Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Random comments
From "Roop" on "Superchic(k)":
From "hi mik1986" on "Anxiety and the Grace of God":
Weird.
A generalized anxiety disorder causes excessive and unrealistic anxiety about life circumstances. Usually it is a feeling of anxiousness and worry about things even when everything is fairly stable in your life. You might feel nervous, but don't know the reason for the same. Nothing has changed in your life, today is actually a nice looking day, and all is pretty much going well in your life, but you still feel nervous about something or the other.http://www.buy-xanax-online-now.com
From "hi mik1986" on "Anxiety and the Grace of God":
The best help for anxiety disorders is often self-help. Many people with anxiety disorders benefit from joining a self-help group and sharing their problems and achievements with others. No harm trying it, as there is nothing to be lost.http://www.buy-xanax-online-now.com
Weird.
HURRAH!
It's here at last:
The relationship between science and religion (SR) has often been portrayed as bellicose. Yet some scholars view the disciplines as allies that complement and buttress one another. Others consider them to be entirely discrete entities. Without a doubt, the interface of the two disciplines is complex and nuanced, and they have much to learn from one another. Heidi Campbell and Heather Looy assembled A Science and Religion Primer to guide a respectful, intelligent conversation. This landmark work is simultaneously an encyclopedia, an annotated bibliography, and a survey. What's more, the stalwart advisory board for this singular project is made up of
(Also, keep your eye out for a small entry on "Natural Theology".)
- Celia Deane-Drummond
- Nancey Murphy
- George F. R. Ellis
- Peter Harrison
- Holmes Rolston III
- Craig A. Boyd
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Another grr about Christians and evolution
From Tim Challies' blog - a quote from someone called Greg Koukl:
Some people suggest that God used evolution to design the world. They are motivated, I think, by two impulses. The first is a desire to affirm the Bible. The second is a suspicion Darwinism may have merit. Thus, they declare both true.
These two notions, however, seem incompatible to me. It may sound reasonable for God to “use” evolution, but if you look closer I think you will see the problem.
Suppose I wanted a straight flush for a hand of poker. I could either pull the cards out of the deck individually and “design” the hand, or I could shuffle the cards randomly and see if the flush is dealt to me. It would not make any sense, though, to “design” the hand by shuffling the deck and dealing. There’s no way to ensure the results. (I guess if I were really clever I could make it look like I was shuffling the deck when in reality I was stacking it, but that would be a deceitful kind of design called “cheating.”).
In the same way, either God designs the details of the biological world, or nature shuffles the deck and natural selection chooses the winning hand. The mechanism is either conscious and intentional (design), or unconscious and unintentional (natural selection). Creation has a purpose, a goal. Evolution is accidental, like a straight flush dealt to a poker rookie.
The idea that something is designed by chance is contradictory. Like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, this just doesn’t fit.
Fundamental problem here. As I understand it (need to do more reading), theistic evolutionists don't claim that God used evolution to design the world. Rather, they might claim that God used evolution in his work of creation, or that God established evolution as a process by which things change and develop in the world he created. Once again, can one really mount a serious argument without properly understanding the position one is arguing against?
Friday, February 06, 2009
Desperate Darwinists?
This is the kind of Christian comment on evolution that bugs me.
It seems to me that while Olasky discourages ridicule of Darwinism, he himself is ridiculing Darwinists.
It's important to understand the position you're arguing against, and to offer actual arguments rather than ridicule. But calling "Darwinists" (who does that refer to anyway?) "desperate" - isn't that ridicule? Sure, the whole multiverse concept seems a bit wacky, but a lot of science is wacky (what does Olasky think about quantum physics?) and not all Darwinists would buy into that anyway. I know this is only a short article, but Olasky's attacks are on the people, not the ideas - "muttering" Darwinists are "desperate" and "cloaking themselves in scientific objectivity" - i.e. they're not really scientists. I guess Intelligent Design proponents are articulate, calm and actually objective.
And to say that scientists are pretending to have the answers? I don't know of any scientists (apologists for atheistic science such as Dawkins and Dennett are a different matter) who would even claim to have absolute answers - science is more a search for answers, which are always acknowledged to be provisional (even Dawkins admits that we may end up chucking out Darwinism if we find a better theory). We look at the world, and think "wow, that's so amazing, how could things have ended up this way?" To say that God created and sustains the universe is one possible answer, but it's not a scientific explanation. It could be true (and I believe it is) but it doesn't tell us anything scientifically. And, in a sense, it doesn't affect the way science is done. Whether or not a scientist believes in creation, she will still be seeking physical explanations of natural processes. Can science prove or disprove the existence of a divine designer? I don't think so. The same evidence can be interpreted in different ways. One person sees evolution as the means by which God created, while another sees blind physical process.
And on the issue of "complexity" - where one person sees "irreducible complexity", another sees a question to be answered. Sure, we might not know right now how particular mechanisms within a cell developed, but that doesn't mean that we won't know some years down the track. Throughout the history of science, human knowledge of nature has constantly been expanding - constantly discovering new things, and finding out that things are more complex than we thought. Complexity is not a new thing - just a deepening thing. Why stop now, throw our hands up and say, we can't figure it out? People could have done that with the atom, once they realised it wasn't just like a billiard ball.
Anyway, this is a rambling, ill-thought out post. Brain not working - blame the PhD. Just felt like a little rant. I know there are people who may read this blog who will disagree with me, and that's fine. Just don't expect me to get into a deep discussion about it - maybe after the thesis is done, but I really don't have the time or mental energy right now. And please, if you do want to criticise what I say, have the decency to leave your name. Thanks!
Let's have compassion for Darwinists as they develop desperate theories positing the existence of an infinite number of universes. Many cloak themselves as objectively scientific, but that can't dodge even what secularists like novelist Kurt Vonnegut acknowledge: "My body and your body are miracles of design. Scientists are pretending they have the answer as to how we got this way when natural selection couldn't possibly have produced such machines."
- Marvin Olasky, "Dialogue with Darwinists: Key themes to remember on the birthday of 'On the Origin of Species'"
It seems to me that while Olasky discourages ridicule of Darwinism, he himself is ridiculing Darwinists.
It's important to understand the position you're arguing against, and to offer actual arguments rather than ridicule. But calling "Darwinists" (who does that refer to anyway?) "desperate" - isn't that ridicule? Sure, the whole multiverse concept seems a bit wacky, but a lot of science is wacky (what does Olasky think about quantum physics?) and not all Darwinists would buy into that anyway. I know this is only a short article, but Olasky's attacks are on the people, not the ideas - "muttering" Darwinists are "desperate" and "cloaking themselves in scientific objectivity" - i.e. they're not really scientists. I guess Intelligent Design proponents are articulate, calm and actually objective.
And to say that scientists are pretending to have the answers? I don't know of any scientists (apologists for atheistic science such as Dawkins and Dennett are a different matter) who would even claim to have absolute answers - science is more a search for answers, which are always acknowledged to be provisional (even Dawkins admits that we may end up chucking out Darwinism if we find a better theory). We look at the world, and think "wow, that's so amazing, how could things have ended up this way?" To say that God created and sustains the universe is one possible answer, but it's not a scientific explanation. It could be true (and I believe it is) but it doesn't tell us anything scientifically. And, in a sense, it doesn't affect the way science is done. Whether or not a scientist believes in creation, she will still be seeking physical explanations of natural processes. Can science prove or disprove the existence of a divine designer? I don't think so. The same evidence can be interpreted in different ways. One person sees evolution as the means by which God created, while another sees blind physical process.
And on the issue of "complexity" - where one person sees "irreducible complexity", another sees a question to be answered. Sure, we might not know right now how particular mechanisms within a cell developed, but that doesn't mean that we won't know some years down the track. Throughout the history of science, human knowledge of nature has constantly been expanding - constantly discovering new things, and finding out that things are more complex than we thought. Complexity is not a new thing - just a deepening thing. Why stop now, throw our hands up and say, we can't figure it out? People could have done that with the atom, once they realised it wasn't just like a billiard ball.
Anyway, this is a rambling, ill-thought out post. Brain not working - blame the PhD. Just felt like a little rant. I know there are people who may read this blog who will disagree with me, and that's fine. Just don't expect me to get into a deep discussion about it - maybe after the thesis is done, but I really don't have the time or mental energy right now. And please, if you do want to criticise what I say, have the decency to leave your name. Thanks!
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Hope is coming for me
C.S. LEWIS SONG - Brooke Fraser
If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary
Then of course I’ll feel nude when to where I’m destined I’m compared
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me
Am I lost or just less found,
On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?
Is this a soul that stirs in me,
Is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?
‘Cause my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth
Of who I was born to become
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me
For we, we are not long here
Our time is but a breath
So we better breathe it
And I, I was made to live
I was made to love
I was made to know you
Hope is coming for me
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me
If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary
Then of course I’ll feel nude when to where I’m destined I’m compared
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me
Am I lost or just less found,
On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?
Is this a soul that stirs in me,
Is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?
‘Cause my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth
Of who I was born to become
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me
For we, we are not long here
Our time is but a breath
So we better breathe it
And I, I was made to live
I was made to love
I was made to know you
Hope is coming for me
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
There is nothing new under the sun - 4
From the Consideration of the Possibility of a divine Revelation in general, let us, in particular, examine whether the Christian Religion is founded on divine Revelation. How shall we be resolved in this important Point? The Way to do this, a Free-Thinker tells us, is to renounce all Guides, and to think freely for ourselves about this Matter.
But if by Free-thinking be meant bare Reason, and metaphysical Speculations, 'tis impossible for us this Way to come to any Certainty in this present Case; for Revelation in general, and that which Christianity is founded upon, does resolve itself into plain Matter of Fact: Whence the Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Revelation can be only a moral Evidence, arising from ancient Testimonies and authentic History of plain Matter of Fact.
So that if I should propose to inform myself whether the Christian Revelation be true, I must enquire whether the History of the Gospel be true; for if that be true, the Christian Revelation is so too.
Now 'tis impossible to determine this in our Thoughts only, we must take in the Witness of others, who lived at, or near those Times; and examine all the Evidences and Monuments of Antiquity relating to these Facts.
And whoever takes this Pains, will find the History of the Gospel stands upon a firmer Bottom than any other History.
And therefore whoever rejects the History of the Gospel, and yet gives Credit to other Histories, discovers gross Partiality.
But if the Facts recorded in the Gospel be true, then Christianity is founded on divine Revelation; then our Saviour had Authority from God to declare his Will; then he had Power to commission others to teach in his Name, and transmit his Doctrines to Posterity; then he did assist them to do this with Certainty; and then we may suppose these Writings freer from Effects of human Weakness.
Benjamin Ibbot, The True Notion of the Exercise of Private Judgment, or Free-Thinking, 1713.
Monday, February 02, 2009
There is nothing new under the sun - 3
The Foundation of our Religion, as it is purely Christian, is this, that the Sins of Men are not otherwise to be forgiven, nor their Souls saved, than by the Mediation of Jesus Christ, and by that Expiation which he has made with God for our Reconciliation.
The Doctrine the Enemies of Christianity run down, as unreasonable, and foolish, and altogether unworthy of God. They assert, that God is not to be worshiped by a Mediator, nor Pardon of Sins and Reconciliation to be expected by a Sacrifice of Expiation and Atonement; that these Things are disagreeable to the Mercy of God, and to the Freedom of his Grace, both which are essential to him as well as Justice and Vengeance. Or at most they tell us, that Repentance is of itself a sufficient Expiation, and to pretend that we cannot be saved but by the Redemption and Mediation of Jesus Christ, is, say they, as derogatory to the Love and Compassion and Clemency of the divine Nature, as the Worship of him by an Image is to his Spirituality.
But in answer to such Notions I will shew, that the Doctrine of Man's Redemption, and Remission of Sins, by the expiatory Sacrifice of the Blood of Christ, is neither unnecessary nor unreasonable, but are agreeable to the Perfections of God, and manifest his Wisdom and Goodness in our Redemption.
John Turner, The Wisdom of God in the Redemption of Man, 1708.
There is nothing new under the sun - 2
The Infidels of our Times despairing of being able to reason Religion out of the World, seem now to place all their Hopes of Success in sneering and laughing it out of Countenance.
To arm Men therefore against these rude Assaults, wherein their chief Strength lies, I will shew, That whosoever is a true Christian, both in Faith and Practice, can have no Reason to be ashamed of his being so.
Lilly Butler, Religion no Matter of Shame or Reproach, 1709.
There is nothing new under the sun
The Folly of Atheism, from the Pleasures of a Religious Life
Richard Bentley, The Confutation of Atheism, 1692.
Religion tells us we are the Workmanship of a superlatively wise, powerful, and good Being; that we are placed here to view and applaud these glorious Scenes of Heaven and Earth; and that God has created a sufficient Store of all Things, either necessary or convenient for us; and particularly to such as obey him, has promised a Supply of all our Wants, and a Protection from all Dangers; That he has sent his Son into the World to bring Life and Immortality to Light, and to render to Mankind, if they would obey his Commandments, the Promise of eternal Salvation.
Atheism on the contrary would persuade us, that this is all a Dream; that there is no such excellent Being as supposed, that created and preserves us; that all about us is dark senseless Matter, driven on by the wild impulses of Fatality; that Men rose out of the Slime of the Earth, and that what is called the Sou, perishes by Death.
And what Stupidity is this, to let go the Hopes of everlasting Life with Willingness, and entertain the Thoughts of Perdition with Exultation?
This inconsiderate Behaviour of the Atheists is so extremely absurd, that it would be deemed incredible, if it did not occur to our daily Observation. It proclaims aloud, that they are not led astray by their Reasoning, but led captive by their Lusts to the Denial of a God.
Did Religion bestow Heaven to both good and bad Men, there would be no Infidels among us: But it is the Way of attaining it, that makes prophane Men let go the Expectation of it. They will not practise its Rules, and therefore they cannot believe its Promises.
But, however, let us suppose that they have acted like reasonable Men, and upon diligent inquiry have found they were under a necessity of rejecting Religion, upon account of their being obliged to give their assent to such Things as are repugnant to common sense. And here I confess, that did the Offers of eternal Happiness depend upon our giving a full assent to such Things, the Kingdom of Heaven would become the Inheritance of Idiots and Fools. And if the Atheist can shew me any such Absurdities in the Christian Religion, I will either evince them to be Interpolations and Corruptions of the Faith, or yield myself a Proselyte to Infidelity.
Richard Bentley, The Confutation of Atheism, 1692.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Get with the Programmer!
I want to nominate Matt for this, but he's not keen. True, it would be unfair to everyone else who might want to enter...
Thursday, January 08, 2009
A Literary Meme
I found this meme on Ali's blog, and decided to do it even though I wasn't tagged.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog. The premise of this exercise is that the (American) National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling. I've been resisting, because whenever someone tells me that I have to do something, I usually refuse! But I'm thinking about reading the series after the PhD!
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee.
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. Hated it!
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman. Well, I've read the first one. The others - maybe after the thesis.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens. It's on my shelf.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare. I think I've read 5, but one day I'd like to be able to say I've read them all.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell. I have a vague feeling I read this once, but I can't really remember...
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald. I'm not absolutely sure I finished it, though...
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens. It's on my shelf. And I'd like to see the BBC series.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy. It's been on the shelf since the end of 1998 when I bought it for $4.95 - bargain! One day I'll read it. I hope.
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams. The first one was hilarious, the second quite amusing, but the third just got too silly. Mattresses flollopping in swamps?!
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh. I really wanted to see the movie, but didn't get around to it.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy. I've tried a couple of times - maybe after the thesis? (That's becoming a theme!)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens. On my shelf...
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen. Probably my favourite Jane Austen!
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis. I read this many times when I was a kid, but couldn't get into the others. When I re-read the series in the first year of my PhD, I loved it!
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown. Twice. Ouch!
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery. I read all her books, but unlike many girls, I didn't LOVE Anne of Green Gables. And Gilbert Blythe? Meh.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding. My goodness, that was a disturbing book!
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan. Still want to see the movie!
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen. Although I confess, I don't think I've ever finished it...
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. Very depressing! The Scarlet Pimpernel was much more upbeat!
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy.
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - I own it.
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker. It's on my shelf...
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett. One of my favourite books as a child!
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce. I've probably read about half of it. Maybe I'll aim to finish it on Bloomsday?
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray. On my shelf, in a beautiful illustrated edition. Loved the movie.
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. All this Dickens, but where's Our Mutual Friend? I've read that twice!
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton. Another childhood favourite.
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. I didn't get it.
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery. In French and English! "Dessine moi un mouton!"
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams. I don't think I've read it, but I hear it's sad.
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare. My favourite Shakespeare! I saw an awesome production at Oxford Castle a couple of years back. Love it!
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo. I remember getting near the end of this when I was on my way home from work at DJs years ago. I was sitting on the train bawling my eyes out, it was so sad!
I tag Duncan, Nick, Byron, Jessica, Chris, and Doug. I'll be impressed if anyone still reads this blog frequently enough to find the tag...
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog. The premise of this exercise is that the (American) National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling. I've been resisting, because whenever someone tells me that I have to do something, I usually refuse! But I'm thinking about reading the series after the PhD!
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee.
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. Hated it!
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman. Well, I've read the first one. The others - maybe after the thesis.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens. It's on my shelf.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare. I think I've read 5, but one day I'd like to be able to say I've read them all.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell. I have a vague feeling I read this once, but I can't really remember...
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald. I'm not absolutely sure I finished it, though...
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens. It's on my shelf. And I'd like to see the BBC series.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy. It's been on the shelf since the end of 1998 when I bought it for $4.95 - bargain! One day I'll read it. I hope.
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams. The first one was hilarious, the second quite amusing, but the third just got too silly. Mattresses flollopping in swamps?!
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh. I really wanted to see the movie, but didn't get around to it.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy. I've tried a couple of times - maybe after the thesis? (That's becoming a theme!)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens. On my shelf...
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen. Probably my favourite Jane Austen!
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis. I read this many times when I was a kid, but couldn't get into the others. When I re-read the series in the first year of my PhD, I loved it!
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown. Twice. Ouch!
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery. I read all her books, but unlike many girls, I didn't LOVE Anne of Green Gables. And Gilbert Blythe? Meh.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding. My goodness, that was a disturbing book!
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan. Still want to see the movie!
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen. Although I confess, I don't think I've ever finished it...
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. Very depressing! The Scarlet Pimpernel was much more upbeat!
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy.
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - I own it.
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker. It's on my shelf...
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett. One of my favourite books as a child!
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce. I've probably read about half of it. Maybe I'll aim to finish it on Bloomsday?
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray. On my shelf, in a beautiful illustrated edition. Loved the movie.
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. All this Dickens, but where's Our Mutual Friend? I've read that twice!
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton. Another childhood favourite.
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. I didn't get it.
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery. In French and English! "Dessine moi un mouton!"
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams. I don't think I've read it, but I hear it's sad.
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare. My favourite Shakespeare! I saw an awesome production at Oxford Castle a couple of years back. Love it!
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo. I remember getting near the end of this when I was on my way home from work at DJs years ago. I was sitting on the train bawling my eyes out, it was so sad!
I tag Duncan, Nick, Byron, Jessica, Chris, and Doug. I'll be impressed if anyone still reads this blog frequently enough to find the tag...
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
"Fairytale" by Sara Bareilles
This is a classic song, though I certainly don't feel this way! (Not these days, anyway!)
Cinderella’s on her bedroom floor she’s got a
Crush on the guy at the liquor store
Cause Mr. Charming don’t come home anymore
And she forgets why she came here.
Sleeping Beauty’s in a foul mood for shame she says,
None for you dear prince, I’m tired today.
I’d rather sleep my whole life away than have you keep me from dreaming
CHORUS
’Cause I don’t care for your fairytales
You’re so worried 'bout the maiden though you know
She’s only waiting on the next best thing
Snow White is doing dishes again cause what else can you do
With seven itty-bitty men?
Sends them to bed and she calls up a friend, says will you meet me at midnight?
The tall blonde lets out a cry of despair says,
Would have cut it myself if I knew men could climb hair
I’ll have to find another tower somewhere and keep away from the windows.
CHORUS
’Cause I don’t care for your fairytales
You’re so worried 'bout the maiden though you know
She’s only waiting on the next best thing
Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom
Man made up a story said that I should believe him
Go and tell your white knight that he’s handsome in hindsight
But I don’t want the next best thing
So I sing and hold my head down and I break these walls 'round me
Can’t take no more of your fairytale love
CHORUS
’Cause I don’t care for your fairytales
You’re so worried 'bout the maiden though you know
She’s only waiting on the next best thing
I don’t care
I don’t care
You worry bout the maiden though you know
She’s only waiting spent her whole life being graded on the
Sanctity of patience and a dumb appreciation
But the story needs some mending and a better happy ending
’Cause I don’t want the next best thing
No, no I don’t want the next best thing.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Sew happy!
I've recently become addicted to craft blogs, and collecting projects to have fun with after the thesis. One particularly cool blog I stumbled across is Mix Tape Zine - "a collision of craft, eco-cool and pop culture kitsch!" Based in Melbourne, Justine and Nichola produce a fabulous-looking magazine filled with crafty tidbits. I'd love to subscribe, but I'm trying not to spend too much money these days.
Mix Tape just had a week of give-aways, and I was fortunate enough to win a book - check it out here! I can't wait to make soft toys for my gorgeous niece Anastasia!! Thanks Mix Tape!
Speaking of my gorgeous niece, I haven't seen her in AGES (can't wait for Christmas!) so I have to settle for photos sporadically put up on Flickr by my super talented brother. Here's a few recent favourites:
Awww... She looks so peaceful!
Mix Tape just had a week of give-aways, and I was fortunate enough to win a book - check it out here! I can't wait to make soft toys for my gorgeous niece Anastasia!! Thanks Mix Tape!
Speaking of my gorgeous niece, I haven't seen her in AGES (can't wait for Christmas!) so I have to settle for photos sporadically put up on Flickr by my super talented brother. Here's a few recent favourites:
Awww... She looks so peaceful!
Holding hands with Hannah.
Flying baby!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Very cool!
From the newsletter of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion - Denis Alexander is the director:
Denis Alexander took part in a public debate on Intelligent Design (ID) in Fort Worth, Texas, attended by around 1000 people, discussing the topic (as a theist critical of ID) with an anti-ID atheist, a pro-ID atheist, and a pro-ID agnostic. A further 350 people came to a follow-up discussion with the four panel members the next day.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Page 56
Picked this game up from Bec, who picked it up from Gordo, who picked it up from Facebook.
Give it a go for yourself:
Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall/blog
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.
Mine is:
"'The Ocean,' 'The Phoenix,' 'The Consort,' 'The Dolphin,' were passed in turns; but 'The Vivid' was my ship, and it seemed she lay further down."
From Villette by Charlotte Bronte - a book I've given up on once or twice, but I'm trying once more to get through it. I haven't yet reached the point I gave up last time (at least, I don't think I have), but I am enjoying it so far.
I thought about doing this twice earlier in the day (when I read Gordo's post and then when I read Bec's) but I didn't have any books close by. The bookshelves were the closest, and then I would have to choose one. I'm in bed now, and although there are two piles of books on my bedside table, Villette was the top book on the closest pile.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Natural Theology
You read it in the blue wind,
the blue water, the rock spill,
the blue hill
rising like a phoenix from ash. Some mind
makes itself known through the markings of light
on air; where earth rolls, right
comes after, our planet’s bright spoor… If you look, you’ll find
truth etched on the tree trunk,
the shark’s tooth, a shell, a hunk
of root and soil. Study from beginning to end.
Alpha and omega – these are the cirrus alphabet,
the Gnostics’ cloudy “so – and yet.”
If a tree falls in a forest, a scared hind
leaps, hearing branches break;
you crawl under the log and shake
honey out of a hollow, eggs from a nest, ants from the end
of a stick; resting, you read God’s name on the back of a bass
in a blue pool; God grows everywhere, like grass.
Kelly Cherry, Natural Theology, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1988, p. 36.
the blue water, the rock spill,
the blue hill
rising like a phoenix from ash. Some mind
makes itself known through the markings of light
on air; where earth rolls, right
comes after, our planet’s bright spoor… If you look, you’ll find
truth etched on the tree trunk,
the shark’s tooth, a shell, a hunk
of root and soil. Study from beginning to end.
Alpha and omega – these are the cirrus alphabet,
the Gnostics’ cloudy “so – and yet.”
If a tree falls in a forest, a scared hind
leaps, hearing branches break;
you crawl under the log and shake
honey out of a hollow, eggs from a nest, ants from the end
of a stick; resting, you read God’s name on the back of a bass
in a blue pool; God grows everywhere, like grass.
Kelly Cherry, Natural Theology, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1988, p. 36.
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