In A World...Without Don LaFontaine

Sorry about that - I have to be the 300th person to make that joke on a blog today.  Don LaFontaine died today. Who is Don LaFontaine?

LaFontaine's vocal talents have appeared in over 5,000 movie trailers and nearly 350,000 commercials. He is most famous for the introductory line, "In a world..."

This might clarify it further:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMR3SWOB5dA]

Enjoy this also:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QPMvj_xejg]

One more, just because its interesting:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVxP33iQ6KM]

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What you People Come Here for (August Edition)

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Here's the stuff you searched for to bring you to my blog this month.  Simply cut & pasted, no corrections.  This of course is not the complete list, but it is the stuff I found interesting or funny.

  • web junk blog
  • prop up peach trees
  • how to peach tree branches prop
  • "world gone crazy" -screaming -lyrics -a
  • jeremy begone (Should I be offended by this one)
  • prop up prach tree
  • how to grow a peach tree
  • christian fantasy football team names
  • peach tree roots
  • peach tree looks like it is going to break
  • fantasy team name funny
  • christian duty in voting
  • saying yes to jesus
  • growing peach tree from branch
  • so far as of today
  • the best commercials to memorize
  • over loaded peach tree
  • morality and marijuana
  • graduated from college +freaking out
  • jeremy tufnel
  • "episode iv is the best"
  • what does a peach tree look like
  • clean but clever fantasy football team n
  • how big do peach trees grow
  • what does a young peach tree look like
  • verycool jeremy
  • jeremy matheis
  • olympics youth ministry lessons
  • "don mathis" ohio
  • vikings fan fantasy football team name
  • how long will it take to die drinking
  • the world is crazy church
  • "what's the baby using?" - At least 20 variations on this one
  • sonya richards engagement ring - This was easily the #2 search of the month

Also this month, at least one person found my church website by searching "I love jeremy matthis"  That's not my name, but I found that very interesting

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Best Web Junk (August 29)

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Everybody I know has sent me a link to this story this week.  So I need to share it with you This link is here to keep [regular commenter] Caroline out of jail.

Looks like the flood is coming, what do we save.  You gotta have priorities - via digg

totally amazing - I can't remember where I saw these

This is horrible news for me, since I'm an SEC fan living in NC, The Raycom games are all available streaming on yahoo.com, now that ESPN has bought all those games the regional ones will be unavailable to me, meaning that I will miss about 6 UK basketball games a year

This video is both good and impressive.  It appears that they just did this on the spur of the moment.  it's really good.  I heard it on the Delta Park Project.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er8qSz0RuRg]

This paragraph is from Dave Barry's article today and is pretty much the best summation I have heard of the DNC anywhere:

That message, in a nutshell, is that Barack Obama represents hope and change and an attractive but nonthreatening wife and experience in the form of Joe Biden; whereas John McCain -- although he is a great patriot for whom the Democrats have the deepest personal respect -- is the warmongering environment-wrecking house-forgetting evil demon spawn of Satan.

This, from The Onion, is really hilarious, but if you visit the site, the headline is dirty

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKK3Fe1D_vc]

A Milestone

This is my 100th blogpost.  In reality it is a bit more than that, because I have deleted a couple, and There are the tabs across the top.  But if you go searching through my blog you will only find 100 posts. Here's some numbers that you may find interesting

  • I began March 3 this is Aug 26
  • that is 176 days
  • 25 weeks (rounded down)
  • .56 posts per day
  • 4 posts per week
  • 234 comments

My top five commenters (actually top 6) representing 59% of all comments on this blog

  1. Ryan & Caroline are tied - 39 comments
  2. Webhick (Who seems to have disappeared) - 23
  3. Adam (I'm counting trackbacks in this) - 14
  4. Ashley - 13
  5. Roland - 9

These are the top 5 most popular posts since I began

  1. What's the Baby Using? (This post has 4.25 times more views than #2)
  2. Killing
  3. Commercials
  4. Christians & Drinking
  5. Will this harm my peach tree?

These are the most commented posts since I began - Nevermind i can't figure out how to sort my stats that way.  Probably "Killing" is most commented though, maybe most important post ever

[polldaddy poll="881455"]

Reviewing a Movie I've Never Seen

This movie, Religulous comes out soon. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCzpPKSJL70]

I used to be a huge fan of Bill Maher.  In fact once upon a time his show, Politically Incorrect, was my favorite on late night TV.  Although I don't get HBO, so I don't think I've ever seen his new show.  I will almost surely watch this documentary.  However, I know that his purpose is to make religion look dumb, and if Michael Moore has taught the world anything it's that you can make a documentary say anything.

My guess is that Bill Maher will ask the following question; why if there is a God is he telling everybody different stuff?  Here's what I know.  he will not talk to any brilliant Christian apologists.  There will be no William Lane Craig, no J.P. Moreland, only some hicks and rednecks.  This will only be an attack on religion.

So before anyone I know sees it, including me, here's a brief refutation of one point.  I got the following quote from this article (I couldn't find any official information on the movie other than the trailer from the movie's website):

Maher’s point-  that the world would be a better place without any religions, that wars would be eliminated and there would be universal understanding,

Let's examine this quote realistically and look at 3 atheists.  None of these guys liked religion all declared that religion was a major problem for the world. In fact they each killed thousands of religious leaders.

  • Stalin - according to the bastion of accuracy, Wikipedia, Stalin is responsible for 3 million deaths directly + about 10 million from the effects of his other policies
  • Lenin - We will say conservatively that he is responsible for the deaths of 250,000
  • Mao -The lowest estimate I have seen is 38 million

To be fair, the crusades probably killed 1.5 million, several hundred thousand were killed in the inquisition and witch trials, and millions in the post-reformation "religious wars" that were really political wars.  But from the first list, does this seem like a peace-loving group of people?  It's fine if you want to hate religion but don't assume we are all stupid.  There are wars and bad junk in the world because people are bad, not because religion teaches us to think that we are right.

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Best Web Junk (August 22)

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Snoopy's Novel - via woot First Molly Wood twitters this then the next morning I read this from Bart Barber - wow they are right, the Olympics involve a lot of skin.

This is such a good idea.  Quit high school to focus on Guitar Hero - via popwatch

I'm not fully ashamed to admit that really enjoy lolcats, I find them very entertaining.  if you don't know what lolcats are then may I introduce FractLOL (You may have to install silverlight)

I totally deny this

Very interesting video

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.667464&w=425&h=350&fv=]

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Stats

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Lately, for like the last month, my stats have gone down.  I have been only getting about 80% of the viewers I used to get.  So imagine my surprise when yesterday was my best day since June.  Well I looked at my searches and could see what was bringing all the people here so I made a post to address it.  it turned out to be my all time best day on this blog statistically speaking, beating my previous high day by 50%.  And it's only 9am EDT (-5 zulu) and already I'm on track to blow yesterday away.  This is 3 times more readers than I get on an average "good" day. I am truly astonished by this phenomenon, look at my stat graph.

My statistical jump

Also, thanks to wordpress.com for hosting me.  I'd be freaking out if I was having to pay for this bandwidth.  Even though it's probably not that much, relatively speaking, I'd be freaking out.

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What's the Baby Using?

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This is my best day in a very long time statistically speaking.  All because of my twitter feed. Since nobody has answered yet, I'll tell you the answer.

What's the baby using?

the answer, of course, is 25.

I first saw this here, but the original is found here.

<update>Be sure to visit thetruthabout25.com

I decided to make a shirt</update>

And here is the video for those of you who are totally lost.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqhu5d51o6s]

Here's my stats so far

Ramblings about Youth Ministry and Other Stuff

363 days ago I wrote my first ever "blog post" it was on MySpace and not really meant fully for public consumption.  Now I have a real blog, several regular readers (literally tens of people every day) and the same motivation for posting.  First I present to you that old post

Youth ministry

I have been in youth ministry for almost 10 years now and there is no other job I could be happy doing.

Sometimes it is incredibly frustrating.  Students won't listen or they don't seem to care what you are teaching, or they refuse to do something very simple like bring their Bibles to church with them.

But other times are truly rewarding.  Today was one of those times.  This was youth Sunday at our church and that means that our youth lead in every part of the service.  They taught adult Sunday school classes, they filled the choir, they took up offering and prayed every public prayer.  Also today we watched a video of Brandon's [who has moved to Texas] Baptism, and Derrick  gave his testimony.

It was a wonderful experience and I am proud of all of them

Thank you to my youth group.

Yesterday was again youth Sunday but yesterday had a different feel than previous years.  Our students taught all the adult SS classes, filled the choir and, led the music, etc.  Normally our main speakers are the graduating seniors, but we had no graduating seniors, so I, as the youth minister, decided to be the main speaker.  My message was very simple.  I simply explained the gospel clearly and thoroughly.  In the past, youth Sunday has always, been about the students.  But as I shook hands with people as they were leaving I could not help but feel like it was different.  I felt that I somehow took away from the emphasis on the youth.  I am proud of them, they did an excellent job and deserve whatever credit they get.

Regarding my message, I have listened to it, and I am still convinced that I am not a preacher, nor am I likely to be one.  It was my first time ever in the pulpit since I began in the ministry, and it was not terrible.  I was clear, and people seemed interested.  (Only like 4 people had their eyes closed.)  Essentially I went slow and repeated myself often.  I have way too many uhmms and okays, to be a good public speaker.  I have included the message in this post if you want to listen to it, or you can download it here.  It's long, so carve yourself out a good chunk of time.

[audio=http://lagrangeparkbc.org/audio/08.17.08.mp3]

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Best Web Junk (August 15)

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Mmmm...there's just so much to choose from on this menu - from Dave Barry who is in China for the olympics I'm sure that if you watched women's gymnastics this week you will be shocked...shocked to learn this.

This is pretty funny - via failblog

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTaTvwl4-28]

This video is just plain fun - KSR

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdjuuswnfDM]

Impressive or Stupid

I have owned all but 3 of these.  From Super Nintendo, to Xbox, to Xbox 360.  They used to cost $40 now they cost $60.  (Although if you pre-order it at Amazon, you can get a $10 gift card.) I won't even try to calculate how many hours I've spent playing it.  But pretty much every untelevised UK football game for the last 10 years was spent listening to the Cats and playing madden with no sound.

Does anybody want to give me an xbox live gold subscription?

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Best Web Junk (August 8)

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This is hilarious This fail is just amazing

I was very entertained by this - via wordpress dashboard

10 mispronunciations that make you sound stupid (I may be guilty of a few of these ) - via digg

This is pretty much the first time I've ever seen Paris Hilton that I wasn't instantly annoyed.  it's actually clever.  But you've probably already seen it because it's been everywhere - via everywhere

Filming snakes is fun - via Myextralife

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET-3-Q5cAw4]

Legislating Morality pt.2

Yesterday I began answering the question of whether we can allow Christian beliefs to affect the laws of our nation.  The conclusion reached was that somebody's morals are going to affect all our laws, and there is no grounds for Christian morals to be excluded.

Now we come to the second part of this discussion, and the more difficult question - Where does morality come from? I hope that all the readers of this blog will agree that morality MUST come from somewhere outside of mere democracy. If mere democracy determined morality, then chattel slavery was morally correct. Also I hope that we can agree that morality has to have a non-human source. If morality is based in humanity, then whose morality matters more?   The ones who are powerful enough to whip everybody else, of course. Power to control others or to set laws does not make moral authority.  (Think about it, if morality was people-based, then it was perfectly moral for Hitler to murder Jews in WWII Germany, it only became wrong after we were able to impose our morality on them by winning a war. How dare we do that.)  Power to control peoples’ minds or control how they look at the world also does not grant moral authority. If so, then the artists and entertainers of the world would set morality, and all it takes is a look at a museum to see that the tastes and opinions of artists change like the weather.

If it is non-human in origin, then we are only left with only two possibilities of where morality comes from. It is either from God, or inherent in a godless nature. I find the second possibility to be completely indefensible. This is no new thought, but it is simple. If there is no God, there is no morality. Ivan, in The Brothers Karamazov, had this one right a long time ago. Scott Adams’s view that we are only moist robots comes from this same thought. I can see no logical way out of this conclusion, therefore leaving us with only one possibility...

Morality comes from God

We are now down to only one issue. I first was introduced to it when I read Plato’s The Death of Socrates in my philosophy of law class as a political science student.  It is known as Euthyphro's Dilemma, and it is presented with this question - is an action moral because God says so, or does God say so because it is moral?  (In Socrates’ original question gods was plural, of course.) in other words, is he law above God or is God above the law?  I am not going to get in to a full discussion of this dilemma but if you want to read an excellent summary, go here.

In short, the answer is, neither. An action is moral because of who God is. The law is not over God, nor is it subject to the whim of God.  God always acts in a way consistent with His character, therefore the law, (morality) emanates from who God is. It is not subject to change because He is not subject to change.

So if I can address the original question. It is not a violation of church & state to allow biblical morality to color the law, any more than it is a violation of physics to allow gravity to effect the design of an airplane. The fact is, biblical morality is true morality whether anyone believes it or not. My pastor often says right is right if nobody does it, and wrong is wrong if everybody does it.  SOMEBODY'S morality is going to affect every law. Let's hope that it is true morality.

I truly hope these posts were not too convoluted or unclear.  Feel free to coment.

Legislating Morality pt.1

This post is in response to a question, although it is not a direct answer to that question, the question is what got my mind working on this answer.

Here's the question:  Is it, a violation of separation of church - state to invoke biblical morals or biblical definitions of marriage or sin into law?

I often hear people say you cannot legislate morality. In fact, I believe all legislation is legislating morality. Let’s chose 3 random laws and see that they all convey some moral imperative.

  • Speed Limit – this law implies that as a society we value the worth of human life. Therefore there are restrictions on how you can drive so as not to endanger yourself and others with what is undoubtedly an extremely dangerous piece of machinery.
  • Voting age – this law implies that we as a society value the democratic process deeply. And we desire to have well-informed voters making decisions for our country. It is safe to assume that school-aged children are not well informed and would not make good voters.
  • Pay Taxes – this law makes it clear that we believe that many things must be done for the good of our entire society. The only way to pay for these things is for everyone to chip in. People won’t contribute without being forced so we make it a law.

Here are 3 laws seemingly unrelated to morality that have a moral principle attached to them. That human life is important, that freedom [therefore democracy] is important, and sacrifice for the common good is important.

If all legislation is tied to morality, then we have a duty to legislate morality.

If we believe it is morally wrong to do activity X, then we are wrong not to make activity X illegal. So let’s pick an obvious example; murder. Everyone I have ever known believes that murder is morally wrong. This is a non-gray area, and consequently, murder is illegal. Here’s another example; lying. Most people believe that lying is wrong under most circumstances. Consequently, we have laws against lying in important circumstances, such as, for example, in a court of law.

But what about areas where there is genuine debate in our society about what is moral and not? Then it seems that there must be some compelling reason to change the laws as they are currently established. For those people who, for example, believe that it is morally allowable to smoke marijuana, they would need to show some reason why the state would be better off by allowing it and changing a long-standing law. That is almost always a hard way to go.

Here is the final thought for this post - SOMEBODY'S morality is going to be reflected in every law.

(I have divided this post in two parts because it was entirely too long.  Please come back tomorrow and read about who decides morality.)