Jan 09

TED Talk: Atheism 2.0

This is a fun TED talk. He is describing what can be learned from religion’s methods, even if you do not believe anything about religion (even if you don’t believe in God). He describes the tools and strategies of religion that ‘we’/culture can, and should, adopt.

http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_atheism_2_0#t-926345

(I am certainly not an atheist.)

I think the talk may be useful for those of faith. It reminds us of our strengths. We can learn from this. For example, about human nature.

He does include Charles Wesly.

I find it interesting that he mentions (in the 1800’s I believe) people were leaving the European church in large numbers and looking for ways to get (1) morality, (2) guidance, and (3) consolation from culture (from places other than the church). This would imply that these three are fundamental human needs.

OK, I liked it too because he has an English accent, pronouncing ‘either’ with a long i.

Jan 07

John Wooden (and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)

John Wooden was a great man and a great coach. He won, as men’s basketball coach at UCLA, 10 national titles in 12 years. Yet, developing young men was more of his focus. This blog post points to some things we can learn from ‘The Wizard of Westwood’ and some pictures.

Wooden’s Pyramid of Success is something I had/used as a young coach in the 1980’s.   

 Pyramid webpage ~ Main website.

He lived from 1910 to 2010. Here’s a blog post. I love the picture of (old-age) Wooden and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Jabbar (of course) went on to win multiple NBA titles.  He has become an influential and positive force/advocate in our society since. He can be found on Twitter.

Google will take you to many more resources and informationa about John Wooden and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Jan 06

History repeats itself

We regularly hear and see on the news of terrorists killing people.  Just today I saw a story http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/police_in_oslo_norway_proclaim_oslo_is_lost.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

About how a violent and outside element has ‘taken’ over a neighborhood.

There have been many examples of ‘terrorism’ in various forms throughout the history of humankind.  In each case, the rest of humankind needed to step in and put a stop to it.

I’m not a historian, but I’ll try to list a few:

  • Visigoths were ruthless attackers.  This didn’t mean that everyone in the Germanic tribes were cruel, but some were.  Their actions/methods needed to be stopped.
  • Crusaders.  This didn’t mean that all Christians were killing based on their beliefs, but some were.  Their actions/methods needed to be stopped.
  • The Mafia (e.g., from Chicago) killed to gain and maintain power and wealth. This didn’t mean that all Italians and people from Sicily  killed in cold blood, but some were.  Their actions/methods needed to be stopped.
  • Ditto for the drug dealers in Mexico.

In each case they trained ‘their own’ from their own – from their own families and groups and those that held the same beliefs.

When Muslims* kill it doesn’t mean all Muslims are evil, but some are. For the ones that are terrorists, their actions/methods needed to be stopped.

*Or fill in the blank with any other group from which a group emerges that uses violence and killing to achieve their ends.

Jan 02

1 Chronicles 29 

The following go together, and you can’t have one without the other:1. Rejoicing in God (being thankful, but much more)

2. Willing, sacrificial, and joyful giving. 1 Chr 29:9

3. Glorifying God.

The People and David showed this in 1 Chronicles 29.

From Crawford Loritts’ March 1, 2015 message at

 http://www.moodyradio.org/Living-a-Legacy/2015/03-01-2015—A-Willing-Sacrifice,-Part-1/ 

(2 Chorinthians 9:7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.)

In part 2 (Mar. 8), Crawford gives four applications and his conclusion is 

Life was given to us in order for us to give our lives back to God to be a showcase for his Glory.

This is from Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Dec 31

Walk: worthy of calling, in love, as light, in wisdom

Ephesians 4: 1 …walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called…

Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us

Ephesians 5:8 …Walk as children of light…

Ephesians 5:15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Dec 29

What the Bible Says About the Bible

Dec 24

CS Lewis Quotes

http://m.deseretnews.com/top/2152/0/10-amazing-Christmas-quotes-from-C-S-Lewis.html?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fm.deseretnews.com%2Ftop%2F2152%2F0%2F10-amazing-Christmas-quotes-from-C-S-Lewis.html%3Fref%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2Fh5CDTXF7Rd%253Fref%253Dhttp%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2Fh5CDTXF7Rd​

Dec 21

How to detect Bullsh*t, Open-mindedness, Critical thinking, and Universal Intellectual Standards

This author is pretty complete, yet succinct, on this.

How to detect Bullshit (including your own) – (the rest come from/linked from here)

7 ways to cultivate Open-mindedness

9 steps to develop Critical thinking

and the 8 Universal Intellectual Standards

Dec 17

Prudence, balance, thought, and Christianity

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/19/3-tips-for-a-more-civil-conversation-about-syrian-refugees/
Mollie Hemingway offers 3 suggestions regarding the Syrian refugee issue.  The piece ends up looking at Christian beliefs – for good reason. She makes many good points, all of which I will not try to summarize here.

One take-away (near the end of the article) is that the answer to the question “What should we do?” has two answers. The answer of what the government should do is different from what people and churches should so. The mission trips, mission activities, and UMCOR relief efforts are key, and don’t need to pass Congress.

Dec 14

The Athenians & the Visigoths

The Athenians & the Visigoths speech written by Neil Postman (written as a graduation speech).

Text: http://bit.ly/1lHh5y4
Audio: https://youtu.be/YtjjFmCxc8s

Four quotes (there are many others) emphasis is mine:

among their [Athenian] values none stood higher than that in all things one should strive for excellence. They believed in reason. They believed in beauty. They believed in moderation. And they invented the word and the idea which we know today as ecology.

To contemplate, to reason, to experiment, to question—these are, to an Athenian, the most exalted activities a person can perform.

Athenians place great value on tradition, social restraint, and continuity.

it is much harder to be an Athenian, for you must learn how to be one, you must work at being one, whereas we are all, in a way, natural-born Visigoths.