A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Social and ethical issues

  • Tortured reading

    I haven’t been blogging on the torture issue, mostly because others are doing it far more justice than I even could. But, in case you aren’t already reading them, Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan, John Schwenkler, and Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings have been my regular sources of info and analysis on this. Also see: this piece Read more

  • The Life You Can Save 4

    While chapter 6 of The Life You Can Save was concerned with identifying individual programs that make a real difference in the lives of those they aim to help, chapter 7 looks at criticisms of aid at what we might call the “macro” level. One prominent critic of international aid is William Easterly, author of Read more

  • The Life You Can Save 3

    In part 3 of The Life You Can Save, Singer tries to answer the question whether we each really can save a life (or several) by donating more to overseas aid. Specifically, how much does it take to save a life, and is aid actually effective in improving the lives of the world’s poorest people? Read more

  • The Life You Can Save 2

    In part 2 of The Life You Can Save, Singer considers some of the psychological obstacles to giving more, as well as some ways they might be overcome. Chapter 4 reviews some research that provides a measure of insight into our reluctance to give to strangers living in extreme poverty. For instance, people are less Read more

  • NRCAT statement on the torture memos

    The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is calling for a “commission of inquiry” in light of the Office of Legal Counsel memos released this week by the Obama Justice Department: We must, as a nation, address the fact that high-ranking officials in our government authorized torture and that agents representing our country carried out acts Read more

  • Links on animals and such

    A profile of Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of The Face on Your Plate (via). A short Q&A with Peter Singer on dog shows and PETA. A really interesting interview with Jane Goodall in which she talks about, among other things, her “mystical experiences” in the jungle. Read more

  • The Life You Can Save 1

    I finally got my hands on a copy of Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To End World Poverty, courtesy of the DC city library, and have been working my way through it. Like most of what Singer writes, it’s extremely clear and accessible, filled with facts as much as philosophical arguments. Read more

  • They will know we are Christians by our love, the continuing series

    I’m in pretty much total agreement with this post by Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings (via Jim Henley). The idea that I, as part of my public Christian witness, ought to be concerned with denouncing my co-workers’ (real or imagined) sins, at work, strikes me as bizarre. Seems to me that my boss would be well Read more

  • Green Christology

    I really liked this essay in the magazine America by Elizabeth Johnson, the well-known feminist theologian. She argues that Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection, and the incarnation as a whole have implications for the entire creation, not just human salvation: Jesus Christ is a gift given because “God so loved the world,” kosmos in Greek Read more

  • Marriage equality in the heartland

    A summary of the Iowa state supreme court’s decision here. I imagine we can look forward to a protracted political battle a la California now? Read more