Saturday Buffet

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

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Saturday Buffet

Not much to talk about in this Saturday's Buffet, but what there is is certainly worth reading...

First, we have a compiled list of the most stupid of all British laws. My personal favourite is Number 8:

It is illegal to avoid telling the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing.

Next, there is the sad story of the Tower of Pisa, which apparently no longer holds the record for most off-kilter structure!

Finally, a political story. My regular readers will note that I rarely deal with politics directly on this blog. But this story had me scratching my head: Pat Robertson endorses Guiliani?!

Personally, I'm not sure that I much care who Pat Robertson votes for. I generally wish he would keep his mouth shut far more often than he does, so opening it to tell me who he's voting for isn't doing much for me!

But the point is that Robertson influences (and represents?) tons of Christians in this country, and yet he's willing to throw his weight behind Guiliani?!

I suppose I'll feel compelled to post about the current crop of presidential candidates in the near future. But for now, it's enough to say that I most certainly won't be following Pat's lead next November.

Hatushili

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Saturday Buffet

No fanfare this week. Except to say that if you look at nothing else this week, you must at least check out the last entry in this week's Saturday Buffet.

Here's this week's edition...

Perhaps you never thought about the fact that Daylight Savings Time is (in part) about saving energy? Now you know. And just for the record, you should know that Indiana finally adopted Daylight Savings Time ... sort of.

In this weeks political double-speak category, John Edwards wants us to know that in order to pay for his proposed enormous "College for Everyone" initiative, every taxpayer will have to put in more money ... because "there are no free meals". Unless, I guess, you're getting a taxpayer supported free college degree ... ?!?

Good news from Focus on the Family - they intend to focus more on parenting than politics in the coming years! ... and there was much rejoicing!

In Iraq, the premier has vowed to help our brothers and sisters in Christ as they attempt to stay safe and in the country (more than 50% of them have left already).

In case you avoided my Halloween post (and who could blame you!), here are two more interesting articles on the subject. First, it seems Russia is attempting to stop the import of the "holiday" in schools. Next, in a logically related story, it appears that Victoria's Secret is successfully marketing their products to young girls.

Finally, this one is amazing. Apparently a bunch of guys with a ton of time on their hands took zillions of high-resolution pictures of DaVinci's Last Supper and then pasted them together. The result? You can now view the painting online and zoom right down to the tiniest detail. Seriously, you can find some of the original pencil marks where DaVinci traced images out before painting them! You must check this one out, folks.

Hatushili

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Saturday Buffet

Hey, what do you know - I'm not late with this edition of the Saturday Buffet!

As always, I've been trolling the internet throughout the week to bring you some of the more thought provoking stuff.

So here we go...

This one goes in the "sad story; ridiculous coverage" category. Here we a story that ought to highlight the extreme poverty these people live in, or perhaps their generosity (notice they shared with a neighboring village). But it seems written mostly to shock the reader, then they throw in a stupid bit about animal rights activists!?

Okay, this one may just get me in trouble. Let's list my troubles with this story:

a) Why are we even conducting such a poll in the first place? Because we know it will likely yield results that are "scandalous" and it'll shock people? I hope not, but I have my suspicions.

b) What good can come of a poll like this? To make a segment of the Christian population feel better about themselves - you know, the "thank God I'm not like the Samaritans" crowd? I hope not, but I have my suspicions.

c) How are we defining a "lie"? Don't get too excited - I'm not espousing some sort of "my truth is for me" view. But seriously, every culture in the world defines lying differently. America is virtually the only country wherein were told that any exaggeration, or anything short of full and complete disclosure is a lie. There are literally hundreds of examples I could give, but I offer just one. Suppose you have a friend who struggles with her weight and she is very depressed about it. Now suppose you overhear the people passing by snickering about how large your friend is. She's had a particularly bad day, and doesn't hear what's just been said. She notices that you noticed them and asks what they said... I would argue that it's just plain hurtful and mean to give your friend "full disclosure", but if you told her simply, "Oh, nothing" you'd be lying ... ?! "Speak the truth in love" doesn't mean you must tell her the hurtful things they said and then offer your shoulder for her to cry on.

d) Wouldn't we be better off spending our time and efforts encouraging the body of Christ, instead of feeding a certain segment of it more "ammunition"?

Okay, I'm finished... You may flame away now, if you must.

Onward....

I think I kind of like Mike Huckabee, in a way. This story doesn't help much, eh?

And finally, this one is (mostly) for an old friend of mine who I just discovered reads this blog. Like me, he's outraged at the nonsense being conducted by the Westboro Baptist Church. You've likely heard of them - the "church" that runs around celebrating the death of American soldiers... They're the folks with the "God Hates _ags" signs (no, I'll not use that word here). I'm not sure I necessarily agree with the lawsuit approach this article references, but anything to put these folk back in their cave is a good thing, if you ask me.

That's all for now. Let me know what you think of this week's edition, eh?

Hatushili

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Saturday Buffet (late again)

I have no particular excuse for being late with this week's Saturday Buffet. I could try to make one up, or perhaps I could take suggestions from you guys...

Anyway, here you go...

In the "I can't say I'm truly surprised" category, it appears that a school district in Maine is now allowing oral contraceptives to be given to students as young as 11! I have more problems with this than can be readily summarized here, but we could go down any of the following routes:

a) What about the fundamental role distinction between parents and the state?
b) What about possible health effects of giving hormone therapy to under-developed children?
c) What about the "moral license" this kind of policy grants students?
d) What about the tax-supported status of these schools, versus religious objections?

Perhaps the sky really is falling, folks!

In other sex-related news, it seems men aren't the only followers of Christ who struggle in this area.

Pressing on... James Watson (of Watson and Crick DNA-finding fame) has been uninvited to deliver a speech, since he's been saying some decidedly disturbing things in the media lately. Honestly, though, his comments come directly from a humanistic, macro-evolutionary view of the world that is shared by most of his peers.

There's a new Ten Commandments flick on the market. Disney radio took the word "God" out of their advertisement. People are outraged. [Insert deep groan here!] Forgive me if I think we've got much, much bigger issues to get all upset about...

And finally, scientific "proof" that short people have a chip on their shoulder ... sort of ... I guess.

Hatushili

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Saturday Buffet (a few days late!)

We had our biggest promotional event of the year at work this past weekend. My apologies for using that as an excuse to belate the Saturday Buffet...

In the field of politics and health care, there have been some very wild claims recently. For a critique of some of the gloom and doom stuff, see this post over at Crosswalk.com.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this document. Apparently a long list of Muslim scholars is blaming Christendom for the lack of peace between us. And, they rightly point out, there does not seem to be a peaceful way to co-exist unless we submit to their desires. "Submission" ... isn't that what "Islam" means?

In the "apparently public outcry sometimes works" category is this set of articles. It appears that initially there was some effort at removing the word "God" from ceremonial flag certificates. However, now all that is behind us. What a relief! Millions are homeless in Africa? No one much notices. But take the word "God" off our certificates and we'll raise a stink you've not smelled since the pledge of allegiance scandal! Glad we've got our priorities straight here, folks.

Finally, this article is most interesting for the way the data is interpretted. It appears to my reading that a study has found humans are perhaps both a) more selfish and b) have an innate need for justice/fairness than do chimps. The effects of the Fall and yet still a shadow of the image of God? Nope. "Chimps choose more rationally than humans".

Hatushili

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Saturday Buffet

Today I begin a new series of post: Saturday Buffet! I often stumble across items of interest on the internet (and thanks to those of you that routinely forward along those that you find, too) that I'm going to compile into a single post on Saturday. It'll give you something to read over the weekend ... in case you're bored!

So, without further ado, here's this Saturday's Buffet...

This one came to us via JB - it seems for some twisted reason Ethiopia wants to poison 10,000 dogs. We Americans were (rightly) outraged about Michael Vick and his dog killing; I wonder how many of us even heard about this?

Here's one from Dan - some author actually spent a full year trying to "literally" follow all the commandments of the Bible. He's not a Christian or a Jew, but thought it would be interesting... It raises a number of interesting questions about hermeneutics - did he or didn't he actually interpret these commands correctly? What exactly is a "literal" understanding of a given text?

One of my wife's favourite blogs posted this one - how are hymns different than praise songs? I've read parts of it circulating the internet before, but not this (extended?) version.

Finally, though it's now quite old, I found this interesting. It links to a video done by Solomon's Porch, the church Doug Pagitt pastors. Solomon's Porch is often held up as a model of what Emergent (not emerging) should/could look like.

Hatushili

PS: Feel free to send me links to things you would like to see in future editions of the Saturday Buffet. For those that already have been, I again say 'thanks'!

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