Or rather, on a conference. TCA might be slightly quieter for a few days, but the comments have been hot so check them out. I’ll be back Friday - be ready.

Having an online shrine a blog is not normally helpful in cultivating humility.

Except that I happen to have a talent (see!) for getting way out of my depth quickly. Anyone can ask hard questions. I’ve discovered, however, that I don’t quite have the analytic faculties to follow the multi-faceted answers.

Readers, I take my hat off to you. Your intellectual abilities are stellar.

(SmartLX, I’ll get a response to you tomorrow. If anyone else wants to ‘help’, it would be much appreciated!)

Saw this last night, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to post it. Craig’s news feed looked like this:

How interesting. Call me a cynic, but it seems that churches stop growing whenever they try to ‘improve’ the gospel. Liberalism emasculates truth, ritualism obstructs the truth and renders it irrelevant. God wrote it; maybe He knew what He was doing.

Dad: I’ll have to start reading your bog site more.
Me: Blog, dad, blog site.

Some great comments floating around. I’ll get to them when it isn’t 11:44pm.

It didn’t take long. “Spain’s Parliament has voiced its support for the rights of great apes to life and freedom.” We now have no qualms about aborting human babies, but to infringe the right of an animal to freedom, that’s just plain wrong. Oh yes, it is a mad world we live in.

The Spanish ape population declined to comment. (I think… I couldn’t understand his answer.)

I’m all for looking after animals. But you don’t need to grant them ‘human’ rights to achieve that. Stopping the bull-fighting might be a start.

When will we decide the insanity has gone far enough? Why stop at apes? If humans are just another animal, surely we should also offer these rights to all species? Pity, I liked eating meat. And I’m having trouble persuading my cockroaches to leave - since it would violate their rights to forcefully remove them or, dare I even mention it, kill them.

I will be rightly criticised for this slippery slope argument; I don’t care. It is not a fallacy to name our foundations for what they are. It is indeed a slippery slope; for we have indeed begun to slip. At least now some might begin to realise the full implications of their philosophy.
(ht Craig)

Some of my friends find it liberating that (according to their philosophy) there is no ultimate meaning in life. “We are free to live it up,” they say, “Life will be fulfilling if we make the most out of every opportunity - have fun, experience the world, make some friends, maybe, later on, make a difference to someone’s life.”

Sound good? Not to me. Ravi Zacharias says it best:

Activity does not creat meaning; it is the other way around. If life in its existential expression has no meaning, then a change of attitude does not change the reality of meaninglessness. It only changes how one functions in a meaningless word, which was precisely Jean Paul Sartre’s point in No Exit. What difference does it make, when the boat is going down, if one stands on the deck and salutes or plays a last game of poker?

My friends have been liberated; but into what freedom?

Great article at DesiringGod.org

Other great articles I’ve read recently:
I Wouldn’t Forgive - Dalos
Mark Driscoll, Sydney + Australia - dmdc
The shadow of Monchberg - 168 Hours (ht Gordo)
Biofuel use ‘increasing poverty’ - BBC News (ht Craig)

A lot of people think our moral values are the result of ’social contracts’ formed between people for mutual advantage as societies formed.The reason you think murder is wrong is because you’ve been brought up that way, and the origin of this belief was an agreement (not necessarily actually expressed) between your grand-daddy and my grand-daddy that mine won’t knock off yours if yours doesn’t take out mine. Read the rest of this entry »

… my exams. A bit grumpy at myself for how I prepared for that last one. Oh well…
Now what? So many options…

I wrote a poem last night. If you take any pleasure in appreciating fine literature, I suggest you don’t read it. It’s very average. Read the rest of this entry »

… serious genuine question… (coolest generally, coolest sounding, coolest meaning… take your pick)

I have a terrible sense of smell - for unpleasant smells. But not when it comes to good smells: salty air, tea, chocolate, wood-fires, eucalyptus, yummy food, shampoo. mmmmmm