[Part 2: Continuation of my comments upon reading Barth’s “The Epistle to the Romans”, Oxford University paperback, 1968] Around page 290, we see Barth trying to turn towards hope. Unfortunately, he has left himself in the position of most modern existentialists: all that we know to be real is nothingness and we have to look … [Read more…]
Even an armchair historian can tell you that a good general prepares for his retreat as soon as he sees the need for it. He tries to arrange an orderly retreat to minimize casualties and loss of equipment and other materiel. He knows not to try to hold ground which is indefensible, being well aware … [Read more…]
I’ve been reading Karl Barth’s Epistle to the Romans, a book surprisingly oft-read decades ago. [For the scholars out there, I’m using the paperback edition published by Oxford University Press in 1968.] Barth’s writing and thinking style is still more discursive than mine, and he is probably still more intense than I am at my … [Read more…]
I’ve argued that the human mind is shaped by its immediate environments, including social relationships starting with that between infant and mother. From there, we expand out into larger sections of those immediate environments and may begin to interact with other environments. In this expansion into other environments, we’re like other opportunistic animals — bears … [Read more…]
Einstein gave a great gift to rational thinkers, Christian and non-Christian. He gave us a universe, that is, a coherent definition of a universe. And the definition is proving to be quite a bit different from the traditional metaphysical definitions. In fact, the simplest way to think of Einsteinian Universes as a class is to … [Read more…]
So, what is man? He’s intentional in his moral nature. He’s born to acquire certain moral behaviors towards mother and father and brethren but mostly towards his mother because of the special bond. He’ll recognize her very smell and her body is changing in certain ways to adapt itself to the care of a baby … [Read more…]
So far as I can tell, the concept of “original sin” arose because St. Augustine of Hippo and some other important Fathers of the early Church were trained as lawyers. Moreover, the Hebrew Bible was the sacred works of a people who organized their lives by strict legal codes. Consequently, God was depicted as a … [Read more…]
What is a man? Not “What is man?” but rather “What is a man?”. That’s a big topic and one not to be addressed in a consistent and coherent manner at this time just because we have no good words and concepts to allow a rational anthropology. Our first task is the more humble one … [Read more…]
Is any existing human language a general purpose tool that can deal with all raw materials and produce all possible objects of utility and beauty? Can any existing human language deal with reality as we discover more about the world around us and even more about what lies inside of us? Is there any possible … [Read more…]
There was no one Cosmos common to all thinkers prior to Einstein but there were some general beliefs held by all, or nearly all, thinkers prior to Einstein — including most early modern scientists. This is not to say that there were none who suspected the Cosmos to be a distortion of reality. But those … [Read more…]