Demonic Possession, Exorcism, and a girl named Emily

After spending the last few months trying to get a handle on Godel’s incompleteness theorem, Quine and Carnap’s disagreement over analyticity, and whether perceptual entitlement is really different from justification I want to shift gears and review a movie. I just saw The Exorcism of Emily Rose and there are a lot of really interesting themes in there, so I give a few of my thoughts.

1. Based on the book of Job, it’s clear that God is aware of all demonic activity. It also seems clear that God gives permission for Satan to act. Hence, Satan can’t even act without the

Gym Inspiration

It is rare that I get inspired while working out in a typical gym. The reason isn’t that there are so few people with great physiques, it’s that everyone seems to have one. A 6 pack here is as common as a belly is in the South. Even though I’ve been working out in the gym 3-4 days/week for more than a year now, compared to others in this beach town I feel pretty fat. So it is rare to get inspired when you are surrounded by throngs of people who could pass for fitness models. Yesterday during my workout, however, I saw two sources of inspiration and they probably had the two worst physiques in the entire gym.

What is so good about Good Friday?

It was nearly two decades ago, sometime in the middle of August in the mid 1980’s at New Trier High School, a wealthy public school in the Midwest. Seventy soon to be freshman boys had just spent the entire summer working out twice a day with the football team so that they could make the more skilled A team rather than the B team. Only the top half made the A team, and of those that made the A team only a privileged few would be given the coveted status as starters. The rest would have to sit on the bench.

The first week of tryouts came and the boys were given tests in football drills, weighed, measured, and given opportunities to try out at the positions they were interested in playing. Although some of the boys were as tall as 6′4 and over 230 lbs they were all barely 14 years old with all the insecurities of adolescence intact. In between the tryouts there was much talk among the boys in the locker room, with the topics ranging from girls to where to get the best pizza. One thing remained on everyone’s mind, who was going to make the A team and who’s going to be on the B bombers? There were only three non-white kids on the team, one African-American (he was actually half) and two Asians. One of those Asians was a 14 year old boy named Joe.

Rationalism, Empiricism, and Church Youth

This past Saturday at the Korean-American Sunday School Conference (KASSCON), I gave a talk to about 400 youth / college sunday school teachers with this title:

Rationalism, Empiricism, and Church Youth: Thinkers, Feelers, and Kids in Adult Bodies

In this seminar I basically articulate a problem that we face as Sunday School teachers in our modern era, that we have taken Empiricism to its logical conclusion and have accepted a methodology of teaching that relies mostly on a sensual-driven philosophy of teaching rather than relying on the bible’s more Rationalistic (not to be confused with being rational or irrational) principles. If you are interested, contact me and I will send you a copy of the powerpoint slides and an .mp3 file of the talk.

North Korean Prisoner Testimony

Excerpt from the testimony of Sun-ok Lee (former female prisoner of Kaechon political prison, North Korea)

I was a normal gullible North Korean citizen, loyal to Leader and Party, and believed that North Korea was a people’s paradise. I was the Director of the Government Supply Office for party cadres for 14 years when I was arrested in 1984 under the false charge of embezzlement of state property. I was subjected to severe torture during a 14-month preliminary investigation until I was forced to admit to the false charges against her. Eventually, I received a term of 13 years in prison at a kangaroo court. I had served 5 years and two months in prison when I was released in 1992 under a surprise amnesty.

Korea, Theological Training, and Missions

I was reading Operations World’s website’s daily prayer, where they highlight a particular nation. For today, it was South Korea.

As I was reading the Spiritual Challenges section, I noticed some very strong parallels to the 2nd generation KA ministries that I have served (and continue to serve). I’m not sure who wrote these ‘challenges’, but I have to say that I find myself in agreement with all of them. However, the part that caught my eye was the paragraph below:

For the neophyte Christian student of philosophy

A few have asked me for some recommendations of Christian philosophy books.

First, let me say something on the difference between Christian philosophy and apologetics . While all apologetic books have some Christian philosophy, it’s not the case that all Christian philosophy books have to be apologetic in nature. The point of apologetics is to explicitly defend the Christian faith. So things like arguments for the existence of God, or why the resurrection of Christ is historical, etc. Christian philosophy generally, as I see it, is philosophical analysis of Christian issues by Christians.

A Son Never Forgets…

M was born in 1944 in Daegu, South Korea to a pastor and his wife. She was the oldest of 5, with two younger brothers and two younger sisters. It wasn’t easy growing up as a pastor’s kid in those times, particularly when the Korean War broke out. M was only 6 years old.

Kimchi Fried Rice

My former college roomate taught me this great recipe. After eating his version I can’t go back to eating it any other way.

Things you need

1. Kimchi that has been fermented, 2. Sesame seed oil or butter, 3. Beef / Pork or Spam, 4. Dried Rice

So God is really in the details?

This article was published about a year ago in the New York Times, at least the Times gives both views. One of the philosophers mentioned below, Alvin Plantinga, is my philosophical hero so to speak. The reason I got into philosophy was because of what I learned from him. I’m also a big fan of Swinburne, though as you can probably guess if you know me I’m not an evidentialist. Enjoy,