George Will on ID OK, I know I said I was on vacation, but I saw this today and had to post.

George Will has a great review of the evolution/creation/ID debate in this week's Newsweek. Maybe the most important comment is his take on the place of Intelligent Design in school curriculums:

The problem with intelligent-design theory is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable: Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet—a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.

I think it is a mistake to focus so much energy refuting evolution. If there are truly flaws in it, science will eventually uncover them. As I stated in an earlier post in this blog, exactly how God brought this universe into existence is not as important as the fact that he did and winning others to Christ ought to be our focus.

Categories: evolution, IntelligentDesign, ID, origins  ¶ 8:31 AM 1 comments

  Some time off... I will be taking some time off for the next few days for a family vacation. Look for more posts after July 6th...  ¶ 4:20 PM 0 comments

  Society's Reactions to New Technologies Check out this great article in today's USA Today about nanotechnology. Kevin Maney points out how our reactions to new technologies as society follow cycles. He points out how important the "naysayers" about a new technology are, and that, even when maybe they seem a little wacky, they should at least be listened to. A great followup to the article is this news story in the LA Times on legislation regarding the use of RFID on people.

As a Christian, I feel that we must stay informed on these issues. To misuse a technology and then claim ignorance later is unacceptable.

Categories: new_technology, society, cyberculture, privacy, nanotechnology  ¶ 10:31 PM 0 comments

  Testing categories I am testing to see if I can add categories to my blog that will be visible at both technorati and del.icio.us. Thanks to John at Freshblog for the details.


Categories: categories  ¶ 10:49 PM 0 comments

  More on "Mactel" An article over at E-week discusses the strategy behind Apple's move to Intel. Maybe users will upgrade from WinXP to OS X?

Categories: Macintosh, Intel  ¶ 2:41 PM 1 comments

  LA Times Wikitorial - RIP? I went to check on the progress of the LA Times Wikitorial today and found this:

Where is the wikitorial?

Unfortunately, we have had to remove this feature, at least temporarily, because a few readers were flooding the site with inappropriate material.

Thanks and apologies to the thousands of people who logged on in the right spirit.

This is unfortunate. I was reading it over the weekend and thought that it was really starting to become a great forum for thought (especially since my edit was still there!). This is the problem with the wiki in general: its complete openness gives power to those who want to cause trouble. Why doesn't this happen to Wikipedia? It probably does, but it is immediately policed by others who feel a sense of ownership to a particular topic.

I hope the Times does not give up. Possibly requiring a more rigid registration would help. Or maybe moving to a blog/comment type format where the original editorial is kept intact but others are allowed to comment and possibly create branching entries.

As I said before, time will tell...

Categories: LATimes, Wiki, Wikitorial  ¶ 9:18 AM 0 comments

  A group opinion? Today, the LA Times released a "wiki" version of their editorial page. If you don't know what a "wiki" is, a good definition is here. The Times describes what they want to do with their opinion wiki here.

This is quite a grand experiment. It's one thing to use a wiki to collaboratively manage knowledge, such as with the grandaddy of them all, Wikipedia. But if an opinion piece is meant to represent the opinion of the paper, how can you allow hundreds, if not thousands, to edit/delete/create content? Hey, I know, let's create a Bible wiki, where the text of the entire Bible is input and anyone can change the content to their liking. After some time, we will have what the Bible should really look like. . .

OK, back to reality. To be fair, the Times notes that this is an experiment that may not work. And to be fair, the Wikipedia itself has worked extremely well, beyond what we can imagine. Time will only tell, I guess.

Categories: LATimes, Wiki, Wikitorial  ¶ 9:15 AM 0 comments

  Doesn't end the controversy Terri Schiavo's autopsy was released today. The results were that she was exactly in the state that her husband Michael said she was. She was in a persistent vegetative state and would not have recovered. Does this end the controversy? No. But personally, I think we should take some comfort from the fact that she would never have recovered.  ¶ 9:10 AM 0 comments

  From Wintel to Mactel OK, so what did you think when Apple announced the switch to Intel processors? If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the story. My first thought was that Apple is going to finally get out of the hardware business, something they should have done years ago.

Robert Cringely has an interesting take on all this. He sees this as a way for Apple (read: Jobs) to finally beat Microsoft (read: Gates). Check out his column on it here. Short term, this probably means a drop in market share for Apple, but longer term this could be their inroads into the business computing market and, ultimately, a more competitive OS playing field.

Categories: Macintosh, Intel  ¶ 8:34 AM 0 comments

  The importance of origins Our Sunday School class is reading Know What You Believe, by Paul Little, and we just covered the first chapter, "The Bible". In this chapter, Little discusses those who would use scientific arguments against the Bible. Our group got discussing this, and focused on the idea of the origin of life and of the universe.

After some reflection, I ask this: what importance is there in arguing the exact way in which the universe came into being or life came to earth? If you believe in the six literal days of creation and young earth, you have to contend with the scientific evidence of evolution and age. If you accept the "big bang", the ultimate question of what caused it still exists. Interestingly,the big bang theory was originally developed by Belgian Jesuit priest Georges Lemaître and, according the Wikipedia article about him, "it was too strongly reminiscent of the Christian dogma of creation and was unjustifiable from a physical point of view". Yet now, if you asked most Christians, they would lump the big bang theory with evoluation as an atheistic belief.

So, as Christians, what importance should we place on origins? Obviously, it is important to have a clear belief and be able to discuss it intelligently. But must we be dogmatic? Until convinced otherwise, I believe that it is more important to win others to Christ through love and a willingness to accept any belief in origins that is not in conflict with the Bible.  ¶ 7:55 AM 0 comments

  The end of VHS.. and DVD Just heard on the Drudge Report tonight (I know, I know, but it happened to be on the last station I had listed to when I got in the car) that Wal-Mart will be ending sales of VHS movies and moving to a strictly DVD format. Though I could not find the specific news story he was referencing, this seems to be a trend well-documented (look here and here). Drudge commented that this means we are all moving to DVDs. Maybe this is true, but I think we are already well into the post-DVD world. I was just speaking to my wife about this yesterday: she was suggesting that we might want to think about getting some sort of rack for our burgeoning collection of CDs and DVDs. My response was: why? It is not going to get much bigger. I believe that, in the future, we will not be purchasing physical media (such as CD or DVD) at all, but will be receiving it all digitally.

Last week, we purchased the latest Jars of Clay CD, Redemption Songs, for a discounted $13 from the local Christian bookstore. As an exercise, I just went online and found the same album available for download for $8.91. In the future, I will always be looking online for my music. I may not buy another CD again!

But what if you don't want to listed to it on your computer? I can then burn it to a CD or use my new SIIG Wireless Audio Link to broadcast from my PC or PDA to my home or car stereo (yes, it really works! Got it from Fry's yesterday for $20.).  ¶ 10:08 PM 0 comments

  Wise words for Christian bloggers Just read this on Christian blogging from Credenda. Interesting site.

As a new blogger, this is especially instructive. I hope to be able to live up to the standards discussed therein.  ¶ 10:47 AM 0 comments

  The church web site Just read an interesting blog here on the use of volunteers vs. paid professionals to create/maintain church web sites. This is a great rant, and the firestorm of comments that follow show how hot a topic this is.

This is an area that interests me greatly: how can we, as Christians, use the Internet to effectively serve the Lord? I worked with one of my MIS students, Dawna Sanders, in January 2004 on a small research project on exactly this. A telling summary from the report:

One thing that might hold churches back from their full potential in using Internet technology is the apparent lack of plan or structure across the board. 45% of churches had no strategy regarding it, and 50% stated that they had no specific Internet technology budget. 45% of churches have volunteers managing technology, as opposed to 35% with paid staff and 20% with a mixture of both. The majority (69%) of church websites were created by volunteers, and while 68% update the website frequently, over half have no policy on updates. Several churches mentioned that they just began paying someone, getting professional services, or forming a specific ministry team for Internet technology.

You can see the full report here. I am thinking about doing a more intensive research project in this area next year to see if anything has changed and to focus more directly on the use of the web and adding a focus on church/pastor blogging.  ¶ 12:32 PM 1 comments

  Privacy vs. security One of the biggest changes we are seeing over the past few years is the ability for technology to be used to spy on us. From spyware on our computers to the ever-present video camera, technology is quickly eroding our ability to remain anonymous. Some say that we are losing our privacy but gaining security. In this post-9/11 world, the ability to identify an individual quickly and accurately is becoming of paramount importance. But at what cost?

In The Transparent Society David Brin writes that we have no choice: our privacy is quickly disappearing. The question then becomes, who controls this technology and the information it creates? Brin gives two possibilities: 1) the government or 2) the public. His book makes the case for possibility #2 as the best solution. I tend to agree: this kind of power in the hands of the government can only lead to abuse and loss of freedom.

Interestingly, when I present this concept to my MIS students, most all of them prefer possibility #1. Apparently, the type of student who comes to Biola has a deep trust of the government. These students were 13 or 14 when Bush was first elected. I wonder how students at, say, Berkeley, would feel? I wonder how my students would respond if Kerry had been elected president? Imagine if, someday, they were to begin tracking down Christians...  ¶ 10:25 PM 2 comments

  Why the title? The story of the Tower of Babel (from Genesis 11) is apt because it the story of man's arrogance:

"Come, let build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven,and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." (Gen. 11:4)

Though God had directed the descendants of Noah to disperse and fill the earth, they instead decided to band together and build a tower to demonstrate their own greatness. It seems to me that we do the same things today. We create new technologies faster than we know how to properly use them. We look to biotechnology, the Internet, mobile phones, and other technologies to make life easier, to make life longer, but ultimately, these "staggering gods" will fail us. True meaning for life can only be found through faith, and those of us that are of faith must have a voice in how these technologies should be used.

I am no Luddite. I appreciate and support the use of technology as a way to improve our society. I just want to ensure that we are taking the time to properly understand what we are unleashing. Before we look to build our next tower, we should first understand what God has to say.

This blog is a way to help me understand my own thoughts on these subjects. I really don't know if anyone will ever read it. I invite your thoughtful comments if you happen to stumble across this space.  ¶ 9:00 AM 1 comments