Pushing Back the Curtain

I've been thinking about this faith/learning/technology mystery for a while now, and am only just now getting around to posting. I see a little bit of the integration when I'm writing papers and studying for New Testament class. For papers, sometimes I use Bible verses. It's a lot easier to go to Biblegateway.com and type in the phrase I want than to dig through my Bible for a reference. But that seems a weak integration. I could get along fine without the technology. It doesn't really have much to do with my faith, quite frankly.

I really need to define technology. It could mean computer technology, obviously, and that's what I've been thinking about, since this is, after all, a computer class. But really, technology is anything human-made. An axe is technology. So is the physical equipment I use in biology lab. So that's where I turned to next.

Just yesterday, I extracted my own DNA from my own cheek cells and poked at it with an unbent paper clip. The fact that all my genetic makeup was contained in that stringy glob of clear, thread-like structures was amazing. God made me out of that? That's how he told my body what to look like? He knit me from that tiny, delicate yarn? He knit everybody from such yarn? It seemed so impossible, at the same time so simple, and yet still amazing. My God is very great. That's what I learned from using the seemingly simple technology of test tubes, salt water, and ethanol. The technology helped me to learn about science, and about my God. Now that's integration!

Faith, Learning, and Technology

I finally saw an obvious integration of faith, learning, and technology. It was in biology class. We watched a video about DNA replication and protein synthesis. It was made by a Christian group of scientists, and touched on things like Irreducible Complexity while also teaching us about the science of it all. Irreducible Complexity is the idea that many things are so complex that if one component was removed, it would cease to function. So, there's really no way such a system or object could have come about by change. The complexity is so irreducible that it shows definite signs of intelligent and intentional creation.

It's been hard for me to comprehend the integration of faith, learning, AND technology. I've done faith and learning together, but I'm an environmental studies major-- technology is not necessarily big in my mind as something that can be integrated with my faith and schooling. It was obvious to me that you could integrate learning and technology, but how do you mix faith into all of it? That's the question I will seek to answer.

Cam Studio

As I type this, I am running the recording software, CamStudio. It is taking a video of everything I do on the desktop. Pretty cool. I could use this for dozens of things. I could even make tutorials of games and Microsoft word and stuff. See attached video.

Easter Break

For Easter break, my friend Marta and I went to Marta's aunt and uncle's house. They live about 40 minutes from Montreat, and it was much too far for Marta and I to go home to New England.



Two baby bunnies on the farm.


Unfortunately, I am allergic to bunnies. I swelled up like a balloon and had to take my asthma inhaler after this. =(


Marta and I on Easter morning. We got Easter baskets!


My mother had sent a package. Inside was candy and a stuffed bunny. This one didn't give me asthma!


After church that morning, we hiked Max Patch, a bald mountain that has a 360-degree view for miles and miles and miles.


Taking pictures on top of Max Patch.









Me, Marta, and most of the Ostergaard family on top of Max Patch. Sarah was taking the picture.


Quite the view.








Us and the kids at our creekside picnic lunch.









An amazing picture (I think) that looks like the head of... something. I thought a dragon. Marta said a fish. I think we should say parasaurolophus and call it even.