Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

Yep, back once again with a post on Global Warming (my most recent posts: A Few Thoughts on Global Warming and AoS: “An Inconvenient Energy Bill”). First I thought I would point you to this ironic story where a polar ice trek meant to draw attention to global warming was called off due to frostbite.

Then there was the cold — quite a bit colder, Atwood said, then Bancroft and Arnesen had expected. One night they measured the temperature inside their tent at 58 degrees below zero, and outside temperatures were exceeding 100 below zero at times, Atwood said.

I suppose the adventure did draw attention… just maybe not the kind they were looking for.

“They were experiencing temperatures that weren’t expected with global warming,” Atwood said. “But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability.”

Oh, so global warming will actually bring colder temps… gotcha. And this quote from Ace:

Does empirical evidence fail to support global warming? Ah well, no problem: Because, you see, global warming also has the insidious attribute of being too unpredictable to actually ever be proven via normal scientific processes like prediction and confirmation.

As Jim Geraghty says, “Global warming is now simply what we used to refer to as ‘the weather.’”

Heh.

Another article from Ace points us to a NY Times article about Gore’s use of science, From a Rapt Audience, a Call to Cool the Hype:

Read more…

I enjoy the movie Dogma. Yes, I am aware it is fairly sacrilegious, but I also think it is pretty hilarious and has a lot of interesting things to say. I think if a Christian had made the movie it could have been used to present the Gospel in an extremely interesting way, unfortunately it would be fairly difficult for a Christian to make this movie.

Mooby the Golden Calf is a device used in numerous Kevin Smith films that is meant to portray the notion of the graven idol (as often seen in the Old Testament). Here is the scene (well parts of it) in Dogma when Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon) confront the board of directors:

Bartleby: “You and your board are idolaters.”
…
Loki: Sneezes but no one says bless you
…
Bartleby: “You are responsible for raising an icon which draws worship from the Lord, you have broken the 1st commandment… your continued existence is a mockery of morality.”
…
Bartleby: Exposes the sins of each of the board members
…
Loki: “There isn’t a decent human amongst you. Not one. Do you know what makes a human being decent? Fear. And there in lies the problem, none of you has anything left to fear any more. You rest in seats of inscrutable power hiding behind your false idols, far from judgment, lives shrouded in secrecy even from one another, but not from God…”
…
Loki: “I don’t believe in voodoo… I do believe in this…” Loki then kills them all (except the secretary, eventhough she didn’t says “bless you” when he sneezed).
Ben: “‘I do believe in this.’ What does that even mean?”

I found this scene interesting because, as angels of divine judgment, Loki and Bartleby could find fault with each member of the board. While the issue wasn’t pushed in the film, it is pretty obvious to me that we are all sinners (while probably not necessarily in the ways that the board members were), and all deserve God’s judgment… or mercy and grace.

This next scene comes later in the film when Bartleby and Loki are trying to get back to heaven by any means necessary. Their comments pertain to all of humanity, not just the friendly folks at Mooby (please pardon the language if you are offended):

Bartleby: “These humans have besmirched everything he [God] has bestowed upon them. They were given paradise and they threw it away, they were given this planet and they destroyed it, they were favored best among all his endeavors and some of them don’t even believe he exists, and in spite of it all, he has shown them infinite fucking patience at every turn… we have paid our debt, don’t you think it is time? Don’t you think it is time to go home?… just kill them so they can get what they want.”

Loki: “My God, I’ve heard a rant like this… you sound like Lucifer. You aren’t talking about going home, you are talking about war on God. I have seen what happens to the proud when they take on the throne.”

Bartleby: I am going home, … no one, … not even the almighty himself is gonna make that otherwise.

I think that is a very astute observation about humanity. I also especially liked Loki’s comment that “I have seen what happens to the proud when they take on the throne.”

Finally, I wanted to point to a moment from one of the final scenes. This takes place at the Catholic church where Bartleby and Loki are trying to enter. There the priest (George Carlin, heh) is talking about his “house of God” and Bartleby responds:

God’s house? God doesn’t live here any more. He’s grown weary of your superficial faith. He’s turned a deaf ear to your lip service prayers. He has abandoned you, his favorites, to the will of judgment. Hypocrites, charlatans. Prepare to taste God’s wrath… Ladies and gentleman, you have been judged as guilty of violations against our almighty God. And this very day I assure you, you will all pay for your trespasses in blood.

Harsh, but not entirely inaccurate, critique of the church. While most (but by no means all) of the specific comments in the film are directed at the Catholic church, I think they can also be easily applied to the church at large.

Superficial faith, lip service prayers, hypocrites, charlatans. Is this what defines the church? Your faith? I certainly hope not. What’s the point if it is?

Fortunately, the movie is wrong in many ways. God has not abandoned us, He has not merely left us to the will of judgment. He has sent His son to take the brunt of that judgment. By His grace and mercy we don’t have to pay for our trespasses in blood. It has already been spilt for us.

You may (or may not) have noticed that things look a bit different around here. I think I had tweaked my old blog design too much: it was taking a lot longer to load than I liked and I was getting lots of database errors when I published the posts… basically I needed a change.

Now I need some feedback. I have made extensive modification to this theme but still don’t know if everything works, if it looks ok, or if others will find it easy to use/navigate. So tell me, is it just as easy, easier, or harder to use. Do you like it? How do you feel about the lack for sidebar? Is the drop down menu at the top intuitive? I will be adding links in the top menu that will go to my blog roll and other important links.

Thoughts? Constructive criticism would be helpful! Thanks!

Ten ossuaries were discovered in this
family tomb. Could Jesus Christ
have been buried here?

There has been a lot of hype surrounding James Cameron’s Discovery Channel special by filmmaker Simcha Jacobvici The Lost Tomb of Jesus. I hadn’t commented on it because 1) it sounded pretty silly, and 2) I wanted to watch the show before I commented on it. Well I have seen the show and now I can comment.

The resurrection never happened! Jesus died and was buried with his family. We were all misled by a massive conspiracy of the early church! Heh. Naw, I’m just messin’ with ya. I am still pretty confident in the Good News (that is, the bodily resurrection of Jesus) of the Gospel.

Here are the factors that are supposed to lead us to believe that the family tomb discovered in Talpiot in southeastern Jerusalem is the tomb of Jesus Christ: 1) The names discovered on six ossuaries (the other four did not have inscriptions) include Jesus son of Joseph, Joseph, Mariamne (possibly Mary of Magdala), Mary, James the brother of Jesus, and Judah son of Jesus; the odds of all these particular names (and how they were inscribed in various Hebrew and Hellenized forms) being seen together and it NOT being Jesus Christ’s tomb is 1 in 600. 2) Mitochondrial DNA analysis of samples from the ossuaries of Mary (of Magdala) and Jesus says that they are not related; it would be very rare for non family members to be in the same family tomb unless they were married.

Read more…

I’m back once again with the next edition of Space Saturday! This week I bring you an emission and reflection nebula in NGC 2170:

Small (448×336) – Medium (1024×768) – Large (1600×1200)
Credit: Russell Croman Astrophotography (contact)

The red areas of this image are emission nebulae, the blue areas are reflection nebulae (along with the darker absorption nebulae). Two different processes going on that result in a beautiful photograph. Russell Croman has taken this beautiful image for us to enjoy!

Check out my Space Saturday Archive for more astronomy images.