Geoff's Miscellany

Miscellaneous Musings

Archives for June 2015

Christians and Social Issues

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I may have posted this in the past, I don’t know. But here’s my personal algorithm for dealing with social issues and political ideologies as a Christian.

  1. Always deal with people in terms of Jesus’ command to love neighbor and enemy, Christian and non-Christian. With this, practice what Paul and Peter both say about being civil toward outsiders, respectful toward political authority, and keeping with amoral social norms to avoid bringing contempt upon the Christian community. But always remember that individuals coming to Christ and wishing to do what the New Testament says is a far more likely mode of creating Christians than simply enforcing laws from the top.
  2. Secondly, study what Scripture and Christian tradition say about the issue at hand and weigh the issue on three levels:
    1. ought I participate in this activity?
    2. ought Christians participate in this activity?
    3. ought society participate in this activity?
  3. Third, based on your own political preferences (I’m emotionally anarchical, but on the rational level I understand the need for government and appreciate what it does), opinions, options, theories about what is good for society, and government structures determine if it is wise to take part in publicly opposing this or that action or policy or whether or not it is wise to carry on with being and making disciples.

New Job or Learning by Doing

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I recently got a job as a software developer/computer programmer.

This is weird for several reasons. One of which is that when I was in high school, one of my goals prior to being thirty was to become a computer programmer to pay for seminary. I just did it in reverse. The programming I’m doing is pretty top level, but it’s all new to me and in many ways is more frustrating than some of the “harder” stuff I learned in college.

Anyway, I basically create UI tests for laboratory software. In the very brief time I’ve done this job I’ve learned:

  1. A handy version of git
  2. Way more C# than I would have covered in any college course (I was hired only knowing C++, Sci-Lab, and Mat-Lab).
  3. Selenium
  4. Way more HTML than I ever cared to know.
  5. And I’ve learned to use the laboratory management software for which I’m creating tests.

There is a great deal more to learn. But this reminds of a time when I was younger and I went down a water slide and my aunt realized I was struggling to swim because I panicked. It was really weird, I still remember wondering, “Why am I not swimming like I normally do.” She said, ‘Do or die, Geoffrey!” So I paddled to the side of the pool and she or my grandma yanked me out.

This job is like that. It isn’t like being in a college class. That can be motivating because I’ve paid for it. But it has the limitation of being easy to make second place to my other job (teaching). Getting paid for this requires me to learn a great deal at a fairly quick pace or I have nothing to produce and thus no money to make.

Anyway, for folks who wish to learn new things I recommend reading up on it for a while and then jumping into it. Nothing helps you learn like sitting and staring at something until it hurts with no answers in sight. You’re forced to be creative, ask good questions, and fail. Such events force us to learn.

Devotional Thoughts: Blessed are the pure at heart

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Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God. (Matthew 5:8)

In my opinion, the beatitudes here in Matthew are Jesus’ declaration that “the good life” is available to the people who are not typically seen residents in such an honorable estate. His idea, that those who suffer or are lightly esteemed can be blessed, is rooted in the Old Testament. It can also be found in Plato and the stoics (“Better to suffer injustice, than to commit injustice.”). The difference is that Matthew is making the claim that only through Jesus and his ministry the good life with God is definitively available, or rather through Jesus and his teaching can it be actualized with certainty. For Matthew seems to see several Old Testament figures as blessed in similar ways.

Now, the message of the four gospels is not merely the happy parts of Matthew 5:3-10. Indeed, there is more to being pure at heart than simply being good for a while and then seeing God and enjoying the good-life. Jesus, who would qualify as pure in heart in an exemplary fashion, certainly sees God. But his single-mindedness led him directly to the cross, where Matthew says that Jesus cried:

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)”

Now, I do not think that God the Father literally “turned his face away” from Jesus or anything like that.

But what I do want to point out is that becoming pure at heart and “seeing God” is often accompanied by the worst trials, the most profound temptations to sin, and the most unexpected assaults from evil (personified or not). The gospels are literary wholes, so we must take their promises for pleasure and ecstatic experience of God along with their expectations of pain and exposure to the evils of the god of this age. Indeed, Jesus says that our daily prayers should include, “rescue us from the evil one.” But there comes a time, perhaps not for all Christians, when the answer to that prayer is “My grace is sufficient for you.”

In this respect the good life, with all of its proportions of appreciation for God and his gifts must find its main satisfaction in God himself and his promises that remain unanswered and we have to learn that the eternal weight of glory far outweighs any momentary wasting away of the flesh, dimming of our vision of God, or feelings of abandonment in the face of the periodic crescendos of evil in our world.

Tim Hunt and the Science Worshipers

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A few days ago Tim Hunt, an important medical researcher made a remark to the effect that women in laboratories are easy to make cry, easy to fall in love with, or too easily fall in love with the men. What he said was a joke (he’s married to a top scientist in her field!) based on some of his observations over time.

My first thought was that all of the people who talk all the time about how science is literally no different from what expert scientists say (like when Richard Dawkins is quoted as though he understands philosophy just because he is a former biologist). But, that same group, it seems, found Hunt’s remarks so offensive that he has been asked to resign from his job doing important research to fight cancer! The feelings of a small group of people are considered more important than his research now! The fact of the matter is that lots of women are scientists and the ones who are wouldn’t be deterred by a remark like that, just like men aren’t deterred from leadership positions when journalists claim that women are better than men at leading.

Anyway, science (read: the opinions of experts on ideas beyond their expertise) is only worshiped by the science pagans when it agrees with them or has cool graphics attached.

Music Monday: Ghost by your side

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One of my favorite bands is Lovedrug. It’s hard to say when I discovered them, perhaps when I still lived with my parents. I distinctly remember thinking that their purevolume page was super awesome. Anyway, this song off of their second album, which I ordered on half.com and somehow received an advanced copy of, love before my friends got the actual thing is one of my favorites. The singer’s voice takes some getting used to, but the concept in the song is pretty cool. The character is a bit of a white knight kind of guy (showing over much affection to a girl who is not interested), but if you think of it as though things were occurring on a more cosmic or epic scale, then it’s pretty awesome.

Lyrics:

Remember I told you in life and death
Don’t bury our secrets, they will not they tear us apart
Because love means going this far
Even when the ending is only the start

If you dive into the ocean then I
Will be the wave around you tonight
And if you’re sinking then oh, it’s alright
‘Cause I will be the ghost who is at your side

Remember your demons will surface and fight
But I will be a good phantom
And keep on romancing this cold little devil’s tribe
And hold them away
While you are escaping into the light

So tell me where you’ve gone by now
I’m getting no reception on my heart radio
Now meet me where the angels collide
And I will be the ghost who is at your side

Now I’m changing (oh oh)
I am changing (changing)
Now I’m changing for you, love

When you dive into the ocean alive
Oh, I will be the ghost at your side
And if you fall into the devil’s tribe
Oh, I will be the ghost at your side
And when anywhere the angels collide
Oh, I will be the ghost at your side
Now dive into the blinding light…

Learn To Read For Pleasure

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If you cannot read for pleasure, start. It can be anything: history, how-to books, philosophy, great literature, popularized science, theology. I recommend a bit of everything. But learn to read for pleasure in the same way one might lift weights for pleasure. That way, even if something feels boring or unpleasant in the moment, it could be good for you when you finish. In order to make time for this you’ll need to watch less television, but it is worth it because reading for pleasure improves your ability to study by increasing certain brain functions that correlate with empathy and problem solving.

I recommend making a list of some classic novels, essays, and non-fiction books and trying to read them. It is best to read a chapter at a time and write questions and notes after each chapter is finished.