myopic pilgrim

Jesus Discovered to Live Further East than Pittsburgh!

Radiolab did a show on Ancient Garbage. One segment was centered on papyri with supposed lost sayings of Jesus. Jad Abumrad, one of the hosts, comments that in these ancient scraps Jesus sounds almost Eastern. “This is a different Jesus than the one in the Bible,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »

I was listening to a Radiolab podcast about biotechnology. One story was about a woman who had two sets of DNA. The scientific name for this (I’m not making this up) is chimera. You know, like the mythical beast made up of different animals. Turns out she was a twin and didn’t know it. Two embryos merged and each one “claimed” different parts of the body. For example, one embryo developed the kidneys, liver and blood and the other developed the lungs, brain and skin.

After listening to this woman’s story, I started asking questions. These questions follow on the heel of something Kenny posted about abortion and Obama.

• If you believe that life begins at conception, what does this do to your understanding of the personhood of the unborn? Anything?
• Did the other twin simply die in the womb?
• Can we use the word “die” at all?

My new favorite podcast is WNYC’s Radio Lab. It’s like when This American Life does something science-y. The sound editing is more aggressive with sound effects and what might be called jump cuts. I know “sound effects” could make it sound overwrought and cheesy, but it’s not. It’s just highly produced in a self-aware sort of way.

You should go check it out. And then you can answer these morality questions and hear the sound of five workmen being hit by a speeding trolley.

There are five men working on a trolley track unaware that a trolley is heading straight for them. You can’t warn them, but you do see a lever to switch the trolley to another track. The other track has also has someone working on the track, but just one. Do you switch the trolley, killing the one man, to save the five?

Okay, same question on a similar theme.

This time you’re above the track. There are five men working on it unaware that a trolley is heading straight for them. You can’t warn them, but you are standing next to a rather large man. If you give him a little push of the balcony, he’ll land on the track stopping the trolley. Do you push the one man over, killing him, to save the five?

And if you’re answers are different, tell us why.