OK, this is way too cool. I've been playing with Nasa's WorldWind application for quite awhile, mainly using it to map testing sites for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. I hadn't paid very close attention to the add-ons available for WorldWind until I went to download the latest version to put on my laptop. Apparently it now comes with maps for Mars as well, and not just fake ones but actual satellite data and mapping. How cool is that!?!

I'm hoping to eventually begin adding some of the nuclear testing maps to this site for public access.

And no, my fascination with nuclear weapons is neither military nor political. It's purely scientific. The science involved in creating and developing these weapons is simply amazing.

My friend, Alex, posted today a wonderful summation of the problem with the anti-creedalism of many Cambellite churches whose only official doctrinal statement is along the lines of "No creed but Christ, no law but love, no book but the Bible."

Here is what he said:

A refusal to use a creed/confession/doctrinal statement of some kind, means that every time you want to investigate a brother's doctrine you must go through the Bible with that individual - all of it - and see how they agree with your reading, point-for-point, of:

66 books
1,189 chapters
31,373 verses
775,693 words

...in the Authorized Version, of course. Will they agree with your beliefs and doctrines point-for-point? How much error will you permit, before separating yourself from them? By refusing to profess/acknowledge a creed, or publish/profess an "articles of faith" / "doctrinal statement", the believer and his/her church functionally accomplishes five things:

- rejecting a priori every prior study and/or codification of doctrine formulated by any church body at every point in church history.
- practicing (if not outright believing and teaching) that Wisdom ended when special revelation and supernatural gifts did, dismissing any wisdom acquired by any bible-believing Christian in church history, contrary to Proverbs 2:6-9,
- allowing minor points of doctrine (eschatology, worship forms and practices, ecclesiastical government forms, etc) to be granted equal status with major points of doctrine (the Trinity, nature of salvation, etc),
- leave the door open for doctrinal stances to shift unknowingly from moment to moment, congregation to congregation, pastor to pastor, or even from week to week,
- willfully sequesters yourself from examination and correction by any congregation, visitors, friends, fellow believers and unbelievers, preventing all from discovering your full doctrinal beliefs without forcing a long, arduous and mandatory investigation.

The entire post can be found here. He makes some good points prior to the above regarding the nature and function of creeds and the false dichotomy of creed vs Scripture.

No, this is not a Klansman. It's one of the Imperial Guards from Star Wars, but instead of a force pike he's carrying a cross. I had to change my avatar on CF because I was tired of getting so many questions about it. Not enough geeks there I guess :)

If there's one thing I've discovered, it's that the Internet never forgets. Elephants will forget. Wives will forget (eventually). But the Internet never forgets.

I have to be very mindful of what I type here. This blog will live in Google's cache forever until and unless somebody expires the content out of existence. It'll be here long, long after the blog has disappeared from this site.

I don't think people realize this...that their blogs don't disappear when they delete their accounts (or the host does it for them). Neither do some websites.

Why was I reminded of this? Because I found some wonderfully interesting comments from over the years made by people in certain conversational settings or blogs. Comments people try to run from, hoping that some will never know and that others will forget.

But the Internet...the Internet never forgets....

I should have posted this sooner...don't know what I was thinking. My tribute to Tom Cruise and his cultic religion.

Suri With The Fringe Cult Pop

(sung by Martin Holmes to the tune of "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" from the musical Oklahoma!)

Our dear Katie just had a daughter
She stayed silent just like he taught 'er
We can’t wait to meet little Suri with the Fringe Cult Pop!

We taped him going bonkers on Oprah,
Shaking her wildly and jumping the sofa,
So that one day Suri would know about her Fringe Cult Pop.

Our girl's hormonal but can't make a sound
The Paxil's gone from the cupboard.
And Tom's off having the placenta browned.
Thank you, L. Ron Hubbard!

Now Tom's chef is preparing the gravy
To wash down the afterbirth of Rosemary's Baby
Meanwhile Kathy and I hope that maybe MI3 will flop
And that Katie saves dear Suri from her Fringe Cult Pop!

If there's one thing that makes me more upset than anything else, it's hypocrisy. Well, that and modernism/liberalism. And bias.

I guess there are several things that upset me equally more than anything else.

And what frustrates me is knowing of glaring instances of such things and not being able to call people out on it directly. These people run screaming from the light of truth.