A lot of people think that Wired News is a cutting-edge venture. It lives in the intersection of technology and pop culture. A recent article by Tony Long, Your Right To Be An Idiot, provides some sound advice for Internet travelers.
Be careful if you read the article. Most of what you read will be caustic to your Christian worldview, if you have one.
Tony’s point is that most people are not competent to post information on Wikipedia, the open encyclopedia of the Internet. Most of what I have found there is good. His point is that anyone can post anything they want, which means that it cannot be considered to be a trustworthy source.
In general, his comments are good (excepting his political bias, which is laid on pretty thick). The Internet is a gem — unfortunately that gem resides in the heart of a viper’s nest. It’s not all that different in character than print media, except that it is easier and cheaper to publish on the Internet. And that means that there is more junk.
The real issue here is understanding how one knows what is junk and what is not. For instance, Tony’s politics allow him to validate much of what I consider to be junk, as he would undoubtedly invalidate much of what I consider to be valuable. So, who’s to say? That’s the issue.
And the Founding Fathers understood that concern and gave us the First Amendment — the freedom to speak our minds. Interestingly, we increasingly able to speak freely about every conceivable subject (and many that would greatly disturb those Founding Fathers), except historical Christianity. To speak about Jesus Christ is amazingly offensive to a growing number of people in just about any venue.
Tony notes that freedom of speech stops when it threatens lives, so you can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater if there is no fire. But neither can you pray to Jesus Christ at school. Perhaps the teachers think that their lives are in danger. More to the point, since the Supreme Court made the judgment call to forbid it, maybe they think that prayer threatens their lives. Curious.
Phil