On the postmodern hubris of meta-level thinking

Tue, 06/06/2017 - 16:40 — frlarry
Topics: 
Harbingers
History
Issues
Reflections

Ever since computer games developed significantly beyond the PACMAN stage, and imagined realities took on three dimensions and other attention absorbing features, our inveterate game players have come to think of reality itself as a kind of programmed virtual reality, and, as such, that it could be reprogrammed. This may strike someone who entered adulthood before PACMAN went viral as delusoinal. Reality, we might say, is a given. Our capacity to shape reality is very limited, and subject to unforeseen consequences. We might even wonder at the sanity or the cluelessness that this almost godlike attitude seems to imply.

What Matthew 24:28 says about government programs and their architects

Sun, 05/28/2017 - 20:00 — frlarry
Topics: 
Harbingers
History
Issues
Reflections

What is the fundamental cause of the subprime mortgage crisis and the crash of 2007/2008? If you don't know the answer to this, you haven't been paying attention. The fundamental cause was that lending institutions were forced, by government mandate, to take on high risk mortgage lending.

From a four year old reflection...

Tue, 04/11/2017 - 10:54 — frlarry
Topics: 
Reflections

Back in the early 90s, Saturday Night Life had a skit, featuring Mike Myers as "Linda Richman", known as "Coffee Talk." Here's what Wikipedia says about the discussion section:

"Progress is our most important product" taken as an ideal...

Sat, 04/08/2017 - 05:34 — frlarry
Topics: 
Reflections

A simple idea, good on its face but taken to an extreme (especially if it should be elevated in the mind's eye to the "pinnacle of ideas") can turn that idea into a monster. Lacking in some essential, balancing characteristics, the idea grows from a homunculus (conceived in the laboratory of a philosopher's mind) to a Frankenstein's monster (bent on destroying its creator and everything he actually cherishes).

National Socialism (Nazism) vs. Bolshevism

Wed, 03/15/2017 - 10:17 — frlarry
Topics: 
History
Issues
Reflections

It was Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher and logician, who, although he himself became a confirmed socialist, pointed out that Bolshevism under Vladimir Lenin had become, in effect, a religion. (See ”The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism”.) The religious fervor of their adherents can blind them to the deeply flawed nature of their underlying philosophical presuppositions and operating principles. Russell could see that Bolshevism, in practice, was a very bad deal.

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This web log is a place to conduct a conversation on the elusive nature or features of listening to and following God’s will. That is, it is concerned with the “how and why” of seeing with Eyes of Faith. Besides the “how and why” it is also about the “what.” What does one see in the world through Eyes of Faith? This component of the weblog is, alas, likely to be the preponderant content for some time. There are fundamental axioms that I propose here for what it means to “see with eyes of faith.” Seeing with eyes of faith is ultimately about viewing the world as a creature of a personal God.

 

 

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"What did you go out to the desert to see--a reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom scripture says: 'Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.' I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

Jesus, commenting on John the Baptist — Luke 7:24b-28, NAB

Desert scene, originally uploaded by Bitterroot

If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Jesus commenting on the perennial project of evil to co-opt the good — Matthew 24:23-28, KJV

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
[Isaiah 1:18-20]

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling to their playmates, "We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn." For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon"; the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!" Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.
Jesus comparing how people received him, John the Baptist (and the prophets) — Matt 11:15-19, RSV

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him. For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me." For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
[Romans 15:1-7]

A good hermeneutic cannot mechanically apply the criteria of inspiration, or absolute truth, in the extrapolation of a sentence or expression. The level on which it is possible to perceive Sacred Scriptures as the Word of God is that of the unity of God's history, a totality in which single elements are reciprocally illuminated and open themselves to understanding.
Pope Benedict XVI message to Cardinal William J. Levada, president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and the members of that commission. The message was issued on the occasion of the commission's annual plenary assembly, which focused on the theme of "Inspiration and Truth of the Bible," and made public on May 5, 2011.

If I ever do wind up in hell, I suspect my punishment will be to teach math to politicians and journalists. Then again, it might be, instead, locating and fixing all of the grammatical and spelling errors in everything I've ever written. (Myth of Sisyphus, anyone?)
Fr. Larry