Notes on faith
Apologetics:
Readings:
Charitable organizations:
Church matters:
Surviving COVID-19 in Spain Changed My Faith
Notes from reading Marcos Zapata's letter on CT.
Quotes:
The leadership by those who seem alien to suffering will never produce disciples but only admirers. My time of suffering and fighting against the illness has reminded me once again that the Father already sent a Savior—and it is not me.
Churches have a fundamental role to play in responding with wisdom to this crisis. The problem we are witnessing is a weak theology that teaches caution conflicts with faith—a triumphalist theology that claims we are immune to the virus because of our faith. From this flows ideas such as Christians not having to obey the guidelines of the authorities because God will protect us. This is a gross mistake, and it will have disastrous consequences. The pastors who preach these things will have to give an account to God and to men for their teachings.
Churches that already had a good structure for small groups will better preserve a sense of community—as well as pastoral care and mission work—in this time of crisis. And, of course, the technologies and communication systems available on the internet are a blessing.
Jacob's speckled flocks was likely a mix of selective breeding and nutritional supplementation
Today, I was listening in on Genesis 30, in which Jacob had this weird deal with his uncle Laban. The deal worked as follows:
“Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. (Genesis 30:32–36)
Then, Jacob did something with the spotted, striped, and speckled flocks:
Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane (or chestnut or sycamore) trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys. (Genesis 30:37–43)
The end result was that Jacob basically made a large, large flock for himself out of his uncle's flock... and if you read on, you'll see that his own flock size soon surpassed his uncle's.
Now, I was curious, is there a mechanism we can describe to explain the discrepancy over multiple generations of flock breeding?
Having thought about the problem using my prior biological training, and doing a bit of cursory searching on the internet, there's two possible factors that can explain Jacob's success: folklore medicine actually working (I still remain somewhat skeptical of it), and genetics.
As a prior, coat colour is likely a genetic trait. Jacob engaged in selective breeding:
He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
Let's start with a highly reasonable and generous assumption that coat colour is genetically determined, regardless of whether particular patterns are dominant or recessive. Then splitting the flock and selectively breeding them would result in an evolution of Jacob's flock towards patterned coats while Laban's flock would be dominantly pure coated. Multiple generations are needed though. (see Genetics influencing colouration of goats)
It's hard to imagine, though, how coat colour is correlated with the strength of a flock. After all, the sheep and goats are not subject to external pressure, apart from humans driving their evolution.
Looking again at the Biblical text...
Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane (or chestnut or sycamore) trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted... Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there.
What's up with poplar, almond etc.? Is this a food supplement? A careful reading of the text shows that Jacob set these sticks inside the watering troughs, i.e. immersed them in the water that the flocks were drinking from... but only for the "stronger" of the flock. What are the effects of immersing these sticks of trees in water?
Now, I must clarify where I am doing a bit of interpretation here. Ancient people did not write in the direct scientific style that we do, so a lot of detail is likely lost. (And we moderners must also admit: our writing does not necessarily convey 100% the detail necessary for replication!) Moreover, we are working with translations, so more detail is literally lost in translation. There is a bit of interpretive imagination required to reconstruct the full picture of what Jacob did when feeding the flock; after all, Genesis 30 isn't a "day-by-day, play-by-play" log of everything Jacob did with the flock.
In the long run, I would prefer a mechanism, because Mechanisms are better than population empirical evidence. But in the absence of a mechanism, population-level empirical evidence can be a good backup.
With that in mind, it seems to me that the colour of the flock is influenced by genetic selection, while the strength of the flock was done by a combination of observing and selecting the animals had the appearance of good strength (larger, more prior offspring, lineage traced from fitter ancestors) and by supplementing their "general health" with folklore medicines -- medicines that we Homo modernus are finally putting to test with rigorous study.
The Cries of a Child
This sounds like a worthwhile charity to support.
Justice will make someone mad
Justice is about preventing the powerful from abusing their power, and taking away that power to abuse when needed. Bringing about justice will make people mad - those in power who have also abused their power will be mad. To bring about justice means we have to push against the madness of these people, to restore the trust that everyone ought to have in a justice system.
SGBS Training
Choose tech in a principled, thoughtful fashion, not in a lazy fashion!
- Google banned in China, not good for those who are temporarily stuck there.
- Collaborative writing: Etherpad gets around Google being banned.
- Zoom does not have E2E encryption.
Intro:
Etherpad is still not up-to-scratch compared to Google Docs.
Literary devices in the story of Joseph
Joseph was progressively entrusted with increasing responsibility. In order:
Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned... he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. (Genesis 39:4; 6)
So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. (Genesis 39:22-23)
So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, “Make way Or Bow down!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. (Genesis 42:41-43)
Joseph was given two dreams three times.
It is after these two big points have been established does the storyline of Joseph's life move onto
Association for a more just society
URL: https://ajstest.pairsite.com/
They are working on matters of justice in Honduras. Not merely social justice, but full legal, procedural etc.