On Friday I came across an article by Jess Martin that summarizes a conference about tools for thought that occurred on August 16, 2022. I have not yet finished watching the videos embedded, but I did update Writings On Organizing Information with what I gleamed so far.
“If we take the future as our starting point for thinking about God, creation, and humanity—then everything we know must … be realigned to an evolving universe, including our theologies, philosophies, economic and political systems, cultural matrices—in short, our planetary life.”
— Sr. Ilia Delio, as quoted in Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned by Brian D. McLaren
Dave Winer has released his app that creates an RSS feed of one’s Twitter feed. I mostly use micro.blog to contribute to my Twitter feed, so if you follow me on micro.blog or follow my blog’s RSS feed you get almost all the same thing. However, I do some time use Twitter directly and so if you want, you can subscribe to my Tweets via http://tweetfeed.org/frankm/rss.xml. Read more about this in my daynotes for today.
CW has pretty much been the only broadcast network with shows I watched consistently, but I think that is likely to change.
I don’t know what to make of this, Amazon appears to be selling very old HP iPaq Pocket PCs. Must be a mistake or a hoax or something. I wouldn’t be surprised to see these on eBay but being sold on Amazon as new is wrong.
In my reading this past weekend I came across a few essays written by Linus Lee that relate to the topic of organizing information that I reference in Writings On Organizing Information, which I am calling a living document.
“Two thousand years after Jesus launched a subversive spiritual movement of equality, emancipation, and peace, two thousand years after women were among his inner circle and the first messengers of resurrection, two thousand years after Jesus defended Mary of Bethany’s place in the all-male circle of disciples, the Christian religion still remains subservient to patriarchy and the authoritarian control it engenders.”
— Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned by Brian D. McLaren
A second morning of comfortable temperature, low humidity, and cloudy sky. What a nice break before returning to the normal August heat tomorrow.
Cloudy skies, a slight breeze and cool temperature calls for being outside.
Am I the only one who thinks the idea that a President can wave his arms and unclassify any document is crazy? What we should learn from President Trump is that there are more anti democracy aspects to the U.S. Presidency than we should like and have only not been exploited because of the patriotism of past presidents. Now we know that norms alone cannot protect us if all it takes is one person who thinks the President of the United States should rule like the President of Russia.
Drowning In The Sea Of Religion
“Our religion can “hell-ify” us by inspiring in us an impenetrable sense of rightness or even superiority. That sense of rightness can inoculate us against humility, infusing in us an excessive confidence or addiction to certainty that keeps us from seeing our mistakes until after the harm has been done—to others (including our children) and to ourselves. Our religion is right, we believe, which makes us right. As a result, the more devoted we are, the more stubborn and unteachable we become. And everyone can see it but us, because we’re blinded by our sincerity and zeal.”
— Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned by Brian D. McLaren
A big problem in American society, perhaps the problem, is too much religion. The reason why is because most people do not know what religion is, that it is more than agreeing to a set of beliefs or attending a church. Re-ligio means to re-bind, but “re” anything infers we do it already. What we bind ourselves to is how we see ourselves, it becomes our very identity, our idolatry. Everything we bind ourselves to is a layer of our false self, put in place from the outside.
As an exercise, complete this question. I am….
Starting to read: Do I Stay Christian? by Brian D. McLaren 📚
I am reminded that I expected the Mobvoi TicWatch to get WearOS 3 by now, but that has not happened. Google WearOS continues to disappoint.
At the end of a good day
Surf is up
Over time I’ve tried different Beyond Meat products and tonight I’ve tried the Jerky and have to say it’s the best at being nearly indistinguishable of the ones I’ve tried.
“Perhaps the most important skill we learn in life is how we make decisions” Decision Making Matters
Finished reading: Christ & Empire by Joerg Rieger 📚
“One of the paradoxes of empire in our own time is that people often assume that we are now closer to freedom than ever before.”
— Christ & Empire: From Paul to Postcolonial Times by Joerg Rieger
What Is Liberty?
The Kansas State Supreme Court, in their decision that the Kansas state constitution provided the right to abortion by borrowing from the language of the Declaration of Independence: “All men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” They wrote:
Included in that limited category is the right of personal autonomy, which includes the ability to control one’s own body, to assert bodily integrity, and to exercise self-determination. This right allows a woman to make her own decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life—decisions that can include whether to continue a pregnancy.
I am glad to see someone other than me define liberty as including the ability to have control over one’s own body. Unfortunately, SCOTUS does not agree with the Kansas State Supreme Court about that same language. The fact that the U.S. Supreme Court is attacking liberty for all for the sake of a perceived infringement on religious liberty is very dangerous, although sadly no unprecedented, SCOTUS has been attacking liberty practically since its beginning.