Glen Davis » Academic Integration

The Deceptiveness of Sin — Deeper Than You Thought

Glen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:00:34 +0000

Simon M. Lahama, Adam L. Alterb, and Geoffrey P. Goodwinc report a surprising result in “Easy on the mind, easy on the wrongdoer: Discrepantly fluent violations are deemed less morally wrong” Cognition, Volume 112, Issue 3, September 2009, pages 462–466.

From the paper:

Participants completed a questionnaire in which they read six vignettes describing various moral violations: ‘Punch’ (one man punches another in a bar), ‘Flag’ (teacher burns Australian flag in class), ‘Dog’ (family eats its dead dog), ‘Deface’ (man defaces a memorial), ‘Hitler’ (man taunts Jewish sports fans with Hitler imitation), ‘Kiss’ (brother and sister kiss passionately).

Each of the participants read three of the stories in an easy-to-read format and the other three in a harder-to-read format.

In the words of the authors:

…discrepant perceptual fluency decreased perceptions of wrongness compared to discrepant disfluency. Further, and consistent with effects of discrepant fluency on truth judgments (Hansen et al., 2008), it seems that this difference is accounted for by fluent processing decreasing, rather than disfluent processing increasing, perceptions of wrongness.

In normal English: people thought that immoral choices were less serious when they were easy to read about. In theological terms, they excused sin because of how good it looked (or more precisely based upon how easy it was to understand). Apparently cleanliness is next to godliness (or at least legibility is next to living right).

So the next time you have something to confess, be sure to print it on nice paper and use a laser printer. It just might give you the edge you need.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)

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The American Religious Impulse

Glen — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:31:59 +0000

I just read the most amazing article by a Yale prof explaining the religious impulse in American history.

If you have any interest at all in politics, international relations, anti-Americanism, or the role of religion in public life you really ought to give this article a read: Americanism–And Its Enemies by David Gelernter (that’s his faculty bio page, there’s a much more interesting profile here). If you want to have your mind blown wide-open, read Amazon’s summary of his survival of an attack from the Unabomber.

Also, we have new photos in the gallery.

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Religion By Major

Glen — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 23:30:24 +0000

Check out the results (or see some detailed data) of a national survey of 3,680 students by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute [which] found that religious commitment runs strongest among fine arts, education and humanities majors and lowest among biology, history and sociology majors.

I found one excerpt fascinating:

Still, Astin said it is premature to label all scientists or computer whizzes as spiritually hollow. Most of these academic disciplines simply don’t prompt or promote spiritual reflection, he said.

Implicit in there is the notion that students who don’t exhibit signs of “spiritual distress” can be supposed to be “spiritually hollow”. Interesting. I wonder how much of that is Astin’s real perspectve and how much of that is the byproduct of the interviewer’s line of questioning.

Also of note: Students who party frequently are more likely to stop attending religious services, and “spiritually committed” students generally earn higher grades.

Students who score high on measures of spiritual commitment generally are healthier, happier and more involved in community service.

Thanks to World Magazine blog for unearthing this link!

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Religion and Economic Growth Linked

Glen — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 19:33:15 +0000

Here’s an interesting story from the New York Times: Research Around the World Links Religion to Economic Development.

Intriguing excerpts:

…

And over the last 30 years, many East Asian countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, have experienced both rapid economic growth and the spread of Christianity, Mr. Barro said.

“South Korea is a good example of that rapid growth and more religion,” he said. There the number of converts from Confucianism and other Eastern religions to Christianity is growing rapidly, he explained.

Some of the lowest levels of religiosity were found in China and North Korea. The lowest levels of economic growth were in sub-Saharan African countries. The former East Germany (which includes Weber’s birthplace) was one of the lowest in both religiosity and growth.

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Flannery O’Connor on writing Christian fiction

Glen — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 16:59:07 +0000

Take heed, all you budding novelists – Flannery O’Connor has shown the way! Read all about it in O’Connor v. the Antichrist.

A few quotes from O’Connor taken from the essay:

“If you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it’s the gas you breathe. If I hadn’t had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.”

In her most famous statement about her work, she explained that “to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.”

“All my stories,” she wrote, “are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it.”

O’Connor once wrote that “more than ever now it seems that the kingdom of heaven has to be taken by violence, or not at all. You have to push as hard as the age that pushes against you.”

Check out the essay (or at least check out some of O’Connor’s books).

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Christian Professors Help Out In Afghanistan

Glen — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:35:26 +0000

Rebuilding Afghanistan U is a fascinating story of how well-educated Christians can make a difference.

It talks about how the International Institute for Christian Studies sent professors to Afghanistan after the war against the Taliban to rebuild their higher-education infrastructure.

The group is very picky about its candidates’ credentials (a graduate degree is a must), experience, and Christian witness. Only one of 10 applicants gets accepted. When Communist countries ask CEO Daryl McCarthy for teachers, he says something like this:

“You want experienced, hard-working, ethical professionals? We’ll get them for you. In fact, IICS is so particular that we make sure that every one of them is a Christian.” Says McCarthy: “It’s fun to hear the foreign officials say, ‘Ah, yes, very good. That’s what we need.’ “

The article is fascinating and well worth a read.

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Dick Staub Interviews Mary Poplin

Glen — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 21:20:08 +0000

I just ran across a transcript of an interview with Mary Poplin.

Dr. Poplin is the Dean of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University and she’s currently writing a book (title unknown) about integrating faith and academia. (see her faculty bio page)

You should really read the interview on Dick Staub’s website, but I’ve excerpted the most fascinating bits…
(…)
Read the rest of Dick Staub Interviews Mary Poplin (3,029 words)

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Jesus, Ethics, and Us

Glen — Wed, 21 May 2003 01:25:12 +0000

these are notes from a class presentation I gave in Ron Howard’s class The Ethical Analyst about ethics in Christian perspective

The Hidden Danger of Ethics Classes
There is a great but hidden danger in classes such as this. By spending hours debating moral issues we too often train ourselves for rationalization instead of righteousness. There is no point in trying to understand good unless we also seek to be good!

Why Should We Care What Christianity Says?

(…)
Read the rest of Jesus, Ethics, and Us (1,604 words)

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John W Templeton Student Internship

Glen — Thu, 10 Apr 2003 23:36:58 +0000

Student Internship
John Templeton Foundation
Radnor, PA

The John Templeton Foundation and its new Division, Templeton Venture Philanthropy Associates, is seeking a student intern for the summer of 2003.

The Foundation awards grants around the globe for projects that involve science and religion, spirituality and well-being, character development in youth, and free enterprise. A flavor of some of this work is on . Suitably qualified students might assist in a range of research-related tasks that might include searches of the WWW, statistical analyses, project design and day-to-day management, survey administration, and econometric modeling. Interns work a minimum of 10 hours per week to a maximum of 40 hours. Compensation will be determined based on background and whether academic credit is being sought.

Interested students should send a brief resume highlighting skills and work experience and a short cover letter in Word format to Marta Oliver at moliver@templeton.org. Questions may also be directed to this e-mail address. Please do not call the Foundation.

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Jesus — A Level 5 Leader

Glen — Tue, 18 Mar 2003 18:48:23 +0000

If you’ve never read anything by Jim Collins, he’s a former prof at Stanford who’s hit it big (huge would be a more accurate term) in the world of business writing. His two books Built to Last and Good to Great are devoured by business leaders hungry for an edge.

In the latter book, Collins talks about the cruciality of level 5 leadership. Level 5 leaders combine humility and strength in a surprisingly potent package. I found this excerpt from an interview with him fascinating:

I have absolutely no religious background at all, which gives me more confidence in the findings. If I had come from a strong religious background, I’d be more suspicious. After the book came out, I kept hearing people say to me, “There was this ultimate Level 5 leader who lived 2,000 years ago. The things he talked about in the Gospel have great compatibility with what you say.” Of course I had heard about Jesus, but as a result of finding out about Level 5, I was inspired to begin reading the New Testament to see for myself. read the whole interview

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The Cold Reaches of Heaven

Glen — Tue, 04 Mar 2003 03:45:03 +0000

Sojourner Magazine just ran an article about Nobel laureate William Phillips called The Cold Reaches of Heaven. Phillips is a Christian, and he has something interesting to say about the relationship between science and religion:

“I’m not an anomaly,” he says emphatically. “In fact, I would say that if you were to ask, the majority of physicists would answer that they believe in God in one form or another. Maybe not in exactly the same way that I do, because I believe in a personal God, but God in one form or another.”

in a later section he comments:

“If I want to know how the universe went through its stages of development, I ask observational astronomy and theoretical cosmology,” says Phillips. “If I want to know why are we here, why is there a universe in the first place, or what is the nature of my relationship to my Creator, I turn to the Bible. But when I study cosmology as a science, when I study physics, one of the things that I learn is that there are very clear, beautifully simple laws that describe almost everything that I observe. I see that kind of simplicity and beauty, and I think, this is a put-up job, this didn’t happen by chance.” Phillips laughs.

“That’s a way in which science informs my faith. I don’t want to compartmentalize them, but I am clear that there are questions that are well-posed to science and questions that are well-posed to religion. But they’re not completely separate entities.”

FYI: I’ve updated our list of famous scientists who are Christian with a link to the article.

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Galileo And The Pope: Perspectives

Glen — Tue, 11 Feb 2003 15:01:08 +0000

Check out this brief interview with Professor Lindberg (history of science prof at Wisconsin-Madison) Did Martin Luther Get Galileo in Trouble?

How did the church respond to Galileo’s theory?
There was a committee established called the Holy Office, which had the responsibility to determine the truth in matters of faith. Charges were leveled against Galileo, and so the heliocentric question came before them.

We don’t know much about what went on in their considerations. But it’s important to look at the whole picture. And one part of that picture is that the scientific community is overwhelmingly opposed to Galileo. That is, the evidence that Galileo has is not particularly powerful. It’s not overpowering. He was looked on as a crackpot by lots of scientists.

So then he goes before a papal court. It wasn’t his science that was on trial, though. What was he tried for?
Obedience was the only issue in the trial. And he was guilty. Everybody could tell he was guilty because Galileo doesn’t just discuss the pros and cons of the theory, he just advocates all the way. It was a blunder on Galileo’s part.

Galileo then recants. Why?
He had two choices. There was the threat of imprisonment or he could recant. Everybody knew it was a formality, so he didn’t cost his cause anything to recant.

How did the theory of the sun as the center of the universe finally get accepted by the church?
Once Newton’s theory of gravitation came along, you had overwhelming arguments in favor of heliocentrism. The church says, “Okay, now we’ve got proof, so now we will reinterpret the Bible.”

By the end of the 17th century, the church was on board, though Copernicus’s book stayed on the index of prohibited books until 1835. This geocentric model remained an albatross around the Catholic Church’s neck.

Interesting stuff.

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More Scientists Who Believe

Glen — Tue, 11 Feb 2003 04:20:39 +0000

I just ran across a link for the American Scientific Affiliation: a fellowship of men and women in science and disciplines that relate to science who share a common fidelity to the Word of God and a commitment to integrity in the practice of science.

They have an absolutely incredible respository of articles and links to resources. If you’re in the sciences, you need to check this out!

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The Groves of Academe: When Disrespect is Respectful

Glen — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 08:33:16 +0000

Darryl Hart, academic dean at Westminster Theological Seminary, weighs in with a contrarian perspective on Christian academics in an essay titled The Groves of Academe: When Disrespect is Respectful.

Well, contrarian for an evangelical.

He argues that modern universities have no place for Christian scholarship, and appropriately so: If believing scholars could recognize hostility to faith as the academy’s highest form of flattery, in other words, if they could acknowledge the ways in which Christ and culture are legitimately at odds, they might understand why some habits die hard. They might even discover the plausibility of certain anti-religious prejudices.

Incidentally, this essay is a response to Force of Habit and Special Pleading (both are also quite interesting, and take different perspectives).

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The Wilberforce Forum

Glen — Fri, 03 Jan 2003 01:51:39 +0000

The Wilberforce Forum is a collection of excellent resources for thoughtful Christians.

At present, they have resources in the
* Arts
* Literature
* Philosophy
* Science & Math
* History and Political Science

They have more disciplines in the works. Looks like something to bookmark!

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