UNIVERSITY OF SCIATICA .

During the spell I was laid up with back pain I made
use of time off of work to read books, listen to audio
Cds and watch documentaries on TV and DVD. I call
this time in my life "The University of Sciatica"!

I've already mentioned Melvyn Bragg's "In our Time"
radio series in an earlier blog, but I want to flag up
a couple of other good sources I discovered during
my enforced 'sabbatical'.

'Amazon' are always a good resource if you are house
bound. Great books, reasonably priced delivered to
your door. If you are not a great reader why not try
an audio book? Push the boat out and try a subject
or author you've never heard of - who knows where it
might lead?! You will be the richer for having tried!
Amazon also have a great DVD rental service.

I stumbled across a company based in the USA who
provide university (college) style lectures in a variety
of media. I've bought a few courses in audio CD from
them over the last few months "CS Lewis", "Western
Civilization", "Russian Literature", "Natural Law", "Books
that changed the World", one on Chinese civilisation
"From Yao to Mao" and latterly "The Birth of the Modern
Mind - an intellectual history of the 17th & 18th centuries"!
These and many other courses are available from 'The
Teaching Company' http://www.teach12.com/ Check out their
e-catalog! Some advice; (1) I personally wouldn't order
the transcripts as the courses do come with some,
perfectly adequate, written notes. (2) For customers
outside the USA be aware that your local customs may
impose a charge [eg HMG Customs will levy a charge on
product worth over $50]. These are my only caveats -
this company is an excellent resource; I recommend them
to you.

As for Bible teaching I thoroughly recommend
www.shmedia.org.uk and www.thegoodbook.co.uk Maybe
you too will one day have an opportunity like mine to
create your own curriculum in your own learning experience!
Don't knock it! The Good Book Company also offer
correspondence courses to certificate level through the
"Open Bible Institute" [formerly known as the Moore
College Correspondence Courses]. I've done the 'Bible
Introduction' and 'New testament 1' [that's Mark's Gospel]
in times past and I'm presently having a crack at 'Old
Testament 1' [that's the Pentateuch]. The exams are
optional - but hey if you're going to do the work why not
go for the certificate?! http://www.open-bible-institute.org/

Just one more recommendation; I created my own
'University of Sciatica' t-shirt online at http://www.eshirt.it/
Honest, it's a really easy site to use and they have some
great designs which you can customise, or you can upload
your own image if you like.

Over the last couple of months I've been gradually
increasing the number of hours at work; initially doing
office based stuff and more recently doing clinical work
on the Children's Intensive Care Unit at 'Sonata Smith's
Hospital' in London. Oh, and earlier this month I managed
to do my previously aborted walking trip to the Lake
District. So things are definately moving in the right
direction.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUCA.

My name is Luca and I am a stray cat.I think my
previous owners must have got bored with me.
It's not uncommon for Humans to take us to a
strange part of town and drive off. I had to live
rough for a while.

One rainy day I wandered into someone's garden
and peered in through the french windows. I must
have looked a sorry sight - dripping wet and half
starved.

I don't blame Pete & Helen for not feeding me
straight away because they probably thought I
had a home to go to. I stayed in their garden in
the meantime cos it's quiet there. Anyway they
gave me some food when they could see how
thin I'd become. After that I couldn't keep away.
I'd eat anything back in those days. I love roast
chicken - definately my favourite - let me know
the next time you're cooking and I'll drop in for
dinner! I suppose it is fair to say that I've become
a bit more picky about my food these days; I'm not
so keen nowadays on 'Whiskas' Cod - if that's put
out for me I'll wander down the street to Shirley's
to see if there is a better offer!

Pete & Helen called me 'Lucas' at first until they
realised that I was a girl! I have a lovely black
and white coat which is nicely complemented by
a new red collar - it is so nice to feel that I 'belong'
to someone again!

What gets me is how capricious these Humans are.
One day just when I was beginning to feel a bit
more confident I was whisked away to an evil
place called the Veterinary Surgeon.

I was stabbed, poked, de-fleaed, de-wormed,
vaccinated and had THREE teeth extracted because
they had gone
" bad "

.......whatever that means. I was hopping mad
and sulked for days! They said
" it was for my own good "
- yeah right. They said all this
" treatment "cost them £300 - I have no comprehension
whatsoever what this means. I suppose I just have to
take their word for it on
" faith "!

It's enough to make you doubt the goodness of Man!



PostScript: 26th October 2006.
I might have misjudged Luca by implying that she is an
ungrateful cat. This morning when I returned home after
a night shift there was the biggest, deadest MOUSE laid
out on our doorstep!
Personally its not my taste, but I appreciate the sentiment!
To everyone out there in blog-world - I hope that your day
starts as fruitfully as mine!

Signed: a shamefaced cat owner.

FRIDAY THE 13th!
Superstition & Destiny.

The problem with superstition is the implication that one's
destiny is ultimately controlled by forces the control of
which is the province of a professional magician class.
Being interested in Astronomy (not to be confused with
Astrology!) I entered my birthdate into a computer
programme checking on planetary positions. To my
surprise the Sun was in the constellation Leo - my
"birthsign" is supposedly Virgo. I don't mean the Sun
was on the margins of the two it was definately well
within the 'wrong' star sign!

Since Ptolemy the ancient astronomer defined the
Zodiac two and a half thousand years ago a phenomenon
called the precession of the equinoxes has shunted the
constellations along a month or so. It's like having a
calendar without the leap years - over time the months
end up out of synch. It is amusing to think that astrologers
claim to be able to read ones destiny but cannot get the
one objective starting point right!

I once put this to an astrologer friend of mine; "so what star
sign am I? Leo or Virgo?".......... "Typical b****y Virgoan!"
she replied!

The point is as a Christian I don't believe my destiny is ruled
by the date. I don't accept that the date defines who I am.
To give way to such fears is to deny that Jesus is Lord.
He is the one who defines who I am and he is the one
who controls my destiny.

MELVYN BRAGG; "In Our Time".

Melvyn Bragg has returned to BBC radio 4 recently with a new
series of "In Our Time". The format is a discussion by a panel
of experts chaired by Bragg exploring the history of ideas.
It is on at 9am on Thursday mornings for 45 minutes and a
shorter version is repeated the same evening at 9.30pm on
Radio 4. [92.4-94.6 MHz; 198 kHz].

I've always been a fan of this programme since I heard an
explanation of 'the standard model' of sub-atomic particles
which 'blew my mind'!

The subjects can be rather esoteric but they do provide
you with an introduction to topics you might never have
heard of otherwise. Sometimes they look at science,
sometimes it's history, other times it can be literature or
philosophy. I often find that "In Our Time" can inspire
me to look further into a given subject - you don't always
have to agree with a panellist's opinion to feel curious
enough to follow it up with some reading of your own.

Earlier this year I had to take some time off work because
of back pain. This period was a great opportunity to listen
to some of these programmes I'd recorded over the years.
I called this my "University of Sciatica"! [Don't you think that
sounds a bit like a midwestern college? I even had a T-Shirt
made up with this name - how sad is that?]

Anyway I am writing to recommend this radio series and to
let you know that you can access the archive of previous
discussions at the website below, either to listen on-line or
download in an mp3 format.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/inourtime/inourtime.shtml

DAN BAKER'S AUNT SALLY.

October 2006's thought from my agnostic calendar is:

"Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith,
then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its
own merits." Dan Baker.

"Aah.......this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'faith'
that I wasn't previously aware of!" (Apologies to Douglas Adams
and 'Arthur Dent'!)

One cannot have faith in something [that is trust it] unless at
some level you are convinced it already has merit. Derrrrr!

It makes you wonder what the apostle Paul was doing in Athens
debating with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, or why he
spent two years "reasoning daily in the Hall of Tyrannus" with
all-comers [see Acts 17 &19!]. Incidentally what have I been
doing this last year with "Calendar of Doom" if not arguing the
merits of the case?

To have a mature dialogue on issues that divide us requires an
agreement over what exactly we disagree on! Can I recommend
Wayne Grudem's "Systematic Theology" published by IVP:
GB ISBN 0-85110-652-8 or USA ISBN 0-310-28670-0. The
contents give a surprisingly accesible account of evangelical beliefs.
Chapter 35 and specifically pages 710 & 711 puts paid to a couple
of commonly accepted, but laughable, concepts of 'faith' including
the irrational belief in something despite the abscence of evidence
version which yanked Dan Baker's chain. There is a good explanation
there of what 'faith' really means in the context of the evangelical
faith [and frankly I'm not an apologist for any other kind].

Biblically speaking 'faith' is not so much about believing abstract
assertions, it is more akin to trusting in the character of a personal
being and the promises they make. A Christian is someone who
believes that there is ample evidence to justify not merely a belief
in God's existence but crucially to trust in God's character. Now
Dan Baker will almost certainly not accept that evidence as
compelling - but that is a totally different issue to simply asserting
that Christians have put the 'faith' cart before the evidential horse!

Rather than view 'faith' as some special category of knowledge semi-
detached from reality, it is important to say that we all put our trust
in others from time-to-time [eg the pilot of my holiday flight, the
cook who prepared my meal, even the compiler of the bus timetable
etc etc etc]. All civilisation hinges on those little quantum packets of
trust we both give and receive. But we have already covered a lot of
this ground back in February's "Calendar of Doom" when we looked
at 'Doubt & Certainty' with Voltaire. Incidentally the compiler of the
'agnostic calendar' was asserting 'faith' in Dan Baker when they chose
his quotation - they trusted in the veracity of his accusation.

Let us hope that it was not the case that he thought it is sufficient
merely to caricature and misrepresent someone else's position. If so
it can only be the gallery he is playing to. Or it might simply be that
he hasn't done enough background reading before launching his
attack.

Either way; when he sorts himself out his little homily against
"intellectual bankruptcy" will be a tad more credible.




tagline: Dan Baker. Misrepresentation. Caricature. Versus. Peter
Swift. Faith. Gospel. Evangelical. Evangelicalism. Christianity.
swiftypete. Jesus. Jesus Christ. Intellectual. Mature. Calendar of
Doom. The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. H2G2. 'Safe'. The
God Delusion.