…It clearly would have been unethical to extract brain cells.
From a post on epigenetics at a graduate student’s website explaining why scientists performed experiments on the umbilical cord blood cells of infant humans rather than the brain cells used in a similar study involving infant rats.
When the priest and Levite saw the body on the ground, they chose to pass him by. When the Samaritan saw the body, he took the pains to help the man.
If your goal is being right, you can wash your hands of a person; if your goal is love, you can’t.
A reflection on the good Samaritan from the blog Jesus Creed
…The doctrine of biblical inerrancy has the effect of inspiring its adherents to pay more attention to a text than to the neighbors they are called upon to love. Sometimes it even inspires them to plug up their ears with Bible verses, so that they can no longer hear the anguished cries of neighbors…
Quote from Eric Reitan at Religion Dispatches in an article about same sex marriage equality.
Theology is the discipline of faith seeking understanding.
Comment by Drew left on an article at the blog Exploring our Matrix
We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.
— Francois de la Rouchefoucauld
Seen as a sig. on a bulletin board post:
Capitalization is the difference between “I helped my uncle Jack off a horse” and “I helped my uncle jack off a horse.”
From a comment to a blog post at Evangelical Dialog following an article about evangelical theology and evolutionary science.
Theology and science are like ice dance partners. Both interpret the same music (ie the truth). Much of the time, they dance together in complete harmony holding hands and following the same path on the ice. Sometimes they dance alone, each doing their own thing, competing for our attention. They are both dancing to the same music, both are in harmony with the music, yet their dance is different. As the audience, we aren’t sure who to watch, which one is right, and wonder why their dance is different. Sometimes, they help each other dance. One may be stronger at times and lift the other, or spin them in a new direction, or help them up when they fall down. Yes, both dancers are imperfect and they will fall down or get out of synch with the music. Their partner is there to help them get back on track. When it comes time to judge the dance, we all give different ratings. We favour one over the other. We may gloss over some imperfections and become irritated at others. We may even wish there was only one dancer. Yet, the dance is made for a couple. We need to watch both partners. We need to accept that each partner is interpreting the music in a way that is true to their nature. We need to rejoice that there are two partners, providing us with two perspectives on the same music. And while our attention is often on the dancers themselves, we need to remind ourselves that it is the music that is important. The dance partners are there to help us understand and appreciate the music. The dance partners are not the music.
Stupid is as stupid does and boy are you a busy little thing.
Seen as a tweet on twitter.com.
We are looking for some people in our church to reduce the workload on the deacons by freeing them from having to set up chairs and sweep the floors. I think good branding is a good start for any new ministry. This one should clearly be called “Bums and Crumbs;” or maybe “The Crumb Bums”.
Information tourist: someone who visits a web site motivated by the desire to gather news or how-to “tips,” but having no reason or desire to ever do anything useful with the new knowledge; a well-read dilettante.
My definition, from a usage of the term on 43folders