Oparousia

From XIANITY:

TELEVISION: Oprah says goodbye for now to her followers, but vows to return again someday from the clouds to take them with her.

HT: Charles Sebold.

No hurry

The story is told of three apprentice devils being trained by Satan. ‘What are you going to try today?’ asks the leader.

The first apprentice replies, ‘I’m going to tell them there is no God.’

‘Well,’ says Satan, ‘you can try. A few fools will believe you. But the universe shouts the existence of God. There is evidence all around and you’ll not do very well. Indeed, even in the secular twenty-first century you may find your self witnessing the slow death of atheism. Any other ideas?’

The second apprentice tries this: ‘I’m going to tell them there’s no judgment.’

‘That’s a better idea,’ says Satan. ‘You will persuade more people of that, especially some of the clergy. But human beings have a gut sense of accountability, that actions have consequences. They know what it is to feel guilty even when there therapists tell them not to. So I think you’ll find it an uphill struggle. Anyone else have an idea?’

The third apprentice pipes up, ‘I’m going to tell them there’s no hurry.’

‘Brilliant,’ says Satan. ‘That is just what you want to say. You will have great success. Let them listen to the word of God and whisper in their ears, “This is good stuff. One day you ought to do something about this. But tomorrow will do.”’

(Christopher Ash, The Priority of Preaching, p 65)

HT: Charles Sebold.

Where Dreams Come True

Computer genius Charlie Sebold has been kind enough to create a new blog for my collected fiction. The name of the new blog is "Where Dreams Come True" (http://truedreamsfiction.blogspot.com/). You will find a link on the sidebar, under "Fiction by Steve Hays."

I'll add new short stories as time and inspiration allow.

Measuring Oral Roberts' influence

John MacArthur on Oral Roberts.

HT: Charlie Sebold.

In which Van Til bites me again

Charlie Sebold's latest post is excellent. Well-worth reading.

The Ash and the Air

Dominic Bnonn Tennant has finished writing a novel for NaNoWriMo called The Ash and the Air.

Here's an intro from Dominic to whet your appetite:

Searching for the theory of everything had its consequences. At the heart of the technological singularity lay an impossible genius with a single directive, no moral compass, and the ability to manipulate a universal governing force. An enemy as present as the air, able to scatter the very atoms of an army, and reduce a city to dust. Such an enemy could not be fought. Such an enemy could not be stopped.

Now, if only we had a time machine.

In addition:

The Ash and the Air is a short science fiction novel I wrote for the National Novel Writing Month, 2008. It explores the technological singularity, time travel and paradox, possible worlds and eternity, artificial intelligence and the Chinese Room, science, philosophy, reality, and the quest for knowledge. It will hopefully be the first of three loosely related books which will explore these sorts of concepts, and draws many of its themes from Genesis 1–3. Its overt influences range from "Doctor Who," "Burn Notice," and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (especially season 4) to "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" by Roger Williams, "In him all things hold together" by Charlie Sebold, and "Time Present and Time Past" and "When the future ain't what it used to be" by Steve Hays.

BTW, Charlie Sebold has likewise finished writing his novel for NaNoWriMo.

April Fool's Day 2008

For what it's worth, if anything, those of you who might not have caught our silly little April Fool's Day joke, wherein we deconverted from Christianity to atheism to Buddhism and finally to Scientology, here are the posts in the order in which they were posted:

1. A very important announcement
   
2. Reasons why God doesn't exist
   
3. Superhero insurance
   
4. Brights and Indigos agree
   
5. Charitable Chan I am
   
6. Not everything it's cracked up to be
   
7. The fifth noble truth
   
8. Llama Llama Dalai Lama
   
9. Saturday night fever
   
10. Flying Purple People Thetan
    
11. That Old Mother, Hubbard
    
12. Well, that was fun

Deconversion

I'm sorry, but we regret to make this announcement. Obviously this will be our last post on Triablogue. Please continue to check out our weblog, Talking Out of Turn (TOOT) Talking When I'm Told, if you'd like to follow our story. Thanks.