Epistemological Naïveté and Hubris
Tanya M. Luhrmann is a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times with a Ph.D. from Cambridge and a professorship in anthropology at Stanford. She's no intellectual slouch. And she's focused some of her writing on the particular sub-species of homo sapiens in which I happen to belong: homo evangelicus, having written a book entitled When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. To maintain my classic arm-chair blogger status, I did not read her book,...
Fiddlesticks and Lexicography
What do you do if you’re not sure what a word means? Wait for it... You look it up in The Dictionary. So far we’re together, right? This is chicken-crossed-the-road-to-get-to-the-other-side level stuff. But what if The Dictionary disagrees with The Dictionary? I looked up fiddlesticks the other day (long story), and this is what I found: Merriam-Webster: “nonsense—used as interj.” American Heritage: “Interj. Used to express mild annoyance or impatience.” The two dictionaries agree...
BibleWorks 10
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Discrimination
I saw this sidebar at The Atlantic not too long ago. Notice the first item: The article itself doesn't use the word "discriminate," and I have no idea who wrote the headline. But I do think it's interesting that the article itself discriminates against many groups that, as best I can tell, are not represented despite their right to ressentiment. If I were the editor at The Atlantic, I'd do a series: How DMVs Discriminate Against Blind Drivers How the Olympics Discriminates Against...
The Most Important Thing You’ll Read Today Beyond Holy Writ
I may be at risk of becoming the boy who cried "Read This," but this point from Mark Bauerlein about debating homosexuality in the public square is so, so important: Religious conservatives demand religious liberty, while liberals, progressives, and libertarians demand that discrimination stop. In this set-up, which the media blast daily, conservatives don’t defend their beliefs. They only defend their right to exercise those beliefs. The charge of bigotry stands. Obviously, the set-up favors...