God and Science

As someone who majored in a hard science (physics) in college and who also holds to a Biblical worldview, I find it interesting how post-modern Western society has bifurcated scientific knowledge from a theological understanding truth. One of the best treatments of this topic in print that I've read is Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth. I was also greatly impacted by two of her other co-written works many years ago, and I highly recommend The Soul of Science and How Now Shall We Live.  The recurring metaphor in all these works by Pearcey is borrowed from her mentor Francis Schaeffer.  The two story bifurcation of truth prevents a wholistic understanding of reality. I recently ran across a web site that helps restore a more wholistic understanding of God and science.  Check it out here:

http://www.godandscience.org/

Killing Babies

Last Friday Adam Lanza fatally shot twenty children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The 24 x 7 news cycle has been churning out stories about the shock and outrage over this terrible tragedy. And it is a terrible tragedy.  However, I'm wondering where the shock and outrage is for the 491 children born alive then left to die in Canada between 2000 and 2009. Almost nobody heard about this decade long slaughter of babies. Twenty murdered children is a tragedy, but why isn't an average of more than 49 intentionally killed babies over a decade not newsworthy? We rightfully mourn for the 20 small children killed by a deranged gunman in Connecticut. But where is the mourning for the 491 children born alive and then left to die because they were the product of a failed abortion?

Is the only difference between the 20 and 491 that the 20 were fortunate enough to have families that wanted them? Do we mourn the 20 because they were loved, but neglect the 491 because they were targeted for destruction before they crossed the birth canal? President Obama gives a moving speech and wipes a tear from his eye over the 20 while simultaneously supporting the continued murder of millions by funding Planned Parenthood and promoting a "health care" program that intends to provide free abortions. How is that not a death sentence rather than health care for the babies? If we are killing our own children as a matter of policy, why are we surprised when some lone gunman does it too?

As a society we ask ourselves why school shootings and mass murders are on the increase. We blame the guns, and call for better regulation. Perhaps we should consider outlawing the scalpel and suction machines which have sown into our social conscience a disregard for human life. I mourn for the families who have lost children in this terrible shooting, but I mourn even more for the millions of men and women who have been deceived into participating in the genocide of abortion in North America that has killed 55 million innocent babies. We know about 491 live born babies who were left to die in failed abortions in Canada. How many more do we not know about who have died in failed late term abortions since 1973 in the USA?

Science tells us that life begins at conception, yet North Americans have legislated a morality that makes it socially acceptable to kill a baby before it crosses the birth canal. Why are we surprised when God allows such awful tragedies like Sandy Hook? Perhaps God is just giving us a small glimpse of what we are already doing to ourselves.

The Santa Myth

I wrote about this back in April in the Christian Traditions post.  Dr. Lydia McGrew, who holds a PhD from Vanderbilt University, seems to agree in her article on "Why I Don't Teach My Kids That Santa Claus Is Real."  And here is an article in The Washington Post by one of my favorite preachers, Mark Driscoll, on the same topic:  "What We Tell Our Kids About Santa."  So, my general exhortation to all parents everywhere is to be truthful with your children. If I had it to do over again, I'd do it differently, so I certainly cannot judge others who have perpetuated the Santa myth.

The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism

Selling

A couple months ago I switched professions after being a software technologist for 22 years.  I started the transition about 10 years ago when I moved from being a software engineer to a sales engineer. I've fully made the transition into sales now in a new role with my current employer.  I'm still in the software business, but now I'm selling the professional services around deploying enterprise application software.

Selling as a profession sometimes has a bad reputation because nobody likes being "sold," as in manipulated into buying something they don't want or need. That sort of "sales" gives true sales professionals a bad image, and it isn't really sales, and it certainly isn't professional.

In this article on 8 habits of remarkably successful people, I was pleased to see that habit 7 is selling. Successful people know how to sell even if they aren't sales professionals. Here's the excerpt from the article:

I once asked a number of business owners and CEOs to name the one skill they felt contributed the most to their success. Each said the ability to sell.

Keep in mind selling isn't manipulating, pressuring, or cajoling. Selling is explaining the logic and benefits of a decision or position. Selling is convincing other people to work with you. Selling is overcoming objections and roadblocks.

Selling is the foundation of business and personal success: knowing how to negotiate, to deal with "no," to maintain confidence and self-esteem in the face of rejection, to communicate effectively with a wide range of people, to build long-term relationships...

When you truly believe in your idea, or your company, or yourself then you don't need to have a huge ego or a huge personality. You don't need to "sell."  You just need to communicate.

Suffering

A friend of mine told me he got this quote from a Voice of the Martyrs newsletter.

Suffering is, directly or indirectly, God's punishment for sin. To deduce from such suffering that there is no God is to deny instrumentality. One might as easily prove that a child has no father by the fact that his father spanked him.

Suffering and the problem of evil is one of the leading reasons why people claim they do not believe in God.  If these same people would put a little thought behind their emotions, they might be able to reason through to the truth.  Suffering and the existence of evil is one of the best evidences FOR the existence of God.  Now, if you want to reject God as being mean or uncaring because of the existence of evil and suffering, that is another matter all together.  That too is irrational once you learn the facts about God's character, but to deny God's existence due to his instrumentality in dealing with human disobedience and sin is just outright foolish.

Here are 35 proofs of God's existence so if even if you don't buy into the existence of suffering and evil as solid evidence for God's existence, you'll still need to explain away at least 34 more good reasons to believe. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." (Psalm 14)  Unfortunately, in our post-modern culture people have believed the lie that reason is the opposite of faith.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The opposite of reason is irrationality.  The opposite of faith is unbelief, and it is unbelief in the face of the evidence that convicts non-believers who persist in the irrational viewpoint that God does not exist.

America - Wake Up! Get Smart or Get Left Behind

Many people decry the loss of the low skill manufacturing and textile jobs to China and other low cost labor markets.  What these people don't seem to understand is this isn't what is hurting the USA economy.  The USA has to import skilled labor because our schools are producing kids who can't read, think critically, or function in the world of high skilled, high tech engineering.  A lot of community colleges have to teach adults basic reading and writing before they can do freshman level college work!  Our K-12 education system has some bright spots, but on the whole the system is broken.  That's another blog entry for another time.

I work with a lot of brilliant people from India, other parts of Asia, and a growing number of Eastern Europeans who are highly educated software engineers, electrical engineers, and trained scientists.  American schools are not producing enough intellectual talent for high tech companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Intel, and Texas Instruments, so we import these skilled workers.  Why can't we produce these skilled workers here?  Rather than crying about lost low wage labor jobs and creating protectionist policies to protect low skill labor markets, the USA needs to refocus our efforts on education and moving into the 21st century of knowledge work. Here's an excerpt from an article on how both Romney and Obama flubbed this point in a recent debate.  Below is what I wish I had written, but Arik Hesseldahl said it much better than I could have.

Source:  How Obama or Romney Should Have Answered the iPad Question

...some people might get frustrated when they see Chinese workers assembling iPhones.  It’s easy to think that those jobs rightly belong in America.  The reality is a little more complex, but when you understand it, there’s a surprising amount of good news for American workers.

The fact is, assembling iPhones and iPads is the final step of a complex process, and is really a low-skill, low-cost kind of job.  China has spent decades building much of its economy around these low-skill jobs, in part because it has such a large labor force and plenty of workers who are willing to do the work.  And, frankly, here in America you wouldn’t want to try to support a family on the kind of wages a job like that would pay.  I know it sounds harsh, but it’s true.  So I know this may sound odd when I say it, but I ask you to hear me out: I’m perfectly comfortable letting those kinds of jobs go to China or somewhere else.

In fact, some researchers at the University of California at Berkeley found that for every iPad or iPhone manufactured, Chinese workers add $10 or less to the value of an iPad or iPhone.  On an iPad, they found that American workers add $162 worth of value, and on an iPhone it was more than twice as much.

In America, when we talk about manufacturing, we should be talking about advanced manufacturing jobs for highly skilled workers that require a solid education and pay wages on which you can support a family.  And the fact is, there’s a lot of American work that goes into an iPad or an iPhone or a Mac.

For one thing, there’s our semiconductor companies, like Intel, an American company that makes the most advanced and complex device ever created — the microprocessor — and that does it better than any other company in the world.  It makes the primary brain that goes inside the Mac, most of the world’s personal computers and most of the servers that power the Internet.  And most of those chips are made right here in California and Arizona and Oregon.  Some are made in Israel, too.  But most are made here in the U.S.A.

And the microprocessors that go inside the iPad and the iPhone are made right here in America, too.  Apple doesn’t make its own chips, and when it went looking for another company to help it do that, it picked a Korean company called Samsung.  And where did Samsung decide to build these chips?  Some place in Korea?  No.  The answer will surprise you: Texas.  That’s right.  Samsung operates one of its very biggest chip factories in Austin.

Then there’s the shatter-resistant glass that you touch every time you use an iPhone or iPad.  It was invented in America.  And it’s made in America, too, by American workers at a company called Corning, in Kentucky and New York.

And that’s just one piece of it.  There are a lot of other great jobs held by American workers.  Apple has a lot of smart designers who sweated over every little detail of how the iPad and iPhone look, and how they feel in your hand, and how the button works.  Teams of software developers slowly, painstakingly designed and built and tweaked and refined the software that makes it so fun and useful.

And we’re not done there.  If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you have a favorite app.  Right now, my favorite app is the one created by my campaign staff.  And when I take a break on the campaign bus, my wife and I like to relax for a few minutes playing Words With Friends.  She beats me every time.  And how many apps are there?  A million?  A zillion?  But that’s an example of another American company, Zynga, creating jobs for the people who create game software.  And there are lots more Zyngas, some of them really small companies with just a few people, and some a lot bigger.  Apple once counted, and said that there were more than 200,000 people working at jobs just making apps.

And let’s not forget that just a little more than five years ago, this branch of the technology industry didn’t exist at all.  Apple brought out the first iPhone in 2007, and the first apps started coming to the marketplace in 2008.  And don’t get me started about Google and its Android phones and tablets, and the chips and software that go into those.  Or Facebook, and all the interesting things it’s doing.

...I’m not terribly worried that American workers aren’t assembling iPhones and iPads in America.  They’re busy doing more important jobs, and earning good wages doing it right here in America.  [We must] do everything in [our] power to help encourage the creation of more jobs right here in America, and to encourage entrepreneurs to start new companies so they can create the next Apple or Google or Intel or Facebook.

It’s something we in America do better than anyone else.  And we can argue about the details of how we should go about doing that.  ... [W]hen I look at the iPhone and the iPad, I see something that could only have happened in America.  And I feel pretty good about the role the American worker plays in it.  And so should you.

The Truth Divides

These are the 8 points from the message delivered 28 October at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, as an ongoing series on the Gospel of John.

1. Truth always divides.
2. Jesus is the truth.
3. If you reject the truth, you are judged already.
4. If you keep rejecting the truth you will soon be more wretched than you can imagine.
5. If you know the truth – share the truth.
6. If you share the truth you will be loved as no man is loved and hated as no man is hated. It doesn't matter-share the truth.
7. Rejection of truth is a spiritual problem not an intellectual one-be prayerful, patient and kind.
8. Acceptance of truth is a spiritual blessing not a sign of personal brilliance-be humble, grateful and kind. Worship him.

Everything hinges on #2.  The premise of this blog, even the name itself of "discover truth" is all about determining if #2 is true and then following up with #6 of sharing what I've discovered. There are no shades of gray here.  Jesus is who he claimed to be, or he isn't.  What do you believe?  What are you going to do about it?

Audio and video available here:  http://www.watermark.org/media/series/252/

Eastwooding Richard Dawkins

I saw this live at the Watermark Apologetics conference. Dr. Craig was the key note speaker. The line of up speakers for the event on September 29 was impressive. More videos will be posted soon.

An Atheist's View on Life (and its opposite)

These 20 phrases describe the typical worldview of an atheist:

(1) I will live my life according to these beliefs
(2) God does not exist
(3) It is just foolish to think
(4) That there is a God with a cosmic plan
(5) That an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and suffering in the world
(6) Is a comforting thought; however,
(7) Is only wishful thinking
(8) People can do as they please without eternal consequences
(9) The idea that
(10) I am deserving of Hell
(11) Because of sin
(12) Is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power
(13) “The more you have, the happier you will be”;
(14) Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose
(15) In a world with no God
(16) There is freedom to be who I want to be
(17) But with God
(18) Everything is fine
(19) It is ridiculous to think
(20) I am lost and in need of saving

However, the atheist has it exactly upside down.  Read these same 20 phrases in reverse order:

(20) I am lost and in need of saving
(19) It is ridiculous to think
(18) Everything is fine
(17) But with God
(16) There is freedom to be who I want to be
(15) In a world with no God
(14) Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose
(13) “The more you have, the happier you will be”;
(12) Is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power
(11) Because of sin
(10) I am deserving of Hell
(9) The idea that
(8) People can do as they please without eternal consequences
(7) Is only wishful thinking
(6) Is a comforting thought; however,
(5) That an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and suffering in the world
(4) That there is a God with a cosmic plan
(3) It is just foolish to think
(2) God does not exist
(1) I will live my life according to these beliefs

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." (Psalm 14:1)

Source: One of those random emails that people forward.