Month: August 2007
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How Did Jesus Argue? Jesus & Logic
Today there is widespread indifference to, even downright hostility towards logic and the fundamental laws that govern it. We are sometimes told that logic is a Western construction invented by DWEM’s (Dead White European Males such as Aristotle), that in a postmodern world, story and narrative have replaced a cold-hearted, logical approach to life, and…
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Honorable Education
It is beginning of August, and I am starting to think about the coming school year. Soon students will be returning to the university with a new or renewed sense of commitment to their academic pursuits. First year students are especially interesting to watch. Not only are they trying to figure out where their dorm…
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The Emerging Church: Evangelical Poster-Boy or Whipping-Boy?
It seems that the emerging church (hate to use that singular, but it’s convenient) scratches a couple of different itches amongst evangelicals. On the one hand, it is hailed as a fresh expression of evangelicalism’s ever-outgoing nature. It is contextualization for the sake of conversion. On the other hand, it represents the (further) watering down…
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Nifty Graphics are Good Arguments
We usually think of charts and graphs as presenting “just the facts,” but in reality every chart is biased. Charts are based on prejudices, advance judgments about what should be represented, what should be suppressed, and how the information should be displayed. When you look at a graphical display of information, you are getting the…
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Words Can’t Express the Emotions of Noses
Sometimes you look around at your dinner guests and think, “Here is a worthy group of cultured individuals. These people will appreciate the finest entertainment I can offer them. They are sophisticated, discerning, and uh, whaddayacallit, real classy.” On these occasions, I go to my special shelf and take down the book Pegasus Descending: A…