j.random hermeneut

May
29th

Fri

Cassetteboy vs. The Bloody Apprentice (Language-warning, Rated-18)

Jacob Milgrom on Ellipsis

Ellipsis … is a dangerous principle. It can prove anything. I am reminded of the quip: How can it be proven from the Torah that Jews must wear a yarmulka (sklull-cap)? It is written: “Jacob left Beer-sheba” (Gen 28.10). Now would a pious Jew like Jacob go anywhere without a yarmulka?

quote from “Impurity is Miasma”, JBL 119/4 (2000) p.729

May
27th

Wed

I’m having a prog moment. Don’t judge me, man.

Apr
1st

Wed

Whoever posted bail for Bill Gates that day has a lot to answer for.

Mar
25th

Wed

The Evolution of Philosophy

Mar
12th

Thu

Feb
2nd

Mon

In honour of my English friends and aquaintances - survivors all of the Great Blizzard of 2009, I give you… the Blizzard of 77. (We feel your pain. *snicker* *chuckle* lol)

Jan
25th

Sun

Jan
8th

Thu

Jan
2nd

Fri

It would be ridiculous for anyone to hope to acquire a deep understanding of what AI is all about without first having a clear, precise understanding of what computers are all about. I know of no shorter cut to that latter goal than the study of Lisp, and that is one reason Lisp is so good for AI students. Beginners in Lisp encounter, and are in a good position to understand, fundamental issues in computer science that even some advanced programmers in other languages may not have encountered or thought about. Such concepts as lists, recursion, side effects, quoting and evaluating pieces of code, and many others … are truly central to the understanding of the potential of computing machinery. Moreover, without languages that allow people to deal with such concepts directly, it would be next to impossible to make programs of subtlety, grace, and multi-level complexity. Therefore I advocate Lisp strongly.

— Douglas R. Hofstadter, Lisp: Recursion and Generality, April, 1983

It is a significant contradiction of the Augsburg Confession when it is said that “the Evangelical church was formed in spite of the Catholic church through a fresh act of the Holy Spirit,” that the church which had existed up to that time was not the mother of the Christians of the Evangelical faith but a completely alien church, and the like … Those who subscribe to the Augsburg Confession must reject this formulation as in principle contrary to their confession.

— A.F.C. Vilmar, Die Augsburgische Confession erklärt (1870).

We have no dogma which is diverse from that of the Roman church … We shall in future, until our end, also remain true to Christ and the Roman church even if you should refuse to mercifully receive us.

— Melanchthon to the papal legate, Cardinal Campeggio, at the Diet of Augsburg, 1530.

Dec
26th

Fri

Religion of the Law vs. the Gospel according to Leslie -- from Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

Leslie, Jess and May Belle, on the road home from church which Leslie has attended for the first time with the Aarons family:

Leslie: I’m really glad I came. That whole Jesus thing, it’s really interesting, isn’t it?

May Belle: It’s not interesting. It’s scary! It’s nailing holes through your hands. It’s ‘cause we’re all vile sinners. God made Jesus die.

Leslie: You really think that’s true?

Jess: It’s in the Bible Leslie.

Leslie: You have to believe it and you hate it. I don’t have to believe it, and I think it’s beautiful!

May Belle: You gotta believe the Bible Leslie.

Leslie: Why?

May Belle: Because if you don’t believe in the Bible God will damn you to hell when you die.

Leslie: Wow, May Belle. Where’d you hear that?

May Belle: That’s right, huh Jess? God damns you to hell if you don’t believe in the Bible.

Jess: (reluctantly) I think so.

Leslie: Well, I don’t think so. I seriously do not think God goes around damning people to hell. He’s too busy running all this. (reaches her hands up towards the sky)

Dec
12th

Fri

We must always bear in mind that the church is not ours but his. Hence the ‘reform,’ the ‘renewals’ - necessary as they may be - cannot exhaust themselves in a zealous activity on our part to erect new, sophisticated structures. The most that can come from a work of this kind is a church that is ‘ours,’ to our measure, which might indeed be interesting but which, by itself, is nevertheless not the true church, that which sustains us with the faith and gives us life with the sacrament. I mean to say that what we can do is infinitely inferior to him who does. Hence, true ‘reform’ does not mean to take great pains to erect new façades (contrary to what certain ecclesiologies think). Real ‘reform’ is to strive to let what is ours disappear as much as possible so what belongs to Christ may become more visible.

— Cardinal Ratzinger on “Reform” in the Church, from Chapter 3 of the Ratzinger Report (1985).