Is this REALLY what you voted for?
Why it is that this story doesn’t get covered on ABC, CBS, NBC? NY Times, Washington Post?
You know.
Dec 12 2009
Is this REALLY what you voted for?
Why it is that this story doesn’t get covered on ABC, CBS, NBC? NY Times, Washington Post?
You know.
Dec 11 2009
First a protestant, then a catholic, on what divides us, and what unites us. There are still some issues to be resolved. Much more at each link.
There used to be a time when your loyalty to the Protestant cause was judged by how much you hated Catholics. But today, with all the ecumenical dialogue, the Manhattan statements, the ECT council, and the postmodern virtue of tolerance, people are much more willing to let water under the bridge. “Maybe we overreacted” is the thought of many.
To the Catholics, Protestants are no longer anathema (which is pretty bad), but are “separated brethren” (which is not so bad).
Times are changing. But have the issues changed?
Hermeneutics and the Authority of Scripture
It is my pleasure to be able to write on a subject where we as Catholics share so much common ground with our Reformed brothers, and even with most Evangelicals. In fact, it is no small thing that we agree upon foundational truths contra mundum in a time when even many Christians deny them.
This article intends to show that, though Protestants agree with the Catholic Church on the basic truths about Scripture and its authority, the Reformed view of Scripture errs in three respects: in its assumption about the canon of Scripture, in its view of the authority of Scripture, and in its view of the role of Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church. These errors are harmful to the faith, and the truth proclaimed by the Catholic Church about its Sacred books is the perfect corrective. I will begin this examination of the authority of Sacred Scripture with our points of agreement.
There is cause for hope in eventual Christian unity, I think. We have a ways to go, however. And the eventual rapprochement will necessarily involve both sides giving up something non-essential, for the sake of the essentials.
Dec 09 2009
Some serious physicists think they have good ideas about how to build interstellar spacecraft based on Dark power: Grand designs for interstellar travel
In August, physicist Jia Liu at New York University outlined his design for a spacecraft powered by dark matter (arxiv.org/abs/0908.1429v1). Soon afterwards, mathematicians Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland at Kansas State University in Manhattan proposed plans for a craft powered by an artificial black hole (arxiv.org/abs/0908.1803).
No one disputes that building a ship powered by black holes or dark matter would be a formidable task. Yet remarkably there seems to be nothing in our present understanding of physics to prevent us from making either of them.
Of course, there is the whole issue of Galactic cooling to be considered. It seems that the galaxy may be heading into an ice age, and if we use up all our energy driving space craft all over the place, what will we have left to heat the planets? The Greenland permafrost will get even frostier. They’ll probably open a Wendy’s.
Anyway, if they do start steaming around the universe in black hole driven starships, they’d better be careful not to drive right off the edge of everything into another universe. There might be monsters there. Or even worse, environmentalists. You know how that will go… they’ll start berating us for using up non-renewable resources like black holes and dark matter.
Then somebody will make a movie about the heat-death of the multi-verse and terrify everyone at the Intergalactic Preservation Cosmological Commission, and before you know it, someone will want to tax black hole harvesting.
And that will only be the beginning.
Dec 08 2009
You hear an awful lot about “sustainability” these days, the notion that we don’t dare use anything until we’re certain we can replace it. This bit of leftist piety is intellectually and scientifically vacuous, of course, not least because of the laws of thermodynamics, one of which makes it clear that you ALWAYS waste energy in a process of resource consumption, so that it’s literally impossible to have a “zero footprint.” It’s especially laughable for anyone living in the first world to make such a claim. It is literally impossible to live in an advanced society and not benefit from the expenditures of others that produce carbon emissions from which you benefit.
It’s a little bit like claiming to be a pacifist, but accepting police, prisons, etc., because you really can’t live in a society without them… or at least you wouldn’t want to.
Perhaps if you walked naked into the wilderness somewhere in the American west, without any modern device or accoutrement, and then found a way to survive using only what you could find and make…. but I’m guessing your survival is soon going to depend on fire, and there goes the carbon footprint. Too bad. It’s just so unfair when you know you want to do the right thing, but nature just won’t cooperate.
Maybe you could have a zero footprint if you just died, but someone will doubtless waste some energy dealing with your corpse.
The laws of thermodynamics aren’t the only issue, though. There are also some laws of economics to consider, as explained in Sustainability: An Assault on Economics, which after a thorough explanation of the economic foolishness involved, ends this way:
Is the Sustainability Crusade Sustainable?
How long will sustainists be able to beat their drum, simultaneously trumpeting their greener-than-thou self-image and attempting, with varying degrees of coercion, to make the rest of us act “sustainable” too? With the global warming scare losing credibility by the day, the likelihood of sustainists being able to claim even a moral victory is fading.[4] Barring the earth melting down from a little bit of smoke, I’m not too worried about sustainists having much of a long-run impact.
Hardcore sustainists are asking for a radically disruptive change from the natural order of the free-market economy. They’re asking us to forego wealth and embrace privation in the name of their cause.[5] Although citizens of the Western democracies have seemingly become easy marks for anything green, we will only go so far toward saving the planet, especially when it becomes apparent that sustainability requires a march toward poverty and a deeply regimented and regulated society (and that the planet’s not really in peril, after all).
Also, and perhaps more importantly, people in developing countries will be increasingly turned off by the sustainists’ demands for sacrifice. Having just arrived at the high living standards that long-term capitalist development yields, my sense is that they will turn a cold shoulder to the idea of ratcheting down their development.
The current resurgence of the classical-liberal tradition in economics will also reduce the appeal of sustainability. The idea of imposed or centrally planned sustainability will crumble under the realization that the spontaneous order wrought by the invisible hand of the free-market price system is amazingly sustainable in and of itself. Add to the mix the hardships of the current recession, and it won’t be long before enough people, even sustainist crusaders, come crawling back, box of chocolates in hand, to the free-market economy.
The sustainists are the modern Luddites. I invite each and every one of them to put their carbon credits where their mouth is and take up residence on a tropical island with fruit trees, one so temperate that they never need a fire, never have to cook food, never have to plant food, and never need to waste innocent plant life by making clothing from it. They can just live off the bounty of nature, about like a chimp with an extra big brain (what a waste).
Of course, when the first tsunami hits and decimates their tropical paradise, I expect them to welcome the U.S. Navy’s rescue services with open arms, even though our noble seamen arrive in a cloud of diesel smoke and gamma radiation from nuclear power propulsion, grilling steaks on the deck for the rescued, providing them with oil-derived synthetic clothing to keep them warm in the unseasonable weather, and giving them helicopter rides to civilization, where they can go on the show that was formerly known as Oprah! and flog the book they’ve just written about their harrowing encounter with the implacable forces of nature, just before the book tour begins with a whirlwind of commercial flights from city to city for book signings at stores staying open late with electric lighting just to accomdate the crowds, who will have consumed enormous quantities of food from the vendors in the area while they waited in line, and dropped the trash all over the place.
Dec 06 2009
The previous post in this series is here.
In an earlier post in this series, I said that, “If an idea or perspective can be shown on historical grounds to have arisen from sources which are anti-Christian (something more than merely non-Christian), we are correct to look with great suspicion on its current manifestations, regardless of how much God-talk we surround it with.” It is not necessary to claim that all of what is normally called “humanistic psychology” is “anti-Christian” in order to demonstrate that a great many of the philosophers and thinkers whose work provided its foundations were certainly anti-Christian. Further, the value-neutral orientation of humanistic psychology (including extreme non-judgment as a therapeutic tool) is an implicit denial that there is such a thing as right and wrong, other than socially constructed norms. All too often, the biographies and writings of innovators in the field of humanistic psychology make it clear that they were explicitly reacting against Christianity, along with its moral expectations.
Here is Carl Rogers:
Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person’s ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me.
In humanistic psychology, it really is all about you. In the Christian tradition, it isn’t. There are certainly a great many Christian therapists who borrow this or that modality from secular humanist therapeutic approaches, but one might wish they exhibited a bit more fear and trembling as they did it. It is playing with fire to attempt an integration of therapeutic approaches, devised by people hostile to Christian values, with true Christian counseling. It’s not impossible to do, but it’s safe to say that just because your therapist is “a Christian” and has a degree in psychology, it doesn’t follow that you’re getting “Christian counseling.”
Here is a particularly grim presentation that details the deliberate use of psychological therapeutic techniques to destroy faith, and religious institutions built on it. The “therapists” didn’t hide much, didn’t pretend too carefully. All anyone had to do was simply read what they said in print, read the philosophical underpinnings of their work, and their intent should have been crystal clear. The ability of the leaders of these Christian institutions to delude themselves was remarkable. (Then, they sometimes said that they were “deceived.” But it takes two people to tell a lie, one to tell it, and one to want to believe it.)
One mother pulled her daughter out of a failing Catholic school for girls before it closed, saying, “Listen, she can lose her faith for free at the state college.” The school was failing specifically because it had turned therapeutic Rogerian wolves loose on the sheep. Sadly, something similar might be said of some of the Biblical and theological training on offer at some Christian institutions.
It is very common at Christian universities for a course in the “social sciences” to be required of all students. Often, it can be chosen from a list that includes an introductory course in either Psychology or Sociology. Is this a value-neutral enterprise, merely revealing a commitment to the liberal arts? Or are other dynamics also at work?
The leftist slant of the entire discipline of sociology has been well documented. Do you doubt it? Start knocking on doors at Christian university sociology departments, and see if you can find anyone who voted for the Republican slate for the last few elections, or is a constitutional originalist, or is a biblical inerrantist, or thinks Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be reversed, or thinks global warming fears are overblown, or believes that government is far less trustworthy than the free market, taxes are too high, and redistributionist programs create more problems than they solve. If you find one sociologist who shows any leanings to the Right, can you find two? Better bring your cell phone… because you’ll soon be calling for driving directions to the next Christian college down the road, somewhat like Diogenes with a GPS lantern. Don’t even bother looking at secular schools. The GPS satellites’ orbits will decay before you find a right-leaning sociologist. Unless you know one of these guys, maybe.
Are all approaches to psychology specifically anti-Christian? Of course not. But it is a huge mistake to think that all therapeutic approaches are “value neutral” by definition, or that Christian therapists can just pick and choose from the smorgasbord of techniques taught in secular graduate schools. Psychological therapeutic techniques can’t fix the damage done by sin. Only Jesus can. Approaches that direct patients away from understanding that their own sin may be part of their problem can’t be mainstays in the arsenals of Christian therapists. That way may lie the acclaim of the world, and easy acceptance by professional organizations. But it is, by definition, based on a lie that Christians, therapists or not, must not tell.
Psychology is a baby science. It is very, very young and undeveloped. It is just too new. In particular, aspects of it that involve theories of personality seem to change about every other decade… or more often. Bluntly, we know as much about the psychology of human beings as scientists knew about physics before Isaac Newton. There were some good observations, scattered examples of brilliance, and a beginning had been made, but none of it made much sense yet, because there was little in the way of a unifying theory that pulled together all the various observations and allowed the making of successful predictions. (Unless, of course, you take the New Testament approach that the human problem is sin, and those who don’t acknowledge that and deal with it in Jesus’ name are going to have more problems…. always a successful prediction. And yes, I hear some of the shrinks sneering in the background. Imagine, sin causing personal adjustment problems…. how quaint and unsophisticated!)
A therapist friend tells me that too much that passes for “therapy” these days is the moral equivalent of fastening a leech on the patient and hoping for the best, but doing so with a sympathetic expression and non-directive attitude. In fact, he tells me that some Christian therapists seem to believe it is an ethical breach to make any kind of moral judgment or statement to a patient, even to let it be known that the therapist is a Christian.
Is there any evidence that taking a course in Psychology or Sociology, as an undergraduate, results in a happier life, a better adjusted life, a more moral life, a less conflicted life? Well… no. I asked several psychology faculty who had a vested interest in making the case, but they admitted there is none. Such an admission “against interest” carries great weight. Of course, there are those who claim that their particular way of teaching is just so spectacular that their students DO become better adjusted because of the course. I remain skeptical. But I have actually heard this claim made as justification for requiring all undergrads to take a psychology course. The therapeutic model of education seems to be in full flower.
Can we be reasonably sure that the content of a course in “Introductory Psychology” will be about the same in 30 years? That would be the sign of a stable discipline with a solid foundation… like physics, or chemistry, or calculus, or English, or music theory, or whatever. Advanced courses will show advances in the discipline, but intro courses won’t change so much in terms of actual content, though pedagogical approaches may change. If the last 30 years are a guide, I have my doubts that psychology is there yet.
None of this means that psychology isn’t a valid discipline, that people should not enter the field, etc. It does mean that a little humility is in order. It means that the value of a single introductory course is probably somewhat less than an intro course in a more stable area of study. And given the apparent ideological proclivities of too many in the fields of psychology/sociology, administrators of Christian universities will be well advised to start by reading the articles linked above, and assessing their own institutions.
There are some great therapists out there. I know a few, and know of a few more.
But denying moral truth cannot be a successful therapeutic technique in the long run, and it is damaging in the short run and long run.
And it is simply a lie that Christians cannot tell, even by implication.
The next post in this series is here.
Dec 04 2009
A point that needs some stress is that the French obsession with “equality” led to the murder of many thousands in the Terror that followed the French Revolution. It was simply a violent expression of class warfare, pure and simple. In fact, the French experience and perspective of that time was a major inspiration for the totalitarian movements of the 20th century.
In the interest of time, Dennis Prager can only brush on this point, but it is perhaps the most critical of his presentation, because it is the least understood by people who point to European “democracy” and assert it is “as good” as the American republican approach. In fact, about all they have in common is that votes happen, and do change things in the government, and there is some form of rule of law. But the assumptions from which the governments proceed are largely different, a point that is lost on those who want to emulate the European model.
Here is a trinity of trinities:
Liberty, equality, fraternity – France
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – USA
Peace, order and good government – Canada, other Commonwealth nations
Note well: the restriction the French phrase places on liberty is the emphasis on equality, which can only be enforced by government. The restriction placed on liberty in the USA phrase is only that which interferes with another’s right to live, or unjustly fetters another’s right to pursue his own happiness. The Commonwealth model doesn’t even discuss liberty. All three items in it involve government power to bring about ends.
The main point here: the French and Commonwealth versions are mostly about what it is the responsibility of government to DO. The USA version is mostly about what the government should NOT do.
There is a simple reason, which Prager mentions: in the American model, rights are understood as given by God, and merely recognized by government, which is what makes them “unalienable.” In the other models, rights are granted by government, as long as they don’t get in the way of other ends that are equally or more important, like “equality” or “order” or “good government.”
And that’s the critical element in American exceptionalism.
h/t: CFC
Dec 03 2009
A dreadful thing happened last week. One of the fastest express trains of the whole Russia, Nevsky Express, which was going from Moscow to Saint-Petersburg and having more than 600 passengers on its board was blew up. At 9:34 pm, when train was going somewhere near Aleshinka, Uglovka towns, 7 kilos of TNT which were buried under the tracks detonated and as a result of which the train was derailed.
Many photos and story at the link. This was covered pretty sparsely in the USA… but it is a very big deal.
I wonder when Putin and company will catch on that Iran exports terrorism to Russia as much as anywhere else, directly or indirectly.
Dec 01 2009
In Germany, home schooling is simply illegal. Is that going to happen in the USA, too?
N.H. High Court to Hear Case of Girl Ordered Out of Homeschooling
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has agreed to take up the case of a Christian girl who was ordered out of homeschooling and into a public school.
Attorneys for 10-year-old Amanda Kurowski argue that the lower court judge overstepped its authority when it determined that it would be in the best interest of the student to explore and examine new things, other than Christianity.
“Courts can settle disputes, but they cannot legitimately order a child into a government-run school on the basis that her religious views need to be mixed with other views. That’s precisely what the lower court admitted it is doing in this case, and that’s where our concern lies,” said Alliance Defense Fund- allied attorney John Anthony Simmons of Hampton.
The daughter of divorced parents, Amanda has been homeschooled by her mother, Brenda Voydatch, since first grade. Her father, Martin Kurowski, is opposed to homeschooling, arguing that it prevents “adequate socialization” for Amanda with other children. He requested that she be placed in a government school.
In the process of renegotiating the terms of a parenting plan for the girl, the Guardian ad Litem, who acts as a fact finder for the court, reported that Amanda was found to “lack some youthful characteristics,” partly because “she appeared to reflect her mother’s rigidity on questions of faith.”
Ms. Voydatch insisted that she does not push religion on Amanda and said her daughter’s choice to share her religious beliefs is a free choice.
The court, however, determined that “Amanda’s vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to the counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view” and that enrolling her in a public school would expose her to a variety of points of view.
At the same time, the court found the girl to be “well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising, and intellectually at or superior to grade level.”
Nevertheless, Judge Lucinda V. Sadler approved the GAL’s recommendation earlier this summer and ruled that it would be in Amanda’s best interests to attend a public school in the 2009-2010 academic year.
Simmons filed a motion to reconsider and stay the order. But the judge denied the motions and stated that the girl “is at an age when it can be expected that she would benefit from the social interaction and problem solving she will find in public school, and granting a stay would result in a lost opportunity for her.”
ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson responded, “We are concerned anytime a court oversteps its bounds to tread on the right of a parent to make sound educational choices, or to discredit the inherent value of the homeschooling option. The lower court effectively determined that it would be a ‘lost opportunity’ if a child’s Christian views are not sifted and challenged in a public school setting. We regard that as a dangerous precedent.”