language

. . . difficult and left untried

The great ideals of the past failed not by being outlived (which must mean over-lived), but by not being lived enough. … The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried. — G.K. Chesterton, Part One: The Homelessness Of Man, Ch. 5 : The Unfinished Temple On Sunday I heard a good sermon that used that quote, and a good quote it is.... [Read more]

The problems of verifying research — part two

Yesterday I posted an article beginning the deconstruction of one of my posts from 21 May. That article had been on the Rapture and claimed that the Rapture pre-dated the Dispensationalists and that, in fact, it had been begun as a Jesuit post. The article itself was a port–with permission–from another website. One of my alert readers pointed out that one of the facts was impossible, as... [Read more]

The problems of verifying research — on the Rapture

[Ed. Note: I have decided to remove identifying information as to where my original post in May came from, as a variation of my 21 May reposting can be found online at various sites.] Back on 21 May, I published a post on the origins of the Rapture doctrine, given that the Rapture predicted by Harold Camping had not come. In that post, I quoted in its entirety–and with permission–an article... [Read more]

The heresy of positive thinking

Positive thinking in the correct sense is good; no one wants to be around a chronic complainer, but XXXXXXXX’s [name removed by Fr. Orthoduck] idea is far different. He promotes the “pull myself up by my own bootstraps so I can be all that I can be” stuff. In his sermons he never mentions sin and human depravity. — from a conservative Christian organization’s blog All of these errors... [Read more]

store

Terry Mattingly on Catholic heretics

Many of you may not be aware that the journalist named Terry Mattingly is Eastern Orthodox, and that besides writing columns has also taught courses in places as diverse as Northern Baptist Seminary, Milligan College, etc. He is an astute observer of popular and official religious trends, and an excellent writer. I subscribe to one of his columns, and so should you. Two days ago, he wrote a piece... [Read more]

C.S. Lewis on theosis

By now regular readers know that I am a fan of C.S. Lewis, and I was a fan of him before becoming Orthodox. In fact, I consider him one of the influences that led me to Orthodoxy, though I would not have thought of it that way before I became Orthodox. You see, it was not until I became Orthodox that I realized just how much of C.S. Lewis’  thinking reflected a more “Eastern” viewpoint,... [Read more]

privacy

But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time

OK, so let’s get to the nitty gritty of these various posts. After Kuhn showed how even science was somewhat dependent on one’s worldview and showed how major advances did not tend to happen until somebody looked at the data with a different worldview, other philosophers began to look again at the whole issue of language and meaning. As a background, Freud and Jung had already done their... [Read more]

copyright

An aside about servicepeople supporting freedom

Yesterday, Father Ernesto continued his discussion on Kuhn and a changing paradigm shift. He will continue that tomorrow with a small discussion on post-modernism and how that has impacted our view of truth. However, he brought up an event from 1946 nicknamed the McMinn County War. There is no recent comparable event, but it is certainly true that there still continues to be a strong feeling in America... [Read more]

api

And you can fool some of the people all of the time

Yesterday I had mentioned that another philosophy came up that caused an explosion within USA culture. Remember that I mentioned a philosopher named Kuhn? His book was published in the 1960′s, in the midst of the cultural explosions that did not begin in the 1960′s as most people think, but began in the 1950′s (well, just slightly before) when the civil rights movement exploded.... [Read more]

site-map

You can fool all of the people some of the time

I mentioned yesterday that a philosopher named Kuhn came up with the terminology “paradigm shift.” And, I mentioned that what he conclusively showed was how even scientists are influenced by some of their preconceptions. Let me put it another way. If any of you have read the original Sherlock Holmes novels–not the movies, please, the novels–you know that he was an obssessive... [Read more]

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