Harry Potter and Richard Dawkins

Apparently, Richard Dawkins is beginning a study on whether or not fairy tales have a negative effect on children. Read the article here.

The prominent atheist is stepping down from his post at Oxford University to write a book aimed at youngsters in which he will warn them against believing in "anti-scientific" fairytales.

Prof Dawkins said he wanted to look at the effects of "bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards".

But Prof Dawkins, the bestselling author of The God Delusion who this week agreed to fund a series of atheist adverts on London buses, added that his new book will also set out to demolish the "Judeo-Christian myth".

HT: Justin Taylor

the unexamined life

"the unexamined life is not worth living."
- socrates.

thoughts?

The Richt Family Adoption

Check out this beautiful video that was broadcasted on ESPN's Gameday. Mark Richt, Georgia's head football coach, and his wife adopted two precious kids from the Ukraine. The youngest daughter has a facial deformity but has the most incredible spirit I have ever seen. It was really cool to hear the Richt's talk about how the Lord worked in their lives. You just might shed a little tear :)



HT: Jeremy Monteith, Zach Nielsen, and Justin Taylor

Forgive 77 Times

I think one of the hardest -- yet most beautiful -- teachings in the Bible is the one about forgiveness. In Matthew 18:21, Peter asks Jesus, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Essentially, Peter wants to know when enough is enough. When do you give up on a friendship? When are you hurt so many times that it's ok to just call it quits? When you can't take it anymore?

Sometimes I find myself fighting so hard against this teaching, because it goes against everything in me. It is natural for most of us, after they are continually hurt, continually sinned against, and let down time and time again, to say they are through with it. Done with the relationship, the job, the person. It's natural for me to justify those thoughts, saying that I don't deserve that, I don't deserve that treatment; in fact, I actually deserve much better.

But the answer that Jesus gives to Peter surprises me. He tells him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy seven times." Are you kidding me? 77 times? I have to forgive someone so much for hurting me that I won't even remember the number of times I've forgiven them? This is so hard when everything in me wants to give up, to stop fighting for a friendship or for a person.

I think so highly of myself that I can trick myself into thinking that I don't do the exact same thing to everyone around me. I let people down. I don't love them. And I'm not the friend or daughter or sister to others that I demand them to be to me. That is the beauty in this teaching. While my pride gets in the way so much of the time, I have been forgiven for so much. I've been forgiven not only once for all, but millions more than seventy seven times. I know that the Lord has not called it quits on me and never will--he doesn't even think it--and that gives me so much hope for myself. I have hope not only that I will be and have been forgiven, but that because I have been forgiven, I can show this same love to others. Even when my heart feels as though it will shatter into billions of tiny sharp pieces because of the pain, I have to believe that I don't truly deserve to be forgiven myself. I have to forgive despite pain. And that is such a hard concept to wrap my mind around.

College and the American Dream

Here's an old post by Anthony Bradley about Christians in college and what their true motivation is for getting a degree. After i read this, I felt both affirmed and convicted in my own education. Take a look. And here's a little taste:

"What is man's chief end? Americans answer this way: to glorify himself and live in comfort and ease forever. American evangelicals think no differently. Ask Christian college kids WHY they choose their major. And the answers at times will depress you. It's not the vocation that's the problem but the motive. So now we have Christians missing from certains sectors of society because those areas don't pay well. It's SICK!!"

"Doesn't it just make you sick to think that many Christian kids in college or soon there after do not see the purpose of their gifts, interests, and abilities to serve God and other people. That's right, Christians use what God has given to serve Him and others...."

"Nowhere in the Bible are Christians encouraged to work hard for the material rewards. I wish someone would tell this to Christians in America. The American dream in motivated by and grounded in pagan idolatry promoting material success, ease, and comfort at all cost."

"Wouldn't it be great if Christians were motivated to pursue vocations because God revealed some of the needs in the world and gives the interest and ability to meet some of the needs in the world."

"What does mean for a Christian to be living a "successful" life?"

"But the idea that "getting an education to aid in providing for your family" is what Christians need to think about more deeply. Namely, we need to ask what, then, is the purpose of education? If we look at Daniel, for example, the purpose of his education was service of God and other people, not a future economic safety net. Christians have become utilitarians with respect to education. Education from a Christian perspective used to be about learning about God's world and being broadly equipped to do whatever God might call a person to do vocationally. Even, now for Christians, education is not directed at discerning one's calling but the utility of the economic result. Is education's only value an economic one? This is exactly why kids don't want to learn information for the sake of knowledge but want to get good grades because of the long-term economic consequences. People don't care if they learn anything or not."

"I would be more comfortable if Christians thought like this, "I'm getting an education in order to pursue and prepare for God's calling in my life vocationally." If we pursue God and not economic safety then we will find that Jesus' words are true that if seek first the kingdom of God all the other material things in life will be taken care of."

possibility junkies.

mmm great blog post by ken meyers on the evangelical outpost. as an ideas person, i really loved it. here's some of my favorite sections of it, but read the whole thing here.

"Ideas, we are frequently told, have consequences. We are less often encouraged to reflect on the equally significant if more elusive relationship of ideas to their antecedents. Ideas come from somewhere, and they are able to take up residence in our lives because they find friendly surroundings. So if bad ideas are plaguing our society (and having bad consequences), we ought to ask about their origins. And we need to ask what it is about the shape of our lives that make bad ideas seem plausible."

"If Edmundson's diagnosis of the ethos of our culture is accurate, there are at least two avenues of response available to parents, teachers, clergy, and others in positions of Church and cultural leadership. One is to try to figure out how to go with the flow (although "flow" may not be the best word/semi what about "rampage" or "tsunami"?). But if the absence of thickness, depth, and commitment encouraged by fast skating is really not in keeping with the shape of human flourishing, if there is something truly unnatural about this mentality, something in it that is not consistent with our nature, then we need to attend to the maintenance of counter-cultural institutions and practices. Reading and re-reading books, slowly, keeping personal and private journals (not public blogs) which invite true introspection without the distraction of self-presentation, face-to-face conversations that linger and dwell, conversations that achieve some contrapuntal pleasure, attentive listening to musical works that require us to slow down and perceive subtle resonances and formal nuance: these are monotasking practices of closure, commitment, and contemplation. Their loss is one of the ways our contemporaries are becoming figurative widows and orphans (see James 1:27)."

"The pursuit of actuality rather than infinite possibility will not come easily, and will require repudiation of the ways of life that characterize our moment. Those Christian leaders who discourage such repudiation in the name of "cultural engagement" need to be able to explain to people like Mark Edmundson why the Church is indifferent to the plight of students who cannot stop and think."

obama and infanticide

whoa. check out this post by justin taylor, and then click on the full story to read it.

The Frugal Teenager, Ready or Not

interesting article about how the economy is affecting spending in families: the frugal teenager, ready or not.