The Wildebeest's Wardrobe

Interesting Note from Lamin Sanneh

2012-01-22T23:50:00.003-05:00

~ The following is an interesting comment of Lamin Sanneh, that I have taken from his brief bio, titled, Jesus More Than A Prophet. The bio can be found in the book, Finding God at Harvard, edited by Kelly Monroe. "One of the most vexing questions for my generation of Harvard faculty and students was whether Christian distinctiveness does conflict with the demands for pluralism and diversity and

Shadow Squad of Syracuse: Organizations, Cosmic Factions, and Locations

2012-01-21T12:20:00.004-05:00

In SSOS!, the "touched" must take extra-ordinary measures to remain below the radar of common society and safe. This task is facilitated (or not) by various semi-secret organizations that are partially but necessarily totally aware that things in the city are not all the seem and who seek to persue their own agendas. Thes organizations have a public face to help manitain the cover of their

Shadow Squad of Syracuse: Powers and Weaknesses

2012-01-18T16:28:00.005-05:00

POWERS:At Character Creation, a player chooses two powers and assigns a d10 to one and d6 to the other, for their character (called a player character or PC to distinguish from non-player characters or NPCs).List of Powers:Psionics:(a) Telepathy - a PC can either read one character's mind or push a suggestion in a character's mind three times a day of game time for 6 times the die roll minutes. (

Shadow Squad of Syracuse: Mechanics, Combat, Will Points

2012-01-18T15:12:00.007-05:00

MECHANICS:The mechanics are taken directly from Dungeon Squad! (see link in original post.) In general, only roll when there is something interesting at stake and not every single time. In many cases, it is clear that the PC can succeed without uncertainty.When there is some doubt about an outcome that is important to the character, the GM determines which attribute is required to succeed at a

Shadow Squad of Syracuse!

2012-01-17T12:08:00.010-05:00

"Shadow Squad of Syracuse!" is a Dark "Superhero" Role Playing Game that uses Jason Morningstar's game system "Dungeon Squad!" for it's mechanics. This is a well reviewed pick up role playing system that is billed for kids but works well for any age group. I have basically developed it for my "Shadows of Syracuse" Campaign setting that I have been working on for years to help get it out there.

Just Added to Gnu Favs: "Internalism Defended"

2011-04-01T11:55:00.003-04:00

Dr. Conlee and Dr. Feldman define and defend the basic "internalist" thesis that beliefs are justified for a believer if there is sufficient evidence in the mind of the believer or in the believer's mental states. They thus hold that two people who are in the same mental states are justified in the same beliefs. If S is the set of all the mental states a person has and if P has S and Q has S,

"E-mail from a Philosopher" is now complete!

2011-03-04T11:56:00.005-05:00

I have recovered the missing post in the "E-Mail from a philosopher", which is my response to Mrs. Smith's first letter, thanks to the recovery efforts of Mrs. Smith herself. She and her Husband are now both Doctors in philosophy and are still in faith in Christ. You can go to the Introduction to "E-mail" and read the complete exchange by clicking the title of this post. Thank you Dr. Smiths!

Monergism, Synergism & Compatibilism

2011-01-26T23:42:00.006-05:00

Imagine this... One fine day, you work a really long day, come home late, are dead tired, and so you eat a quick meal and crash in bed. Being extremely tired, you fall into a very deep slumber. The next morning, you wake up and you notice something unusual. You find that you are wearing an red suit along with a cape and additionally you are wearing an helmet. You have no idea where your new

Sproul, Bridges, Demarest and Packer on Synergism and Monergism

2011-01-07T08:48:00.006-05:00

(1) In his book, Grace Unknown, R.C. Sproul states in print, some theological matters that I have heard him say many times on his radio program, Renewing Your Mind. This has to do with the matter of monergism and synergism. Regarding monergism, this is what Sproul says it is: "Monergism is something that operates by itself or works alone as the sole active party. Monergism is the opposite of

Pre-Evangelism - What is it?

2010-12-10T01:26:00.005-05:00

I'll start by hazarding a technical Bergerian definition: Pre-evangelism is the means by which Christians attempt to set up the plausibility structures that make possible the reception of Christian gospel and its concomitant worldview. Okay... less technically so... Pre-evangelism is considered to be an activity that a Christian engages in with the non-Christian, whereby he or she tries to

A Note from Lee Strobel's The Case For Faith

2010-11-14T16:28:00.003-05:00

In Chapter 2 of the book, The Case For Faith, Lee Strobel interviews Dr. William Lane Craig on the issue of miracles and science. It is titled, Objection #2: Since Miracles Contradict Science, They Cannot Be True. I want to excerpt something that I have found interesting in the interview. Pg. 82 "Okay, Dr. Craig, youre an intelligent and educated individual," I began. "Tell me how can a

Common Grace for the Canine - Did Christ die for animals too?

2010-09-24T17:34:00.003-04:00

The following is the Doctrine of Particular Redemption as I understand it. (Yes. I know there is more than one variant of this doctrine. I am going with the non-Equivalentism version). Particular Redemption: (1) Christ died for the non-elect and the elect. (2) Christ died for the non-elect and the elect as regards the matter of common grace;here we are NOT talking about His dying for their

Sadly, Blogger won't let iPod enter text in main window.

2010-06-17T13:55:00.000-04:00

The Gnu is now on Twitter: Follow on @The_Gnu_JGH

2010-06-17T13:47:00.001-04:00

Misplaced Shonenizing

2010-05-04T12:21:00.004-04:00

When I saw "Genshiken: Return of the Otaku" in my local bookstore, my heart skipped a beat. As any other Genshiken fan, I couldn't believe that there might be any more to that great storyline. It was especially pleasing to see that the Shimoku sensei contributed original artwork to the project. This is a paperback book and not a manga, and the actual author is Iida Kazutoshi. In the notes

How Hebrew works (2)

2010-04-22T13:58:00.001-04:00

You need to take a look at How Hebrew Works (1) to get an idea of how Hebrew is read from right to left. \Ok. Take a look at Ecclesiastes 1:1, the third word below. דִּבְרֵי קֹהֶלֶת בֶּן־דָּוִד מֶלֶךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָםִ׃ This is... בֶּן־דָּוִד We will skip the first part of it for now. Look at דָּוִד Ok. At the following URL, you will find the Hebrew alphabet: http://www.jewfaq.org/

Christianity in the Indian Subcontinent

2010-04-17T18:32:00.004-04:00

I found a very interesting book in the library - The Atlas of Global Christianity, edited by Todd M. Johnson of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary & Kenneth R. Ross of Edinburgh University School of Divinity. The link to the book is up above. I could almost want to buy the book, but it costs $200.00... ack. Here I just want to jot some basic facts about Christianity in the Indian Subcontinent.

How Hebrew Works (I)

2010-03-25T00:51:00.014-04:00

Look about the following sentence: SANJU RAN TO MANJU Now reverse the sentence. .MANJU TO RAN SANJU (Ok. If someone asks you to read the above sentence, you read it from right to left. That's how Hebrew is read. So, you start with Sanju and work your way to the left.) Now reverse the letters. .UJNAM OT NAR UJNAS Still with me??? Good. Now put all the vowels under the consonants in a right

The Saint Francis of Assissi Canard & Evangelism

2010-03-02T23:00:00.011-05:00

Dr. Lon Allison who teaches Evangelism and Communication at Wheaton U came my church and gave a sermon on Evangelism. I want to blog on a lesson or two that I have learned from there. The following post is based on of my sermon notes... Just one thing though - these are notes, and I may not have jotted down everything correctly. One interesting thing that he pointed out was that the quote, "

Imitatio Christi - Imitating Christ: Mark 5:23-30

2010-01-05T22:28:00.005-05:00

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ... she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked

Jesus in India - Round 2

2010-01-02T05:04:00.001-05:00

A short whiles back, the Deccan Herald had an article on Jesus being in India. Apparently, there is a movie on this issue that is going to be coming out of U.K. I blogged on this a long whiles back - see link above. In addition, I have also found these: 1. Did Jesus go to India as a child and learn from Hindu Gurus? by Dr. Ron Rhodes - this is a really good article. 2. Did Jesus Travel To India?

The Gift of the Christian Idea of the World

2009-12-21T15:12:00.005-05:00

I just finished teaching a course to some of our adult church members; an introduction to understanding the Bible for yourself. The central analogy of the course was unapologetically borrowed from Susan Haack's "Evidence and Inquiry". She used the image of a crossword puzzle to illustrate a concept of justification with a univocal sense, and as opposed to the two classic images of the raft and

William Lycan Essays linked.

2009-12-21T13:14:00.005-05:00

Two essays by William Lycan on eliminative materialism and dualism. I had the priviledge of hearing Lycan discuss the dualism paper at Syracuse University. A PARTICULARLY COMPELLING REFUTATION OF ELIMINATIVE MATERIALISM William G. Lycan University of North Carolina GIVING DUALISM ITS DUE William G. Lycan Hat tip to Dr. Feser.

Washington Gladden is interesting... On Faith entering Politics

2009-12-13T19:18:00.007-05:00

Washington Gladden(1836-1918) is an interesting guy. Up above is a link to a Wiki page of his. He grew up on his uncle's farm in Owego, NY. He was a Congregation pastor in Columbus, Ohio who at the age of 60 entered Politics. As a politician, in spite of zero experience, he did a lot of good (e.g. speaking out against segregation), but I do not want to get into that here. What I want to make

Christianity & Homosexuality - the debate in India

2009-09-20T19:14:00.000-04:00

Repost due to spam ...Can a person be a Christian and a homosexual at the same time?I've been floating around a major Indian newspaper and its articles and blogs on the recent debate on legalizing same-sex sex. There seem to be certain things that I have not seen discussed there so I will mention them here. My 2 paisas' worth...1. It seems to me that the reasons for same-sex attraction are many.

Getting John Calvin right.

2009-09-09T12:35:00.002-04:00

Linked to this post header in Timothy George's CT article on John Calvin and the secret to his being principally neglected. I also linked the article on the side board.

The Echo

2009-08-27T16:37:00.006-04:00

SCENE: Olympia, WA -- 09SEP17, 28 days after the outbreak. A special Army helicopter is coming toward the city carrying Major Karl Wesson USA special forces and Father Winston O'Bannon in hermetically sealed compartment. The priest is looking very concerned and the soldier very grim.O'Bannon: How much longer before we get to the aid site.Wesson: We'll get there soon enough. I'm glad you

Archie at 600

2009-08-24T14:14:00.002-04:00

Nothing says protracted adolescence like "Archie Andrews". Say what you want about Doonesbury, at least all their primaries survived their respective Mid-Life crises. Now, when the plot starts to actually develop, we see Archie proposing -- to Veronica rather than Betty, indicating Archie's failure to cultivate a learning curve -- which explains why he's been in high school for six

Was Jesus in India?

2009-08-04T11:49:00.009-04:00

The Bible gives no up front account of where Jesus was during His teenage years and much of His twenties. So ppl wind up speculating all sorts of things. Yesterday, once again I came across the canard that Jesus was in India during those years, apparently, he learned much of His wisdom and ways while there in India. I want to comment on that now.1) The first point is this - suppose Jesus was in

Longing for a Special Someone

2009-07-06T11:44:00.007-04:00

*Note - In what I am about to post, I want to add some disclaimers. I just want to say that I am not a psychologist, social worker, pastor, counselor or something of that sort. Nor have I studied these sort of issues formally in depth. So take what I say with a grain of salt. Basically I am an overly introspective person, who spends too much time in solitude, analyzing either my thoughts or that

New Delhi (India) High Court Decriminalizes Gay Sex

2009-07-03T06:11:00.002-04:00

I am surprised that this has not gotten as much press in the US media as I thought. It has been reported in the BBC. In any event, this is big news in India. Basically the High Court of New Delhi - a major Indian city in the north of India, has rule to decriminalize gay sex. It will eventually follow in the rest of India.As per this article, I see a quote from a writer for the Indian Express

PnCing OGL

2009-07-01T15:21:00.003-04:00

Or, how to incorporate Pulp in the Cup with D20 rules.Treat all rolls like oppositional roles, even rolls against a difficulty class (DC).For rolls against a DC, subtract 10 from the given DC, even if that leaves a negative number. Call this the difficulty adds. So when the player rolls their d20 and adds his bonuses, the GM rolls a 3d6 and adds the difficulty adds. If the player's total

Shadows of the Emerald City

2009-07-01T14:15:00.002-04:00

Free RPG day has come and gone. I wanted to use it to make a dry run on my new campaign setting idea but no one showed up at the store. Sad. It looks like RPGs are in decline again from where I'm sitting.About the setting: "Shadows of the Emerald City" (formerly "Mutants of Syracuse")The Basic Idea: Make an actual city (in this case, Syracuse NY) the setting of a campaign. Syracuse is your

Big Gnus: You want a piece of me?

2009-07-01T13:59:00.005-04:00

I have just received word that I (the Gnu) will be in print next year. The up coming volume of Open Court's series of books on philosophy and popular culture "Anime and Philosophy" will contain my chapter entitled "The CPU Has Its Reasons", an exposition of William James paper on the will to believe, using "Armitage the Third: Poly-matrix" to illustrate it.Finally, my fan tribute op has come.(

The Limited Sufficiency Atonement. View

2009-06-01T15:37:00.007-04:00

What I am concerned here is with the efficiency - sufficiency distinction. Some 5 Pointer Calvinists teach that this distinction is not valid as far as the Limited Atonement doctrine is concerned. See: http://sglblibrary.homestead.com/files/AbandonedTruth/ATROSSCH5.htm where it is strongly implied that the "sufficiency-efficiency view" - the second view - is unscriptural. Others teach that this

The Atonement - Limited ? Unlimited? or both ? somewhere in between? neither?

2009-05-28T22:24:00.061-04:00

Of late there has been a lot of discussion generated on the doctrines of the Limited Atonement and the Unlimited Atonement. Much of this discussion centers around the atonement being limited in some sense, and unlimited in some other sense. In other words, the atonement is not one or the other, but both limited and unlimited. In fact it is even claimed (seemingly with good support) that

Moe for Peno!

2009-03-31T15:39:00.004-04:00

I just finished the anime series "Ergo Proxy". This is a thing to see especially if you are now burnt out with the whole anime interest as I imagine many are. The market has gotten pretty saturated with predictable tropes and there seems to be no expectation of avoiding them."Ergo Proxy" is not recent but it is breakout. Several of the typical themes in anime appear here. But there is still a

Graham Cole on the Cessationist/Continuationist Debate

2008-12-01T10:54:00.003-05:00

The following is a brief excerpt from Graham Cole's book, He Who Gives Life:"The cessationist arguments that canon closure is in view in 1 Corinthians 13:10 ("when the perfect comes") and that the Pastorals (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus) show the eclipse of the charismata by the absence of reference to them do not persuade me. With regard to the former argument, the reference in 1 Corinthians

"Above my pay grade"

2008-09-29T09:15:00.004-04:00

It's old news but when Rick Warren had this year's two presidential candidates over to church for a little Q & A introduction to the evangelicals, he asked the Hon. Mr. Obama when he thought human life began. To this Mr. Obama replied that the question was "above his pay grade", suggesting that he did not have the capacity to make a judgment about the answer. The further suggestion was that no

Pulp in the Cards

2008-09-26T14:02:00.005-04:00

Here is a narrative very-rules-lite mechanism I've been toying with, very much like my "Pulp in the Cup" game, only with cards instead of dice.SOCIAL CONTRACT: Players design characters and navigate them through a world managed by a Game Master (GM) who conceives of the world and functions as the eyes and ears of the world for the characters. The Game Master also fairly applies the rules of the

Gnucomb's Paradox Revisited

2008-09-18T12:07:00.005-04:00

Newcomb's Paradox as a model of the rationality of believing in a limited atonement.Cut from post I wrote on another forum.A perfect atonement points to a limited atonement, but concerning this I said that, though limited, faith in the atonement for your own salvation was rational even if you could not know for whom exactly Christ died. I had said this as if it were a decision based on

Sorry, I've been really sick.

2008-09-18T11:58:00.003-04:00

This summer was a bad adventure. One week into teaching, I contracted e coli, as well as seeing the doctor for Gall Bladder disease. It was a nightmare but the good news is that both are behind me and I didn't need surgery. So back to it.Currently, I am trying to work on a "Pulp in the Cup" scenario set in the Serenity/Firefly universe of Joss Whedon. I also have one set in the "Ghost in the

On the Intellect

2008-05-01T11:06:00.003-04:00

A long while ago, I took a stab at trying to defend the irreducibility and existence of the intellect as a defining feature of human beings, which amounted to only a sort of spelling out what I meant without providing a reason to accept it, as (a fellow forumite at ABC Forum) Hal at the time readily and disappointedly noted. I want to try again, this time focusing more on the defense of the

Science and Whistleblowing

2008-05-01T07:58:00.003-04:00

In the Dover trial, one of Judge Jones arguments that he gave to dismiss as religion was the usual one that ID fails to live up to this or that set of criteria for what counts as science. The assumption seems to be that what counts as science must conform to an absolute set of criteria as if such criteria were the necessary and sufficient conditions for science.Can you imagine if some

Darwin and Hitler

2008-04-29T12:06:00.003-04:00

The new film Expelled!, which I haven't seen and am not sure if I will see, makes some kind of claim about the relation between Darwinism and Hitler, only I am not sure yet what it is. The reviewers seem to perceive different claims being made.One claim that is certainly false is that Naturalistic Darwinism (hereafter 'Darwinism') logically entails Social Darwinism. But there is nothing

Worldview and Truth

2008-04-03T07:41:00.002-04:00

This is sort of a continuation of my thoughts about worldview and the two types of virtue.Let's look at intellectual virtue as a moral virtue again. I take it that worldview formation would be an intellectual virtue of this sort, a virtue the good of which is intrinsic to itself and not merely extrinsic to it. Assuming that is right, what is the relation between such an intellectual virtue and

Darwin and Worldview again

2008-03-26T10:41:00.003-04:00

Here is something that a Darwinist might say in reply to my linked post. "It seems that the crucial aspect of worldview forming for you is the role it plays in the personal integration of the agent, which means the role it has in cultivating virtues in the agent. An integrated agent is one whose actions and reason are appropriately tied to virtues. But if that is right, then this poses no

"There's this guy named William Alston . . ."

2008-03-25T11:48:00.003-04:00

At the link, Pastor Tim Keller of Church of the Redeemer, gives a summary of some of his recent book of arguments for God and their relation to faith at Author's@Google. Keller is a highly competent pastor and church organizer and leader. He is also a fairly good reader of philosophy as a representative of an educated profession. His presentation gives examples of some of the best stuff out

Do Darwinists get a worldview?

2008-03-25T08:06:00.002-04:00

A worldview is serious attempt to reflectively integrate ones thinking into a coherent, comprehensive, and practical interpretation of all of life in order to situate oneself as an intelligent unified agent within the world. A worldview is necessary to unified agency. Without one, we become morally schizophrenic, having personaes isolated from one another that are engaged according to

ARCON VII

2008-03-18T10:14:00.003-04:00

Thanks again to the Story Teller's Guild for letting me run a game at Arcon VII and for their hospitality. I ran a Hackmaster and Oriental Adventures combined one-shot campaign with pregen characters (which I billed under the name "Katana Sensei" yuk, yuk). It was set in Edo period Japan and was intended to model the great Japanior stories in pulp film and anime. It was also based on ideas

And Gary Gygax makes three.

2008-03-13T11:58:00.002-04:00

Darkly, a friend of mine began to speculate what significant figure would most likely be dead to complete a trifecta for me personally and offered a short least of likely names. Gary Gygax, the co-developer of the original Dungeons and Dragons was on the list.I had been exposed to roll playing in my first college years, thanks to my younger brother who was always more in tune to the world than I

Thank you, Story Teller's Guild, SUNY Oswego

2008-02-29T11:12:00.002-05:00

This is a bit over due but last weekend I was able to attend a pre-conference in Oswego, New York at SUNY campus hosted by the Storyteller's Guild student association there. Every spring this guild hists a massive game and anime convention and this was an opportunity to try things out before hand. I was able to play test a pick up game of "Pulp in the Cup", using the "Ghost in the Shell" TV

What would Achilles do?

2008-02-29T11:09:00.001-05:00

Preparing to teach my intro to philosophy course again, I was impressed in a fresh way with what Socrates was trying to say in behalf of his reasons for doing philosophical inquiry in such life threatening circumstances in his Apology. I have been exploring this in several ways, including making it the centerpiece of a role-playing campaign I'm refereeing on my Facebook page.In order to explain

Why would a good God allow ideology?

2008-02-28T11:42:00.004-05:00

Much to my great delight, I went to the theatre since prayer meeting was canceled and lo, it was showing "Persepolis", a film I thought would never be shown around these parts. "Persepolis" is an animated feature from France based on an autobiographical graphic novel by a young woman, Marjane Satrapi, who grew up in Tehran during the last tears of the Shaw and reign of the Khomeinists. I give

William F. Buckley R.I.P.

2008-02-28T07:57:00.002-05:00

This has been a rough week.The debt I owe Bill Buckley to my personal development goes beyond even the debt I owe Larry that I cannot express it, even though I have nothing like the closeness with Buckley's world as many who are now posting at NRO this week. So I will let them express my mourning for as well as with me.

I Hope I'll See You in Heaven

2008-02-26T11:07:00.003-05:00

When I was in college the second time, my friends and I considered ourselves members of the "3L decade", mostly because of our experiences the first time we went to college, but especially because we were all Christians in our teens when we were impacted by the still fresh evangelical MOVEMENT still going on at the time. We read books by Francis Schaeffer, CS Lewis, Os Guiness, John Stott,

"Good" Art and "Good" Science

2008-02-21T11:47:00.004-05:00

Yet another random thought: Thomas Wolfe, the conservative counterpart to Hunter S. Thompson (sort of), wrote a bright piece of non-fiction about "modern art" called "The Painted Word". Specifically, he was criticizing the Pop and Op Art movements that developed around the 1960's. One of his crucial points from which the book derives its title is that rather than the critics sitting at the

The Greatest Conceivable President

2008-02-15T13:46:00.003-05:00

(1) Let Obama df= the president the greater than which cannot be conceived.(2) A being which exists in the mind and in reality is greater than if it existed in the mind and not reality.(3) Obama exists in the mind and not in reality. (assumed for indirect proof)------------------------------------------------------------------(4) Therefore, a candidate for president is conceivable which is

New York, 2040

2008-02-05T13:34:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK CITY, NEW ENGLAND PREFECTURE, 2040 C.E.Due to the pressures of globalization, the rise of new international powers, the effectiveness of the new bloodless form of cyber-information warfare, and the loss of American influence, New York City has become the capital of a semi-autonomous political entity called the New England Prefecture, which includes much of the former northeastern

"Pulp in a Cup!" A pick-up RPG engine.

2008-01-30T11:01:00.000-05:00

"Pulp in a Cup" (a.k.a. PnC, and formerly known as "LAME-O") is an RPG kind of an ultimate universal game mechanic that can be used to jump start a game most anywhere you happen to be. It for players who have a hard time find ways to get people together but still want to play if an occasion presents itself. Players pick a setting based on a well known movie, animation, or comic franchise that

From "LAME-O" to "Pulp in a Cup!"

2008-01-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

First, LAME-O is hereby baptized with a new and less self-depreciating working moniker.From now, LAME-O will be redesignated "Pulp in a Cup!". The name captures the self-contained aspect in the rules in that you can take up the whole mechanism as you would a cup of dice. Further, it captures the "go anywhere" aspect of the game and that it is basically designed for pick-up gaming situations.

Three kinds of evangelicals.

2008-01-16T13:46:00.000-05:00

DG Hart, in his biography of J. Gresham Machen, does a masterful job of describing the various factions that Machen had to deal with in his attempts to reform the northern USA presbyterian denomination at the time (20's and 30's). His position is obscured by two mistaken but widely held perceptions. One is that at the time the contest was perceived to be between Fundamentalists and Liberals. This

A Solo Adventure?

2007-12-17T16:14:00.001-05:00

One of my goals for the holidays is to write and maybe self-publish a doujin solo-adventure for LAME-O, adding a character design matrix like the one I made for "Fairyland Diner", maybe some kind of damage tracking system, and using a cyberpunk setting like "Blade Runner", "Akira", "Ghost in the Shell", or "Armitage". Hopefully it will be something I can share with friends and give at

Maybe Switching from Fred to Mitt.

2007-12-14T15:50:00.000-05:00

Okay, I concede the point, not necessarily reluctantly. But while Fred has been clear and has run an excellent campaign by addressing issues in a substantial way and showing that political conservativism is a defensible position with real consequences for policy (and not a reactionary knee jerk belligerent form of ignorance), he is not the candidate with the greatest amount of relevant

You can call me "Otaku-sensei"

2007-12-10T15:34:00.000-05:00

I finally took the leap and dared to include anime as part of my lecture in my college class. The class is called "Ethics of Technology and Cyberspace". It is basically an introduction to critical thinking applied to ethics. Ethics involving the consumption of technology is a good foil for this because it is not a hot button issue (and thus most students do not have a pre-formed opinion about

ADHD and Evolution

2007-12-05T12:14:00.000-05:00

At this link there is an interesting critical review I came across between an author and one of his graduate students. The student's review amounts to an ad hominem fallacy against the author but it also brings out the difference between this author and a rival theory from another author.The subject in question is ADHD, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Both authors agree that there is

A Good Opportunity.

2007-11-12T14:48:00.000-05:00

I still have to work on the tensions in between my political views so the 2008 campaign looks like a good opportunity to do so.A basic summary, for starters. In Isaiah Berlin's famous distinction between two notions of liberty, I don't accept his strong rejection, in the name of rejecting fascism, any positive assessment of that notion of liberty which he calls positive liberty. I guess you

Joining the Fred blog role.

2007-11-12T14:10:00.000-05:00

I, the Gnu, am committing the existential leap of supporting a candidate with my blog. That is, it's my project, not the rajmeister's.Why Fred? Let me say, with William James that I am deciding this passionally rather that intellectually. That is my reasons become exhausted at not caring for the democratic candidates and thinking that it is better to be involved per se than not involved. It

LAME-O (2nd Edition)

2007-10-01T08:58:00.000-04:00

Update: This post is no longer canon for LAME-O, but since it tells some of the history of development I'll leave it up. I have revised the rules and changed the name of the game to Pulp in a Cup.Note: A couple of friends actually took an interest in this game, so I finally got to playtest LAME-O, the Ludicrously Attenuated 'Magination Engine Optator! Based on that experience, I am suggesting

All religions are one.

2007-08-30T14:13:00.000-04:00

One of the arguments of the emerging church is that structurally we have to recognize the fragmentation of society after globalization, which means that ideologically we cannot believe otherwise than by adopting the postmodernism's (a word which is always to be distinguished from "postmodernity's")

Quasi-public Comic Books.

2007-07-10T11:17:00.000-04:00

A couple of events this week forced me to come to grips with a dilemma. One was the casual observation from a fellow professor that all pop culture must be avoided because it dumbs down the mind and undoes progress. Another was discovering a book on the current scene in comic books by an author who didn't quite get his doctorate. i won't say anything more about that since i only glanced

The Shillong Revival of 2006

2007-05-29T14:27:00.000-04:00

My academic advisor at school gave me an article to look at that detailed some of the events that took place in Shillong, India last year - basically a massive revival swept through the region. Lots of unusual things took place during this revival. The article also examined the revival following some of the criterion laid down by Jonathan Edwards in his, "The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of

When Evangelicals convert to Roman Catholicism

2007-05-25T22:48:00.002-04:00

Some whiles back I read about Christian Philosophy professor, J. Budziszewski's conversion to Roman Catholicism... and said "Oh well." I do not view RC's (and EO's for that matter) as evil, and I am still a fan of Dr. Budziszewski. I also came across Robert Koons' “A Lutheran's Case for Roman Catholicism.” ... I guess he has also gone in that direction. Just a short whiles back, I came across

Wonderful, Wonderful, Copenhagen!

2007-05-09T15:52:00.000-04:00

Here is an excellent "First Things" article by a physicist that explains some of the relevant philosophical features of quantum theory in a clear and useful way.Links to other related articles.

What is the Emergent Church?

2007-05-07T16:48:00.000-04:00

(Reposted from my post at Facebook's White Horse Inn group discussion board.)After looking at some of Brian McClaren's writings, it seems to me that the emergent church movement has some alternative descriptions to it besides its own self-description which would help us appreciate it more than we do. The matter of self-description is very key to what they are all about as they are strategically

Just a Reminder

2007-05-04T15:18:00.000-04:00

Pancho: !Hey Cisco! !Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo!Cisco: !Carumba! ?You know what that means don't you, amigo?Pancho: !Si! That means that tomorrow is . . .Pancho y Cisco: !! FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!Cisco: Say, Pancho. ?Do you think they'll have any Tijuana Bibles?Pancho: Only the ones los hermanos Hernandez write.Cisco: !Oh, Pancho!Pancho: !Oh, Cisco!

Miller vs. Millar

2007-04-30T13:14:00.000-04:00

After the wretchedness of Marvel's non-excelsior unsaga "Civil War" starring Mark Millar as Captain America ("Heaven knows we need more statesmen!", to quote Bloom County), and just when you thought the Dark Age of Comics entailed dark mindedness, Frank Miller comes out as being on the same page as Dennis Miller with respect to national security.Brad Melzer ruined the contemporary comics scene

Meanwhile, at the Academy of Star Fleet Command . . .

2007-04-25T12:07:00.000-04:00

Slavik: Ah! Cadets Barrac and Samrat.Barrac: Ah! Slavik! Back from leave on Vulcan?Slavik: Indeed. It seemed the logical thing to do. But I was puzzled on arrival.Samrat: Why so? Oh, you must have heard our friend Kirkson was getting washed out.Slavik: Even so. Was it not the case that Kirkson came into the academy with one of the highest profiles in the institution's history?Barrac:

Written Out of the Saga.

2007-03-23T13:08:00.000-04:00

Captain Americais dead,is dead.

Norman Malcolm and Religious Doctrine

2007-02-21T14:40:00.000-05:00

Norman Malcolm has a paper offering an analysis of the way we ordinarily use the phrase "I know". Malcolm observes from cases that we often use the phrase "I know" and "I believe" to refer to the same belief/knowledge situation when all of the objective factors are the same. For example if I say that I know that there are cookies in the cookie jar (because I just got back from the cookie jar and

Philosophy and Canon

2007-01-31T15:16:00.000-05:00

My study on the relation between Scripture and practical wisdom has turned to the threefold division of the OT canon according to Jer. 18.18 into the torah of the priest, the counsel of the wise, and the word of the prophet. The Torah is the five books of Moses, the Prophets are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah-Lamentations, Ezekiel, and the Twelve, and the Writings are everything

Was Jesus ever in India?

2007-01-03T00:58:00.000-05:00

Was Jesus ever in India? National Geographic recently ran a show (The Secret Lives of Jesus) where they claimed that He was actually in India between the years of 12 to 30. Here He met with many wise men of other religions, and picked up a lot of wisdom, which He then brought back to Judea. Hence we have His wise sayings in the Bible. I havent seen the National Geographic episode (hope to soon),

"Glad to be here!"

2006-12-19T12:58:00.000-05:00

A Dialogue Scene: The edge of the Lake of Fire after the passing of sentence on a lost soul, named Jake. Characters: JAKE, a lost soul, and ERNIE an enforcement angel ERNIE speaks first."Go on. Off to Hell with you.""Wait! That looks a lot more unpleasant than I expected!""Of course. Hop in.""Wait! Wait! Don't you think that this is terribly unfair?""Here we go again.""I mean, don't you

Notes on Dilemmas of Faith

2006-10-20T15:30:00.000-04:00

I was reading an article on line about the Bhagavad Gita which clearly saw the Gita as teaching nothing that could not be independently worked out by reason apart from it. That the doctrine is worked out for Arjuna by an avatar is only based on the fact that at the time, life was pretty messed up and that it is only in such times that God takes on human form. Revelation is merely hygenic not

Fairyland Diner RPG Character Helps

2006-08-28T16:36:00.000-04:00

If anyone needs help in deciding how to design their character for either the Fairyland Diner Game (see title link) or any other of my AOB based games, I have the following supplemental helps. Sometimes you need a kickstart to think of what to do. The following basically generates some data points for your character which can be used to solve a narrative problem given the data. None of the

Peity as a Point of Contact

2006-08-28T16:21:00.000-04:00

Here's a famous quote from CS Lewis (more or less) from the Screwtape Letters:"There are two mistakes one can make regarding the Devil; one is to deny that He exists and the other is to have an unhealthy fascination with him."It has struck me lately that this is a common feature in various aspects of religion according to the Scriptures. It is clear that the Bible does not deny the realm of the

Stephen C. Meyer Article added.

2006-05-18T16:16:00.000-04:00

I discovered that the nefarious Dr. Meyer journal article, the one that caused such a dust up because the author argues for a specific thesis of Intelligent Design in it and another more nuetral scientist, Dr. Richard von Sternberg, published it in a Smithsonian hosted journal, which lead to reprisals against Dr. Sternberg. He has been vindicated for his role in this by the U.S. Office of

Christian Study Center List

2006-05-17T15:03:00.000-04:00

I nostalgically added a list of Christian Study centers, found on several campuses all over the country including some Ivy League schools. They represent the evangelical ideal of the wedding of thought and faith and the intergration of Christianity with academic fields into an intergrated worldview.I say nostalgic because it represents a shattered dream of mine to be part of such a thing but

Thank you "Tall Skinny Kiwi"

2006-05-17T14:26:00.000-04:00

. . . who commented on my emergent church post and who has an interesting blog (now added to the role). Check it out.

A Comercial Quality Armitage RPG

2006-05-16T15:34:00.000-04:00

With extreme humility and great mortification, I discovered that there is already available on line, an adaptation of the BESM game for the Armitage III setting. From the linked website:"In 2001, Dan Grendell was contracted by Guardians of Orders to write a sourcebook about the Armitage III animes. Like many publishing projects, the book ended up not being printed. However, all is not lost, as

Fairyland Diner, an RPG

2006-05-01T16:39:00.000-04:00

"Fairyland Diner", a Shoujo Manga RPGSort of a cross between "Phantastes" and "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", this RPG is a game setting for the "All Outta Bubblegum" engine. Thanks and apologies to Michael Sullivan and Jeffrey Grant again. Apologies also to Gary Gygax for borrowing an idea from his Aerth campaign setting in his "Dangerous Journeys" game (I'm not worthy!).Setting: