paul del signore May 8th, 2008
Friday Photo
I’ve taken a bunch of pictures lately, but have not been too happy with the results. I think I’m getting too critical of my shots; like I have high expectations. Anyway, this one is pulled from the archives. I really dig the blue door here.
It’s my birthday this month and I have my eye on a sweet lens… the sigma 10-20mm. I’m looking forward to shooting wide.
paul del signore May 7th, 2008
I should preface this post by defining a couple of terms, and where I stand in my beliefs. First off, I do consider myself an ID (Intelligent Design) proponent, and largely because I believe that God designed/designs his creation. However, I am not a creationist in a strict sense (7 days and a young earth). I am also open to the possibility that God uses evolution in his design building.
Regarding most of the evolution/creation debates I’ve heard, I don’t believe the terms are defined appropriately, but that’s another post for another day.
Why I am not a strict creationist?
Here is a strong argument that convinced me against the strict creationist position, and I still have not found a good response to this. Let’s consider the spider….
The vast majority of spiders follow the same basic killing and feeding procedure. The spider’s primary weapon is its chelicerae, a pair of jointed jaws in front of the mouth. Each jaw has two major parts: the basal segment, the bulk of the jaw, and the sharp fang housed inside of it. Normally, the fang is retracted inside the basal segment. When the spider catches its prey, it swings the fangs out into the animal’s body. The fangs work something like hypodermic needles. They have a small hole in the tip and a hollow duct inside. The duct leads to the venom gland, either inside the basal segment or farther back in the cephalothorax. When the spider pierces its prey with the fang, it squeezes out the venom, injecting the animal with enough neurotoxin to paralyze or kill. This makes it safe for the spider to feed on its prey, without the risk of a struggle.
Now, the spider’s body is designed to create neurotoxin, it’s system is designed to create intricate web structures to trap it’s prey. There is nothing about the makeup of the spider that would suggest otherwise.
Did the spider exist in the pre-fall garden?
There are only two possible explanations to this, and both oppose the strict creationist viewpoint:
1. The spider was designed as a predator before the fall, therefore animal death was a part of God’s original design. Strict creationists tend to deny any pre-fall death.
2. The spider evolved from a completely different biological structure; an evolution that would entail cross-species at the least. Also, this would suggest that the effects of the fall acted intelligently as to design a killing machine. Again, something a strict creationist would deny.
no offense to the strict creationists, I love you guys just the same. I am not sure myself, which of the two explanations makes the most sense, but I don’t think that strict creationism best addresses this dilemma.
paul del signore May 5th, 2008
I’ve been participating in the fishbowl (fshbwl), which is a new online Christian community. Pastor Joe, who is one of the admins has been nice enough to post some of my blogs as fishfood for discussion.
check out the fshbwl for some interesting Christian dialog.
paul del signore May 2nd, 2008
If you are a Christian, you may have been asked the following question:
“So, are you one of those born again types?”
I don’t care much for categories, because people are far too complex to be stereotyped. Instead of telling people I am a Christian, I prefer Jesus follower, and instead of using the term Gospel, I prefer Jesus message. Maybe this isn’t the best approach, but sometimes words carry a lot of baggage.
It is unfortunate that ‘born-again Christian‘ gets a bad rap in our culture today. There is something very powerful about that metaphor.
New Life and the Seed
Sometimes, there is this misconception that being a Christ follower is all about information. So, becoming a Christian is having heard an evangelist, accepted some information, and then the rest of your life is trying real hard to conform to that message. But, the picture from scripture is much more organic. Having heard this Jesus message, a Christian is likened to having a seed implanted in them. It is the beginning of new life.
Interestingly, a seed doesn’t grow on it’s own. It needs water, proper soil, and care. Essentially it needs the proper environment. I wonder if there are many people who have this internal potential of becoming great, but cannot do so because of their environment. How often has my Christian life become stagnant, and maybe the answer to growing again is to change my environment; perhaps to serve somewhere and allow that to shape me.
Nevertheless, I must remember that although the seed within me receives water and soil, God makes it grow. And although there are seasons of stagnation, it is an everlasting growth… imperishable.
paul del signore April 30th, 2008
The band Over The Rhine was recommended to me in the past, but I could never connect with them. Although I liked their lyrics, their music has always been a bit too mellow and seemed to hang on the minor tones a bit too long for my taste. That is, until I heard their recent release “The Trumpet Child.”
Trumpet Child has a jazz/blues edge to it, with a diversity of different horn instruments, valve trombones, hand percussion, and acoustic stings that help enhance the different moods. The opening track “Don’t Wanna Waste Your Time” has some nice horn fills, and “Trouble” adds depth with a nice European dance flare which makes you feel like you are sipping cappuccino in a French cafe. Karin Bergquist has an incredible voice with a mix of cabaret + jazz + folk styles; a Norah Jones meets Ella blend. Her voice carries the music throughout, and you can tell she’s really having fun with the songs. I would say her voice is the first thing that caught my interest in the overall sound.
Trumpet Child has a unique selection of songs to which I would dare you to try to categorize. You can actually listen to the whole album in it’s entirety on their website (Just launch the player to listen). btw, more bands should do this — it shows a confidence that the music would still sell, even though it’s fully available to listen online.
Lyrics from The Trumpet Child:
The trumpet child will blow his horn
Will blast the sky till it’s reborn
With Gabriel’s power and Satchmo’s grace
He will surprise the human race
The trumpet he will use to blow
Is being fashioned out of fire
The mouthpiece is a glowing coal
The bell a burst of wild desire
The trumpet child will riff on love
Thelonious notes from up above
He’ll improvise a kingdom come
Accompanied by a different drum
The trumpet child will banquet here
Until the lost are truly found
A thousand days, a thousand years
Nobody knows for sure how long
The rich forget about their gold
The meek and mild are strangely bold
A lion lies beside a lamb
And licks a murderer’s outstretched hand
The trumpet child will lift a glass
His bride now leaning in at last
His final aim to fill with joy
The earth that man all but destroyed
paul del signore April 29th, 2008
There once was an innocent man who was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. He was sent to the local prison and was sentenced to stay there for five years.
While he was there, he overheard the other prisoners planning a prison break. However, the plan included killing a guard in order to reach the outer prison gates for the escape. The innocent man did not involve himself in the plan for he was a righteous man and did not want to commit murder.
When the night of the prison break finally arrived, the prisoners made their escape. They killed the guard and headed for the outer gates. However, the gate structure had electrical wiring, something they weren’t expecting, and so the prisoners had to retreat in disarray. It was a failed attempt.
The prison sheriff was a ruthless man, and he was extremely angry at the death of his best guard. He lined up all the prisoners and demanded that the one who murdered the guard step forward. When no one did, he threatened to kill each prisoner one by one until the murderer revealed himself. The prisoners stood frozen in fear. When the sheriff was just about to shoot the first prisoner, the innocent man stood forward. The guards took the innocent man and they beat him to death.
That evening, when the prisoners returned to their cells, they knelt down and repented of their sins, for they had experienced the love of an innocent man who cared enough about them to die in their place.
paul del signore April 27th, 2008
Friday Photo
Hope comes in small surprises.
I know I’m a little late late with a Friday photo post here but I’m back from a blog sabbatical and wanted to get this one posted. I really dig this shot.
The nice thing about stepping away from the blog is that it gave me some time to re-evaluate my blog objectives. The reason why I started blogging and why I continue to blog today is that writing helps me to formulate my thoughts. But blogs also do one thing very well… they include the element of sharing.
so, moving forward, I want to make sure to include reviews of things I find interesting, particularly in music. I do find that I listen to a variety of different music styles, so looking forward to sharing the love in that area. Hope you enjoy.
paul del signore April 27th, 2008
I’ve been thinking about how much of my life has gone digital. I suspect that this is happening in your world as well:
1. Music: I no longer buy nor will ever again buy another packaged music CD; I download all of my music.
2. Lectures: I download anything that is audio including lectures, sermons, discussions, etc…
3. Photos: My last physical photo album was 7years ago, other than some framed shots, all photos are digitally stored.
3. Newspapers: Forget it, I read all my news online.
4. Books: I do still buy printed books (on occasion), but (I hate to say this) more and more of my reading time is moving online. When I do buy an Amazon kindle… I probably will not buy printed books anymore.
5. Video: As soon as my DirectTV is able to download movies (There is a deal underway), I will no longer rent/buy movie DVDs. I can do this with Netflix today but I hate the idea of using my computer as a processor for pushing movies to my TV.
6. Educational resources: I work in education publishing… textbooks will be gone and replaced by different types of interactive media in a couple of years.
Everything I mentioned so far is physical space that has moved to digital space, and I’m not doing it because it’s cool or convenient. It’s far less expensive.
What about the unique digital realm stuff?
Like it or not, social networks are growing as the primary form of communication, Blogs are already being regarded as the new form of journalism, and e-books are growing in rapid pace. why?… because there is the added benefit of interactivity. If I read something by an author, I like the idea of being able to converse with the author. In blog form, the writing can become a conversation which is much more akin to a postmodern generation. content becomes organic as it can be converged through feeds and combined in new ways.
I understand that there is an element in the physical that is lost. I don’t think that virtual communication substitutes face-to-face relationships, but it does enhance relationships. Social networks are a supplement to relational communication much like the telephone has been in the past.
paul del signore April 15th, 2008
In 1884, Edwin Abbott wrote a book titled Flatland:A Romance of Many Dimensions and there have since been several animated features derived from the story. Let me start off this post by saying that I have not read the book, nor seen the movies, so this is not a review or critique about either. Rather, I have been intrigued by the story outline, and I would like to post about it’s relevance on how I understand God.
The story is about a two dimensional world referred to as Flatland, so the characters are squares, triangles, circles, etc… One of the characters (a square), is visited by a three-dimensional character (a sphere), who tries to teach the square what life in his higher dimension is like. Eventually, when the square tries to communicate “the sphere” and his extended properties of height (3-D) to his colleagues in Flatland, he is imprisoned for preaching heresy and speaking out against the decreed science. This story seems to resonate from Plato’s allegory of the cave, or the story of Socrates.
So, what does this have to do with God? well, speaking particularly of the Christian God, The trinitarian understanding of God is a bit odd, is it not? How is it that God can be both ‘one’ entity and yet ‘three’ persons? But that is precisely what you would expect from a God that resides in dimensions far above our own. I would argue that the Trinitarian perspective of God is plausible because it is so strange, I’m not sure why anyone would try to define God as tri-personal and then make sense of that. Unless of course, that is how God revealed himself.
Imagine if you lived in flatland, and a cube entered your world and tried to explain to you that it was ‘one entity but also contains ’six squares.’ Since your dimensional perspective is limited to two-dimensions, you would not be able to fully comprehend a cube. As C.S. Lewis states:
“On a divine level you still find personalities; but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.”
— Mere Christianity
You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (James 4:14)
...make it Sacred
