You’ll never find anyone who writes more clearly about mathematics than John Paulos. Exhibit A is Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1990). Paulos doesn’t limit his inquiries and writings to pure mathematics, however. Mathematics permeates numerous social issues, and Paulos is happy to jump into the fray whereever that is…
Could this headline ever run in a major newspaper?
Of course not! Never is the alleged wall between the news department and the sales department of newspapers so low as during the holy season of senseless spending.
Yes, I changed this headline to make a point. The real headline disturbed me and I was struggling to effectively explain why. I even considered an alternative make-believe headline: “In the name of Jesus, newspapers promote the buying of useless things, through purported news articles, to make their advertisers happy.” Both of my false headlines reflect the deep and disturbing reality of what drives modern day American Christmas better than the headline that actually ran. Here’s the actual front page headline reporting the earth-shaking news that Thanksgiving Friday retail sales were brisk:
The actual headline works hard to convince us that we the shoppers are heroes trying to conquer the challenge of shopping on a deadline or, perhaps, victims of the long lines. I seriously question both of those characterizations. I would say that many of us have been hoodwinked by fake news.
For the next thirty days or so, newspaper “articles” and television “news” reports will work hard to convince us to buy expensive and unnecessary consumer goods, allegedly to honor Jesus Christ. The message is absurd. Absurd, but powerfully seductive.
Science Network, an educational organization based in California, recently sponsored a La Jolla, California conference entitled “Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival.” According to this article, the conference rapidly escalated into an invigorating intellectual free-for-all.” You can watch videos of the sessions here. The speakers were numerous well-credentialed scientists…
I have a friend that is sometimes frustrating to converse with, because he always wants me to define the terms I use. Our conversation is filled with his requests to explain just what I mean. He says, with justification, that people may use the same word but often have different…
Watching the furor generated over Erich's post about Bart Erhman's book has been awesome. I mean that in the strict meaning of the word. It is awe-illiciting. After watching the average responses to our posts rise and fall around five to ten each, with a few fetching somewhere in the…