Beholding the Beauty

In the Old Testament Law, if a man raped a woman, and got her pregnant, he had to pay a fine and marry her, and was forbidden to ever divorce her.  (Deut. 22:28, 29) Unfortunately, this is interpreted almost universally as a dastardly law designed to let men get away with rape in an era of unbounded patriarchal oppression of women. It is anything but that.  Quite the contrary, in fact, especially given the cultural norms and stigmas surrounding marriage and family life at the time. Rather than oppressing the woman and allowing her rapist to get off scot-free, this law gives her a valid method of accusation and remedy against him, in a time when marriage was a) not for love anyway, and b) a  huge  financial boon to women.  Notice the prohibition of future divorce, which locks the fellow (and his whole family!) in, so he cannot get out of providing child support, etc. (and if he neglects her, his family is liable). There is no shame or stigma in these comm...

When asked if there are any exceptions to our rule, too many of us "pro-lifers" -- that is, anti-baby-murder activists -- grant the "rape case" exception without hesitation and without thought. This is one of my pet peeves. I do not acknowledge that that situation is justification for murdering a human being.  Is he somehow worth less, simply because he was conceived in tragic circumstances?  Is her life worth nothing, because her mother thinks* she might have to bear the shame? Yes, rape is horrible, and pregnancy from rape is the very definition of an unplanned pregnancy. But the ending of a human life (and yes, the baby is a human, whether it is still in the womb or not) is a serious matter. It is precisely at this point, this black and white, no-shades-of-gray point, that the principle of Life should shine most clearly.  It is precisely here, if anywhere , that we should make our stand. And yet this is the point we most easily surrender!  This is qui...

desire and drive to create but get bogged down in the details....distracted. desire not simply to create, but to express . And not just things, but life . Unfortunately, life (and things) are rather details oriented and somewhat chaotic. We want to be able to slay the dragon in the waters to bind the behemoth to put a bit in leviathan's mouth. And we want to do it by expressing ourselves, that is, by command , by pure manifestation of will . We want, in short, to be gods.  Being "regular humans" is such hard work.

functional --logical operators, intermediary steps--> algorithmic can boolean operators be recast in terms of waveform math (interference of given waves?)  If so...standing or travelling? (or both?) Consequences: all algorithms are functional math quantum computing becomes much easier to understand visually (currently cast in statistical math, which is somewhat hard to visualize).

Random, unorganized thoughts on created vs. uncreated grace  (Prompted by meditation on this link:  http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/oecumenical-grace-roman-catholicism-and-created-grace/ ) And of His grace we have received: grace for grace. God's uncreated energies synergize with our created energies, bolstering them, and making them the carriers of true grace, created though they be, through a sort of hypostatic union of His own and our own, exactly parallel to (if not repetitive of) His own hypostatic union. He has as His principle uncreated nature, and so He is "God by nature", although He "took on Himself the form of a servant" -- that is, He took on Himself  created nature, and so became man . We have as our principle that same created nature which He put on.  And we are called, by a similar "putting on" of Him, the Christ, to become " god (s) by grace" -- that is, "partakers of the divine nature". But -...