The Differences Between Jesus and Mohammed

While it's not exactly the theme of this post it is in the background:

The Appeal of Islam in a Poorly Catechized World:

Are We Losing the Apologetics War with Islam?


Islamic cultures are honor cultures, and the religion of Islam might justly be described as an honor religion. Allah is in charge and he...

Read the whole thing.

(Via .)

My Favorite City

It's true you shouldn't have favourite offspring so it might also be true that you shouldn't have a favourite city. As if that was gong to stop me. I've visited Rome four times, only once on a day trip. The others lasted from five to nine days. And still I can't get enough.

Life will probably not permit me to see her again but this article sure gave me great pleasure. You have to be a history and art buff to get the full flavour of it. Read it anyway even if you're not.

Rome’s past shows not only in her monuments and ruins, but in the very layout of the streets themselves...:

The new Mayor of the city of Rome, Ignazio Marino, just announced his intention to destroy one of the city’s central roads, the Via dei Fori Imperiali, and turn the area around the old Roman Forum into the world’s largest archaeological park. Reactions have ranged from commuters’ groans to declarations from classicists that this single act proves the nobility of the human species.

Read the whole thing.

(Via .)

Philosophy is Hard

Especially when you have a cold. Nonetheless Professor Beckwith cites four pdf documents of some of his arguments against a Rawlsian view of democracy and law. They are worth reading and pondering, though I did burn out by the last one:

President Obama: Ex-Liberal:

President Barack Obama has abandoned liberalism. What I mean by liberalism is not the political philosophy that we typically associate with left-of-center politicians and candidates. The president, of course, remains unabashedly in that camp. What I am referring to is a particular posture concerning moral questions, which the preside.

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

One Man's Meat

is another's cult:

Pot meet Kettle...

...Rock meet glass house.

Michael Voris:

Pot meet Kettle...

...Rock meet glass house.

Michael Voris deconstructs Pastor Jeffres criticism of Mormonism.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

Science and Ideology

There are two parts to my skepticism about anthropogenic global warming (Should I be shortening that to "agw"?). The first the an uneasiness in the face of claims that seem remarkably like a "Chicken Little"-like attempt to stampede leaders into radical changes to society and governance.

The other is the sense that belief in agw has become a litmus test of almost religious proportions. Believe this or be cast into the outer darkness. This particular blend of faith and science bodes ill for all concerned.

Scientists Behaving Badly:

In the current wars over global warming we are seeing an example of scientists behaving badly. I am not referring just to the hacked e-mails that everyone is talking about. Far more disturbing to me is the recent tactic of labeling any scientist who expresses skepticism about the extent of anthropogenic global warming a “global warming denier,” as though they were somehow comparable to holocaust deniers and thus both willfully ignorant and morally repulsive.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

was supposed to Mao's strategy. Is this more of the same from the new orthodoxy?

BREAKING: Conn. Bill Proposing to Restructure Catholic Church Pulled, Hearing Postponed:

By Kathleen Gilbert
HARTFORD, Connecticut, March 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following widespread outrage from the Catholic community, a Connecticut bill seeking unprecedented regulation of the Catholic Church has been temporarily pulled and its public hearing postponed while legislators...

Read the whole thing.

(Via LifeSiteNews.com Headlines.)

Liberal Fascism

I had occasion to write about competing orthodoxies. There are a number of disturbing things going on that indicate that the intolerance of the new orthodoxy is be ratcheted up:

Proposition 8 Thuggery:

When eerily convenient Prop-8 directories and Google maps were released earlier this winter, accounts of threats and thuggery began accumulating. But how much of this was real intimidation from the left, and how much was the pretense of doom from the right?

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Things.)

Human Knowledge

marches on. In this particular instance our knowledge of news media:

General Theory of Media Incompetence:

For a very long time I have held what might be termed the Special Theory of Media Incompetence, which is: The mainstream newsmedia is spectacularly incompetent when reporting stories concerning religion, morality, etc.

Read the whole thing.

(Via JIMMY AKIN.ORG.)

Difficult Times Ahead

First Things is running a retrospective series of The Public Square in memory of Father Neuhaus. The current one has a lovely, Chestertonian quote:

I’ll presume to call it Neuhaus’ Law, or at least one of his several laws: Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.

Read the whole thing, if you can.

My simpler and less eloquent explanation is that there is only orthodoxy and the periods between orthodoxies. When toleration for orthodoxy is the policy it means that the new orthodoxy is preparing to turn and seek the eradication of the old.

The new orthodoxies in politics and religion are seeking to suppress the old. Pro-lifers are arrested for peacefully protesting abortion or seeking to talk to women going into abortuaries. A new orthodoxy seeks to intimidate adherents of the old into silence. A new "orthodoxy" is fighting a rear-guard action against a re-surgent old orthodoxy. There are troubles ahead. Batten down the hatches.

Is Religion Necessarily Irrational?

Read the article linked to below for a cogent, well-argued answer:

You should read it too...:

Tony Esolen at Touchstone links to The Christendom Review, in the process heaping extravagantly well-earned praise on Lydia McGrew's article therein, "The Irrational Faith of the Naked Public Square" -

Read the whole thing.

(Via Apologia.)

A little bit more on that...thing...in Newsweek

Some more erudite comments on that article:

A little bit more on that...thing...in Newsweek:

Really, what do you call it—that thing featured on the cover of the December 15, 2008, issue of Newsweek? It's not journalism. It's not news. It's not coherent, logical, well-argued, or well-written.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog.)

Chesterton

I've introduced an acquaintance recently to GKC. He was reading H.G. Wells' The Outline of History and I remarked that Chesterton had written something in response to it, though I couldn't remember exactly what. So I lent him my old copy of Alarms and Discursions just to introduce him to GKC.

In the meantime, I discovered that The Everlasting Man is Chesterton's masterpiece in response to H.G. Wells. I'm pretty sure I have a paperback copy somewhere here. I'll lend that to him when I find it. Just so we're clear, Chesterton is my philosophical hero: wise beyond anything that formal learning could give you.

All of which is a preamble to this fine article by the noted Thomist:

Ralph McInerny on the Chesterbelloc Thing:



He's right, of course, that the principal target of the New Atheists is, inexorably, the Catholic Faith. The curious logic of the New Atheists always tends to draw them back to that. 19 Muslim guys fly planes into the Pentagon, the WTC and a field in Pennsylvania? The reply of the New Atheists boils down to 'This is the fault of religion. And by 'religion' we mean Christianity and especially Catholic Christianity.' Commies murdered millions? That's really 'religion' says Christopher Hitchens. And by 'religion' he means Christianity and especially Catholic Christianity. Religious people are intolerant says Google, so we will not allow mockery of Jews or Muslims on our site. But we will host daily Eucharistic desecrations and not allow Catholics to air their prolife views. Bill Maher makes fun of fundies who believe in talking snakes and somehow manages to bring it all back to Rome, even though there's a remarkable dearth of believers in talking snakes there.

McInerny's right:

The now pandemic attacks on Catholicism in films, on television, in the media would have found Chesterton and Belloc buckling on their armor and going into battle with the rapiers of their wit.

What we need are more Chestertons and Bellocs. However, it is up to God to manufacture them since genius is tough to simply will. Prayer to that end seems appropriate."

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Religion and Life

If the goal in forming a new party is to give an outlet for the so-called so-cons who feel disenfranchised here in Canada, then it ought not to automatically exclude large swathes of the voting public. That was and is my concern about the CHP. It doesn't simply repel non-Christians by it's very name, but, upon closer examination, it repels many Christians who might pause at the "Bible as the ultimate authority" principle.

So consider the different groups and communities that have pro-life constituencies within them:

• Christians, including:
  
  
  
  • Protestants, such as:
  
  
  
  
  • Anglicans
  
  
  • Baptists
  
  
  • Charismatic Episcopalians
  
  
  • Evangelicals
  
  
  • Lutherans
  
  
  • United Methodists
  
  
  
  
  • Orthodox Christians
  
  
  • Catholics, Catholics, Catholics
  
  


• Hindus


• Jews


• Muslims


• Sikhs


• and even Pagans

Why oh why would you exclude all these potential voters in forming a new political party in Canada?

What Does Science Say About God?

Well, nothing would be my first reply. Some leap to the conclusion that that means there is no God. That would only be true if the only meaningful knowledge we could have is scientific knowledge.

But that's contrary to our lived experience. Science hasn't assured me of my wife's love for me; hasn't made the appreciation of beauty possible; hasn't even explained whether or not I should continue to support the forlorn Canucks. While the power of science and technology are all around us, the meaning and joy and sorrow of our lives are untouched by it.

So this is interesting to me:

New atheists vs. the ex-atheist: "Marvin Olasky muses on the recent popularity of 'new atheist' books:

Atheistic authors see themselves as avant-garde, but they merely are echoing the riffs of 19th-century scoffers who predicted the imminent demise of Christianity. Gilded Age orator Robert Ingersoll, for example, said that when Christians dominate schools and media, it is hard to mount an attack on concepts of revelation and miracles, but 'now that religion's monopoly has been broken, it is within the compass of any human being to see those evidences and proofs as the feeble-minded inventions that they are.'

So what happened? Why are many churches in the U.S. booming? Why is Christianity expanding so rapidly in Africa and China? To begin to answer that, we should let our imaginations run wild: What if in the 20th century, in the biggest country by land area and also in the biggest country by population, leaders had required the teaching of atheism in all schools? Freed of 'feeble-minded inventions,' wouldn't the world be a better place?

Oh, you say we don't have to imagine? You say the Soviet Union and China did establish atheism and the results were not pretty?

He thinks it's a passing fad. I think it's a last ditch effort to sell atheism before the science evidence for meaning and purpose in the universe makes atheism as implausible as the fairies in the bottom of the garden.

At least in the Western context. You could still be an atheist in the Eastern context, but that wouldn't abolish anything that the new atheists want to get rid of. Yu'd have karma instead of God.

For example, right in the middle of the organized atheist uproar, an atheist who was far more highly respected than any of these others, Antony Flew, came to the conclusion, based on science evidence, that there IS a God. I have written about that here.

The important thing to see is that he did NOT have an old tyme religious experience and did NOT become a fundamentalist. He simply came to the conclusion that the science evidence is best explained by the idea that there is a God. That's more or less what I think too after co-writing The Spiritual Brain.

Yes, yes, I was a Christian before that, but I didn't realize how much science evidence supports theism. I had never been asked to look at my faith that way; it was all experiential. The Spiritual Brain (I am Mario Beauregard's co-author) was a chance to look at one huge line of evidence from neuroscience about the reality of the mind.

One difference between ex-atheist Flew and the new atheists may be that Flew doesn't appear to have bought into materialist ideas of the mind - that here is really no mind, no free will - what Mario calls the central dogma of modern neuroscience.

And if you think that there is a mind, there is free will, why not a Mind behind it all, idf the evidence suggests that? Not proven, but a reasonable assumption, and certainly worthy of further investigation."

(Via Mindful Hack.)

Build It and They Will Come

So here's something for the youthful enquirer:

Quo Vadis?: "Quo Vadis is the youth branch of the Coming Home Network (CHN) dedicated to assisting young people come home to the Catholic Church. I recently received an email from Mary Clare Piecynski at CHN, asking us to help spread the word about Quo Vadis to any children, relatives or friends we might have who are young adults (teens through college aprox.) and are already Catholic, on the journey to the Catholic Church, or just have questions about the Catholic faith. What does Quo Vadis offer teens and young people? For starters, it will have a monthly newsletter (the first will be on Mary), a group on facebook, a website is in the works, there will also be weekly chats and a section of the Coming Home Network forum dedicated to Quo Vadis. If you or anyone you know is interested in Quo Vadis please have them contact Mary Piecynski and she says she will give them whatever help can! You can have the person contact her through e-mail -- maryp[at]chnetwork[dot]org -- snail mail (P.O. Box 8290 Zanesville, OH 43702) or by phone at 1-800-664-5110 ext 105."

(Via Musings of a Pertinacious Papist.)

For All Your Lenten Needs

Have a look at this poster:

Hang or stuff: "Consider printing and hanging this excellent 'Guide to Lent' poster from Our Sunday Visitor in your parish vestibule. You could also ask that it be included as a bulletin stuffer. As a last resort, tack it to your 'fridge."

(Via Ten Reasons.)

Le Mieux Est L'ennemi Du Bien

So with the ashes nearly invisible (in conformity with today's gospel), I'm considering Voltaire's insight: "The perfect is the enemy of the good". Setting goals only to fail and become discouraged may happen in part because we won't accept our brokenness. As I tried to encourage my oldest daughter: it isn't how fast we're getting there, it's whether or not we're going in the right direction.

Lenten resolutions are of the same species as New Year's resolutions: commitments to improve ourselves in some specific way. Baby steps as my wife likes to say.

So, don't aim too high. Don't let small failures get you down. Find an area of your life that is a source of unhappiness for you and make a specific resolution to improve it in some way. Forty days will fly by and you will be a (slightly) better person for it.

Daily spiritual reading is my resolution, by the way. Hmmm. More reading, where have I seen that before?

New Beginnings

Time to renew our New Year's Resolutions or start new ones.

An Acceptable Time: "
We begin the 'joyful season' of Lent today. That description usually sounds a little hollow in our ears, I suspect. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving usually don't make the top ten list of ways of expressing joy. Perhaps that in itself is evidence that our lives are a bit our of kilter.

When Jesus is asked by a scribe to name the greatest commandment (a serious question for the first century Jew who was encouraged to keep all the commandments with equal energy), Jesus replies,

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.' Mt 22:37-40.

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are practices meant to help us fulfill these two commandments. Our natural tendency is to focus on ourselves - to love and care for ourselves first, then our neighbor, and to place God last. Of course, the neighbor we tend to care for is the one who is like us, or who has demonstrated some love for us first. And while God's expectations of us are clear in the Scriptures, He doesn't seem to force them - or Himself - upon us from day to day.

Even the 'give ups' we embrace at the beginning of Lent can really be self-centered. Some people give up chocolate or dessert (perhaps in the hope of losing a few stubborn Christmas-New Years pounds). Lent can become a time of 'self-improvement' based on superficialities (less caffeine in my system, less time wasted in front of the TV). But Lent is a time of turning away from myself and back to God and neighbor, so why would I ask God for the grace to do that during Lent, only to return to my 'normal' ways Easter Sunday?

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are intimately linked. In fasting, whether from food, a vice, or time-consuming activity, God invites me to deny myself in order to break the illusion that I my life is about myself. In fasting, God teaches me that my needs - which often are really wants - do not have to be filled in order for me to be content. Fasting also prepares a space in my life in which more prayer can take place. So in choosing your fast this year, ask yourself, 'what activity has taken hold over my life in such a way that it is interfering in my relationship with God and/or my neighbor?'

Prayer is our conscious, intentional turning towards our Creator. It acknowledges our Source and our End, and places Jesus and His Father and their mutual Love, the Holy Spirit, nearer the center of our life. Perhaps our best prayer might be to acknowledge our complete dependence upon God and to beg that knowing, loving and trusting Him might become our greatest desire. Perhaps in prayer, God may reveal to us the idols that we have worshipped instead of him; idols like wealth, security, power, our favorite sports team, beauty, etc.

The prophet Isaiah links fasting with our relationship to our neighbor:

Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Isaiah 58:5-7

Again, we see that almsgiving also focuses our attention away from ourselves. The 'fast' Isaiah describes requires us to see the needs of the oppressed, the imprisoned, the hungry, naked, and homeless. It demands that we expand our understanding of 'our own' beyond the narrow confines of family and friends.

How is Lent a 'joyful season'? Perhaps that answer lies in actually praying, fasting, and giving alms. Maybe being less selfish and self-centered, maybe being more focused on a lived relationship with the God who loved us so much that He came to share our life, will be its own reward."

(Via Intentional Disciples.)

Apropos of Nothing

Jimmy posts a picture of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, which is one of the works on my flash card list:

The Nekkid Truth: "

Another from Old World Swine;

I remember the first time I sat in a figure drawing class and worked
from a real, live, nekkid model. I was a little nervous before, as were
probably a lot of us wet-eared art undergrads. I don't know how
everyone else responded when the young lady dropped her bathrobe, but I
expect their experience wasn't too different from my own; there were a
few moments of awkward ogling, a few moments of stern and studied
pretense at ignoring the obvious, and then - something else. I began to
think about how I could wring a good drawing out of the pose. As I
started to draw, my brain began to break the model down into her
component elements... line and form, light and shadow, muscle and bone.
Within a minute, and for the remainder of the class, she registered no
more on my libido-meter than a clay pot or a fern. And I was not nearly
such a paragon of virtue and restraint as I am now.

Not everyone has had the benefit of such a class, of course, but it
did demonstrate to me in unmistakable terms the very real difference
between appreciating the beauty of the human form and what might be
called the Look of Lust. I had the great privilege of having my view of
the female form somewhat redeemed and baptized long before I knew
anything of John Paul II's Theology of the Body. In this work, he makes
brilliantly clear that the mere repression of lustful thoughts is not
enough, and may even be unhealthy in the long run. We must learn -
through the help of the Holy Spirit, the teaching of the Church, the
sacraments and prayer - to change the way we perceive the human body.
We must have our thoughts redeemed. We should work toward being able to
thank God for the breathtaking beauty of the human body, and through
giving thanks and praise to the Creator, disarm and disable Lust.

The idea is not to cage our lust, but to drag it out into the light where it can be transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Not that nudity is something to be treated lightly. We are fallen,
after all. There is nudity - even under the pretext of art - that is
wholly inappropriate. If it is intended to excite lust, or if it in
fact does so, then it is unhealthy.

How do we tell the difference? Obviously, this is a matter of
judgment. For one aware of his own weakness, one sincerely committed to
trying to please God in everything, one familiar with Original Sin, one
who has been trained to respect the dictates of conscience... a
certain' amount of confidence in personal judgment is possible, and can
be developed. In the words of St. Augustine, 'Love God and do as you
please'.

For one lacking these things, it may be impossible, though I believe
that even based only on natural law one can tell the difference between
a painting that is basically an act of praise and homage, and one in
which the body is displayed like a piece of meat in a butcher shop
window. In the first case, the viewer's response is 'Yes, that is
beautiful - God does great work'. In the latter case, the viewer's
response is 'I want that'.

In short, if you are truly concerned about lust in regard to viewing
nude figures in art, then the battle is half won already. Trust your
judgment, and be watchful of your own thoughts. Where truly great,
classical, historically significant art is involved, I don't think even
children need be' cocooned and shielded as much as one might think.
Most children likely have a much saner and simpler response to these
things than we give them credit for. If you have concerns for kids,
look things over for yourself first, but don't get too wound up over
them seeing this or that body part, in the right context.

"

(Via JIMMY AKIN.ORG.)

Free Speech...

isn't an Anglican value?

Rowan Williams has been a ninny for a long time......: "Rowan Williams has been a ninny for a long time...

But now his ninnyhood threatens free speech in Britain. He wants a law against 'thoughtless and ... cruel styles of speaking and acting.' From the well-meaning attempts of fools to legislate virtue, dear Lord, deliver us."

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)