Manga Bible KJV

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Karl

I wrote recently that this is the 400th anniversary of the writing of the King James Bible. In the UK several organizations have partnered together to produce BibleFresh to encourage Bible reading and increased Biblical understanding in as this 400th anniversary occurs.

I also wrote recently abut Manga Jesus by Siku, who also wrote the Manga Bible. In cooperation with BibleFresh Siku has released excerpts from the Manga Bible and Manga Jesus with the King James text for free download. The excerpts include portions from Genesis and Exodus, and the Gospels, with the largest portion covering Jesus death and resurrection. If you have never viewed any manga or graphic representations of the Bible then check it out.

I have had the opportunity to communicate with Siku a little in the last month and they have some exciting new projects in the works. Watch this space.

CS Lewis Audio

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Karl

Some of you are probably aware that CS Lewis’ most famous non-fiction book, Mere Christianity originated as a series of radio broadcasts in World War II. Unfortunately, due to the expense of recording media at the time, most media was re-used and original recordings were lost after broadcast. However one of Lewis’ radio broadcasts remains, it can be found at the BBC website, however, if (like me) you don’t live in the UK you will not be able to access the audio files.

Good news however, there is another copy here, which you can also download to put on your iPod and listen at your own convenience. It is also available in a Youtube clip.

You may also notice that the BBC site has another recording of Lewis introducing his book The Great Divorce, which, it seems is in line for a movie treatment.

And if you are interested in a history of how the radio broadcasts came about, check out the Kindlings Muse podcast - C.S. Lewis in a Time of WarPodcast: Live At Earl Palmer Ministries 1 of 1

Ministry Net 2011

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Karl

Earlier this month I was in Bangkok with 170 others at the Ministry Net conference. This conference was put on by Campus Crusade for Christ for people who are involved in using the internet for evangelism and discipleship.

On the first morning there I was woken up at about 6:30 by the conference director to go to the airport to buy a same-day return ticket to Singapore. Watch the video below to find out why …

Selegna was on the design team with me, so it was really great that she was able to join us (even if a bit late) and participate in the conference she had had a part in planning.

The Ontological Argument

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Karl

One of the most famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) arguments for God’s existence is what is called the ontological argument. Its most famous form is that proposed by the 11th century monk St Anselm of Canterbury, and it goes something like this:

God is that being than which no greater can be conceived
That which exists in reality as well as in the mind is greater than that that exists in the mind only
Therefore if we can conceive of a being than which no greater exists, then it exists in reality

Since Anselm there have been different forms of the argument proposed by Descartes, Leibnitz and Alfred Plantinga, but this remains the most common form of the argument.

Many opponents have sought to prove the argument wrong, however most would end up concurring with Bertrand Russell, who said “the argument does not, to a modern mind, seem very convincing, but it is easier to feel convinced that it must be fallacious, than to find out precisely where the fallacy lies.” And I must admit, the argument does at first glance appear to be an illusionist’s trick of a logical argument, where instead of a rabbit, a proof of God is pulled out of a hat.

And so the argument troubled me when I encountered it, and so I set about trying to pull the argument apart to find out how it worked. Essentially it is saying that:

If there is a concept of God, then there is a God.

At this stage, I think most people would be in Bertrand Russell’s side. However, once it is put in the contrapositive form (note that the contrapositive always has the same truth value as the original form):

If there is no God, then there is no concept of God.

We have a bit more to work with. All the opponent need do to prove the ontological argument wrong is to explain how the concept of God could arise apart from God’s existence. No smoke or mirrors required to understand what this argument is claiming. And this is the point where I must side myself with Anselm and against Russell.

Although humans are incredibly creative, we are creative within limits. Whether you put it politely as Einstein did, when he spoke of “standing on the shoulders of giants“, or less so, as in “originality is the art of concealing your sources“, all human creativity requires inspiration. We see something, and we copy. We may transplant what we see into a different field, but we never create without a reference point. We never create anything that is not like something.

I remember my father suggesting that it was not God that created man, but that rather man created God. But when we consider a God who is transcendent – beyond the universe – we run into a difficulty. How could a human who had never encountered anything beyond the universe conceive of something beyond the universe? How could a human create the concept of transcendence? Yes, now, we can understand the concept, but that is because we have the reference point of the concept of God already in our minds. How could a human with no prior concept think it up? I am quite confident that it is impossible, and that the reason we have such a concept is because God does exist and has revealed Himself (including his transcendence) to us.

Getting the ball rolling on global collaboration

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Karl

You can read my guest post on the Virtual-Led Ministry blog, giving my highlight from the Ministry Net conference in Bangkok last week.

Good News: No restrictions, no special conditions apply, no limited terms of offer

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Karl

Last week I spoke at Shatin Church on Ephesians 3:1-13. I compared the story of the Freedom Riders during the Civil Rights struggles of 1960s America with that of Paul and the Jews and Gentiles in the early church. I also included a video accompanying the Lost Dogs song Breathe Deep, which invites people from all walks of life to “Breathe deep the breath of God”. The video and slides are available below.

All Hallowed’s Eve

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Karl

Halloween is just a week away. Growing up in New Zealand, Halloween was never a big deal. Being more culturally linked to the British, Guy Fawkes’ day was the event kids looked forward to at that time of the year. And coming just after the start of Daylight Savings Time, it got dark way too late for it to be very interesting before a normal kid’s bedtime.

Over the years though, Halloween has come to have a greater cultural presence in most of the Western World. Even here in Hong Kong, there is a whole section of the supermarket set aside for Halloween goods. And this rise in the popularity of Halloween has been treated with different measures of welcome by different people, particularly within the church.

One of the main objections to Halloween by Christians is that it is a “pagan festival”. Hallowe’en is a contraction from All Hallowed’s Eve, that is, the day before All Saints Day. (Hallowed meaning “made holy”, saints being those who have been made holy.) In many parts of the world it is a time to remember those in the community who have died. In Mexico, where it is called Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and one of the most popular decorations is a Catrina, a skeleton dressed in a very fine dress, as a reminder that we all, rich or poor, are going to die.

A sombre message, but one that is difficult for Christians to object to. The fact is, that Halloween is a day that is at least partly Christian. Of course, one could object that so much of Halloween as we know it today is derived from pagan rituals that it is best avoided by Christians. I find this perspective, while on the surface appears sensible, runs into problems when we ask what we are to do with the pagan rituals that have become associated with other Christian festivals, such as Christmas trees, or Easter eggs. Most of us accept these as culturally acceptable rituals. The question then becomes, “Why not accept Jack’o'Lanterns and Trick’n'Treating?” And it is a vexed question.

aThe fact is that Halloween provides Christians with a great opportunity to raise spiritual topics. Probably outside of Christmas and Easter, it is the festival that gives us the best opportunity. With that purpose in mind Damaris have prepared a range of materials for churches to use over the week leading up to Halloween. Deovox has a series of three podcasts looking at issues Halloween raises: Death, Good and Evil, and Heroes of the Faith. And Damaris have also produced a Halloween countdown calendar with video interviews of different people sharing their heroes of the faith. Check them out. Although it is the commercial aspects of Halloween that have gained the most uptake in recent years, there is plenty in this festival that makes it worthy to be redeemed by the church.

I Am NOT a Zombie!

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Karl

Do you like watching zombie movies? Dawn of the Dead? Or perhaps Shaun of the Dead?

Peter S Williams of Damaris Trust has an interesting podcast where he points out that monsters are literary devices to help us as society face our fears. He goes in depth into how the different incarnations of the Daleks over recent generations have expressed the fears that we have about ourselves as a society.

What is it about zombies that strikes fear into our hearts? One of the main things seems to be the weirdness of death. We all know death is a reality of this world, but, despite that it seems incongruous. We euphemise it. We avoid it. We hope it never comes. We certainly don’t want to contemplate what happens to us beyond death – bodies all decaying and so on. And so zombies bring to life the fear inside all of us, that dead bodies used to be live bodies, but are no longer so. There is something spooky about a body walking around without a soul.

Cru are starting today a new interactive blog, web-video series about Jordan Lutz. A man who has just recovered consciousness after dying in a car accident. He also has a Facebook page and a twitter feed. The purpose of this is to use this topic to raise issues about life from the perspective of someone in an unusual predicament. He looks like a zombie. His history matches that of a zombie. But he certainly doesn’t feel like a zombie. Check it out and see how the interaction goes. Some of the content is pre-prepared – you can view all of that, but Jordan will be responding to interaction over the next two weeks. There is also a leaders guide, to help people transition from the videos to life issues and spiritual topics. Oh, and it’s really funny by the way. There will be new posts added until October 31. Hmmm, wonder why they chose that day?

Is Rugby a Global Game?

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Karl

I watched the first semi-final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup this afternoon with a couple of students from the HKIEd rugby team. The Rugby World Cup is good like that in that it provides opportunities to have casual time with these students to build relationships with them. Come next week, there should be quite a crowd of them coming around to watch the final and have a BBQ afterwards.

I often find myself analysing things unintentionally and so this post is going to cover some of the patterns that I have noticed about the Rugby World Cup over the years.

A Small Power Bloc

There have only ever been five finalists in the Rugby World Cup in all history (New Zealand, France, Australia, England, and South Africa), and with this year’s final being between France and either Australia or New Zealand, that won’t be changing this time. Now this is perhaps not as damning a statistic as might be thought. From 1982 until 2006 the FIFA World Cup finals were contested by only Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and France. Where the concentration of power is really made evident is in the the amount of times these teams have lost to a team outside of this small power bloc. Since Wales beat England and Australia in the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987, none of these five teams lost to a team outside of this power bloc until Argentina beat France in 2007. Which has since been followed up by Ireland beating Australia and Tonga beating France.

An Old Boys Club

There is another team that has never made the final that until 1987 had never lost to a team outside of the five aforementioned finalists and that was Scotland. In the early years of the competition they probably deserved to be treated as an equal to the likes of France and England. However in recent years they have faded badly, but still kept their record until they lost to Argentina in the Quarter-finals in 2007. Indeed Scotland probably had the potential to make more than the one semifinal if they could have avoided a nasty habit of meting New Zealand in the quarter-finals (1987, 1995, 1999, 2007). OK, they were never going to be good enough in 1999 and 2007, but prior to 1999 outisde of their quarter-final losses to New Zealand they only had a draw and a three point loss to France and the loss to England in the 1991 semifinal to blot their record.

Even Ireland and Wales, the other two of the eight major traditional rugby playing countries have a pretty strong record against teams from outside of this Old Boys Network.

The Up-and-Comers

In fact there now are only four teams from outside of this group that have beaten one of them in a Rugby World Cup game. And only two of them have done it more than once.

Argentina would have been the first team that many would have picked at the start of the Rugby World Cup era to make this breakthrough, but they massively underachieved in their first three tournaments, with only one win against Italy in 1987 to show for their efforts. However in 1999 they made their first win against one of the traditional powerhouses – a play-off against Ireland to make the quarter-finals. They weren’t able to repeat this in 2003, losing to Ireland in pool play, but in 2007 beat Ireland and France in pool play and then Scotland in the quarter-final and France (again) in the play-off match to become the first team from outside of the traditional nations to make the semi-finals.

However first blood to beating the traditional nations goes to Samoa who in 1991 beat Wales and also pushed the eventual champions Australia extremely close in a 6-3 loss. They were able to follow that up with another win over Wales in 1999. Wales repeated their fragility to Pacific Island opposition in 2007 when they lost to Fiji, the third team to win against one of the old boys, and Tonga became the third team to make the grade when they beat France in pool play in this year’s tournament.

So, Global or Not?

So what is the lay of the land now? Since Wales beat England and Australia in 1987, when Wales was a lot stronger than they have been over the interim (although they may be returning to a position of strength now), and England was not as strong as they currently are, only France out of the five finalists have lost to a team outside of this group of five, so the power does still remain remarkably centralised. What is more, the eight traditional countries have lost to outside countries a total of eight times in the history of the tournament – a shade over once per tournament. And so far it is only Argentina and the three Pacific Island nations that have achieved such a win.

Looking forward

Realistically, the finalists for the next two to three tournaments are going to come from the eight traditional countries. Ireland and Wales have the potential to make a final, but a semi-final would appear to be the high-water mark for Argentina and the Pacific Nations in the foreseeable future.

What is more, is that it is hard to predict a quarter-finalist coming from outside of these twelve nations. The only quarter-finalist from outside of these twelve was Canada in 1991 when they beat Fiji and Romania (and put up a good fight against France) to make the quarters. Since South Africa returned to international rugby in 1992, there is precious little opportunity for a country to advance to the quarters unless they can beat one of the eight traditional nations, plus one of these four at the next level to boot. This is evidenced by Tonga’s failure to make the quarters this year despite beating France. Even Italy, who are probably the best of the rest have only won eight games in 12 years of competing in the Six Nations, five of which have come against Scotland (two against Wales and one this year against the French, whose inconsistent 2011 record is going to include a World Cup final and losses to two teams that started the year ranked 12th and 17th.) It is hard, though not impossible, to see Italy who have only once had more than one win in the Six Nations, and only ever one away win in the Six Nations, as a quarter-finalist. Beyond that, it is all pipe-dreams for the other nations to get that far. This is no reason to be discouraged though. Pele famously predicted that we would have an African winner of the FIFA World Cup by the year 2000. So far, no African team has made it past the quarter-finals. But as of last year, they have come within an intentional handball and a penalty shootout of making it to the semis, so we can be confident that given enough time there will be progress. We just need to be realistic about the pace of it.

So why do we have 20 teams in a tournament if realistically seven of them are only there to make up the numbers? Some say that the opportunity to play these teams is the only way they can improve. I think that the tournament would be poorer if it had no representation from Asia or North America and I enjoy that these nations help the tournament to be a true Rugby World Cup.

HongKongUdy

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