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Heaven’s Song
No other book has touched the essence of a young conservative Laestadian couple and their growing family in this way.—Torvi Blog, Oct. 5, 2013Witnesses to a Vivid Sky [Flickr page]Most readers of this...
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Country Winter
Winter’s cold and quiet days—muted, grey, quick to darken—hold life in reserve for Spring.Blue Boundary [Flickr page]Snow hides the undergrowth,mostly dead now, just seeds and buds,coiled springs of...
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Dismantling Design with Fact and Fiction
Book review: Cross Examined. Bob Seidensticker (2011). References are to locations in the Kindle edition.The idea that there is some intelligent designer behind the beauty and complexity of our natural...
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Invocation to Venus
[A]s a poet, a maker of metaphors, Lucretius could do something very strange, something that appears to violate his conviction that the gods are deaf to human petitions. On the Nature of Things opens...
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Elevating the Enemy
When the Holy Spirit which speaks through the mouth of the Christians makes the devil that lives in the hearts of the unbelievers restless he becomes fierce. Now he comes out of their mouth with hide...
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Social Media and the Believer
Concern was expressed about the use of social media websites. It is dangerous to our faith to seek answers about religion and faith from this type of media. These sites answer to our flesh and mind,...
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Endings
Who is there, my friend, [who] can climb to the sky? Only the gods [dwell] forever in sunlight.As for man, his days are numbered, whatever he may do, it is but wind.—The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 1500...
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A Life Celebration: Frank Zindler
Voices that are stilled still sing Of never-fading beauty, Of never-dying love.—Frank Zindler, “Victrola Rolls”Frank Zindler (1939—)We often celebrate the lives of people whom we love and respect...
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The Memes Shall Inherit the Earth
I think that a new kind of replicator has recently emerged on this very planet. It is staring us in the face. It is still in its infancy, still drifting clumsily about in its primeval soup, but already...
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On Felines and Frenchmen
The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown,...
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Eventide
Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.—Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker CreekPacific Northwest Paradise [Flickr page]The sun is...
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Problems with Paul
To see that one has been mistaken in one’s manner of apprehending the past is not a loss but a gain. It is always better, safer, and more profitable, to know that one does not know, than to go on...
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Plagues from Denial
What wonder is it then, if the mind misses everything except what it is itself intent on? So from small signs we draw great inferences and lead ourselves into error and delusion.—Lucretius, On the...
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Lucretius on Love
A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.—Song of SongsPhoto credit: Rosie EnglishIt has been at least 2200 years since the Song of Songs celebrated the...
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The Late Night Drive
Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.—The Book of ProverbsISO 3200 [Flickr page]Two old friends sitting side by side,occupied with the hum...
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Midway
As mortals by eternal give and take.The nations wax, the nations wane away;In a brief space the generations pass,And like to runners hand the lamp of lifeOne unto other.—Lucretius, On the Nature of...
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Pacific Beach Boardwalk
Anyone’s close world of family and friends comprises a group smaller than almost all sampling errors, smaller than almost all rounding errors, an invisible group at whose loss the world will not...
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A Christ-Myth Carol
Our reason is quite satisfied, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of every thousand of us, if it can find a few arguments that will do to recite in case our credulity is criticised by some one...
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Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Standing 13,803 ft above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the U.S. state of Hawaii. However, much of Mauna Kea is below sea level;...
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Open Dialogue over the Faith Boundary
He drew a circle that shut me out— Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in!—Edwin Markham, “Outwitted”The traditional approachNote: The...
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