"Y'know, Nietzsche says: 'Out of chaos comes order.'"
Posted on 02/09/2012 12:23:01 PM PST by spirited irish
I aver that Christ did not come to establish a religion but rather, to gather a family.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. – Romans 8:9
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. - John 3:5-8
Ma’am, you know I am going to have to crib this for some of my apologetics teachings as they come up — I will (of course) need to translate some of the physics terms into more poetical speech for some of my future victims. Simply put, this post is concise and brillant...
What I find myself more drawn to recently is string theory and brane cosmology - particularly the idea that the visions of Isaiah, John (the scribe of the Revelation of Jesus Christ) and Paul took place in the higher dimensions that all things sprang from and to where Jesus “ascended”. I may put out a little something here later on, but I need to pay the bills for another few hours.
I admire the way you break down your thoughts of the deepest mysteries into an accessible and flowing essay.
Indeed!!! Isn't it wonderful? Thank you so very much, dearest sister Alamo-Girl!
Many people today think that advances in science somehow refute the Holy Scriptures. But what I see is: the Holy Scriptures and the "Book of Nature" — God's Creation — are not only in close accord, but can illuminate one another....
You'll recall that it was a Catholic priest — George LeMaître — who "discovered" the Big Bang and the expansion of the Universe....
L,TOWM, I hope to hear from you again soon — when you're done "paying the bills!" Love to hear your thoughts re: brane cosmology.
Indeed. And the guides to the system are immaterial. That is, they did not arise as spontaneous developments of brute matter — from whence all things must come, to a person of scientific materialist persuasion. Indeed, they appear to be mathematical and logical in nature.
Thank you ever so much, dearest sister in Christ, for your splendid essay/post!
Physically, our vision and minds are limited so that we can only sense four dimensions - three of space and one of time. Obviously I believe God made us this way for a reason possibly coinciding Adam's banishment to mortality.
Spiritually, there is no such limitation to our sensing.
And mathematically (geometric physics) we discern that there may be additional dimensions of space (string theory etc.) and time (Wesson's 5D/2T and Vafa's f-theory).
String theories generally call for compactification of the additional dimensions (Kaluza/Klein) - but the expanded dimension theories such as Wesson's are much more elegant and ring true, at least to me.
Where such a theory invokes an additional expanded dimension of time, time is no longer a line - which is to say, a timeline going past>present>future but rather time is a plane or a volume. This means that past, present and future coexist currently and the direction of the arrow of time as we sense it from our observer perspective "in" 4D space/time can be reversed.
To put it another way, particles and fields which have no direct or indirect measurable effect cannot be said not to exist. Likewise with dimensions.
Indeed, God is Truth. For when He says a thing, it is. It is because He says it.
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. - Psalms 33:6
For he spake, and it was [done]; he commanded, and it stood fast. - Psalms 33:9
That ought to have the scientific materialists reconsidering their worldviews - but evidently they prefer to ignore the inconvenient facts.
Thank you so much for all of your insights and encouragements!
At bottom, I suspect that Nietzsche — a world class literary artist but really not much of a philosopher (arguably) — was simply recognizing the negative aspects of the Enlightenment (its atheism and materialism), and their impacts on human thinking and on human society at large. When he said, "God is dead! And we have killed him!", I'm not sure the statement necessarily has a triumphalist ring to it....
The point is not so much that "God is [literally] dead." The point is: He has "died in our hearts." Faith has died.
I think Nietzsche was, in the last analysis, a deeply tormented soul. He was an orphan raised by maiden aunts. There was no father figure, no male role model in his life. Eventually, he contracted the syphilis that killed him (after having reduced him to a raving lunatic), either at a Jena bathhouse, or as a consequence of his service as a medic in the Crimean War, depending on which expert you listen to.
Yet it seems clear that he was a harbinger of the Spirit of the Age, which Ms. Kimball so ably describes.
Just one nit-pick: Ms. Kimball should blame Descartes for the mind–body split. Descartes, a brilliant mathematical thinker and philosopher, was working out the implications of the great Newtonian mechanical system that had become the major paradigm of science by his day, as they apply to man. Kant got the idea from him.
Thank you for posting this wonderfully insightful and thought-provoking essay/post, dear spirited irish!
I agree with your assessment of what Nietzsche was saying, not so much that the deity God had passed on, but that God was dead for us and was no longer a driving force in our lives.
And I think, for most people, he was exactly right.
"Y'know, Nietzsche says: 'Out of chaos comes order.'"
The writer is also unaware that in Judaism (and I mean real Torah Judaism, not liberal or post-modernist nonsense) there is room for both "reincarnation" (gilgul neshamot) and panentheism (not "everything is 'gxd,'" which is a contradiction, but "everything is in G-d," which is a perfectly legitimate way to see things).
However, aside from this henotheistic western chrstian chauvinism, the author raises some genuine points when she turns to our enemies. While rationalistic enlightenment scientism should be an opponent of anything spiritual rather than of Monotheism alone, we see plainly that this is not the case. The same leftist partisans of "reason" who invoke stale mechanistic science against Genesis champion the superstitions, cults, irrationalities, and even the creation myths of "indigenous peoples." As this is a logical contradiction, their insincerity is laid plainly before us.
Everywhere the same "progressive" theologians who reject a supernatural "interference" in the world and argue for a rethinking of religion in terms of scientific mechanism simultaneously champion the oppressed "indigenous peoples." The controversial Catholic priest in Australia (I don't recall his name) is a perfect example of this, flouting Catholic dogma while praising aboriginal superstition (which apparently doesn't violate the conscience of the followers of Voltaire). But not only here, but also in all the usual "leftist" groups (Black Protestants, Hispanic Catholics, moslems, "Native Americans," etc.). Note that Hispanic activists refuse to denounce abortion just as militant Black pastors refuse to denounce evolution or the documentary hypothesis. In fact, the entire spectrum of "activists" of all these "oppressed" groups embraces, not ancestral supernatural beliefs, but stale European materialism, making them in fact the true "uncle toms" they accuse everyone else of being. And yet, simultaneously with the promotion of Voltaire, Marx, and Darwin by these frauds, they go through the motion of decrying the influence of "dead white European males" in our thought, as if they got their materialism and scientism from Africa or Mesoamerica!
And the authoress touches on something else as well, which is the real heart of the situation: the spiritless, mechanistic atheism which these people purport to follow does not and cannot authorize the many crusades in which they are engaged. According to them, all our experience is confined to a tiny bubble of illusory meaning floating on a vast ocean of oblivion. And from this they relentless crusade for "social justice?" From this they derive their bizarre Hegelian teleological view of human history as moving in a certain "direction," which absolutely "must" include the creation of homosexual marriage, or else some great metaphyisical injustice will be done? How? How does one "offend" oblivion???
If I were in closer contact with our enemies, this is the question I would ask them: "If all is meaningless and oblivion, on what grounds do you crusade for A, B, and C?" I don't believe any of our enemies has ever adequately explained this to the rest of the world.
The authoress seems to completely miss the fact that G-d created the animals too. While they are not "people," neither are they mere machines (the latter a very materialistic idea).
The point is, those "very different ideas which contradict and compete with each other" don't compete at all. They co-exist as peacefully as the heels of professional wrestling do in their dressing room. Perfect peace, with nary a snarl to disrupt the absolute harmony!
Hey . . . that would make a great heel tag team--Charles Darwin and The Shaman!
You betcha.
Just watched a documentary called "The Horse Boy." Child was severely autistic but reacted well to horses.
Parents decided to take child on a journey where they could combine horses and shamanism to "heal" the child. So they went to Mongolia, with a film crew of course.
Parents typical post-Christian elites at a Texas University.
My point is that an unbiased observer, say an alien Mr. Spock type, would notice they had what was objectively very similar "healing" rituals available 5 or 10 miles down the road at their local faith healing charismatic church.
But I bet they never even considered that possibility. Too unscientific and anti-intellectual. But Mongolian shamanism, objectively even less scientific than charismatic Christianity, is for some reason perfectly compatible with their worldview.
Parents decided to take child on a journey where they could combine horses and shamanism to "heal" the child. So they went to Mongolia, with a film crew of course.
Parents typical post-Christian elites at a Texas University.
My point is that an unbiased observer, say an alien Mr. Spock type, would notice they had what was objectively very similar "healing" rituals available 5 or 10 miles down the road at their local faith healing charismatic church.
But I bet they never even considered that possibility. Too unscientific and anti-intellectual. But Mongolian shamanism, objectively even less scientific than charismatic Christianity, is for some reason perfectly compatible with their worldview.
Yes, that's it exactly.
Considering the place of "Blacks and Hispanics" in the Leftist hierarchy-of-the-oppressed, one wonders why a Black charismatic or Hispanic Catholic church would not be equally "respectable."
My husband and I listened to the unabridged book while traveling this summer.
Wow!....I couldn't help but notice that the author ( the boy's day) has a name that is common among Jews. His ancestors must be turing in their graves. How can this shamanism be any different that worshiping idols in the groves?
My husband and I listened to the unabridged book while traveling this summer.
Wow!....I couldn't help but notice that the author ( the boy's day) has a name that is common among Jews. His ancestors must be turning in their graves. How can this shamanism be any different that worshiping idols in the groves?
Well, hopefully they aren't offering their children up as burnt offerings. :)
The author did not miss the fact that God the Father created animals. She merely pointed out that animals do not have spirits as men do. They have souls, but not spirits.
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