The Scrutinator

Postmodern theory precipitated a crisis. Under the influence of Derrida and Foucault, cultural anthropologists turned their gaze on their own “texts” and were alarmed by what they saw. Ethnographies were not dispassionate records of cultural facts but rather unstable “fictions,” shot through with ideology and observer bias.

This doesn't help produce trustworthy results in any field of research:

A new generation of anthropologists came to see activism on their subjects’ behalf as a principal part of the job. Chagnon did not...

As Alcida Ramos, a Yanomami expert at the University of Brasilia, later explained to Science: “To do anthropology in Brazil is in itself a political act. We don’t separate our interests as anthropologists from our responsibility as citizens.”

This open-microphone American Anthropological Association (A.A.A) session sounds like an event Zombie would cover, with wingnuts coming out of the woodwork:

A colleague from Uganda praised Tierney’s book and suggested that Westerners manufactured the Ebola virus and disseminated it in his country, just as Chagnon and Neel had started the measles epidemic. Members of the audience applauded both speakers. ... For Gregor, who recently retired as an anthropologist at Vanderbilt, the session was “a watershed moment.” “These are people who are supposed to be scientists,” he told me. “This had the look of an emotionally charged witch hunt.”

By The Scrutinator @ 3:50 PM  ::  1 comments

I came across this post and couldn't stay silent. Red Letter Christians: Whose Death Does God Cheer?

While I agree with much of what the author says, the side-bar juxtaposition speaks volumes.

I haven't heard a single Christian speak words like he relays, though I'm sure some do.

I believe it's wrong for a Christian to indulge hatred, even toward Osama bin Laden.

But one who "despises a vile person" seems to please God. I won't claim to know exactly what that means.

I believe there is such a thing as justice: it's completely different than hatred, and is even fundamental to God's character. Rejecting its existence or mis-labeling it as hatred distorts His image.

I believe justice was done.

Update: There's also the notion that he's been stopped from committing more evil--the same as any apprehended criminal. Should one feel happy about that? I say yes, and go so far as to say that's a very unselfish happiness, since (I think) I personally am pretty unlikely to be his next victim.

By The Scrutinator @ 11:24 PM  ::  0 comments

1. “You don’t burn the Koran, because if you do, Muslims might go on a killing spree.”
2 “You do burn the Bible, because if you don’t, Muslims might go on a killing spree.”

By The Scrutinator @ 5:57 PM  ::  0 comments

So it turns out that over 85% of Wikipedia contributors are male.

Patriarchal hegemony? Brutal oppression of women?

Of course not. But great fodder for those claims by those so inclined to make them.

For me, it's a good example of working backwards from a statistic.

By The Scrutinator @ 3:40 PM  ::  0 comments

“The general idea is that it’s absolutely threatening to admit you’re wrong,” says political scientist Brendan Nyhan, the lead researcher on the Michigan study. The phenomenon — known as “backfire” — is “a natural defense mechanism to avoid that cognitive dissonance.”

Human nature, sadly, is still human nature, whether you call it positive internal efficacy or whatever.

Update: Tom gives it some attention it deserves.

By The Scrutinator @ 1:50 PM  ::  0 comments

A very interesting read: How I found God and peace with my atheist brother: PETER HITCHENS traces his journey back to Christianity.

Read it all. No excerpt does it justice.

By The Scrutinator @ 10:58 PM  ::  0 comments