Why Big Government Isn't

An excess
of law
inescapably
weakens
the rule
of law.



- Laurence H. Tribe on
"There-oughta-be-a-law-against-that-itis"

[even a broken watch is right twice a day]

Still Learning To Talk Good

Daddy, I just have one little, itsy-witsy, teeny, big problem: Mommy's not here, and that's my sadness.

-Gideon [3], explaining why he couldn't go to bed while my wife was out grocery shopping.

Lab Rat Worship

It looks as if [our clergymen] believed people can be lured to go to church by incessant brightenings, lightenings, lengthenings, abridgements, simplifications, and complications of the service. And it is probably true that a new, keen vicar will usually be able to form within his parish a minority who are in favour of his innovations. The majority, I believe, never are. Those who remain - many give up churchgoing altogether - merely endure.

Is this simply because the majority are hide-bound? I think not. They have a good reason for their conservatism. Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don’t go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it.

Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And ... it “works” best - when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice… The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshiping... A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question “What on earth is he up to now?” will intrude. It lays one’s devotion waste.

There is really some excuse for the man who said, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks."

- C S Lewis, Letters to Malcolm [Chiefly on Prayer]

O ye of little holiness ...

Of all sights in the Church of Christ, I know none more painful to my own eyes than a Christian contented and satisfied with a little grace, a little repentance, a little faith, a little knowledge, a little charity, and a little holiness. I do beseech and entreat every believing soul that reads this not to be that kind of man ... Let us aim at eminent holiness.

-J C Ryle, Holiness

Red Giants, white dwarfs, and Black Holes

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

-Richard Feynman

Book List [what I've been reading these days] ...

YOU ARE WHAT YOUR BRAIN EATS...

Blindspots

Scientists have discovered 'brain spots' that are unique to believers in God. They are calling these 'God spots' and theorizing that this brain activity accounts for the belief in God that some people possess.

I want to know when they’re going to find the brain spots that make people believe in and look for brain spots. After that, maybe they can identify ’science spots’ -

If every human experience or pursuit can be explained as the result of cerebral chemisty … then, as C S Lewis said, even the finest bit of scientific reasoning comes to us in the same way as the thought a man has because a bit of bone is pressing on his cortex.