Cunctatious
June 13, 2006
It means addicted to delaying; prone to delay. It sounds much nobler than procrastination, don’t you agree?
The example given in my trustworthy Forgotten English Calendar is the story of seventh century St. Bede, who had to be known as the Venerable Bede until 1899, when the Vatican finally got around to name Bede a saint. I bet you didn’t know that the Church affixed the honorific “Venerable” to the names of those undergoing the long process of canonization. I guess a delay of 12 centuries should qualify the Vatican as cunctatious.
Dave, cunctatious to the core.
Soc-ball
June 12, 2006
I could easily be a soccer fan if it weren’t for a couple of details. First, it’s the glorious baseball season. Second, I have never seen a full soccer game and don’t know the rules. So I should start learning a new sport and jilt the boys of summer? Fat chance!
However, in the interest of full disclosure, here is how I look through European eyes.
Lexington | The odd man out | Economist.com
Dave, relaxed and listening to the ballgame with one ear.
Ephesians 6:1-3
June 11, 2006
6:1Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. 6:2 “Honor your father and mother” which is the first commandment accompanied by a promise, namely, 6:3 “that it may go well with you and that you will live on the earth for a long time.”
Although Paul addresses children, I think it safe to say that such obedience is due our parents regardless of the “child’s” age. To Mom, I was always her child.
I think I should be careful about reducing the promise part to a formula. All this really says is that God expects and blesses obedience on our part, and the principle can be broadly applied. -sdg-
Hypoallergenic cats
June 10, 2006
I was disappointed to learn that there is nothing here for those poor souls, like myself, who just don’t cotton to cats, hypoallergenic or not, but here it is anyway. It’s a slow Saturday.
Nobel Intent: Hypoallergenic cats are nothing to sneeze at
Doesn’t four grand seem a bit much to pay for a sneeze-free kitten? In economic terms, one wonders what the market-clearing price would be.
Dave, who really doesn’t care all that much.
Is Capitalism Christian?
June 9, 2006
Michael Kruse, when he isn’t thinking about soccer, has some interesting thought on the relationship between Christianity and capitalism.
Kruse Kronicle: Theology and Economics: Is Capitalism Christian?
If the question is whether or not free market capitalism emerged from a society with a distinctively Christian ethos, then the answer would clearly be “Yes.” The ideas of human beings created in the image of God, linear time, progress, future orientation, and vision oriented ethics, were the soil from which capitalism grew. This is NOT to say that free market capitalism is the best of all economic systems that can, or ever will be, conceived. It is merely to acknowledge the roots from which it sprang.
In my business-building past, I suspect I have been guilty of idolizing capitalism; my only defense is that capitalism beats any other economic model that I know of.
Dave, putting Christianity first and capitalism second (I hope!)
Mathematics and creation
June 8, 2006
I promised myself I would say no more about “intelligent design,” but please consider the thoughts of Benedict XVI, as he responded to a shouted question while meeting with young people preparing for World Youth Day. I found the following quotation in Richard John Neuhaus’s The Public Square, in the June/July 2006 issue of First Things.
I’ve also been thinking about the implications of developing a Christian world view, and the Pope’s remarks also bear on that .
The great Galileo said that God wrote the book of nature in the form of mathematical language. He was convinced that God gave us two books: that of Sacred Scripture, and that of nature. And the language of nature - this was his conviction - is mathematics, which is therefore a language of God, of the Creator.
Let us reflect now on what mathematics is. In itself it is an abstract system, an invention of the human spirit, and as such in its purity it does not really exist. It is always realized approximately, but - as such - it is an intellectual system, a great, brilliant invention of the human spirit. The surprising thing is that this invention of our human mind is truly the key for understanding nature, that nature is really structured in a mathematical way, and that our mathematics, which our spirit invented, really is the instrument for being able to work with nature, to put it at our service through technology.
It seems an almost incredible thing to me that an invention of the human intellect and the structure of the universe coincide. The mathematics we invented really gives us access to the nature of the universe and permits us to use it. …I think that this intersection between what we have thought up and how nature unfolds and behaves is an enigma and a great challenge, because we see that, in the end, there is one logic that links these two: our reason could not discover the other if there were not an identical logic at the source of both.
In this sense, it seems to me that mathematics - in which God as such does not appear - shows us the intelligent structure of the universe. Now there are also theories of chaos, but these are limited, because if chaos had the upper hand, all technology would become impossible. Technology is trustworthy only because our mathematics is trustworthy. Our science, which ultimately makes it possible to work with the energies of nature, presupposes the trustworthy, intelligent structure of matter, …the “design” of creation.
To come to the definitive question, I would say: Either God exists or he doesn’t. There are only two options. Either one recognizes the priority of reason, of the creative Reason that stands at the beginning of everything and is the origin of everything - the priority of reason is also the priority of freedom - or one upholds the priority of the irrational, according to which everything in our world and in our lives is only an accident, marginal, an irrational product, and even reason would be a product of irrationality. In the end, one cannot “prove” either of these views, but Christianity’s great choice is the choice of reason and the priority of reason. This seems like an excellent choice to me, demonstrating how a great Intelligence, to which we can entrust ourselves, stands behind everything.
But to me, it seems that the real problem for the faith today is the evil in the world: One asks oneself how this is compatible with this rationality of the Creator. And here we really need that God who became flesh and who shows us how he is not only a mathematical logic, but that this primordial reason is also love. If we look at the great options, the Christian option is the more rational and human one even today. For this reason, we can confidently elaborate a philosophy, a vision of the world that is based on this priority of reason, on this trust that the creative Reason is love, and that this love is God.
I have said many times that the foundations of engineering are the disciplines of mathematics and physics, and the Pope seems to agree, at least in regard to mathematics.
Dave, which he has forgotten most of what he almost knew about mathematics.
Worried about privacy?
June 5, 2006
A recent ruling on the sharing of airline passenger data helps show how European and American views differ on the competing demands of individual rights to privacy and the public need for security is the subtitle of a recent Economist article. I find it hard to get worked up about invasion of my privacy, and I’m not sure why. One reason may be that, so far, I have never felt threatened. Another reason may be that I am not very smart and believe that if I behave and don’t call attention to myself, everything will be alright. Think Ostrich. All I have to do, I reason, is stay below Big Brother’s radar screen.
The war on privacy | Economist.com
Nothing is private now
But technology and online business methods may, anyway, make this argument redundant. Wider use of DNA profiles, security cameras and credit-card records all make it easier for authorities to track individuals’ movements. And the collection and trade of personal information given freely on the internet is at the heart of many online business models. Cookies, e-mails and details given to all kinds of websites leave an electronic spoor that the police, security agencies, businesses and hackers can follow.
Only the most egregious breaches of online security and deliberate attempts to procure personal information are reported in the media. But smaller leaks that compromise privacy are everyday occurrences. The mass of personal details used by government agencies or businesses increasingly renders old notions of privacy obsolete. The electronic trails that diminish privacy may help to trap crooks and terrorists, but where net curtains once shut out nosey neighbours it will, for good or ill, become increasingly difficult to shut anyone out in future.
So why worry? I suspect that a high degree of paranoia doesn’t much reduce the probablilty of being seriously inconvenienced, or worse, by incursions on my privacy. Even if I get hit tomorrow, it doesn’t change the probability of it happening. This mindset is probably largely due to the accident of living an upper-middle class life in the good old U.S. of A., and for that I am thankful.
Dave, which he yet may be taught a lesson that wakes him up, but he isn’t holding his breath.
Ephesians 5:22-33
June 4, 2006
Exhortations to Households
5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, 5:23 because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church–he himself being the savior of the body. 5:24 But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, 5:27 so that he may present the church to himself as glorious–not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. 5:28 In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 5:29 For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, 5:30 for we are members of his body. 5:31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 5:32 This mystery is great–but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 5:33 Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Paul is certainly right in saying the mystery is great when it comes to the marital relationship. Marriage sometimes creates stresses and strains that only paragons of virtue can overcome. Problem is, the only “paragon of virtue” to walk the earth was Jesus Christ.
Wives submit, husbands love, both submit to Christ. Simple in concept; difficult to achieve in our fallenness. This husband takes no little comfort in knowing that all will be redeemed in heaven. -sdg-
Gloomy outlook for U.S. in Iraq
June 3, 2006
This from yesterday’s Kiplinger Letter, at the tail end of a gloomy assessment of the situation in Iraq. After conluding that perseverence is the only realistic option for the U.S., Kiplinger says,
The next year will be a tough one as insurgents step up attacks on Iraqi civilians and security forces, testing the new government and undermining efforts to bring Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds together.
Some U.S. forces may be moved to desert bases, removing soldiers from immediate danger but allowing their quick redeployment as needed.
And the cost of perseverance will be huge: In human casualties. In mounting federal spending. In loss of U.S. prestige in the world. In less ability to deal with other hot spots. And in division at home.
Not a pretty picture, is it? But I’m afraid it may be a realistic one, and I wouldn’t try to guess the ultimate impact on our political system, our economy, and our way of life. Or our Grandkids future.
Dave, promising to find a pleasant topic for tomorrow.
The Nanas and the Papas
June 2, 2006
I’ll simply refer you to Kruse Kronicle for an interesting quote from a recent Chicago Tribune article. I agree with Michael’s comment and would add that the Boomers are just building on the mess that we Silent Generation types got started after WW II. I guess immortality ain’t what it’s cracked up to be.
Kruse Kronicle: `The Nanas and the Papas’
Dave, happy to look past all this stuff.
