(PsuedoNews Wire) – A recent article in The Watley Review, titled Homeland Security to Rely on Dinosaur Patrols, announces how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to direct “a substantial portion of its funding into genetic engineering research and development, in order to create a custom security force to be activated by 2014.” That security force, a.k.a. The Jurassic Defense Network, is made up entirely of dinosaurs that will be genetically engineered from amber encapsulated DNA (just like in the movie).
It reminds me of my friend, Oriondark, who has this theory about where the dinosaurs came from. My friend is an intelligent, well educated, and metrosexual kind of guy. With all seriousness he told us this summer that he thinks that the dinosaurs are trash from the future. That is, man invents them years from now — perhaps for purposes similar to those given in the Watley article — but then becomes overwhelmed with the task of disposing of them after they die. You can just imagine how hard it would be to bury a Brontosaurus. In response to the crowded landfills and growing stench, man uses the invention of time travel to transport the dinosaur carcasses back into the prehistoric past. Fascinating theory, is it not?
Over the last couple months there have been some hot topics debated on John Lennon in the College Tower, which is a blog run by a former member of our church who has recently graduated college and gone out into the world on his own. I keep up with him via his blog and have taken an interest in offering my perspective on several of the discussions.
Around the same time another frequenter of John’s blog suggested that I read an article in The New Pantagruel about worldviews. Below is a brief excerpt from Further Scandal: Christian College Professor Doesn’t Teach from a Christian Worldview.
I am now into my third year of teaching English at Huntington College, a member institution of the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities. Because of where I teach, students, parents, and administrators take it for granted that I will teach from a Christian worldview. But what does teaching from a Christian worldview mean? Is it my task to critique every work of literature from some doctrinal perspective? Do I say of Edith Wharton’s novella Ethan Frome that it presents from a naturalistic worldview the struggles of a man against his social isolation through his desires for his wife’s cousin? Do I then contrast naturalism to biblical theism and say that Wharton, for her naturalism (or her secular humanism, if one prefers), falls short of Christian belief, and therefore a proper response is a rejection of her ethos? I am very disinclined to let students evade the issues the text raises by dismissing it as stemming from a naturalistic worldview. I am more inclined to discuss how Wharton creates her fictional world and let students process for themselves how truthful they find that world to be. Worldview criticism too often depends on facile labeling that makes a work’s artistry mere window-dressing for amateur philosophizing.
While I did not respond in print to Jerah’s prodding, I did have a discussion with some friends and passed on the link. Below is one of the emailed responses that I received.
I did track down that article by the English prof – I was struck by a lot of his thinking/definitions/connections as well. But, perhaps the thing that struck me most was his semi-explicit notion that all truth and/or all knowledge of that truth are conceived and constructed in the mind/heart of the individual. (Of course, very “post-modern”, so in that sense not so surprising, but …) He later goes on to expand that out to allow for environmental elements and such to shape one’s understanding, perception, and knowledge (and ability to know) truth. What strikes me is how utterly far removed he, a professor a Christian college, is from even an inkling of the necessary role of revelation in knowing with confidence truth, much less that truth is there to be known.
The above pretty much sums up what I think about the article, so I leave you with just that rather than try to say it in my own words. If you choose to comment on this post, I recommend that you read the entire article.
Clifton, who is by far the most prolific blogger on Chattablogs, is considering setting limits on his time spent in the blogosphere. He makes some interesting points about the pitfalls of blogging.
It’s not so much a matter of stewardship of time. Though it may not look like it, I neither take time away from my family, nor infringe on my work time illegitimately. (Hint: think early morning/late night writing into a word-processor, then cutting and pasting. Some stuff is ad hoc, but less so now than used to be the case.)
No, it’s just a nagging feeling I have. One that keeps coming back from time to time. I should not blog as much as I do, sez that inner voice.
In certain ways, there has become a sort of self-absorption about the whole thing. It’s one thing to like what you’ve written in terms of content and structure. But it’s a whole ‘nother thing to reread that post for the umpteenth time and revel in it’s (to me) deliciousness. Something very Gollum-like going on here. And that disturbs me.
While I try not to let my blogging take away from my family and work time, I must confess that here I am well past my bedtime. Over the long haul that sleep deprivation must be taking its toll. I have also observed the narcissistic attitude in myself and others in blogland. Maybe Clifton is onto something? Perhaps the server outages at Chattablogs have been good for people? Check out the full post here.
I thought I would pass along another Free iPod testimonial to anyone considering signing up via the link on my blog. The brother-in-law of a friend of mine just got his Free iPod. You can read about it here and here. I now have eight people signed up under Free iPods, but no offers completed except for my own. I need five to complete an offer for me to be eligible to get a Free iPod.
Previous Free iPod posts on this blog can be found here and here. Thanks for your interest and assistance!
An hour ago I was pulling up listings from Chattablogs, a local free blog host that also operates in other markets (e.g., Atlblogs, Seattleblogs). Now all I get is “Cannot find server or DNS Error.” They have been under increasing spam attacks lately, which have caused significant downtimes to either the whole system or the ability to comment. The owners have upgraded to the latest version of Movable Type, as well as migrated everything to a new server.
I guess for all my complaints about Blogger sometimes being slow, at least I can be thankful that I am not being plagued by nasty denial of service attacks. I sure hope that this gets straightened out soon, as I have recommended them to several friends and acquaintences.