Tuesday 23 January 2024

Who is really deluded?!

  • It is easy to be taken in by juvenilish affability, but I think it took Alex a long time to say very little, indeed, but that surely is pardonable!

  • Nothing on epistemology. How can an agnostic know that of which he is ignorant?! In order to prove that Alex’s imagined God [a given a priori, or one might as well disprove green elephants, or Dawkins’ flying spaghetti monster] does NOT exist [and I agree with him, though I am a Christian] one would have to be omniscient! I can comprehend the incomprehensible? Really? God in a box? Such a ‘god’ is, for sure, an idol, if I may paraphrase Ludwig Feuerbach. The existence of God does not depend on belief or unbelief! Neither do Alex’s thought immaterial thought processes! I am assuming that he agrees with me that matter does not think! Alex, I hope, won't mind if it matters!

  • The undeniable and regrettable abuses in terms of power have nothing to do with original (as in apostolic) Christianity, let alone its founder. The apostle Paul as well as Peter command, indeed, demand, submission to Nero!

  • Religion has always been used as a cloak for power as can be proved from the Tanakh, the Roman Empire, Roman Catholicism and Hitlerism, not to mention current events in the Middle East! Nothing surprising there; that's what one would expect in a fallen world, where love for one’s neighbour means nothing! But Alex fails to mention the atrocities committed by non-theistic regimes! One could provide an endless list, of course!

  • It's all explained in the Bible. I dare say that if the ten commandments were enshrined in our society we'd all be better off! Instead, it's now Romans 1:18ff. All downhill, with the brakes off, full steam head! Degradation, then disintegration! Then the eternal abyss!

  • The empirical method has some validity, of course, but it cannot explain the origin of the universe, let alone the meaning of our existence. R. Dawkins quotes Ecclesiastes as his favourite book, and ironically, when one views life from the vantage point of 'under the sun' (the key to unlocking this book) then nothing (as in nihilism) d o e s make sense, which means that the origin of life is 'fluke', the meaning of life is 'farce' and the destiny of life is 'fertiliser'. ‘F’ is the word!

  • For all the arguments, man is incurably religious, which, of course, points the human race beyond the realm of the material. Meanwhile, if one chooses to live, in the words of D. Bonhoeffer, 'without God before God' then an egocentric ‘Anythingism’ will be the creed of the day, with the survival of the fittest at the forefront (notwithstanding the extinction of dinosaurs and the existence of the corona virus).

  • I am with C.S. Lewis, of course, when it comes to the existence of God: “A man can no more diminish God’s glory [on full display for all to see in God’s creation] by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell (brackets mine / The Problem of Pain, in loc.)

  • Perhaps it is time for Alex to repent - that is to say, 'to think again' and enjoy life to the full, since the world offers so little fleeting pleasures but for a season! Reading the Bible prayerfully would be a good start, as opposed to wanting to “tie up the libertine in a field of feasts” and “keep his brain fuming” (Shakespeare). So, ‘tolle lege’! It transformed Augustine. Why not a lesser intellectual than Alex?!

  • Who is deluded? Time will tell – and eternity is just round the corner! But it’s better to know for certain, as there are only two days, ‘this day’ and ‘that day’!

  • Thursday 28 December 2023

    No devil like a white devil!

    Papa Francis is no longer a straight talker (it is not for me to judge, if he ever has been), which will displease many of his hitherto ardent underlings. "Fiducia Supplicans" - On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings - means that Christmas had, indeed, apparently come early for many non-heterosexual members of the human race, who owe their God-given biological existence to Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

    As far as I am concerned, anyone who claims to be the Triune God on earth (the Holy Father, the Head of the Church, the vicar of Christ), is utterly deranged, even demonically deluded, cf. "you will be like God", in Gen. 3:5! At any rate, to echo Martin Luther, the pope has no authority at all to create new articles of faith; thus, he cannot ‘bless’ (whatever that may mean, I have no idea) what is contrary to God’s design. One wonders what kind of blessings the pope might be able to bestow?!

    But as any Jesuit will tell you, “to be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it” (Rule 13, ironically, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, in loc.). I guess this also applies to the greatest of all non-miraculous miracles, the pernicious doctrine of transubstantiation!

    Is it no far more honest to maintain that “the Bible believes that non-hereosexual sex outside marriage is wrong, and I disagree”, than to bend over backwards (no pun or slur intended, notwithstanding historical evidence to the contrary) to please the world that so desperately needs God’s redemption, if Romans 1:18ff. is anything to go by?

    My humble contribution is n o t an attack on non-heterosexual relationships. One can only echoe, not re-write, what Scripture teaches. Contrary to rumour , I am not sinless myself, thus I am no longer into casting stones. Unlike the pope, I am not ‘anti-Christ’, i.e. ‘in the place of / opposed to Christ’, the final judge before whom every knee will bow one day. 

    Behind this latest development lies the fear of displeasing men rather than offending God! It will always have to be either / or, not both / and. 

    Let my reader also be reminded that I have not managed to surpass M. Luther in his critique of the papacy, per se, and neither has Richard Dawkins. 




    Friday 28 July 2023

    What is a woman?

    I think that all my friends, Christian or not, need to watch this and discuss it with others. Click on the question: What is a woman? Happy to respond to comments, of course!


    Saturday 22 July 2023

    Keir Starmer - His name suggests 'Tame Err Risk'

    Starmer seems willing to change his views and principles (and I am not sure about them) by the minute to get our votes, just seeing how the wind is blowing will determine his direction! His chameleon-like behaviour will, no doubt, attract likeminded comrades. His opportunism is detectable even by a dimwit who wishes to pore over the recent Labour Party manifestos! We no longer seem to have any conviction politicians who are willing to nail their colous to the mast, let alone stand up for the man in the street. A lot of hot air means Starmer will soon be running out of steam. And this is the man who cannot tell us what a woman is, indeed, one is not allowed to talk about it! Blair, I noticed, did not complain about the economy he inherited in 1997, and then came Gordon Brown! I am disenchanted with the whole lot! But one is open to be proven wrong, for all that! I wish him well, for the good of the country.

    Monday 17 July 2023

    Bad - sad - mad!

    Matt Walsh Debates Transgender Woman Who Struggles with "What Is A Woman?" Question

    Freedom of speech is a wonderful God-given gift, given to minions, like myself, who have to obey the powers to be! Well, I have been Shapiroed! If this egololical man is a woman, then I am mad person living in Lal-la land! Or, as Ben Shapiro may have put it, one does not need a PhD do recognise b***shit (pardon my language)! And I do, of course, apologise to all the bulls in the world! May I suggest an entry for the Guinness Book of Record for floccinaucinihilipilification? Notwithstanding the title, I would not even call the whole fiasco a debate. Let's look out for any lunatics that might want to take over the asylum! Or, as a Greek person may want to put it, totally 'διαβολικός' (confusing / diabolical!). And it isn't April 1st, either! At any rate, if a man wants to pretend to be a woman,  that is, of course, entirely up to him, and not me.  But, if he wants me to pretend to be a woman, then that is up to me, and not him!

    Thursday 13 July 2023

    Groen van Prinsterer and the Failure of the French Revolution

    Click image for purchase
    Groen van Prinsterer – henceforth GvP - (1801-1876) in his book “Vrijheid, Gelijkheid, Broederschap” (1848), which has now been translated into English by Jan Adriaan Schlebusch under the title of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - A Refutation of Liberalism” [RefCon Press, 2022] and thus benefiting a wider readership, is nothing short of a frontal and often a scathing attack on the anthropocentric and thus anti-theistic mindset of the French Revolution with its deep taproots in the Enlightenment concept of the autonomy of human reason. The book is littered with historical allusions to countries and events too numerous to mention that point to the “the destructive nature of the Revolutionary ideas” [p. 104], invariably climaxing in political “despotism”[p. 123]. “Has the new doctrine lived up to its promises” [p. 77]? The answer always is a resounding ‘No’! The three slogans mentioned in the title of the book are carefully analysed one by one and utterly repudiated, each in turn, for being completely unbiblical in their reinterpretation along the lines of the contemporary utopian mindset that is entirely detached from real life – but still alive! Says GvP, “Liberty, equality, and fraternity…I would argue that, by their nature, these doctrines make improvements impossible. They don’t mitigate abuses but worsen them. And the very cause of the gravest abuses is inherent to them”[p. 73]. GvP maintains that “it is evident to all that these doctrines are utterly destructive to all peace and safety” [p. 70]. Nevertheless, the author tells us that he is “not an unconditional supporter of preserving the past”[ p.33] and goes on to say that “I do not oppose the remediation of the system, but I am convinced that the radical remedies proposed to us today are equivalent to death itself” [p. 108]. GvP argues for the possibility of creating a better world, without losing sight of the world to come. Where atheism has always failed - “every promise not only ends in disappointment but ends up delivering the opposite of that which was promised in the political program” [p. 86] -, Christians have often succeeded, such as William Wilberforce, Elizabeth Fry and Thomas Chalmers, in their respective spheres. In the words of another Dutch author, H. Bavinck, GvP insists that “the common foundation of all rights and duties lies in the sovereignty of God” [Reformed Ethics, in loc.]. A. Kuyper, under the influence of GvP, argues more rigorously for the kingship of Jesus Christ over every sphere of human existence! In contrast to and irreconcilably antithetical to French revolutionary thinking, it is “from the Bible, the Christian learns his duties, calculates his prospects, and appreciates his privileges”[p. 135]. One detects stronger echoes of GvP’s thinking notably in Abraham Kuyper’s more fully developed Calvinistic perspective on the creation ordinances and the historical outworking in human history as seen in the Kuyper’s emphasis on the sovereignty of God over every sphere of human existence, including the ‘public square’, to use an anachronistic term. GvP’s Calvinism is not confined to the ecclesiastical sphere, and the reader is encouraged to study culture theologically rather than anthropologically. Overall, GvP’s chief axiom (which, of course, is not original but Augustinian in essence) can best be summed up in his own words: “All of history, politics, and society is the battleground between faith and unbelief - a battle in which the Christian is called to engage with a confidence in the inevitability of Christ’s victory over the seed of the serpent” [p .123]. The 20 th century in particular, of course, bears greater and more eloquent testimony to GvP’s farsightedness to the failure of socialism! The post-modern mindset needs to hear GvP afresh – but only for starters, whetting one’s appetite for more! Much more needs to be said than has been said and can be said and must be said as we are witnessing the rapid decline of Western civilisation. GvP’s book offers a challenging and vigorous alternative to an effeminate culture of small-minded, pessimistic Nothingarians that is hell-bent on seeking yet again ‘to edge God out of His universe onto a Cross’ (D. Bonhoeffer)! There are certainly better works one could recommend on critiquing the French Revolution in more detail, but if God is not God of all and over all, then He is not God at all. This lies at the heart of GVP’s book. From that angle, there is no better and easily accessible introduction known to the reviewer.

    Friday 23 June 2023

    Bravo to the brave!

    Well - one could not make it up! How misguided can one get? I SO respect those pupils! As to those who identify as cats, well, feed them with cat food, or lock them up in zoo! 
    The whole thing reminds me of 1984, the dystopian classic, which views human existence in a totalitarian state built on disinformation. A brave new world, indeed! Education is not about brainwashing, or insulting young people, I would have thought! There is no word in my vocabulary that describes such surreal madness! And there was me thinking that Hitler was bad! Everyone speak after me, or think after me! Well, thinking has disappeared, of course! 
    That teacher is utterly deluded, and paid for it! I am pleased that a letter has been sent asking for an Ofsted inspection. Time will tell what will come of it! 
    Meanwhile, I am hopeful about a better world. It may well take a child to find out that the emperor is wearing no clothes! The children have only spoken the naked truth! No semantic nonsense can dress up madness seen in one of its worst forms! But there is nothing to be said once fear has taken over! But the children have shown bravery. Or as Descartes may have put it, 'non timeo, ergo, sum'! Now that's what our new generation should look like! Bravo to those brave pupils, and shame on that deluded teacher!

    It is easy to be taken in by juvenilish affability, but I think it took Alex a long time to say very little, indeed, but that surely is pard...