Eye on Faith

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Emotional fitness: Happify ever after

(Public Domain)

These days there’s an app for practically everything, including happiness.

According to the gleeful folks at “Happify,” this app can be used “anytime, anywhere – on your computer or on your mobile phone.” No need to listen to Pharrell Williams anymore, just click right on and feel the joy.

Happify purports to be solidly rooted in scientific principles. Happiness has been psychologically defined as a combination of how satisfied you are with your overall life, and “how good you feel on a day-to-day basis.” Happify therefore provides activities designed to improve both parts of this rollicking equation.

Organized around a S.T.A.G.E. (“Savor, Thank, Aspire, Give, Empathize”) framework, the app aligns with these five “happiness skills.” For example, “Savor” involves the art of “making a pleasurable experience last for as long as possible.” “Aspire” includes hope, purpose and optimism.

Here is a gratitude-based Happify activity: Before bed, spend 15 minutes writing a list of things you’re thankful for… Sounds rather simple? Perhaps. Nevertheless, it can also be quite profound.

Resources

http://www.happify.com/

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Bi-vocational clergy: A growing trend

(Public Domain)

Gone are the days when a seminary graduate could pretty much count on a full-time ministry job, complete with benefits and housing expenses.

Unfortunately, the days when a seminary graduate could count upon heavy student-loan debts are still all too present.

Which doesn't add up to a financially viable situation... Nor does it entice would-be clergy into the profession.

David R. Wheeler of The Atlantic explains that “more and more seminary grads are taking on secular jobs to supplement their income” (a practice that is euphemistically referred to as “bi-vocational ministry”).

More and more Protestant churches are downsizing from full-time to part-time pastors. Some pastors are being subsidized by friends and relatives, while others are serving more than one congregation.

More than a quarter of the 2011 Masters of Divinity graduates are carrying over $40,000 in educational

debt, and five percent are facing over $80,000. The median wage of those full-time pastoral jobs that do exist is $43,800.

Struggling graduate, Justin Barringer, states: …I would love to see denominations and seminaries work out new and creative ways to train clergy at a more reasonable financial cost.

Resources

http://news.msn.com/us/higher-calling-lower-wages-the-vanishing-of-the-middle-class-clergy-1

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Bowling: Shades of Sisyphus

Sisyphus (Painting by Titian)

As the stories go, bad King Sisyphus was just plain mean. Because of this, divine King Zeus ordered him to endlessly roll a huge boulder up a mountain.

This vertical form of bowling was also endlessly frustrating. As soon as Sisyphus would score a strike by reaching the top, gravity would pull the boulder back down to the bottom again.

Then one day someone must have said, “How about we change things up a bit? How about we start rolling our boulders

horizontally?”

And so bowling was born…

These days, this ancient pastime (calling bowling a sport could only invoke the wrath of football fans everywhere) is in danger of dying. Or, at the very least, of morphing into practically unrecognizable forms…

Patrick Clark of Bloomberg Businessweek reports that “blue collar” bowling alleys are fast becoming extinct. In their place are the new ritzy centers, complete with “indoor go-cart tracks, laser tag games, and rock-climbing walls.”

Rock-climbing walls? Perhaps Sisyphus isn’t as extinct as we thought. Perhaps he lives on in the hearts and minds of modern-day bowling magnates throughout our fair land.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus

http://money.msn.com/investing/post--americas-bowling-alleys-are-vanishing

Monday, July 28, 2014

Woody Allen: A mixed bag

Allen in 2006 (Photo by Colin Swan)

What with all of his highs and lows, it’s no wonder that Woody Allen's outlook on life is also a mixed bag.

AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck does a good job of presenting Allen’s divergent views. On the one hand, his overall

stance sounds something like this: In the end, you realize that you’re just… an insignificant agglomeration of cells and neurons, and eventually that expires, and eventually everything expires…

On the other hand, there are some welcome distractions within this inexorable march to oblivion. Allen’s films have been gifts of distraction for the past 50 years, gifts that he hints may even originate “in the lap of the gods.”

Allen's spiritual outlook has long been somewhat split. Here are two of his ambivalent quotes about God:

To you I’m an atheist; to God, I’m the loyal opposition.

If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever.

Resources

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=879482

http://www.searchquotes.com/Woody_Allen/God/quotes/

Sunday, July 27, 2014

This little piggy menaced children

Sizzling Mad (Photo by Roboscreech)

The Associated Press recently reported that a pig on the loose in Maine not only “menaced two children walking through the woods,” but also “scared another passer-by.”

According to Chinese astrology, this sounds really out of whack. Wikipedia reports that those born during a Pig year “are artistic, refined, intuitive, intelligent and well-mannered.” One would surmise that these astrological qualities were extrapolated from those of the animal itself.

This Yankee pig must not have read the Beijing memo, for he was seen “screaming at the kids and chasing them.” Either that, or this is massive payback for bacon.

In any event, this feral creature is not at all like the Porky we once knew and loved. Why it's enough to make a would-be astrologer throw in the cape and say: That’s all folks!

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_%28zodiac%29

http://news.yahoo.com/pig-menaced-children-seen-again-maine-164328856.html

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Physicist and Creationist agree on this

Stephen Hawking (NASA Photo)

While even NASA is now openly saying that “they expect to find evidence of alien life within the next 20 years,” Creationist Ken Ham is having none of it.

Ham, who is mainly known for his highly-publicized debate about Genesis with Bill Nye the Science Guy, insists that “aliens probably don’t exist – and if they do, they’re going to Hell anyway.”

This makes it sound as though aliens could be a rotten bunch, which seems right in line with some of Stephen Hawking’s own statements.

Hawking, the renowned physicist and mathematician, has repeatedly warned the public against courting the attention of space aliens. With a “watch what you ask for” line of reasoning, he has surmised that aliens might not be our new best friends.

Enter Pope Francis, who has stated that he would be open to baptizing some aliens… After all, why not?

The Huffington Post explains Ham’s take on such hospitality: Jesus did not become the ‘GodKlingon’ or the ‘GodMartian’! Only descendants of Adam can be saved.

Resources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/22/ken-ham-aliens-go-to-hell_n_5608368.html

Friday, July 25, 2014

Zoo wildlife: Inside and outside the cages

London Zoo, 1835 (Public Domain)

The behavior of some beer-sloshing humans at the London Zoo is enough to make a Creationist become an instant Darwinist.

And it certainly is enough to make most folks wonder just which species should really be locked inside those cages…

Kristina Bravo of Takepart.com writes about “more than a few disturbing incidents at this year’s Zoo Lates.” These recipes for disaster (just add alcohol) include the following: a man “pouring beer over a tiger,” a woman attempting to enter the lion’s den, and another man wanting to waddle with the

penguins.

At first, these Zoo Lates fundraisers seemed like a brilliant idea. The plan was to invite London’s “finest” in for a nocturnal walk on the wild side at $35 a head.

Apparently, though, ferocious beasts weren’t enough of a sensory stimulation. Stilt-walkers, comedians, and “fantastic food from around the world” were added to the mix. Still not enough… Bring on the beer!

One attendee (after noticing fellow frolickers "crushing butterflies on the ground”) concluded: I don’t think partying, alcohol and animals are a good combination.

A zoo spokesperson, however, begged to differ by pointing out that “only three people have been thrown out of the facility since 2013.”

Resources

http://news.yahoo.com/rowdy-visitors-sloshing-beer-over-tigers-zoo-185858167.html