Posted on 01/22/2009 10:34:13 PM PST by EternalVigilance
Never forget the difference between good-sounding reasons and good sound reasoning. That was one of the first admonitions I remember hearing from my debate coach in high school.
Barack Obama's address at the high-priced ceremony marking his first day as an occupant of the White House is a masterful symphony of good sounding reasons, filled with allusions to America's founding principles, high ideals and high-minded purposes. Yet in the whole of it, there is not one shred of reasoning based on those principles, not one line that takes true account of their content and deliberately connects it with the view of government he articulates, or the wisps of policy he rhetorically flourishes. He uses words that evoke the founding ideals to give his assertions an aura of legitimacy, but he does not accept them as the starting point for deliberate reasoning that would justify those assertions. He respects their usefulness, not their authority.
Though Obama cleverly exploits the positive emotions still evoked by references to our founding ideals, he speaks without regard for the understanding that justifies those emotions, the logic that transforms them from good feelings to reasonable convictions; from vague hopes to truths which inform our lives and deserve our allegiance; and that we can sustain in the face of great sacrifice, pain and danger, even unto death. Because he refuses to acknowledge the vision of faith and reason actually articulated in our founding documents, his effort to portray the hard work and sacrifices of previous generations falls woefully short, in terms of truth and effectiveness:
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Obama = empty suit
How long til the American public realizes it?
There’s a bit longer version here:
http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1960&posts=1
The devil loves to fill the void in empty suits.
And the band played on. Or did they?
mark
I wake up each day asking myself How in God’s name did we elect this guy? He indeed appears to prove Lincoln correct by continuing to fool some of the people all the time
If he felt so strongly about Obama, maybe he should have, I dunno.... RAN A BETTER CAMPAIGN AGAINST HIM!?!
Never. Their attention span is too short, and by the time the media finishes spinning everything he says as being the most glorious words ever spoken by an American president, Joe public doesn't even remember what it was that he said. They just go to bed knowing that any day now everything that is wrong in the world is going to be all better because the messiah is in control of things.
obviously this man has something on his mind.
I say kudos, yet it is a bit long-winded.
I would hate to think in the future this could be used against him , yet, he speaks the truth.
Poor Alan Keyes, being a Constitutional conservative, has no support from the NRC. These days, one has to be a LIBERAL RINO, like Johnny McCain, to get the party’s endorsement.
dead on the money Zach. yep, as long as the beemers are running fine and their damn $$$coffee drinks are hot the sheeple will just keep lapping up the crap that the MSM and hussein feed ‘em.
All that, and he tells himself his prayers every night...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The majority of people are trained to feel not to think. High minded words and their smooth delivery by a young black Hollywood rhetorician invokes the idea of justice and equality without so much as an attempt at proof or reasoning a proper course of action. The public has been bamboozled by a sly and gifted orator and a devious media. They, the public, will get what is owed because they watch too much feel good, “we will take care of you,” “trust us” TV. No use crying.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
It will take a miracle, the school system has dumbed us down and the media covers for him.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
http://www.loyaltoliberty.blogspot.com/
Thursday, January 22, 2009
How to tell a bad tree
by Alan Keyes
Simple logic:
Jesus said “by their fruits ye shall know them.” We take this to mean that a tree is bad because its fruit is bad, but in fact it’s not a statement about what determines the objective condition of the tree. It’s a statement about the empirical basis for our knowledge of its condition. If the tree bears bad fruit, it’s a bad tree. Any fruit that comes from it is bad, since a bad tree cannot (does not have the power to) bear good fruit.
Christ’s assertion seems contrary to possible human experience. Don’t we find bad cherries growing side by side with good ones? If we remember the story of Adam’s fall from Grace, however, we can easily understand Christ’s instruction. Eve looked at the fruit of the tree of knowledge and judged it to be good based on her (human) faculties of perception and understanding (it looked ripe and luscious and good for food.) But according to the word of God, the tree was bad. Eating its fruit meant death. God’s word reflected the objective nature of the tree with respect to Adam and Eve. For them, it was a tree of death. The badness of the tree was not caused by the fruit. Rather, the objective nature of the tree gave rise to the badness of the fruit.
So how can we know that a tree is bad; by judging its fruit in light of God’s word rather than relying on information derived exclusively from our own faculties. Using Obama as an example, one of his fruits appears to be making sure that abortion and infanticide are sanctioned as right and lawful. God’s will for us condemns the taking of innocent human life. Obama’s fruit is contrary to God’s will, and therefore bad. But a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. Therefore Obama is a bad tree. This means that all his fruit is objectively bad; however it may look to us. We cannot cherry pick the fruit of a bad tree once we have determined its objective condition. This puts the lie to the actions of those so-called Christian leaders who think we can support Obama when he does what is good, and oppose him when he does wrong. According to Christ’s criterion, no fruit that he produces can be good. Though it looks good, and may produce what seem to us to be good results, according to Christ’s rule of moral reasoning, his fruit is bad because he is bad.
If we had the time to step back and take in the whole picture, we would better understand the sense of this. Back in the 1930s Adolf Hitler helped revive the German economy, reduce unemployment, improve the infrastructure, encourage scientific research and development and many other “good” things. Each such “good” policy increased his popularity and expanded his support, contributing to the cult of adulation that empowered him to implement policies of holocaust and aggression. Those policies morally depraved the German nation, and plunged the world into total war. Objectively speaking, the elements of German society that accepted what they saw as good results from the Fuhrer made Eve’s mistake. Of course, they didn’t realize the truth until Germany lay in ruins, defeated and literally demoralized.
I think the difference between God’s knowledge and ours lies in this: he has intrinsic knowledge of the objective condition of each tree at every moment, even before its fruit appears. Our objective knowledge depends on our experience. In his word he tries to share the fruits of his intrinsic knowledge with us. But since his guidance arises from a way of knowing that transcends the preconditions and categories of our understanding, we cannot know with certainty that his guidance is correct until our experience verifies it. Of course, if the experience involves our destruction, the satisfaction of certainty won’t last for long. Is this one reason the Psalmist declares:
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes
(Psalm 118:8-9)
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