1. I finally bought the book everyone's been talking about: Getting Serious about Getting Married, by Debbie Maken. I'm in the middle of the 'marraige is a duty' chapter. The book is profound, not so much because Mrs. Maken is a good writer (she's not bad) but because of the subject matter. It's just so un-modern, which I appreciate greatly. I do wish, however, that she would quote more Scripture. I understand her arguments, but I don't know how effective the book will be for someone like Lisa, for example, who wants to get married, but sees singleness as equal with marraige.
This book supplied my post title, as the authoress cited the three reasons a person is exempt from marraige: 1. He was born a eunuch, 2. He was made a eunuch, and 3. He has been given the gift of continence 'for the sake of the kingdom of heaven'. (Matt. 19:11-12) Celibacy is for the celibate.
2. I recently found a list of Dystopian literature on Wikipedia. I printed it off and am making my way through, trying to find some good authors and stories. So far, I've looked at maybe a dozen books and found only one author that I enjoy-Philip K. Dick. He wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and the short stories 'Minority Report' and 'Paycheck', which have all become popular movies. He's very Bradbury-esque.
3. On Sunday night at the graduate student discussion, we heard a man speak on the flat earth myth. It was quite interesting. Apparently, medievals didn't think the earth was flat. Also, there were discussions among the ancients concerning people on other planets and whether or not the sacrifice of Jesus applied to them (if they were fallen). Evidently C.S. Lewis didn't just make all that up. The mind...it boggles.
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The Medievals have been dissed more than the Puritans, if that's possible. From what I can tell it was common knowledge for at least couple of centuries before Christ that the earth was a sphere (before that, the idea of its being a cylinder was toyed with - by Greek philosophers, that is). A Greek man named Eratosthenes (the head librarian at Alexandria!) actually figured out how to calculate the circumference of the earth, about two centuries before Christ, by using simple geometry. He was only off by about 200 miles - a distance of less than 1% of the actual number.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, wretched man, was the one who popularized the idea that everyone but Columbus thought the earth was flat in his pseudo-bio of that explorer.
I thought it was Washington Irving who wrote the biography of Columbus... *shrug*
I heard about Eratosthenes, though! He was pretty smart.
I thought it was Washington Irving who wrote the biography of Columbus... *shrug*
I heard about Eratosthenes, though! He was pretty smart.
You're probably right. Hawthorne's been getting on my nerves lately so he's taking the blame for everything.
:-p
You're probably right. Hawthorne's been getting on my nerves lately so he's taking the blame for everything.
:-p
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