Mutants are taking over! Change is taking place.

Now I am convinced that global warming and the ecological shift are having some serious effects!

The other day I drove into the parking lot at the college and saw this snail... It is the same size as my hand!!!

Yuck!

Anyone for garlic and snails?

In fact I am not even sure, are the snails that one eats different from your regular garden variety (mutant) snails?

Have a blessed day in God's incredible creation!!

I
am off to the last day of my most difficult meetings in the year. I have survived them very well so far! Praise be to God.

On another note, there are changes afoot! They are very exciting, and it will mean a wonderful shift for me. I can't say too much yet, but when the time is right I will tell all!

So check back here for more detail in the next weeks!

All I can ask is that you pray for me!

Blessings,

Dion (the snail hunter)

I've never trusted pirates. Now I know why! A signwriter's mistake.

Words are powerful. When used carefully and creatively they can change a mood, shape an image, and even alter a person's perspective of reality.

It is for that reason that we should choose, and use, our words very carefully! This little 'signwriting' mistake at a Cinema is a perfect example of the ambiguity that can be created when one mixes up one's words!

Now I know why I never liked pirates! Poor Shrek! He must be devastated!

Technorati tags: Words, Shrek, misunderstanding, Pirate, Knocked up

How times have changed! Some examples of creepy adverts from the past.

We are all susceptible to what I call the 'centering effect'. What exactly is that? Well, every generation thinks that they are the measure of what is acceptable, the norm. Look around your office, or look at the cars on the road. When you next go to the mall look at what people are wearing. Most of what you see will look pretty normal won't it?

However, if you look at photos from just a few years ago you'll laugh at your hairstyle (a tip for husbands, boyfriends, and male friends - don't laugh at your significant female friends' hairstyle, and NEVER say something like 'boy, you've put on a bit of weight over the years!'). How many of you out there wore 'Chinese slippers', or had one of those half length tops with the holes in it... Sad, truly sad!

Heck, in 1983 I was proud to be the 'breakdance' champion of the town in which I lived! The girls thought I was cool, and I had free tickets to the movies!!! Ha ha!

Times sure do change!

So, here are a few examples of some CREEPY adverts from the past... Strangely most of them have to do with smoking.

These adds got me thinking about what else I treat as 'normal' (and of course what I treat as abnormal) because I am socialized to think that way? What is there that I adopt uncritically as the 'true' from my understanding of scripture, or my approach to loving and serving Jesus? One thing that could be helpful is to try and see myself, my values, and what I believe, from the perspective of someone who I may not agree with me... Then, consider why it is that this person may find me objectionable. This will not only give me insights into their views of me, but also of how, and who, I may think they are...

Centering can be dangerous... BUT, at least I know I am right, normal, and sensible... Everybody else is a bit strange! ;-)

Technorati tags: adverts, change, smoking, Bible, belief

The death of God, and the birth of Christian atheism.

Those of the readers who are a bit older will remember the death of God debates that raged among theologians in the late 1960's and early 1970's - it is likely that the thoughts started much earlier (I was a toddler reading Hegel and Nietzsche at that stage... but that's another matter altogether ;-)

Well, I came across this interesting picture of a person who seems to have picked up on the 'God is dead' theology and is using the famous London Speakers Corner, in Hyde Park, to proclaim his message with slogans: "To follow Jesus reject God", "Christian atheism" etc.

He refers to himself as a 'Christian atheist', a term that was coined by one of the leading proponents of the God is dead debate Professor J.J. Altizer (formerly a Professor of Bible and Theology at Emory and New York Universities).

Central to Christian atheism is a fascinating idea... The reasoning, if I have understood it correctly, is that the incarnation, and death of Christ, leads to the death of God since Jesus is God. Thus, when you believe in the Jesus who died, you also believe that God died (since Jesus is God), and so there is longer any God to believe in - that makes you a Christian Atheist....

Of course this Gospel has a high view of the incarnation, and is completely lacking in resurrection theology!

You see, I not only believe in the God who died, but in the God who overcame death and lives eternally.

Another central belief among Christian atheists is that while they cannot believe in 'God', they do find value in the moral and social teachings of Jesus... CS Lewis answered this claim quite clearly when he wrote in his book Mere Christianity:

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.

You see the point is, that we cannot deny the claims that Jesus made about himself (i.e., that he is God!) So, you either accept the teachings WITH the teacher, or you reject the teacher and his teachings as simply being the ramblings of a mad man.

Indeed, the power of Jesus is not be understood either in history or in philosophy. Rather, it is to be grasped in life. I know that Jesus is alive, that he is God, and that his teachings are good, because they have radically changed my life. Jesus gives me hope, files my life with meaning, and is my reason to live. That is a mystery, more pointedly, it is a 'mystical' reality - an experience of the truth that is spoken of in philosophy and history.

So, I am a Christian believer, not a Christian atheist...

For anyone who is interested to read JJ Altizer's book "The Gospel of Christian atheism" simply follow the link.

Technorati tags: God is dead, Christian Atheism, Speakers Corner, JJ Altizer

A personal touch. Thanks Vince! That's what I like to see!

Stephen posted an entry about amatomu on his blog today. In it he raised a concern about American blogs signing up to amatomu (which is intended to be a specifically South African blog aggregator).

It was wonderful to see that Vince Maher, who runs the show (from what I can tell), not only dealt with the offending blog, but took the time to leave a comment for Stephen. Now that's the kind of courtesy that one doesn't come across all that often anymore!

Thanks Vince! It is great to know that there is a human face in cyberspace! So, here goes! I am proud to say that I know Vince Maher!

PS. If you want an easy way to follow all of your favourite 'religion' blogs in South Africa simply go to the amatomu religion index.

Technorati tags: amatomu, personal touch, blog agregator, Vince Maher, South Africa

The Matrix... It may not be all that far fetched after all!

I loved the first Matrix movie! It appealed to my love for gadgets and computers, and also had some great action scenes in it!

Other than a Barney (yes, the purple dinosaur) DVD that I bought for Courtney, the Matrix was the first ever DVD that I owned! In fact in some ways, it was that, and the movie Blade runner were the first movies to challenge me to ask the question 'what is true identity?'. This would eventually become to subject of my doctoral research. My research led me to discover others who had considered this, and similar, issues - these included Jacques Vallee, John Keel, Rudy Rucker, and Hans Moravec.

Now, however, an Oxford philosopher named Nick Bostrom has developed a mathematical theory to support this notion of complex virtual identity.

More recently, however, there has been a further development (among credible scientists), that suggest that this notion is not all that incredible!

This is in the form of a paper entitled "The Physical World as a Virtual Reality," written by Brian Whitworth and published by Massey University's Centre for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science in Auckland, New Zealand. From the abstract:

This paper explores the idea that the universe is a virtual reality created by information processing, and relates this strange idea to the findings of modern physics about the physical world. The virtual reality concept is familiar to us from online worlds, but our world as a virtual reality is usually a subject for science fiction rather than science. Yet logically the world could be an information simulation running on a multi-dimensional space-time screen. Indeed, if the essence of the universe is information, matter, charge, energy and movement could be aspects of information, and the many conservation laws could be a single law of information conservation. If the universe were a virtual reality, its creation at the big bang would no longer be paradoxical, as every virtual system must be booted up. It is suggested that whether the world is an objective reality or a virtual reality is a matter for science to resolve. Modern information science can suggest how core physical properties like space, time, light, matter and movement could derive from information processing. Such an approach could reconcile relativity and quantum theories, with the former being how information processing creates space-time, and the latter how it creates energy and matter.

Link to PDF of paper

Previously on BB:
• Hans Moravec on living inside a simulation Link
• NYT on the "simulation argument" Link

Technorati tags: The Matrix, bladerunner, identity, research, virtual reality

Be careful what you put on the internet! As I've learned! You could get ripped off, like Jeremy Clarkson

As Megan and I learned, you need to be careful what you put on the internet. On the 15th of December we discovered that some poor woman in England was posting pictures of our son Liam on baby websites saying that he was her son... The investigation is still in process.

It was not surprising to read the story below on boingboing.

Jeremy Clarkson, a presenter for Top Gear on British TV, wrote a newspaper editorial that accused privacy activists of being hysterical over giant data-leaks (such as the British government repeatedly losing CDs bearing the financial details for 25 million households). To prove that identity theft wasn't a big deal, he included his bank account details in the article.

Whereupon someone promptly began making fraudulent withdrawals from his account.

Clarkson, 47, writing in his column in the Sunday Times, decried the furore last year after CDs disappeared containing the banking details of 7 million families.

The loss led to fears of mass identity theft with people's bank accounts open to internet scams.

At the time he wrote: "I have never known such a palaver about nothing. The fact is we happily hand over cheques to all sorts of unsavoury people all day long without a moment's thought. We have nothing to fear."

However, yesterday he told readers he had opened his bank statement to find a direct debit had been set up in his name and £500 taken out of his account.

"The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again," he said. "I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake."

Link

(Image: crop from Books, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from William Hook's Flickr stream)

Technorati tags: identity+theft, Jeremy Clarkson, internet, abuse, careful

Courage and integrity like this is rare...

I have been praying and thinking a great deal about the future of South Africa since the ANC elected Jacob Zuma as their new party president.

One of the most helpful and insightful aids in this journey has been reading Andrew Feinstein's book "After the party - a personal and political journey inside the ANC" - it was suggested to me by my friend Aiden Choles. Thanks Aiden.

I have not been all that shocked or surprised by the revelations of corruption, collusion, and abuse that Feinstein writes about. Perhaps this lack of surprise stems from my cynical approach to politics... I am somewhat skeptical of political motives by the powerful in times of relative peace and prosperity. Somehow being the 'underdog', the one who is fighting for justice and freedom has a different flavour than doing your best to stay in power... However, I am also not surprised since a lot of what I am reading was reported in the mainstream South African media. This encourages me! It means that at least we still have some measure of freedom within Southern African journalism to tell the truth!

There have however been a few very important quotes that have challenged me to consider my own life, my own social convictions, and of course the examine the integrity of my own faith.

The most significant of these is a quote of a statement that Nelson Mandela made to the former President of Apartheid South Africa, PW Botha (die groot krokidil!). In 1985 (5 years before he was released from Prison) PW Botha offered Nelson Mandela freedom if he was willing to give up the fight for justice and equity in South Africa. He turned down the offer with the statement below. Heck... I am just entering the 5th year of my term in my current post. It is a LONG time! But for the sake of truth and justice he said the following:

I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom... I am not less life-loving than you are. But I cannot sell my birthright, nor am I prepared to sell the birthright of the people to be free...

Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts... I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I and you, the people, are not free...

Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.

I will return [to prison]. Nelson Mandela, 10 February 1985.

Oh for the courage to live with that kind of conviction! A great man (in fact, a great Methodist!)

Technorati tags: courage, integrity, South Africa, Zuma, Nelson Mandela

The gentle, yet clear, Gospel message in a great Church No parking sign!

This afternoon I have a meeting with Bishop Brian Jennings, whose
offices are at the Benoni Central Methodist Church.

As I arrived I saw this wonderful 'no parking' sign on the wall - like
the Gospel, it us gentle, yet very clear!

Blessings!

Technorati tags: gentle, gospel, no parking, Church, Bishop

Could Bill Gates every be cooler that Steve Jobs? Here's proof that he can!

Steve Jobs is cool! But, there is something about his cool appearance that creates a distance between him and regular 'geeks' like me! I mean, I could never pull off a Steve Jobs black turtle neck sweater!

But, here's a video that proves that Bill Gates (yes, I'm going to say it!) CAN be cooler than Steve Jobs!

This hilarious video was filmed during Bill Gates' keynote address as the CES (consumer electronics show) yesterday - it stars Bono, JayZ, Steve Balmer, John Stewart, and a whole host of other celebrities in a hilarious skit!

Good for you Bill! Geek out to the max! Now all that you need to do is start using a Mac!

Technorati tags: Bill Gates, king of the geeks, Steve Jobs, CES, funny video

What's the difference between Rob Bell (nooma) and Benny Hinn (slick guy with a Hinn doo)? About 2560 facebook group members!

Stephen Murray has done it again! Stephen, I like the way you think my friend!

Stephen did a little experiment to see which of the 'well known' Christian icons of contemporary Christianity (representing a fairly broad spectrum of the Christian faith) was the most popular on facebook.

Click here to see the results of his research! It is fascinating... I wonder where TD Jakes and Joyce Meyer would fare!? (no, that's not John Meyer, or the guy from the John Mayer 'chocolate rain' youtube viral video)... no, they have more members that all of facebook, myspace, twitter, and just about every other social networking site put together has!

Anyway, here's the video!

PS. If you don't know what chocolate rain is you're not spending enough time on the net :-)

Technorati tags: Rob Bell, Benny Hinn, facebook, popularity, TD Jakes

Hacking Church! How to attend Church for 52 weeks in a row....

I saw the link for this post on my friend Sivin Kit's blog - sivinkit.net. It comes from Lifehack.org...

It has a couple of great ideas! Sivin sent it to the members of his congregation - perhaps there is something in here that could help you to get your members to attend more regularly?

I think itss safe to say that many people have the desire to attend church more consistently and improve their spiritual life. On this date last year, I was not a member of a church and I rarely attended any church services. On February 26, 2006 I set a personal goal for myself to attend church for an entire year without missing a single week. This coming Sunday, will make it 52 weeks in a row that I attended church without skipping even once. I will give you tips on how to find a church, and how I to find the motivation to attend every week for an entire year.

Keep in mind that your church won't be perfect
The first step prior to attending church on a regular basis is to actually choose a church. When I set my goal to attend church for an entire year I was not a member of any church. In fact, I was deep in the "church-shopping" process and did not have a church I attended regularly. Finding a church was the most difficult part of my journey. I visited several (probably over 10 churches) before I came to the realization (thanks in part to the Purpose Driven Life and my girlfriend) that no church is absolutely perfect. What I mean by that is (in my opinion) no church will match your tastes on every facet. I think you could spend years visiting various churches and never be totally satisfied with any of the churches you visit. Gaining satisfaction with your church will take time. Rather, you have to find a church that will satisfy you enough to motivate you to keep coming week after week.

Get to know the members
For the past four or five years I've attended various churches (I've moved a few times) without ever being a member. I would go to church, sit quietly by myself in the back and leave immediately at the end of church. I am in the process of becoming a member of a local church and I have learned an important lesson. You cannot get to know a church without getting to know the members. This lesson took me many months, if not years, to finally figure out.

Get involved with the church
Getting involved with some facet of your church (whether volunteering, ushering, reading, or joining a committee) will increase your accountability for attendance. Besides the benefits to your community (and the spiritual gains you experience) by volunteering at your church, you inherently gain a great deal of accountability in regards to attending weekly. I had the mindset of "how can I serve on so-and-so committee and not go to service on Sunday? How would that look? What would people think of me?" I’m not advocating making a huge time commitment or attending service simply to not look bad in the eyes of your congregation, but offering to fill a position in the church will definitely motivate you to at least make a weekly appearance and keep you motivated to achieve your attendance goal.

Substitute Saturday night for Friday night
The number one barrier preventing me from reaching my goal was the desire to sleep in. Previously I posted about how I get up at 5AM Monday through Friday. By Friday night I would be pretty tired, so I would tend to stay in and go out on Saturday night. This social schedule makes getting up for church very difficult on Sunday (especially after a few too many "adult beverages" on Saturday night). This tip is more common sense than anything else, but switching Friday to my big social night allowed me to relax on Saturday night, and in turn, have no problem getting up for church on Sunday morning.

Promise someone
Whether it is yourself or a loved one, promising someone that you will attend church every Sunday will help motivate you. In my weight loss article, I made a comment about the importance of making your diet public. I think this mindset can be applied to attending church as well. Tell someone that you plan to attend every Sunday — this will increase your accountability leaps and bounds. If you would rather keep this information to yourself, write it down and put it somewhere that you will see it every day (fridge door, bathroom mirror, inside your wallet, etc.).

Go with a friend or loved one
77% of church-goers that attend service with a friend report happiness in their spiritual life. Try bringing a friend, a family member, or a significant other to church with you. Besides making the experience more enjoyable and meaningful, having confirmed plans to attend church with someone else will increase your accountability.

Rationalize the time

I gained some motivation to attend church by comparing the amount of time the church-going process takes to the length of the entire week. My church service (including travel time) is only 1.5 hours total and that is only .89% of the week (168 hours/week). I also rationalize the length of the church service as half of a movie, three sitcoms, less than two episodes of Prison Break, etc. whatever works for you.

Conclusion
At first, I was motivated by making my attendance "mandatory" and comparing the amount of time I was spending at church to other "lazy" activities I enjoyed. I was able to balance making myself accountable and not feeling pressured to attend. As time progressed and I got more comfortable attending church, the motivation to attend became inherent. I started noticing major improvements in my spiritual life. By attending church every week for 52 weeks, I was able to meet many people, strengthen my faith, improve my personality, become more involved in my community, and most importantly strengthen my relationship with God. If you think that 52 weeks seems daunting, try setting smaller goals for yourself like attending 3 out of 4 weeks per month for six months. How do you find the motivation to get to church week-in and week-out? Have any of you set similar goals? How did you fare?

Some good advice here!

Technorati tags: hacking, tips, Church, ideas, attendance