Three Links (Vol. 5)

September 21, 2008, 1:26 pm; posted by
Filed under Bwog, Steve  | 2 Comments

Just walked back from church through a brisk, delightful mist, appropriate weather for the last day of summer.

— Maybe you’ve seen smarmy standup comic Bill Maher in advertisements touting his upcoming movie Religulous. Although he characterizes religion as a “neurological disorder” that prevents people from thinking critically, it turns out he’s got some intensely odd beliefs of his own — no surprise, given a recent study that concluded that those who lack traditional religious belief generally exhibit increased faith in pseudoscience and the paranormal. So if everyone has the disorder of faith, just pointed in different, contradictory directions, at what point do we start to see it as a feature to be tweaked, not a bug to be squelched?

— I probably couldn’t disagree more with Roger Ebert’s politics, but I love his movie reviews for their insightful and incisive commentary. Here he writes a wise defense of criticism: “It is important to know why you hold an opinion, understand how it emerged from the universe of all your opinions, and help others to form their own opinions . . . Too many simply absorb. They are depositories for input. They can hardly be expected to be critical of their own tastes, can they?” Oh yes, they can — and must.

— “I’m a liberal Democrat. And I do not favor same-sex marriage.” So writes David Blankenhorn, who supports California’s Proposition 8 this November as a way “to strengthen the only human institution — marriage — that is specifically intended to safeguard” the right of children “to know and be cared for by the two parents who brought them into this world.” He notes that the other events that take away that right are seen, to some extent, as tragedies — to enact gay marriage would be to celebrate this failure, effectively denying the worth of a mother and a father to the children they rear.


Comments

2 Comments to “Three Links (Vol. 5)”

  1. Rose on September 21st, 2008 3:20 pm

    The second link isn’t working

  2. Steve on September 21st, 2008 3:48 pm

    fixed; thanks

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