Happy Halloween!

The much anticipated and slightly celebrated Holiday is in full swing!

School has officially ended for the day here at Ihara High School, but I'm still handing out pieces of candy. For the past week I've been telling my classes to come find me during Halloween Day and say "Trick-or-Treat" and I'll give them a piece of candy. Sarah and I both picked up a few hundred yen worth of individually wrapped pieces of chocolate the other day, and Sarah bought a cute little collapsable pumpkin to keep it all in. The pumpkin is empty now - I had to dig into my "Halloween Pockey" this afternoon. All in all I think I gave out around 200 pieces or just over. I've been wearing these weird glasses with a fake, green warewolf muzzle and jester hat all week as my costume. Sarah's been wearing devil horns and a black cape. For our lesson plans we've been playing "Pass the Pumpkin" (telling a story and passing right or left whenever they hear that particular word) and "Mystery Bag Stories," the game where you have to feel different objects in covered bags that feel like body parts. We had halved Shittake mushrooms as ears (sugoi! they felt exactly like ears!), cheetos for fingers and konyaku for guts (a kind of jellied yam- actually, I think it's devil's tongue or something like that). So we and the kids had a ton of fun. Still another day of Halloween celebration to go tomorrow, minus all the candy of course! Tomorrow's supposed to be the day where kids feel sick.

the requested pics

My October Life part II:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2106350&l=f5dc8&id=59501063

Update/TGD Commentary II

The sanma's in the trash. I hope I didn't disappoint you as much as I have myself, for it would make for a long night. But, if anything, this has solidified my resolve and I will acquire another one. I also finished reading Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. I found it quite unconvincing (the point of the book being really to draw people out from religion) and the author lacking in his basic understanding of Christianity. On my earlier TGD Commentary post I mentioned 3 areas where I feel these atheist authors have wandered off in their arguments. One of them was that they don't recognize the acknowledgement that Christianity gives to Satan, who is very much at work in the world, tempting us and lying to us in order to draw us away from the perfect creator. I am writing now because tonight I came across a comment made by the Greek scholar E. V. Rieu in his introduction to his translated work The Odyssey. It was very appropriate and explains what I was thinking in much better words that I could have assembled. It is this:

"...the Christian conception of godhead is based on our creation by God in his image and likeness, with imperfections introduced by Satan..."

he goes on to say that "Homer regards gods, though immortal, as made in the image and likeness of man." I like this statement about Christianity because it begins with God, where an understanding of the Christian worldview must begin. If the imperfections were introduced by Satan, they were done so in the form of temptation, which man so readily forfeited to, giving himself up to worldly pleasures. We separated ourselves from God. Adam and Eve did it and we have inherited their original sin and we also make our own decisions daily to pursue things which separate us from God. God has no malevolence. He does not wish to see us suffer. He also has complete power over the universe. So why does he continue to "let bad things happen?" Here's my answer: We let bad things happen. No, we pursued and we continue to pursue separation from our creator. (Remember that the definition of sin is separation from God.) This is why bad things happen. It's not in a direct punishment sort of a way as some Christians want everyone to believe. For example, some Christians have stated that Hurricane Katrina was inflicted by God as punishment for the debauchery that goes on in New Orleans during Mardis Gras. There are dozens of other ridiculous statements made about similar tragedies. While I know it does occur that God directly punishes peoples for particular sins (think Sodom and Gomorrah) I believe that most of the evil and suffering that is experienced in the world is simply a result of our fallen nature. A result of the general state of separation from the perfect being, our creator, God. This world is influenced by the great tempter and we choose to listen to him and not do what God wants us to do.

First we have to see God's holiness. God has certain attributes, and those attributes are where we get our definition of "good." He is perfect love, perfect patience, perfect justice, perfect kindness. He is purely himself and capable of creating physical realms and people with breath in their lungs. He cannot lie and he cannot deceive because those are not in his nature. Since God was the first being and everything has come out of his creative hands, he deserves to be worshipped for his awesomeness and inherent holiness. We are to give him praise and to have communion with him. Communion is a fancy word for "talking with and sharing your life with." God delights in this because he created us and he wants us to know our creator and to enjoy his goodness. He has set down certain guidelines that he wants us to follow because he knows they are good for us and that we will experience better lives if we do what he thinks we should do.

But people haven't always done what he says is best for us to do. Beginning with Adam and Eve human beings have sought our own purposes and our own ideas of what is "good." But anything that is outside of the creator, anything that isn't patient or kind or purely God, purely holy, separates us from Him. Given this, God must act in his perfect justice.

So the next thing we must see in the Christian worldview is justice. Of God's attributes, one is his perfect justice. He tells me to do something, I don't do it, so I have to face the consequences. It is perfectly just for him to say I must spend and eternity away from him because I have chosen to not measure up to his expectations. Just as we would be outraged if an irrefutable rapist were to be released back into the public by a judge at his court date, so would there be no justice if God let us off the hook on judgment day.

If I stopped telling the Christian worldview at this point I can understand how someone could see God as being cruel. However, this is a misunderstanding as well because it's not that God is cruel, but that he is just. Often it is an unjust God that people desire- they want to do whatever the heck they feel like doing at whatever time they feel like doing it, whether or not the Creator thinks it's best for them. Then, at the end of a long life of rebellion they expect this God to open his doors to them, even though they are completely unrepentant and not sorry for a thing they've done. Why is it that they say nasty things about God when they're told that he would close his doors on them if they approached him like that? But God is just, and he will exercise his perfect justice.

In the midst of all this creeps in our conscience. We have this recognition that there are good things that we're supposed to be doing, yet we discover that we cannot always live up to doing all those things. These good things that we feel we should do and the recognition that we can't do them comes from God because he has written his law on our hearts. Even if we try our absolute hardest though, we still find that we fail, and our hearts convict us of our failure. And if God is going to punish us in his justice for giving into those irresistible temptations, then he is a mean God, right? I understand if you think this. Thank God this isn't where the story ends.

In addition to God being absolutely holy and absolutely just, we find that God is absolutely merciful. He doesn't just leave us on our own to struggle to be perfect so that we can be accepted by him and have union with him. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to take the blame, to become the object of God's wrath, in our place. Jesus lived a perfect life, just so that in the end God could use him instead of us to fulfill his justice. God's justice is still fulfilled because God punished Jesus for the separation we chose. We don't have to pay for the decision we continually have made to separate ourselves from the creator. Jesus paid it. But it doesn't stop at Justification. It continues to Propitiation, which J. I. Packer goes at great lengths to emphasize. Propitiation means that not only has Jesus taken our blame, but that we actually receive his blamelessness. It's what's called the Great Exchange. Jesus takes the blame we've incurred, and we get Jesus perfect life as our own. When we accept what Christ has done, God sees us as perfect and that allows us to be in His presence.

God is not a malevolent God for allowing suffering in the world. We have rebelled against the creator and brought suffering upon ourselves. God could have allowed us to make all the payments for our errant ways on our own, but he has chosen not to because he is good. He has provided a free way for us to make ourselves right with Him again, to have perfect union with our creator. All we have to do is accept what Jesus has done for us in being a propitiation for our sins.

Since we have a creator, what better thing is there than to know him, to desire to be like him, to please him, to talk with him, to enjoy the things he's given us? I have found no better endeavor on this planet than to share my life with the one who made me; to praise him for his awesomeness, to celebrate his goodness, and to thank him for his Son who allows me this union.

A conversation

Conversation with my friend Evan on aim:

LAFinginKambara (3:52:48 PM): I made myself an office
LAFinginKambara (3:53:00 PM): and wrote up my weekly schedule
LAFinginKambara (3:53:26 PM): cuz these first 8 weeks of class I've basically just been floating
LAFinginKambara (3:53:39 PM): I haven't really known what to do with my time
LAFinginKambara (3:53:51 PM): not knowing how to teach...or lesson plan...
LAFinginKambara (3:54:15 PM): So my schedule has blocks of time telling me exactly what to be doing at each hour of the workweek
theevman003 (3:54:37 PM): yeah it's good to do that sometimes
LAFinginKambara (3:54:45 PM): so now I think I can get much more done and feel like I'm accomplishing things, moving forward. A doggy-paddle at first
LAFinginKambara (3:55:03 PM): I think I'm going to write another blog post here before I go home
theevman003 (3:55:09 PM): at least it's not a cat paddle!
theevman003 (3:55:16 PM): *smiley*
LAFinginKambara (3:55:20 PM): haha
theevman003 (3:55:31 PM): the cat would probably drown
LAFinginKambara (3:55:35 PM): and cats get really mad when they're in the water
theevman003 (3:55:42 PM): yup
theevman003 (3:55:52 PM): yeah, cats hold grudges
theevman003 (3:55:57 PM): they kinda suck like that
LAFinginKambara (3:56:01 PM): I would try and lower my cat Yatzee into the tub and she would poke out all her claws
theevman003 (3:56:08 PM): lol
LAFinginKambara (3:56:12 PM): She tore a huge rip in the shower curtain once
theevman003 (3:56:25 PM): did she claw you to pieces?
LAFinginKambara (3:56:30 PM): that was when I was like 9 years old
theevman003 (3:56:33 PM): or just the shower curtain?
LAFinginKambara (3:56:39 PM): yeah, continuously
theevman003 (3:56:46 PM): so you were doing it basically because you thought it was funny?
theevman003 (3:56:47 PM): lol
LAFinginKambara (3:56:59 PM): the 3 of us kids would always get these raised scratches on our arms
LAFinginKambara (3:57:27 PM): he would lock onto your wrist with his front paws and then kick with his back paws while biting you
theevman003 (3:57:37 PM): wow
theevman003 (3:57:41 PM): that's ferocious
LAFinginKambara (3:57:55 PM): felineocious
theevman003 (3:58:02 PM): lol
theevman003 (3:58:52 PM): my dad took our cat once and launched it up into the air in our front yard because i didn't think they landed on their feet, so he grabbed the cat, and took him outside, and tossed him up in the air
theevman003 (3:58:54 PM): lol
theevman003 (3:59:00 PM): that cat was pissed
LAFinginKambara (3:59:14 PM): did it land on it's feet?
theevman003 (3:59:16 PM): yup
theevman003 (3:59:34 PM): and then it bolted far away as fast as it could
LAFinginKambara (3:59:43 PM): I would make yenti do flips so that she would land on her feet on our guest bed in the basement
theevman003 (3:59:55 PM): lol
LAFinginKambara (4:00:01 PM): one hand under her chest, one on the back of her back legs
LAFinginKambara (4:00:18 PM): then you just swing her back legs under her body and let her drop
LAFinginKambara (4:00:38 PM): I timed it wrong a couple of times and she landed right on her back
theevman003 (4:00:45 PM): eek!
LAFinginKambara (4:00:58 PM): naw, she's still alive 12 years later
LAFinginKambara (4:01:07 PM): minus a lot of hair and skin on her stomach
LAFinginKambara (4:01:11 PM): but that's her own fault
theevman003 (4:01:49 PM): huh
theevman003 (4:01:53 PM): what'd she do?
LAFinginKambara (4:02:15 PM): licked it a lot
theevman003 (4:02:59 PM): ah
theevman003 (4:03:37 PM): so are you glad you're in Japan right now?
LAFinginKambara (4:05:26 PM): yeah, I mean, I miss Eau Claire and my friends a lot, and it would be nice to be able to communicate with my co-workers, but this is definitely an adventure

Burnt Pizza

I hesitate to include the word "pizza" at all in this title since what I burned hardly qualifies as such.

I biked to the grocery store today in the rain to brush up my stock of edible food items. There are basically 2 main grocery store options near my apartment. There's Max Value (pronounced "makusu baru") one train stop away and "taiyo-" about an 8 min. bike ride the opposite direction. Max Value is much like a Cub Foods or Rainbow, except it carries quite a different assortment of food products. I was actually thinking outloud with my volunteer Japanese teacher last night about grocery shopping and came to the realization that they probably have many more of the same items that they have back in the states, it's just that I can't read a lot of the product labels. I couldn't even tell tonight if one particular brand of milk came from a cow or from a soy bean. Tonight I had chosen to go to taiyo- because I was in a hurry for time, and though smaller, it has in my opinion a better selection of food. Everything in the store is so close together; I feel surrounded by walls of food and that makes me feel warm inside.

I didn't always feel this way. At first, grocery shopping felt a lot more like browsing in a bait-shop. Where one would normally find the fresh cuts of beef there was sea life (sea death?) of all kinds: large and small squid, shrimp, sakura shrimp, octopus, sanma, salmon, tuna and dozens other varieties that I had never seen before. I would just pass right on by to the dehydrated, boxed food section and take my picks from the yakisoba to the dry curry or ramen. This got old really, really fast so I knew I had to change my diet or leave Japan. I next moved on to frozen dinners. This was an improvement since some of the items were sorta fresh and I could add them to rice to make it less boring. Yeah, that's pretty much where I stopped progressing in dinner quality, the frozen part. But tonight, all that came to its impetuous end like a free fall to pavement. I bought a sanma.

I really don't know anything about the fish, but I'm pretty sure I had sanma sashimi at chokkura, a local Kambara izakaya. I don't know how to cut it or even if it's sashimi grade but there it is, lying in my refrigerator. In a bag, of course. I picked it up out of the ice bucket at taiyo- with a kitchen utensil and placed it in a clear plastic bag. The advertisement over the bucket had "100 yen" with a line through it, displaying a price of 80 yen, or about 75 cents. I really couldn't resist this, even if the fish stayed in my fridge for several days and then I threw it out because it started to smell bad. I am determined to eat like a normal person (wow that sounded oxymoronic - normal to this country at least) and I will continue to buy my silvery long friend until he is properly prepared and satisfactorily in my stomach.

Another thing that has really surprised me is how little it grosses me out to be touching him. I have always loathed fishing; I hate touching the things, I hate how they flop, I hate it when their spinys stick into my hand and I hate that dense squishy feel they have once they've died on shore. But now after eating so many fish, after so many unseeing eyeballs staring back at me while I munch on their flesh, I have to say fish are becoming appealing. Not so small a role has their deliciousness played in my warming to them. Fish aren't so bad. I actually view the meat section of the grocery store with curiosity now, leaning my head slightly forward to study the various meats and lifeless bodies. Sometime soon I'm going to ask one of my JTEs to take me to the grocery store just to point out the various products and give me some insight into how to prepare them. I will take a notebook and make categories for what types of things should be boiled, fried, deep fried, steamed, toaster-ovened or grilled. I will also ask what items can be eaten whole and which ones must be disemboweled first.

Sakura ebi (the little pink shrimp this area of Shizuoka is so well known for) can pretty much be prepared in any way. I have had them sauteed along with vegetables over rice, deep fried in a large bundle (I bit away with no discretion for head or tail) and baked into battered onion rings. Brian, the ALT at the middle school here in Kambara, said he went on a boat ride with his students out in the ocean on a sakura fishing vessel. There the fisherman scooped up handfuls of live ebi and tossed them to the kids who gleefully chomped them whole, grinding them in their teeth and enjoying the lot of it. Brian had a few too and he said it was really weird swallowing them because the feelers are really long and they tickled his throat.

I didn't buy any sakura ebi this time. I had enough perishable items to get through in the next couple days already in my basket so I moved on. As to the pizza, I couldn't pass up the chance for this frozen delight. The package I bought contained what at first glance looked like pizza barges, but once I got them home I found they were of a much more "homemade" variety. The crust of each was a slice of white bread. On top of this was a thinly spread layer of pizza sauce and the cheese was speckled so thinly that half the surface was red. On top of each slice was a 3 cm x 3 cm square of bacon and one tiny slice of pepperoni. It was sad really. I wanted to bake it and eat it immediately- not because I was hungry but because I wanted to put it out of its misery. So I popped a couple of pieces in my new toaster over (had to test her out at least) and turned the dial. After a few minutes of not realizing it wasn't plugged in, I readjusted and set it to 240W. I waited 15 min. with not much effect. The cheese didn't seem to be melting, but that very well could have been because the cheese wasn't the melting kind. And there was nothing for the cheese to really melt with. I turned the knob up to the next setting of 1000W and let it sit for a couple of minutes while reading BBC News. A quick peak and a sniff told me the 1000W had done 'er in. I told myself that I like my pizza well done (my friends can attest to this) and chuckled to myself as I thought about my roommate Andy's rolls.

Hopefully next time it will be the smell of cooking sanma flooding my nostrils; may it come in any fashion.

Sleepover

Now, I’ve never been married before, so I know I’m not an authority on this, but marriage has gotta be cool because pretty much it’s like getting to have a sleepover with your best friend every night. I was thinking about this as I lay in bed earlier this evening (night) and had to get up and type it because I was getting really excited thinking about it. It started when I was laying there and I had something to say, but no one next to me to tell it to, and then I was thinking about the sweet sleepovers I would have with my friend Chris Sanford when I was in grade school and we would both sleep in his twin sized bed with his dog Gabby at the foot and Chris would usually hog all the blankets at some point of the night so I ended up waking up a dozen times and my legs would get cramped because I couldn’t stretch them out cuz Gabby was in the way. When we got older we would sleep down in his TV room on top of the couch cushions that we had pulled down onto the floor, usually retiring after a rousing game of Spot for Sega Genesis. Chris would always sleep wearing a T-shirt and I could never understand this because when I tried to sleep in a T-shirt it would always get twisted in my sleep and tug at my skin and wake me up. Sleepovers are great and I think every kid loves them. The best was when I got to have a sleep over on a school night, because I rarely got to do this. We would stay up real late and then have to get up real early to get dressed for school and then be tired all day at class. And by class I mean the one, full-day class we had because we were in elementary school. Yeah, that’s pretty much right on – if I had to explain marriage to a 10 year old I would say it’s just like having a sleepover with your best friend every night. Then I’d watch how wide his eyes would get.

And it’s a good way of explaining it to myself too. I think there’s probably more to it than just that, having had a taste of the world I can see there being some sort of responsibility involved. Ever since I’ve gotten older I keep finding that that “r” word is associated with more and more aspects of life. But a big part of it has got to be giddiness, a smile that won’t go away, a close your eyes and laugh to yourself cuz you can’t believe it’s true, that there’s a real live girl lying next to you in your bed. And then you turn over and she’s smiling at you too and then she says she has something to say and is glad that she’s on a sleepover so that she can tell it to someone.

When I get married, it’s going to be to my best friend. It can’t be soon because right now my best friend is a boy and I’m not gay. But someday, I’ll meet a girl and we’ll start spending time together and she’ll think I’m cool and I’ll think she’s pretty great and then I’ll make my moves and she’ll swoon and we’ll have a lot of stuff to talk about and she’ll think I’m funny. And I’ll get along with her parents.

God’s got me working on a lot of things right now. We’ve been talking a lot the past year and a half now. It started out of desperation and a realization that I was dying, decaying really, on the inside and finally realized it. Through it all I gained a very trustworthy friend who always listens and gives really good advice. I know he’s brought me here and moved me into an apartment all on my own to let me learn how to live with myself and love myself and take out the trash and wash my dishes and pay my bills all by myself. I’ve realized that this has to be a prelude to loving another and treating her right. I must love God with all my heart and lean on his understanding and his leadership and be an example of his steadfast love for the church. Then I must feed myself properly and feed my spiritual stomach and shave regularly.

All this I am learning to do while on my own. Maybe that’s the bigger challenge between it and living in Japan. Someone during Tokyo Orientation mentioned that to me and I hadn’t thought about it before, but it hit hard when she said it. She said that not only was this her first time living in Japan, but it was her first time living on her own in an apartment, without roommates and without friends living nearby. This could very well be Boston or Salem or Miami. Yet being in a new language certainly has its further barriers. It makes you turn to the inside of your own head even more.

I love it here not only for the crazy and unique way of living that I’m discovering people have, but because I get to be with me and get to learn how to love myself. I get to start turning that outwards too, because love isn’t a selfish task. There’s no limit to it and it doesn’t run out. There’s no love meter that swings to empty when all the love’s been spent. The more I put into loving myself, the more I’m able to genuinely turn to the guy next to me and with no selfish motivation help him. It’s a joy to live for others when I’m completely unconcerned with my own needs. Not because my needs no longer exist but because they’re being met by God’s love and the love I now am giving myself.

Now it’s late; I’ve stayed up an extra hour writing, but it was good to write this and I feel better for it than I would have with the hour of sleep. Lord, you know my prayers, so for now I’m going to climb back into that empty bed with all the excitement of a 10 year old, waiting in anticipation of the greatest sleepover while still knowing that life right now is grand. ;-)

Writing

I've written this before, and I'll say it again now. Happiness is not a good author, so I may be brief. I also may have prematurely spoken cuz this might get long. Also I didn't think about love poems.

Well, I found in my journal at least that I tend to not write when I'm feeling for the most part satisfied with life and my day to day activities. Maybe this will be good practice for me to write consistently so that I can learn to portray more than just the "emo" spectrum of emotion. So is that the "tion" spectrum?

Life is good and I'm feeling tion.

Today I signed Sarah up for soba for my lunch. The other week I had signed up for soba only to return from teaching a class to find my soba half digested by Sarah. I was like, "Oh, did you sign up for soba today?" And she was like, "....yeah....wait...." Then we went to the kitchen and looked at the list. I had signed up for soba for myself for that day, while Sarah had signed up Watanabe-sensei for the following day, and then ate my lunch. "Sa-ryo!"

So to make up for it Sarah said I could sign her up for soba some day and then eat that lunch. And she quickly erased Watanabe's soba star before they put in the orders for the next day. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I realized I could order "special" obentos for lunch. The regular ones are quite delicious and facinating as you can probably tell from my copious amounts of obento photographs. Soba is one such special choice. Now that I finally got to try some, I will tell you about my experience.

Soba is a type of noodle. Don't ask me how it's made or even what it's made of, because I don't know. I often will eat yakisoba which is soba fried along with some kind of sauce and lettuce, but just plain soba usually comes cold. In my obento box were 7 little compartments, each with a small pile of soba loosely bound together by its own sticky nature. They appeared slightly larger than bite size; however, each noodle was difficult to sever entirely from the pack using only chopsticks. I was having a bit of a time with the first couple of piles, especially when it came to the part where I had to dip the noodles in a pool of (water and soy sauce and vinegar? Actually, I'm not sure. Sarah is telling me right now that you'll often find that each particular food in Japan comes with its own "sauce." She says that they're pretty much all made up of the same ingredients in different proportions.) Also in this pool I had cracked a tiny speckled egg raw and stirred it up. So between the noodles falling all over the place, the sauce splashing over my desk, and the egg, I decided it was a good time to ask my kyoto-sensei how I was to eat this mess.

He started rattling off Japanese (I think he was showing off) of which I caught not a word. Noticing my blank stare he called over one of the English teachers to translate. Through the translation I learned that I was supposed to eat the whole thing in one bite and that I had to make slurping noises to get the last bits of noodle that were hanging down over my plate up into my mouth. The command for "make slurping noises" is "zuuzuu shimasu" (I asked Kenmotsu-sensei for the spelling) and is just one of the thousands of Japanese onomatopoeia. I must have heard kyoto sensei tell me to "zuuzuu" 4 or 5 times. He then added that if I wanted to do it the "European" way then I could cut it in half and make no noises. But to be fully Japanese, I must take it all in one bite and zuuzuu.

So my meal was over in 7 bites basically leaving a rumbling tummy for the rest of the afternoon. Next time I order soba (if there is a next time), I won't be too gutted if Sarah eats it. :-)

day

I was eating some sushi and the train station today waiting for my train. I had popped in the grocery store to get some items and couldn't resist the 5 piece 350 yen sushi box. It's flesh was all ripped open wide, beckoning for me to devour it whole. I had an 18 min. wait once at the station and I didn't want my sushi to go bad (...plus I was hungry) so I decided to eat it right then and there. Opening the package I discovered that what I thought to be a small packet of shouyu (soy sauce) was really a small packet of nama-wasabi (fresh wasabi). I like wasabi- it goes very well with sushi. Usually at places such as a kaiten-zushi they tuck a small dab of wasabi between the fish and the rice, so I was obliged to do the same. Lifting the slice of flesh I squeezed a small amount of the green paste onto the rice, and lifting the sushi I placed the whole piece into my mouth. I chewed into its soft goodness until the wasabi kicked in strong. The fresh wasabi experience such as this is like a small brute crawling into your nasal cavity and punching you from the inside of your head. It took me aback for a moment until I regained the capacity to take another bite. Luckily a few slices of ginger were also provided to cleanse the palate and restore the senses.

I learned today from Sarah that, according to Chinese medicine, you're not supposed to eat spicy foods when you're sick, but that ginger is soothing cure. I have a bit of a cold yet (I think it moved to my lungs- maybe walking pneumonia? I should probably see a doctor soon) and a couple of times a day resort to coughing fits that make my stomach muscles hurt. I had eaten spicy fried rice at a Chinese restaurant for lunch, which was quite delicious - much better than the dried out stuff they serve in the states - but which also evoked the Chinese medicine assertion by Sarah. I wasn't reminded of the saying until I was halfway through my wasabi, but I figured then that the ginger would at least nullify the adverse effects of the spice.

Pics

My October Life:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104223&l=ec9da&id=59501063

TGD Commentary 1

These commentaries, responses and questions were all written with the author in mind. I do hope to compile all of these typed responses and send them in an e-mail to Richard Dawkins when I'm finished. The following should be read and considered in this light. I am not perfect, and my understanding of Christianity is not perfect either. I have commented based on the best of my knowledge, and will seek to include Scriptural reference wherever relevant. Please don't hesitate to add more verses or discuss my theology at any point.

Dear Richard Dawkins,

I read your book The God Delusion and liked it very much. I think it made me smarter. For example, I now know the anthropic principle. I will be upfront and say that I am a Christian. So sorry, you didn't make a convert out this reader! At least you'll always have Douglas Adams. Anyway, I took notes during the read and I have some genuine questions to ask you as the author. Some of these questions or comments may be stupid. Some may be easy to answer and maybe some more difficult. Some may simply be my ill-supported musings. I hope that some of them at least will make you think. Whatever they are, they are not intended to be rhetorical- I'm really looking for a response from you the author (and in this blog, I'm looking for any responses from atheists who may read it. Please post, comment, or e-mail me luther.flagstad@gmail.com). I appreciate your time. I know you have a very busy schedule and understand if you cannot write back; however, I though it might be worth a shot. All page references are from the book published by Houton Mifflin with ISBN# 0618680004. Thanks, Luther.

Let's begin.

My initial reaction to the book The God Delusion (TGD) is this: I am ashamed. I am ashamed at myself and my fellow Christians who have misrepresented Christianity so grievously. Dawkins quotes many people who say they are Christians, yet their quotations are not Biblical. He sites many examples of behavior by Christians throughout history that are simply atrocious. And I think about my daily life and how many of my actions hurt people. Add to this their knowledge that I'm a Christian and Christianity, yes even Christ, becomes a despicable thing to them. This is so sad, regrettable, shameful.

pg. 52. Dawkins cites Bertrand Russell's celestial teapot parable. Russell says that the onus must be on dogmatists to prove their dogmas (aka Christianity) rather than on skeptics to disprove them. He brings forth the hypothetical situation that there is a teapot orbiting the sun somewhere between Earth and Mars. The teapot is too small to be revealed by our most powerful telescopes. "But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity..."

I see what Russell is getting at here, and I say this: But there aren't ancient writings about teapots. People don't claim to have been spoken to by a teapot. We don't teach about the teapot in our schools today. There are ancient writings about the Christian God. The historical evidence should make the possibility that Christianity is the Truth more likely than the Celestial Teapot is the Truth. Why is it that millions of people happen to believe in Christianity and not a teapot? Did it just happen to turn out that way?

pg. 54 Ok, we see Richard Dawkins say it cannot be proved that God doesn't exist (in the same way we can't prove there isn't a teapot orbiting the sun). His argument lies with probability.

pg. 47 Dawkins is very logical with the following thoughts, and I quite like him for it:

TAP - Temporary Agnosticism in Practice. "There really is a definite answer, one way or the other, but we so far lack the evidence to reach it" Either there is a God or there isn't a God -and one of them is true- we just don't know yet which one is. One day we hope to know.

pg. 61 Richard Dawkins doesn't know what prayer really is. If you want to know what Christianity is, go to the Bible. It's totally fine if you think it's a bunch of bunk or if you disagree. That's not the point. It doesn't matter. The Bible is what Christianity is. Look to it for what Christianity is, not to how Christians behave. You want to know what prayer is? Read every verse that has to do with prayer. Look at who uses it and when and what the results are. Read what the authors have told us to do with prayer. Think critically then write a definition based on the text. Give it some thought. Compare it to the culture of the time. Look up cross references. Just don't get your definition from what Joe Shmoe Christian tells you.

pg. 66 In response to The Great Prayer Experiment. The point of prayer isn't to get what we want. Read about prayer in the Bible. It's not a formula where we ask for something and then God delivers.

pg. 55 I don't believe NOMA. Dawkins doesn't believe NOMA (NOMA is basically the argument that science and religion don't overlap). I've never tried to espouse it. I think science and a creator are inseparably intertwined. If there is a creator of the universe he should be completely compatible with the physical realm. In fact, the physical realm will point to him. Totally agree on the NOMA is bunk statement.

pg. 67 Gerry Coyne writes that "While religion can exist without creationism, creationism cannot exist without religion." I disagree. Creationism can exist without religion if that's what happened. I made a similar point when I gave my testimony at a Navigators meeting last semester: God exists far outside of my ability to say he does. Too often we as Christians cite evidence from our own lives for his existence. While this has its place and is often very helpful for others, it shouldn't be the basis for a proof. God simply is. He was here before we were. Our belief in him doesn't make him any greater, and our disbelief doesn't make him any less. If there were no people on this earth to think about him, he would still be. This isn't a proof, nor is it intended to be. It is a statement that, if this worldview is true, then this is what is.

On a related note, I rarely close my eyes when I pray. God doesn't just exist behind my eyelids. He is everywhere and his presence is always around me. I talk with him the same way I talk with a friend sitting with me in the room.

The God Delusion Commentary Intro

I have realized a few things from reading works from atheist authors like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. These authors do not have an understanding of Christianity, and err in 3 general ways. First they think the Bible is simply a book of moral guidelines or rules and so begin arguing down the wrong path. The law shows us our fallibility. It points out a standard, and then makes us realize that we don't live up to that standard. It reveals our daily sins. The Bible then goes on to say that we need Christ as Savior, and only an identity in Him will make us righteous. Out of thid we are to do good, knowing still hta twe will not act perfectly. The second thing they miss is that Christianity is all about God and nothing about ourselves. What is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord you God. The meaning of life and existance is to bring God glory. The Bible needs to be viewed from through this perspective. Third, they do not take into consideration the forces of good vs. evil. There are 2 forces at work in this world. The hateful and deliberately cruel things that people do are not motivated from a connection to the creator of the universe. I intentionally and unitnetionally am swayed by the spinner of all lies and originator of all sin and evil (the devil). The atheists fail to take Satan into the picture when they are considering the Christian perspective.

All three of these things are essential to understanding the message. There are more, but I felt these were the three big ones that I see atheists continually skipping over when they address Christianity. If someone is going to write a criticism, that's totally fine. But they need to have a proper understanding first of the core theology. Accepting the theology and the Bible or not is completely irrelevant. Simply study the tenets so that you have a legitimate base to argue from.

Romans is a great place to start. Especially the first 8 chapters. Alright, there I will stop, for I will address many more specifics in the next few posts.

A Quick post and some pictures

Just some random picks from the last couple weeks:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102079&l=4e086&id=59501063
Sports Day!:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2102081&l=a7183&id=59501063

The following was born from a conversation with my friend Will over AIM.

You know when you're doing a puzzle and one of the pieces falls out of the pile and tumbles under the couch? But you don't notice because there are so many other puzzle pieces out of place. So you keep putting the puzzle together until you've got just one empty space left, right in the middle. Not until then are you able to know what's missing. My life is like that puzzle. I didn't know what I was missing until I put all the other pieces together. And now that I've come this far, I've realized that you're the missing piece that fell under the couch. And my life won't be complete until I search under every cushion, through every strand of carpet to find you and bring you back.

As I was biking to work this morning I passed by an obaasan (grandmother) walking her small house dog. I got to thinking about dogs as I usually do in this scenario. I often see older men and women walking various breeds of small dogs here in Kambara. I thought about dogs living in Japan; do they act differently here than they do back in the states? Of course they understand different language- do their Japanese owners tell them to “suware” (sit)? If I reproduced these same syllabic utterances, would their dog sit for me as well?

I thought about Yori living here in Japan. Would she be any different? I thought about it for a moment and then determined that no, she’d be just as inane. She’d still look at you with that same puppy dog innocence. She would still be hot on the trail after the same imaginary rodents. And that sideways trot, I’ll never forget that.

Last night I went into Shizuoka again. I’ve been going with increasing frequency, and this trend will probably continue. Now I have a draw. Ruth has introduced me to several of the Shizuoka Navigators, and I’m beginning to get involved. I went to Joy Fellowship church on Sunday with Ruth and met Brain and his wife Marjorie as well as Mark and his wife (I forget her name now). Mark has been serving with Navs overseas for more than 20 years now. He just got back from a 6000 km road trip in the US to glean laborers for the Japan mission field. He was also there to raise support and make new connections with Navigators based in the states, since he hasn’t lived there for so long.

I have been helping out with BEHOP twice a month, a Navigator outreach club for adults. Its draw is “cheap English lessons” which is a very common “in” for missionaries working over here. It has been a lot of fun, and I plan on attending every lesson I’m in town. Already the BEHOP organizer, Ginger, has roped me into helping her move furniture in her house after Church this Sunday, so I’ll be back in Shizuoka again. Ginger has been living in Japan for 12 years now, and I would guess she is getting close to 70. I asked her why she’s living in Japan and she said that she had hosted a Japanese college student each of three years in a row back in the states. Each student took a third of her heart back to Japan, so after the third one left, she just followed her heart. Ginger speaks perfect Japanese now and translates the Sunday services into English for the helplessly lost (aka, me).

Last night’s visit was to meet the new mid-termers who will be living and working in Shizuoka with the Shizudai (university) BEST Club students. BEST Club is very similar to a campus Navigators organization; however, the vast majority of BEST members are not Christians. They do all kinds of different activities together all led by Christian missionaries who also present the gospel, lead Bible studies for interested students, etc. Elbert and Mandy are the mid-termers; they’ll be here for 2 years and maybe more. At dinner I found out that Mandy is from Kearny, Nebraska, and knows Lois, my aunt! She said they went to the same Church and would say hi to each other on campus. I won’t say “small world” cuz everyone always uses those words and we know it’s true. I will say though that I think this world is more connected than anyone realizes. It really shouldn’t come as a surprise, as we discover these connections often. For me the best part about discovering the connection is not the excitement or the “what’r the odds?” but the ease of conversation that is inherent when two people share similar experiences and topics. So cool, I know new people and will be seeing them frequently this year.

I’ll leave you with one interesting observation, which apologetically I think may only be amusingly interesting to people who have lived here:

Why are the spoons so big and the toothbrushes so small when they’re both intended for the same mouth?