Gleanings from The Trinity Forum

President Obama’s Proposals for a Second Fiscal Stimulus

TTF Staff — 2010-02-09T18:45:17+00:00

Senior Fellow Prabhu Guptara: “Is there anything short of divine miracles which will be good for job creation, good for the small business sector, good for the economy as a whole, and good for President Obama?”

Link to article.

How the Victoria and Albert Museum dealt with the dying of Christianity

TTF Staff — 2010-01-05T16:29:01+00:00

“This situation is unprecedented in western civilisation: even 50 years ago, when these galleries of one of the richest collections in the world were last displayed in the V&A, they could assume that everyone was familiar with the rudiments of Christianity. Now, in a twinkling of an eye, 2,000 years of culture in the profoundest meaning of the word have been largely forgotten.”

Link to article.

The God that Fails

TTF Staff — 2010-01-05T15:59:04+00:00

David Brooks: “Many people seem to be in the middle of a religious crisis of faith. All the gods they believe in — technology, technocracy, centralized government control — have failed them in this instance.”

Link to article.

From Winchester to Westminster

TTF Staff — 2009-09-11T16:42:23+00:00

Jonathan Aitken discusses Sir John Templeton recently in the American Spectator; here’s a quote from the late philanthropist on gratitude: “Thanksgiving opens the door to spiritual growth. If there is any day in our life which is not thanksgiving day, then we are not fully alive. Counting our blessing attracts blessings. Counting our blessings each morning starts a day full of blessings. Thanksgiving brings God’s bounty. From gratitude comes riches—from complaints, poverty. Thankfulness opens the door to happiness. Thanksgiving causes giving. Thanksgiving puts our mind in tune with the Infinite. Continual gratitude dissolves our worries.”

Link to article.

Welcome, National Affairs

TTF Staff — 2009-09-08T19:59:14+00:00

We’re pleased to welcome the launch of National Affairs, the new quarterly journal published by our neighbors, which is the successor to The Public Interest. Among the contributors are many friends of the Trinity Forum, notably Senior Fellow Wilfred M. McClay.

Link to article.

Looking for an Honest Man

TTF Staff — 2009-09-08T19:57:26+00:00

Leon Kass, in an important lecture on the humanities: “I have pursued the humanities for an old-fashioned purpose in an old-fashioned way: I have sought wisdom about the meaning of our humanity, largely through teaching and studying the great works of wiser and nobler human beings, who have bequeathed to us their profound accounts of the human condition.”

Link to article.

Why AI is a dangerous dream

TTF Staff — 2009-09-08T13:56:59+00:00

Robotics expert Noel Sharkey: ‘It is often forgotten that the idea of mind or brain as computational is merely an assumption, not a truth. When I point this out to “believers” in the computational theory of mind, some of their arguments are almost religious. They say, “What else could there be? Do you think mind is supernatural?” But accepting mind as a physical entity does not tell us what kind of physical entity it is. It could be a physical system that cannot be recreated by a computer.’

Link to article.

Restoring the Fresco of Progress

TTF Staff — 2009-08-28T18:25:28+00:00

Senior Fellow Wilfred M. McClay: “We have become skeptical about one of the constitutive elements of the modern, post-enlightenment West. And the skepticism runs deep. Not only do we question the inevitability of progress, but the very idea that we would know for sure what progress is, if it indeed does occur.”

Link to article.

The Case for Working With Your Hands

TTF Staff — 2009-06-04T19:35:27+00:00

“There probably aren’t many jobs that can be reduced to rule-following and still be done well. But in many jobs there is an attempt to do just this, and the perversity of it may go unnoticed by those who design the work process.”

Link to article.

Wanda Sykes, Al Franken and the Politics of Incivility

TTF Staff — 2009-05-15T13:51:31+00:00

“So civility has an unavoidably moral component. The proper treatment of others conveys regard and demonstrates self-control. Rudeness sets out to dominate and humiliate. . . . Why does politics seem to numb this rudimentary moral sense?”

Link to article.