confronted by a seasoned old Jewish lawyer -- for me, that was when this story suddenly ceased being words on a page and became something I was experiencing.

That's really what I want to say about this book. When I think back about that scene, or other scenes, and especially the ending (oh my gosh, the wedding scene is so awesome!), I feel like I'm remembering something I experienced. And not just something I experienced --how to say this?-- something I experienced on a perfect day when everything was going right, and I didn't have a worry or a care, and I was just... happy.

This kind of thing -- where I come up from a reading like I'm coming up from underwater and feel like I've literally been transported to another place, where I can't even remember reading or turning the pages -- this has not happened to me that many times before in my life. One was upon first reading "The Lord of the Rings". This was long ago when I was a younger man, and more impressionable.

The final pages of this book -- the wedding at Cana, in the context of all that preceded it, have got to be some of the most sublime pages I've ever read. Quite literally, it was like a glimpse into heaven. With "Out of Egypt" I was moved to tears a couple times. With this, I was moved to awe and wonder and delight. I don't know how else to say it. When the last page came I just layed back for a while and felt like I was floating in a kind of spiritual high.

This book took me somewhere. I came away from reading feeling like I had to brush the dust of Nazareth off my shirt. Like I'd been breathing some kind of rarified air, and needed to stop reading for a while just to properly take it in. This one made me think.

I still think these would make great films, but now I wonder whether there's a producer in Hollywood who could do them justice. In "Out of Egypt" the meaning and metaphor was out there on the surface, easy to see. This one just feels so personal to me. Maybe this sounds strange, but I don't know if anyone else in the world will experience this story the way I did. Like, it somehow ties in with my own story -- my struggles and spiritual journey and hopes and fears and all.

I don't know what else I can say. I'm not sure if Ms. Rice plans another in this series. It's hard to see where she'd take it without it becoming "The Gospel According to Anne Rice", and I'm not sure if she wants to do that. Maybe she will, I don't know. If she does, I'll pick it up the moment it appears on the bookstore shelves.

Instant Karma!

Ok folks, the Law of Karma is in full effect, and if you're like me, you could use a little boost to your "good" karma. I know how it is. You cut a guy off in traffic, neglect to report your eBay profits on your taxes, embellish the facts a little when selling that used lawn mower on craigslist -- before you know it, your bad karma's sending up auditors and neighbors with garage bands that practice all night.

Good karma is essential to life, but where can you get it quickly in today's busy world?

Well, I'm here to provide a valuable service to the public! From now on my blog will feature a button in the "Links" section where you can buy a little good karma by sending me $5.00!

Just a simple click, and you can get that little boost you need! It's that easy!

But that's not all! To sweeten the deal, and add a little excitement, for every payment I receive I vow to roll two 6-sided dice and remit $50.00 to the sender if I roll two ones!

So, don't delay, get a quick boost to your karma and the chance to make a quick $45.00!

And have a great day!

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, especially those who happen to be married to my cousin on my father's side and are named Reese.

More On Miracles...

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “...Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

This passage from Acts chapter 4 was the text of a recent message at the church where I attend.

I don't think it was what he intended, but somewhere in his message the pastor shed a light on my difficulty with the miraculous. In a recent blog entry I talked about this, and since then several people have responded in different ways. Some have tried to tell me of "miracles" that happened in their own lives. Without exception, these have been either "medical miracles" ("the doctor said X would happen, but it didn't"), or they have been subjective "inner miracles" ("God touched my withered heart and it was healed" or something like that). Others have given me the “miracles are not for today” line (i.e. dispensationalism). In all cases, they seem to miss the point. It's not that I want to see a specific type of miracle. It’s more a kind of interaction with God that I’m looking for.

During his message, the pastor urged us several times to pray for boldness. He talked about our need for boldness to speak God's word. He spoke of the amazing boldness Peter had had, some hours before this prayer was lifted up, to declare the Gospel to the rulers and the High Priest, mere weeks after these same men had taken part in Jesus' crucifixion. He talked about the boldness Peter had had a few days before, when he stretched out his hand to a cripple saying "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you…”

However, at no time during the message did the pastor urge us to pray for "miraculous signs and wonders" to be done through the name of Jesus. Why not? It seems to me that the prayer for boldness and the prayer for miracles are one continuous thought to those speaking in Acts 4. The miracles feed their boldness, and vice-versa. Am I the only one who sees a direct connection between Peter’s involvement in the healing of the cripple and Peter’s subsequent ability to boldly proclaim the Gospel before the antagonistic Jewish leaders in the next chapter? The things that were happening around Peter gave him a confidence that was more than just wishful thinking, or hoping for the best. Peter was seeing God work in powerful, incontrovertible ways around him, in real-time concert with his own actions and prayers.

At the end of the service, the pastor had us all stand for a closing prayer. He offered a stirring prayer patterned off of the one offered up in Acts 4, ending with "...and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." I waited for something to happen. I'm not kidding, I did. I wanted something to happen. Everyone lifted their heads, opened their eyes, and began to stir. People immediately started filling the aisles, and milling about in the general direction of the exits. The place where we were was not shaken.

People will probably think I’m crazy for talking like this. Of course the building isn’t going to shake just because we prayed a prayer. Millions of people all over the world are praying – is God going to shake every building where people pray? Of course not. But… it’s not just that I want a building to shake. That’s not the point. It’s not that I want God to do something amazing just for me. That’s not the point at all. A child might be criticized for asking for candy and doughnuts all the time, but who will be critical of a hungry child who just asks for something to eat so that he might not starve?

The more I think about it, the more I like Thomas. Thomas didn’t say “I need Jesus to come bodily with me everywhere I go so that at any moment I can touch the scars in his hands and side, and reassure myself that he’s really there.” That’s what some people hear me saying, I think. Like I’m a whiny child always demanding special favors. It’s not true.

Thomas needed something, and Jesus gave it to him. Thomas didn’t want to be healed, or to be given wealth and riches, or an easy life, or anything like that. Thomas’ faith was in peril, and he needed something from Jesus or it was going to die then and there.

According to Luke 24, when the Mary Magdalene and the other women initially informed the apostles that Jesus had risen, they all disbelieved her! When Jesus appeared to the apostles the first time (when Thomas was absent), it was to a room full of doubters. It wasn’t until they had seen something that anyone believed. Even the women who initially came to the empty tomb first thought that someone had stolen the body (John 20). It wasn’t until angels appeared to tell them the good news that they believed.

So who’s Jesus talking about when he says “blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed”?

I suppose he might have been talking about people like me, but I'm not feeling the blessedness. I guess it's good that I'm not "feeling" it, because then the feeling of blessedness would be a kind of "seeing" and I wouldn't be blessed anymore!

Have you ever had the experience of trying to figure some mystery out, where you're trying and trying to figure it out, and an explanation suddenly dawns on you from left field -- an explanation that goes against your most basic assumptions about the matter? I remember once when I was building a computer system from scratch for my son. I had a motherboard and other parts that I had purchased off eBay and other places. I'd put it all together, but couldn't get the thing to start. I took it all apart and put it back together several times. I worked at it, trying different configurations, all the while worried that one or other of the parts I had bought might be bad, or worse, maybe I had broken something. Maybe I'd messed it up somehow. Suddenly, it just popped into my head out of nowhere that the wall outlet I had plugged the system into was controlled by a switch at the door. Suddenly all my worries, all my stress and anguish vanished as if they had never been. I flipped the switch and everything worked.

In a way, I feel like I'm in that place again, but I haven't yet discovered the "lightswitch" solution.

Book Club Anyone?

I'd like to start a book club. Anyone interested?

My book club would be very eclectic. We'd read fiction and non-fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, suspense, thrillers, maybe even horror. We'd read educational stuff -- science and history. Just everything.

I'd maintain a website where we could all post our thoughts and opinions as we read the current book. We'd discuss as we read, what we're reading.

Some ideas I have are:

1. As members of the club think of books they'd like to read, they'd submit them, and then when it's time to pick the next book to read, all the members would vote to select it.

2. In my ideal book club, everyone would read the same book at the same time, and discuss it as they read it. I would set it up so that people who don't participate in the discussion get dropped from membership. I want active, reading members only. I want people who really love to read, and discuss with others what they're reading, regardless what type of book it is.

3. The discussion around each book we read could be available online in some useful way. Depending upon the book, it could be something like an extended review of a novel, or a chapter-by-chapter commentary on a religious or scientific work.

I have several other ideas.

It seems it could get started with just something as simple as a blog, where all the members are given access to edit the posts. My brother-in-law and I have done something like this with Tim And Jerry's Experimental Blog. That's what I have in mind, but with more members, and a little more structured, where we're all posting about the current book, or even the same chapters of the book. In my head, it would be cool if the posting of our thoughts became part of the daily experience of reading. You don't post a lot of text, just your thoughts as your reading.

I think it would be cool, but I'm not sure how many others out there think this sounds cool.

What do you think -- whoever you are that's here reading my blog? Please, let me know if you're intersted, or have other ideas. My email address should be visible in my profile, or you can just post comments here.

Miracles... What (And Where) Are They?

1 Chron. 16:12: "Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles..."

Neh. 9:17: "They ... failed to remember the miracles you performed among them."

Psalm 77:11 "I will remember the deeds of the Lord, ... your miracles of long ago."

Psalm 77:14: "You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the people."

With passages like those, we are reminded over and over again throughout the Bible, that God is a performer of miracles. We are told to think about the miracles, to wonder at them, to remember them in times of trial or temptation, and to ask for them. Jesus is seen performing miracles often in the Gospels. When the apostles come on the scene, they continue the pattern.

1 Cor. 12:28 lists "workers of miracles" as a special appointment given by God to the Church, right under apostles, prophets and teachers. Gal. 3:5 just assumes that miracles are a common occurence in the Church, asking "does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the Law, or because you believe what you heard?"

Miracles are frequently, especially in the New Testament, put forward as proof of the miracle worker's claims. More specifically, since only God can really perform them, miracles are seen throughout the Bible as God's personal seal of approval on someone's life or ministry. This is the case with Jesus. This is made plain over and over in statements like:

Acts 2:22: "Jesus... was a man accredited to you by God by miracles"

Hebrews 2:4: "God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles."

Jesus himself made an explicit connection between miracles and people's ability to believe in him on a number of occasions:

John 10:38: "Even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

John 14:11: "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."

John 4:48: "'Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,' Jesus told him, 'you will never believe.'"

Reading through the Bible, one is presented with a steady stream of stories involving miracles. From the creation itself, the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sun standing still for Joshua (and going backward for Hezekiah), and on through a myriad of miraculous births, healings, resurrections, etc.

In the Bible, we are rarely, if ever, presented with the modern-day sort of miracle. We are told of a woman who wasted all of her money on doctors before coming to Jesus for healing, but we are never -- i repeat NEVER -- given to think that anyone's cure at the hands of a doctor is any sort of miracle or divine healing. Everyday occurances, such as the natural birth of a child, an advantageous business deal, a financial windfall, or that sort of thing are not presented in the Bible as miracles. They might be said to come from God, in the sense that all good things come from him, but miracles are a special kind of thing. A pleasant breeze, a sunny day or a particularly good parking space at Costco are not the kind of miracles that attest to the truth-claims of Gospel, or serve as God's seal of a approval upon a man's life or ministry.

When I was a young man, I used to thrill when missionaries and the like would tell of miracles they'd witnessed in far away lands. I remember a story of a man who prayed in a public place for a child with a deformed leg, and the leg was instantly healed. In some cases, but by no means all, I later came to find out that those stories were either outright lies, or at best exaggerations of something far more mundane that really happened.

We hear a lot about "medical miracles". I'll never forget a Discovery Channel special I saw once about a boy who lost half his head -- and half his brain -- and through the wonders of modern medicine was able to fully recover and live a normal life (except that he looked really weird). I am frequently awed by what doctors are able to do sometimes. But it's not miraculous. Doctors carefully study the human body -- they have been doing so for hundreds of years, each building on existing knowlege -- and their understanding of how it works has grown and grown until today they can do some pretty amazing things.

So what does all this come to? I must say I'm somewhat disappointed. The Bible seems to portray God as an able miracle-worker, but in my life I have yet to witness anything like a miracle in the Biblical sense. Why is that? Some of my former teachers would tell me (indeed they did tell me) that it's because I haven't believed, or have believed the wrong things, or haven't asked in faith or have asked with impure motives, etc., etc. It seems there are so many ways for God to get out of working a miracle for someone, it's a miracle that any miracles ever happened!

The Bible writers admonish us to remember God's mighty works, but how can you remember something that happened 2000 or more years before you were born? If Jesus thought the Jews of his own time couldn't believe without the help of a sign or a wonder, how am I supposed to believe?

Remember Doubting Thomas? He said "Unless I stick my finger into the holes in his hands and thrust my arm through his side, I will not believe." What did Jesus do with Thomas? Did he hide from Thomas and tell the other apostles he was no good because he had doubts? No, he appeared to him and said "stick your hands here, and your arm here and don't doubt any more, but believe!"

Jesus then told Thomas, "Because you have seen you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed."

I really don't get that. Let's consider all the things that the apostles -- Thomas, along with Peter, James, John, and the rest -- had seen prior to this: Jesus walking on the water, healing lepers and multitudes of other sick, making blind people see, raising the dead, calming storms, and on and on and on! Not to mention predicting his own death and resurrection just a few days before this!

I need a little of that "not seeing" to believe! Yes, a little of the sort of "not seeing" that the apostles were able to "not see" would go a long way with me.

I hope Jesus will hear my complaint: I'm not feeling the blessedness here. I hope he won't be upset -- he knows my heart. After a lifetime of grasping at straws to hang on to belief, it really feels more like being ignored and abandoned. If one sees nothing, how is one to believe at all? How is one to distinguish the truth from the many other things one has never seen? I've never seen Zeus -- am I blessed if I believe in him? I've never seen vampires or ghosts or Santa Claus -- am I blessed if I believe in them?

The absence of miracles, in the face of what the Bible claims happened in the past, is to me a great yawning chasm opening at my feet, seperating me from faith. It seems to me that my plight is the same as those Jews in Jesus' time about whom he said "unless they see signs and wonders, they will not believe." Yes, he said it disparagingly, but he said it because it was true, and he proceeded to give them what they needed!

Will God do that for me? If so, when? And if not, why not?

Like Fox Mulder (one of my favorite fictional characters), I want to believe. No, I long to believe. I'm desperate to believe! Throw me a bone here, God! I'm crying out for help!

My Biblical Defense of Universal Redemption

Some years ago, I made this document for a former pastor who was accusing me of heresy. Over the years I've been adding to it. Today, if anyone becomes interested in my "heretical" beliefs, I give them this document. I guess this is how I fulfil the command in scripture to "be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks the reason of the hope that is in you."

I you read this and find it interesting, inspiring, or just plain heretical, please leave a comment.

PART 1: Bible Passages Supporting Universal Redemption

These are in no particular order, except that the first two constitute the strongest case for universalism in the Bible, in my opinion.

Romans 5:18-19: Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

The same “all men” who fall under the condemnation resulting from the “one trespass” also receive the “justification that brings life” resulting from the “obedience of the one”. The same group called “the many” who were made sinners, will be made righteous.

1 Cor 15:21-28: For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

“As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own turn.” How can this be more clear? There are three phases to the plan: (1) Christ, (2) those who belong to him when he comes, and then finally (3) everything else. At the end, every enemy has been destroyed and God is all in all. Who is suffering in hell then?

I Tim 2:4-6: who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time.

God desires that all men be saved. If God desires it, then it is his will (can God have desires contrary to his own will?). How can he fail to accomplish his will?

Philippians 2:9-11: Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Since the scriptures say in Romans 10:9-10 that “if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’… you will be saved” and “it is with the mouth that you confess and are saved”, why won’t these people be saved? One common argument against universalism is that God has given us free will, and will not coerce us. If God will not coerce anyone to do his will, how will He get every knee to bow and every tongue to confess? If He plans to coerce them then, why will he not do so now?

Also, it says that this knee-bowing and tongue-confessing will be “to the glory of God the Father”. Can these actions bring God glory if they are coerced?

Lamentations 3:31-33: For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.

Another clear statement that God will never cast anyone off forever.

Rom 11:32: God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Who’s been bound in disobedience? By whom? This is apparently God’s plan from beginning to end! If God is going to show mercy upon everyone, why do we teach that some will not receive mercy?

Isaiah 54:8: “In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer.

A wonderful little statement showing that God’s wrath is LIMITED, but his mercy is INFINITE. Many statements and events throughout the Bible reinforce the idea that God’s wrath and anger burn quickly and come to an end, but his love, kindness and mercy are part of his character and nature and so last forever.

Isaiah 57:16: I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me-- the breath of man that I have created.

Why won’t he accuse or be angry forever? Because he is concerned that he not break the spirit of men. Surely an endless, hopeless Hell is against the character of the one speaking here. Also notice the class of people that is defined by “man that I have created.” Not only does this include all people, but it implies that God assumes some responsibility for the well being of those he created.

John 12:32: But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

Undeniably shows that the “drawing” is extended to all men, not an elect few.

Hebrews 2:9: But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Whom did he NOT taste death for? And if he has tasted death for someone, why must that person taste death for themselves, except that his sacrifice was not enough?

Hebrews 2:14-15: Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Notice again the class of people defined by those who "have flesh and blood" and "their humanity". Whom will Jesus free? Everyone who was enslaved by the devil – namely every human being – will be freed, even those who were held in slavery all their lives. Don't miss that phrase: ALL THEIR LIVES they were enslaved by fear, yet they will eventually be freed!

1 John 2:2: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

If by “ours”, John means to refer to the believers to whom he was writing, what does it mean to go further and say that Jesus Christ was the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world? What point is there to saying this if those people are still destined for a hopeless hell?

1 John 4:14: And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

How can he be the savior of the world if the world is not saved by him?

Colossians 1:19-20: For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

When all things are reconciled and peace has been made, who will be in Hell?

1 Tim 4:9-10: This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

If Jesus is the savior of all men, who will not be saved by him? What does “especially of those who believe” mean? Here the apostle Paul explicitly tells us to teach that God is the savior of all men. Why do we teach that most people will never be saved? What good is a “savior” who cannot or does not save most of the people he is supposed to save?

Hebrews 12:8-11: If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Who undergoes discipline? Everyone does. There is no such thing as "illegitimate children" of God. The parenthetical statement "and everyone undergoes discipline" makes it clear that when he talks about "illegitimate children" he is talking about a hypothetical group of people. Notice also that, UNLIKE our human fathers may have done, God ALWAYS disciplines us in order to bring about some good result.

Revelation 21:3-5: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

No more death, crying or pain? Why is this said, if most people are still suffering pain and death in Hell? Why do we pretend to hope for a time when there will be no more pain and death, if we know that many will suffer pain and death forever?

2 Samuel 14:14: Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.

In this passage a "wise woman", recruited by Joab, is pleading with King David to be reconciled to his son Absolom, who had killed his brother Amnon.
Is this woman in error? If traditional Christian doctrine be true, many will ultimately become estranged from him and he will not be able to devise a way to recover them.

PART 2: Conflicting Passages

1. First a word about context. No matter how much scripture I quote, or how much surrounding context I include, someone will say I’m taking the passage “out of context”. Without quoting the entire Bible every time, it’s impossible to include the entire context with every passage of scripture. When talking about these passages, I’ve studied them in their context, and do not believe I am using any of them in a way that is not warranted by their context.
   
2. The most common objection people raise comes from Matthew 25:46:
   
   Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
   
   The problem with this passage and others like it is the word “eternal”. In popular usage, the word eternal is commonly understood to simply mean “without end” or “lasting forever”. However, the Bible, and even Jesus himself, gives us a different definition of the word. In John 17, Jesus defines “eternal life”:
   
   Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
   
   Here we see that “eternal life” is not merely life that lasts forever, it is life that is lived in fellowship with God. It is a quality, not a quantity. This does not preclude it’s lasting forever, of course, but it does not by itself mean that it lasts forever.
   
   Similarly, in Jude we have a description of “eternal punishment”:
   
   Sodom and Gomorrah … serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
   
   So “eternal fire” is not fire that burns forever. The fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah does not burn today where those cities once stood. It went out after its purpose was fulfilled. Rather, “eternal fire” is the fire that comes from God, and “eternal punishment” is the punishment that comes from God.
   
   In serving as “an example” of what “the punishment of eternal fire” is, Sodom and Gomorrah show us that “eternal fire” does not continue to burn forever, and is “eternal” only in the sense that its source is God.
   
   Moreover, Ezekiel 16 speaks of a time that Sodom “and her daughters” shall be restored! In Ezekiel 16, God confronts Jerusalem with her sins, telling her that she has made Sodom and Gomorrah “appear righteous” by comparison. He then goes on to say that he will “restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters”, and that he will later, after a period of suffering, restore Jerusalem as well.
   
   So one may “suffer the punishment of eternal fire”, and still be restored later.
   
3. Another common passage brought up in discussions on this topic is Revelation 14:10:
   
   And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.
   
   Taken literally and at face value, I will have to concede that this verse explicitly says that those people who take the “mark of the beast” will be tormented forever. However, I think it is a mistake to interpret this passage, and all the highly symbolic and figurative language that surrounds it in the Book of Revelation, literally.
   
   In the chapter before this we read of a beast emerging from the sea with ten horns and seven heads, and another with horns and a voice “like a dragon”. Clearly this is highly figurative. This book, more than any other in the whole Bible (except possibly Daniel), is filled with figurative language, the meaning of which is highly debatable. Surely it would be a mistake to form an interpretation of clear passages relating to God’s everlasting love and goodness, and the clear passages showing God’s care for all people (such as those in Part 1), by these figurative passages in Revelation.
   
   Later on in the book, we read that “there will be no night” in heaven. Will some people suffer “day and night” forever in Hell, while others experience only daytime in Heaven? This stretches credulity.
   
   Also, at the end of Revelation we find these wonderful descriptions of life with God:
   
   No longer will there be any curse.
   There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.
   
   Are we to understand that the redeemed, who were always taught on earth to care for the hurting and love their enemies and be kind to the undeserving, are now going to live in happiness and contentment forever, while untold billions of people suffer unimaginable horrors in conscious torment? I simply cannot accept this.
   
   Therefore the passages in Revelation must be interpreted in a figurative and metaphorical way, and where they are hard to understand in light of more clear passages describing God’s character and plans for his creation, I must concede that I simply do not yet understand their meaning, but I am not going to lose faith in God’s goodness and loving nature simply because of a few difficult-to-understand passages.

The Sad Case of "The Imperials"

I've talked about "The Imperials" here before. They were far and away my favorite musical group when I was in my teens. The "Sail On" album was like a revelation to me. In an earlier post I talked about hiding behind the soda machine listening to it on a mono cassette player because it was too much like rock 'n' roll for my Christian school.

So today I was thinking about that great old album. I have some MP3s from it that I bought online, but I've always wanted the whole thing. So I googled a few things and came up with this article at Christianity Today's website.

To summarize, The Imperials that I knew and loved -- that performed in city arenas and stadiums to huge roaring crowds and won several grammys -- was founded by a man named Armond Morales. Today his son Jason Morales heads up a group called The Imperials, which does not include any of the original artists, and which makes albums no one listens to and goes around performing in churches and the like.

Now the younger Morales is SUING HIS FATHER for rights to the name "Imperials".

Now, here's the punch line: why is he doing this? Why would a man file a lawsuit against his 70+ year-old father for exclusive rights to the name of the legendary Christian band that was his father's legacy? The answer: to keep his father from "ruining the band's reputation" by performing now and then under the name "The Classic Imperials".

So enter me, an old fan of "The Imperials" looking to renew my interest in the band. I google "The Imperials" and find this load of crap. I can't believe this. What kind of idiot must Jason Morales be to think that his father performing with his old buddies under the name "Classic Imperials" is going to spoil the band's reputation more than this whole ridiculous lawsuit business?

To think that after all those years building the name and reputation of The Imperials, the poor Mr. Morales would live to be sued by his own son over rights to the name.... It's heartbreaking.

I've read the "open letter" at the (young) Imperials official website, where they try to spout pious sounding nonsense in an attempt to make this sound like something that's not completely ugly and foul. But when you boil it down, even in thier own letter, he's suing his father because his father was singing with some of the other former band members under the name "Classic Imperials", and young Mr. Morales thought it would "confuse the fans" to have two bands using the same name. So he files a lawsuit against his father to clear up the matter! How ludicrous!

Jason Morales' "Imperials" would have no fans if it weren't for the decades of work that his father did! And even as it is, the band today doesn't deserve to mop the stage where his father's band performed! Can Jason really believe he's working to restore the reputation of The Imperials by taking his father to court?!

I'm telling you, this completely kills any interest I might have had in this band. And then to read this open letter in which he goes on and on about his "ministry" and "God told me" this and that -- it makes me sick. I wouldn't go to hear these people sing if you paid me. I wouldn't download an MP3 of this band for free. That's how mad I am!

Updates: King's "Cell" and Other Things

Well, it's been too long.

So much has happened since my last post here, that it would take gigabytes of typing to catch you up on everything. (The last post, regarding V for Vendetta, was really a copy of a post from my other blog.)

So, what say we just skip forward to right now and talk about what's happening today?

Well, we'll start with yesterday. Yesterday I finished reading Stephen King's new book "Cell". I was so excited the first time I picked it up at the bookstore, but I must say I was disappointed. I think I've discovered Stephen King's weakness. He does not know how to end a story. Anyone who's read through to the end of his Dark Tower series knows what I mean. The man can really write. No doubt about that. He knows how to evoke all kinds of feelings. He really, really knows how to create a sense of dread and foreboding. But, more often than not in my opinion, his stories fall flat in the endings. Sometimes he knocks one out of the park , but most of the time his endings suck. And with "Cell", the ending sucks more than unusal. If you can remember the sinking feeling you got when you first watched "Independence Day" and saw Jeff Goldblum uploading a virus from his laptop to the alien computer system, you know what I mean. There's a certain feeling that this story is going down the toilet now, and there's no way it can recover.

I think Mr. King knows what I'm talking about. That's why his biggest story by far -- the Dark Tower series -- just about NEVER ends. With "The Dark Tower", he was able to write novel after novel after thick, thick novel, without having to write an ending!

I'm not saying you shouldn't read "Cell". If you like Steven King, you know that it's mostly about getting to the end, and the ride is enjoyable I guess, but I really wish he would have talked to somebody about the end. It's kind of a letdown when you get three-fourths of the way into a long story and realize the ending is going to be lame.

In movie news, I saw the film "Everything is Illuminated". It's about a seriously quirky American Jew who travels through the Ukraine looking for information about his grandfather and a mysterious girl in an old photograph. I won't say it's a great movie, but it's very good. It's strangely compelling, and at times hilarious. How's that for a recommendation?

In other news, I sent an email to Anne Rice and she wrote me back!! I highly recommend her latest book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and wrote some comments about it in a previous post. She wrote me asking permission to link to my blog from her website! Of course I granted it, so if you are coming here from Ms. Rice's website, I welcome you!

A Brokeback Vendetta?

"The Matrix" is one of my all-time favorite movies, and their sequels, while far from great did at least provide a fun diversion, so on the strength of the Wachowski brothers' record I went and saw "V for Vendetta" last weekend.

Ok, so the hero of the movie is a terrorist who blows up buildings. I knew that going in. He only blew up empty buildings, and only killed the "bad guys", so I had no problem with that really. It was symbolic -- a statement he was making -- I got that. (Even though I never could buy mere vengeance as a noble cause to root for.)

And the future is run by a neo-Christian fundamentalist/fascist regime that persecutes Muslims. I knew that going in, too. I was prepared for that. All stories about dystopian futures are about pressing the current ideologies to their uttermost extreme. They try to show us ourselves at our worst. They try to warn us away from an ugly future by showing us what we would look like. Portraying a future run by Muslim extremists would not serve that purpose.

What I was not really prepared for was the whole "Brokeback" aspect.

Must every movie now be about gays and lesbians?

I'm sorry, call me a homophobe or whatever, but I just cannot buy homosexuality as a noble way of life. During my stint here on earth, I've known several people with what I would call "gender confusion issues", and I've never seen it be a good thing.

And besides that, I just don't understand it. I'm sorry all you noble-minded, good-hearted gay people out there, but I just don't. Let me explain.

In a pinch, I will sometimes use the handle of a screwdriver as a hammer. I've done it, I admit. I'm either too lazy to walk out to the shed and get the hammer, or I don't know where a hammer is. Either way, I know I am using the screwdriver for a purpose it was not designed for. I know that it is going to be a little more difficult to drive the nail in with the screwdriver handle. It will take a lot of extra swings, and I will miss the head or glance off it at an odd angle many times. I accept that as the cost of using the tool for a purpose it was not designed for.

When I am using a screwdriver this way, I accept the difficulties and hazards and so forth as part of the package. My reasoning is that the difficulties involved in using the screwdriver's handle to drive my nails are less troublesome to me than the difficulty of getting up and finding my hammer.

All this is simply to say, if a person has what we might call "guy parts", how can he say he's meant to use them with other guys? I don't get it. If a person has "girl parts" how am I to believe that she is meant to use them with other females? It seems to me as absurd as a man trying to make an argument that driving nails is the proper use of a screwdriver.

I acknowledge your right to do with your tools what you want, but if you make it a practice to use your screwdriver to drive your nails, and try to use your kitchen knives to turn your screws -- I mean if you are able to convince yourself that this is the right and proper way for you to use these tools -- you are going to have a hard time getting anything done.

I'm not trying to judge anyone here. All moral issues aside, really. You can use your screwdrivers to drive nails if you want to. That's not the point. It seems that society today is trying to make us believe that driving nails is a perfectly proper use for a screwdriver - on an equal footing with screwing screws, and I just can't see it. Look at the darn things! They have a specific and well-defined function for which they are obviously designed. I can certainly understand a person might have the desire to use his tools for purposes contrary to their design, but why must we go the next step, beyond reason, it seems to me, and try to believe that they were designed for these other uses? I just can't.

Now back to the movie.

I could not buy V's "cause" as anything but a visceral desire for revenge, and so I didn't really buy the public support for him. I think the writers could have made their story better if they had made V a believer in something. As it was, V was nothing more than a person who had been sorely mistreated and wanted to get back at the specific people who had wronged him. While this is certainly a good movie motive, and it worked well in "The Bourne Identity" , it did not work here because the story was trying to be something grander than a revenge story. Can you imagine if at the end of "Bourne" we saw thousands of people marching on Washington demanding that Mr. Bourne be given his due, and heard some lofty speech about how Jason Bourne was "my father and my mother, my brother and my sister... he is me, and you, and everyone...", etc. Ugh. It doesn't make any sense.

And where were the great fight scenes I'd read about? When V finally gets down to kicking butt, it's just some slow-motion knifing, and a lot of squirting blood. It was underwhelming after seeing the showdown between Neo and Agent Smith in the Wachowski's last movie.

All in all, I cannot recommend this movie at all. It's not even a thought provoking story, unless you count thinking about all the ways it failed. If you want to see Hugo Weaving in a great movie, go see The Matrix again. If you want to see Hugo Weaving be great in an average movie, see the Matrix sequels.

Guest Poster: Jerry Brenton

Due to a lack of time and or brainpower I have allowed a guest blogger to post this entry. Please welcome Jerry, my sister Carole’s husband. I hope you enjoy what he wrote.

THERE are questions I need to ask. Actually, this computer will die of old age before I have all my questions written down. Microsoft will be out of business; taken over by the government probably, and “Microsoft Word” will become something like “Federal Word”. What a world, what a world.

First, why do I hear an incessant whining noise whenever a democrat is speaking on T.V.? If you have good ideas, explain them and let us decide what we want to do next. I fear they have all lost what is left of their collective mind. They all do seem to be in lock step with each other. The drumbeat they are listening to has to be a chaotic, cacophony of confusion.

The Republicans, who hide behind …well, everything…have their drumbeat which is about as easy to hear as a butterflies belch at Niagara Falls.

If you hear this already, skip reading it in your mind. Politics is from the Greek poly meaning many, and ticks meaning blood-sucking insects.

The most common bush planted in Washington D.C. is the common yew bush. The botanical nomenclature for the common yew bush is: Taxus Taxus.

Explains a lot huh.

That is the extent of the time I wish to spend on politics.

How about country music? Well, don’t get me started.

Now, as to American Idol: Hate the Title, love the bad singers, and want it to come to a city near me so I can go a laugh at them. Why should we be railroaded into accepting a person because a lot of people like them?

We are in Iraq. Well who would have seen that coming 5 years ago? Why didn’t the psychics?
Speaking of Psychics here is a story. My ex-sister-in-law Rebecca got a telephone call from a psychic wanting to give her a reading. Without missing a beat she replied: if you were really psychic then you would have seen this coming, then she hung up!

Somewhere in the puddle that is her brain that girl shines.

Why doesn’t spell check underline ex-sister-in-law?
Is that really a word?

O.K no more questions. I have A D D and I get dis…


I took my two daughters to see “Nanny McPhee”. Both of my daughters were nannies at one time or another. We had a lot of fun. Without telling you the plot; here is what the story is about: There once were some rotten kids, an ugly nanny came to help, and with magic, changes the rotten kids into angels. She rescues the sad dad, and the scullery maid in the process. The nanny ends up being very pretty in the process. Not really a “must see” movie but a “willing to watch again” movie.

I like good writers. Rex Stout is the author of the Nero Wolfe novels. Really I could care less who the murderer is, as long as the interaction between Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe is fun. I recommend all of the detective novels by Rex Stout. I mention this because I just finished reading one of his trilogies.

545 words, 2,364 characters without spaces and 2,927 with spaces (I count them because I had to hit a key) 18 paragraphs and 61 lines later I am tired of typing (that is entering keystrokes to the younger folks) so …

I like …..’s

Jerry