Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Unequally Yoked

Home
Catholic
7 Quick Takes (11/19/10)

7 Quick Takes (11/19/10)

Last updated on: September 3, 2012 at 11:56 pm by Leah Libresco

7 Quick Takes (11/19/10) 2012-09-03T23:56:30-04:00 Leah Libresco

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

–1–

I may have a five hour problem set due at nine am, but that will have to wait, because tonight is…

…the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

and I’m off to the midnight showing. With bells on.

–2–

With the books done, and only one movie left, if you’re looking for more Potter stories, you can’t do better than Eliezer Yudowsky’s ongoing story Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Yudowsky’s story focuses on a version of Harry that was raised in a loving, science-oriented family. As a result, Harry is a lot more creative and confident and Yudowsky raised the complexity and brilliance of Voldemort’s plans to match. Get a few chapters in and you won’t be able to put it down.

(Yudowsky writes philosophy as well as fanfiction. Currently, Luke from Common Sense Atheism, is blogging through some of Yudowsky’s work)

–3–

Outside the realm of Harry Potter, you can find a different, bizarre world to explore in a short cartoon by Jack Kirby titled:

It’s totally bizarre, and you can read the whole thing at io9.

–4–

If you’re looking for a chance to do some applied magic, you may want to take a crack at The New York Times‘s deficit calculator. You can pick from a menu of spending cuts and tax increases to wipe out the federal deficit. It’s easier than you might expect, if you forget what how obstructionist the new Congress will be. (Here’s the solution I picked)

–5–

Earlier this week, I wrote about the morality of military engagement, and if you’re interested in the data on the rates of soldiers deliberately shooting wide to avoid killing other people, Cracked.com identified instances of this phenomena in Star Wars.

In that same military ethics post, I referenced the old practice of sin-eating. It turns out that that practice didn’t die out as long ago as I thought. The BBC has an interesting article on the efforts of a English village to restore the grave of the village sin-eater, the last one in England.

–6–

Andrew Sullivan, blogger at The Daily Dish, ran a confusing letter from a Catholic mother this week, during the run up to the elections to choose the new leader of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She wrote:

I was quite proud of my sixteen-year-old son, who after completing two years of confirmation preparation wrote his letter to the Bishop telling him quite proudly why he did not want to become confirmed as an adult in the current church….

Our son attends mass, helps when he can when he is home from college, and works with a local parish near his school. He still considers himself Catholic but cannot in good conscious swear to obey the tenets of the current church.

I consider him a good Catholic – in fact a better Catholic than I – because I had doubts as a teen but got confirmed anyway because I didn’t want to disappoint my parents. His faith is strong, but his desire to build a better church is what keeps me teaching and trying to live up to his example. He is the reason that I believe the American Catholic Church will become in the future a separate branch, rather than Roman Catholic.

I can understand why someone might disagree with the teaching of the Catholic Church and wish to leave or to see it altered. But I can’t understand why someone would hope for fissure in the Church, rather than a reform of the whole. Seems to miss the point of a small c-catholic church.

–7–

This weekend is the beginning of my Thanksgiving break, and it kicks off with the annual Harvard-Yale Game. This year, the best Game t-shirt, hands down, went to the Yale Record, which printed shirts that read “Only my hatred of Harvard can overcome my apathy for football.”

Today, I have an op-ed in the Yale Daily News discussing the serious consequences of concussions (common in football) and how attending football games can make us culpable for promoting a dangerous game.

[Seven Quick Things is a blog carnival run by Jen of Conversion Diary]

7 Quick Takes

costuming

other writing

Previous Post

November 17, 2010

Can There be an Atheist Agenda?

Next Post

November 22, 2010 Are People "Atheists First?"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 7 Quick Takes Apologetics Atheism Book Conversion Debate Tactics Debates Epistemology/Philosophy Housekeeping Ideological Turing Test Marriage Morality in Practice Parsing Catholicism Possibly Heretical Radio Reviews/Recommendations Sequence Index Spiritual Practice Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2017 March 2017 January 2017 December 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group is known for wearing black hats and beards?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Orthodox Jews Amish Mennonites Quakers