Links shared to provoke thought. No agreement nor endorsement implied… except for any articles saying good things about the San Antonio Spurs
Shifting the Social Media Conversation
Social media has the power to destroy religious conversations, turning them into arguments, flame wars and undermining the identifying marker that Jesus said would demonstrate we are his disciples: love. If we use it like a megaphone or bulletin board, we’re ignoring and drowning out any other view. But, if we start to think of social media as a way to connect people in real life with real relationships, we can use this new tool for God’s glory and his kingdom.
Five Things This Christian Learned from Islam: Humility
This is what humility feels like and it is (partly) why fasting is a valuable practice for people of faith (reminder to self). The powerful, gurgling and grumbling, reminder that we are dependent on food is a picture of our dependency on God. The weakness fasting imposes reminds us that God is not weak, he does not rely on food for nourishment.
It is vitally important for the church to confess, sing, and preach the truth. However, this truth has got to captivate the minds and hearts of the church family. When we listen to the conversations or take stock of our own words, we can see the gap.
Bill Nye’s Reasonable Man—The Central Worldview Clash of the Ham-Nye Debate
That’s because the argument was never really about ice rods and sediment layers. It was about the most basic of all intellectual presuppositions: How do we know anything at all? On what basis do we grant intellectual authority? Is the universe self-contained and self-explanatory? Is there a Creator, and can we know him?
An Ancient Reason Why Christians Shouldn’t Believe In Creationism
Nearly a millennium and a half before Ken Ham took the stage with Bill Nye to defend what Ham portrays as the faithful Christian reading of Genesis – a literal 6 day creation – St. Augustine had some choice words for those who would one day call themselves “creationists.”
Given all the attention surrounding the debate last night and the response today, but more importantly in light of the fact that there are still countless Christian either convinced of the necessity of believing in creationism or who feel guilty having doubts about it, I thought it was the perfect time to share these words of wisdom from one of the greatest of the church fathers and the ancient reason he gives for why believe Christians shouldn’t believe in creationism.
Free eBook: Evolution & Scripture are NOT Mutually Exclusive – Ham & Nye are both wrong
In this eBook, I invite church leaders to refine their approach to Scripture and origins. Many well-meaning Evangelicals, in an attempt to honor the Holy Spirit inspired Scriptures, fail to recognize that God’s world reveals truth as well. As St. Augustine believed, both the books of Scripture and Nature must be considered in our quest for truth. Those who lack this awareness “bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren… and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books.” This applies to the conflict created by Evangelicals between evolution and a biblical theology of creation. This antagonistic stance is unnecessarily hindering some people from becoming or remaining part of the Christian faith, when in fact, the biblical witness of cosmic and human origins in no way conflicts with modern science.
6 Ways to Shift Responsibility
Of course, no one wants to admit that he/she is not taking responsibility, that he/she is an expert in shifting accountability to someone or something else. No team wants to admit they are experts in doing so. No one raises a hand and says, “I do that. I excel in developing excuses that excuse me. I am great at setting up the scenario where I am completely in the clear no matter what.” Instead, in our humanity, we are really good at finding ways to appear to be taking responsibility without really taking responsibility.
Where we did find a difference was in avatar gender. Female avatars heal more often than male avatars. And this effect was driven entirely by gender-bending—a player using an avatar of the opposite gender. When men play a female avatar, they heal more. When women play a male avatar, they heal less. Thus, by conforming to gender expectations, an entirely false gender stereotype is being made true via play in a virtual world. We assume that virtual worlds allow us to reinvent ourselves and leave behind offline norms and prejudices, but the truth is more sobering. Virtual worlds can and often perpetuate the status quo.
Therapy animals, on the other hand, are meant to be used in counseling, whether a professional session or an informal one. Although the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association have no formal position on animal-assisted therapy, there’s evidence that small practices and individuals are exploring it. Animals are appearing in all sorts of places: in emergency rooms, prisons, juvenile-detention centers, nursing homes and, increasingly, your therapist’s office. There are no official numbers yet, but Pet Partners, a nonprofit that registers animals for animal-assisted therapy use (the largest organization to do so in the U.S.), says there were more than 1 million reported interactions between registered animals and patients last year. This number includes everything from nursing-home visits to therapy sessions.
What Tim Duncan Deserves, but Never Seems to Receive
In the case of the Western Conference, what is the coaches’ excuse for discounting Tim Duncan?
Something is wrong when Duncan — a 14-time All-Star and 4-time champion, who missed a fifth ring by the thinnest of margins last spring — is not shown the same respect as other N.B.A. greats. When Duncan — at 37, still playing at a remarkably high level for a San Antonio team that remains stubbornly among the elite — is not rewarded for all that he has been and still is.
Pinpointing the True Genius of the San Antonio Spurs’ System
Even without The Big Fundamental, the Spurs would still have been successful. Even without the luck they’ve experienced in the draft, the Spurs would still have been successful.
Thanks to their international stylings—both in the draft and on the court—and the coaching staff’s mentality and established system that maximizes the abilities of role players, the Spurs have always been primed to excel.