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Speaking of shrill, an atheist student group has set up a table on the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio.  Their project name is “Smut for Smut.”  If you turn in your Bible (which they consider smut), they will give you some real smut (a pornographic magazine).
Here’s the rationale in a quote [...]

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The Tebow Family Tackles (sorry I couldn’t help it) the Super Bowl
In spite of all the snarling, whining, and threatening, CBS aired the ad sponsored by Focus on the Family featuring Pam (mother) and Tim (son) Tebow.  Pam Tebow talked about her “miracle baby,” how hard it was, and how she still worried about “little [...]

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On March 31, 2005 Terry Schiavo died.  If you don’t remember the name Schiavo, maybe you’ll remember that there was a nationwide controversy surrounding her husband’s efforts to pull the plug.
This case – probably mostly forgotten – was a high point for “the culture of death” and a low point for prolife and disability advocates.
But [...]

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Freud was all about one thing meaning or symbolizing something else.  So much so that it was alleged that his incessant cigar smoking was about something quite different.  He defended himself by saying “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
It has been documented that Freud smoked around 20 cigars per day.  That would mean he [...]

Tags: alien race, allegory, baby sleep, battlestar galactica, cigar, cigar smoking, day, didn, Earth, earth final conflict, Freud, Hannity, invasion of the body, invasion of the body snatchers, Joe Johnston Sr., O'Reilly, Obama, Obamamania, plot, show, star trek novel, stogie, TV review, universal health care, use, V, V.  V, Visitors, War
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I just retired – as of this school year – from approximately 31 years of teaching.  I haven’t retired from 25+ years of parenting.  Being a parent and a teacher causes a strange kind of schizophrenia including multiple personality (dis)order (for those of you who are running or 35 watts, this is hyperbole).  Think like [...]

Tags: abundant evidence, cause, child psychology, clear and present danger, evidence, generation, Hanging, Joe Johnston Sr., juvenile crime rates, learning theories, multiple personality, parent, parenting, parents and teachers, poor parenting, power, school, strange kind, teacher, teaching, test score
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There’s a great concern today that the modern evangelical church has, at best, marginalized Jesus Christ in the church or, at worst, kicked him out completely.  Below are some “Top 10” (or more) lists on the topic  These are not necessarily in order of importance.

Your pastor wears Hawaiian shirts, jeans, and no shoes. (see my [...]

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(This one has to be in the first person, folks.)
My first reaction was “huh” followed quickly by “oh brother” and “for what?” …. But I think we have all gotten used to the “moral intelligentsia” superimposing greatness on their chosen ones.
President Obama was inaugurated on January 20.  The nominations for the Nobel Peace must be [...]

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You know when something doesn’t feel right, right?  When my boys were in Little League and soccer during their elementary years, a couple things would happen.  Everybody would get a trophy.  They would ask what the final score was and nobody would answer.
Even in school, things that didn’t make sense happened.  Everybody would get a [...]

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I was standing outside of a classroom where I used to be an educator of sorts waiting to help a teacher administer an important beginning-of-the-year reading test.  A teacher across the hall looking rather pale said to me that something terrible was happening.  She lead me to her computer.  There was a one line news [...]

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nobody x nothing = everything
0 x 0 = 4234234235805982509834092384029384029384023….
Do either of these “formulas” make sense to you?  There is no force behind the creation of the universe.  So nobody created it.  And it apparently came to be out of nothing. 
If you call yourself an atheist, this is pretty much the hypothesis you are stuck with.  [...]

Tags: apparent cause, aquinas, argument, atheist, cause, chain, change, cosmological argument, creation of the universe, Darwin, everything, ex nihilo nihil fit, existence, first mover, God, Joe Johnston Sr., might make sense, nobody, nothing, oak tree, theory, universe, watchmaker
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Violating Own Rule:  Will be unabashedly using I in this post.
Some say it’s just making connections — stimulus-response.  Some say the data is already there and we discover it.  Some say we construct complex knowledge structures — schemata.  Some say our brain creates reality.
Blurring the Distinction Between Fiction and Non-Fiction
My wife and I were very [...]

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Below is a list of quick thoughts to get out of the way before more lengthy posts:

There really is absolute truth out there.  Your truth and my truth are merely our perceptions of the truth.  Perceptions do not create truth.  They reflect – accurately or inaccurately – individual knowledge of truth.
Likewise, reality is what’s real.  [...]

Tags: absol, absolute truth, baby seals, cat, doesn, existence of god, Faith, God, hedonists, Joe Johnston Sr., manners and etiquette, matter, opinion, philosophy, prize possession, rape murder, reality, right, section, stoics, table manners and etiquette, truth, truth out, understanding
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I’m not really a “journaling” kind of guy, but for this post only, I’ll keep it in the first person.  Today the 2009-2010 school year started without me.  After 35 years of gainful employment (mostly gainful), I have joined the great baby boomer mass of retirees. 
The two complaints I have so far are as follows:  [...]

Tags: apologetics, baby boomer, clean house, cooking, culture, education, gainful employment, grownup, guy, house, house husband, housework, I. What, joe johnston, Joe Johnston Sr., kind, person, person pronoun, personal diary, philosophy, post, retirement, retirement pitfalls, school, teaching, theology, Today, translation, two dogs, wife
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