The Language of God

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis Collins is the best book I have read on the intersection of faith and science. Collins, a former agnostic who converted, heads the Human Genome Project. Collins sees no reason that faith and science must continually butt heads. My thoughts prior to reading: God created the earth and used evolution to some extent, although I have trouble with the idea that we are descended from apes. I also found the ideas of Intelligent Design appealing (such as how evolution has trouble explaining the development of the eye). Collins seeks to convince atheists and agnostics that there is a God and he appeals to Christians to stop rejecting science as threatening to their worldview. He uses his knowledge of biology and genetics to challenge young earth creationists and Intelligent Design in a respectful way. Collins argues that the theory of evolution has been validated by genetics in ways Darwin never imagined and that unless we think God is trying to trick us, we should embrace what creation tells us about how life developed. Macroevolution has largely been rejected by Christians, but I am beginning to be convinced that this is akin to insisting on a 10,000 year old planet (which I believe requires the belief that God is trying to trick us). The appeal of Intelligent Design is the idea that evolution can't fully explain life, so there must be a God taking care of these discrepancies. However, promoting this "God of the gaps" theory leaves believers with smaller and smaller places to stand as science fills in the gaps. I am still thinking these issues through, but I highly recommend this book.

It's a boy!

Jaime and I have been waiting to tell people just to make sure everything was ok, but now is as good a time as any to tell you that we are having a baby and its a boy. She is due the end of August. The two pictures on the right are when she was about two and a half months pregnant. The bottom left is a picture of the baby's face (the right half of the picture you can make out the eyes and nose and forehead and the left half of the picture is his belly). The top left picture is his leg and then the little bump above that is his pee pee. Hope everyone is doing well and we are very excited.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

I bought the new album from these Montreal rockers last week, hoping that it would be at least in the same league as their masterpiece, Funeral. It is a great album that you will like if you were into Funeral. However, it does pale in comparison to their debut. The songs don't build up to the same intensity as on Funeral and in general, just aren't as good. Win Butler's voice fails to rise above the orchestra, strings, and rumbles on much of the album, in contrast to Funeral. Neon Bible definitely has a more muddled sound to it than their debut. The album grew on me over the weekend, but I didn't have the same emotional reaction to it as Funeral. However, comparisons to Funeral aside (which is one of my favorite albums in the last ten years), this is indie-rock at its finest. The wall of sound created by the 7-8 piece band and Win Butler's lyrics create an album that is interesting, dark, and beautiful. Just don't go into it expecting anthems and you'll enjoy it more.

Lenten Journey

Lent began for me with a lovely ecumenical Taize service at our church. The imposition of ashes took on a new meaning for me this year. As previous posts on my blog indicate, I'm facing death on a more regular basis via Clinical Pastoral Education (internship as a hospital chaplain). A tangible reminder of my mortality, of our bodies is always powerful. Ashes, accidents, illness, losses, and births are all reminders of our mortality.

I've been thinking a lot about the influence Greek thought has had on my own perception of the body...of embodiment. I'm struggling to accept the premise that we are body, mind, and spirit/soul. How can you parse those out? I prefer the Hebrew understanding,of us as nephesh...interconnected, breath, life. soul and body. That's why death is so powerful...death ends all of us...body, mind, and spirit. you can't separate them.

This impacts my soteriology. Our souls are not only saved...no, our bodies, our minds, all of us. For, it is our bodies that are an integral part of who we are. This also impacts eschatology...remember that part in the Creed where we say we believe in the resurrection of the body? Yup, all of us will be raised.

Now, that does raise a lot of questions about death and the "afterlife". Questions that I'm thinking about now during Lent. What does it mean to be saved, what does it mean to be joined to Christ? What does that mean when we die, and when creation is finally restored?

Just as you can't parse out the body, mind, and spirit of Jesus Christ. I think Christology and atonement theory have something to add to this wondering.

So, that's what I'm thinking about this Lent. What does it mean for Christ, who was fully man...fully embodied to live, suffer, die, and rise again? How does the Easter journey impact our own perception of life and death?

I'm curious, what are you all experiencing this Lent? If you're a Christian, what's going in in your spiritual or church life this season?

Mix tape

When I worked in California I would often make the boys mixed cd's to listen too. It kept them occupied and it gave us something to listen to in the vans and I thought it was fun. So I thought I would make one for the blog. The inspiration for the song choices has been a bit illusive but for whatever reason I thought I might share a few songs, some your probably familiar with and others you might not be. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did making it.

Ghetto Gospel - Tupac & Elton John

Stary Eyed Surprise - Paul Oakenfold

Catform - Rogue Wave

Barnacles - Ugly Casanova

Defending the Paint - The Soft Drugs

Conventional Wisdom - Built to Spill

Twighlight Creeps - Crooked Fingers

24 turned 25 - Denison Witmer

Denton, TX - Damien Jurado

Amen, Omen - Ben Harper

Jack Bauer interrogates Chunk

I'm a sucker for these video mashups, or whatever the kids are calling them these days.

Arcade Fire on NPR

Arcade Fire is one of those bands that even if their popularity explodes beyond its already expanded state, I'd still sing their praises. My music elitism (although less now than when many of you knew me) can't withstand the sheer pleasure I get from putting Arcade Fire on the old headphones and lounging on the couch.

The point of this post, however, is to make any fellow fans aware of a decent quality, legal, live concert recording from the band's final night of a recent 5 night gig at the Judson Memorial Church in NYC. NPR recorded it as part of a sporadic concert series and have put it up in downloadable form. It includes both old stuff and songs from their forthcoming Neon Bible to be released next week I think. Try to ignore the "reporter". I think he gets a little too excited to be there. Since I don't quite understand how to upload music onto this blog yet, here's the link.

Enjoy!