eXpelled...

So, I went and saw the movie eXpelled(http://www.expelledthemovie.com/) this last week and I have to say that I was very impressed with the job that Ben Stein has done. The film is a documentary on the Intelligent Design movement and whether it has actually had an appreciation in the University system, or not. Ben Stein's thesis is that people who have hinted at the idea of intelligent design as an intellectual position have been denied tenure, or had their graduate paper revoked, or a whole host of other bullying type tactics from the universities that they work at. The thing that I realized from it is this: That all theists ought to agree on the fact that the scientist owes them an explanation of where everything came from. I realized this in light of a debate that I mediated between two theists, where one was contending that the creation of the world was a literal 7-day creation, and the other was arguing for theistic evolution(evolution that is guided by a supremem mover). The funny thing is...they're both right as far as being completely opposed to a completely scientific answer to the question of the origin of the cosmos. This was illuminated by eXpelled because Ben Stein has A-class intellectuals that are unable to give an answer as to where the earth, and the universe, came from. They suggest that they came from crystals, or Aliens from another planet brought them here...I know, sounds insane huh? Anyways, I recommend the movie and I also would suggest that you pick up the books that were written by both the theists and atheists that were on the movie, because they are all top-notch professors.

Winter Quarter?...Complete!

My Blog has been empty for a while. I wanted to write this blog on classes that I have been taking. Here are some of the things (summed up in one sentence) that I have learned this semester.
1) That the Holocaust was unique, as an event, for various reasons.
2) That the Epistemic view in Philosophy of Mind is really as plausible as Dualism.
3) That Husserl and Phenomenology are hard to study because no one agrees on what his words actually mean.
4) That Philosophy of Language is far more interesting than I had thought previously.
That is all for now...
My second Quarter starts on Monday.
- Milnik...out

My New Job

So, I started my new job this week at Shepherd of the Hills Church. I have really enjoyed meeting all these new faces (as well as being back down by my gilrfriend). People have been surprisingly welcoming for LA, and I have greatly appreciated that. I will be working with the college-aged group that they have here entitled The Vine. I am in charge of the on-campus club at CSUN as well as the small group ministry in the Vine. It is a pretty sweet gig, and I look forward to really doing the CSUN campus minsitry, because it going to be a verry missional club and that is something that I am passionate about. I hope for people to find Jesus through both ministries and I hope to make all kinds of new friends as well. That is all for now.

Lounging and Loathing and Loving

So...I'm sitting at my girlfriends house right now, and in approximately 4 hours I'm going to need to wake up and drive home to Sonora. I have been in LA and Mexico over the past two weeks and have done quite a bit of stuff...here are some of the highlights. 

1) Disneyland...although not looking forward to the trip, it was a success due to the fireworks and the new space mountain (new since the last time I had been).

2) My girlfriends hands...she gives a far superior back-rub to any that I have had, and actually has very strong hands for a tiny woman.

3) Being in Mexico and working among the needy...on the last day we went to a house that was probably 100ft. x 30ft., and 60 people, or so, in 10 families live there. It struck me how eager the kids were to grab any, and everything, that we would give them. Some of the youngest ones had no shoes and we were able to get them some so that by the time we left, they were all wearing shoes. One thing that struck me was that while we were playing and throwing all the kids up in the air, some of the older girls (age 11-13) wanted to be thrown into the air as well. Of course, I could only throw them like 10 inches above me because they were a little heavier, but this caused me to think about a few things. It got me thinking about the fact that all of these kids basically skip their childhood. Although they might get a chance to occasionally play, they lack the basic experiences that we take for granted as kids...like hugs, and dads throwing us in the air, and having chicken fights in swimming pools. One of the girls there was 14 and was 8 months pregnant with her second child. As far as I'm concerned...she has skipped her childhood. She will never know what its like to go on a first date, to go to a high school prom, to let a male love her apart from wanting her body...so sad. I know this seems like I am asserting a lot of possibly false things, but the problem is that she will probably become like all the other women around that house. Most of them seem to be somewhere between 25-35 and they all have 4 or more kids, and we found out from someone at the orphanage that incest is a common thing in that house. So, I will continue to pray for the situation and try to help every time I go back, because kids need to be able to be kids. I hope someday to be able to do a longer term missions trip and really make some difference. I believe that grace is a powerful thing, and is best used when it is given by us to others...because Christ has extended it to us. May we all extend grace to others at some point...even when it is simply giving someone back their childhood.  

4) we also saw a Mexican guy get beat up and shoved out of the back of a truck by his boss who didn't want to pay him. So, we flagged down a police car and sent him with the police after his boss that had done this to him. Random story...but quite an experience.

Books to Read

As I gear up to go back to school and start reading required material again...here are a few books that I have thoroughly enjoyed over the past year....whether I agree with all of them is another question, and you can ask me if you'd like to know what I thought about them.
"The Challenge of Jesus" by N.T. Wright
"Imagine" by Steve Turner
"Desire of the Everlasting Hills" by Thomas Cahill
"The Presence of the Future" by George Eldon Ladd
"There is a god" by Anthony Flew
"The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne
"God has a Dream" by Desmond Tutu
"Silence" by Shusaku Endo
"So You Don't Want to go to Church Anymore" by Jake Colsen

These books are all books that caused me to think about stuff this year. Anyways, read them and then let me know what you think.

My Buddy Steve

So, this week my budy Steve was trying to make it to LA and his car managed to breakdown somewhere around the Sacramento Area. He called and said that he might need my help, and then became disconnected. I therefore concluded that he would be alright. Then I tried to call him and his cell phone was either off...or dead. So, i started to think that perhaps Steve might be dead, or else be on the side of the road somewhere near Sac on the 5. So, if you see this Guy in the picture anywhwere, tell him that I'm looking for him....and let him know that he's alright ...even though he only weighs 90 Lbs... and looks like ET with his shirt off.

Vegetarians and Theists

Does it ever appear to be a contradiction when you meet a vegetarian who is an evolutionary atheist (EA). It always seems odd to me for the following reasons. If one is to look at the theory of evolution, there are basically four areas that a species would want to increase their fitness in, in order for their species to gain better traits and lose bad ones. The four areas are feeding, fighting, flighting, and reproducing (these basics are borrowed from Plantinga’s evolutionary argument). So, it seems that to excel in the areas of flighting and fighting, one would want the optimum diet, as well as, the optimum training regimen to make a specific species stronger.

This is where the problem enters.

A strictly vegetarian diet is not the optimum diet, in fact, we all know that the optimum diet would include various kinds of meat (specifically Chicken, fish, and other seafood). So, when an EA decides to be a vegetarian, they are actually not wanting their species to be the fittest (especially if you are a rational being…like a human), and therefore the species will eventually die off. The problem is that they are still around, and so I want to know what the justification for that is. My conclusion, is that all vegetarians ought to be theists, or else they shouldn’t be vegetarians because they are dragging down our species.