Celebrating God’s Goodness

This week Maureen and Sandra offer a double serving of blogging goodness in celebration of Thanksgiving. We hope you enjoy these reasons for having a gratitude-filled holiday!

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Why C. S. Lewis’ Integration of Reason and Imagination Matters

Today marks the 50th anniversary of C. S. Lewis’ death. In the half a century since his passing, Lewis’ keen ability to join what is assumed incompatible (reason and imagination) remains largely unmatched.

Michael Ward, in his Christianity Today article on Lewis, elaborates on the power of Lewis’ approach:

In Christ, poetry and philosophy have met together. Meaning and truth have kissed. C. S. Lewis understood, like few in the past century, just how deeply faith is both imaginative and rational.

As Ward explains, since the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries we’ve been told of the supposed dichotomy between reason and imagination.

 

Hope for the Forever Empty

Perhaps you’ve seen the clip, or perhaps you’ve heard conversations ‘round the Internet’s water cooler (Facebook). But here’s the scoop in case you haven’t: A few weeks ago comedian Louis C.K. offered a brilliant, albeit colorful, rant on how smartphones are impacting our culture.

“You need to build the ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. That’s what the phones are taking away. The ability to just sit there.”

 

Extra Grace Required in Science-Faith Relationships

We all know people who tend to deplete our reserves of patience and good will. (Perhaps we’ve even been one of these folks.) I’ve taken to identifying such people as “EGRs”: extra grace required. This label, which I adopted from a guest speaker at my church, helps remind me to reign in my irritability and pray for an extra measure of patience when dealing with difficult people. After all, I require extra grace, too.

Interactions within the science-faith arena provide plentiful examples of EGRs.

 

Stress and the Pursuit of (True) Happiness

Here’s the scoop: Our editorial team is working tirelessly to bring you several new resources—a book on the end times, a book on the Genesis creation days, a science-faith devotional for students, plus rereleases (and e-book editions) of a couple of out-of-print RTB titles.

 

Geeking and Reaching Out at Comic-Con

In case you missed it, last week the world’s nerds were drawn to San Diego like metal to Magneto for the city’s international Comic-Con. I, too, made the annual trek to nerd mecca to get my fandom on. While the reveals (read: announcements) from the Warner Brothers and Marvel panels were spaz worthy, there’s certainly more to do at a con than just scream at screens.

The long lines provide ample time for attendees to spark up conversation with fellow fan boys and girls.

 

Man of Steel and the Original Superhero

In case it’s not already on your radar, the highly anticipated reboot Man of Steel releases next week. Most are familiar with who Superman is—understandable considering this cultural icon (and first comic book superhero) has been around for 75 years.

For nonnatives to the comic book world, here’s a quick recap: Young Kal-El is placed in a rocket ship and transported to Earth just before his home planet of Krypton explodes. Taking the name Clark Kent, the child grows to become Superman. With his superpowers, Superman protects the earth and its people.

What might be less familiar to some are the religious analogies drawn from Superman.

 

The Inconceivable Misuse of Science Words

In the oh-so-quotable The Princess Bride, swashbuckling Spaniard Inigo Montoya calls out bossy Sicilian Vizzini on his overuse of the word “inconceivable.”

“You keep using that word,” Inigo says, “I do not think it means what you think it means.”

The same could be said about science terminology. A recent article on LiveScience.com laments the general populous’ frequent misuse of seven science words and phrases. The list includes, “hypothesis,” “theory,” “model,” and “skeptic,” among others. Blame for this lack of understanding, as we at RTB would agree, lies with poor science education.

 

You’ve Got a Friend in Me

Over the last several months my family has faced a number of challenges—ranging from specific illnesses and injuries to general life hurdles. Through it all we’ve been surrounded by the loving support of family and friends. Whether through encouraging Facebook comments, prayer groups, or meals and flowers, everyone has a different way of letting us know they are standing with us.

Even an introvert like me has to admit that community is vital to human health—physically, mentally, and spiritually. The Bible’s been declaring this message for thousands of years.

 

Demystifying Prayer

Technology begets humility. Just ask my coworker and I how long it took us to sync a new keyboard to my Mac. What should have been a quick setup took a few phone calls to our onsite Mac guru and a lesson on how to find the power button. (We’ll take some whipped cream with that humble pie, please.)

As it turns outs, syncing new equipment isn’t as complicated as we make it out to be. Sometimes the solution is right in front of us waiting to be examined.