Stanford (trekearth)
Stanford University (trekearth)
Blogger Blogging
Blogger is a free service and reasonably reliable to use. There are problems, such as it is more difficult to edit posts with the new interface and so I still use the old one for editing new posts then switch back for everyday use, however the new interface does add some new features such as more statistics. There is also a problem with the post updates with this blog as sometimes it reverts back to the title of a post from months ago and this is not corrected until I publish a new post. There was also a problem in the past on the blog of a post comment count being incorrect on the blog main page although the count was correct associated with the URL of the individual post.
More seriously there is the issue of reader comments not being published occasionally and when this happens please email them to me.
According to Blogger statistics my pageviews have actually increased in 2012 for this blog and Satire And Theology, my other blog, is doing as well in 2012 as in 2011. So there is a slow growth I would deduce in my readership. I of course am attempting to make the blogs better. Adding webcam is an example. At the same time my amount of reader comments from fellow bloggers has declined because many of my fellow bloggers and Blogger bloggers have curtailed their blogging, or perhaps ceased to blog on an independent blogging site blog. Or perhaps some persons have quit blogging.
I am sympathetic. It may often seem like one is writing his or her own online diary, regardless if the work is very good/excellent or pretty good or less. Obtaining readership, comments, links, and followers is difficult to achieve for many unless one has many social connections and/or is very well-known is the field he or she is writing about.
In my particular case as a moderate conservative Reformed Theologian and Philosopher I have found that many, not all, male theological types and students, for example, seemingly do not want to link or follow with others that are too different. So in my case as I am Reformed, one may not like my 'Calvinistic' views or compatibilistic views expressed from my theodicy/problem of evil studies and therefore will not link with me or follow me with Google/Blogger Friend Connect or Facebook Networked Blogs. I am also Canadian (British) not American. Also I have found that bloggers are primarily female and under 25 and so this creates another challenge with age difference and presenting one self as safe, fun, and worth the risk of getting to know. I am of course safe, fun and worth getting to know!
Whatever the situation of the blogger, one can always philosophically use the excuse of 'stranger danger' and 'I do not know that person' and therefore I will not dialogue with him or her or follow or link with that person. To be honest here I reason most Christian bloggers most of which I have viewed on Blogger are simply in a sense for the most part 'preaching to the converted'. They stay within their own groups and preach to each other.
If one will not in a sense evangelize other Christians, say for example, someone like myself, by being willing to be in contact with me as a reciprocal follower, link or social networking friend, how does one realistically expect to reach the unregenerate in a Western World, for example that in many ways is increasingly non-Christian?
I shall answer. One cannot, for the most part. One will be irrelevant to outsiders in a blogging context. So is this being obedient to the spirit of Matthew 28: 19-20?
Matthew 28:19-20
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
19 [a] Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [b]always, even to the end of the age.”
I do not want to offend anyone here, I state this in love and truth, but I have blogged since 2004. On a related note I also have had to prepare an MPhil survey and PhD survey reaching to largely evangelicals, mainly in the United States and gained the same impression.
I am also aware that nothing makes up for knowing someone in person, and that knowing someone online is not the same, but I reason that sometimes reasonable steps of faith need to be made to give other people a chance. To be obedient to God's will, in all likelihood in certain situations.
With these kinds of challenges it is not a surprise that some persons have opted to blog on Facebook.
Facebook Blogging
On Facebook one is surrounded by family, close friends, casual friends, and 'stranger friends' that at least one knows enough to be trusted as a internet/web friend. This becomes in my mind a safer and perhaps more encouraging place to potentially blog than an independent site such as Blogger. As well as one posts one is more likely to earn the instant gratification of a Facebook 'Like' or a comment from one that somewhat knows that Facebook Friend as opposed to on Blogger where if anyone even reads a post, a comment may be quite unlikely.
Summary
I enjoy Facebook for dialoguing with friends, especially those at a distance and meeting new people in particular through my Blogger blogging. I promote my Blogger blogs through 'headers' or 'teasers' by publishing the latest post titles and some of the comments or portions of those comments. I also at times promote my blogs through my Facebook status updates. Personally, I am not interested in blogging on Facebook because I already have a sufficient theological/philosophical online presence with Blogger and for the sake of a balanced life strongly reason that I should do not blog further. I also personally prefer an independent blog site to blog with where one can have photos and other as opposed to blogging on Facebook.
As well, on Facebook hypothetically let us state from a Christian ministry perspective one has 5, 000 friends, and I have nowhere near that many. So, when a person blogs on Facebook he or she can potentially reach 5, 000 friends plus more persons if the profile is open as mine is open. However on Blogger many more persons potentially can be reached worldwide with a well-marketed blog in time and one can still promote that Blogger blog or WordPress blog, or other blog on Facebook as well. I reason that as a potential ministry tool using Blogger and Facebook together with Blogger as the main blog has in many cases more ministry potential than simply blogging on Facebook. But again I am sympathetic to those that prefer to just blog on Facebook as it definitely has it benefits over Blogger as noted.
Definitions
Calvinism and Reformed
Calvinism being the theological system stemming from the work of Reformation theologian John Calvin and for example his Institutes of the Christian Religion and his doctrine of TUILP. Grenz, Guretzki, and Nordling (1999: 23). I have been influenced by Calvin's work in The Bondage and Liberation of The Will, The Institutes and TULIP, and I am member of a Reformed Presbyterian Church here in Canada. On issues of sovereignty, free will and determinism I could be viewed as basically Calvinistic, Reformed, Presbyterian. But on the issue of Baptism, although I do not view infant baptism as heretical by any means I primarily hold to believers baptism as would a Reformed Baptist. I therefore see myself as Reformed primarily and not a Calvinist or Calvinistic. It can be quite difficult to find a Reformed Baptist church here in Canada and as well many Baptists tend to place too much emphasis on libertarian free will, for example. I am quite comfortable with the PCA as a denomination in a Canadian context.
Compatibilism/Incompatibilism
P.S. Greenspan writes that compatibilism holds to free will and determinism being compatible. Greenspan (1998: 1). Louis P. Pojman, defines compatibilism as the concept that an act can be entirely determined and yet be free in the sense that it was done voluntarily and without compulsion. Pojman (1996: 596). J.S. Feinberg explains that compatibilism does not allow for coercion or force, but holds that God, or some outside force, can simultaneously determine with the use of persuasion, that an action will or will not take place. Feinberg (1986: 24). Feinberg writes that certain nonconstraining conditions could strongly influence actions, in conjunction with human free will performing these actions. Feinberg (1994: 60). With this viewpoint, there will be no contradiction in stating that God would create human beings who were significantly free, unconstrained, and yet committed actions that God willed. Feinberg (2001: 637). W.T. Stace (1952)(1976) explains that moral responsibility is consistent with determinism in the context of soft determinism and requires it. Stace (1952)(1976: 29). If human actions are uncaused then reward or punishment would be unjustified. Stace (1952)(1976: 29). Stace reasons that there must be at least some human cause within human actions to make them morally responsible acts. Stace (1952)(1976: 30).
Indeterminism is equated with incompatibilism which states that God, or any other being, cannot cause by force or coercion any human action, nor can any action be simultaneously willed by God or any other being, for the human action to remain significantly free. Compatibilism would agree with incompatibilism that God or any other being cannot cause by force or coercion any significantly free human action, but contrary to incompatibilism thinks that God can simultaneously will significantly free human actions.
Theodicy
Robert M. Adams notes that the word theodicy is from the Greek, as 'theos' is God and 'dike' is justice. The term arose with the book from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1710entitled Theodicy. A good definition of theodicy is the explanation of how the infinite, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent God accomplishes his plans within his creation where the problem of evil exists. Simon Blackburn writes that theodicy is the part of theology concerned with defending the omnibenevolence and omnipotence of God while suffering and evil exists in the world. Blackburn (1996: 375).
ADAMS, ROBERT. M (1996) ‘Theodicy’, in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
FEINBERG, JOHN S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.
GRENZ, STANLEY J., DAVID GURETZKI AND CHERITH FEE NORDLING (1999) Pocket Dictionary of Theological TermsPhilosophy: The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company.
STACE, W.T. (1952)(1976) Religion and the Modern Mind, in John R. Burr and Milton Goldinger (eds), Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, London, Collier Macmillan Publishers.
I placed this on the other blog previously. My accidental, originally unknown movie in my attempts to learn Microsoft webcam. I think it at least sort of humourous.
Thank you (August 29, 2012)
