It took a couple of days of searching—mostly due to struggling with how to formulate the right search string, putting my Google-fu to the test—but I finally discovered the solution for WordPress stripping the angle brackets ‘<’ and ‘>’ from incoming code published remotely using Windows Live Writer. So when I publish this:

<p>Wit is educated insolence.</p>

What ends up getting published is this:

pWit is educated insolence./p

It seems that the problem is produced by a bug in the version of the LibXML2 software library that our site is running, which mangles XML-RPC requests when parsing XML. If you are running anything less than PHP version 5.2.9+ with LibXML2 version 2.7.3+ then you are likely to experience this problem. (Obviously this sort of stuff is way over my head, so you can see why I struggled with my searches.) I talked to the technical support staff with our web hosting company but they were either unable or unwilling (I could not interpret which) to update the version of PHP and LibXML2 that we are running. But surely there had to be some kind of fix available.

And there is! Thanks to Joseph Scott and JoeWare.net the solution is very simple. Scott wrote a WordPress plugin that magically fixes the problem. From the Plugins menu at your WordPress dashboard, click Add New and search for LibXML2 Fix. Or you can click on the following link to download the plugin:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/libxml2-fix/

Many thanks to WordPress Answers, Joseph Scott, and JoeWare.net!

• “WordPress and Windows Live Writer,” WordPress Answers (14 Sep 2011).
• “WordPress sites working incorrectly with Windows Live Writer (WLW),” JoeWare.net (21 Oct 2011).

I have noticed that there are some in the blogosphere who are looking back over the last year and reporting on various stats generated by their blogs, such as Josiah Concept Ministries and others. They talk about page view totals for the year, which pages were the most popular, who their top referrers were, the most popular browsers used to view their site and so forth. So I thought I would likewise take a look back over the last year and see what some of our totals were. The following information was pulled from the data collected by the company that hosts the Aristophrenium.

Total number of page views for 2011 were in excess of 201,200, which actually topped our 2010 total of 197,700.

For those who prefer visit counts, last year’s total pushed upwards of 65,400, beating the previous year’s total of 48,900.

And the amount of bandwidth we have used over the last two years is 22.3 GB.

The most active month surprisingly was December (24,131 page views).

The most popular operating systems are not a surprise: Windows (74%), Macintosh (16%), and Linux (7%), with the remaining three percent comprised of Other (which I suspect are things like smartphones and mobile devices).

And the top web browsers used are likewise not much of a surprise: Explorer (29%), Firefox (28%), Chrome (21%), Safari (16%), Opera (3%), and Other (3%).

And the top five most viewed articles for 2011 were:

1. Adam Morgan, “We don’t hate sin so we don’t understand what happened to the Canaanites.”
2. Luis Dizon, “The Trinity in the Torah.”
3. Adam Morgan, “Do homosexuals have equal rights?”
4. Mathew Hamilton, “Abortion images: Ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s just ignorance (or worse).”
5. David Smart, “Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011).”

And finally, the top ten referrers for 2011 were:

1. atheistforums.org
2. 4simpsons.wordpress.com
3. www.facebook.com
4. hereiblog.com
5. www.choosinghats.com
6. urbanphilosophy.net
7. www.reclaimingthemind.org
8. apologetics315.blogspot.com
9. sydneyanglicanheretics.blogspot.com
10. www.newcovenantforum.org

We at The Aristophrenium are always looking out for ways in which our readership community can remain in touch. While the majority of our readership remain connected to our content via the RSS Feed, we also publish to our Twitter account, Facebook page and allow readers to receive our articles direct to their email Inbox. More recently, we’ve started posting a few videos to our YouTube channel as well.

If you haven’t already done so, please connect to us via one of the following avenues:

Or Subscribe via eMail to have articles emailed direct to your Inbox.

Individual author RSS feeds

Along with the above we also have individual author feeds. What’s an individual author feed? It’s a regular RSS feed that you subscribe to in your RSS feed reader (i.e. like Google Reader) that only receives content from one specific author from the site. Instead of receiving all articles from all authors, you’ll get only those articles of the author you most like to follow.

These feeds were made available under the Subscriber Feeds panel to the far right of the page, but we have since removed them to clear up unnecessary clutter.

If you subscribed to an individual author’s feed, don’t worry – it’s still active.

If you haven’t subscribed to an individual author’s feed because you weren’t aware of them and would like to, you still may by using the links below. In the (hopefully near) future we intend on listing the individual author feeds at the bottom of each author’s post.

• Fisher (RSS)
• Mathew (RSS)
• Adam (RSS)
• Duane (RSS)
• Ryft (RSS)

Thanks for being part of our readership community. We enjoy the interaction with our members – challenges and all. Do let us know if there are other ways in which you’d like to stay connected with us.

It’s twelve months to the day that myself, Ryft and Duane embarked on this joint-venture under The Aristophrenium brand to proclaim the truth of the gospel and centrality of Christ in all things. One year on and I think we’ve achieved a number of milestones along the way that, humble though they may be, surprised even us to have reached. We’d like to share a few of the milestones with you here:

• 26 posts in our first month
• 190 posts in the first year
• breaking 80+ subscribers to our RSS feed
• enjoying some attention and kudos thrown our way from other, more well-established Christian bloggers
• attracting some great regular readers who engage / challenge us and others in our community in the comments sections of the blog
• the addition of two new staff writers during the course of the year – Adam and Fisher
• and we’ve learned a few new ways in which to build effectual networks for the sharing of the gospel message of our Lord Jesus Christ

This is our opportunity to say “thanks”. Thanks to you, our readers and community members, for making this past year an especially rewarding experience.

We hope that you will not only encourage us by your ongoing participation in The Aristophrenium community but that you would also hold us accountable to our Mission & Beliefs. If we at all lose sight of these we have ceased to perform that to which the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor 10:5 exhorts us to do: demolish the foolishness of the world and hold every thought captive and obedient to Christ.

Following is a handful of the thought-provoking pieces from us here at The Aristophrenium that summarizes our official “first year in review”. We are very pleased to have you celebrating the year with us.

Read the rest of this entry

(The following is an excerpt from remarks on lighting the National Community Christmas Tree, December 15, 1983, by President Ronald Reagan at the South Portico of the White House during the annual Christmas Pageant of Peace, a great statesman who never forgot the reason for the season.)

Many stories have been written about Christmas. Charles Dickens’ “Carol” is probably the most famous. Well, I’d like to read some lines from a favorite of mine called “One Solitary Life,” which describes for me the meaning of Christmas. It’s the story of a man born of Jewish parents who grew up in an obscure village working in a carpenter shop until he was thirty; and then for three years, as a preacher. As the story says, he never wrote a book, he never held an office, he never had a family, he never went to college, he never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He never did any of the things that usually accompany greatness.

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property that he had on Earth. When he was dead he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.

Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone, and today he is the centerpiece of much of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon Earth as powerfully as this One Solitary Life.

I have always believed that the message of Jesus is one of hope and joy. I know there are those who recognize Christmas Day as the birthday of a great and good man, a wise teacher who gave us principles to live by. And then there are others of us who believe that he was the Son of God, that he was divine. If we live our lives for truth, for love, and for God, we never need be afraid. God will be with us and we will be part of something much larger, much more powerful and enduring than any force here on Earth.

• Woolley, J. & Peters, G. (n.d.) Remarks on lighting the National Community Christmas Tree, December 15, 1983. Retrieved 24 December 2010 from the The American Presidency Project web site: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu.

Merry Christmas to all of our readers
and your families, and may the grace
and blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ
carry you in the coming New Year.

Just a quick public note to let people know that I have been under a demanding work schedule over the last couple of weeks and will continue to be for at least the next two days (tomorrow and Thursday). I have been putting in roughly 70 hours a week, and tonight just finished working a 16-hour shift. My apologies to people here and over at AtheistForums.org for falling behind on my responses, but I simply have not had the time available for online activities. At the end of my day I just want to collapse in bed. But as I said, the work schedule should ease back to more sensible levels over the next couple days so hopefully by this weekend I can get caught up here, too.

While I am here, though, I might as well respond to Joe.

My name is Luis Dizon, otherwise known by my pen name, “Fisher.” I am a Canadian of Filipino descent who is aspiring to become a historian, theologian and apologist, and who is learning to live according to the calling of God in the service of His Kingdom and His Gospel. I am a Conservative, Evangelical and Reformed Christian by conviction. I believe strongly in the Bible as our final and infallible authority on matters of faith and morals, and I strive to do everything according to the principles set forward in God’s Word.

For over a year, I’ve been writing articles for a little theology blog that I run called Epagonizesthai. The blog name is based on the Greek word επαγωνιζεσθαι that appears in the epistle of Jude which is translated as “[to] contend earnestly” (Jude 1:3, NASB). This relates to the primary purpose that I have for blogging, which is to apply my theological studies in that most honourable of endeavours known as Christian Apologetics. I have written many articles on various apologetic topics, plus I have also recorded many of the various dialogues and debates that I have had over the past year. I have had encounters people from all sorts of religious groups, including Ahmadis, Atheists, Eastern Orthodox, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter Day Saints, Roman Catholics, Sunni Muslims, and various other such groups. My motivation for entering into this kind of discussion stems from the doubts that I previously held before I became a Christian, not to mention the various challenges that I have been faced with from various opposing groups after I came to Christ. It is my firm conviction that God is calling me and many other budding young Christians who are of a similar background as I have, in order to build us up into preachers, missionaries, evangelists and apologists.

Now, I have in the past month become good friends with my fellow Canadian David Smart (whom you all know as Ryft) via #ProsApologian, the IRC chat channel of Alpha and Omega Ministries. It is he who had invited me to join the Aristophrenium as a part of its staff. So I accepted the invitation, and that is why I am now here as a contributing writer to the Aristophrenium. It is truly an honour to be able to work along with my brothers in Christ in the defense and confirmation of the gospel (Philippians 1:7, NASB). am very much looking forward to contributing to this blog. Most of my articles will be concerning matters of church history, systematic theology and apologetics, especially towards Muslims and various religious cults such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Latter Day Saints. I have done extensive research on these religions, and have conversed with many who belong to them in order that I may be able to better understand their beliefs and provide a response to the challenges that they pose to Biblical Christianity. Hopefully, this will be an excellent opportunity to bring glory to our sovereign Lord, edify the saints and be a witness to the lost world that we all live in.

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

(Romans 1:7)

Today a new member has joined the team – me. I guess that would now make us a “quadrinity”?

I’d like to start by stating my official position when it comes to Christianity which can be best described using the words of Gregory Koukl:

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I have been influenced deeply by the teachings of an ancient teacher named Jesus of Nazareth. And as I began reading Jesus, I came to the conviction, as I considered what He said, that He actually got it right. That His understanding of the way the world is was accurate. That He saw things the way they really were.

I became a Christian for one reason and one reason only. I did not become a Christian because Jesus will solve my problems; He hasn’t. I did not become a Christian because it would make me happy; Jesus has not made me happy. I did not become a Christian so that I would have a wonderful abundant life. In my sense of abundance, that hasn’t happened.

I became a Christian because of one particular reason, and one reason only. Because Jesus is the Truth. Period. Whether I like it or not, doesn’t change it. Whether I like what Jesus does – with whatever God does with my life – is insignificant and inconsequential. It is a lot better to be a sorry Christian than a happy fool. Because what you get from being a Christian lasts forever. But what you get from being a happy fool lasts for a little while. Ultimately happy fools are going to have to pay the price.

But is this just because I believe it? And do I just believe this because it suits me?. No! I believe because it’s True! It isn’t that I choose what I like; I don’t like Christianity, I like Pantheism better, that’s much more fun. But there’s one problem with Pantheism. It’s not True.

I could go my whole life believing something else like that and sooner or later I’ll have to face God and say, “yeah I’ve been a Pantheist, but now I guess I got to be a Theist. Now I’ve got to believe in You ’cause, there you are…with a sword!…ok whatever you say, what do you want me to do?” and He will say “Depart from me, you who do iniquity, I never knew you”.

I don’t want that.

For most of my life I was what you might call an apathetic agnostic. I’d had my brushes with Christianity but nothing came of them. I sort of believed in God but I just didn’t care. Not until I was about 30 did this change. At that point in my life I was exposed to some Young Earth Creation evidence and started to look at the world through Biblical glasses. I guess you could say that this was the point at which God sent me the Holy Spirit because from that point on I have been understanding Truth in a 1 Cor 2:12-14 kind of way.

1Cor 2:12-14

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

It wasn’t really an “ah-ha” moment or a sudden realisation that Christianity was the way and that the Bible accurately describes the world in which we live. For me it was gradual. The information from “Answers in Genesis” on creation and young earth evidence hooked me in and convinced me that what we find in the world is explained in the Bible, and it makes sense. Since then my interest has moved away from creation apologetics to big picture apologetics, philosophy and other religions/cults.

Initially writing on Duane’s Blog “Duane’s Mind”, I have now accepted an invitation to contribute to the Aristophrenium and will, like my bio says, contribute mostly with material I have discovered rather than original material from the depths of my minds ponderings. While I will be posting on general theology, you may notice that I will be majoring in other religions and cults. I have posted in the past on Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witnesses and touched on the eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. So I will redress these here for my new audience. Mormonism is on my to-do list so stay tuned. Or if there are any specific cults or religions that you want info on, then feel free to ask and I’ll look into it. I should be able to give some hints or some direction to more information if not a comprehensive response.

I look forward to interacting with you with regard to the Truth and the depthless mercy and grace of  Jesus Christ, our Lord

As had been mentioned, The Aristophrenium came under new management in late 2009. The original intent of this blog, although definitely unique in the blogosphere, was failing to be realized in the final analysis due to competing priorities of, and different demands placed upon, the authors of that original intent. At the same time that David Smart was seeking new partners for this enterprise, Mathew Hamilton wrote him an email to ask how he felt about launching a collaborative blog involving the two of them and one other writer, Duane Proud. Since a collaborative blog was the founding intent of The Aristophrenium and since David was already seeking new partners, it was decided between the three of them that it would make the most sense logistically and economically to restructure and launch this existing site as a team blog of Christian writers.

Under this new pen for 2010, we would like to introduce the founding members of this brand new launch and the basic themes and interests that will be explored and discussed here at The Aristophrenium.

Mathew Hamilton

Having been a firm agnostic all my life it wasn’t until young adulthood that I seriously began searching for answers in a world that I found inherently puzzling and conflicted. I tried expressing and finding meaning of this search by writing poetry, cathartically scribbling away in an old school diary – but this was largely an inward-looking, self-glorifying and egoistic practice that quickly got me nowhere. Fresh at University—the hotbed environment most unlikely to foster any investigation of Christianity—I eventually professed a faith in Christ, having been baptised (to the wonderful but dreadfully sung hymn, O Happy Day!) in a small, local parish of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. Since then, I have developed a keen interest in Christian ethics and in social values issues.

As the Bible reveals God to be a rational God, it is on that supposition that I believe the universe operates in a rational manner and that moral actions have rational, real-world consequences. We can therefore employ the scientific method to determine, for instance, the benefits of traditional, heterosexual marriage and also demonstrate why same-sex marriage will be a destructive pursuit for society—without resorting to Biblical arguments. We can do likewise with the life and death issues of abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Matters of free speech and of religious freedom in the political landscape also feature on my radar.

I believe there is a lot at stake riding on these values issues and others like them; admittedly, I once held lukewarm views on these matters. However, as I developed into a more mature thinker of Christianity and of its distinct worldview, I gradually became otherwise convicted. It’s my intent to share those convictions here. Hence, as an unashamed conservative and evangelical Christian, I am making it my business to critique society’s “progressive” mind, exposing and expounding on its flaws and weaknesses in order to equip others so they too can join the fight with an informed opinion. Here, at The Aristophrenium, you will find me to be unabashedly pro-life, pro-family, pro-Bible and—occasionally and intentionally—provocative.

Duane Proud

Born and raised in Sydney, Australia (where I still reside); the eldest of three sons in a non-Christian household; I put my trust in Jesus seven years ago after attending a six-week pre-marriage course run by the church in the lead up to my wedding day, during which time I asked many questions and reflected regularly on the truth claims of Christianity. And although this might sound like the behaviour of an interested skeptic, strangely enough I cannot recall a single moment during the entire process that I resisted the information being provided. It was as if I began the experience wanting and expecting salvation. My conversion was very much the opposite of C.S. Lewis, at age 27, perhaps that day the most willing convert in all of Australia.

Soon after becoming a Christian I was alerted to the stark differences in the truth claims of Christianity and an evolutionary worldview, which I admit I had very little knowledge of or interest in until I became a Christian. In fact I probably would have considered myself a Theistic Evolutionist at the time if I knew what that even meant. However I quickly became convinced, much like Charles Spurgeon, that such a position was untenable, "If God’s Word be true, evolution is a lie." Since then my interest in the subject has increased exponentially, with the great majority of literature I read being devoted to increasing my knowledge of the claims made by each of the proponents and the evidence used in support, so that I can engage intelligently with like-minded others on the subject. The broadest phrase I can think of that sums up what I read, think and write about most is the scientific, philosophical and theological implications of the Creation/Evolution debate.

I would consider myself a Creationist in the “fundy” sense of the word; young earth and universe on the order of thousands of years, creation event in six ordinary days—all that kind of stuff. Even among Christians, these days that’s considered fairly unnecessary conservative theology and virtually dismissed a priori as a starting point for doing any kind of science (and for that matter, theology). I hope to correct this perception. At the other end of the scale my reasons for rejecting evolution (that is, Neo-Darwinism) are theological, philosophical and scientific. I am unable to develop these reasons within the scope of this inaugural post, so watch this space.

David Smart

I am a developing Christian personally, a skilled craftsman professionally, and skeptical philosopher intellectually. Hailing from beautiful British Columbia, Canada, I’m an avid blogger and aspiring writer who is endlessly fascinated with discovering and communicating the reality and meaning of our human experience. My goal is to become a published author, but for now I am still searching for my thesis (for I want to avoid beating dead horses). Until that day, I continue to blog in order to refine my writing, and continue to debate in order to refine my arguments.

My principle areas of interest and study, in which I invest the majority of my study and writing, are philosophy, apologetics, and theology (in that order). Prior to my conversion I was often defeated terribly in philosophical arguments, which led to a wholesale reconstruction of my world view with an emphasis on rational integrity, internally and externally. Consequently, I now have a keen interest in critical thinking, which governs all my pursuits. In philosophy I am interested in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. In apologetics I am interested in defending the superiority of the Christian faith. In theology I am interested in defending the biblical faithfulness of the Doctrines of Grace.

At this blog—and anywhere else, really—I write on philosophical issues as a student of revelational epistemology; although my language and presentations are typically contemporary, the views I defend are all based foundationally on and appeal to the revealed Word of God. When it comes to apologetics, I write as a student of presuppositionalism; although most people judge arguments based on certain criteria, I am a critical skeptic of those criteria themselves. And on theological issues, I write as a student of the Protestant Reformation; when it comes to exploring and evaluating issues of the Christian faith, I stand firmly on the ‘five solas’ of the great Reformers.

And so, welcome to The Aristophrenium

As indicated by the above introductions, our backgrounds are as varied as are our interests. But it is our passions that drew us together here at The Aristophrenium, our love for the Lord Jesus Christ and our passion for the Christian faith, in addition to our individual interests mentioned above.

We hope and pray that the topics the three of us bring to this blog will reflect the intensity of the thoughtful introspection with which we approach them in our own lives. We are enthusiastic to share with you our convictions in an open and honest forum—and we most certainly welcome you, the reader, to share in this journey, encouraging you to interact with and to challenge us.

Fight the good fight with all thy might;
Christ is thy Strength, and Christ thy Right;
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally.

In the name of Christ our peace,
The Aristostaff