In my previous posted essay, Elitism and Americans, I responded to an article by Steven Wasserman, In Defense of Difficulty and subtitled A phony populism is denying Americans the joys of serious thought.. I largely agreed with Wasserman but went further in maintaining that higher literary pursuits make sense only in light of a greater … [Read more…]
The world is what it is and we Christians, of all human beings, have to accept it and work with it. For example, against the various do-gooders including those who think themselves Christians, I believe the Body of Christ has to be built of the human material which is us, the material created by God … [Read more…]
In a recent essay, What is an Explanation?: The Context of Thought and Language, I opened up a line of discussion which might provide a new view of some of my basic ideas, a view which might lead me to more fruitful explorations and perhaps others to better understandings of what I’m trying to do … [Read more…]
I wasn’t surprised that Roy Spencer wrote this blog entry, Science and religion: Do your own damn Google search, expressing his feelings at being treated shabbily in an article, What Catastrophe?: MIT’s Richard Lindzen, the unalarmed climate scientist , which describes “less credible skeptics, such as climatologist Roy Spencer of the University of Alabama (signatory … [Read more…]
Scientific American published an article about research on the relationship between prayer and cure of diseases: Scientists Find One Source of Prayer’s Power. The results seem plausible and the interpretation of the results emphasize the natural but don’t deny the possibility of the supernatural. I’m probably more inclined to deny the supernatural when it comes … [Read more…]
We modern human beings have separated our minds and hearts from reality, our hands not nearly so much. We’re strange creatures who believe the Christian Creeds long enough to recite them at a Catholic or Orthodox Mass or to keep some of the creedal teachings in mind at other sorts of Christian worship services and … [Read more…]
[I’ve found over the past two decades that many of my fundamental ideas can be seen in the novels I’ve finished and put on my website thus far. I think I can say that exploration of communities, what they used to be and what they now are, what they can or should be, was a … [Read more…]
This article hardly surprises me: Belief in Hell, According to International Data, Is Associated With Reduced Crime. The findings summarized in the article also don’t make me happy. I would advise against any major effort to scare sinners away from Hell because that doesn’t mean they will necessarily go to Heaven. If they do go … [Read more…]
Respect for empirical knowledge doesn’t determine if one believes or disbelieves in God, though it has generally forced any believers, pagan and pantheist and Christians and others, to see a God of reason. After all, the very term `empirical knowledge’ is meaningful only if it refers to something, some realm of being subject to perception … [Read more…]
In The End of the Twentieth Century, the Hungarian-American — and Catholic — historian John Lukacs points out: [A]t the end of the twentieth century, many people respect religion as well as science, together; but the respect is faint. (This has to do with the fact that we have descended to a stage lower than … [Read more…]