Saturday morning, we had Jubilee Kids Club at the Samaritan Inn.  It got rolling a little slowly, but eventually we had 6 kids show up.  We had a lot of fun with the kids this month.  Beautiful weather and beautiful kids!

After that, my family along with my parents planned to leave for Oklahoma City to my brother’s house for my nephew’s 3rd birthday party.  We got the whole family loaded up in the car only to discover we had a dead battery.  Since we had just had the car checked out, we took it back to our mechanic.  He checked and, sure enough, he recommended we purchase a new battery.  So, $80 and an hour an a half at Walmart later, we finally got on the road.  (As a side note, I am not sure if it is great timing or terrible timing to have your battery go dead right before leaving on a road trip….it’s certainly better than on the road somewhere).

We spent the night in OKC Saturday.  Got up and took the kids and the grandkids out for donuts which was enjoyed by all.  Then, the girls (my wife, our 8 wk old daughter, and my mom) joined my sister-in-law and their 8 mo old at home, while the boys all went to the park for some serious swinging and sliding.  What a beautiful morning to spend at the park next to Lake Overholser!

After that, we returned to my brother’s house for lunch and the birthday party.

We left around 3:30 and got home about 8 last night.

I think everyone had a pretty nice weekend.

My 4 year old had a few nuggets today.

First, my wife took him to an out of town birthday party for a friend of his that used to live here.  When he got back after being away several hours, he walked right in and handed me a bag of candy from the party.  He said, “Here you go, daddy.  I want you to have this.  You deserve it.”  Isn’t that awesome??

Secondly, on the way home from the party, he was his normal happy self.  Then, all of a sudden, he must have gotten tired because he said to my wife, “Good night, mom”.  She looked back and he was asleep immediately after saying that!

Lastly, this evening I took the boys over to my aunt and uncle’s lake house north of Aubrey.  After announcing to the family that he needed to go poo-poo, he exited stage left to do his business.  After he was in there for a few minutes, I wondered back there to check on him.  I asked him if he was ok, if he needed any help, if he had cleaned up good, if he had washed his hands.  Yes, no, yes, yes were his responses.  As I started to walk away, I heard “WELL DON’T LEAVE ME IN HERE FOREVER!!”.  I turned back and asked him why he didn’t just turn the doorknob and come out and he said “I washed my hands and their wet” (as in duh, daddy, can’t you see that my hands are wet and I can’t turn the knob).

Today at lunch I asked my son what I should blog about today.  He said I should talk about his toy dinosaur, who he has named B-Rex (don’t ask me why).  He said I should talk about B-Rex because B-Rex wants to eat but he can’t because B-Rex is just pretend.

Which leads me to a thought that I often have.  I don’t trust everything scientists tell me.  Why am I expected to take everything a scientist tells me as fact?  My kid is really into dinosaurs and he has books that tell him all about life on this planet as it was x million years ago.  And, everything is written as fact.  When I read these books to him, I always add in the caviet phrase “according to scientists” at the end of each statement that strikes me as utterly unprovable.  I mean, there is no way to prove or disprove some of the statements made, and yet, we are expected to accept all of it as fact.  And, not only that, but we are expected to just start teaching it to our kids.

My son had his 4th birthday party at the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science.  It was a terrific party and he and all his friends had a super time.  (I recommend it if you are looking for a unique party idea for a young child).  But, even there, I remember thinking more than once, “How can they possibly know that?”

And, it certainly isn’t limited to theories on dinosaurs.  I have heard and read all kinds of crazy things stated as fact.  I have heard all about how the planets came to be.  There are detailed accounts of how our own planet has evolved and changed over the millions of years.  Give a scientist a rock and they can tell you its age.  (Carbon dating in particular is something that gets on my nerves because it is so widely accepted as complete and utter fact beyond any possible debate).  They can categorically state when the Artic will run out of ice.  They know how much our climate is warming and can tell us with amazing precision how temperatures will change over the next 10 years, 20 years, etc.

A quick google of “scientists claims” gave me the following results:

Life on Mars Likely, Scientist Claims

Black people ‘less intelligent’ scientist claims

Scientists Claim Infrared Helmet Could Reverse Alzheimer’s Symptoms

Men Smarter than Women, Scientist Claims

And, these are just on the first page!  The list of unbelievable and un-provable claims goes on and on.  (Of course, Men being smarter than Women is really more of a commonly accepted fact than any sort of breakthrough scientific discovery…just kidding).

I remember the exact moment about 5 years ago when I finally decided to officially quit believing anything that was stated in the name of science.  I read a headline that “There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on the earth.”  Come on, how in the world can they possibly know that?  And yet the article fully documents the total number of stars in the sky (70 sextillion to be exact) as compared to the much smaller number of grains of sand on the earth, which ironically they don’t even state…it’s as if we are to assume that they have known that all along.  I knew when I read that article that they are completely full of crap.

Don’t get me wrong.  I do think there is validity to a lot of things that scientists discover.  Many advancements and truly proven discoveries have been made in all areas of science.  But, my point is, that our society is expected to just fall in line with whatever is said in the name of science.

Well, I, for one, can’t do that.  In my mind there is always room for other explanations no matter how remote they may be.  For instance, I believe that God created the world.  It is certainly possible that the Grand Canyon was carved into the rock over millions and millions of years by the Colorado river.  But, it is also very possible in my mind that God created the Grand Canyon in just a single instant in all its beauty and glory.  But, I have never heard the latter as a possible explanation to how the Grand Canyon came to be.

It’s possible that Dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago, sure, but isn’t it also possible that God created the world with fossilized dinosaur bones and footprints and even droppings just because He’s God and He can create the world anyway he chooses with dinosaur droppings and all?

I personally think that the Grand Canyon was, in fact, formed over thousands of years and that dinosaurs actually did roam the earth.  But, I would just once like to see scientists to acknowledge that there are other possibilities when they start to make their informed statements of fact.

This entire blog started because my 4 year old said I should talk about his pretend hungry dinosaur.  Here’s hoping he will continue to be interested in dinosaurs.  Here’s hoping he will continue to ask questions that will lead him into a further thirst for truth.  Here’s hoping he will channel his interests and his curiosities into finding out more about this world and how it came into being.  Here’s hoping he will always keep his mind open to a whole “world” of possibilities.