I quite like the idea of drawing. But to give you an idea of my skill, here’s a picture I created (entered it into a competition and won. Alright.):
But it does make be inspired (and a bit sick) to see incredible artists. Here are a couple I’ve spotted in the past week.
Fredo
Some of his are a bit freaky, but you can see them here.
Justin Beever
This guy is ridiculous. Apart from having a cool name. Check out more here.
Also, happy anniversary to me.
Image via Wikipedia
Ok. So it wasn’t too long ago that Stephen Hawking published a book in which he claimed that he didn’t think it wasn’t necessary for creation to involve a Creator. This was notable at the time because Hawking had always sat firmly on the fence on this issue despite being an atheist, so received a bit of airtime.
Of course, Christians hearing this news didn’t have a massive issue with him saying that, because he’s entitled to his opinion and anyway, at least he’s not horribly rude and aggressive towards Christians in the same way that Richard Dawkins is.
But now our mate Stephen has actively leapt into Dawkins’ camp. He’s entirely written off any belief in God as lunacy by describing heaven as a ‘fairy story’. You can read a full story behind it over here.
Now, I’m never going to claim to understand science to the extent that Stephen Hawking does. That said, he clearly has lost all scientific thought. Just look at what he says here:
Hawking responded to questions posed by the Guardian and a reader in advance of a lecture tomorrow at the Google Zeitgeist meeting in London, in which he will address the question: “Why are we here?”
In the talk, he will argue that tiny quantum fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life emerged. “Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in,” he said.
He’s giving a lecture entitled ‘Why are we here?’. His answer to that question is just way off though – instead of answering the question he’s obviously made up his own question (‘How are we here?’) and has answered that instead. English class fail.
Then he goes on with this little phrase ‘science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing.’ Sorry, what?! How does ‘science’ predict that?! Hawking has replaced God with Science: ‘Science made me do it.’
Science doesn’t predict anything. Science is the study by which you can seek to understand what has happened, and continue to update your understanding based on what continues to happen. When there’s a single recorded observation of multiple universes being spontaneously created out of nothing, you go ahead and let me know. I’ll not hold my breath.
In the meantime, enjoy N. T. Wright‘s response to Hawking in the Washington Post. My favourite lines:
It’s depressing to see Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant minds in his field, trying to speak as an expert on things he sadly seems to know rather less about than many averagely intelligent Christians.
Until he has [considered the evidence for Jesus' resurrection], his opinion about all this is worth about the same as mine on nuclear physics, i.e. not much.
This book is an investigation into the full impact of the gospel on our daily lives. Bridges looks at a series of different angles to ask what was achieved at Jesus’ cross, looking at its already completed effects, the day-to-day impact of living in light of the gospel, and the eternal consequences for us and for others.
There are similar books to this out there, such as The Cross of Christ by John Stott, but I don’t think that takes anything away from this book. Jerry Bridges has a good way of communicating, and he uses it to full effect in this book. The content is foundational from a Christian perspective but not presented in a childish way, so I’d certainly recommend this book to all new Christians, as well as anyone who has been a Christian for a while but doesn’t feel that they have every basic nailed (i.e. all of us). It’s very easy to read; Bridges doesn’t shy away from the challenging long words like propitiation, but he’s good at explaining exactly what he means.
The only potential problem with this book is one which I think is unavoidable – a lot of the concepts presented here aren’t that practically applicable due to them being about spiritual attitude, faith, and so on. So although there is a good chapter on sanctification if you’re looking for practical tips on how to pursue purity I don’t think this is the place to find them.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
This might just be me, but whenever I’m taking photos of stuff I’ll often find one I like and secretly think, ‘man, I think I’m pretty good at this photography thing.’
Anyway, these photos are a good reminder of my need to be humble:
Ok, so this one won an international award. But this one‘s just too cool:
I’m told that this staircase was a bright idea:
And perhaps something only slightly more achievable by those of us who don’t design buildings:
(It’s stamps on a very persuasive person’s passport)
Image via Wikipedia
Something I read recently got me thinking. This guy, Max Lucado, was talking about different denominations, and the fact that people in general think that their denomination is ‘the best’ and, therefore, think that others’ denominations have little bits wrong with them.
He said that where people have their thoughts corrected on this they often somehow get the idea into their heads that they have to create unity between churches which would normally disagree on fundamental things…but the Bible never suggests we should do that.
The Bible never says ‘create unity’, it tells us to ‘maintain unity’. The best way to unify the global church is not to try to do it, but simply to acknowledge that the unity is already here!
What would happen if every denomination worldwide decided to end simultaneously? What if every local church changed its name from ‘London Baptist Church’ or ‘London Methodist Church’ or whatever to just ‘church’? I think two things would happen:
We’d talk about local churches based on their location, not on their history.
And we’d choose which local church to attend based on the hearts of the people in it.
Here are the challenging questions:
If you were to choose your local church based on the leaders’ and congregation’s hearts would you choose the one you currently attend?
If others were to do so, is your heart one which would attract or repel them?
Right. So there’s a guy in America (where else?) who has calculated when Jesus is coming back.
Tomorrow.
On May 21, “starting in the Pacific Rim at around the 6 p.m. local time hour, in each time zone, there will be a great earthquake, such as has never been in the history of the Earth,” he says. The true Christian believers — he hopes he’s one of them — will be “raptured”: They’ll fly upward to heaven. And for the rest?
“It’s just the horror of horror stories,” he says, “and on top of all that, there’s no more salvation at that point. And then the Bible says it will be 153 days later that the entire universe and planet Earth will be destroyed forever.”
Most Bible scholars note that even Jesus said he had no idea when Judgment Day would come. But May 21 believers like Haubert are unfazed.
“I’ve crunched the numbers, and it’s going to happen,” he says.
Haubert says the Bible contains coded “proofs” that reveal the timing. For example, he says, from the time of Noah’s flood to May 21, 2011, is exactly 7,000 years. Revelations like this have changed his life.
“I no longer think about 401(k)s and retirement,” he says. “I’m not stressed about losing my job, which a lot of other people are in this economy. I’m just a lot less stressed, and in a way I’m more carefree.”
He’s tried to warn his friends and family — they think he’s crazy. And that saddens him.
“Oh, it’s very hard,” he says. “I worry about friends and family and loved ones. But I guess more recently, I’m just really looking forward to it.”
Read the full story over here. Then I suppose I’ll see you in the air tomorrow?
Someone has plotted a graph showing where a bunch of countries’ value systems lie, and gathered them into pretty groups.
Ok, so this isn’t the only way to show a country’s values, and I’m not sure I like the definition of ‘secular-rational’ vs. ‘traditional’ (Is it impossible to be secular-irrational? Is it impossible to have faith but not be traditional?)…but it’s pretty interesting how they naturally group anyway.
Apparently serving ice cream has become something of an art form. I can’t tell whether this guy is a genius, clinically insane, really annoying, or just plain funny. Worth watching the whole way through.
