As you may have seen, I’m doing something different. I’ll probably start doing a Daily Cut once a week, or more infrequently. I’ve added a mini-blog to the top right, so you can see what I find interesting right now, at a glance, instead of trying to fight and do a large post every day.

Also, I’ll start adding some new features, and likely upgrade to WordPress 2.0 in the near future.

I’ve revamped the look of the apologetics section at the top right as well; I’ve delineated the subject areas more cleanly, rearranged the aggregator buttons, pointed out the “Latest Post” feature (you really should use that… it shows the most recent posts from the Aggregator, if you click the button. It utilizes javascript, and opens it right here.), and I’m looking into some other features which (I hope), will save me, and you, some time.

Yes, I am an inveterate tweaker. This site has *always* got something changing about it. Expect it. I may, also, release this theme and the theme I use on Bethany’s site, to the public, once I clean them both up. Eventually. I have two more projects in the works, from the design aspect, and I’ll introduce them to you once they’re finished. One is a (concept) site for my church, and the other is a website for my immediate family members. They should be fun…

Now, if I only had 20 more hours in a day!

I may – may – add a list of all the neat plugins I use on this site. I have quite a few. This is a very custom setup, thus the constant tweaking.

Today’s burning questions:

1. Any requests for features/functionality?
2. Any problems with the blog functionality or theme?

Vincent Cheung starts a new series on John 3, entitled “Born Again”. Part 1|Part 2

Dawn Treader takes a look at the impact of Narnia in the box office, and to viewers, here.

Just a check of my sideblog.

To act like a completely amoral cynic, while scoring points off tragedy?

If so… I suppose it was “accomplished.”

Raving Atheist responds to my “award” from yesterday with a disingenuous “it was all according to the master plan” backpedal.

He just can’t admit it was in incredibly bad taste. His own atheist commenters are telling him exactly that – and he still won’t admit it. That’s what it takes to be a “Scornful Skeptic”, it seems.

It’s all really just “something to shame himself into behaving the rest of the year”. Im impressed. Not.

Mr. DawnTreader discusses – “No More Einsteins?”

Interesting read, and interesting comments.

Challies de-memes a meme, with “When I Grow Up…”

Incidentally… I want to be Tim when I grow up! (Dude, he’s 2 years older than me. This knowledge depresses me, as he runs his own web design company – and I don’t :D)

Also incidentally – this quote is me, to a T. (Although I have done a few memes just for boredom’s sake.)

I don’t do memes. I have not (to my recollection) done a single one of them since the dawn of this site. I have often been tagged to do them but have always resisted because, quite frankly, I don’t care what character I most resemble, but it a character from Lord of the Rings, Narnia, or Napoleon Dynamite. I also don’t really care to know what theological system I most clearly adhere to, what type of flower I would be (if I were a flower), and, well, you get the idea.

Heh. Great post 😀

Folks – I don’t know about you. I really don’t. If this, however, isn’t the most brilliant husband-wife conversation you’ve ever heard… I’ll eat my hat. It’s red, has a bright white University of Arizona A on it, and has been freshly washed.

I doubt I’ll need to break out the ketchup, though. I mean, really… that’s cool stuff.

Oh, and from Gratitude and Hoopla? “Christians, we are not God-experts“.

I’m telling you – this hit home.

From Red Skelton to Jonah. Laughing, from Job’s Tale.

This blog is very, very good – and the writer, like Job himself, has a trove of wisdom he’s gleaned from the hard knocks of life.

Another blog I suggest is This is Not for You, by the ever-poetic Matthew. He can turn a phrase like noone else I know – and sound Edwardian while doing it.

That’s the Daily Cut for today. Enjoy.

(and it was shorter, Milton! 😛 hehe.)

This is not only in bad taste – incredibly bad taste – but irredeemably caustic.

Take a few looks at it.

A hilarious atheistic satire highlighting the futility of prayer had to be scrapped late Tuesday night when twelve West Virginia miners miraculously failed to suffocate to death as expected.

A satire? His “original” satire was about how futile it is to pray to a God. It was to mock the faith of the victim’s families. To use real, just announced deaths as a cheap shot in favor, supposedly, of his viewpoint.

His satire, he says, “failed” – because the people were announced alive. So, of course, he posts the satire of the satire anyway – because now it applies again. They died, and God didn’t save them, yadda yadda.

It’s reprehensible.

It gets worse.

TRA said the discovery of twelve corpses would have been particularly funny to those who read his original piece, which was going to predict a “miracle” similar to the one credited for the survival of nine men from a flooded mine in Quecreek, Pennsylvania in 2002.

Funny? FUNNY? That isn’t even morbidly funny. That’s just ham-fisted gallows mockery.

TRA took solace in the fact that one dead body was found, but said it wasn’t enough to save the parody. “Maybe if five or six of them had died, I could have done a bit about how the survivors’ families were gloating about the selective ‘miracle’ that spared only the rigtheous,” he said. “But it wasn’t to be.”

“Nearly a whole hour wasted,” TRA said. “Is there no God?”

What an unadulterated, swilling stream of drivel-mouthed bile. I wouldn’t countenance that sort of comment on anyone. Anyone at all. It’s sick, it’s morally repugnant, and it’s an absolutely reprehensible thing to say.

You, sir, (and I use that term loosely) have truly “earned” your “award”. I refuse to call it “misguided”, or anything of the sort. It’s simply repugnant, and a discredit to anyone calling themselves an atheist. I can respect a person, regardless of their beliefs – I can’t, however, respect someone making a morally abhorrent comment like that.

What possesses people to heap scorn on an already painful situation?

So. Vox has been on hold, pretty much indefinitely, because, honestly, it just wasn’t working, without a herculean effort on my part every week.

I have an idea.

What if…

Instead of me setting the topic, or someone from the Aggregator setting the topic…

We let an atheist, skeptic, agnostic, or an adherent from another religion set the topic?

Now, guidelines will have to be set, to some extent, but, really. Wouldn’t this be the point of Vox? To make a defense to anyone who asks us?

I say we let them ask – and we pray, consider, study – and do just that – answer.

What say you?

Well, this hasn’t been much of a “daily” cut recently.

Oh well. I’m back into blogging, so… I’m back into Daily Cuts.

Agent Tim has a great post entitled “Nothing or Something”

I sat down and began to write without thinking—just allowing the thoughts to flow onto the blank page in front of me, hardly slowing or pausing to consider what would come next. Then it happened—it stopped. I couldn’t write anything more. Nothing came to mind, nothing inspired me, and the word nothing plagued my mind.

The Apologetics Resource Center has an interesting post contrasting Positive Faith with the God of the Gaps theory.

Christians do not believe in the existence of God, the truthfulness of Scripture, and the words of Christ in order to simply fill in the knowledge-holes left by modern science. Rather, Christianity is believed based upon positive and rational reasons that stand on their own right.

Paul sheds some light on the “Dark Ages” over at Pensees.

Based on the other myths from my school days that have been burst one by one, like Columbus being the first to think the world was round, I should find it no surprise that the true nature of the Middle Ages is quite different than I imagined[…]

Alex Forrest contrasts George Barna with Rousseau.

[…]it is almost as if Barna is advocating a spiritual version of Rousseau’s myth of the Noble Savage. For Rousseau, of course, the myth (now strong in the popular mind) was that the “natural man,” unfettered by the shackles of civiliation and technology, lived in a state of natural purity and goodness. Civilization, however, brings with it bondage, degradation, self-interest, and all sorts of other vices. […] Barna seems to have a similarly romantic image of the “Noble Christian Savage,” unfettered by the trappings of dry institutionalism, empty tradition, and other vices that often beset American evangelicalism.

Interesting stuff.

Comment by Aaron Kinney (of Kill the Afterlife), in response to Eternal Revolution’s post entitled A Need for Compassion:

Oh and by the way, you said:

“As he hung there, dying on the cross, facing an injustice far worse than any of us could ever fathom…”

I could fathom something much worse: an eternity in hellfire.

I could point out that Aaron’s schtick has always been that he refuses to accept the “inhumane and immoral” belief that life goes on after death. (If the very concept is immoral, isn’t he violating his own stance by contemplating such a thing? :D) But, I won’t.

Anyways, the point is that hell is separation from God – which is what the lifestyle found deserving of hell wished in the first place. The punishment is the wages of sin – you never get anything for nothing. If you choose to ignore what is right, and do what is wrong, there will come a penalty, eventually. That’s what hell is. But, whatever. Aaron likes to post throwaway snarks – don’t you Aaron?

I’m sure I’ll have another Scornful Skeptic award for you soon. That one’s actually pretty tame, for you.

Imago Dei has an interesting post entitled “A Different Abortion Story”, which was crossposted from LTI, who is also on my blogroll, and Serge’s new second home!

The Good Fight has two interesting posts:

One is entitled “The Hypocrisy of Anti-Creationists“. Here’s an excerpt.

[…]what is truly interesting about many of the critics of YEC is their seeming hypocrisy when it comes to scientific theory. I’ve seen often many of these scholars advocate scientific explanations that are so odd and radical that they are the only ones who believe it. But isn’t that supposed to be what YEC believers are famous for?

Two, a post entitled “Gratuitous Evil and God“.

Gale presents an argument for the reality of a god who is similar to the theistic God but who is not apparently fully omnipotent or ominiscient. He is very powerful and intelligent but not necessarily maximally so.

It’s an interesting look at Gale’s response.

CADRE takes an in-depth look at Earl Doherty, in response to favorable posts on other blogs.

I have noticed an up-tick in Earl Doherty admiration on the blogs. So, I decided to bring some of the points I made in my articles on the Jesus Myth to the pages of Cadre Comments.

In this post, I examine a passage in Hebrews that proves troublesome to Doherty’s theory that the early Christians did not believe that Jesus existed on earth. Hebrews 9:27-28 refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ to earth.

Challies gives his State of the Domain address, and asks some questions to help guide the future direction of his blog.

And so, as I gaze towards 2006, now only a few days off, I would like to ask for your input. I promise not to be offended and am honestly asking for honesty. If you know me, you know that I have any easier time dealing with criticism than praise! […] While this site is and will remain my site (and I say that in as non-offensive a way as I can) I am eager to hear from readers what you feel is done well and what is done poorly.

Go check it out.

Mr. Dawn Treader puts some perspective on 2005 with “Buzzing the Treetops“.

I encourage you to take a look at his personal commentary.

Now, on a personal note – yes, I’m back to regular blogging. I’m back to tweaking my site fairly regularly, as frequent visitors can see pretty clearly. I’ve updated all my blogrolls, fixed the Aggregator once again, and I’m working on a few new posts.

In addition, I’ve been asked to join The Dialogical Coffee House as a contributor. I’m definitely going to enjoy that, as I’ve been a reader over there for quite some time, and respect the bloggers there immensely.

I’ll be back to working on new ideas, until one hits home, and revisiting some old ones that I ran out of time for. Here’s to a New Year, a new start on blogging, and a renewal of my walk with Christ.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on my blog yet, but I bought a motorcycle. It’s silver and black, and needs some work. That’s just background, however. I went to Slidell to purchase some parts for my bike not too long ago – just prior to Christmas. Afterwards, since we hadn’t yet finished our Christmas shopping, we decided to go by North Shore Square Mall, also in Slidell, to finish our shopping up. On our way in, we encountered a man up on a step stool, asking questions, and offering a dollar for a correct answer. This approach is directly out of Ray Comfort’s “Way of the Master”, and I recognized it almost immediately, and wanted to watch, so we stopped there for a bit.

He finished the last 1 dollar question, and progressed to the 20 dollar question, which uses the Ten Commandments, and demonstrates that everyone is a sinner, and needs God to overcome their sin. The speaker was really very good, and did this very well. His name was Mike.

While he was beginning this final portion, I overheard a janitor, who I had been watching, say into his radio that there was a “disturbance” outside the mall entrance. Now, I had been watching him for a few minutes, and he didn’t have anyone complain to him that I saw, and the group watching was not disturbed. There were a couple people who disagreed, but all they had to do was leave. They stayed right there to listen, regardless.

One in particular, a young man, we overheard saying “this guy is preaching, let’s leave”. Right after that, though, a security guard walked out, and said that “noone is allowed to have a forum on the premises”, and that he would have to stop, or do his presentation on an individual basis only. Well, I jumped in at that point, and asked if it was mall policy to discourage public speech. The security guard told us he was a churchgoer, but that this was, indeed, mall policy. Several others voiced dissent at this point – including the young man who had just said he was leaving. he said, I believe, “this is America – he can say whatever he wants to”. The security guard’s reply was simply that this was private property, and this was the mall’s policy, and reiterated that they were free to continue on an individual basis.

So, while I continued to talk to the guard, the evangelist asked whoever was willing to continue the discussion on an individual basis to follow him. A group of 13-15 people followed. Silently rejoicing, I kept talking to the security guard, and asked where I could file a complaint, and told him that I would no longer be shopping at the mall due to this policy. He told me where to go, and was really very nice. I went to the customer service kiosk, was responded to with courtesy (if a bit of frost, due to my reason for visiting), filled out my complaint form, saying i was no longer intending to shop there, due to their policy, explaining what I had seen the janitor do, and left.

It was a bit odd, and I made a snap decision, but I don’t think I could have done anything in good conscience. As a visitor to a shopping complex, the only means you have to show your displeasure are complaint forms and refusing to buy from them, in my estimation. So, that’s what we did. In fact, though, it turned out nicely. I went to the outlet mall, closer to home, spent less than I would have otherwise to finish my Christmas shopping, and had a good time.

The point wasn’t the shopping, or my displeasure, though, really. To be honest, I was trying to focus the attention on me to give the evangelist less distraction. The other was just the means to do so. The security guard escorted me to the kiosk, and stayed there after I left, and the evangelist was still talking with his group of people – they were all smiling as he explained what he had to say. I hope God was able to use him, and that He may have used me in a small way.

I do intend to keep my promise to cease shopping at North Shore Square Mall, in Slidell, however. I dislike that policy, and won’t support a business (or group of businesses) which espouses it. So, that’s the story. I told my wife I would post it, and I told the mall I would, too.

So, there you go. I’m no longer shopping there.