Flotsam and jetsam (1/4)

• Wired Magazine has a fascinating article on the fight brewing over the new edition Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), “Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness.“

At stake in the fight between Frances and the APA is more than professional turf, more than careers and reputations, more than the $6.5 million in sales that the DSM averages each year. The book is the basis of psychiatrists’ authority to pronounce upon our mental health, to command health care dollars from insurance companies for treatment and from government agencies for research.

• Michael Hyatt explains why the iPad couldn’t kill the Kindle.

So how did Amazon do it? How did they compete with the Mighty Apple, when everyone was predicting they would be crushed by a more sophisticated machine? They used a four-prong strategy.

• iMonk discusses Luther’s A Treatise on Good Works.

Luther’s great insight was that obedience to God which springs from faith exhibits itself in the course of our ordinary, daily vocations.

• Matt Flannagan discusses original sin and the moral gap between everyone’s moral ideals and the universal reality of moral failure.

It seems then that this paradox is part of our moral experience. It is inevitable that we will sin. In an important sense we cannot but fail morally and yet we are responsible for our moral failure. On the face of it, there appears only two ways to address this. One is to deny we are responsible for our moral failures. The other is to claim that we can achieve moral perfection. But both claims seem to be obviously false and as such are implausible.

• Stuart reports on the targeting of Coptic Christians in Egypt in the wake of the recent bombing and resulting violence.

• Steve Duby reviews Graham  Cole’s God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom.

• And, here’s a list of 100 things we didn’t know last year.

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Flotsam and jetam (8/31)

• The Chronicle of Higher Education has an excellent infographic showing the measures that various magazines use to put together their college rankings ( HT). And, in another Chronicle article, Camille Paglia argues that we need to Revalorize blue collar employment (HT).
• Mere Orthodoxy offers some interesting thoughts from Oliver O’Donovan on the necessarily metaphysical nature of moral reflection.
• Here’s a free mini-book from D.A. Carson,  From the Resurrection to His Return: Living Faithfully in the Last Days, a lightly edited manuscript from his sermon on 1 Timothy 3:1-4:8. HT
• NPR does a piece on whether belief in God is evolutionarily advantageous.
• And, what do you do if prostitution has become too much of a problem in your neighborhood? Why, give the prostitutes more privacy, of course.

From the Resurrection to His Return: Living Faithfully in the Last Days.

Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins in America

Keeping on the theme of sin after yesterday’s  The 7 Deadly Sins and All Their Combinations, here’s an infographic from Wired on American Vice: Mapping the 7 Deadly Sins. They actually provide seven different maps showing how each of the sins is distributed throughout America based on specific measures. For example, Greed is calculated based on average income compared with number of people living below the poverty line. The map below is an aggregate of the first six sins, because they think that’s a good picture of Pride.

Based on this, pretty much every major city on the west coast is in trouble except Portland. Yet another reason Portland is such a great city. And, most interestingly, it looks like the largest proportion of sinners in America reside in the Bible Belt. Hmmmm.

Of course, the accuracy of their calculations has to be called into question by the saint-like representation of Nevada. Seriously? Not even a little blemish right around Las Vegas? And, the decision to make Pride an aggregate category instead of giving it its own measure surely protected Texas from coming off worse than it did. Pride alone would have catapulted Texas into the lead of the 7 Deadly Sins Sweepstakes.

The 7 Deadly Sins and all their combinations

Here’s a great chart of the seven deadly sins and all of their various combinations. I particularly liked the idea that gluttony + greed = “last donut” and glutton + sloth = “fat men in speedos.” Actually, as I look a little closer, most of my favorite ones involve gluttony. What does that say about me?

HT

Flotsam and jetsam (5/29)

• Matt Flanagan has argued before, along with Nicholas Wolterstorff, that we should understand the cherem language about the total destruction of the Canaanite people in the OT as  hyperbolic (akin to an athlete saying, “We totally annihilated the other team”).  Ken Pulliam recently argued against this, contending instead that we must understand the cherem literally and that it is one of the most morally reprehensible portions of the Bible. Today, Matt offers a strong (and convincing) rebuttal of Ken’s argument.
• Brian LePort lists 10 books that have surprisingly influenced him over the years. I was a little startled not to see Arius’ Thalia on the list.
• Penn Jillette explains why he and Teller don’t discuss Islam or Scientology on their show, as well as why he thinks Christians have done at least something right.
• Time magazine has listed their Best Blogs of 2010. Sadly, we didn’t make the list.
• And, Matt Mikalatos would like to introduce us to Paul, the psychic octopus who predicts World Cup games.