proteins

I really like proteins. They're pretty awesome. I may even write a poem about them if other things begin to seem less important. If you also want to fold proteins, check this out; download this little programme and get to it! There's even music as you go. http://fold.it/portal/ It seems you can be part of The Cause of Science in this way, as well, contributing to actual research. (I get to do the tutorial problems for a lab, but don't let that stop you participating for entertainment.)

On Fairy Stories

(For some reason I can't insert spaces in between lines. Perhaps I shall have to learn html to fix this.) Anyway, this is courtesy of JRR Tolkien, fairly well regarded in the genre of fantasy literature: (I've only skimmed parts of this long essay; one day I shall get around to reading it, along with various other files and books lying around, in full) "... it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairystory, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, selfcontained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath. ... But in God's kingdom the presence of the greatest does not depress the small. Redeemed Man is still man. Story, fantasy, still go on, and should go on. The Evangelium has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the “happy ending.” The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know."

not skilled to understand

This is one of my favourite songs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jazyUn4LMgA Maybe I'll blog a bit more in the next couple of weeks. I'm thinking, or hoping to think, a little about 'the origin of universe and of life', 'the place of religion in the public sphere', 'contingency and macroevolution', 'the rationality of naturalism', 'what human nature is' and such trifles; as well as natural law theories and the molecular basis of cancer, protein structure and medicinal chemistry for uni. Also, the dynamics of small groups and how one might reach tertiary institutions with the truth about Christ will also occupy some of my thought-time, all going well. I'm looking forward to actually doing some reading. If you're reading any interesting books, in any field (preferably non-fiction, though I can stretch to that for some people), let me know; I'd be interested in hearing what you think.

"The University is the most influential institution in any nation."

Seems a fairly plausible statement. Let's hope and pray our universities are sources of light and life.

John Morton dies

Sad to note the passing of NZ biologist and Christian intellectual, John Morton.
Glad to remember the resurrection of the dead.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10711028

"In 1960 he became the first person to be appointed to the chair of zoology at Auckland University, where his teaching style and influence have been well-documented in The History of Biology at Auckland University 1883-1983. He helped to found the marine laboratory at Leigh and went on to lead the marine party of the Royal Society's expedition to the Pacific. In 1969, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand."

see here for an article from a while back: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=183940

so, I guess this 'gospel' thing is pretty urgent then..

I've tried to write this twice before and keep on losing it, by pressing some weird combination of keys. Third time we may be successful.


Death comes seldom to NZ. Particularly seldom in large doses.

How do we respond?

How ought we?

Ought we: "Remember the value of family"? "Reassess our priorities"? "Live life to the full"? "Try to draw meaning out of chaos"? "Ignore it all"? "Make the best out of a bad situation"? "

You tell me, if you'd like.

Personally, I remember the gospel is important, it is a matter of life and death and it is not something to save for a rainy day as once it has started to rain, it is too late for some. There is a real answer to death; not one created by humanity, but one, the only one, given by God. It is the cross, it is Jesus Christ - it is the gospel.

It's worth thinking about; for without it, well, perhaps you begin to realise what a world without genuine Good News looks like.

Introvert at the Top?

Introverts can lead.

I think.

Preferable to have someone in charge who's thought about stuff and perhaps who doesn't say everything at once, or exhaust the depths of their intellect in casual conversation.

Go here for some further comments, found thanks to an article on Compass.org.nz
It concerns leadership in churches; but perhaps the thoughts have wider application.

something worth saying

One day soon I hope to spend some time reading classic sermons. There is wisdom there.

Here is one example - the entire excerpt, from Robert Hawker, is quite short and worth reading, here. I found it when quickly searching a point of doctrine I'd taken for granted in my own talk/sermon yesterday.

Precious, precious Redeemer! was it thus thou didst offer thy soul an offering for sin? Was there no method, in all the stores of Omnipotency, for satisfying divine justice, but by thy holy, harmless, undefiled body dying the violent, cursed, painful death of the cross? Oh by the crimson fountain of thy blood, which issued from thy pierced side, enable me to sit down, day by day, until I find my whole nature crucified with thee in all its affections and lusts. Let there be somewhat, dearest Lord, of an holy conformity between my Lord and me; and if Jesus died for sin; may my soul die to sin; that by mortifying the deeds of the body I may live; and by carrying about with me always the dying of the Lord Jesus, the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in my mortal body.

Amen.

Let our powers combine - ..., he's our hero ...

I've been trying to research conservatism - and I found this fair point and challenge:

when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle - Edmund Burke, classic conservative thinker

from (according to Wikipedia) Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents

Cell death

Somehow, I haven't blogged recently; drowning in assignments and trying to read up on other things were significant contributing factors

Anyway, I found this, on the (main?) discoverer of apoptosis. Read it, if you want:

http://scienceandbelief.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/death-as-preservative/

Fighting to Think

I came across a unique sport today, I think for the first time.

I used to play chess, probably being well-described as your bog-standard nerdy kid.

But I was never particularly good and I got self-conscious in realising how uncool it was, or something, so not much came of it.

Whatever my backstory, I would have had - and still would have - no hope at "Chess Boxing"

Fundamental

My assignment has gone so well in the past hour or three that I’ve been inspired to blog on the human condition; on evil, goodness and you. Yes, you. I’ll take the liberty of using a collective “we” to begin the post.

This is a picture of a Kafka book with the title "metamorphosis". It seemed suitably pretentious. Apparently, in it, a man gets turned in to an insect.

We tend to think of people as fundamentally good – a leftover verse from a hymn of the Enlightenment, perhaps it was, that created this common consensus. We snuck a look at it, lying on the trashpile and we framed it, ignoring any irony or conflict. This may be an apposite and quotable quote I have invented: “a consensus without strong fences is a fragile one”. In any case, of course, in holding such a belief in the goodness of those around us, we are faced by many glaring contradictions; occasionally we must at least glimpse the face of evil. But these tend to be distanced from us in actuality – experienced through television, WOW3 and other media, perhaps we do not consider them real or let them impact us substantially. Our family and classmates and workmates and flatmates and the mates that are too good to get a prefix are good, really. Like, they’re not bad, you know?!

This easy-going optimism – maybe it’s partly a kiwi thing – may be contrasted, at least implicitly, with a ‘religious’ view. On such a view, humankind is damned, is evil and the world sucks. Let it burn; somehow or other, a handful of moralists are righteous and the rest are goneburger. Such an ugly view; perhaps we suspect it to be disturbingly close to the truth (who after all wouldn’t want to be more moral, if it came easily?) but sure as hell, we’d rather not believe it.

A naturalist believing in no moral order (a consistent naturalist, I’d suggest), believes, or says he does, that human beings are fundamentally neither good nor evil. For, the terms are meaningless and what is required is a neutral view (it may be a moot point whether “required” could be an appropriate term.) I’ll let you assess whether this position is plausible; for now, I move on to what I consider a more promising alternative to each proposal outlined above.

The Christian view is, I would suggest, both similar and different to each of these. Firstly, the Christian view asserts that evil is real and present and ugly and real and yes I can say that twice and it’s inside every single one of us and it is something we need to face up to. But there is a but; in fact, there are two. God made mankind in his image; we are made to represent him in his creation and he intended us for good – indeed, he intended us for “very good”. The image has been trodden upon; in a bizarre self-referential loop, in trashing others and their cities, we’ve trashed ourselves and we’re stuck. Yet finally, the Christian view is hopeful. We can expect something better; we are justified in believing that justification before God is on offer to humanity, by his grace. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead; he has been vindicated and we can trust him and his atoning sacrifice, such that in doing so, we now have access to the full life that God intended for us. This is a story worth making your own.

The world is not neutral - it is subtly but crucially (yes, that ugly wooden 'cross' seems to pop up in our language even here, thanks to the derivation of our words; our so-carelessly used words!) different to that - it is two-faced, but one face is more significant than the other. It is a cliche, but it's a damn good one - the better face is the "face of love" and his name is Jesus. So many words have been written on Him and on the human condition in light of Him - and there are many more to come.

How do I come up with this.. awesomeness, you may wonder? Inspiration was drawn from working on an analysis, of this article for an English course (I may submit that here after handing it in), along with reading this blog-post: I’d also credit the Bible, particularly the early chapters of Romans, though any errors are my own rather than God’s. Recent discussions about salvation, creation and sin have also fed the conversation, so perhaps I can blame any falsehoods on my friends, the books I have read or my cultural conditioning.