Interstellar ...... the movie ...... coming soon

Jonah Part IV ……

I was listening to the sermon on Part IV of Jonah (yes, I did not attend church for Parts II and III) and something the preacher said struck a note with the recent TEDx talk I watched on YouTube by a 13 yo in the US. I was a bit irritated by the whole TEDx shebang and the boy's premise: School does not teach you how to be happy, it should. In the sermon, the preacher said the opposite. I am going to post the two videos for you to explore. First up the TEDx talk:



Now Jonah Part IV (esp at around 4:49ff):


23-02-14.m4v from Barneys Broadway on Vimeo.

Ruminations after Sunday Sermon: The Book of Jonah ......

It is 2014 and my resolution is to be more active blogging on matter on faith and theology. After a longish holiday, we attended our first Sunday Service in 2014 (in February!!) (see here for our church). The pastor started a new series on the Book of Jonah (see here for a vidcast). Was a bit disappointed he did not develop the sermon to a sufficient depth. Usually he is pretty good but not this Sunday.

One thing stuck in my head and I have decided to blog more actively using the sunday sermons as a launching pad for ruminations and peregrinations.

Hayden (the pastor) introduced the Book of Jonah and jumped straight into the story, which he called the hiding and proceeded to the seeking (mainly by God) (Hide and Seek). On dealing with the hiding and running away by Jonah, disobeying God's orders to preach to the Ninevites, I thought Hayden could have paused here and observed Jonah's frame of mind and motivation, especially in the light of one of the points of his sermon which is the call to share/preach the gospel. There is a lesson here and I will call it the temptation to judge or make a judgment.

It seems Jonah judged the city of Nineveh as not being "worthy" of salvation (admittedly Hayden pointed this out by referencing Jonah's words from the end of the Book where he exclaimed: "I told you so!" Jonah knew that god will be swayed by the repentance of the Ninevites and spare the city).

So my thots: How often we rush to judge, either without sufficient information, knowledge or wisdom? How often we are "blinded" by our prejudices against certain groups of people?

The short answer to these attitudes/motivations/frame of mind is if we fast forward a few centuries to Paul's exhortation: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."


Two examples of when I/we am/are quick to judge "wrongly" it seems:
1) we see a parent in the supermarket with a child throwing a tantrum and we think "that parent should get the child under control." What is your response? What is/should be a better response?
2) we see a person behaving in a certain manner or believing a certain teaching/doctrine/truth, and conclude that he/she is not/cannot be a christian 'cos he/she does not behave in the appropriate christian-like manner.


If to make an adequate judgment requires sufficient knowledge and wisdom, then by definition, us humans are not qualified. In matters of more eternal nature, ie, who is/is not a christian, the imperative not to judge is even more critical. I am of the persuasion that we just do not know and only God knows.


Perhaps this will be the topic of a future blog, ie, on the indicia of belief/belonging and the so-called fruits of discipleship.

Parenting, Children and Making a living

One of the most difficult question to be faced by parents of a newly-born child is employment. One or two? Full-time or part-time? Employment or self-employment?

I don't have the answer but here is a report of how not to get the answer because the question is wrong ! (BTW, I am very big on the concept of asking the correct/relevant question, a legacy of my reading of Martin Heidegger - I will blog on this in a future blogpost).

Which of the following question is wrong?

“In your opinion, what is the ideal situation for young CHILDREN: mothers working full-time, mothers working part-time, or mothers not working at all outside the home?”

“In your opinion, what is the ideal situation for young CHILDREN in two-parent homes: both parents working full-time, one parent working part-time, or one parent not working at all outside the home?”

Cantor rulez!

courtesy of RJLipton and Ken Regan (Cantor’s Theorem: The Movie): 


Cantor (HD) from Kenneth Regan on Vimeo.

Another one to while the time whilst mulling over things philosophical ......

Debugger

Something faintly philosophical to tide things over until I get into the blogging groove ......

Proof

The Who, What, Where, Whom, (W)How, Why VI

The What?

For the writing of this meditation they prescribed—in accordance more with their
own wishes than with the ease of the task or with my ability—the
following format: that nothing at all in the meditation would be
argued on Scriptural authority, but that in unembellished style
and by unsophisticated arguments and with uncomplicated disputation
rational necessity would tersely prove to be the case, and
truth's clarity would openly manifest to be the case, whatever the
conclusion resulting from the distinct inquiries would declare.

—   Anselm of Canterbury, Monologion, c1077/1078
translated by Jasper Hopkins and Herbert Richardson (2000)

sed desidero aliquatenus intelligere veritatem tuam, quam credit et amat cor meum. Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam. Nam et hoc credo: quia "nisi credidero, non intelligam" 

But I yearn to understand some measure of Your truth,
which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand
in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe
even this: that unless I believe, I shall not understand.
—   Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion, c1076

translated by Jasper Hopkins and Herbert Richardson (2000)

“Unlike Gramsci, I am religious not simply for political aims but also by personal commitment. . . . I find existential sustenance in many of the narratives in the biblical scriptures . . . and I see political relevance in the biblical focus on the plight of the wretched of the earth.” West adds that without “racial and gender equality, tolerance, and democracy, much of the tradition warrants rejection.” When “stripped of static dogmas and decrepit doctrines,” one discovers what is presumably Christianity’s authentic core. This core-Christianity “remains a rich source of existential empowerment and political engagement when viewed through modern lenses (indeed the only ones we moderns have!).”

—    Cornel West, The American Evasion of Philosophy (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 232-33.

Like Kierkegaard, whose reflections on Christian faith were so profound yet often so frustrating, I do not think it possible to put forward rational defenses of one’s faith that verify its veracity or even persuade one’s critics. Yet it is possible to convey to others the sense of deep emptiness and pervasive meaninglessness one feels if one is not critically aligned with an enabling tradition. One risks not logical inconsistency but actual insanity; the issue is not reason or irrationality but life or death. Of course, the fundamental question remains whether the Christian gospel is ultimately true. And, as a Christian prophetic pragmatist whose focus is on coping with transient and provisional penultimate matters yet whose hope goes beyond them, I reply in the affirmative, bank my all on it, yet am willing to entertain the possibility in low moments that I may be deluded.

            —    Cornel West, The American Evasion of Philosophy (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 232-33.

context is the pretext to suppress the text

  

— Russell A. Berman, “The Editor, the Journal, the Project” (2009) 5.1 Fast Capitalism

The Who, What, Where, Whom, (W)How, Why V

The Where?

the world is the inn of the ten thousand creatures;
time is a wandering guest of eternity.
this floating life is but a dream — how long does happiness last?
li bai

tabi ni yande / yume wa kareno o / kakemeguru

Fallen ill mid-journey ....
About the burned fields
fly my broken dreams.

-          Basho 1644-1694

Tabi ni yande           On a journey, ailing -

Yume wa kareno    My dreams roam about

Kakemeguru            Over a withered moor. 

—    Basho (1644–1694)

“Coming and going I am leaving. I will go and come. Leaving has come to me. We all, shall all, will all be left. Because I am here and where.” — Don DeLillo, The Body Artist