First there was the Great Courses Geology course that changed me from young earth to old earth, then there was astrophysicist Hugh Ross to see what God was doing over such a long period of time, then Stephen Meyer to see it from a more biological level. Now there is The Russell Carlson podcast to see what He did just 11 to 14,000 years ago. Here’s an introduction:
I watched this video because we’re thinking of road tripping to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I didn’t know I didn’t know about what happened to the Edmund Fitzgerald. 😢
I stumbled upon a Source Code (2011) on Amazon Prime while looking for a good Jake Gyllenhaal movie, which it is. Made me nostalgic for the America and values we thought we had 11 years ago.
During the q&a of this informative lecture
someone asked if melting glaciers would increase the weight of the ocean, causing it to subside and get deeper. The lecturer said that is logical, and not something he’s read, but that he thinks tectonic movement of the ocean plates changes the shape of the basins more dramatically.
Therefore, the oceans could create more room for melting glaciers. We don’t understand all the movements and changes of the earth to accurately predict such things. And we can’t say that the way lower levels of shorelines were due to glacier displacement either. They seem to be finding that tectonics are responsible for many features rather than uniformitarian water movement alone.
“Your life is not an audition for the afterlife”
YouTube just showed me an ad for a new movie, An Interview with God. Fear of hubris, error, prelest, presumption, idolatry, and self-projection keep most of us from writing such a thing. And talking about God in general. But these attempts maybe also get people thinking, inquiring, and maybe finding a little.
Anyway, the aforementioned was one of God’s statements in the movie. This struck me as being opposed to my recent considerations that the fear of God is more than it is sometimes cracked up to be.
It sort of depends where you are. If you are in the throws of rejection, then thinking about God’s judgment can be intolerable. And Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God has probably caused lots of neuroses, and rejection of Christianity. But the above goes too far in the opposite direction.
I was recently struggling with how to think about how God thinks of me, not enjoying the presumption he thinks I’m adorable. Then I was reminded of a painful sin, and I was humbled. And a little afraid. Then I thought that He does not want me to think He’s mad, but to put a little space of unknowing between us. I’ve confessed and repented, but I cannot definitively say it does not matter anymore. No one can, even if offended parties try to say so. Who knows the cosmic damage? We can hope it will all work for good, but we cannot Cromwell-style slash and burn and with abandonment joyfully believe it is all God’s will.
So it is better for my mental health to neither assume reward nor punishment, but to pray with respect for His holiness and my lack thereof, “God be merciful to me a sinner”, now and in the afterlife.
Read the rest of this entry »I’ve been busy with home and new Weatherford Church improvements. In searching for a way to deal with my yellow stained limestone, I came across Romabio lime wash, which also works on brick in which the Church is clad in a dreary tan since the 60’s. The fun thing about this wash is that you can spray or rub it off to let the masonry show through in places.
I ordered a sample quart in Riposo beige to just cover some stains at home and get used to working with it. My plan is to later go over it with white and rub that off to let some of the beige show through instead of my stains.
I used the diluted liter on a backyard wall and then the stains on my fireplace. Here’s before:
After cleaning with soap, water, sprayer, and brush, which combination we hadn’t yet tried 😔:
And after:
I experimented with washing and rubbing some off but am not doing that step with this application. I’m looking forward to seeing how it will look with white wash, but that will have to wait till after we do the Church.
*Addendum: the wash is lightening as it dries:
I hope the Sequoias, redwoods, and countless other trees from there to Texas don’t all die in this heat and drought. Lord have mercy on them and all of the animals and people who love them.
I have wondered why people don’t seem to panic as they get old as they inevitably advance toward their ever nearing death. But as I approach my 56th birthday I’m wondering if it takes the length of our lives to slowly get used to the idea. When a (relatively) young person says they are not ready to die, this implies that they eventually will be when they have aged enough, to use wine and cheese terms.
It sounds morbid to say that from our earliest consciousness we should have the mindset that we need to be readying ourselves for death. Morbidness depends on what death is. Meeting your maker sounds like a responsible thing to do, like visiting your grandparents.
So should young people not fear death? They usually have the opposite problem by feeling indestructible. They do fear social death though. That also takes a while to get ready for. But we like it that children live so in the moment and that they give themselves wholly to their circle. Perhaps the art of aging is expanding your circle to include what is behind the veil. This puts a different perspective on the immediate without negating or escaping it. We can’t force this capacity on people though. God is not afraid of taking his time, which young earthers need to get over.
I hesitate to use The Boy as an example of icon veneration because it is a horror film.
The first movie is an example of icon veneration, the sequel, Brahms, The Boy 2, is an example of icon worship.
I would explain, but I don’t feel like spoiling it.
I will just say being motivated solely out of fear of wrath is what makes it wrong. That and an unworthy person or object.
One thing brought out by an expert psychologist in the Depp case was that Borderline Personality sufferers do not have do not have a sense of identity and thus mimic other people’s identity. Aspergers also mimic people, but it stems from a disconnect from social interaction rather than self.
Aspergers typically like to be alone so that they don’t have to deal with the constant confusion and the feeling of woeful inadequacy. Borderlines depend much more on leaching from other people’s identity in person. Aspergers can be needy too though as the lack of connected interaction creates a vacuum that is painful. Before coming to terms with the fact that the interaction deficit can’t be fixed an Aspie may latch on to one person at a time to experiment with filling the missing link. Usually it’s a special interest that fills it best. Some can find fulfillment in their non human area of focus (nurses can focus on systems), but others can just use it as an effective distraction from the ever present empty feeling. The furrowed eyebrows on Temple Grandin’s face can be from grief from disconnectedness as well as the effort of concentrated coping, her enthusiasm for animal behavior not withstanding.
Seeing your own behavior as stemming from a disorder instead of individual quirckyness is disorienting to one’s sense of identity. But it feels more like ugly duckling syndrome than cancer. It is like speaking a foreign language that no one else speaks. Aspies do get each other but it’s more like orphans getting each other than feeling connected.
Aspies have relationships of course but I think maybe they are built on faith rather than sight. Therefore the people with whom they entrust themselves must be faithful and trustworthy, and Aspies need to realize that is a pretty demanding requirement. When let down or if the other person can’t handle it all, Aspies, also like Borderlines, can fall into splitting: idealization followed by vilification. Aren’t the people who pass by evil, and what about the Good Samaritan who just dumps you at the hospital? So you develop a hospice mentality. Try to be cheerful, realize people are doing their best and look beyond.
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