So here are some pictures of my new Mossberg "Maverick 88" Pump-Action 12 gauge shotgun!
A shotgun and a hound dog! It's going to be a good fall.
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Sunday, April 20, 2008
For Those Who Care
If you want the whole story click here to go to Juanita's blog, but the gist of it is that I finally got my birthday present (after much lying and deceit... I love my wife!).
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
... and let's wrap this up.
So, I don't want to harp on this too much but we're all going to be running into this Oprah, Tolle stuff and most people that we know will be aware of this too, so I think it's important to:
1. be aware of what they are teaching (15-20 million people watch Oprah's show every day).
2. go beyond knowing that this is nonsense to being able to articulate why it is nonsense.
But first, let's watch a little more of this nonsense:
This is synkretism (the merging together of incompatible beliefs) at it's best.
As with most synkretistic systems of thought I have seen here just enough truth integrated so as to make the rest of the tripe palatable:
Nuggets of Truth:
1. The Bigness of God
One thing that Tolle emphasizes is that God is bigger than our human understanding. This is true. God is bigger than what we can comprehend. [ie. Job 42:3; Isaiah 40]
2. The Limitations of Institutional Religion
If God is bigger than we can comprehend then He is also beyond our expressions of Him. One of the roles of formal religious institutions (ie. Churches) is to attempt to make the revelations of God understandable to God's creation. It is ultimately impossible to do this in a complete sense. Formalized religion and worship does not give us a complete picture of who God is. However, God himself chose to set up and work through such imperfect means. He, through His commands to His followers, set up worship in the Tabernacle, Temple, and (in the New Testament) His Bride: The Church.
Obviously there are many other small "nuggets" of truth interspersed throughout Tolle's philosophy. Watch for them and be aware of them. They can become bridges through which you can begin discussions with those who are following the ideas of Tolle.
The Problems:
1. Synkretism
Pluralism (the acceptance of multiple ideas) is nothing new to us in the Western World but not all pluralism is synkretistic. Tolle is merging together ideas from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc... While there are some striking commonalities in some areas the big problem is that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all claim to have exclusive access to Truth. Thus, someone's got to be wrong. So to take an idea or two from each and then discard the majority (which makes exclusive Truth claims) of what remains simply cannot work.
2. The Starting Point
I believe that this is where we as Christians become so thrown off by this kind of stuff. Tolle is not starting from a "Western/Christian" perspective. We've become so used to having "Western/Christian" beliefs at the core of our way of life that when we encounter something other than this we simply don't know how to deal with it other than simply saying, "well that's just wrong."
Tolle is very clearly coming from an Eastern, polytheistic background. Eastern philosophies have, for millennia, been synkretistic. Christianity has had such a terrible time in countries like India because the Indians simply accept Christ as just one more of their thousands of gods and it makes no real difference in their lives. If you come from a philosophical background that, as part of it's core beliefs, accepts contradictory modes of thought you will have no problem whatsoever adopting philosophies such as Tolle's.
What we are now encountering is a generation within North America that does not have a "Western/Christian" worldview as their default worldview. The problems that missionaries in Hindu and Buddhist societies have wrestled with for years are now coming home:
1. In Hinduism - Jesus is just another god.
2. In Buddhism - Jesus is just another "buddha" (person who has reached enlightenment).
OK, so maybe I won't be able to wrap this up this week.
What other "nuggets of truth" have you seen from this stuff?
What other problems have you seen?
1. be aware of what they are teaching (15-20 million people watch Oprah's show every day).
2. go beyond knowing that this is nonsense to being able to articulate why it is nonsense.
But first, let's watch a little more of this nonsense:
This is synkretism (the merging together of incompatible beliefs) at it's best.
As with most synkretistic systems of thought I have seen here just enough truth integrated so as to make the rest of the tripe palatable:
Nuggets of Truth:
1. The Bigness of God
One thing that Tolle emphasizes is that God is bigger than our human understanding. This is true. God is bigger than what we can comprehend. [ie. Job 42:3; Isaiah 40]
2. The Limitations of Institutional Religion
If God is bigger than we can comprehend then He is also beyond our expressions of Him. One of the roles of formal religious institutions (ie. Churches) is to attempt to make the revelations of God understandable to God's creation. It is ultimately impossible to do this in a complete sense. Formalized religion and worship does not give us a complete picture of who God is. However, God himself chose to set up and work through such imperfect means. He, through His commands to His followers, set up worship in the Tabernacle, Temple, and (in the New Testament) His Bride: The Church.
Obviously there are many other small "nuggets" of truth interspersed throughout Tolle's philosophy. Watch for them and be aware of them. They can become bridges through which you can begin discussions with those who are following the ideas of Tolle.
The Problems:
1. Synkretism
Pluralism (the acceptance of multiple ideas) is nothing new to us in the Western World but not all pluralism is synkretistic. Tolle is merging together ideas from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc... While there are some striking commonalities in some areas the big problem is that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all claim to have exclusive access to Truth. Thus, someone's got to be wrong. So to take an idea or two from each and then discard the majority (which makes exclusive Truth claims) of what remains simply cannot work.
2. The Starting Point
I believe that this is where we as Christians become so thrown off by this kind of stuff. Tolle is not starting from a "Western/Christian" perspective. We've become so used to having "Western/Christian" beliefs at the core of our way of life that when we encounter something other than this we simply don't know how to deal with it other than simply saying, "well that's just wrong."
Tolle is very clearly coming from an Eastern, polytheistic background. Eastern philosophies have, for millennia, been synkretistic. Christianity has had such a terrible time in countries like India because the Indians simply accept Christ as just one more of their thousands of gods and it makes no real difference in their lives. If you come from a philosophical background that, as part of it's core beliefs, accepts contradictory modes of thought you will have no problem whatsoever adopting philosophies such as Tolle's.
What we are now encountering is a generation within North America that does not have a "Western/Christian" worldview as their default worldview. The problems that missionaries in Hindu and Buddhist societies have wrestled with for years are now coming home:
1. In Hinduism - Jesus is just another god.
2. In Buddhism - Jesus is just another "buddha" (person who has reached enlightenment).
OK, so maybe I won't be able to wrap this up this week.
What other "nuggets of truth" have you seen from this stuff?
What other problems have you seen?
Monday, April 7, 2008
Let's Just Get this Out of the Way
So, I've got 3 or 4 forwards so far about this one and you probably have too. I think I'll just have to get used to it (just like the daVinci Code).
Yes, Oprah and Eckhart Tolle are starting a cult... or so these forwards say. New Age philosophy, Pluralism/Relativism, and Synkretism is the name of the game.
This clip of Tolle at one of his conferences should explain what we're talking about:
This was just Tolle by himself. Just imagine what happens once you throw Oprah into the mix!! Just go to YouTube and search for "Oprah, Tolle" and you'll find hours of mind boggling footage from Oprah's show. Check out these.
Oprah and Tolle have been going through Tolle's latest book and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Oprah's mindless drones (did I say that out loud!?!) are buying into this.
What is it about this stuff that attracts people?
Is this all pure lies or is there some truth mixed in?
Have you spoken with anyone who is into this kind of stuff?
How many emails about this have you gotten so far?
My critiques of this synkretistic philosophy will follow...
Yes, Oprah and Eckhart Tolle are starting a cult... or so these forwards say. New Age philosophy, Pluralism/Relativism, and Synkretism is the name of the game.
This clip of Tolle at one of his conferences should explain what we're talking about:
This was just Tolle by himself. Just imagine what happens once you throw Oprah into the mix!! Just go to YouTube and search for "Oprah, Tolle" and you'll find hours of mind boggling footage from Oprah's show. Check out these.
Oprah and Tolle have been going through Tolle's latest book and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Oprah's mindless drones (did I say that out loud!?!) are buying into this.
What is it about this stuff that attracts people?
Is this all pure lies or is there some truth mixed in?
Have you spoken with anyone who is into this kind of stuff?
How many emails about this have you gotten so far?
My critiques of this synkretistic philosophy will follow...
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Limitations of God
So I've been reading this book called "The Language of God" (it's all about genetics and DNA and how science and faith should be working together instead of bickering) and there's a section talking about the limitations of God that reminded me of something that happened back in high school.
I think I was in grade 11 or 12 when this happened. I was talking to some atheist acquaintance of mine who decided to prove to me that God didn't exist. The conversation went a little something like this:
Atheist Guy: So you believe in God, right?
Tim: Yah.
AG: And you think God is all powerful, right?
T: Yah.
AG: So, can God create a rock that is so big even he can't lift it?
T: Huh?
And that was about it. I was so taken off guard by this obviously inane question that I had no idea what to say... and my 
acquaintance won the day.
[I know he's not God but don't you just love my picture of an ultra ripped Atlas holding up the world... that's the best I could come up with.]
By now I've heard a number of other variations of this question:
"Can God create a 'round' square?"
"Can God create a 'person' who isn't a person?"
They are all the same silly pointless question just phrased a little differently. Now that I'm at least a little bit more clever than I was back then I would just answer, "Nope" and be done with it.
While some people may be uncomfortable saying that God has limitations I think that it's pretty obvious from scripture that he does. After all, in Hebrews 6:18 it says that, "...it is impossible for God to lie..." And look at 2 Timothy 2:13 - "...if we are faithless, he remains faithful -- for he cannot deny himself."
God has very clear limitations. He cannot be self-contradictory. For him to be self-contradictory would mean that he would cease to be who he is... God! That is why God cannot lie; he is the source and personification of all truth.
Have you ever had conversations like this? How did it go?
What other variations of this question have you heard?
How do we reconcile the two ideas of an all powerful God and a God that has limitations?
Monday, March 31, 2008
The Evolution of Kaleb
At one point in my son's development we were wondering if he was related to Canadian Political Analyst, Mike Duffy: 
Now we have a new comparison...
Anyone remember Tintin and his dog Snowy?
Well, what do you think?
Anyone remember Tintin and his dog Snowy?
Well, what do you think?
For those of you who need a little nostalgic reminder of Tintin:
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Yay! 7 More Sins!!
Some of you may have seen this on the news recently:
On March 9th, 2008 Bishop Gianfranco Girotti published 7 new sins on behalf of the Vatican. Of course many of us are familiar with the '7 Deadly Sins' as listed by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century. There are also '7 Cardinal Virtues' which counteract the sins.
.jpg)
The original Sins and Virtues are:
1. Lust - Chastity
2. Gluttony - Temperance
3. Greed - Charity
4. Sloth - Diligence
5. Wrath - Forgiveness
6. Envy - Kindness
7. Pride - Humility
Apparently, thinking that we didn't already have enough lists, the Vatican has now supplied us with this new list of sins for a new era:
1. Environmental Pollution
2. Genetic Manipulation
3. Accumulating Excessive Wealth
4. Inflicting Poverty
5. Drug Trafficking and Consumption
6. Morally Debatable Experiments
7. Violation of Fundamental Rights of Human Nature
What do you think of the new list?
Is there any point in making these lists at all?
Why do we all know about the original '7 Deadly Sins' but no one knows about the 7 Virtues?
On March 9th, 2008 Bishop Gianfranco Girotti published 7 new sins on behalf of the Vatican. Of course many of us are familiar with the '7 Deadly Sins' as listed by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century. There are also '7 Cardinal Virtues' which counteract the sins.
.jpg)
The original Sins and Virtues are:
1. Lust - Chastity
2. Gluttony - Temperance
3. Greed - Charity
4. Sloth - Diligence
5. Wrath - Forgiveness
6. Envy - Kindness
7. Pride - Humility
Apparently, thinking that we didn't already have enough lists, the Vatican has now supplied us with this new list of sins for a new era:
1. Environmental Pollution
2. Genetic Manipulation
3. Accumulating Excessive Wealth
4. Inflicting Poverty
5. Drug Trafficking and Consumption
6. Morally Debatable Experiments
7. Violation of Fundamental Rights of Human Nature
What do you think of the new list?
Is there any point in making these lists at all?
Why do we all know about the original '7 Deadly Sins' but no one knows about the 7 Virtues?
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