The Dreaming Stone
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Book Review: the Dreaming Stone

John Parenteau June 8, 2016 Louis Markos

by Michael F. Shaughnessy Education Views Senior Columnist – EducationViews.org

Every once in a while, a book comes along that is both educative as well as entertaining. Such a book is “ The Dreaming Stone “ by Louis Markos. While Louis Markos needs no introduction to some who are knowledgeable, and culturally literate, Louis is a scholar par excellence in the tradition of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and his books and his works have been very well received ( he has 11 books and two lecture series with The Teaching Company- The Life and Writings of C.S. Lewis; Plato to Postmodernism: Understanding the Essence of Literature, and the  Role of the Author ( available at www.teach12.com )

But onto the book itself. Alex and Stacy are the main characters in this book, and their adventures take them to Greece, and during their sojourn, they encounter a number of characters that once populated the country of Greece and that have lived on in mythology. Louis Markos takes us to the Acropolis, and re-introduces us to Hercules, Socrates, Icarus and Daedalus. In this treasure trove, we learn the correct pronunciation of various Greek words, and are re-introduced to those fascinating heroes of the past as well as the places of the past- Hades, the Underworld.  We all have some familiarity with some of these names- Agamemnon, Cyclops, Pegasus, but Louis brings these characters and mythological being to life, not only with an adventure for Alex and Stacy, but with important life lessons to be learned.

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The Dreaming Stone
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Go

John Parenteau May 19, 2016 John D. Gibbon

Any article entitled “Go” is likely to make a typical Christian reader think of the NT-verses “Go into all the world …” (Matt 28:19) or “Go, for I will send you …” (Acts 22:21). The title is not intentionally meant to be misleading for it is actually about the Chinese board game called “Go” that has been much in the news and has provoked a flurry of recent media interest in artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, it is a perfect example of some of the issues raised in chapters 4 and 5 of my book “Science and the Knowledge of God”.

In the last generation the subject called “the philosophy of mind” has been prominent in academic Philosophy Departments. This involves studies of mental events, mental functions and properties, and the nature of consciousness. In 1997 much was made by the media of the defeat of Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion at that time, by IBM’s machine Deep Blue in a six match series. Suggestions were then made that the silicon brain was catching up with the biological and some fairly wild predictions were made about the future of humanity in a computer dominated world. This type of excitement dissipates rapidly but in the past month this has been rekindled by the sequence of matches that were held at the board game “Go” between the program AlphaGo, created by Google’s artificial intelligence company DeepMind, and Lee Se-dol of South Korea, the most recent world champion. AlphaGo’s 4-1 win against Mr. Lee surprised most enthusiasts and commentators who had predicted that AlphaGo needed some more years to play against both itself and other humans to reach the level of, and then master, the best human player.

“Go” is an abstract strategy board game for two players played by placing black and white stones on the intersections on a 19 x 19 grid of lines in which the aim is to surround more territory than one’s opponent. The game originated in ancient China more than 2,500 years ago, and is one of the oldest board games played today. It was considered to be one of the four essential arts of a cultured Chinese scholar in antiquity. Unlike some card games, all information is available to both players but it has a complexity much greater than chess because the number of possible moves is many times greater. AlphaGo’s win has highlighted the recent advances in both hard computing and in AI-strategy programming.

In the last 30-40 years there has been a major scientific push towards the ultimate goal of simulating the human brain by computational means. Work on the definition of the mind has come into much sharper focus in the last generation through attempts to create artificial intelligence (AI) or thinking machines in computer science in what is more generally called the ‘cognitive sciences’. It has also heavily influenced the subjects of evolutionary psychology and neuro-biology.

In chapter 4 of my book “Science and the Knowledge of God” I have attempted to summarize some of the ideas that have driven this branch of the sciences. Artificial intelligence poses three questions that respectively reflect the divergent interests of AI researchers, philosophers and cognitive scientists:

  1. Can a machine act intelligently? Can it solve any problem a person would by thinking?
  2. Can a machine have a mind, mental states and consciousness in the same sense humans do? Can it feel?
  3. Are human intelligence and machine intelligence the same? Is the human brain essentially a computer?

With respect to DeepMind’s achievement in writing the AlphaGo software, it is perhaps natural that the media have concentrated on possible future economic changes driven by AI. Two MIT Professors, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, have had huge hits with their 2011 and 2013 e-books “Race Against the Machine” and “The Second Machine Age”. They argued that the digital revolution is accelerating innovation and driving productivity to such a degree that smart machines are now replacing even white-collar workers. Many blue-collar jobs were replaced years ago so the erosion of the white-collar work-force is, economically speaking, not necessarily good news.

Economic consequences are one thing but ambitious goals to redefine the nature of humanity are another. In chapter 5 of my book I ask the question what it means to have a mind with respect to both the human but also with respect to the God of the Bible. Does He have a mind in the sense that we, as humans, can understand? How do we interpret biblical statements that tell us of his attributes with respect to this topic? Unless we insist on our complete humanity, body and mind, being made in the image of God, we are leaving out an essential part of the whole by ignoring the mind. Moreover, if we ignore the nature of the human mind in the sense discussed above we are ceding ground to those who insist that human brain is reproducible and that machine and human intelligence are essentially the same, with (dry) silicon and (wet) biological software set on the same level.

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X-Ray

John Parenteau March 30, 2016 Authors, Blogs, Louis Markos

By Louis Markos

Human love, joy, religion, and art cannot be reduced to unconscious forces.

Louis Markos talks about the 24th chapter of his recently released book “From A to Z in Narnia with CS Lewis”, in which he relates an idea or aspect of CS Lewis’ writing to a unique letter in the alphabet.

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The Children Sing of Jesus

John Parenteau March 29, 2016 Authors, Blogs, Wayne Braudrick
By Wayne Braudrick

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 

He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” Matthew 21:12-16 (ESV)
Son of David

Christians sometimes study this final temple cleansing performed by Jesus. That’s wonderful and instructive. However, the cry of the children is often lost in the shuffle. It is very important that Jesus doesn’t silence theses little ones who call him a clearly Messianic name. In the scribes’ accurate assessment of the title “Son of David,” such worship should only be directed to God. By letting the kids praise Him, Jesus is claiming Messianic divinity.

One of the major themes of Matthew is here repeated: child-like trust is necessary to truly understand Jesus. The King is God. He purifies worship, and yet He seems to only be understood by the crippled and the children. As for the big and powerful people, true worship is not realized because they are more concerned about their rules or about what they bring to the table for God. The temple leaders who allow for usurious money-changing in violation of God’s Law are obviously more worried about the amount of coin in their own pocket than they are about worshipping God rightly.
Thank goodness we’re not like that!
Friends, when we Christians worry about “our own” dollars more than worshipping God with His money; when we get wrapped up in legalism or favoritism or pride; when we lose sight of who Jesus really is … We should remember that the resurrected Carpenter who cleared the temple in Matthew 21 promises to cleanse the temples of our lives as well. The Carpenter still has a strong arm.

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War

John Parenteau March 25, 2016 Authors, Blogs, Louis Markos

By Louis Markos

All killing is not murder, but we must not rejoice in the loss of life.

Louis Markos talks about the 23rd chapter of his recently released book “From A to Z in Narnia with CS Lewis”, in which he relates an idea or aspect of CS Lewis’ writing to a unique letter in the alphabet.

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Holy Living

John Parenteau March 24, 2016 Authors, Blogs, Wayne Braudrick

By Wayne Braudrick

“So if anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:21 (HCSB)
Those who purify themselves in the Lord are useful to the Master. And the text goes on to say that when we live out who we are in sanctified lives, we are prepared for every good work. In his commentary on the pastoral epistles [Titus and the two Timothy letters], Walter Liefeld nicely summarizes why Paul emphasizes this big idea:
“His concern is for a sound faith that expresses itself in sound living. It is as though he was increasingly disgusted with the “slurry” of falsehood in teaching and living, the filthy mixture of corrupted doctrine and morals that he found in his theological opponents. He realized that what was needed desperately was not only truth in word but truth in the lives of teachers and other church leaders. What characterizes the Pastoral Letters most is not doctrine but doctrine blended with holy living.”
– Walter L. Liefeld
Friend, pray with me that by God’s grace you and I will be holy in doctrine and practice, useful to the Master and prepared for every good work.

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Virtue

John Parenteau March 22, 2016 Authors, Blogs, Louis Markos

By Louis Markos

Rather than actively love our neighbor, we unselfishly let him do what he wants.

Louis Markos talks about the 22nd chapter of his recently released book “From A to Z in Narnia with CS Lewis”, in which he relates an idea or aspect of CS Lewis’ writing to a unique letter in the alphabet.

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Breathtaking Encouragement

John Parenteau March 17, 2016 Authors, Blogs, Wayne Braudrick
By Wayne Braudrick
“Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NASB)
What timing!
The encouragement of God through His people is breathtaking. Today I was fighting through the always-difficult writing process on a new book, when I received this letter:
 
“Wayne, wanted to let you know that myself and six ther men at our church will be starting your “Whatever Happened to Manhood” study tomorrow morning. We are all excited to do it and are looking forward to the journey. Thanks for taking time to write this book. I know writing can be a beat-down at times, but it is and will continue to pay off nicely. Keep being you and know you are prayed for. You are inspiring others to be more like Christ through who you are and how God has made you.” – Chris
 
As you can imagine, I worked with renewed zeal. Friend, I pray you are likewise encouraging and encouraged in what God gives you to do for Him today.

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Universalism

John Parenteau March 15, 2016 Authors, Blogs, Louis Markos

By Louis Markos

The moment of our death is an eternal one; it contains all other moments.

Louis Markos talks about the 21st chapter of his recently released book “From A to Z in Narnia with CS Lewis”, in which he relates an idea or aspect of CS Lewis’ writing to a unique letter in the alphabet.

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Daughter of the King of Kings

John Parenteau March 9, 2016 Authors, Blogs, Wayne Braudrick
By Wayne Braudrick
“The Lord’s slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach.” 2 Timothy 2:24 (HCSB)
Know yourself
While teaching on a scripture passage concerned with the Christian’s understanding of his position as the Lord’s slave, I was blessed to interview a young friend. Mandi Havens served for two years as a missionary to China, and I asked her to describe what she learned about herself on the mission field. She answered:
“I learned that I am a lot worse than I ever thought I was. When you are in a strange culture away from everything you have ever known, it puts a lot of stress on you. It sometimes forces you to slip into survival mode and you simply don’t have enough spare energy to put on the mask that makes it look like you have everything together. You can’t hide your fear or your bad temper anymore and it all slips out unbeckoned for the world to see. Fortunately, the Lord is faithful. I learned during my time overseas that my value is not earned. It doesn’t come from my effectiveness as a missionary, my competency as an employee, my fluency in Chinese, my innate “goodness” as a person, or my ability to be a good team member. It comes from God alone. It comes from my status as a daughter of the King of kings. I learned that I was more valuable that I could have ever imagined and I was not alone.”
Friends, I pray that we all know ourselves that well.

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