kuttaineh

All of Man

2008-05-15T08:05:53Z

Acts 17:30-31 (Amplified)

I found that I often go back to the basic false tenant that nations are unnecessary; States are unnecessary. Nations are established to protect the rights of men: these (being appointed by God) are life, liberty and the pursuit of justice. Why do men need rights? All men need rights to counteract the nature of man himself - that is to say we kill, we oppress and we are willing to furthermore establish false justice for ourselves at the cost of injustice for others.

So what makes the tenant false? Sin.

Where there is no sin among men there is no need for human rights. It would be a moot point indeed because all would be equal with regard to every individuals state of being. That is to say all would be in relation to God taking direction from the source of all creation and living in harmony with his brother - no matter how different in appearance that brother might be.

Let all be one in God for eventually all will be one in death.

I say this not because it is a bad thing - although I imagine death for some not to be a picnic - rather I say this to be a witness of those views which I have found to be true.

Known this for a while

2008-05-08T23:56:45Z

Mobile phones alter brain behavior

Rami thinks

2008-04-02T17:28:32Z

Spam is the internet's common denominator.
If we didn't have it then the whole thing would FAIL with a divide by zero ERR.

I look forward to having dinner with John Locke some day

2008-03-30T18:17:30Z

Just remember, It's good to take supplements.

aparently Christian doesn't work as a title any more.

2007-09-17T17:07:19Z

here is a nice breakdown of a few of the leading canidates

2007-07-31T15:35:37Z

http://civilliberty.about.com/b/a/257662.htm (note: piece even includes the author's biases)

we all knew it would come to this one day

2007-07-18T14:45:08Z

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=57527

Political Criticism

2007-05-30T19:12:38Z

is best left to the free http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/727704/posts

pour les araignées de technorati

2007-04-28T02:41:05Z

Technorati Profile

received this in a weekly listing of Christian Placements

2007-04-23T21:53:16Z

Good Teaching is...

Ron Jackson

In his classic work on education To Know as We are Known, Parker J. Palmer re-tells the story of Abba Felix. Abba Felix was one of the fourth-century desert fathers. As was the custom of the time, some brothers went to see Abba Felix in the desert and "begged him to say a word to them."

I see a similar picture in my mind of a group of young people climbing up a mountain to see a holy man and asking about the meaning of life. However, in this story instead of giving the young men an answer, Abba Felix is silent. The young men wait but after a while Abba Felix breaks the silence and answers their question with one of his own. "You wish to hear a word?"

"Yes, Abba," the young men said.

"There are no more words nowadays," Abba Felix replies.

He then goes on to explain that in the past when the old men spoke a word, that word was listened to. People did what the old men and women said. But now since the young men "ask without doing, the old men do not find anything to say." Hearing this reply the brothers groaned, and said "Pray for us Abba."¹

Several things about teaching come to my mind after hearing this story...

Good teaching doesn't always give an answer
At least not a single answer. This is perhaps why narrative is such a great teacher. Stories aren't always clean. Many Bible stories are messy. They don't have a clean outcome, they end abruptly, and most of them don't say a word about how we are to interpret or apply them. When we tell these stories to children we tend to clean them up a bit, and we should. However, for our youth and college students we need to re-tell these stories and not leave out the messy parts. Life is messy; it doesn't always end nicely. Fairy tales do, but not life. We need to allow the stories of scripture to speak for themselves, and we must resist the temptation to give only one meaning or interpretation to the story. This lack of single meaning doesn't only apply to biblical stories. Look at the story of Abba Felix. It leaves one with almost as many questions as answers.

Good teaching is comfortable with tension
My students get so uptight when someone asks me a tough question. I love the tension. I get excited when something I've said is challenged, especially when I perceive that the person asking the question is honestly seeking. Answering tough questions can be stressful. A lot hangs on the answer; however, good teaching doesn't have to have all the answers (Yes, you read that right - good teaching is not about having all the right answers!). Good teaching requires leaders and a people who are comfortable with a certain amount of anxiety. Being comfortable with tension frees us from always having to be right. There is mystery and wonder associated with our faith, and for too long youth workers have been more "Bible Answer Men" than fellow travelers on the highway of faith.

In speaking of our knowledge of God, John Chrysostom said, "Whatever knowledge we may have, it is still imperfect. How is it that some people claim to have a full and precise knowledge of God? Where God is concerned, we cannot even say just how wrong our perception of Him is."²

Good teaching happens in a safe place
Our youth groups, Bible studies, and small groups need to be places where students feel safe. Not only physically safe - although that is important - but we need to create teaching environments that are emotional harbors which allow our youth to express themselves in non-judgmental or hyper-critical ways.

Good teaching occurs in community
"The authority of scripture derives its intelligibility from the existence of a community that knows its life depends on faithful remembering of God's care of His creation thought the calling of Israel and the life of Jesus."³

Discipleship is truly a communal activity. For too long we have made it an activity of an individual. As much as conservative America hates to admit it, Hillary Clinton is right - it does indeed take a village.

Good teaching creates a place where Truth is practiced
To teach, Parker Palmer says, is to "create a space in which obedience to truth is practiced."⁴ Good teaching pays attention to truth. I'm not just talking about propositional truth, but personal/relational Truth as well. Propositional truth is important. Good teachers pay close attention to propositional truth. However, personal/relational truth is what good Christian teaching should be after. Our goal is not to fill our students' minds with information, but to create an environment where they can meet and have an encounter with Jesus Christ.

In Finding God at Harvard, Kelly Monroe writes about the Harvard shield. Anyone who has ever seen a Harvard T-shirt, ball cap or notebook has seen that shield. The shield has a Latin word on it, VERITAS. VERITAS is Harvard's Motto. VERITAS is Latin for truth. In 1646 when the motto was adopted, Truth was understood to be not simply facts and figures, VERITAS was also a person. That person was Jesus.⁵ Good teaching not only passes on propositional truth but creates a place where students can meet and have relationship with the Truth, Jesus!

1 Parker J. Palmer. To Know as We are Known: A Spirituality of Education.
(Harper: San Francisco 1993) pg. 41

2 John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 20.3
(NPNS 1 12:112)

3 Stanley Hauerwas. A Community of Character
(University of Notre Dame Press: Notre Dame 1981) pg. 53

4 Parker pg. 69

5 Kelly Monroe. Finding God at Harvard.
(Zondervan: Grand Rapids 1976) pg 14

The Book of Revelation is a Book of Symbols

2007-04-23T14:19:05Z

Hello,

further follow-up on the Hell series. I recommend L. Ray Smith's coverage starting with The Book of Revelation is a Book of Symbols

so you have probably been wondering

2006-12-12T15:32:35Z

why would a person such as myself spend so much time focused around the concept of hell? Well since so many people figure they are ending up there I think it important to point out the history behind the place and the intentions of GOd, in your life, concerning the thereof.

kuttaineh @ 2006-11-24T23:18:00

2006-11-25T04:18:34Z

Hell is what man makes when he separates himself from God.

a germ story: The Esau Strain

2006-07-27T11:32:13Z

So I have been thinking of this story: a fiction. It is one about a radical set of geneticists. They are scientific and good jews -- as many are. They believe that the answer of Israel's problem lies in the bible. They think that the Israel of today should do what the Israel of early bible did when they first entered into the promised land out of the wilderness -- that is kill the inhabitants so that without conflict from earlier occupiers or their offspring they may live in peace. These men are scientists so they use the tools which G-d has given them to carry out their goal. They're geneticists. In their hubris they believe that they have isolated and can therefore target that branch of the human genetic code which started with Esau, Jacob's elder brother whom he supplanted.

So they create a genetic pathogen... Something quite deadly. They release it into the wild -- in the water supply, the river Jordon and all other sources of water available across the region. It has a timed response. Most of the story takes place in response to this fictional genetic pathogen. It starts to work -- people begin to exhibit symptoms. Not only arab people tho - the father and sister to one of the scientists and the cousin and uncle to another... finally to one of the originating geneticists himself. It works on only part of and not the whole of the arab peoples. Unexpectedly it also works it's evil randomly across the jewish populations.

What was not fully appreciated by these fictional genetic weapon makers was that contrary to popular belief there is no separate race. Too many years of Babylonian exile, or perhaps living in diaspora for all the centuries. Maybe it was simply a matter of being off a line in their genetic targeting; the complexity of having to find and supposedly only attack those with a very specific set of genetic sequences runs amok. The world looks at this and finds those who are jews culturally are not necessarily jews genetically -- at least not so far as the Esau Strain is concerned. Not all arabs are effected. In essence it's a disaster story based upon a misconception. The idea that they are they and we are us is not always so clear cut. Esau and Jacob were fraternal twins after all.

I am reminded of something G-d's Apostle once said, "No man is truly a believer until he wants for his brother what he desires for himself." I do not want to communicate that G-d would punish anyone here for not being pure. Nothing is further from my goal. My motive here is to suggest that no one has essential rights that preclude those same rights to another. The sooner we all come to understand this simple truth the sooner all will come into freedom from war. When it boils down to it isn't this present conflict one of people all wanting to have it their way.

kuttaineh @ 2006-07-20T18:33:00

2006-07-20T22:35:01Z

From XKCD

Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars.

2006-06-17T04:18:10Z

Learn about the real actual Hell!
No kidding. This is about the actual place referenced in the bible.
Not exactly what you thought - probably.
Go ahead, give the link a try. I dare ya!

You'll probably be surprised.

Johari Window

2006-06-15T05:03:39Z

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Kuttaineh <-- contribute as you please, Please.

The future outlook of federal | state government: NULL

2006-06-08T05:02:26Z

I've been thinking a lot about the fictional world Isaac Asimov wrote about throughout the 20th C> It was composed of five geographic economic zones each filled with fairly distributed (Ref: Google Map of Puerto Rico) highly networked townships. Of course the big cities such as New York still existed but most people just live in their little town or village.

Everything is networked: So the idea is you don't need to commute. Travel is reserved to evident necessity and for pleasure. Imagine the majority of the population in your economic zone living in small towns each of which is built out to a human scale; everything from work to shopping to school, church, clubs and community center within walking distance. Each village has its kind of industrial commercial quarters intelligently mixed with its living sectors. Each {tribe, city, town, village, city-state} regardless of trade value is interconnected through a highly available global network; Most of each exists with their standard road, rail, and etc connections to one another as would be expected.

As you can imagine, in such a setup, local government would, more or less, be the major driving interest for the majority of the worlds' concerned citizens. Here is my addition to the vision: If most law, health, social service and utilities can be handled at the local tribe, village, township or city level then for what purpose, other than the maintenance of said network of roads and other transportation systems and for the build out, repair, improvement and extension of that underlying information network would a continuation of the federal, state or perhaps even global regional economic sector serve?

Sure you need a legislature to determine the laws of the land and a policy to maintain the order uniformly across any given region. Those responsibilities currently handled by the federal and state government can, for the greater part, be farmed out as a series of tasks for NGOs [Non Government Organizations]; To regulate and oversee these agencies, a "Greater Good" synod composed of elected members, out of each community body, can be established to keep in touch with others in the open network [publicly observed] synod. This synod would be answerable to their constituency to monitor and make sure no one community or industry does not profit by taking unfair advantage of their own or other communities: This is to make sure profit is not gained at the cost of polluting the environment or short changing generations of populations.

One thing and two people come to mind: 1) Congress 2) John Adams 3) Thomas Jefferson

Congress: Right now the federal government is spending much more money than it is taking in. The United States Government currently costs more to run and operate than it ever has throughout its entire history save for during the height of WWII under FDR.

John Adams: quoted for quipping, "One idle man is a waste, two is a law firm, any more than that and you've got a congress."

Thomas Jefferson: known for his belief that the federal government should be responsible for foreign relations i.e. trade negotiations, the upkeep of a military and the postal system and not much more beyond that.

Of course we don't live in an age that would be satisfied by such a simple solution.
What we do need are social philosophers -- a whole new generation of them, to speak up and publish their ideas and spread them around, so as to effect change and most importantly: inspire public discourse.

The networked world first described by Asimov is growing into its place. Are we prepared to meet and take advantage of it?

Three Question Personality

2006-04-22T01:25:13Z

Your Personality Is

Rational (NT) You are both logical and creative. You are full of ideas. You are so rational that you analyze everything. This drives people a little crazy! Intelligence is important to you. You always like to be around smart people. In fact, you're often a little short with people who don't impress you mentally. You seem distant to some - but it's usually because you're deep in thought. Those who understand you best are fellow Rationals. In love, you tend to approach things with logic. You seek a compatible mate - who is also very intelligent. At work, you tend to gravitate toward idea building careers - like programming, medicine, or academia. With others, you are very honest and direct. People often can't take your criticism well. As far as your looks go, you're coasting on what you were born with. You think fashion is silly. On weekends, you spend most of your time thinking, experimenting with new ideas, or learning new things.

The Three Question Personality Test

Be Blue

2006-04-22T00:58:52Z

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere. You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant. From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

72% Open Minded

2006-04-22T00:57:24Z

You Are 72% Open Minded

You are a very open minded person, but you're also well grounded. Tolerant and flexible, you appreciate most lifestyles and viewpoints. But you also know where you stand firm, and you can draw that line. You're open to considering every possibility - but in the end, you stand true to yourself.

How Open Minded Are You?

How weird am I?

2006-04-22T00:55:25Z

You Are 50% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird... But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

What's Your Hidden Talent?

2006-04-06T04:17:36Z

Your Hidden Talent

You're super sensitive and easily able to understand situations.
You tend to solve complex problems in a flash, without needing a lot of facts.
Decision making is easy for you. You have killer intuition.
The right path is always clear, and you're a bit of a visionary.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

kuttaineh

All of Man

Acts 17:30-31 (Amplified)

Known this for a while

Rami thinks

I look forward to having dinner with John Locke some day

aparently Christian doesn't work as a title any more.

here is a nice breakdown of a few of the leading canidates

we all knew it would come to this one day

Political Criticism

pour les araignées de technorati

received this in a weekly listing of Christian Placements

The Book of Revelation is a Book of Symbols

so you have probably been wondering

kuttaineh @ 2006-11-24T23:18:00

a germ story: The Esau Strain

kuttaineh @ 2006-07-20T18:33:00

Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars.

Learn about the real actual Hell!No kidding. This is about the actual place referenced in the bible. Not exactly what you thought - probably. Go ahead, give the link a try. I dare ya!

You'll probably be surprised.

Johari Window

The future outlook of federal | state government: NULL

Three Question Personality

Be Blue

72% Open Minded

How weird am I?

What's Your Hidden Talent?

Learn about the real actual Hell!
No kidding. This is about the actual place referenced in the bible.
Not exactly what you thought - probably.
Go ahead, give the link a try. I dare ya!