My family and I visited the Coweta Animal Control shelter this afternoon. One of the those we hope to adopt is actually scheduled to be euthanized if not adopted by tomorrow, 11/3.

Someone wrote anonymously in the Free Speech section:

If Christianity is faltering, who is to blame but the Christians who put their faith on the back burner while they vacation and play?

We had some pretty extensive hail damage a few weeks ago, and our neighborhood has been overrun by contractors wanting to do the job.

My Pakistani-American Muslim friend who runs a Fairburn package store has This Photo hanging as a poster behind the register.

Those crazy theists have offered a bewildering variety of reasons for thinking that God exists.

Anselm argued that the very idea of God as a “greatest conceivable being” includes his existence so that he cannot be denied without pain of contradiction.

This is a review of Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro, Naturalism.

The authors begin with the acknowledgement that there is no real consensus as to just what naturalism amounts to. (Someone in a hair salon spotted me with the title, and, judging from her initial, curious questions, assumed it to involve volleyball and sunbathing.)

I don’t believe in Nessie. I’ve made a casual review of the alleged evidence and simply think there is no good reason to believe that there is a serpentine creature splashing about Loch Ness. If you believe in the Loch Ness Monster, then the burden of proof is on you to produce the evidence. In the absence of compelling evidence, the default position is disbelief. The same may be said of faeries, Bigfoot and the monster under the bed.

It was early in 1975 when my girlfriend of four years met me for lunch at a Wendy’s just down the street from the bank where she worked as a teller. Over a Frosty and fries, she confirmed what both of us had already deeply suspected: she was pregnant. We were eighteen. Just a few months earlier, I had dropped out of high school and, though it sounds like some bad literary cliché or a line from a Jim Croce tune, I was earning minimum wage working at a car wash.

I mean, how in the world did this reporter get through this story without breaking into hysterics--particularly when she got to the suspect's name?

Seen this?

Sounds like some of the kind people here.

A terrific dog wandered onto our property today. He is a beagle (or a beagle mix) and he has a collar. His name tag indicates that his name is "Jake." There is a phone number.

I've been asked to write a piece on abortion for a magazine with strong conservative leanings. One topic the editor has asked me to address is so-called "post-abortion syndrome." I'm reading much, pro and con, about whether there is such a thing and whether it should be a feature of the abortion debate.

Right now! Go look S,SW!

Beautiful.

[I wrote this for our family in Christmas '04. I just rediscovered it and thought to post it here, nowthat the shopping season has begun in earnest. I still stand by what I said. I hope you don't mind.]

I anticipate listing my home next year with an actual move some time before the end of summer.

I already know that things look pretty bleak.

I was at a natural foods store today where they had several stands of samples. The produce department offered grapes and apple slices. The bakery tempted customers with morsels of banana nut bread or fudge brownies.

So we're walking along Tremont Street on the way to Cheers, and we pass these parked semis with "Spamalot" painted on the trailers. Turns out that tonight is the last performance in Boston. Also turns out that we have a pair of good tickets.

It was three years ago today that I lost my dad to a heart attack.

Cal printed this piece a few days later.

Post-Election Malaise

We're here for y

Obama? Forget it.

McCain? Yawn.

Here's my vote:

Election

Weatherwax sent me this link.

What Would Jesus Brew?

Did you hear that PETA has asked Ben & Jerry's to begin using human breast milk, rather than cow's milk, in their ice cream?

The proper function of the teacher is determined by the ends of education.

Those ends may be thought to vary from one educational framework to another. Within the context of a vocational school, for instance, the aim is to prepare the student for a career as, say, a dental hygienist. There, the curriculum is ordered after a concern to produce good dental hygienists (e.g., Pyorrhea 101, Modern Flossing: Strategies and Techniques) and the teacher is assessed according to her ability to impart the knowledge and skills for success in such a field.

Perhaps you've seen the news about the 17 mile proton accelerator that is supposed to simulate the conditions of the Big Bang.

My Home Depot special went kaflooey. I'm shopping for a new riding mower and invite opinions.

Anyone know anything about the traditional Snapper rear-engine mowers? Are they as bullet proof as advertised?

The blog section here has been slow, and I figured, hey, nothing livens up the party like a twenty page philosophical treatise!

Someone in our family has a roofing business in NC, and has agreed to put a new roof on a house in PTC for us. He wants to start tomorrow--Sunday.

Have you seen the flap over the current cover of The New Yorker?

This is ripe for parody--perhaps a Door article.

Christian Car Tags

Check out the cover story for this issue of Christianity Today.

God Is Not Dead Yet.