Sam Shearn

@samshearn.bsky.social

Lecturer in Systematic Theology, Uni Mainz | Author of Pastor Tillich (OUP) | skeeting about theology, politics, rugby | 🇬🇧 and 🇩🇪 | he/him. https://www.ev.theologie.uni-mainz.de/systematische-theologie-und-sozialethik/samuel-shearn/

Heute habe ich den Erstis wieder gepredigt, nachdem wir einen kniffligen Satz gemeinsam verstanden haben, dass man keine Muskeln bekommt, wenn man sein KI ins Fitnessstudio schickt. Ergo man lernt nicht Texte zu verstehen, wenn man nicht selbst mit Texten ringt.

Louis Berger@ajournomento.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Liebe Uni-Leute, Papst Leo XIV. fühlt mit euch: „Der weit verbreitete Einsatz Künstlicher Intelligenz erschwert die Bewertung der Leistungen von Studierenden zunehmend und erfordert von den Lehrenden, ihre Methoden kreativ anzupassen […].“ www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

“it is natural and normal to receive care. … When it comes to a time in life when one can do nothing but be cared for… one realises an aspect of being human often occluded by cultural pressure for individualism, independence and autonomy.” (John Swinton)

My eldest daughter was on a challenging hike with her scouts group last weekend. It made me nostalgic for my Alpine climbing trip aged 17, 1997. Pigne d‘Arolla 3787m (wiki pics of peak and hut + me in yellow helmet). A once in a lifetime experience.

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Wir gedenken heute des sel. Franz Jägerstätter (1907–1943) aus dem oberösterreichischen St. Radegund, der wegen seiner Entscheidung, den Kriegsdienst für das NS-Regime zu verweigern, hingerichtet und erst 1997 rehabilitiert wurde: „Ich helfe nicht mit, dass Hitler die ganze Welt beherrschen kann.“

Ikone des sel. Franz Jägerstätter.

Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.

Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity

I watched Johnny (winner of Polish film prize 2023), which portrays the priest Jan Kaczkowski through the narrative of a rehabilitated criminal who completes community service at his hospice. It is a bit sentimental, but so am I. It’s on Netflix.

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1) The International ME/CFS conference will take place on 7-8 May in Berlin. The event will be in English and broadcast online. Speakers include Chris Ponting, Carmen Scheibenbogen, Karl Tronstad, Oystein Fluge, Christopher Armstrong and many others.

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We must stand in solidarity with Jews being attacked by antisemitic criminals and terrorists: no ifs or buts. We must stand in solidarity with Palestinians being murdered by the Israeli government: no ifs or buts. These are not contradictory positions. They are consistent ones. 🧵1/5

Social media is no longer social. Most of it is passive viewing of videos and pictures from people we've never met. But we're still studying social media like it's 2010. We've entered the post-social media era — and research needs to catch up. osf.io/preprints/so... preprint w/ Richard Rogers

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I’m planning to meet my brother in Frankfurt on Saturday while he’s doing a football-watching tour with some friends. He introduced me as an elite aging (rugby) hooker and philosophical kebab hoover. Elite is a fabulous lie and I play prop more than hooker nowadays but I feel very recognised. 🥹

Most neoscholastics of the 22nd century were agreed that an in order to avoid an infinite regress of contingent blockades one ought to assume the existence of a blockade that blocks itself necessarily.

"Glaubt den Großen nicht, daß auch Gott in Größe verliebt ist. Glaubt den Starken nicht, daß sie auch bei Gott besonderes Ansehen genießen. Glaubt den Erfolgreichen nicht, auch Gott könne mit Leistungsschwachen nichts anfangen." (Ulrich Bach)

I suspect the Pope sounds "woke" to many Christian conservatives because the US is steeped in prosperity theology, where the point of worship is to deliver health and wealth to believers. Thus, "feed the hungry" and "show mercy for the poor" sounds needlessly political and "woke."

I suspect Trump and Hegseth‘s advisors will be keen to begin their next level of escalation on the Holy Weekend to give their slaughter some kind of perverse religious meaning.

Verschwörungstheorie, die man glauben will: Der grüne Aktivist Trump als sehr gut getarnte Agent der Förderung erneuerbarer Energien, der die Welt von fossilen Brennstoffen entwöhnt.

‘Like Barack Obama, another centre-left leader with a seductively rich voice and extensive powers of oratory, in office Gordon Brown was a disappointment to many of his admirers.’ Andy Beckett on a new biography of the former prime minister. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Andy Beckett · ‘We used to have fun’: Gordon Brown Reconsidered

Brown’s premiership was left as a bit of a mystery: an example of formidable talent, experience and hard work somehow...

lrb.co.uk