Reformed Perspectives Magazine Volume 11, Number 07

Is Infant Baptism Scriptural?
An Article
By: John Murray
Webpage PDF Word

The Consistency of Divine Sovereignty and Human Accountability
An Article
By: Matt Perman
Webpage PDF Word

Reformed Perspectives Magazine Volume 11, Number 07

Is Infant Baptism Scriptural?
An Article
By: John Murray
Webpage PDF Word

The Consistency of Divine Sovereignty and Human Accountability
An Article
By: Matt Perman
Webpage PDF Word

Postcards from the Edge (5)

Postcards from the Edge (5)

Power and Control and Christian Leadership

Most Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love.

Henri Nouwen

Power and Control and Christian Leadership

Most Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love.

Henri Nouwen

Redemption in Science Fiction

Christianity Today, February, 2009

Sci-Fi's Brave New World

How the genre draws us to its own views of redemption.

James A. Herrick | posted 2/06/2009 09:03AM

The culture-shaping force of science fiction storytellers may be more significant and more widespread than we imagine. That's because they trade in myth. By myth, I mean a transcendent story that helps us make sense of our place in the cosmos. This common definition makes the Christian gospel, as C. S. Lewis suggested, "God's myth"—not because it is fiction, but because it is a story that gives ultimate meaning. We live in an age in which new myths, born mostly of science-fueled imaginations, are crafted and propagated at an unprecedented rate.

read more

I love science fiction and it is still my favourite genre.

Redemption in Science Fiction

Christianity Today, February, 2009

Sci-Fi's Brave New World

How the genre draws us to its own views of redemption.

James A. Herrick | posted 2/06/2009 09:03AM

The culture-shaping force of science fiction storytellers may be more significant and more widespread than we imagine. That's because they trade in myth. By myth, I mean a transcendent story that helps us make sense of our place in the cosmos. This common definition makes the Christian gospel, as C. S. Lewis suggested, "God's myth"—not because it is fiction, but because it is a story that gives ultimate meaning. We live in an age in which new myths, born mostly of science-fueled imaginations, are crafted and propagated at an unprecedented rate.

read more

I love science fiction and it is still my favourite genre.

Michael Bliss' William Osler

Michael Bliss (1999) William Osler: A Life in Medicine, Oxford: Oxford University Press


This is an biography of William Osler (1849-1919), considered by some to be the father of modern medical education. Michale Bliss' approach is show him as more human, after generations of writing of doctors who had idolized him. Bliss wants to show the humanity of the man Osler

Much more than a physician, Osler was a literate, inspiring, humanist in science. His essays and addresses about the medical life, past, present and future, were widely read and appreciated for their blending of scientific and literary knowledge with high idealism and sensible advice about getting on with the daily grind. In both his writings and his personal life, and through a prism of tragedy in the Great War, Osler seemed to embody the art of living.

I especially like Bliss' comment on Osler's philosophy. It is not so much as attaining medical or literary competences, of achievement of national accolades, or being fanatically idealistic. It boils down to "living well." I believe that is a valuable lesson for us- medical practitioners, students and educators alike. We must seek to live well in the everlasting present.
.

Michael Bliss' William Osler

Michael Bliss (1999) William Osler: A Life in Medicine, Oxford: Oxford University Press


This is an biography of William Osler (1849-1919), considered by some to be the father of modern medical education. Michale Bliss' approach is show him as more human, after generations of writing of doctors who had idolized him. Bliss wants to show the humanity of the man Osler

Much more than a physician, Osler was a literate, inspiring, humanist in science. His essays and addresses about the medical life, past, present and future, were widely read and appreciated for their blending of scientific and literary knowledge with high idealism and sensible advice about getting on with the daily grind. In both his writings and his personal life, and through a prism of tragedy in the Great War, Osler seemed to embody the art of living.

I especially like Bliss' comment on Osler's philosophy. It is not so much as attaining medical or literary competences, of achievement of national accolades, or being fanatically idealistic. It boils down to "living well." I believe that is a valuable lesson for us- medical practitioners, students and educators alike. We must seek to live well in the everlasting present.
.

Non-Western Educational Traditions

Timothy Reagan (2005), Non-Western Educational Traditions: Indigenous Approaches to Educational Thought and Practice, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc (3rd Edition)

An excellent book on non-Western educational philosophy and practice by Timothy Reagan of Roger Williams University, USA. There are not many books by a single author which deals with such a variety of educational traditions. The traditions dealt with includes (these are also chapter titles):

• "A wise child is talked to in proverbs": African
  
• " Training "Face and Heart": Aztec
• "Finding the True Meaning of Life": Indigenous Americans
• "Developing the Chun-tzu": Confucius and the Chinese
• "A intelligent man attends on a wise person" India
• "Familiar strangers": Rom (gypsies)
  
• "No gift is better than education" Islamic

Reagan writes well and it is an easy to read book. From his researches, Reagan has uncovered the rich non-Western educational heritage that is only recently being appreciated. Along with colonialism, Western educational philosophy especially the instructional-schooling paradigm has become the meta-narrative of the educational tradition, often destroying and replacing the indigenous traditions.

We in the non-Western world needs to recover our heritage or lose it forever.

.

Non-Western Educational Traditions

Timothy Reagan (2005), Non-Western Educational Traditions: Indigenous Approaches to Educational Thought and Practice, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc (3rd Edition)

An excellent book on non-Western educational philosophy and practice by Timothy Reagan of Roger Williams University, USA. There are not many books by a single author which deals with such a variety of educational traditions. The traditions dealt with includes (these are also chapter titles):

• "A wise child is talked to in proverbs": African
  
• " Training "Face and Heart": Aztec
• "Finding the True Meaning of Life": Indigenous Americans
• "Developing the Chun-tzu": Confucius and the Chinese
• "A intelligent man attends on a wise person" India
• "Familiar strangers": Rom (gypsies)
  
• "No gift is better than education" Islamic

Reagan writes well and it is an easy to read book. From his researches, Reagan has uncovered the rich non-Western educational heritage that is only recently being appreciated. Along with colonialism, Western educational philosophy especially the instructional-schooling paradigm has become the meta-narrative of the educational tradition, often destroying and replacing the indigenous traditions.

We in the non-Western world needs to recover our heritage or lose it forever.

.

No link between MMR and Autism

From The Sunday Times, UK

February 8, 2009

MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism

Brian Deer

THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.

The research was published in February 1998 in an article in The Lancet medical journal. It claimed that the families of eight out of 12 children attending a routine clinic at the hospital had blamed MMR for their autism, and said that problems came on within days of the jab. The team also claimed to have discovered a new inflammatory bowel disease underlying the children’s conditions.

read more

This report confirm my belief that MMR is a safe vaccine and has no link to autism. Most other researchers have backed away from the MMR-Autism link and in fact 10 of the 13 authors have retracted their statements in a report in Lancet in 2004 (Murch SH, Anthony A, Casson DH, et al (2004). "Retraction of an interpretation". Lancet 363 (9411): 750. ).

"We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient. However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications for public health. In view of this, we consider now is the appropriate time that we should together formally retract the interpretation placed upon these findings in the paper, according to precedent."

Yet I continue to deal with anxious parents who are worried about the MMR-Autism link. I managed to convince almost all about the safety and benefits of MMR except parents of children with autism. For some reasons, they are fixed in their perception that MMR cause autism.

It is a sad day for medical research. Andrew Wakefield has done irreparable damage to the reliability of medical research, protection of children by the vaccine MMR and the confidence of parents with autistic children in the medical profession. I am sure in spite of this report, the MMR-autism link will continue to circulate and discourage parents from bringing their children for vaccination.

No link between MMR and Autism

From The Sunday Times, UK

February 8, 2009

MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism

Brian Deer

THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.

The research was published in February 1998 in an article in The Lancet medical journal. It claimed that the families of eight out of 12 children attending a routine clinic at the hospital had blamed MMR for their autism, and said that problems came on within days of the jab. The team also claimed to have discovered a new inflammatory bowel disease underlying the children’s conditions.

read more

This report confirm my belief that MMR is a safe vaccine and has no link to autism. Most other researchers have backed away from the MMR-Autism link and in fact 10 of the 13 authors have retracted their statements in a report in Lancet in 2004 (Murch SH, Anthony A, Casson DH, et al (2004). "Retraction of an interpretation". Lancet 363 (9411): 750. ).

"We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient. However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications for public health. In view of this, we consider now is the appropriate time that we should together formally retract the interpretation placed upon these findings in the paper, according to precedent."

Yet I continue to deal with anxious parents who are worried about the MMR-Autism link. I managed to convince almost all about the safety and benefits of MMR except parents of children with autism. For some reasons, they are fixed in their perception that MMR cause autism.

It is a sad day for medical research. Andrew Wakefield has done irreparable damage to the reliability of medical research, protection of children by the vaccine MMR and the confidence of parents with autistic children in the medical profession. I am sure in spite of this report, the MMR-autism link will continue to circulate and discourage parents from bringing their children for vaccination.

Problems with the Manga Messiah?

I have received some negative comments about the Manga Messiah by some church leaders. I am curious about their objections. Is it because they are not used to the manga illustrations and their way of story telling? Or they object to the Gospel story told in a comic format? The Manga Messiah is all about Jesus Christ as told in the four Gospels.

I have read through the whole of Manga Messiah and I cannot find anything seriously wrong with it. This is taking into account that it is a paraphrased narrative synoptic telling of the the Gospel story. It is illustrated in the manga style which will appeal to the younger people who are reading lots of Japanese manga. I will not hesitate to recommend it to the younger folks.

I will be interested to know what are some of the objections to it.


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