{"id":1977,"date":"2012-02-24T01:08:32","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T06:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2012-12-06T15:09:26","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T20:09:26","slug":"7-quick-takes-22412","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/7-quick-takes-22412.html","title":{"rendered":"7 Quick Takes (2\/24\/12)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/7_quick_takes_sm1.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1387\" title=\"7_quick_takes_sm\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/7_quick_takes_sm1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"195\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 130%;\"><a name=\"qt1\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><strong>\u2014 1 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A bit of housekeeping before the Quick Takes: This blog is one of five nominees for the <a href=\"http:\/\/atheism.about.com\/b\/2012\/02\/22\/favorite-agnostic-atheist-blog-of-2011.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">About.com Award for Favorite Atheist Blog in 2011<\/a>. \u00a0You can vote once per day, and I would really appreciate it if you did.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 130%;\"><a name=\"qt2\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><strong>\u2014 2 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And speaking of the \u201cPlease vote for me\u201d refrain, perhaps you\u2019re aware of the Chinese documentary of the same name? \u00a0This movie follows a Chinese class of 8-year-olds who get to elect their own class monitor, their first experience with participatory democracy. \u00a0Here\u2019s the trailer:<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Please Vote For Me - Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i70Tqkm1lkQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 130%;\"><a name=\"qt3\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><strong>\u2014 3 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A discussion of this film served as the preamble to a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thisamericanlife.org\/radio-archives\/episode\/424\/kid-politics\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>This American Life<\/em> podcast on kids and politics<\/a>. \u00a0It\u2019s well worth listening to (or reading the transcript). \u00a0The podcast has three acts. \u00a0The first is set at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library where a reporter watches successive groups of kids interact with the museums interactive role-play of the invasion of Grenada. \u00a0The second segment is a conversation between a 14-year-old climate change skeptic (who says she\u2019s open to being convinced otherwise) and an adult scientist. \u00a0The final section explores an alternative school where a student\u00a0plebiscite\u00a0can alter any aspect of the school day. \u00a0My favorite of these stories is by far the first:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Today\u2019s President Reagan is a blond fifth grader with an athletic build. My guess is he\u2019s a popular kid, but a benevolent one. He seems to take being named leader of the free world in stride, as though it\u2019s the sort of thing that happens to him often. Here\u2019s how it all works. The invasion is broken down into a series of A or B options. For instance, A, have diplomatic talks with Grenada, or B, evacuate the medical students. A, evacuate the medical students, or B, overthrow the Communist government. Each kid gets a vote, but President Reagan has final say.<\/p>\n<p>The President inputs his answer into a dramatic red phone located right next to the jelly bean jar on his desk. Before they start, the kids were told that there aren\u2019t right or wrong answers, but the whole thing\u2019s rigged to make what Ronald Reagan did in 1983 look like the most appealing option. Each time the kids choose to do what he did, a bell goes off as though they\u2019ve won a tropical vacation in Grenada, instead of an invasion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 130%;\"><a name=\"qt4\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><strong>\u2014 4 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"God the Divine Geometer\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/4\/4d\/God_the_Geometer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"314\" height=\"430\"><\/p>\n<p>Apropros of nothing extept its intrisicic\u00a0delightfulness, this portrait of God as Divine Geometer from the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bible_moralis%C3%A9e\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bible moralis\u00e9e<\/a> <span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">comes <\/span><span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">via a friend on facebook<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 130%;\"><a name=\"qt5\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><strong>\u2014 5 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/debating-gay-marriage-index-post.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">gay marriage debate on this blog<\/a> has wrapped up, though\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/02\/marriage-qa.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">I\u2019m still taking questions<\/a> on or about the topic. \u00a0As a nice little coda, you might want to check out\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jrdkirk.com\/2011\/12\/18\/on-separating-church-and-state\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">J.R. Kirk\u2019s post on the strange dynamic between the church and the State on marriage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We have lived so long with pastors saying, \u201c.. and through the power vested in me by the State of _____\u2026\u201d that we don\u2019t even realize how weird that is.<\/p>\n<p>Can you imagine Jesus performing a wedding and saying, \u201cthrough the power invested in me by Caesar Augustus and his Governor Pontius Pilate\u2026\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>The church\u2026 can continue to serve as the state\u2019s emissary and thereby bind itself to marry only within the confines of secular law rather than the conscience of its people.<\/p>\n<p>It can keep doing it, but attempt to raise up a change in state law so that civil ceremonies are for the state\u2019s purposes and church weddings are for God\u2019s purposes. (This is the way it worked in Holland when my grandparents got married: one set of paperwork and vows for the state, the other in the church.)<\/p>\n<p>Or, pastors could just stop marrying people on the state\u2019s behalf.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 130%;\"><a name=\"qt6\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><strong>\u2014 6 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Agreeing with Kirk doesn\u2019t necessitate that churches (institutionally) or parishoners (individually) would cease to have an interest in how legal, secular marriage was defined. \u00a0Just like atheist paternalists like me, Christians could think the coercive power of the state could be used to help people make the choices they <em>would<\/em> make if they had all the facts.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re still likely to clash, but both sides benefit. \u00a0The church gets to put a firewall between sacramental and secular marriage and I get to have a fight that\u2019s all talking about policy outcomes, not religious freedom.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 130%;\"><a name=\"qt7\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><strong>\u2014 7 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Mushroom cloud\" src=\"https:\/\/25.media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_l7382ovGzT1qzvx0to1_500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"319\"><\/p>\n<p>I have totally been spending too much time futzing around with <a href=\"http:\/\/nuclearsecrecy.com\/nukemap\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">NukeMap<\/a>, which lets you overlay different types of warheads on cities to see how far out the radii of destruction extend. \u00a0I was pleasantly surprised to find out that, even though I live in DC, a number of nuke designs would not put me in danger of radiation poisoning or flashover.<\/p>\n<p>The best part of this map app is getting to contrast the different designs of bombs and how they work. \u00a0Some scatter radioactive material much farther, while others send out particularly destructive shock waves. \u00a0The different impacts don\u2019t scale up together. \u00a0Now I\u2019m in a research-y mood to find out how design is linked to these variations.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For more Quick Takes, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Conversion Diary!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2014 1 \u2014 A bit of housekeeping before the Quick Takes: This blog is one of five nominees for the About.com Award for Favorite Atheist Blog in 2011. \u00a0You can vote once per day, and I would really appreciate it if you did. \u2014 2 \u2014 And speaking of the \u201cPlease vote for me\u201d refrain, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-quick-takes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - 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