I read Francis Schaeffer far too early and did not spend enough time understanding the math behind the statistical tests we use. However with age comes repentance, and with repentance a certain bloody mindedness. When the consulting statistician came around to discuss mutual projects, I showed him a peer review and discussed how their assumptions were wrong.
From your understanding of epistemiology will come your sense of how to use statistics. There are too many who make a model, run a confirmatory analysis, and call it correct. And think that logical positivism, which is what Matt Briggs is talking about here, will not lead to despair.
And this new dogmatism will be?
We’re now at the point where the need for metaphysics, and for philosophy in general, is denied by many. Yet as the man said, to deny philosophy is to philosophize. It is impossible to speak of ideas without a philosophy grounded on some metaphysic. And we have edged closer to scientistic atheism than agnosticism, with sloganeering and as-yet-fulfilled promises that science will answer all questions. Impossible, of course, because science cannot explain itself. Though it thinks it can.
Now I am not here interested in the correct metaphysics: I think it is the one propounded by St Thomas, or something like it, and which can be found in this series. And neither should you here be interested in the correct metaphysical stance. What we want to ask is this: what metaphysics and what philosophy will be adopted by the majority?
Perhaps the key phrase of Gilson’s is this: “with all sorts of moralisms and of would-be mysticisms as ready shelters against spiritual despair.” Scientists now find shelter against despair in the idea they are defeating an old enemy, which is supernaturalism. Their series of self-declared triumphs bolsters their spirits. The future is bright! We will soon graduate from our youth to a time when all traces of the supernatural and superstition are vanquished! In this way, Scientism is yet another Utopia. Point is: because of the blitzkrieg, scidolators have not had time to look back on the battlefield to see what they have wrought. Despair is ahead, waiting for them, but they don’t yet realize it.
Wait until they find it! When Christianity is but a minority position, held only by relics and quiet fanatics, only then will come the moment when the blatant limitations of science will be realized. The future that seemed only Day will become Night.
Bright and wonderful? Not. When your dialectic depends on being on the vanguard of progress, and building a new mystery based on the metaphysics of quantum electrodynamics, you are worshipping creation and not the creator, and you will have your mind clouded.
The left has decided that they no longer want to live among people who share different views than them. They are plugging their fingers in their ears while yelling racist, fascist, Nazi, and Hitler. They are refusing to yield, compromise, debate, or even accept that their political positions are starting to lose in democratic elections despite suspected cheating that aids them. This has put us squarely in the middle of a cold civil war where both sides of the political spectrum are warming to the idea of killing each other.
A confirmation of the left’s defeat is apparent when you see how their maniacal behavior converts more people, especially moderates, against them. The biggest recruiting tool against the left has become the left. Every time they protest, riot, screech against white people, or show their vulgarity, the remaining mentally sane of America realize that the left’s platform has become so out-of-touch that it no longer represents the basic ideals of the country
The left, and the atheist right, will both rage. They will micro regulate. They are falling and their hubris makes them mad, for they look with confidence where we do not have the capacity to comprehend. And this has been the way from the beginning.
If we are not opposed by the elite, we are not doing our job. The saints of Christendom would say that their job was to correct the people, rulers included. In this pagan age, we do not need words. Living faithfully suffices to trigger them.
13Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus. 14When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. 15So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another. 16They said, “What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it. 17But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” 18So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; 20for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 21After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all of them praised God for what had happened. 22For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.
23After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, 25it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant:
‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples imagine vain things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
and the rulers have gathered together
against the Lord and against his Messiah.’27For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, 28to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, 30while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.
In this time, it is not the rulers who rage. They have no need. Instead there are NGOs who consider they are doing the work of righteousness when they approve evil. Here is example one. I don’t read the Daily Stormer. But when someone tries to coerce an older person to sell their property and it is called, they deserve what they get. A troll storm is mild: this law suit is more Orcish.
Andrew Anglin, publisher of far-right site Daily Stormer, has been sued in Federal Court today for $300,000, stemming from his reporting about Tanya Gersh, a Montana real estate agent who he accused of attempting to extort Richard Spencer’s mother into selling a Whitefish, Montana property. In the lawsuit, Anglin is accused of creating a “troll storm” against Gersh that caused her emotional distress and anxiety.
There is a name for what Gersh did. He is using the tactics of a protection racket.
My name is Sherry Spencer, and I am Richard Spencer’s mom. I’m a resident of Whitefish, Montana, and am the proud owner of a beautiful mixed-use facility in town.
It was years ago now that I first broke ground on the building, which features vacation-rental apartments and office spaces. I hired a local architect and builder to bring my ideas to life?—?and both exceeded my expectations.
I am the sole owner of the facility. It was built, not just with my capital, but with my ideas and sensibility. The apartments even include my original artwork, and the rooftop garden features my ceramic mural, which celebrates the Whitefish Winter Carnival.
In other words, I poured my heart and soul into this project.
The building opened in late 2015, and received wide acclaim from the local press. And the vacation apartments have been enjoyed by people from around the world.
Richard does not own the building, nor has he ever used it for his writing or publishing. Put simply, the building has nothing to do with politics?—?and it has everything to do with tourism and local businesses.
I had no intention of selling . . . until I started receiving terrible threats in the last couple of weeks.
These threats came from Tanya Gersh, a local realtor with links to “human rights” organizations Love Lives Here and the Montana Human Rights Network.
On November 22, Gersh and I spoke on the phone. She relayed to me that if I did not sell my building, 200 protesters and national media would show up outside?—?which would drive down the property value?—?until I complied.
There is a reason I don’t give out full names for my family and mention much about any of them but Robyn. She married me knowing I do this. I don’t want them being trolled, even though most of them can handle it [1]. Lawfare, the appeal to amenable authorities was occurring in the early church. It still happens.
You could consider the current terrorists as NGOs. They are not supported by states — officially — but instead by an evil combination of neoconservatives hidden in the US State department and Saudi Arabian Fanatics. And they do terror.
The Paris prosecutor says the Champs-Elysees attacker had a note defending the Islamic State group with him when he opened fire on police officers.
Anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins said during a news conference Friday that the note apparently fell out of the pocket of Karim Cheurfi, a 39-year-old with a criminal record.
Molins says the note praised IS and listed the addresses of security sites.
The extremist group claimed Thursday’s attack in which one police officer was killed. Cheurfi was shot and killed by officers.
Molins said Cheurfi had a long police record, notably for trying to attack police in the past. The prosecutor said Cheurfi was arrested in February, but later released for lack of evidence of a threat.
Schaeffer would say that such modern men — for despite their protests, they have internalised the assumptions of logical positivism, materialism, and Hegelian Dialectic — have their feet firmly in the air. They are frail. They cannot withstand logical analysis. They deny the facts: Christ rose from the dead, and that this is but the only hope for salvation.
My metaphysics is ancient. This world is real. It was created by a righteous God, who keeps the rules he sets, for the creation was good and gave him glory. It is we, who err, and think liberty is the highest right, who are destroying what is true, and beautiful and right.
For that we will give account. We therefore all need to repent.
- Robyn is the reasonable one. I have sons who make me look moderate, and my old man is more radical than any of us.