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Mandriva 2008 Free Ever since I tried Mandriva 2007 I felt that it was well ahead of other Linux distributions, and the same feeling has sprung upon me today with the new Mandriva 2008. After looking at all of the features I couldn’t help but think that this is HOT! My 694MB download hasn’t finished yet, but I’m sure once you read through the list of features below you’ll probably start downloading it as well. :)

A completely revamped website also accompanied the new release, and I give props to the Mandriva team for making it a lot easier to find what I’m looking for. The new site actually reminds me a bit of Mozilla’s site.

–Mandriva One vs. Free–

One of the things that had always confused me about Mandriva are the two different versions of the operating system that they offer. The two editions that are available, One and Free, both don’t cost a dime. So what is the difference between the two?

Mandriva Free does not contain “non-free software packages like proprietary drivers, closed-source applications or plugins.” Why is that such a big deal? There are a lot of diehard Free Software fanatics out there that don’t like running any of the proprietary stuff…even if it might make the user’s experience better. I’m not one of those people, but I definitely support those who do feel that way.

Mandriva One, on the other hand, does have proprietary drivers, plugins, and software to help make sure the user has the best out-of-box experience possible. A big benefit by running this version is that it can also operate as a Live CD, and can therefore be tested before you install it. This is the version that I always run, and what I recommend to anyone trying Mandriva out for the first time.

–Mandriva 2008 One Features–

  • Quick and easy installation
    One’s fast installation system lets you install the complete system to your hard disk simply by answering a few questions. Just click on the ‘Install’ icon after you start One. You can even browse the Internet or play Frozen Bubble while the installation is in progress.
  • Try Mandriva Linux safely
    Running One in live mode lets you try Mandriva Linux in complete safety: nothing is installed permanently to your system, nothing will be written to your hard disk, and you’re safe from viruses and spyware.” title=”Running One in live mode lets you try Mandriva Linux in complete safety: nothing is installed permanently to your system, nothing will be written to your hard disk, and you’re safe from viruses and spyware.
  • Effortless 3D desktop
    One includes full 3D support for all the leading graphics cards and makes it easy to enable full 3D-accelerated desktop effects. The latest 3D-accelerated desktop system, Compiz Fusion, provides both amazing visual effects and innovative new features which make it easier to interact with your desktop.
  • Coming from Windows? Don’t worry!
    Mandriva’s exclusive migration tool makes it easy to import your documents and settings from Windows to Mandriva. Unlike many other Linux systems, One lets you read from and write to all your Windows drives – even NTFS drives – with no manual configuration. Mandriva’s font configuration tool lets you import all your favorite fonts from Windows to Mandriva. One’s simple menu system makes it a breeze to find all the applications you need.
  • The best tools
    Dozens of Mandriva-developed tools help you access Windows and Linux machines on the local network, share your files and printers with others, keep your system secure, back up your important data and more.
  • All the applications you need on a single CD
    • Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird to browse the Web and manage your e-mail – with Java and Flash support.
    • for office tasks, with the Liberation font set to match fonts commonly used in the workplace.
    • The famous Google Earth world viewer (additional download required).
    • Picasa (additional download required) and GIMP to store, manage, view and edit your pictures.
    • Amarok and Kaffeine for music and video.
    • Kopete, an instant messaging application which can access MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM and ICQ together.

–Mandriva 2008 One Screenshots–

Mandriva 2008 Desktop Mandriva 2008 Live CD Install Mandriva 2008 3D Compiz Fusion Mandriva 2008 Migration Wizard Mandriva 2008 Network Center Mandriva 2008 Amarok

–Mandriva 2008 One Requirements–

  • CPU: Any Intel or AMD processor, 1Ghz or better – dual-core supported
  • RAM: 256 MB minimum, 512 MB recommended
  • CD-ROM drive required
  • Video Card: NVIDIA, ATI, Intel i8xx and i9xx, SIS, Matrox, VIA.
  • 3D desktop features requires NVIDIA GeForce or later, ATI Radeon 7000 or later, or Intel i810 or later
  • Sound Card: Any Sound Blaster-compatible card and AC97 (please note that Creative Labs X-Fi cards are not currently supported)
  • Minimum hard disk space: 3GB for a smooth installation – 4GB if you plan to use KDE 4
  • Serial ATA: Most controllers supported in non-RAID mode and some in RAID mode


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Monday, September 19, 2005

Author Update: Dian Curtis Regan

Though I'd known her through an author list serv, I first met Dian Curtis Regan in person at the 25th Anniversary Conference of SCBWI in Los Angeles. We've stayed in touch since, and I've had the pleasure of visiting her at her home in Wichita.

What is new in your writing life since we last chatted?

Newly painted office. New art on walls. New display shelves. This is also known as “circling” AKA “getting ready to get back to writing.”

When Ernest Hemingway was asked how he prepared to begin a new novel, he responded, “First, I defrost the refrigerator.” I can relate.

In the works: New mystery anthology coming out soon from Scholastic. Picture book in production at Holiday House and board book in production at S&S. A promise to write “Twenty Years After” for the editor of Byline Magazine since I was the children’s market columnist there when my first novel sold twenty (!!!!) years ago.

Could you tell us about your new book, The World According to Kaley (Darby Creek, 2005)? What was your inspiration for creating this book?

The concept for Kaley came to me while I was living in Venezuela. My husband and I were walking into the MareMares Resort to meet other expats, and I had one of those ‘slip of the tongue’ moments that made me immediately think of it as a book idea. I don’t remember the exact comment, but it was historically anachronistic. Or maybe it was hysterical fiction.

The idea stuck with me, and I knew I’d have to do a lot of research. However there were no libraries in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, and Google was just a baby.

I’d become friends with the director of a local private school, Escuela de las Americas, so I asked if I could borrow a few history textbooks. This turned out to be the perfect solution for finding historical facts, then twisting them a bit to make them funny.

I was back in Venezuela earlier this year when I found out the book was going to be published. Nice closure.

What was the timeline between spark and publication, and what were the major events along the way?

I wrote the first draft in 2000. The original title was Twisted History, and Kaley was not even in it. An editor told me, “No child is going to pick up a book with the word ‘history’ in the title.” Uh, good point.

After several more drafts, the book landed in its almost-final form, but then was shelved during the long move back to the USA. I’m awfully glad I finally took it out of storage and sent it off into the world.

What were the challenges (literary, research, psychological, logistical) in bringing it to life?

Besides figuring out how to do the research, I needed to design the chart, graph, and spot art. I am not an illustrator, but I am a closet cartoonist and have had cartoons published. I spent a lot of time working on the graphics. The publisher brought in a few 4th grade girls to recreate some of the doodles and handwriting.

The main character had three different names along the way. I think “Kaley” is a perfect fit. Also, a subplot was changed at the eleventh hour.

Lastly, it’s easy to poke fun at ancient history, but as the essays drew closer to the 20th century, I noticed that history wasn’t so funny anymore. I had to come up with a way to segue into modern times and find topics I could address in a humorous way.

How about children’s or YA books that you’ve read lately? Which are your favorites and why?

I recently revisited Stolen by the Sea by Anna Myers (Walker, 2001). It’s a haunting book, set during the 1900 Hurricane in Galveston. I kept thinking about the story all during the Katrina tragedy.

Other favorite new books:
Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles (Harcourt, 2005).
Double Helix by Nancy Werlin (Dial, 2004).
101 Ways to Bug your Teacher by Lee Wardlaw (Dial, 2004).
Stained by Jennifer Richard Jacobson (Atheneum, 2005).

Currently reading: What I Believe by Norma Fox Mazer (Harcourt, 2005) and Totally Joe by James Howe (Simon & Schuster, 2005).

What are your writing goals for the immediate future?

The publisher is nudging me to write a sequel to The World According to Kaley. Kaley has already started talking to me, so I can say that the story is underway.

I’m also eager to begin an SF novel I’ve been researching for a long time. See note above about circling. Guess I’d better go see if the refrigerator needs defrosting...

Cynsational News & Links

Attention Austinites: Free Writing Workshops at Barnes & Noble Westlake—As part of its “Year of Writing” program, B&N Westlake is featuring author Susie Flatau at 7 p.m. Thurs. Sept. 22. Susie will discuss “Metaphor-Based Writing.” On Wed. Oct. 12, 2 p.m., author Pat Flathouse will present “Writing the Stories of Your Family History.” On Sat. Nov. 12, 10 a.m., author and storyteller Tim Tingle will share “From Oral Tradition to Written Stories.” And on Sat. Dec. 3, 10:30 a.m., Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith will give tips on “Writing the Young Adult (aka Teen) Novel.” Source: Austin SCBWI.

Author Q&A with Ursula LeGuin by M.E. Wood from BellaOnline: The Voice of Women.

Not So Wild About Harry: Independent booksellers say latest 'Harry Potter’ book boosts store visibility, not bottom line by Laura B. Weiss from School Library Journal.

YALSA offers recommended reading for teens in light of recent disaster from the ALA. [Please continue to support Katrina survivors. Though many have responded in these early days, the need will persist. Thank you.]

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Milton Glaser

Divis Bench12. May2011

After Divis dining table, the first product from this family which made its debut at the ICFF New York in 2009, Divis bench is the second product made by Mike & Maaike in collaboration with furniture company Council.

Like the Divis table, Divis bench is available in natural or painted solid wood.

See also:


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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Moving soon . . .

Since this site will soon be 'moved' into the Contemporary Painters of Washington I am blogging on both so if you visited the new site you will pretty much see the same thing . . .

I've been busy the last couple of weeks getting ready for a show that just opened in the 'Manic Moon and More' Gallery in Spokane, WA.  Because of that I haven't blogged like I should have so hopefully I will try and make up for that by posting 2 of the pieces I just did for the show.

I tried something new and did a set of 4 horses (which I've never done before).  I enjoyed the change and can see the potential of adding more to the series.

Hope you enjoy them . . .
10 x 10 x 1.5"  Mixed Media Collage on Canvas

'Shy Boots'
10 x 10 x 1.5"  Mixed Media Collage on Canvas
For more information on these please visit my website here

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Home Planetary Aspects SUN TRINE CERES

Sun trine Ceres has a similar feel to the sextile, but where the sextile has the excitement of blossoming flowers, the trine is more about lying back and gorging on their sweet, ripe fruit. The problem then is the tendency of the trine to slide into complacency and decadence which can bring into effect natures cruel way of balancing the books… Enter Pluto! The weed killer. So Ceres in trine aspect can be a little too much of a good thing. However if the rest of the chart contains some dynamic squares, Sun trine Ceres will bestow great artistic creativity and sometimes musical genius.

When you experience a particularly hot and halcyon summer, a normal winter will seem devastating in it’s bitterness by comparison. More evolved souls with Sun trine Ceres somehow know that their good fortune or gifts need balancing, so they impose onto themselves a “bleak winter” every now and then. These subjects will not shy away from trying to understand and help those in poverty, pain or suffering. A more materialistic Sun trine Ceres will define himself by accumulating wealth and being rather ostentatious, that is until a Pluto transit comes along and strips them of everything. Another manifestation of this aspect could be over identification with the mother or feeling that you need the family inheritance to shine.

Sun Trine Ceres Celebrities

Sean Lennon’s (03′) iconic father John give up his music to be a stay-at-home dad and Sean experienced an ultra close bonding with his father only to have him cruelly taken away at the age of 5. From then onwards, until his teens he collaborated closely with his mother musically.

Independent film maker Jim Jarmusch (42′) is a total one man band, writer, actor, producer, editor and composer.  His films are marked by a brooding, contemplative tone, featuring extended silent scenes and prolonged still shots”. [1]His work is noted for it’s irreverence to patriotism and have a keen wit mixed with black humour

“Bloody” Mary the 1st of England (42′), was a precocious and exceptionally gifted child who was doted on by her father Henry the 8th. He would boast of her musical and intellectual prowess. That was until he remarried Anne Boleyn.. At the tender age of 15, Mary was then sent away from court and not even allowed to see her own mother. From that time onwards she suffered terrible menses and depression.

The father of Sociology, Emile Durkheim (24′) “was concerned primarily with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in the modern era, when things such as shared religious and ethnic background could no longer be assumed” [2] He left no stone unturned, with individual books dedicated to suicide, incest and religion

The lighter side of Ceres shows the aspirational, super-rich, super-fertile, family orientated Beckham’s Davison (45′),  King of synthesizers Giorgio Moroder (61′) famous for his influential lush, ultra-electronic musical production. British over-the-top comic Rick Mayall (12′) and shiny Irene Cara (43′) whos Ceres wanted to “live forever”

  1. BUT WAIT!!!…. WHat happens when Ceres and PLuto meet up… in the chart of a man???
    Look no further than Ryan Giggs. See the CArdinal Cross and Ceres play havoc… Lilith in the wings. All the women in his life out to get him… Today he is taking action in the courts (Saturn on the cross) against privacy breaches.
    Orpheus became very prurient against the Maenads, Dionysius lust female followers after his sojourn in the underworld. Giggs might be feeling similary indignant after his little cavort with a Maenad. However, PLuto, Ceres and Lilith are going to be cavorting in his chart for quite a while to come. Then the upcoming eclipse at 9 degrees Cancer will sit snugly opposite Ceres and Lilith, squeezing inbetween.
    Look out for the fleet footed winger being chased by two women with a couple of axes and a writ!

    • I love all these Ceres/Pluto/Lilith connections you keep finding. All the women out to get him, can’t help laughing. Well he’s always gonna have his marriage rocked by sex, look at that tight Mars/Uranus opposition across his relationship axis!


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Grey-chested Jungle-flycatcher Cyornis umbratilis

Family: Muscicapidae (Chats and Old World flycatchers)

Authority: (Strickland, 1849)

Red List Category

Criteria: A2c+3c+4c

Click here for more information about the Red List categories and criteria

Justification of Red List category
This forest-associated species is listed as Near Threatened because it is assumed to have experienced moderately rapid declines owing to the extensive loss of lowland forests from large areas of South-East Asia. It is not considered more threatened because it can use secondary habitats and occurs in lower montane forests which have not yet been severely affected by clearance.

Population size: unknown

Population trend: Decreasing

Distribution size (breeding/resident): 2,870,000 km2

Country endemic: No

Land-mass type - continent
Land-mass type - shelf island
Realm - Indomalayan
IUCN Ecosystem -- Terrestrial biome

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2016) Species factsheet: Cyornis umbratilis. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 09/12/2016. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2016) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 09/12/2016.


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Don Grosh Electra Jet ’11

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Price: $1,750.00 $1,495.00*

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Item Code: 2610.
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Product Description

Blue Metallic over Black, Alder body, Medium/Large Roundback shaped Maple neck with a 10” radius fingerboard and medium frets, Grosh P-90 bridge and neck pickups, With hardshell case, EC, Was $1750

Additional Information

Weight 25 lbs
Dimensions 7 x 17 x 44 in
Questions? 608-785-7704 Email Us

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Home > Information Security, Musings > A Hacker Looks at 40.

A Hacker Looks at 40.

May 29th, 2014

40Wow. It’s finally happened – the fabled 40th birthday that everyone loathes. It’s upon me. At 40, I think you’re supposed to reflect back on what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished, what’s been good and bad, and where the hell you’re going in life. Right? OK, this will depend largely on the individual, but 40 feels like a pretty damn good spot to reflect. Why not?

Some of you will say “40? WTF? That’s nothing.” And you know what? You’re right. 40 IS nothing. It’s been the most amazing ride so far, and things are only getting more interesting. So…a few observations on infosec, life, and the big picture. Warning: opinions ahead, and I get it if this is content easily skipped.

First, the industry we’re in. WOW. What a shit show. Who could have known what it’d turn into – I remember how I got into infosec, and never for a second thought it’d be this. So first, I was a fucking nerd as a kid. I wrote computer games in BASIC for the Commodore and Atari systems, most of which consisted of “What do you do? Turn left. Well, you die!” So yeah…game designer was out. I exploded shit in my basement as a kid with my chemistry set. I also took apart every electronic thing I could get my hands on, and *sometimes* put them back together. I was born to be a hacker, and that is all there is to it. So when one of my college professors hired me into a large Fortune 500 program, I had no idea what I was getting into, but security felt RIGHT. And today? Man, who could have imagined this?

I get bored easily. REAL easily. I need mental stimulation, and boring ass IT gigs sucked for me. Can you imagine being a day-to-day Exchange admin? That’s a “wake up in a cold sweat” nightmare for me. Day in, day out, Exchange. GAWD. So infosec? Yeah, it is volatile, and messy, and changes all the time. Thank goodness. I think change keeps you fresh, and this industry is just insane.

I miss some of the “old days”. I think it’s natural for some of us “old schoolers” who did infosec in the 90’s (or before). Back then, people had to innovate “solutions”, and actually understand sysadmin roles, technology, and maybe even code. Today, that is more rare than ever. We have pockets of brilliance…surrounded by an ocean of “just got my information assurance degree” bullshit that belies total lack of experience and real technical competence. Some of that is likely me being old and curmudgeonly, but damn…don’t talk security until you have done the actual work, or at least SOME of it.

So at 40 – how am I feeling about my infosec career and life in general? Let’s start with infosec, naturally. Infosec is the most incredible gift I could ever have received. All cynicism aside, it pays well, is dynamic, and more than anything…I love you people. Many of you are not just assholes, but FUCKING assholes. Some of us assholes NEED other assholes to hang out with. I love the vitriol, technical condescension, and pathetic attempts to deflect Twitter comments from your employers. You’re good company, and challenge the status quo…which is exactly what the industry needs. The ridiculous focus on all these stupid ass conferences? Not so much. But…you take the bad with the good.

What about life in general? Well, I’ll keep it short. I have far exceeded all of my wildest dreams. I have no real regrets at all, even though I’ve done some of the dumbest shit you’d ever hear about (most of which will remain private). I have an incredible wife and daughter, a few good friends, a lot of insane hacker acquaintances, and a good paying gig that I absolutely love. So all is well with the universe.

What advice could I offer? Heh. If you take advice from me…a big grain of salt should be involved. But in general, a few things I’ve learned along the way:

  1. Learn more. Constantly. If you are chillin’ with your skills from a few years back, no. Advance, learn more, or find a new gig. Infosec does NOT need dead weight.
  2. Make sure you have thick skin. If you are easily offended, or get worked up about critical comments and such, you need to toughen up. This is not an industry that cares about personal feelings. Good and bad, true, but it is what it is.
  3. Make as much money as you can. Seriously. Don’t be lulled into this “greed is bad, do it for the community” horseshit. You are in a very in-demand industry, and SOMEONE is going to make great money at it. Might as well be you. So do this.
  4. Do not make infosec your life. It’s a job. One you can, and should, enjoy SO MUCH. But your REAL life? That’s other things. If it’s not, you are putting all your eggs in one basket, and that directly defies some-or-another CISSP principle, I’m pretty sure. Seriously – get out more, explore hobbies, and think about the other part of your life that does not involve infosec. If there’s not one, you need to develop one.
  5. 1’s and 0’s are our work life. But step back. Look at the PEOPLE. Your family, friends. This is what matters most. Appreciate this more. Yes, you can.
  6. If your health sucks – change it. You cannot live a full and awesome life 200 pounds overweight and miserable. There’s nothing awesome about being a walking heart attack- and no, I’m not telling you to become a fitness nut. I am one, but that’s irrelevant. This is your LIFE. Your body lets you enjoy it. So take care of yourselves, people! I want to have a drink with you at DEF CON, and if you fucking die, that won’t happen. 😉

All in all, this hacker is looking at 40 with an incredible perspective on life. I’ve had severe highs and the most guttural lows along the way, but I would not trade my life for anything. I hope you feel the same. Cheers.

Categories: Information Security, Musings Tags:
  1. Stuart Gentry
    May 29th, 2014 at 10:28 | #1

    Well said Dave, especially the 6 things you learned. I found it interesting when you were telling our class that you majored in Micro-Biology. However, I also found it interesting that Jonathan Ham (SANS instructor and high school acquaintance of mine) majored in Anthropology. Yet, you’re both hackers :) .

  2. May 29th, 2014 at 13:58 | #2

    Well said, Dave. I’ve been in infosec for 58% of my life and have come to many of the same conclusions. For me, the most impactful difference has been #6. A good #6 is a key prerequisite for a good #5, IMHO.

    BTW, #1 is why I’m in this gig. #4 is what almost drove me out, and #5 is what kept me coming back.

    Happy 40th, buddy.

  3. Jim Voorhees
    May 30th, 2014 at 05:45 | #3

    Congrats on getting this far. It’s clearly been a good ride. See you at SANSFIRE.

  4. June 4th, 2014 at 09:13 | #4

    Great advice, and mostly the same advice you gave me years ago at a time when I really needed it :)

    I just wanted to expand on two of your points a little bit.

    #3 – If making a ton of money is a problem for you, there are plenty of great charities to donate to. Keep donating until your guilt goes away 😉

    #4 – I’ve seen a lot of people try to excuse their ridiculous workloads and lack of sleep by saying, “Oh, I’m just really passionate about security”. Passion is a good thing, and it is almost a prerequisite to succeed in this industry without rage-quitting. However, ‘passion’ about one thing around the clock, every day has a different name – obsession. Obsession isn’t healthy, isn’t passion, and will lead to issues achieving success with #6

  5. Matt Jenereaux
    June 12th, 2014 at 08:27 | #5

    Well happy birthday Shack, 40 ain’t all that bad and at least your career choice ticks off most of what you need in life. Plus you get to deal with or work with assholes like me 😉

Comments are closed.


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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Jesus told this parable, using it as a teaching tool to get across a great truth. In the parable, we see the benefit to man clearly — and yet we also see the benefit to God. You see, the parable of the prodigal son is not only about forgiveness of a lost man. Even more so, it is about the delight of the father who runs after him.

You know the story. A young man took his portion of his father’s inheritance and squandered it on riotous living. He ended up broken, ruined in health and spirit, and at his lowest point he decided to return to his father. Scripture tells us, “He arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).

Note that nothing hindered this father’s forgiveness of the young man. There was nothing this boy had to do — not even to confess his sins — because the father had already made provision for reconciliation. Indeed, it happened all by the father’s initiative: he ran to his son and embraced him as soon as he saw the boy coming up the road. The truth is, forgiveness is never a problem for any loving father. Like-wise, it’s never a problem with our heavenly Father when he sees a repentant child.

So forgiveness simply is not the issue in this parable. In fact, Jesus makes it clear that it wasn’t enough for this prodigal merely to be forgiven. The father didn’t embrace his son just to forgive him and let him go his way. No, that father yearned for more than just his son’s restoration. He wanted his child’s company, his presence, and communion.

Even though the prodigal was forgiven and in favor once more, he still wasn’t settled in his father’s house. Only then would the father be satisfied, his joy fulfilled when his son was brought into his company. That is the issue in this parable.

In the father’s eyes, the old boy was dead. That son was out of his thoughts completely. Now, in the father’s eyes, this son who had returned home was a new man. And his past would never be brought up again. The father was saying, in essence: “As far as I’m concerned, the old you is dead. Now, walk with me as a new man. That is my estimation of you. There is no need for you to live under guilt. Don’t keep talking about your sin, your unworthiness. The sin problem is settled. Now, come boldly into my presence and partake of my mercy and grace. I delight in you!”


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Movie Review: "The Wolverine" is exciting fun, but mostly for comic book fans
Jul 26, 2013 | 2016 views | 0 0 comments | 11 11 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine - © 2013 - Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine - © 2013 - Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

By Dan Metcalf, Jr.

Clipper Film Correspondent

The Wolverine (20th Century Fox)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, some sexuality and language.

Starring Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Brian Tee, Hal Yamanouchi, Will Yun Lee, Ken Yamamura, Famke Janssen.

Written by Mark Bomback, Scott Frank and Christopher McQuarrie.

Directed by James Mangold.

I'm one of those geeks who knows enough about comic book characters to get excited when a movie about one of them is announced, yet not much of a comic book aficionado. I like the movies, and could care less whether any particular writer or director takes liberties with the canon of any particular comic book hero (or villain). If filmmakers followed the source material to the tee, we'd end up with movies that are six hours long, which would also require audiences to read volumes of comic books, just to keep up. The Wolverine is the fifth movie (not counting a very funny cameo in X-Men First Class) about the indestructible mutant with retracting claws.

Hugh Jackman is back as Logan (or “Wolverine,” if you prefer), a mutant that never ages and can heal his own wounds, especially the ones created whenever he shoots the long metal claws from his fists (okay, they weren't always metal, but let's not get all comic book “purist” here). The story begins in 1945 Japan, inside an American POW camp on the outskirts of Nagasaki. Logan is one of those POWs when the infamous second atom bomb is dropped, and he saves the life of a Japanese soldier named Yashida (played by Ken Yamamura as a young man and by Haruhiko Yamanouchi when the story changes to present day). Flashing forward to present day, Logan lives in the woods, where he is haunted by the ghost of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Logan happened to kill Jean when she transformed into the hybrid mutant Phoenix and nearly disintegrated the world in X-Men: The Last Stand.

After dealing with a few yokels who killed a grizzly bear near his woodland hideout, a young Japanese woman named Yukio (Rila Fukushima) contacts him, and convinces Logan to travel with her to Japan to pay his last respects to Yashida, who has become the richest and most powerful man in the country. Yashida is also dying of cancer, and asks Logan to protect his beautiful granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto) before he passes away. Yashida is attended by a beautiful American doctor who seems mysterious and is probably hiding some kind of mutant power.

After Yashida apparently dies, it is revealed that he left his entire inheritance to Mariko, which angers her father Shingen (Hiroyuki Sanada) and other powerful people. During Yashida's funeral, a huge battle takes place between a gang of ninjas and the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) who attempt to abduct Mariko. Logan manages to get Mariko to a safe house in Nagasaki after an intense battle on top of a bullet train. Logan and Mariko fall in love and become intimate during their sojourn.

Eventually, the bad guys get to Mariko and take her to a huge lab on top of a mountain where the truth behind Yashida's original plans are revealed. Logan is forced to choose between joining Jean Grey in death, or remaining on Earth as a soldier for good.

The Wolverine is a fine film, and a little better than the other Wolverine stand-alone film (X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Some purists will take issue with some of the things associated with Logan's claws that happen during his final battle with some sort of mecha. It's also more like a martial arts film than most comic book movies.

I'm also impressed with Hugh Jackman and his evolution into the role of the Wolverine. He's a fine actor, and seems to get better with each new role he takes on, especially the Wolverine. The Wolverine as a movie will confuse some who are not well-versed with Marvel's X-Men lore, but fans (despite some possible geek rage over alterations in the Wolverine canon) will get it and enjoy all that makes everyone's favorite mutant so cool.

One bit of advice: be sure to stay through the first half of the end credits for a huge surprise that will tease X-Men fans.

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"The Secret of the Stolen Solitaire!": The synopsis for this issue has not yet been written.

Quote1 Sorry... I seem to get confused when there are two creatures with similar names! Quote2
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An Introduction to Intelligent Design

Posted by: David Carroll

This is the Sunday School Lesson I taught June 28, 2009 in Steve Wherry’s class.
Listen to the mp3 Audio here.

ID is a movement that is both old and new. It is biblical.

These verses speak to God’s general revelation of himself in His creation.

Romans 1:20 (NKJV)
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse

Psalm 19:1-3 (NIV)
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

Those are wonderful and familiar verses to most Christians. You probably haven’t seen this next one used in this context.

Job 12:7-10 (NKJV)
But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

Job is supposed to be the oldest book in the Bible, so you can see that the argument for God’s creation has been around for a long time.

Modern ID movement

Its modern form has come about in the past 30 years and has received increasing media attention with the battle over teaching evolution in schools. The media associates the ID movement with Christian fundamentalists who are trying to repackage Biblical Creationism under the guise of Intelligent Design. This is supposedly in response to the 1987 Supreme Court prohibition against teaching Creationism in public schools.

However, the first ID scientists were actually motivated by the inability of modern biology to explain the origin of the digital information encoded in the DNA molecule well prior to the 1987 ruling. And many physicists during the 60’s and 70’s, including Fred Hoyle who coined the famous “Big Bang” quote, had increasingly been persuaded by the evidence of a finely tuned universe ideally suited to support the existence of life.

There is however an interesting tension between the ID movement in science and Christians who believe the Genesis account of creation literally. The ID people do not advocate any particular designer or even refer to God at all. That is not their interest. This tension is not to say that ID is not a friend to Christians who believe the Bible Creation story. Their scientific arguments and rational thinking are a refreshing respite from the bulldog like evolutionists whose primary motivation appears to be to eliminate God.

Richard Dawkins in 1986 said living systems “give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” But he wrote a whole book called “The Blind Watchmaker” to prove that this was only an illusion and that evolution and natural selection could explain all of it.

So the bottom line is that the Christian Creationist can greatly benefit from the ID scientists work.

As a philosophical argument, ID goes back to Plato and Aristotle.

The teleological argument (known as the argument from design) is an argument for the existence of God based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, and design in nature.

Teleology: study of causes

19th Century: Watchmaker analogy

William Paley said that if you were walking through the woods and saw a smooth stone on the ground, no big deal, just a river stone formed by the forces of nature.

But if you saw a watch on the ground, you would immediately know that this was made by a watchmaker because of its complexity. Since a living organism is more complex than that watch, it too must be designed.

Age of Enlightenment, Darwin, Origin of Species (1859)

Up till then, almost everyone believed that God created. Atheists had no plausible creation story, eccentric. During a trip to the Galapagos islands, Darwin developed his theory of evolution by natural selection.

Darwin observed that variations would randomly occur in a species. For example he observed that some birds (finches) had long beaks and other ones had short stout beaks. On some islands one beak style would predominate and on other islands another beak style would predominate.

On one island there were a lot of predators and a short stout beak was good to have because it helped the bird to fight. On another rocky island, a long curved beak was helpful to fetch tiny bugs out of crevasses in the rock.

He proposed that this adaptation was due to a natural process of selection. He observed:

  1. There were heritable variations within the population
  2. Scarcity of food (not all would survive)
  3. Some were better suited than others to survive/reproduce

Competition ensues and you have this idea of “survival of the fittest.” An ill suited critter would not survive to the age of reproductively.

So you have adaptation over many generations. He imagined that eventually these small changes can add up to creating entirely new species. Note the lack of any need for intelligent guidance in this process. This simple idea, a plausible explanation for the complexity of life, has fueled the growth of Naturalism and Atheism ever since.

At bottom, evolution is a purposeless, unintelligent, material cause with no need for God at all.

Further supporting the idea of evolution was the observation of similarities between the species. If you look at an x-ray of the upper limb of a crocodile, a bird and a human, you will notice that all three have five digits for “fingers” and two bones in the forearm. The study of homology says that these sorts of similarities are evidence that we have all descended from some common ancestor.

We should ask what else could explain these adaptations and similarities. Could it be that it was good design, worthy of being duplicated by an intelligent designer for functional response? Could it be that a living organism looks designed because it is designed?

Engine of Change?

Darwin well understood that Natural Selection could accomplish nothing without some sort of engine of variation to produce the new biological structures.

Watson and Crick, 1953, the DNA molecule

Before the discovery of modern genetics, nothing was known about the engine of change.

There is enough information in the gene pool of two medium brown mutts to create through selective breeding in one man’s lifetime everything from a Great Dane to a miniature poodle.

From Small Changes to All Changes

Once you get used to nodding your head in agreement with the idea that evolution explains the drift in populations guided by natural selection, then it is no big deal for these small changes to keep going until a new species occurs.

But there is one problem with that. We have been breeding plants and animals since biblical times. What is our experience however? All breeding hits limitations. You can only get an ear of corn so big. You can never get a dog to be as big as a horse. Furthermore, when you reach these limits, we find that the animals or plants have weaknesses. Why can’t a mule have any offspring? Breeding does not create new information, rather it loses information. You can’t go backwards with a miniature poodle and get back to a medium brown mutt even less so a Great Dane.

Random Mutation

What is the cause of modifications that can create new biological structures? The only known source of is said to be mutation due to radiation. A mutation is the result of a mistake which occurs when a cell makes a copy of its DNA for cell division. Genes specify how a protein is built (long chain folded) function follows form. A mutated gene makes a mutated protein, a broken part. These broken parts can make disease, cancer, organ failure, and even death.

Mutations are either harmful or neutral at best. Supposedly, in rare cases, a mutation can be beneficial. As it turns out, some mutations can be inherited by offspring.

Since we all are supposed to have evolved from a single celled animal. Think about the amount of new biological information necessary to create all these new structures, organs, brains, eyes, flight, circulatory systems, respiratory systems, waste removal systems, and reproductive systems.

All of this had to result from trillions of trillions of tiny beneficial random mutations preserved through their offspring. Furthermore, we don’t see any beneficial mutations occurring today. Mathematicians are increasingly expressing doubts that random mutations could possibly produce this vast amount of new genetic information in the length of time available to the evolutionary process.

How does the first living thing get started?

This is beyond the scope of this article but let me just mention that if there is no reproducing going on, then there is no cell division, hence no engine of change. Without that engine, Natural Selection has nothing to act on. Evolution does not explain the origin of life.

The Simple Cell

And what about that simple cell we started with? How complex is it?

“Although the tiniest bacterial cells are very small, they are actually a microminiaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery made up of a hundred thousand million atoms far more complicated than any machine made by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world.”

Michael Denton, Evolution a Theory in Crisis

Irreducible Complexity

Michael Behe wrote Darwin’s Black Box in which he explains the idea of irreducible complexity with a simple mousetrap which has five parts: hammer, spring, catch, holding bar, and a platform. He asks how many mouse could this trap catch if it were missing one of it’s parts?

In order for the mousetrap to function, it needs all five parts. And if it were to evolve, then each part along the way must be beneficial until the whole thing can come together. He maintains that biological systems are far more complex and are also irreducibly complex.

Non-viability of transitional forms

Two lizards had some little babies. They noticed their scales were a bit fuzzier than normal. Then these fuzzy scaled lizards passed on these traits to their offspring and the scales continued to mutate to more feather like things. You see, these are the pre-cursor to wings. But the feathers are getting so long now, they are getting in the way when they. They can’t yet fly but they can’t run very well either. They can escape predators nor can they compete for food.

What does natural selection do? This is the problem with transitional forms for complex features. Until some primitive if not complete functionality is there, there is advantage. This is known as the non-viability of transitional forms.

Transitional Fossils

“The number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed on the earth, must be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graded organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory.”

Charles Darwin

Transitional Fossils, 150 years later: have they found them yet? No.

Do you notice any fish today growing little stumps, legs, so they can crawl up on land? Are there any reptiles developing feathers today? We should be able to see this sort of evidence if evolution is occurring today. Why don’t we see half formed organs instead of complete ones?

Stephen Jay Gould knew about the absence of transitional fossils and invented the idea of “punctuated equilibrium” to explain this absence. The basic idea is that there were periods of extreme biological changes that occurred over short periods of time which precluded the build-up of a fossil record due to lack of time.

What is his primary evidence for his theory? The lack of evidence

What do we actually find in the record? We find a sudden appearance of a vast number of highly complex organisms (known as the Cambrian explosion) then stasis. What model does this best fit?

Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV)

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Jeremiah 10:12 (NKJV)

He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.

Psalm 33:6 (NKJV)

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Psalm 111:2 (NKJV)

The works of the Lord are great, Studied by all who have pleasure in them.

Psalm 111:4 (NKJV)

He has made His wonderful works to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

Psalm 77:12 (NKJV)

I will also meditate on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds.

Psalm 115:16 (NKJV)

The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.

Acts 17:23-25 (NKJV)

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

Acts 17:28 (NKJV)

for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.

Amazon book list
10 questions to ask your biology teacher
Walt Brown, In The Beginning
Lots of videos

Joshua Chapter 1

Posted by: David Carroll

Hear the class lesson on mp3.

It applies to what’s happening in church right now.

Homology, Evidence for Evolution?

Posted by: David Carroll

homology One of the primary evidences given for evolution is homology--the observation that different species have similarities. For example, the vast majority of animals have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two ears and four limbs. This supposedly indicates that somewhere, far back in the history of life many hundreds of millions of years ago, there was a common ancestor who had these traits and the descendants eventually split off into a variety of species.

The bone structure of many skeletal reptiles and mammals are similar. Notice for example the picture on the right. This cartoon depiction of an x-ray of an alligator's front limb, a human arm and a bird's wing respectively. You can see that the bone structure of all three share some similarities. All three have two bones in the "forearm" part of their limbs. The radius and ulna, as these bones are called, allow the end of the limb (our hand) to rotate about 200 degrees. This benefits us as well as the alligator and the bird. Other similarities are the five digits on both the alligator and human. In Darwinian evolution, these benefits were selected in the original ancestor because of it's ability to compete and survive over it's less endowed siblings and cousins who did not have such features. And then of course these traits were passed down to their descendants and continued to be preserved even in widely divergent species.

You can see that there has been an observation and then a hypothesis proposed but never tested. Such a test is impossible to make because of the extremely slow pace of the process. There is a test however. If the evolution hypothesis is true, there should be evidence in both the fossil record and in some species of life today of transitional forms. This we do not see. Stephen Jay Gould in a moment of honest reflection admitted:

“The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils… We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life's history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study.”

There is another hypothesis. Perhaps this benefit of having two bones in the forearms of so many creatures is a design feature which was used by a wise Designer who efficiently used the same excellent design on many different kinds.

Darwin's Logic

Posted by: David Carroll

Darwin was the naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle for a trip to the Galapagos islands of the South American coast in the Pacific ocean. The basic elements of his logical argument for evolution was as follows:

  • He saw large populations of birds and other species.
  • He noticed there were limited resources of food and shelter.

  • There would be a struggle for existence within a given species.

finches Observation:

  • He saw a variation among individuals within a species.
  • For example, finches beaks varied long, short, thin, stout, straight and curved.
  • He noticed that some of these variations were heritable from parent to offspring.

  • Some of these variations were beneficial; others were detrimental. Long, curved beaks were well suited to get insects out of holes in the rocks. Short, stout beaks were better suited for defense against a predator.
  • As such there would be a differential in the reproductive success between them depending upon the surroundings.
  • The fittest will be more likely to have offspring.
  • Populations will evolve over time.

There is really nothing wrong with Darwin's logic based on his observations. But notice what he did not observe: that there were limits to which variations can occur. The reason he did not notice it was because he was not looking for it.

How do we know there are limits? Darwin was noticing what he called "natural selection" which works very slowly and consequently it is impossible to see the limitations since one would have to wait many thousands of generations to see it. But what about unnatural selection? I am talking about "intelligent breeding." This is where a farmer breeds his corn crops for the largest, sweetest and most yellow corn. Or where a rancher breeds for the largest steer or fattest cows or the meatiest hog. Because they use intelligent breeding, they speed up the process of genetic variation by many times. What these farmers and ranchers know through experience is that you can only get an ear of corn so big and so sweet and so juicy before you reach a limit. And they never see corn becoming something other than corn. Furthermore, they notice that as you continue to selectively breed, weaknesses sometimes result. The corn may be sweeter, but it becomes more susceptible to insects.

Another limitation is when trying to cross breed species, different kinds of animals and plants are not able to breed with each other to produce offspring. Dogs and cats cannot have offspring. Interestingly you can breed a horse and a donkey to get a mule but what is the problem with the mule? Mules are infertile.

If Darwin had combined his observations with the practical knowledge of the rest of the world, he might not have been as far-reaching in his ideas about evolution. The migration of a population progressing from one kind to another kind was all imagination and not observation. What he did observe is explained by the well-known ability of the gene pool of dogs for example to produce a fantastic variety of poodles to Great Danes, all dogs mind you. But Darwin was driven by a desire to find an explanation apart from what God had said:

Genesis 1:24 (NKJV)

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.

The Grand Scope of Evolution

Posted by: David Carroll

crawlonland Normally when we think of evolution, we think of biological evolution. We think about man evolving from monkeys and birds evolving from reptiles. The typical progression is given from bacteria to fish to amphibian to reptile to mammal to man. As far-reaching as that is, the grand scope of evolution is even wider.

nebula First we have stellar evolution which says everything started about 15 billion years ago with a singularity (nothing) exploding in a big-bang and producing all matter. The sub-atomic particles became hydrogen atoms which then gathered into clouds of gas due to the forces of gravity. Then by virtue of the heat of gravitational friction these increasingly dense clouds ignited on fire and coalesced into giant stars while grouping themselves into galaxies. The stars lasted for billions of years and finally burned out, collapsed in on themselves and exploded producing the heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen and iron. The particles resulting from the explosive death of stars went through similar gravitational coalescing and formed into planets, moons and eventually new stars.

aminoacids Next we have chemical evolution. Some of the planets formed during stellar evolution had sufficient amounts of water and atmospheres capable of supporting life. After millions of years of rain falling on the rocks created warm ponds of water, ammonia, methane and other chemicals. This primordial soup was struck by lighting creating amino acids. These amino acids formed chains of proteins which finally organized themselves into a self-reproducing bacterium, the first life.

So now we have something Darwin can work with, biological evolution. Life can now grow in to populations which can create offspring which may be slightly modified from their progenitors due to random mutations.

I hope you noticed the two biggest leaps in this story of evolution. The first jump was from nothing to everything. The second jump was from non-life to life. There other big jumps as well such as between the major kinds of life. It's one thing to consider evolution of a dog population into the various species. But it is a very different thing to imagine evolution between reptiles and birds or between amphibians and mammals. The most interesting things always seem to happen at the major boundaries of things. I find it easy to believe God is in these places.

DNA, Information and Eternity

Posted by: David Carroll

dna Language is a code which allows information to be stored and communicated. The words I am writing now are very specific and irregular but they are recognizable. No one would ever think these words were the result of my randomly striking keys on my computer. They are designed, and I am the designer.

DNA is a code which specifies how proteins are to be constructed from amino acids. DNA is a language which stores and communicates information. The arrangements of the base pairs of the DNA helix are irregular but very specific and are recognizable to the machinery of the living cell. DNA is designed and God is the Designer.

I have tons of information stored on my computer's hard drive. The individual bits of information in my computer are coded by orienting tiny magnetic particles on the surface of a disc. harddrive Emails, programs, pictures, music and videos are all stored in the specific arrangements of these little magnetic bits spread out in rings on the disc.  A reading head is able to move across these rings and decode this arrangement of magnetic orientations and deliver to the central processor the specifications for how to display the text or picture or how to play the musical recording. This is a fascinating technology that we hardly think about anymore. A similar but vastly more complex orchestra is occurring in our own bodies every moment of every day allowing us to experience life. And we hardly give a thought to that either.

This information stored on my hard drive--does it depend on the computer or on any part of the computer? If I could weigh the disk containing the information very precisely then I could compare the weight of the information on the disk with the same disk before I put the information on there. I would discover that the weight was unchanged. No new particles were added to the disk to store the information. In fact I could print the information out on to ink and paper or burn it to a CD or even send it via wireless radio waves somewhere else and it would not affect the information.

Information has no mass and does not depend on energy, space or matter. That is to say it has zero mass, zero energy and zero space. We can infer from this that information is also timeless. Note Einstein's famous equation relating the four aspects of our universe that came about at creation: Energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light. The speed of light component there is how time enters the equation.

mosquito Remember the movie Jurassic Park? The premise was that the dinosaurs could be brought back because they found a mosquito buried in a piece of amber (hardened sap) and there was dinosaur blood still in the mosquito. From this blood they were able to get the DNA to clone the dinosaurs. Now even though the movie was purely fiction, it has an element of truth to it that makes sense and lends the feeble feasibility necessary that allows us to suspend our disbelief for a couple of hours of entertainment.

My body is specified by the code written in the language of my DNA. It does not matter whether I am cremated or spread out over the sea when I die since God does not need to use the same atoms that are in my body today. The atoms are fungible like the letters on the sign used to spell out the shopkeeper's specials of the day--"Milk 4.50 / Gallon". He does not need a particular "M", he can reach in to the pile of letters and pick up any old "M".

So if information does not depend on any of the four fundamental aspects of our universe then information must exist outside of the confines of our universe and as such it exists in the realm of eternity. The consequences of this are mind bending. The real you and the real me is software not hardware. Everything we are can just be specified by information, stored no doubt in the mind of God.

We are eternal whether we like it or not. That means that we will spend eternity somewhere. The question is where? Find out more here.

The Design Inference

Posted by: David Carroll

According to William Dembski, there are three ways a particular phenomenon can have occurred.

  1. Chance
    The numbers that come up when you roll the dice. The arrangement of letters that occur when you spill a bowl of scrabble letters out on the floor. The features of a thing produced by chance are irregularity or non-patterned result. So this fall if I walk outside and my driveway is covered in leaves, I would never suspect that someone had come over and carefully placed each leaf in its position on my driveway.
  2. Necessity
    The ripples in the sand on the beach. The angular shape of crystals. The perfect roundness of a bubble floating in the air. The features of a thing produced by necessity i.e. by some law of physics or chemistry are regularity and patterns. So when I see a whirlpool in the water of my bathtub as it drains, I know that there are the laws of physics at work. The perfect funnel shape is a result of the vortex of spinning water.
  3. Design
    A watch, a car, a portrait, a choral symphony, a poem, a blog post are all examples of design. When something is obviously designed and made, it has complexity and is not necessarily regular. The complexity that results from design is not the kind of complexity that results from chance. A design is specific. Specified complexity is the hallmark of design. So when I see a completed game of scrabble, I know that those letters did not simply fall into their arrangement because they all spell words very precisely (the opponent made sure of that!).

This seems so obvious that it is odd that anyone would argue with it. But argue they do. Now, the above description of the design inference is not yet science. To be science, this idea much be measurable and quantifiable. And it must be falsifiable and repeatable. To this end, Dembski and his colleagues have gone much further in their attempt to establish the design inference as science. You can see more of his work at

Anyway, why would anyone argue with such research? Because the motive for undertaking it was to give an honest critique of Darwinian Natural Selection as the explanation of all the variety of life we see. There are a number of scientists and physicians who seriously question Darwin. They have said:

"We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."

These honest scientists and physicians are treated with disdain by those who are committed to atheistic materialism. There commitment is so deep that they will not tolerate any investigation or examination of contrary ideas or evidence. Talk about intolerance!

Why Study Creation?

Posted by: David Carroll

Couple of reasons. First of all, because Darwinian Evolution is atheistic to the core, it is the faith of those whom we wish to reach who don't believe in God. How can you tell someone "Heaven is a free gift" when they don't believe in God or heaven? So we study the belief system of those to whom we would like to speak of Jesus to. But before we speak of Jesus, we have to tell the story of creation. Part of that story telling is knowing how to give a defense of the reasons why belief in God is necessary to satisfactorily explain the universe and life.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that before one can come to God, he must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So belief in the necessity of God is a starting point for evangelizing an atheist.

Consider Peter, when he was preaching to the Jews, how he began his sermon by quoting scripture from the prophet Joel and then said:

Acts 2:22-23

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.

So for those who already believe in God, they can be taken directly to the Bible and immediately be told about Jesus. There was no need for an apologetic about Creation, they already believed that.

Now consider the apostle Paul when he spoke to the Greeks at Mars Hill. Before he speaks of Jesus and of sin and of salvation, he starts with an apologetic about the true creator God.

Acts 17:24-25

"God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things."

There is a second reason to study Creation Science--that is to build up our own faith. Yes, I know you believe but none of us are immune to the fiery darts of the wicked one. We must defend against them with the shield of faith. You can strengthen that shield by learning good reasons why what is being taught in our schools about science should not cause us to doubt. And it is not a blind faith we have. Rather it is based on good science starting from a different perspective.

Our children are being challenged every day by teachers and professors who do not believe in God and have the support of the scientific establishment for such a belief. They offer up scientific dogma which seems to go against a belief in the necessity of Creation. It is hard to withstand this bombardment without hearing from other, God honoring, Bible believing scientists who see through the logic and arguments and are able to interpret the facts in a way that will build up our faith and give us confidence that the Bible is supported by what we observe in the real world.

You may not understand everything these respected scientists who believe in creation are saying but even so, it is good to know someone who is smarter than me has thoroughly investigated the science and has concluded that the Bible is true based upon his own research. God is not afraid of our questions, in fact he commanded us to "subdue the earth" and that's what we are going to do in this course.

Beliefs About Origins

Posted by: David Carroll

There are many different viewpoints with widely different ideas about how this world came to be. I'll try to organize them in order from the most conservative to the most liberal (biblically speaking).

Young Earth Creationist

This is the position that God created the earth in six days about six thousand years ago.

The young earth creationist (YEC) believes this because it is the conclusion you come to with a plain reading of the Bible. The first 11 chapters of Genesis are considered to be a true and accurate history of the world and not just an allegorical story. Biblical inerrancy is the hallmark of the Young Earth Creationist. This viewpoint, however, does not mean that the YEC is disinclined to ignore science, on the contrary, God gave us science and knowledge and told us to "subdue the earth". The Bible is the authority and any apparent discrepancies between the Bible and what we see in nature can be explained by properly interpreting the facts.

Old Earth re-Creationist (Gap theory)

This is the idea that God created an original perfect world according to Genesis 1:1 and then something went wrong, probably rebellion of Satan and angels in heaven and then there was a Divine Judgment on the earth which caused the world to become formless and void in Genesis 1:2.

This idea hinges on whether the verse should read "The earth was formless and void" or "The earth became formless and void". There is some additional obscure support for this in Isaiah 45:18.

The Gap Theory is also known as the Ruin/Recreation theory. Supposedly God had to recreate everything about six thousand years ago after some indefinite period of time which occurred between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. It is this period of time which explains the motivation for believing this theory. About 130 years ago, it had recently become common knowledge, at least within the scientific circles, that the geology of the earth proved that it must be billions of years old. What was a theologian to do with this? Where would he fit this billions of years into a Biblical model of creation and time? The answer was "in the gap between Gen 1:1 and 1:2". This became a very popular explanation as a result over the next century. In the last thirty years, it has fallen out of favor when consideration is given to how catastrophic events such as Noah's flood could explain the geological strata in the earth.

Progressive Creationist

The progressive creationist pretty much accepts all standard models of how the universe and earth came to be including the Big Bang, stellar evolution, and planet formation over billions of years. The one thing they are against however is evolution. Instead, they believe that God performed special creative insertions of life into the world at various stages which explains all the species. These episodes of creative activity explain the word progressive.

The first chapter of Genesis is simply an long age framework divided into six "days", each one lasting millions or billions of years. Life shows up billions of years ago.

To hold this position, You have to be somewhat liberal in your interpretation of Gen 1-11 and on some theological issues. Hugh Ross, a brilliant man and charismatic speaker, is the main proponent of this view, and believes in pre-Adamic hominids (ape-men) with no souls, death before sin, no world-wide flood. These ideas have huge theological impact and so why does he believe these things? Because he believes Adam showed up about six thousand years and all of the geology and fossils were already in the ground. So you must have life and death before Adam. And you can't explain the layers of rock we see over the whole world by appealing to a world-wide catastrophic flood because Noah came after Adam and after the rocks were already laid down in layers by other naturalistic processes that he wants to preserve in his belief system.

Intelligent Design Movement

These are honest scientists who have no religious or biblical agenda but are simply bothered by the inability of Darwin's natural selection to explain the origin of complex systems of biological life. The specific complexity and appearance of design we see in life is better explained by appealing to an intelligent designer.

The proponents of the ID movement are agnostic about any particular designer and are not interested in appealing to the God of the Bible or to the Bible as any kind of authoritative book. Most of what they do is to critic the model of evolution by pointing out its weaknesses.

Because they are accredited, real working scientists, they are able to gain a lot more traction within the scientific community than a Creationist would be able to. Still, the ID movement is vigorously opposed by most mainstream scientists.

Theological Evolutionist

This group is typically quite liberal regarding the authority of the Bible and wants no part of being labeled a "foolish" creationist. Basically, they have no problem saying that God used evolution as his means to create life. Certainly an all-powerful, sovereign God could create life anyway he so chooses. The only problem is how to reconcile the meaning of the first eleven chapters of Genesis.

More importantly, Darwinism (random chance mutation acting through natural selection) is an unguided, purposeless material process with no room or need for God.

Atheistic Evolutionist

It used to be that an atheist was an eccentric. They had no plausible story for how we came to be. So they needed a plausible creation story and Darwin provided one. For the Atheist, naturalism must explain everything. In fact, science has now been defined to exclude any appeal to the supernatural.

Now, to be an atheist is mainstream. And Post-modernism is adding to its ranks daily.

Creation Resources

Posted by: David Carroll

I created a list of recommended books on Amazon.Com related to Creation
Gap Theory (apologetics rebuttal against)
Answers in
Institute for Creation
In the Beginning, Walt Brown, (online book)
Ten questions to ask your biology teacher about
The Intelligent Design
"Progressive Creationist" Hugh Ross, who is he and what does he believe?

Offense not Defense

Posted by: David Carroll

The book of Joshua is about the Israelites taking the land. It is a book about warfare. As Christians we talk a lot about spiritual warfare but do we really practice it?

Remember when Jesus was at Caesarea Philippi? It’s up near the Golan heights, where the tribe of Dan was. Caesarea Philippi was the center of pagan worship. Jesus said in Matthew 16, while he was pointing to the temples of pagan worship, “upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Who is doing the defending in that verse? Gates are for defense. They were the gates of hell. Hell was defending against the church! The church of Jesus Christ is to be in an offensive posture not defensive. But we tend to act like we are prisoners of war.

Joshua teaches us about victory and how to get it. A Christian does not work towards victory, he works from victory! Jesus Christ already won the victory when he rose again from the dead. That’s our guarantee of success.

Training Pastors in Nicaragua

Posted by: David Carroll

Walt Morgan is a good friend of mine and is president of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Nicaragua. This week, I am helping Walt raise support for the Seminary among some churches in the Atlanta and East Tennessee area and then back in Memphis later this week.

Here is a brief video introduction to the Seminary:

Respect for God

Posted by: David Carroll

My friend Michael Earls commented on my last post and expressed appreciation for my respect for God. (Hi Micheal, good to hear from you!) I’ve been thinking about respect for God. First let me say that respect for God is a a rare thing in today’s world and I know Michael too respects God. So many people have no respect for God because they do not believe in Him. Or if they do believe in God, he is not occupying much place in their thoughts. So I really appreciate Michael noticing that and it is something everyone should take a step towards. But respect for God is not a final destination rather it is just a step or a move towards God. Although God is worthy of respect because respect has the meaning of being honored and esteemed, somehow respect does not rise to the level of adequately describing my attitude toward God.

What attitude then glorifies God? I’d like to say that I love God but even that sounds like too much like me giving something to Him. (I do love Him, I’m just trying to find the attitude that really glorifies God.) You see God is the source of everything; He is always the giver and never the receiver as if He needed anything from us. I might say and do in fact fear God because of his holy righteousness. That’s good and true too certainly in the sense that God is all-powerful and all-knowing. (Don’t you fear someone who could squash you in an instant and moreover knows all your secrets?) Let’s see, how about grateful…yes that works too because of God’s great mercy. Mercy is the part that keeps God from squashing me or making me pay for all those dirty dark secrets that only He and I know about.

But someone did pay. God paid. God absorbed the righteous wrath of God against my sin. Wait a minute. Did I say that right? God paid God’s penalty? Yes of course, Jesus Christ paid it all. And all the while God the Son was hanging on that cross suffering for my sake, it was God the Father in heaven pouring out his wrath. That way he is both just and the one who justifies. God’s wrath was spent not withdrawn.

How do I know all this is true? Of course I got it all out of the Bible. But God provided proof by raising Jesus from the dead. The ressurection is the proof that God is satisfied.

That’s why respect, love, fear, and gratefulness as attitudes toward God don’t seem enough. Oh they are necessary and right. I suppose gratefulness comes the closest because it describes my receiving instead of my giving. But when I talk about God and see His work in everything around me including in the budding forth of spring foliage and flowers, I am delighted. Delight, yes that’s the word. I am really delighted and soul-satisfied when I consider God. And I am not giving him anything in my delight rather I am soaking it all in: His love toward me, his mercy toward me, his goodness all around me, his magnificence in his creation.

He made me and he made you to delight in his glory!

On Cue

Posted by: David Carroll

I was out walking in the forest last week (March 23) and took this picture of a ridge and a ravine. The weather was delightful and you could tell the forest was waking up from it’s winter slumber.

Nine days later (yesterday April 1) I was walking the same trail and took a picture of the same ridge (below).

Now I was standing a litte further up in the second shot but you can tell it is the same location by examining the roots of some of the trees hugging the ridge.

The astonishing thing I’m sure you notice is the difference in green foliage. A little rain, a little warmth, longer days and the program kicks in to high gear. I say program because that is what it is, it does this every year automatically. Such astonishing beauty and unbelievable and complex innerworkings of sap rising and photosynthisis. I’m glad I got to see this as I ponder God’s unfathomable excellence in His design for life.

Psalm 8:1,3–4

O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?

Posted by: David Carroll

Genesis 1:31 (NKJV)

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

I went backpacking with some wonderful friends this past weekend to the Richland Creek Wilderness area just north of Russellville AR. What a delightful trip and considering what I've been through, a miracle! God is good! Three Davids went (should have been four David D. :-) and Roxanne and Tiffany and Kyle.

DSCN0608The water was high and so we could not make the second stream crossing like we had planned but no matter, the campsite we stayed at for two nights was delightful and we were close to a bend in the river with a beach and within a short (although rugged) hike to Richland Creek Falls and Twin Falls. It was cold the first night and the temp was in the low twenties when we woke up Sunday morning. We day hiked to the falls that afternoon and said our goodbyes' to Dave and Kyle who had to head on back home that afternoon. It rained in the middle of the night Sunday night and it was only in the thirties Monday morning. David S. and I determined that we could cross the stream at about thigh deep to go see the twin falls before we broke camp to head on back home. After a quick breakfast and finally some warm coffee after that cold crossing, we packed it up and headed out of the woods for the two mile trek and final stream crossing. The trail was wet and muddy in places so we gingerly scrambled over the rocks and narrow ledges and arrived at our car early afternoon. Two nights in the woods and base camping does not sound all that much but I was so encouraged and filled with gratitude for my friends who spurred me on and gave me a new start in backpacking adventures.

Check out the album on bubbleshare by clicking here. Dave and David, you can download a zip file of the pictures when you go to the album. They should be a decent size, but if there are any you want the fullsize original of, let me know and I'll email them to you.

Link Blogs

Posted by: David Carroll

Note that I have removed from the front page the "Notable Links" that I post here from time to time. They are also removed from the main RSS and Atom feeds for those who use aggregators.

Of course they are still available as two separate "Link Blogs" on the menu on the right side. You can subscribe separately to those "Link Blogs" on those pages.

The Misc Link Blog contains items I want to save or find interesting that anybody might find interesting. The Link Blog for Developers contains items that would be of interest only to other software developers.

Just trying to reduce the clutter and noise from the main page.

New Look, works with Firefox too

Posted by: David Carroll

I was informed by a visitor (thanks Matthew!) that the site was not working right with FireFox 2.0 (embarrassed look :-). Anyway, I’ve been working on cleaning up the CSS stylesheets today and it all seems to work now in both browsers.

That explains the new spartan look. I may dress it up later but it’s growing on me so I may leave it for a while.

Of making many books there is no end

Posted by: David Carroll

Ecclesiastes 12:12

And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.

I buy lots of books. The two main genres are books about software development and books with a religious theme. For novels, I usually buy from Audible so that I can enjoy them while driving or walking or just sitting in the hot tub. Anyway, I am a very good customer of Amazon. I just cannot resist the latest book on some new technology. What amazes me about books about computer programming is that I am never satisfied. Typically I graze through the  book looking for some little tidbit of information I can use or that I am unfamiliar with. Most of the time, I find two or three little things that I learn from the book and then I am done with it. I never use them as a reference manual. Google has replaced that.

So why do I keep buying these very expensive books (they are very proud of them at $50 each)? I guess I justify that the two or three tidbits of new information is worth it.

Comment Spam and Google juice

Posted by: David Carroll

No big deal but I had to shut down the site for about 36 hours while I put some protection in against comment spam.

GooglesearchSomebody evidently found the site and was using it to post a bunch of links to other sites. Nothing trashy as far as I could tell without clicking on the links but still a bunch of gibberish in the comments. The motivation probably was in hopes of getting some “Google juice.” Google’s page-rank system uses a measurement of the number of sites that link to a given site to measure that site’s importance in the Google search results. The more important the site, the higher up in the search list it goes. So it is not only how many sites link to a site being measured for rank but their relative ranks as well. If a high ranking site links to a site, the linked site will increase in stature in Google’s page-rank system.

I’ve had enough high ranking sites link to me so that David’s Bible Blog makes it to the top of the search results for some queries. For example, if you search for “Bible Blog” (click here to try it) I am number two. And if you search for “David Carroll” (again click here to try it) I am number one!

He made the wind and the waves stand still!

Posted by: David Carroll

Jesus can heal the sick and he does it through a touch or just a word. I’ve been healed and I am convinced that it was by faith and through the prayers of God’s people. (I am overwhelmed with gratitude when I think of how many people were praying for me!) But there are those who would say that when people get healed they simply want to give God credit when actually time or medicine actually did the work. In my case, time and medicine certainly were the means of God’s grace, but it was a miracle how God revealed where the real problem was because I went through two surgeries fixing something that evidently was not the problem. Go here to read more about that. But that’s not the point of this post. Healing could be dismissed by naysayers as wishful thinking.

WavesWhen Jesus and the disciples were out on the sea of Galilee during the storm about to be swamped by the waves, Jesus was sound asleep in the stern of the boat. (It takes a real peace of mind to sleep in a situation like that!) Anyway, the disciples who were scared to death, wake Jesus to inform him of their plight. After rebuking their little faith, he “rebuked” the storm by saying “Peace, be still.” And immediately there was total calm. Now you’d think these guys would be relieved by now, but the Bible records that now they were exceedingly afraid. Think about what they have just witnessed! A man stands up in a boat and commands vast amounts of energy and matter to stand still. That got their attention. In fact the Bible says they exclaimed “What manner of man is this!?” That’s the point: Jesus is no mere man. He is the God-Man. Jesus is not just the Son of God, he is God the Son. He is the Logos, the Word of God who spoke everything into existance.

Continuing with the series, you can listen to the audio of the second Sunday School lesson on Jesus Miracles from the book of Matthew here. (right click on the link and choose “save as” to download the mp3 file)

Posted by: David Carroll

It has been a long time since I taught Sunday School and last weekend I got the chance to teach for several Sundays in a row. I was a bit anxious about teaching again after my hiatus but I have been praying about when I would start full time again. So this opportunity to teach as a substitute for a few weeks is really an answer to prayer. What is an answer to prayer if not a miracle? Speaking of miracles, that is what I am teaching on. Beginning in Matthew 8, Jesus performs a series of miracles mixed in with some teachings. I really like this section because there is so much action. Jesus is showing his muscle which is his complete authority over everything including human sickness, demons and even nature itself.

So in keeping with the podcasting I have done in the past, I am posting the audio of the first lesson on Jesus’ miracles here. Sorry about the recording quality, I inadvertantly set the mic switch on high gain boost so there are some pops in the audio.

Needless to say, I really am enjoying digging into God’s word and the discipline has been good for me. Thank you Lord!

Listen to the audio of the first lesson on Matthew Chapter 8.

Cure for stress

Posted by: David Carroll

Things around here have been a bit stressful, not bad, just a bit overwhelming when thinking about all that I need to get done over the next few months. Times like this can make you feel guilty for procrastinating which tends to make the stress even worse. It is important to have some times of refreshing during such a period, something that makes the worry melt away even for only a few hours.

I know two things that accomplish this. One is prayer. Prayer that admits your own fraility and inadequacies and lays your burdens on Jesus. It is not that the prayer itself makes you feel better although it certainly helps. Rather it is that prayer actually works. God answers prayer.

James 5:16 (NKJV)

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

The second thing that works is worship and fellowship. Go to church and love and be loved by the brethren. Sweet fellowship and worship can accomplish wonders for the weary and stressed out soul.

Psalm 84:1-2 (NKJV)

How lovely is Your tabernacle,  O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Psalm 84:10-11 (NKJV)

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.

I sat with dear friends from my old Sunday School class tonight and sang and worshiped and I could feel my worries melt away. That’s what I call times of refreshing. Jerry Vines preached the last of four Wednesday nights we call Awesome August. He preached on the importance of Church and my own experience of being refreshed totally underscored and validated the message.

Acts 3:19 (NKJV)

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord

Img003Johnny Hunt preached last Wednesday night. It was the next to last night Bethany was home before we took her back to Birmingham for her Junior year in college. Johnny is a dear friend and gifted preacher. Bethany was baptised by Johnny back in 1997. What a great message Johnny preached on perseverence as the proof of our faith. God has given us all things that pertain to life and Godliness. Johnny preached on the following text.

2 Peter 1:1-11 (NKJV)

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

You can listen to the mp3 here.

Spiritual Reformation

Posted by: David Carroll

Time to reform my inner life, that is to form again into what it should be. I may look OK on the outside but that’s only because I can prop it up and build quick facades so that no one notices what’s behind. It’s time to work on the inner man. That means I might start to look like a “construction zone.” Like my body has been in tatters and I am now starting to exercise and make it stronger, healthier, my spiritual disciplines are in tatters too and I need to begin to exercise it and make it stronger, healthier. Just like the goal for my physical reformation is stamina, strength, and flexibility I could describe the goal for my spiritual being in the same way but that would be superficial and ignore the most important thing. Jesus is the focus of spiritual reformation; Christ-likeness is the goal.

What does Christ-likeness look like? I think it looks like obedience on the outside. But that is not what it is on the inside. Obedience is the manifestation, what you see as a result, not what causes Christ-likeness. Obedience simply makes me look like the scribes and the Pharisees.

Matthew 5:20 (NKJV)

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

So, what does Christ-likeness look like on the inside? It looks like thoughts, affections, choices, rest, peace, desire, love and all that. But still, it is not the source. The Holy Spirit of God is the source and it is His work. That’s called grace. Grace is not so much like resting in a tub of warm water; it is more like standing under an invigorating waterfall. Grace is not so much what God has done for me but more what God is doing for me and continues to do for me. Piper calls that Future Grace.

So although I am to do all things He has commanded me, I must not forget that He is master over everything in heaven and He will be with me every step of the way. So when I decide to do a command He is right there with me and He has all the resources under his power.

Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV)

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

On Guard!

Posted by: David Carroll

DSC_1033Lots of errands to run this morning, but as I stepped onto the back deck I saw this critter. When I would approach him he would raise his hind legs up and hold this tail up in the air as if it were a sword he would attack me with. So this is the guy (among thousands) who has been making all the noise at night. Those crickets are really loud and they have this rhythm when they all get to going at the same time it just magnifies. God really makes some strange creatures and they are everywhere. I don’t see any eyes on this bugger. I think those flat spots on his head are his hearing organs and those antenna have sensory purposes too. Amazing!