1. The Washington Post hired Joshua Bell, a world-famous violinist, to play for spare change outside a D.C. Metro station (the stop where I commute to work every day) in order to see if anyone would notice. "In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?" The result--"Pearls Before Breakfast"-- is one of the most fascinating newspaper articles I've read in a long, long time.
2. Cross-centered? or Resurrection Centered?
3. According to a study by Rand, people with HIV who have stronger religious ties are less likely to spread the virus: HIV-positive people who say religion is an important part of their lives are likely to have fewer sexual partners and engage in high-risk sexual behavior less frequently than other people with the virus that causes AIDS.
4. Stuart Buck asks: What's the difference between the following statements:
1. The universe depends on a force that "our five senses can’t detect," that "doesn’t interact at all with electricity or magnetism," and that is compared by those who work in the field to the "tooth fairy."
2. The universe depends on God.
5. Blackwater: Lawyers, Guns, and Money
6. A 1970s study of lottery winners found that a year after their windfall they were no happier than nonwinners. A prime example of "hedonic adaption."
7. How to punctuate a sentence
8. A visual representation of the typical lifecyle of a blog post. (Here on EO it usually skips ahead to 6 or 7, falls back to 5 and then ends at 14.) (HT: Kottke.org)
9. World's Top 100 Most Livable Cities
10. A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives reports that during the past thirty years, the number of male births has decreased each year in the U.S. and Japan. In a review of all births in both countries, the University of Pittsburgh-led study found significantly fewer boys being born relative to girls in the U.S. and Japan, and that an increasing proportion of fetuses that die are male. They note that the decline in births is equivalent to 135,000 fewer white males in the U.S. and 127,000 fewer males in Japan over the past three decades and suggest that environmental factors are one explanation for these trends.
11. Frank Turk has some thoughts on the "sociological group in the U.S. known and recognized as 'Christian'":
There is also no attempt to distinguish between the actual stumbling block of the Gospel and phony stumbling blocks which people erect to protect themselves from evangelism. For example, it's a phony stumbling block -- a ruse, a red herring -- when someone says they think the church is "too judgmental". Too judgmental about what? When was the last time there was a book burning at a local church that you didn't have to hunt up via Google? How about a live protest against -- let alone public evangelism toward -- homosexuals which was meaningful? The church is not one-tenth as judgmental as the radical political left in this country, and that is to its shame.
12. The Pentagon praises characters from "Sesame Street" for helping children in military families cope when their parents are deployed.
14. In a study examining the role of black bloggers in the blogosphere, Brown University researcher Antoinette Pole assessed how bloggers of color use their medium for purposes related to politics and found that black bloggers mobiliz readers to engage in political participation and do not feel discriminated against or excluded by other bloggers.
15. A national survey taken in Japan asked people to list the top 100 historical figures. The results: The late lead singer for Queen, Freddy Mercury, ranked higher than Isaac Newton (#53 and #99 respectively), Jean of Arc (sic) topped JFK (#6 and #61), and Bruce Lee (#37) edged out Leonardo da Vinci (#38). (HT: Marginal Revolution)
16. John Mark Reynolds on the relationship between religion and science:
Conservative, evangelical, Christians have not spent much time developing a philosophy of science. Those believers who have thought much about the nature of reality have tended to be simple Baconians. What does that mean? Followers of Francis Bacon believed science to be the mere accumulation of facts. Only after the most careful examination of the world would a scientist risk a hypothesis. These theories were tied to the “facts” in a naïve way. The facts would simply lead the dispassionate researcher, the Man of Science, to the truth.
The only problem with such a view is that it does not always fit the way a modern scientist successfully works.
17. How to look 10 pounds thinner in photos.
18. On “The Primacy of Biblical Narrative” (from A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future):
We call for a return to the priority of the divinely authorized canonical story of the triune God. This story—Creation, Incarnation, and re-creation—was effected by Christ’s recapitulation of human history and summarized by the early church in its rules of faith. The gospel-formed content of these rules served as the key to the interpretation of Scripture and its critique of contemporary culture, and thus shaped the church’s pastoral ministry. Today, we call evangelicals to turn away from modern theological methods that reduce the gospel to mere propositions, and from contemporary pastoral ministries so compatible with culture that they camouflage God’s story or empty it of its cosmic and redemptive meaning. In a world of competing stories, we call evangelicals to recover the truth of God’s Word as the story of the world, and to make it the centerpiece of evangelical life.
(HT: Through a Glass Darkly)
19. Goodreads is a social networking site that allows you to see what your friends are reading. You can add and review books that you are currently reading, going to read, or already read. You can also read reviews by people who aren't in your friend network. (HT: Lifehack)
20. Jules Crittenden asks: "If it’s wrong for the president to fire political appointees over their politics, doesn’t that make it wrong for senators to oppose political appointees over theirs?" (HT: Instapundit)
21. Psychologist Wesley Schultz of California State University, San Marcos believes that despite the fact that we want to be normal, most people are very bad at estimating what normal human behavior really looks like. For example, many people probably think it’s typical to spew 11 tons of carbon into the world every year, while others might think that a couple tons is probably closer to the mark. But, when Al Gore tells us that the national average is in fact 7.5 tons, he likely is sparking two very different reactions: Some feel guilty for being so gluttonous. But others probably react: whew, did something right for a change.
23. Jordan Ballor has a helpful post on what it means to love the sinner but hate the sin
There are two errors that are often committed in these areas. The conservative error is to reject both the sinner and the sin in the interests of purity and holiness. The liberal error is to minimize or even celebrate the evil of the sin as good in the interests of acceptance, tolerance, and “love.”
Augustine helps us to avoid both errors. If we are at pains to legislate against certain types of behavior but are not undertaking evangelistic efforts to convert those who need it most, we engage in Pharisaic legalism. If we do nothing to rebuke sin, we engage in licentious antinomianism.
24. UCLA researchers confirm what us tubby folk always suspected: Dieting does not work.
25. I'd say this was a smart policy: An HR department looking for someone with internet experience dumped emails from candidates with Hotmail email addresses because "you can't pretend being an internet expert and use a Hotmail account at the same time." (HT: Kottke.org)
26. Slide Show: Van Gogh's Expressionist legacy
27. Macht puts the "new atheists" on the psychoanalyst's couch:
I've written before that the "new atheists" hold to an acultural view of modernity - a sort of doctrine of metaphysical manifest destiny, where as time marches on, Reason conquers new lands, civilizes tribes, and wipes out religion. They view it as an inevitable path that every culture takes as it modernizes. It's a progressive story they tell themselves, where as reason reaches its tentacles out across the globe, life gets better and better.
One of the "new atheist" arguments involves a map of religions around the world. They point to this map and say that where one is born is a good predictor of what one's religious beliefs are. Then they say that Science and Reason don't have cultural borders like this - it doesn't matter where you live, science is science. Besides the fact that the latter part of this claim seems to be false, they don't seem to realize that the same can be said of their own beliefs. If Sam Harris wasn't born in the 20th century Western world, he wouldn't be a "new atheist." His beliefs are quite contingent on his culture and his experiences, but he proclaims that it is Reason that has led him to his beliefs.
28. The Pursuit of Happiness: C. S. Lewis’ Eudaimonistic Understanding of Ethics (HT: Justin Taylor)
29. John Kay on the crude task of balancing cost and danger:
Making decisions that balance human life against costs is unavoidable. We prefer them to be made by public agencies than by private companies. And we deny that we make these judgments ourselves, although we do so every day.
30. Craig Robinson's life expressed as a series of pie charts. (HT: BoingBoing)
31. Why left-wingers should be supply-siders
32. JFK, Supply Sider
(HT: Outside the Beltway)
33. My Name is Earl's complete list of bad deeds and their status
http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3527
1
Alright, I'll bite on item 4. The real problem is in the question itself. It equivocates a statement of science with a statement of faith in the hopes of muddying the waters for those that have a poor understanding of the difference between scientific knowledge and religious faith. Overall, I'd give it an F due to it's lack insight and poor understanding on the nature of both scientific knowledge and religious faith.
posted on 04.10.2007 3:01 AM2
Livable cities? What an odd list!
Try living in San Francisco if you are a "breeder" who wants to raise a family.
posted on 04.10.2007 7:04 AM3
The Washington Post article on the experiment with Joshua Bell is certainly very interesting.
I found a YouTube version of the song Joshua played on the violin (Bach's Chaconne).
It is amazing that people would ignore such compelling music being played a few feet from them.
I think that the main factor at play in Joshua's failure to draw a crowd is the lack of an existing crowd to give the passers-by cues of the value of what was happening on their way to work.
Often, people will not go to the theatre to see a movie if box-office numbers are low. Similarly, without a crowd, many people are not able to perceive that there is any value in the music being played and thus do not even begin the process of evaluating it for quality.
In the article, the people who did respond to Joshua Bell's performance were those who had either seen him in concert or studied music to some degree.
These people had cues other than popular attention to alert them to the quality of music being played.
If the organizers of the experiment had placed about 20 people around Joshua as he played, there would have been a significantly larger number of people stopping to listen to the music.
posted on 04.10.2007 1:40 PM4
4. Stuart Buck asks: What's the difference between the following statements:
1. The universe depends on a force that "our five senses can’t detect," that "doesn’t interact at all with electricity or magnetism," and that is compared by those who work in the field to the "tooth fairy."
2. The universe depends on God.
The difference is that the set of possibilities #1 describes includes #2 but is much broader. Take 'dark matter' or 'dark energy'. Neither would qualify as God yet they would seem to fit #1.
You could repharse this to see the difference more clearly:
1. There happens to be an American living on the USA's east coast.
2. George Bush lives on the USA's east coast.
#2 fits nicely with #1 but #1 is much more broad since it could be talking about any American who happens to live on the east coast.
posted on 04.10.2007 2:10 PM5
20. Jules Crittenden asks: "If it’s wrong for the president to fire political appointees over their politics, doesn’t that make it wrong for senators to oppose political appointees over theirs?" (HT: Instapundit)
Errr, no. However it is wrong to fire a political appointee because he prosecutes legitimate crimes committed by members of your party. I would imagine it would be equally wrong to oppose an appointee simply because when they did their job it hurt a member of your party.
posted on 04.10.2007 2:22 PM6
#4 is ridiculous for the reasons noted above, but it tends to show how silly religious belief is, more than anything else.
"1. The universe depends on a force that "our five senses can’t detect," that "doesn’t interact at all with electricity or magnetism," and that is compared by those who work in the field to the "tooth fairy."
2. The universe depends on God."
These two statement are logically identical.
Now the problem is that science makes no claim that the force (dark matter or dark energy) must always remain undetectible. It is merely undetecible by today's technology. If the dark matter or dark energy remains undetectible for a sufficiently long period of time, it will be rejected.
The neutron, a partice with no electrical energy and no tendency to intereact with other particles on a chemical level was postulated before it was "observed" (It has nver been observed by the five senses).
If it was ultimately never observed, the concept of a neutron would have been discarded.
Buck's logic inadvertently proves God's existence is as emplirically likely as the tooth fairy's. Nice work.
posted on 04.10.2007 2:24 PM7
j mc faul,
I think you should follow the link provided for the word 'depends on'. It links to a Dawkins article basically saying that dark matter and dark energy seems to make up some huge portion of the universe. 'Depends on' simply means that since the two darks make up nearly the whole universe if we and all the 'normal stuff' disappeared it would be like removing some driftwood from the ocean. It would look essentially the same.
posted on 04.10.2007 2:53 PM8
#2:
NT Wright is a theological giant with much to learn from. His view on Pauline justification is unfortunate, but his understanding of the centrality of the cross AND resurrection of Christ and its implications for the Christian life is world-shaking in a good way.
Yet the present great danger of a renewed sense of Christ's reign over all of creation is an over-realized eschatology that denies the crucial factor of God's timing--something that mankind has struggled with since Adam ate the fruit of knowledge, thereby rejecting God's timing for Adam's intended glorification.
Yes, the true Israel has been freed from Egypt, but we are not yet in the Promised Land and should not act as if we are coronated kings. We are in the wilderness, first learning once again to worship, and secondarily to reign.
#4:
j mc Faul:
If the dark matter or dark energy remains undetectible for a sufficiently long period of time, it will be rejected.
How long? I mean, even Christians say that God will be empirically verifiable in the future. Does that mean that presently you believe in the existence of dark matter/energy by faith? O_o
posted on 04.10.2007 3:42 PM9
How exactly has dark matter & energy been 'undetected'? Dark energy was 'detected' when we observed that the universe's expansion is increasing. Dark matter was detected long ago when we noticed that galaxies and galaxy clusters lack enough non-dark matter to account for their gravity.
posted on 04.10.2007 4:54 PM10
Item # 3.
There were some other very interesting quotes. I would guess however that the lower rates of infection have a lot more to do with being a part of a supportive community, rather than religiousity per se.
Its unfortunate that so many in the Evangelical community, especially the black Evangelical community, fill the air with so much hate-filled anti-gay prejudice, thus driving away those that may benefit from a faith community. Just like that Preacher calling us faggots during the last "Liberty" Sunday.Doh! Straight Men: - Consider yourselves busted. Apparently you are having quite a lot of trouble staying on the "straight" and narrow road.
posted on 04.10.2007 6:22 PM11
The Joshua Bell article was excellent. Makes me wonder if I would have stopped to listen. I linked to your post at http://reedrambler.blogspot.com/2007/04/would-you-stop-to-listen.html.
posted on 04.10.2007 9:48 PM12
Seems that the bible records eyewitness accounts of people seeing God,
But that old book, hey, since there is no God, we know it can't be true,
posted on 04.11.2007 10:53 PM-and-
since it's not true, we know there is no God...
13
Religious people are less likely to spread the HIV they already have?
Would it be wise, perhaps, to instruct religious people on effective methods for preventing HIV infections, especially including barrier prophylaxis? Proven methods to people who might -- just might -- be more careful if they know how. What a concept.
posted on 04.12.2007 8:02 AM14
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posted on 02.28.2008 7:32 PM15
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posted on 02.29.2008 3:58 AM16
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posted on 03.02.2008 4:57 PM