Alex Rose writes about the strength of the English language and problems when people reject their language heritage in favor of this growing, global tongue. “Indeed, English is a veritable cabinet of wonders, a palimpsest of criss-crossing lexical histories, no less than a modern linguistic juggernaut,” he writes, noting a book by Robert McCrum called Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language. As you might guess, global consumer culture has encouraged English adoption.

The second half of Rose’s article talks about the fears some have of losing knowledge and culture when small languages are lost. Languages reveal how men can think and organize the world around them. Some times the obscure words reveal an intimate relationship with a part of nature English speakers do not have. Rose notes, “The Kayapo people, for instance, have developed 85 different words for ‘bee,’ each specifying minute differences in flight patterns, mating rituals, habitat, nest structures, and quality of wax.”

On this part, I want to criticize materialists or naturalists for rejecting divine revelation as a source of real knowledge. If the world is all we have and we are the only ones who can glean anything from it, then I preserving cultures, languages, and everything else makes some sense. The article quotes Noam Chomsky on this: “by studying the properties of natural languages, their structure, organization, and use, we may hope to learn something about human nature; something significant, if it is true that human cognitive capacity is the truly distinctive and most remarkable characteristic of the species.” I can see that, if mankind is but one of many species. If we are just a remarkably unique animals, top of our food chain as it were, then we should seek out linguistic info like this in order to understand ourselves as much as possible.

But we are men, male and female, created in the image of God Almighty, who made heaven and earth for his glory and our enjoyment. The Kayapo people may have a cool thing going in naming bees, but the Bible will reveal far more about humanity than their language ever will.

Connection Point, April 2010 Edition from CBMC on Vimeo.

What are you expecting today? Are you expecting God to move? This month, CBMC President Lee Truax introduces us to Jerry Molnar of New York, NY. Jerry was a businessman who cared for nothing but money before the Lord transformed him. In the 80s, he took an office high in the towers at the World Trade Center. His dramatic testimony is something to see and share with others.

Mr. Woodlief lifts up the truth in the Koran burning argument, which has received too much press. He says:

I think a Christian ought not burn a Quran, not because it will incite violence, . . . [but] simply because destruction and negation are the purview of the devil, not God. The kingdom of Heaven is not advanced by destroying the false but by embracing the true. Darkness is never erased; it is enlightened.

Copyright Getty Images.

Just before lunch, I heard a guy talking 9-11 conspiracies–there were no planes found at wreckage sites in the Pentagon or in Pennsylvania; if we would just open our eyes, we would see that our own government officials are lying to us. Gasp, that’s depressing. Don’t you think if our government people were willing to do all of that, they would also be willing to knock off the people trying to expose them? It’s all so insane.

But I don’t want to think about that any more. I need a break. Oh, look. Sissel has a new album coming out in November. She is just the cutest thing.

I wish I could link to a song from this, but I’ll settle for this video from years ago with a beautiful Norwegian song. Continue reading Break: Til Deg →

Yahoo News passes on 25 things chefs never tell you, like the fact most of them want to have their own cooking show or “Vegetarian is open to interpretation.”

About 15% of chefs said their vegetarian dishes might not be completely vegetarian. Beware if you’re one of those super-picky vegan types: One chef reported seeing a cook pour lamb’s blood into a vegan’s primavera.

What the?

Big Hollywood links up a couple videos of an interesting interview with Rod Serling talking about TV fiction, television in general, and science fiction. He calls himself “the least adebt of science fiction writers” and that TV fiction is irrelevant overall. Near the end, he says Star Trek was a pretty inconsistent show, sometimes sparkling with ingenuity, sometimes “the carnival that television was.”

Great Vocab Didn’t Save The Thesaurus From Extinction. No. No, it didn’t.

Megan Basham reviews an upcoming documentary Waiting for “Superman,” which she calls “a scathing look at the U.S. public-school system and those who stand in the way of reforming it.”