2024-04-21 02:29
I would normally, upon hearing the death of a figure like this, one more “pedestaled” than deserving, write up some sort of “takedown” obit. In the world of politics… Read More
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The Philosophy Of The Socratic Gadfly Blog
wordsofsocraticgadfly.blogspot.com
This is a slice of my philosophical, lay scientific, musical and poetic musings.
2024-04-20 15:57
Christians in the world outside of Orthodoxy (unless Zelensky got the Ukranian church to move Easter as well as Christmas) celebrated Easter March 29.Muslims had started Ramadan before that… Read More
2024-04-18 14:00
Per a group statement, it self-imploded.Having snarked on them a last time recently, I thought I would take one last look, to see what it did, or did not, write about the climate crisis, bei… Read More
2024-04-13 14:00
These are the most-viewed posts of mine within the past three months. That doesn't mean all of them are from the last three months. I'll indicate where not.No. 10? More oopses at r/Aca… Read More
2024-04-11 14:00
Some actually pretty good discussion here on its dating. The long comment by Moremon is good, though he appears to be plumping for at least the possibility of a relatively early date within… Read More
2024-04-04 14:00
Per a group statement, plus this, this, this and this ... it self-imploded.As regular readers know, I snark semi-regularly on Reddit's AcademicBiblical subthread. I've done that here on occa… Read More
2024-03-28 14:50
Pytine's comment and ex-Mormon's response are both "interesting," but I believe incorrect, especially no-Moremon.First, Pytine.The Cureton thesis on Ignatius is a minority view among scholar… Read More
2024-03-23 14:27
At the Atlantic recently (workaround archive link avoids paywall) Ariel Sabar tackled anew this old question, known to biblical scholars like me (graduate theological degree, undergrad in cl… Read More
2024-03-21 14:00
T.J. Coles, writing for Counterpunch and riffing on his new book, "The New Atheism Hoax," has the receipts.The warmongering of original Gnu Chris Hitchens, in his slobbering over his a… Read More
2024-03-15 13:40
Four years ago, in one of the most popular posts here, I wrote about the etymology of the "rex," the "king," that Julius Caesar supposedly wanted to become, that got him killed.But, wh… Read More
2024-03-13 14:00
Shock me that this is something that, on the political side, Charles Kuffner glommed on to.A Fred Clark claims at Patheos (which I don't go to on my own since they chased the atheists… Read More
2024-03-07 15:00
I've noted this in comments at Reddit’s trolley problem subreddit, but I decided it was time to make a post there, based on this piece at Psy Post which had just popped up in my blogro… Read More
2024-02-29 15:00
Contra this person, and the Lester Crabbe he cites, reading between the lines, oh, yes we do have at least hints of Yehud revolting against the early years of Achaemenid Persian rule. Any go… Read More
2024-02-22 15:00
Written in response to a semi-challenge on Goodreads, when I snarkily responded to a friend's talk about "b&b" angles on a fairy tale and said "bed and breakfast" even as I knew it… Read More
2024-02-15 15:52
This is an edited and expanded version of my Goodreads review of Robert Sapolsky's "Determined." It's expanded, not just because I do that at other times with some Goodreads reviews where I… Read More
2024-02-01 16:05
Don't let anybody tell you it's fundagelical Christians vs other Christians. Not even scholar of religion Ryan Burge. Don't let him, or even more, #BlueAnon Dems, riffing on him, tell y… Read More
2024-01-25 15:03
The Experience Machine by Andy Clark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Better than Anil Seth, but that's a low bar to clear.But, that's a good starting point for this review, which, as normal, is exte… Read More
2024-01-18 15:20
I don't do a monthly roundup, unlike at my main blog. But, here is a roundup of the last quarter of 2023. Again, not all of these may have been written in 2023, but they were the… Read More
2024-01-11 15:00
Again, not all of these may have been written in 2023, but they were the most read last year.We'll start from the bottom.At No. 10, from January 2023, me calling out a then-new moderat… Read More
2024-01-04 16:26
Shock me that the (currently) second-largest United Methodist church in the US is in Southlake, tilts semi-wingnut within the UMC, and has its growth being driven by Californication.&n&hell…Read More
2023-12-29 02:51
NO, Yonathan Adler does NOT "over-egg it" on his magisterial new study of the origin of Jewish beliefs and praxis. (Said person is a good commenter on Aussie politics, though.)Fortunat… Read More
2023-12-21 15:00
I love me some Paul Davidson, author of "Is That in the Bible?" (Also u/CaptainHaddock at r/AcademicBiblical. And, sigh, a mod there now, too.) But, Jonathan Poletti, the "Belover" of Medium… Read More
2023-12-14 15:00
This is not against the U.S. Religious Right, mainly Christian, but with a few Orthodox Jews along for the ride, and even, for political reasons, a few Muslims.This is against the Reli… Read More
2023-12-07 15:00
I've called out Hudson before for his apparent belief that the biblical year of jubilee,
or the seven-cycle culmination of sabbath years with an extra year to
make 50, was actually real. T… Read More
2023-11-30 15:00
Appromimately a year ago, Dallas-Fort Worth's (actually Denton's) National Public Radio station, KERA, took over management of Dallas' classical music station, WRR, which remained unde… Read More
2023-11-22 15:00
The best parts of the piece are two, in my opinion.The first is, contra Gnu Atheists, this:They’re the atheists, the agnostics, the “nothing in particular.” Many are… Read More
2023-11-19 04:30
His Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor from Illinois, the Revvvvvvv. (Rush Limbaugh voice, political wingnuts) Stephen C. Lee, one of Fulton County (Georgia) District Attorney Fani… Read More
2023-11-16 15:02
Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Public Health Threat by Derek Beres
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Ultimately, a mini-memoir rather than a sweeping observation, and simply… Read More
2023-11-11 16:00
An area Catholic high school had an alumna "cheer-off" for homecoming recently. Groups of classes across decades performed at halftime to various dance tunes.One group had "Everybody D… Read More
2023-11-09 15:00
This person
asking how Matthew and Luke could "invent" the birth stories. Not a
fundagelical, though. Dutch, not German, apparently. Belongs to a Dutch
sub, "gekte," which is "madness" in… Read More
2023-11-02 14:00
We start with a recent study by Paul Davidson, author of the "Is that in the Bible?" website."The 'Fire from Heshbon' and a censored King of Judah" proposes that seeming problems in th… Read More
2023-10-26 14:00
And, thoughts and claims like what Robert Sapolsky is apparently putting into a new book show why, scientism-peddling scientists aside, science still needs philosophy.I've long said "mu" to… Read More
2023-10-19 14:00
This is an even more extended version of a Goodreads book review than
normal. That’s because, in this case, while I overall still think the novel is
a five-star on lite… Read More
2023-10-14 14:11
As with my main blog, where I do a monthly top 10, not all of these are from the last three months. I'll note there they are not. And most, in fact, are not.No 10 is from 2021, about Luthera… Read More
2023-10-12 14:13
Ye gads.First? For you Bart Ehrman geeks out there? Just stop reading him and stop geeking on him. Period. He's forfeited the
right to even be grokked by anybody with a serious interest in… Read More
2023-10-07 14:36
That would be ...BobbyBobbie, now blocked.He, she or it, as of the new mods (before or after I was banned I'm not sure) claims that the rule on "cite your academic sources" w… Read More
2023-10-05 14:00
Interesting stuff by Birger Pearson, link originally seen via r/AcademicBiblical, in one of the occasional truly good things there.First, per why the link was posted there? I'd never closely… Read More
2023-09-28 15:06
Commenters on this post need to learn something about Stith Thompson's famous (in its academic realm, at least) Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, or at least the basic gist of its ideas, along… Read More
2023-09-23 15:30
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
After three-starring (perhaps high?) Bakewell's "Existentialist Ca… Read More
2023-09-21 14:40
It's a piece that is otherwise generally good, but nothing really new — it's about the closure of ever more "mainline" houses of religious worship in the face of the rise of the… Read More
2023-09-16 14:36
I grieved for
The closure that would never happen,
Even though closure is a myth
I grieved for
The childhood fear and anger
Of him, and about him
That I could never more fully… Read More
2023-09-14 14:00
The Smart Fool, mentioned in these pages before, is once again not smart. He cites this essay
by Paul Foster in favor of the authenticity of 2 Thessalonians.
Problems? Sure. First, Nero re… Read More
2023-09-07 14:00
A year and a month ago, on vacation, I saw a lightning-split tree trunk, a ponderosa, with what appeared to be a bud of new growth in the stump portion of the trunk still rooted. (The… Read More
2023-09-02 15:52
Contra some degree of perhaps too much huzzahs and handsprings at r/AcademicBiblical (note a commenter talking about this connecting the canonical gospels and Thomas when no such idea… Read More
2023-08-26 16:38
"Matty," as I love to call him, is THE (Rush Limbaugh type voice), Matthew Harrison, ongoing president and almost president-for-life of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the largest… Read More
2023-08-24 13:55
That's per this Tumblr-length brief from The New Republic. (Sadly, it spoils itself by linking to a longer piece by Nat-Sec Nutsack Brynn Tannehill, who pivots into going off on the Russian… Read More
2023-08-19 14:00
I've been banned for a week as of Thursday, and am sure that I'll be permabanned when I drop this post as part of my comments, and as a message to the mods there. Just like r/AcademicB… Read More
2023-08-17 14:08
The Texas Monthly notes
in a guest piece by Nina Burleigh that some Religious Right group, with
the name of "The Nazarene," is grifting at $69 a pop for people to see
the fake James… Read More
2023-08-12 14:30
I heard the news that Gustavo Dudamel would replace Jaap van Zweden at music director at the NY Phil on Sirius' Symphony Hall while on vacation.First, I didn't realize van Zweden had v… Read More
2023-08-10 14:37
You can't go wrong when doing a mash-up of famous Shakespearean phrases (for $1,000, Alex) and amateur philosophical scrivening, can you? At least not in my book.So, we're taking off from a… Read More
2023-07-27 14:36
Multiple comments on this question post about "The Woman Taken in Adultery" pericope are wrong, based on the text-critical issue (along with narrative and redaction criticism issues) o… Read More
2023-07-20 14:33
"Nones," as many of my readers likely know, is the common current sociology of religion term to agglomerate all people who are not religious, from "spiritual but not religious" through… Read More
2023-07-13 14:00
As on my main blog, I do a roundup of popular posts. But, since I don't blog here as often, I do this on a quarterly, not monthly, basis. As there, not all these may have been written… Read More
2023-06-29 14:44
At the Atlantic, Kieran Setiya reviews what is billed as the first full-length bio of Plato, and a new English translation of a relatively recent bio of Diogenes.I agree at least in pa… Read More
2023-06-24 15:49
Rick, I am SHOCKED there's gambling in the house of Matthew Harrison (and the people even more wingnut than him).Vermont Digger has the details on a former distillery owner there who a… Read More
2023-06-22 14:00
I know philosopher friend and Heidegger lover Brett Welch has heard the basics of Martin Heidegger's antisemitism before, but the LA Review of Books has more on how his son and literar… Read More
2023-06-15 14:03
The series of comments on this post by r/SmartFool are washed up. In fairness, in part, he's citing scholars that are wrong, but he's also way stretching things on his own.First, no, n… Read More
2023-06-10 15:51
Here's an interesting one. From what I've read of his comments, Dr. Wonderful is NOT a fundagelical or close. He's a liberal Xn who takes much of biblical theology "non-literally." He'… Read More
2023-06-08 15:03
I've repeatedly called out the Self-Besotted Philosopher, Jonathan M.S. Pearce, for his errors at the semi-Gnu Atheist site.Now, time to further turn my guns on M.L. Clark.I saw NAFO F… Read More
2023-06-01 14:00
At the Catholic school that's part of my newspaper beat, the homily for the graduation mass before commencement (the parish has a K-12 school) was focused on the readings of Acts 23, Paul's… Read More
2023-05-27 16:03
From a Mac Sticky Note I wrote to myself long before I was banned:Do people on this channel understand the use of rhetorical questions in headlines? Or snark in comments? And, when did the Z… Read More
2023-05-18 14:00
Yes, that's you, Jonathan M.S. Pearce. That is, if it's not The Self-Besotted Asshole.As I told him on Twitter a month ago, his insistence that I had to watch one of his three different dail… Read More
2023-05-11 14:00
But, is it TOO sympathetic, both in the author's treatment of two religious leaders who attempted to negotiate with David Koresh at the time, and the stance of those two religious leaders th… Read More
2023-05-04 14:00
I had written a bit about this in a takedown piece (my second) about OnlySky a few weeks ago. I had been thinking about a more in-depth pullout about this issue anyway, but Jonathan M… Read More
2023-04-27 14:06
Yeah, since I've been cut off from commenting, but not banned from the group (yet) I can look at stupidity but can't comment. So, on occasion, doing a compilation over several weeks, I'll fi… Read More
2023-04-22 14:00
Actually, per a very good piece by the Texas Observer, and previously unknown to me, it's ultimately "woe" in the singular — and that's union busting.The Observer names names, and link… Read More
2023-04-20 13:58
I wrote, 14 months ago, about how the Atheist Patheos site had gotten a lot of shit wrong in its first month. I debated about going back there again, with subscription screens and donation s… Read More
2023-04-18 15:15
Let this slip by a bit, but only by a couple of weeks.Here's a roundup of my top-10 blog post, by readership, in the last three months.No. 1 and 8 are related. They're part 3, "miscellaneous… Read More
2023-04-13 13:35
Tis true that Christianity, in both fundagelical and more liberal versions within Protestantism (and parallels within Catholicism) in the United States has shown itself more resilient… Read More
2023-04-06 14:00
Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Michael Shermer
My rating: 1 of 5 starsThis is an expanded version of the Goodreads review for inside baseball Skeptics™,pseudosk… Read More
2023-04-01 16:14
This is not an April Fool's joke. Basil is missing from Bon Appetit's list of 20 essential spices. It doesn't even hit the honorary mentions at bottom, where rosemary sneaks in.Beyond… Read More
2023-03-30 13:53
I ate the bacon That was on the grill And which You were surely ignoring And not only Because of Ramadan. Or Yom Kippur. Or Good Friday. It was delicious. No forgiveness needed… Read More
2023-03-25 14:38
I think Pocket had shown me this piece before, but, in any case, I see major errors in Atlas Obscura's piece on Scots.First, I would call it "Scots English" but Wikipedia in my Google search… Read More
2023-03-23 05:30
That's what it plans. Details from Strategic Government Insider:The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has launched a two-stage global competition to find architect-led multidisciplinary design team… Read More
2023-03-16 14:05
Not quite "banned in Boston," unless "Naugrith the Nazi" is from Boston, England.Anyway, one of my friends on Goodreads had suggested the former of the two about six months ago. And… Read More
2023-03-09 15:00
The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal by Yonatan AdlerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsSimply a great book. Adler’s look at archaeological and related evidence for wh… Read More
2023-03-04 16:00
Yeah, religious leaders are freaking their heads out, per the AP, about ChatGPT writing AI sermons.In part, maybe they're worried it's better than them:Todd Brewer, a New Testament scholar a… Read More
2023-03-02 15:42
The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal by Yonatan AdlerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsSimply a great book. Adler’s look at archaeological and related evidence… Read More
2023-02-28 18:12
Been a long time since I've done a cleanup on that.Some, like John Horgan's old Cross-Check, Massimo's previous blogging incarnation and Skeptic's Dictionary, though not current, are s… Read More
2023-02-25 17:43
Over at my main blog, I have Skeptophilia, a blog by Gordon Bonnet, on my blogroll. It's generally good stuff, but at times, more than once, I've wondered how skeptical he is on some t… Read More
2023-02-23 15:00
The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal by Yonatan AdlerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsThe Origins of JudaismSimply a great book. Adler’s look at archaeological and re… Read More
2023-02-16 15:00
I Corinthians 8 is well-known to critical scholars for largely torpedoing Luke's claim in Acts 15 of some grand "Council of Jerusalem."Luke claims there, in v 20, that Paul agreed there to h… Read More
2023-02-09 15:00
That's the subthesis of "Picasso's War," reviewed below.Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America by Hugh EakinMy rating: 5 of 5 starsSimply fascinating book. The title is a pun, c… Read More
2023-02-02 15:57
A Naugrith the Nazi, or other moderators, at r/AcademicBiblical or r/AskBibleScholars, can go fishing for comments that aren't academic enough but leave up OPs like "Do you prefer in B… Read More
2023-01-26 15:48
Blogger Tales of Whoa says this:A paper in Psychological Studies showed that newborns, when played music judged by listeners as "happy" or "sad," responded differently -- and that it seems t… Read More
2023-01-22 01:59
Old Concordia Seminary classmate Kloha, as I blogged nearly 3 years ago, with a follow-up to that, due to new details, a few months later, was hired as chief curatorial officer at Hobb… Read More
2023-01-19 15:00
Last year I joined Storygraph. I had been considering it even before Amazon gave me the Mafia horse's head in bed treatment and I eventually deleted my Amazon account, leaving me with… Read More
2023-01-15 06:18
If you missed it, I blogged last year about the Dallas/Denton NPR station taking over management of WRR, the classical radio station for the area, owned by the city of Dallas, and also Texas… Read More
2023-01-12 15:00
First, "badge enamored" is more suave than "mini-Nazi." And, perhaps, somewhat nicer.Second, "on the spectrum" is "on the spectrum."OK ...Early-mid November, current moderators at r/Ac… Read More
2023-01-10 15:00
Thanks to a library card at the nearest large library, I smashed my Goodreads reading challenge with room to spare. Take a look at what was on my list. I re-read one hugely formative… Read More
2023-01-07 16:00
A quarterly roundup of the most read blog posts of the past three months. Not all were new to the past three months.No. 1, "Libertarian pseudoskeptical pseudoscience," about Brian Dun… Read More
2023-01-05 15:00
I recently read Delbert Burkett’s “The Case for Proto-Mark.” That was after someone on the AcademicBiblcal subreddit recommended his previous book, “Reth… Read More
2022-12-31 16:30
A quarterly roundup of the most read blog posts of the past three months. Not all were new to the past three months.No. 1, "Libertarian pseudoskeptical pseudoscience," about Brian Dunn… Read More
2022-12-22 14:39
Not as it's known in German lore that spread from there to elsewhere in Europe, then the US.Try 275 years or so later.It's also not just that part of German-based Christmas myth that's… Read More
2022-12-15 15:50
I recently read Delbert Burkett’s “The Case for Proto-Mark.” That was after someone on the AcademicBiblcal subreddit recommended his previous book, “Rethinking… Read More
2022-12-10 15:00
The Dallas Observer is Dallas-Fort Worth's alt-weekly, part of the (Village) Voice Media group. Its Dec. 1-7 issue (just 24 pages at about a 50 percent adhole, not counting house) had a qua… Read More
2022-12-08 15:00
I doubt it; I hugely doubt it.That's as, per the Blake painting, to riff on a biblical phrase, I wonder: "Who watches the comforters?"I digress. Back to the main point. Someone at one of the… Read More
2022-12-03 16:56
I was driving home Wednesday night and wondered why I was hearing Christmas music in the 7-8 p.m. slot instead of the normal Bill McLaughlin. Then, after grocery shopping, realized I w… Read More
2022-12-01 15:22
On my main news blog, I wrote recently about Pro Publica's reporting on a Senate committee minority report on the COVID lab-leak hypothesis, co-reported with Vanity Fair. Some people, in par… Read More
2022-11-26 16:46
By J, of course, I'm talking about the Yahwist strand within the Torah. (And, yes, while I believe the original version of the documentary hypothesis doesn't hold water, I do believe a… Read More
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