A Couple New Papers

Just posted a couple of new papers. One is on Mary the Color Scientist and the whole deal of intentionality. I bring up an objection as well as an objection to the objection. The other one is on the sociology of science and a critique of the Strong Programme put forth by Bloor.

Great discussion: Check it out!

If you want to join in on a great discussion, and in turn make following the posts where we already have multiple topics even more convoluted and difficult to keep track of, check it out over at Current Events in Light of the Kingdom of God-Dialogue with Michael (re: Heaven and Hell). The original post was here:A Nonchurchgoer’s Guide to Jesus and His Kingdom-Everyone Is Going to Heaven. So check it out and join this discussion.

These are both blogs by Mike Gantt, cool guy, has a great name(like me), and always gives a good discussion and thought provoking posts.

Chich-Fil-A has fantastic chicken, and good values. Quit hatin’

So a story came out that Chick-Fil-A(CFA) donated to a pro-family organization that was against gay marriage. Gay rights advocates have unleashed their wrath upon this wonderful restaurants that makes a mean chicken sandwich. They’re telling people to protest the restaurant, and it has even been suspended at certain universities around the country. I find this… I guess not surprising, but certainly frustrating.

But let’s address this issue from the bottom up. CFA is an Evangelical Christian owned company. Its founder is of such background and wanted his business to be the same. They are closed on Sundays, they ask if they can “serve” the next guest as opposed to “help,” they have passed out various Christian toys, similar to the toys in a Happy Meal, such as Veggie Tales, Christian children’s books, etc. This is something they they are adamant about, and many CFA fans know full well.

And this is not the first time that they have been in the news for a political type issue. A former employee, who was a Muslim, sued saying that his religion was the reason for his firing after he refused to partake in an employee prayer. The suit was settled outside of court on undisclosed terms.

And now this. While legal action is not being pursued, it is possible that this will be more harmful than other issues since it is more public. But I just don’t get it. What’s the big deal? I don’t know of any anti-gays that refuse to go to Starbucks because they have donated to pro-gay organizations, and I know a lot of coffee drinkers! First, its food, if you like it, eat it, if not, don’t.

But second, let’s break this down into what it really is. Pro-gays are bigots and act like they aren’t. And here’s why: When someone speaks for Christian family values, they blast them for being evil and bigoted and homophobic. Its not like this someone even had to point they’re finger at gays as people, but that is what they get in return. Rather than a heated debate on the issues, which would be somewhat pleasant to see, what they get in return is the typical political ad hominem arguments that attack the person holding the belief rather than the belief himself. This is not to say that no proponent of Christian family values has never done the same to a gay rights advocate, but merely that it is less public and seems to be more rare. So the tolerance tends to be on the side of the Christian family values, as given in my Starbucks example earlier. Even mere support for any contrary belief is taken to be a jab at gay rights and they declare homophobia and intolerance. It is important here to note that this is quite wrong. To support one idea is indeed to reject its contrary, but that does not mean that to support one idea is to reject the people that hold the contrary. But this is the way the gay advocates portray it, specifically Perez Hilton. But what is really going on is that the side claiming tolerance, the gay right supporter since it is “about equality,” is being intolerant of the actually tolerant, since they don’t want to allow the opposition to support their own beliefs that are actually more idealistic than personal attacks upon homosexuals.

I think it is a fair comparison to communism of sorts here, where a certain side wants to repress any expression of a contrary view, but this is much more…. refined. That is because in this case, it is the minority that is suppressing the majority, since this country has given so much power to the minorities as to not upset them, often with the result of ignoring the cares of the majority. That is why this story is not surprising. But that is also why this story is sad. In the country that claims to be the land of the free and home of the brave, the country who boasts free speech, yet we have this. Where a private company can’t donate to who they please without negative repercussions in the media.

So in the end, I will continue to go to Chick-Fil-A, and continue to love and respect what they do and their firm stance as a Christian company.