Justin Taylor's Blog, page 99

The Gospels and Mythical Legend

C. S. Lewis:

I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this. . . .

These men ask me to believe they can read between the lines of the old texts; the evidence is their obvious inability to read (in any sense worth discussing) the lines themselves. They claim to see fern-seed and can’t see an elephant ten yards away in broad daylight.

—C. S. Lewis, “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism” or “Fern-Seeds and Elephants” (1959).

The Gospel Advance in North Africa: New Documentary for $5 (72 Hours Only)

WTS is selling their bestselling series on Dispatches from the Front for over half off, and the latest episode for only $5 (sale ends July 25). Here is a trailer:

You can also check out Tim Keesee’s book here.

40 copies of the DVD are being given away, and you can sign up for a chance to enter here.

Teaching Science to Kids

The new Noeo (pronounced no-eh’-o) science curriculum looks look a great way to help your kids learn science:

This science curriculum is designed especially for teaching science at home. Its multiple-textbook structure is best described as a balance between the classical method and the Charlotte Mason approach. In contrast with a single textbook approach, we think the variety of study materials and activities will encourage more interest in science, particularly with younger students. All of these books have been carefully selected by Dr. Randy Pritchard (a practicing veterinarian and homeschooling father of two boys) to guide children into discovery of the complexity, order, and wonder of God’s design.

The Level 1 courses are for grades 1-3, the Level 2 courses are for grades 4-5, and the Level 3 courses are.

You can read an FAQ here.

For some videos, links to sample of the instructor’s guides, and the contents of the kits, see below:

Biology 1

Major Topics

Invertebrates
Fish
Mammals
Birds
Human Body
Major Ecosystems
Plants and Trees
Weather

Major Scientists Covered in Biology 1:

Louis Pasteur
John James Audubon

Contents of Biology 1 Kit

Instructor’s Guide
Dorling Kindersley First Animal Encyclopedia
One Small Square: Cactus Desert
One Small Square: Woods
One Small Square: Seashore
Pasteur’’s Fight Against Microbes
Usborne Science Activities – Science with Plants
Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of the Human Body
DK Eye Wonder: Weather
The Boy Who Drew Birds
Audubon’s Birds of America Coloring Book

The Young Scientists Club Biology 1 Experiment Kits

Kit #4 Weather
Kit #10 Bacteria and Fungi
Kit #17 Heart and Lungs
Kit #18 The Digestive System
Kit #19 Bones and Muscles
Kit #20 The Senses

Chemistry 1

Major Topics

Atoms
Molecules
The Periodic Table
Chemical Elements: Solids, Liquids, and Gases, Polymers and Plastics, Rocks and Minerals

Major Scientists Covered in Chemistry 1:

Marie Curie
Democritus
Dmitrii Mendeleev

Contents of Chemistry 1 Kit:

Instructor’s Guide
Eino’s Box Kit: Molecular Models
What’s Smaller than a Pygmy Shrew
Building Blocks of Matter: Atoms and Molecules
Building Blocks of Matter: Elements and Compounds
Building Blocks of Matter: Mixtures and Solutions
Building Blocks of Matter: Chemical Reaction
Marie Curie’s Search for Radium
Super Science Concoctions
How to Think Like a Scientist
True Books: The Elements
A Drop of Water
Everyday Materials: Plastic
Rocks and Minerals (Nat’l Geog. KIDS, 2)

Includes The Young Scientist’s Club Chemistry 1 Experiments Kit

Kit # 1 Recycling
Kit # 5 The Three Phases of Matter
Kit # 7 Minerals
Kit # 8 Crystals
Kit # 9 Fossils
Kit # 11 Weight and Volume

Physics 1

Major Topics Covered in Physics 1:

Forces and Motion
Light and Color
Levers
Wheels and Pulleys
Electricity and Magnetism
Inventions
Sound
Flight
Space

Major Scientists Covered in Physics 1:

Albert Einstein
Benjamin Franklin
Michael Faraday
Galileo Galilei

Contents:

Instructor’s Guide
Sci-Hi: Magnetism and Electromagnets
Sci-Hi: Light and Sound
Sci-Hi: Forces and Motion
Ein-O’s Discovery Tank: Mechanical Science
How Do You Lift A Lion?
How Ben Franklin Stole The Lightning
What Makes the Light Bright, Thomas Edison?
Did it Take Creativity to Find Relativity, Albert Einstein?
The Story of Inventions
Starry Messenger
DK Eye Wonder: Space

The Young Scientists Club Physics 1 Experiment Kits

Kit # 3 Magnets
Kit # 16 Flight
Kit # 21 Light
Kit # 22 Mirrors
Kit # 33 Forces

 

Biology 2

Major Topics 

Microscopic World
Biological Classifications
Insects
Fish and Other Water Creatures
Birds and Other Flying Creatures,
Reptiles and Amphibians
Mammals
Ecology and Conservation
Human Body
Plants
Seeds and Flowers
Fungi

Contents:

Instructor’s Guide
Usborne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia (be sure to select the option below if you do not already have this book)
Usborne Internet-Linked Mysteries and Marvels of Nature
The Body Book
Usborne Internet-Linked Complete Book of the Microscope
Illumax 100X Slide Microscope and Slides

The Young Scientists Club Biology 2 Experiment Set

Kit #28 Seeds, Fruits, and Other Plant Parts
Kit #29 Eggs
Kit #30 Owls

Chemistry 2

Major Topics Covered in Chemistry 2:

Atoms and molecules
Solids
Liquids and Gases
Mixtures and Compounds
Elements
The Periodic Table
Geology

Major Scientists Covered in Chemistry 2:

Antoine Lavoisier
John Dalton
Amedeo Avogadro
Dimitrii Mendeleev

Books contained in the Kit (click each title for more details)

Instuctor’s Guide
Usborne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia (be sure to select the option below if you do not already have this book)
Usborne Internet-Linked Mysteries and Marvels of Science (be sure to select the option below if you do not already have this book)
Fizz, Bubble & Flash!
Adventures with Atoms and Molecules (This product has been discontinued by the publisher so expect delay while we negotiate with them to find a solution)
The Mystery of the Periodic Table
Geology Rocks!

The Young Scientists Club Chemistry 2 Experiment Kits

Kit #12 Acids and Bases
Kit #13 Water
Kit #15 Air
Kit #34 Surface Tension
Kit #35 Polymers

Physics 2

Major Topics

Energy
Forces
Motion
Light
Sound
Electricity
Astronomy

Major Scientists Covered in Physics 2:

Sir Isaac Newton
Archimedes
Galileo Galilei

Books contained in this Kit (click each title to see more details)

Instructor’s Guide
Usborne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia (be sure to select the option below if you do not already have this book)
Usborne Internet-Linked Mysteries and Marvels of Science (be sure to select the option below if you do not already have this book)
Gizmo’s and Gadgets – Creating Science Contraptions That Work
Archimedes and the Door of Science
Along Came Galileo

The Young Scientists Club Physics 2 Experiment Kits

Kit #23 – Electricity
Kit #24 – Circuits and Electromagnets
Kit #25 – Magnetism
Kit #26 – Static Electricity
Kit #31 – Stars
Kit #32 – Planets
Kit #36 – Famous Scientists and Their Experiments

 

Chemistry 3

Major Topics:

History of Chemistry
The Periodic Table
Chemical Reactions
Metals
Nonmetals
Mixtures
Compounds and Solutions
States of Matter
Acids and Bases

Major Scientists Covered in Chemistry 3:

Antoine Lavoisier
Robert Boyle
Robert Bunsen
Dimitri Mendeleev

Books in this Kit (click each title to see more details)

Instructor’s Guide
DK Eyewitness Chemistry
The Periodic Table – Elements With Style!
Exploring the World of Chemistry
Material Matters Series: States of Matter
Material Matters Series: Mixtures, Compounds, and Solutions
Material Matters Series: Acids and Bases
Material Matters Series: Metals
Material Matters Series: Nonmetals
Material Matters Series: Chemical Reactions 
Thames and Kosmos CHEM C2000 Chemistry Experiment Set

Physics 3

Major Topics:

History of Physics
Forces and Motion
Simple Machines
Energy
Electricity
Magnets and Electromagnetism
Light
Sound

Major Scientists Covered in Physics 3:

Albert Einstein
Archimedes
Nicolaus Copernicus
Galileo Galilei

Contents:

Instructor’s Guide
Foolish Physics: A Weird History of Science
Isaac Newton
Exploring the World of Physics
Introduction to Physics: The Science of Physics
Introduction to Physics: Energy
Introduction to Physics: Sound
Physical Science in Depth: Light
Physical Science in Depth: Magnets and Electromagnetism
Physics – Why Matter Matters!
DK Eyewitness Electricity
Thames and Kosmos Physics Workshop Experiment Set
Electronic Snap Circuits Snaptricity Set by Elenco

 

Drinking, Hooking Up, and Sexual Assault on College Campuses

Adelaide Mena and Caitlin Seery La Ruffa, recent graduates of Princeton University, have penned a helpful piece in Public Discourse, arguing that without the “hook-up culture,” the “rape culture” would not have gotten its current foothold in our universities:

First, it creates a setting in which it is very easy for people who want to do bad things to do them undetected.

When somewhat drunkenly bringing someone back to your dorm is the norm, how are bystanders (in a dark, noisy, crowded space) supposed to distinguish good intentions from bad? How can an onlooker see the difference between a young man genuinely seeking to help his friend get back to her room safely and one pretending to be a good friend, only to take advantage of her once there? One of us had the horrible experience—twice—of being witness to a friend’s assault in the very next room and being powerless to do anything, not because of physical inability, but because by all external appearances what was happening looked just like any other weekend night.

Second, a sexual ethic that centers on the pursuit of pleasure and personal gratification and reduces the significance of a sexual act to that of a scrabble game—mere recreation—teaches that persons are means to an end.

We are taught to use each other’s bodies for our mutual satisfaction and to assume that sexual activity does not carry any unintended consequences. But once we get used to heedlessly using one another’s bodies, it is dangerously easy to see using another’s body for our own gratification as unproblematic, even if the other person isn’t doing the same to us. A hook-up culture based on mutual use and lack of consequence can’t help but lead in the direction of unilateral use of another’s body.

Third, the language that we millennials use for discussing sexual boundaries, constraint, and consensual interaction has all but disintegrated.

The domination of the hook-up as the preeminent romantic script has repercussions for all young adults—even those who don’t pursue hook-ups themselves. Over and over, we are told that physical encounters can be casual and fun, because they only have the meaning that we ascribe to them. Context is stripped from a range of sexual expression; even commonly used words lose their meaning. A hook-up, for example, can consist of anything from simple kissing, to petting, to penetration, to a range of other activities limited only by the adolescent imagination. What someone might expect in a hook-up or a romantic relationship can vary dramatically from person to person.

This series of vague and variable sexual expectations clashes dangerously with the carte blanche given to young American adults. After all, boys will be boys and girls will go wild. The selfish individualism expected among adolescents and young adults tells us not to take “no”for an answer. Respect for ideas of sexual integrity—the concept that sex might by its nature mean something more than a game—has gone out the window. With it went respect for the very concept of boundaries.

Those with a strict code of sexual ethics have all the more boundaries to be crossed. Their plight is worsened by our culture’s tendency to conflate sexual continence with repression. At its best, we are told that a chaste lifestyle might be possible for the superhuman or abnormally religious, but not for the average college kid. At its worst, this attitude leads to a disdain for sexual boundaries as backwards, misogynistic, and dangerous—or simply stupid and unworthy of respect.

They also explain why the position of college administrations on this subject remain incoherent:

We graduated only a few years ago, and each of us needs both hands to count the number of friends who were sexually violated in college—and those are only the ones we know about. These are not people we sought out for their traumas or folks who invited any sort of trouble: in the course of what would otherwise be normal college life, people and institutions they trusted betrayed them in one of the most painful ways possible. As often as not, the abusive encounters did not include alcohol, and they occurred in common spaces as often as in the dark corners of fraternity tap rooms. To our knowledge, not one of their assailants has faced any kind of legal or disciplinary repercussions, and barely any have suffered any social fallout—even when publicly accused.

Why, then, when college administrations do so much to drive home the concept of “consent,” do college students continue not to get the message? Because they see from the outset that consent—as it is currently conceived—doesn’t make sense. Out of one side of their mouths, administrators acknowledge the alcohol-fueled hook-up culture with a proverbial shrug of the shoulders, and out of the other side tell students that any alcohol use negates the possibility of consent. By this standard, all sexual activity framed by alcohol consumption is, in some sense, sexual assault. Any college freshman understands that it just doesn’t make sense to say that any alcohol-infused dance floor make-out session could be called assault—at least not when the powers that be are encouraging any and all forms of sexual expression. The standard is viewed as inconsistent and absurd, so it gets shrugged off.

While alcohol is implicated in many cases of sexual assault, it is only a catalyst in a system already primed for assault. On a campus where binge drinking was the norm but the hook-up was not the dominant form of sexual interaction, sexual assault would both be much easier to avoid and much harder to commit.

You can read the whole thing here, along with their follow-up piece offering some modest suggestions of what can be done.

A Christian Law Professor’s Three Predictions about the Future of Religious Liberty in the U.S.

John Inazu (JD, PhD) is an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and the author of the well-received academic book, Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale University Press, 2012). Writing in Christianity Today he offers helpful summary and a sharp analysis of the current cultural and legal landscape regarding religious liberty, exemplified through cases like Hobby Lobby and now Gordon College.

The piece is very well-written, but be forewarned that it is not encouraging.

Here are the three predictions he makes:

Prediction #1: Only religious groups (by no means all of them) will impose restrictions based on sexual conduct.

That is in stark contrast to the many groups that make gender-based distinctions: fraternities and sororities, women’s colleges, single-sex private high schools, sports teams, fitness clubs, and strip clubs, to name a few. It is perhaps unsurprising in light of these observations that views on gender and sexual conduct have flip-flopped. Thirty years ago, many people were concerned about gender equality, but few had LGBTQ equality on their radar. Today, if you ask your average 20-year-old whether it is worse for a fraternity to exclude women or for a Christian group to ask gay and lesbian members to refrain from sexual conduct, the responses would be overwhelmingly in one direction. That trend will likely continue.

Prediction #2: Only religious groups will accept a distinction between “sexual conduct” and “sexual orientation,” and those groups will almost certainly lose the legal effort to maintain that distinction.

Most Christian membership limitations today are based on conduct rather than orientation: they allow a gay or lesbian person to join a group, but prohibit that person from engaging in conduct that falls outside the church’s teachings on sexuality. These policies—like the one at Gordon College currently under fire—are not limited to gays or lesbians; all unmarried men and women are to refrain from sexual conduct. The distinction between status and conduct from which they derive is rooted in Christian tradition, and it is not limited to sexuality: one can be a sinner and abstain from a particular sin.

But many people reject the distinction between status and conduct. And in a 2010 decision,Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the Supreme Court also rejected it, viewing distinctions based on homosexual conduct as equivalent to discrimination against gays and lesbians. I have argued in a recent book (Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly) that the Court’s reasoning is troubling in the context of a private group’s membership requirements. But it is the current state of the law.

Prediction #3: Fewer and fewer people will value religious freedom.

Although some Christians will respond to looming challenges with appeals to religious liberty, their appeals will likely face indifference or even hostility from those who don’t value it. The growing indifference is perhaps unsurprising because many past challenges to religious liberty are no longer active threats. We don’t enforce blasphemy laws. We don’t force people to make compelled statements of belief. We don’t impose taxes to finance training ministers. These changes mean that in practice, many Americans no longer depend upon the free exercise right for their religious liberty. They are free to practice their religion without government constraints.

Additionally, a growing number of atheists and “nonreligious” Americans have little use for free exercise protections. Even though most Americans will continue to value religious liberty in a general sense, fewer will recognize the immediate and practical need for it to be protected by law.

This final prediction is deeply unsettling, because strong protections for religious liberty are core to our country’s law and history. But those protections have been vulnerable since the Court’s decision in the peyote case. And they will remain vulnerable unless the Court revisits its free exercise doctrine.

Read the whole thing here.

So Heavenly Minded You’re No Earthly Good?

C. S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity:

A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.

It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.

The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”

John Piper:

Yes, I know. It is possible to be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly use. My problem is: I’ve never met one of those people. And I suspect, if I met one, the problem would not be that his mind is full of the glories of heaven, but that his mind is empty and his mouth is full of platitudes.

I suspect that for every professing believer who is useless in this world because of other-worldliness, there are a hundred who are useless because of this-worldliness.

Preaching a Psalm of Lament and a Psalm of Praise

Christopher Ash at the Truth for Life conference (2014), walking through Psalm 146 (and how Jesus perfectly fulfills these exhortations to praise and enables us to live a life of praise), and then Psalm 74, exploring God’s sovereignty over all evil:

Pro-Life Efforts in Chinese Churches: An On-the-Ground Report

Excellent on-the-ground reporting from World Magazine:

CHINA—The smell of steamed rice and stir-fried beef waft into the simple warehouse converted into a church in northern China. Fans mounted on the walls breathe air into the warm room, as gracious hosts hand visitors cups of boiling water, the drink of choice no matter the weather. As two pastors—one American, one Chinese—finished teaching on the sanctity of life, women and men of all ages stood up, sobbing and praying for repentance: “Lord, forgive me for aborting my child; I didn’t know it was murder. Lord, forgive me for shedding innocent blood.”

For most in the room, this was the first time they had seen photos of fetal development, learned about what abortion entails, and studied what the Bible says about the sanctity of life. A middle-aged Chinese woman with cropped hair approached me with a nervous smile afterward. “Where do the [aborted babies] go?” she asked, eyes watering. “I’ve had it done before and was wondering if I’d ever see them again.” I mumble in broken Chinese that the babies go to heaven, telling her the story of King David’s child. “Oh, that’s so good to hear,” she said.

In China abortion is “as common as drinking water,” one woman told me, with the official tally at 13 million babies aborted each year, by far the highest in the world. For many, abortion is viewed as the preferred method of birth control, with ubiquitous ads on buses and billboards touting quick, cheap, and pain-free abortions. Few people, including Christians, are knowledgeable about life inside the womb or understand the abortion procedure, a fact attributed to the government’s desire to continue its population control policies. Yet it’s not just the one-child policy causing women to abort; more and more single women are also aborting as the younger generation’s lax view of sex clashes against traditional stigmas against having children out of wedlock.

In the past few years, Chinese Christians are starting to take a stand for life, both by teaching about abortion from the pulpit, and working with women to find oftentimes unconventional ways to protect life. Some originally hear the pro-life message from U.S.-based ministries, some through the internet or overseas teachings, while others are convicted through reading the Bible. From there, the message has spread to tens of thousands of churches around the country, and resulted in mothers holding giggling babies that otherwise wouldn’t be born, women saved from forced abortions, and churches growing stronger as they repent and help their own.

Yet still only about 1 percent of all the churches in China have heard what the Bible has to say about life, according to the pro-life group China Life Alliance (CLA). And with cultural, governmental, and practical roadblocks hindering their message, the Chinese pro-life movement still has a long way to go.

Continue reading. . . .

New Trailer for the “Unbroken” Movie

Do You Have Great Expectations?

I am currently reading, for the first time, Charles Dickens’s masterpiece, Great Expectations, and thus far it is exceeding the expectations I had for it. I have been tempted—guilted?—to read the book for some time, ever since I read the following anecdote from Leland Ryken’s Realms of Gold: The Classics in Christian Perspective:

Had I really heard what I seemed to have heard, or had my end-of-the-semester paranoia made me imagine things? David, a bright and godly student on the verge of graduation from college, had just said to me, “In my last semester in college I could not justify the time it would take to read Great Expectations.”

I said nothing. I was shocked. The chasm between David and me was so great on this subject that it took me a long time to grasp it. How could anyone not justify taking time to read Great Expectations? I wondered. Or Homer’s Odyssey and many other indispensable, life-changing books? What accounts for the difference between David’s attitude and mine? Most obviously, I have acquired a taste for literary classics and David has not. To me they are treasures that I cannot live without. This is an acquired taste only in the sense that people must read these books before they are captivated by them. Once we open ourselves to their beauty and power, they can be trusted to win us. David did not reject the classics because he found them lacking but because he left them unread.

In addition to picking up a cheap version of the print book—along with reading through Leland Ryken’s guide to the book— I’ve also been listened to Simon Prebble’s fantastic narration (a British accent is certainly helpful for a book like this), which Audible.com currently has on sale for $0.99 (I’m not sure how long that lasts).

[Update: Mark Ward clarifies: You can get the 99-cent price if you "buy" the $0.00 Kindle version at Amazon (click here). Once you "purchase" it, you will see an option to add the audio narration for 99 cents.]

Don’t watch the latest movie version till you read the book, but here is a 2012 version which looks good, starring Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and Ralph Fiennes as the convict Magwitch: