Recommended Twits

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As I slowly and painfully (to a degree) make my switch from Facebook to Twitter I thought sharing some of the “Twits” I follow might be a nice feature. It can be very much like going down a rabbit hole as you will find one, see who they follow, add them…you see where this is going. But in life that is how things work. The problem is that when you have so much information coming at you it can be hard to process.

Twitter makes it nice (for those who don’t use it) in that those you follow will re-tweet those they follow so your timeline can remain relatively clean.

I have actually been using Twitter for years as a resource for mostly my Jacksonville Jaguars writing through JaguarsBlog and BigCatCountry. However after a recent Twitter conversation which became nothing short of straw man arguments and blatant misinterpretation of intent I knew the time to pull away from this “football world” at a higher level was required. I didn’t like how I was reacting and the basic lack of civility and integrity created an atmosphere I was not strong enough to not be “corrupted” by.

It never fails to amaze how hard it is to admit weakness.

So enough with the history of this personal “Twit”. Here are a few folks that keep the timeline filled with great ideas.

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Two Tuesday Quotes: Thoreau and Mead

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Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.
Margaret Mead
On Thoreau:
Over the years, Thoreau’s reputation has been strong, although he is often cast into roles — the hermit in the wilderness, the prophet of passive resistance (so dear to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King) — that he would have surely seen as somewhat alien. His work is so rich, and so full of the complex contradictions that he explored, that his readers keep reshaping his image to fit their own needs. Perhaps he would have appreciated that, for he seems to have wanted most to use words to force his readers to rethink their own lives creatively, different though they may be, even as he spent his life rethinking his, always asking questions, always looking to nature for greater intensity and meaning for his life.
– A comment by Ann Woodlief Emerita Associate Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University
On Mead:
Of her life’s work, cultural anthropologist, museum curator and feminist scholar Margaret Mead once said, “I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples — faraway peoples — so that Americans might better understand themselves.”
– Meredith Melnick’s Time magazine piece about Mead as one of the 25 most powerful women of the past century

Dissecting the Delusion

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One of the benefits of retaining most of the books I have had to read while I was in college is that at times I can 1) share them with my children and 2) they have been required reading from my children. It is nice to see the money spent years ago still reaps a return. Just this past weekend I was rummaging through a dozen boxes looking for The Scarlet Letter. I was convinced it was somewhere in my possession as it was my own required reading years ago. Sadly this time I was mistaken. I had confused it with The Screwtape Letters which had a scarlet cover so while disappointed I at least felt justified in the confusion.
 
Yet the boxes spoke to me through reminders that many half-read, non-read and yet-read books demanded my attention. So I pulled out Mill’s On Liberty and Karen Armstrong’s The Battle for God along with a half-dozen others, leaving them in well walked area so they can realize their full potential of being mentally consumed. One book I passed over was Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. I vividly remember reading the book, thinking Dawkins hit on some strong, obvious and weak points in his argument against Christianity. None of them are worth going over in detail. At least coming from me.
 
David Marshall, founder of the Kuai Mu Institute for Christianity and World Cultures, took the time to write a granular and detailed response to Dawkins. Only three pages into the sixty-eight page retort and I am taken with Marshall’s mind. It would be irresponsible to recommend the paper on Dawkins’ errors but first impression tells me I will need to re-read Delusion. I am reminded of the mantra given to me by my philosophy professors: the best argument is found when building the strongest counter argument. In our daily lives we are too often only given on side of a position and in process a very weak form of the alternate position. That does not help us as a country or as individuals. While Dawkins may seem a fool or Christianity a false belief, here is an opportunity to confirm or debunk that position. At the very least you might better understand your opponent.
 

The God Delusion: 160 Errors, Gross
Exaggerations, and Highly Dubious Claims

VS

The God Delusion