trademarks

St. Augustine on numbers

“Numbers are the universal language given to us by the deity as confirmation of the truth.” ~ St. Augustine Numbers are interesting. Provided that you know the base number, you can do an infinite number of calculations. Much of reality can be described by a set of mathematical equations. There is an inherent beauty in the symmetry of numbers present in both physics and astronomy. In fact,... [Read more]

St. Andrew, Apostle and First-Called

Feast: November 30  [The acts of this apostle's martyrdom, though rejected by Tillemont, &c., are maintained to be genuine by Nat. Alexander, Hist. t. i. and by Mr. Woog, professor of history and antiquities in Leipsic, in learned dissertations, published in 1748 and 1751. The authority of this piece being contested, little stress is laid upon it, and the following account is gathered from the... [Read more]

forum

The Three Laws of Robotics, answers

Here are the answers to my “Three Laws of Robotics” quizz in a previous post. I have not forgotten or ignored some of the questions yet to be answered, however, Thanksgiving, heading into the weekend have kept me quite well occupied. I should be able to get back to them this coming week. They deserve better writing that what might come out as a flippant answer. Isaac Asimov is the famed... [Read more]

The Three Laws of Robotics

Robby the robot from movie Forbidden Planet 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Yes, this very short post... [Read more]

2008 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Norman Rockwell WWII Thanksgiving Today is not a day to discuss theology or politics or disagreements, but a day to give thanks and to acknowledge that what we have we have in spite of ourselves (see earlier posts). In that spirit, let me simply post President Bush’s Thanksgiving proclamation for this year. May God forgive us of our manifold sins and offenses (as the confessions say). May He... [Read more]

profile

The Secret of Father Brown

There is a wonderful series of stories published by G.K. Chesterton that have to do with a Roman Catholic priest in England who solves mainly murder mysteries. His name is Father Brown.  It is a series that I highly recommend and has been published in its entirety by Penguin Books in the past. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, Fr. Brown does not solve criminal mysteries by deduction, but rather by knowing... [Read more]

news

Salvation, Justification, Works 03

“Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.” — G.K. Chesterton I replied to a comment made on something I wrote on another blog and I thought the answer was worth posting here as well, with a couple of additional comments. I can remember being a guest preacher at a church where they allowed people to “share”... [Read more]

help

C.S. Lewis on giving thanks

On another blog I read the following C.S. Lewis quote: “We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is ‘good,’ because it is good, if ‘bad’ because it works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.”–Letters: C.S. Lewis/Don Giovanni Calabria (10 August 1948), Par. 7, pp. 49, 51; cited in The Quotable... [Read more]

We gather together

One of my favorite Thanksgiving hymns, though the Eastern Orthodox do not sing it, is “We gather together.” I think it is a hymn that mixes together both the aspect of Thanksgiving and the idea that God does work with us to guide us and to chasten us (for our sins) as necessary. It is not an American hymn. Rather, it is a Dutch hymn written in the 16th century, translated into Latin, translated... [Read more]

Thanksgiving is for confession and giving thanks

Father, are you getting a little radical on us? What do you mean including confession with Thanksgiving? That day is a day to give thanks for God’s bounty. It is not a penitential day. Then I have a surprise for you because it was a surprise for me as well. Did you know that up until the 20th century, the idea of confession of sins was included in Thanksgiving? Let me give you a couple of quotes... [Read more]