Christians, please answer this question. If you came to believe that Christianity is false, you would become a...— Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) June 27, 2019
Saturday, June 29, 2019
What would you become if...
The Vedek conclave
AOC's 3-hanky performance
Friday, June 28, 2019
Biden
What Is Race? Four Philosophical Views
What Is Race?
Four Philosophical Views
Joshua Glasgow, Sally Haslanger, Chike Jeffers, and Quayshawn Spencer
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Tracing the Socio-Political Reality of Race, Sally Haslanger
Chapter 2: Cultural Constructionism, Chike Jeffers
Chapter 3: How to be a Biological Racial Realist, Quayshawn Spencer
Chapter 4: Is Race an Illusion or a (Very) Basic Reality? Joshua Glasgow
Chapter 5: Haslanger's Reply to Glasgow, Jeffers, and Spencer
Chapter 6: Jeffers' Reply to Glasgow, Haslanger, and Spencer
Chapter 7: Spencer's Reply to Glasgow, Haslanger and Jeffers
Chapter 8: Glasgow's Reply to Haslanger, Jeffers, and Spencer
What is race?
Just for context: The wider context for this post is what James White recently said about black people. However, I don't discuss White or his remarks in this post. Steve Hays and Peter Pike have already done so: Black abortion, Identity politics for me but not for thee, Victim mentality, Feedback loop, and As Huxley is to Darwin. Instead I thought I'd try to tackle a more basic question - what is race?
1. To my knowledge, the two major positions regarding race are (a) race is fundamentally a social construct or (b) race is fundamentally a biological (genetic) concept. I presume each of these could be further delineated.
A third position is race doesn't exist, but I'll leave that aside since it seems most believe race exists.
2. However:
a. If race is fundamentally a social construct, then (prima facie) that doesn't seem to explain group-distinctive physical features which are hereditary, from generation to generation.
b. If race is fundamentally a biological concept, then (prima facie) that doesn't seem to explain how there's typically more genetic variation within races than there is between races.
3. There are few higher authorities on human genetics than Francis Collins. I think Collins makes a sensible case for what race is from the perspective of a medical geneticist, though I'm not suggesting it's the final word or anything like that:
Increasing scientific evidence, however, indicates that genetic variation can be used to make a reasonably accurate prediction of geographic origins of an individual, at least if that individual's grandparents all came from the same part of the world. As those ancestral origins in many cases have a correlation, albeit often imprecise, with self-identified race or ethnicity, it is not strictly true that race or ethnicity has no biological connection. It must be emphasized, however, that the connection is generally quite blurry because of multiple other nongenetic connotations of race, the lack of defined boundaries between populations, and the fact that many individuals have ancestors from multiple regions of the world...On the genetic side of the diagram, race is an imperfect surrogate for ancestral geographic origin, which in turn is a surrogate for genetic variation across an individual's genome.
4. Suppose (arguendo) race is fundamentally a biological (genetic) concept. Nevertheless that still doesn't get us to the inference that races necessarily share similar mental, psychological, behavioral, and/or moral traits due to their genetics (e.g. IQ, work ethic). A further connecting argument would be needed.
Moreover, such similarities could be due to cultural and/or other factors.
His lightning lights up the world
A map is not enough
Traveling by car or train
The process [of canonization] was more "bottom up" via local churches, than "top down" from a big Church council. P. Helm, Just Words? Special Revelation and the Bible (Evangelical Press 2018), 40.
Metaphors are flexible, so it's possible to develop the same figurative illustration in different ways. However, the point of my comparison is that on the Catholic paradigm, God provides direct verbal guidance throughout the church age. The Magisterium is a living oracle. It gives Catholics up-to-date answers. So that's analogous to having to drive your to your destination, but using a street map or roadmap as an aid.
By contrast, in the Protestant paradigm, especially in Calvinism, divine guidance (over and above Scripture) is usually oblique and providential. God directs our steps by ordering the circumstances of our lives. We're not generally conscious of divine guidance, because it's not direct, topical communication. Rather, one thing leads to another. That's analogous to taking a train, where the medium convenes you to your destination.
As Huxley is to Darwin...
Although maybe he's talking about active on his bike.
White also informs us (earlier at the 10 minute mark) that he's been consistently careful and charitable. I am actually quite grateful that he told us this, because otherwise no one would be able to tell.
I mean, just look at what White says at the 40 minute mark: "It is absolutely time to work through a basic outline on something called logic. Formal fallacies. Bad argumentation. What's modus ponens, what's modus tollens? What's the law of the excluded middle? What are these things? ...They are the laws of thought. And, what happened last week?"
And yes, so far I'm with White. But then, without a hint of irony, in the very next breath (literally--queue it up and listen), White proves how rational, logical, consistent, charitable, and reasonable he is: "Now, there have been various people who've attacked me. People like Steve Hays. Oh my gosh. Steve, dude, um, that was one of the worst things that ever appeared on Triablogue. I mean, you can't even pretend any longer to be even slightly unbiased. At all. I mean, you missed the forest for the trees so badly on that it was just shameful. I'm sorry dude you've lost it."
This is his entire response to Hays.
It takes a special kind of mind to go off on a complete abusive ad hominem WHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF SAYING YOU WANT TO TEACH LOGIC all whilst never examining even a single argument Steve Hays wrote.
And it's easy to see why White did this. The good doc is going after the people who responded to him from the side of critical theory and, as is wont the case when an ugly fact destroys a beautiful theory, Hays didn't attack White on that basis. He agreed with White's view on critical theory. Thus, Hays doesn't fit White's narrative.
Just to make it even more ironic, I happened to see some interaction that Hays had with some members on Facebook who were discussing this, and one of them literally said to Hays, "This might come as a shock, but White's Dividing Line show was not a response to your (far more reasonable) criticisms."
Far more reasonable.
Hmm. So White spends a ton of time going after the people who were far less reasonable, and he completely ignores Hays's arguments, instead substituting verbal abuse for argumentation. Yes, I'm sure that's the way to win hearts and minds. Even better, while doing that he should demand that people be calm and reasonable toward him, and that DeWitt provide logical arguments and reasons for treating White the way DeWitt did.
Oh wait. That is what he did?
Well then.
Is White consistently careful and consistently charitable? Well, he's consistently something. I'm thinking the word is "hypocritical."
Wait a second. Hypo...CRITICAL!
Critical Theory adherent confirmed!
Thursday, June 27, 2019
All the world's a stage
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should've opted for a career in Hollywood rather than politics. In fact, I'd say she deserves an Oscar nomination for her acting! For example:
1. Look straight into the camera for heightened dramatic effect. Sad, angry eyes, heavy with grief. A challenge to the audience.
2. Weep woeful tears, tears of shame and guilt for great wrongs done, vicariously experiencing the same tragedy the illegal immigrants are experiencing. (Alas! If only these "refugees" could somehow have turned around, then they wouldn't have ended up becoming "prisoners" in "concentration camps" at the border.)
3. A final forlorn glance, eyes staring off in the distance, in deep contemplation over the horrors she has witnessed, the unbearable weight of the world upon her shoulders.
4. And let's not forget the cameraman and other crew who captured AOC in all this - finding the right angles, the best lighting, positioning AOC in the proper poses and postures. Surely they're in the running for a Pulitzer prize for photography!
Hail, gladdening light
No country for good men
The following post on Rod Dreher's website is from a homosexual man named Matt in VA who makes makes a number of insightful observations about homosexual culture: "The Wild West Of Male Sexual Desire".
Matt in VA's post is well worth reading in its own right. However, in my post here, I simply use it as a jumping off point to discuss different matters. Also, my thoughts don't have an entirely cohesive theme, just a loosely connected one at best.
Why be Catholic?
In short: Scripture tells us that the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:26; 16:13; 1 Tim 3:15). And only the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have a plausible case for having the same teaching as the early Church. Sexual ethics is perhaps the clearest case: Protestants have largely abandoned the teaching on contraception and remarriage after divorce.
Brake failure
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Agnosticism
Dr. House
Feedback loop
Another reason why, though the other writers at Triablogue are useful and helpful, Steve Hays is not. Compare the reality of the conversation and documentation on the DL yesterday with this prejudiced review:https://t.co/tTawumyUuC— James White (@DrOakley1689) June 26, 2019
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Victim mentality
Needle in a haystack
Animals In The Enfield Case
It could be argued that the animals were manipulated by humans. But that would come at the cost of further complicating a fraud hypothesis. In addition to arguing that the Hodgson children were unusually skilled at magic, ventriloquism, acting, etc., you'd have to maintain that they also had such skill at manipulating animals, that some highly unusual coincidences occurred, or that there was some other such factor or combination of factors involved.
When I cite the Enfield tapes below, I'll be using "MG" to designate a tape from Maurice Grosse's collection and "GP" to designate one from Guy Playfair's. So, MG32B is tape 32B in Grosse's collection, and GP85A is tape 85A in Playfair's.
In his book on Enfield, Playfair writes about the behavior of a dog in the neighborhood at the time of Janet Hodgson's December 15, 1977 levitation and teleportation:
Monday, June 24, 2019
"Catholic myths"
The light of nature
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Lost Destination
Moral dilemmas for the voting booth and battlefield
How many contemporaneously-corroborated reports of sexual assault do Republicans need to read — or tapes bragging about sexual assault do Republicans need to hear — before they understand the president is a likely sex predator?— David French (@DavidAFrench) June 22, 2019