Better Christians Than Logicians

After his Introduction, but before his first chapter, John Piper includes a short chapter on the necessity of — given the state of the world — controversy and polemics. He writes this as a pastor. “I am a pastor first. Polemics are secondary and serve that” (p. 27). In short, shepherds are to fight because …

Now That I Have Your Attention . . .

Among those observing the unfolding drama surrounding Louisiana Presbytery and Steve Wilkins, there may be more than a few stats-monkeys who are interested in the following. Over the course of this last month, this blog has had 13,590 different visitors, that many different people. When I look at what these people have been interested in, what pages …

Dead Rat Behind the Fridge

When Dan Rather put out his report on George Bush’s National Guard service during the Vietnam War, within hours, bloggers had shown that the evidence he was relying on was fabricated. When politicians try to pull their old-style political tricks, within minutes someone somewhere has exposed the thing. The most recent example of this was …

Scandals are Interchangeable

One of Girard’s conversation partners (Jean-Michel Oughourlian) says that it “is obvious that bringing to light the founding murder completely rules out any compromise with the principle of sacrifice” (Reader, p. 179). Well, no. Our task here is to point to some of the reasons why Girard falls into this either/or trap. “That is indeed …

Standing Google Commission

Let me begin this by noting that I am a six-day creationist, so nothing in this comparison should be taken further than a simple illustration. In the Scopes monkey trial, the State of Tennessee won, and the creationist position was upheld. But the creationists had the misfortune to have H.L. Mencken in attendance, filing regular …