Links

I stumbled upon Scripture, revelation, and Platonism in C.S. Lewis by Andrew Walker. I finally had time to read it today. The first 15 pages or so are pretty good. In them, he describes Lewis’ six categories of revelation: the numinous, Sehnsucht/desire, conscience, Israel, pagan dreams/myths, and Jesus himself. After that, Walker attempts to critique Lewis’ view of the Incarnation and appears to miss Lewis’ point, at one point evidently critiquing a view Lewis explicitly rejects as Lewis’ own view (29 and 32). But if you want to learn about Lewis’ understanding of divine revelation and perhaps inform your own, it’s still worth a read. 

I recently got the Loeb edition of Xenophon‘s works on Socrates. It’s pretty good, especially because the Greek, despite being old, is readable if you know Koine. I like Xenophon’s Socrates more than Plato’s. 

For book club, we’re reading a story about General Lee during the Civil War called, The Gray Fox. It’s good so far. I’ve been listening to the audiobook on Hoopla. Lee was a man of unironic eloquence and it’s a shame I hadn’t read more about him earlier.

Here’s an interesting Twitter thread about trying to replace animal foods as the caloric staple in the human diet. I’ve read a few of the cited articles over the past few years. It’s an interesting counter-point to the relatively consistent barrage of anti-meat articles and sentiment amount the nutritional academicians: 

Thread: HEALTH RISKS OF 'PLANT-BASED' DIETS

L Keith, ex-vegan, talks about how her diet led to catastrophy on the long run: https://t.co/eGkUrtOs0e

For ex-vegans on twitter with similar stories, see https://t.co/eBbfOOCSnf – also check out @SBakerMD's #meatheals

1/n pic.twitter.com/9UDrMZbY7X

— Frédéric Leroy (@fleroy1974) September 2, 2018

A popular blog managed not to conform to the zeitgeist. I found this treasure trove of ways to lose friends and alienate people:

1. Negative egocentrism. The #1 most boring way of behaving was what the researchers described as “being negative and complaining, talking about one’s problems, displaying disinterest in others.”
2. Banality. “Talking about trivial or superficial things, being interested in only one topic, and repeating the same stories and jokes again and again.”
3. Low affectivity. Showing little enthusiasm, speaking in a monotone, engaging in very little eye contact, behaving in a very unexpressive way.
4. Tediousness. “Talking slowly, pausing a long time before responding, taking a long time to make one’s points, and dragging conversations on.”
5. Passivity. Having little to say, not having any opinions, being too predictable or too likely to try to conform with what everyone else is saying.
6. Self-preoccupation. Talking all about yourself.
7. Seriousness. Coming across as very serious, rarely smiling.
8. Boring ingratiation. “Trying to be funny or nice in order to impress other people.”
9. Distraction. Doing things that interfere with the conversation, getting sidetracked too easily, and engaging in too much small talk.

This list is interesting in light of what I would call the modern socio-sexual emergency, namely that marriages appear to be becoming less pleasant and less common over time, and I think it’s because people are becoming less interesting and less pleasant. Several of these elements of being perfectly boring are so prevalent in the current year as to be indistinguishable from appropriate behavior. For instance, negative ego-centrism and passivity go together in the victim mindset. Everything is wrong with me and nobody will fix it. This attitude is only endearing to mothers, which is why men who have it marry wives who parent them. Negative ego-centrism also goes with banality, distraction, self-preoccupation, and low-affectivity. People spend so much time in video-games, at boring jobs, and watching TV and porn, that normal conversations are boring and there are less big-ideas, big visions, and plans in their heads. It’s sad, but true. I suspect a lack of genuine spiritual aspiration leads to low aspiration in general.

I’m glad I’m married, the sexual market place is unappealing at this point.

Anyhow, hope this helps you learn to be un-charismatic and incapable of making friends.

On the other hand, you could do the opposite of these things and enjoy your New Year little bit more.

A few years ago I read this horrifying article: Males can lactate. A recent event, which does not include me lactating occurred which reminded me of it. Enjoy this unsettling series of anecdotes: “Among them was a South American man, observed by Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who subbed as wet nurse after his wife fell ill as well as male missionaries in Brazil that were the sole milk supply for their children because their wives had shriveled breasts. More recently, Agence France-Presse reported a short piece in 2002 on a 38-year-old man in Sri Lanka who nursed his two daughters through their infancy after his wife died during the birth of her second child.”

But in related news, you can increase your testosterone naturally. Here’s the author’s experience: “After 90 days, I had my testosterone tested again. My total T had gone up to 778 ng/dL and my free T had risen to 14.4 pg/mL. I had doubled my testosterone.” I’ve never had my t-levels checked. 

William Briggs has hopefully participated in the final death blow to the p-value as a statistical tool. But, since the same misinterpretations of this useless tool keep appearing in social science journals, it seems likely to me that it’s a dead horse that remains to be beaten.

Bruce Charlton’s paper on the metaphysics of biology was accepted and published last year, but I had missed it. This line will be sure to disturb many, “Furthermore, I will suggest that a teleology of biology having the required properties entails ‘deism’; deism being belief in a single, overall, unifying – but potentially abstract and impersonal – source of order and meaning for reality.” 

Over at Albion Awakening, William Wildblood (hopefully his real name) wrote Jesus was Left-Wing. Here’s a great line: “Liberals mistake being nice for loving but what is the greater love, that you support someone walking over a cliff or you turn him back? Love does not confirm someone in their errors but directs them towards the truth.”

Edward Feser wrote about Lewis’ doctrine of transposition. “By “transposition,” Lewis has in mind the way in which a system which is richer or has more elements can be represented in a system that is poorer insofar as it has fewer elements.”

The article, “Staying Friends with Ex-Romantic Partners,” claims that evidence suggests that among the reasons such friendships remain, ‘security and practical’ reasons have the most positive outcomes. 

Jordan Peterson’s paper “A Psycho-ontological Analysis of Genesis 2-6” is available free on Scribd. It is the academic background to a great deal of his Biblical lecture series. He posits, rightly in my view, that the early chapters of Genesis are essentially making the narrative argument that, “If the world of experience is made of chaos and order, then the choice between the path of Cain and the path of Abel is the most important choice that anyone can ever make.” There are elements that some might find theologically objectionable, but it’s a great article. 

Here are some links:

Newly Discovered Blogs

Ella Prichard’s Blog – Her website has excellent resources on grieving as well as several fun posts (like recipes and the like). Ella is a great writer, I do not know how she manages to write so frequently since she works so hard on perfect punctuation and grammar, but I commend her!

Bravegirlliving – This is written by a very bright young woman who struggled (struggles) with an eating disorder and includes her reflections on the Christian life as well as on the interior struggles of anybody with a psychological illness of that sort.

Chris Borah – Chris is probably going to end up with a doctorate in New Testament, but he is also a very competent tech guru. His posts are always thoughtful.

Interesting Post

Do Greek or English Exegesis – Matthew Malcom has helpful tips for novice Bible Software uses who don’t know their Biblical languages.