Quote of the Day

I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand and the eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep.

-- "Story People" by Brian Andreas

Quote of the Day

I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand and the eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep.

-- "Story People" by Brian Andreas

Hitch's Love Letter to Atheists

Just after we get a lovely article by Christopher Hitchens on the graces of the King James version of the Bible, we now see a letter he has written to a society of atheists at The Richard Dawkins Foundation that is almost menacingly caustic. Since it is Easter, I thought about holding it for later in the week, but may as well strike while the iron is hot. For those of faith and tender heart, one can understand his bitter words as a response to the narrowest forms of fundamentalism which do hold religion and faith as a weapon rather than as a promise and a hope in the long night, for what is life without a little mythic grandeur, especially if one is not over-burdoned with wealth, friends, and fame.

( The Letter )

Hitch's Love Letter to Atheists

Just after we get a lovely article by Christopher Hitchens on the graces of the King James version of the Bible, we now see a letter he has written to a society of atheists at The Richard Dawkins Foundation that is almost menacingly caustic. Since it is Easter, I thought about holding it for later in the week, but may as well strike while the iron is hot. For those of faith and tender heart, one can understand his bitter words as a response to the narrowest forms of fundamentalism which do hold religion and faith as a weapon rather than as a promise and a hope in the long night, for what is life without a little mythic grandeur, especially if one is not over-burdoned with wealth, friends, and fame.

( The Letter )

Easter Quotes

Many people, including Christians, believe that the resurrection is a myth that points to a larger truth. The imagination sings: you can nail love to a cross but you can’t destroy it. “Easter,” wrote Clarence Hall, “means you can put truth in a grave but it won’t stay there.” Others believe that Jesus was the greatest spiritual teacher who ever lived and that he did rise from the dead, as he promised, to demonstrate that everything he taught was true.

-- Michael Leach at The Washington Post


Paul determined to know nothing but Jesus and the cross. Was that enough? What is the cross? Is it big enough to fill the universe?

...

The cross tears Jesus and the veil so that through His separation He might break down the dividing wall that separated Yahweh from his people and Jew from Gentile. The cross stretches to embrace the world, reaching to the four corners, the four winds of heaven, the points of the compass, from the sea to the River and from Hamath to the brook of Egypt. It is the cross of reality, the symbol of man, stretching out, as man does, between heaven and earth, distended between past and future, between inside and outside.

The cross is the crux, the crossroads, the twisted knot at the center of reality, to which all previous history leads and from which all subsequent history flows. By it we know all reality is cruciform—the love of God, the shape of creation, the labyrinth of human history. Paul determined to know nothing but Christ crucified, but that was enough. The cross was all he knew on earth; but knowing the cross he, and we, know all we need to know.

-- Peter J. Leithart for FirstThings.com

Easter Quotes

Many people, including Christians, believe that the resurrection is a myth that points to a larger truth. The imagination sings: you can nail love to a cross but you can’t destroy it. “Easter,” wrote Clarence Hall, “means you can put truth in a grave but it won’t stay there.” Others believe that Jesus was the greatest spiritual teacher who ever lived and that he did rise from the dead, as he promised, to demonstrate that everything he taught was true.

-- Michael Leach at The Washington Post


Paul determined to know nothing but Jesus and the cross. Was that enough? What is the cross? Is it big enough to fill the universe?

...

The cross tears Jesus and the veil so that through His separation He might break down the dividing wall that separated Yahweh from his people and Jew from Gentile. The cross stretches to embrace the world, reaching to the four corners, the four winds of heaven, the points of the compass, from the sea to the River and from Hamath to the brook of Egypt. It is the cross of reality, the symbol of man, stretching out, as man does, between heaven and earth, distended between past and future, between inside and outside.

The cross is the crux, the crossroads, the twisted knot at the center of reality, to which all previous history leads and from which all subsequent history flows. By it we know all reality is cruciform—the love of God, the shape of creation, the labyrinth of human history. Paul determined to know nothing but Christ crucified, but that was enough. The cross was all he knew on earth; but knowing the cross he, and we, know all we need to know.

-- Peter J. Leithart for FirstThings.com

The Double-Standard Against Men

If you hear that a woman wants sex but doesn’t have a partner, what do you think? She’s picky; she’s afraid of being emotionally hurt; she’s getting over a bad break-up; she doesn’t have the time for a serious commitment; she’s worried about pregnancy; she doesn’t want to be thought of as promiscuous.

If you hear that a man wants sex but doesn’t have a partner, what do you think? He can’t get a woman to sleep with him. A vast overgeneralization, of course, but it has some truth to it. Therefore, a male desire to use a vibrator is evidence that he’s sexually unsuccessful, in a way that doesn’t apply the same way to women. Hence, women with vibrator = sexy; man with vibrator = pathetic.

-- Eugene Volokh blog

I don't get the idea of a man using a vibrator, which even sounds like it might be gay (not that there is anything wrong with that), but the general prinicple stands as a timeless truth. It's as though women have this fantastic commodity known as 'sex', and men are beggars or courters/seducers or outright buyers. No one is saying that women should be at home and in the kitchen and that men should be executives and leaders, but there are differences, not that that is all bad.

The Double-Standard Against Men

If you hear that a woman wants sex but doesn’t have a partner, what do you think? She’s picky; she’s afraid of being emotionally hurt; she’s getting over a bad break-up; she doesn’t have the time for a serious commitment; she’s worried about pregnancy; she doesn’t want to be thought of as promiscuous.

If you hear that a man wants sex but doesn’t have a partner, what do you think? He can’t get a woman to sleep with him. A vast overgeneralization, of course, but it has some truth to it. Therefore, a male desire to use a vibrator is evidence that he’s sexually unsuccessful, in a way that doesn’t apply the same way to women. Hence, women with vibrator = sexy; man with vibrator = pathetic.

-- Eugene Volokh blog

I don't get the idea of a man using a vibrator, which even sounds like it might be gay (not that there is anything wrong with that), but the general prinicple stands as a timeless truth. It's as though women have this fantastic commodity known as 'sex', and men are beggars or courters/seducers or outright buyers. No one is saying that women should be at home and in the kitchen and that men should be executives and leaders, but there are differences, not that that is all bad.