Chaos wide open

(Editor's note: Edward Lorenz, "the father of chaos theory", died this week at the age of 90. In contrast "Salar" the author of this blog does not know much about chaos theory beyond what can be googled in several minutes. If Edward Lorenz was the Father of chaos theory "Salar" would be the nosy neighbour of the roommate of the second cousin twice removed of chaos theory.)

"An eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order and yet deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order" - Douglas Hofstader

The above image is a computer generated picture of what's called a "Mandlebrot set". It's a mathematical equation involving complex numbers and it visually describes the order that is found in chaos. Chaos appears random and unpredictable but if you look closely it's not, it's ordered. Order is calm, in control, unstoppable and in certain situations it can be even frightening.

Imagine, if you will... you are living alone. You come home after work and find your favourite vase smashed to pieces on the floor. Was someone in your house? Are they still there? You're going out, you don't have time to clean it up, you leave it in pieces on the floor. Later you come home and it's been put back together and sitting on your coffee table. Would that make you happy seeing it all put back together? Probably not. I know I would try to come up with an explanation for how it got put back together because I don't want to think someone or something was in my house and put my vase back together. There has to be a logical, natural explanation.

Or think about the question another way... does random steam on your bathroom mirror scare you? What if words were written in the steam? (and I don't mean an I love you note from your spouse).

The world around us is ordered and extremely complex; the balance of ecosystems, hunters, prey, symbiotic relationships, the eye, insect flight, the digital code written in DNA, how a giraffe can lower it's head and not have it explode from blood pressure, on and on. Is there a logical, natural explanation for all this or could it be Someone ordered it this way? It might be more frightening to believe Someone is in control because then we also have to think we might have to answer for our actions.


In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. - Daniel 5:5-6

What was written is even more frightening...

PearlCast

I'm pretty frustrated today.

I made a decision at work and my boss put the brakes on it. When I spoke to him yesterday I couldn't convince him that my course of action was right so I decided that I would put some figures together and convince him by showing him the numbers... no good. I started explaining the numbers and he tossed it on his desk and said "you don't need to explain it any further I know it's less money"

Now you might say, "It sounds like he was convinced" If you said that you'd be wrong. He basically said it doesn't matter that it would save us 21k the answer's still no.

Add to that frustration that someone really close to me recently asked me for my opinion on something and basically ignored my advice.

So this got me to thinking, is this the reason for the maxim "do not cast your pearls before swine"? Then the very next words I thought were "Am I the swine?" Jesus' commandments are in the Word in black and white. Am I listening? Am I following His guidance? I wonder how He feels when we look into the light of His Word and forget what we read?

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. - James 1:23-25

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. - Psalm 119:105

ĕn'ə-mē?

I recently watched the Will Smith movie "I am legend". If you're interested you can look it up at http://www.pluggedinonline.com/ before watching it. The main negative elements are the violence and frightening scenes.

(Don't read this if you don't want to have the plot twists ruined for you)

The writer of the review commented that the movie had a theme of "heroism, selfless sacrifice and final redemption". It's based on a book and I think the movie missed highlighting the material point that the author of the book was trying to make. In short, Will Smith's character Robert Neville is the last normal man alive in New York city, everyone else has either been killed or changed into a vampire by an airborne virus. Only 1% of the population were unaffected and virtually all of them were promptly killed by the vampires. As a result now finds he must lock himself in his apartment at night and during the day he roams the city killing the vampires as they sleep. Every so often he captures the odd one alive to take back to his apartment/bio-medical lab to experiment on in the hopes of discovering a cure.

He is attempting to save what's left of mankind. And this brings us to the central idea of the book, his actions are not in line with the current majority public opinion. To them he is the enemy. The one the vampires fear, the one they desperately try to stop, the bogey man "legend" the vampire parents tell stories about to their vampire babies.

The fact that the main character is the enemy just because he is in the minority is actually a very thought-provoking idea. It's too bad this latest version of the story didn't capitalize on it. You get hints in a one or two scenes but nothing more.

As Christians we think we are the protagonists. We assume that most everyone else will agree. We love our enemies, we follow the golden rule, we pay our taxes. The reality is we are strangers in a foreign land. Our enemy is the god of this world and he holds sway over the hearts and minds of many people, possibly the majority. Jesus Christ said the world will hate us because He was hated. If the world system accepts us then there is probably something wrong and we should probably be worried.

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In the movie when Robert Neville captures his last vampire his antidote is successful and she is "converted" into to a non-vampiric being. However, her "dark-seeker" boyfriend is not impressed and he visits Robert at his apartment one night. Robert locks himself in his lab, a Plexiglas wall is all that separates them. "look!", he shouts desperately as he points to the cured woman laying on the gurney "I can help you, I can cure you!" The enraged vampire continues to throw himself violently against the wall. As the Plexiglas cracks and threatens to give way Robert is dejected, he can't believe it, the look in his eyes begs the question, "don't you want to be saved?..."

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. - John 15:18-19

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. - John 1:5