For someone writing a story about humankind and our tendency towards self destruction, it’s such a strange and interesting choice to pick the fruit from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” as a symbol or heart of mankind’s "fall".  After all, isn’t our knowledge of things like good and evil a good thing?   Isn’t it one of the prominent human abilities that sets us apart from the animals? My dog Oliver, for instance, takes no time to consider the ethical issues involved...

Another day, another walk, and who knows what else.  Peter looked down at his worn and muddied hiking boots, and wondered how many steps he had taken in them.  He surveyed the diversity of the footwear of those who walked beside him. Several pairs of tennis shoes.   A pair of  army looking boots.  A bright blue pair of crocs.  One girl was even wearing flip-flops with little daisies ornamenting her painted and muddy toenails.   Some of these people were obviously rookies, but if they...

This last week, I found some extra time on my hands and decided to do a little music homework.  As I’m sure is true for most of you as well, I generally listen to things that I like--things that inspire me or make me feel something.  So this week I thought I might change things up a bit and listen to what most other people are listening to as an attempt to understand both culture and myself a little better.  Since I don’t own very much pop in my music collection, I downloaded a bunch of t...

I recently was perusing a bookshelf of a Christian friend of mine and came across an old book from the 80’s about faith and doubt.  As I’ve written before, I have a tendency to be a bit of a chronic doubter, so I was immediately drawn to the book. I picked it up and began to leaf through it.  I found a chapter on how to deal with doubt and began reading.  It basically described doubt as the enemy of faith and something to be avoided at all costs.  The author gave pointers about how to...

We got a new video camera, so we decided to stop in a park and play "The Earth is Yours" in the forest.  Hope you enjoy it! The Earth is Yours...