Art history.

The death of science.

 

There's a problem here. It's more than a misunderstanding, and it's not simply ignorance. There is good dose of arrogance, however. Do you see it?

Yeti is a manufacturer of rigorously designed ice chests and accessories, including thermal drinking cups like this one (this is their 'small' size model). They really do apply some of the best available technology to create containers that will retain temperatures for long periods of time, hot or cold. Stainless steel, double-walled travel cups are no big deal, and this one far out performs the other name-brand ones I have. Far outperforms. I filled two vessels this morning (6:15 a.m.) with 200° F degree water. Within an hour, the contents of one cup had cooled to 152° F. The Yeti had cooled to 180°. Eight hours later, vessel #1 had cooled to room temperature (65°), while the contents of the Yeti were 112°. That's impressive performance. But...

"KEEPS YOUR DRINK AS COLD AS SCIENCE ALLOWS" is the marketing motto on the cup. Since when did Science have consciousness? 'Science' is a methodology at its basic level, a reservoir of knowledge at its highest level. At its basic level, it is a rigorous method of investigation, designed to leave nothing to 'chance' or prejudice. At it's highest level, it's an ever-changing amorphous, non-sentient, entity. It doesn't "allow" anything. It enables, at best, through discovery and application.

But in our culture, 'Science' has been deified by many, led by anti-theists (atheists), but mimicked by the gullible. In the popular culture, it's easy to see the word "science" used as a name, as "Science." This entity Science replaces (or co-exists in competition with) the notion of a god/s, with a Creator God, and with Yaweh (reducing Yaweh to a mere god, or replacing 'Him' with a new god). As a believer in the Creator God Yaweh, and as a believer in the investigative truth of science, this alarms me, because it's a dangerous disservice to both.

The outcome promises to be a great steaming pile of 'not good' for all involved. The heat will be retained at all costs.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Just thought you might like to see a photo of where I come from (literally... on a couple of levels).

This is a shot of my mother, Freda June Rice-Taylor Summer, taken in about 1971. We had just finished putting the horses back into the pasture after she and my sister had been on a ride. This was shot on our small piece of land in Grayson County, Texas. Situated on a bluff above the Red River, our property was right on the historic Preston Trail.

Of all the remarkable folks who traveled down that trail into Texas (one of the earliest entries into Texas was the Red River ford at Coffee's Fort, just a couple of miles down the road), none were greater in my eyes than June Summer. A believer of the first order, she would be 95 today. She passed into Paradise in 1988 at the age of 68.

Thanks for everything, Mom. Especially for the prayers. I know you're pleased with your great grand-daughter and namesake.

Once upon a time...

...I saw something almost exactly like this in a cup on the table. Wondrous love.




Image credits

30 of 64

Martin (Marty) Luther Kitty

April 2, 2001 - October 11, 2014

Requiescat In Pace, Chasing Mice Eternal

But some doubted.

The Great Commission

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:16-20 ESV)

Gregory Baker: March 1, 1920 Bonham Texas - May, 20 2014 Kyle Texas

Ministration at the Time of Death

When a person is near death, the Minister of the Congregation should be notified, in order that the ministrations of the Church may be provided.


A Prayer for a Person near Death

Almighty God, look on this your servant, lying in great
weakness, and comfort him with the promise of life
everlasting, given in the resurrection of your Son Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.


Litany at the Time of Death

When possible, it is desirable that members of the family and friends come together to join in the Litany.

God the Father,
Have mercy on your servant.

God the Son,
Have mercy on your servant.

God the Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on your servant.
Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on your servant.

From all evil, from all sin, from all tribulation,
Good Lord, deliver him.

By your holy Incarnation, by your Cross and Passion, by
your precious Death and Burial,
Good Lord, deliver him.

By your glorious Resurrection and Ascension, and by the
Coming of the Holy Spirit,
Good Lord, deliver him.

We sinners beseech you to hear us, Lord Christ: That it may
please you to deliver the soul of your servant from the power
of evil, and from eternal death,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please you mercifully to pardon all his sins,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please you to grant him a place of refreshment
and everlasting blessedness,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please you to give him joy and gladness in your
kingdom, with your saints in light,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

Jesus, Lamb of God:
Have mercy on him.

Jesus, bearer of our sins:
Have mercy on him.

Jesus, redeemer of the world:
Give him your peace.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Officiant and People 
 

Our Father, who art in heaven,     hallowed be thy Name,     thy kingdom come,     thy will be done,         on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our tresspasses,     as we forgive those         who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation,     but deliver us from evil.

The Officiant says this Collect

Let us pray.

Deliver your servant, Gregory, O Sovereign Lord Christ, from all
evil, and set him free from every bond; that he may rest with
all your saints in the eternal habitations; where with the
Father and the Holy Spirit your live and reign, one God, for
ever and ever. Amen.


A Commendation at the Time of Death

Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world;
In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you;
In the Name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you;
In the Name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you.
May your rest be this day in peace,
    and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.

---

A Commendatory Prayer

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your
servant Gregory. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of
your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your
own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy,
into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the
glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

May his soul and the souls of all the departed, through the
mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.


The Book of Common Prayer, 1979

Glass is a light collector.

The viability of murder.

I hear a motorcyclist speeding down an empty road, way off in the distance. The noise is a nuisance to me. I string a thin wire across the road at neck height, tied to two phone poles, and leave. I didn't hurt anybody, because there was no one there to hurt. But I know that if the motorcyclist continues along the road, he will hit the wire and probably be decapitated.

When I first realized there was a motorcyclist coming, he was about eight miles away. When I ran my wire, he was about four or five miles away. I could hear him getting louder, but I certainly couldn't see him with the naked eye.

Did I commit murder, or did I simply string a wire across an empty road?

Viability and murder.

Happy Birthday to me.

The Dark End of the Street

"The conscience of fallen human beings is often mistaken (it needs to be educated by the Word of God) and often sleepy (it needs to be awakened by the Spirit of God).  True also, some people deny that they have any sense of sin, insisting at the same time that everything is relative now, for there are no moral absolutes anymore.  Do not believe them.  For by creation God still endows all human beings with a moral sense, which our inherited fallenness has distorted but not destroyed.  Unless and until people so violate and smother their conscience as to 'cauterize' it (a word Paul uses in 1 Tim. 4:2) or render it insensitive, it continues to trouble them.  They know they are sinful and guilty, however much they may protest to the contrary."

– John R.W. Stott

One Sunday...

"One Sunday in December, I was listening to Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Hedvig Eleonora Church... The chorale moved confidentially through the darkening church: Bach's piety heals the torment of our faithlessness."

– Ingmar Bergman, The Magic Lantern, p. 281.

Of interest.

Where angels fear to tread.

Fore!

Trending

In the 1960s as a teenager, I stood with my fellow Democrats outside a segregated restaurant, because African-Americans were being denied the basic rights of human beings in my own country (many even dying as a result).

In the early 1970s, I marched with many of my fellow Democrats to end what had become an immoral war, a war that was killing not just innocent Vietnamese, but also many of my fellow Americans.

In the 1980s, I stood with my fellow Democrats to protest capital punishment, because institutional killing is wrong and because we can never be 100% sure the guilty are the ones being executed.

In the 1990s, I found myself standing against killing the unborn, guilty only of the crime of inconvenience. As with capital punishment, I could never convince myself that there was a point of 100% certainty at which I could know that an innocent human being's life wasn't being taken. But I found myself standing (at first) in a small corner of the Democratic Party's "Big Tent." Soon, I found myself pushed outside that tent.

Today, I am a man without a party. There are many things wrong with the GOP... but defending the lives of the helpless unborn isn't one of them.

That was then, this is now.

Then:
"One who is a slaveholder at heart never recognizes a human being in a slave."
Angelina Grimké (1805–1879), U.S. abolitionist


Now:
"One who is a murderer at heart never recognizes a human being in a fetus."

What's rocking?

Where do we go from here?

Bible or Bard?

From whence it came?

Bible or Bard? | OxfordWords blog

Diana Collier