Darwin's Sightless Messengers

In yesterday's National Post, Christopher Hitchens writes a piece defending the theory of evolution against those who would argue for intelligent design. He wonders why God would have created blind salamanders that have vestigial eyes and live down in dark caves. Why should they have remnants of eyes? he asks. They are sightless messengers proving Darwin. You can find a letter to the editor that I wrote here.

Canadiana Pulpit

On our way home from vacation, Bonita and I meandered down Highway 2, enjoying a relaxing drive home. We stopped off in Brighton, at an antique shop and found this beauty. After a bit of negotiation, I purchased it. (A brother in our congregation offered to go 50/50 on it.) I can add this to my "collection" of lecterns. I have a small stand alone oak lectern; a small tabletop lectern (which we use every Sunday) and now this beauty.

Check out the beautiful work on the Alpha and Omega!



I'm looking forward to preaching from it. A few weeks ago, I published a post, "The closing of a Presbyterian pulpit. This one is about the call from retirement of another!

Black Bear!

My wife and I camp at Sharbot Lake Provincial Park, about 1 1/2 hours west of Ottawa, on Highway #7. It's a lovely campsite: not too big, with nice beaches on Black Lake. One of the reasons we like this campsite (and its "sister" campsite, Silver Lake, about 10 minutes down the highway) is the absence of bears and raccoons. Though we have to tolerate some "highway noise" from #7, we're told that the traffic keeps bears and raccoons away, because they won't tolerate the noise! It makes keeping food and kitchen stuff in the campsite easy: we are tenters.

For the first time in decades, however, a bear entered Sharbot Lake Campsite this year. And yes! while we were there: and you guessed it -- into our campsite! We were camped up on "The Ridge", in a "walk-in-site" some 150 meters or so from the parking, with our site backing on to the bush on two sides. Suddenly, (what was apparently) a yearling bear came up the hill through the bush and confronted my wife, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren. (My two sons and I were just down the path, a ways).

The bear ran off after they made a commotion of banging pots and pans. Later the camp wardens found foot prints down at a portage between the two lakes which showed that the bear was moving off along the park boundary and south.

Just a little excitement for the day!

Stitching Error

While I was camping at Sharbot Lake, my two sons and I were enjoying a glass of wine as we surveyed the lake from a high vantage point, just behind our campsite. While gazing across the lake, we noticed a perfectly straight line across the water. This line was unaffected by the wind, which was shifting. It was unaffected by the westering sun. Even the wake of a power boat did not disturb it. For an hour or more, it was unaffected by any change in the environment. We discussed it at great length: "What could cause this strange phenomenon? Could it be a strong current? Is it a rock shelf below the water?" But then it finally dawned on us! This was one of those places where Google Earth hasn't spliced its images together quite perfectly! Check it out at 44 44 25 N 76 39 24 W (paste these coordinates into the "Fly to" field of Google Earth). The line you see there is in the south east arm of Sharbot Lake. Apparently they've fixed the splice where we were (on the western end of the lake) after we got back. (Double click the picture to clearly see the line.)

Diamonds in the Rough

A member of my congregation emailed the following to me....

Inspired by your write up in last weeks bulletin, my younger brother
and I went over to our old rental church property on Lasalle following
Sunday afternoon's service. We found the sanctuary still intact although
stripped from the inside; our walk through the building triggered many
memories, probably more for myself than for him. That building remains the
source of many memories for me and probably quite a few others in the
congregation.

What we found among the rubble struck a nerve, neatly stacked by one of the
wreckers was a stack of about 5 - 10 Bibles. They seemed out of place in
the mess. Steel was piled with steel, rubber with rubber, glass with glass,
however it was obvious that whoever had stacked the Bibles couldn't quite
figure out where they belonged, but knew they didn't belong in the rubble.

The Bibles were older and well used, all RSV version and all taped along
the spine indicative of their use over the years. It was inspiring to see
them stacked there. There it was, the word of God, the only book that
matters and was inspired by Him lay amongst the rubble on the floor of this
dirty construction site. We couldn't help but take them with us.

Dominion Day at the Burlington Waterfront

Last night we went down to the waterfront in Burlington. The local philharmonic orchestra played while the fireworks filled the sky. It was a beautiful warm summer evening, shared with thousands of Burlington citizens. The finale was the 1812 Overture, with many booming canon shots echoing over the promenade.

Then as we were walking away the orchestra started playing "O, Canada!" Remarkably, the thousands broke out in unison. Thousands stopped walking to their cars, and joined in a rousing rendition of the National Anthem. And as we finished off a mighty volley of fireworks filled the sky. All in all a memorable evening.

Death Day in Canada

Ian Hunter has a brilliant piece on Morgentaler, Canada's Birhtday, and the Order of Canada at "A Symbol of Moral Decay" . He writes in the National Post (pg A15), "It would require macabre sarcasm to call this a "birthday" present; so, for this "deathday" present, let me briefly remark on three propositions." He concludes, "... do not honour men without honour."

Even as the church remembers Pontius Pilate every Sunday, and Judas at least once a year, their remembrance is subsumed under the triumph of the victim. So let it be to Morgentaler. One day perhaps in our fair land we will remember him, not as a hero, but as a horror.

Dion's New Tax

I think it was last year sometime that I read that as Stephen Harper and his Minister of Finance were cutting taxes and the GST, they were also undercutting the Liberal Party's ability to find money for great social engineering spending programs. The Liberals didn't take long to find a new way to advance their cause. Find a new tax. They couldn't, with any credibility suggest that they'd raise the GST or income tax to spend their billions on whom ever they wanted to make recipients of their largesse. So they've hooked their "tax cow" to the "environmental cart". They'll tax the living daylights out of "carbon sources", with the mantra, "this is for the planet"; but really it's for their programs.

And may all of you have pleasant and blessed "Dominion Day."