NaClhv

Theology, philosophy, math, science, and random other things
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
2017-08-28
Importance: 

A record of the total solar eclipse

These are some of the pictures I took during the eclipse trip. Venus, in the morning of Sunday, August 20th, the day before the total eclipse of the sun. This is unrelated to the eclipse, but the Morning Star is always a treat. Note how it's bright enough to be the only star in the sky […]
2016-03-07
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The want of a mate

"I hate this", said Adam, to his empty dining room. It was late at night. He was alone. His only company at his table were several bottles of wine and his glass. He was just a drunk man, talking to himself out of the anguish of his latest break-up. So it was with mild surprise […]

How to think about the future

This post is a consolidation of a whole series of posts into one post. It's fairly long. Click on the following entries in the table of contents below to jump directly there: The future is completely unpredictable No, really, the future is COMPLETELY unpredictable The future will be like the past, and therefore "predictable" The […]
2015-10-12
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Religious freedom and religious accommodations

This post is a consolidation of a whole series into one post. It's fairly long. Click on the following entries in the table of contents below to jump directly there: Introductory case: A Muslim flight attendant who won't serve alcohol Enumerating the general principles at work A Muslim student's home-engineered clock is taken for a […]
2015-05-25
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The role of evidence in the Christian faith

This post is a consolidation of a whole series into one post. It's very long. Click on the following entries in the table of contents below to jump directly there: "Faith" as used in Christianity, and its evidence-based meaning The overwhelming Biblical support for the crucial role of evidence Supposed science-based philosophical objections to the […]

The Gospel according to Disney's "Tangled"

Somehow, I subconsciously understood this whole chain of reasoning in the brilliant flash of that single moment, while my conscious mind was caught completely by surprise and left simply reeling. I only remember being slammed by a magnificent sense of epiphany, overwhelmed by an ineffable feeling of significance. I could never recapture that moment fully; that is as it should be. By the time that my brain had caught up to my subconscious realizations [...], I was saying to myself, "This may be my favorite movie of all time".
2014-05-19
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The Gospel according to Disney's "Frozen"

"Frozen" is the story of perfect love casting out fear. [...] It's true that its makers didn't sit down and say "hey, let's tell the story of the Christian Gospel". They merely told the truth that underlies the whole universe, like all art is supposed to do. But in doing so - in expressing this truth well - they managed to tell the one and only story in the whole universe. So "Frozen" is in fact a Christian movie - in the sense that all good movies are. After all, there is only one story in the universe.
2014-02-03
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Elsa's facial expressions during "Let It Go", in Disney's "Frozen"

My obsession with "Frozen" and "Let It Go" continues. Elsa has fascinating facial expressions during "Let It Go", and this post will explore the meaning of those expressions. Some of her expressions are difficult to catch because they're complicated and they change so quickly, but I believe I have a good, insightful collection of her expressions below. I hope you see many things that you didn't notice before.
2014-01-06
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Miracles: their definition, properties, and purpose

There are some really terrible ways to define "miracle". Some of the worst definitions are "something that violates the laws of nature" or "a low probability event". Aside from the blatant biases embedded in these definitions, they are poor definitions in the sense that it is difficult to apply them to label real world events. […]
2014-01-02
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An analysis of "Let It Go" in Disney's "Frozen"

But while all this is true as far as that goes, stopping the analysis there misses the great depth and subtlety of the song. Yes, the song is about empowerment, but there is also tragedy, anger, bitterness, and self-deception in it, in even greater measure. It doesn't mark Elsa's claiming of her identity or her apotheosis - instead, by the end of the song, she is in severe danger of losing herself.
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