Category: Christian Worldview
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iBible
I have noticed that fewer people are bringing their Bibles to church. Some may leave them at home because they know the preacher’s text will appear on the PPT screen, while many others actually are carrying their Bibles to church—on their cell phones. This is definitely more convenient than lugging The American Patriot’s Study Bible…
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your brain on technology
Over the last week I read some provocative books on digital technology, including Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains; William Powers, Hamlet’s Blackberry; Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody; Michael Lewis, Next; and Tim Challies, The Next Story. Challies does an excellent job summarizing the insights of the others, and…
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perils of digital technology
I just finished listening to MIT professor Sherry Turkle, who kicked off Calvin’s acclaimed January Series with a lecture on technology (other speakers over the next three weeks include Eric Metaxas, David Gergen, Michael Gerson, and N.T. Wright). You can listen to most lectures live online for free (some may also be available online after…
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the ultimate question
One of the big stories in Grand Rapids in 2011 was the November passing of Fred Meijer. The newspaper account of his funeral inspired this draft for Our Daily Journey. As always, your helpful suggestions are appreciated. Fred Meijer was one of the wealthiest men in the world. His Meijer stores were the first to combine…
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school daze
Egyptian monks called sloth the “noonday demon,” for the heat of the sun and their growling stomachs (dinner was at three) distracted them from their intellectual tasks. I am going to nominate a northern substitute. The new sloth is the “five o’clock shadow,” for that is pretty much when the sun goes down in December,…
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humor with a point
Jonathan Shelley forwarded this satirical look at our national debt. It’s only three minutes long, and be sure you watch it all the way to the end.
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sad news
The news that Christopher Hitchens has died is particularly sad. I cite him as an illustration of a bad way to die on my forthcoming book on that subject, for it seems that he kept his atheism all the way to the end. I’m sure I would have enjoyed knowing him. It’s tragic–and that is too light a word–that he…
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Plantinga’s latest
Yesterday’s New York Times had a compelling story on Alvin Plantinga’s new book, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. One of the main differences between Reformed Epistemology and Presuppositionalism is that the former was content to play defense (it’s rational to believe in God) while the latter was always on offense (it is…
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was Paul an exclusivist?
I want to thank you who commented on “the Achilles heel of inclusivism” post. It’s unusual to have such a civil conversation on the Internet, where people frankly express their views while respecting those who disagree with them. I have benefited from the discussion, and want to thank everyone for the way it was conducted.…
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ironic racism
Everyone knows that it’s impolite to make fun of the way other ethnicities look and speak, but some comedians have found a loophole. If you have a racist bit that really kills, you can still do it as long as you do it ironically. For instance, Stephen Colbert periodically breaks into his Chinese character, Ching…
Mike Wittmer 