Some Advice? from Screwtape

My family opened the first chapter of The Screwtape Letters last week for our daily morning read. I had read Screwtape before and didn't give my full attention to the read. At least, not until this part came up:

Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can't touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don't let him get away from that invaluable "real life". But the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is "the results of modem investigation".

Well, that was timely. Economics is my first choice course at DLSU, and I really haven't read science (does attempting to read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions count?). Lately, I've been wondering whether I should shift my interests to the sciences after realizing the apparently bleak situation of the liberal arts. Consequently, I've given economics, which still isn't a hard science, a high place among my preferred courses. (I've also finally decided to take up physics after a month of wondering whether I could escape high school without it.)

My mom was laughing for a good while, and I was shaking my head, shocked that Screwtape seemed to know my situation. (Perhaps that means another thing, too.)

And Other Etceteras

A friend shared an essay with me, and it's simply pure gold. It can be found here.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. The essay consists of various blunders written by college freshman the author taught. The collected malapropisms and misspellings are expertly paced, but I still found myself clutching my stomach.

If you don't have time for the whole thing, here are some hilarious highlights:

"During the Middle Ages, everybody was middle aged."

"Finally, Europe caught the Black Death. The bubonic plague is a social disease in the sense that it can be transmitted by intercourse and other etceteras... Victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. "

"Martin Luther nailed 95 theocrats to a church door. Theologically, Luthar was into reorientation mutation. Calvinism was the most convenient religion since the days of the ancients. Anabaptist services tended to be migratory. The Popes, of course, were usually Catholic."

"The enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare wrote a book called Candy that got him into trouble with Frederick the Great."

"Among the goals of the chartists were universal suferage and an anal parliment. Voting was done by ballad."

"Germany invaded Poland, France invaded Belgium, and Russia invaded everybody."

The author, Anders Hendriksson, has also written a book Non Campus Mentis: World History According to College Students. A short article on Wikipedia gives some golden samples:

"Prehistoricle people spent all day banging rocks together so they could find food. This was the Stoned Age." 

"Civilization woozed out of the Nile about 300,000 years ago. The Nile was a river that had some water in it. Every year it would flood and irritate the land." 

"Magellan circumcised the globe." 

"John Calvin Klein translated the Bible into American so that the people of Geneva could read it." 

Hydra's Too Strong

Got rejected by UP. That was fast. Time for others.