Do you have any idea what this says? If you do not, don't worry, because NEITHER DO I.
Dear folks,
There is a reason for my prolonged absence from this blog: I have been studying Greek nonstop for the past couple of weeks.
Turns out that Greek is really, really hard. So hard, in fact, that it makes me wonder why God would have chosen to have people write the New Testament in this squiggly, convoluted excuse for a language. In fact, you kind of have to wonder: why would God/Yawheh/Allah choose to have God’s sacred texts written in ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek and ancient Arabic of ALL THINGS?!
Not cool, God. Not cool.
Anyway, I’ll be back on the horse later this week. In the meantime, take a moment to check out some things below:
1.) CNN Has a New Page -I like it, especially the “News Pulse” section, which seems like it might actually be useful and not gimicky. Thoughts?
2.) I Love Infographics and Politics, So You KNOW I Love This Thing – it’s odd to see beliefs that people so fervently cling to broken down in simple, graphic form, but here it is anyway. Indeed, the terms “Left” and “Right” are used so often these days that it’s sometimes hard to discern the concrete meaning behind the nebulous concepts that the terms evoke. This image, however, explains things pretty well. Oh, and it’s pretty, so I like it.
3.) Pure Cinematic Awesomeness – I worked on Barack Obama’s campaign, so obviously I’m pretty excited about this documentary. It also helps that I know virtually everyone in it.
4.) The University of Chicago Breaks Down Religion, With Interesting Results – I apologize for the format of this article (it’s written for the iPhone, and I couldn’t find the web version), but it’s pretty fascinating stuff. For me, the real interesting find is the rising number of people who say they believe in God yet don’t affiliate with one religious group or another. There are a thousand different theories for what this means (are people distrustful of organized religion, distrustful of the tenets of organized religion, or do they just want to form their own opinions?), and it reminds me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a crazy-awesome German theologian who was put to death by the Nazi’s for his role in a plot to kill Hitler- yeah, the one in Valkaryie) and his concept of ”Religionless Christianity.” To him, the constructs of organized religion were simply no longer equipped to provide for a world that he believed had “come of age.”
…And that was written in 1945.
Also, apparently more people believe in an afterlife than they did in 1970. Hrm…Are people concerned about their souls, perhaps? I’d love to hear some different opinions on this one…
Anyway, in keeping with religion-related news stuff:
5.) The Catholic Church is Making it Easy for Disgruntled but Married Anglican Priests to Become Catholic Clergy – and Stay Married – Honestly, I only have a moderately informed comprehension of this debate because I have several Catholic friends here at the Divinity School who have kindly taken the time to explain the issue to my super-Protestant self. Nevertheless, the article says a lot, and could have serious ramifications for the religious world in the coming years. Interesting stuff.
6.) A Completely Inappropriate and Destructive Prank, But Hilarious Regardless – A comedy troupe pretended to speak on behalf of a government agency and dozens of reporters showed up. Hilarity ensues.
That’s all for now. I should be studying Greek, anyway…
