{"id":6096,"date":"2020-06-26T16:27:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-27T00:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=6096"},"modified":"2020-06-26T16:27:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-27T00:27:37","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-256","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2020\/06\/26\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-256","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 256"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>\n\n On Fridays I share articles\/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions. If you read something fascinating please pass it my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  1. The Rebel Physicist Trying to Fix Quantum Mechanics<\/a> (Bob Henderson, New York Times): \u201cBassi is a practicing Catholic and a believer in God, something he says is \u2018unusual\u2019 but \u2018not rare\u201d among his colleagues at the university. Einstein called his own belief that reality could be understood \u2018religion,\u2019 and I wondered if there\u2019s a connection between Bassi\u2019s religious faith and that in what has become essentially a far-right position in physics.\u201d I have no opinion on the underlying scientific controversy, but Bassi sounds like a fascinating person.<\/li>
  2. What the Tentmaking Business Was Really Like for the Apostle Paul<\/a> (Justin Taylor, Gospel Coalition): \u201c[It] cost the Apostle Paul to write his letters, including the securing of materials and the hiring of a secretary to make a copy for himself. After extensive research and calculation, he determined that on the low side it would have cost him at least $2,000 in today\u2019s currency to write 1 Corinthians. (And that doesn\u2019t include the cost of sending someone like Titus on a long journey to deliver it.)\u201d Short and fascinating.<\/li>
  3. The Tempting of Neil Gorsuch<\/a> (Ross Douthat, New York Times): \u201cWe may officially have three branches of government, but Americans seem to accept that it\u2019s more like 2.25: A presidency that acts unilaterally whenever possible, a high court that checks the White House and settles culture wars, and a Congress that occasionally bestirs itself to pass a budget.\u201d<\/li>
  4. Religious Americans Have Less Positive Attitudes Toward Science, But This Does Not Extend to Other Cultures<\/a> (Jonathon McPhetres, Jonathan Jong & Miron Zuckerman, Social Psychological and Personality Science): \u201cIt is commonly claimed that science and religion are logically and psychologically at odds with one another. However, previous studies have mainly examined American samples\u2026\u201d Raw data at https:\/\/osf.io\/t7w6x\/<\/a> DOI 10.1177\/1948550620923239<\/a>. The authors are professors at MIT, Oxford, and the University of Rochester.<\/li>
  5. \u201cHe\u2019s the Chosen One to Run America\u201d: Inside the Cult of Trump, His Rallies Are Church and He Is the Gospel<\/a> (Jeff Sharlet, Vanity Fair): \u201cNonbelievers roll their eyes over what they see as the gobsmacking hypocrisy of Trump as a tribune of family values, the dopiness of the rubes who consider him a moral man. Nonbelievers, in other words, miss the point. They lack gnosis. Very few believers deny Trump\u2019s sordid past. Some turn to the old Christian ready-made of redemption: Their man was lost, but now he\u2019s found. Others love him precisely because<\/em> he is a sinner\u2014if a man of such vast, crass, and open appetites can embody the nation (and really, who is more American\u2014vast, crass, and open\u2014than Trump), then you too, student of porn, monster truck lover, ultimate fighter in your dreams and games, can claim an anointing.\u201d The title filled me with low expectations, but the article has some interesting reflections on Gnosticism in modern America. <\/li>
  6. On religious liberty: