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The Diamond Jubilee

God of time and eternity, whose Son reigns as servant, not master; we give you thanks and praise that you have blessed this Nation, the Realms and Territories with ELIZABETH, our beloved and glorious Queen. In this year of Jubilee, grant her your gifts of love and joy and peace as she continues in faithful obedience to you, her Lord and God and in devoted service to her lands and peoples, and those of the Commonwealth, now and all the days of her life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O GOD, who providest for thy people by thy power, and rulest over them in love: Vouchsafe so to bless thy Servant our Queen, that under her this nation may be wisely governed, and thy Church may serve thee in all godly quietness; and grant that she being devoted to thee with her whole heart, and persevering in good works unto the end, may, by thy guidance, come to thine everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. O LORD our God, who upholdest and governest all things by the word of thy power: Receive our humble prayers for our sovereign Lady ELIZABETH, as on this day, set over us by thy grace and providence to be our Queen; and, together with her, bless, we beseech thee, Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Charles Prince of Wales, and all the Royal Family; that they, ever trusting in thy goodness, protected by thy power, and crowned with thy gracious and endless favour, may long continue before thee in peace and safety, joy and honour, and after death may obtain everlasting life and glory, by the merits and mediation of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth ever one God, world without end. Amen. AI.MIGHTY God, who rulest over all the kingdoms of the world, and dost order them according to thy good pleasure: We yield thee unfeigned thanks, for that thou wast pleased, as on this day, to set thy Servant our Sovereign Lady, Queen ELIZABETH, upon the Throne of this Realm. Let thy wisdom be her guide, and let thine arm strengthen her; let truth and justice, holiness and righteousness, peace and charity, abound in her days; direct all her counsels and endeavours to thy glory, and the welfare of her subjects; give us grace to obey her cheerfully for conscience sake, and let her always possess the hearts of her people; let her reign be long and prosperous, and crown her with everlasting life in the world to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1 Timothy 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people? ² for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

The 85 Year Experiment

Another fascinating article, this time from instant fundas.

The pitch drop experiment began in 1927 when Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, set out to demonstrate to his students that some substances that appear to be solid are in fact very high viscous fluids. He used tar pitch, a derivative of coal once used to waterproof boats, in an experiment to prove his point. At room temperature, pitch appears to be solid and can even shatter if hit with a hammer, but despite its look and feel, pitch can also flow at room temperature, albeit extremely slowly.

 

For his experiment, Parnell melted some pitch into a glass funnel with a sealed stem and allowed it to cool for three years. In 1930 he cut the sealed stem, hung the funnel over a beaker, and waited. It took eight year before the first drop fell into the beaker and another nine years before the second drop hit. Parnell didn’t live to see the third drop fall in 1954, as he passed away in September 1948. By then, the experiment was stored away in a cupboard of the physics department.

 

The Pitch Drop Experiment with its current custodian, John Mainstone in a picture taken in 1990.

 

The pitch-drop experiment might have fallen into obscurity had it not been for John Mainstone, who joined the University of Queensland physics department in 1961. One day a colleague said, “I’ve got something weird in this cupboard here” and presented Mainstone with the funnel, beaker and pitch, all housed under a bell jar. Mainstone asked the department head to display it for the school’s science and engineering students, but he was told that nobody wanted to see it. Finally, around 1975, Mainstone persuaded the department to publicly display the experiment in a cabinet in the foyer of the department building.

The experiment that carries on beyond death. Sometimes you just don't have the time to see what something is really like. The current life expectancy of the Australian man is 79 years. They wouldn't outlast the pitchdrop experiment. They might not even really get to see the effects. Life, and life that is short, is a lot like that - it obscures us from seeing the reality of things. And, of course, often death itself is the reality.

This week I've been working on Luke 12, the Parable of the Rich Fool. Jesus speaks of the idiocy of not realising there is more to this life than 79 short years. And in the middle he does so in a really clever way. The Rich Fool is speaking...

Luke 12:19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

It's an obvious allusion to this...

Eccl. 8:14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. ¹⁵ So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.

Qoheleth, the speaker of Ecclesiastes, is working through the conundrum of life. It doesn't seem to make sense - no one gets what they deserve. If that's reality then the only sane option is to live it up now. Enjoy life - eat and drink and be glad. And, of course, store it up to stop if from going.

But as Ecclesiastes progresses we realise that there's more to life. Or, more accurately, more to life than life.

11:9 You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

The judgement of God puts everything into perspective. What seemed arbitrary and unfair will be measured and held to account. The 85 year experiment does have a demonstrable conclusion. You may die but you willsee the pitch drop, just not in the way that you thought. Which is, of course, Jesus' point,

Luke 12:20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

Assessing this life based on only this life is nuts. You simply can't live long enough to see the pitch drop because death will get you first. And then it's too late. Besides, the results of the experiment are already in - so why act like you don't know what will happen?

Lego LotR minifigs!

OMGosh this is so awesome but 30 years too late (although I'm not sure I really cared about Tolkein when I was 7almost8). Forevergeek has the details,

We’re salivating with each new reveal that comes along from LEGO for its upcoming Lord of the Rings toy line. We’ve seen several character posters, but today we’ve got your first look at the killer minifigures for the entire Fellowship and several baddies, including Orcs, Uruk-Hai, Gollum, and Nazgul.

Right, enough talk - here they are.

Hardwired Principles?

Fascinating little snippet from Wired Science.

The fundamental origin of our dearest beliefs is a centuries-old philosophical question: Do they reflect, as Kant claimed, deep and pure principles? Or, per Jeremy Bentham, are they elegantly rationalized cost-benefit analyses?

 

Neuroscientist Greg Berns of Emory University put this question to the test in a brain scanner. He found that when people refused to accept cash for stating beliefs opposite to their own, it wasn't simply because the cash wasn't enough. Reward-calculating parts of their brains weren't even part of the equation; instead, activity occurred in rule-processing, right-or-wrong systems. Principle was truly principled.

 

Image: BenFrantzDale/Flickr

 

Citation: "The price of your soul: neural evidence for the non-utilitarian representation of sacred values." By Gregory S. Berns, Emily Bell, C. Monica Capra, Michael J. Prietula, Sara Moore, Brittany Anderson, Jeremy Ginges and Scott Atran. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Vol. 367 No. 1589, March 5, 2012.

Of course it doesn't solve the question. Sure, according to Kant some things just are - the noumenal truths. But if they're hard wired is that because we're created by God that way? Or is it how we've evolved? Or, (can. open. worms all over floor) both!

Either way, interesting stuff.

Success in “Gay Panic” Campaign.

I wrote previously about the campaign to have the ridiculous "gay panic" defence removed in Queensland. Fr Paul Kelly is reporting that the Qld. Government have agreed to tighten up the law in this regard. A great result! Thanks to all who signed the petition and much kudos to Paul for getting it running.

picture: Queensland Parliament Building in Brisbane

Doctor Who. All of It. In 10 Minutes

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