Day 12 - the big rain

Well, we had our first big rain of the season last night - about 50mm in 12 hours. I'm not sure how much damage was done to the lawn...time will tell.

Day 11

Day 10 - you can see the green

This is the best part of the lawn. I think it has a little more shelter and a little more warmth. But the rest is coming along.

Day 9 - all reved up

This...leads to this... Yes, it's an experienced machine. With the grass being new, and me not having a lawn to mow for the past 8 years, I thought it would be good to have someone that knew what it was doing. Any ideas for a name?

Day 8 - The real thing at last!

Hold on to yer seats, folks! I think we have the real thing starting to show. The previous two blades have obviously been imposters. Now this is something you can SEE and FEEL! You have to look really, really close (you can actually see grass in the picture below), but if you brush your hand just over the dirt you can feel the new blades! It is just on one section of the lawn, but it is the area that is the most sheltered with the most sun, so hopefully the others areas will be showing signs of germination soom...like maybe TOMORROW?

Day 7 - signs of life?

Another sign of life?

Day 6

Okay...now I know where they get the saying that "This is as exciting as watching grass grow..."

Day 5

Ah-ha! There has been a deer on my lawn...and a dog...and a kid with little rubber boots...

Day 4 - the first blade?

Things were looking pretty much the same today, but then I saw IT! Is this blade really the first grass to grace my dirt? Is this a biological over-achiever? Or is this just an imposter? A weed that has lurked in my dirt for a week before sprouting and decieving my inexperienced, naive grass growing mind? Only time will tell...

Day 3

Rainy day..but that's okay.

Day 2

Still no grass, but remain optimistic. Good day for growing. Rain in the morning, partly sunny for the afternoon. Went mower shopping, but decided that purchase wasn't urgent. Here is a close up. Mostly looks like ground-up recycled paper...

Day 1

No grass yet...but I went lawn-mower shopping! (Faith in action...)

Day Zero

Hydro-seeding! Oh joy! What bliss! Grass at last!!! (Faith is about unseen things hoped for...)

Day Zero minus 1

The dirt is ready! I'm gonna have a lawn!

Wheel Barrow Racing!

After living on the prairies and in Richmond, we thought a multi-level yard would be nice for a change. Hmmmm. About now, flat sounds really good.

Day Zero minus 1 week

It's a dirty job...but we want a lawn! See my head behind the big dirt pile? We had 55 cubit yards of dirt to move - that's 3 big dump truck loads. No wonder I'm tired...

Day Zero minus 13 months

Here's what we started with...

Facebook Dictionary

Here's an some helpful info I stumbled across for those of you feeling out of the loop regarding Facebook. Now you can know what everyone else is talking about without ever going near the 'crack cocain' of the internet...

FACEBOOK.COM (n) – a social utility Web site launched by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004. First open to Ivy League schools, then expanded to Boston universities and soon to thousands of colleges, businesses and regions worldwide. Anyone 13 and older can register for a free account with a valid e-mail address. The site allows users to create a personal profile and connect with friends, colleagues and classmates, as well as other people within their networks.

PROFILE (n) – 1. personal user page where you can upload a picture, photo albums, personal information and list interests, activities, favorite movies, books and music. Numerous privacy settings allow control over who can view the profile.2. An obligatory self-encapsulation, often done with wit and irreverence (and questionable accuracy).

NETWORK (n) – Facebook is not one big site; upon registering, you can choose to join networks depending on your location, school or employer. You can only view the profiles of people you add as friends or those with whom you share a network.Example: Brad is a member of the Los Angeles, Weinstein Company and University of Missouri networks.

NEWS FEED (n) – An automatic personal breaking news blog that appears on the home page. It lists any and all activity of friends on the site, with a few exceptions. The feature was met with outrage when introduced in September 2006, with more than 700,000 users joining the group “Students Against Facebook News Feed.” The creators quickly established more privacy settings so users could limit what showed up on the News Feed.

MINI-FEED (n) – The more specific version of the News Feed that appears on a profile and reports only on recent stories relevant to that person’s activity on Facebook. Stories can be deleted by the user.

TAGGING (v) – This is not a case of who’s “it.” It means to upload unlimited photographs into an album that appears on Facebook and then identify which people are present in the photographs. The tagged photos show up on their profile. It is possible to “untag” unwanted photos that will not appear on the profile but remain in the original album.

FRIENDING (v) – To add someone as a Facebook friend, allowing the person to see a version of your profile.

FACEBOOKING (v) – General activity when logged into Facebook, whether searching for people, checking updated profiles, leaving wall posts, etc.See also: procrastinating.

POKE (v) – The virtual tap on the shoulder to draw attention. A notification appears on the home page that someone has poked you. Universal definitions and connotations of “the poke” vary from the innocent to the explicit.

EVENTS (n) – Instead of sending invites via snail mail, let people know about upcoming parties, gatherings, promotions, charity events, elections, etc. Guests can RSVP and see who else is on the list. It’s inevitable that someday weddings will be announced via Facebook.FACEBOOK

PLATFORM (n) – 1. a new feature where users can develop templates to make customized additions to their profile. Examples: the “Where I’ve Been” application maps past, present and future travels. “The Office” application delivers the wisdom of Dwight and Michael. Users can also give people “Free Gifts” such as random icons of a cactus or birthday cake.2. Part of Facebook’s plan for world domination. Soon, everything will be found on Facebook, such as music, movies, stores, etc.

THE WALL (n) – A profile feature that lets others leave public comments. Often used for birthday wishes, inconsequential banter and brief notes. Debates rage on about whether it’s appropriate to carry on a full conversation on the wall.

MESSAGES (n) – A more informal version of e-mail that gives users a private way to send notes to friends.

GROUPS (n) – A collection of people who have similar interests or ideas, with various degrees of seriousness.Example: “I Support Hilary Clinton,”, “Red Sox Nation,” “You Know You’re From Nashua When . . .”

MARKETPLACE (n) – Classified section where users can buy and sell anything. The Facebook eBay.

STATUS (n) – Let people know what you’re doing right this second. Comparable to the AIM away message. However, it only appears in the present continuous grammatical tense.Example: “Eileen is writing a Facebook dictionary.”

– EILEEN HYNES

We're Back

You probably didn't even know we were gone. Heather, if you want to see all the pictures, you have to get on Facebook. Come on, I'll be your friend!

Fossilized Faith - Part 1

At ET Church we are in the middle of a summer sermon series called "You Asked For It!". As part of this series I was asked to tackled the issue of evolution. For some reason, a number of people have asked me for a copy of the manuscript for the talk I gave on July 22, 2007. I thought I could just post it here on my much neglected blog. It starts here, and then goes down through the next 3 posts (reverse blog fashion.)

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Did you see the headlines in the news last week? “Baby Mammoth Carcass found in Siberia”[1] It was found by a Russian reindeer breeder and hunter sticking out of the permafrost. It is about the size of a large dog, 110 lbs., and remarkably well preserved. It “looked as though it had recently died”. She is estimated to be 40,000 years old.

The question that this message evolved from is this: “Is it possible to reconcile the differences in historical dating in biblical and scientific timelines?”

If I correctly understand the intent of the question, the issue is this: science says the universe 15 billion years old, the is earth is 4.56 billion years old, and baby mammoths are 40,000 years old. The Bible says God created the heavens and the earth. Can you believe both?

I have to admit I was initially uncomfortable with tackling this subject. I’m not a scientist or a philosopher, and I don’t want to look like an idiot. Also, the scope of the issue is overwhelming. But I think this is a very important question because it can be huge sticking point for people in their faith journey! If you are interested in science, you may wonder if being a Christian means checking your brain at the door. Are the beliefs of Christianity and science compatable? Secondly, if you’ve been raise in the church, evolution and dinosaurs can be the first real crisis or challenge to your faith. You went to Sunday School when you were a kid and heard the cool story about Adam and Eve and then you got to high school or university and suddenly you are overwhelmed with plethora of scientific information taught by some really smart people that at best calls into question everything that you’ve been taught and at worst threatens to destroy the very foundation of your faith.

I. What exactly is the issue?

There are many origin stories in the world, but in our western culture there are 2 main ideas about how we got here: evolution and creation. The creation story is based on Bible and found in Genesis. Genesis 1:1, the first verse of the Bible says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The creation story goes on to say that everything that exists was created by God in 6 days:
Day 1: light = vrs. 3-5
Day 2: sky = vrs. 6-8
Day 3: land / vegetation = vrs. 9-13
Day 4: sun / moon / stars = vrs. 14-19
Day 5: sea creatures / birds = vrs. 20-23
Day 6: animals / man = vrs. 24-30

The account concludes with this summary: Genesis 1:31-2:2 31“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.”

That is the creation story. If you believe this, you are a creationist. If you believe that this happened in space of seven 24-hour days, you are a literal creationist. If you believe that the dates and genealogies found in Genesis and rest of Bible indicate that all this happened about 6000 years ago, then you are a “young earth” creationist

The other idea how we got here, is a theory called evolution. This is a big complex theory that is difficult to adequately and accurately summarize, but I’ll try.

In this theory, the universe begins as a singularity. All the matter, energy, time, and space of the universe is squashed into a single point of infinite temperature and density. Then somewhere about 15 billion years ago, something unknown happened that caused an enormous explosion. The resulting fireball produced an expanding cloud of mostly hydrogen gas. This gas condensed into stars and galaxies, generations of which came and went, each exploding to eventually produce the elements heavier than helium.[2]

About 5 billion years ago our was sun formed by the gravitational collapse of a huge cloud of gas and dust. The leftover gas / dust formed the planets. The planet we now call Earth cooled and eventually something very unique happened. The elements formed complex amino acids and proteins that eventually formed a very simple single-cell creature. This creature is simple only when compared to the complex organisms in the world today, but actually it was very complex!

Then over billions of years, this single cell, through mutation and natural selection evolved into the vast array of plant and animal life that we see around us today[3]. You and I – homo sapiens –are part of that process.

If you believe what I have just stated, you are an evolutionist. Another term is “scientific naturalist”

Now I want to be as straight up as possible with this, so if I have misconstrued or misinterpreted or put any spin on this that in any way distorts what science says, I apologize. I am trying to be as objective as I know how, but I have to state my bias – I’m a creationist!

So we have these two big ideas how the world began: Creation and evolution. There are issues with each. Naturalist evolution denies the existence of God, which is a problem if you are a Christian. The creation story seems to contradict modern science.

When you look at these ideas at face value, it is obvious that if one is right, the other is wrong. But what if things are not so clear cut? What if it’s not an either / or proposition? What if there is some truth in both ideas? What if God created, but used evolution as the process, and Genesis account is an allegory or a metaphor? Well, that’s already been thought of. It’s called theistic evolution. What if Genesis is true, but the literal 6 day interpretation is wrong and there is room for thousands or millions or even billions of years to be tucked into the story some where? That is called progressive creationism.

So it was my job to try and sort all this out and “reconcile the differences in historical dating in biblical and scientific timelines” as our original question asks. Pastor Les kept asking me “So…have you got it figured out?”

[1] from Canada.com, accessed July 16, 2007
[2] Williams and Hartnett; Dismantling the Big Bang, p.115
[3] Strobel, The Case for Faith; p.127