Another BBC article. I find it intersting how France sees and treats the Church of Scientology:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8327569.stm

Interesting article from the BBC about how more than half of adults surveyed felt that creation should be taught with evolution in schools:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8322781.stm

Hey All,

I started reading this article yesterday and thought it had some really interesting thoughts on God and Evolution. Especially interesting is this quote:

it is vital to avoid, in the case of precultural evolution, the presumption that “God” competes with the evolutionary process as a (very big) bit player in the temporal unfolding of “natural selection.” Once we are released from that false presumption, “God” is no longer—and idolatrously—construed as problematically interventionist (or feebly failing in such) along the same temporal plane as the process itself. Rather, God is that-without-which-there-would-be-no-evolution-at-all; God is the atemporal undergirder and sustainer of the whole process of apparent contingency or “randomness,” yet—we can say in the spirit of Augustine—simultaneously closer to its inner workings than it is to itself.

As such, God is both “within” the process and “without” it. To put this in richly trinitarian terms: God, the Holy Spirit, is the perpetual invitation and lure of the creation to return to its source in the Father, yet never without the full—and suffering—implications of incarnate Sonship. Once we see the possibility of understanding the contingency of precultural evolution in this way, we need not—as so much science and religion “dialogue” has done in recent years—declare the evolutionary process as necessarily “deistically” distanced in some sense from God. Rather, I propose in contrast that God is “kenotically” infused (not by divine loss or withdrawal, but by effusive pouring out) into every causal joint of the creative process, yet precisely without overt derangement of apparent “randomness.”

Hey all,

Thought this could start some discussion…so discuss!

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/20/catholic-anglican-church-recruit.html

Z

We get a bit political in this episode and discuss capitalism in North America.

Please enjoy!

[podcast]http://unbelievablefaith.com/wp-content/audio/UFaithEp027.mp3[/podcast]

We dissect the Joe Pug song that we’ve all come to love. You can listen to Hymn 101 on the MySpace page.

Here are the lyrics:

and i’ve come to know the wishlist of my father
i’ve come to know the shipwrecks where he wished
i’ve come to wish aloud
among the over-dressed crowd
come to witness now the sinking of the ship
throwing pennies from the seatop next to it

and i’ve come to roam the forest past the village
with a dozen lazy horses in my cart
i’ve come here to get high
to do more than just get by
i’ve come to test the timber of my heart
oh i’ve come to test the timber of my heart

and i’ve come
to be untroubled in my seeking
and i’ve come
to see that nothing is for naught
i’ve come to reach out blind
to reach forward and behind
for the more I seek the more I’m sought
yeah the more I seek the more I’m sought

and i’ve come to meet the sherriff and his posse
to offer him the broad side of my jaw
i’ve come here to get broke
then maybe bum a smoke
we’ll go drinking two towns over after all
oh we’ll go drinking two towns over after all

and i’ve come to meet the legendary takers
i’ve only come to ask them for a lot
oh they say i come with less
than i should rightfully possess
i say the more i buy the more i’m bought
and the more i’m bought the less i cost

and i’ve come
to take their servants and their surplus
and i’ve come
to take their raincoats and their speed
i’ve come to get my fill
to ransack and spill
i’ve come to take the harvest for the seed
i’ve come to take the harvest for the seed

and i’ve come to know the manger that you sleep in
i’ve come to be the stranger that you keep
i’ve come from down the road
and my footsteps never slowed
and before we met i knew we’d meet
before we met i knew we’d meet

and i’ve come here to ignore your cries and heartaches
i’ve come to closely listen to you sing
i’ve come here to insist
that i leave here with a kiss
i’ve come to say exactly what i mean
and i mean so many things

and you’ve come
to know me stubborn as a butcher
and you’ve come
to know me thankless as a guest
will you recognize my face
when god’s awful grace
strips me of my jacket and my vest
and reveals all the treasure in my chest

Here is a direct link to the MP3.

If you want to cut right to the Joe Pug discussion, it starts at 14:30

[podcast]http://unbelievablefaith.com/wp-content/audio/UFaithEp026.mp3[/podcast]

This picture (larger version here) is quite evocative and I think, for those of us who know a little H.P. Lovecraft, and have seen this picture, it could start a very interesting discussion about America and Christianity.