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Blog Comments: Windows into Our Souls

Dave — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:39:23 +0000

Among other things, the internet is a medium for communication. Blogs are one of the those outlets for communication. I have been reading blogs for the past 7 years, and I have had a blog for the past 6 years. One thing I love and hate about blogs are blog comments. I love them because they are opportunities for good discussion, interaction, and information. I hate them because sometimes the comment threads never end and people simply go back and forth debating with very little accomplished. Then, when comments are shut off on posts, people begin to think that blogger isn’t open-minded or has something to hide (it’s a power move).

Most often, bloggers don’t shut off comments because they are not open-minded, but because the comments have gotten ugly. After having ignored comments on so many posts and articles that I have read online and then returning back to read them selectively, it occurred to me that blog posts can reveal our hearts in profound ways. Duh, call me “Captain Obvious” for this “stunning revelation”.

As someone who is trying to understand what motivates people, I’ve simply ignored blog comments as a window into this because I often don’t like what I see. Friction-filled blog comments (and reality shows) have had a repulsive effect on me. Why? Do I think I am better than these people? Is it because I don’t feel that I have an answer? Is it because I do feel that I have an answer but won’t be heard? Most of the time I simply can’t stand the poor ways in which some people communicate with each other. It is ugly, and I don’t like to look at ugly things.

Of course, without any voices narrating the comments, I am left to narrate them the best I can. Either way, blog comments are reactions, and reactions are large windows into people’s souls. So if we care about what motivates people, we have something to learn – especially when it gets ugly. So if you have time, perhaps keep this in mind the next time you see a long comment thread.

Audition: A Podcast from Mars Hill Audio

Dave — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:39:22 +0000

I was very pleased today to find a most welcome podcast: Audition from Mars Hill Audio.Â The Mars Hill Audio Journal has been a wonderful staple for segmenting literature, science, art, theology, philosophy, and culture in an audio format.Â It’s much like the format of many NPR programs, with a more poignant focus from a christian/theological perspective.Â Ken Myers and the group at Mars Hill Audio has done aÂ phenomenal job of attracting world reknown scholars, authors, and professors, as well as amassing more book/resource recommendations than one could every hope to read.Â The Audio Journal comes out bi-monthly and costs $30/year and $55/2 years.Â It is available in tape, CD, and MP3 download.Â The podcast is free to add to your iTunes podcast library, and can also be downloaded freely on their site: http://mhadigital.org.Â The cast only comes out monthy and are usually around 30 minutes in length.Â For you convenience, I have included link to the available casts below:

http://mhadigital.org/index.php?post_category=podcasts

Free Intro Level Theological Education

Dave — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:24:51 +0000

Here are more links that have been added to the God-centered.com/resources page. These are all starter level classes taught mostly by seminary professors.Â Registration is required for most of these courses.

Old Testament Survey, by Douglas Stuart

Old Testament Theology, by Paul House

New Testament Survey, by William Mounce

Inductive Bible Study, by George Guthrie

Bibliology and Hermeneutics, by Michael Patton

History of the English Bible, by Daniel Wallace

Greek Tools for Bible Study, by William Mounce

Introduction to Theology, by Michael Patton

Systematic Theology, by Bruce Ware

Trinitarianism, by Michael Patton

Worship, by Gary Parrett

The World Mission of the Church, by Timothy Tennant

Christian Ethics, by Ron Nash

Apologetics, by Ron Nash

Educational Ministry of the Church, by Gary Parrett

Advanced Worldview Analysis, by Ron Nash

Islam, by Timothy Tennant

Hinduism, by Timothy Tennant

Free Online Theological Journals and Publications

Dave — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 22:35:36 +0000

Just finished accumulating a decent list of free journals online for the God-centered.com/resources page.Â These are all worth bookmarking.

Biblical Theology Bulletin (Seton Hall University)

Biblica (Rome Pontifical Institute)

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (Evangelical Theological Society)

Journal of Biblical Literature (Society of Biblical Literature)

Journal for the Study of the New Testament (Sheffield Academic Press)

Trinity Journal (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)

Neotestamentica (New Testament Society of South Africa)

FilologÃa Neotestamentaria (University of Cordoba)

Theology Today (Princeton Theological Seminary)

Kerux (Northwest Theological Seminary)

Denver Journal (Denver Seminary)

Southern Baptist Journal of Theology (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)

Semeia (Society of Biblical Literature)

Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry (New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary)

Criswell Theological Review (Criswell College)

Institute for Reformed Theology Bulletin (Union Theological Seminary)

Protestant Reformed Theological Journal (Protestant Reformed Theological School)

Western Reformed Seminary Journal (Western Reformed Seminary)

Currents in Theology & Mission (Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago)

The Master’s Seminary Journal (The Master’s Seminary)

Journal of Religion & Society (Creighton University)

Reformed Review (Western Theological Seminary)

Journal of Biblical Studies (exclusively online)

Journal for Christian Theological Research (Luther Seminary)

Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism (McMaster Divinity School)

McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry (McMaster Divinity School)

Stromata (Calvin Theological Seminary)

Journal of Ministry & Theology (Baptist Bible Seminary)

Concordia Theological Quarterly (Concordia Theological Seminary)

TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism (Society of Biblical Literature)

Themelios (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship)

Vox Evangelica (London School of Theology)

Bulletin for Biblical Research (Institute for Biblical Research)

Evangelical Quarterly (Paternoster Press)

The Best Things in Life are Free

Dave — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 10:39:00 +0000

Whether I have been in a jam because my work computer doesn’t have a certain program available, or whether I have been too cheap to pay, I have found a vast array of high quality free software online. I thought I would share the best of what I have found.

I was tipped off about Firefox about a year and a half ago by Dr. James and have never looked back. It is by far the best web browser available. It is slick, intuitive, and has a built-in search bar. You can select from an endless list of skins to suit your fancy, you can add how ever many search sites you want for your search bar, and you can add a ton of extensions for weather, music, etc. Must have.

If you are sick of Windows, or want a Mac but already have a PC, the answer is Linux. Linux is a free, open source Operating System that has everything included. It is multi-faceted so you can make it look like Windows or Mac. As a matter of fact, the Mac OS is wrapped around Linux and adds its stuff on to it. Linux takes a lot more motivation and elbow grease, but once you know what you are doing you probably won’t go back.

This is exactly like Microsoft Office, but free. It was done by Sun Microsystems, the same people that do Java. So if your PC only came with a sample of MS Office or just MS Works, you can snag the OpenOffice.org program and have everything you need. MS Word is still tough to beat, but this a great alternative and allows you to export files as PDF’s. Plus it’s free.

If you want Bible software but have no cash, or want a program that runs a little quicker and can handle simple searches, get yourself the E-Sword. You can download the Greek (NT and Septuagint) and Hebrew, as well as good translations like the ESV for free. Also has other classic references tools, like Bible dictionaries and commentaries.

If you like to record stuff or tweak certain audio files that you have, Audacity is yours for the taking. You can edit to your hearts delight and convert WAV files to MP3 and visa versa.

Want to find directions when you aren’t online or see a satellite picture of your friends neighborhoods? Google Earth will do this and more. This is almost too much fun.

Also by Google is this nifty picture viewer/editor. It looks sharp and helps you make your pictures look sharp.

CDBurnerXP Pro

If your computer has a CD/DVD Burner but no software, or the software is too hard to use, CDBurnerXP Pro is more than adequate. It is very intuitive and efficient.

Everybody hates spyware and viruses yet always has them. What Ad-Aware cannot do, Windows Defender can do. Wouldn’t you want your spyware done by the company that makes your operating system (atleast for over 90% of people)?

I know this pretty much comes on everybody’s computer anyway, but I really think this is the best audio/video player. It is easy to use and can play any kind of file you need played. ITunes is good, but extremely limited, as is Quicktime (both of which you much download together, even if you want one or the other).

Of course there are many more than these, but this is a good place to start. For a great site on free software check out Download.com.

Site Spotting

Dave — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 20:12:00 +0000

Recently I have been informed of two sites that I am really excited about. The first I found out about via Justin Taylor’s blog: John Frame’s and Vern Poythress’ site. It contains a growing number of their books, articles, lectures. John Frame is a renowned theologian who has taught at Westminster Theological Seminary and currently teaches at Reformed Theological Seminary. He has written extensively on apologetics, theology proper, worship, and philosophy. Vern Poythress has been a professor at Westminster, teaching New Testament, hermeneutics, linguistics, and exegetical methodology. He is less known than Frame, but his work is the same caliber in significance. I am so glad two theological studs are making their broad and important resources available for free. They also have a lot to say about digital copywriting. Another fantastic place that I have just found via Josh’s blog: The Drama of Scripture. It is a website devoted to the book (listed on my current reading) and the promotion of biblical theology. It has PDF files to use for Bible studies, classes, and other teaching formats. Again, this is for free. Check them out, for these are rich resources.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Dave — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 00:18:00 +0000

Tell me how you guys like the new look. I was tipped off by Samwise as he was looking for a new template that there was a blog about blogger templates: blogger-templates.blogspot.com. I have saved the old one so I can go back, but I trying this out for now.

One Year Blogoversary

Dave — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 12:17:00 +0000

As of Monday, I have been blogging for a year now. That’s very cool. In light of this, I’ve included a Bono anecdote below with regards to Johnny Cash from U2 Sermons:

Bono: When I visited him at home one time, he said the most beautiful, poetic grace. He said, “Shall we bow our heads?” We all bowed our heads. Then, when he was done, he looked at me and Adam Clayton and said, “Sure miss the drugs, though.”

I busted out laughing pretty hard when I read that. I suppose I understand.

On Blogging

Dave — Sat, 12 Feb 2005 19:59:00 +0000

My beautiful Kalila has brought to my attention that dooce.com was mentioned in an article by the Washington Post. Kalila likes to check “Dooce” every so often as it is linked on Dr. James’ blog. Dooce is very funny because she tells things like it is from her perspective, in a clever way. Her entries can be too long for me sometimes, but I find her interesting nonetheless. Anyhoo, Dooce was mentioned because she is one of many that have been fired because of her blog. She has even coined the action as “being dooced” (dooce referring to dropping a dooce in the bathroom sense). I just think its unreal that blogs are so “influential” that it has costed people their jobs. And it’s not because people are blogging on company time, it’s because of the content of their entries. Check out the article at http://story.news.yahoo.com/ news?tmpl=story&cid=1804&ncid=1804&e=1&u=/ washpost/20050211/tc_washpost/ a15511_2005feb10. Another person featured in the article, Mark Jen, actually got fired from Google (who actually encourage their employees to blog) for his blog. Hello, Google runs blogger.com. I thought he had some interesting things to say about the situation on his blog (http://www.99zeros.blogspot.com). I thought it was ironic that he still uses blogger. Here are some thoughts he had about blogging:

people ask me if i’m bitter. funny thing is, despite all this, at the end of the day, i can see where google is coming from – but i don’t agree with their stances and i wish they had executed a little differently. i think blogging is the next big thing on the internet. the web gave people revolutionary access to information; email and instant messaging disrupted the way people communicate with each other; blogging empowers everyone to create new information and connect in a community. itâ€™s the culmination of lots of the progress that has happened on the internet rolled into one huge, powerful, killer app. corporations should embrace this technology just like the ones before it. companies that are confident in their offerings should let employees spread the word. in today’s age of information overload, blogging is quickly emerging as the fastest and most cost-effective method of marketing.

I particularly resonate with the article because my boss, also a friend, read comments I’ve made on my blog about her, and that sparked some discussion about a particular situation. She was very gracious and understanding, and she has now joined the ranks of the blogging (Welcome Eli!). Oh well, thought this was an interesting article.

New Links

Dave — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 21:56:02 +0000

Instead thinking of something good to say for my blog today, I’ve decided to add some more links to the side of my page. Let me make some comments about these:

First, I have added three new sections of links: Church, Biblical Studies, and Theology. Obviously, these are going to be more interesting to Christians, especially the more academic type. However, anyone one who has interest or is curious about such things should enjoy these, for they are some of the best I’ve found.

Second, the church links are generally those whose ministry I would endorse. King of Grace is the church I currently attend in Methuen, MA and Sovereign Grace Ministries is who we are associated with. On the SGM, the Acts 29, and the PCA websites they all list the churches associated with them in different parts of the country and world and should be of benefit to someone somewhere I hope.

Third, I plan to add more links on culture and philosophy, so look for those in the future.

I am amazed everyday how helpful the internet can be. There are billions of sites on everything that can be thought of by human mind. I hope some of the links I list will be as helpful for others as they are for me.