Rant of the Exiles

Confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance about Asians being better at math Few topics stir up more debate than the discussion of ethnic differences in cognitive ability. One of my favorite books, The Bell Curve , has been and in the past year has become again a lightning rod of controversy. The book and its ideas are arguably more relevant today than when it was first published twenty-five years ago. The co-author, Charles Murray, has been labeled a white supremacist and his recent speaking engagements have been subject to violent protest at Middlebury College and my alma mater, UC Berkeley.  I listened to Murray on Sam Harris’ podcast recently and he published the following summary from The Bell Curve in response to listener interest. Below is an excerpt of the chapter summary on Asian ethnic differences in cognitive ability: East Asians (e.g., Chinese, Japanese), whether in America or in Asia, typically earn higher scores on intelligence and achievement tests than white...

Rule by all animals, for all animals:  No, it's not a post-modern interpretation of C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles. Lynn White, in his famous speech about the contributions of Christianity towards our current ecological crisis, implies that we follow Saint Francis of Assisi's example and depose man's monarchy over nature. In it's place, we  should install a democracy where all creatures rule together as equals. I don't know how that works.  He explains that Western civilization is anti-environmental because of Christianity. Since he's a historian, he traces the thought patterns of Christian leaders throughout the ages. He makes excellent points that we as Christians should learn from. But his understanding of the bible is off. The bible is not anti-environment. Far from it. And what the bible says is important especially where the environment is concerned.  One common verse used to justify Western Christianity's abuse of the environment ...