Latest Posts is not working – RSS Digest has been deprecated, and has been upgraded to Feed Digest – thus, the old feed is no longer working – I’ll have to revamp it tomorrow. We had my brother and his wife over tonight, so no blogging…

At work, the other day, I had a discussion with a coworker, which centered around a discussion of The DaVinci Code. We discuss metaphysical or spiritual aspects of life quite often, but I engaged fully, this time – because he was not quite sympathetic to the specific claims made in The DaVinci Code, but sort of asking questions about themes in it – namely, Mary Magdalene’s supposed “marriage” to Jesus, and etc. That didn’t take long, as I explained the history of those claims, and who had made them – but that got me thinking – “what does he really think about the Bible?”

So, I asked him – “What do you think – is the Bible what it claims to be?” His answer, predictably, was to ask “in what way” – because, really, I wasn’t very specific. Have I ever mentioned that I don’t do apologetics in the real world very often? It’s my own shortcoming, and a result of the insular lifestyle I tend to lead. Well, anyway, I began to explain that the Bible claims to be the actual words of God, to man. His response was that it likely wasn’t the whole truth, but maybe part of the truth.

Well, my immediate response was to ask, in effect, that if it isn’t *the* truth, then what is? Is it found in the Mormons, or in Islam? Where? His response was, (also in effect), that truth was found in an individual person. Which, (also predictably), led me to ask – so, if truth is found in each individual, doesn’t truth always change?

What followed was, to me, an odd exchange. His point seemed, to me, to be that all morals are relative, and that what is true to one person is not true to another – and that the “belief” that it is true is what directs morality. My responses followed the pattern that if this is the case, then what Hitler did, or Hussein did, can be credibly justified by their belief that it is right. That was one aspect of the conversation. The other aspect was an attempt, on both parts, to explain exactly what we meant, when we said what we did. I don’t know if I understood him rightly, but by the end, he agreed with me that there is a concept of moral truth that over-arches what we believe to be true – but I don’t know if that was what he thought to begin with, or if it changed his mind. It’s hard to tell. I conceded that some moral decisions are situation dependent (such as killing someone – murder versus self-defense, or war), but that the basic principle remains the same.

It was a good exchange, but not anywhere near the “cut-and-dried” exchanges I’ve had in the past. He agrees that there is a spiritual world, that the physical came into being as the result of a non-physical force, and that there will be an eventual heaven and hell. However, it seems to me that he doesn’t think that the Christian way is what it says it is – the only way to an actual eternal existence in Heaven. We disagreed about the existence of an original or natural sin – but following a consistent moral code is very important to him. I enjoyed the discussion – as well as prior discussions we’ve had about the insufficiency of the limited-to-the-physical atheist/materialist viewpoint; but I’m not quite sure how I’d expand on this from here. Acer is what I’ll call him, since he uses that pseudonym online – and I had a lot of fun talking with him. (He may even read this – he knows about my blog :D) I’m not sure, exactly, what he really thinks, though. I’m not precisely worried about offending him by talking about Christianity – but I don’t want to badger him, either, or try to “win an argument”. That’s not the point. I’m a bit belligerent by nature, and I don’t want to be considered a bully. I also don’t want to lose the grip on the conversation by being too timid, either. I care about him, and I want to make sure he’s on the right track – not to become improperly judgemental and accusing. Speak the truth, in love…

It was interesting, and a bit scary – but I’m not quite sure how to handle it from here. Keep in mind – this is a friend from work, who reads this blog occasionally – so if you have comments, keep this in mind. (and Acer… if I messed anything up in our conversation, or I didn’t understand anything well enough – let me know!)

Thanks,

Click the button “Latest Posts” directly under this. this will show you all of the Aggregator’s latest posts.

Ok, I admit it. I am.

I added 3-5 useless/semi-useful plugins today, fixed a couple annoyances, and figured out why my email wasn’t working. I think.

Hearken: The plugins list can be found at bottom right, under “technology” – where I am testing all of my other new plugins, too.

You can quote comments, now.

You can see recent comments.

You can see recent trackbacks.

You can see a list of most frequent commenters. Catez is in the lead 😀

You can even see where *I* am commenting, elsewhere in the blogosphere.

Lots of neato stuff like that.

Then, of course, there is the ever-uber WP-Hashcash and Polite-ifier (which keeps this blog spam-free and profanity free, respectively), Comment Quicktags, Related Posts, and etc, etc.

I use plenty of java, as I’m sure you’ve seen, and I use several other custom addons.

I’d pull a StrongBad, and tell you to “follow along, with my simple step-by-step instructions”… but, alas, I really don’t make blogging fun.

So, until next time… yeah. I suppose I’ll actually post something meaty and non-fluffy – but, alas… all I’m doing is fiddling with my site interminably – and that’s not very interesting for anyone but ubernerds. So, in fact, I really didn’t do, or think, about anything non-nerdy. Which makes me an uber-nerd, I suppose. Although I have a really cool collection of Strongbad clips that I just listened to, to try and find an appropriate one to end this post with.

I had fun listening, but didn’t find one. I should rip some more clips from “Trogdor”…

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.)