Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • Book Meme

    I’ve been tagged by C.Orthodoxy with the book meme. Here’s the meme:

    • Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
    • Open the book to page 123.
    • Find the fifth sentence.
    • Post the next three sentences.
    • Tag five people.

    I don’t usually do these, and this is going to be funny, because I happened to be sitting on the couch where I had gone to read a commentary on 2 Corinthians, and had taken a break to look at the blog when I saw the tag. Thus this may not make a lot of sense. I can’t think of a book less likely to produce sense from a random location. 🙂

    Update: Via a comment I came to realize I hadn’t specified which commentary on 2 Corinthians. It is Victor Furnish, Anchor Bible: 2 Corinthians.

    If Phil was indeed written from Ephesus, then it is possible that Paul has the same imprisonment in mind as he writes now of the affliction . . . in Asia (2 Cor 1:8). The following points of correspondence between the present passage and Phil 1 and 2 may be noted: (a) Both passages refer to a life-threatening experience (2 Cor 1:8-9; Phil 1:20-23; 2:12-18; cf. Georgi 1965:46). (b) The presence of Timothy (Phil 2:19-23) could account for the use of the first person plural in 2 Cor 1:8ff., even though Timothy himself was probably not a prisoner.

    I suspect this may be in the running as the least comprehensible extract resulting from this meme!

    I tag:

  • Florida Science Standards Petition

    The proposed new Florida standards give evolution its proper place in science education. The petition is posted here, and you can find further information on it on the Florida Citizens for Science blog.

    Whether you are in the state of Florida or not, please go and sign. We will give separate counts for the in-state and out of state signers when the petition is presented.

  • An Evangelist for Evolution

    The Rev. Michael Dowd is preaching a surprising message: Evolution is real and science points to the existence of God. (Source: .)

    Rev. Dowd also joins the growing group who acknowledge that accepting evolution does impact one’s theology in some ways. I find his specific take interesting.

    One theme that seems to get someone entry into Christian venues is the idea that science can help support faith. Those who say, “Evolution is true, live with it” don’t get so much of a hearing. Unfortunately, while I believe that scientific evidence can be seen as consistent with the existence of God, I see nothing that forces or drives the conclusion that there truly is a God. Often the evidence makes one drop some definition of God that one had held before.

    In a comment to a previous post Larry B. writes:

    In the same (but different) way, I honestly feel that evolution for a lot of people has unmoored more than a few christians from their foundations.

    (I don’t want to copy the whole comment here, but it is worthwhile reading the entire context.)

    I agree with this statement, but would ask what is the proper response? If people have faith that God will heal everyone for whom prayer is offered, they will very possibly be “unmoored” from that faith when reality doesn’t accord with their expectations. In the case of evolution, I suggest that there is more education needed amongst Christians about the implications and possibilities, so that people can make intelligent decisions.

    I do think it is important to note the real challenges to theology, and to welcome, rather than fear questions. Christianity is ultimately doomed if it cannot find a more friendly way to co-exist with challenges. There’s the “fall over and play dead” option and the “circle the wagons option.” We need more folks in the “let’s have fun with this” camp!

    Or at least that’s my take on it.

  • Republicans for Obama

    There’s an interesting article in Newsweek on Republicans supporting Obama. These are not people who are angry that it appears the nomination will not go to someone who is regarded as soundly conservative. They are inspired by Barack Obama.

  • God is not that Vulnerable

    I had a short conversation with a friend and client the other day and I thought I’d share the key point. This man is a professional with a substantial scientific education, and also a devout Christian. On his desk was the book The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. That got us chatting about evolution, and how so many people were bothered by it. He wasn’t even aware that Dawkins was an atheist, nor did he care.

    He said something very interesting that would have taken me several convoluted paragraphs to get across. Referring to those who feel their faith threatened by evolution he said, “God is not that vulnerable.”

    Hmmm! That works for me.

  • Dynamically Wrong? Exodus 24:12 (NLT)

    Exodus 24:12 in the NLT reads:

    And the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there while I give you the tablets of stone that I have inscribed with my instructions and commands. Then you will teach the people from them.

    The phrase I’m interested in here is “stay there while.” That may seem like an odd fragment, but consider the NRSV: “and wait there.” What’s the difference? I might not have noticed if I hadn’t written a devotional based on the NRSV translation. Now when I first read the NRSV of this verse, I had to go back to the Hebrew and check, because “wait” looked wrong to me. In Hebrew it reads simply “and be there.” So the reason could be any number of things. But after reading the context a bit, I decided the NRSV had the idea right. Moses was to go up into the mountain and wait for the Lord. If that is the case, the NLT is clear and natural, but misses the point just a bit.

    If you read further you will see that after Moses goes up into the mountain he does, in fact, have to wait. He does so for six days, and then on the seventh day he is called into the cloud. I think the best connection in the context for the phrase “be there” is to that waiting time, and thus the NRSV is the better translation in this case.

    (Before someone misunderstands, the NRSV and NLT are both translations that I commend highly. There will always be points of disagreement in any translation, so this shouldn’t be taken as an “unendorsement” of the NLT. It’s just a single case where I agree with one excellent translation over another.)

  • Moderate Christian Blogroll Additions

    The following have joined the Moderate Christian Blogroll: Living with “God Vision”, if i were a bell, i’d ring, Seeking After, and Adventures in Revland. Learn more about the blogroll here.

  • Christian Carnival #209 Posted

    . . . at Everyday Liturgy.

  • NY NOW Groupthink

    Ed Brayton has a post on the NY chapter of NOW, which claims that Ted Kennedy betrayed feminists by endorsing Obama. I had this on my list of topics for posts, but Ed already said it better.

  • Numbers and Context

    This is way out of my field, but I want to link to it because it illustrates the way in which numbers can be used deceptively. I still heartily recommend the book How to Lie with Statistics from which the title is derived.

    I’m no economist, but I remember a fine discussion in a class “Public Policy toward Business” in which we were debating excess profits, and trying to define the word “excess.” One class member was busily arguing using a definition of profit as “sales – cost of goods sold,” which made the numbers substantially different. The problem is that when the public sees figures such as are used in Ben Stein’s article, they don’t know the definitions involved. They just see someone who supposedly either knows, or knows people who knows, throwing around large numbers. Propagandists in turn realize that most people won’t even remember the numbers themselves. They’ll just remember that they were big.

    If there is any one thing I would like to see journalists work on it is taking things like this apart and showing the public how it works. I know the arguments–the public won’t read that, they aren’t specialists and they don’t need to know. But if they’re being fed the propaganda, they also need to know how to understand it. Numbers don’t mean anything apart from the context and the definitions, yet spokesmen for various positions get by with point out that one number is much bigger than another, and then draw a conclusion, and people left with the impression that the numbers proved the point.

    If journalists want to truly be useful, they need to learn how to handle the information, and also how to relay it in human language to the non-specialists. C. S. Lewis once commented that every ministerial candidate needed to learn how to translate a serious work of theology into language understandable by the common people. I’m certain many who have to listen to sermons would agree! Journalists, as opposed to mere parrots for media relations folks, should know how to take a complex subject, find the lies, and clarify them to the public.

    (HT: The Panda’s Thumb)