Category: Curios & Humor

Down yonder, a reader writes:

Jimmy, you should take this quiz and share your results…

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=44116

I’m generally pretty skeptical of these "Which X Are You?" quizzes, but for once why not. Here’s how I scored:

You scored as Anselm.

Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period.He sees man’s primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read ‘Cur Deus Homo?’

Anselm 93% Augustine 87% Karl Barth 73% Friedrich Schleiermacher 73% John Calvin 60% Charles Finney 53% Jonathan Edwards 47% Paul Tillich 40% Martin Luther 20% J�rgen Moltmann 13% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

For what it’s worth, I thought this quiz was better than most I’ve seen, though there were a number of ambiguities in the wording of the questions and you had to guess at what the quiz author meant. Also, his assessment of what levels of agreement or disagreement with what proposition and how well that corresponds to which theologians, while pretty good (I am more like Anselm and Augustine theologically than the others), is open to challenge.

The big limitation that the quiz is done in terms of what propositions particular theologians are known for, and it doesn’t doesn’t give an accurate representation of how much you’re like a particular guy based on what you think about a couple of his propositions. Thus I’m actually a lot less like Barth and Schleiermacher than the quiz would indicate. I’d have systematic disagreements with them (meaning: overall disagreements with their systems)–as should be evident by the fact I’m an orthodox Catholic and they were not Catholics–even if there are a couple of their propositions I could find a significant measure of truth in.

Which is a long way of saying: This is why I’m skeptical of such quizzes.

But if it’s recognized as completely unscientific and just in fun . . .

As a public service announcement, with a little help from Stephen Colbert, I’d like to announce that the following are hereby ON NOTICE.

(CHT: Southern Appeal.)

Who are you putting on notice?

CHT to the reader who e-mailed!

The gentleman who does the annual Lego Church Project has just completed his project for 2006-2007 and has sent me a link to where folks can view the results online.

Here’s a long-shot picture with the interior of the church visible (click to enlarge):

As you can see, his brightly-colored creation is superior to . . . well, much of the liturgical architecture we have been subjected to in recent years.

Looking at the particular structure of this Lego church, it strikes me that it’s somewhat simliar to the architecture of the Old Testament temple, which immediately raised this thought in my mind: How about doing Lego versions of the various temples that are mentioned in the Bible? (Solomon’s, Ezekiel’s, the Second Temple, Herod’s.) There’s certainly enough known about their architecture from Scripture and archaeology to be able to do the project, and I’d be happy to help point the gentleman to the right resources (as well as publicize them afterward). I think it’d be cool!

In the meantime,

CHECK OUT THIS YEAR’S LEGO CHURCH!

A story at Breitbart.com tells of a mysterious "mutant-hybrid" animal found dead in Maine, apparently the victim of a passing vehicle (that is, road kill).

"Residents are wondering if an animal found dead over the weekend may be the mysterious creature that has mauled dogs, frightened residents and been the subject of local legend for half a generation. "

In the story, it is described as "evil-looking", like "something out of a Stephen King story", and having "a horrible stench" even while alive.

I couldn’t help but think of that scene from Close Encounters where all these concerned citizens are trying to convince their local officials about the seriousness of these strange UFO sightings, when this guy stands up and says "I saw Bigfoot once. 1951 back in Sequoia National Park. Had a foot on him thirty-seven inches heel to toe. It made a sound I would not want to hear twice in my life.".

GET THE CHILLING STORY!

GET JIMMY’S ORIGINAL CHUPACABRA POST!

JIMMY ADDS: Here’s a whole-body shot of the creature:

A news story reports that people are better able to identify long-standing fictional cultural icons than transient non-fictional government officials. F’rinstance: more people can identify members of the Seven Dwarves than the Supreme Court:

Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White’s seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday.

The implication here is that there’s something surprising or tragic about the fact people know more about fictional icons they grew up with than government officials they didn’t elect.

Personally, I don’t buy that. It’s natural for people to know more about things they’ve known their whole lives than transient, recent stuff. Supreme Court Justices serve only for a time, but the Seven Dwarves are forever. Further, the Supremes haven’t hired a PR firm as good as Disney’s to get their images known by every five year old in the country. And–to be honest–I’m not sure that most Supreme Court decisions have as much impact on the average person’s life as a DVD of Snow White.

Okay, sure, I’m disappointed about how few people know the real-world facts behind the poll (which also revealed that more people know that Krypton is Superman’s home planet than know Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun or that more people know who Harry Potter is than who Tony Blair is).

I can be worried about how much ignorance about the world there is, but I’m not worried about the fact that people know the icons of their culture well–particuarly when it’s knowing long-standing icons versus transient political figures.

Oh, and in case there’s any suspicion that this is sour grapes from someone who knew more Dwarves than Justices, here are my lists of both–before reading the story so there was no chance of spoilage on any of their names:

DWARVES:

1. Doc
2. Grumpy
3. Sleepy
4. Sneezy
5. Bashful
6. Happy
7. Dopey

JUSTICES:

1. Roberts
2. Scalia
3. Thomas
4. Alito
5. Kennedy
6. Ginsburgh
7. Breyer
8. Stephens
9. DopeySouter

GET THE STORY.

BTW,

FEDDIE OVER AT SOUTHERN APPEAL HAS ANOTHER TAKE ON THE DWARVES VS. JUSTICES ISSUE.

Feddie over at Southern Appeal writes:

I thought that you would like this. Bainbridge noted it on his blog:

http://tinyurl.com/o7q55

At the link one will find this bumper sticker:

Indeed. Sounds like there’s significant support for the Old Boy (I mean, the "Old One") making a presidential bid.

And that’s not the only Cthulhu presidential sticker I’ve run into! There’s also this one:

I even have a copy of the latter.

It came with my Call of Cthulhu DVD.

Georgette of Chronicle of a Meandering Traveller has hit me with a book meme, so here goes:

1. One book that changed your life:

THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS: ARE THEY RELIABLE? by F. F. Bruce This book helped me, as a very young and liberal Christian, learn to take the New Testament seriously and thus turned me toward Christian orthodoxy.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:

THE
CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD by H. P. Lovecaft

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:

THE
WORST-CASE SCENARIO SURVIVAL HANDBOOK by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht

4. One book that made you laugh:

THE
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDETO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams

5. One book that made you cry:

Sorry. That’s private.

6. One book that you wish had been written:

ST. PAUL ANSWERS MY QUESTIONS: AN INTERVIEW ACROSS TIME by Jimmy Akin

7. One book that you wish had never been written:

THE QUR’AN by Muhammad.

8. One book you’re currently reading:

THE
ANUBIS GATES by Tim Powers

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:

CHRIST
THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT by Anne Rice

10. One book that you bought but haven’t read:

THE
SEMANTICS OF BIBLICAL LANGUAGE by James Barr

Per my usual meme-mutation policy, I hereby meme anybody who wants to be memed.

READ GEORGETTE’S ANSWERS TO THE MEME.

ED PETERS ALSO GIVES HIS.

I don’t have any intention of turning JA.O into a vlog–or otherwise have it become dominated by video–but we’re in a multimedia age in which stuff worthy of attention is becoming available online in the form of video. YouTube in particular is causing that to happen.

F’rinstance: Consider this video of Stephen Colbert interviewing William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (minor language warning):

This thing is amazing.

It’s got a startlingly muscular assertion of Catholicism and the truth of the Bible–something I would never expect to see on a vile network like Comedy Central.

It also has Colbert asking Donohue some questions that put him on the spot.

Yesterday we had a surprisingly Catholic-friendly comedy video from a Protestant source.

Here’s a surprisingly Catholic-friendly comedy video from an even more surprising source: MadTV!

I’m not saying it’s perfect, mind you–just that it’s a lot more Catholic-friendly than I would have thought possible for a show like MadTV.

(CHT: The Curt Jester!)