–1– Yesterday, I posted about why I have a big problem with atheist activist P.Z. Myers. A lot of my commenters have turned out to disagree with me that it is wrong for atheists to desecrate the Eucharist. I’m going to respond to some of their arguments in a post that will go up around 9am today, but, in the meantime, feel free to weigh in. –2– One of the worst reported stories this week was the debut of the... Read more
Since I had some nice things to say about P.Z. Myers earlier this week, I didn’t want to post them without giving a quick overview of why I disapprove of his brand of sacrilegious confrontations. Myers takes pride in courting controversy. In his biggest stunt, he desecrated a consecrated wafer a student had smuggled out of a Catholic mass. To make it clear why I regard this kind of behavior as completely unacceptable, whether or not Catholic claims about the... Read more
I have a fun surprise coming down the pipeline as part of my series on G.K. Chesterton, but, in the meantime, I wanted to spend a little more time on what it means to be an atheist. March Hare wrote in response to my praise for P.Z. Myers: I think that Myers (and Leah’s) broad point is entirely correct, but on the specifics PZ is way off the mark. Atheists can be rebellious against society, against their parents, against their... Read more
I’m not normally a fan of P.Z. Myers, since, although I appreciate his pro-education, pro-science activism, his agent provocateur shtick tends to be grossly offensive for the sake of being offensive. His deliberate sacrileges make it impossible for him to have any positive impact on religious people, and, if his demonstrations are intended to stir up atheists, he’s catering to the lowest denominators of distrust and anger. It’s poisonous for everyone involved. So with those rather large caveats, and keeping in mind that I haven’t changed my... Read more
After hearing today’s readings at Mass, I wanted to share a favorite non-fiction book with you all. For those who don’t attend Mass, today’s gospel reading was from Matthew 5:13-16: Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be... Read more
As part of my Sunday’s Good Book series, I posted about G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy and explained that there was a lot that I found compelling and challenging about his philosophy. Since that’s a sorta weird thing for an atheist to say, discussion ensued and is ongoing. Here’s all the posts on this topic to date: I Assign You Reading! – As a prelude to my discussion of Chesterton, I highlighted an essay by Eve Tushnet about when, if ever,... Read more
My 7 Quick Takes today was all about football and concussions, but if you’re not all tuckered out yet, there’s another good article in the sports section of The New York Times. Alan Schwartz looks at the different concussion policies implemented by the Packers and the Steelers, so that’s a possible way to choose who to root for on Saturday, (that is, if you aren’t using the also-popular guide of voting for the team with fewer incidents of sexual assault).... Read more
–1– It’s Superbowl weekend, and this will be a series of Superbowl-related takes, but, to clarify, I’m decidedly anti-football. And I’m not opposed to football the same lazy, uninterested way I’m opposed to watching baseball or basketball. Football, because of its high concussion and traumatic brain injury rate is uniquely awful and destructive. –2– If you want a quick overview to the problem of concussions in football, start with Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker article “Offensive Play: How Different are Dogfighting and... Read more
Erik and Ebonmuse together made the best critical responses to the question I asked on Monday: What should I conclude from the fact that Christianity’s metaphysics is a good predictor of my ethics? Ebonmuse said: You mentioned the numbers thing, that Christian philosophers have had the numerical majority just as they’ve had in larger civilization, and there’s probably some truth to that. But I’d take this point a little further: I’d say that there are so many different threads of... Read more
Thanks for all the comments and questions that you’ve left on my Monday post on my attraction to G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. I’m working my way through them and I anticipate that will be my main source of inspiration for posts this week and possibly next if your questions continue. So here goes… Matt asked a question that was aimed at the heart of my post: It’s weird to me that someone would use theology to substantiate their own claims about... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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