Exploring Evolution Series - Tool Making and the Human Brain's Ongoing Evolution (Neuro-Genetics and Development of the Human Mind)

 The Brain Science Behind Our Obsession With Tools

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/nueroscience/the-brain-science-behind-our-obsession-with-tools-15549633

By Kiona Smith-Strickland
June 3, 2013

According to researchers at Princeton, your obsession with tools
may be the product of millions of years of evolution.

Animals as diverse as crows and chimpanzees create and use simple tools, but it's humans who take tool use to an unprecedented level. Only humans invest significant amounts of time in designing and creating complex tools, and only humans turn them into permanent, valued possessions. According to researchers at Princeton University led by neuroscientist Sabine Kastner, human brains are actually hardwired to love hardware.

Kastner's team compared human brains with monkey brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which produces an image of changing amounts of blood flow in different areas of the brain. When neurons activate in a given area, blood flow to that area also increases. Viewing images of these changes shows researchers how the brain responds to certain stimuli, such as pictures or words.

The brain handles information about objects mostly in the parietal cortex, found in the back of the brain. There a neural pathway called the ventral system identifies objects and sorts them into categories. This pathway is what lets us recognize that a table is a table, whether we're viewing it from across the room or from directly underneath, and it works the same way in humans and in primates.

Nearby, another neural pathway called the dorsal system deals primarily with information about where objects are and how to reach them. In the brains of the rhesus monkeys used in the Princeton study, that information is very basic, and "its only use is to guide reaching and grasping information," Kastner says. In human brains, however, that pathway carries much more detailed information about objects, and we use that information to interact with things in more complicated ways, such as making and using tools.

In fact, the Princeton study even found new areas in the human parietal cortex that show more activity in response to images of tools than to images of other kinds of objects. "There's no part in the monkey parietal cortex that compares," Kastner says.

Commenting on Kastner's findings, her colleague Melvyn A. Goodale of University of Western Ontario tells PopMech: "What's interesting was that there was more activity for tools than there was for simply graspable objects, so simply showing people a stick wouldn't produce as much activation as showing them a hammer." Goodale says that this may be because we immediately associate hammers with a particular action, but we don't associate such specific uses to nontool objects like sticks.

According to Kastner, even people who can't name tools usually have an immediate grasp of their use. "If you give them a hammer, they know what to do with it," she says. Of course, people's brains develop their responses to tools based on their experiences, and those experiences vary widely. "Obviously, a carpenter will have very different representations from mine," Kastner says.

Despite those differences, the human ability to recognize tools and their purposes is, to some extent, as universal as it is unique. "You see that in 2-year-old children—a ball rolls under a couch, and the child will get some kind of long stick to get that ball back. A tool gets invented. Humans can do that, as strange as it sounds, and most other primates in the world just cannot do that. How we reached that kind of flexibility, that is really something that we know nothing about," Kastner says.

She believes that these uniquely human aspects of the brain have evolved along with human tool use over the past 3.4 million years or so.

Which came first: the use of tools, or these changes in the brain? Researchers may never be certain, as the relationship is essentially a cycle. The constant use of tools, from stone hammers to minicomputers, has shaped human brains in ways that enable even more use of even more sophisticated tools.

Goodale says that natural selection probably drove the development of the dorsal system in ancestral primates, whose brains needed to make rapid calculations to grab moving insects or other prey quickly and accurately.

"Having got that in place, then having all kinds of other, more cognitive parts of the brain evolving in protohumans, then the fact that there was that dorsal system there that could be exploited by tool-using creatures led, I think, to even more specialization of the dorsal system for the use of tools," he says.

Kastner's discovery may be one of the first scientific insights into the evolutionary origins of tool use. "There are very few people that have ever studied tools," Kastner says, "and it's not easy to do."

The evolutionary processes that gave us our affinity for cordless drills is still happening, and at a faster pace than ever now that new gadgets and tools come along at such a fast pace. "I think that we will probably see that the brain can change much faster than we think. I think that in a hundred years from now, people will have different parietal lobes," she says.

related references -

Exploring Evolution Series - Early Tool Use by Humans

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More Examples - this time of Software Enabled

"Programming or Soft-Tool Agents"

Why I Prefer a Gospel of "Solidarity" over that of "Penal Substitution"

Give Tony Jones his due. If for nothing else he does speak his mind and usually hits the mark right on its head.... He is passionate and passionately speaks his mind.... Today's discussion focuses on the deficiencies of the Christian doctrine of "penal substitution". Not a discussion that we haven't spoken of here before, but because of its continued popularity among evangelical churches needs to be reflected upon from time-to-time.

 

Mine own prejudices against PRIMARILY conceiving the atoning work of Christ around this ancient idea provided to us through the Scriptures (and then turned around by the doctrine of Calvinism) is that it has created an attribute out of God's wrath rather than from God's loving mercy. But this cannot be.... Wrath is simply the result of loving mercy's judgment upon the wickedness sin causes and perpetuates. It is not an attribute of God but an action of God. To judge sin is reflective upon God's character of divine holiness and righteousness. Hence, God is a wrathful God when sin's injustice - and sin's crimes of hate - are repeatedly committed and perpetuated. God judges sin because His judgment derives from His intense love for mankind: as beheld in His love for mercy and forgiveness. A repeated theme found in the messages of the OT prophets and again through Jesus and the messages of the early church in NT.

 

Another problem with PRIMARILY conceiving the atoning work of Christ around the idea of penal substitution is that it creates a Gospel message that is intensely individualistic and not collective (me-and-God as versus us-and-God... my pain as versus our collective pain) which is yet another sociological marker of Western civilization's exhibit of Modernity over the countering, global, posture of Post-Modernal, communal responsibility. We become over-focused upon ourselves -  and not on that of others - and thereby speak of Jesus' atonement in personal terms of ourselves to the exclusion of its communal applicability to all men. But when we see Jesus' atonement in terms of all men, then we are better able to see the harm we have done to one another because of our sin. Surely we are forgiven by God's grace, but just as surely we have committed great wrong and undoing in society which must also be undone by our own hands.

 

Tony Jones goes on to observe, that this idea of Christ's sacrifice makes the Son more attractive to us than it does the Father because of Jesus' willingness to takes His Father's wrath upon Himself in place of our condemnation. The "Bully on the Block" seems to be an unappeased, and very angry, God - not the circumspect God of broken heart as willing Lamb who seeks man's salvation by His own personal sacrifice. Too often we confuse Jesus' lifework-and-divine-being apart from His Father's nature and divine attributes. However, we would do better to understand Jesus and His Father as one - and even more so, to see the Father through Jesus, and not through our ideas of what we think we know of God through Scripture ("Ye have seen the Father through me," says Jesus - John 14.7). Hence, we ultimately know God through Jesus, who perfectly pictures the Creator God through His atoning redemption for man's sin. If we do not understand God than turn to Jesus to understand God better.

 

Lastly, Tony importantly notes that God is too-often seen to be held captive to His own divine laws of righteousness, honor, wrath, and expiation (a legal term for sin's absolvement). And yet, God cannot be held captive to any part of His being - nor can His laws be so understood as to be misapplied about His own being. God judges sin not because of His laws but because of its wickedness. The Law simply points out to us its wrongness. To expect harm and folly, grief and strife, pain and pride and prejudice, if sin is given in to. These God would help lead us away from... and not towards. To use our willful freedom responsibly in loving actions toward one another... and not towards self-seeking greed and evil. Sin, in its ultimate definition, is the unloving use of free will. It is not a metaphysical entity but a description of us doing unloving things. Its the misuse and abuse of the freedom that God has placed within mankind's soul. A freedom which learns to love from the God of love as seen by His life of love on this earth in Jesus.

 

R.E. Slater

June 4, 2013

 

 

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Penal Substitution Dies on the Reservation

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2013/06/01/penal-substitution-dies-on-the-reservation/

 

by Tony Jones

June 1, 2013

Comments

 

I’ve been to Taizé twice, in France. Occasionally, Taizé goes on the road, as it did last weekend, to South Dakota. More specifically, the gathering was on Red Shirt Table, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, just miles from where I lived the summers of 1994, 95, and 96, in Manderson. I would have loved to participate, being that the gathering was a marriage of two of my favorite places in the world. But, alas, Taizé is not for me. It’s specifically for people under 35 — which I’m not — or faith leaders who were leading groups of people under 35 — which I’m also not.

 

Jason Micheli (subscribe to his blog!), however, is. He led a group of folks from his church in Virginia to SoDak last week, and, at my request, he sent this report:

 

Photo by Sydney Foster

 

Over the Memorial Day Weekend a few of us from my congregation joined between 1,000-1,500 pilgrims from around the world at for the Taize Gathering at Red Shirt on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

 

Taize is an ecumenical monastery in Burgundy, France. Every week the brothers of Taize welcome thousands of pilgrims to participate in the rhythms of their communal life, and once a year some of the more than 100 brothers take their ‘community’ somewhere else in the world for a pilgrimage gathering.

 

This year the brothers were invited by the Lakota nation to welcome pilgrims to Red Shirt.

 

Just as pilgrims do at Taize, we spent our time at Pine Ridge in worship (sung chants, sung prayers and a whole lot of silence) 3 times a day.

 

We shared simple meals of buffalo meat straight off the rez, and we shared our faith stories in small groups.

 

We listened to each other; in fact, listening was the primary reason we’d gathered. We camped in tents in a horse pasture and went, uncomplaining, without running water. For those few days at least, we did our best to approximate the simplicity and joy of what the New Testament refers to as the oikos: the ‘economy’ or household of God.

 

Our ‘sanctuary’ was a hollow carved out by the wind in the middle of the badlands. We sat in the prairie grass under the sun and stars.

 

Sunday night’s worship concluded with Taize’s traditional Prayer around the Cross. The cross is an icon of the Crucified Christ with water rushing out from his pierced side. For the prayer around the cross, the icon is taken out of its stand and laid on top of 4 cinder blocks so that it’s about a foot off of the floor and perpendicular to it. As the gathered sing, one by one, pilgrims approach the cross on their knees. Once they make their way to the cross, they place their forehead on the cross and pray.

 

The Prayer around the Cross is powerful to experience.

 

It’s just as powerful to watch so many approach the cross with devotion and seriousness. But it’s even more powerful to notice the patience and hospitality everyone affords one another during the prayer, for it can take a good long while for that many people to crawl to the cross and then pray on it.

 

Before the Prayer around the Cross on Sunday night, Brother Alois, the prior of Taize, invited us to place our burdens upon the cross, the burdens we suffer both personally and collectively ‘because,’ Brother Alois said in his simple yet incisive way, ‘Christ didn’t just suffer in the past. Christ still suffers today with us, with anyone who suffers in the world.’

 

His words hit me with converting clarity.

 

The prairie wind I felt blow across me could very well have been the Holy Spirit.

 

Because not one of us 1K pilgrims missed the clear, straight, connect-the-dots line he’d just drawn from the Crucified Christ to the all-but-crucified Lakota Indians on whose land we prayed.

 

When Brother Alois mentioned ‘collective suffering’ an accompanying illustration or further explanation wasn’t needed.

 

Sitting all around us were Lakota Christians, young and old, whose families had been herded like cattle onto a patch of land aptly named the badlands. Promise after promise made to them and treaty after treaty made with them had been broken- because why do you need to keep your word to cattle? There on the reservation unemployment is over 80% (just think what the average suburban street would be like with unemployment that high). As a result, alcoholism and hopelessness are nearly as high, and I can’t remember the last time I read a news story or heard a politician mention an Indian issue other than the name of a f&^*%$# football team.

 

We prayed that night just a stone’s throw from Wounded Knee, the site of massacre where a mass grave of over 300 innocents slaughtered by the U.S. Army little more than a hundred years ago. Afterwards the soldiers took gleeful pictures next to heaps of bodies of children and their mothers. Wounded Knee remains a festering wound of memory for the Lakota.

 

When Brother Alois mentioned the cross and collective suffering, we all knew what he meant.

 

And in one sense, nothing he said was revelatory or profound.

 

Yet here’s what hit me about what he said and from where he said it: the ‘traditional’ evangelical understanding of the cross, what theologians call ‘penal substitution,’ not only has nothing to say to people like the Lakota, penal substitution speaks no good news to them because it simultaneously privileges people like me.

 

Penal substitution is an understanding of the atonement ideally suited for oppressors and people who benefit from oppressive systems.

 

On the pop level, penal substitution is the understanding of the cross that says ‘Jesus died for you.’

 

For your sin.

 

Jesus died in your place. Jesus died the death you deserve to die as punishment for your sin.

 

Jesus is your substitute.

 

He suffered (suddenly I realize how the past tense is key) the wrath God bears towards you.

 

On the purely theological level, I’ve always had a problem with penal substitution. Quickly: penal substitution seems to make God’s wrath more determinative an attribute than God’s loving mercy. It easily devolves into a hyper individualistic account of the faith (me and God). God the Father comes out, at best, seeming like a petulant prick who bears little to no resemblance to the Son, and, at worse, the Father seems captive to his own ‘laws’ of righteousness, honor, wrath and expiation.

 

Forgiveness, it’s always seemed to me, shouldn’t be so hard.

 

And shouldn’t require someone to die.

 

I’ve always had my theological gripes with that way of understanding the cross, but when I heard Brother Alois introduce the Prayer around the Cross the this-world, moral deficiencies of penal substitution hit me like a slap across the face.

 

Saying Jesus Christ died for you, for your sin, for your sin to be forgiven is good news to… sinners.

 

But what about the sinned against?

 

What we flipply call ‘Amazing Grace’ is good news for wretches like Isaac Newton. For slave-traders and slave-masters. Thanks to the cross, they’re good to go. Their collective guilt and systemic sin…wiped clean by the blood of the cross.

 

Hell, we might as well continue in those sinful systems because what matters to Christ isn’t our collective guilt but our individual hearts.

 

Yet what about those whom the ‘wretches’ made life an exponentially more wretched experience? What about the millions of others whom those wretches, who’ve been found by this amazing grace, treated like chattel?

 

At the Lord’s Supper we proclaim that Christ came to set the captives free, yet we persist in an understanding of the cross that bears zero continuity with that proclamation.  We spiritualize and interiorize gospel categories like ‘suffering’ and ‘oppression’ and ‘deliverance.’

 

Because it suits us.

 

Because we are ourselves are not oppressed, have no actual desire to be delivered from our ways in the world and suffer only the affliction of the comfortable.

 

Penal substitution, I realized upon hearing Brother Alois’ words, makes the mistake of acting as though Jesus of Nazareth is the only one to ever be strung up on a cross of shame and suffering.

 

Sure, every single, last Lakota gathered with us was, on an individual level, a ‘sinner.’ Just as surely to focus so singularly misses the larger issues, for the Indians praying with us at Red Shirt have been sinned against by us actively for centuries and they are now sinned against by our cynical indifference.

 

To suggest the primary meaning of the cross is that Christ died for their oppressors’ sins is to perpetuate, in a very real way, their suffering.

 

If Jesus wept over Jerusalem, I’ll be damned if he doesn’t weep over a place like Pine Ridge. And if he called the Pharisees ‘white-washed tombs’ for turning a blind eye to Rome’s oppressive systems, I wonder what he might call us?

 

On my knees in the hollow that was our sanctuary and hearing Brother Alois’ words as they struck the ears of Indians along with mine, I realized that Christ doesn’t die for us so much as Christ dies as one of us. With us.

 

In solidarity with those who’ve suffered like him at the hands of empire and indifference.

 

Location, location, location. Real estate can make you hear the gospel with different ears — that’s what I realized at Pine Ridge.

 

The cross, I realized at Pine Ridge, is the opposite of good news unless it is today what it was for the first Christians: a symbol of protest, a demand for and a sign of an alternative to the world’s violence, a declaration that Christ not Caesar is Lord.

 

The primary message of the cross for someone like me, then, isn’t that God’s grace has saved a wretch like me though it can include that message.

 

No, the primary message of the cross is that it’s a summons to suffer, as Christ, for those whom the world makes life wretched.

 

Rather than Jesus being the answer, the solution to our selfishly construed problem, Pine Ridge has left me believing that the Cross is meant to afflict us with the right nightmares.

 

 

 

Exploring Evolution Through Christian Scientists, Teachers, and Researchers

 

 

Here is a helpful site that has been exploring the integration of the Christian faith with scientific studies in evolution. As such, I wish to add its evolving links to the evolutionary discussions we have already posted to demonstrate the opening up of Christian theology to the science of evolution. That it is a natural discussion requiring the Christian faith to adjust its parochial ideas of instant, immediate creationism to that of a progressively unfolding universe towards biological life. And that our definitions of God, and doctrine, must likewise be adjusted in light of these scientific truths. And that the Christian faith in Jesus is richer for the admission and dynamic study of evolution - as versus the more popularly held misconception that the Christian faith must be abandoned in order to choose man's scientific observations of God's cosmos. An archaic belief that seems more absurd every time I hear it from sincere Christian brethren conflicted between their faith and the natural world around them. And yet, a belief that is unnecessarily opposed, and restrictive to, God's wondrous complex of imagination, creativity, power and wisdom.

 

For all these many reasons, and more, today's postmodern Christian must adjust yesteryear's "biblical" orthodoxies and traditions from its previous angular, boundary-based, arguments towards rectifying, orthogonal structures of debate and consideration, without feeling that the historic faith in Jesus is threatened, or even unnecessary. More simply said, it has been the Christian Church's misperception and purposeful ignorance that has artificially contributed to the biblical world of myth and lie rather than to the profound spiritual truth of God's diverse, creative, handiwork... marvelous to behold... and exquisitely centered around the atoning personage and work of Jesus.

 

And so, to our previous articles here at Relevancy22 tying in faith-and-doctrine to scientific findings-and-discovery, let us also reflect upon God's heart-and-mind through a dedicated group of Christian theologians and scientists, teachers and professors, that have adjusted their doctrines of God to allow for the more eminently satisfying idea of Evolutionary Creationism that sees God intricately involved in the process of evolution even now.... And all that that may mean to our further reflections of doctrine, relational theism, open theology, the gospel of Christ, the church, and even worship, each centered around our Creator-Redeemer. Who is Himself the God of love and forgiveness, hope and mercy... the Almighty God of mystery and majesty proclaimed to us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Thank you.

 

R.E. Slater

June 3, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

Nazarenes Exploring Evolution

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“Nothing makes sense in [herpetology] except in the light of evolution”

John Cossel

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

I fear that in following the great essays that have preceded mine, I will have little to offer.  But I take hope as I remember Sunday evening testimonies at the small country church I attended as a teenager.  I recall being moved and inspired by the various believers as they shared the same story but…read more.

 

Humanity in the Image of God

Michael Lodahl

Monday, May 20, 2013

"I don't believe in evolution, I always want to be free; Ain't gonna let no anthropologist make a monkey out of me." The late Larry Norman is one of my favorite Christian musicians. But I always wince when I hear those lyrics. It's the sort of rhetoric we hear often. Not long ago one of my students…read more.

 

Beginning to Listen: Creating Loving Congregations

Bethany Hull Somers

Monday, May 13, 2013

In the beginning I was a Nazarene. And although according to statistics people my age are unlikely to continue to be a part of the church, I am still a Nazarene. I believe that it has something to do with the way the community of faith that formed me dealt with my doubts and questions. Not only am I…read more.

 

The Character of Genesis 1-3

Thomas J. King

Monday, May 6, 2013

I have no doubt that the Lord God could easily provide humanity with a detailed scientific manual, which explains the creation of the universe and answers all the modern questions regarding evolution, fossils, age of the earth, dinosaurs, etc. However, that is not what we have in the case of Genesis…read more.

 

Some Reflections on the Genesis Story of Creation

Alex Varughese

Monday, April 29, 2013

I confess that my method of reading and interpreting the Bible has evolved over the last forty-three years since I entered the field of Religion from the field of science. This shift was in response to a statement I heard in the setting of a theology class taught by Forrest Benner, professor of Theology…read more.

 

Darwin and the Farmboy

Dennis Williams

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

When it comes to thinking about God, creation and evolution, I had an advantage over many who grew up evangelical.  Growing up on a southern Great Plains farm, I observed evolution happening in all kinds of venues.  We grew both milo and cotton until the Russian Grain Embargo and the OPEC-induced Oil…read more.

 

Echoes from my Journey of Faith

Lowell Hall

Monday, April 22, 2013

"So, how could anyone believe the earth is more than 8,000 years old?" "Do you really believe that humans came from monkeys?" Perhaps questions like these come my way because I am a professional chemist and an Evangelical Christian. My family gave me a Christ-centered home and the love of Scripture;…read more.

 

Much Needed Conversation

Mark Quanstrom

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

I am appreciative to those who recognize that there ought to be a place where serious conversation can take place regarding the relationship between evolutionary theory and Christianity's faith affirmations. I'm appreciative because I am not of the opinion that evolutionary theory poses no challenge…read more.

 

Bread, Cup and a Barrel of Monkeys, Wolves and Lambs

Jon Middendorf

Monday, April 15, 2013

I have the great honor of pastoring in a college town. With dozens of colleges, business schools, universities and technical schools around, there is no shortage of teachers and learners to season every conversation and challenge every assumption. Every week our pews are filled with chemists, physicists,…read more.

 

Regarding the Virtue of a Full Diet

Henry Spaulding

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Living on a university campus requires a multi-lingual approach to intellectual discourse. The process of engendering a healthy conversation surrounding theology and evolution necessitates just such a capacity. Ludwig Wittgenstein provocatively writes, "A main cause of philosophical disease – a one-sided…read more.

 

Permission to Explore Evolution

Dianne Anderson

Monday, April 8, 2013

Permission to explore evolution. That is what I wanted deep down, but it is not what I heard from pastors, teachers, or my family. I remember being kept away from the human evolution section of natural history museums and being told that scientists were just out to prove that God didn't have anything…read more.

 

Evolution and Orthodoxy

Steve Estep

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

In chemistry, litmus tests are used to determine pH, the level of acidity in different substances. Around 1300 A.D., Spanish alchemist Arnaldus de Villa Nova was credited with developing these strips of paper that quickly reveal levels of acidity so chemists know what kind of material with which they…read more.

 

Making the Pieces Fit

Tim Crutcher

Monday, April 1, 2013

As a Wesleyan theologian, I'm passionately committed to two things. First and foremost, I'm committed to Scripture and the truth to which it testifies about who God is, who we are, and how we relate to God. In my mind, that book must be absolutely trustworthy because without it, we'd be in the dark.…read more.

 

On this we all agree – In the Beginning God

Nancy Halliday

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

It was in a General Zoology course at Southern Nazarene University where I encountered a Christian perspective on evolution that I had never heard before. I was shocked and yet relieved when the professor declared, "There is no need for your faith to be in conflict with your understanding of science."…read more.

 

Creation and Evolution

Mike Schutz

Monday, March 25, 2013

I am not sure. I am not sure if the Genesis account of creation should be taken literally. I am not sure how it was understood by those who first received it. I am not sure if they asked the same questions I ask today. I am not sure if they cared about the same issues as those who sit in my congregation…read more.

 

The Bible Celebrates the Creator

Marty Michelson

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Creator creates creation.1 This simple sentence encapsulates what every believer of Scripture discerns to be true about God. God is creator. As creator, God has acted and continues to act with creation to shape and mold and frame the manifold complexity and beauty of the world. Creation is the object…read more.

 

Breaking Away from a False Dilemma

Steven M. Smith

Monday, March 18, 2013

False dilemma - a logical fallacy which involves presenting two opposing views, options or outcomes in such a way that they seem to be the only possibilities: that is, if one is true, the other must be false, or, more typically, if you do not accept one then the other must be accepted.1 Despite having…read more.

 

Origins and Outcomes

Randie Timpe

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Questions of human origins and humans' role in creation constituted a significant focus in my undergraduate study in theology at Southern Nazarene University in the late 1960s. These questions did not evaporate in my graduate study in psychology at state universities. Rather, they became more focused…read more.

 

Considering Evolution

Carl Leth

Monday, March 11, 2013

Charitable Discourse The first victim of many engaged conversations about evolution is charitable discourse. Conservative Christian fundamentalism marks out one position and scientific fundamentalism marks out an opposing position. Each makes an exclusive claim on the Truth (as piety or intellectual…read more.

 

How I Have Evolved

Stephen Borger

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Let me share with you my personal story. I truly do not remember whether I was ever taught or personally believed what would be referred to as a "young earth, six day creationist" belief. I do know that I grew up in a very conservative and legalistic Iowa Nazarene parsonage. I don't think creation versus…read more.

 

Evolution(ism) and Creation(ism), Canon and Creed

Brent Strawn

Monday, March 4, 2013

Growing up in the Church of the Nazarene, when I did (born 1970) and where I did (Southern California), meant that I was somehow given a lot of what could be called run-of-the-mill, nondescript conservative evangelicalism—of the Wesleyan-Arminian variety, to be sure, but also of the general North American…read more.

 

Evolutionary Battle Fatigue

Donald Yerxa

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Perhaps my experience is not the norm for a lifelong Nazarene, but evolution has never been terribly problematic for me. I cannot say the same, of course, for reductionistic naturalism. Not surprisingly, I have always viewed materialistic thinking as fundamentally incompatible with my Christian faith,…read more.

 

Take Scripture Seriously

Shea Zellweger

Monday, February 25, 2013

"You don't take Scripture seriously." I was a junior in college when I heard those words spoken by my favorite professor in a class on some of my favorite books of the Bible, and I was instantly offended. I didn't take Scripture seriously? How anyone could say such a thing was beyond me. This man clearly…read more.

 

Creation, Incarnation, and Evolution

Mark Mann

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life.... And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory..." These…read more.

 

Faith Seeking Understanding

Bob Branson

Monday, February 18, 2013

At the age of nine, while attending a youth camp, I first understood the claims of the Gospel and yielded my life to God. That yielding was more than an emotional experience, for it also was the recognition that God had called me into professional ministry. During my teens, this call continued to be…read more.

 

Conversations on Evolution and Christian Faith

Dan Boone

Monday, February 11, 2013

May I share an honest confession? I was initially hesitant to participate in this project because of my role as president of a Christian university. At Trevecca Nazarene University, we are willing to ask hard questions and converse with a maturing generation. However, I know that many people have already…read more.

 

Godless Evolution?

Rob L. Staples

Monday, February 11, 2013

The Christian Faith has always had to adapt to the proven findings of science. For example, the biblical writers all reflected the "cosmological" view current in their day. They thought the world was flat. Above it was the blue dome of the sky, and above that lived God, the angels, and departed saints.…read more.

 

Exploring Evolution Through the Reproductive Process

Jennifer Chase

Monday, February 11, 2013

Growing up, I never imagined there was a perceived incompatibility between faith in the Creator God and the biological descriptions of the mechanisms of evolution. Now, I am not so naive about these perspectives. Some people do feel that Creator God's sovereignty is threatened by treating evolutionary…read more.

 

 

 

"You Are Safe Now"... Amazing Words To A Sexually Abused Victim

 

Patrick Stewart Gives Passionate Response

to Question At Comicpalooza 2013  

 

 

 

 

Published on May 29, 2013

This was my question to Sir Patrick Stewart at Comicpalooza 2013. I wanted to thank Patrick Stewart for his speech at Amnesty International it personally help me put a name to the abuse, sexual abuse in my case, I had experienced in the past. He responded very passionately and the last thing I thought I would get at was a heartfelt hug.

 

When he embraced me he told me "You never have to go through that again, you're safe now". I just kept thanking him.

 

I hope everyone who needs help in abusive or violent situations has the courage to do so. There are people willing and ready to help you. There are hotline numbers a little farther down.

 

This video is owned by Oswald Vinueza and full recording can be found here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWkLO...

 

I posted an extended response about the experience here on my blog:

 

http://lemonsweetie.tumblr.com/post/5... (listed below)

 

If you need help, please reach out!

 

Refuge Hotline in UK
0808-2000-247

 

Combat Stress Hotline In UK

0800-138-1619

 

------------------

 

Vets in USA with PTSD Hotline

1-800-273-8255, press 1

 

USA Hotline for Domestic Abuse

‎1−800−799−SAFE(7233) 

 

 

May 29th, 2013 at 11:12AM

 

 

 

Let me tell you a thing, about an amazing man named Patrick Stewart

I went to Comicpalooza this weekend and I was full of nervous energy as I was standing in line to ask Sir Patrick Stewart a question at his panel. I first had to thank him for a speech he had given at amnesty international about domestic violence towards women . I had only seen it a few months ago but I was still dealing with my own personal experience with a similar issue, and I didn’t know what to call it. After seeing Patrick talk so personally about it I finally was able to correctly call it abuse, in my case sexual abuse that was going to quickly turn into physical abuse as well. I didn’t feel guilty or disgusting anymore. I finally didn’t feel responsible for the abuse that was put upon me. I was finally able to start my healing process and to put that part of my life behind me.

After thanking him I asked him “Besides acting, what are you most proud of that you have done in you life (that you are willing to share with us)?”. Sir Patrick told us about how he couldn’t protect his mother from abuse in his household growing up and so in her name works with an organization called Refuge for safe houses for women and children to escape from abusive house holds. Sir Patrick Stewart learned only last year that his father had actually been suffering from PTSD after he returned from the military and was never properly treated. In his father’s name he works with an organization called Combat Stress to help those soldiers who are suffering from PTSD.

They were about to move onto the next question when Sir Patrick looked at me and asked me “My Dear, are you okay?” I said yes, and that I was finally able to move on from that part of my life. He then passionately said that his mother had done nothing to provoke his father and that even if she had, violence was never, ever a choice a man should make. That it is in the power of men to stop violence towards women. The moderator then asked “Do you want a hug?” 

Sir Patrick didn’t even hesitate, he smiled, hopped off the stage and came over to embrace me in a hug. Which he held me there for a long while. He told me “You never have to go through that again, you’re safe now.” I couldn’t stop thanking him. His embrace was so warm and genuine. It was two people, two strangers, supporting and giving love. And when we pulled away he looked strait in my eyes, like he was promising that. He told me to take care. And I will. 

Sir Patrick Stewart is an absolute roll model for men. He is an amazing man and was so kind and full of heart. I want to let everyone know to please find help if you are in a violent or abusive house hold or relationship. There are organizations and people ready to help. I had countless people after the panel thanking me for sharing the story and asking him those questions. Many said they went through similar things. You are not alone.

 

"16 Ways I Blew My Marriage"

 

http://www.danoah.com/2012/10/16-ways-i-blew-my-marriage.html

 

On Wednesday, October 17, 2012 by Dan Pearce

You know what blows big time?

The other night I was sitting with my family, most of whom are very successfully married. We were going in a circle giving our best marriage advice to my little sister on the eve of her wedding. It’s somewhat of a family tradition.

But that’s not what blows. What really blows is that I realized I don’t have any good marriage advice to give. After all, I’ve never had a successful marriage out of the two marriages I did have.

And so, when it was my turn, I just made a joke about divorce and how you should always remember why you loved your spouse when you first met her so that when times get tough, you can find someone new that is just like she was.

There were a couple courtesy giggles, but overall my humor wasn’t welcome in such a beautifully building ring of profundity.

They finished round one, and for some reason started into another round. And that’s when I realized. Hey. I don’t have marriage advice to give, but I have plenty of “keep your marriage from ending” advice (two equivocally different things), and that might be almost as good.

It eventually came to me again, and what I said would have been such great advice if I were a tenth as good at saying things as I was at writing them.

And so, that night, I sat down and wrote out my “advice list” for my little sister. You know… things I wish I would have known or done differently so that I didn’t end up divorced (twice). After writing it, I thought maybe I’d share it with all of you, too.

I call it my “Ways I Blew My Marriage” list. Also, for the list’s sake, I am just going to refer to “her” instead of “them” even though they almost all were true in both marriages.

1. DON’T STOP HOLDING HER HAND

When I first dated the woman I ended up marrying, I always held her hand. In the car. While walking. At meals. At movies. It didn’t matter where. Over time, I stopped. I made up excuses like my hand was too hot or it made me sweat or I wasn’t comfortable with it in public. Truth was, I stopped holding hands because I stopped wanting to put in the effort to be close to my wife. No other reason.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d hold her hand in the car. I’d hold her hand on a star. I’d hold her hand in a box. I’d hold her hand with a fox. And I’d hold her hand everywhere else, too, even when we didn’t particularly like each other for the moment.

BONUS! When you hold hands in the winter, they don’t get cold. True story.

2. Don’t stop trying to be attractive.

Obviously when I was working to woo her, I would do myself up as attractively as I possibly could every time I saw her. I kept perfectly groomed. I always smelled good. I held in my farts until she wasn’t around. For some reason, marriage made me feel like I could stop doing all that. I would get all properly groomed, smelling good, and dressed up any time we went out somewhere or I went out by myself, but I rarely, if ever, cared about making myself attractive just for her.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d try and put my best foot forward throughout our entire marriage. I’d wait to fart until I was in the bathroom whenever possible. I’d make myself desirable so that she would desire me.

BONUS! when you trim your man hair, guess what. She returns the favor.

3. Don’t always point out her weaknesses.

For some reason, somewhere along the way, I always ended up feeling like it was my place to tell her where she was weak and where she could do better. I sure as heck didn’t do that while we were dating. No, when I dated her I only built her up, only told her how amazing she was, and easily looked past all of her flaws. After we got married though, she sometimes couldn’t even cook eggs without me telling her how she might be able to improve.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I wouldn’t say a damned thing about anything that I thought could use improvement. I’ve learned since my marriage ended that there is more than one right way to do most things, and that the imperfections of others are too beautiful to try and change.

BONUS! when you tell her what she’s doing right, she’ll tell you what you’re doing right. And she’ll also tell her friends. And her family. And the dentist. And even strangers on the street.

4. Don’t stop cooking for her.

I knew how to woo a girl, for sure. And the ticket was usually a night in, cooking a nice meal and having a romantic evening. So why is it then, that I didn’t do that for her after we got married? Sure, I’d throw some canned soup in the microwave or fry up some chimichangas once in a while, but I rarely if ever went out of my way to sweep her off her feet after we were married by steaming crab legs, or making fancy pasta, or setting up a candlelit table.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d make it a priority to cook for her, and only her, something awesome at least every month. And I’d remember that meat in a can is never awesome.

BONUS! candlelit dinners often lead to candlelit bow chica bow-wow.

5. Don’t yell at your spouse.

I’m not talking about the angry kind of yelling. I’m talking about the lazy kind of yelling. The kind of yelling you do when you don’t want to get up from your television show or you don’t want to go ALL THE WAY UPSTAIRS to ask her if she’s seen your keys. It really doesn’t take that much effort to go find her, and yelling (by nature) sounds demanding and authoritative.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d try to go find her anytime I needed something or wanted to know something, and I’d have both gratitude and manners when I did. I always hated when she would yell to me, so why did I always feel it was okay to yell to her?

BONUS! sometimes you catch her doing something cute that you would have missed otherwise.

6. Don’t call names.

I always felt I was the king of not calling names, but I wasn’t. I may not have called her stupid, or idiot, or any of the other names she’d sometimes call me, but I would tell her she was stubborn, or that she was impossible, or that she was so hard to deal with. Names are names, and calling them will drive bigger wedges in communication than just about anything else.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: Any time it got to the point that I wanted to call names, I’d call a time-out and come back to it later. Or better yet, I’d call her names, but they’d be names like “super sexy” or “hotness.” Even in the heat of the moment.

7. Don’t be stingy with your money.

As the main bread earner, I was always so stingy with the money. I’d whine about the cost of her shampoo or that she didn’t order water at restaurants, or that she’d spend so much money on things like pedicures or hair dye jobs. But seriously. I always had just as many if not more things that I spent my money on, and in the end, the money was spent, we were just fine, and the only thing my bitching and moaning did was bring undo stress to our relationship.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d tell her I trusted her to buy whatever she wanted, whenever she felt like she needed it. And then, I’d actually trust her to do it.

BONUS! sometimes she will make bad purchase decisions, which leads to makeup purchase decisions. Like that new gadget you’ve had your eyes on.

8. Don’t argue in front of the kids.

There was never any argument that was so important or pressing that we couldn’t wait to have it until the kids weren’t there. I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist or super-shrink to know why fighting in front of the kids is a dangerous and selfish way of doing things.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I would never, ever, not even once fight in front of the kids, no matter how big or how small the issue was. I’d maybe make a code word that meant, “not with the kids here.”

BONUS! when you wait to fight, usually you both realize how stupid or unimportant the fight was and the fight never happens.

9. Don’t encourage each other to skip working out.

I always thought it was love to tell my spouse, “I don’t care if you don’t take care of yourself. I don’t care if you don’t exercise. I don’t care if you let yourself go.” But that was lying, and it was lying when she said it to me because the truth is, we did care and I wish that we would have always told each other how sexy and attractive the other was any time we’d go workout or do something to become healthier.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d ask her to tell me that she cared. I’d ask her to encourage me to go to the gym. I’d ask her to remind me of my goals and tell me I’m strong enough to keep them.

BONUS! exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. And happy people don’t kill other people. (Name that movie!)

10. Don’t poop with the bathroom door open.

I don’t know why, but at some point I started thinking it was okay to poop with the bathroom door open, and so did she. First of all, it’s gross. Second of all, it stinks everything up. Third of all, there is literally no way to make pooping attractive, which means that every time she saw me do it, she, at least in some little way, would have thought I was less attractive.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d shut the damn door and poop in private.

BONUS! when she does think of your naked body, she’s not going to be thinking about it in a grunting/squatting position.

11. Don’t stop kissing her.

It always got to a point when I’d more or less stop kissing her. Usually it was because things were stressful and there was tension in our relationship, and so I’d make it worse by refusing to kiss her. This of course would lead to her feeling rejected. Which would of course lead to arguments about it. Other times I had my own issues with germs and whatnot.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d kiss her in the morning when she looked like people do in the morning. I’d kiss her at night when she’s had a long day. I’d kiss her any time I felt like she secretly wanted a kiss. And, I’d kiss her even when my germ issues kicked in.

BONUS! she feels loved when you kiss her. That’s bonus enough.

12. Don’t stop having fun together.

Age shouldn’t matter. Physical ability shouldn’t matter. Couples should never stop having fun with each other, and I really wish I wouldn’t have gotten into so many ruts in which we didn’t really go out and do anything. And, I’ve been around the block enough times to know that when the fun is missing, and the social part of life is missing, so also goes missing the ability to be fully content with each other.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d make a rule with her that we’d never stay home two weekends in a row.

BONUS! awesome stories and awesome memories come from doing awesome things. And so do cherished embarrassing moments.

13. Don’t pressure each other.

Pressuring each other about anything is always a recipe for resentment. I always felt so pressured to make more money. I always felt so pressured to not slip in my religion. I always felt so pressured to feel certain ways about things when I felt the opposite. And I usually carried a lot of resentment. Looking back, I can think of just as many times that I pressured her, so I know it was a two-way street.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d make it a point to celebrate the different views, opinions, and ways that she had of doing things. I’d find the beauty in differentiation, not the threat.

BONUS! authentic happiness becomes a real possibility. And so do authentic foot rubs.

14. Don’t label each other with negative labels.

Sometimes the easiest phrases to say in my marriage started with one of three things. Either, “you should have,” “you aren’t,” or “you didn’t.” Inevitably after each of those seemed to come something negative. And since when have negative labels ever helped anyone? They certainly never helped her. Or me. Instead, they seemed to make the action that sparked the label worsen in big ways.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I would learn to stop myself before saying any of those phrases, and then I’d switch them out for positive labels. Instead of “you should,” I’d say “you are great at.” Instead of saying “you aren’t,” I’d say “you are.” Instead of saying “you didn’t,” I’d say, “you did.” And then I’d follow it up with something positive.

BONUS! the noblest struggles become far more conquerable. And you don’t think or believe that you’re a schmuck, which is always nice.

15. Don’t skip out on things that are important to her.

It was so easy in marriage to veto so many of the things she enjoyed doing. My reasoning, “we can find things we both enjoy.” That’s lame. There will always be things she enjoys that I will never enjoy, and that’s no reason not to support her in them. Sometimes the only thing she needs is to know that I’m there.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d attend many more of the events that she invited me to. I would actively participate and not tell all the reasons why I’d do it differently or how it could be better or more fun or time better spent.

BONUS! go to something she knows you don’t enjoy and the gratitude gets piled on later that night, like whipped cream on a cheesecake.

16. Don’t emotionally distance yourself after a fight.

I never got to experience the power of make-up sex because any time my wife was mean or we got in a fight, I’d completely distance myself from her, usually for several days. Communication would shut down and I’d avoid contact at all cost. This never let things get worked out, and eventually after it had happened enough times I’d explode unnecessarily.

IF I COULD HAVE A DO-OVER: I’d let myself communicate my emotions and feelings more often, and I’d make sure that she knew I still loved her any time we had an ugly bout. Sure, we’d give each other some distance. But not days of distance.

BONUS! Fantastic make-up sex. Or at least that’s the theory.

I had lots more written out, but the list started getting super long so I’ll stop right there and maybe do a part 2. It’s amazing when you’ve had relationships end, just how much you learn and know you could have done differently, isn’t it?

My sister and her new husband will be amazing. Hopefully she’ll always be giving amazing marriage advice in the future and never have to hand out the “keep your marriage from ending” advice like I get to.

Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing