Greenflame

Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand

  • Take an existing house group study topic – Ecclesiastes and the speculative wisdom of the Teacher – as a starting colour.

    Draw in the threads of Maggi’s reflections on the disciples waiting after the Ascension as Christ commanded them to.

    Weave it together with the Teacher’s reflections on there being different times or seasons in life.

    There is a time for action, and a time for waiting.

    Weave it in.

    Mesh in some thoughts on the different journeys that the disciples had in coming “through the door” into the upper room and to Pentecost. (Thomas – doubt, Peter – denial, and others like Mary Magdalene – the empty tomb, Mary the mother of Jesus – the death of a son).

    Weave it together.

    Braid in one of the responsive pieces, “Doors”, from the Pentecost section of Jonny Baker’s book Alternative Worship.

    Weave it in.

    Entwine Steve’s e~mergent kiwi: pentecost confession near the end.

    Weave it all together and try it on for size.

    Thanks to all who contribute their own colours and textures of yarn. Much appreciated.

  • Interesting article by David J.A. Clines on academic publishing – both self-publishing on the web and publishing through journals and like.

    Publishers: Who Needs Them?

  • Always nice to find someone else who’s thinking about the same questions as you. In his paper “Science, Technology and Mission” Ronald Cole-Turner writes,

    Can theology � that communal process by which the church�s faith seeks to understand � can theology aim at understanding technology? Can we put the words God and technology together in any kind of meaningful sentence? Can theology guess what God is doing in today�s technology? Or by our silence do we leave it utterly godless? Can we have a theology of technology that comprehends, gives meaning to, dares to influence the direction and set limits to this explosion of new powers?

    See: Cole-Turner, Ronald. “Science, Technology and Mission.” In The Local Church in a Global Era: Reflections for a New Century, ed. Max L. Stackhouse, Tim Dearborn and Scott Paeth, 100-112. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.

  • From the NZ Greenpeace web site: Greenpeace : McDonalds go for non-GE feed


    21 April 2004, Auckland, New Zealand: Ronald McDonald being forcibly removed by management at the Queen Street McDonald’s after resigning as the company mascot, over GE feed used in McDonalds meat products. (C) FOTOPRESS/Geoff Dale.

    Click on image for larger (in-focus) picture.

    Free Images of Ronald’s arrest: greenpeace.org.nz/photos/11may04
    Free Images of Ronald’s resignation: greenpeace.org.nz/photos/21April04/

  • Several things came together in my mind this weekend as I read and thought about various things.

    Firstly I’d been reading Steve’s posting (e~mergent kiwi: Reading Whale Rider: Reweaving in Godzone) about reweaving or reintegrating the various strands of Aotearoa New Zealand theology into an integrated whole.

    Secondly, it was Pentecost Sunday so I’m thinking thoughts about the Spirit and the new community formed at that time.

    And thirdly, I read the article “Beer & Fear by Ear” by Olivia Kember in this week’s Listener on the vowel merger of “ea” and “ee” blends in the New Zealand accent (or should that be the “Nu Zulund ucksant”).
    (more…)

  • The current issue of Science & Spirit available online is dedicated to the theme of forgiveness

    I was moved particularly by the article An Unforgivable Act?.

    Eleven-year-old Merita Shabiu believed the American forces in Kosovo were there to protect and save her. But after she was found buried in the snow with a bullet in her head, the devastated Shabiu family was told she died at the hands of one of those “saviors.”


  • Cleared myself of lectures for a while and marking is still a week or two away so it’s time to have a look at some of the books waiting on my bookshelf.

    Participating in God: Creation and Trinity by Samuel M. Powell is part of Fortess Press’ series “Theology and the Sciences”. Looks like it has some useful comments on technology in it.

    Light from the East: Theology, Science, and the Eastern Orthodox Tradition by physicist Alexei V. Nesteruk has some extended discussions on the nature of the human person which also looks helpful to the thesis. It’s another in the Fortress Press series.

    Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix edited by Glenn Yeffeth is a collection of essays on topics intersecting with my research interests in virtual reality and AI. Some of the essays have been published elsewhere (e.g. Peter B. Lloyd’s, GLITCHES IN THE MATRIX . . . AND HOW TO FIX THEM) but hopefully it’ll be worthwhile dipping into.

    Tip of the ice berg really. If there’s an earthquake (a real possibility here in NZ) I’ll in danger of being pummelled to death by falling books I should have read by now. Also, trying to find time to read Douglas Coupland’s “Hey, Nostrodamus”, the collection of short stories in “Disco 2000” edited by Sarah Champion, Cynthia West’s “Techno-Human Mesh”, Edward Tenner’s “Our Own Devices” and David Noble’s “The Religion of Technology”.

  • Amnesty International have released their annual report on global human rights covering 2003. (SeeAmnesty International Report 2004).
    (more…)

  • Couple of potentially useful MacOS X software apps came across my scanner over the last few days.

    Firstly ImageWell is an excellent little (free!) app that you drop and image onto and it posts it to the web location (iDisk, FTP, WebDAV) you choose (or the default). And it allows you to perform cropping, scaling, basic editting etc. in the image before it goes up the line. Great for dropping a set of pictures onto, having then automatically scaled etc., and then posted to your images directory. Saves having to fire up Fireworks/Dreamweaver or Graphic Converter to do the job and then manually upload the images.
    (more…)

  • W I L D L A N D S : Komodo. Rather them than me getting the camera in place.