Month: July 2020

Liked a tweet (Twitter)
Bookmarked Groups Activity Dashboard (w3c.github.io)
The table below summarizes the level of activity from current Community Groups over the previous 12 months as of 2020-07-22. The bar under the names of the groups represent the duration since the creation of the group. The information on related groups / funnel entries is manually managed and likely not exhaustive.
A cool looking little dashboard for a huge number of groups working on the web.
Read - Finished Reading: Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles Over Authentication by Bart D. Ehrman (Great Courses)
In the first centuries after Christ, there was no "official" New Testament. Instead, early Christians read and fervently followed a wide variety of Scriptures—many more than we have today.
Relying on these writings, Christians held beliefs that today would be considered bizarre. Some believed that there were two, 12, or as many as 30 gods. Some thought that a malicious deity, rather than the true God, created the world. Some maintained that Christ's death and resurrection had nothing to do with salvation while others insisted that Christ never really died at all.
What did these "other" Scriptures say? Do they exist today? How could such outlandish ideas ever be considered Christian? If such beliefs were once common, why do they no longer exist?
Rating: 4
Listened to audiobook version primarily via Libby

Brief review:

Clear concise story with some excellent history and comparison of early Christianities. Unstated, but there are lots of parallels to the diversity of beliefs in Christianity today. There are lots of interesting things within the “lost” sects which still lived on through cultural spread despite the disappearance of the original groups.

Read - Reading: Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles Over Authentication by Bart D. Ehrman (The Great Courses)
Lecture 24: Early Christian Creeds
The final lecture considers the formation of the Christian creeds: statements of faith to determine what was true (orthodox) and what was false (heretical). The well-known creeds of the 4th century, such as the Nicene Creed, developed from earlier formulations known as the "Rule of Faith," and from confessions by converts before baptism.
All that work to create coherent creeds in the 2nd-4th century and yet we again have a crazy diversity centuries later.
Read The 14th Amendment Was Meant to Be a Protection Against State Violence by David H. Gans (The Atlantic)
The Supreme Court has betrayed the promise of equal citizenship by allowing police to arrest and kill Americans at will.
An important read. This should be a primary point of contention on every SCOTUS nomination hearing for the coming century. It could also be a strong means of reforming policing in the United States.