Sunday 26 December 2010

Jonty - Quick Update

Jonty has had quite an eventful week. He was discharged from Sunnybrook on Saturday 18th when he finished his course of antibiotics. On the same day his mom and dad, assisted by siblings and a number of stalwart friends, moved from their apartment (flat) in Toronto to their new home in Peterborough.

The original plan had been for the whole family to come to Oma and GrampaMac on Christmas Day but the Paediatrician in Peterborough suggested to Jonty's mom that a long trip through the snow-gripped bundu of Ontario would not be a good idea considering his age and medical history. Sooo... everyone except Stephen and Heather gathered at Jonty's new home in Peterborough to sing Christmas carols, have lots of good food and drink, and exchange Secret Santa gifts. Heather and Stephen spent Christmas with Heather's folks in Penetanguishene. (That's not actually on the tundra but you can just about see the tundra from there when it's not snowing :-).

Here are a few more Jonty pics for his many fans to oooh and aaah over.



Jonty, Dad and Mom

Looking for something









I'm sure it was here somewhere




This isn't my mama

Friday 24 December 2010

Gloria In Excelsis Deo - Peace Upon Earth

Christmas Peace and Joy to all - from all the McCann's

Winter Solstice Moon - Ontario

'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn, 
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found;
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round
But as the hunter braves drew nigh the angel song rang loud and high
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt with gifts of fox and beaver pelt.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

O children of the forest free, O seed of Manitou
The holy Child of earth and sky is born today for you.
Come bow before the radiant boy who brings you beauty peace and joy.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

Words: Jean de Brebeuf, ca. 1643; English trans by Jesse Edgar Middleton, 1926


http://www.ramshornstudio.com/the_huron_carol.htm

Sunday 19 December 2010

I am sceptical about skeptical atheism.

Preliminary remarks.

Before I start, let me acknowledge that I have friends and relatives who are professed atheists. In my reading and conversations I have come across both atheists and believers-in-a-divinity who are very derisive of those who hold the opposite opinion to theirs. I wish to distance myself from these behaviours and attitudes.

Secondly, I am not going to provide footnotes and citations. You can do your own reading to backup or disprove any position of mine. I would be sincerely interested if you can point out for me where I make any errors of fact or logic.

Foundation

My position is based on the following, upon which both atheists and I seem to agree:

1. The natural universe as we know it had a beginning. Scientists have calculated its age as between 13 and 14 billion years.
2. Before this there was nothing, not even space. Even saying "before this" is a contradiction in terms because there was no time either. "Before" is a time-related concept. Both space and time began with the beginning of the universe.

My position on creation

Atheistic sceptics hold the position that we should not accept anything that cannot be demonstrated empirically or logically concluded. At least, I gather that this is their position - I am open to correction here. In contrast, my position is that we should not accept anything that contradicts logic or empirical evidence.

When I was in high school our chemistry teacher taught us about spontaneous combustion. I totally get it that when you have the perfect storm of prerequisite conditions you can get a reaction. I simply don't get it that something, even or especially a "singularity", can bring itself into existence before it, or anything else, exists. To me, that so flies in the face of reason and logic that it requires a huge act of faith far greater than any faith I have ever been called upon to profess as a Christian.

This brings me to the conclusion that the atheist position is founded upon faith. Atheists "believe" that there is no creator outside of the empirically demonstrable natural order. There is no "proof" for this position which I consider illogical, and having no logic that I have found to defend it. As I understand it, the closest thing to a proof is that there is no proof for the contrary - the so-called sceptical position.

So deists, theists and I conclude by logic that there must have been some Being, before time and space began, which brought time, space and the natural order of our universe into existence.

The role of this "Being" fills the minimum definition for "God" - the Creator.


Why did "God" do this?

Deists claim to be agnostic on this point. They say we cannot know anything about God the Creator or Architect other than what we can conclude by observing the world around us. Deists actively take a position against organised religion that relies on or accepts any form of "revelation". They see God as not intervening in any way in the natural order of the universe. God can thus be compared to some amazing watch maker who created and assembled all these parts, started it ticking and has now left it to itself to wind down in due course while He-She-It goes off and does something else.

This seems to me to be a little like the atheist position on creation: we cannot prove God's existence empirically therefore God does not exist. By contrast, I would posit that there is place for reasoning to a likely or probable conclusion. Before doing that let's make some observations which could be used as premises.

1. Some of what makes up the universe is inanimate such as metals; other elements are living, like plants, microbes and animals.
2. Some of the animals have reflective self-awareness as individual persons, can communicate complex concepts and can reason logically. Humans are one such example. Theoretically there could be others.
3. Many of these human, reasoning animals have come to similar conclusions about the existence of a Creator-God from their own powers of reasoning.
4. This ability must have been put into the "DNA" (analogically speaking) of the original singularity or "cell" of creation. The alternative is that the Creator-God did not put this into the original design and we got to this ability by accident, which I find most unlikely.

This last point leads me to conclude that the Creator-God wanted reasoning animals such as humans to be able to deduce that He-She-It exists and was responsible for their existence. Again, the alternatives are either that the Creator-God did not want us to deduce this but that we did so anyway, which I find absurd, or that He-She-It never thought about that and we got to this position by accident, which, again, I find unlikely.

So, why did God do this? At least one of the reasons must surely be... so that we could know Him-Her-It.

More in due course...

Saturday 18 December 2010

Seasons and Nature

View from living room
I decided to create an album called "Seasons and Nature". Here are some pictures taken in the last week. Click on the pictures to zoom and appreciate the intricate beauty of ice crystals.
Kitchen window

Back deck


You know it's cold when...





Gaudete Sunday

Monday 13 December 2010

Jonty Day 6


In yesterday's post there is a black and white photo. Some people thought I was being silly, that obviously it was a picture of Jonathan. Actually, that is a picture of Mark taken at the same age.

Mark sent this email about an hour ago:

Hi Everyone,


Here are a few more pics. We were lucky enough to be around when Santa came to town! Jonathan had a grand time as you can see in the pics J. We put on his going home outfit to hide all the leads and had immediate use for the little (large!) hat the cashpeople gave us! He received a personal visit into the room, a sock stuffed full of goodies and a wrapped present. Lucky boy. Santa has done some studying since last year and is a neonatologist when not dressed all in red!

Jonathan is doing really well. He still has to have regular sugar checks which require a heel prick but those hopefully only happen 2 more times! They have prescribed him an antibiotics course which will discharge him on Saturday.

We are doing well too and very relieved he is improving daily. He is really starting open his eyes now in particular after feeds.

Cheers
Mark, Luisa and Jonathan

Sunday 12 December 2010

Jonathan Tiago update Day 5

Thank you to those who have offered congratulations and expressions of concern for Jonty's health. He has really progressed well. Luisa has been discharged but Tiago has not and so Mark and Luisa are "living" in the ICU ward at Sunnybrook Hospital.

Skin on skin is encouraged and he has been getting lots of that from both mommy and daddy, interrupted only when he needed to have sessions under the UV because he was also jaundiced. That has passed so things should be a little easier now. Jonathan is still on antibiotics to which he appears to be responding well.




Yesterday's picture of Jonathan showed a tube in his nose. This was not for oxygen but for supplementary feeding. This has now been removed but you will still see some bubblegum on his left cheek in case they need to put it back. The splint on his hand is holding an infusion tube connector in place.

Here are some pictures of the little chap with his adulating and besotted fans. There is also a "Guess Who?" picture of a mystery baby. No, it is not Albert Einstein.






Guess Who?

Saturday 11 December 2010

Jonathan Tiago Magalhaes McCann

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Jonathan Tiago Magalhaes McCann aka Jonty, and congratulate the proud parents, Luisa Magalhaes and Mark McCann.

Born 8 December 2010 2.66 Kg, 5 lbs 13.8 oz

Jonty

Sunday 5 December 2010

Blind sided by snow

Front steps
Ingrid and I went to Peterborough today with Sean to help Luisa and Mark start getting things sorted out in their new home. On the way there we were commenting how much more snow there seemed to be out that way than around our place, which had little more than a sprinkling.


Front deck
On the way back we drove the last hour in continuous heavy snow. These pictures show what we came back to. It must be close to 25 cm of snow. We had no idea that it was coming.
Back deck

Saturday 4 December 2010

Thank You to the Mo Stashed Hairiers

Here is my thank-you tribute to all the Mo Stashed Hairiers and to our sponsors. I have also included a few people who were not involved this year but who were loyal stalwarts in years past.

You can view the movie here or watch it on YouTube. Enjoy and... THANK YOU!

Wednesday 1 December 2010

The End of Movember

The Mo Stashed Hairiers will continue to accept donations from sponsors for the first few days of December.
I am pleased to be able to tell you that, as at the end of Movember we have raised $5,373.00 for Prostate Cancer Canada.

See http://mostashedhairiers.blogspot.com/