I don’t think I’ve seen this observation anywhere else: “…if it defies good sense to send teenaged girls off into the woods with heterosexual men, it likely defies good sense to send teenaged boys off with homosexual men. This is no aspersion against homosexuals, except insofar as they are men, and we know enough about men to understand that some of them find teenagers sexually attractive, and the older and more mature-looking these teenagers, the easier it becomes for seemingly decent men to violate them while pretending the act is consensual.”

Sand in the Gears » Blog Archive » Gays, Boy Scouts, and dogma

Slippery words • Home •. Gays, Boy Scouts, and dogma. February 4th, 2013 Posted in Policy and Politics. The Boy Scouts of America is considering an end to its prohibition against homosexual troop lead…

This is good — especially the last sentence: “I think research in moral reasoning is important because understanding why good people do evil things is more important than understanding why evil people do evil things.”

Torture in a Just World

If the world is just, only the guilty are tortured. So believers in a just world are more likely to think that the people who are tortured are guilty. Perhaps especially so if they experience the tort…

Interesting tidbit: “In my consulting experiences in the past, I found that estimated attendance was inflated by a factor of over 30 percent.” Also, counting people on a mission trip seems odd to me (a suggestion that comes near the end).

How Churches Count Attendance

Many church leaders and members cringe when they hear or read about numbers and statistics in churches. Such a reaction is understandable. For many years in many churches, numbers were an obsession.…..

In related news, adopting a comprehensive view of the nature of ultimate reality affects your life comprehensively. 

Stanford Scholars Say Religion Changes Hunting Habits

The introduction of Christianity has changed the hunting habits of indigenous people in the Amazon. While some new practices could benefit animals, others could put populations at risk.

I get the argument he is making… but there are some channels I dislike so much that their presence in a bundle makes the bundle less desirable to me. I would pay more for less.

Does Cable TV Ripoff People Who Don’t Like Sports?

Recently the LATimes ignited a firestorm of anti-sports commentary by arguing that people who don’t watch sports are being ripped off by Cable TV. A key concern is that the higher bills driven by spor…

Awesome comment at the end (although I do not know if it is true or not): “Do note that death insurance didn’t sell well until it was given the less accurate but more affable name, life insurance.”

Road Fare>Congestion Pricing?

Congestion pricing sounds like something to avoid since neither term is something you want. Eric Jaffe held a contest for replacement terms. Decongestion pricing is one possibility since it at least h…