chaotic

the list (before tuesday @ 12:30 pm):
1. passably understand and be familiar with the following:
- hep-th/0205236 - karch, katz: adding flavour
- hep-th/0201253 - d'hoker, freedman: review of ads/cft
- hep-th/0506184 - kovtun, starinets: qnm in finite-T ads/cft
- hep-th/0605158 - herzog, karch, et al: heavy quark in the plasma
- hep-ph/0602229 - karch, katz, et al: soft-wall model
- 0706.0368 - chesler, yaffe: heavy quark wake
- hep-th/0512125 - karch, o'bannon: holo. r.g. for probe branes*
- 0711.0736 - lin, shuryak: zero-T finite mass energy calc.*
- 0705.0994 - bak, karch, yaffe: debye screening in ads*
2. review the following topics:
- higgs mechanism in the standard model*
- [gauge] spontaneous symmetry breaking*
- basic BSM models (MSSM, mSUGRA, technicolor, little higgs)
- anomalies (and the rho meson)*
- beta function for yang-mills*
- effective potential
- helicity-phase-space decay*
- ward identities & conserved currents
- nuclear phenomenology*
- bag model
- qcd phase diagram*
- chiral lagrangian
- isospin constraints*
- wigner-eckhart thm. (savage is on my committee)*
- nucleon EFT*
- basic large N qcd
- fundamental particles
- CP violation & strong CP problem [a.k.a. axions]
- primary decay channels*
- basic jet phenomenology*
- collinear singularities*
- parton model*
- neutrinos & seesaw mechanism*
- flux tubes & regge trajectories
- basic lattice thy. (wilson action, domain-wall fermions, glueballs, wilson's sketch of confinement)
- review of anything the yaffe's ever assigned. ever.
- theta-vacua in qcd*
- tunneling in qft (instanton/soliton)
- lippmann-schwinger & born approximation*
- resonance and the t-matrix
- bound states in qft - hydrogen, non-rel. mesons (HQEFT)
- landau-ginzburg model for critical phenomena
- block-spinning the ising model (a.k.a. wilson r.g.)*
- anything else I think of along the way
3. for the talk:
- fix figures for new string initial conditions
- add extra slides:*
a. massive quark case
b. original i.c. & results
c. partons and parton reconstruction
d. finite-T
e. comments on quenched approx (Nc>>Nf)
f. eom's, eqn's, formal results
g. relation to son's real-time procedure
- give practice talk on monday afternoon*
- final revision monday night*

a * denotes some time needed to review. no * indicates completion.

oh, and a cool picture:
baryon charge density for a massless quark-antiquark production event in N=4 super yang-mills


---

"steven always loved a story
since he was a little boy
he’d grab a book and climb into his mother’s lap
but his mother, oh God bless her
she loved that little boy
and she'd only read the parts she thought were happy

and he grew to be a man
but he never understood
that there’s always something bad
between the good and the good

every night there by his bedside
he’d offer up his prayers
ask Jesus to keep his friends and family from harm
so when his dad came down with cancer
and mom, she wrecked the car
he knew that Jesus must have never really cared

cause he grew to be a man
and he never understood
that there’s always something bad
between the good and the good

and he fell in love
with a perfect girl
she smiled so pretty
it tore his world apart
when she left without saying goodbye

well, he always loved a story
since he was a little boy
he’d grab a book and climb into his mother’s lap
and if she’d read the parts where knees got skinned,
kids didn't share and the cheaters win
well, he might believe that Jesus really cared

but he grew to be a man
and he never understood
that there’s always something bad
between the good and the good"
- andrew osenga

snowy thoughts from a scattered mind

1. the general exam is flippin' scary man. 10 days.
2. something I want to do in the near future: take a charcoal grill and good beer out to a really snowy beach.
3. I've fallen in man-love with andrew osenga. he's got a free ep on his website that's pretty sweet; he reminds me of a quieter derek webb circa 2000ish. if you can, listen to 'priest and the iron rain.'
4. life's crazy; again: apologies for being largely incommunicado. 10 days folks.. probably a celebration that night too (december 11th). if not, then after liane's b-day stuff the next day.
5. the lovely sheena is amazing. and really sappy. and the rest is private. :)
6. soup is really cheap at safeway right now. like, the microwaveable ones are a buck each (instead of three!).
7. get to see my housemate phil perform tonight. awesome.
8. putting sin to death is necessary and only God accomplishes it. but we choose whether we will freely participate.
9. the word 'cute' has entered my vocabulary in a very limited sense. I don't know what this means.
10. it's interesting that in first thessalonians 4, paul talks about pleasing God and his first practical suggestion is to flee sexual immorality. that probably says something about the church he was writing to, but it's also a reminder of the fact that our sexual life is not a box separate from the rest: it is the most intimate and revealing expression of love and obedience on this earth (to God and in my case a woman) and therefore of our present being.
10a. connection to idolatry and unfaithfulness.
11. 'it is so hard to believe precisely because it is so hard to obey.' [!]
12. there are some things that can be known but most be set aside; a form of earthly (and perhaps even revealed) truth that would try to replace Authority.
13. quantum behaviour offers awesome metaphors for human interaction.
14. when people talk about separation of church and state, somehow it became common knowledge that personal religious belief should not (in our republic) affect or determine political persuasion. so, people that don't support abortion because of religious belief (like myself) are attempting to violate separation of church and state. but this is complete bullshit and people should know it! nowhere in the constitution or any legal document has it ever been written that people are allowed to support a political cause only for certain state-sanctioned reasons. if congress passes a law and people justified that law on religious grounds, that doesn't breach church and state. argh.
14a. gay marriage is another great example; so is stem-cell research. let congress pass laws! if you don't like those laws, elect new representatives who pledge to repeal those laws and pass new ones that you agree with! quit whining about 'unconstitutionality' when you really mean 'I disagree! hard!'
14b. by trying to make the constitution say a bunch of things it doesn't (and thereby substitute ill-founded judicial authority for representative government), we are in far more danger of having a pseudo-religious government than from a bunch of christians who want to pass policies in accordance with their beliefs.
14c. again, what audacity! 'you're only allowed to support a policy if you support it for certain reasons that I decide!' as though the act of deciding what's sanctioned isn't blatantly religious in nature.
15. this business in sudan with the british teacher is awful. savages.
16. similar with saudi arabia and the woman who was raped; and then sentenced to be whipped and go to prison.
17. multiculturalism has become state-supported dogma in some circles. or at least, folks are trying to make that happen. how else can we see human-rights-violation charges for an expression of free speech?
17a. like the folks crying out against european cartoonists a year ago for their 'hateful expression.' what about the christians/jews murdered by rioting crowds in the middle east?
18. this 'annapolis peace process' is a total fraud. as revealed by hamas coming out right after and talking about how there's no room for jews in the middle east. imagine if israel made an official statement that there was no room for palestinians in palestine.
18a. right up there with that nonsense a summer ago: hezbollah starts war with israel; israel responds to acts of war with [gasp!] acts of war; hezbollah targets israeli civilians and then operates from civilian zones in lebanon; israel fights back; world condemns israel for 'disproportionate' warfare in addition to deliberately targeting civilians; hezbollah fills rockets with shrapnel to maximize israeli civilian misery; followed by silence.
18b. once you make excuses for a person or group's choices ('they're oppressed!'), you've tried to strip them of their most fundamental human expression: responsibility for their freely chosen actions.
19. ok, enough self-righteousness from me. God willing.
20. why is it so hard to behold things that have factual basis without becoming self-righteous about it? why does observation suck in my pride so quickly? the judgment of others that I fall into is unacceptable.
20a. knowledge is a clanging cymbal in the face of love. just because something might be true doesn't make it supersede the call to love.
21. sheena's way too good for me: still too true. undeserved and rich love..
22. dinner. :)

eclectica superbia

the mentality of a seattle pedestrian: 'by law, I am entitled to inconvenience anyone within 100 yards; and if I should inconvenience you, ye shalt be delighted.'

you know what they say about gas in a vacuum.. [in the absence of true religion, man will substitute idolatry that soothes his conscience]
- and with every new idolatry comes a new inquisition! 'ye shalt inquire/think/travel as I mandate! and ye shalt be delighted!'

the modus operandi of governmental generosity: the provision of the grand inquisitor. 'let us unite under the earthly banner of bread and thereby fashion happiness for all! [for is not living slavery preferable to dying freedom?]'

where the 'definition' substitutes for argument and all applaud: for, if I obscure fact with language, what becomes of discourse? how can we inquire when the very words that enable inquiry are removed or rendered meaningless? [if 'acts of war' are merely an instance of 'irresponsibility' and, by this language, I enforce the personal ethic, I have destroyed - by definition - the question of casus belli. 'there is no need for discourse/inquiry because we already know the answer!']

generosity at the point of a societal sword: some words about 'living by the sword' come to mind..

---

say I generate a deductive program: I must begin with some set of hypotheses and criteria - chosen by me! the conclusion is the definition, but the definition was a choice. and who are you to criticize or demand my choice?

ahh, but I can be [must be!] held accountable here on one point, for no matter what definitions I choose, the following is definition-invariant:
'I cannot claim to not contradict myself when, in fact, I contradict myself.'

and so, yes, I can define whatever I choose; but if I step beyond the humility of the mathematician (who freely recognizes the hedonism of his act of definition), then I contradict myself before all.

an example: the conclusion of a definition justifying the choice of definition.
- this is the logical content of political rhetoric, whether from the 'old school' or its 'shining examples of purity and light,' hailed as the saviours of the modern age.
- it is the vacuum of reason that has inevitably followed from the degradation of language.

---

I just started reading karl barth; thus far, it's been as natural as washing in a stream.

the growth of love..

is a tender and fiery affair.

all things in their time under heaven: this is sovereignty.

true reconciliation is as simple as grace.

relationship is not ownership.

"seek ye first" and "all shall be added;" including perfect, covering righteousness.

to soar in love; and yet fresh!

and madness yet continues..

just parametrize your ignorance

you've got to know what you don't know. call it "lambda." whatever. anyway, someone should tell that to james lovelock:

Prof Lovelock will say in a lecture to the Royal Society: "Any economic downturn or planned cutback in fossil fuel use, which lessened aerosol density, would intensify the heating.

"If there were a 100 per cent cut in fossil fuel combustion it might get hotter not cooler. We live in a fool's climate. We are damned if we continue to burn fuel and damned if we stop too suddenly."

in other news, the world will cease to function if we solve world hunger. gaia will not be pleased.

---

it used to be that scientists upheld honest epistemology; instead of adopting the modus operandi of your typical social theorist.

meh; saying "we actually don't have a clue" just doesn't make as good a headline.

---

lumberjack's law: "anything bad that cannot be directly linked to george w. bush will be blamed on global warming."

brief update

alrighty, so life is exceedingly full at the moment. but a brief synopsis of current events/thoughts is good:
1. the upcoming week shall be named 'chaos.' it will include the following:
- preparation for a journal club talk (type iib sugra compactified on ads5 x s5; ooooohhhh =p)
- the delivery of said talk.
- production of center of charge plots for massless diffusion in the N=4 sym plasma as produced from ads/cft with (D7/D3) massless flavour.
- [hopefully] the production of actual charge density plots for the same. or at least the beginning/middle of this.
2. consequently, this week is rather shot to hell. however, I will make myself available sunday afternoon/evening for spending time with folks. that includes church and post-church monkage.
3. after this week, I'll be heading out to s/v for the halloween retreat. sheena will probably be coming as well. :) glorious!
4. family stuff has stabilized by the grace of God. thank you for your prayer. 'the prayer of a righteous man availeth much.'
5. the Gospel is hard. I think I've spent a lot of time over the past few years thinking/meditating on complicated things in Christianity instead of on these simple facts: forgiveness is hard; praying for your enemies is hard; walking the extra mile is hard; confession and repentance are hard; giving up expectations for myself [and others] is hard; trusting in His provision every day is hard; casting aside anxiety and self-torment is hard; &c.
6. I apologize for being sequestered primarily over the past month. it's been a busy/quasi-traumatic season with family/school stuff.
7. for a long time (and especially after the hell I put rachel through), I've been concerned with my self-conception and self-awareness of love. in other words, [until recently] every time I thought I was falling in love or love was awakened in my heart, I was fooling myself. the image was present without the substance. and so I suffered (from my own hand) anxiety on whether I would ever know the truth of love in my heart.
I think I can report that my anxiety was an intellectual/academic exercise that existed not because my heart was deficient, but simply because I had never fallen in love.
I can say that now because both sheena and I believe that we are falling in love with each other. I find myself hesitant to say how deep or substantive that love is, but this one thing I believe firmly: that we are presently in the act of falling in love, and that deeply. how deep and how substantive I don't think we can say for some time, nor is it important that we have an answer to that. the matter is simple and clear: love from the Source of Love is alive and growing between us, and we trust to His timing for how that grows and deepens. yes!

ok; to the grindstone. [how's that for a transition?]

'madness!'

defiance is cooperation

from yahoo! news-

"iaea: iranian cooperation significant"

read the whole thing, but the sections of particular relevance are quoted below:

The U.N. nuclear agency said Thursday that Iran was producing less nuclear fuel than expected and praised Tehran for "a significant step forward" in explaining past atomic actions that have raised suspicions.

in related news, the league of nations praised germany for 'efficiently invading poland in such a way as to minimize civilian casualties.'

At the same time, the report confirmed that Iran continued to expand its uranium enrichment program, reflecting the Islamic republic's defiance of the U.N. Security Council. Still, U.N. officials said, both enrichment and the building of a plutonium-producing reactor was continuing more slowly than expected.

Iran promptly touted the report as supporting Iran's stand that the U.S.-led calls for a third round of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment were unjustified.

oh, that's rich. (get it?)

more seriously, there are two things that leap out and smack the reader:
1. iran is being praised for decreasing its production of nuclear fuel that can be used for civilian and military application.. while expanding its enrichment program which has been the biggest controversy thus far. or, more simply, the iranians have less capacity for commercial nuclear fuel than expected and a proportionally (and possibly absolute; too bad we don't have access to data) higher weapons capacity. if the cognitive dissonance in the iaea's statement doesn't make you squint your eyes and shake your head in confusion, sit back, and think it through again. perhaps the iaea should consult merriam-webster. or if they don't like them, go for the gold and use oxford.
2. iran comes off looking just as foolish. "you shouldn't sanction us on our enrichment programs because your (toothless) nuclear watchdog just confirmed that we're expanding them in defiance of your earlier resolutions.. umm, wait.. let me check and see if there's a typo.. nope, that's right. take that, western imperialists. "

International Atomic Energy Agency Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen, who brokered the cooperation deal with Iran, highlighted the importance of the agreement, noting that Tehran's past refusal to answer the IAEA's questions triggered Security Council sanctions in the first place.

well that's something new. so, olli, let me get this straight: if I, in defiance of non-proliferation treaties and all that jazz, develop a nuclear weapons program and discuss wiping certain random nations off the map, it's all good as long as I answer your questions about how and why?

no, olli, no.

France, a close U.S. ally on Iran, said cooperation by Tehran was not enough to eliminate the threat of new U.N. penalties.

"As long as there is not a clear ... decision from Iran about the suspension of activities linked to enrichment, we will pursue ... looking into a third sanctions resolution," French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said in Paris.

wait. did I just see that phrase: "france, a close u.s. ally on iran"?! I need to sit back for a minute to take that in. whoa.

Iran immediately praised the U.N. agency for "its professional approach toward the case."

"This report ended all the baseless U.S. accusations against Iran," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted as saying by the state IRNA news agency. "Once again the agency confirmed validity of Iran's stances," he said, adding that "the U.S. had deceived the world over Iran's nuclear activities by claiming that Iran was reprocessing plutonium."

oh goody. professional u.n. agencies as praised by hyper-fundamentalist, potentially genocidal rogue states. there's a complement you work for years to get.

that's almost as funny as reading the list of the countries on the u.n. commission for human rights. or what obama's reaction must have been after getting endorsed by the man who oversaw the [mis]management of the iranian hostage business (who, for good measure, demonstrates his irrelevance in his writings on the ISG and of course on israel [anyone who sees the iranian problem as synonymous with that of israeli-palestinian peace has a few minor issues in the head], where he has the virtue of not being as intellectually/morally depraved as carter himself).

One of the U.N. officials also noted that construction of the plutonium-producing reactor at the city of Arak had slowed in recent months.

He said that "design difficulties, getting equipment, materials and components, and fuel technology, plus perhaps some political considerations," could be causing the delay.

The allusion to "political considerations" appeared linked to reports that Iranian officials might be considering stopping construction of the Arak reactor in another sign of good will calculated to blunt the threat of new U.N. sanctions.

so, properly understood, iran is being praised for alluding to slowly defying unsec resolutions for reasons unrelated to technical difficulty?

what the hell?

right now the enlightenment is hurting. metaphysically.

gravitas

these twin pillars of life are what conversations among men of God always seem to come back to, drawn in by the inexorable grip of their majesty and/or bewilderment: women and theology.

this principle is how derek webb can start writing a song about a woman and finish by singing about martin luther. it's how I know that a conversation with dave/bryan/russell/etc. still has a long way to go. at least one must be discussed; preferably both.

so we have both today on this most enjoyable sabbath.

---

we're still trying to determine when we became 'official,' but as of either august 7th or july 16th, a lovely woman named sheena kern and I are in relationship. which is pretty stinking awesome. she hasn't realized that she's far too good for me, but she maintains that I'm too good for her. this probably indicates a (mutual) healthy wonder before either of us say another word.

she's a wondrous gift. and because of that she's tremendously distracting: physics has become exponentially harder to do the last month here.

also because of that, I find myself just sitting here and stopping. which is all well and good, but fails to convey the joy and excitement we feel at what is growing between us here.

and so I'll write a small list of observations as a substitute for expressing that which I don't yet know how to do on something so revelatory as a weblog.
- I now know that sheena (and likely women in general) possess a unique superpower that I was never warned about. I gather that she's never used it before now, but I also gather that she enjoys it. this mighty power is this: the ability to render a previously normal and self-respecting man (perhaps only one) into a sappy, corny, romanticized sack of goo before the woman he beholds. I think it's a good thing that she's used this power responsibly, otherwise the world might cease to function.
- physical intimacy is important and also representative. certain pieces of it make a great deal of sense in a way they never did before.
- vulnerability (emotional, spiritual, physical) is a choice and not something that can be expected. it is not a negotiable quid pro quo. it should never be demanded nor feel required. it is hers (mine) to give and mine (hers) to joyfully receive and wisely steward; both of us glory in that.
- "all things in their time under heaven;" so important! to live presently before God and her with appropriate joy, not attaining to the future and what lies ahead before its time but satisfied with His current provision and gift in her and the present state of our relationship.. what relief and what blessing. to be casual and restrained when it is appropriate; to pursue and be pursued in its right time; etc. this is a piece of what it means to be live in His will - that all of this is attained by Him and without the slightest anxiety or overanalysis, that we have been thoroughly natural and Natural. glory!
- I have never found it so hard to be away from a person nor so easy to be around a person. again, what joy we find in living out what God has lovingly sanctioned.
- and also what wonder! my mind and reason feebly attempts to categorize and analyze, to understand the cause-and-effect here, the mechanism for the love slowly growing between us. and it fails; spectacularly. there is nothing I can point to that yields an explanation for why we feel so comfortable around each other (from not even knowing the other for that long), why she commands such attention, or why I feel the way I do around her. I pray that it is not merely (or at least, not only) the meeting of some deep-seeded and hither-to-unrecognized need, but meaningfully the growth of that which remains so mysterious to me. and the same in her.
- the time will come when we encounter each other's sin and flaws in the passive (recognition) and active (hurt). and He'll make us who He wants us to be for Him and the other in that: to be in His will and also to lift up the other. what happiness that that is His domain and that He will do it well.
- pleasure and happiness are majestic and part of God's sanction for our redeemed lives [!], where the pleasure is richly enjoyed as a gift the rich Giver with eyes on Him. so good.
- "what madness!"

---

and now for the other pillar:

- Godly things are those that are truly functional. the converse is also true, where we understand functional to mean the long-term (or, if you will, 'sustainable') form of it rather than a short-term phantom.
- for this reason, God gives balance as a gift that accompanies a walk with Him; making balance the object of our efforts makes it as crass an idol as a golden calf.
- ethics and morality are, insofar as the individual is concerned, synonymous: external conscience according to chosen criteria.
-> and this is yet again the uniqueness of Jesus: a psychologically robust (and functional!) alternative to the slavery of the category of conscience. for the rebellion that is slavery to sin is also slavery to the knowledge of sin and thereby the self-torment of mighty conscience (internal, external). LOVE!

- the modern failure for people to understand the limits of their knowledge is simultaneously responsible for (i.) the growing religiosity of science and (ii.) the growing scientification of religion. the former comes from an ignorance of science and the latter from shallowness.
-> the atheist scientifies religion by imposing an inappropriate and artificial set of criteria for knowledge. by a priori dismissing revelation from his knowledge-gathering and discussion, he reveals himself to be hopelessly self-absorbed and ignorant of his rebellion.
-> the religious scientify religion by treating that same revelation contemptuously and seeking methodical explanations for the fundamentally unreachable.
- deductive philosophy is supposition by another name.
- nondeductive philosophy glorifies the self to the status of Truth; for where does determination then reside?

- total depravity is this: that our 'love' is deadly to the point of the cross; that our response to true Love is hatred and violence.
-> this revelation is consistent through human history but only demythologized in and by Scripture.
-> and thus the vacuity of morality: our depravity is represented by our conduct but is rooted in a confrontation with Jesus Himself. doing nice things is deadly if that doing obscures this deep truth.

- 'suffering is a volitional enhancement upon preexisting pain.' and so Christian suffering is volitional and conscious.
- and so must Christian living be: volitional and conscious, for who claims to be unconscious of his deepest love?

"love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself"
- s.k.

a modern clausewitz

carl von clausewitz:
one of the most influential military theorists in history.

to be measured against

a modern marvel, whose brilliance is certainly unique. for thousands of years, we've never seen a credible man articulate a vision that can be summarized by the credo "pander to your enemies, betray and kill your allies, and refuse to fight back."

that is, until now. may the free world please welcome barack obama to its center stage. bravo!

UPDATE: oh, and of course the credo is a bit over-the-top. but gaffes are to be enjoyed..

the futility of apologetics

another old draft.. partially completed. I may continue this later.

---

one of the dangers of being an intellectual in an intellectual culture is this: to ascribe far more importance to logic and thought than is deserved. this is just as true in modern Christendom as in the secular world. the fundamental error is a failure to understand the essence of Truth.

here we note the capitalized Truth, which we denote differently from mere truth; what is the distinction? truth is something we can appropriate with earthly knowledge, systematic or otherwise. truth is a thing that is passed down from one generation to another; a man works for a lifetime to understand a problem or create an invention, and having succeeded, enables his successor to reproduce his work in nary a month. once found (a key word!), truth represents a piece of the absolute and is not regarded as truth unless it can be found by means of a systematic walk. this is all well and good - how else do we make sense of our moon-lit world? - until we do the inevitable and mistake the systematic for the absolute. the systematic was employed to find a facet of the absolute, but that is all! it is a most severe conflation to equivocate in this way, for it leads to confused thinking and even more confused living.

and so it is with all human religion, philosophy, and science.

but this is a description of truth rather than a distinction with Truth. to distinguish we must know what we mean by Truth. but Truth, if it exists, can not be given a clean and simple definition by man, for otherwise it would have been appropriated by the same earthly knowledge that characterizes truth. no, this 'Truth' - naively relating to the sense of Absolute things independent of concept, construction, language, et al - must not, cannot have a definition from human lips. but what sense does it make to talk about something we cannot even precisely discuss?

at this point in our analysis, we are like a man searching his hometown for a distant relation whose name he does not know, whose face he has not seen, and of whom he has only heard scattered fragments from distant travelers. is this man still alive? he does not know. what is this man like? our man can only hazard pieces that uniquely mark his relative as distinct.

but this is precisely where Jesus enters! in the same verse where He identifies Himself to be the (unique) Way and the Life, He also identifies Himself as the Truth! we must stop here to appreciate the audacity, offense, and uniqueness of this statement.

this Veritas is given form in a Person, in fact in the Person. not systematized nor a methodology, not a structure of laws or principles, not a morality or code of living, but a PERSON! outrageous!
[aside: on these grounds alone, it is clear that Jesus claimed to be God]

but how do we respond to such a claim? what means do we have to verify or falsify it? absolutely none. for what means does earthly knowledge have for searching out Truth? (here the language informs and self-organizes) the response is simple: free choice. anything else is masquerade or self-ignorant compulsion.

---

and thus the title of this short piece. apologetics and argument are worthless and deceptive, for they seek to elucidate Truth by means of truth, obscuring this persistent and unalterable fact of choice.

may we never substitute the loving affection of our Redeemer with irrelevant and idolatrous apologetics, whose goal is to make the Truth subject to and governed by earthly inquiry.

---

"for since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to those who believe."
- 1 corinthians 1:21