Patheos asked bloggers to give 200 word apologiai for their faith, so, here’s my very brief attempt at why, given theism, I went with Catholicism: From Paul’s original cry that “If he be not raised… your faith is in vain” to Flannery O’Connor’s “Well, if [the Eucharist]’s a symbol, to hell with it!” Catholicism has resisted Invisible Dragon in the Garage Syndrome fairly well. It’s not a religion that doesn’t mind what people think, as long as they all get along —... Read more
— 1 — Lo, a miracle has occurred. I enjoyed an article that in some way pertained to March Madness. (Unsurprisingly, it’s by Nate Silver). Over at 538, he’s got an explanation (with simulations and graphs) of why a team might prefer a lower seed, what they could do with the perverse incentives, and how the NCAA could patch the problem. — 2 — Ok, in fact there were two articles about college basketball that caught my eye this week. I... Read more
This past weekend was the one year anniversary of my conversion (well, according to the liturgical year, anyway). I changed my mind in the night between plain old Saturday and Palm Sunday. And, as one friend joked, this meant I got to skip Lent and come in right during Holy Week. But one of the things I felt most acutely during my attendance at Triduum services that week was a sense of distance. It was one thing to not participate... Read more
— 1 — It’s March! That month when people care particularly intensely about sports I am indifferent to, but make brackets about all kinds of things that do catch my fancy. Like this Shakespeare Showdown bracket, which has prompted a number of fights about the rankings to the point where we might soon to say “Oh, what a falling off was there!” — 2 — Passover starts this week, and the Maccabeats have a delightful new song which is also... Read more
In a post titled “The sad, sad tale of the philosophical meta-game” Eli of Rust Belt Philosophy does a useful job calling out our fascination with outrageousness and impatience with obvious sounding truth. Plus, his frame metaphor is awesome: Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. (Don’t worry, you don’t need to know what that is to follow his point. Let me block quote a little: Now, Marvel is a game – I mean, a paradigmatic game, the kind where there’s really... Read more
Via Mark Shea, Time has a lovely story about a German pilot who couldn’t find it in his heart to shoot down a crippled American bomber during World War II. As Stigler’s fighter rose to meet the bomber, he decided to attack it from behind. He climbed behind the sputtering bomber, squinted into his gun sight and placed his hand on the trigger. He was about to fire when he hesitated. Stigler was baffled. No one in the bomber fired... Read more
If you cross-read the atheism portal here at Patheos or have atheist friends who are heavily engaged with the movement, you may be seeing images like this pop up across Facebook this week. It’s ‘A’ Week, which, as Hemant Mehta explains at his blog, is a challenge to atheists to come out and give their friends a chance to know they know atheists. This year’s celebration seems particularly well-timed, falling right after Rob Portman’s rapid about-face on gay marriage demonstrates that... Read more
So, remember that atheist friend I had the The Great Divorce bookclub with? There were a number of unexpected benefits to that fight, but perhaps the most delightful is the fact that my friend likes songwriting and Sondheim, and relyricized a number from Into the Woods to be about the Dwarf and the Tragedian. You can google around for a summary of the scene (I don’t see the text up anywhere) but, given how often I recommend it and that my friend... Read more
— 1 — I’ve joined up on one of the online campaigns for Dungeons and Discourses, and, meanwhile, friend of the blog Christian H has invented an expansion pack for Scott’s game. He’s invented spells and feats for a new Critic class and you can see how he put it all together chez lui. Here’s one I particularly enjoyed: PERFORM GENDER Type: self, feminist, lgtbq, postmodern Prerequisite: 2 Level Utopian or Ethicist Cost: 2W Duration: 2 turns Spell: You use your knowledge... Read more
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Suggestions for Revamping Comments?
Well, the comments that followed my post on ‘A Week’ and the adjectives besides atheist that people choose kind of spiraled off into flamewars about gay marriage and other unrelated comments. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and I’d like to get people to help me brainstorm some solutions, from the technical to the more honor culture-y. Here are a couple things that have occurred to me: Culture Changes Periodic “Take it Outside” threads – when an off-topic conversation is heating up, I can paste... Read more