Gadfly's Muse

Grieving Death

Meditation:

I just returned from conducting a funeral.  These things are always solemn occasions and this one was no exception.  As always the emotional and spiritual character of those who assemble at such occasions determines the overall impact, but such is not to say that the experience is completely subjective to the specific group.  There is a constancy in grief.  Perhaps in grief, especially in the face of death, is the essential unity of man most clearly manifest.

Such is not the case with birth, interestingly enough.  The modern warm, emotional, "awwww" evoking sentimentality over infants has not always been the case.  There were long periods in human history when infants were often viewed with an almost clinical detachment in many cultures.  The whole idea of a "milk-nurse" was not just because the birth mother was unable to function in this regard, but because it was a job for a servant.  The death rate for infants was so high that quite often a culture would tend toward reserving affection for children to later in their childhood.  But the bewailing of death, primarily for adults or near adults, seems universal though not consistently as emotional in some cultures as others

Atheism As World View

BeepBeep wrote:

RE: " I do not believe that any other religion or philosophy, including progressive atheism, has a logically consistent explanation for the apparent ultimate reality of death."

"Atheism" isn't a worldview. If it is, it is an extremely short worldview. An atheist is simply someone who doesn't believe in the existence of a god or gods. The word "atheist" doesn't describe what someone believes, whether they believe in something, nothing or anything, it merely describes what someone does NOT believe in. In the case of atheists, they do not have god belief.

The ultimate reality of death is that we cease to function as living organisms. Anything else is purely speculative. Unless you can provide a methodology which is capable of consistently demonstrating that an individual's death is not final, then it is speculation.

Fourth Generation Warfare

Quoted from Stratfor Report: 02.21.07

An al Qaeda military strategist and propagandist, Abu Ubeid al-Qurashi, expounded on this concept in an article titled "Fourth-Generation Wars," carried by the organization's biweekly Internet magazine, Al Ansar, in February 2002:

"Fourth-generation warfare, the experts said, is a new type of war in which fighting will be mostly scattered. The battle will not be limited to destroying military targets and regular forces, but will include societies, and will seek to destroy popular support for the fighters within the enemy's society. In these wars, the experts stated in their article, 'television news may become a more powerful operational weapon than armored divisions.' They also noted that 'the distinction between war and peace will be blurred to the vanishing point.'"

Turning Points: Decisive Moments In The History of Christianity

By Mark A. Noll

Noll's book is well worth the cost and the time to read. It is a fine resource for teaching in the local church or for individual study. Written in plain prose with adequate explanation of the technical theological terms that must be considered, it is easily accessible by the average reader today. If for nothing else, this book will acquaint or re-acquaint us with the importance of doctrines, Evangelical piety no matter in what tradition it is found, and how the world can be changed. It is implicitly, a call to return to our roots.

Noll's major contribution in this work however, may very well be how he demonstrates to us that crucial turning points in the progress of history are often the consequence of intense, penetrating debate concerning rather precise and difficult concepts. These debates may be acrimonius and there may be many dark episodes that accompany them, but Noll's synopsis makes us realize just how vital those debates are, even when so accompanied. We often consider the ancient thinkers as being somewhat primitive because their technology was not as advanced as ours. A survey of history such as this will quickly disabuse us of this notion and cause us to reflect upon the paucity of such thinking around us now as was evidenced in these debates.

I highly recommend reading the book. It would be good to pay attention to the names and dates but the real teaching, for me, is that we moderns need to get back to thinking deep thoughts about our time and place as these men and women did in theirs.

BeepBeep & Darwinism

BeepBeep quite appropriately asked:

RE: "Darwin himself (The Descent of Man) states that there is no ultimate moral hindrance to superior human races (as defined by him) extinguishing inferior ones."

Can you provide the source where Darwin says it is ok for human races to extinguish other human races?

Further Dialog With BeepBeepItsMe

Continued discussion.  Italics are from Beep, where she prefaces with a RE: she is quoting a previous comment of mine - standard face type is my reply

RE: "Response: As I said in my earlier comment, I do not hold that Christianity is the only world view that is internally logically consistent and therefore provides a framework for explaining the world as we see it. "

Demonstrate how christianity is internally logically consistent. I don't see anything logical about the assumption of supernatural entities. Especially when supernaturalists have no methodology to test the veracity of supernatural claims.

Art as "Craft"

Thanks to Jeremiah H. for a great link - "Good Art"

Paul Graham proposes an interesting subject "How Art Can Be Good" and then goes on to discuss the issues of subjectivity, taste, various audience's receptivity, cultural inclinations, etc.  He relays a very interesting anecdote about his own art training, when a professor was asked the embarrassing question "Why don't we (modern artists) paint like that (17th century artists) any more?"  The elephant in the room at the time was the undeniable fact that modern art (on the whole) doesn't hold a candle to the quality of artistic endeavor manifestly present in earlier times.  Graham goes on to speculate that there are reasons for this condition.  He thinks that the concept of "good art" as opposed  to "bad art" meant something then and provided an impetus for artists to excell. 

The Battle, stage II

Mississippi College, Covenant College, Calvin College, Dordt, Samford, Gordon and other Christian colleges across our nation have been targeted by the Gay-activist group Soulforce. They are organizing protests of Christian colleges because of their codes that forbid sexual immorality. Please pass this information on to graduates and supporters of these fine institutions. Thanks,

 

Charlie Rodriguez, Owner
Fortress Book Service & Publishers
800-241-4016 / 601-925-4607 (fax)
www.fortressbookservice.com

 

A Few Questions From BeepBeepItsMe!!

Here are a few questions that were asked regarding my posts on Dawkins The God Delusion.  I will respond here rather than in the chain so as to have more room.  The italicized words are from him (?), his lines beginning "RE" reflect a quote I had made in the exchange.

RE: "Christianity explains the facts of life and demonstrates the nature of those facts. "

What facts of life does christianity explain?  And what facts can human beings NOT explain without recourse to christianity?

A Study In Leadership

                                                                            Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor
                                                                                                        Biography by Anthony Everitt
                                                                                                                2006, Random House

This is a well written, anecdotal history of a complex and pivotal life, a study in how a single man can be the focus of world changing significance.  Anthony Everitt’s disciplined recounting of the events and manner of Gaius Octavius Caesar (Augustus) allows for more than a pleasant re-acquaintance with important historical facts.  Fundamental to the author’s approach is the manner in which he allows us to see parallels to our own time and culture in the issues confronted by nation whose very success surpassed its political structures’ capacity to resolve.  Furthermore, at a bit further distance, this book supplies a study of the nature, perils, rewards and costs of unwavering ambition when it controls a capable, energetic and charismatic leader.  When read with an eye toward this aspect, it is a sobering reminder that a person must count the cost of significance.  If any aspire to greatness, the pathway they must walk, the cost they must bear and the steel resolve they must demonstrate, cannot be far removed from that we see in Augustus.  The book is an excellent critique of ambition even as it clearly demonstrates that which can be attained through it.