We recently received this comment from Scholar [1]:
Erich or Grumpy,
May I please have some more links to the discussions here at dangerous intersections which you have found to be most interesting, *must read*, or highlights in general.
Thanks,
Scholar
—
I took Scholar’s request seriously and went back to review many of our posts. I still can’t get over how many topics we’ve addressed in nine months, covering 592 posts!
Rather than call these posts the “best of,” I would merely call them the more memorable posts to me, keeping in mind the triple asterisk that comes with the assembly of this list: 1) I simply didn’t have the time to review each of the posts again. Therefore, this list is only representative, not complete. 2) It is difficult to determine any meaningful criteria on which to base such a list, other than (as I’ve already suggested) the idea that this list includes many of the posts I found memorable. Other people will certainly have different ideas of what posts are worthy 3) Scholar’s request puts me in an awkward spot, given that I write for the blog.
To the extent that I’ve included my own posts, then, it should be with the understanding that I am not trying to judge the writing so much as considering whether the ideas addressed are memorable to me, whether the ideas expressed therein seemed important or whether they moved me. Here’s another way of looking at it: if you want to know what this site is all about, here are some good places to start.
It is so very hard to choose. It’s like asking a parent to choose his or her favorite child. Without further ado, here are my selections:
Reflections on Hotel Rwanda [2]
Why Does a Recently Created World Seem So Old? [4]
The greatest sin–and virtue–of human memory [9]
God’s attractive nuisance: the Tree of Knowledge [10]
Playing to the terrorists’ strength [11]
SEX [12]
Alien Rapture [13]
Wither Thou Goest… [14]
Consumptious Conspicuosity [15]
Sticks, Stones, and Prayer Mats [16]
Proselytes, Proseldarks, Proselmarketers [17]
Needed Constitutional Amendement: Ban foreign teams from winning the World Series [19]
On Feeling Frustration With My Culture – [20]
Memory and representation, or what is truth? [21]
Do dissenting liberals take the positive aspects of their country for granted? [22]
Hell is Unconstitutional – Boycott Heaven [23]
I Give Homage to God. I am Morally Superior. [24]
What it’s Like to Go to an Evangelical Church [25]
The Seventy Million Children Left Behind War [26]
Be Conscious of Your Unconscious to Set you Free [27]
My life as a sponge. [28]
The importance of pop quizzes [29]
Metaphors everywhere; where is “pure reason”? [30]
The Curse of Fungible Dollars [31]
Good Friday – Good Grief! [32]
Laughing at Not Funny Things and the Limits of Introspection [33]
Star Trek’s Error: Spock’s lack of emotion would have made him irrational [34]
The Two Paths: No Self versus extended Self [35]
Darwin, the roots of words, etc [36]
Just Because . . . . [37]
A Martian anthropologist goes to church [38]
How We Really Think About Religion and Politics: The Power of Metaphors [39]
How we deal with toxic thoughts [40]
The Grinch was much more evil than we thought. [41]
Give us this day our daily endorphins [42]
We must do X because we’ve ALWAYS done X [43]
Why gay people simply must go to hell [44]
When politicians refuse to answer questions, report it. [45]
What does the New Testament actually say about morality? [46]
Curses! Dollars and hours are both fungible. [47]
Noah, FEMA, Media, Resignation [48]
Do unto thyself what thou wouldn’t let others do [49]
Coordinated violence and the frame of “war” [50]
The magnitude and the music make war AOK [51]
Are you a rebel? What is your birth order? [52]
Why you need to be the one to speak up [53]
It makes ECONOMIC sense to invest in disadvantaged children while they are young [54]
God bless us, with material things [55]
Why are there so many synonyms for poop? [56]
The Onion and the transubstantiation [57]
Just say “no” to TV. Do it for your country. [58]
How to love going to church: a guide for atheists [60]
Apollo 13, early course corrections and the soul [61]
Moral blinders and the Banality of Evil. What you don’t ponder won’t disturb your conscience. [62]
Does constant exposure to advertising screw up our heads and lives? [63]
When God slaughters innocent babies, He is “good.” [64]
Who changed the Bible and why? Bart Ehrman’s startling answers [65]
Print this post [66]
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