The Dawn Treader

Restoring Civility

“Now, we believe in the separation of church and state,” Warren said in his introduction before heading into the first round of questions with Obama, “but we do not believe in the separation of faith and politics because faith is just a world view and everybody has some kind of world view.”

We've got to learn to disagree without demonizing each other and we need to restore civility in our civil discourse and that's the goal of the Saddleback Civil Forum."

~ Rick Warren

Three things Rick Warren got right.  First, evangelical Christians ought to take the lead in bringing the country together and modeling civility.  As Christians, we have a unique opportunity to lead the way back toward reforging civility in American public life.  We need to wrest a tough, robust, democratic civility from the jaws of the culture wars, as Os Guiness says in his new book.  Followers of Christ ought to have peacemaking in our DNA.  Kudos to Warren for bringing the two candidates together on the same stage and conducting excellent interviews.  Second, Warren is absolutely right that nobody truly believes in the separation of faith and politics.  Faith = world view.  Everyone has a world view.  Therefore, faith cannot be separated from politics.  Third, Warren was absolutely correct to focus on worldview.  We are all driven by our understanding of reality and our own precommitments to what is true about our existence.  We need to know what these guys believe is true.  That is far, far more important than the stump speech answers that we are all sick of hearing from candidates.

The Kid

The Kid: I figured out what you do for a living.
Russ : Oh yeah?
The Kid: I mean I can explain it.
Russ: Go ahead.
The Kid: You help people lie about themselves so they can pretend to be someone else.
~ The Kid, Walt Disney Pictures, 2000

One of the movies we rented to help pass the time on the long drive from L.A. to the Grand Canyon was Disney's The Kid.

Little did I realize that this children's film had some interesting worldview messages.

* spoiler alert *

Reflections From The 50 Yard Line Of Life

"The first half of my life was about discovering truth and finding meaning.  I know I have found both in Christ.  The second half will be about living it out."

~ Mr. Dawntreader

Looking into a mesmerizing sunset in the north rim of the Grand Canyon can have a profound impact on your thinking.

Images of Grand Canyon

California Dreaming

Greetings from Southern California where the Dawntreader fam is enjoying a vacation.  We are headed to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.  Should be memorable.  Blessings.

The Wacky World Of American Spirituality

"Americans believe in everything. It's a spiritual salad bar," says Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsay. Rather than religious leaders setting the cultural agenda, today, it's Oprah Winfrey, he says.

~ USA Today, More have dropped dogma for spirituality in U.S.

Pass the bacon bits.  Americans choose their religious beliefs about the same way they move through a salad bar.  I'll take a little of this and a little of that.

For those of you keeping track

• spirituality is now cool ... but "institutionalized" religion is not cool.
• the "unchurched" are worshiping more, the "churched", worshiping less
• the majority of people (78%) believe in absolute right and wrong, but most of them rely on "practical experience and common sense" to determine that absolute right and wrong ... iow, they are relative in determining those absolutes.
• 70%, including a majority of all major Christian and non-Christian religious groups except Mormons, say "many religions can lead to eternal life."  (good for the Mormons)
• 50% say "homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society," but the most consistently traditional religious groups say society should discourage it — 76% of Jehovah's Witnesses, 68% of Mormons, 61% of Muslims and 64% of evangelicals. (shock number: a third of evangelicals think homosexuality should not be discouraged).
• Heaven is in (74% believe in it) but hell is out (59% believe in it).
• We don't necessarily believe what mom and dad did.  44% say they're no longer tied to the religious or secular upbringing of their childhood. They've changed religions or denominations, adopted a faith for the first time or abandoned any affiliation altogether.
• Catholicism is growing (thanks to immigration), but Protestantism is fading.
• The mainline Protestant denominations are bleeding numbers and fast.  The growing trend is to identify yourself as "Christian" with no denominational affiliation.
• Doctrine is definitely out.  Happy talk spirituality like Osteen and Oprah, is definitely in.

Can you please pass the croutons?

More reading :

USA Today, 'Unchurched' worshipping more, 'churched' less?
USA Today, Survey: More have dropped dogma for spirituality in U.S.
USA Today, Oprah or Osteen -- or both?
USA Today, Topography of Faith
USA Today, Survey: Americans freely change, or drop, their religions

Mind Bender: Snails and Worms

Take your time and pay attention to details.

Snail Riddle

A snail is at the bottom of a well and wants to get out.  He manages to crawl up the wall 3 feet each day, but at night he must rest ( after all that work during the day ) and so he slips back down 2 feet.  If the well is 30 feet deep, How long will it take him to get out?

Worm Riddle

On a shelf in the library, there is a 3 book set of almanacs labeled volume 1, volume 2 and volume 3. Each book is 2 1/2 inches thick, the pages being 2 inches thick and each cover is 1/4 inch thick.  A bookworm starts eating its way from the 1st page of volume 1 and stops at the last page of volume 3.  How far did the bookworm travel?

Number Riddle

What is the largest possible number you can write using only 2 single digit numbers - just 2 numbers, no other mathematical symbols?

Mind Bender Redux

Ok, time to sharpen some thinking skills.  See who can get all three of these the fastest.

The hobo riddle

Because cigars cannot be entirely smoked, a hobo who collects cigar butts can make a cigar to smoke out of every 5 butts that he finds. Today, he has collected 25 cigar butts. How many cigars will he be able to smoke?

The lady riddle

Someone at a party introduces you to your mother's only sister's husband's sister in law.  He has no brothers.  What do you call this lady?

The word riddle

What English word can have 4 of its 5 letters removed and still retain it's original pronunciation?

The Ethics of the Dark Knight

"Madness, as you know, is like gravity.  All it takes is a little push."
~ The Joker, The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight will go down as one of the most successful, and most violent, films of all time.  My former employer, Warner Brothers, has released one doozy of a movie.  The Dark Knight is smashing records and taking in millions.  After watching it yesterday, I can see why.

* SPOILER ALERT *

Poor Old Copernicus

"Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."
~ Dr. Carl Sagan

Dr. Sagan was a strong believer in the Copernican principle.  I was in  agreement with him at one point in my life.

Alas, the Copernican principle has fallen on hard times.  Ironically, we have Sagan's pet project, SETI, to thank for much of the scientific discovery that is eroding the now outdated assumption that our planet is ho-hum and our star is humdrum.  The latest data point?  Most stars  in the galaxy are formed in dense nebula clusters like the Orion cluster.  Turns out, after observing the Orion nebula cluster closely, that fewer than 10 percent of the stars have enough surrounding dust to form Jupiter like planets.  To an astrobiologist, that's a problem.  Giant planets like Jupiter play an important role in fostering life on rocky planets like earth.

So, take those 10 billion trillion stars and scratch out 90 percent of them as possible life sites.  If Jupiter like planets were the only requirement for fostering life on a neighbor planet, then the numbers would still swing towards Copernicus.  Of course, there are a lot more things that need to happen besides this one parameter.

The odds just went to a trillion trillion trillion to one.  So much for humdrum ;)   Be sure to thank God one more time for our special star.