GroshLink

Theresa, Tom, Eden, and Carl had a sneak peak of the place this afternoon while basement work began w/a flurry. See a few more here. We'll have additional pics the next couple of days, but right now we have to head out the door for an opportunity to get to know our "new" community a little better.

The house is being set in place. Here's some pics. A couple more are posted and a few more will be posted in the next hour or 2.

There were only 128 seats in Georgetown's McShain Lounge. And with 19 minutes until start time they were mostly taken. With 13 minutes until start time one of the coordinators of the event asked non-students to move into the back to give space for students and as the crowd became standing room only, I saw the speaker slip into the front row and not too long after that Kevin Offner, InterVarsity's Graduate and Faculty Minister in D.C., made his way to the front. A quick count revealed over 70 people standing and students began to fill in spaces on the floor at the foot of the speaker. What's the buzz about being Simply Christian?

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House to be set tomorrow morning. Work begins around 7:30am :-) More pics tomorrow.

Why is it that the world over people have believed in a God, a super God? Why do we believe in anything? Why believe in superhuman agents (gods)? Why is there a naturalness to religious belief? About 160 people packed in Stahr Auditorium at F&M to learn about the relatively new field of the cognitive science of religion from Justin Barrett, author of Why Would Anyone Believe in God? and Senior Research Fellow for the new Centre for Cognition and Culture which will support a multi-disciplinary research project on the Cognitive Science of Religion at the University of Oxford's School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. Here are some notes:

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Dear Friends, Thank-you to those which helped me warm-up. As you've gathered from House Arrived we've been swamped, the house will be set tomorrow. Thank-you for helping me prepare, some responses are forthcoming.

What a busy day w/phone calls regarding a possible source of fill, the skeptics forum presentation on Wednesday, friends dropping by (Jen, Great to see Trevor. You missed the house delivery by minutes!), Don Kraybill's presentations on the Amish showing on PCNTV sometime toward the end of the month or early next . . . heading out to meet a new friend in ministry ("Hi, Joel!") and an old friend in ministry ("Hi, Terry!") as we listen to Justin Barrett's research regarding "Why Would Anyone Believe in God?" at F&M.

Wow! Grandpa Ginder was all over it. Gave us a call a few minutes after delivery. Looking forward to having the house set on Thursday morning. And then off for a few days of ministry in 'da Burgh, see http://www.u-connectpgh.org for some of the events.

How the Amish Tame Technology

Over 80 of us crammed in the Bucher Meetinghouse at Elizabethtown College with the lights of PCNTV.com focused on Don Kraybill as he sought to unravel why and how the Amish, like no other religious group, challenge/tame technology. So how is it done? Not just the forbidding of entertainment technology like a fundamentalist Christian or Islamic group (or family) or the Sabbath prohibitions of a Hasidic group. And not the violent countercultural actions of Luddites, but the daily interaction with the strong and powerful influences of the march of progress?

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Just a quick note by a proud Mama to say that Eden pulled herself up onto her feet at the sofa today. She won't earn a perfect 10 on the execution, but she did it :)

Back to the Grove! So great to see friends that had disappeared, such as Jason Berry (and meet his wife Angela), and see friends that we had stayed in touch w/but hadn't seen for a decade, Hi! to Angel and Chris and your 4 amazing kids! We also had lots of time w/those we've seen the most . . . Janine and Byrn, Marcy & Arlan, Libby, Peter and Becky, and the Baileys to name a few. Hoping to stay in touch more w/so many of you (and have you over when the house is finished).

How about Arlan, the honorary member of the class, carrying the banner w/Ethan (Grunden) and one of our student helpers! Here's a couple of other pics. By-the-way, I'd love to post some pics of your family and/or your great homecoming pics in my "friends are like family" section. Please forward them my direction via email.

Congrats to Starry and Justin for their engagment, wish we would have had some time to catch-up at the IVMF reunion :-)

PS. Here's a link to a pic of Trevor James Brandt. Just heard Stephanie (Fleming) Coyer had her 3rd son, Samuel, on Sept 4 and that Robin (Jueschke) Smith is expecting. Missed you at homecoming :( If you haven't already, check Peter and Becky (Dunbar) Bowersox's blog for updates on the kids they're adopting from Liberia.

About 80 people nearly filled F&M's Stahr Auditorium to participate in a thoughtful and sympathetic reflections led by Ted Davis, History and Philosophy Science at Messiah College. Ted lives 15 miles from the federal courthouse in Harrisburg and 15 miles from Dover. And he put aside a number of other responsibilites to provide commentary of the Dover case, because he owed it to himself and his profession (note: he believes that he was the only academic to attend more than 1 day of the trial, to sit among an audience largely comprised of journalists), as "the trial was fundamentally about my own discipline, history and philosophy of science." In addition to attending 4 out of the 12 days of the trial, Ted followed transcripts and reviewed press coverage. So according to Ted, what is Intelligent Design (ID) and what can we learn from the recent trial (fyi: my notes are below, here's an audiofile for the presentation from the F&M Philosophy Department's Event Website)

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Below is a piece I wrote while engaging a CMU alum on the topic Is God Good? The original piece and subsequent conversation covers quite a lot of territory, touching on some of the topics which have been raised (evil, Canannite genocide, placing God on the dock). I intend to try to come back and address specific questions, but thought I'd get this posted as I was thinking of stripping down the piece and using it for my 15 minute introduction.

I look forward to your suggestions on tightening up the direction of thought, counter-arguments, and your own reflections. Also, keep posting on Skeptic's Night Warm-up, the posts are getting the mental gears in motion. They've stirred me to begin paging through the 779 page The New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics (IVP, 2006), in which I've found a quite helpful overview of apologetics and a number of articles addressing particular questions.

'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'

Henri Blocher begins 'Evil and the Cross' with these words, 'While it is evil that tortures human bodies, it is the problem of evil that torments the human mind . . . resists our unremitting efforts to understand it. Our intelligence stumbles and becomes irritated or dispirited, or perhaps even tries to avoid the real issue.' I have found this true in my life. It was not only been the abstract presence of evil/brokenness in creation that drew me out of 'my own world' and into the Biblical Story, but also a list of perceived, and some real, injustices including the loss of Elise Faith after 8 days in the neonatal unit.

 

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Redemptive Tales from the Tragedy at Nickel Mines. Theresa and I had the opportunity to hear Don Kraybill's, senior fellow and interim director Elizabethtown College's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, stirring reflections on the many religious and cultural expressions of love and good will from both Amish and their English neighbors during the past week, which seemed to him a much longer time as his center has been in almost 24/7 contact w/the media since the shooting. After fielding some questions and comments, he invited Eli, a member of the Amish community, to share in handling some additional questions with him (a sacred moment as channel 21's cameras went strangely dim in this media obsessed culture of ours). Below are some notes which I took from his presentation. I attempted to make them readable, so in some places these are not his exact words. May you find them an encouragement. Please post questions, insights, responses . . . If you're not in the Lancaster area, I'm particularly interested in how the media has covered the events and the metatheme of forgiveness in your area.

Note: if you're in the area, we'd love have you to join us for his Amish Life and Culture Lecture Series: October 17, 8pm, From Buggy to the Byte: How the Amish Tame Technology; October 24, 8pm, From Plows to Profits: The Rise of Amish Business; October 31 8pm, Bush Fever: The Amish and the 2004 Election; November 9, 7:30pm, Horse and Buggy Mennonites: Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World. Hope to see you there (and maybe we can arrange to have some additional conversation before or after a lecture)! Onto the presentation,

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Like every proud Mama, I like to share stories of my adorable kid. She's much more adorable now that she's finally getting over 2 weeks of illness. She was so chatty and happy today--a real joy to be around . . .

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I wanted to weigh in with my 2 cents concerning public school fundraisers, see Will Work for School Supplies . I do make the distinction between public and private school fundraisers. I'm not a huge fan of either, but at least I can understand better the financial needs of some private schools.

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and grandparents do to prepare our children and grandchildren to be responsible adults and God-fearing men and women? Thank-you for the question June! Here's the beginning of a response, incomplete as it reflects thoughts laregley on the high school to college transition. I have more to say from the perspective of parenting Hayley, Ellen, and Eden, but that will have to wait another day. Feel free to respond/probe further. I would highly value some of your insights on this topic.

Did you see the recent NY Times piece, Evangelicals fear the loss of their teenagers? I believe that many rightly fear the loss of youth. Why do so many go astray when they reach college, b/c they have not come face-to-face w/the God who is -- particularly through the daily life of their community of faith and family as they reproduce the likeness of Christ in our world. Growing up religious, means for most what Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton term moralistic therapeutic deism in Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.

Simply put, moralistic therapeutic deism is . . .

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Take a moment to visit Peter and Becky's blog to learn about (or be updated on) their children Garty, Patience, and Joshua. In particularly pray for healing for

1. Garty, who has pneumonia and appears to have malaria

2. Becky, who has a nasty case of poison oak that has made her arms very painful, swollen, and barely able to bend.

Lord God, merciful Father, care for the little ones. Watch over them in all their innocence. Guard, guide, protect. They are so vulnerable in this world gone awry. Famine, violence, and abuse abound. They have no shield, no defense. Be their shield, O Lord. Be their defense. El Shaddai, send your holy angels to protect the children. Protect them as they skip down the street. Protect them as they play on the school grounds. Protect them as they sleep through the night. Protect them from all physical harm. Protect them from all emotional harm. Protect them from all spiritual harm. Keep them from the influence of the evil one: from evil friendships, from evil thoughts, from evil acts [And be with those such as Peter and Becky through whom you act in this creation. Provide them with vision, direction, and strength. May they be your model, you light, your presence]. This I ask in the strong name of Jesus who always welcomed the little ones into his presence. Amen.

Intelligent Design on Trial

-Ted Davies (Messiah College), Thursday, Oct. 12, 7:30pm, Stahr Auditorium, Stager Hall, F&M. Ted is a very highly respected historian of science who will talk about various aspects of the ID issue, providing a rare, balanced treatment.

Why Would Anyone Believe in God

-Justin Barrett (Oxford): Monday, Oct. 23, 4:30, Stager 102, Stager Hall, F&M. Justin is a cognitive psychologist who has done groundbreaking work showing how our minds are structured in such a way that we are naturally inclined to form beliefs about the reality of a God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and good.

This work has captured the attention of many secular scholars as well. They use it to argue that our brains simply trick us into religious belief (in fact, Richard Dawkins will release a book, The God Delusion, the week before Justin comes that will use some of his work to argue for that very conclusion!). Justin of course thinks that it shows how God has structured the human mind to make belief in God natural for his creatures. A very brilliant fellow and an extremely engaging speaker.

IVCF-Dickinson has invited me to take the stage on their annual Skeptic's Night Fourm on Wednesday, October 25. Please take a moment to post some questions that you'd bring to the table (those of your own or of your friends), if had the opportunity to probe Why follow Christ? Why Christianity? Can't you see, you're making all of this up (or being duped by someone or some structure) for some particular end? I think you get the drift. Fire away and I'll do my best to post some thoughts/responses.

In addition, please pray for

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an ear infection, cold, fever, etc for about 2 weeks. Please pray for her recovery (and that she'll not continue waking up at 6:10am or earlier). Her next primary care physician appointment will be on October 31. Her next MRI and visit w/her neurologist (lead physician) at Hershey Medical Center will be on November 13.

10/11/06 Update: Eden is over her infection. She almost finished w/her cold. Yeah! Hopefully we're not onto the next one.

getting ready for the Friday delivery of the I-Beam.

they leave, I do not render people directly, rather, I investigate the evidence of their presence. Nature is something alive and ever changing, is infinite in space and in time, exists everywhere, and is often engulfing and inescapable. By indirectly placing humans in nature, I attempt to isolate and allegorize the void between them.

My personal interaction with nature is through the role of a traveler. I prefer the temporal, flowing, and portable, and embrace the grandeur, fantasy and mystery of an arrival at a new destination.

So begins the artist statement of a CMU alum whose pieces I [Tom] have particularly found provoking. Take some time to enjoy Sarah's Chautauqua Dialogues.

continues to receive significant attention in the media. Some may remember my excerpt from A Bridge Far Enough. Recently he's been featured in the Washington Post, Evangelical Author Puts Progressive Spin On Traditional Faith. If you're not familar w/him, I'd encourage you read this piece. Which begins:

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1. grad students to hear about and find their way to the Ephesians Grad Bible Study on Tuesday, October 3. The study will be facilitated by Jean, my undergrad staff from the days at 'the Grove,' and Don, a Computer Science lecturer at CMU. I heard good reports from the first 2 sessions.

2. Roger, Pitt grad student, and Rick, Pastor of Beverly Heights Church, as they press forward with starting a Mark Bible Study for grad students on Wednesday, October 4.

3. Amy, CMU grad student, as she leads a weekly prayer gathering at CMU

4. Oct 13-15 and 26-29 visits to Pittsburgh to connect w/students and faculty, in particularly the smooth running of both an undergrad and a grad/faculty conference w/which I'll participate during the later visit.

5. continued emergence of faith-vocation conversation which leads to witness among students and faculty

Not very much, when you look at our DNA. But those few tiny changes made all the difference in the world This frontpage Time Magazine piece concludes: For most of us, though, it's the grand question about what it is that makes us human that renders comparative genome studies so compelling. As scientists keep reminding us, evolution is a random process in which haphazard genetic changes interact with random environmental conditions to produce an organism somehow fitter than its fellows. After 3.5 billion years of such randomness, a creature emerged that could ponder its own origins--and revel in a Mozart adagio. Within a few short years, we may finally understand precisely when and how that happened.

Sorry. I don't find the continual retelling of the random process creation myth and our ability to pinpoint the significant events in this process compelling. Looking forward to what Justin Barrett has to say in a few weeks.