New Covenant

Links for Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Imagine if it was Dubya's Doobies?
Best part of the story? The commenter who points out that while Romney went to High School, Obama went to school high.

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GOP finally taking some action over Fast & Furious?
It's about time. Perhaps they're trying to play this into an election issue. I've got mixed thoughts about that - after all, Brian Terry, the Border Agent who was killed, should not be a political pawn. Yet if the Right is going to take down the current Left administration in November, they will have to fight for it.

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Didn't anyone teach these kids (and their parents) how to add?
From the NY Times,

ADA, Ohio — Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is already working two restaurant jobs and will soon give up her apartment here to live with her parents. Her mother, who co-signed on the loans, is taking out a life insurance policy on her daughter.

“If anything ever happened, God forbid, that is my debt also,” said Ms. Griffith’s mother, Marlene Griffith.

Ms. Griffith, 23, wouldn’t seem a perfect financial fit for a college that costs nearly $50,000 a year. Her father, a paramedic, and mother, a preschool teacher, have modest incomes, and she has four sisters. But when she visited Ohio Northern, she was won over by faculty and admissions staff members who urge students to pursue their dreams rather than obsess on the sticker price.

“As an 18-year-old, it sounded like a good fit to me, and the school really sold it,” said Ms. Griffith, a marketing major. “I knew a private school would cost a lot of money. But when I graduate, I’m going to owe like $900 a month. No one told me that.”

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Abraham Lincoln - Fashionista
I didn't realize that, with his mussed-up hair, Honest Abe was so far ahead in his stylin'.

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Darn those annoying Home Schooled kids!

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For the germaphobe - homemade hand sanitizer

 

Links for Wednesday, 28 March 2012

California wants your 5 year-olds
From HSLDA,

AB 2203 would lower the compulsory attendance age for entry into school from 6 to 5 years of age. This requirement would apply to all children, whether their parents plan to send them to public school or private school (including private homeschools).

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So... will Spike Lee now do the right thing?
From FoxNews,

A school-cafeteria lunch lady and her husband have received hate mail, unwanted visits from reporters and fearful inquiries from neighbors — all because their Sanford-area address is being disseminated on Twitter as belonging to Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman, her son said late Tuesday.

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More info on the possibility that a 1st century manuscript of the Gospel of Mark has been found

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5 Reasons not to agree to a police search
Like Linus told Lucy, "Those are good reasons!"

1. It's your constitutional right.

2. Refusing a search protects you if you end up in court.

3. Saying "no" can prevent a search altogether.

4. Searches can waste your time and damage your property.

5. You never know what they'll find.

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Google has acted... Have you?

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Hey, I know! How about we do an object lesson on what it means to be a persecuted Christian?
Yikes.

A 14-year old Dauphin County girl said she thought she was going to die Wednesday night when two men with apparent guns raided a church meeting. She later found out that it was a learning exercise carried out by the church youth group.

The mother of the young girl did not want to reveal their names. The teenager does not belong to the Glad Tidings Assembly of God church in Lower Swatara Township, but she decided to go to a youth meeting Wednesday night with a friend who told her the meetings were fun.

Well, I guess it depends on how you define "fun".

Vote for Real-Science-4-Kids

A wonderful home school science education curriculum, Real-Science-4-Kids, needs your vote!

It's part of About.com's Best Homeschool Science award.

Training Young Adults in Christian Apologetics

Recently, in Christian apologetic circles, it was noted that a former Christian professor of philosophy had converted to an Eastern religion. Dr. Michael Sudduth, from San Francisco State University, was highlighted in the blog post Michael Sudduth Converts to Vaishnava Vedanta!

As part of our home schooling effort, we engage in a weekly Current Events series in which I have my oldest daughter (high school) read various news items (which I have selected), and then write a brief commentary on the item, first explaining what the article was about and then giving her opinion on the story.

Here is what she wrote regarding the conversion story of Dr. Sudduth:

This article is a letter written by a man who has converted from Christianity to Vaishnava Vedanta. He had been a Protestant Christian for 25 years, but had increasingly become drawn toward Vedanta, both trough a philosophical attraction and an experiential attraction. As he began to explore the religion more deeply, he became profoundly affected by it and to feel the presence of God through it. He began to believe that his former beliefs in God were a limited expression of the deeper meaning he found through Vedanta.

Vaishnavism articulates a model of the love of God, where intimacy and separation are the two important elements of the divine-human love relation. People are both one with God and separate from God. The relationship with God is a simultaneous difference and non-difference. He believes that God is manifested in different ways, and God-realization takes on diverse forms. Vaishnavism acknowledges religious truth found across different religious traditions, and though the names are many, God is one. How we experience God depends on different aspects of our own personalities.

The author says that he does not believe he is worshipping a different God than he worshipped when he was a Christian – he believes it is the same God, under a different, and fuller manifestation. He says that the basic principles of Vaishnavism are compatible with a number of fundamental Christian beliefs, and that he is not relinquishing these beliefs but situating them in a different philosophical and theological context. He closes his letter by saying that he doesn’t want to convert any of his friends to Vaishnavism, but he hopes that they’ll make each other better devotees in their respective faiths.

From this letter, it seems like the author has based his entire conversion on experience. He felt something when reading the texts associated with Vaishnavism, he felt a closeness to the person of Lord Krishna, he felt profoundly affected and overwhelmed with a sense of the presence of God. He felt Krishna’s presence in his bedroom, he felt a validation of his spiritual journey. Even when he starts talking about philosophy and theology, he says that he has found aspects of the Vedanta theology and philosophy appealing to him. I think that his question should not be, “is it appealing?”, or “does it feel right?”, rather, he should ask “does it line up with reality?” He seems to ignore this question, replacing it with how he happens to feel. If these beliefs don’t line up with reality, if they’re not true, they shouldn’t be believed no matter how appealing they are or how good they make one feel.

The author claims that Vaishnavism is compatible with Christianity. He even claims he is worshipping the same God he worshipped before he switched religions. However, if he really means this, he couldn’t have been worshipping the Christian God before. Jesus said that He was the only way to God – obviously, the author believes there are many ways to get to God, so his beliefs are in direct opposition to fundamental Christian beliefs.

Lastly, he says that he’s only interested in making his friends better devotees to their respective religions, not in making them converts to Vaishnavism. Why is this? If he believes that Vaishnavism is true, then shouldn’t he want to convince other people of that? This religion seems to be one without much substance – it seems like anything you believe goes, and I don’t think that lines up to the way the world we know actually works.

Personally, I think that it is incumbent on us, as Christian parents, to prepare our children for the realities of a post-Christian America, thereby providing them with the resources to not only counter the worldviews they will come up against, but to courteously provide a clear explanation of the veracity of the Christian worldview.

And, I'm proud of my daughter's grasp of these concepts, while in high school. We must engage our young adults (that would be anyone older than 13) in the marketplace of ideas, stretching them, and setting the bar high - they can achieve it.

Links for Saturday, 21 January 2012

Plugged In, and Trippin'! Literally
Study finds injuries increase with the frequency of headphone use,

Serious injuries sustained by pedestrians while listening to headphones have more than tripled in six years, according to a new study published this week in the journal Injury Prevention.

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Hey, let's bring some MERCURY into our homes!
From the Jerusalem Post,

...from this point onward, only incandescent bulbs of 60 watts and less will be retailed. This limits our choice – like it or not – to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), those squiggly, coiled bulbs initially hailed by environmentalists as saving as much as 50 percent of energy consumption, while lasting eight times longer. In truth, some CFLs malfunction far more quickly than advertised and they remain expensive.

...

There’s more. Each CFL contains small quantities of mercury and other toxins. If a bulb breaks at home, its fragments are dangerous to bare skin and need special handling and cleaning up. Even vacuum cleaners won’t do because they might spread the contamination.

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Can Science Inform Our Understanding of God?

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Homeschooled students in university science classes: strengths, and weaknesses
The points from this university science professor (HT: Old-Earth Creation Homeschool) echo my own observations and thoughts. From the post,

Desirable characteristics:

1. They are independent learners and do a great job of taking initiative and being responsible for learning. They don't have to be "spoon fed" as many students do. This gives them an advantage at two specific points in their education; early in college and in graduate education.

2. They handle classroom social situations (interactions with their peers and professors) very well. In general, my homeschooled students are a pleasure to have in class. They greet me when the enter the class, initiate conversations when appropriate, and they don't hesitate to ask good questions. Most of my students do none of these.

3. They are serious about their education and that's very obvious in their attitude, preparedness, and grades.

Areas where homeschooled students can improve:

1. They come to college less prepared in the sciences than their schooled counterparts - sometimes far less prepared. This can be especially troublesome for pre-professional students who need to maintain a high grade point average from the very beginning.

2. They come to college without sufficient test-taking experience, particularly with timed tests. Many homeschooled students have a high level of anxiety when it comes to taking timed tests.

3. Many homeschooled students have problems meeting deadlines and have to adjust to that in college. That adjustment time in their freshman year can be costly in terms of the way it affects their grades.

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The face of a Post-Christian Europe?
Rest assured, while Christian churches continue to close, the Church will not disappear (until it's time to leave).

Only in California (v. 2)

A Summer camp to help socialize your... dog?
Camp Bow Wow is not limited to California but they are, apparently, serious. From the ad,

"Mom & Dad, take me to camp...
...so I can socialize,"

Remind me again - we're in a recession so severe that some are comparing it as the closest we've come to the Great Depression? And yet, we have people sending their dogs to camp?

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And so goes public education, on the slippery slope
Governor Brown signed into law SB 48, this past summer. An excerpt of the bill,

51204.5. Instruction in social sciences shall include the early history of California and a study of the role and contributions of both men and women, Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, European Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, persons with disabilities, and members of other ethnic and cultural groups, to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.

[emphasis added]

Wait, it gets better.

51500. A teacher shall not give instruction and a school district shall not sponsor any activity that promotes a discriminatory bias on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, or because of a characteristic listed in Section 220.

[emphasis added]

And if you think that you have the right to teach what you want in the privacy of your own home, consider this little paragraph.

SEC. 6. It is the intent of the Legislature that alternative and charter schools take notice of the provisions of this act in light of Section 235 of the Education Code, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or other specified characteristics in any aspect of the operation of alternative and charter schools.

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"(Q)uestions regarding vaccination laws are public policy matters for the government to decide."
From ParentalRights.org,

...this past weekend ...California governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB499 allowing children as young as 12 to make their own decisions regarding the Gardasil vaccine.

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Well, at least Governor Brown's recent signing of 3 gun-control bills will help. Right?
Maybe we need a gun-control bill for the LAPD. It seems that they had some trouble controlling the whereabouts of some of their firearms. Not to worry, though, they only lost some submachine guns. It's also reported that criticism of those who were negligent has been light, presumably because they are fellow officers. David Codrea also points out that the LAPD Chief is a darling of the Brady Campaign, is against open and concealed carry, and doesn't want honest citizens to have normal capacity magazines. All this, I suppose, because the normal citizen isn't responsible enough.

The Bible Fast Forward - chart

One of the pleasures I've had, over the past school year, is going through Stand to Reason's The Bible Fast Forward series with my oldest daughter (who just completed 10th grade). While it's always a homeschooler's joy to be able to engage in one on one teaching and conversation with their children, this series, taught by Greg Koukl, was particulary thought provoking.

The series is comprised of 8 one-hour lectures combined with a PDF notebook of the outlined topics. The objective of the series is to present the Bible as a unified whole, specifically addressing its purpose and how it reveals and amplifies God's Rulership of His Kingdom. In doing so, the series neatly unpacks topics such as the aforementioned rulership, kingdom while also tieing in the various covenants in the Bible as well as concepts such as progressive revelation, the Trinity, hypostatic union, kenosis, etc.

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed the series and commented how it opened up various concepts that she didn't know were contained in the Bible (particularly such early references to the New Covenant and the fact of God's blessing upon all the peoples of the earth).

Shortly after we completed the series we received an added bonus in that Greg Koukl presented the entire set of lectures, to re-record and update the series, over the course of a Friday evening / Saturday at his home church. What a blessing to receive this teaching directly!

We belong to a home school group and, at the end of every school year, the various families will gather for an "Open House", highlighting the various projects and work the students have been working on. My daughter prepared a 2X poster-board sized chart, outlining some of the main concepts she learned in the series.

You can view the low-res version below, or click on this link   View the Hi-Res photo
   to download a higher resolution version (~4mb).

I highly recommend the series The Bible Fast Forward, but wait until the newer audio version is released (supposed to be soon), or wait several months for the video version.

Also, if you don't already subscribe to the Stand to Reason weekly podcast, please do so. And there's a wealth of apologetic information at their website to help equip Christ Followers in explaining the Gospel message to a post-modern, relativistic world in dire need of the Truth.

 

On rude teachers, lazy kids, and introverts

High School teacher Natalie Munro has, evidently, caused quite a stir recently with her blog posted rants about the many shortcomings of her students and her students' parents. From the National Post, ‘Frightfully dim’: Teacher suspended for blog insulting students,

Although she didn’t name her school or any students, she used her real first name and initial and had a photo of herself. In a completely unsurprising turn of events, school officials found her out.

Parents, administrators and students alike weren’t too impressed with how she described her pupils:

• "A complete and utter jerk in all ways”
• “Although academically okay your child has no other redeeming qualities”
• “I hear the trash company is hiring”
• “I didn’t realize one person could have this many problems”
• “There’s no other way to say this, I hate your kid”
• “Rat-like”
• “Dresses like a streetwalker”
• “Frightfully dim”

Indeed, such candidly negative descriptions of one's students seems to exemplify virtues contrary to what one would expect from a teacher. Although, I wonder if Munro's crime was not so much that she has negative feelings about some of her students as that she committed those feelings to print (cyber-print, as it were). How many of Munro's colleagues have similar feelings about some of their students? For that matter, how many students have negative feelings about some of their teachers? Yeah. You know what I'm talking about.

Could it be, however, that those criticizing Munro are over-simplifying the problem at hand? Consider what Susan Cairn stated on her blog Quiet,

I want to talk about Munro’s view of quiet and shy students. Here, according to her blog entry of January 21, 2010, is what she wished she could put on their report cards:

• “A kid that has no personality.”
• “She just sits there emotionless for an entire 90 minutes, staring into the abyss, never volunteering to speak or do anything.”
• “Shy isn’t cute in 11th grade; it’s annoying. Must learn to advocate for himself instead of having Mommy do it.”

Munro seemed to have no understanding of how tough a place the typical American high school can be for introverts — like an all-day cocktail party without any alcohol. She believed that these kids should suck it up and act like everyone else. And she was right, to a certain extent; we all need to fake it a little, extroverts too. I’ve met many introverted kids who are thriving and happy, and most of them have learned how to adopt an extroverted persona when need be.

It seems that what we have here is a classic example of the diversity of the human psyche. Contained within a typical classroom are students (and teachers) of various personality types, learning styles, and intelligence levels, who also bring with them the baggage of life - both the good and the bad. If this complexity exists, then it should be no surprise that it manifests itself in equally complex ways. Thus, a "kid that has no personality" may indeed not have a personality, or he may have mental issues, or he may be extremely apathetic, or he may tend towards not publicly displaying emotion, or any combination of the above.

Is Munro unable to discern the simple fact that humans have differing personalities? It does seem difficult to comprehend that one who is used to seeing classrooms full of new students, each year, would be so myopic. In our own home school household we have seen this clear distinction in differing learning styles, as related to personality differences, with a total sampling of only 2!

If, in fact, Munro is an extrovert who has her blinders on with regards to the diversity of human personality traits, then it would be in her best interest to educate herself on this subject - to expand her horizons - indeed - maybe she should think outside the box.

Yet, before we dismiss Munro's opinions of her students, and condemn her for having the audacity to express them, could it be she has thought outside the box and is now alerting us to another problem in our midst? Could it be that, within the walls of our public schools, there are students who are lazy, whiny, apathetic, and disrespectful?

From News.com.au,

"My students are out of control," Ms Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post.

"They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying."

And from Yahoo!News,

"They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative," Munroe said of her students in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The students are not being held accountable."

Munroe pointed out that she also said positive things, but she acknowledges that she did write some things out of frustration — and of a feeling that many kids today are being given a free pass at school and at home.

"Parents are more trying to be their kids' friends and less trying to be their parent," Munroe said, also noting students' lack of patience. "They want everything right now. They want it yesterday."

Some may say, in response to the last two article quotes, "well, that's not news". Yes, it is not news that today's students are "out of control". Yet, it would be too easy to scapegoat the reason why: drugs, being coddled, lack of federal money, teacher's unions, extrovert / introvert, parents, lack of parents, the myth of adolescence, learning styles, technology, affluence, etc. Rather than a single reason, could it be "all of the above"?

I think that with a problem rooted in complexity, the solution will reflect a similar complexity.

• Teachers need to exercise patience with problem students, learn how differing personality styles affect differing learning styles, and display a genuine interest in their students - among other things.
• Parents need to get involved in the lives of their children, not cater to their children, discipline their children, and love their children with a tough, yet gentle, love - among other things.
• Students need to grow up, exercise respect, study, work, and think - among other things.
• Society needs to stop blessing adolescent activities as normal, stop treating young adults as children, stop putting the notion of "self-esteem" on a pedestal, stop throwing money in the wrong direction, and start demanding results from students, parents, and teachers - among other things.

Links for Wednesday, 26 January 2011

So... where's my blessing?
I'm particularly touchy on # 2, although it does take some of your own understanding to grapple with # 6.

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Grandma would command a lot more respect in one of these babies!

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Estimates vary, but do the math
The country has gotten riled up over a lone madman using a firearm to kill 6 people, somehow coming to the conclusion that we need to implement stricter gun control laws. Consider that if 0.001% (that's one thousandth of one percent) of the firearm owners in the U.S. decided today to shoot and kill 6 people, we'd have 4,800 people killed. Seems to me that, under current laws, over 99.99% of firearms owners in the U.S. pretty much keep control of their actions.

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Now this is cool
One thing, though... might it be done to our infrastructure as well?

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Another advertisement for the home school industry.

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Global Warming Denier?
From the New Mexico Independent, Martinez picks former astronaut, global warming denier to head energy, natural resources department. Alternate title, "Martinez picks first and only scientist to walk on the moon, global warming realist to head energy, natural resources department".

Lockdown: yet another reason to home school

Imagine thousands of young adults kept locked in various rooms, separated from their parents, and some with no access to food, water, or the opportunity to relieve themselves, for up to 5 hours.

That's what happened to several Los Angeles Unified School District high schools a few days ago after a school police officer was shot and wounded. From the L.A. Times,

Thousands of students were kept in classrooms without food, water or access to restrooms longer than necessary, the Los Angeles school district's police chief acknowledged, as officials coped with complaints from parents frustrated once more with the district's handling of an emergency situation.

Not to worry, though, for even though the lockdown encompassed 9 different schools in a 7 square mile area (for one person shot, mind you), the police department is sympathetic to the predicament the students faced.

"That is not the time to attempt to deliver food to 3,500 students — during the search for an armed assailant," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese.

Well... surely the school district must have a bit more sympathy?

"Yes, parents are upset that their children at El Camino perhaps weren't allowed to use the bathroom," Siegel said, "but safety of the students is our top priority".

Safe, if not thirsty, hungry, and doing the "I gotta pee so bad!" dance. Yet some classes did improvise by, as one parent put it, "peeing into trash cans". Some schools have gone so far as to implement the use of "Lockdown Kits". Again, from the L.A. Times,

In fact, a 5-gallon pail is part of a "lockdown kit" that is supposed to be accessible to every classroom. The pail with a removable lid is "solely for the purpose of this kind of situation," said district spokesman Robert Alaniz.

Other elements of the lockdown kit include toilet paper and a portable toilet seat. There's also a flashlight, polyethylene bags, blankets, a pocket radio, bandages, tissues, disposable vinyl gloves, assorted batteries and duct tape.

Every new teacher is supposed to receive training in using the kit, which includes a recommendation that teachers supply a sheet that can be draped to provide privacy, said Bob Spears, the district's director of emergency services.

 

 

What was that? A "recommendation" that the teacher supply a sheet that can be used to provide some bit of privacy?

It seems to me that about the only other place you hear of a "lockdown" occurring is... that's right - a prison.

Rest assured. If our home school ever goes into lockdown mode, there will be more in the lockdown kit than mere toiletries.

Are you going to home school through high school?

Are you a home school parent? Have you come up against criticism such as, "How can you be qualified to teach high school to your child"? If so, then simply hand out the following am i kwalafied 2 teech? card, which highlights an incoherent E-mail written [sic] by the President of the Detroit Public School Board.

Printing instructions: Click on the image above to open up the full-size version. Print the image, size to 3.5" wide by 2" tall.

Homeschool journals and the reliability of the Gospels

As part of our homeschooling endeavors, my wife and I will have our children keep journals while we are on road trip vacations. Besides being a method to keep them busy, the exercise also helps them learn about the various places we visit, as well as to hone their writing skills. Typically, we'll have them keep a daily journal, encouraging them to be verbose and expressive as they relate the details of our trip.

On a recent trip, however, I asked them to take their journal writing in a slightly different direction. Instead of having them write from a perspective which relied heavily on feelings (i.e., expressing their thoughts and opinions about what we were doing), I instructed them to give an essentially historical and factual account of what transpired on the trip. They didn't have to try and include everything that had happened each day, but only that which they considered most important or most unusual. As an added bonus to this alternative approach, my wife and I also kept trip journals.

After the trip, the journals were polished off and printed. I then had each family member read the entire set of journals. Once that task was completed, we all gathered for a group discussion. As expected, the journals were written in a chronological manner (e.g., Sep. 21, Sep. 22, Sep. 23). And, as expected, while the journals contained many of the same trip events, they were not equally comprehensive in their coverage of the trip. Descriptions varied, numerical values were sometimes rounded, specific events were ignored, etc. Due to the type of experiment I was conducting, I purposely varied the style of my journal from that of chronological to topical. I also crafted my account to include rounding, and exclude extraneous information of events that none of the other family members were a part of.

During our discussion I brought up these various differences in each of the journals. I asked what the differences might indicate (e.g., error, difference of opinion, omission). I asked if any of the differences indicated a direct contradiction or whether the differences were simply paradoxical. Essentially, I took our children through the process of harmonizing the four accounts of our trip. This was possible because the harmonization was being done on events they were eyewitness to, and the analysis was being made on data they had a direct part in producing.

Lastly, I then asked if they were aware of any other examples, of multiple accounts of the same events, having a different appearance in the forms we had just discussed. Our oldest quickly answered with, "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John," and our youngest even piped in with the statement that Mark does not include any mention of Jesus' birth. This, of course, was the point of my exercise: To show our children, brought up in the midst of a 21st century Western culture which prides itself in recording data comprehensively, that historical narratives can (and do) vary, and that such variances are not, in and of themselves, indicative of contradictions or errors.

I think that an exercise, such as this, is important for our children (and for some adults) to understand. During our discussion, I told our children that there are critics of Christianity, and the Bible, who will attempt to convince believers that there are irreconcilable contradictions within the text of the Bible. As this exercise hopefully demonstrated, we have the means to intelligently respond to the critics.

Scary

The annual convention for the Christian Home Educators Association (CHEA) of California just concluded. Check out who one of the keynote speakers was:

Keynote speakers include Ken Ham, Michael Farris, Gregg Harris, and Kevin Swanson.

Very scary.

On the love of reading

Having children that love to read is a joy for many a homeschool parent (although the phenomenon is certainly not limited to homeschooled children).

On a recent trip to California's Central Coast we had a serendipitous, if not ultimately heartbreaking, homeschool moment with our youngest child. One of our favorite places to hang out, while touring the area, used to be Leon's Used Bookstore, in San Luis Obispo. Imagine the look on our child's face, however, as we walked up to the storefront, only to find the premises empty of its rows of bookshelves, with construction work being done inside. Alas, we soon found out that Leon's Used Bookstore is no more, the victim of the costs of doing earthquake retrofitting for older, unreinforced masonry buildings.

Our youngest was on the verge of tears.

Imagine... a 21st century child, upset because her favorite used bookstore had to shut down? While it was a painful lesson in reality for her, my wife and I simply smiled at each other, content in the knowledge that our child has a sincere love of reading.

Homeschool ignorance

Over at Phat Phree, this ignorantly imbecilic attempt at humor,

I cannot believe Harvard rejected my application! What does a home-schooled guy have to do? Show me another application so full of blessings from Jesus and I will show you lucky man. My mom tells me not to let it get me down, but I can't help but feel that this is somehow the fault of the homosexuals.

Dana effortlessly performs a smackdown.

Cool Space Gallery Site

A cool space gallery site from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA.

Biblically Correct Science?

Nightline recently spotlighted BC Tours, a Young Earth Creationist outfit which takes schoolchildren on tours of secular museums, presenting the exhibits under what they claim to be as the Biblically correct version of science. From BC Tours website, their mission is stated as,

Communicating Biblical Truth in every area of life through tours of museums, zoos, and historical sites.

However, some of the Biblical Truth they promulgate is nothing more than Biblical interpretation (and, in my opinion, some lousy interpretation at that). From their website,

At a large, colorful panel along a wall, Carter reads aloud from a passage describing the disappearance of dinosaurs from the Earth about 65 million years ago. He and some of the older students exchange knowing smiles at the timeline, which contradicts their interpretation of the Bible suggesting a 6,000-year-old planet.

"Did man and dinosaurs live together?" Carter asks.

A timid yes comes from the students.

"How do we know that to be true?" Carter says.

There's a long pause.

"What day did God create dinosaurs on?" he continues.

"Six," says a chorus of voices.

"What day did God create man on?"

"Six."

"Did man and dinosaurs live together?"

"Yes," the students say.

Mission accomplished for Carter, who has been leading such tours since 1988.

Oh my. Let's ignore the fact that there are multiple creation accounts and descriptions in the Bible - which must all be addressed, and harmonized, if one is really interested in Biblical Truth. Let's ignore the fact that there is no mention of dinosaurs being created on day six, much less any mention of dinosaurs in the Bible. Let's also ignore the data.

From the Nightline episode,

They said the T-Rex was vegetarian because at the time of the Creation, there was no such thing as death, so a T-Rex could not have eaten meat. There was no death until Adam and Eve ate forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, they continued, and God's revenge was to curse the world with death.

No death before the Fall? Well, let's now ignore Romans 5 or Psalm 104, not to mention the evidence which shows T-rex having all the designed characteristics of a meat eater.

Again, from Nightline,

Out on the museum floor, Jack and Carter stopped the group in front of a window display that contains samples of sandstone that have ripples created by water and fossils of ancient life. Bill Jack asked his group, "How do they date the fossil? By the layer in which they find it. They date the layer by the fossil and the fossil by the layer," he said. "That's circular reasoning."

In the next moment he stepped past and turned his back to a display on radiometric dating, the method by which scientists determine the age of rocks through the rate of decay of their natural radioactivity.

When later asked why he skipped the display, Jack said simply, "We can't cover everything."

Nice. Let's not only ignore the cross-checking process involved in fossil / layer dating, let's also just walk by one of the most reliable methods (radiometric dating) we use to determine age. Nah... can't cover everything.

Stacia Martin, who brought her 14-year-old son Shawn, said she had learned how to defend her faith in Jesus Christ.

"I learned that when you look at exhibits, don't take them at face value just because they're exciting looking or because they're interesting," she said.

Her son Shawn said he thinks the world is 10,000 years old, "Because the Bible says that."

No. The Bible doesn't really say that.

On the one hand, I applaud BC Tours for their efforts in attempting to promote a Christian Worldview. On the other hand, wouldn't it be nice if they could give tours which present the full Christian point of view, nuanced with a full look at the evidence?

ref:  A Matter of Days - Ross; Creation as Science - Ross; Origins of Life - Rana & Ross; Who Was Adam? - Rana & Ross; The Privileged Planet - Richards & Gonzalez

In California, the homeschool question is not necessarily over

From The Daily Case Report (see the video):

Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children. The ruse of "Enrollment" in a private school that functions by allowing children to stay at home and be taught by non-credentialed parents does not constitute instruction in a private full-time day school within the exception to California's compulsory public school education law. (emphasis added)

HT: Principled Discovery

Expect a non-credentialed fight.

Animal predators, as a good thing

From ScienceDaily, Predators Do More Than Kill Prey,

The direct effect predators have on their prey is to kill them. The evolutionary changes that can result from this direct effect include prey that are younger at maturity and that produce more offspring. But killing prey also has indirect effects -- rarely characterized or measured -- such as a decline in the number of surviving prey, resulting, in turn, in more food available to survivors. In a new study characterizing the complex ecological interactions that shape how organisms evolve, biologists present a novel way of quantifying the indirect effects of predators by showing that prey adapt to food availability as well as the presence of predators.

The notion that a predator animal killing and eating its prey is "bad" fails to take into account the complexity of interactions within an ecological system. Seen from a wider point of view, the killing of the prey is but a part of a larger, good system. A system which, by its definition, be fully functional at its inception. A system bearing the trademarks of design.

Consider the implications of another article, from ScienceDaily, titled Are Wolves The Pronghorn's Best Friend?,

As western states debate removing the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act, a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society cautions that doing so may result in an unintended decline in another species: the pronghorn, a uniquely North American animal that resembles an African antelope.

...

The study, appearing in the latest issue of the journal Ecology, says that fewer wolves mean more coyotes, which can prey heavily on pronghorn fawns if the delicate balance between predators and their prey is altered. According to the study, healthy wolf packs keep coyote numbers in check, while rarely feeding on pronghorn fawns themselves. As a result, fawns have higher survival rates when wolves are present in an ecosystem.

...

"This study shows just how complex relationships between predators and their prey can be," said Berger. "It's an important reminder that we often don't understand ecosystems nearly as well as we think we do, and that our efforts to manipulate them can have unexpected consequences."

The implications of unintended consequences from misunderstanding complex ecosystems.

Within the Young Earth Creation mindset, it is unfortunate that animal predation is considered "bad" or "evil". Such analysis, when one looks at the evidence within nature alongside that within God's Word, seems inadequate. Consider,

The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.

These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

- Psalm 104:21-28 ESV (emphasis added)

On the family and independence

From ScienceDaily, Close Families Raise More Independent Adults

You're already 25 and you still live with your parents. You're 26 and you still bring your laundry take home food from your mother. Don't worry; new research at the University of Haifa found that, contrary to common belief, young adults who maintain a close or moderate relationship with their parents exhibit greater independence in their personal lives than those who have a distant relationship.

...

According to the researcher, a close relationship with parents is one in which children talk with their parents often and regularly spend time together (eating meals together, for example), and one in which a child feels comfortable sharing his thoughts and experiences with his parents.

Hmmm. One of the criticisms we've received, with regards to homeschooling our children, is that once they leave home they'll - "go wild". It's my belief that human behavior is too complex to justify such a claim. Rather, as this study seems to suggest, a well balanced family life - as patterned after thousands of years of human existence - builds stable adults.

Kind of... makes sense.