Ahh I have to shake my head, I really was confused by this story when I first read the headline.

According to The Register, residents in Hong Kong have been looking to have The Bible classified as restricted content, for ages 18+ only. As reported by Reuters, this request has been rejected.

Personally [...]]]>

Ahh I have to shake my head, I really was confused by this story when I first read the headline.

According to The Register, residents in Hong Kong have been looking to have The Bible classified as restricted content, for ages 18+ only. As reported by Reuters, this request has been rejected.

Personally I feel this is a little silly. Crying wolf if you want. If a person chooses to participate in such actions as were decried, then they are responsible for their actions, nothing else can or should be held responsible.

Prue had an interesting question for me last night: Do you believe life exists on another planet? Which, in the context of our conversation, really meant do I find the concept of true alien life to conflict with Christian beliefs. Prue’s motivation for asking this question comes from the discovery of Gliese 581c and [...]]]>

Prue had an interesting question for me last night: Do you believe life exists on another planet? Which, in the context of our conversation, really meant do I find the concept of true alien life to conflict with Christian beliefs. Prue’s motivation for asking this question comes from the discovery of Gliese 581c and its apparent habitable atmosphere. According to the article we will have to wait until 2020 before we get a chance to “discover” life on other planets, so in the mean time, I’ll speculate.

I feel this question has two components: a) Does a form of life exist? and b) Does a species exist which has a similar, or more advanced, consciousness / intelligence / thirst of knowledge?

A: Does a form of life exists?
In recent posts on the nature of life I discuss evolution as plausible, even likely. I’ve made evolution out to be a completely random algorithm, something that eventually reaches a result, if given enough time. So, regarding a general form of life, meaning plants, or basic organisms, or ants etc… Ignoring all God/Christian components: I feel it is certainly possible that life exists elsewhere in the Universe. However I should qualify that statement by saying: just because something is possible, doesn’t mean it actually exists.

However, the context of the question requires me to consider certain Christian components. In the articles where I discussed evolution, I stated:

While God may not have interfered with natures evolutionary course, [but] He certainly was their to start it.

Which basically requires me to say that God started life on Earth, and then told it to evolve. This, must also apply on another planet. In the end, God starting life on two different planets is entirely possible, so my answer remains the same.

B: Does an “intelligent” species exist?
I don’t want to get caught up in definitions of intelligence or consciousness; all I want is some life form that is akin to human thought levels (or more advanced). They can look like a Cockroach for all I care.

My answer is essentially the same: it’s certainly possible. But, as before, the possibility does not provide a guarantee. Also, belief in God does not stop the possibility intelligent life. But it does beg the question: Is Jesus’ sacrifice also required on that planet? Are they even part of God’s grand plan? Which, really is the point of part b. It opens a whole new thought process. To the best of my knowledge, the scriptures that discuss Gods relationship with mankind, and the purpose of Jesus’ sacrifice, do not preclude the possibility. I would like comments on this one, PLEASE!!!

I’m not going to be holding my breath waiting for little gray men to take me away to a Utopian paradise, or a dysfunctional hell. Nor do I ascribe to any conspiracies out of X-Files or similar. Simply given the size of the Universe, I feel it is entirely possible that life at some level, exists!!!

As stated above, I would really like some feedback on the concept of the scriptures precluding extraterrestrial life from a relationship with God. I do not believe God would allow life to form that would seek out repentance, only in the end to discover it was never on the cards for them.

As described in another post tonight I wanted XHTML1.1 compliance in my content management system. There was also a need for a map based location. Google Maps mashup time… Only one problem, XHTML1.1 compliance means using the application/xhtml+xml mime type. Google Maps uses the JavaScript function document.write(), and wouldn’t you know it, that function [...]]]>

As described in another post tonight I wanted XHTML1.1 compliance in my content management system. There was also a need for a map based location. Google Maps mashup time… Only one problem, XHTML1.1 compliance means using the application/xhtml+xml mime type. Google Maps uses the JavaScript function document.write(), and wouldn’t you know it, that function does not exist in the xml dom api.

Seems I’m not the only one with this issue: Google Maps API – No XHTML Support. I couldn’t actually find any such references on the Google Maps Help Group, I didn’t look to hard though. Why? Because I found lots of information in other areas. If you follow some links from the following you will have more than enough information.

• John Resig discusses the issue and presents a solution. AdSense related.
• Thread on Google Maps API Group.

I tried the solution presented by John Resig. No dice. I think this may be related to the differences in AdSense and Google Maps.

The CMS already used jQuery extensively, so perhaps jQuery could help. It’s funny this is extremely simple, but it works:
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
// Especially overwritten for xhtml+xml content type
document.write = function(str) { $("head").append(str); };
//]]>
</script>


Ok, claiming that works is silly:

• It works in Firefox, IE6+, Opera* and Konqueror.
• I have not tested it in Safari, it did work with Konqueror though.
• It depends on the jQuery library (it might work with Prototype).
• * You have to serve text/html to Opera. It appears Opera doesn’t support executing JavaScript added in this fashion, be it external files or inline code.

If anyone can test under Safari that would be excellent.

Andrew

The RCI National Youth Rally ran over the Australia Day long weekend. Each attending young peoples group was asked to bring a short film. The Newcastle film showed our answers to a series of random questions. One of these questions was: What is eternity without time? The Bible (Gods Word) records a promise of eternal [...]]]>

The RCI National Youth Rally ran over the Australia Day long weekend. Each attending young peoples group was asked to bring a short film. The Newcastle film showed our answers to a series of random questions. One of these questions was: What is eternity without time? The Bible (Gods Word) records a promise of eternal life. We are also told God operates outside of time. So, if we’re living with God, outside of time, for eternity… what is eternity?

Hopefully you can see what we were trying to ask.

Four weeks have passed, and until recently I was never really satisfied with my answer(s). The problem with previous answers, I think, is we never totally established that time would be abolished. However, for the purposes of answering the question, as it was presented, assume that time ceases to exist at some point (point? that requires a measurement: sigh) after the return of Christ.

Time is a unit of measure. The popular concept of eternity is existing for a limitless amount of time [Wikipedia]. Eternity is a quantity that we measure with time, that we will never finish measuring. I’m sorry, but now I have to use Math. We can create a bijective function, between the quantity of eternity, measured to a particular instant, and the set of natural numbers. Therefore the set of measurements of eternity is countably infinite. But it is countable.

You can always take the largest natural number you can imagine and add one, allowing you to take another measurement of eternity.

So without time, eternity either:

1. Finite, because we do not have a unit that is bijective to the set of natural numbers. Or;
2. Meaningless by definition.

Re-reading this post, I am suggesting that time would not cease to exist. That changes the fundamental point of the original question. Of course, this is applying human Math, it is probable that or understanding will change in time (excuse the pun). We may never get it right, we may only understand when we put on the mind of Christ.

What do you all think?