Jason Coleman

Interesting turnabout here. The interviewer asks a neuroscientist about free will and the scientist answers in terms of self control. “Do I chart my own course” vs. “Do I have the ability to choose between the options my mind presents.”

GL: Even people who have largely come to terms with neuroscience find certain ideas troubling—particularly free will. Do we have it?

PC: A better question is whether we have self-control, and it’s very easy to see what the evolutionary rationale of that is. We need to be able to maintain a goal despite distractions. We need to suppress certain kinds of impulses. We do know a little bit about the neurobiology of self-control, and there is no doubt that brains exhibit self-control.

Now, that’s as good as it gets, in my view. When we need to make a decision about something—whether to buy a new car, say—self-control mechanisms work in ways that we understand: We decide not to spend more than we can afford, to go with the more or less practical car. That is what free will is. But if you think that free will is creating the decision, with no causal background, there isn’t that.

via The self as brain: Disturbing implications of neuroexistentialism..

Our concepts of God change. They have changed and continue to change. What modern theists believe is not what the ancient Israelites prior to the exile believed.

And so the question when it comes to Christian identity is not whether our beliefs match theirs, but whether the overriding trajectory is being followed.

via Mystics and/or Atheists.

What modern doctors believe is not what the ancient Israelites believed.

What modern astronomers believe is not what the ancient Israelites believed.

What modern ethicists believe is not what the ancient Israelites believed.

Doctors, astronomers, and ethicists hold different views because of what observation has taught us about the world since ancient times. I don’t think it’s out of line for theologians to change their ideas based on observation too.

Can you be a Christian if you aren’t an Ancient Christian? I hope so.

A couple of quotes I found in my internet wanderings.

I don’t know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public. They forget that invisibility is a superpower.
— Banksy

Anxiety is practising failure in advance. Anxiety is needless and imaginary. It’s fear about fear, fear that means nothing.
— Seth Godin

If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.
— Lao Tzu

Who are you when you’re alone? When no one is watching? What’s left then?
— Unknown.

Quote from Rachel Held Evans’ weekly roundup of notable posts in the blogosphere. This one about peacemaking I’m going to share with my kids.

The icky work of peacemaking is about leaning into discomfort and swallowing your pride. It’s the scary undertaking of feeling ALL the feelings–and choosing love anyway. It’s sticking around for tough conversations when you’d rather stab a pillow.

via Sunday Superlatives 10/20/13.

I especially like the line about “feeling ALL the feelings”. That swarm of emotions that immediately well up when you’ve been hurt or disappointed is a tough storm to navigate. Calling it out so kids know to look out for it might help them choose how to respond.

Quoting from another blog, as that author lists interesting quotes he’s read in the book “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet”. I thought these were particularly cool:

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love…” p. 395

“He could sell sheep shit to shepherds.”  p. 440

via TYWKIWDBI “Tai-Wiki-Widbee”: “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet”.

Peter Enns was pulling highlights from a lecture by John Franke about the distinctions between traditional and progressive Christian evangelicalism. This part about how to define progressive evangelicalism really resonated with me. Progressive evangelicalism…

(1) is marked by holding to a “center” of theology rather than maintaining firm “boundaries,” (2) views the theological task as more of a “dialogue” than arriving at firm conclusions defended at all cost, and (3) encourages a deliberate engagement of voices outside of evangelicalism in order to learn from them, not simply correct them.

via The Bible is the center of the Christian faith and don’t assume you know what I mean by that.

I’m not telling you to not look at women.  Just the opposite.  I’m telling you to see women.  Really see them.

via Seeing a Woman: A conversation between a father and son | From One Degree to Another | Nate Pyle.

James McGrath talks about church congregations for whom “Christian faith” boils down to “certainty about doctrine”.

Rather than promising answers we cannot give, why not offer to be a place where questions can be explored openly and with the support of a community? … Why do so many instead offer a false sense of certainty that traps people who desperately need to be set free?

via Church Trap.

Here’s a great quote about figuring out if we’re among society’s oppressors or its oppressed, and reminding us of God’s relationship to each of those groups. I’d like to pare it down to fewer paragraphs but they all build on each other so nicely that I just couldn’t.

Note to my more theologically conservative friends: the author below refers to God as “she”. While I’ve always used the pronoun “he” for God I’ve never mean that to literally mean God-with-a-penis; it’s just the pronoun that the Bible uses after translation into English. In light of what I do-and-don’t mean when I say “he” I’m going to give Sarah Moon the benefit of the doubt that she doesn’t literally mean God-with-a-vulva when Sarah says “she”. Can we agree to stay calm and just focus on her main point? Thanks.

But I have privilege, as a white, cisgender, able-bodied woman who is marrying a man. In many contexts, I am in the same category as the oppressors, not the oppressed.

Which means, unless I acknowledge my privilege and choose to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, God is not on my side. She might even be angry with me.

It’s weird, as a white, American Christian, to think that if there is a God, she might not be on my side. That’s not something they tell us in Sunday School. White America seems to think of itself as especially blessed by God and to think of God as being angry at those people.

The thought that God might be angry…with me?

That’s a thought that should knock me off my arrogance seat of privilege. It should encourage me to check my privilege, listen to the voices of those who are oppressed in different ways, and reevaluate the choices I am making in life.

It should be a call to repentance.

Maybe God’s a “bitch.” An “angry black woman.” A “bitter” abuse survivor. Maybe God’s “too sensitive” and needs to “learn to take a joke.” Maybe God is all of the dismissive words that we throw out to try to silence those who are fighting for change and for justice.

Maybe God is angry, and we should listen to her.

via Maybe God is a “bitch”.

I like this image of a love that does not dissipate when the waters rise and times get hard.

A love that will never dilute – even when the waters get deep, and dark.

via like so much water | Marry your best friend. I do not say that lightly…..