KJVOism and Circular Reasoning in a Small Circle
This thought occurred to me the other day: the KJV-Only use of Psalm 12:6–7 is circular reasoning. Some people will hear that as the ultimate put-down. If someone can successfully prove that another person is guilty of assuming his conclusion in all the reasons he takes to get there (that's what circular reasoning is), that person is considered to be wrong by definition. "How do you know that evolution is true?" "Because I have evolved to a greater state of logical consciousness than you...
A Vision of the Good
One of the reasons Harvard prof Michael Sandel's book Justice was the most memorable book I read last year—and the biggest reason I highly recommend it—is that it makes one excessively important point: you can't not have a vision of the good. You read that right. It's impossible to live without some vision of the good, and that vision of the good will and must drive your decisions. The example Sandel gave that most stuck with me is affirmative action. I myself have puzzled over that issue. I...
I Don’t Think Our Language Is, Like, Going Down the Tubes Any Time, Like, Soon
Most of the time you say something, you want to be understood. So you use the linguistic and other signs—words, gestures, facial expressions—that you know by long experience to be shared by others in your culture. Even when you (deceitfully) purpose to be misunderstood, you rely on the basic reliability of all those signs. The language police you will always have with you, but I've just given one big reason why their fears are unfounded. The language police are generational profilers, wanton...
Christian Convert to Islam from Greenville, SC
Every once in a while an Internet rabbit trail leads to something exceptionally interesting. Yesterday I stumbled across the video above. I began to watch as Josh (now "Yusha") Evans related his testimony of conversion from Christianity to Islam. It turns out Josh is from, of all places, Greenville, South Carolina—and he lived right down the street from where I live now. As a teen he briefly intended to go to Bob Jones University where his best friend went. He gets a few things about BJU mixed...
Spotify Ads
I like Spotify. I can listen to just about any music I want, explore new music from my favorite artists (I found a new one today from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir that was just exquisite!), see recommendations from friends on Facebook, and pay precisely zero dollars for it all. If I want to listen to some exquisite Beethoven piano sonata, I can sample the same piece from twenty different artists. But I'm writing today to complain: my righteous soul is vexed. In order to listen to...