Lincoln, Luther, and King

If we are to err, we should err on the side of mercy and forgiveness. On the one hand, Jesus thought it was important to publicly rebuke the corrupt religious leaders of his day. And so I have done in earlier posts. But since God is able to rescue any local church held in the jaws of ungodly district church leadership; since God is able to build his kingdom out of the ashes of the destruction caused by evil men; since God will one day right all wrongs and correct all injustices... ...today I am removing prior posts that document the gross abuses of the Assemblies of God Michigan District against the churches that God entrusted to it. Undeserved mercy. Undeserved forgiveness. Because there may be a slim chance that they don't realize what they did, just as Jesus prayed for those who crucified him because they didn't know what they were doing. Even though it is extremely unlikely that after 7 years they still don't realize the evil of their actions, maybe there is still a sav...

In my opinion, only if Genesis is literal. In that case, a created being made with a free-will must be able to obtain the consequences of its decisions. God did everything he could to prevent the wrong decision: He clearly explained the choice to his creation. He clearly explained the consequences that would occur from making the wrong choice (“On the day you eat of it, dying you shall die”.) And he clearly gave enough other choices so that idle curiosity or boredom weren’t a factor (“You may eat of ANY tree of the garden except one”). The Genesis account is clear that Eve did not take the forbidden fruit out of curiosity or boredom. She was presented with a challenge (which her pristine, fully-engaged mind would readily have recognized), and that challenge clearly would have led her to the logical conclusion, “either this snake is lying to me, or God is lying to me.” So who did she choose to distrust? God or the snake? The temptation was fair, in that it purely tested her faith in G...

Just when human arrogance has reached its height, and mankind's darkness of mind (the belief in evolution as our creator) has all but erased away any acknowledgment of the ingenious works of Jesus the true creator, science produces a new empirical observation that shocks us out of our drunken stupor with such intensity that we must again wrestle with the undeniable fact that we live in a world that was designed. In this case, it's an octopus. An octopus whose eyes are color-blind. An octopus whose eyesight isn't very sharp, even though its eyes are not "backwards" like the eyes of you reading this blog (Hmmm if you can read this blog, then "backwards" eyes must be a pretty good design, right? I'm a mechanical engineer, and my definition of a good design is a design that is functional.) But somehow, this feeble-eyed, color-blind octopus possesses a technology that the U.S. Military would pay billions to have: The ability to change shape, textu...

As this Assemblies of God 2011 General Council website banner requests, I am about to make my mark on their movement... The word 'VOLUNTARY'. Does anyone out there know what it means? The big question is, does anyone within the Assemblies of God (AOG) religious organization know what it means? Let's look at a few quotes from their website and constitution, in which I will emphasize the words voluntary and obligatory in all caps. According to the Assemblies of God contribution page, VOLUNTARY commitments may be revised at any time. The page describes automatic monthly contributions as follows: "As your commitment is an agreement between you and God, it is understood that you may revise your commitment at any time." The page also describes 'Faith Promise' donations: "As your Faith Promise is an agreement between you and God, it is understood that you may revise your promise at any time." OK, so it sounds like VOLUNTARY giving is not OBLIG...

Evolutionary theory (specifically, the idea that life arose from non-living matter through purely natural, unintelligent causes) is surely the poster child of optimism. Second only to the belief that a government can mend all of a society's ills, little tends to suspend critical thought than the belief that life's ubiquitous and tenacious nature is evidence that life would almost certainly arise spontaneously given the right conditions (Read: "Just add water"). Corollary to this belief is the almost universal feeling that the conditions for life to exist are in plentiful supply throughout our bleak universe, and that many habitable planets must exist. Today it has been reported that a 'Goldilocks' planet has been found; that is, a planet where conditions are "just right" to support life. Are scientists basing this conclusion on empirical data, or has unbounded evolutionary optimism crept into this latest proclamation by scientific journalism? Has f...

The Hyundai dealer will charge you $600 plus tax to change your 2.7L Santa Fe timing belt. Is it worth 6 or 7 hours of your time to save $500? Well, the belt itself will cost you only $90 at the dealer (ask for a 10% discount on the part). (I don't recommend using an off-brand belt. Why skimp just to save $20, when you're putting in 6 hours of labor, and a failed belt will trash your engine's valves?) So if you'd gladly put in 6 hours of labor to "earn" $500, read on. I have a 2002 Santa Fe 2.7L 2WD, but any 2001-2006 2.7L Santa Fe engine should be pretty identical. Took me about 7 hours to replace the timing belt. One hour was figuring out how to get the crankshaft pulley off - the instructions below will save you that aggravation! Replacing the timing belt is not difficult - just a bit time-intensive to remove everything to get to the belt. If you have access to Chilton manuals or AllData, then you can get some pics to go with what I describe below.

On a 21-speed bike, it is almost impossible to shift from smallest gear to largest gear in order. To do so, you'd have to shift something like the following example sequence. This would require shifting both the front and rear derailleurs at the same time, and jumping multiple sprockets at a single time like this: