Very specifically, from revelation 1:13-16, there are some very idiosyncratic image descriptions of jesus, and it occurred to me that I had never actually seen created depictions of the specific imagery here described of him, as coming from any christian tradition:
13 And in the midst of the...
First of all, this not a debate about whether or not there is free-will. This is instead a debate about what the actual implications are, of either system, weighed against the other. So if free-will exists, whether it is god-given, or just math-given, what does that really mean for how things...
I only heard about it yesterday, and this happened 10 days ago. It happened apparently, in east-Palestine ohio. Lots of fish and animals apparently dead or sick? A town of about 5000 residents, many told evacuate, but now told they can return? EPA says the environment is safe? A reporter was...
It's an interesting document that might come from the first century, giving rules for an extremely early Christian community, and there are a couple things in it that a modern person might find controversial or curious
"Thou shalt not lay commands in thy bitterness on thy bondman or...
"That cause, which excites the passion, is related to the object, which nature has attributed to the passion; the sensation, which the cause separately produces, is related to the sensation of the passion: from this double relation of ideas and impressions the passion is derived. The one idea is...
I feel asleep to a reading of the gospel of John. As I woke up, I was met with the ending lines from the reader, (which I always found extremely spooky) where Jesus was talking to Peter, and then Jesus referred to the probable immortality of John. I guess the argument that he is immortal, would...
Flipped to a random spot, and landed in Chronicles. Now I proceed to look at it with a bit of scrutiny
1 Chronicles 21:1
It seems apparent here that god does not like census-taking, because it probably presupposes faith. If david had faith, apparently he would not dare count his army, but would...
As I try to read more about how the ancient Greeks did it, it is of course apparent that the Christians came to do it too. That is, to seem to create intermediary groups of non-human beings, specifically between two poles. But of course, other religions seem to have intermediary beings as well...
It seems that the standards for religion are often placed far back into history, and the relevant events are as bubbles, encased deep in the rock. Therefore, how do we know that we are not actually archaeologists: each of us bringing out from the ground of history, what we consider to be...
Defining 'faith' is sort of up there with everything else; it is roughly as hard as defining god, or talking cogently about free-will.
It seems like one could think of it in two ways. If faith is a binary parameter, then 1=0, or 1=1. It is a switch you turn on, which results in your belief in a...
Typically when I use this laptop, I lay on my back in bed, and sometimes I have a stupid habit of eating and drinking coffee like that. Well the big cat was clawing around the bed rim and kinda got me in arm (I really like cats, so I forgive it) So my coffee was up near the top of my chest and...
I just wanted to make a quick note of something I feel is important.
Ok so let's take a closer look at centrism. Most people's idea of a centrist, I suspect, involves a person who feels lukewarm about everything. And people think of politics in terms of gravity, meaning that if you have...
In reading through some of the early church fathers, and thinking about where they wrote letters, and how they described communities, one gets the impression that the religion took a critical hold in various places, though they sometimes are spaced out from each other.
As I read through the...
First of all, I viscerally dislike driving in general. It makes me pretty anxious, and I generally avoid it if I can. 12 years ago I was driving an old 1984 ford f-150, and I failed to make it completely up an icy hill in the country. I slid back down the hill, from the top of the hill, and went...
By physical matter, I guess I'd mean both living matter and non-living. For example, take an animal like a coelacanth, tortoise, or a crocodile. Theologically speaking, and speaking in terms of engineering, evolution (what a god would simply call engineering) would cause the animals to be...
So yesterday I probably did like 7 miles. I got a few really good views of the sun starting to set on some rolling cornfields way out there, that I hadn't got before. It also helps to finish podcasts, which over the last few years seem to get longer and longer. Today I was looking at the map...
Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Does this passage have a chronology in it, or not? If 'dust,' (matter) was being formed, does the forming dust itself yet have 'the breath of...
So this applies to politics, probably religion, and probably whatever else. In other words, it's a general thing. You will often read or hear the following argument: "If you can do x, then what's the difference between x and y." Well I think maybe it's a boring argument, and it means that...
From the nape of the neck, to the globule frog's toe,
Seeping in a reticulation of willow coils, verdantly expunged in silt and soil
And legions of red-wing blackbirds, flit across the gnarled, basil shoulder trunk
Dribbling and drooling, the beads of turquoise beetles
The plain, bored squint of...
In 1 corinthians 12, the function of the human organism is apparently made to be subservient to the function of a greater body, seeming to stipulate that each individual is to orient themselves to a specific function, precisely indicating the different functions which would coalesce in a large...