Leah Libresco's Blog, page 31
March 28, 2015
Preparing for Holy Week [Radio Readings]
You can listen to “Fights in Good Faith,” my weekly radio program, streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm. I’ll update this post when the episode is available to download and stream. Every week, I put up a “Radio Readings” post, so you can track down the books, articles, and (this week) failed Lenten penances [Read More...]
March 27, 2015
7QT: Matched! (Donations, Fiancé(e)s, and Symmetries)
— 1 — Here’s a heads up — the women who write at A Queer Calling are running a GoFundMe to raise money to train a service dog for Sarah (who has fast-progressing Meniere’s Disease). I think some of you read their writings on hospitality, affection, vocation etc, so you may want to help them out. I [Read More...]
March 22, 2015
Some Tools for Failing to Live Perfectly Well
Richard Beck of Experimental Theology had an interesting post up recently about purity and anxiety in progressive Christian circles. I’ve excerpted it below: [T]his “will to purity” doesn’t just manifest in protecting sacred beliefs, it manifests in behavior as well. Both evangelical and progressive Christians doggedly pursue a vision ofmoral purity.For evangelical Christians moral purity will fixate on hedonism (e.g., sex, [Read More...]
March 21, 2015
How Do We Talk About Heaven and Sin? [Radio Readings]
You can listen to “Fights in Good Faith,” my weekly radio program, streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm I’ll update this post when the episode is available to stream and download on demand. Every week, I put up a “Radio Readings” post, so you can track down the books, articles, and (this week) adorable experiments [Read More...]
March 20, 2015
7QT: Saturn’s Rings, Visiting Nurses, and Tests for the Nearly Dead
— 1 — I’ve got a special weakness for clever methodology, and I loved this set up from an article on near death experiences (the protocol was informed by the frequency of NDE people reporting being near the ceiling looking down): All involved placing some stimulus—a picture or a symbol on, say, a piece of [Read More...]
March 19, 2015
Why Not Refer to ISIS by an Epithet?
Patheos doesn’t have any site-wide style guide for bloggers, but, over at The Friendly Atheist, Terry Firma announced a style change that will apply to that blog, specifically. The contributing bloggers over there are going to stop referring to ISIS as ISIS, ISIL, the Islamic State, or anything else except Daesh. Here’s the passage Firma quoted [Read More...]
March 18, 2015
Learning Math Adds Up to Good Citizenship
I’ve got a book review of David Smith’s If: A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers in the latest issue of Social Studies and the Young Learner, and I figured it might be of particular interest to parents/friends of parents, but also of general interest to all of you who love math (or [Read More...]
March 17, 2015
Play in the Mini-Ideological Turing Test
UPDATE: I’ve closed the survey, since you all have provided over 100 responses! Thanks for your suggestions of questions for the mini-Ideological Turing Test that I’ll be running at UPenn this week. Now, I could use your help answering them! Just a reminder, an Ideological Turing Test is modeled on a conventional Turing Test, [Read More...]
March 15, 2015
Help Pick Questions for my Ideological Turing Test Talk
I’ve got two speaking engagements coming up this week, and I could use your crowdsourced help for one of them. How to Have Better Fights About Religion Wednesday, March 18, 7p Shotel Dubin Auditorium, Penn Hillel 215 S. 39th St. Philadelphia, PA 19104 A Night of Intra-Christian Dialogue Thursday, March 19, 7:30p [Read More...]
March 14, 2015
Terry Pratchett’s Morals and Magic [Radio Readings]
You can listen to “Fights in Good Faith,” my weekly radio program, streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm I’ll update this post when the episode is available to stream and download on demand. After Terry Pratchett passed away this week, I wanted to take some time to talk about how his Discworld books shaped my [Read More...]
