I always enjoy Dalrymple’s pieces. Here he ponders on the current tendency to accept the notion that it is nature that determines behaviors.

He wrote, “Our search for, and apparent willingness to believe in, or at least give credit to the possibility of, “the” gene for complex social behavior suggests that credulity and inability to think critically did not die out with the advent of the Enlightenment. The will to believe is as strong as ever. We are like creatures so dazzled with our own technological prowess that we no longer think it necessary to consider the obvious.”

[Read more...]

Is this the next book for “dummies”? Or merely a book by a couple of dummies?

[Read more...]

This item from the March 2007 issue of Touchstone magazine:

“The Evangelical publisher Thomas Nelson will now only publish authors who accept the Nicene Creed, though it will publish secular books for which it already has contracts, like Donald Trump on real estate advice.”

Here’s a quote from some current reading….

“What isn’t said,” seems to me the most significant measure of a certain kind of pseudo-Christianity, of the sort that uses Christian words for this-worldly life, that preaches, for example, about “transformation” and “the presence of God amond us” and “the empowering spirit” and the like without ever mentioning sin, judgement, redemption, and the Cross that transforms us. People who use such words are rarely overtly heretical, but they do not say what a Christian says. (Which is part of the appeal).

This seems to me obvious, but it is a point I’ve had great trouble getting into the heads of conservative Christians I’ve talked to, even those, like pastors and academics, who ought to have some skill in discerning the real from the fake. An astonishing number evaluate a sermon or book solely on the basis of what is said, so the strongest judgement they will make of counterfeit Christianity is “It’s weak” or “It’s thin” or “I would have said . . . ” or “I wish he had said . . . “

They wouldn’t call a sugar pill prescribed by a doctor for someone suffering from cancer “weak,” not say without anger, “I wish he had given him real medicine.” They demand reality in medicine, though apprently not in religion.
—David Mills, quoted in Touchstone March 2007, p. 6.

[Read more...]

A new poster, from an old graphite sketch. This one contains the Genesis passage we use during Lent: “From dust you are, and to dust you will return.”

[Read more...]

I’ve appreciated Jon challenging our group of misfits to engage in dialogue through this blog. While I can understand why blogging can seem like a chore to some, there are several good reasons to jump in and participate. For one thing, as brain experts Fernette and Brock Eide point out, blogging is good for your brain. Simply put, if you want to be smarter, then blog!

[Read more...]