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Internet

On becoming tech-savvy Christians

Technology changes so quickly that we can become bewildered over what to think about all the new products, services and platforms that appear and disappear. A new technology can be hyped to the sky one moment, and fall into disuse the next month. (Case in point: who still uses Clubhouse?) But some technology has a profound ability to change our world. We wonder, how do we approach these? What should we think about them, from a Christian point of view?

Here are a few pieces we’ve published in the past that can help us with several new technologies that seem to be sticking around a bit longer. Click on the titles to go to the linked articles.

CHATGPT AND OTHER AI

Demystifying ChatGPT

The latest thing being hyped is artificial intelligence, and the most well-known example of AI is ChatGPT. What is ChatGPT and how does it work? If you feel confused, Thomas VanDrunen breaks it down in simple terms.

3 things we need to tell our kids about ChatGPT

It’s one thing to understand technology such as ChatGPT, it’s another to know what we should teach our kids about it. Here are some pointers about what kids might need to know.

Is AI just another tool, or something else?

New technologies often appear to be useful tools that make life easier, and their negative consequences can take more time to reveal themselves. Artificial intelligence is one of the latest technologies to catch attention, but we should be aware of these potential drawbacks.

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

Christians can’t “invest” in cryptocurrency

For a while, “investing” in cryptocurrencies looked like the newest and greatest way to make money. Here’s why Christians shouldn’t “invest” in these projects.

THE SOCIAL WEB

Our dangerous diet of clips, tweets, memes, and headlines

This article doesn’t even mention TikTok, but it illustrates a trend that’s gotten far worse. Our tendency to absorb information in bite-sized chunks has decreased our ability to know much about any one thing in depth, even while we might have a larger number of things we know a little bit about. When navigating the online world, it’s good to keep this in mind. What might we be missing? Where should we be more humble about our understanding of an issue?

TikTok passes 2 billion downloads

Speaking of TikTok, what is TikTok? Here's a quick summary of this incredibly popular app.

One week in: Facebook isn’t for everyone

What is it like to give up Facebook? It can reveal a lot about our dependence on so-called “social” media.

REST OF THE 'NET

Is our curiosity controlling us, or are we controlling it?

The answer to almost everything is a quick internet search away. Anytime we wonder about something, or have a friendly debate over a piece of trivia, we can easily settle the question. But curiosity, while often a force for good, can also become an endless search for something “new” and interesting. Our brains thirst for the next intriguing bit of information. Then we should consider whether it’s really us in control, or our curiosity.

Solomon on smartphones and the pull of pornography

Speaking of the online world, we should all be well aware by now of some of the dangers of the shadier corners of the internet. That doesn’t mean we always navigate the internet wisely, especially with devices in our pockets that offer us 24/7 temptation. In this article, Ryan DeJonge walks through the guidance that the book of Proverbs offers Christians and how it can help with the battle against pornography.

…the Internet can pervert anything

Pornography is the obvious danger when it comes to the Internet, but it’s not the only thing to watch out for. The internet can pervert anything. Emily Arend gives some examples of how innocent interests can lead down a darker path.

Wikipedia: reader beware

Wikipedia is one of the most well-known and well-used websites on the internet, and it’s been around for a long time (by tech standards). But its limitations are becoming more apparent. Sure, there’s a chance Wikipedia can be inaccurate, but a bigger issue is the potential for bias, especially in topics that venture into the realm of controversy or opinion.

SMARTPHONES

Reflections on “12 ways your phone is changing you”

We know cellphones have changed our world drastically, but they might have a bigger impact than we realize. Author Tony Reinke has written a book on exactly this, which we review here. Our phones’ always-available distraction, disconnection from face-to-face interaction, sense of privacy that encourages temptation, and one-sided algorithms can lead us away from the Christlikeness we’re called to.

The smartphone stack

There are many suggestions to increase face-to-face interactions and get off our phones, and it’s worth trying a few to figure out what works for you. Here is one simple yet practical suggestion to try with a group!

TOWARDS A POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH TECH

Technology and our anxious hearts

As a pastor, Reuben Bredenhof has noticed more and more people dealing with a sense of unease, and feeling unsettled, fearful and restless. A lot of this anxiety can be traced back to our use of technology. Here he addresses some of the common anxieties that technology brings out in us, and counteracts these messages with a Christian response. God can give us peace even when it comes to technology.

Elon Musk and visions of the future

Elon Musk has a vision of the future. Christians should have a vision of the future as well, but do we know what it is? In our tech-obsessed world, we should have our eyes fixed on our ultimate hope!

CONCLUSION

The cycle of new technology will continue to turn, and we will keep being confronted by innovations, and new decisions about how to interact with these new things. But ultimately “there is nothing new under the sun” – the creations of humankind will be influenced by our sinful nature as well as our God-given creativity. It will take a lot of wisdom and prayer to navigate our changing world, but we can rest in the security that ultimately every tool is under God’s control.

Full Article

News

St. Catharines drops censorship bylaw

Just three weeks before having to appear in court to defend their bylaw that censored pictures of pre-born children, the city of St. Catharines blinke...

News

The Olympics as Utopian theater

It’s all a show in the city of man. ***** Even after the controversy of a bizarre opening ceremony, the Olympic Games showed why it is unparallele...

News

Saturday Selections – August 24, 2024

Abe Lincoln with a lesson on lying The smartest politicians don't break promises; like Abe here, they try not to make any promises at all. Pro-lif...

Dying Well

Let the little children come

Children can’t be sheltered from the death of a loved one. But they can be comforted. ***** Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and...

News

Saturday Selections – August 17, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles... The wrong folk think God, the Bible, and Christianity are relevant in the political sphere After Trump was shot, a picture circulated showing Christ with a bandage on his ear – they were equating Trump with the Son of God, and that wasn't the first time either! On the Left, California governor Gavin Newsom's campaign paid for billboards to run in Mississippi that read "Need an abortion? California is ready to help" and underneath were the words from Mark 12:31: "Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these." In the clip below you'll see 50 preachers who are taking their talking points from the Kamala Harris campaign, preaching to their congregations that they need to support one of the most pro-abortion candidates ever. This isn't a reason to keep religion out of politics. It is a reason for God's people to speak up more, lest we abandon the public square to blasphemous pseudo-Christians. SUPERCUT: The week after Biden dropped out of the presidential race, I found over 50 churches hyping Kamala Harris during their worship services, clearly using shared talking points. Here we see some of them sharing the good news of the Vice President's fundraising numbers: pic.twitter.com/Z7BPr8x6VZ — Woke Preacher Clips (@WokePreacherTV) August 9, 2024 How long pets live Parents, if your kids are asking you for a giant tortoise, just say no! They might not eat all that much, and be easy to keep up with, but getting one for your family is a commitment that could last 300 years! To find a pet that won't outlast your children's children, click on the link above for a very helpful chart. Conspiracy fact: there really is a brilliant malevolent force working behind the scenes Peter Mead writes on how Christians are "inclined to bury our heads in the sand regarding evil in this world." We'll affirm Satan is real but won't acknowledge his work "in almost every layer of human influence and authority." And the problem with overlooking our spiritual adversary is that we're liable to miss the spiritual nature of the battle we're in – it's all about God's glory. The Devil would love it if he could get the world to follow their feelings, but he'd also enjoy everyone submitting to an objective reality so long as they do so without holding to God as the Author and Creator of it. When we mistake the battle we're in for some sort of merely political or cultural one, then we'll defend it as such, never mentioning God and robbing Him of the glory that is His due... which is the end the Devil was after in the first place. The curious case of the Christian Reformed Church (10 minute read) "'How many denominations have gone this far down the road toward theological liberalism and then put on the brakes in a significant way?' Monroe asked. None." This is a longer piece, but a fantastic overview of the liberal and orthodox twists and turns that have happened in the CRC denomination over the last 40 years, and in particular the last half dozen. On the brink of plunging into all sorts of sexual perversion, the CRC seems to be solidly reversing course. Praise God! Green Greenland was good A headline from the New Scientist this month read, "Fossils show Greenland was once ice-free – and could be again." That has some rather big implications for our climate change catastrophists who hold that it is a crisis for the Earth to be warmer. A shovel dance? (3 min) I'm not going to bother mentioning the title of the old Western this comes from because this is the best scene in it. And boy is it good! ...

News, Pro-life - Euthanasia

State-sanctioned murder now the 5th leading cause of death in Canada

State-sanctioned murder, euphemistically called “medical assistance in dying,” has quickly become one of the leading causes of death in Canada, according to a new study by the Canadian think tank Cardus. Their report noted that MAiD deaths have increased thirteenfold in the short time since it was legalized in 2016 (growing from 1,018 deaths then to 13,241 now). That makes it the fifth leading cause of death in the country, and the “world’s fastest-growing assisted-dying program." Only 3.5 percent of requests for assisted killing are denied, and that number continues to decrease. The study also noted that “MAiD request can be assessed and provided in a single day.” When doctor-assisted murder was first decriminalized, the courts stressed that it had to be “stringently limited” and “carefully monitored.” But those who argued against euthanasia explained that limits would be impossible to maintain once “my body, my choice” is regarded as a sufficient moral justification for murder. If that justifies the assisted killing of someone sick, why wouldn’t it also justify the killing of someone who is healthy? But murder and suicide are wrong precisely because it isn’t our body, so it isn’t our choice. As God notes in Gen. 9:6 the reason murder is wrong is because He made us in His very Image. In a world where the law doesn’t testify to the gift of life like it used to, the Church has all the more calling to share this positive and life-affirming message through our words and, more importantly, through our deeds. We are surrounded by so many neighbors whose hopes are quickly diminishing as their bodies age or they face sickness. May we seize every opportunity to show them the Gospel of Life, which gives hope in this life and the next....

News

Saturday Selections – August 10, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles... Red Green's pit crew "You know when a flatbed gets ahead of you in a race it's not going well..." India turns to coal The solar panels installed in a village in India are being put to good use... as shelter for their village cattle. Vijay Jayaraj makes the case that climate change motivated policies are the "real existential threat to billions across our planet" because they force the poor to rely on unreliable power sources. Can a Christian date an unbeliever? "Who you marry will likely shape who you become more than any other human relationship. If your husband runs from Jesus, you won’t be able to avoid the undertow of his lovelessness. If your wife runs from Jesus, you will live in the crossfire of her unrepentant sin. You may survive an unbelieving spouse, but only as through fire..." Daniel’s 3 tips for surviving university Christian young people who are not able to resist peer pressure will need to steer clear of university, because standing out is an absolute requirement. Screentime in schools "In recent years, groups of Christians, including families, have joined together to take the 'Postman Pledge,' a year-long commitment to raise kids without phones and in community with one another." But is more needed? Do we need the State to help? Springtails do their own stunts They jump the equivalent of 6 stories, exploding upward 150 times faster than the blink of an eye! ...

Closeup of a woman's feet in high heels next to a car in the dark.

News

Prostitution laws challenged at Supreme Court of Canada

In 2014 Parliament passed a new prostitution law that ARPA Canada called “the most significant piece of legislation on a social issue passed during the nine years that Stephen Harper was prime minister.” It criminalized the purchase of sexual services while making it easier for prostitutes, most of whom are being exploited, to exit the sex trade. The goal was to target the demand – the men purchasing sex – rather than the women and men supplying it, but with the end goal of having the supply dwindle. That law has since been challenged from multiple angles by those wishing to legalize and normalize prostitution. One case - Mikhail Kloubakov, et al. v. His Majesty the King – is now before Canada’s highest court. The case finds its origins in a 2021 conviction of two men from Calgary who worked for an escort agency and financially benefited from prostitution and procuring women into the sex trade. These men are challenging these laws as unconstitutional. They won their case in the lower court but lost at the Court of Appeal in Alberta. This summer, ARPA Canada and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada worked together to submit legal arguments to the Supreme Court of Canada, urging the court to uphold the law. They noted that criminal law protects foundational norms and this law in particular protects the norms of dignity and equality. At the core of prostitution law, “is the normative judgment that the exchange of sexual services for consideration is contrary to these norms, inherently exploitative, unavoidably damaging to individuals and society, and deserving of criminal prohibition.” The Supreme Court of Canada is scheduled to hear the case in November....

News, Transgenderism

Transmutilation defender comes to regret youthful tattoo

Dying Well

A funeral is a community event

Your presence alone can be a comfort ***** Not long ago I was directing a funeral, and the service was about to begin. The doors to the sanctuary op...

News

Reformed book publisher changes hands

Reformed book publisher Paideia Press, which has published over 400 titles since it started in the late 1970’s, has been gifted to the Cántaro Inst...

News

Saturday Selections – August 3, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles... Are memories stored in the brain? History shows that the deeper we delve into how wondrous...

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – August 2024

English is a funny language Have you ever seen: • a shoe box? • a kitchen sink? • a ball park? • a home run? • a hot dog stand? • a picket fence? • a square dance? • a hole punch? • a horse fly? 2 AM at the same time everywhere Have you ever missed an online meeting because you’ve gotten confused about the time zones? Sure, the fellow in Ontario wants to meet at 3, but you’re in BC, so does he mean your 3 o’clock or his? And what about the guy in Australia – is his 3 your AM or PM? Turns out there is a solution to this dilemma, a time-zone-free universal clock that results in everyone’s 1 PM happening at exactly the same time, no matter country or continent. If that strikes you as odd, then consider the “universal time” we already have in place: months. Here in North America, December is a snowy month – it’s winter for us. But meanwhile in Australia, December is the middle of their summer. If we were to keep months the way we keep hours, then they should really be having a summer month like June when, halfway around the globe we are having our wintery December. That would allow us to both have wintery Decembers, which would make it a bit easier for Santa and his sleigh to land on their roofs without doing any damage to the shingles. But it would make it confusing to have to wonder what month it is in another country. So I like our universal months. Now we just need to do the same thing for our 24-hour clock so that 2 AM here is happening at the exact moment as 2 AM in China, Australia, the Netherlands and everywhere else. There is already a “Coordinated Universal Time” (with the not quite in the right order abbreviation of UTC) that’s used by airplanes. Way simpler to know when you’ll arrive if you aren’t subtracting all the time zones. Everyone around the world should have the exact same time…at exactly the same time. Then when it came time to schedule a meeting it’d be easy for everyone to know when it’s actually happening. But what about Daylight Savings Time (DST), you might ask? How would UTC work with DST? It doesn’t. But let’s all agree that Daylight Savings Time is annoying, so when we make the shift to UTC, we’ll also get rid of DST and be all the better for it. So what say you? Math that kids will like Children’s picture book author Amy Krouse Rosenthal liked to make word equations. Here are a few of her funniest: • somersaults + somersaults + somersaults = dizzy • (patience + silence) + coffee = Poetry • (patience + silence) + beer = Fishing • blaming + eye rolling ≠ sincere apology • chalk + sitting = school • chalk + jumping = hopscotch • chores ÷ everyone = family If you plant corn… I don’t know Dudley Hall, but I do like his common-sense take on Galatians 6:7: “If you plant corn you’ve given up your options about what the fruit’s going to be. If you plant corn, you’re going to get up corn. And Scripture says, ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.’ “If you sow to the flesh, if you sow to your selfish desires, that’s the fruit. You go I don’t want that fruit; I want a better fruit. Well, you’ve gotta go backwards. You can’t just change the fruit. You have to go back and decide, what do I have to plant to get that?” There is no neutrality in education The Organization of American Historians proclaims itself as the “largest professional society dedicated to United States history.” But what sort of history does it teach? • Getting the Story Straight: Queering Regional Identities • Supporting Pregnant-Capable Students in Abortion-Ban States • Teaching K–12 History in an Educational Culture War: What Scholars Can Do to Strengthen Antiracist Education • Queering Work: LGBT Labor Histories Notable quotables on favoritism “The axiomatic error undermining much of Western Civilization is ‘weak makes right.’ If someone accepts, explicitly or implicitly, that the oppressed are always the good guys, then the natural conclusion is that the strong are the bad guys.” – Elon Musk “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit…. Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits…” – Exodus 23 “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” – a slogan journalist William Randolph Hearst, and many journalists after him, embraced. Noble sounding, and so much so that many a pastor has claimed it as a good slogan for the mission of the Church. But the pivot point here is on who you think the afflicted are. If you believe the weak, the poor, or the various sexual and ethnic minorities are always the afflicted, and if you’ve already decided Christians, or men, or the rich, are always the comfortable, then it isn’t such a good slogan after all. How many? With our long-lasting LED lightbulbs I wonder if the “how many ____s does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” jokes might go the way of all those old “how many _____s does it take to switch out a buggy wheel?” quips. You sure don’t hear those anymore! So, before they all go dim, here are some of the best bulb bits. How many… • …babysitters does it take to change a lightbulb? None – they don’t make Pampers that small. • Appliance sales men? Just one, but for this week and this week only. • Folk musicians? One to screw it in, and one to complain that it’s electric. • Evolutionists? None – they are sure that it’ll just happen if you give it enough time. • Skateboarders? One, but it’ll take him 100 tries. • Optimists? One, and he doesn’t need a lightbulb – he knows the old one is just screwed in too tightly. • Pessimists? None – they won’t bother, because they’re sure the wiring’s shot too. • How many real men? None. Real men aren’t scared of the dark. Going all Philippians 4:8 on sports In Dean Register’s Minister’s Manual he tells a story about a pastor, Leith Anderson, who grew up as an avid fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. One year his father took him to a World Series game where his beloved Dodgers were playing their hated cross-town rivals, the New York Yankees. Anderson was sure his Dodgers were going to win, but he was bitterly disappointed when they never even got on base and lost the game 2-0. Years later Anderson had an opportunity to share his World Series experience with another avid baseball fan. “It was such a disappointment,” he told the man, “the Dodgers never even got to base.” “You mean you were actually there?” the man asked in amazement. “You were there when the Yankees’ Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history? That must have been amazing!” Anderson had been so wrapped up in the rivalry that he missed out on appreciating the most dominating pressure-packed pitching performance ever displayed in the baseball finals! Sportsmanship at its core is about remembering that the guys on the other team are our opponents, not our enemies – fellow human beings made in God’s image. Recognizing that won’t cut into our intensity, but should cut down on our cross-checks. While we’re always going to cheer on our hometown, if we eliminate the hate we’ll also be able to appreciate a brilliant performance by the other team’s guy. Educational viewing? “All television is educational television, the only question is, What is it teaching?” – Nicholas Johnson Saying “I love you” A woman in an adult creative-writing class didn’t quite know what to make of her homework assignment. She had to write different ways to say “I love you,” each of which had to be 25 words or less, and they couldn’t include the word “love.” After she spent ten minutes scratching her head, the woman’s husband came up behind her and started massaging her shoulders. As he loosened up her shoulders and neck she was finally able to start writing. Here is what she submitted to her instructor: • “I’ll get up and see what that noise was.” • “It looks good on you, but you look even better in the red top.” • “Cuddle up – I’ll get your feet warm.” SOURCE: Adapted from joke in the February 1990 Reader’s Digest submitted by Charlotte Mortimer Standing up for the unborn here, there, and everywhere! “If we speak in church, we’re told it’s too political; if we speak in the political arena, we’re told it’s too religious. If we speak in the media we’re told it’s too disturbing; in the educational realm, it’s too disruptive. On the public streets, it’s too distressing for children; in the business world it’s too controversial, in the family, too divisive, and in a social setting it’s just impolite. “So if abortion is wrong, where do we go to say so? The answer is that we have to stop looking for a risk-free place to fight abortion, and speak up in all those arenas. Let’s stop counting the cost for ourselves if we speak up, and start counting the cost for them if we are silent. The pro-life movement does not need a lot of people; it needs people who are willing to take a lot of risk.” – Roman Catholic priest Frank Pavone speaking against those who say they are pro-life, but object to the issue of abortion being raised in a particular “arena.”...

Documentary, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

The Ark and the Darkness

Documentary 2024 / 110 minutes RATING: 7/10 Got doubts about whether the biblical Flood really happened, or really covered the whole of the Earth? Then The Ark and the Darkness is for you. The documentary starts off with a bang, the opening credits showcasing what the world might have looked like as the Flood's waters rose. The most haunting image is the last one, of a wolf bounding up a rocky terrain, trying to find somewhere high enough to escape the rising seas. Then the experts arrive to do the heavy lifting. Much of the Church is embarrassed by the Flood. It's a Bible passage often ignored or even rejected because many Christians think Science has disproven it. The implications go far beyond these few chapters because if someone chooses Science over the Bible here, where does it stop? What about when Science proclaims we evolved? Or that death came before Man ever showed up? Shucks, we now even have Science tellings us guys can become girls. And the kicker is, Science also tells us that the dead don't rise. So if Science is your ultimate guide to what's true, then your Savior did not rise, and your faith is futile (1 Cor. 15:17). So, as Dr. John Sanford puts it, "What is at stake is, Heaven or Hell." But what if God's infallible unerring eyewitness account is your guide? What The Ark and the Darkness sets out to show is that the Bible is trustworthy, and that ideology blinds the scientists who say otherwise. There is more than the secular way to do Science and the facts, as this documentary details, fit well with the Bible's Flood account. Those with eyes to see will be amazed at what Science really says when it isn't being twisted towards godless ends. So, the short CGI scenes, showing the deluge, are striking, but the film's real value is in what the experts are saying. Some of the evidences they present for the Flood include: Polystrate fossils - Some fossilized trees extend upwards right through strata that is said to have been laid down over millions of years. But if it really took that long for the layers to build up and bury the tree, the tree would have rotted away long before. The better explanation is that these layers were put down rapidly over a short period of time during the Flood Bended and folded rock layers representing millions of years - Rocks don't bend; they shatter. So these layers must have still been soft when they were bent, which again doesn't make sense if they were laid down over millions of years. It does make sense if they were laid down rapidly. Elastic tissue in dinosaur fossils – Recently, soft tissue has been found in dinosaurs that are supposed to be millions of years old. That doesn't make sense. It does make sense if the dinosaur tissue isn't nearly that old. Hundreds of Flood traditions around the world – You'd expect an event that reduced the planet to just one family to be talked about and passed on to their children and children's children. And it was: there are worldwide flood traditions in cultures around the world. Lots of things get changed, but the gist isl there. That's just the tip of what they tackle. Caution I was struck by how many times variations of the phrase "...exactly as the Bible suggests..." pop up. The word "exactly" is the problem here, because it gives the impression that we know it happened just so. The followup "suggests" technically takes back that certainty, but still leave much of the same impression. We do know some things for certain: that God created in 6 days, for example. And that the waters covered the Earth. But what went down under those Flood waters? Well, here's a really interesting film exploring all that might have happened. But maybe it wasn't exactly so. So a little more humility would have helped things, with more "might haves"s instead of "exactly"s. There's some irony here, because talking too confidently is the evolutionists' typical sin – secular scientists speak as if they know this and that, when the sort of science they are doing is not the reproducible sort, but is instead more and less informed guesses. Caution #2 also relates to being too certain by half. At around the 95 minute mark, as the film is concluding, three minutes are devoted to a dispensational take on the Earth's last days. It's presented as if that's the one official orthodox Christian take on the end of the Earth, and it most certainly is not. So you may as well stop it at 95 minutes to get the group discussion going a little sooner. Conclusion The picture on the promotional material of a drowning dinosaur had me wondering whether this would be an amazing CGI visual treat showing the Flood liked we'd never seen it before. Turns out, there is a little bit of that, but this is more of a telling film with all sorts of experts chiming in. That makes this a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to know how the Flood might have, in geological terms, manifested. But it also means this isn't really a family movie night sort of show. Too many talking heads. You can buy it on DVD at GenesisApologetics.com/ark or you can watch it for free below. ...

News

Saturday Selections – July 27, 2024

How questions can help you offer a good answer (7 min) In the New Testament, Jesus asks as many questions as he offers answers. Why? Maybe because questions can be a helpful way to cut through people's obfuscations, as Greg Koukl also shows here. Counsel the bitter person A bitter person can't forget the wrongs done to them, but can only do so by forgetting the vast registry of wrongs they've committed against their great God. This article presses hard on the need to forgive, noting that God even makes it conditional for us to forgive if we expect to be forgiven by Him (Matt. 6:12, Matt. 6:14-15). That's not a requirement to do so perfectly, but it is a requirement to try, however falteringly. Read like a Christian Samuel James offers up 5 principles to help Christians dive into a book. I think the first one here might be key: reading can be done just for fun, and that can include reading light, fluffy "candy" books... but don't get stuck on vanilla ice cream. Have you tried salted caramel? Read whimsically, not wastefully Read personally, not performatively Read with generosity, not grievance Read with wonder, not weariness Read for eternity, not ephemera How breastfeeding changed my view of God Rebecca McLaughlin reflects on a favorite verse she understands very differently after her first child: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.” Why don't electric eels shock themselves, and other remarkable design solutions in biology Here are some biological features – that you've probably never heard about before – which require precise design and which therefore evidence a precise Designer: "Snakes should be immune to their own poison. Electric eels should not shock themselves. And protection from self-generated noise requires a preplanned noise cancellation system." The astonishing human egg! The link above is a part of a series of Intelligent Design articles on the amazing complexity of the human reproductive system. The video below is brilliant 10-minute overview from conception to birth. If high school students actually learned this, in detail, I don't know that any of them could fail to recognize themselves for the special creation that they are. This really is a must-see for our older kids. That said, while it is not graphic, it is detailed, and could prompt younger children to ask questions you might not want to answer quite yet, so be sure to preview it before sharing. ...

News

BC finally declares Covid emergency is over

Fired healthcare workers can now apply for work ***** Over four years after declaring a public health emergency over Covid-19, BC’s provincial health officer has finally announced that the emergency is over. The July 26, 2024 announcement means that the remaining restrictions, as well as the vaccination requirement for healthcare workers, are lifted. But instead of explaining why BC maintained the “emergency” far beyond the rest of the country and continent, the NDP government devoted the majority of its announcement to explaining a new vaccine registry that it has created, requiring healthcare workers to disclose their immunization status. About 2500 healthcare workers lost their jobs in BC because of their unwillingness to support the government’s vaccine mandate. The announcement noted that they now have permission to apply for healthcare positions. Dr. Matt Dykstra, who owns a family practice and has 1,500 of his own patients in Smithers, BC, wasn’t willing to sign a statement, printed in the local paper, of unconditional support for the vaccine and other pandemic-related public health measures. Later, as a result of the mandate, he was forbidden to practice in any publicly-funded healthcare facility, including the local hospital, maternity ward, and extended care homes. In response, he helped form the Canadian Society for Science and Ethics in Medicine (CSSEM), which launched a judicial review, asking a judge to review the reasonableness of the public health order. After hearing Dr. Bonnie Henry’s announcement, Dr. Dykstra shared that on the one hand he is excited and thankful to get back to work using “the full breadth of my skills.” But he also can’t deny that it would be easier to do so if Dr. Henry’s announcement included some sort of acknowledgment of the harm and hurt that the government’s decisions caused. “An apology would help,” he shared, but he knows it isn’t really about him. “Ultimately, I'm going to work to serve the Lord and, very much, to serve my neighbors, my community, many of which are church people, many of which need a doctor, many of which rely on the emergency room being open." Dr. Dykstra noted that he would have appreciated “some kind of explanation as to why BC was such an outlier” with its decision to maintain the health order for so long, when all other jurisdictions in North America welcomed healthcare workers back a long time ago. He also worries that the message that Dr. Henry’s announcement gives to society is “I guess we can permit these guys to go back to work.” But that leaves some huge questions that she never answered publicly. “Was I, am I, a risk? Or was I ever a risk? At what point would I become an unacceptable risk again?” Dr. Dykstra noted as well that there are multiple legal efforts still before the courts. Their CSSEM judicial review (with nurse Hilary Vandergugten, another Reformed believer, among those involved) is being appealed. He hopes that these cases are not deemed moot in light of the announcement. “The major issues at play here are more than ‘can we go to work today?’ It's whether Bonnie Henry used adequate evidence, and if she didn't, then that caused a lot of harm that should be discussed.” Reflecting on the past few years from a spiritual perspective, Dykstra notes that his prayers about it have changed significantly. “For a good while, I was praying that the mandate could be lifted and that the pain and suffering as a result of the mandate, would be put to bed.” He acknowledges that “the Lord answered my prayer, not in the way that I was asking Him to, but in a different way.” He was given: “a tremendous sense of peace about it and about losing my job and I have been so blessed in going to work now with less anxiety and less fear than I used to, and I actually stopped praying for the end of the mandates. Not that I didn't want the mandates to end, but they just seem way less important.” He also experienced great blessings that he wouldn’t have been able to have otherwise, including more time with his family, opening a drop-in clinic that was so desperately needed in the community, and being able to serve as an elder in his church. “The Lord has brought me through that with great blessing,” he reflected....

News

Former cop, coroner and mayor does a 180 on drug policy

News

Saturday Selections – July 20, 2024

Reagan's deeply personal argument for a Creator (10 min read / 1 min video) It was an analogy he returned to frequently, with students at an evangeli...

Assorted

7 articles on aging well

Our society is uncomfortable with aging, but as Christians we know every year is a blessing – not just to ourselves, but also to others. Here are so...

News

The attempted assassination of a President

The roles of divine providence and the human condition **** Saturday marked the end of the longest span between domestic assassination attempts of U...

News

Saturday Selections – July 13, 2024

Click on the titles below for the linked articles... One thing Trump and Biden agree on: tariffs Both Trump and Biden want to protect American producers by imposing tariffs (i.e., fines) on foreign goods. Their approach would make those foreign goods more expensive for Americans. If the fine is high enough, it will also make American-made versions of those same goods look comparatively attractive.... which is then supposed to save some American jobs. While tariffs do save some local jobs, they can do so only at the expense of other local jobs. Any American company that uses a tariffed good to make their own products, will have to pay these inflated prices, which in turn will make their own products more expensive... and less competitive in the international marketplace. Thus the tariff will cost them jobs. Tariffs also help some local producers by hurting local consumers, who have to pay more now. The overall impact of tariffs, then, is to help some domestic producers... but only at the expense of other domestic producers and domestic consumers overall. That leaves us with the question: why should the government be picking winners and losers, giving advantages to some citizens at the expense of others? How the US Republicans became pro-choice This is a US article but with real relevance to Canadian voters for its explanation of "median voter theorem." As Joe Carter outlines, it is only when a block of principled voters are willing to abandon a party that they gain influence over that party. If all their voters will always vote for the slightly lesser of two evils, then that is what their party will give them. The party only takes more extreme positions to appeal to voters who won't otherwise vote for them. Southern Baptists take on IVF Last month, the US's biggest protestant denomination passed a resolution on IVF. As Albert Mohler shares: "Far too many Christians say they believe in the sanctity and dignity of human life at every stage, from fertilization to natural death, but when the issue turns to the massive ethical issues related to IVF, many evangelicals, including far too many Southern Baptists, have refused to connect the dots." Jack Phillips still won't bake the cake After 12 years of legal battles and a Supreme Court victory, a Colorado baker is being dragged to court yet again for the same supposed crime – he will not decorate cakes to celebrate depravity. John Stonestreet explains that Baker Jack Phillips won't live by lies – it would be easier to bake the cake, but he will not call good what God calls evil. So, Phillips is working out his theology of getting fired. Forget grocery store boycotts - to lower food prices end supply management instead "...regulation that restricts supply and controls imports... shields Canadian producers of milk, eggs and poultry from competition, allowing them to maintain higher prices for their products than would otherwise exist in a competitive market.... due to supply management the average Canadian household pays an estimated extra $300 to $444 annually for groceries." Don't fall for projection Projecting is a particular form of hypocrisy in which you accuse others of the sin you are guilty of. A recent example is Kamala Harris accusing Donald Trump of planning to use lawfare on his opponents. Paul has an answer to the vice president in Romans 2:1: "Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things." A recent, particularly blatant, instances of projection happens is this commercial below from Australia's Victoria State government below – they accuse a smaller woman of making a big guy in a dress feel "unsafe." The Left uses projection as a weapon to deflect, much like when one of your kids is called to account and wants to talk about what their sibling, neighbor, classmate, or even you did, rather than facing accountability for what they've done. Projection works on the soft-hearted, so it's a particularly effective tool against Christians. But there is a time and place to acknowledge your own sins, and a time when it isn't about you. When the prophets confronted God's people, they didn't do so as perfect representatives of God. Sinful though they were, they brought His Truth. So, if a homosexual accuses you of being unloving – if they are screaming it in your face, OR TYPING IT IN ALL CAPS – then now is not the time to acknowledge how you could have said things better, parsed your words more carefully or expressed the grace of God more clearly. Think like a parent, and realize that if you let their projection deflect you from expressing the truth they need to hear, you aren't doing them any good. ...

Dying Well

Cremation: why and why not

Three things got me thinking about cremation. One was a phone call from someone asking me if I would like an information package about funerals. This was tacky – a telephone solicitation from a funeral parlor? – but I was so surprised, I found myself saying yes. A week later the package arrived and I discovered that in comparison to how expensive funerals were, cremations could be substantially less so. The second incident was an email, with a story about a woman who organized her own funeral and asked to be buried with a fork in her right hand. Why a fork? Well, when people saw it she knew they would ask the pastor about it, and that would give him the opportunity to tell them a little story from the woman’s youth. When she was a little child she loved to attend church suppers, and she especially loved it near the end, because just as people were clearing away the dishes, one of the older ladies would always lean over and tell her, “Save your fork!” That would get her really excited because she knew something better was coming – whether it was apple cobbler, or delicious blueberry pie, or perhaps some rich chocolate cake. Whatever it was, she knew it was going to be good. So to her the fork was always a reminder that something better was coming. “When I die,” she told the pastor, “and people ask about the fork, I want you to tell them my story and then tell them the good news – that when you belong to Jesus Christ, you too can be assured that something better is coming.” I don’t know if this story is true but it got me thinking about how many non-Christians might attend my own funeral. Funerals force people to consider their own mortality, and Christian funerals naturally bring up the idea of immortality so this sort of event can’t help but be evangelistic. The woman in this story took things a step further as she tried to really drive home the gospel message. Her approach was a little strange, but the evangelistic tone of her funeral was intriguing. The third event was a visit to Arlington National Cemetery. This is the United States’ most famous cemetery, a shrine of remembrance to the country’s honored dead. But for every remembered president buried there, like John F. Kennedy, there are dozens of forgotten generals and thousands of anonymous privates. A row of large statues had me thinking of the Preacher’s cry: “Vanities of vanities” (Eccl. 1). These grave markers were huge, but the men underneath weren’t special enough to be mentioned in my guidebook. The whole thing reminded me of the people today who seek after fame hoping that when they die members of the media will celebrate their life and say things like, “He’ll live on forever in our hearts” and “As long as we remember him, he’s not really dead.” Then, like the pharaohs of old, a giant grave marker will be erected over top of their bodies and their name will be engraved in stone in the hopes that this will ensure their remembrance. I left Arlington Cemetery depressed. So many people in the world seek after immortality but trade the real thing for a sham. Immortal for a different reason These three events left me leaning towards cremation. So far I had three reasons. First, it would save money. Second, getting cremated was a stark contrast to the huge grave markers that I had seen in Arlington National Cemetery. I liked that contrast. Third, cremation would be very much like getting buried with a fork – people would want to know why I did it. And when they asked, the minister could tell them a little story: “At a funeral you will sometimes hear it said that the departed has not really died because ‘he lives on in our memories.’ But if he lives on only in our memories what happens when all the people who remember him die? He’s been cremated and his ashes scattered to the wind so there isn’t even a gravestone to mark his time here on earth. In a short thirty or forty years there will be no memory of him at all, so if his immortality depends on people remembering him, what happens to him then? Well, the Bible tells us that he will still live on, not because people remember him, but rather because Jesus Christ remembers him, and has died for him. Through Jesus’ death on the cross our friend lives, now and forever. This is the real deal, the only type of immortality that endures.” The case against cremation After bouncing this idea off a few friends and theological types I soon found out that some Christians are strongly opposed to cremation. It’s true there is no explicit command against cremation in the Bible, but there are still some texts that may apply in a less direct way. A brief look through Scripture will show that, at the very least, burial was the normal thing to do among God’s people. For example, the Bible specifically mentions that Abraham, Isaac, Samuel and David were buried (Gen. 24:9, 35:29, 1 Samuel 25:1, & 1 Kings 2:10 respectively). Additionally, when Moses died God selected a burial spot for him (Deut. 34:6). Also, when the Bible talks about fire, and specifically fire burning bodies, it is almost always portrayed in a bad light. In Gen. 38:24 Judah threatens to burn his daughter-in-law to death as a punishment for adultery. This same punishment is prescribed in Leviticus 20:14 for any man who marries a woman, and her mother. In Numbers 16 fire from God consumes 250 rebellious Israelites. The Lord curses Moab in Amos 2:1 “because he burned, as if to lime, the bones of Edom’s king.” The New Testament also links fire with punishment. In Revelations 20:15, for example, those whose names were not written in the Book of Life were thrown into a lake of fire. Jesus was buried. Combine this with God’s treatment of Moses and we have God burying someone, and God being buried. There is a lot of symbolism associated with burial that finds its origins in the Bible. For example Col 2:12 talks about how we have been buried with Christ through baptism. There are no similar passages for cremation. The case in favor While these texts do at first seem to make a compelling case for burial, there is more still that can be said. Burial may have been the custom throughout Israel, but there are many Israelite customs we do not follow. We do not, for example, wash our feet after entering someone’s house. Just because something is done a certain way in the Bible, does not mean that God commands us to do it that way today. While the Bible does talk about burning as punishment, it often refers to it as a way of killing the guilty, rather than as a means of disposing of their bodies. So this really isn’t cremation. If you do want to make the link then it is worth taking a second look at Numbers 16. It is here that the earth swallows up Korah and his household, and all his men. “They went down alive into the grave” (vs. 33). So just as “cremation” can be a punishment, so too can “burial.” 1 Sam. 31:12 recounts one of the very few examples in which cremation is specifically brought up in the Bible, and it is portrayed in a neutral, if not positive light. The bodies of Saul and of his sons are retrieved from the Philistines and burned by the “valiant men” of Jabesh Gilead. (But, as has been pointed out since this article was first published, the next verse, 1 Sam 31:13, then recounts how their bones were buried.) While fire is often spoken of as a means of punishment, John the Baptist promised that Jesus would baptize people with “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). Fire is also mentioned positively as a means of refinement (Rev. 3:18). So it seems clear then, that this is symbolic language, and that fire is not, in itself, bad. Christian stewardship can also be a consideration here since cremation usually costs substantially less than burial– the main saving is in the cheaper casket and the fact there is no plot to buy. Some people will bury the urn, but that at least means a smaller plot is needed, or the same plot can be shared by more. Cost is not the most compelling reason, of course. The best case for cremation is really the case for Christian liberty: if there is no scriptural directive on this issue, then each Christian is free to follow the dictates of his or her own conscience. Conclusion Cremation seems to be a rarity in our churches so this may not be much of an issue for us today, but when you consider that cremation has gone from 4 per cent of Canadian funerals in 1961 to 46 per cent in 2001, it’s clear we will have to think about it soon. It’s best then to discuss this issue now, rather than when it is forced on us. If you have any thoughts on cremation, or have any points or arguments you would like to contribute, please send me a note. For further study, Christian resources on (and primarily against) cremation Dr. Nelson D. Kloosterman argues against in "Cremation." Justin Dillehay makes the case against in "Cremation or Burial: Does Our Choice Matter?" Stephen Kneale responds to the article above in "Cremation or burial: why I’m not convinced it matters nearly as much as some think." Paul Carter argues that it is not a sin, but that burial may be a better gospel witness in "Should Christians get cremated?" This article first appeared in the June, 2003 issue....

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – July 2024

7 debunked evolutionary “evidences” As Dr. Jonathan Wells has documented in his books Icons of Evolution and Zombie Science, there are long discredited “evidences” for evolution that keep popping up in science textbooks. Why do evolutionists use these bad examples? Because, as lies go, these are pretty compelling ones, especially to high school and college students who don’t know better. And they use them because they don’t have any better evidences. Click on the links below to learn more. Galapagos finches – Darwin though changing beak sizes was a great proof. But the back and forth change only showed a built-in adaptability. Junk DNA – Evolutionists presumed the majority of our DNA was just non-functioning remnants of our previous evolutionary stages. Wrong. Vestigial organs – Evolutionists presumed that parts of the body they didn’t understand were just useless remnants of previous evolutionary stages. They were wrong again. Backward retina – Our eye isn’t designed the way evolutionists would design it, so they thought that was evidence of bad – i.e. unguided – design. But it’s not bad; it’s brilliant. Haeckel’s embryos – Embryos of different species were drawn to make it look like we all start life looking the same. But reality is quite different. Miller-Urey experiment – This intelligently-designed experiment done in a controlled lab setting is often cited as proof that the building blocks of life could come about by sheer luck, in the great outdoors. Homology in vertebrate limbs – Both frogs and humans have five digits, so does that show we evolved from a common ancestor? Well, no, as we now know very different genes can be at work here. Go to Creation.com, AnswersInGenesis.org or ICR.org to find out more about each of these. Education is never neutral There is a quote circulating the Internet, commonly attributed to Dr. R.C. Sproul and which certainly reflects his views, but that I haven't been able to trace directly to him. Regardless of whether he said it or not someone certainly should have. “There is no such thing as a neutral education. Every education, every curriculum, has a viewpoint. That viewpoint either considers God in it or it does not. To teach children about life and the world in which they live without reference to God is to make a statement about God. It screams a statement. The message is either that there is no God or that God is irrelevant. Either way the message is the same.” One paraprosdokian deserves nine others A paraprosdokian is a turn of a phrase that might seem to be heading in a certain direction, only to then take a sudden twist. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. Always swim or dive with a friend. It reduces your chance of shark attack by 50%. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate. Don't let the village raze your child. Everything comes to those who wait… except a cat. Two guys walked into a bar; the third one ducked. I used to play piano by ear. Now I use my hands. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. – Groucho Marx Last night I removed all the bad food from the house. It was delicious. Tim Keller on Anglo-Saxon warriors and their feelings It is for the sake of “authenticity” that we now have men saying they are women. It’s how they feel, so the world has to take them as they identify. But what this supposes is that we are our feelings, and these emotions define us more certainly than anything else. It also assumes those feelings are so set in stone, so utterly unchangeable, that if our body runs counter to our feelings, it is our body that needs to be changed and not our feelings. To clear up this confusion, Tim Keller uses a thought experiment (from his book Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Scepticism) to demonstrates that our feelings don’t define us. “Imagine an Anglo-Saxon warrior in Britain in AD 800. He has two very strong inner impulses and feelings. One is aggression. He loves to smash and kill people when they show him disrespect. Living in a shame-and-honor culture with its warrior ethic, he will identify with that feeling. He will say to himself, That's me! That's who I am! I will express that. The other feeling he senses is same-sex attraction. To that he will say, That's not me. I will control and suppress that. “Now imagine a young man walking around Manhattan today. He has the same two inward impulses, both equally strong, both difficult to control. What will he say? He will look at the aggression and think, This is not who I want to be, and will seek deliverance in therapy and anger-management programmes. He will look at his sexual desire, however, and conclude, This is who I am.” This highlights how there is something outside us that defines us. The unbeliever may just attribute it to “culture” but even he’ll have to admit that he is more than his feelings. Keller continues: “…we receive some interpretive moral grid, lay it down over our various feelings and impulses, and sift them through it. This grid helps us decide which feelings are ‘me’ and should be expressed – and which are not and should not be. So this grid of interpretive beliefs – not an innate, unadulterated expression of our feelings – is what gives us our identity. Despite protests to the contrary, we instinctively know our inner depths are insufficient to guide us. We need some standard or rule from outside of us to help us sort out the warring impulses of our interior life.” So what the world needs to hear from Christians then, is: Your feelings are answerable to a standard that is outside of yourself. Your culture can only offer an ever-changing, baseless standard. Your Maker made you for a purpose, and we can only be our most “authentic selves” when we yield to the One who knows us better than we know ourselves. A tribute of sorts Reagan once shared a quip about a teacher who had: “…taught her class about magnets and all their properties and then several weeks later gave a test and asked them what it was that was spelled with six letters, began with an M, and picked up things. Eighty-seven percent of the class said, ‘mother.’” Reason to pray For those who find prayer difficult, there are many reasons to persist, one of which Willem J. Ouweneel lists in The Heidelberg Diary: "There is a peculiar element in the Catechism's answer that we should not overlook. God gives his blessings 'only to those who pray continually.' Here, a direct causal link is seen between our prayers and God's answers. Some people feel that God's sovereignty implies that he cannot make himself dependent on what humans ask. If God would depend on humans, in whatever small way, they argue, this would ruin his sovereignty. They overlook the fact that, apparently, God has sovereignly decided to involve human actions and decisions as well as prayers in his ways with the world..." SOURCE: (h/t Jan Broersma) On the value of one plus one “…there are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. That is why, in spite of a hundred disadvantages, the world will always return to monogamy.” – G.K. Chesterton 11 things to do instead of screens Summer is here and as blogger Arlene Pellicane noted, “more free time usually morphs into more screen time.” While the pull of screens might persist, there is so much your kids can get up to. Here are 11 suggestions, but a 12th might be to have your kids create their own activities list. Play ultimate frisbee, or create your own backyard frisbee golf course. Wash your car… and your neighbor’s or grandparents’. Take an online course (programming, logic, Dutch, etc.). Have a yard sale for a good cause. Canvass for donations, make posters, etc. Create a list of books, with your parents’ help, that you should read before you leave home… and then read some of them. Play a board game. Change some of the rules to invent your own version. Do a chore, unasked, every day. Design and create a pro-life chalk picture for your driveway. Write, and draw, a series of stickman comics. Recruit a friend to do it with you. Get outdoors, swimming, biking, rollerblading, paddleboarding, or whatever. Compliment three people a day. Are you interruptible? If it ain’t an emergency your kids shouldn’t interrupt, right? That’s a good general rule, because we want our kids to be patient, and not think the world revolves around just them. But we also want them to understand God gave them parents to be there for them. So it can be overdone. As I heard noted on a podcast, even Jesus was “interruptible” – the woman who reached out to touch Jesus (Luke 8:43-48), and the men who lowered their friend through the roof (Mark 2:1-12) weren’t waiting patiently. Busy parents need to note that it is often the unplanned conversations that really matter. Yes, your daughter might already be late for bed, but if she’s sharing now, right before you’re heading out her bedroom door, maybe you’re the one who needs to learn some patience… so you can stop and listen. There is a balance to be had, but if you want your kids coming to you with their troubles – and you should want that – then you need to be interruptible. Not just a G-rating You have three kids wondering what they can do, and meanwhile laundry still needs to be folded, and you haven’t even begun figuring out what dinner will be. “What about a movie, Mom?” That sounds like just the idea, an animated classic, with a nice safe G-rating of course. But wait just a second! The authors of a 2014 study called “Cartoons Kill” compared death in kids’ films with adult dramas and found that main characters were more likely to die in the kids’ movies! If you find that hard to believe, consider what happens in just a few of Disney’s biggest hits: Bambi – Bambi’s mother is shot by hunters The Lion King – Simba’s father is murdered Frozen – Elsa and Anna’s parents are drowned Tarzan – Tarzan’s parents are killed by a leopard Finding Nemo – Nemo’s siblings and mother are killed by a barracuda The Fox and the Hound – Tod’s mother is shot The researchers concluded: “There was no evidence to suggest these results had changed over time since 1937, when Snow White’s stepmother, the evil queen, was struck by lightning, forced off a cliff, and crushed by a boulder while being chased by seven vengeful dwarves.” While “effects of exposure to animated depictions of death have not been studied,” one experimental study showed an impact: “…children who watched a movie about drowning were less willing to try canoeing than other children.” The study’s authors wanted parents to understand that while animated films may have a G or PG rating, they can still have a death count comparable to adult films. Hay mon! My hearing isn’t quite what it was, and I’m determined to have as much fun with it as I can. So I shared the joke when I couldn’t figure out what it was that my neighbor’s dad was up to that day. This 60-something gentleman has his own karaoke machine, so when his wife said he had left “to reggae,” it at least seemed possible. It turned out, however, that the retired farmer had gone “to rake hay.”...

News

Saturday Selections – July 6, 2024

How social media keeps you poor (10 min) Though the two commentators here aren't Christian, the warning they offer may help us better resist social media's siren call. Spider silk might be ideal for nerve repairs Spider silk may be a great medium to regrow severed nerves in people, and that's just one of its amazing properties. If Man could make it, he would, but despite all our genius and equipment, we can't duplicate what a spider, with a brain the size of a pin, can make all on its own. Motherhood myth busting Feminists have women fearful of having children, with fertility treated more as a problem to be solved than as a gift (or if they deny God, an ability) specific to women. They look to children from a cost/benefit perspective and don't see how the pleasure derived from children can outweigh the bother. And from that self-absorbed perspective, it will be hard to enjoy any kids you might have. But, "if life has meaning beyond comfort and pleasure, then something can be difficult and worth pursuing at the same time. " Parents' guide to smartphones (10-minute read) The folks at Axis cover the highs and lows. It's a longer read but there is so much helpful material in here that this is a must-read for parents with teens. Communicating about sex in the first years of marriage "How can you have meaningful conversations about sex with your spouse? You should be sure to address wants, worries, ways, and why's..." When the government bets your house Like previous installments in this "Unintended Consequences" series, these are well-intentioned plans going wildly awry. While this is a secular presentation, the lesson being pitched is one Christians can get behind: there is an overall need for humility, because even (especially?) experts can get things really, really wrong. This humility wouldn't simply mean leaders, and the experts they follow, need to double-check their work. What it means is that our leaders and these experts need to admit to not being able to do many of the things they are currently trying to do now.... and they need to stop meddling in them. Just consider if, in the Sri Lankan case presented below, only some of the farmers had tried organic pesticides. Maybe they would have tried it as a marketing effort – get your organic rice from us! It would have been an experiment, but the farmers would have been gambling with their own land, money, and work. That's high stakes for them, but they are betting on themselves, their own smarts, and their efforts. And because it is only some farmers, win or lose, it isn't a high-stakes gamble for the whole country. If they had succeeded, they would have gotten the benefit and they would have been an example for others to learn from and copy. And if they'd failed, then others could also learn and avoid their mistake. However, when the government made the decision to ban inorganic pesticides for everyone, they were gambling with land, money, and work that wasn't theirs. And they were forcing everyone into just the one experiment. If it succeeded, wonderful, but the problem is, were it to fail, they were taking everyone down with them. That makes it a much, much higher stakes gamble. And anyone who has any humility shouldn't even think to bet someone else's house on their best guess. ...

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News

St. Catharines drops censorship bylaw

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The Olympics as Utopian theater

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Saturday Selections – August 24, 2024

Dying Well

Let the little children come

News

Saturday Selections – August 17, 2024

News, Pro-life - Euthanasia

State-sanctioned murder now the 5th leading cause of death in Canada

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Saturday Selections – August 10, 2024

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Prostitution laws challenged at Supreme Court of Canada

News, Transgenderism

Transmutilation defender comes to regret youthful tattoo

Dying Well

A funeral is a community event

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Reformed book publisher changes hands

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Saturday Selections – August 3, 2024

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – August 2024

Documentary, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

The Ark and the Darkness

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Saturday Selections – July 27, 2024

News

BC finally declares Covid emergency is over

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Former cop, coroner and mayor does a 180 on drug policy

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Saturday Selections – July 20, 2024

Assorted

7 articles on aging well

News

The attempted assassination of a President

News

Saturday Selections – July 13, 2024

Dying Well

Cremation: why and why not

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – July 2024

News

Saturday Selections – July 6, 2024