Revenge of Mr Dumpling

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Archive for September, 2010

Same old Lizard of Oz

Sep 28

Posted by David in Politics | No Comments

Well, this is typical Paul Keating! You would think most people beating a simple red light ticket would either show a little humility, or would simply move on, but to Paul Keating it will hopefully be a force for social good.

I think it’s important that ordinary people in the community, having received an infringement notice for an offence they didn’t commit, basically understand that the system is not loaded against them,” Mr Keating said outside Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney.

“They’re entitled to have the courage of their convictions and I hope some social good will flow from today’s outcome.”

I mean, really, you would think he had been arraested protesting for civil rights or something, rather than having been pulled up by the cops and deciding to throw his weight around because he was in a hurry.

Now, you may think I am being a little harsh, but I can’t stand Keating. I saw what “the recession we had to have” did to the country town I grew up in, and it makes me sick how at every opportunity for a sound bite he pops up to take credit for the economy or anything else that is good about Australia. In my humble opinion, Australia took a long time to recover from the mess he created and the directions he decided to steer the nation.

It’s good to see his legacy of deposing sitting Pirme Ministers has lived on though!

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CHRISTIAN CARNIVAL CCXLV

Sep 15

Posted by David in Faith, General | 12 Comments

Welcome to the latest edition of the Christian Carnival! For new visitors to this blog it is lovely to see you, and I hope you enjoy the spiritual smorgasboard laid out before you.

There are some great entries this week, and it is impossible to rank them. So, in order that i recieved them, it is time to begin the feast.

Widsith starts us off with a reminder of the fallen nature we all possess in his post Follow the Leader posted at Hurt by the Church?. But, it finishes with a reminder about how we can avoid falling into error.

FMF invites us to sit back and consider what we should be thankful to God for in Counting Your Blessings posted at Free Money Finance. I would encourage you to leave a comment on his blog giving thanks to God for the blessings in your life.

The other night I listened to one of the few audio clips surviving of William Booth. He spoke about how we don’t ask a drowning person for evidence of their virtue before throwing a life saver, or check to see whether someone is up to date with their rent before dragging them out of a burning building. I could not help but be reminded of this while I read an excellent article, Answering the Cry for Material Help, by Aoide-Melete-Mneme posted at à la mode de les Muses where she discusses how sometimes we seem to find excuses not to help others.

Jack Benny presents Top 50 Christian Scholar Blogs posted at Christian Colleges. This a great list of resources for any serious Christian scholar, but I have to make the disclaimer that in my opinion some of the links are to groups that don’t fit my definition of Christian. I say this in no way as an attack on Mr Benny, and this post is well worth checking out as an excellent resource for those wishing to increase their knowledge.

Joe Plemon presents Your Financial Compass: Knowing Which Way is North posted at Personal Finance By The Book. For someone with no sense of geographical direction like myself, it is nice to know that the Bible offers such clear spiritual direction!

Continuing on the theme of spiritual finances, BWL presents 4 Ways to Handle Money God’s Way posted at Christian Personal Finance. I think he makes an excellent point about 100% of our money being God’s, not just the 10% we tithe.

New blogger Laurie Coombs presents Inspiration at In the Spirit of Courage. I hope that she continues to blog with such enthusiasm, because she has certainly started out on the right note.

In another finance related post, Khaleef @ KNS Financial presents Helping Those in Need is a Reflection of God’s Love! at Faithful With A Few. This is a timely reminder that God calls us to help those in need, and there is a challenge for all of us in this article.

Barry Wallace presents Humble Yourself (or God will do it for you) posted at who am i?. No pun intended, this is a humbling post and is worth reading for the Spurgeon quote alone. Great stuff, Barry.

This post was not submitted by the author, but by another blogger who thought it should be included. Reading On Burning Books posted at Evangel, I can see why. As a incorrigible bibliophile the burning of books distresses me, but this post deftly explains why the burning of books in Acts is completely different to that actions of fascists and fear mongers.

A truly inspiring post from NCSue, A special witness: Chiara Luce Badano posted at IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING, challenges us count our blessings and shows the power of faith.

Philip Carlson presents Army-Navy “E” Award posted at Science and Theology in Apposition and reminds us that history is all around us.

Tom presents Don’t Get Caught Resting On Your Lees posted at Lord Have Mercy, giving us not only a spiritual lesson but a vocabulary one. I have to admit, I didn’t know what that word meant either. Great blog and domain name btw!

Rodney Olsen presents An Offensive Gospel posted at Beyond Belief, asking us for our thoughts on an “offensive Gospel’. Is it offensive? Why don’t you let him know.

Andrew presents Children and parents. posted at Andrew where he talks about the different ways children and adults see the world.

Scottyi offers us some food for thought (yes, that one was a pun) in The Evangelism Rift posted at Sacred Raisin Cakes. Evangelism is a subject near and dear to my heart, and I have seen the failings of both the approaches he discusses so I really enjoyed his take on it.

Diane R presents The Church Integrationists are Hypocrits on her blog, Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet. This post will no doubt excite some heated debate, and I am sure that Diane would love to hear your thoughts.

In Self Centered Sorrow, posted at Thinking in Christ, Russ White talks about different approaches to injustice and hard times and gives us some Biblical advice.

As someone who plays cricket in a Christian outreach team I certainly could identify with Ridge Burns in Being Competitive posted at Ridge’s Blog. We have all been there!

A lovely story of witnessing from michelle is the subject of A Glimpse of Heaven posted at And She Went Out….

Jeremy Pierce talks shellfish and homosexuality as he takes issues with some of the arguments he has encountered regarding Old Testemant law. Check it out in Abominations posted at Parableman.

Perhaps one of the best quotes from this weeks carnival comes from Disciple’s Journal, and says:

There are lots of sad American Christians today. They’re sad because they don’t have enough and sad because they have too much they can’t give away.

I think you can remove the word “American” and it is just as true. For some great exegesis on the story of the rich young man, check out Lose the Thorns and find your Life.

Finally, last and probably least, check out my take on the debate about evolution in A Purpose Driven Life.

Hopefully I haven’t missed anybody, please contact me if you can’t see yours. There is some great reading, and I hope you get as much out of it as I did.

Thanks for visiting and don’t forget to submit to next week’s carnival!

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A purpose driven life

Sep 15

Posted by David in Faith | 4 Comments

As science has increasingly moved away from a theistic foundation for the Universe, Christians have had to make decisions about how they reconcile their faith with scientific discoveries that apparently contradict a Christian worldview. Perhaps the two most common decisions are either a withdrawal from any engagement with modern science (and a labelling of science as “godless”) or a belief that religion and science are guides to unconnected spheres, and that each deal solely with truths that do not encroach on one another. I have always been a lover of science, and I believe that this has enhanced my faith rather than diminished it. So, for me, both approaches are mistakes, but in this post I want to deal with one of the issues that is often brought to the forefront when we do seek to engage with current scientific theory.

We are in the middle of a battle of ideas over the origins of life, where on one side we have the idea that God specifically created life and that this creation culminated in the creature we know as Man. This viewpoint is shared by those who believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis and proponents of what is commonly known as Intelligent Design, or ID, which attempts to mesh scientific theory with Scriptural truth. While these camps have their conflicts, they share the common belief in a Creator who has specificcally created us in His image.

On the other side we have those who believe in the scientific Theory of Evolution which holds that (and this is a very simplistic definition) what we see in nature is the result of random mutations in life forms, where mutations that benefited the life form and allowed it to pass on its genes to offspring reoccurred. For example, a mutation that produced longer legs and allowed an animal to outrun its predators means that it would have more chance of reproducing and passing on that mutation, eventually influencing the development of that species. On the other hand, a mutation that produced an orange colour in a snow dwelling rabbit would probably mean that it would get eaten quite quickly and not pass on that mutation (I welcome any corrections to this summation).

Generally, Western civilisation has begun to wholeheartedly embrace the second position, meaning that many Christians have come to an uneasy accommodation with the Theory of Evolution. I have spoken to many Christians who have felt that either they can reconcile this with their faith, perhaps by believing that God started the process, or that the debate is unimportant, and that, in this area at least, science and faith can be kept separate. However, as I have learnt more about evolutionary theory, I have come to the conclusion that many of the assertions of this theory, when followed to their logical conclusion are in fact antithetical to Christian belief. There are two in particular that, without having to go any further, illustrate the, to me at least, unbridgeable gap between a Christian belief and the Theory of Evolution as currently held by the scientific establishment.
Read the rest of this entry »

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AUSSIECON 4 (or why I am a slack blogger)

Sep 8

Posted by David in Geek, Writing | 1 Comment

Well, the past week or so has been crazy. Surgery (again) last Tuesday, then the extraordinary madness that was AussieCon 4. I had an incredibly good time there, which I will go into further, but I am absolutely exhausted. Who knew geeks could party like that?!

I have also received a rejection notice for a short story I submitted more in hope than anything else, and a rewrite request for an anthology I desperately want to get into. It’s long odds, but there were (as far as I know) approximately 170 stories rejected in the first round, so I am happy to get a chance to submit a revised version. The challenge, of course, is balancing how much I want to get published with maintaining the integrity of the story.

AussieCon was my first major convention, and I really did have a blast. The funny thing was that I only actually made it to two of the panels for the whole event! But, I certainly don’t think I wasted my money, because it was the activities that surrounded the Con that really made it a truly memorable experience.

For a number of years I have been a member of a fan group for the author George R.R. Martin. This started when I started reading his “A Song of Ice and Fire” series and went looking for some information online. I stumbled across a fan run message board called Westeros and discovered a massive online community of fantasy and science fiction fans (15,000 plus). While it was ostensibly about GRRM and his works, there was discussion of every author imaginable, and huge debates about politics and religion. I made a lot of friends there and for a number of years was very active. I credit my exposure to so many diverse view points and some of the most intelligent people I have ever spoken to with honing my skills as an apologist, because in those debates if you didn’t know what you were talking about you would get torn to pieces. Lazy arguments were punished the way they deserved to be.

While as life moved on I cut down on my day to day posting, I still maintained the relationships I had formed, because these people meant a lot to me. Anyone who doesn’t understand that online friends can be just as important as ones you see daily probably should stop reading now! But, I had always hoped to meet some of them, and I knew there would be a fair few at AussieCon, and that GRRM would be there as well.

The fan group (the BWB – Brotherhood Without Banners) prides itself on its profile at conventions. and usually throws at least one party for the entire Con and organises a chance for the fans to meet GRRM. As someone “on the ground” I was involved in organising things in the lead up, like buying supplies and finding a venue for dinner the first night. Unfortunately, surgery meant I couldn’t be as useful as I had hoped! But, I managed to get the things done that were needed. It meant a fair bit of running around t, but I certainly didn’t mind that. The amount of pleasure I had gotten from GRRM’s writing and from my involvement on the board meant whatever help I could give was a privilege.

On the Thursday night 25 of us met with GRRM and his partner Parris for a private dinner at a pizza place in Southbank. It was incredibly exciting to get a chance to chat to one of my favourite authors, and over the course of the Con he gave  us all plenty of his time. In fact, I cannot speak highly enough of their attitude to fans and how accessible they made themselves to us, even in the last stages of the Con, when they must have been exhausted. The way they treated their fans was in stark contrast to some other authors who were there, including one very big name, who I will refrain from identifying!

Obviously, GRRM is someone I have always wanted to meet and I really did feel honoured and privileged by the amount of time I got to chat to him one on one. Not only at the dinner, I also shared a cab with them when taking them back to their hotel. I am, however, terribly embarrassed by the fact that I really did babble like the rankest fan boy each time! He was also very kind about my very modest writing achievements (which I couldn’t stop myself from telling him about) and left me inspired and encouraged to keep going with my dreams in that area.

But, as much as meeting George was the fulfilment of a long held dream, I have to say that I enjoyed just as much the chances I had to chat with Parris, and getting to hear about her fascinating life. She really is a lovely person, and she really made us fans feel important and valuable. I just can’t say enough good things about her (my wife thinks I have a bit of a crush on her because of how much I have talked about how wonderful she is, and maybe she is right haha).

On the Friday night there was a Con party, and I spent a lot of time talking to my fellow BWBers, and before I knew, it was 4:30am. After taking a few pain killers (due to the surgery after effects) I crashed and didn’t get back until late afternoon. Saturday was taken up with organising the finer details for the official BWB party we were throwing. We had to make a last minute venue change, and ended up hiring the VIP room at a Crown nightclub. I have to say it was a interesting experience going in and out and walking past the line of 50-100 people waiting to get into the actual nightclub to flash my ID and have a bouncer lift the ribbon and gesture me through with a “This way, Sir”!

The party was a huge success with hundreds of Con attendees turning up, and again we got a chance to see more of GRRM and Parris. We also raised a significant amount of money for charity. As fun as the party was, my glimpses of the nightclub itself reinforced my lack of interest in such things. No one out there looked like they were having much fun. My opinion of nightclubs is there are only three reasons to go…to drink, to dance and to pick up. As I don’t drink, I can’t dance and am very happily married it doesn’t really appeal to me at all!

Again, I got home in the wee hours of the morning only to discover I didn’t have my house keys. My wife reacted surprisingly well to being woken by my tapping on the window!

Sunday night we had more of a private party with GRRM and got to go on a traditonal BWB quest. Everyone just sat around and chilled, getting to talk to GRRM about all sorts of subjects. Monday was a sadder day as everyone began making their goodbyes, until finally there was only a few of the overseas visitors, the driving force duo from WA and myself left, sitting around reflecting on the wonderful time we had all had.

Aside from meeting one of my inspirations and spending time with people I had wanted to meet for years, I also got to make a lot of new friends (people who had started using the board after my time there had lessened). You couldn’t meet a  better bunch of people, and I will be endeavouring to catch up with them as soon as I can. And, the Con allowed to me to find out what some of the resources available to me as an aspiring Australian writer are, and caused me to sit down and set some real goals for the next few years.

I will probably post more on the Con in the next few weeks, but right now I am still recovering from all the excitment!!

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