This is a picture take (on my iPhone) from the window of our room in Knynsa. It is a perfect African summer's evening!
As I sit here the cares of my regular life seem a thousand miles away! I now remember why sabbath is so necessary. Without it we can become so focussed on what we do that we forget about the beauty of God all around us.
I am grateful for the opportunity to take a holiday with my family - I know that there are many who cannot afford it, and many who do not have gracious friends like we do.
However, even if you cannot get away it is necessary to break into your regular routine from time to time. The regular rhythm of life must contain some rest, just as it must contain work and discipline.
This has been a good day. I am starting to feel Gid's re-creative power at work in my mind and body.
This town is amazing! It is quiet and hospitable. Sometimes I forget that not everone lives in a city, faces the harrows of traffic jammed highways, and shopping malls!
Has anyone out there ever been to Uniondale? If you live there, what do you do for a living?
Here's a picture of Uniondale in Rush Hour on Tuesday.... Nice!
This truck had rolled just outside of Bloemfonteim this morning.... Guess what? The traffic was NOT backed up for hours... I guess that's the Freestate for you!
If this had been Midrand or Centurion it would have been a few hours of traffic.
I moved my camera as I took the picture and ended up with this cool Dali warp effect! Cool isn't it?
A quick post from the road! We're almost in Colesberg (where we will stay for the night), on our way to Knysna for a 10 day holiday with our good friends Graham and Lauren Power on Thiesen's Island. We were supposed to be with them last year, but with Liam's early arrival we spent our December in the ICU.
This is the first time that we have been able to get away as a family in 4 years. So, we're looking forward to some quality time together and a bit if God's precious re-creative power!
I'll post a few pictures and thoughts from my iPhone as I have time.
Heck, I remember the times when people claimed to have fake Law degrees, or the Southern African academics who claimed (falsely) to have Doctorates in science and the fraudulent CV of Professor Makgoba from WITS University (back in 1995)... If I recall he also claimed to have some qualifications in science, or was it education? Then of course there is my third doctorate (the Jedi Doctorate in Science from MIT!)
So, what does this have to do with the American Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee who claimed to have a Theology degree?!
Well, for one thing, it just goes to show what qualifications have 'currency' in the USA! In South Africa the only thing you can do with a Theology degree is become a minister of a Church (or Imam if your degree is in Islamic studies), or of course use your Theology degree to gain access to doing another degree (like one in economics, law, or psychology - these seem to be the most popular degrees for 're-training' amongst South African theology students)...
It would seem in America that if you want to lie your way into a high powered position in governmentyou need to claim to have a fake degree in Theology! [switch on the sarcasm now] How cool is that for Theology [switch off the sarcasm now]. In South Africa, I would suggest, we too should raise our standards... Why don't we expect our officials to lie about degrees that could be considered as 'worthy in adding to their 'moral stature' or knowledge of God'?! Surely we should also put a fake degree in Theology as a requisite for high powered position in government here in South Africa!? I mean, what use is a fake degree in science anyway? I'm sure a fake degree in Theology is worth a lot more (in God's eyes ;-) I do know of one or two members of the clergy in South Africa who, sadly, have used their position as ministers in the Church to gain positions in our new government... In fact I know of one ministers who got ordained and the next day... Wait, let me say no more...
Anyway here's the story about our friend Huckabee! At least he claimed to have a good FAKE degree!
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told the Christian Broadcasting Network he had a theology degree, he told voters in Iowa he had a theology degree, he repeated the claim in last month’s CNN YouTube debate … but, his campaign now says, it was not true. Huckabee's claim began unraveling following his offhanded comment about Mormonism in a New York Times interview last weekend. Reporter Zev Chafets wrote: "I asked Huckabee, who describes himself as the only Republican candidate with a degree in theology, if he considered Mormonism a cult or a religion. 'I think it’s a religion,' he said. 'I really don’t know much about it.'
"I was about to jot down this piece of boilerplate when Huckabee surprised me with a question of his own: 'Don’t Mormons,' he asked in an innocent voice, 'believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?'"
"I'm going to call horsepuckey on Huckabee's claim that a New York Times reporter knew more about comparative religions than [a] guy with a theology degree," Geraghty wrote.
That prompted Joe Carter, Huckabee's research director, to respond to Geraghty by e-mail.
Jim,
Governor Huckabee doesn't have a theology degree. He only spent a year in seminary.
Also, it's not surprising that he doesn’t know much about the specific beliefs of the LDS church. There aren’t a lot of LDS members in Arkansas; they comprise just .007 percent [sic] of the population (about 20,000 out of 2,810,872 people). Most Southern evangelicals don't have much exposure to that particular religion. Even in seminary you're not likely to study the LDS faith unless you take a class on apologetics.
Joe
Here's hoping that one of my degrees becomes desirable enough to be faked in South Africa.... Ha ha!
The brain is a powerful organ. Among its strengths are the ability to focus on certain aspects of the world around us, whilst choosing to block others out.
At times this is a matter of survival or success that activates this function (i.e., we choose to ignore something that could be immediately harmful so that we can choose to achieve some greater goal further along in life) - like the person who rides the remaining 70km's of the Cape Argus cycle tour with cramping legs so that they can say they've done another one... I know someone who has done a few of those ;-) You know what I mean.
Of course, whilst this ability can be very useful, it can also be harmful and destructive. How many of us have made up our minds about a person or place only to discover that our bias was unfounded?
Now the two examples that I mention here are quite easy to identify - however, there are some far more subtle manifestations of this capacity in the human brain.
So, for those who are interested, here is a great post from lifehack.org that gives a great overview of how this function in the brain works, and how one can manage it where necessary.
The brain isn't a flawless piece of machinery. Although it is powerful and comes in an easy to carry container, it has it's weaknesses. A field in psychology which studies these errors, known as biases. Although you can't upgrade your mental hardware, noticing these biases can clue you into possible mistakes.
How Bias Hurts You
If you were in a canoe, you’d probably want to know about any holes in the boat before you start paddling. Biases can be holes in your reasoning abilities and they can impair your decision making.
Simply noticing these holes isn't enough; a canoe will fill with water whether you are aware of a hole or not. But by being aware of the holes you can devise methods to patch them up. The entire domain of the scientific method has largely been an effort to overcome the natural inclination towards bias in reasoning.
Biases hurt you in a number of areas:
Decision making. A number of biases can distort decision making. The confirmation bias can lead you to discount information that opposes existing theories. Anchoring can throw off negotiations by forcing you to sit around an arbitrary value.
Problem solving. Biases can impede your creativity when solving problems. A framing bias can cause you to look at a problem too narrowly. And the illusion of control can cause you to overestimate the amount your actions influence results.
Learning. Thinking errors also impact how you learn. The Von Restorff effect can cause you to overemphasize some information compared to the whole. Clustering illusions can also trick you into thinking you’ve learned more than you actually have.
Here are some common thinking errors: 1) Confirmation Bias
The confirmation bias is a tendency to seek information to prove, rather than disprove our theories. The problem arises because often, one piece of false evidence can completely invalidate the otherwise supporting factors.
Consider a study conducted by Peter Cathcart Wason. In the study, Wason showed participants a triplet of numbers (2, 4, 6) and asked them to guess the rule for which the pattern followed. From that, participants could offer test triplets to see if their rule held.
From this starting point, most participants picked specific rules such as "goes up by 2" or "1x, 2x, 3x." By only guessing triplets that fit their rule, they didn’t realize the actual rule was "any three ascending numbers." A simple test triplet of "3, 15, 317" would have invalidated their theories. 2) Hindsight Bias
Known more commonly under "hindsight is 20/20" this bias causes people to see past results as appearing more probable than they did initially. This was demonstrated in a study by Paul Lazarsfeld in which he gave participants statements that seemed like common sense. In reality, the opposite of the statements was true. 3) Clustering Illusion
This is the tendency to see patterns where none actually exist. A study conducted by Thomas Gilovich, showed people were easily misled to think patterns existed in random sequences. Although this may be a necessary by product of our ability to detect patterns, it can create problems.
The clustering illusion can result in superstitions and falling for pseudoscience when patterns seem to emerge from entirely random events. 4) Recency Effect
The recency effect is the tendency to give more weight to recent data. Studies have shown participants can more easily remember information at the end of a list than from the middle. The existence of this bias makes it important to gather enough long-term data, so daily up's and down’s don’t lead to bad decisions. 5) Anchoring Bias
Anchoring is a well-known problem with negotiations. The first person to state a number will usually force the other person to give a new number based on the first. Anchoring happens even when the number is completely random. In one study, participants spun a wheel that either pointed to 15 or 65. They were then asked the number of countries in Africa that belonged to the UN. Even though the number was arbitrary, answers tended to cluster around either 15 or 65. 6) Overconfidence Effect
And you were worried about having too little confidence? Studies have shown that people tend to grossly overestimate their abilities and characteristics from where they should. More than 80% of drivers place themselves in the top 30%.
One study asked participants to answer a difficult question with a range of values to which they were 95% certain the actual answer lay. Despite the fact there was no penalty for extreme uncertainty, less than half of the answers lay within the original margin. 7) Fundamental Attribution Error
Mistaking personality and character traits for differences caused by situations. A classic study demonstrating this had participants rate speakers who were speaking for or against Fidel Castro. Even if the participants were told the position of the speaker was determined by a coin toss, they rated the attitudes of the speaker as being closer to the side they were forced to speak on.
Studies have shown that it is difficult to out-think these cognitive biases. Even when participants in different studies were warned about bias beforehand, this had little impact on their ability to see past them.
What an understanding of biases can do is allow you to design decision making methods and procedures so that biases can be circumvented. Researchers use double-blind studies to prevent bias from contaminating results. Making adjustments to your decision making, problem solving and learning patterns you can try to reduce their effects.
Update 26 March 2008: Thank you for stopping in to check out this post. The woman in these pictures, who stole pictures of our son and many others from what the police have told us, is clearly not well. Please do offer a prayer for her. But also please do be very careful of her (particularly if you encounter her in real life). Her real name is Sammie Banks. See her myspace profile here. You can also see her teenscene profile here.
I would suggest that you keep your children as far as possible from her, and immediately alert your local police if you see her! She lives in the United Kingdom. We have naturally alerted the UK police (Cybercrimes and identity theft) who have an ongoing investigation into the matter, as well as interpol who have also opened an investigation. Naturally I cannot comment on the content of these investigations. It is, however, just a matter of time before she is apprehended. The link to the baby announcement below is no longer operative. The kind administrator removed all photos of Liam. However, if you wish to find more details on this woman (Samie Banks) you can follow link removed upon the request of the form since there is an investigation pending. Thanks!.
To see a collection of photos that she has 'stolen' from us and other parents you can follow this link (the password to log in is bailey).
The woman in question has tried to make contact with us using various aliases and different email addresses. In each case we simply forward all correspondence to the relevant authorities who assure us that she is being closely monitored.
Original post of December 2007 below: This is truly bizarre! An unwell woman is using pictures of my son (and the details of my son and daughter) on various parenting websites! See the picture of her on the right, and compare that to two of the original pictures I posted back in November 2006 when I announced Liam's birth
This morning I received an email from the moderator of a website in Australia - the website has a forum for mothers to discuss birthing and parenting issues, and support one another. The moderator informed me that a woman from (who I believe is from England) had signed up to the forums announcing that she had given birth to a premature baby at 29 weeks...
She had posted numerous photos, various descriptions of her experience in giving birth to a premature son named 'Kabe', and had received a great deal of support and encouragement from members of the forum. However, the moderator of the forum noticed a few strange things in the posts and photographs and so decided to check it out...
When she investigated she discovered that this woman (see the picture above) was claiming to have had mine and Megan's children (Liam and Courtney), and one other child! She photoshopped her face over Megan's picture in the birth announcement!
Then, you'll see in the picture below (click on it to enlarge it) that she simply lifted, and reposted, two pictures of Liam, renaming him 'Kabe' (you can see our original pictures of Liam here and here).
I am not posting the link to the forums on which she posted the information about Liam etc. - she has been banned from there and various other forums. However, if you want to see the site that she set up with the birth announcement you can click here DON'T type in your email address (just to be safe)! Simply use the password kabeto gain access. What does one do? I am at a bit of a loss... It is scary to think that someone has targeted one's children in this manner! Is there anyone out there who has any idea how we can trace who this is and put a stop to it? Off site email will be the best means to contact me (see the link on the right of this page).
I have frequently found that my congregants (and even my students) are oblivious to the history of the development of world religion.
There is an assumption in Christian countries, as there is an assumption in Islamic countries, that our faith has always existed and that it is the world's dominant faith perspective.
History is important for Christians - in my recently released book (see the panel on the right for Christ at the centre...) I devote almost a whole chapter to discussing why history is important for Christians and Jews. In short, our belief is that God has revealed God's self throughout all of history, but that the incarnation of Jesus at a particular point in history is very significant. It represents a 'watershed' in time, what the New Testament writers call a kairos moment (roughly summarised kairos time is 'the right time', whereas the other Greek word used for 'historical' or 'chronological' time is chronos). So, at a particular point in history God chooses to fully enter human history in the form of a baby who is born, the baby then grows to be a man, this man, Jesus, then dies the human death that is common to us all, and finally overcomes death for all of us.
This is very unlike the Hindu notion of time that is cyclical. As I discuss in my book, the Hindu incarnations (called avatara transliterated into English as 'avatars') do not enter into history in the same way as all other humans do (i.e., through the vulnerability of birth with no political status or supernatural 'edge' on the rest of us). Rather, the avatars enter reality as fully grown human persons, most often as Kings, Princes, or some form of supernatural being. Their task is to engage history, set it back on its course, and then return again in the next cycle of events when things are off track once more.
Jesus however, entered history, and both constituted God's salvific plan, and illustrated God's loving and saving will (something that we forget! I see this particularly so in Church debates where certain sectors of the Church emphasise the constitution of salvation at the exclusion of the illustrative purpose of the grace that caused Jesus to die on the cross. For example some would say "gay persons cannot be saved" forgetting that salvation is not just an act of constitution, it is also fully illustrated in God's act of grace on the cross. Jesus not only saves us through his death on the cross, he also shows how much he loves us (the 'others') by choosing to go to the cross to die for us).
SO, history is important for us!
Another, important fact about history (that deal with in a book I am just completing - due for release early in 2008) is that even though we recognise that God's most complete revelation comes to us through Jesus Christ, we must NEVER assume that we cannot learn about God from other sources! If that was the case (i.e., we could only learn from God directly through Jesus and the post incarnational scriptures) we would have to disregard the Hebrew Bible (what Christians call the Old Testament) completely. Now, if we accept that God could reveal God's self through the Old Testament, then we also need to realise that the writers of those texts learned about God from others sources that predate them (e.g., nature, culture, mystical experience, supernatural intervention, and even other faiths - for example the the names of God, which many literalist Christians are so pleased to quote, like ELohim, ELshadai etc., are derivatives of the Baal name for God - EL. The Hebrews took these concepts and adapted them for use in their faith. This was also done by the Christian missionaries to Southern Africa in the 19thcentury when they adapted the Sotho / Tswana names for God (Modimo) to refer to the God of Christianity (Yehova)). Of course one needs to be extremely careful of simplistic and misguided syncretism! However, Christianity is filled with examples of us adopting a word, concept, or philosophical system and adapting it to draw out of it what we have learned and discovered about God (the debates about the nature of Jesus Christ in the Constantinople / Nicea creeds are based squarely on neo-sophist philosophical concepts and language)
Here is an excerpt from my next book (which, as I mention above, should be out early in 2008) in it I discuss this notion (this book will be called The courage to find God, by the way. Please keep your an eye on this site for its release!):
A reaction among more conservative Christians to this shift in spiritual interest, particularly as it relates to the religions of the East, has been to demonise and undermine the revelatory and spiritual value that Christians can gain from the practises, and devotion, of these other faiths. Let us never assume that God was not active, both in revelation and salvation, before there was a Church, or doctrines, or even the Christian scriptures themselves. God is alive, and has always infused all life with God’s presence. I often hear people speaking about the ‘threat’ of this religion or that one. There seems to be a very unhealthy disregard for the fact that God loves all people, and that God reveals God’s self equally and graciously to all who seek. The sad assumption for many is that God is Christian, and particularly that God is a European or American Christian. This is ludicrous. God is God! Christianity is our attempt at discovering and articulating aspects of the mysterious God is who ultimately beyond simple explanations, short and concise creeds, and a single doctrine or faith.
What is required is thus a recapturing of the depth and wisdom of mystical spirituality from wherever God reveals it. This should be a spirituality that will meet the deep longing and need for people to discover and live within the truth of an almighty God who is living and active in all spheres of life. There is a need to discover that God is greater than the mere doctrines, symbols, or expressions, of any one faith. Whilst these elements of religion are not to be discarded, since they have value, they must be transcended in order to move into the mystery of the True God who cannot be contained in words and concepts.
Now, don't get me wrong. I DO believe that Jesus Christ, the Christian scriptures, and the Christian faith are normative in revelation. And, that Jesus is normative for salvation! However, I DO not think that Christ's power, love, and person, are only limited to persons who dress like me, talk like me, think like me, and go to Church like me! This is God's Universe, and I am certain that God expresses (and illustrates) God's loving will in places where Christianity has not yet reached. I do believe that the love of God is strong enough to encounter the heart of any person (even a person who has never heard of Jesus, or had a chance to read the Christian scriptures). I don't believe in a 'Christian God', no, rather I believe in GOD, the God who is Christ. And, I am a Christian, but God is bigger and more wonderful than my pithy attempts at understanding or expressing who God is...
I hope that makes a bit more sense, and makes my position clearer? I know many people become uneasy when they hear about Christianity and other religions in the same breath! Salvation comes in and through Jesus. However, Jesus is NOT restricted only to one understanding or expression of faith (e.g., a Methodist Jesus, or a Catholic Jesus, or even a mainline denomination Jesus... You get my point, I'm sure). However, please do feel free to state a different opinion, or help me to see my error where I am wrong!
My desire is not to be 'right' for the sake of 'rightness', but to faithfully and courageously serve and love the living Christ.
So, here's the history lesson (this shockwave app is reposted from my friend Sivin Kit's blog - ps. You can click on the app and go to their website to download a copy if you wish to use it in a class or sermon. Or you can download this, and other interesting shockwave maps from www.mapsofwar.com)!
Courtney and I went to the University of Pretoria yesterday to register some honours students who will be at seminary next year. She took this photo of me with my iPhone.
I realized two things. The first is that I prefer the campus when it is busy! There were only a few students on Campus (mostly grad students). I quite like the buzz of all the undergrads during term times. The second realization is that I am starting to get OLD! It used to be that I was one of the younger doctoral students... Now however many if them are my age and younger. At least I can still say that I am one if the youngest doctors on campus... Although not as young as my friend Dr Bentley. Ha ha!
On of the negative side effects of the 'Puritan' work ethic (it actually comes from a neo-Calvinistic emphasis on sin and guilt... I researched it when I was supposed to be doing something far more important) is that we believe that our lives should be regulated by tasks and time.
I was once told my one of my students (who arrive late for a lecture because he was speaking to someone) "You may have a watch, but I have time". He was quite right of course, people are more important than watches.
I am a list person - I keep lists. Sometimes, when things get really busy, I keep lists of which lists to refer to in which order. I find that I am most productive when I simply switch off and become a bit like a mindless drone.. Sad that! I simply plow ahead with whatever needs doing next, trying my best to remove all emotion (whether positive or negative) from the task. That is ALSO not God honouring. God does desire that we fill all tasks (no matter how mundane, or important, with love and grace). But you see the problem, I have discovered, is that when I allow emotion in, I tend to avoid doing the unpleasant things, and hanker only after those things which please me, or those which fool me into placating my guilt (i.e., at least I am doing something, it may not be the thing that needs doing, but it is something)!
So, instead of exerting the energy to break the inertia of nothingness and break into a spate of creativity (like writing an article, or editing a book, or preparing fresh course notes) I tend to 'fool' myself into doing lesser things so that my mind is taken off the guilt of not doing the more important, and more difficult, things....
Jen Tyler, a friend from Chicago, posted this video clip on her blog a few weeks ago:
Life can be a bit like that.
I guess that there is a fine balance that needs to be kept here.
Life should not be regulated by either tasks or time! These things don't truly matter. Life should be regulated by faithful obedience to God! Now, that demands courage - it demands the courage to take on those tasks and activities that are necessary and important for discipleship and the establishment of God's Kingdom here on earth. It ALSO takes courage and discipline to know which things NOT to take on, and which things must not be done (even if they are urgent.... They may not be as important as something else). It also takes courage to overcome the guilt, some of which is merely a product of a false 'ethic' imposed on us by a society full of people who don't actually have an idea about what is important.
The converse is of course that Godly labour is just that, Godly! So, if you've been putting off doing something important by filling your life with all sorts of urgent things (like squeeky chairs, clean desks, and doing your shopping), then maybe, like me, you should pray for the discipline and courage to live your life for what truly mattes.
STOP PROCRASTINATING! Just a bit of friendly advice ;-)
Many people that I know who have done a Masters or Doctoral research degree have told me that after completing their research project they went 'off' the topic for a little while.
This is true for me! My doctorate, and the years that lead up to its completion, were often taken upon by hours and hours of pouring through medical journals, books on the human brain, consciousness, and neuroscience. It was not exactly entertaining (the only entertaining bit about it is when people would ask me, as a minister, "so what is your doctorate about!?" They would usually expect some fairly regular response like, "Oh, I am studying .... in the New Testament...". Ha ha, when I said "I am studying the brain to see how we process identity, consciousness, and religious experience" they would get a sort of blank stare!)
Anyway, it has been over a year since completing that project - and I am pleased to say that I am already starting to develop a slight distaste for the subject of my next doctorate (I have been working on that for about a year now...)
However, I am starting to find the brain interesting again. So, when I saw this little test on the internet I thought I should post the link here! This is the little blurb before the test:
Being creative or artistic doesn’t mean you know how to draw or play an instrument. Being creative is a way of thinking, a way of viewing the world. Creative people use the RIGHT side of their brains more than the LEFT.
Click here to take the test. I would love to hear what you discovered! So, if you have the time please do come back and leave a comment.
One of the big problems that I think so many of us face as we get older is that we forget that we were designed to play a little! Somehow the demands and pressures of adult life tend to push out all the fun and joy of living!
Here's a FUN video of some grown up guys doing a wheelbarrow race... BUT, this is a race with a difference - these guys have some serious acrobatic skills!!! Watch the video...
Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 7:04PM 
