QotD for 27 April, 2007

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

---Bertrand Russell

VisualDNA

Oh this is too cool!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

[via pj]

Bumper Sticker of the Day, 23 April, 2007

[via Betty Bowers]

Six, Weird Things About Me

Woo hoo! Finally got tagged with the "Six, Weird Things" meme by someone, so I can stop sitting over here in the corner, pouting & feeling left out ;) Thanks, Dennis.

And as others have noted, it'll be a chore to restrict myself to just six...

1. I'm a native Texan, yet I'm not any sort of redneck, gun-nut, or Republican. I also purely can't stand mainstream Country Music. Like the late Molly Ivins, "I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults."
   
   
2. I'm a Myers-Briggs INFP personality type, which, I suppose, makes me weird for a guy. Yet I'm quite happy with this state of affairs and couldn't care less if this makes me less "manly" to some people. As a matter of fact, I find that whole, shallow, "all this and a big cup of fizzy testosterone" idea of masculinity to be highly annoying.
   
   
3. I'm an cradle Episcopalian, and love our traditional liturgy, but I'm about as far away from believing in a theistic, "personal" God as you can get and still be considered any sort of "Christian." I suppose I'm as much a panentheist as anything, and The Episcopal Church is one of the only, mainline churches who'll have me. If they ever change their mind about that, I'll just have to jump right in to the UUA.
   
   
4. For a supposedly cultured, intellectual person (much less an Episcopalian), it's weird that I dislike wine. Well, except for sweet stuff like some German white wines, port, etc... Now good beer, on the other hand, is the nectar of the gods. But good beer, mind you - none of this watery, American junk. Stouts, porters, German hefeweizens, etc... that's the stuff.
   
   
5. I'm mildly obsessive about keeping important things like my keys, wallet, cell phone, etc... in the same, exact place in my house when I put them down. It bugs me to no end to not know "where my important stuff is" if it's not on me.
   
   
6. I get a bit distracted and testy if I'm denied Internet access for too long (say, more than a few days), but will happily go much longer without things like TV or newspapers.
   

Let me think now... I'd love to see answers to this from Rev. Susan, that Kaeton woman, the Mad Priest, and Bill Carroll :)

How Do You Experience the Holy ?

Me ? I'm a Lover :)

Find your own place on the spiritual spectrum with the explorefaith Quiz. Explorefaith is a wonderful website I discovered today whose editorial board includes such notables as Michael Battle, Marcus Borg, and Barbara Brown Taylor.

We are a community of faith dedicated to sharing our beliefs and experiences with anyone seeking answers to spiritual questions. Launched in 1999, explorefaith.org is a non-profit organization with a growing list of Partner Churches that support its mission and development. Explorefaith.org and its associates are deeply committed to ongoing spiritual formation for people of all ages and all backgrounds, living in countries around the world...We celebrate diversity and respect the insights that can be gained through the wisdom of different denominations and religious traditions. Modeled upon the Episcopal approach to Christianity (open, experiential, ecumenical, emphasizing grace, forgiveness, and God's love), Explorefaith.org displays an openness to, and appreciation of a broad range of ideas, and a concurrent belief that through Jesus Christ we can experience the heart of God.

QotD for 12 April, 2007

On the versions of the proposed "Anglican Covenant"* from various neo-con sources within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion:

A Covenant of the sort being proposed has to do with enshrining as normative within the Anglican Communion a specific theological perspective as the only theological perspective.

Similarly the proposed Covenant provides a legal mechanism for discipline and exclusion as the solution to theological difference.

Neither of these things are Anglican.

--- the Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton

And that, gentle readers, is the whole thing in a nutshell.

*(warning: oxymoron alert)

What Kind of Nerd are You ?

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd   Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Science/Math Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Drama Nerd
Social Nerd
Anime Nerd
Musician
Artistic Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Hmmm... I do love books, but I've always thought of myself as a computer/science geek (the anime thing fits, too - far better than the drama nerd category, IMHO).

[via Elieen]

QotD for 4 April, 2007

"A literalist interpretation of Scripture tells us that God is a rock that sent a bird to cause a virgin to give birth to a loaf of bread. And this is supposed to be an improvement on obtaining a chiseled code of conduct from a flaming shrubbery in a cloud. If a literal understanding is all that is required for faith, then I'm a yellow ducky."

--- Rabbi Ben Sylva

[via the Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton]