Geoff's Miscellany

TLDR: Here are the five steps to help you read more:

1. Make a list
2. Schedule time to read
3. Shorten it by reading books or taking off pointless/boring books.
4. Don't read too many things at once.
5. Leisure reading is no substitute for religious reading if you're religious.

1. You need to keep up with your field of study.
2. You are really ambitious to know more about the world.
3. You genuinely want to decrease your television/non-print/social media consumption.
4. You want to add specific skills to your repertoire.

1. You have spread yourself too thin and will not give up on interests that add nothing to your vocation.
2. You want to impress people whether or not the book is a worthwhile read.
3. You have no realistic concept of yourself or your capabilities.

1. I'm a math teacher. So, I try to read books about mathematical philosophy, symbolic logic, motivational psychology, memory, and pedagogy.
2. I'm a research and rhetoric teacher. Thus, I try to read books about rhetoric, logic, epistemology, inference, and critical thinking.
3. I'm a college student. This means that I try to read books about physics, statistics, and computer programming.
4. I'm a Bible teacher, chaplain, and a seminary graduate. For this reason, I try to read books about ancient history, ancient culture, Greek linguistics, theology, philosophy, and Old Testament theology.
5. I'm also a nerd. So I read science fiction and have interests solely for fun like warfare, strategy, and tactics, philosophy of mind, and scientific perspectives on fitness.

Strategery

Over at the New Oxonian, this question is asked:

I therefore put to the succeeding symposiasts the simple central questions, “What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a disproof of the love of, or the existence of, God?”

In terms of God’s love, the author means, from earlier in his post, the love of God insofar as it is love like a human father. I don’t typically see God’s love quite that way. The analogy in the New Testament for God’s love is of an ancient patron, not of a modern day father. In that respect, God’s love is for the whole world, insofar as God invites those who believe the gospel into everlasting life. So his love is expressed in that sense. God loves the whole world of humanity in the specific way that he invites members in the household of the world (or as John’s gospel puts it, of the household of the prince of darkness) into his own. In that respect miracles of healing and even mystical experiences of God’s love are secondary to an eschatological expression of God’s salvation from sin. This is not meant to qualify my belief in “God’s love is like a human father’s love,” but my attempt to explain what I see God’s love to mean in the New Testament.

I recently made friends with a man who has a philosophy degree and was taking engineering classes to go to graduate school for computer programming. He became very interested in New Testament studies and his philosophical and logical training from his two fields of expertise led him to make this remark:

I was shocked at the leaps in logic and the variety of strange assumptions about dates and authorship that do not have any basis in actual evidence.

Leonard Euler once made a similar remark concerning apparent contradiction in mathematics that are reconcilable to how the Freethinkers treat the New Testament and any difficulty therein as instantaneously culpable or demonstrative or absolutely contradictory.

I used to be a Calvinist. I’m not one these days. But I wish to voice my thoughts about a linguistic aspect of Calvinism that has always been confusing. This post is not about whether Calvinism is true. It is about using words in a confusing way that, incidentally, does come up in debate between Calvinists and non-Calvinists from time to time.

And here is the confusing bit in a nutshell:

Today I read a book from the 1940s titled, “The Simple Sabotage Field Manual.”

I don’t know why I read it. I guess I wanted to know if it would bear similarity to how I thought in my early twenties.

What I noticed was that the last section of the book describes ways to sabotage businesses that are strikingly similar to the way that the average human being operates at work. There are also hilarious similarities to “best practices” in management, education, and leadership theory:

One of my least favorite things in which to participate, at any church, is a fund raising campaign.

If they are put on by an external committee or a fund raising team from the denomination they are often worse than awful. Here’s my list of beefs:

1. They often utilize fliers that misrepresent Scripture. Often with quotes like this, "Are you going to build a house for me to inhabit?" 2 Samuel 7:5
2. They take up a great deal of church service time that is explicitly designated for Word and Sacrament (or Ordinance if you're Baptist).
3. A great deal of stake is put on them that makes them a time of tremendous stress on pastors, deacon boards, and committed families.
4. They feed into an event rather than Scripture/discipleship oriented church calendar.
5. Giving is treated as a sort of supernatural transaction.

Here are my thoughts:

Jesus is pretty clear about loving your enemies:

Mat 5:43-48  "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' (44)  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45)  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (46)  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (47)  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (48)  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Luk 6:27-36  “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, (28)  bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. (29)  To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. (30)  Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. (31)  And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. (32)  “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. (33)  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. (34)  And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. (35)  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. (36)  Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

One of the weirdest stories in the gospels is the transfiguration. Despite how strange it is though, its meaning is apparent. All three versions of the story contain God’s command to the bystanders:

1. Mat 17:5  He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."
2. Mar 9:7  And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him."
3. Luk 9:35  And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!"

In all of these gospels, Moses and Elijah (two of the biggest names in the Old Testament) are present.

In his “Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion” Wesley recounts this exchange:

But I hear,” added he, “you preach to a great number of people every night and morning. Pray, what would you do with them? Whither would you lead them? What religion do you preach? What is it good for?” I replied, “I do preach to as many as desire to hear, every night and morning. You ask, what I would do with them: I would make them virtuous and happy, easy in themselves, and useful to others. Whither would I lead them? To heaven; to God the Judge, the lover of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. What religion do I preach? The religion of love; the law of kindness brought to light by the gospel. What is this good for? To make all who receive it enjoy God and themselves: To make them like God; lovers of all; contented in their lives; and crying out at their death, in calm assurance, ‘O grave, where is thy victory! Thanks be unto God, who giveth me the victory, through my Lord Jesus Christ.’ ”

John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, Third Edition., vol. 8 (London: Wesleyan Methodist Book Room, 1872), 8.

Recently I’ve made a major change in my life direction.

I’ve mentioned it before. I am pursuing an engineering degree. One of my favorite things in the whole world is open source software. Not just because its free. But ever since I was in high school, the notional of editable software has really intrigued me. I’ve never done much with it other than use it. But, there is a mathematical programming suite called Scilab that functions similarly to a very useful, but very expensive program called Matlab.