Another bumper day on the web

• Marc Cortez gives a salutary lesson in statistics, as it seems rumours of the Web's demise have been greatly over exagerated
• Cynthia Neilsen on the dehumanization of slaves in the USA
• Steve Douglas writes to a friend struggling with faith
• Jim West shares a Michael Crichton quote on reading the news
• Ali tries to work out how to argue against homosexuality without being a jerk
• the Biblical World on the women in Paul's life
• and don't miss the majestic plastic bag, i have a song about this, but i won't sing it for you today cos i have lost my voice :-(

Writing and reading with and without a penis

Donald Miller posts an excellent short reflection and an even more excellent Billy Collins poem.  But when it comes to reading the Bible one of the most valuable things you can do (if you happen to be a bloke) is to momentarily remove the "old chap" and try not to be such a myopic male mysogynist dimwit.  I tried it while writing my thesis, with the help of some feminist biblical scholars, and gained what I think was the most exciting insight of the whole project.  I won't tell you about it just yet, so you'll just have to take my word for it, but seriously, try reading scripture from other peoples' perspectives, try changing gender, colour, continent, socio-economic class, age group, etc, and you might be similarly and liberatingly surprised with what results.