My apologies for having missed the Saturday Buffett recently - I was out of state!
Anyway, some of these links are now more than a week old. But I still think they're worth the read (if you haven't already stumbled across them elsewhere)...
First, a very interesting story about incredibly high twin birth-rates in Nigeria - and yams may be the explanation!
On a sad note, it appears another Jehovah's Witness has died from refusing a blood transfusion. I keep telling people that good hermeneutics are critically important; this is a more graphic example of why.
To add just a little bit to the Sean Taylor murder story, read this. Pay close attention and you'll find this example of well-intended but bad theology:
"It's a tremendously sad and unnecessary event. He was a wonderful, humble, talented young man, and had a huge life in front of him. Obviously God had other plans."
So I'm supposed to blame God for Taylor's death? ...
[Note: the story has been updated repeatedly on Fox's website; the quote above is from the original article but has been removed from more recent versions.]
Now for a bit of good news: US abortions rates are the lowest since 1974! Before you get too excited, I remind you that we're still aborting 2,300 babies per day in America ... but at least things are improving.
To add my two cents to the whole Golden Compass story: it appears the director fully intends to retain the much more hostile atheism in the next two films. Though he denies it, this sounds like a pretty clear case of baiting kids and families with the first film to get them to swallow the next one easier. It's a strategy as old as time, no?
Finally, just when you thought the good old 'worship wars' were dying down... the Pope decides to go back to the old ways.
Enjoy the first weekend of December, folks!
Hatushili
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Saturday Buffet
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3 comments:
Anonymous, you've pretty much hit the issue spot on! I hadn't thought about the irony of elevating the symbol of life above actual life... That's very perceptive.
The JW's have, of course, been badly misinterpreting Scripture since their inception, so this particular issue should come as no surprise. But the damage done re: blood transfusions goes beyond mental games and has literally killed hundreds. "Sad" just doesn't really do it justice, eh?
Hatushili
So I'm a bit behind on replying to this post but oh well...
Having just finished the second book, A Subtle Knife, in His Dark Materials Trilogy, I would certainly agree that Pullman's work is extremely humanistic and anti-God. To add to it, the way the first book only eludes to his true intentions does act as the bait to hook readers on the much less subtle 2nd and 3rd book.
Now having said all that, I'm still going to read the 3rd book, just as soon as I can get to Borders to purchase it. On issues like this I find it important to actually read the material before criticizing it. Nothing is more annoying than the mass e-mails going around calling for Christians to ban the books and movie and not give into the anti-God propaganda.
Clearly it is better to stick our heads in the sand than to read the material and hold intelligent conversations regarding it.
Oh wait...
The whole situation reminds me of the way we as Christians handle things like micro evolution and Darwin's Book. Rather than read it we simply assume we know what its all about and we condemn it off the start.
This kind of attitude is doing nothing for our public image...
re: JB You make a very good point. I hope no one took my little blurb about the flick to mean that I'm a "stick your head in the sand" kind of guy! I would by all means encourage people to read the books and engage their kids and the culture.
As a side note, I'm hearing from many sources that the film just isn't very good. It may well be a box office failure, but not because of the whining on the far right...
But I reckon they'll take credit nonetheless!
Hatushili
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