Friday, 20 July 2007 by Paul Dubuc.

Okay, maybe I’ve been reading ThinkChristian too much lately, but they just found a very good quote on the Radio Bible Class web site which needs to be widely voiced. The salient point of it is that “Truth spoken without love is devastatingly harmful. Love expressed without truth is tragically misleading.” This is an important balance that most of us find hard to practice but which Scripture encourages us to fulfill by Jesus’ example and Paul’s teaching. Truth and love don’t contradict one another but it seems so difficult for us to blend the two. It seems easier for us to convey one to the exclusion of the other when both are required. Why is that? Is it a product of our fallen nature? All I know is that it takes a lot of grace to overcome this tendency in myself. I’ve been thinking about what kind of person it takes to consistently blend these characteristics in his or her relationship to others.

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Posted in Reflections, Christianity | Print | No Comments »

Tuesday, 17 July 2007 by Paul Dubuc.

ThinkChristian has an interesting item citing a Wall Street Journal editorial about the “New Atheists,” and the recent publication of their popular books attacking religion. Author Peter Berkowitz does a fine job of showing how some very intelligent people—like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens—can be as passionate and ill-informed about religion as some of those they criticize. As the author points out, the strongest arguments against religion offered by these atheists are nothing new and have been wrestled with, and commented upon, by many believers for centuries. Instead of responding to what the best religious thinkers have believed and written about these things, they argue as if all that thinking and writing never existed. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Religion, Books | Print | 3 Comments »

Wednesday, 4 July 2007 by Paul Dubuc.

ThinkChristian has started an interesting discussion about whether the Apple iPhone is the latest example of gadgets that encourage a destructive, self-centered focus on ourselves. I think this is a valid concern and the lure of becoming self-absorbed in our personal technologies at the expense of closer human interaction is something that ought to be taken seriously. The the problem isn’t cut-and-dried. There are some very good and thoughtful responses to this item that I encourage you to read. Of course, as someone who has been a professional computer software developer for longer than I care to remember and an admiring user of Apple computers an other products, I had to give my own response which is edited and reproduced here: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Computers & Software | Print | 1 Comment »