Teaching Sunday School

I've been asked to teach a Sunday school class on philosophy. What are your thoughts on this kind of class? What would you want to learn about philosophy? What aspects would be of interest to you, and which philosophers?

Here are some of my thoughts. At the outset, I recognize two things. First, that it takes a unique way of thinking to do philosophy, and most people lack the necessary training, aptitude, or both. Second, that it takes a whole lot of hours of doing philosophy for you to really start seeing connections and grasping the significance of philosophical choices and trends.

With these in mind, here is my basic plan. I concentrate on two things that people are much more familiar with than abstract philosophy: biography and narrative. So, I'll talk about philosophers as people, giving a little bit of implication-laden biography. And, more importantly, I will try to describe philosophies by retelling the stories philosophers tell.

It's much easier to get people to understand stories than to get them to understand a jargonized morass of complex abstract thought. Fortunately, lots of philosophers told stories. Plato told a story about a cave. Descartes told a story about a meditation that he had. Hegel told a story about the conflict between a master and a slave.

Once I go through the story and explain a bit of what kind of philosophy this story is all about, I can relate it directly to concrete phenomena everyone today understands. For instance, where did transgenderism come from? What about RIchard Dawkins? Why does the State distinguish between the public sphere of reason and the private sphere of religion opinion? What is postmodernism, and why is it so tied to relativism in the popular imagination? Why do we frame discussions about euthanasia, abortion, divorce, homosexuality, etc. in the way that we do?

An additional goal is to encourage critical thinking and humility. What is driving this philosopher that is good? What good came of his philosophy? How do we unknowingly agree with him? Should we at all challenge this philosopher? Does that mean I should restructure my actions and the way I use language? Do I dislike some of the results of the kinds of things this philosopher is talking about, all the why believing what he's saying in principle? How did this philosopher overstep the bounds of good and wise thinking, and how might I unknowingly be doing the same?

Stuff Christian Culture Likes

This one is actually good:

http://www.stuffchristianculturelikes.com/

I especially like #9 - Acting Happy

Sex & Culture

At some point I should do an update on England and Florida, but until then I bring you:

1. http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/08/social-conservatism-beyond-the-easy-parts.php

"I think this explains a lot about the appeal of anti-gay crusades to social conservative leaders. Most of what “traditional values” asks of people is pretty hard. All the infidelity and divorce and premarital sex and bad parenting and whatnot take place because people actually want to do the things traditional values is telling them not to do. And the same goes for most of the rest of the Christian recipe. Acting in a charitable and forgiving manner all the time is hard. Loving your enemies is hard. Turning the other cheek is hard. Homosexuality is totally different. For a small minority of the population, of course, the injunction “don’t have sex with other men!” (or, as the case may be, other women) is painfully difficult to live up to. But for the vast majority of people this is really, really easy to do. Campaigns against gay rights, gay people, and gay sex thus have a lot of the structural elements of other forms of crusading against sexual excess or immorality, but they’re not really asking most people to do anything other than become self-righteous about their pre-existing preferences."

2. Is Food The New Sex? - http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/38245724.html

Chicago

On Sunday Kelly and I attended the Windy City wedding of one of my childhood friends, and we figured we would make a small vacation out of it. For the last few years (3 in a row? 4 in a row?) now I have come to the upper midwest in June and I must admit that it is the perfect summer climate. We walked around in casual clothes, spend 6-8 hours outside per day, and weren't hot for more than maybe 5 minutes on the whole trip. Here are a few thoughts on Chicago:

1. It's a very, very walkable city. If you get a hotel on or near the so-called "Magnificent Mile" you can walk to pretty much anywhere you want to go. If you want to go to Soldier Field and the Field Museum you can take a water taxi from the Navy Pier (which is right next to the Magnificent Mile), which is an enjoyable experience. And walking is very fun because the city is really very beautiful. Architecturally it is the most impressive American city that I know of.

2. Don't rent a car. We paid $45 PER NIGHT to park our car. Taxis would have saved us money. Also, Chicago has a very good public transportation system, and hey, if you're going to Chicago you've got to ride the L at least once! Traffic on one road (I think it's called Roosevelt) was horrendous, and the train would be a nice way to avoid it.

3. We had Chicago-style pizza and three places, the best (and apparently best-known) of which was Giordano's. It was really great. My favorite was the Spinach pizza, but I'm kind of a weird cat. We had to leave early and were unable to try a Chicago 'dog (Hot Doug's came highly recommended), but we did have an Italian Beef sandwich, which in my opinion was just the lesser brother of the Philly Cheesesteak.

4. We went on both an Architectural Cruise (much less snobby than it sounds; just a long boat ride) and a Segway Tour of the city. I recommend both. Also, Segways are really, really, really fun to ride. Really fun.

5. I think if I ever had to leave Austin, I would want to live in Chicago in June and July.

6. MOST IMPORTANTLY, Midway Airport had one of my new favorite things in the whole world: A small line marked "For Expert Travelers Only." Because we weeded out all the slow people, the "Expert Traveler" line went incredibly, incredibly fast. I think it took us 20 minutes to return our rental car, check our bags, go through security, and walk to our gate (which was the farthest gate at the very end of the terminal). I cannot emphasize how impressed I was by this idea. I also felt a weird sort of respect and brotherhood with everyone else in the "Expert Traveler" line. Anyways, you don't care... but this was a really great experience for me. It's like sitting at the very front of the plane (which I also did this trip!) so you don't have to wait on the discourteous folks who hold up the line for like ten minutes on the way out.

Playstation 3 Deal

Want a Playstation 3? (Answer: Yes. It's awesome, and it's the best Blu-Ray player out there.) Dell has it for $300 right now.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&oc=PS380GB&dgc=CJ&cid=24471&lid=566643&acd=10495476-1225267-u0t0f0fp20283c0s441

Sorry I haven't posted much recently. As part of my Lenten discipline my internet usage was limited and a) I always forgot to post on Sundays, then b) now that Lent is over I'm out of the blog habit. Hopefully I'll have something for you next week. :)

Christos Aneste!

Christ is risen!

The Pun

I made a decent pun recently. I was at a co-worker's house and noticed he had a large bag of bread. He explained, "I needed some extra cash so I've started an at-home bakery." I commented, "Making a little dough on the side, eh?"