Codex Sinaiticus

The oldest complete manuscript of the New Testament is now available online (news story here). The Codex Sinaiticus was written in the mid-300's AD and includes other ancient writings outside of the NT including the Shepherd of Hermas (on which I wrote a graduate paper and I highly recommend, especially if you like Revelation), Epistle of Barnabas, 1 & 2 Clement, and the Didache.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Automated Software

When is "Gay" not "homosexual?"

Only your computer knows for certain.

Woman Sues Apple Over $200 Price Cut

You knew it was a matter of time. EDIT: Link has been corrected.

According to Li's lawsuit, filed on Sept. 24 in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, the price reduction injured early purchasers like herself because they cannot resell the product for the same profit as those who bought the cell phone following the price cut.

Li purchased a 4GB iPhone for $499 and alleged that owners of the 4GB model were given less favorable terms than those who bought the 8GB model at the premium price, according to the lawsuit.

I hate shady business dealings. I hate stupid litigation even more.

iPhone-y

Obviously, I am not anti-technology. I am typing this post on a computer on an internet blog. But, we sometimes fail to ask whether new technology is good or necessary, and to evaluate its impact on our communities and relationships.

I tend to view most technological advancement much like I do cars. How efficient is this thing? How long before it becomes obsolete? How much energy will it use? How will this impact the environment? How much does it cost? Does it replace vital human interaction or impact communities in a negative way? How much time will this thing save/cost?

Which brings us to the iPhone. I do not have one and likely will not until there is some other gadget which is way more advanced that makes the iPhone an "old model" in three or four years (months?). As serious as I am about running, I almost always buy "last year's model" runing shoes for 25% less than the new model. Why? Because year to year, the changes are mostly cosmetic. Maybe when the iPhone uses up its "Geek Cred" (I totally stole that from another blogger), I'll have one in five years. Maybe not. Therefore, I will not pretend that I know a lot about the iPhone or why it is the greatest item ever fashioned.

That said, it seems to me that Apple pulled one over on their fanboys and fangirls with this $200 price cut.

Steven Levitt, University of Chicago economist and author of Freakonomics (a must read if you have not already read it), had this to say earlier in the week:

If you ask an economist how to price a new product that is just being introduced, the response you will get is that you should charge a very high price at first and then steadily reduce that price over time.

There are two reasons for doing this. First, it generally gets cheaper to produce things over time, so it makes sense to lower prices in response. Second, people vary widely in their willingness to pay for a new gadget. By starting high, you get as much money as you can from those who really want the product, then expand the market at the lower price point.

Hmm … that sounds exactly like what Apple just did with the iPhone. They brought it out at $599, sold one million iPhones, and then dropped the price to $399 after two months, in the hopes of selling nine million more this year...

What economists (and Apple too, I guess) ignore is that consumers hate it when companies follow practices that look like they are designed to maximize profits. You won’t find it in economic models, but consumers care about the reason a firm chooses the price it chooses...

Apple’s price cut looks like one driven purely by a desire to maximize profit, which is why everyone is so mad.

Of course, there is an economic argument that Apple made a good financial decision for their company...in the short run. But part of Apple's gig is that people believe they are getting a better, more innovative product from Apple than they get from other companies. Cutting the price of the greatest invention since the wheel by 33% after two months on the market severely undermines that credibility. It could potentially hurt the Apple mystique for future purchases.

Wendell Berry, Kentucky farmer and writer, set forth this rubric for evaluating technology in his essay "Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer":

1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the one it replaces.
4. It should use less energy than the one it replaces.
5. If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the body.
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take it back for maintenance and repair.
9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.

Again, someone who knows a lot more about the iPhone than I do will have to perform this evaluation. And, while I will likely never live an agrarian life quite like Mr. Berry, he does raise some important points that might help us resist the urge to fall into the iHerd of iPeople buying iGadgets for the sake of I.

Gimme That Old-Time Religion(?)

"Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
It's good enough for me!"

The old spiritual conjures up images of rural churches in early 20th century America, and that is precisely the issue. The "old-time" religion and the ideas and images connected to it are not that old. Many Christians long for the "old-time religion" that goes all the way back--eons and light years--to the late 19th century. The hymn, "Give Me That Old-Time Religion" was adapted from an African-American spiritual in 1889 and published in 1891 by Charlie Tillman. The old time religion is not so aged. There were about 1900 years of Christianity before it.

Similarly, Christian fundamentalists are often viewed as defenders of traditional Christian values and "conservers" of old ways of faith. In many ways, they were (and are) precisely the opposite. In 1925, fundamentalists were dealt a significant blow at the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. People felt that Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan's exchange put fundamentalist Christianity in a bad light. So, during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, the Fightin' Fundies went underground. They did not rely on old methods; they used new methods to build their base. They created summer camps, meetings, and conferences. They separated from secular society and created their own colleges and other schools. They used mass-produced pamphlets and papers to spread their ideas. They turned to the newfangled radio and made use of the new airwaves. Charles Fuller's Old Fashioned Revival Hour converted thousands to fundamentalist Christianity by appealing to listeners with intimacy, family, conservatism, and "old-time" comfort during the Depression and WWII (1). The use of new technology has remained at the forefront of fundamentalism through the mass production of written material, television, movies, and the internet.

Despite their call for old-time comfort, their theology had a "new" feel as well. Dispensational premillennialism ("Rapture Theology" or "Antichrist Theology") was not popularized until the mid-1800's. This fit their world view well, because they were separating from the Godless society that they saw around them. Dispensational Premillennialists saw the world in decline and themselves as a persecuted group. World War II seemed to bring some fulfillment of biblical prophecy about the Antichrist, rampant war, world conquest, and the like, but the Second Coming did not occur.

We must go back much farther than American fundamentalism to understand "old" Christianity. "Old-time religion" is only old in the way that Def Leppard is an "ancient band." One can use the term as a descriptor and people will know what is meant, but it certainly is not literally true. There are nearly 1900 years of Christianity before "old-time religion."

(1) Joel Carpenter, Revive Us Again: the Reawakening of American Fundamentalism, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 31-34, 138-140.