Asymmetric Religion and Philosophy

Every time disaster strikes, somebody should drive to Pat Robertson's house and restrain him for two weeks.

He makes religion (which is providing Haiti with spiritual and material aid as we speak) look stupid. And, it isn't because he's exposing some essential point of Christianity; it's because he's foolish.

Robertson's problem is that he takes religious truths, that God interacts with the real world and that there's cosmic justice, and simplifies them to a ridiculous degree, making this earthquake seem like an empirically verifiable cause-and-effect phenomenon.

(Omniscience means God knew it would happen. Omnipotence means He designed the world in such a way that this could happen and could have stopped it. The Devil can't cause earthquakes)

It's essential to know the above tenets. It's dumb to try to make direct connections between a particular attitude or behavior, especially amongst large groups, and a physical, mass event that happens to occur wherever there's a fault in the earth's crust.

Did Haiti's leaders make a pact with the Devil? Probably not. Is it generally not a good idea to invoke the Dark One? Yes. What role does this have in anything? Who knows?

Please Mr. Robinson, be quiet. Besides being theologically simple-minded, your utterances do nothing but give opponents of Christianity legitimate targets.

Statement by 700 club:

CBN.com – VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., January 13, 2010 -- On today’s The 700 Club, during a segment about the devastation, suffering and humanitarian effort that is needed in Haiti, Dr. Robertson also spoke about Haiti’s history. His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster. They have sent a shipment of millions of dollars worth of medications that is now in Haiti, and their disaster team leaders are expected to arrive tomorrow and begin operations to ease the suffering.

Chris Roslan

It's our Christian duty to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti. All of us should if we're in a position to do so.

The Anchoress has some ways to help.

If the nation decides to assist, for whatever reason, it's right that we dispatch our national resources to the area. The government has the infrastructure to help. That's a government-private partnership that I can get behind.

From the Wiki:

The Twelve Days of Christmas are the festive days beginning on Christmas Day (25 December). This period is also known as Christmastide. The Twelfth Day of Christmas is 5 January - the day before the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January.

I think Crosby and the Andrew Sisters had a fine version:

Caravaggio adds one of those Saints who experienced Christ during his lifetime, St. Francis.

About 2000 years ago, God decided to become man in addition to God to fulfill a mission He gave Himself, the redemption of the world. Respecting our free will, God sought the cooperation of she whom He created for that purpose, Mary.

I can prove this indirectly through the testimony of the apostles, all of whom suffered and died carrying out their own mission assigned to them by Jesus, to spread the Good News. We also have the reality of unique miracles, personal witnesses, and the peaceful transformation of an entire society. Nobody can disprove it directly or indirectly without arguing that the God of their conception wouldn't follow this course or that there isn't a God at all. Therefore a leap, but not one that must ignore reality or dismiss counter-evidence: God thinks faith important and I don't expect completely verifiable evidence until He comes again.

One may assume that such a course better served Cosmic Justice. Actions must be recompensed physically as well as in thought. The means by which God deals with humanity's straying, a mystery which requires faith in man's free will- that man could have done otherwise even with God's foreknowledge, is sacrifice, a recurrent theme in God's history with us and instituted to help us appreciate the truth.

God simply wants us to recognize this reality, to believe what truly is, and in keeping with the emphasis on physical actions, to live in accordance with that truth. The moral ordering of the world is faintly written on our heart and He's given us sacraments, scripture, and an earthly authority, His Church, to help us out.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I love everything related to this season- the music, movies, decorations; and the way they combine with my memories of Christmases past and what I believe about the holy day to effect a real inner-transformation, one that conforms to the traditional urgings of the Advent season: peace, charity, brotherhood.

Merry Christmas

An intelligent person recognizes that any organization will have a percentage of bad members. A person who's studied the abuse crisis in the Church as I have, a little, will also realize that abuse occurs, tragically, anywhere authority intersects weakness, and especially where men encounter potential sexual victims (see links below).

We all feel for the victims, and nobody is excusing misconduct, so lets get that out of the way.

Now, what hurt the Church's reputation is the seeming lack of action on the part of the Church hierarchy- really, if you're a hierarchical institution, the people on top better be good. By not immediately dismissing bad priests and bishops, the Church gave the impression that it wasn't concerned about or that it even condoned what was going on. Christopher Hitchens jumps on the fact that Bernadin Law received an appointment in Rome after being bishop when the pedophile scandal broke in Boston. While they snicker, the faithful fume at what they perceive as a betrayal of trust.

I might not attend a Christmas concert at the Our Lady of Angels Cathedral just because one of the the worst Cardinals since Richelieu, Mahoney, might be there.

Which is why I'm very happy that the Pope has accepted the resignation of Limerick Bishop, Donal Murray and that the Irish Church will restructure.

Finally.

Some perspective on the crisis here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

As Anne Applebaum notices and Diane Francis' anti-person screed proves, nature worship leads to a diminution of man's place in the world. It's logical, actually:

1. If desiring nature to be preserved as it is now or restore it to a pre-human state is the greatest good.

2. and, if people are just one creature amongst many, without any more natural worth than nature itself.

3. and, if man is using more than his share of resources or damaging the earth so that 1 is impossible.

4. then, man's power to destroy needs to diminish.

We can do this two ways, by reducing the number of people or limiting each person's engagement with nature.

Christianity teaches us that man is the ultimate physical creation (angels are spirit) and infinitely more valuable than animals by virtue of our being created in God's image, as moral agents. The universe's resources are here for us. One judges anything men do in relation to the earth by how it impacts humanity, physically and aesthetically (preserving nature because men enjoy its beauty is perfectly justifiable, although using marble to make Michelangelo's David is probably more beneficial to mankind than having another slab of marble in the ground).

You can be thoroughly secular and still value men more than nature, but you can't do so logically while holding the the first and/or second assumption; it would just be a personal preference.

As for the Pope's seemingly anti-capital pronouncements, it's probably not correct to frame them in secular right-left terms.

Society should orient itself towards what's good for its citizens (I think it's capitalism) and if taking care of the environment, as per the explanation above, is part of that, so be it.

One of my most annoying traits is verbally assaulting foreigners (there's a word you don't hear anymore) with questions.

Thaddeus Mensah was one of my unfortunate victims a few weeks ago. Mr. Mensah's from Sampa, Ghana (below). He and his friend Alex Obroni run a charity in Ghana called Sampa Community Educational Project, Thaddeus here in the US and Alex in Ghana. They build schools and do other good works.

My view on foreign charity:

Generally speaking, a dollar to a person in places like Africa means a lot more than it does to somebody in Los Angeles. Here, it's the difference between a single and double Whopper. Over there, it's the difference between eating for a week or starving, going to school or staying illiterate.

Patriotism is important and there's a utilitarian dimension to helping one's neighbor first, but we should remember that we have obligations to all fellow humans (according to my beliefs and probably yours if you didn't follow a link from some Ayn Rand forum).

Thaddeus seems like a nice guy, and if you are charitably inclined, I'd like for you to consider SCEP.

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This year, thankful for (in no particular order)...:

1. soldiers who have sacrificed for their country.
2. clergy and others who sacrifice for God.
3. being an American.
4. health, mental and physical.
5. wife, that she's faithful to and loves me.
6. children.
7. having both my parents with me.
6. having a job.
9. being a teacher.
10. being a soldier.
11. my friends.
12. being able to learn, read, listen to, watch whatever I want.
13. having this outlet for self-expression.
14. you guys who are reading this right now.
15. computers and all of gadgets I enjoy.
16. being able to choose my leaders.
17. Pilgrims.

Who do I thank? Well individuals, where appropriate (my wife for putting up with me), but God, overall. And, if I had none of the things above, I'd still thank God.

Why?

Well, my existence and the opportunity to fight for or persevere without items 1-17.

Why?

God told us to.

Why does he need thanks?

He doesn't. We do.

Why?

We need to recognize the source of everything. We need to acknowledge the order of the universe.

Can Fox report something about the Vatican and science without mentioning Galileo in the first sentence or Giordano Bruno, who was not burned at the stake for being a scientist, in the middle of the report. Really, the article needs two anti-Catholic references?

Why didn't they say that the search for extraterrestrial life follows the great history of the Catholic Church in encouraging science in general and particular scientists like Galileo; Copernicus; Mendel; and Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître, who first proposed the Big Bang theory or Nicholas Steno, one of the pioneers of archaeology?

How about mentioning that 5% of the greatest mathematicians in history were Jesuit priests?

Too much to ask?

I may have a mini-obsession at any one time (the last being 40s music), but I'm pretty moderate about any one thing over time and my interests have breadth- from the physical like cars and technology to the metaphysical to those things in between, like music and art. I partition my radio listening according to this tendency. When I reach maximum political talk radio capacity, I switch to straight news, music, or, like I did a couple of years ago, the Comedy Channel on Sirius.

Lately, I've been listening to Catholic radio on Sirius. They have two Catholic channels, the Catholic Channel and EWTN. The former has a good psychologist show called Fully Alive! with Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak.

EWTN is more serious, generally. My favorite show, one that I've been podcasting for the last month or so, is the Catholic Answers radio show. Patrick Coffin hosts the show and he's a very talented broadcaster. Calm and goofy, he has a great radio presence. Each day, he welcomes a different guest, with Sister Rosalind Moss, a convert from Judaism, being an especially powerful speaker, combining as she does intelligence and emotion to produce one engaging presentation. I see her being the successor to Mother Angelica.

Anyways, they're having a membership drive. The site for the drive is here. I suggest you download one of their free podcasts, here.