"Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity." - Thor Heyerdahl

The grammar problems in this pic bother me but the point is worthwhile. Perspective.

Our internet comes through a satellite dish at the end of our driveway so it's painfully slow. Add in an overcast and rainy day and we're in a throwback to the days of dialup.




This morning I took the head off the engine that came out of Sally so the"new" one could go in. My plan was to wrap the head in plastic and store it for potential future use. It was rebuilt shortly before I bought the car with upgraded (hardened) valve seats, an upgrade I doubt the replacement engine has. This is what I found.
The pistons aren't terrible but there's a fair amount of carbon, not surprising in a 52-year old car. I was surprised at the head and the amount of carbon on the valves. I'll attribute some of that to the time it took me to solve the carb issue that made it run way too rich.

I've decided to take both the head and block to the metal recycler tomorrow along with other pieces I've been storing alongside Barnette - the old leaf springs, gas tank, and the internals to the old transmission I took out of the truck. I know I won't get but a few bucks for all of it but even with a white trash MoHo I draw the line at a pile of car parts out back.

And in the unlikely event that the head on the new engine fails I'll have it rebuilt and know for sure what I've got.


I'm thinking a lot lately about what I view as the dumbing down of American evangelicals. Over the last 20-30 years, concurrent with the death of the adult Sunday School class, the level of knowledge of the Bible and theology has dropped to scary levels. Ask the average Christian under 40 who attends an evangelical church the following questions:

1. Where would you turn to read about David's reign as king?
2. Which Gospel is not like the others?
3. Who wrote Acts?
4. How many plagues hit Egypt?
5. How many church planting ("missionary") journeys did Paul make?
6. Name and/or quote a verse that supports the Deity of Christ.
7. Name Isaac's two sons.
8. The Jordan River dumps into what body of water?
9. How long was Christ's public ministry?
10. Who denied Christ three times?

How many Christians could get 8 of those 10 correct? If we gave that arbitrary set of questions to everyone in a church who has been a believer for five years or more would the majority get 6 of 10 correct? 

(How did you do?)

What are going to be the outcomes of the biblical illiteracy that seems to be spreading throughout evangelicalism?

And does anyone care?