Cool Christmas Gift...

My sister-in-law Michelle gave me a cool Christmas gift. It is a framed set of pictures of U2. The top picture is of the band from the All That You Can't Leave Behind era. There is also a smaller picture of Bono from the PopMart tour. (I can tell because of the buzz cut and red sunglasses.)

The album listing is a little off though. The Million Dollar Hotel is not a "U2" album. It is the soundtrack to the movie of the same name written by Bono. A few U2 songs appear, but it is not a true U2 album. Also, U2 Exposed: The Interview certainly is not a U2 album?!?!

Regardless, this is a great and thoughtful gift. 

Some Theological Musings Courtesy of Auggie

I read today in Augustine's Confessions: Book Three, Chapter 7, Paragraph 12 that "evil was nothing but a privation of good (that, indeed, it has no being)."

Would I be correct to understand Auggie to say that evil is the absence of good, like cold is the absence of heat, and like darkness is the absence of light?

If so, (and I think so), then is good/evil measurable across a continuum of 0 to infinity (like heat or light), instead of measurable as a binary function of 0 (evil) or 1 (good)?

How is this approach different to the Ultilitarian's view, in which one tries to express goodness as a mathematical function that can be operated on by calculus to determine the maximization of goodness.

(As an aside, I know that Man really screws up utilitarianism, but what about if God used utilitarianism? Hmm...Is this an underlying assumption of the Free Will Defense or at least in Plantinga's undercutting defeater of Mackie?)

"We don't need no education"....

Well, at least that is what Pink Floyd said. However, I would disagree. I disagree so much, that I have now spent 12 years of regular education, 4 years on a Bachelors, and 3 years on a Master's Degree. That's almost two decades!

I graduated earlier today with a Master's of Divinity with Biblical Languages from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my church(es), my friends, my professors, my pastor(s) and my family for their prayers and support. Above all though, I would like to thank my beautiful wife, Valerie, for making all of this possible. 

let it snow, err, ice...

We had a little bit of an ice storm here in Fort Worth today and yesteday. It was enough to get the schools to close early on Wednesday and stay closed all of Thursday. It gave Valerie and I a little bit of extra time together before our families arrive for graduation on Friday.

blog purpose statement...

I've been blogging now for a little over a month. During this span of time, I've finished classes at seminary, made a cross country trip by car, and found out that I'm gonna be a Daddy.

Looking back over my previous posts, I 've realized that most of the posts are really just little tidbits about personal life and a few random musings about college football.

In the future, I plan to continue to make posts about personal stuff. However, I'd also like to begin posting some more theological musings too. I'll have to figure out some topics to talk about though. I've thought about possibly doing a book review or something. I have heard quite a bit about the "emerging church," and would really like to figure out what is going on there. Perhaps, I will do some reading along those lines. Anyway, if anyone has some ideas, please let me know.

From embryo to fetus!

Baby Perkins is now a fetus according to www.pregancy.org. Apparently, all organs necessary to sustain life have formed.

Val Wins Again....

For the last 2 out of 3 years, Valerie won my college football pick'em league. And of course winning has not gone to her head...
she wrote a little victory song that she loves to sing to me repeatedly!