The United Nations released a report this week that the world’s population could top 10 billion by the year 2100, raising shortages in food and water in many areas. The NYT gives a good summary. A major concern is Africa, as the population on that continent may triple by 2100 due to “women’s lack of ...
It has become a platitude among journalists to refer to Internet communities as echo chambers that induce confirmation bias. In the good old days, goes the reasoning, everybody had to watch the same three network news and we were all on the same page, at least, with regard to the facts. I am sorry but ...
Some of you might have noticed on Facebook that Jana Bouck Remy from Pilgrim Steps has raised money for HandReach, which is an excellent charity that helps Chinese children to recover from burn injuries. Jana and her friends raised enough money to pay for a girl’s prosthetic. The Main Street Plaza crew decided to follow ...
Our revulsion at the cruelty of the Supreme Leader’s henchmen is a powerful refutation of the postmodernist credo that anything goes. After the enlightenment discredited the authority of tradition and religion, the notion that reason or civilization could provide an ersatz God has also collapsed. The efforts of analytical philosophy could neither remove the ambiguity ...
This photo (from Aussielicious, hat tip MoHoHawaii) is too funny! I love the look on the companion’s face as he helps usher in a new era of Mormon-homo understanding. So it’s pride week — the 40th anniversary of Stonewall — with events all over! I posted my own photos of Europride 2009 (in Zürich), and ...
Now, let’s just dispense with the esoteric discussions on the true dirty definition of “tea-bagging” since the tea-baggers are just patriotic Americans who don’t like taxation without representation, and if your favorite candidate fails to get elected one time, then the patriotic thing to do is, well, secede from the U.S. of A., right? Or ...
According to Harper’s, Spanish authorities are investigating Bush administration officials for torture. That includes the former BYU law professor Jay Bybee who signed off on John Yoo’s infamous torture memos. The premier Spanish newspaper El PaÃs reports that judge Baltasar Garzón is involved in the investigation. Garzon is famous for prosecuting Basque terrorists and for ...
Some of you might enjoy a virtual tour of the city of Saarbrücken, my last home before I came to the United States: Max Ophuels Preis_Trailer_2009 from LICHTFAKTOR on Vimeo. Located at the French border, my father’s house was literally five minutes walking distance, and the high and low German language border, Saarbrücken has had ...
According to the philosopher Mircea Eliade, of whose work I learned at BYU, every community, tribe, or nation requires an origin myth. The account of a community’s or practice’s origin has far reaching consequences because it implies how they relate to the cosmos, which is necessary for human beings to imbue their world with shared ...
Wry Catcher’s question whether the notion of spirit world addiction reminded me of Jean Paul Sartre’s Les Jeux Sont Faits, which is particularly interesting to Mormons because Sartre’s description of the afterlife happens to coincide with commonly held notions of the spirit world. Les Jeux Sont Faits is a wonderful drama by Jean Paul Sartre ...
On the occasion of Ronan’s remembrance of the Coventry bombing, I am exploring theodicy with Jon and Right Trousers. I would agree with Right Trousers that the choices of the survivors can give meaning to the suffering of the victims. At least, we are taking responsibility for our actions. But since our choices cannot undo ...
From the BBC: As career changes go it’s a pretty radical shift in direction. Thandisizwe Meyi, from a township in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, had been planning to become a boxer. He even had a nickname “Tyson”. But instead he is entering a very different kind of arena. Tyson, as he is still known, is ...