Math Observations

Decimals Have a point

Come to the Math Side.  We have pi.

Please don’t drink and do calculus.  Alcohol and Deriving don’t mix

Dear Algebra, quit asking me to find your X.  She’s not coming back.

Rule of math:  if it seems easy, you’re doing it wrong

Good Signs

The gospel of Matthew is full of stories, parables, and events that help lead to an understanding of who Jesus is.  The first chapter gives his genealogy. He does miracles, makes claims of divinity, and teaches his disciples until Peter finally admits in Chapter 16 that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Even though very few could figure out Jesus’ identify, one expects that John the Baptist would know – he was there at his cousin’s momentous baptism; he had leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary showed up at his house.  But in chapter 11, John sends a message from prison, asking if Jesus is REALLY the One.

Jesus response is very instructive about his view of scripture.  He implicitly asks John what he expected to see and hear based on his reading of the Old Testament.  His quote from Isaiah 8 says “this is what the Word said would happen, and your boys can tell you what is going on.  Pretty good signs, heh?”

Then Jesus quotes additional scriptures in telling the crowd who John the Baptist is – a prophet, the messenger from Malachi, and the one who is pointing to the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus is proclaiming.

New Habits

The policeman had a new mount in the city the other day.  A pastry shop owner tried to give it a donut, which the copper’s previous steed enjoyed.  When the stallion neighed his disgust, the baker exclaimed, “This must be a horse of a different cruller.”

Worldview 3

There is at least one more voice in the discussion amongst scientists who support Naturalist Darwinism or Intelligent Design – Theistic Naturalists believe there is a God, and that he is the one behind Darwinian natural selection.

I am seeing at least six ways that the groups are similar.

  1. They each have an underlying worldview that affects their reaction to others’ opinions. The Intelligent Design folks (Stephen Meyer, Michael Behe and more ) believe there is a God who created and providentially controls the universe; many of them base their view of God on the Bible. The Evolutionists (Bill Nye, Richard Dawkins and more). The Theistic Design group (Stephen Collins, BioLogos) is trying for the best of both worlds, saying that God the creator has cared for his universe through evolutionary methods.
  2. Many of the contested events (origin of life, development of humans, dinosaurs, the flood) happened so long ago that evidentiary records are slim. We have more and more information about the current state of affairs, and must make theories that look backward in time.
  3. Each group has at least one common response that (a) they use when they don’t know the answer and (b) it ticks the other groups off. The intelligent design crowd (at least the Christian ones) are very willing to fall back on “God has always been in charge and that’s the way he wanted it.” The Darwinists say “the time frame is so vast that even very unlikely events have been able to occur.” The Theistic evolution folks can use both!
  4. Analogies are very popular. Darwinists point to the similarity of bat, human, and bird arm bone structures and see them as all having descended from a common ancestor. Intelligent Design folks speak of the irreducible complexity of the human eyeball as being similar to a manufactured pocket watch – there must be a designer behind it.
  5. The groups jab at each other – I am not sure if there are buttals, but there are certainly lots of rebuttals. Each group can cite experts, documents, and research that agree with their position. Each group has a standard apologetic supporting their view.
  6. All agree that on the BIG side, the universe is a monstrously huge and awesome place. All agree that on the SMALL side, a single cell of a creature’s body is a marvelously complex and intricate structure of amazing flexibility and

The “discussions” among the parties remind one of Republican / Democrat differences of opinion or disagreements between religious groups. Most humans have a hard time playing well with others who don’t agree with them.

Who Says Grace At Your Table?

I don’t profess to be an expert on all the rich possibilities for saying Grace before a meal, but I figure I better say something since this type of Group Prayer was missing from my posting history survey I put together late last year.

For an individual:  If you are by yourself for a meal, you should say grace yourself.  No one else is going to do it. Duh.

A more useful discussion would be “who prays at the family table?”  There are lots of potentials. Some options:

  • The head of the household
  • A designated child
  • Each child – this may take a while depending on how many kids you have.
  • Everyone all together, holding hands. Everyone needs to know what to say ahead of time for this one.
  • Everyone all together, not holding hands
  • The head of the household’s spouse
  • A guest
  • The oldest one present
  • Whoever the head of the household picks for that meal

There is a richness to mixing it up a bit.  Our main choices when our Michigan Knapp family gets together have been me, our son Jesse, or 6 year old Molly.

 

An extra note about the value of saying grace in public:  One time in Washington DC, my wife, daughter and I offered thanks before eating breakfast muffins at an outdoor café.  The lady at the next table said, “you aren’t from around here, are you?”  “No, we’re from Michigan.”  “I thought so.  I haven’t seen anyone pray out loud around here for a long time.”  We had a nice talk with her and felt pretty righteous.

Cool Number Dates – 2/1/15-2/7/15

This week we honor Euler’s Number,  symbolized by the character e.  It is the base number for Natural Logarithms.   It is an irrational number, which means it cannot be represented by a fraction and its decimal value is unending.

The first several digits of e are 2.7182818284590…

All we need is 2.7 to place e day on February 7.

More Animals

Bird contest.  No perches necessary.

Energizer bunny arrested and charged with battery.

Rhinos are just chubby Unicorns.

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

See 12/6/14 for earlier animal items

 

Life Progression

Chapter 8 of Romans is just so full of life-enhancing verses.  See Helpful Intercession and If God is For Us for examples.  Between the declaration that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and the assurance that nothing can take us from God’s merciful grasp, we find a list of steps we go through to grow in holiness in verse 29-30.

The familiar list:

  • He (God) foreknew us
  • Those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son
  • Those he predestined he also called
  • Those he called he also justified
  • Those he justified he also glorified.

The chain is unbreakable for the effectively called.

True Story

A toothpaste manufacturer was having trouble because empty toothpaste boxes were being shipped to stores.  They hired a consulting firm to find a solution; the engineers developed a very sensitive scale that could tell the difference between a full box and an empty one.  When the scale beeped, the line would halt until the empty box was removed.

The plant manager tracked the results.  For the first week there were 8-10 halts per day, but then they stopped altogether.  Worried that the scale was no longer working, the boss checked things out and found a large fan had been placed near the end of the line.  “What’s this?” he asked.  “The janitor was tired of restarting the line all day, so he set up the fan to blow the empty boxes off the belt.”

“Oh.”