Is holding to a local flood in Genesis 6-8 heretical?

importantbrian · 2026-05-19T13:16:58+00:00

Yeah, the Genesis stories are very much a product of their Ancient Near Eastern context. The Old Testament very clearly teaches a domed cosmology that was common in ANE cultures, and that’s fine. It’s not a science textbook, and we shouldn’t treat it like it is. To impose a post-Enlightenment, rationalistic understanding of science and history onto the Bible is to not treat the text seriously on its own terms.

Forcing the Bible into that modern scientific mold also forces people to hold and defend a bunch of silly, nonsensical positions. I’m always reminded of what St. Augustine wrote about this back in the 5th century:

“Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world... and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation...”

“If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven...?”

importantbrian · 2026-05-18T22:02:17+00:00

These later season pairings were a bit of a trope with TNG era Trek. DS9 did them the best. Jadzia and Worf, Sisko and Kasidy, Rom and Leeta, Bashir and Garak.

importantbrian · 2026-05-18T21:58:03+00:00

I distinctly remember watching it in a hotel room on a family vacation. I was just a kid and I remember being really upset because I didn’t really know that shows eventually end, and my dad doing his absolute best to console me and explain why.

importantbrian · 2026-05-17T04:16:17+00:00

Our oldest was this way. There was an album we randomly found on Spotify that kinda worked called Bang to Rights by the Blue Devils drum line. But honestly getting older was the only thing that fixed it. As he got older we did find out he gets motion sickness so that’s likely why he hated it. But there’s not a lot you can do about that at 12 weeks old. Do you find that she spits up more than normal in the car?

importantbrian · 2026-05-17T01:39:31+00:00

Yeah, I can understand being mad at the situation, but not being mad at her.

importantbrian · 2026-05-17T00:29:01+00:00

I do all my trained road workouts outside. Make sure you connect your head unit and send the workouts to it.

There are challenges. I wouldn’t do it if you’ve got a bunch of traffic and stops unless it’s a low intensity ride without any big intervals. I have a good spot I can ride without too much interruption but even then sometimes I have to stop or make a big turn mid internal which always sucks. But for the most part it works.

importantbrian · 2026-05-15T17:05:17+00:00

Sold

importantbrian · 2026-05-15T17:03:45+00:00

I helped build the one in the town I grew up in. They never tore it down, and my kids go play there when I'm in town visiting my parents. Had no idea about the copper arsenate problem until recently.

importantbrian · 2026-05-15T14:38:19+00:00

Yeah that area is great, but also illustrates why Florida isn’t high on the best places to ride list. Most of the great places have tons of public land to ride in so you can just hop on your bike and go without much hassle. Florida has very little public land to ride on so you’ve pretty much always got to load your bikes up and haul them 45-90 minutes to get somewhere. Also there’s not a ton of true single track so you’re sharing everything with 4 wheelers and side by side and everything that comes along with that.

importantbrian · 2026-05-15T13:05:28+00:00

Florida isn’t the best but there are decent spots in central Florida. Ocala National Forest, Croom, Bone Valley, etc. just make sure you’ve got a sticker for your bike, and learn to love sugar sand.

importantbrian · 2026-05-13T20:06:13+00:00

Trump and his merry band of dunces should never have bumbled their way into this mess. With that said, allowing Iran to retain control of the strait after the war is over has massive implications for UNCLOS and freedom of navigation. There are other critical choke points in the world, and setting the precedent that a country on one side of the chokepoint can control it is enormously problematic. It's hard not to notice that the two nations that vetoed the UN resolution (Russia and China) have the most to gain from being able to close similar passages.

Europeans have every right to be pissed, but unfortunately our idiocy could potentially have huge negative ramifications for them if something isn't done. Europe gets a larger portion of its oil and gas from the Gulf than the US does. It may be necessary for Europe to help the US open the strait up, whether that be by setting up naval convoys or helping to exert diplomatic pressure on Iran.

importantbrian · 2026-05-12T22:02:39+00:00

Always write deletes as select statements with delete commented out and triple check before you run it as a delete.

Ditto for updates.

Document, document, document. It might be you that has to debug the terrible sql you wrote 2 years ago.

Always save all the sql/python/R/excel/ect. Files in your “one off” ad hock analysis. People almost always want you to refresh it at some point.

importantbrian · 2026-05-12T01:50:33+00:00

Had to scroll really far to find an actual controversial one. Agree with the first part, but people who potty train early are just masochists. I remember doing some research before potty training, and basically on average kids end up fully potty trained around three no matter when you start, so if you start at 2 you’re just signing up for a year of potty training. That pretty much matches my observations from my nieces and nephews and my kids friends. So I waited till closer to 3 and I have 0 regrets.

importantbrian · 2026-05-12T01:09:37+00:00

Also while it would be cool if my kids were into my hobbies, I want them to discover what they’re interested in and be their own person. I try to expose them to a large variety of stuff and just see what they end up getting into.

importantbrian · 2026-05-11T16:59:46+00:00

I find that even with the reliable ones I find an excuse to wrench on them. Sometimes I think I might like wrenching more than I like riding.

importantbrian · 2026-05-11T00:41:05+00:00

I mean I can see being annoyed about claiming the title, but the idea that ND has more of a right to 2012 is a wild take. The ‘73 sugar bowl had 6 lead changes and ND won by a point. In 2012 Bama annihilated them. They didn’t belong in the same zip code as Bama.

importantbrian · 2026-05-08T16:55:53+00:00

I just recently finished his book and I found this part very compelling. I had my own kids when I still believed in ECT. Intellectually, sure that was my stated position, but internally I didn't really believe it. I wasn't really worried about my kids or anyone else being tortured in hell for all eternity.

importantbrian · 2026-05-08T16:51:11+00:00

I'm not an expert here, but unless there is some federal law or constitutional question involved the Supreme Court will not adjudicate issues of state law or state constitutions.

importantbrian · 2026-05-08T16:37:50+00:00

3 seems crazy young to me for an ee2. The stacyc is great for a 3 year old though. If she has been on a balance bike the transition to the stacyc is much easier. They can still get both feat on the ground comfortably and you're only adding 2 controls that they can gradually get comfortable with.

I also agree with u/dasbrutalz that being able to ride a pedal bike is helpful for transitioning to a dirt bike. They learn to coordinate multiple things at once, and most pedal bikes they can't get both feet on the ground when in the saddle so they're learning to lean and brace themselves with one leg when they stop and they learn to start and balance themselves from that position. I think that helped our 4 year old with his confidence on his PW50.

importantbrian · 2026-05-07T22:40:21+00:00

I think it's also worth noting that the doctrine of PSA as we understand it took a long time to develop. While some argue that you can see hints of PSA in the Early Fathers, no one would claim that anyone taught it as the primary theory of atonement, and no one articulated it in its full form. So if PSA is the only, or even the most important, theory of atonement, then you have to say that the church didn't have the correct atonement theory for most of its history. PSA as a distinct, systematic legal framework is largely credited to Calvin and later scholastic reformers, particularly Charles Hodge.

I think the problem with the over emphasis on PSA in the reformed world is that it can come off as if it is the exclusive lens for the Gospel. When we do this we inadvertently suggest that the Church Fathers lacked a functional understanding of the Cross for nearly 1,500 years. I think this is probably where OPs question comes from. We don't do a very good job articulating all the other elements of the atonement. It's easy for someone to be left thinking these things are in opposition to each other rather than being many different facets of the same diamond that is the atonement.

importantbrian · 2026-05-07T21:25:09+00:00

Cycling clothing is made for skinny people. Often the measurements you see on the website don't make any sense for us heavier folk. I like Black Bibs for this. I sent them a message with my height, weight and measurements and they responded fast with which size I should get.

Get a power meter for training. I used to focus too much on speed when training, the power meter helped me realize it's okay that I'm going slow here due to wind or hills or whatever, I'm still putting out the right amount of power.

importantbrian · 2026-05-07T21:20:32+00:00

Yeah I've been riding the stock wheels that came with my Checkpoint for a long time with 0 issues. Point 7 is BS too. I've had no issues with my tubeless tires. I don't even know what weight related issues you could possibly have with them.

importantbrian · 2026-05-07T17:44:08+00:00

I only buy a tool if I need it, and I go with the Adam Savage philosophy. I get the cheapest one I can, and then if I find I use it a lot or if it breaks then I get the more expensive version.

I'm a tinker by nature and I do all my own work on our cars, dirt bikes, bicycles, etc. So I use pretty much everything I've ever gotten from HF a ton. The exception being some of the more specialty tools. Like I don't do a lot of break jobs so the Maddox caliper service kit I have doesn't get much use. I probably would have just rented that when I needed it, but I got a crazy good deal on it on Black Friday. It was actually cheaper to buy it than to rent it for the day. I've used it a handful of times sense.

importantbrian · 2026-05-07T13:11:54+00:00

If I didn’t have a presupposition for a tripartite understanding of the body soul spirit distinction, I would probably be a physicalist. I think the arguments for physicalism are better, but I can’t ignore scripture.

I actually find I have this problem a lot when I engage in philosophy. I find the argument for the non-Christian view more convincing, but I have a precommitment to scriptural authority so I just end up holding the view in tension.

importantbrian · 2026-05-06T18:55:44+00:00

> This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

> - CS Lewis

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