John G. Stackhouse Jr.'s Blog, page 19

The End of Life—and the End of an Era?

We are approaching an inflection point. In geometry, an inflection point is where a curve starts to change its shape—say, from curving upward to curving downward. The last fifty years feels like a steady series of inflection points in our … Continued

Beware the Quiet Call of Corruption

In the Biblical book of Proverbs, two odd sayings, almost identical, appear just a few verses apart: “Diverse weights and diverse measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord” (20:10); and “Differing weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false … Continued

A Bribe by Any Other Name Would Smell…

I’ve got some hard things to say, so let’s get a couple of things straight before I say them. First, I am not writing out of partisanship. I have voted Red, Blue, and Orange in various elections, and I can …

Will Science Save Us? From What?

The late neurologist and bestselling author Oliver Sacks—he wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985) and one of his books became the Robin Williams/Robert De Niro film Awakenings(1990)—offered some late-in-life reflections recently in a posthumously published essay. (Sacks died of cancer … Continued

Climate Change? Well, for Starters…

A friend of mine, who has recently taken a job on behalf of a political party on the left side of Canada’s political spectrum, asked me to write about the importance of a carbon tax. This tax, he believes, needs … Continued

Show Me Going

“All units be advised: active shooter incident at 572 Main Street East. Units in the area please respond.” A moment’s delay while the radio crackled. Then— “Carter, badge 4792, show me going.” “Hernandez, badge 2231, show me going.” “Jackson, badge … Continued

Lightsails, Aliens, and the Greatest Discovery Ever

By now, you have probably heard of Oumuamua (Hawaiian for “scout”), the interstellar object hurtling out of our solar system past the orbit of Jupiter. Oumuamua “is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as . . . debris from an … Continued

How are we doing?

“Not too bad.” That’s the common reply on the prairies to a friendly “How are you?” It’s also common out here in my new home in the Maritimes. I had to laugh when a friend of mine, born and raised … Continued

Christianity Is Weird, but Perhaps Not as Weird as Your Think

Christianity has what I sometimes call a “double weirdness problem.” Elements of its teaching that are truly strange—such as the Crucified One at its centre who is paradoxically championed by Christians as being at once Victim and Victor—are still so … Continued

Digging Out

There are two tragedies in life, to paraphrase the famous line from George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman. One is to fail to gain your heart’s desire. The other…is to gain it. Mountaineer Cory Richards, pictured above in this famous selfie, … Continued