Recent Comments
- j mct on Why liberals should defend Harvard’s right to accept and publish Jason Richwine’s dissertation
- David Hume on Why liberals should defend Harvard’s right to accept and publish Jason Richwine’s dissertation
- Contemplationist on Why liberals should defend Harvard’s right to accept and publish Jason Richwine’s dissertation
- David Hume on Why liberals should defend Harvard’s right to accept and publish Jason Richwine’s dissertation
- Contemplationist on Why liberals should defend Harvard’s right to accept and publish Jason Richwine’s dissertation
- Florida resident on Unknown Unknowns
- Mark in Spokane on Unknown Unknowns
- Mark in Spokane on Same Old, Same Old
- Don Kenner on Same Old, Same Old
- CJColucci on Same Old, Same Old
Blogroll
- Adam Alcock
- American Conservative, The
- American Creation
- American Scene, The
- Ann Althouse
- Atheist Conservative
- Audacious Epigone, The
- Cato Unbound
- City Journal
- Conservative Tendency
- Econlog
- Entitled To An Opinion
- Gene Expression Discover
- George F. Will
- Half Sigma
- Inductivist
- Marginal Revolution
- Mormon Metaphysics
- Overlawyered
- ParaPundit
- Power and Control
- Religion Clause
- Respvblica
- Right Condition
- The Great Terror
- Tim Sandefur
- Unreligious Right
- Volokh Conspiracy
- We Are Doomed
Archives
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
Tags
2012 Elections
abortion
American politics
assisted suicide
atheism
Barack Obama
Benedict XVI
blasphemy and defamation of religion
Christianity
Christmas and other holidays
church-state separation
Climate Change
contraception
creationism
daily slaughter of the innocents
data
demographics
Egypt
environmentalism
Fundamentalism
GSS
history
homosexuality
Islam
Islamic fundamentalism
Israel
morality
Multiculturalism
petitionary prayer
politics
Pussy Riot
religion
Religious Left
Republican Party
Rick Santorum
Roman Catholicism
Russia
Russian Orthodoxy
science
superstition
terror porn
UK
Ultra-Orthodoxy
Vatican
Vladimir Putin


Snippet · March 26, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Me too.
I am reading a history of Christianity – “The Closing of the Western Mind.” by Charles Freeman.
The early Christians clearly believe the Big Guy was just going to be out for a little bit.
His failure to return promptly caused a fair amount of consternation and disappointment, but theology is nothing if not flexible, and rather than admit error, new theories and interpretations filled the gap.
mnuez · March 26, 2010 at 8:40 pm
I have some serious believers in my immediate family and it’s truly astounding how the world is ever nigh and thus on the brink of Messianic redemption.
I mean it REALLY is astounding.
According to some Jewish texts (among others of course) things’ll be really bad right before the Messiah’s arrival. Some claim this form of “bad” implies haughtiness. Some would say that this “hautiness” implies people who lie.
Still with me here? Okay.
So my father tells me that all his life (he’a sbout 60) he’s never seen such a world full of lies as he sees today. The Democrats just lie, Lie, LIE and don’t care about the truth at all. Every day there are more reports of their deceit. He’s never seen anything like this before and he’s adamantly convinced (or so he says – he won’t accept my wager to the contrary) that this implies Messianic redemption any day now.
Wow!
What drives me nuts about this (and I hope some of you can relate and I’m not the only son frustrated by the boorish logic of his progenitors) is that he has some historical comparisons to make. Aside from the fact they he’s been alive and observant for a few decades now and should be aware of the fact that politicians are pretty consistent liars (and that all of the liars don’t happen to be solely among his political opponents) he also has mental access to – at the very least – a few other eras of Jewish history (if not necessrily general or American history, though here too he’s not a total ignoramous) – how could he possibly be so biased by what he perceives as the negatives of the present that he fails to notice that however terrible the negatives are they’re in no way extraordinary on any historical scale.
Even if every Democrat lied about everything, they’d still be far behind Hitler’s success rate as a liar. How much of a blinkered Presentist do you have to be to view your own boring age as somehow worse than anything that ever existed?
The Newsmax guys (like Glenn Beck) appear to be part of the same nonsensical way of thinking. “If Jesus didn’t return NOW to save us from the Demoracts genocidal health care legislation that essentially hands the world over to the AntiChrist then – my Lord! – will he EVER return?!?!”
Donna B. · March 27, 2010 at 5:51 am
Reminds me of Where Have All The Flowers Gone.
Pangloss · March 27, 2010 at 9:40 am
Need he come back? It would appear that one appearance was sufficient (and necessary) to all the wonders that we enjoy.
I love facts and the fact of the matter is that man’s progress from 2000 BC to 0 can be fairly described as progressing from small piles of rocks to large (albeit prettier) ones.
Then, God gave light to Man (Plato was a fifth columnist) and we progressed from piles of pretty rocks to: man on the moon, the internet, nuclear energy, and a world that is for the first time largely democratic with free markets.
That is a tought act to follow.
Snippet · March 28, 2010 at 7:13 am
Yes, the Greek discovery of science and democracy (roughly 0 BC, give or take a few hundred) did herald in a new age of progress
Hail Zeus!
Pangloss · March 28, 2010 at 7:54 am
“Hail Zeus!”
What ever – but I think the point is that such wide ranging and relatively concurrent concepts such as Plato’s Dialectic and the Holy Trinity provide for the common person to aspire to heavenly perfections.
Well It’s Got To Be A Newsmax Jesus « Around The Sphere · March 31, 2010 at 10:53 am
[...] Andrew Stuttaford at Secular Right [...]