SAET Blog

noetic effects of sin Posts

  • August 30, 2011 by Jason Hood

    An Ode to Steve Jobs

    It’s an ode in three parts: epistolary, poetry, and a testimonial narrative.

    Epistolary

    If anyone thinks they’ve got reason to love their PC, well, I had more.  I was of the nation of PCs, of the tribe of laptop; as to the web, an Explorer. As to operating systems, of the eighth generation of Windows (Vista, XP, or whatever was after Windows 7).

    But I didn’t consider my PC-ness as righteousness, and I became a Mac user, that I may be found with an Apple, not having computer greatness of my own, but having my own macrighteousness. Still, even though I’m a Mac user, I don’t consider myself to have “made it”. I press on, working to reach that for which I purchased a Mac, forgetting my PC ways and striving to reach what lies ahead. (I bought my wife a Macbook.)

    Poetry

    Aiming for Apple like William Tell

    Went online and found it tax-free for sale

    Now I’m ruling the web like Mac-iavelli

    I’ve said goodbye to my PC and even my telly.

    A testimonial narrative

    No, seriously.  I’m now so cool that I went outside and fall started. My habits of driving old Grand Marquise (or whatever the plural is of Grand Marquis) and taking very early lunch were once regarded by an unnamed friend as “old man” style.  But because I have a Mac, they are now hip as can be.  The local dealerships have sold out of Grand Marquis and even other similar cars, like Crown Vics.  All the lunch joints are packed at 10:45.

    And no one calls me “sir” around town anymore.  No, they call me “Dude”.  Thank you, Steve Jobs.  Thank you for making me cool.

    Categories: General | Jason Hood | Literature | Love | Messianism | Poetry | noetic effects of sin | off-topic

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  • August 29, 2011 by Jason Hood

    Fantasy Football? Try Fantasy Theologian

    Well, it’s that time of year again: fantasy football time, and all my friends are on my case to join them in the fun. I just don’t have the time; the last thing I need is more time on the computer at home or at work. But I like the idea of fostering a little camaraderie and gamesmanship. So the question is, how can I make a game out of work?

    Here’s my first effort: Fantasy Theologian. 10 points for a book. 5 points for a conference. 1 point for an interview or op-ed. 1 point for every 20 blog posts. I drafted N. T. Wright and Tim Keller in the first three rounds.

    You select a theologian from each category: NT, OT, Systematics, Pastor-theologian, and (for special teams) Activist Theologian. You don’t have to sit a guy unless he goes on sabbatical (like John Piper) or gets nailed for some heresy (negative points).

    Even more fun: Fantasy Televangelist.  10 points per TBN appearance. 5 points per conference tour. 2 points for each continent visited during a season. 1 point per person slain in spirit, faith offering; celebrity guest while on tour (heck yes Carmen counts) and 1 point for every 10 foot lengthenings. Negative points for divorces, congressional investigations, and sex scandals.

    Categories: General | Idolatry | noetic effects of sin | off-topic

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  • February 14, 2011 by Matthew Mason

    Debased and Degenerate

    How sad that David Bentley Hart, whom I’d formerly considered on of the best and most stimulating contemporary theologians and cultural commentators, has revealed his true colours.  Has there ever been a theologian so debased, so degenerate, so utterly deluded?  Can it be possible for someone who presents as so profound a metaphysician to be so metaphysically incompetent?  What could possibly provoke a moral commentator so shamelessly to demonstrate his utter lack of moral sensibility?  Never mind the filioque, here is the reason I could never become Eastern Orthodox. If Barth considered the analogia entis the invention of the antichrist, what ever would he have made of this latest tragic, nay, demonic offering?

    As a taste of the depths to which he has stooped:

    I take it as an absolutely irrefutable maxim that a man capable of playing golf very well is probably capable of little else, while a man capable of watching golf with interest is probably capable of anything. As a purely private pastime, of course, and so long as one never learns to do it with any appreciable skill, golf is as unobjectionable as any other pointless diversion (tossing bottle-caps, shooting icicles with your .22 rifle, casting a vote in a presidential election). When I walk in the woods, I like to swing a walking stick and whistle; if I am feeling particularly heroic, I sing or recite verse more loudly than I could do safely in inhabited parts. The casual golfer, who adds some variety to a morning stroll by attempting to persuade a small ball to dash ahead of him at irregular intervals and take the lay of the land (so to speak), is doing nothing more reprehensible than that. (David Bentley Hart, ‘Golf and the Metaphysics of Morals’)

    The whole sorry thing is worth reading, if only as a cautionary tale with which to scare one’s offspring.  Though, in fairness to Degenerate Barmy Hart as I shall now think of him, his second sentence above, and the first half of the first, if true, puts me well and truly in the clear.

    Categories: General | noetic effects of sin | ways to scare your children

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