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Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

This blog will be written from an orthodox Christian point of view. There may be some topic that is out of bounds, but at present I don't know what it will be. Politics is a part of life. Theology and philosophy are disciplines that we all participate in even if we don't think so. The Bible has a lot to say about economics. How about self defense? Is war ethical? Think of all the things that someone tells you we should not touch and let's give it a try. Everything that is a part of life should be an expression of worship.

Keep it courteous and be kind to those less blessed than you, but by all means don't worry about agreeing. We learn more when we get backed into a corner.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Opus 2017-120: Browsing

When I was a kid my parents ran into an encyclopedia salesman.  It may have been an extravagance but it became the source of endless browsing for me.  On rainy days I would sit down by the book shelf, pull of a volume and just start turning pages.  It was part of my education.

How is that different from smart phones and the Google search engine?  Can’t they access information and learn from the electronic media?  In a perfect world, yes.  In the world of data bases and selling ranking in the search process, no.  In a world of political correctness and Progressive, left wing censorship, no.  The information that young people see is carefully crafted by people with political agendas.  It is like only reading the L.A. Times or the National Enquirer.

Did encyclopedias have editors?  Of course they did.  Choices had to be made.  Many people won’t notice.  It even applies to dictionaries.  Years ago when I was still trying to educate young people I was trying to get dictionaries for my classroom.  For a brief time I was foolish enough to think I could actually go out and chose a set.  I ran into a problem.  I was covering the Constitution and wanted the students to define “ex post facto” and “bill of attainder”.  The dictionaries that the school district would provide me did not have those words in them.  If I were on the internet I would not even know they existed.

The current trend in Facebook and other social media to filter, not only searches but comments, shows us how weak modern sources are.  To delete information from the Encyclopedia Britannica would require an army of scissor wielding fanatics.  To do it from Google only requires on well meaning liberal pushing a button.

Don’t throw out the books.  Someday you may want to know what liberty means.

homo unius libri

4 comments:

  1. I had to let my mom give our World Books away when she was ridding out and I had no place to store them. I DID manage to save an old two volume Funk & Wagnall dictionary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You might want to find a good place to hide them for when the Thought Police come to check you out. I would also suggest that you keep them far from your computer when you post on Facebook.

      Grace and peace

      Delete
  2. I highly doubt on a rainy day, that today's generation will sit by the window and read som Wikipedia article...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, but they might rewrite same article to fit their current opinion.

      Grace and peace

      Delete

Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.