Posted by: gcarkner | September 11, 2012

Tree of Peace for 9/11

ArtWay Visual Meditation September 9, 2012 

www.artway.eu

Painting by Makoto Fujimura: Shalom, 2001, 47,5 x 62,5 cm, hand printed lithograph on paper.

http://www.artway.eu/artway.asp?id=341&action=show&lang=en 

Makoto Fujimura: Shalom  

A Tree of Peace 

by Ned Bustard

This month we will honour another anniversary of the attacks on 9/11, 2011. On this occasion I often take time to study the lithographShalom by Makoto Fujimura. I am honoured to have one from the edition hanging in my home. Always lovely, the piece takes on extra gravity for me at this time of the year. In Objects of Grace: Conversations on Creativity and Faith Mako explains how it was made and some of its significance:

‘On September 12 I took my family to upstate New York. I was working at Corridor Press in Otego, NY with master printer Tim Sheesley, who is the brother of painter Joel Sheesley, on a lithography series on the theme of shalom. The image was of a medieval quince tree that I had sketched at The Cloisters in New York. Read More…

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Posted in Faith & Culture, Prayer & Spirituality

Posted by: gcarkner | September 9, 2012

Critical Marks of Scientism

Six Cultural Identifiers of the Ideology of Scientism

[See also UBC Lecture by Ian Hutchinson MIT Plasma Physicist 

Point of Reflection: Although scientism (and philosophical positivism as per A.J. Ayer) has been academically discredited by many philosophers and scientists in the twentieth century, it still seems to dominate popular thinking, even among many bright science students and scholars. In order for a belief to be considered valid or credible, scientism requires that it be scientifically testable. Read More…

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Posted in Apologetics, Faith & Culture, Science Reflections, Seeker Corner | Tags: ,

Posted by: gcarkner | September 7, 2012

Embedded in Hope

Good Research is Embedded in Hope, in Anticipation of Discovery

Where is hope in this third stage of Capitalism called Postmodernity (Fred Jameson)? Where are we in this journey?  Are we lost, jaded or commodified in a sea of globalization, overwhelmed by an identity crisis, imploded into a consumer society? I first went to grad school to gain some knowledge and to transcend the sea of experience, to carve out time for reflection, to ‘make sense of it all’. I discovered the powerful theme of hope.

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Posted in Faith & Culture, GCU Personality, Grad Student Strategies

Posted by: gcarkner | September 5, 2012

Culture Matters…

Stimulating literature is our lifeblood. It takes us to a new level of existence. GCU often sponsors a book study that introduces new ideas as part of its learning process. Our most recent savvy one is Andy Crouch’s  Culture Making: recovering our creative calling. He makes note of how people of faith critique, condemn, copy and consume culture in various ways. Sometimes they feel the need to be counter-cultural in their stance. Crouch demonstrates that some of it is legitimate and important; some of it is trivial and shallow, or even wrong headed.

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Posted in Faith & Culture, GCU Events, Seeker Corner, Stewardship

Posted by: gcarkner | September 4, 2012

Portrait of an Oxbridge Christian in Science

Dr. Ard A. Louis is a Reader in Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford, where he leads an interdisciplinary research group studying problems on the border between chemistry, physics and biology,[1] and is also director of graduate studies in theoretical physics. From 2002 to 2010 he was a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. He is also International Secretary for Christians in Science, an associate of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, and serves on the European advisory board of the John Templeton Foundation.[2] He has written for the BioLogos Foundation,[3][4] where as of November 2011, he sat on the Board of Directors.[5] He engages in Molecular Gastronomy.[6] He appears in the film series Test of Faith produced by Faraday Institute for Science & Religion.

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Posted in Apologetics, Science Reflections, Seeker Corner

Posted by: gcarkner | September 4, 2012

Advice to Young Scholars

I am Martin Ester,  a computer science professor at SFU. I have supervised graduate students for more than ten years. I am also a Christian who is convinced that my faith is relevant to all aspects of my and our world. I continue to enjoy this part of my job very much and have the impression that my students also do enjoy their studies, at least once in a while. Sometimes current or prospective students ask me for advice on how to succeed, and I have tried to distill the following short advice, which will hopefully be useful not only for computer science students.

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Posted in GCU Personality, Grad Student Strategies

Posted by: gcarkner | September 3, 2012

Science & Christian Faith in Synergy?

Encouraging Note from Dr. Arnold Sikkema, PhD Physics from UBC

Thousands of students head off to university this fall with high anticipation to ply their future through higher education and skills training. Many will be a bit shocked to discover that major universities do not welcome through their gates their faith-based thinking. Is there any support for these students who respect scientific knowledge and have a strong faith? Read More…

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Posted in Apologetics, Science Reflections

Posted by: gcarkner | September 2, 2012

Building a Platform for Success

            Building a Platform for Success as a Graduate Student

Dr. Gordon Carkner  GCU Staff

At the beginning of a new school year, it is worth asking the question: How do hard working, successful people of noble character pursue their highest goals and stick with them as a life-long task? Here are seven discerning pointers to keep you motivated and keep you building into your academic quest. These are some of the planks you need to lay down in order to fulfill your dreams. The best piece of advice given to me at the beginning of my PhD work was that one has to really, really want this, to be willing to grow up and do what it takes to make it happen. Are you hungry enough for that PhD? This means you count the cost, develop the skills and then commit yourself to the effort day after day with wise stewardship of time and good partnerships. How will your faith make a difference in this pursuit? These suggestions are rooted in the knowledge that God is interested in every detail of your life (Psalm 139), so a full conversion to living robustly under his loving care and grace is a key foundation. The collected wisdom below is directed at helping you to mark out a flight plan for a constructive life. It is not a slick formula. Read More…

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Posted in GCU Personality, Grad Student Strategies

Posted by: gcarkner | September 2, 2012

An Amazing Treat: Dr. Danielson

“An Amazing Treat”

Dennis Danielson

Ten years ago I attended a lecture by UBC astronomer Mark Halpern, a member of the team operating the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (W-Map for short). W-MAP is the cosmology project that since the beginning of this millennium has shown our universe to be 13.75 billion years old. (NASA’s astonishing short list of what W-MAP has achieved can be viewed at: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/) Read More…

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Posted in Apologetics, Science Reflections

Posted by: gcarkner | September 1, 2012

Will Christianity destroy my personal freedom?

Will Christianity  Ruin my Personal Freedom?

Christians are sometimes tagged as holding a negative, uptight religion within a trajectory that keeps an interesting and fun life out of reach. As the stereotype goes, faith places them in a lifestyle box, with a lid. Nietzsche called it the iron cage or a morality that stifles creativity. There is that long list of  prohibitions we hear about. How attractive is that? Read More…

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Posted in Apologetics, Seeker Corner, Stewardship

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