I’m already sort of breaking my “no more posts until the book is done” rule already, but this was too delicious to pass up: “The Case for Idolatry: Why Evangelical Christians Can Worship Idols”. Secondly, and even more significantly, we need to read the whole Bible with reference to the approach of Jesus. To be … Coming Out of the Idolization Closet
Not that I am particularly prolific on here, but I’m going to be taking a shortish break from posting while I finish up the first few drafts of Retardo Montalbán. There will be more drafts while Jill does her editing thing but that writing won’t be as rigorous or demanding…unless the bean bang completely misses … Taking A Short Break
You can buy it on Amazon. Here’s a list of things you can do with the paperback that you can’t do with the electronic version: Read 17 more stories Hold it Throw it Hide it from your babysitter Hide it from any babysitter Steal it* Steal it from Kevin Bacon** Bite it Do nothing with … Bored in the Breakroom Print Paperback Is Out
Good thoughts from Ed’s latest post: One of the biggest problems I run into is this knee-jerk reaction that our cultural substrate is the human default. It seems nobody wants to understand that what we have today is an anomaly, an intellectual tradition more radically different from all others than any of the rest are … Salvaging Some Knowledge
EDIT for all the people finding this post: I didn’t write the quoted text myself. It’s found at the page linked below, on the 16personalities.com site. I specifically picked the negative section because lots of personality quizzes give glowing praise as results, and the 16personalities site is one of the only ones I found that … Myers-Briggs Test Results: INTJ – The Conceited, Nit-Picking Sociopath
I received an email asking to promote the results of a poll, as seen in this post from the Daily Beast. Even though I’m actually doing what was requested by linking to it in this post, I responded to the email and declined because I’m not into charities I’m not personally involved with, and because … A Stupid Poll About Writing
I am currently on the first draft stage of Retardo Montalbán, and I have onboarded Jill Domschot as the semi-formal editor of the project. We have a verbal agreement for services and payment, where I will remite payment at the end of her editing duties. So this public post carries with it the accountability factor—mostly … An Update on the Works In Progress
When you see a beautiful chalice, it has a double beauty. If it’s well made, it has beauty for what it is. But if you know what it is, it also has beauty because you know what it’s meant to be filled with. The present world is like a chalice. God has made it as … N.T. Wright on Christian Art
Once in a while, Relevant Magazine will post something not so completely drenched in Millenial Christian cheese sauce that it’s worth noting. Via Wintery Knight, “What If Having an Extraordinary Life Isn’t the Point?“: Some have grown tired of the constant calls to radical change. They are less sure they want to jump on the … Living In Taupeville
Jill’s post about the simpy interpretation of this survey of the hierarchy of values among religious people gave me agita—not anything Jill said but the fact that a self-styled smartypants can’t process the inapplication of the simplicity of surveys*. This is a roundabout way of saying people and their belief systems are too complex for … The Paradox of Obedience
Spurred to action by squinty eye strain and this thread about Google Drive not having a dark theme like Gmail does, I tinkered with the CSS on the Typo theme I use here to make it mostly dark with a not-quite-white text, bucking the design trend of Apple and every website in existence that relies … Dark Is the New Black
At the Altar Bar in Pittsburgh – September 22, 2014.
From My Inventions (free pdf here): I was about twelve years old when I first succeeded in banishing an image from my vision by willful effort, but I never had any control over the flashes of light to which I have referred. They were, perhaps, my strangest experience and inexplicable. They usually occurred when I … Nikola Tesla Was A Weird Guy
If you would permit me a wholly web development-related post, I recently finished a translate jQuery script for my friends’ charity site, Mission to El Salvador. Technically, the script doesn’t translate the English to Spanish, but it replaces the English text and (sometimes) HTML markup. I was forced to do it this way because WordPress … Using jQuery To Translate Websites
One additional thought related to this post. The idea of universal suffrage as an absolute is a strange one if you are one to consider the state as a morally legitimate entity. I, for one, do not believe it is, so this argument is moot but I’m arguing this on a statist’s logical terms. If … Addendum to “Universal Sufferage” Post
I was tagged by Jill Domschot, who wrote Anna and the Dragon (read my review here), to write a post on what I’m working on. I barely talk about current book stuff so I badgered asked her to tag me when she was soliciting to be badgered asked for participants on Facebook. 1. What am … What I Am Working On
See here for the original post. To clear up any confusion, it’s important to make the distinction between gnostic and agnostic atheism. Gnostic atheists—the specific ones I addressed in the post—specifically claim knowledge of God’s non-existence. I take “knowledge” in the vaguely epistemic sense. Agnostic atheists claim a non-belief in deities but are open to … Addendum To “Correct Religion” Post
It’s a common question but there’s a lot of philosophical assumptions behind it, much like the loaded question logicians have pointed out. One has to take a step back to really address it properly. Julie Borowski, who isn’t much of a skeptic from what I can see, asked this on her personal Facebook page. I … “How Do You Know Your Religion Is the Correct One?”
I’m currently vacationing in Massachusetts, home to Elizabeth Warren and her corporo-fascism. A new Cheerios commercial portrays a competent dad. Interesting for its novelty but especially attention-starved social justice warriors are going to Tumblr the new paradigm. The Folly of Scientism – “Advocates of scientism today claim the sole mantle of rationality, frequently equating science … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 8
Vox Day posted recently about female suffrage. Talking about “their votes are equally incompatible with the long-term national interest as the other classes of current non-voters”: This can be done using a variety of metrics, including what Shelles describes as another possibility to the only way. Just to give one example, if the reason children … Suffer(age) the Little Children