Speaking Out Of Ignorance? Not Good!

I recently saw a video that show cases what happens when a reasonably intelligent person attempts to put together events in a story from which they only have hear-say and pieces of what actually happened. In this video a young lady tries to re-tell the story of Star Wars, however she has never seen it (gasp!!!) or knows what she is talking about. She tries to piece it together based on what she has heard other people say. Add her friend's animated montage based on her re-telling and hilarity ensues.


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

This reminds me of everytime I hear someone talk about Jesus and the Bible who have never studied the scriptures for themselves. They twist things. Misunderstand things. If their mistaken understanding wasn't so important it would be funny. Instead of just going by what other people say about history and the Bible, we all need to look for the truth for ourselves.

Heroes: The Recruit pt 5

Here is the fifth and final part of the Heroes Webisode series: "The Recruit"

Rick Sanchez Owned Joe the Plummer

I found a video where CNN's Rick Sanchez lays into "Joe the Plummer" so hard you can hear the disgust in his voice. You can tell that he does not like this guy or anything he stands for.

Sorry, Galileo, Move Over

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope. When I was in school I was taught that the first person to use a telescope to observe the moon and make maps of it was Galileo. Today, I found out that he wasn't the first. I found out from Old Moon Map Corrects History that:

Thomas Harriot made the first drawing of the moon after looking through a telescope several months before Galileo, in July 1609.

The article seems to point out that Harriot achieved this first because he had financial backing that Galileo did not. In fact, while Harriot purchased his telescope, Galileo had to figure out the optics, re-invent the technology, and build his own telescope. Stands to reason that it would take Galileo longer. However, Harriot made such maps of the moon that we now know that no one made better maps for decades afterward. The reason we know about Galileo is that he widely published his results and Harriot did not. I don't know why. It would be interesting to find out.

New Digital Divide?

One of the problems in the United States is the fact that not everyone has the same access to technology due to geography and economic status. For example, children in poor, urban school do not have access to computers at home or at school due to the cost. This is often referred to as the "digital divide". One of Barack Obama's campaign promises was to bridge this gap. You would think, logically, that poorer countries would have even larger gaps, where only the very wealthy can get access to the Internet on demand. I heard of a case in Africa where people had to walk for an hour one-way, to use the internet at the post office. You would also assume that people would not have a lot of skills in using computers also. However, this may not be a problem in China.

For a while now, I've been aware of China's attempts to modernize and regain the splendor it once had. At one point China was the most technologically advanced nation in the world. Some folk in America have stated a concern that China was not just catching up with us, but surpassing us. I read an article today that points to this idea. The article sites a statistic that more than 300 million Chinese people are regular internet users. I'd assume that they use the Internet for the same things everyone else uses it for: collecting, reading, and sharing information. This caught my attention because I'm not even sure if the population of the United States is 300 million. When I looked it up I got 305,611,925 people for the population of the United States. So roughly about the number of people in China who are Internet users is about equal to the estimated population of the United States! I call that surpassed because that not all Americans use the internet. I believe the same is true in China. In order to see if we have truly been surpassed in the number of citizen on the Internet, we need to know how many Americans are on the Internet out of the total population. As for China, 300 million isn't even half it's population which is about 1,330,044,544 (July 2008 est.) Three hundred million out of 1.33 Billion is about 22.5% and in the United States, 220,141,969 people on the internet out of 305,611,925 people total works out to about 72%. Although, all the numbers I used are estimates, I think that these calculations show that relatively speaking, more people in the United States are on the Internet than there are in China. The article points out another cool trick you can get out of this information:

Given the nationality of users of the Internet, our crack team of G4 scientists has determined that there's a 37% chance that you are in China right now. You'd better look out the window to make sure.

It's not just Internet that the Chinese are taking to. There are 633.8 million mobile phone users in that country, and last week, China issued a long-awaited license for 3G mobile phones, so Chinese early-adopters will be able to enjoy the Internet from the privacy of their phones.

Let me look...ok, yup, still Californa. Whew! In my Internet crawling I found some interesting graphics. Here are graphics showing population changes for China.

New Word: "Bushism"

What do you call it when people think you are so stupid...so utterly bereft of intelligence that a name is coined to describe the things you say: "Bushism". Yes, there are things that George W. Bush has said in the past 8 years that will live on and be remembered for several decades to come, but not for their inspiration but because they are funny, silly, and makes you wonder "How in the world could someone like this could have become President of the United States...twice?!!" I'm sure several book will be written. For now here is a video playlist of some of them.

Oprah & The Secret: New Age Spirituality

Disclaimer: I did not see the show that the following clip is taken from, but I can't let it pass. In this clip Oprah has a couple of ministers who were on The Secret DVD who supposedly drop a huge revelation to her audience of millions: "Being gay is a gift from God." I almost fell out of my chair. No where does it say that in the Bible. I could not believe it. The question anyone must ask yourself when ever you hear a "minister" or clergy of any kind: "Is this person speaking the Word of God or not?" You can tell by whether or not anything they are saying conflicts with what God has already revealed in scripture. No clergy can claim to speak for God and then totally speak against what God has already spoken. Homosexuality is no worse than any other sin...however like every sin the only cure is a relationship with Jesus. God does not desire for anyone to die in their sins but to come to repentance. The scripture says 2 Peter 3: 8-10

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Here is the clip showing my points:

Sarah Palin....Please go home.

I just saw a news report in which it's reported that Sarah Palin says that she was misrepresents in the video I posted a couple of days ago by those who said that mass media misrepresented her.

The WII is not just a Toy!!!

Google has posted a video showing a way the Nintendo WII can be used in a real world application. An engineer has written software that turns the Nintendo Wii's board peripheral (for snowboard, skateboard, and surfing games) into a controller for Google Earth. Users can virtually surf the earth. The even better news is that he's making the technology freely available (in techspeak "open source"). This means that some people are going to be using it in other applications....endless possibilities.

Some Folks Do Not Know When To Quit

Some one has actually put together a website called www.HowObamaGotElected.com and they will be producing a documentary called "Media Malpractice". Obviously the producers are suggesting that the media swayed the nation to elect Obama. They gave a Sarah Palin the chance to be interviewed on how she thinks of the media.

A New Tablet Device

At this week's CES in Las Vegas there was announced new tablet device: Giinii Movit Mini. It's an IPod Touch like device but it's runs the same operating system as the G1 Phone: Android. It seems really nice. Unfortunately, it doesn't have as much software and support as the IPhone, but the potential is there. Look at the following links for more information.

Google Android Tablet No Threat To Apple iPod Touch -- Yet (GOOG, AAPL)

Hands On Giinii Movit Mini: The Android Tablet

Sony's Answer to Apple: "Oh, Yeah?"

In the 1980's, Sony set the standard in personal media content players with its Walkman. Everyone had one. Sony's monopoly on that market dried up in 2000 when apple released its first IPods. Apple quickly refined its technology to not just include music and audio content but also video and web browsing. I for one thought that Sony had given up on this market and let Apple and Microsoft (with is Zune players) have that market. I was wrong. Their "IPod Killer" was announced this week, referred to as "Touchscreen Walkman". Here is a blurb from G4TV's blog:

The NWZ-X1000 features a 3-inch OLED touchscreen, WiFi, noise-canceling and comes in two sizes: 16GB and 32GB. That, my friends, is all anyone knows about it. No doubt Sony is saving the juicy details for the press conference they're holding in the next hour, so keep your browser pointed to G4's CES 2009 coverage for a live blog of all the juicy Sony details.

Personally, I would like more on board memory space. Grant it, it may have SD Card support. I don't know because I haven't seen Sony's Press conference yet. I hope I can see it on G4TV tonight. That is one gripe I have against IPods is that there is no expandable memory capability. This is offset by the ease of connecting a computer to an IPod and seemlessly managing your content, but I admit it: I'm lazy. I'd rather pack music and videos on my personal media player on and on without end. Another thing that lessens my enthusiasm towards the new Walkman is that Sony is rumored to come out with a tablet version of the IPod Touch. It will do everything the IPod devices currently do but with a bigger screen! I love large screens. So unless Sony really impresses us with more features in the Walkman, they should stick to PS3s, PSPs, DVD/BluRay players, and HD televisions!

Mocking Theism

I came across this video from the Makers of the shows Family Guy and American Dad. It's irreverent and maybe even offensive to people like me who believe that the universe was purposely designed and not haphazardly evolved. For this reason, I'd classify it as not just anti-Christian but also anti-Theistic. Theism is the belief that there really does exist a God. However the mocking of Jesus dying for us is a swipe of Christianity. If you are offended by this video, then I apologize. I'm not posting it because I agree with it, but because it reminds us of the mindset, attitudes, and thoughts that we are up against. It is an awesome opportunity to do Apologetics. This video show Seth McFarlane's worldview. What does God have to say about it? What do you have to say?



Here are the three points and objections raised in the video:
1. Evolution means that we evolved from other animals, and Christianity say that God made us
2. How do we know God is a monkey?
3. How do we know God loves us?

The video shows a little boy coming to his father and asking legitimate questions. The humor is supposed to come from the characters being monkeys giving "religious" answers to good relevant questions. The answers are stock "religious" dogma that does not really answer anything and makes Christians sound like there is no reason why we believe what we believe. No where in the Bible does God entirely equate himself to be like us. It's like asking, "How do we know God is human?". To answer this you have to study what the Bible teaches about God's nature and identity.

The monkey is right. We know that God loves us because of Jesus' died for us redeeming us from sin and total death. It's just tossed out there, like only a moron would except it. However there are good reasons to accept this. You don't have to take the assertion at face value. You can research it for yourself.

Evolution does not answer some major questions. Like where does self-awareness and consciousness come from? Where does art come from. Did it evolve how? The Bible however does give an answer. It says that we were created in God's image. We make art because God is creative. We are self-aware because God made us so. There is no explanation for how the electrical impulse in a human brain give rise to personality or consciousness.

Look, Ma, No Keyboard!

Today at the MacWorld conference, Apple has announced a keyboardless notebook. It looks nice. Instead of a keyboard, the notebook has a wheel like the input interface of an IPod. My wife has an IPod Nano and it has such a wheel. It does make navigating and making selections easy, I'm not sure about typing on the thing. There's a demo on YouTube. I was excited about it until I saw the process to type on it. Does not seem easy or intuitive to me at all. See what I mean:

Canonicity Part 6: Gospel of Judas

In the 1970's an ancient book, lost for about 1,700 years was rediscovered. In 2006, it was translated into English and made available through National Geographic. It is called "the Gospel of Judas". It caused a firestorm of controversy because it does not present Judas or even Jesus the way they are depicted in the 4 canonical gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Judas isn't presented as a betrayer but Jesus' partner. Jesus gives Judas special knowledge that he does not share with the other 11 disciples. This information of what is said about their relationship, not to mention Jesus' very personality is really at odds with what we know from scripture. This in the very least should tell us not to take The Gospel of Judas as scripture.

However, our culture today is searching for "alternative understanding" apart from historic Christianity. There is this push to put Jesus on par with every other religious founder/leader like Buddha or Muhammad. That is why the Gospel of Judas caught a lot of attention. It does not hold up Jesus as God, incarnate, who died to propiate the sins of humanity and rose again physically three days later like He said He would - thereby restoring the relationship between believers and God. Jesus died in my place, paying for the sins of my life. This is the gospel according to historic Christianity and is stumbling block at bet best and an offense at worst to the unregenerate human mind. Unregenerate means someone who does not yet believe the gospel as spelled out for us in Scripture.

If you read the Gospel of Judas below you will see none of that is there. It is a gnostic text. Gnosticism was a cult that came to prominence in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries. It was repudiated by those who held to the scripture we believe today. It bears no resemblance to Christianity despite the claim that Jesus is at its center. The text itself has no proof to ties to the historical Judas nor anyone who personally knew him or Christ. We can't date it any earlier than 150 AD unlike Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It was written in the Coptic language. Coptic is modified Greek so that it can be easily used to translate ancient Egyptian writing. It is good to note that many copies of gnostic texts we do have are Coptic while oldest canonical scriptures we have are in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic which are most closer to the languages spoken by the people who are depicted in scripture.

When it comes to the Bible, we do a lot of "revisionist history" in our culture. Some have suggested that Judas wasn't all that bad. That maybe he did not really understand that they were going to execute Jesus...and he thought that the he was just trying to point him out. You can't get any of that out of the canonical gospels. The Gospel of Judas takes the added step of suggesting Judas was the closest disciple to Jesus, and Judas was under orders to do what he did. It suggests collusion not betrayal. It is so different...but a lie...that is why it caught a lot of attention and then dropped out of media consciousness. The Gnostics were not a monolith of opinion. They widely varied. The Gospel of Thomas (which is another farce some what to shoe-horn into the canon) suggests that Mary Magdalene was the closet disciple to Jesus. Notice that there is no real disagreements in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and I invite anyone to research and they will find none.

You may be asking, "How do I know that the I am not missing anything I need to know about God by not have The Gospel of Judas in my Bible?" Answer is simple: check it out. You can't make it gel with the other 66 books in general or the 4 Gospels in particular. That alone is enough to ignore it as scripture. Read it for yourself it you don't believe me.

Get your own - Open publication

Apologetics 315: Bart Ehrman and Peter Williams MP3 Audio

Apologetics 315: Bart Ehrman and Peter Williams MP3 Audio

I just found this on the Apologetics 315 blog. It's worth reviewing. We need to know how to defend the the authenticity of the Bible. We need to know what we believe, why we believe it, and how to articulate it.

Offending Jews - Embrassing Christians - This is How Not to Witness

Everyone who has heard of Ann Coulter knows that controversy follows her everywhere she goes. Unfortunately, unless you are a white evangelical republican then mostly likely she is offensive to you. I saw a video of her being interviewed by a Jewish American. She was asked what was her perfect dream of what America would be like. Unfortunately, her idea of "utopia" does not match God's ideas in the Bible. I don't like the way she explained why should we all be Republican and Christian. She came off as kind of ignorant. I mean citing "Seinfeld" as an accurate picture of society? She seemed arrogant and uninformed on what "perfected" Jews are. She does accurately point out that Jesus died for the sins of all. She did not have the time to fully explain salvation with respect and gentleness. It was a meltdown and did not advance the kingdom of God at all. To be honest, I hate that when people think of Christians, they think of her. It's a scary world. Take a look. It's a great example of how not to witness.

Four Year-Old Shoots Babysitter

What kind of world is it when a four year-old child premeditatively shoots another human being? I saw a news article today stating that a four year-old boy, angry because his teenaged babysitter accidentally stepped on his foot, announced that he was going to get a gun, left the room, went to where the adults hides a gun and to the separate place where the shells were stored, loaded the gun and then shot his babysitter, wounding him and another teenager. In Ohio!!!!? Not some inner ghetto. I'm still shocked. What I want to know is what has this child seen that makes him think that shooting someone is effective conflict management? And how does a four year-old learn to load a gun, let alone shoot straight enough to hit an intended target? No words.

I'm sure someone would try to blame violence in the media - video games, movies, and television. I blame the sins in the human heart that we are all susceptible to. My own two year-old daughter sometimes hits people when she is angry with them. I know I was the same way. My parents taught me that it was wrong to hit people no matter what they say if I'm not defending myself. I do the same thing for my daughter. More frightening is the lack of compassion and empathy shown by the calculated action that boy went through to. I mean think of it. He had to find the gun. Find the ammo. Load the ammo - one shell. He knew what he was doing. Some will argue that he was too young to understand that he could kill someone. I'm not so sure. Be that as it may I can't say since i don't know the boys heart but I notice a lot of children seem to be lacking compassion. My own daughter, thankfully, shows that she cares about other people when they say ouch or visibly unhappy. She asks "You, Okay?" If this is something you are born with? Is it taught? I don't know but it should be praised and encouraged. If not, more things like this is going to happen....and will be worse when they grow up.

Heroes: The Recruit pts 3 &4

The Third and Fourth parts of the Heroes webisode series known as "The Recruit" has been released.

Part 3: "Do What We Have To Do"


Part 4: "Day of Reckoning"

Nephilim: Not Mutations

As I have written about concerning the Nephilim, some think that Genesis 6 describes Angels marrying Human women and having children, calling them the "Nephilim". Let us look at the scripture in which they are first mentioned in Genesis 6:4 -

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

For a long time I've wrestled with this. The understanding of who the Nephilim were is determined by two facts that the Bible gives about them:

1. The fathers of the Nephilim are called "the Sons of God" - as so many people point out that the Bible uses this title for men and angels.
2. The Nephilim were on the earth "in those days" (before the flood) and "afterwards".
3. The King James Version and many English translations translate "Nephilim" as "giants" instead of the literal translation: "Fallen ones". We are told that they were men and special: "men of reknown".

I found a video on the Internet in which a Pastor explains the two major ideas about who the Nephilim were and he said the same thing that my own Pastor teaches: The Nephilim were not half angel, half human mutations, but just men - fallen and wicked men. Although, I heard my Pastor and know he's right, I still struggled. Why? I see now that I had an itching ear for the other explanation. I have a bias towards science fiction. There is a part of me that finds interesting the idea of angels (turned demons) having children to pollute the human gene pool to try to divert God's plan to redeem humanity. Noah is chosen because he and his family have a pure bloodline. Sounds like a movie (I think I've seen it) doesn't it. The problem is that it has got all the problems that my Pastor, Fredrick Stewart, and Pastor Scott Richards have pointed out. To me nail-in-the-coffin is the point that if point of the flood was to wipe out Nephilim, then we havean example of God failing because there were Nephilim on the earth afterward! That can't be true because you can't fit it in with the rest of scripture or history.

Here is a video of Pastor Scott Richards explaining who the Nephilim are:


I have also found a video on GodTube that asserts to show a picture of a large human-type skeleton uncovered in Saudi Arabia. The problem is that I can tell the one who posted this video is intending to prove that the Nephilim were giants because they were the offspring of Angels and humans. I don't have an answer for why there were nations of giants - people who were 9 ft tall like Goliath. The one thing I am now sure of is that the Nephilim are not the descendants of Angels. Here is video of the "giant" found in Saudi Arabia.


The pictures of this post shows that there are a great many of people who believe that the Nephilim were the offspring of angels and humans. Fortunately, there is no scripture that backs it up.