Opinion: Jesus in orbit?
Does Jesus wave to the International Space Station at his return? Is the horse he’s riding on a funky, but cool space-horse?
Last fall I gave a lecture before the student body on the historical contexts behind ancient Christian ideas of the end of the world. My point at that time was that many modern Christians may surf the internet on their iPads, but their perception of the universe belongs to the era of clay tablets. In my newest piece at The Huffington Post (“Science and the Ups and Downs of Christ’s Ascension”), I return to the discussion, but from the standpoint of Christ’s ascension. If Christ ascended into the sky, where did he go?
3 for Thursday: 3 mind-bending Radiolab podcasts
Radiolab podcasts are addictive. When there is too much time between episodes, I get serious withdrawal symptoms. Most TV shows do not entertain and enlighten like Radiolab podcasts do, and so it is time to provide a shout-out for the show here on The Discarded Image.
If The Discarded Image is a blog about belief changing ideas, then Radiolab podcasts are catalysts for making that happen. Below are three that I listened to when I first heard of Radiolab and each engage questions of perception and identity with intense creativity.
Opinion: The problem of tweeting without reading
Let’s get something straight: 140 characters is a headline, not an article. An opening salvo, not an argument.
Jonathan Capehart’s Washington Post editorial today “Reaction to Newsweek’s ‘gay Obama’ cover: Death of the metaphor” identifies one of the saddest cultural losses attributable to our sound bite world. A number of people saw the Newsweek headline in their Twitter streams and spouted off their reactions–without reading the article, and therefore without understanding the historical context of the headline (it was a reference to Toni Morrison’s praise of Bill Clinton for being the “first black president”). When called on their knee-jerk reactions, some made it clear they felt no need to read the article in order to understand the intent of the headline. They assumed—incorrectly—that the headline was a statement of fact. Capehart goes on to quote a friend who commented, “It’s clear that the art of the metaphor has skipped present generations.”
Reviews in the Wild: Books about you
Below are three books about you. New scientist’s CultureLab has three short reviews up of books that encounter the question of personal identity (“Neuroscience clues to who you aren’t“). What I like about the selection of books being reviewed are the angles from which they come at the question, or at least the angle from which the editor put them together. Facebook profiles may allow individuals to define themselves through helpful tools of “likes” and about pages, and perhaps when someone asks us to introduce ourselves we resort to work, family, and location as defining characteristics, but getting at one’s real identity is incredibly elusive.
3 for Thursday: 3 Philosophy Bites Podcasts on Neuroscience
In recent years the power of neuroscience has been felt in many fields. Neuroscientists have provided tremendous insight into the strange world of the human brain and new studies have repeatedly demanded new conclusions on big ideas like religion.
It is also clear that philosophers cannot ignore the role neuroscience may play in understanding concepts like the mind or personal identity. What was once the world of the theoretical and of thought experiments is now unavoidably affected by real-world testing. In other words, the lab is testing the conclusions and limits of the philosophical imagination. Philosophers now need to understand something of the sciences in order to compete and, based on an open faculty position description I saw just the other day, the job market is beginning to demand it.
Look for It: The Queen’s Lover
If “Let them eat cake” sums up your knowledge of the French Revolution, a new novel aims to fill in the blanks. The Queen’s Lover, by Francine du Plessix Gray, tells the story of the historical Count Axel von Fersen, a Swedish nobleman who falls in love with young Marie Antoinette, goes away to war, and returns to court in its final days. Presented as the count’s memoir, with annotations by his loving but clear-eyed sister, his life reveals the turmoil of France, Sweden and America in the late 1770s.
Gray, an award-winning biographer, chose to write the book as fiction instead of biography because fiction “has the advantage of allowing the writer to move beyond bare fact and create a more immediate and sensuous environment,” according to an interview with Library Journal.
Review in the Wild: Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson
The era of Alan Turing is one that is full of wonder. The scientists of his world were on the trail of the unimaginable—from splitting the atom to inventing the computer—and had to dream big. One could say that with the Hadron Collider and regular trips to Mars that scientists do the same today, but these accomplishments are set on the shoulders of those who have long demonstrated by a series of firsts that (stealing the words of Walter from the show Fringe), “if you can imagine it, it is at least possible.”
In 1936 Turing imagined the possibility of something that (at that time) appeared outlandish. “It is possible to invent a single machine which can be used to compute any computable sequence,” said Turing, conjuring up the concept we now commonly call a computer.
3 for Thursday: 3 Novels of Autism
Fiction is the best window I know into the experiences of others. I can read research, ask questions in conversation with another, observe someone’s life from a distance–all of which are helpful and appropriate to the pursuit of empathy. But through a novel, I can participate in the experiences of the other.
A few years ago, I found myself reaching for books with autistic characters. Each of them helped to expand my neurotypical world a bit, and together they provided a collection of experiences on autism and family life. Here are three novels of autism from the perspectives of parent, sibling, and self.
