Just reading an apologetics book and asking "why are we doing this?"

Book cover for "The Case for a Creator"

So I was at a used book sale and saw this: The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel, and snatched it up. Because I used to be an apologetics nerd, and I used to be a creationist, and I read Strobel's books "The Case for Christ" and "The Case for Faith" when I was in high school. But then, years later, I read atheist responses to them, and realized that those books came across like "we have such solid evidence for our faith, atheists don't even know what to say", but it's not true, atheists in fact have a lot of things to say. I got really turned off of apologetics after reading atheist responses. The atheists make some good points. Good for them.

Anyway I saw this book, "The Case for a Creator," (published in 2004) and I was like "ooh a creationist book, I wonder how it will come across to me now, since I'm in such a different place than when I read Strobel's other books."

So here's my review of the book, and also some opinions about apologetics in general.

Blogaround

1. Was Jesus Homeless? Yes, No, and Kind Of (December 2) "When I worked as a housing case manager, part of my job was to determine if clients were literally homeless, according to the HUD definition."

Also from the same blog: “I Think I Might Not Die Now” (December 22) "I am blessed to work for an organization that believes in Housing First.  What that means is, once a person’s housing is taken care of, suddenly their medical needs and expenses go down."

2. Can the Star of Bethlehem be scientifically verified? (November 28) Part 1 of a blog series critiquing the video "The Star of Bethlehem," a documentary providing a scientific explanation for the star from the Christmas story in the bible. I actually have seen this video before (a long time ago, when I was evangelical). Perhaps some Christians would, after seeing the video, sum it up as "they found the star." [I just rolled my eyes so hard.] I now view it more like "here's a fan theory about what the star could have been." It's just somebody's idea, and there's nowhere near enough "evidence" to be making claims that this really is what the star actually was. (Honestly, for any date in history, you could probably look at the constellations and make up a story about how it totally means something.) Fun to make fan theories though!

Part 2: The Star of Bethlehem, a real event?
Part 3: Critique of ‘The Star of Bethlehem’ video
Part 4: Jupiter, Venus, Regulus, and Revelation: the fireworks of a real Star of Bethlehem?
Part 5: How did the Star of Bethlehem move like Tinker Bell?

3. A Few Math Problems for Mothers (July 13) "Felix had an accident during nap time and doesn’t have a spare pair of pants at school. If Felix’s father is listed as the primary point of contact on all documents, how many times does the school call his mother?"

4. Star Wars Christmas Parodies - "Padme Did You Know" and "I'm Dreaming of a New Death Star" (2015) This is AMAZING.

5. One Of The Most Astonishing Sudokus Ever (December 15) 1-hour-37-minute sudoku solve video. I love it.

6. Mary and Jesus in the Eyes of Chinese Painters (December 24) "He reinterpreted Da Vinci’s famous 'Last Supper' in traditional Chinese style, featuring a table, stools, tableware, windows, lanterns, and clothing unique to China."

7. Noncon Porn Taught Me About Rape (2016) "When I was a young fan, I remember reading a bunch of posts that said something like this: 'When you write fanfic, warn for rape if you’re treating the subject seriously as something that traumatizes the victim. Warn for noncon if it’s treated as sexy or if the victim starts consenting part of the way through. Warn for dubcon if the characters’ ability to give consent is dubious– for instance, fuck-or-die, sex pollen, one character being another character’s boss, emotional coercion, or sex where one character is extremely drunk. Of course, in the real world, all of those are rape!'"

Also from the same blog: The Thrill of the Chaste, or Why Dawn Eden Should Not Have Casual Sex (2015) I love this, because it takes an argument like "you shouldn't have casual sex because xyz" and changes it to "if you are the sort of person that would have xyz result if you had casual sex, then you shouldn't have casual sex." It's about knowing yourself. Know what you want or don't want. Not about making rules about "this is how EVERYBODY feels."

8. So, at the beginning of December I posted Square Root's Advent Calendar, and said I would give an update on Square Root's opinions on it. Here's the update: He was very interested in the puzzle, and could do parts of it by himself. He seemed to totally ignore me when I read the bible verses to him. But hey, little kids do pick up on things, so maybe he listened even though he didn't act like it. *shrug*

Sheshan, Shanghai [Photos]

Hi everyone! Take a look at my photos from Sheshan [佘山, pronounced "shuh-shan" for those of you unfamiliar with Chinese]. It's a big hill in the southwest part of Shanghai [上海 "shang" rhymes with the English word "bong" y'all] with a huge park, Catholic church, and astronomical observatory.

So here we are on the street, looking up at Sheshan. See the church and the observatory?

Here are a few pictures from the park. Nice walking trails and everything.

Here's an old Chinese pagoda.

And the Catholic church at the top is pretty nice.

佘山天主教堂 Sheshan Catholic church

On the path that goes up to the church, you can see the stations of the cross.

And there are a few statues- I guess this one is Mary.

"A church?" you say. "But I thought Christianity was banned in China!" Yeah... yeah don't believe everything American evangelicals tell you.

Next to the church is an astronomy museum and observatory.

上海天文博物馆 Shanghai Astronomy Museum

Sundial

Drawing of a Chinese emperor with a telescope. Text in Chinese, English, and French. The English says, "Emperor Chong-Zhen, from the Ming dynasty, was the first Chinese highest leader to use a telescope."

Photo of the moon, with text in Chinese, English, and French. English says, "Full moon photographed at Sheshan on September 4, 1914."

 Turns out this observatory was founded by Jesuit missionaries from France, who brought a lot of scientific knowledge to China.

Here is a huge telescope and a chair you're not allowed to sit on.

And here's the view from the top:

Shanghai is full of cool stuff! Come and visit! Our subway system is really great too. ^_^