Archive for the ‘Anthropology’ Category
What Racism, Human Trafficking, and Abortion All Have in Common
Racism, human trafficking, and abortion all share a common source to their evil – the fundamental denial of human dignity – more specifically the creator endowed dignity of being made in the image of God. This is unilaterally accomplished by carving out groups of people (by ethnicity, gender, vulnerability, or age) who are classified as sub-human and therefore not treated as equal human beings.
Racism
Racism denies the image of God in a particular ethnicity, people group, or tribal affiliation. It seeks to make the persons of such groups or affiliations lesser than your group or affiliation. In doing so it assails the inherent worth endowed by God. There are several idols at work in racism – power, control, pride, and ironically likely both self-love and self-hatred.
Human Trafficking
Human trafficking denies the image of God in humanity by treating certain humans as not being human at all, but rather property. All sense of dignity and worth must be deconstructed in order to justify the human as property. There are several idols at work in human trafficking, most notably, greed, power, control, and lust.
Abortion
Abortion denies the image of God in those of a certain size, age, gestation, or relative level of “wantedness.” The human is made to be sub-human because it is small, young, not yet viable, and has not travelled the magical 6″ journey down the birth canal that suddenly and mysteriously imbues it with life, human rights, and legal status. Their are several idols at work here, most notably, lust, selfishness, comfort, and escape.
While perhaps difficult to personally engage heavily on all three fronts, I find it ironic that my own age demographic seem inclined to care about the first 2 of these 3 and not the third. I don’t know if this is for reasons of ignorance, idolatry, apathy, or all of the above. It will be interesting how history plays itself out on this particular issue… but I am willing to wager that our grand children will think of abortion with a similar disdain that our generation holds toward the Holocaust.
The Banality of Evil and Our Cultural Morass
I hope we would see ourselves as being more dignified than to cut up our children for the pursuit of the ideal body, the next ladder rung of the career, or the perfect orgasm. I hope we would see ourselves as being more dignified than to allow persons to be treated as property for sex or for unpaid work for the pursuit of cheaper goods, uncommitted and intimacy-less sex (rape). I hope we would see ourselves as being more dignified than to allow other ethnicities to be treated as less worthwhile, less valuable, and sub-human for the pursuit of feeling good about one’s own tribe at the expense of another tribe.
There is a certain banality to evil that lulls us into going along and getting along. It was the same banality that anesthetized the very bright German people into the wholesale slaughter of persons categorized as sub-human.
What we want is what we worship and what we worship controls us. This is true if we are pagans, atheists, agnostics, or Christians. We are all slaves to our wants. Those wants drive our ideas… And ideas have consequences… Often dire ones.
What the heart loves, the will chooses, the mind justifies – Thomas Cranmer
Best Links of the Week
The End of Church Planting? Interesting article that isn’t as provocative as the title. Definitely worth a read and a place at the table for missiological theory of church planting, challenging the dominant paradigm of the entrepreneurial paid pastor/planter.
How to use rewards/frequent-flyer credit cards to create a self-fulfilling profit loop (buy certain gold coins, get rewards/miles, deposit gold in bank, pay off credit card with gold deposited into bank).
Third Millennium Ministries has its own iPhone and Android apps. The content of ThirdMill is truly top shelf. I am of the opinion that Third Mill is probably one of the most important ministries of our time and all on a shoestring budget. If you care at all about the Gospel and the future of the church you ought to donate to them. I am thankful that there are actually some forward thinking strategists that are creating excellent scalable content capable of penetrating that glaring lack of theological training of pastors worldwide.
The Decline of the Nuclear Family. Some pretty staggering statistics and commentary on the status of family in the U.S.
Mayim Bialik (Blossom, Amy Farrah Fowler) of Big Bang Theory is actually a PhD and published in Neuroscience (HT: BL)
Mortgage companies are still ‘robo-signing’
Centrist Tom Coburn has an interesting debt proposal – I was definitely not expecting a proposal from one of the ‘Gang of Six’
77 year old Congressman confronts gun wielding intruder
An interesting piece giving some provocative thoughts regarding the Cosmological Argument
There are several layers of awesome to this Pepsi ad (coming from a staunch Coca-Cola fan):
Best Links of the Week
Ireland is raiding private pension funds to help get out of their debt mess… scary stuff and should serve as a caution to those in the U.S. And in somewhat related news…
PIMCO ups their ante against government debt
Fannie Mae asks for 8.5 billion from taxpayers
The AP makes an interesting case for releasing the Bin Laden photo(s)
Cell phones are potentially at the center of the mysterious decline in U.S. bee population
28% of U.S. homes are underwater
WSJ Article, “The Coming Postal Bailout”
Treasury auctions will break U.S. debt ceiling
NASA Gravity probe confirms Einstein’s theories
Al Jazeera article on Pakistan PM’s addressing of the Bin Laden mess
40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes (HT: Lisi):
Pretty incredible frisbee trick shots:
Best Links of the Week
Religion May Become Extinct in Nine Countries (Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland)
In March, U.S. Government spent 8x more than it had coming in
Some interesting rhetoric between Dmitry Medvedez and Vladimir Putin.
Two sets of excellent photographs from the Japanese devastation: BBC and Boston Globe
Libyans using Western journalists as human shields
Paul Allen takes some shots at Bill Gates and gives some revisionist accounts of the history of Microsoft
Massive publisher Conde Nast got scammed for $8 million by one email
Interesting article in WSJ about feminism and provocative clothing among teenage girls (HT: Lisi)
The 10 Most Profitable Movies of All-Time
Worthwhile video (HT: Jutty):
Best Links of the Week
Salon.com founder Laura Miller has a scathing, yet sadly true, piece on the status of the Bible amongst evangelicals: “The Rise and Fall of the Bible”
American Christians buy millions of Bibles they seldom read and don’t understand.
Mubarak evidently fell into a coma after leaving Cairo. Does this mark anyone else as strange?
2010 Income Statement for the U.S. Government (58% of budget for entitlement programs [SS, Medicare/Medicaid/Unemployoment; 20% defense spending]).
Radio program claims they have revealed Coco-Cola’s secret formula. Apparently, the secret ingredient “Merchandise 7x” consists of alcohol, orange oil, lemon oil, nutmeg oil, coriander, neroli and cinnamon.
Doug Wilson has a nice piece on collective bargaining.
“So You are Thinking of Going to Seminary?” A brief and well-written piece by Kevin DeYoung weighing in on those considering seminary. Certainly some golden advice here that could help you from wasting a lot of time, money, and energy OR help you maximize the most of your opportunity.
Interesting piece on Sarah Palin and feminism.
Bernie Madoff accuses federal government of being a Ponzi Scheme (and I can’t say I really disagree with him).
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are going away and the PIMCO CEO wants to raise rates on 30 year mortgages by 3% across the board.
How you can be praying for Christians in Egypt.
“How Much Information Did God Put in Your DNA?” (HT: Justin Taylor and Joe Carter)
U.S. debt is now equal to value of the U.S. economy.
Excellent brief biography by Tim Challies on Eric Liddell – part one and part two.
The fallacy of green job creation.
Denny Burk points out some interesting inconsistencies between fetal abortion and fetal surgery. It does become a bit absurd that doctors will both fight to save and fight to end babies in the same stage of pregnancy.
Paradigm shift coming in domain name suffixes.
Every now and then I read a really interesting Wikipedia article, this is one such article: “Voynich Manuscript”
Some really fascinating art: The Book Surgeon
Anyone who surfs knows this is unbelievable – Surfing Kickflip:
Best Links of the Week
Kermit Gosnell
Kermit Gosnell, the infanticide-abortion doctor, made over $1.8 million dollars a year, 17 properties, a boat, and a 41 year old mistress on payroll. This story keeps getting worse and worse.
Flu vaccine touts that it kills all strains of the flu virus.
A few articles on multi-culturalism – “Ending the Multicultural Experiment” “Nickolas Sarkozy, “Multiculturalism Has Failed“”
Some analysis of what the Egypt situation means for Christians in Egypt.
Saudi Arabia can’t refine enough oil to keep up with demand.
Crazy good goal from Wayne Rooney:
Best Links of the Week
Dealing With Difficult People: Narcissists. The best article I’ve read this year.
IBM computer to play against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Should be another interesting man vs. machine conflict.
Doug Wilson piece entitled “Calvinism, Eschatology, and the New Media”
Andy Crouch, “Ten Most Significant Trends of Last Decade”
A number of people in California recently won $150 by correctly guessing 4 of the 6 numbers of the California Lottery. The winning numbers were: 4, 8, 15, 25, 47, 42
Apparently the Catholic Church is doing a realty series on exorcism, but I heard this was news to the Vatican.
New US $100 bills to have 3-D technology.
AIG is recapitalizing. Unbelievable… have any lessons been learned?
Banks repossess over a million homes in 2010. Also, foreclosures rising.
Drunk Scientists accidentally pour wine on semiconductors and make some scientific discovery.
WSJ article entitled “Bye-Bye PCs and Laptops”
The Catholic Church and science. Personally, I am a huge fan of science and think there is a fair degree of agreement between science and Christianity, far greater than many acknowledge.
Green blob from Hubble Space Telescope.
Major Dick Winters passed away earlier this month. Thankful for this man and countless anonymous men just like him.
The precipitating event was an essay posted last February on the Huffington Post by Eddie Glaude, Jr., a young African-American religion professor at Princeton who gave his column the eye-catching title, “The Black Church Is Dead,” and continued that with an equally arresting lead:
“Of course, many African-Americans still go to church,” Glaude began, noting surveys that track the higher-than-average religiosity of American blacks. “But the idea of this venerable institution as central to black life and as a repository for the social and moral conscience of the nation has all but disappeared,” he said.
Best Links of the Week
Google NGrams Viewer – charts book searches over time. Above is an example of a search for “inerrancy.” (HT: MQ)
This has to be one of the craziest stories I have ever read: after police did nothing a father in Germany castrates a 57 year old man who was having relations with his daughter… with a breadknife. The man is on trial for attempted murder, his only comment was, “I saw it as my duty as a father.”
Free Sufjan Stevens Christmas music.
Ron Paul to head up oversight committee of the Federal Reserve. Awesome.
Mark Dever gives some wonderful reflections on the life of the late Roger Nicole. Justin Taylor also has a nice writeup here.
Infographic of Facebook relationships. (HT: Scott B.)
Some interesting interactive demographic city maps from the NY Times.
Some good commentary from Paul Tripp on false Gospels.
Soft Drink Infographic map: “Coke”, “Soda”, or “Pop”
There have been mounds of interesting gems mined from the WikiLeaks embassy wires, one of them is some commentary on Cuba’s coming insolvency.
NPR’s top 50 albums of 2010. Either I am pathetic and out of touch or NPR’s listeners are all esoteric snobs (more than likely the former). I have only heard of maybe 5 of the artists on this list.
Really fascinating video behind the scenes of the Mars Hill video guys from pre-production to distribution. They have a pretty minimal set of gear (a Red, and a few 5Dm2s and 7Ds) and do a lot with it in terms of a coherent aesthetic that matches the message.
20 Things that will be more expensive in 2011.
U.S. Navy test of railgun:
Some cool stop-motion:
Best Links of the Week
Provocative piece entitled, “Artists Build the Church.” Aesthetics without a doubt have been marginalized in the church. Another work that should be brought into this discussion is Hans Urs von Balthasaar’s Trilogy on “The Glory of the Lord.” Shame on Protestants for letting a Catholic write probably the best treatment of aesthetics (alongside Wolsterstorff’s work). God’s holiness and God’s glory are at the core of God’s character. Hence, art and aesthetics are at the very center of our Christian faith.
4th Amendment Underclothes – metallic print protest clothing. For those of you unaware the 4th amendment to the U.S. Constitution states the following:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Department of Homeland Security commandeering domain names.
It takes Iran over 30 years to notice Star of David placed on roof of their national airline’s (Iran Air) headquarters. The building was designed by Israeli architects.
Which Cashback credit cards to use at which retailers/websites. This was rather helpful.
A number of top shelf scientists publish a cautionary letter regarding the new X-ray machines that has some good scientific concerns that dispel a lot of the misinformation regarding the safety of the new machines. I think some more substantial science is in order here particularly for the elderly, children, pregnant, and those prone to various cancers on or close to skin (testicular, breast…).
If you haven’t heard yet, there were more WikiLeaks documents released of roughly a quarter million wires principally between emabassies. Of interest is a large amount of security intel, policy, military strategy, and embarassing details about world government figures. Of interest, it seems that North Korea did in fact provide Iran with the missile vehicles to launch nuclear warheads. This is very disconcerting as it means that North Korea likely has the nuclear bomb and rockets to launch them in.
Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens debate whether Religion is good for the world or not. I am inclined to think that religion, in the conventional sense of the word, is not good for the world. I am also unsure what is meant by the word, “good” as well. I would argue from different angles and presuppositions than Hitchens but likely arrive at similar conclusions. I would be very happy if every religion based on human self-righteousness would permanently cease. I don’t think anything is “good” apart from Christ, hence I think that all non-Christocentric religion is bunk.
Flexible, Disposable E-readers?
“Should MIT Teach Poetry?” I have already ranted on here about the affects of removing the Christian worldview on higher education (see post on UCF scandal). The point is that our Universities have become trade schools. Further, these trade schools are increasingly more expensive (astronomically expensive compared to inflation rates) while becoming less effective at producing marketable laborers. For many employers experience is > or = to education. If one’s education were limited to such a narrow sub-field of a field within a faculty within a college within a University… there is no foundation for the knowledge/building to stand. Of course MIT should teach poetry.
Congressman Mike Coffman (Rep. Colorado) writes a cogent piece on why not to raise taxes during a recession. (HT: SB)
Best Links of the Week
Chuck DeGroat has one of the best pieces I have read in a long long time called, “What’s Wrong With Your Pastor?” Orthodoxy without orthopathos is orthoworthless.
Tim Tebow writing a memoir about ‘faith, family, and football’ entitled Through My Eyes, and can be pre-ordered in hardcover and Kindle.
Marvin Olasky is resuming full-time duties at World Magazine.
Kansas State nutrition professor loses 27 pounds over two months while eating a diet of Twinkies and Nutty Buddy Bars, while lowering bad cholesterol by 20% and raising good cholesterol by 20%.
Company creating an app and cell phone plug-in device to test for STDs. I am not sure if this is exceedingly strange or a good idea… or both.
iPhone app of the week: MileBug – creates IRS compliant travel logs simply and easily and you can email yourself the reports in both Word or Excel formats. If you don’t want to pay the $2.99 they have a Lite version that allows you to create 10 trip reports before having to email yourself. Also, it allows you to take notes and add parking, toll, or food expenses to each mileage report.
Pretty crazy trick play in a Middle School football game:
Women solves Wheel of Fortune puzzle with just one letter:
Modern Pensées 