Grace & Knowledge Blog

True prophets can be hard to listen to but tell us things that we need to hear.  Take for example the words of two biblical prophets that compare certain groups of people unfavorably to Sodom.

On the other hand, false prophets often tell people what they would like to hear.  There seem to be plenty of these prophets around today.

Tags: current events, grace and knowledge articles

In the 2015 NBA playoffs, lots of people in Israel have been following the progress of the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Cleveland's coach, David Blatt, has dual American/Israeli citizenship and coached in Israel for many years.

I was amused to see the other day that someone has found a "hidden message" in the Bible implying that Blatt was destined to coach Lebron James and the Cavaliers.  The message is found in I Sam 18:22:

 “Speak to David in private and say, ‘Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you.'

Apparently the Hebrew for "in private" is "blatt", and basketball fans know that "the king" is Lebron James.  So taking this snippet of the Bible out of context, we can imagine a message saying that Blatt should coach the Cavaliers.

Tags: current events

When I'm out driving, I will sometimes see messages in the license plate numbers of other cars.  Usually the messages are the ones intended by the owners of the cars, but occasionally I'm not sure. 

Today I saw the license plate number EZK 1818 and wondered, "Is that meant to be a reference to chapter 18 and verse 18 of the book of Ezekiel?"

When I got home, I looked up Ezekiel 18.  I knew that the main point of Ezekiel 18 is the principle that people are accountable for their own sins and not the sins of others.  I could see someone wanting to emphasize that principle.   

It turns out, though,  that if someone wanted to make that point on a license plate, the verse to reference would be verse 20, which summarizes the argument:

 "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. " 

Verse 18 is part of this discussion but isn't especially memorable in isolation from the rest of the chapter:

 "As for...

Tags: current events, license plates

Today the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Reds, and Cincinnati Bengals were all in action, and all four teams won.

That probably hasn't happened very often.

If each one had a 50/50 chance of winning, the probability of all four winning would only be about 1/16, less than 7 per cent.

If all four teams had, say, a 60 per cent chance of winning, then the probability of al four winning would be more like .1296, about 13 per cent.

So I wonder how many September Sundays there have been since 1968, when the Bengals came into existence, when all four won on the same day.

This year it looks like both the Indians and Reds could be in the playoffs. That happened previously in 1995.

Tags: baseball, current events

A few months ago Miami University made the local news when three students were caught hacking into a professor's online gradebook by making use of a key logger on a classroom computer.

In response to that incident, the University has instituted some safeguards.  In particular, professors receive an email whenever questionable changes are made in their online gradebooks.

I found out last week how the system works.  At the end of the semester, students will sometimes ask what score they need to earn on the final exam to obtain a certain grade. 

Years ago I would sometimes answer that this is an arithmetic problem, and arithmetic is certainly a prerequisite for any college math course.

These days, though, it is easy to answer such queries with a few keystrokes.  When one student asked me the question the day before his final, I went to the online gradebook and typed in a few possible scenarios.  The gradebook program immediately calculated what the student's final grade would be for each exam score that we entered.  

Shortly thereafter I received an automatically-generated email, reporting that a series of grade changes had occurred in my gradebook and telling me what to do if...

Tags: campus life, current events

It's late December.  The 2012 calendar on my bulletin board is on its last page.  So I'm thinking about calendars. 

There are so many different kinds.  There are ones with a different comic for each day, or a different profound thought.  There are calendars with dazzling fractal pictures, or pictures of cats, or pictures from Israel. 

I wonder if the Hallmark Store has any Mayan calendars.  After all, anybody who has had one of those for the past 5126 years is going to need a new one tomorrow. 

 I wonder how many tacks would be required to get one of those to stay on the bulletin board and not fall down? 

 I have a feeling that Mayan calendar software would be more practical.  You could keep track of all your appointments for the next 5126 years--how cool is that?

But when the calender finally ran out, I would really miss it.  It would have recorded so many major events.  Lke the time there was a 40-inch snowstorm, or that time when a Cleveland sports team won a championship.  (It's bound to happen sometime.)  

But it wouldn't be the end of the world.  I'd just have to get a new one.

Tags: current events

Last night at 2 AM, the clocks switched back to 1 AM in the annual shift from daylight time to standard time.

This is the closest we get to time travel, going back in time one hour.  If we didn't like what we were doing between 1 and 2 AM the first time,  we can try something different. 

This might have been a good day for weddings, since "2 became 1".   Just a thought.

Tags: current events, humor

This week on the Hebrew calendar is Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles.  One image connected with this festival is that of the peaceable messianic kingdom:

ISA 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
  the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.

  ISA 11:7 The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

  ISA 11:8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
    and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.

  ISA 11:9 They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
  for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
    as the waters cover the sea.

Because we associate these images with Sukkot, Sherry and I were struck by two things that have happened this week.

Early Tuesday morning Sherry came upon a deer in front of our house.  To her surprise, the deer licked her hand, something she had never experienced before.

Later in the day, across...

Tags: current events

There've been some good lectures on campus already this fall.

On September 20, Dr. Connie Rodriguez of Loyola University New Orleans gave an Archaeological Institute of America lecture on "Dress Boots of the Roman Emperors".  I've never been especially interested in expensive Italian shoes, but hearing about ancient footwear turned out to be fun.   I've posted an article on this lecture at the G&K website. 

On October 10, Dr. Daniel Buxhoeveden of the University of South Carolina gave a lecture called "Christianity and Science in Dialogue".  I was glad to hear the thoughts of a scientist who is also a serious Christian (of the Eastern Orthodox persuasion).

Then on October 12, writer Hooman Majd, who is a citizen of both the U.S. and Iran, shared an Iranian perspective on America in a lecture called "The Iran Question."

Tags: current events, grace and knowledge articles, lectures

Sherry told me today that there might be rain this afternoon, and there would be a meteor shower on Friday.

Then for some reason I started thinking about what it might mean for a shower to be "meatier", since "meaty" isn't an adjective usually applied to showers. It must have been too close to lunchtime.

Tags: current events, words

The major league baseball season is just past its midpoint.  With both the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds in playoff contention, this continues to be a fun year for baseball fans in Ohio. 

For several years now the American League seems to have been a bit stronger overall than the National League, as evidenced by the results of interleague play.  But the gap between the two may be closing.  This year the AL had a record of 131-121 in interleague games, a winning percentage of .51984 (not too far over .500).  Cleveland was 11-7, Cincinnati 6-12, with Cleveland winning 5 of 6 games between the two Ohio teams.

Tags: baseball, current events

There's a great article in the June/July 2011 issue of First Things by Princeton physicist William Happer.  In "The Truth about Greenhouse Gases", Happer explains why carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, contrary to the claims of climate change alarmists.

Happer notes that the currrent level of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere is about 390 ppm, up from 280 ppm about 150 years ago.  Temperatures during that time period have gone up about  4/5 of a degree Celsius. 

To put these numbers in context, he explains that for plants to grow, the level has to be at least 150 ppm, and that the higher the level of carbon dioxide, the better plants do.  Humans run into trouble if the level is too high. NASA has estimated that levels above 5000 ppm are harmful to people.  The current 390 is way below 5000.  

Happer says that current levels of burning of fossil fuels add about 2 ppm per year to the atmosphere, which puts us in no danger of having carbon dioxide levels that are too high.  A doubling of the current level, which would take about 195 years, would only cause warming of 1 degree Celsius.

Happer also...

Tags: current events, first things

Early Christians often had to deal with Roman Emperors who proclaimed themselves to be gods and didn't appreciate Christians saying that Jesus was the true Ruler of the world. 

More recently Christians in Communist countries have had to face the wrath of dictators who would tolerate no competing authorities.  It has been estimated that two thirds of all the martyrdoms in Christian history occurred during the 20th Century, with Communist regimes responsible for most of that persecution.

In an important article in the April 2011 issue of First Things, George Weigel describes the Soviet Union's relentless war against the Catholic Church.  He identifies those, like John Paul II, who successfully stood up against Communism.  He also identifies those who cooperated with or spied for the Communists.

When President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union "the Evil Empire", he was simply stating the truth about a regime that enslaved hundreds of millions of people. Sadly, his statement was controversial, an indication of the extent to which the West was in denial of Communism's true nature.

We should never forget the heroism of those who bravely fought to topple the  Soviet Union.  And we should pray for those who are resisting...

Tags: current events, first things

I wonder if anyone has ever compiled a list of all the dates that have been put forward as predictions for the Second Coming of Jesus. 

If so, the date May 21, 2011, can be added to the list.  This prediction is being announced on some billboards in several major cities in the U.S.  

Even though Jesus himself said that the time of his return is impossible to predict--e.g., Matt 24:36--the temptation to try and do so anyway can be extremely difficult to resist.  I'm guessing that the complete list of predicted dates would include days in the majority of the years  AD.

Tags: current events

A headline in the Hamilton Journal-News caught my eye this morning:

Ohio EPA Stuns Fish in Great Miami River

It turns out that the EPA is checking out the water quality and varieties of fish in the river.  In carrying out the survey, they tase some fish, check them out, and return them to the water.  

According to Hannah Poturalski, the writer of the article, 

Bob Miltner, environmental specialist, alongside Mark Rainieri, second-year intern, motored around a 500-meter area of the river Thursday electrofishing to determine the number of fish species in the river. Fish varieties found include silver redhorse, smallmouth buffalo, smallmouth redhorse and longnose gar.

Trimble said not only do they identify the fish but assess their condition, looking for deformities, eroding fins, lesions and tumors.

 Here we have yet another example of applied statistics in action. 

Tags: current events

Americans have always been very interested in the religions of their Presidents and presidential candidates, past and present.  I wrote something about this in 2008, when Prof. David Holmes of William and Mary visited Miami and gave a lecture based on his book The Faiths of the Founding Fathers.

For those interested in the faith of President Obama, this 2004 interview with Cathleen Falsani is very informative.

One revealing exchange:

Tags: current events