Added another feed. This time for storm reports ... Very simple ... The options are the same as the SPC web site. I recommend referring to them by content type as listed below

content= torn,hail,wind ONLY
frame = yesterday,last3hours,today or a date in the following format YYMMDD_rpts

http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircl ... 80611_rpts
http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircl ... =yesterday
http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircl ... last3hours

See Storm Reports on the right ... They list activity in the last three hours ONLY.

In a effort to get my brain thinking about things it should be thinking about I am going to post a short summary of what I intend to cover at my talk.

First, what is the purpose of marriage? According to Catholic teaching, its primary purpose is having and raising children. -- These days, for some reason, this is a very controversial assertion -- The secondary purposes are the mutual growth (help) of the spouses and the "morally regulated satisfaction of the sex urge" (concupiscence).

Second, what is the clear natural order of marriage and sex in terms of the assertion above. What constitutes offenses to that natural order? -- Discuss in terms of the creation narratives. The original intent, as opposed to the allowances in the law. (i.e. the OT part)

Third, why does the Church consider it a Sacrament? (i.e. the NT part) ... I find that this is one of the most critical defenses for Catholics and its not a Bible zinger easy defense. Very important to explain the Ephesians 5 narrative regarding Christ and the Church. Relate even further to imaging the Trinity.

Thats it ... that is what I plan to cover and I expect it to take 90 minutes to 2 hours.

Relay For Life Is Coming To Immaculate Conception June 13/14, 2008

Those touched by cancer know the dark times this disease can bring. But even amid the darkness, lights of hope and comfort shine. Please join the American Cancer Society Relay For Life survivors ceremony and share your strength with others who are facing the journey through cancer. Your involvement can change a life.

For those living in the Baton Rouge area mark your calendars.

Inflatable pool ring duty. I just suffered through three of these.

Austin Powers - "Nerd Alert!"

As a result of this coding I did the following ...

1. Created RSS feeds for Severe Weather Warnings, Tornado Warnings and Flash Flood warnings (ideally) ... It is a very streamlined feed. It indicates the place, when it expires and offers a link to the College of DuPage severe weather pages. I am essentially scraping the NWS active warnings pages.

http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircl ... ontent=SVR
http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircl ... ontent=TOR
http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircl ... ontent=FFW

Technically it will do others but those wont link to the College of DuPage stuff. I can add the warning text in the near future. I have it stored in a variable. I am just not using it. I wanted streamlined. Initially the title was really long like

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR (list of locations) UNTIL (date and time) ...

Well, I found out there is a 100 character limit on titles. Thats a bummer but the text you get is enough although it lists only the FIRST location in the warning. There is an option to list the warning multiple times for each location.

2. I added the RSS feeds to my sidebar so I could know when warnings are ongoing. That resulted in another problem. The code I was using to create my sidebar caches the RSS data for ONE HOUR. Thats kind of problematic with storm warnings. FYI, DO NOT USE THE WARNINGS ON MY SIDEBAR FOR MAKING DECISIONS. HEAD TO THE NWS WEB SITE.

3. Anyway, to solve the problem, I downloaded the code (Feed2JS) that I was using and made a slight modification so it would cache for 60 seconds instead of 3600 seconds. I tested that with my Facebook status up at the top and it worked like a charm. So ...

You may also notice that I added the current conditions for the city I live in. I am a little irritated at the lag time (seems 40 minutes is common) but it is good enough for now.

Well, boring to you yes ... but I had fun!

UPDATE: I added some interesting CSS code and created SOME output for the warning text, specifically for TORNADO WARNINGs.

I added blocks that come out looking like this (the tbody is added by the Feed2JS processing ....

<table><tbody><tr>
<td class="tortst"><p class="warntext">TEST</p></td>
<td class="radind"><p class="warntext">RADAR INDICATED</p></td>
</tr></tbody></table>

"tortst" is an example of a class that I can use to specify the images I want to display when certain items are encountered in the text. Right now I have four classes and a fifth class for the warning text.

tortst = Test
radind = Radar Indicated
torrep = Tornado Reported
tor911 = Tornado Emergency

Also, the text is there in case someone else wants to format it their own way. Here is how I am formatting it:

p.warntext{
font-size: 0px;
padding: 12px 12px 12px 12px;
}
td.tortst { display:none; }
td.tor911
{
background-image: url('http://www.earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircle/images/tor911.JPG');
background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position:center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px;
}
td.radind
{
background-image: url('http://www.earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircle/images/radarind.JPG');
background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position:center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px;
}
td.torrep
{
background-image: url('http://www.earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircle/images/torgnd.JPG');
background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position:center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px;
}

The odd 12px padding for the "warntext" class was to resolve the problem of me wanting only to see the background image instead of the text. 0px + a 12px padding all around gives me a 24x24 box regardless of the text. The test block is always passed back. It is helpful in debugging especially when warnings are sparse.

Obviously the goal of all of this is to summarize warnings to make it easier for me to decide which ones to focus on if I am following them on radar.

When they are active they look like this:

I cannot believe it took me until now to find this blog ...

Catholic Beer Review

Parkersburg Tornado Rated EF5

Keep those who have suffered loss in your prayers. If you want to do something to help, you can contact a local Catholic Church who is raising money to assist the victims.

St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Iowa City is collecting monetary donations, Wal-Mart or Target gift cards and canned goods to give to the St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Parkersburg

421 S. Linn St., P.O. Box 2776
Iowa City, IA 52244

or call 319-337-2856

This parish knows loss. After all their beloved church was destroyed by a tornado on Holy Thursday evening, 2006.

I read recently that polygyny is in accordance with natural law. It seems the basis for this assertion is St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Contra Gentiles III. 124.1). In researching the answer I came to a rather spirited discussion amongst university students on the topic. That discussion began with the following article: The horror of polygamy and the persistence of chauvinistic theories in Catholic academia

I cannot let pass without comment the discussion I heard took place the other day at a certain graduate theology institute, which shall remain nameless. Adult students were (without blushing) explaining to a group of fellow students, including several women, that whereas polygamy (one man having several wives) is permissible according to natural law, polyandry (one woman having several husbands) is forbidden.

The relevant response that points me to Thomas Aquinas is Polygamy in natural law:

But there is a weak case to be made for polygyny in natural law, which goes as follows: It is critical for a child's self-identity to know who his parents are. Therefore, the practice of polyandry is unthinkable as "man naturally desires to know his offspring, and this knowledge would be completely destroyed if there were several males for one female. Therefore, that one female is for one male is a consequence of natural instinct." (Summa Contra Gentiles III. 124.1) In the practice of polyandry there is no certainty of family relations as the woman has sexual relations with numerous men. Simply put, according to Thomas, polygyny does not directly conflict with natural law because in it the child knows who his parents are.

In fact, I think weak is overstating the matter. I think what Aquinas actually wrote defends that polygyny IS NOT in accordance with natural law. I will reproduce the entire article here and bold the relevant areas.

THAT MATRIMONY SHOULD BE BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN

[1] It seems, too, that we should consider bow it is inborn in the minds of all animals accustomed to sexual reproduction to allow no promiscuity; hence, fights occur among animals over the matter of sexual reproduction. And, in fact, among all animals there is one common reason, for every animal desires to enjoy freely the pleasure of the sexual act, as he also does the pleasure of food; but this liberty is restricted by the fact that several males may have access to one female, or the converse. The same situation obtains in the freedom of enjoying food, for one animal is obstructed if the food which he desires to eat is taken over by another animal. And so, animals fight over food and sexual relations in the same way. But among men there is a special reason, for, as we said, man naturally desires to know his offspring, and this knowledge would be completely destroyed if there were several males for one female. Therefore, that one female is for one male is a consequence of natural instinct.

[2] But a difference should be noted on this point. As far as the view that one woman should not have sexual relations with several men is concerned, both the aforementioned reasons apply. But, in regard to the conclusion that one man should not have relations with several females, the second argument does not work, since certainty as to offspring is not precluded if one male has relations with several women. But the first reason works against this practice, for, just as the freedom of associating with a woman at will is taken away from the husband, when the woman has another husband, so, too, the same freedom is taken away from a woman when her husband has several wives. Therefore, since certainty as to offspring is the principal good which is sought in matrimony, no law or human custom has permitted one woman to be a wife for several husbands. This was even deemed unfitting among the ancient Romans, of whom Maximus Valerius reports that they believed that the conjugal bond should not be broken even on account of sterility.

[3] Again, in every species of animal in which the father has some concern for offspring, one male has only one female; this is the case with all birds that feed their young together, for one male would not be able to offer enough assistance to bring up the offspring of several females. But in the case of animals among whom there is no concern on the part of the males for their offspring, the male has promiscuous relations with several females and the female with plural males. This is so among dogs, chickens, and the like. But since, of all animals, the male in the human species has the greatest concern for offspring, it is obviously natural for man that one male should have but one wife, and conversely.

[4] Besides, friendship consists in an equality. So, if it is not lawful for the wife to have several husbands, since this is contrary to certainty as to offspring, it would not be lawful, on the other hand, for a man to have several wives, for the friendship of wife for husband would not be free, but somewhat servile. And this argument is corroborated by experience, for among husbands having plural wives the wives have a status like that of servants.

[5] Furthermore, strong friendship is not possible in regard to many people, as is evident from the Philosopher in Ethics VIII [5]. Therefore, if a wife has but one husband, but the husband has several wives, the friendship will not be equal on both sides. So, the friendship will not be free, but servile in some way.

[6] Moreover, as we said, matrimony among humans should be ordered so as to be in keeping with good moral customs. Now, it is contrary to good behavior for one man to have several wives, for the result of this is discord in domestic society, as is evident from experience. So, it is not fitting for one man to have several wives.

[7] Hence it is said: “They shall be two in one flesh” (Gen. 7.: 24).

[8] By this, the custom of those having several wives is set aside, and also the opinion of Plato who maintained that wives should be common. And in the Christian period he was followed by Nicolaus, one of the seven deacons.

Thomas gives further treatment to the question in Summa Theologica - Question 65. Plurality of wives

Now marriage has for its principal end the begetting and rearing of children, and this end is competent to man according to his generic nature, wherefore it is common to other animals (Ethic. viii, 12), and thus it is that the "offspring" is assigned as a marriage good. But for its secondary end, as the Philosopher says (Ethic. viii, 12), it has, among men alone, the community of works that are a necessity of life, as stated above (Question 41, Article 1). And in reference to this they owe one another "fidelity" which is one of the goods of marriage. Furthermore it has another end, as regards marriage between believers, namely the signification of Christ and the Church: and thus the "sacrament" is said to be a marriage good. Wherefore the first end corresponds to the marriage of man inasmuch as he is an animal: the second, inasmuch as he is a man; the third, inasmuch as he is a believer. Accordingly plurality of wives neither wholly destroys nor in any way hinders the first end of marriage, since one man is sufficient to get children of several wives, and to rear the children born of them. But though it does not wholly destroy the second end, it hinders it considerably for there cannot easily be peace in a family where several wives are joined to one husband, since one husband cannot suffice to satisfy the requisitions of several wives, and again because the sharing of several in one occupation is a cause of strife: thus "potters quarrel with one another" [Aristotle, Rhet. ii, 4, and in like manner the several wives of one husband. The third end, it removes altogether, because as Christ is one, so also is the Church one. It is therefore evident from what has been said that plurality of wives is in a way against the law of nature, and in a way not against it.

Even in the face of a perfect argument that polygyny does not violate natural law, it still violates the moral law of the Church and Divine Revelation.

I am curious if anyone in the blogosphere has dealt with this at length.

In 2003 "Gambit newspaper in New Orleans also said Jindal told it he supports the use of emergency-room contraception for rape victims who request it."

Thats about all I get .... Anyone?

added clarification on home birth -- see also Clarification on our homebirth decision ... and Birth story of Peter

The medical community wants you to think that your average birth is a high risk thing that requires medical intervention. For your safety and dollar you should be going to them, asking no questions and going about your happy way. But it isn't that simple ...

I think its telling that forty percent of children in the Netherlands are STILL born at home and that infant mortality rates are better there than in the US. Well then ... maybe we should have babies at home? Not so fast. In this country, I question the home birth movement as well. I do not think its their fault. I am VERY sympathetic to their cause. The system here is setup to ensure great difficulty in operation of home birth based midwives. The required channels for its safety simply are not there in many locations. Still, I am told "its as safe as hospital birth" as if we live in a place, like the Netherlands, where the infrastructure to support that assertion DOES exist. It is very true that laws and regulations need to change and that needs to come from government at the state level. Sadly, in Louisiana, that task will be daunting.

That said, I am by no means proposing socialized medicine. I think things can be done that do not require a hands on approach from the state. In the US we have gone down the wrong path in terms of birthing for a LONG time. In the end women and children pay. I favor policies that result in an increased number of freestanding birth centers next to hospitals which specialize in emergency care. We need a sensible midwifery system that works WITH doctors and not as opposing forces vying for the same "market share". I want to clarify, lest I be misunderstood as thinking midwives are the non-sensible ones: I want an environment that is better suited for home birth. I want laws passed that will require doctors to back-up midwives (like in the UK). We also need insurance incentives that reward women for choosing the less expensive natural route over going to the hospital. If you want a lower deductible then YOU can choose to pay the higher premiums. If you elect to go to a hospital your deductible for maternity is increased by like $1500. A birth at a freestanding birth center costs nearly half that of a hospital birth. If a section is involved which at a local hospital is 50-60% of the time these days, then double it again. I also favor some sort of legal reform. I read recently that nearly every other birth in our city results in legal action. I hardly believe it but I have known doctors to quit practicing BECAUSE of the increase in litigation so I know its high. If that stat is even half true, it is absurd. Every friction we have encountered with our children was a decision being made because of possible litigation outcomes. So, you might think I am down on the doctors. Actually, I am not. I realize that the legal climate has resulted in this course. That is why I favor changes in the laws. I also think that there is an air of distrust between doctors and midwives that I think everyone should just get over. Is it true that market share and financial interests might be driving that? Likely. I don't want to concede market share to other companies in my career. I understand that motivation. Then again, moms matter. Kids matter. Birthing matters. It seems their goals are the same and in a truly altruistic world people would work together when their goals are identical.

In this country we have a system that makes sure the most possible money changes hands, pads incomes, gets people home at 5pm and results in the lowest possibility of successful legal action. Those goals are almost never consistent with the BEST practices for the health and safety of mom and baby. I realize its a complicated problem that needs reform. I don't have the answers. Still, I can clearly see that something needs to be done.

Originally posted Oct 20, 2005 -- I thought this was relevant with the tornado outbreaks we have had this week (May 2008)...

I have seen a lot of speculation in recent weeks about the number of disasters which have happened recently signalling the end times. First off, since much of it is meterological, I have decided to write a blurb on it. Its rare that a topic touches both my meteorological interest and my faith interest so here we go.

First off, if it isn't clear to everyone by now, 2005 is an historic hurricane season. It has tied the record for most Atlantic storms in a single season and had 3 (possibly 4) Category 5 storms. Hurricanes Wilma (1), Rita (4) and Katrina (6) sit amongst the Top 10 in most intense Atlantic storms on record (source).

We have had an historic tsunami that resulted in a record number of deaths.

We have had an earthquake in Pakistan with a death toll as of this writing of 79,000.

There has also been an increase in the number of tornadoes reported on a year to year basis.

First off, let’s look at a little bit of what the Church teaches on the matter:

Matt 24:3-8

3 As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, "Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be of your coming, and of the end of the age?"
4 Jesus said to them in reply, "See that no one deceives you.
5 For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah,' and they will deceive many.
6 You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end.
7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place.
8 All these are the beginning of the labor pains.

Now lets try to place some real historical perspective on these disasters ...

Hurricane activity

The 1933 hurricane season was as active as this season (to date) and the storms then were not as well documented. How it would compare to this season given today’s technology back then is a mystery. Still, combine this with the depths of the Great Depression and it would be easy to think that this might cause one to be alarmed. Also consider that hurricane reconnaissance began in the 1940's with many classic hurricanes falling before those dates whose minimum pressures likely occurred out at sea with no dropsondes to pick it up. The Galveston Storm of 1900, the Keys Hurricane of 1935 and the Great Lake Okeechobee Hurricane storm of 1928 were all catastrophic events and all of them could have been stronger before making landfall -- although the 1935 storm was likely close to peak intensity when it made its appearance at Key West. The fact is we are in what many meteorologists feel is a natural active long-term cycle in hurricane activity that could last for decades to come. The 1970's and 80's were a lull time in hurricane activity. Most of us are used to hurricane seasons that are below normal. Consider specificially the number of retired storms in the 1950's. In 1955 alone we had FOUR retired storms which followed a 1954 season producing three retired storms. This season is likely to best it but it is STILL not unprecedented given that storms were not even retired in the decades prior to 1950 because they were not named. This year is certainly unusual but END TIMES unusual? It COULD beat 1933, but not by much. To add even more perspective to this consider that an LSU study in 2000 suggests that we are (or were) at the possible END of a millennial quiet cycle of storms. In none of these earlier upswings did we usher in the immediate end.

Tsunami and Earthquakes killing thousands

The 2004 Asian Tsunami killed an estimated 275,000 people making it one of the most deadly disasters in modern history. This is certainly amongst the highest death totals from a tsunami on record but keep in mind we have greater population in these areas meaning that a similar tsunami in the past might have affected far fewer people. Earthquakes historically have killed as many as 830,000 people (in 1556) and storm surge from a tropical cyclone in Bangledesh in 1991 killed 140,000 people. (source) The end times did not come.

Tornado outbreak increases

Some have also cited the increase in tornado activity as being another sign of the end times however this dubious increase in tornadoes is easily explainable. For one thing we are identifying MORE tornadoes that do not cause damage. The perfect example of this can be seen by comparing the Super Outbreak of 1974 with the Memorial Day tornado outbreak of 2004 both with similar numbers of tornadoes over a short time period. The 2004 outbreak pales in comparison to the 1974 outbreak when comparing violent tornadoes (F3+). The 1974 outbreak had six F5 tornadoes, 23 F4 tornadoes and 35 F3 tornadoes. Of the 149 tornadoes in the outbreak 23 F0 tornadoes were identified. In the 2004 outbreak there was one F4 and 6 F3's. However, 82 F0's were identified in the outbreak. F0's by definition cause no damage but in today’s tornado chaser and camcorder rich environment more of them are captured on film and documented. Finally, go back and reconsider what I said about F5's and the Super Outbreak. There have been approximately 75 documented F5 tornadoes since 1900. The Super Outbreak was responsible for SIX of them. There have been no F5's since May 3, 1999. Notice ... calamity abound in 1974 and we are still here.

Other historic events that might have caused me to say hmmmmmm

There are two immediate events that immediately come to mind when I think of things that would have caused me to think that the end was near. The first of these events was the Tambora volcanic eruption in 1815 caused 82,000 starvation deaths and resulted in the Year Without a Summer in 1816. The second of these events was the holocaust. Many years later, we are all still around.

Media coverage increase

One final point I want you to consider is this; The Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina put the spotlight on natural disasters. If history is any indication, I am not sure the recent earthquake in Pakistan would have gotten the coverage it did if it had not been for the previous two events. In fact, I was somewhat dissapointed in the coverage of Hurricane Stan, which resulted in more deaths than Katrina and included one of the deadliest landslides in history. Media coverage certainly affects ones perception of what is going on in the world.

Stop writing will ya?

The key here is historical perspective (list of deadliest disasters). I think many of us, especially those of us who didn't live through much of this past calamity have a hard time seeing the big picture. Horrific natural disasters "of biblical proportions" have been happening every decade since the dawn of time. Just because a few of them happened in the same six to twelve month period does not necessarily indicate the end times are coming. Our Lord said we would not know the day or the hour. This was quite simply a good way of telling us to be prepared NOW.

Someone on a forum that I frequent put it this way; "People have been speculating about the end times for centuries. One of these days somebody is going to be right."

If history is a good measure, then chances are you won't live to see Christ come again. It is better to prepare for the far greater likelihood of your own death. Consider yourself informed.

Example of years similar to these past two: 1960-1961 saw a flurry of Category Five hurricanes with Donna and Ethel in 1960 and Carla and Hattie in 1961. There were three F5 tornadoes in those years in the United States. The Great Chilean Earthquake, which was the largest magnitude quake ever recorded (9.5) occurred in 1960. This earthquake generated one of the most destructive tsunamis in history. Another earthquake in 1960 nearly totally destroyed Agadir, Morocco. In 1961 a volcanic eruption occurred on Tristan da Cunha requiring an evacuation of the entire population. The world did not end.

My wife found a "Best Of" at the local library ...

Now I can tell my kids "back in my day we learned to read the AWESOME way" ...

I will tentatively be speaking at my parish on Aug 21 on the topic of marriage. -- I haven't figured out what I am going to title it. The sacramental teaching of the Catholic Church on marriage was one of the most powerful teachings in the process of my conversion. As Sheed and Ward said in their Catholic Evidence Training Outlines "marriage is, undoubtedly, the ordinary means of salvation for the ordinary run of men." There is no statement about marriage of which I am more convinced that isn't already affirmed by the Church. I think it is an important topic and I pray, by the grace of God, that I can do it justice. My goal is to present this in the style of what has recently been termed "affirmative orthodoxy". This style is very much used by Pope Benedict XVI and I think it goes a long way towards getting people to see the reasoning behind why the Church teaches what it does. To quote the Pope:

Christianity, Catholicism, isn't a collection of prohibitions: it's a positive option. It's very important that we look at it again because this idea has almost completely disappeared today. We've heard so much about what is not allowed that now it's time to say: we have a positive idea to offer, that man and woman are made for each other, that the scale of sexuality, eros, agape, indicates the level of love and it's in this way that marriage develops, first of all, as a joyful and blessing-filled encounter between a man and a woman, and then the family, that guarantees continuity among generations and through which generations are reconciled to each other and even cultures can meet. So, firstly it's important to stress what we want. Secondly, we can also see why we don't want something. I believe we need to see and reflect on the fact that it's not a Catholic invention that man and woman are made for each other, so that humanity can go on living: all cultures know this. .... all this is clearer if you say it first in a positive way. -- 2006 interview with German journalists ahead of his trip to Bavaria ... recorded by the German radio outlet Deutsche Welle:

I will give more details as the date gets closer.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words ... Well this one is worth about ten thousand.

Posts like this normally drive me nuts because of the load time and besides, who has time to watch all of these videos. The point here is to show you how cool the Internet is. Yesterday, there was a tornado outbreak in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas. There is expected to me more action today as well. Here is the summary (click on the image for a better view):



First off, while all of this was going on, I followed some storm chasers live on SevereStudios. I saw two tornadoes live, both in Kansas. Also, I typically follow on radar and through various message boards. A lot of people are in contact with chasers on the ground so they know what is going on. Still its getting close to being a live thing. Video in one place, GPS showing location. Now if only they would overlay radar like Weather.com and WeatherUnderground.com it would be next to perfect.

Second, I woke up this morning to find that several videos of the events made it to YouTube overnight. This includes footage of the Colorado, Wyoming and California tornadoes. I collected many of them for you to see. I make no promises about the language of people who are watching tornadoes ... I am not saying that is the case in these videos but you have been warned.

Tornado in Riverside, CA -- Tornado In Southern California Tornado in Riverside, CA

-- Tornado In Southern California



Tornado East of Oberlin, KS


Rotating storm May 22, 2008 in Trego County Kansas


Hoxie Kansas Tornado 5/22/08 -- not a video, photographs


May 22 2008 WaKeeney Kansas Tornado


2 Tornadoes: Grainfield, on I-70, mile marker 93, The second about 10 miles south of Collyer


Wedge tornado south of Oberlin, KS


Cheyenne Tornado



and of course what collection from yesterday would be complete without the following ...

Raw video of *huge* tornado in Colorado

I want to highlight a few posts that I have made recently and tie them together. Recently I have been getting some hits concerning the idea that "religion is holding us back".

First, I want to point out that this sword easily cuts both ways. I submit my recent post on survey results that came to the conclusion that "religion is holding back nanotechnology" ... In that post I concluded about the Samsung SilverCare line of washers.

It is receiving much scorn from environmentalists willing to apply the "precautionary principle" to it -- ... The washer uses a process to create what Samsung calls "nanosilver" ... not much different than processes used in drinking water treatment and pool water disinfection. ...

Now, to be consistent, I wonder when they are going to subject all those water treatment plants to the same thing ....

Same problem, different religion.

For the dense, the religion I am referring to is environmentalism - and I am referring to it in a sense where it is an idol driving the motivations for nearly everything someone does or demands that we do as a society. Second, in my post titled "The breakdown of Christian teaching leading to approval of the sexual revolution" I cite a few interesting facts discovered regarding the modern day practice of NFP. Still those facts were not congealed and put into great use because everyone else was using artificial contraception. The largest groups of those not using contraception are Catholics, some Protestants and Muslims. I wonder what role religion has played in focus being placed on this technology? In the Catholic Church we even have the Paul VI Institute dedicated to the study of a method the secular world has, in its brilliance, written off because there is supposedly no need.

In the end we have a very effective method of birth regulation using ONLY natural signs. Research into how those methods can be effectively used to fight fertility issues is ongoing and showing promising signs -- no pun intended -- of life. The end of this could be technological advances that help women monitor their cycles, even electronically, in order to help achieve pregnancy, modify various hormone imbalances and whatnot, all without resorting to methods with known dangerous and unnatural side effects.

Whether you like the motivation or not, this is science folks; science that the increasingly anti-religious secular world has left nearly exclusively to the religious of the world to explore. In this example, who is really against progress here? It isn't those who aspire to the great religions of the world. In fact often times it is the same folks who cry to the hills that religion is the great halter of all progress. Now it would be logically inconsistent at best for me to say that a single example (or even many) proves that religion is better suited to advancement in science. That isn't my point. My point is that it is precisely matters of doctrine which have borne the necessity of these methods and thus the advancements in technology regarding them. In this area we are just scratching the surface and in 100 years I suspect all of mankind from the religious to the not so will be thankful.

I know times are tough but since when is "Roof" a feature of a home. From a listing I have in front of me .. ahem ...

Features: Dishwasher, Disposal, Range/Oven, Cooling System, Fire Alarm, Heating System, Roof, Garage, Parking, Patio

And also doesn't garage in most places imply parking? See what I am not telling you here is that this same home happens to include tile floors, granite counter tops, hard wood floors, nice fixtures etc. There is no need to tell me you have a roof. I know this already.

While we are at it, we should add: Walls, Floors, Rooms etc. Of course the lack of a roof would give a whole new meaning to "open floor plan" ...

There has to be a best of Real Estate listings out there ... can someone direct me?

Isn't it funny how every time I say I will be posting less, I manage to find time to post more?

An interesting read today ... Mommy Monsters Inc.: In the Company of God ... and Mary ... and Mom

All of us have been through this ... The painful discussions surrounding the real practice of your faith. You are wrong. You haven't read enough. You have read too much. (heard both of those) You hate me. You think I am going to hell -- You are going to hell.

I have to remember that Protestants in order to be true to their consciences will say things like this. I cannot stop that and I shouldn't stop that. I know they mean well but it hurts. It hurts more to comfort my crying six year old after someone tells him the Catholic Church is wrong or when the kids at school say that he is hell bound. I went through it when I was a kid. Its part of being Catholic. Of course over my life I left the faith. My years as a Protestant were good. I learned a lot of great things. That said, by the grace of God I am back in the Church and my children love the faith far more than I did at their age. I just hope the pain they experience from well intentioned Protestants who do not understand Catholicism is something that helps strengthen them rather than confuse them.

These arguments happen because people love you. When I converted back the people that I respected the most were the ones that at least considered that there were SOME stakes involved in converting. It isn't like switching from one church to another over slight nuances in doctrine or mere preferences. You are taking a stand swimming the Tiber. You are saying Jesus founded a Church and we can know which one it is and that the truths of the faith have been faithfully carried down to us over 20 centuries of a sometimes vibrant, sometimes scandalous history. You are also saying very loudly that others do NOT have the fullness of the truth. Nobody else makes that claim. Everyone else says that we can't REALLY know but we are likely the closest to what Jesus intended. During our conversion the ones that invoked the relativist "whats good for you" line actually disturbed me more despite the fact that conversations with them were far more pleasant. In a way I know they are likely ignorant of the stakes so in that sense they might be in a good place. But if they DO know the stakes, they are playing with the fire of being lukewarm and that is not where you want to be.

Give me conviction over indifference any day ... That lets me know that it matters to you and lets face it, salvation matters.

I am done with it for now ... I use it. It works. The code is completely contained in the HTML so anyone who doesn't like it can fix it themselves.


Yes that is me ... and my hair is a mess :) I added this picture so that you can see that the buttons are slightly rounded on the iPhone. Apologies for the garbage picture ...


Compare to what it would look like in Safari on a PC/Mac or online emulator. Not quite the effect of the real thing.

Work has been really intense the past few weeks and that will continue through the first few weeks of June.

Then I go on vacation :)

Is a Houston church deceiving Catholics?

This is a sad story ... There are a few things I would like to point out ....

The priest had a wife and children — something the Roman Catholic church forbids.

There is a pastoral provision that allows an Anglican priest to be received, reordained etc. into the Catholic Church and retain his marriage. This is one possibility. Second, many of the Eastern Catholic rites in communion with Rome ALLOW married priests. As for the Roman Rite, they are correct. It is a disciplinary law (and I think a good one).

Misahel Lopez was so upset that he didn’t set foot in a church for three years. He felt cheated, hurt and guilty for baptizing his son in a different denomination. ... The Lopez family is yet to return to any church. While they would like Mishael to grow up a good Catholic boy, only a re-baptism by a real Catholic priest and in a real Catholic church would convince them to go back.

This reeks, to a slight degree, of superstition.

I am guessing the fact that the baptism was valid is a sticking point that is keeping this man and his family out of church. As long as the baptismal formula is valid the baptism is valid, no Catholic church will re-baptize his son -- they might conditionally depending on the circumstances of the baptism but its unlikely if the formula was correct. He is already baptized. From the old Catholic Encyclopedia (Rebaptism)

To complete the consideration of the validity of baptism conferred by heretics, we must give some account of the celebrated controversy that raged around this point in the ancient Church. In Africa and Asia Minor the custom had been introduced in the early part of the third century of rebaptizing all converts from heresy. As far as can be now ascertained, the practice of rebaptism arose in Africa owing to decrees of a Synod of Carthage held probably between 218 and 222; while in Asia Minor it seems to have had its origin at the Synod of Iconium, celebrated between 230 and 235. The controversy on rebaptism is especially connected with the names of Pope St. Stephen and of St. Cyprian of Carthage. The latter was the main champion of the practice of rebaptizing. The pope, however, absolutely condemned the practice, and commanded that heretics on entering the Church should receive only the imposition of hands in paenitentiam. In this celebrated controversy it is to noted that Pope Stephen declares that he is upholding the primitive custom when he declares for the validity of baptism conferred by heretics.

Cyprian, on the contrary, implicitly admits that antiquity is against his own practice, but stoutly maintains that it is more in accordance with an enlightened study of the subject. -- FC: Pride maybe, even in a man who ended up a saint) The tradition against him he declares to be "a human and unlawful tradition". Neither Cyprian, however, nor his zealous abettor, Firmilian, could show that rebaptism was older than the century in which they were living. The contemporaneous but anonymous author of the book "De Rebaptismate" says that the ordinances of Pope Stephen, forbidding the rebaptism of converts, are in accordance with antiquity and ecclesiastical tradition, and are consecrated as an ancient, memorable, and solemn observance of all the saints and of all the faithful. St. Augustine believes that the custom of not rebaptizing is an Apostolic tradition, and St. Vincent of Lérins declares that the Synod of Carthage introduced rebaptism against the Divine Law (canonem), against the rule of the universal Church, and against the customs and institutions of the ancients. By Pope Stephen's decision, he continues, antiquity was retained and novelty was destroyed (retenta est antiquitas, explosa novitas). It is true that the so-called Apostolic Canons (xlv and xlvi) speak of the non-validity of baptism conferred by heretics, but Döllinger says that these canons are comparatively recent, and De Marca points out that St. Cyprian would have appealed to them had they been in existence before the controversy. Pope St. Stephen, therefore, upheld a doctrine already ancient in the third century when he declared against the rebaptism of heretics, and decided that the sacrament was not to be repeated because its first administration had been valid, This has been the law of the Church ever since.

I have opted for the second version with the larger screen for displaying Sacred Scripture texts, prayers and mystery images.

Everything from this point is minor tweaking. If you get to the end of a set of mysteries, clicking "next" will bring you to the beginning of the next set. I am planning on adding a fast skip and the option to select different mystery images. I also plan to add a block of Javascript that will cache the images when it first loads a mystery so that subsequent mysteries function instantly. In due time ...

The code is more readable now but needs some commenting. Just view source ...

OK, I made a modification ... I like it. My wife likes it BUT it removes some of the initial design in favor of actual usable real estate for reading prayers and viewing the mystery image. Let me know what you think ...

The original: http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircle/rosary.php
The larger center: http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircle/rosaryb.php

This afternoon I am going to add the mystery to the title bar when it is selected. Also, when you flip over the image, initially it is blank. I plan to add a scripture passage for each mystery. That way everything you might want to meditate on is easily available.

UPDATE

I am experimenting with writing an iPhone rosary. If anyone is interested you can find at http://earlychurchfathers.org/fullcircle/rosary.php. Apparently I have been told that using pixed pixel sizing is causing problems with some iPhones. Check it out and give me some feedback. I would really appreciate it.

This is not an application but a simple web site that is geared more towards use with the iPhone. I asked some of my friends with iPhones to try it out and they indicated that it had scaling issues. I spent some time working on that and it scales great in Firefox and in Safari on my PC. The cool part, from a nerd perspective, was my need to scale background images on the center button. You are fairly limited here. My solution was to write a small block of PHP code that takes a JPEG URL and a scale factor and returns a scaled JPG. That way I could reference it like any other image and it would work when the screen was rescaled. For example, here is the header image above rescaled to 40%:



Its not perfect ... in fact its lousy for wide screen configurations. I'll work on the math some if there is a need for it. The rest of it is pretty much CSS and Javascript. It is fully contained in the source so you should be able to view source, save and play with it locally if you want.

You don't have to have an iPhone to try the interface out. Just use your mouse like you would use your fingers on the iPhone. Click away.

Here is a brief overview with some screenshots ...

First screen, contains Apostles Creed (gray), Our Father (red), 3 Hail Marys (black), Glory be (green). The prev and next buttons move forward or backwards in the rosary. At each phase it resets the prayers to the darker color (unsaid).


When you click on them they turn a lighter color


This is an example of a decade with an image of the mystery


Clicking on the center image hides it. Clicking a prayer after that shows the text of the prayer (for dolts like me who have yet to learn them all)


This final shot is of the last screen which is reserved for the Hail Holy Queen (purple)


I have only done ONE mystery. The others will happen as I select images. I may even change the colored squares to bead like images. Its workable on an iPhone ... even with the small text. You can zoom in slightly to make even the Apostles Creed readable ... well, at least I think so.

Seriously ... I would appreciate feedback.

Posted this on a forum answering the question of a Protestant inquiring about the faith (reposted today) -- Originally posted Nov 11, 2006

I have some theories of my own, as a revert... you will likely find yourself asking the same question regarding sin -- "by your fruits you shall know them" (see my conversion story essay: My own struggles with the people in the pew next to me) ... There are several compounding factors here.

Cultural Catholicism - I live in south Louisiana and I see this all the time. In fact to a degree I am from it. Never underestimate the power of "mama", who may or may not understand her faith to any degree, to pressure her kids to "be" Catholic. My wife and I went to an engaged encounter long before we were even considering converting. We were the only completely non-Catholic couple there. A significant percentage of them were going because their parents wanted them to get married in the Church. Threats of being disowned were involved in a few. If you were to ask those people what they are, they will tell you Catholic. Its just how they were raised. They, nor their parents attended mass, but they are Catholic because all Cajuns are Catholic, or French, or Italians etc. To get a better idea of what I am talking about, think Big Fat Greek Wedding. It can become a cultural religion devoid of its meaning -- something you just do because it is part of who you are. Some older branches of Protestantism suffer this same reality (the mainlines certainly) ...

The "Here I stand" mentality vs. "schism is totally out of the question" - When I was Protestant, if I didn't like the direction the church was taking, I would simply leave and find more like minded congregation. If the church started to gather into two opposing factions on a particular doctrinal point they would simply divide, the elect to go one way and the damned the other. This led me to be in contact with people who hated the same sins I hated and emphasized the same doctrines I emphasized. In essence, everyone around me looked darned near perfect. In the Catholic Church UNITY is certainly emphasized. Consider if you took your average, doctrinally conservative, evangelical Protestant church with, say 200 members. Now, add 200 very liberal Universalists with no desire to leave. Then toss a doctrine staunchly held by all dictating that under no circumstances can you split or leave the church. How different would things seem? Half your congregation would seem nuts to you. That scenario is a reality in the Catholic Church.

Poor catechesis - This is a significant factor, especially in recent generations. Sadly, in some places it isn't getting much better whereas in others there is great cause for hope. I just complained to some Catholics the other day about the catechesis program we are using. It focuses very heavily on response as opposed to the teachings of the Church. Thats kind of putting the cart before the horse and what you end up with are a bunch of socially responsible people who have no idea what they believe. The WHAT, WHO and WHY is important. My wife and I have decided since to cover the material, read related scriptures to the kids and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work. I pray it works better that way. It did with me.

Pilot light Catholics - This is actually the hopeful portion of the masses of ignorant Catholics you meet. They cannot figure out why they go after all these many years but they keep coming. You see, there is something very real about receiving Christ. They walk into a grand cathedral or even a moderately well done local parish and they are just struck. They cannot put their finger on it but they remain drawn to it. Those people are having grace poured all over them and as I am sure you know it doesn't take much of an open door for Christ to flood you over.

That is just four of my reasons. I have seen all of this. I was raised Catholic, went through an agnostic phase, then something clicked in college in very Protestant north Louisiana and over 10 years I found myself gleefully back where I started.

---A followup to my post contained the following regarding ex-Catholics who say they were taught things that are clearly against the teachings of the Church.

There's a fifth piece, which I might as well call "selective memory", even though that's a little more pejorative than I mean it to be. If Mr. X converted from Catholicism thirty years ago, and if he's been told in those intervening thirty years that Catholics believe X and Y and Z, he might well end up believing that he was taught X and Y and Z as a Catholic.