This is a good article in Asia Times on strategic questions.

This is a technical paper describing why technology (and finance) won’t get us out of the Peak Oil problem. (Man walks into hardware shop. Asks for Nails. Buys up the stock of nails. Comes back next day. Asks for nails. Salesman says ‘you bought them all yesterday’. Man says ‘I’ll pay double’! That’s what the economics perspective on Peak Oil reduces to.)

Here is the text of Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush. Fascinating stuff, like this: “All governments have a duty to protect the lives, property and good standing of their citizens. Reportedly your government employs extensive security, protection and intelligence systems – and even hunts its opponents abroad. September 11 was not a simple operation. Could it be planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security services – or their extensive infiltration? Of course this is just an educated guess. Why have the various aspects of the attacks been kept secret? Why are we not told who botched their responsibilities? And, why aren’t those responsible and the guilty parties identified and put on trial?”

Whatever could he mean?

Actually, I’m being a bit naughty by just quoting that. What most strikes me in reading that is that here is a person who really believes – and it will be interesting to see if the US response (if any be possible) shows such an acknowledgement of the bounds of faith.

This analyses the impact of Peak Oil on UK Petrol Prices. Good news is that $200 per barrel price of crude only translates into a 50% price hike for UK drivers. (Yes, that is good news). The impact on the US will be markedly more severe – and the political consequences will cause those two elements of the Anglosphere to diverge further as well.

And on a lighter note, I always enjoy Mark Steyn. This is great on the Da Vinci Code: “Novelist Dan Brown staggered through the formulaic splendour of his opening sentence.” Quick plug – Learning Church, ‘The Da Vinci Code Debunked’, Sat May 20, 9:30 Church Hall.

In a couple of weeks, we are going to be singing the Stuart Townend song ‘In Christ Alone’ at both 9:30 and 11am services. I was first introduced to it at a home group meeting, and I found it 99% wonderful. The 1% that I didn’t like was the line ‘on the cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied’. I have been wondering whether to talk about it in the sermon, and explain why I don’t like it. I’ve even wondered about changing the line.

Turns out that I’m not the only one (see also the comments at T1:9 where I came across the story). As I mentioned before, I left the meeting with ++Rowan before the final act of worship, so I didn’t pick up the amendment that Chris had made.

What’s wrong with talking about God’s wrath? It’s undoubtedly Biblical. In part it is because of the doctrine of penal substitution (see my previous posts here and here). I have great difficulty with the doctrine of penal substitution, and the theology of divine wrath lying behind it. I find the theology of Julian of Norwich (there is no wrath in God) much more in tune with what I know of Jesus. Two main sources for my objections: this book by a former tutor (and big influence) which shows the diabolical consequences of the doctrine in practical affairs, and this book which gives a Girardian take.

Put simply, I think language of God’s wrath is about our own projections of our inner demons onto Him, rather than reflecting a truth about who God is within Himself. In Him is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

Why is Del Shannon’s ‘Runaway’ still such a brilliant song?

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, who came that we might have life in our turn, abundantly.

I finished reading Grant Morrison’s “The Invisibles” cycle recently (warning: not for those liable to be offended). Started off brilliantly, but it faded a little. Yet that might just have been the impact of distraction from Easter matters, and my not giving the later chapters sufficient attention. I need to read it again.

But I had the most remarkable ‘vision’ just before falling asleep one night, having read about 3/4 of the series, where all our language was mobile fragments on the surface of water, and I was plunged through it, letting go of all the memetically inherited thought patterns that shape my view of the world (even the ones that I feel I have most made my own by independent processes), and entering something truly new and bright white light.

Of course, that was the end of the revelation. Tantalising though. I’m a man who is prone to visions, rare, but periodic. I think one is brewing. I seem not to be able to escape a sense of spiritual tension, like an overblown balloon.

Pluto, the god of the underworld, is the god of death and wealth, especially mineral wealth. Discovered and named in the early 1930’s when the oil industry really began to kick in. Now being reclassified as a ‘non-planet’ because it is too small. Fading back into the unconscious just in time. Of course, it’s just a coincidence. All entertaining explorations of the nether world need to be firmly tethered to the good sense of Chris Locke.

I didn’t realise that fundamentalism made me so angry. I have discovered something about which I am rather passionate. Probably because I have seen close up how much havoc it causes in people’s lives. It is the death force, a cancer in the Body.

Moby’s ‘Porcelain’ has really started getting under my skin in the last week or so.

Something else has begun recently, which eases my soul.

I sing my eldest to sleep.

Nada te turbe, nada te espante
Quien a dios tiene, nada le falta
Nada te turbe, nada te espante
Solo dios basta