Friday, March 31, 2023

Arizona School Board ends contract with anti-LGBTQ Christian college

 Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist, defends the Washington School District for ending its student teacher contract with Arizona Christian University. It isn't because ACU is Christian, it's because it affirmation of traditional marriage is "bigoted," diversity and inclusion is, he thinks, consistent with excluding such "bigots."

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Indiviidual Race Theory

 I think one way of posing the issue on race is to ask, not whether critical race theory is true, but whether individual race theory is true. IRT is a claim that racism is something that occurs in, and only in, individuals. There is nothing systemic about it. Thus, if a racist cop in Minneapolis kills a black man in a chokehold, he's an individual bad apple, not a symptom of a deeper problem. In the words of the prophet Brian, we're all individuals. So, if I stop using the n-word, if I associate with black people just as readily as I associate with white people, if I don't support segregation, if I see slavery and Jim Crow as part of a regrettable past, if I learn to stop seeing color, then I am free of racism and I'm fine and dandy. It seems that ant-anti-racism pushes this narrative. Tom Horne, the AZ school superintendent, is very explicit about it. Now even if CRT goes off the deep end in some ways, I think they are right in criticizing IRT.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

The Left on abortion

 This is where the left has gone on abortion, and pro-abortion extremism is toxic. 

They are so afraid of people who get abortions being "stigmatized" that they stigmatize people who disapprove of abortion, or refuse to get them in the face of pregnancy difficulties. Newsflash: Being disapproved of is a part of life, and abortion is a serious moral issue.

Here.   

Friday, March 17, 2023

Tucker vs.Trump

 Tucker vs. Trump

"I HATE [TRUMP] PASSIONATELY."
–Tucker Carlson, Jan. 4, 2021
"THERE REALLY ISN'T AN UPSIDE TO TRUMP."
–Tucker Carlson, Jan. 4, 2021
"WHAT [TRUMP'S] GOOD AT IS DESTROYING THINGS. HE'S THE UNDISPUTED WORLD CHAMPION OF THAT."
–Tucker Carlson, Nov. 6, 2020

But of course none of this was never aired on FOX News.

Thursday, March 09, 2023

Faulty Epistemology

 I remember a few years back there was going to be a debate at the Oregon State Socratic Club about the legitimacy of transgendering. The transgender community objected to the debate not because their pro-trans perspective was being challenged, but because the defender of the transgender community was cisgender (sound of fingernails on blackboard) and therefore could not represent the lived experience of the trans community.

This seems a faulty epistemology--that only people who experience something can know about it.

Monday, March 06, 2023

Friday, March 03, 2023

C. S. Lewis anticipated Thomas Nagel

 Here. 

Sad News: The passing of Starhopper

 Bob was a friend I knew as an undergraduate at ASU. I met him in a History of Middle Ages class, back in 1973. He, along with his friend Joe Sheffer, helped me gain an appreciation for Catholicism and navigate my way to developing an orthodox Christianity while avoiding fundamentalism. He was a big Lewis fan and a science fiction buff. We used to play something called the World Conquest Game, which was an expanded version of Risk. 

Here is the obituary.