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How Did You Miss?

“The Guide says that there is an art to flying,” said Ford, “or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”

– Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I’m reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to my son while I’m homeschooling him. We do all of the school assignments of course, but I have a few assignments of my own. These include reading to him some of the books that have had particular significance in my life.

We have read through John Watson’s the Double Helix, and Arthur Ransom’s Swallows and Amazons. We read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe and we just started Life, the Universe and Everything. That’s when we got to the part about learning to fly.

It somehow produced, in my mind, a tenuous connection to the Matty’s Paradigm predictive testable hypothesis 22, which itself is an outgrowth of the Sophia Proton thought experiment.

Predictive Testable Hypothesis 22

  • IF the Holy Spirit is the power of God to inspire human writers,
    • AND the physics of the universe has been written in scripture so that it’s
      1. obvious and
      2. invisible,
  • THEN phrases or words that look like chemistry, physics, biology or geology should be treated as if they are chemistry, physics, biology or geology,
    • AND the science will be congruent with the scriptural context.

The connection is, as I said, tenuous and, if I’m honest, I can’t quite put it into words at this time. However, it has something to do with so-called Biblical literalists not actually taking the Bible literally, and somehow managing to miss most of its meaning.

Something along those lines. I’ll figure it out.

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Loyal to the Word of God

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

(2 Timothy 2:15) KJV

Speaking of George Muller (1805-1898)

He intended no assault upon brethren who hold other views, when he thus plainly stated in his journal the honest and unavoidable convictions to which he came; but he was too loyal to both the word of God and to his own conscience to withhold his views when so carefully and prayerfully arrived at through the searching of the scriptures.

– Arthur T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol

I may be guilty of assaulting brethren who hold other views, but I certainly understand what it means to be loyal to the word of God and to my conscience. Here’s a quote from the book I’m currently reading, one which I’ve read before but return to.

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I Have a Case of Corona

I heard something funny from an Uber rider yesterday. The fellow was somewhat lubricated having been at a bar and he told me that he would be traveling to San Diego on Friday.

I asked him is he was worried about the Corona virus.

His response was an emphatic NO! Then he went on to describe how some guy he knew had been down at a grocery store buying all the water. He was incredulous.

If I’m going to be quarantined in my home for two weeks I’m not buying water…

I’m stocking up on BEER!

– Drunk UBER rider

I appreciate the sentiment.

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There, and Back Again

I really should have known better than to try to travel through Chicago in winter. In all my years of traveling this is the first time that I have had to abort a trip. I’m home again, rebooked on a flight From Greensboro to Newark early in the morning. It connects me to a direct flight to London, Heathrow, so I will only be about 5 hours behind schedule.

I have got to say that I am very impressed with the professionalism, grace, poise and teamwork of the United Airways staff. Thank you so much!

The weather across the plains and Midwest is looking really bad. My flight to Chicago was delayed, which was fine, but when the Chicago-Copenhagen flight got cancelled I realized that it was going to be a big mistake to go to Chicago.

Fargo, ND

The United representative rebooked my flight and the United ground crew were able to get my checked bag off the Chicago flight. They made sure that I had it in my hand before I went anywhere. They were completely slammed but they remained courteous, polite and helpful with everybody.

The trip had started with an excellent UBER ride. The driver was easy going and we chatted quite a bit. The car was excellent. By the time we got to the airport I had given him the magic math to successful UBER driving and tax filing. We wish him the best of luck.

The ride home was quite different. The car had a very bad vibration from the rear passenger tire, where I happened to be sitting. I happen to know that this is likely to be caused by the tire being worn out because it has not been rotated on the correct schedule. It gave a very poor impression of the state of maintenance of that particular vehicle. I just happen to be an UBER driver and I just happen to know what it’s like when a rider reports you for a safety concern. However, safety has to be the top priority, so I let UBER know that I was concerned.

The next interesting challenge will be getting an UBER at 4:00am tomorrow morning.

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Goodbye NC

Hey bloggers! My journey to the UK has begun with a delay on my flight to Chicago. It shouldn’t affect my connection to Copenhagen. It’s a beautiful day here, and I just had a fantastic Uber ride to get here.

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Family Emergency!

Hey bloggers, something has come up and I’m going to be traveling to the UK to be with family. I try to be frugal and so I booked one of the cheapest flights available. I have a short stopover in Copenhagen. Never been there before.

I’m looking forward to sharing here with WordPress folk.

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Putting God to the Test

Acts 5:38-39

And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

Continuing my celebration of new life, I will be blogging about the accomplishments that have been made since it began in the days to come. Yesterday I noted that, at the time my new life began, I was neck-and-neck with Wake Forest University in Twitter followers.

Where do we stand today?

I have repeatedly said that the existence of the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is a predictive testable hypothesis based on Malachi 3:10. There is another predictive testable hypothesis for the existence of God in Acts 5:33-39 – Gamaliel’s Counsel.

He warns his fellows in the religious leadership that if the new Christianity, that they were trying to eradicate, is of God then it is going to succeed. Fighting against it is to fight against God.

In the time since I departed, Wake Forest University has added 2,600 followers. That’s about the size of the incoming freshman class and their parents. In the same time span I have added 11,600 followers, and lately I have gotten really lazy with implementing my social media growth strategy. Life has been so rich and fulfilling that Twitter just doesn’t seem very important any more.

The question is: Does Wake actually have a social media growth strategy? It looks like they are asleep at the wheel.

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New Life

Ephesians 5:11

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

I got fired from Wake Forest University on December 11, 2017. I ought to remember the date because it’s my Dad’s birthday. The management did a technically perfect logistical shuffle to get me out, but I sincerely hope that their motivation to do it was my growing presence on social media.

On that Day, December 11, 2017 I was almost equal to Wake Forest University in Twitter Followers. The screenshots here side-by-side were taken on December 19, 2017 eights days after I was fired.

This was the beginning of my new life.