Long time readers of my blog Eidos, hello Mom, know my fears regarding the death of Russia. She embraced secularism first of all the nations of Europe as an official dogma and her freedom from Communism led only to adding Western libertine behavior to her woes. Now others are writing about it. Look here.
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The Victorians worried that increasing wealth and education, with all its good effects, would also make them soft. Upper class men, in particular, worked hard to avoid this by engaging in "manly" practices such as boxing. Parents of upper class children knew the disease of idleness and spent a good bit of time trying to make sure children did not find that comfort made their ch...
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Suppose students in school were very interested in whether Anastasia the daughter of the last Tsar of Russia escaped. The topic is not central to the curriculum. . . but no good teacher would pass up the chance to use student interest to motivate a class. Suppose students came to science class with a keen interest in astrology. . . a good teacher would gear into their interest,...
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Can a merely unitarian God answer prayer?
Andrew Murray said no. In the 17th chapter of With Christ in the School of Prayer: Thoughts on our Training in the Ministry of Intercession, Murray considers "Prayer in Harmony with the Being of God," and poses these questions:
One of the secret difficulties with regard to prayer,—one which, though not expressed, does oft...
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Commentators in the United States have been waiting for some time for Iraq to break out into civil war. This has always been the "sophisticated" view of Iraq. However, it seems to me that one key element needed for a civil war, and not just civil unrest, is an opposing leader or ideology. Who is leader of the Reds or Whites in this so-called Iraq civil war? Who is the Lenin or ...
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"When matters of great moment are inquired into by men of little ability, they usually make them men of great ability."
-- Augustine, Contra Academicus I.ii.6 (trans. by Denis J. Kavanagh as "Answers to Skeptics" in Writings of St. Augustine, volume 1, in the series Fathers of the Church: A New Translation (NY: Cima Publishing, 1948), p. 112.)
Another translation:
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Here is a special sub-category of bad arguments: ones found in that Code book.
My favorite: if the Christians had adopted Gnosticism they would have avoided their obvious hatred of women.
Hah! Google the Gnostic texts and read for yourself that Gnosticism was very, very misogynistic. It viewed women in a much lower way than any reading of the orthodox texts can produce. T...
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Let's have a Middlebrow contest! All three of us speak on Christian topics. . . and get whacked around for it on occasion. What is the worst argument you have heard guys?
In the list of bad arguments I have heard, this one seems the best:
Christians should add Sophia, a woman concept, to the Trinity or admit they believe in gay marriage.
I have heard this, or versions ...
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The hardest questions I ever get about the Trinity are from kids. From "where is Jesus and why can't we see him?" to "are God and Jesus the same person?", I have learned to fear the kid questions more than anything the graduate students can muster.
So I'm grateful for any help I can get from books and music. Groggy at bedtime and breakfast alike, advanced theological tr...
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Yesterday a brave and bold man died: Henry Morris.
Who was Henry Morris? He was one of the founders of the modern day "young earth creationist" movements. With a small group of devoted Christians, he built on the work done by some earlier pioneers and increased the sophistication of "creationism" by many orders of magnitude. He continued to do this as the head of a new thi...
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I have posted my thoughts on a recent wedding between two chums, Torrey alum Prehn and Ellis, at Eidos.
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Occasionally, I am a little self-conscious of the fact that I have what some would call academic “guilty pleasures”. I like to read for pleasure works by and about Winston Churchill. I also enjoy books on 18th and 19th century British naval history. There have been times that I feel I should apologize to people when I share an obscure fact about Winston Churchill such as...
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Words are powerful. With a Dante class, I have been meditating on the nature of words. God used Words to create the cosmos. His Words are so powerful that they can level mountains and so beautiful that angels sing of them.
Dante wrote about Hell in magnificent poetry. At first that seems odd, until you remember that Hell is God's Hell and not Satan's. It is the cosmic rep...
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