From the “Tech Files” it appears the the sci-tech people have been at it again. If you need is for fully flavoured coffee without the caffeine hit then someday this may be what you’re drinking.
Greenflame
Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
-
William Gibson made the point in the novel Neuromancer that being in cyberspace is like “being wrapped in media” – cyberspace as a “consensual hallucination”. Much the same can be said of television and other mass media which is pretty scary if your only window on the world is what’s piped down your TV screen.
Here are a few links on the nature of reporting in the current Iraq war situation. Don’t read them uncritically for all media producers have a bias of some sort or another. Still they make interesting reading. Even in NZ it pays to check out the different news sources, both locally and globally, to get a broader picture.
Matt 10:16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” seems somewhat appropriate here in our understanding of the media.
-
Having to prepare some lectures on a Christian understanding of sin has had me pondering the question of evil in the world recently. We see, hear and read each day of evil and its effects – in fact the mass media seems to dwell upon it! Bombs in Bombay, the massacre of people in Liberia, the death of innocents in Iraq, Palestine and Israel all greet us daily when we wake up.
Yet mostly this sort of evil is held at a distance from us. Not so for Christ as he walked in Judea and Galilee – the oppression of the poor and the injustice of the rich and powerful were always in his face. In our own worlds there is evil, though it often takes a variety of “hidden” forms – the futility of battling a government bureaucracy that reduces flesh-and-blood people to “clients” identifed by numbers is one example.
Today the first elections in Rwanda since the 1994 massacres have been held. Here is a page with links to three articles on evil written in response to those events in 1994. Even after seeing those atrocities have we learned anything?
Check out
“Know Your Enemy! 1” by Richard Bauckham, Walter Wink and Brice Avery.
“Know Your Enemy! 2” by Michael Taylor, Roger Forster, Andrew Walker and others.
“The Horror at the Door” by Ruth Etchells.
at Third Way’s Way Past.
-
For those just venturing into the realms of the blessed coffee bean check out Coffee snobbery for beginners.
-
A friend lent me a copy of “The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics” by Ched Myers the other day so I could look at the Matt 25 parable of the talents. An interesting reinterpretation of the parable that is as shocking in our capitalist times as the original probably was to Jesus’ audience.
Myers has a website called Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries which has some material on restorative justice, conflict resolution and “liberation-style” interpretations of the Gospel.
-
While flicking through this week’s Listener magazine I saw a reference to this. Unbelievable. I wonder if they do a Tony Blair as well?
Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush – U.S. President and Naval Aviator – 12″ Action Figure.
Click here for a picture.
More details and a picture at KBToys.com
-
I’ve been reading and thoroughly enjoying Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy at the moment. Somewhat appropriate give Mars’ current proximity to Earth.
The books are science fiction but are not beyond the realms of our current technology. As well they deal with many issues to do with the creation of new societies and cultures mixing a varieties of religions, ideologies, individuals stories and environmental issues. If you have a spare week or three they’re a good read.
More about them at: The SF Site: Kim Stanley Robinson Reading List
Also check out the following for more current information about Mars.
-
The other day I was listening to the radio programme Touchstone on Radio NZ’s National programme and they featured the “Truth Claims” radio broadcast. It’s a Canadian programme about religious, and in particular Christian, claims about the truth in our contemporary world. Well worth a listen.
You can either buy the tapes from CBC or you can listen to it via RealPlayer (and download it!) from: Tapestry Archives – April 8 & 15, 2001.
The whole “Tapestry” web site for CBC’s religious programming looks really interesting too.
-
Welcome to GreenFlame!
I’ve decided to move to a web log format but still maintain the links library on my own pages. Over the next few weeks I’ll be adding more links in. If I mention a link in a posting I’ll try and add it into library at the same time.
Cheers,
Stephen.
