Jonathan's blog

The speculation has been simmering since before the season began. Word is that tomorrow Bill Cowher will announce his retirement as Steelers coach after 15 (mostly successful) years. It will certainly be strange if he, as is speculated, returns to coach another team after taking a year off. Despite the fluke of last year, I think his career is a bit tainted by failing to win the big one when so many times he appeared to be in the driver's seat. As a life-long Steelers fan (my dad used to read me the scores out of the paper before I could read, and I could spell Pittsburgh in second grade), it'll be strange to see someone else on the sideline next season.

I thought this was interesting from Gregg Easterbrook's review of Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" on beliefnet:

Let me offer a point on which The God Delusion hits the bull's-eye, then close with two on which the book seems to land well wide of the mark. I agree with the chapter about the way religion is taught to the young. Adults who are themselves full of doubt regarding the claims of faith routinely teach biblical stories and ideas to children as facts. The God Delusion is right to denounce this. Children are "natural teleologians," Dawkins says, wanting everything to have a purpose--wanting to believe that clouds exist so flowers will get rain. Teaching them religion as if its claims about the past were undisputed exploits the child's unformed power of critical thinking, and lessens the value of any future spiritual beliefs. It's ridiculous to teach children the story of the Loaves and Fishes, or any such item, as history, though it might be. Children should be taught, "This is what scripture says about our past, and whether this true is one of the big questions of life. You must decide for yourself whether you will believe these claims."

I've heard other non-believers (like Bill Maher) make this point: that children are basically brain-washed into religion. And it's true, we do indoctrinate our children...train them from a young age and that's a good thing. And of course, there are also plenty of Christians who came to Christ as adults without the benefit of having their impressionable young minds molded. But I'm intrigued by the suggestion that, at some point, there's room for a more honest and mature conversation between parent and child where we can admit that we do have doubts...that we believe and want God to help our unbelief.

Via the Dec 29, 2006, installment of The Writer's Almanac:

There have never in history been so many opportunities to do so many things that aren't worth doing. - William Gaddis

Via Slate's Today's Papers column, there was recently an interesting article in the Washington Post with the same title by Mark Maske and Les Carpenter:

At least 35 NFL players have been arrested this year on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to felony burglary, a number that alarms league and players' union officials. "We can handle all the other issues, but this is the one that concerns me the most," NFL Players Association Executive Director Gene Upshaw said.

After coming back to Michigan, we spent a few days at the Birdwells'. The Greshams and Bobos came over for dinner Thursday night. The boys got a karaoke machine for Christmas, so some Beatles songs were sung too. Here are some photos: