Thoughts vs. Feelings

NPR yesterday ran a story about capital punishment in Connecticut. Apparently, the state may possibly get rid of the death penalty just as a notorious double murder—a wife and daughter brutalized and killed for no reason—goes to trial.

This has made for an interesting confluence of events that I, at least, hope will lead to capital punishment remaining on the books. The state, the Bible says, has the power of the sword.

But not everyone sees it my way:

State Representative GARY HOLDER-WINFIELD (Democrat, CT): I recognize what that trial does to public opinion. I recognize what it does to inflame the passions of people. But whether or not people are feeling a certain way, I don’t think has anything to do with whether or not I should be looking to do what I think is the right thing.

He’s surely correct that one should do right no matter how other people feel about it. But I think there’s an implication he’s likely leaving that isn’t right, namely that strong feelings and passions invariably (?) lead people in the wrong direction.

Feelings are fallen, but so are thoughts. And the two are not finally separable, anyway. John Frame has an excellent discussion on this—the “Organs of Ethical Knowledge”—in his Doctrine of the Christian Life.

In this case, my deep moral feeling  is that people who are “viciously violent and create wanton destruction” (in the words of the father and husband of the murdered women) ought to pay with their lives. Because God gives people consciences (Rom 1–2), many of those who don’t share my view of Scripture share that feeling.

And our feeling is right, no matter what Gary Holder-Winfield thinks.

Augustine on Love

Do not for the sake of reward love God; let Him be the reward.

—Augustine (Philip Schaff, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol. VII, 25)

A Baby Story

Last week my wife was sick. So sick that she could hardly get off the couch for about three days. So sick that that she never entered the kitchen. This is a first for her—and for me. I had to feed the baby and myself. I had to clean stuff. I changed all diapers and mixed all formulas. For three days I became Daddy-Mommy. I had to do the job of two parents.

My one-year-old son formerly had the habit of calling his mother with an upward inflection—like “ma-MA, ma-MA”—indicating that he wanted something. He called out his father’s title with a dreamy “DA-daaaaa, DA-daaaaa”—indicating adulation. But as I became the purveyor of all things culinary, that changed. I heard, “Da-DA, da-DA, da-DA!”

And when I wasn’t quick enough with all things culinary, “Da-DAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

Finally my wife emerged from her stupor and stumbled up to the door of the kitchen. She peered in.

“Hmm…” she said. “I can tell I haven’t been in the kitchen for three days.”

I replied with mock indignation, “Hey, who’s the mommy around here!”

At that very moment, my son in his high chair exclaimed with a big smile on his face, “DA-DA!”

DSS will be happy to know that I have relinquished my role as Daddy-Mommy and have returned to “DA-daaaa” status.

How to Use the Blogape Highlighting System in Logos 4

I have a system of highlighting that I have used for several years now that helps me. It’s a free country, so you, of course, can do what you want (except Democrats or Communists do appear to control the choice of highlighter colors; you really can’t get anything but the standard  eight). Just take my model as a suggestion, then, a starting point.

Briefly, I use yellow for anything that strikes me. I use pink for ordinals—first point, second point, third point, etc. The yellow helps me see what’s valuable when I flip through the book later. The pink orients me to the flow of the argument both later and even while I read.

I started doing something similar in Logos 4, setting up my own set of highlighter pens along with my own keyboard shortcuts (see at left)—which was a keystroke of genius on Logos’ part. I don’t like using any highlights that cause the leading (the space between lines) to increase, so I eliminated them all and even created a few of my own styles.

But I found I was still lacking one of the most important portions of my highlighting system. I needed at times to write 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. in front of pink outline points.

I came to realize that Logos 4 can do just this, and I created my own highlighter pens to do it. You can see them in the screen shot.

Now I can highlight lists like the other screenshot. My special pens add a 0., 1., 2., etc. in front of whatever text I have selected to highlight.

Good work, Logos.

Update: A reader asked how to do this. Right click inside the highlight window, choose “Crate a new palette.” Name the palette. Now right click inside it and click “Create style.” Then mimic what I did below. (If I did not expand an arrow, then there’s nothing to do under that arrow.)

The Toolshed Quote

I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.

Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences.

—C.S. Lewis