What’s Going On

A quick entry (maybe) about what’s been going on in the past few weeks.

Earlier on in the month, while there was still snow, the kids and I went tobogganing a few times (once with Alana as well). It’s too bad there’s not much snow lately, so we haven’t had much of a chance in the past little bit, but I’m thankful for the lack of snow in other ways (i.e. for driving purposes). William also got a new (for him) pair of skates and a hockey helmet (both for free – I don’t know how Alana finds these things), and he got to go skating a couple of weeks ago as well.

Niamh went to the eye doctor last week and she’s now started wearing a patch for 2 1/2 hours each day. The glasses haven’t gotten rid of her lazy eye yet, so this is the next step. They expect that since we caught it relatively early (so they say) that the patch should be sufficient.

The kids have both started swimming lessons again. Niamh is redoing the course she took several months ago, while William is moving on. Being older, William seems to be progressing quite well, but I think they both enjoy the lessons quite a bit.

 

What’s in a Prorogation?

It sounds like there are many people who are upset about the Conservative government’s decision to prorogue parliament until after the Winter Olympics are over. Looking at the comments, it seems many people are making the argument, “It’s not so much that they are proroguing that’s the problem as to the length. Proroguing is almost always for a period of one day, and sometimes only an hour. Do some research, and you’ll see.”

So, I looked for the information. It’s not all that easy to find, but with a bit of work, I worked out all the values from the Wikipedia session information and came up with the following list:

 

Church Loses Charity Status – CCC

Kings Glory Fellowship received a letter from Canada Revenue Agency informing them that they are no longer eligible, after over thirty years of having charity status, to keep their status.  The agency cited that “members of the Board of Directors espouse strong negative views about sensitive and controversial issues, which may also be viewed as political, such as abortion, homosexuality, divorce, etc” as the reason for denial.

The head pastor, Artur Pawlowski, from Kings Glory Fellowship, is also involved in running Street Church Ministries in Calgary.  CRA made a connection between the two separate organizations and their directors and made a ruling against Kings Glory on that basis.  The thrust of their decision penalizes Pawlowski, and Kings Glory, for speech and activities outside of the organization.  Government is once again, through yet another branch, interfering with freedom of speech, expression and religion.

“This is simply a way of punishing me for defending our rights, and for standing up to bureaucracy, and speaking out against corruption and abuse of power.  Speaking about different sins is not a political behaviour but is rather a God and state given right.  We are a church, and I am a pastor, what is the government expecting me to talk about if not moral issues and God’s laws?”, stated Pawlowski…

More… (source)

Note: Part of the Canadian Revenue Agency letter has been reproduced here.

 

2010 ToDo List

It’s probably not a great idea for me to post a resolutions list for this year, especially as it concerns the blog since I haven’t been able to finish off what I had hoped in past years. So I’ll just list some things I’d like to work on, whether or not I can actually get around to it or not:

1. Add journal entries as usual.
2. Finish off work on the game that I’m currently making to help me learn Greek (and post it).
3. Post a few papers on various issues (something I don’t think I did last year, though I have four or five half-finished ones – just need to see them through to the end.)
4. Keep up to date on evolution/id news items.
5. Finish off entries in the Family section of my About page.

Looks like a manageable list, we’ll see how it goes…

 

Oldest Hebrew Inscription Deciphered – University of Haifa

A breakthrough in the research of the Hebrew scriptures has shed new light on the period in which the Bible was written. Prof. Gershon Galil of the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa has deciphered an inscription dating from the 10th century BCE (the period of King David’s reign), and has shown that this is a Hebrew inscription. The discovery makes this the earliest known Hebrew writing. The significance of this breakthrough relates to the fact that at least some of the biblical scriptures were composed hundreds of years before the dates presented today in research and that the Kingdom of Israel already existed at that time…

He adds that once this deciphering is received, the inscription will become the earliest Hebrew inscription to be found, testifying to Hebrew writing abilities as early as the 10th century BCE. This stands opposed to the dating of the composition of the Bible in current research, which would not have recognized the possibility that the Bible or parts of it could have been written during this ancient period.

Prof. Galil also notes that the inscription was discovered in a provincial town in Judea. He explains that if there were scribes in the periphery, it can be assumed that those inhabiting the central region and Jerusalem were even more proficient writers. “It can now be maintained that it was highly reasonable that during the 10th century BCE, during the reign of King David, there were scribes in Israel who were able to write literary texts and complex historiographies such as the books of Judges and Samuel.” He adds that the complexity of the text discovered in Khirbet Qeiyafa, along with the impressive fortifications revealed at the site, refute the claims denying the existence of the Kingdom of Israel at that time…

More… (source)

 

Year in Review

Well, again it’s been a while since I’ve let everyone know what’s been going on, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to review the year to let you know what’s been happening around here. It’s been a couple of years since the last one, so here it is:

January

I had the day off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and since William had been asking for a long time to make a snowman, we put on our snowsuits and went outside. The snow was much too powdery, and not sticky enough to even think of making a snowman, however, so since we had plenty of drift snow, we made an igloo instead. We’ll have to wait for a bit more snow this year before we can make another one, but we both enjoyed it. Later on in the month, William thought it would be a good idea to haul out the swimming pool and go for a swim, but he decided against it when he was told he wouldn’t be allowed to swim with his winter coat on.

At the end of the month the family went to the skating rink to go skating with the rest of the church. William tried skating for the first time and it went pretty decently all things considered. Niamh had the double-bladed skates on and didn’t do a whole lot, but they both had fun.

 

Posting Source Code

I’ve just found out how to post source code on WordPress (I hadn’t really looked into it before), so I’ve converted one of my earlier posts, “Methinks… Part 1″. It certainly looks better this way, although it’s unfortunate that the line numbers don’t handle line continuations (that’s a small matter, though).

 

Finally posted…

As mentioned yesterday, my journal entry for this year’s baseball tournament is finally finished, and can be found here. Last year’s (2008) can be found here, 2007’s can be found here, and 2006’s can be found here. I don’t believe we had day-long tournaments before 2006, though, so I’ve go not entries before that (of course, not having the blog until after 2005 could have something to do with that as well).

 

An Overdue Update

Well, it’s been quite a while since the last update (at least several months), so it is probably a good thing to do a little update before I forget everything, and to let everyone know what’s been going on around here. I won’t mention the baseball tournament because I already have an entry half-done on that, so that will have to wait until I get around to it (if I ever do).

In September William started going to Orangeville Christian School. Orangeville is a fair distance from here (about 40 minutes), but the school is quite a bit cheaper than HMDCS and it’s not too far out of the way from my drive to work (an extra 20-25 minutes), so it’s not too bad getting him there. He was attending a Catholic school for Jr Kindergarten, but when Alana found out the price, we decided to send him to OCS this year to see how it would go. We drop him off in the morning at one of the houses on the bus route and he takes the bus from there to get to school. If we’re early for the bus William stays in the house with two of his classmates until it gets there. So far it’s being going pretty well. William likes his teachers and his classmates, and he gets along well with everyone, we’re told. At first he wasn’t too keen on going to a new school, but he warmed up to it pretty quickly. This past Wednesday they had their school Christmas program. William was part of the “A-team” and got to sing a few songs. It was an enjoyable program to watch and I think he had fun.

 

How December 25 Became Christmas – Andrew McGowan

On December 25, Christians around the world will gather to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Joyful carols, special liturgies, brightly wrapped gifts, festive foods—these all characterize the feast today, at least in the northern hemisphere. But just how did the Christmas festival originate? How did December 25 come to be associated with Jesus’ birthday?

The Bible offers few clues: Celebrations of Jesus’ Nativity are not mentioned in the Gospels or Acts; the date is not given, not even the time of year. The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled. Yet most scholars would urge caution about extracting such a precise but incidental detail from a narrative whose focus is theological rather than calendrical.

The extrabiblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time. As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point…

There are two theories today: one extremely popular, the other less often heard outside scholarly circles (though far more ancient)…

More… (source)