“If you are arguing against climate change, vaccines, evolution, etc. you do not get to invoke Galileo because in any accurate analogy, you are the religious fanatics (or the astronomers who blindly clung to Aristotle).”
If only I had a dime for every time I’ve encountered the “Yeah? Well, everyone thought Columbus was nuts too!” or “Yeah? Well, Galileo was right despite what all the scientists of his day said!” in a conversation.
Though our digital technologies have made life super-convenient for us â just tap and itâs yours, whatever it is â maybe itâs time for us to recapture some of the territory weâve ceded. Time to pull the blinds, exclude the snoops, recapture the notion of privacy. Go offline.
Any volunteers? Right. I thought not. It wonât be easy.
Source: Margaret Atwood: we are double-plus unfree | Books | The Guardian
Part of my daily tension as someone who loves my whirring gadgets and gizmos and on demand lifestyle-thru-technology.
Weâve teamed up with Square to enable anyone in the US to make a donation directly to a US candidate through a Tweet, starting today. This is the fastest, easiest way to make an online donation, and the most effective way for campaigns to execute tailored digital fundraising, in real time, on the platform where Americans are already talking about the 2016 election and the issues they are passionate about.
Source: Political donations, now through a Tweet | Twitter Blogs
I wonder if this will get any coverage during tomorrow night’s Republican Presidential Debate?
Regardless, you can also send me money at my “cashtag” if you’d like to test the system:Â $samharrelson.
But seriously… why don’t more churches and non-profits use this??
“Since President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty 50 years ago, the characteristics of the nationâs poor have changed: A larger share of poor Americans today are in their prime working years and fewer are elderly. In addition, those in poverty are disproportionately children and people of any age who are black, Hispanic or both.
But perhaps just as striking is that the geographic distribution of the poor has changed dramatically, too. A new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that the South continues to be home to many of Americaâs poor, though to a lesser degree than a half-century ago. In 1960, half (49%) of impoverished Americans lived in the South. By 2010, that share had dropped to 41%.”
Source: How the geography of U.S. poverty has shifted since 1960 | Pew Research Center
Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson discuss the Prayer of Jabez, Sex and the Bible, pansexuality, the Popeâs new chair, and why Islam isnât limited to the originating text.
Source: Thinking Religion: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale | Thinking.FM
It turns out that the problem of wisdom is not easy to solve. Acquiring it is dangerous. The individual who pursues true insight is, to use Nietzscheâs phrase (though the perception goes back at least as far as Plato), untimely. That is, he strives to be ahead of his time in his perceptions, albeit sometimes basing his thoughts on the intellectual achievements of the past. He is out of joint with his moment, and the result often is the enmity of others. People do not like his ideas, which seem to be an indictment of the way they are living. The thinker is a walking criticism of the lives of the rest, as Socrates showed. He paid with his life.
Source: Why We Need to Resurrect Our Souls
Working on an episode of Thinking Daily now with this as the soapbox.
We just passed an important milestone. For the first time ever, one billion people used Facebook in a single day.
On Monday, 1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family.
A more open and connected world is a better world. It brings stronger relationships with those you love, a stronger economy with more opportunities, and a stronger society that reflects all of our values.
Source: Mark Zuckerberg – We just passed an important milestone. For the…
Of course, that means 6 in 7 people on earth didn’t use Facebook.
That means that there are lots of people who choose not to use Facebook in the developed world.
More critically, that means there are many people in our world that don’t have access to the internet or devices that can access the web (or Facebook if you please).
Companies are working to crack this nut for their own bottom lines but also the improvement of humanity. Access to information and the ability to communicate near instantaneously with someone on the other side of our planet (and eventually beyond) will be an amazing issue to cover in the coming decades.
It’s incumbent upon all of us now to make sure the internet is as welcoming and transformative as it should be for everyone (whether old or new user).
Thomas and I have a new Thinking Religion podcast episode featuring Prof. Carrie Shroeder where we discuss all sorts of things… Stargate to Digital Humanities to why you should blog on your own site (academic or church or individual). Fun listen (I think).
Enjoy…
“What is left is pretty much McDonaldâs â the restaurant of the masses, the great democratizer, the substitute for the community square, where it is possible to read or nurse a cheap cup of coffee for hours, or to nap after taking a daily methadone dose.”
Source: A Manhattan McDonaldâs With Many Off-the-Menu Sales – The New York Times
“Providing written notice, courts have determined, does not constitute a substantial burden on religious exercise. Beyond that, the rulings emphasize, contraception is made available and paid for by others under the plan, not the objecting religious organizations.”
Source: Obama Administration Issues Final Contraception Coverage Religious Accommodation Rules
Finally.
Now let’s move on to issues affecting our communities, states, and country that deserve the type of scrutiny, examination, and money that this has received.
