Category Archive

A little over a month after finishing the first draft, I’ve started revising Inhabitants of Eternity. Ideally I’ll have a finished copy of the manuscript by the end of January or perhaps mid-February. I’ve started thinking about the final product as well and decided that I will make the content available online under a Creative Commons license in addition to self-publishing hard copies using a printer such as Lulu. I’ve even discussed designing a book cover with a friend.

I’ll keep you updated on my progress as I come across interesting excerpts to share.

Dear Friends / Family,

It’s that time of year again! What a wonderful year it has been for all of us. The whole family has had a great year, full of memories and adventure. Where should we begin to recount how very blessed we have been? We have never done a Christmas letter before, but fortunately there are letter-writing tools available for people like us.

To start off, ______Deb___________ has been very involved in:
     ___ the mafia as a money launderer
     ___ restoring peace to Iraq
     _X_ starting a homeless shelter for abandoned and battered cats
     _X_ playing extreme Scrabble
     ___ empathizing with the warming globe
     _X_ scratch and sniff lottery, but not for the money

Meanwhile, in ___Pennsylvania_____, ______Jacob_________ has been pursing:
     ___ world conquest
     ___ perfecting sleek and discreet flossing technique
     _X_ an enriching career in hydrotherapy
     _X_ rehabilitation of glue-sniffing ants
     ___ moderate success in minimal endeavors occasionally
     ___ study at the Palestinian glass-blowing institute

And last, but certainly not least, _______Luke_________ has enjoyed living in _Scotland & Minnesota_ while succeeding in:
     _X_ teaching mute people how to walk
     ___ further developing fungus taxonomy
     _X_ acquiring a wide variety of superpowers including, but not limited to:
          ___ infrared vision
          ___ super strength
          ___ the ability to melt
          _X_ an uncanny ability to talk to fish, although they don’t usually talk
                 back
     ___ continued development of Opti-Grab™ technology
     ___ being macho
     _X_ selling glue to ants

In short, we could not have possibly asked for a better year. Some people wish for a perfect life; we lived it, and we are so blessed. We could go on, but we are sure your lives are so much fuller than ours—and so busy too. We only wish that we could have shared each special moment with every one of you.

Sincerely / Love / Affectionately / Yours,

_______Deb__________     _______Jacob________     _______Luke_________

My NaNoWriMo novel is finished, and I am quite pleased with the result. The story Inhabitants of Eternity is a journey of philosophical and spiritual ideas set in the context of near-future scientific discoveries. In particular, the Terrestrial Planet Finder mission will be capable of observing terrestrial planets around other stars, which includes the ability to determine the gases present in the atmosphere. It is conceivable, then, that in the next century we will observe a planet that, at a distance, looks nearly identical to our own life-filled world. Though we have continually been pushed into mediocrity by the discoveries of astronomy and cosmology, Earth is still the only inhabited planet that we know of, and so the uniqueness of Earth’s phenomenon remains a steadfast truth for many people. Set in the near future when this mission first starts surveying the skies, Inhabitants of Eternity explores the implications of such a discovery on both religious and secular thought.

The story takes place through a series of dialogues that explore our conception of knowledge, the implications of biological evolution, the likelihood of extraterrestrials, and the relationship between religion and science. The main character is also a dreamer, which provides a unique setting for his own exploration of these personal and profound ideas. I have written several essays that touch on some of the themes in this story, but I until now I had not outlined the totality of these thoughts into a single work of discussion. I certainly learned a lot from this process, and I am looking forward to what the eventual finished work will look like. I like to give my writings time to ripen, so I will likely not start revisions until January or February; revision seems most beneficial with a fresh look at the manuscript.

For thus says the high and lofty one
     who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
     and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
     and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57:15)

Well, I made it. After a rather intense crunch week I managed to both finish my story and meet the NaNoWriMo goal. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out, though it certainly needs a lot of work. I’ll talk about the story itself in a few days, but right now I’m off to party.

It’s crunch week, and I just hit 35k tonight. I’m not too surprised, though; after all, procrastination makes life more interesting.

I’m happy with how the story is turning out so far. Only four days left, but I think I can manage 3,800 words a night until Friday.

I’m still behind–I really should be halfway through today–but it does feel good to reach the 20k mark. I should be able to make some good progress when I’m back in Minnesota next week, too.

Also, I put a new excerpt up at my NaNoWriMo profile.

I’ve been on a bit of a slower posting schedule, mostly because I’ve been busy with work and with this novel. I hit the 10k mark tonight; even though I am still a bit behind schedule I managed to get quite a bit accomplished tonight.

As an exercise/preview, I’ve asked my two main characters what do they want more than anything else in the world?. This book is an exploration of ideas dealing with scientific and religious viewpoints, so a lot of it progress through dialogue between pairs.

Shane - Understanding without rejection of tradition.

Art - Complete and total freedom.

Greta - Cupcakes! And maybe a pretty ribbon for her hair.

I hit the 10% mark tonight, which places me right on schedule so far for my novel. I’m really enjoying the process so far. I’m learning how to ignore my inner editor and just write. I am also pleased with how the form and style the story has evolved so far.

You can check out an excerpt at my NaNoWriMo profile.

I just discovered at Free Range Organic Human that November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short). The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel from the 1st to the 30th of November, motivated by the thousands of other participants, a hard and fast deadline, and sheer willpower.

I’ve decided to go for it; nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? My current working title is Inhabitants of Eternity (bonus points for getting the reference), although that may very well change. You can track my progress by viewing my NaNoWriMo profile. I’ll also post weekly updates on my success or failure here.

My essay I wrote for the Pale Blue Dot III workshop was published in the August issue of the journal Astrobiology. The paper discusses the conflict that often occurs between the belief in intelligent design or creationism with the theory of evolution, particularly because the underlying story for describing both of these perspectives is sometimes similar.

View a PDF of the complete article.

Part of the Inner Exploration Carnival hosted at Dreaming Life.

I have been keeping a dream journal at Lucidipedia for about two weeks now. I don’t ever remember having terrific dream recall, although I may have been better at it when in elementary school. I know that I have always dreamed, and I often would have vague recollections of dreams, but most of the details and memories of dreams would fade as soon as I woke up.

I am amazed at how simply writing down my dreams has helped me develop the skill of dream recall. Without fail (at least so far), if I go to bed thinking, “I need to remember what I dream tonight”, I inadvertently wake up with enough memory of at least one dream that I can write it down before I forget. And, once I’ve written it down, I sometimes even remember other parts of the dream! On the flip side, if I go to bed without consciously planning to remember, I will wake up with no memory of dreaming that night.

Part of the goals of a dream journal is an assessment of personal dream patterns, so that I can eventually recognize when I am in a dream. Overall, my dreams are actually not terribly interesting to me, as the main “dream-like” features (or dreamsigns) are context-based–such as mixing the locations of Pennsylvania friends, Minnesota friends, and work colleagues.

Thematically, my dreams usually focus on things I have been thinking about during the day. If I am excited about my work or anticipating an event the next day, it will probably appear in my dream. However, I have not yet been able to identify a pattern for the characters that appear in my dream. I might have a particular event or theme on the mind, but the characters who participate are often completely out of context.

After just two weeks, I can certainly say this has been a valuable experiment. The dream journal will continue, and I’ll post updates when anything interesting happens.

A follow-up to Faith Without Words.

Books are to memes what chromosomes are to genes.

One advantage of the written word is that it allows inconsistencies in thought to persist longer, perhaps indefinitely. If a certain line of thinking (a religious tradition, for example) leads to self-contradiction, oral tradition will eventually identify and rectify the conflict–perhaps by shifting to a new paradigm. This is because there is no tangible authoritative truth statement in oral tradition; the exploration of an idea proceeds easier and converges toward a useful, working solution. This does not mean oral tradition is easily changed; it simply has a better response in reaching functional and consistent thought.

With a written authority, this exploratory process is more difficult. When a self-contradiction is identified, there is not an easy way to bring about change–because the written authority itself is being challenged. Discussion always begins with the written source, often assuming the writings have absolute authority. Exploration of new ideas to resolve self-contradiction are more difficult, then, as the challenged memes are inscribed in an immutable source. If the ideas in the written source are the best possible solution, then there is no problem. But for a self-contradictory worldview, the presence of a written authority impedes progress toward a consistent outlook.

Many religions of the world use one or more holy texts as the source or confirmation of a divine message. The Bible and Qur’an, according to many traditions, are divinely inspired and contain the necessary information for attaining salvation.

If a crucial divine message is contained in a book, then literacy is a prerequisite for salvation. Independent development of a writing system has occurred only three times in human history (Cuneiform, Maya hieroglyphs, and Linear B), and these developments took place late in human history, even after the Agricultural Revolution.

Writing is clearly a human invention (and a recent one, at that), yet it would seem that certain divinely inspired messages require the ability to read. Books are certainly a convenient means of sharing information, and there is no reason books should not spread religious ideas as well as secular ones. But the idea of a holy text that forms the basis for a faith or religion is questionable, since it requires a human invention in order to access a divine message.