Pi and Primus

I went to the Primus concert last night at the Pageant in St. Louis.  It was truly a rock concert, as you could not hear yourself think.  Before the concert, I met up with some friends at a pizza restaurant called Pi.  Now, the restaurant  is of course named after the mathematical constant Pi (often represented by the Greek symbol π and given the simplified value of 3.14).  This value is a play on the fact that pizza's are round and pi is often used in calculations involving circles (pi is actually a ratio between a circles circumference to its diameter).  On the glasses at the restaurant, they had pi printed out to several decimal places.  This got me thinking..."Dan, why haven't you taken the time to memorize pi out to several decimal places".  This, for whatever reason, is a popular thing to do in the science community as the number goes out to infinity and it is a sign to other nerds that you have spent more Saturday nights alone than they have (which I suppose is a sign of nerd pride ?????)  For whatever reason, I chose the moment while the music was at its loudest to look up pi on wikipedia and memorize it as much as I could before the combination of the music and the numbers gave me a headache.  I actually had an another purpose in doing this as I was wanting to work on my ability to focus with a lot of distractions around me (a skill that will serve me well in the ER).  I was able to memorize it out to this length.

3.14159265358979323846264338

This is great first date conversation, right?

Test everything

I was sitting in the parking lot tonight of Fazoli's eating dinner and listening to some christian radio...The Bible Answer Man to be exact.  The topic; evolution.  He had two Ph.D.s/Biologists on refuting the theory of evolution.  As someone coming out of two semesters of biology, I was interested in the topic.

I had a real problem with the tact the bible answer man was taking.  He referred to those who profess the theory of evolution as "having a vested interested" in proving the universe was completely and 100% natural (as in not supernatural).  The reason I had a problem with this is because there was a total refusal on the part of the bible answer man to admit his own vested interest in the disproval of evolution.

It traces back to one of the primary issues I have with the Apologetics movement (as well as movements such as militant atheism); both attempt to prove the inverse versions of universal negatives.  In each, they attempt to prove something doesn't exist, using their own collection of proofs and beliefs.  I'm a Christian, and I believe in the savior of the bible.  But can I prove it?  No.  Can an atheist prove there is no God?  No.  Each requires an element of faith.  Unable to speak from an atheist's point of view, my studies of Christianity have taught me that faith is intrinsic to Christianity (ie...the Christian Faith).  God wants us to choose to believe, otherwise he would have not given us free will.  In both side's attempts to prove the other side wrong, we forget what the bible says is even greater than faith.  Love.  How much prayer do we put into God to soften the hearts of unbelievers as we attempt to prove them wrong?

Why do I believe?  I have the evidence of what God has done in my life.  I have evidence in the comfort he has given me in times of trial such as something I'm going through now.  I attempt to "Test everything. Hold on to the good."  And I'm reminded of something my pastor once said.  He said if you find either a pastor or a scientist who says they have all the answers, they are equally arrogant.  We are not called to have all the answers, we are called to have faith, and seek wisdom as it is revealed to us.

Where's the love?