I wanted to bring a little experiment to people's attention. In the Islamic websphere, we have a little experiment called the Carnival of Brass. It's basically a real-time, dynamic version of your standard link carnival. There's a detailed FAQ about it here including how you can submit links. The reason I bring it up here is 1. to invite people to read the FAQ and possibly submit links of their own - the Carnival is not for muslims only by any means; and 2. to disseminate the idea and description of the carnival's unique del.ico.us-powered mechanics, so that others might recreate it for topics of their own choosing.
You can see the Carnival of Brass in action on the right sidebar of City of Brass , my main blog. You can also see another version of the real-time carnival concept in action on the right sidebar of my politics blog, Nation Building (though the latter is mostly a one man show at present. note however that theres no reason it need stay that way. The beautiful thing about the realtime carnival concept is that it easily scales.)
about the incompatibility of free choice and an omnipotent/omniscient God (starting here , more or less):
I just finished reading All the King's Men for the first time (which I mostly loved, with some reservations), and there's a fascinating quote near the end:
The creation of man whom God in His foreknowledge doomed to sin was the awful index of God's omnipotence. For it would have been a thing of trifling and contemptible ease for Perfection to create mere perfection. To do so would, to speak truth, be not creation but extension. Separateness is identity and the only way for God to create, truly create, man was to make him separate from God Himself, and to be separate from God is to be sinful.
You get similar formulations in some of the church fathers, but having just come across it today, I thought it'd make for an interesting extension of our earlier conversation.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Though no a Christian myself, I have long suggested to my thinking and kindly Liberal Christian friends that they lobby in their Church to put the central words attributed to Jesus on the front of the altar and in other prominent places.
The very concept of acting towards others as you would wish others would act towards you, is for Dobson and crowd, like sunlight to a vampire, antithetical to everything they are.
I was most amused that they tossed out the most recent head of the Christian Coalition, who wanted to address issues like hunger, and poverty, with the board saying that they were not THAT kind of Christian.
Indeed
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
user ecclesioleft (ha!) at dailykos posted this diary about the possibility that the Church actually condoned a form of same-sex ritual marriage centuries ago. Naturally some critical comments followed (some not-so-polite), but I went digging for more information and came upon this huge discussion about the ritual in question.
If you get time, I recommend reading the whole discussion . It starts off in more thickly scholarly terms, trying to piece together the historical record for a ritual we barely know anything about, and so much hinges on individual words in the surviving rites (and the translations of those words).
But then things start getting personal. The Orthodox scholars start accusing the researchers of being politically motivated. The researchers start accusing the Orthodox scholars of circling the wagons. An already fragile historical record is exploded in a million angry directions.
And it's lovely to watch, because that's how it works in academia, for better and worse. Definitely worth the read, and I may end up doing a whole diary on it.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Comments :
Defining a Muslim Left
Part one
posted, part two coming. Well worth your time.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
real-time links carnivals
I wanted to bring a little experiment to people's attention. In the Islamic websphere, we have a little experiment called the Carnival of Brass. It's basically a real-time, dynamic version of your standard link carnival. There's a detailed FAQ about it here
including how you can submit links. The reason I bring it up here is 1. to invite people to read the FAQ and possibly submit links of their own - the Carnival is not for muslims only by any means; and 2. to disseminate the idea and description of the carnival's unique del.ico.us-powered mechanics, so that others might recreate it for topics of their own choosing.
You can see the Carnival of Brass in action on the right sidebar of City of Brass
, my main blog. You can also see another version of the real-time carnival concept in action on the right sidebar of my politics blog, Nation Building 
(though the latter is mostly a one man show at present. note however that theres no reason it need stay that way. The beautiful thing about the realtime carnival concept is that it easily scales.)
Thanks Aziz
Both the specific content and the general idea are interesting. Appreciate the heads up, and nice to see you around.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
In reference to the long philosophy thread
about the incompatibility of free choice and an omnipotent/omniscient God (starting here
, more or less):
I just finished reading All the King's Men for the first time (which I mostly loved, with some reservations), and there's a fascinating quote near the end:
You get similar formulations in some of the church fathers, but having just come across it today, I thought it'd make for an interesting extension of our earlier conversation.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
As I read that...
...it agrees with my formulation: god chose for us. Would you agree?
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
David Kuo Issues a Challenge to Dobson
Dobson Tear Down That Dishonest Article On Your Website
I love it when ministers issue truth challenges!
I'm only half stupid
Dobson and other vampires
Though no a Christian myself, I have long suggested to my thinking and kindly Liberal Christian friends that they lobby in their Church to put the central words attributed to Jesus on the front of the altar and in other prominent places.
The very concept of acting towards others as you would wish others would act towards you, is for Dobson and crowd, like sunlight to a vampire, antithetical to everything they are.
I was most amused that they tossed out the most recent head of the Christian Coalition, who wanted to address issues like hunger, and poverty, with the board saying that they were not THAT kind of Christian.
Indeed
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
Some food for thought:
user ecclesioleft (ha!) at dailykos posted this diary
about the possibility that the Church actually condoned a form of same-sex ritual marriage centuries ago. Naturally some critical comments followed (some not-so-polite), but I went digging for more information and came upon this huge discussion about the ritual in question.
If you get time, I recommend reading the whole discussion
. It starts off in more thickly scholarly terms, trying to piece together the historical record for a ritual we barely know anything about, and so much hinges on individual words in the surviving rites (and the translations of those words).
But then things start getting personal. The Orthodox scholars start accusing the researchers of being politically motivated. The researchers start accusing the Orthodox scholars of circling the wagons. An already fragile historical record is exploded in a million angry directions.
And it's lovely to watch, because that's how it works in academia, for better and worse. Definitely worth the read, and I may end up doing a whole diary on it.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce