MattFarina.com - Tech / Faith / Life

What If We Dropped the Word?

matt — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 09:31:50 -0400

My first article appeared on the fshbwl, today, called "What If We Dropped the Word?". It's an article about the word evolution. This comes on the heals of my 2nd guest hosting spot on the Swim Podcast.

All this theological stuff is getting to be a bit fun.

What Science Can't Prove

matt — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:32:32 -0400

I've often heard that science is capable of proving anything. Is this really true? Does science have no limits to it's deductive abilities? Sadly, there are some limits to what science and the scientific method can do. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Mathematics and Logic

Science can't prove mathematics or logic. These are presumptions to the scientific method. Science presumes them to be true and has not proven them to be true.

Don't agree? Try to prove these. Take away logic and mathematics and try to prove them. Try to prove logic to be true without using logic.

The Metaphysical

Science can't prove the metaphysical. One of the more talked about metaphysical elements is the supernatural. Science deals with nature. The supernatural is outside of nature and therefore outside the abilities of science to take a look at.

The Scientific Method

Science can't prove the scientific method itself. It presumes it. How can something use it's own process to prove it's own process? It can't. To even try is circular reasoning.

Why does any of this matter?

This is a question worth asking and the answer is simple. If we are to have a good understanding of what's going on we need to know the limitations of something. To wrap our minds around something we need to know some of the ins and outs. To hear something scientific and believe it we need to know what it's based on.

Rotating Banner Images in Drupal with Views and jQuery

matt — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:42:02 -0400

Rotating banner images is a simple way to spice up most sites. It adds something shiny that can hook people in. If you use jQuery, like I often do, then a simple way to do the rotating banner images is using the jQuery cycle plugin. This plugin can even be used along with drupals views module to create dynamic lists of rotating images.

But, there are some downfalls with this approach. For example, if you create a list of images for the jQuery cycle plugin to rotate through you need to set all but one of them not to display with css. Even though most of the images are not initially displaying they are still downloaded in many browsers. If you have a bunch of images loading that have any size this has a potential to waste a lot of bandwidth if those images aren't viewed.

This was a problem that I ran into working on a few sites. Here's a solution I use that solves this problem while working well with Views, jQuery, and any content Views can create.

You can read the complete article at http://www.innovatingtomorrow.net/2008/05/12/rotating-banner-images-with-views-and-jquery

Site Move

matt — Thu, 1 May 2008 07:21:17 -0400

I recently moved MattFarina.com from a single site drupal installation over to a multi-site installation. This means that all the image paths in all the posts were updated (via a script). If you see an errors or anything out of place I'd appreciate it if you let me know.

5 Reasons To Stop Bagging On The Church

matt — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:09:43 -0400

Have you noticed all the bagging on the church in recent years? Sometimes it's the worldwide church. I've herd people call them ignorant or that they just don't get it. Sometimes it's the local church. I've herd people criticize it for not being the way they picture or want it. Sometimes it's a denomination. People love to argue who is right and why. I'm not talking about a discussion, I'm talking about an argument.

Over the last few years I've seen an increase in members of the church bagging on the church. Part of this I accept as part of our cultural shift. Western culture is shifting towards bashing and bagging on things they don't like, don't agree with, or don't understand. I don't mean this as a criticism but an observation that's been reported on for the past few years. But, I still find this to be no excuse. We shouldn't be bashing the church. Here are 5 reasons that we as the church shouldn't bash the church.

We Are All Sinners

When we notice flaws in the church they are flawed things put in place by flawed people because they are sinful. We are all sinful. When we bag on something we are tearing not into a person but that persons sin, their disease or terrible condition. Would you bag on someone because they are in a wheel chair? Would you rip on something some mentally handicapped did? I would hope not. Sin is the same kind of problem and it's something every single person on the planet has. So, it's not cool to bag on it.

It's Not Loving

Does it matter how right you are if you bag on things? Nope. Go read 1 Corinthians 13. If you have the perfect idea but it's not done or presented out of love than it's worthless. When we rip, bag, or tear into things there is no love there. If there were we would be concerned. If love was present we would show compassion on the people involved. When we bag on things we don't.

If we are going to be like God we need to love the people we see as the most unlovable. Sometimes that's other people in the church.

It Makes Us Gossips

So, you might rip on church stuff in private or with friends and think it's OK. Doesn't that make us gossips? To sit around and have tear into something about someone else in a non-productive or positive way is gossip. If you are thinking that something is just an organization you might be wrong. It's easy to trash talk the Catholic churches organizational structure and leaders. There are no faces with phrases like those. But, those structures weren't just implemented by people but are made up of people.

It's Makes Us Judgmental

A contestant in my life over the last few years is the movement for people in the church to be less judgmental of the world. To love people and leave any judging up to God. But, when people in the church start judging the church, and basing the church and trashing it does this, they are being judgmental of the church in the same way people in the church have bagged on the world. In either case it's not good.

It's Not Effective Change

Repenting from our sins and moving towards something better is how we are supposed to live. When we bag on things and trash them it's like telling someone their baby is ugly. You immediately close the door to conversations on real change. When we approach it from a negative standpoint it's not targeted at the positive. Basically, it doesn't bring about the change we hope for but actually works against it.

I'm not saying that we agree with everything in the church. But, the best response when we disagree is not to start trash talking or bagging on things. That's not good either. And, the more we change for the better the more change we will see that needs to happen. It's far more than we could accomplish in our lifetimes or even ten times our lifetimes. Our very nature is fighting against it.

So, the next time you feel the desire to bag in something on the church instead say a little prayer. Ask God for the patience to get past your attitude, the guidance to use the passion you feel for the good of the church, and ask for forgiveness of the evil in your heart. Then try to live that. It'll be better for you as a person, better for the church on it's mission, and better for the people you come across in the world.

OK, I'll step off my soap box now...

Get Your Drupal Widget

matt — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:57:02 -0400

Looking for an easier way to follow the content on drupal.org, drupal groups, the drupal planet, and all those forums? The drupal widget is here to help you with that.

The drupal widget works on Netvibes, igoogle, Windows Live, Opera, Apple Dashboard, and Windows Vista. Click one of these buttons to immediately add it.

A special thanks to Netvibes and Greg Cohn for producing this widget. This isn't the first time Netvibes has brought the drupal community something cool and useful. Last year Netvibes launched the Drupal Universe.

If you have any suggestions for feeds to change in the widget please let me know.

Introducing The Fishbowl

matt — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:22:41 -0400

The Fishbowl is a faith based, non-profit community website that recently launched.

The idea behind the fishbowl is to explore faith from a number of different angles. Each day a new piece of content will come out in one of the 7 different categories. On Mondays it's content about World Views, Tuesday it's the Swim Podcast, etc.

My personal favorites are the Intelligent Faith, which deals with science, logic, and apologetics, and Expressions, which is artistic in nature.

The Fishbowl was designed by Mustardseed Media, developed by Innovating Tomorrow, and sponsored by the lcms.

Right Thinking, Right Feeling, Right Doing

matt — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:27:06 -0400

How often do you think that if people knew the truth they would act differently? Or, if they just felt what you felt it would convince them to change? Or, if you could just get them to try something they would see that it's important and change?

I've recently had a perspective check. A friend of mine has the idea that if everyone knew what he did they would care about the thing he has such a deep care for. Another friend has it in his mind that if someone felt as strongly as he does they would change like he has. And, a book I recently read talks about how change usually happens when people start with action. That it leads to the right feeling and right thinking.

All 3 of these people approach change differently. What I see in all of them is thinking, feeling, and action. Where they differ is in which ones affect the others and how the affect the others.

This reminds me that people are different. For some, thinking comes first. They realize some truth. This affects the way they act and feel. For others, they feel something. Maybe it's compassion for people in need. This changes the way they act and think. And, for others still, they start with action and through the action they start thinking and feeling differently.

We should remember these differences when we are dealing with others. The person your reaching to and trying to help may not operate the same as you. It's important to realize these things and talk to the person and not how you operate. It's important to not discount avenues that affect people which aren't your way.

We Can't Know If There Is No God

matt — Mon, 3 Mar 2008 08:32:05 -0500

About 5% of the people in the world say there is no God. According to the Pew Forum, the atheist population has been increasing at about 220% in America. In an effort to understand atheists and this modern day movement I've started to ask some tough questions. One of the first that came to my mind was, is there a way to know that there is no God? I'm talking about moving beyond belief into concrete testable knowledge. After digging through the different possibilities I've come to the conclusion that there is no way to know if there is no God. Let me explain my reasoning.

The tactic I chose to test this against was to take the situations we could know if there was a God and see how these situations would play out if there wasn't one. I'm not talking about the situations where we would believe there is a God but actually know it.

Gone When We Are Dead

The first situation that came to my mind, and I'm sure many others are the same way, was meeting God when we die. This is a situation that many of the worlds religions claim happens. It's a situation that, if it were to happen, would bring us face to face with God. This would move us beyond belief.

What would happen if there was no God? Well, we wouldn't just not come face to face with God. If we simply die and cease to exist than we no longer exist to even know if there is no God. So, in this situation our question is not answered.

If we move to a different form of reality, as some like the gnostics talk about, and we don't meet God that does not mean that God is not out there. The question is still left unanswered. We may believe or not but we still won't know.

Can't Reveal Himself

A common method, according to religious scriptures and faithful believers in religion, is that God reveals himself to the person. One such situation that I recently read about was when Moses sat in a tent with God and they had a conversation. That is the kind of revealing many of us wish would happen to us in our lives.

If there is no God this situation can't happen. If there is no God there is no one to reveal himself to us. Our question is still left unanswered.

Science, Science, Science

After looking at these two situations where we can know there is a God and seeing what would happen in there is no God I decided to test other avenues.

Science for me is a strong hobby. I'm an engineer which is essentially an applied scientist. Since I was a kid science was always something on my mind. So, I asked myself, can science ever prove there is no God?

The simple answer is no. Science can't tell us if there is no God. Science deals with nature, the universe, the environment, and all this stuff around us. If there is a creator of that it would be outside of the system that was created. This means that science is not capable of testing, measuring, or working it's processes on such a being. God would be outside the scope of science.

Conclusion

I'm left with the realization that we can't know if there is no God. There is no situation in life where we would know the answer. There is no way our best science can tell us. Anyone who says there is no God is making a statement of belief. A statement they will never know the answer to.

Are You Searching For The Truth?

matt — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:00:55 -0500

A lot of people I know would tell you they have found the truth or that they are searching for it. But, is that really the case? I have a friend who says he is searching for the truth. But, he is not praying, not reading up on science, not studying philosophy, not seeking out logic, and rarely seeking to take this search outside his own mind. Is that searching for the truth? On the flip side I have friends who sit in circles of people who share the same beliefs as them, they read only books that tell them what they are looking to hear, and they discuss topics with people who won't challenge them on it. Is this really searching for the truth? In both cases here I don't think these people are searching for the truth. They might be searching for peace of mind. They might be searching for what is comfortable. So, what does a search for the truth look like? Let's take a look at a few characteristics I've noticed.

You Take Stock Of Your Own Beliefs

In order to search for the truth, I think, you need to know yourself. You need to know your own belief system and how that causes you to look at the world. I point this out because most Christians don't have a biblical world view. They have a naturalist world view (belief about the universe) and don't even know it. If someone is non-Christian the prevailing belief system about the universe is naturalism. But, how many people know this about themselves? How many people know how they came about this belief? And, how many people realize how it causes them to view the information that passes in front of them?

The same can be said of any world view. Because our world view shapes how we interpret the information placed in front of us it is one of the most important things to realize about ourselves.

Talk To People That Challenge You

One of the greatest benefits I have found in life is people who challenge the way I think. I'm not talking about people that tell me they don't believe me or that I am wrong. I'm talking about people who question what I am thinking and force me to think through it. They force me to test what I am thinking against situations, ideas, and circumstances that I had not already thought of.

Read Ideas That You Don't Agree With

I find reading books and papers from people that I don't agree with to be a challenge. They force me to consider different ideas. They force me to re-think what I think. They open the door to new possibilities, show evidence I have not seen, and provide different interpretations to evidence I already know about.

But, this is one place to be very careful. Most of this information doesn't provide a complete picture of the basis for their conclusions. While Darwin explains, in The Origin of Species, that part of his view of evolution is based on his belief in naturalism there are many other authors who take that point for granted and don't point it out. And, while many of the religious authors are almost forced to talk about their belief many don't spell it out. For example, there are a number of naturalist Christian science authors who don't have a biblical world view. So, searching through the material to find the grounds for how they interpret it can sometimes be quite difficult.

Accept That You May Be Wrong

It's hard for anyone to think that they may be wrong. We are a proud people. If we get into a debate we will regularly fight our point to the end, even if we realize that we are wrong. To accept that we may be wrong is a humbling experience. If we are going to honestly seek truth we need to open ourselves up to the notions we hold being wrong.

So, are you honestly seeking the truth? Or, are you just looking to reinforce what you already believe?