Welcome, readers, to my new blog! It’s what all the cool kids are doing these days, isn’t it? Need I any more motivation?
In all seriousness, this blog is born out of an attempt to get some of my scattered loose thoughts about things variously scientific, theological, philosophical, and experiential down in some sort of coherent journal form. I can’t even begin to count the number of times an idea has come to my head and I’ve failed to write it down, only to have it reappear unbidden at some later date. It’s as if they are bouncing around inside my mind, like a fly trapped by a window, looking for a way out, and becoming increasingly frustrated because I keep them in there. If you check out the “about” page, you can read more about my motivation in this regard. In brief, this blog is about discussing the Christian faith from an intellectual perspective — loving God with all my mind — and in particular, to explore the interplay of scientific thinking and practice with that of the Christian faith. I also want to use it as a discussion of my faith journey, which has been heavily influenced by my chosen vocation, namely that of a practicing scientist in the field of Meteorology. My hope is that the posts here will alternately resonate, inspire, challenge, and provoke thinking in the readers of the blog, for my fellow Christians and non-Christian friends and whoever else happens upon this blog.
I want to make it clear that I’m not writing this blog in a vacuum. I have been inspired and influenced myself by several other excellent intellectual Christian bloggers out there. Some that top this list are the late Michael Spencer of Internet Monk , Scot McKnight of Jesus Creed , and my old friend Nathan Gilmour and his cohorts at The Christian Humanist (on which I was a recent podcast guest), among many others, which you can visit in my blogroll. One thing that these bloggers have in common is that they all approach the Christian faith passionately from thoughtful, careful, and serious points of view. It has been writers like these that have brought me through a time of wilderness in my faith, and have helped confirm and increase it beyond what I thought was possible, for which I thank God. If you continue to read this blog, I daresay you will hear more about this in future posts. All would describe themselves, I think, as firmly orthodox in their theology and faith practice, but yet all have a distinct desire to engage seriously and respectfully with the great intellectual issues of our time, at least those that occupy our lives in the West. As should go without saying, I don’t necessarily always agree with everything they say on their blogs, but their humility, civility, true respect for the issues and those that disagree with them, and their overall Christian character, are qualities I would like to emulate here in my own blog. I can only hope to contribute in some small and humble way to the conversations that they have been having, adding my own experience from the scientific realm, and thus to contribute to God’s glory.
As for comments on my posts, I welcome them wholeheartedly, but I wish to make it very clear from the get-go that I will tolerate no personal attacks, spamming, or trolling in any form. I expect that much of what I have to say will be disagreed with from all manner of perspectives at some point or another, and that commenters will disagree with each other, sometimes vehemently. I have no problem with disagreements, but civility must be maintained. I’ve had quite my fill of wading through any number of flame wars on other blogs to get at nuggets of goodness, to see the same thing happen here. I do not see this blog as a debating platform, but rather as a platform for civil conversation and mutual learning. I’d ask people who choose to comment here to please respect this vision; I reserve the right to terminate a line of discussion at any time, if only because time is valuable, and with my full time job, I don’t always have a lot of it.
Finally, I hope that writing in this blog will also make me a better writer overall. It’s not one of my stronger suites, but being a scientist means writing a lot, and since I’ve only been recently decanted from the Ph. D. mold, I had better get to learn to like it and get good at it!
Thanks for reading!
“I can’t even begin to count the number of times an idea has come to my head and I’ve failed to write it down, only to have it reappear unbidden at some later date. It’s as if they are bouncing around inside my mind, like a fly trapped by a window, looking for a way out, and becoming increasingly frustrated because I keep them in there.”
Me exactly – particularly during the hours of 11 pm – 1 am when I wish I could record my thoughts.
“Finally, I hope that writing in this blog will also make me a better writer overall. It’s not one of my stronger suites” – Same here – I mentioned this in my first or second blog post as well as a disclaimer;) The thesaurus function is my best friend. But I have to write if I want to get my thoughts out to the world, otherwise they stay stuck in my head.
Like a Child,
You have the honor of having the first comment on my blog. Thanks for visiting! I have a few drafts of posts waiting in the wings, but haven’t yet been satisfied with any of them yet to post them. Part of it is my perfectionist bent, and part of it is being busy with work and other pursuits. But there will be more to come, I assure you!