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Posts Tagged ‘Bible’

Make your own Bible.  Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.
    ―    Ralph Waldo Emerson
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On This Day In:
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2018 Choose Goodness
2017 Developing Translations
2016 Think Like A Hero
2015 Reductionism
2014 Gravitation, n.
2013 Ups And Downs
2012 Nerd Heard – And Good-Bye
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2011 Career Tips (Part 2)

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No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says:  He is always convinced that it says what he means.
    —    George Bernard Shaw
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On This Day In:
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2016 Marriage Advice
2015 To James (and ‘Tasha)
2014 Ssshhush, You Are Not Alone
2013 So I Chose Living…
2012 For However Short A Time…
2011 Take A Deep Breath And Continue (Or Not)
2010 Tootsie-Roll Day

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Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God;  and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
    —    1 John Ch4: V7
Who is the King of glory?
    —    Psalm 24:10
As for me, I shall call upon God;  and the Lord shall save me.
    —    Psalm 55:16
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Omnis cellula e cellula…
Latin for:  “Every cell from a cell
    —    Rudolph Virchow
[This was the very first entry in my journal when I was a child.  At the time, I hoped to be a scientist when I grew up and considered myself to be an evolutionist.  This statement was my shout-out to the universe (“I think, therefore I am!“) that I did not believe in religious dogma – a literal interpretation of the Bible as described in the book of Genesis.  Obviously, the irony of the statement versus the actual theory of evolution escaped me at the time.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
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2020 Republican Acceptance Of Abuse Of Office
2019 The Courage Of Four Skills
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2016 Feeling Endangered?
2015 One Day
2014 Too Bad
2013 Unfinished
2012 First Steps Along The Path
2011 A Small Part Of Future Webs

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Thus I have a strong recommendation to anyone who wants to get into the Bible:  Don’t simply read what other people have said about the meaning of a verse;  put the verse into your own words, by using the resources that are available.  You can do this even though you have just an ordinary, nontheological education.
    —    Donald E. Knuth
From his book:  “Things A Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About
[And the same holds true for learning about any non-trivial subject.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
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2019 Happy Valentine’s Day – 2019!!
2018 Happy Valentine’s Day – 2018!!
2017 Happy Valentine’s Day – 2017!!
2016 Happy Valentine’s Day – 2016!!
2015 To My Special Lady
2014 Awakening
2013 Drowsy In Comfort
2012 Happy Valentine’s Day
2011 Own Your Bible

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We found out that we learned a lot when we tried to put a small part of the Bible into our own words;  we agreed that this exercise was an ideal way to get into the real meaning of the original.  After this experience we were, in fact, glad that the Bible was not written in English; we even felt a bit sorry for Greek-speaking people, who don’t have the opportunity to translate the Bible into their own language.  We were able to do this sort of thing with the Bible in spite of the fact that we were untrained in Greek, because the experts have made their scholarship available in convenient reference works.
    —    Donald E. Knuth
From his book:  “Things A Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About
[For me, the important point is the value of alternative sources in learning.  Knuth is reading the Bible in his native tongue, then looking at and translating the original language, then looking at what other Bible scholars have said are their interpretations.  The rich tapestry of interwoven viewpoints is what is creating the learning and personal growth experience.  This is consistent with my own method of learning.  I purchase books by different authors to get a more varied presentation of the material.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
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2018 Tweets From The Disrupter-In-Chief
2017 Do We Still Listen To Her Silent Lips?
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2016 Why Do You Write/Blog?
2015 Can Your Repeat The Question, Please?
2014 On Faith
2013 My Name Is Charles Stein
2012 Faiths And Sorcery
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2011 Multi-Source Learning

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Today’s book review is a “funny” book.  This is a book about a series of seminars which were held to discuss an earlier book the author wrote.  The book I just completed is titled:  “Things A Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About“, (2001©) and the original book was titled:  “3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated” (1990©), both written by Donald E. Knuth.  Basically, a world famous computer scientist (Knuth) wanted to “know” something about the bible.  Having grown up as a Lutheran, he felt he had a general understanding of the Bible, but he felt he wanted a “depth” of knowledge as well.  As a computer scientist, Knuth felt one way to accurately get the measure of anything is to do a random sampling of the thing, and provided you used a large enough sampling, you could gain a “probable” understanding of thing being studied.  He therefore chose to study Chapter 3, verse 16 of each book in the Bible.
Knuth found he had to study the verses immediately before and after the target verse to actually determine the meaning of the verse.  He also discovered a number of other things which he found personally interesting.  For example, in examining the works of others who discussed the various verses, he found there was general (and specific) disagreement as to what was actually being said.  He therefore went back and personally translated the verses from Greek and Latin.  Knuth then rewrote the verses as he understood them and approached a friend (a world expert in calligraphy), who in turn approached a number of other world experts in calligraphy and asked if they would each take a verse and “interpret”.
The series of verses became a an integral part of the book and later a world traveled exhibition which is currently (permanently housed) held at the San Francisco Public Library.  (And which I hope to make a visit to see.)
To make a longer story shorter, the book (and exhibit) produced a wide amount of interest which led to the series of lectures, which in turn led to the book I’ve recently completed reading.  For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, just prior to my trip to Baltimore, I selected twelve books to take with me to read.  “Things…” was one of these twelve.  Before anyone gets the idea this was “planned”, the taking books was indeed planned, this book was not.  I found the book at my local Half Price Books store in the storefront $2 racks.  Complete serendipity!!
So much for background, how did I like the book?  I enjoyed it tremendously!  What are the things a computer scientist rarely talks about?  His religion, his faith and his God.  The lectures were interesting and faintly humorous.  The author’s brilliance (depth and breadth) are obvious and his humility is engaging.  Knuth’s reasons for belief are straight forward:  Faith gives me comfort and I choose to have / keep it.  He seems to be perfectly willing to straddle both worlds:  science and faith;  and, more importantly, he seems quite willing to let others enjoy whatever faith (or lack of faith) they may have.
If there is a weakness in his book, it is his occasional lapses into trying to explain a facet of God by comparing it to a known (or unknown) in science.  For example, his comparison of infinity (God) and human ability to comprehend (or more accurately not comprehend) very large values like Super K – which he describes as 10 to the 10th power, to the 10th power.  Because this value is greater than the projected number of atoms in the universe, the “value” of the number is purely symbolic.  It exists as an imaginary number (symbol) which we can describe, but which is still not the end of numbers, even though it would be impossible to even write the value down as anything except a symbol.  The bottom line is we can never understand God, we can only choose to believe or not.  Knuth chooses to believe.
I probably found 50-plus great ideas or things worth quoting in this book, so you’ll have to bear with me for a while as I post them periodically.  I will be scheduling them, so you won’t be hit with them all in one go, but you may find getting them over the course of the next month just as annoying.  Once again, highly recommended reading!
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