I’m so thrilled about these upcoming events (3/7-5/4: two concerts, a play, and a lecture) that I’m inviting everyone. I’ll be buying my tickets in the next two weeks—and none of them are more than $25. Charles Bradley will be at Exit/In in Nashville on May 4th; the others are all in Louisville, through the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts (voted four times as Kentucky’s best venue for music, theater and dance).
Read more You’re invited! Four events in and around Louisville
I’ve had a couple of conversations recently about evolution, particularly as it relates to modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens). I feel like I haven’t done a very good job explaining it in these recent conversations, so here are a few sources from experts on the topic, starting with the most basic.
This week will be the Tuesday (Evening) Zep… Basically, I’d like to expand on yesterday’s post, but I spent all my time transcribing it that I didn’t get a chance to write the commentary that I’d hoped for today. So here’s to hoping for an update tonight! Let’s just call this an incremental post. I’ll add to it over time, mainly throughout this week. Of course, I should say right off that I’m no expert in this field, so hopefully we can make this a group learning experience. It’ll be a bumpy ride. Expect a little of my own critique as well as links to similar material and an explanation of why I chose the quote below.
In the meantime, block out 15 minutes of your day to watch the video or read the transcript. (YouTube original.) I dare you to tell me that it was a waste of your time.
I ran across a new video on YouTube this week entitled Science Saved My Soul. It is such a compelling multimedia experience that I decided to take the time to transcribe it. In short, it is one part galactic, scientific, poetic “mindgasm”; one part exposition on religion; and one part Arcade Fire music video. (Note that, while educational, there are two uses of profanity.) I will save any other analysis of the video for a different blog post. I don’t know the proper formatting for transcription, and I’ve made at least one guess during a part that I couldn’t understand (it’s underlined)—now corrected; see UPDATE at end.
This is the first time I’ve come across a video from YouTube user philhellenes and he does not include any information about himself (that I could find). His channel page reads, “ANYONE can download, copy or mirror ANY of my stuff without asking for permission,” so I’ve included my own copy of the Flash file here, as well; sorry, I didn’t feel like finding conversion software to make it into an AVI.
Considering I’m neither queer nor Christian, you may wonder why I would promote a book written by a self-proclaimed “straight, white, conservative, Bible-believing, evangelical male” who is sympathetic to the Queer Question. Even so, Andrew Marin’s Love Is an Orientation strikes me as a brave discussion on the civil rights struggle between various Christian sects and the greater GLBT community in the United States. Impressively, Marin has devoted his entire career to building bridges between these communities.
It’s been over a year since I’ve shared some theological musings with Zepfanedites. This is an abridged version of an email chain I recently had with a friend. Names and places have been changed to protect the innocent. I’ll repeat here something I mentioned in the e-mails – in case you don’t want to read through the whole thing: what I’ve concluded is that people either believe or they don’t. I spent about three or four months trying to maintain my belief in Christianity and I even shared my doubts with fellow Christians. In the end, I couldn’t force myself to believe anymore – it’s like that spirit just left me. (For a related biblical passage that has always stayed with me, however, see Romans 1-2, particularly 1:18-32.)
