I have begun a new research and thinking and writing project which bears the tentative title: Through Christ: Creation. It is intended as a step or two forward rather than a step or two toward a different goal than I’ve been pursuing in recent years: the use of modern knowledge of the world to build … [Read more…]
The basic idea is simple. For decades, geneticists have been able to chemically separate and analyze genes. This made possible a fruitless search for the magic gene which `causes’ schizophrenia or depression or intelligence or other human qualities or disorders of human being. A lot was learned, perhaps most importantly—there are no such magic genes. … [Read more…]
At his most authoritative, the Pope of the day has been the one who speaks on behalf of the community of Catholics, at times even on behalf of the community of all sacramental Christians—in centuries long past, those now called Eastern Orthodox accepted the authority of popes of the caliber of St Leo the Great. … [Read more…]
The Orthodox and Catholic Christian patriarchs of Syria have made a plea to Western countries and their citizens, especially to their fellow Christians in the West. This statement, follows on similar pleas over the years by Christians, including Orthodox and Catholic bishops, from various countries in Southwest Asia, a region which we Westerners, especially Americans, … [Read more…]
I’ve proposed that the Body of Christ, the real and not nominal or virtual, community into which the friends of God will be integrated is a civilization with the Christian Church as His central organ. In this proposed understanding, the Church isn’t the entirety of the Body; after all, I think that all that is … [Read more…]
Pope Francis has recently caused a stir by allegedly claiming there to be no Hell and even possibly once claiming there to be no Hell, Purgatory, or Heaven. See Francis, Spin Doctor To Himself. His Latest Exploits. I also have speculated there be no Hell and tend strongly to that view, but I’m a firm … [Read more…]
Short answer: conspiratorial worldviews and attitudes are necessary to preserve the fiction that the United States has no ruling class. Who were and are the members of this ruling class? They are the ones who went to the well-funded secondary academies of the Northeast, such as Phillips Exeter Academy and all the many with less … [Read more…]
This split between the practical and the ideal is generally acknowledged by modern thinkers and `common folk’ alike. But what is the `practical’ and the `ideal’? I think they are very much different from both the traditional and modern prejudices. I don’t think that prejudices are wrong as such; often, they carry good and useful … [Read more…]
[In this essay, I’ll be mostly recapping ideas I’ve developed and written about over the previous 10 years or so. These ideas are necessary to understand my deepest and most hardened objections to forms of dualism other than those which are necessary and bracketed ways of speaking.] In my parrot-mode, I say: “Created being is … [Read more…]
I’ll first provide links and summary quotes to two of my earlier posted essays: In Is God’s Creation Compatible with Centralization of Authority and Power?, I concluded: …that God’s Creation isn’t compatible with anything approaching complete centralization of power and authority, though centers of power and authority do exist and have their own role, often … [Read more…]