Parts of Speaking Publishing

 The Supreme Court's decision on birth right citizenship was a decision to do nothing. It kept things the way they have been for decades, or a century.  So some posts on X, such as below, means a. all conservatives are against birthright citizenship, and b. all conservatives are stupid and apocalyptic.  I don't like that anyone born in this country is automatically a citizen, but anyone includes me.  The post: It seems to rage at two SC justices in particular. To be clear, I don't agree with this. Several ways forward here given the choice of Roberts/Barrett to nullify the 14th Amendment and extra-constitutionally replace it with their own language: 1) Nullification. States issue birth certificates, and they can just stop issuing them to non-citizens. Roberts/Barrett can deal with the fallout and litigate each birth individually. 2) Pack the court. If Robert wants to be a politician who writes laws instead of a judge, then he can fight with 10 more unelected legis...

  https://www.thefp.com/p/an-emboldened-iran-goes-after-its?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

 From the Constitution, Article IV, Authority:  While independent and sovereign in its own sphere, the Convention does not claim and will never attempt to exercise any authority over any other Baptist body, whether church, auxiliary organizations, associations, or convention. What does this mean? How then  can the SBC vote to kick out churches for disagreement with the Baptist Faith and Message? Wade Burleson asks the same question.  https://www.facebook.com/wade.burleson.9

 Excerpt from a Substack by O Alan Noble, who writes of bringing a group of teen boys back from Christian camp and driving past a dilapidated building in the country with a neon sign ADULT out front.  And here was a sign that took the good thing they were working toward (becoming an adult) and used it to represent the very opposite of adulthood: being controlled by your passions, lusts, and sins. And it seems to me that there is something very perverse about calling pornography “adult content.” It implies that adults are people who give in to their passions and indulge in their sins, which is true on some level because of our sin nature, but should not positively define adulthood. And it also perverse because we need adults to be mature, safe, self-controlled, responsible and godly. The word “Adult” shouldn’t have connotations with pornography. It should call to mind those higher qualities.

 I am deeply, deeply disturbed by the Southern Baptist Convention right now.  Thankfully, the vote about banning women in "pastor" positions did not go through permanently, and 25% of the messengers voted against it. It will have to be passed with 2/3 majority next year to be permanent.  I think the ultra-complementarian factor has been doing a lot of pushing and advocacy; hopefully there will be some pushing back. I personally do not think a woman should be a senior pastor, but . . . I don't think that's a church decision that the convention as a whole should mandate for every single church. And a woman could be ordained for ministry and still be kept back from senior pastorhood, if that is necessity.  Al Mohler warns about the convention becoming too liberal, i.e., the next step will be acceptance of homosexual persons. Well, about that: 1. There are already people with same-sex attraction in the churches, who we hope, have repented and live celibately but keep it ...

 I don't think so; I admit I don't know the extent of what AI can do. But Tyler Cowen (an economist at George Mason U) writes that we are not as conscious as we would like to think. In this sense consciousness might be identified with awareness of all our brain is doing (which we do not have) and intentionality: Sometimes I like to say that “I am only conscious at the margin.” Tongue in cheek, I will suggest that I am only conscious enough to avoid the self-contradiction of asserting that I am not conscious at all. I feel I am honest enough to just not be very impressed by my own flow of conscious awareness or its ability to perform complex calculations. Still, I recognize that it is all I have got, so I need to treasure it, however paltry it may be. So if a) people are barely conscious, and b) we tend to radically overestimate intent and sentience in external circumstances, why should we think the AIs are sentient or conscious? Why should we trust the intuitions we have about ...