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Friday, December 19, 2014

Puritans ... and Christmas

Douglas Wilson: Like an Out-of-Control Office Christmas Party -- this isn't news to me, but if it's news to Gentle Reader, please take it to heart.

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Thursday, December 11, 2014

An example of intellectual dishonesty

Gentle Reader may recall that while I sometimes link to him, I nonetheless have serious misgivings about Vox Day, due to his intellectual dishonesty when it suits him to be intellectually dishonest.

Here are two of his recent posts illustrating his intellectual dishonesty on politics --

Vox Day:They're not the good guys
Vox Day:Why the US embraced torture

Now, he *knows* that this joke of a "report" released by Senator Feinstein is just poison leftist "gotcha" politics. He *knows* that what she's calling 'torture' is nothing of the sort. He *knows* that the entire point of it is to "poison the well" for the incoming Republican Senate majority.

But, this "report" serves his purpose to:
1) demonize George Bush;
2) demonize those perfidious Jews neo-Cons who had such clout in the Bush II administration;
therefore, he will pretend it isn't a transparent leftist smear.


Here is Democratic Senator Bob Kerry -- no conservative, he! -- criticizing the "report" as a partisan disservice to America Sen. Bob Kerrey: Partisan torture report fails America

Here is Bruce McQuain (at QandO blog) discussing what's going on -- and of which Vox Day *knows* -- with this "report" Politics at its worst (update) -- Do note Mr McQuain's update at the bottom of the post.

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Monday, December 8, 2014

The banality of US evil

Vox Day, quoting 'ESR': The banality of US evil --

"... Eric Garner died in a New York minute because “soft despotism” turned hard enough to kill him in cold blood. There was no anger there, no hate; the police simply failed to grasp the moral disproportion between the “crimes” he wasn’t even committing at the time and their use of force. And an investigating grand jury did no better.

Violent racists, as evil as they are, generally understand on some level that they’re doing wrong. That understanding is written all over the excuses they make. These cops didn’t need an excuse. They were doing their job. They were enforcing the law. The casual, dispassionate, machinelike brutality with which Garner was strangled reveals a moral vacuum more frightening than mere racism could ever be.
"

Douglas Wilson (at Blog and Mablog) has a number of very good essays about the case, but the comment Vox Day quotes really gets to the heart of the matter: "We were simply doing our jobs -- following orders -- for your own good."

Something I've often said applies here: if there is ever a coup (*) in America, it won't be the military supplying the bully-boy muscle to enforce it, it will be the civilian police doing that.

Something else to keep in mind: most of the people "protesting" the grand jury decision, and thereby disruping or even endangering others' lives, don't give a damn about the real issues (and outrages) involved -- they care only that there was a white cop involved.


(*) assuming we aren't already living with the after-effects of a "soft coup" engineered by the self-selected elites.


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Thursday, December 4, 2014

Murdered by reality ... will others learn anything?

Vox Day: Sic semper cæcis

Generally, leftists like to ensure that the price of their fatal delusions is paid by others, and the more removed and innocent, the better. Sometimes, they pay the price themselves.

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Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Leftists don't like it

... when you hold up their contemptible tropes and attitudes to public contempt -- Read the ‘hostile’ column that got student writer suspended by campus newspaper

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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

What Women Never Hear

Here is a blog some persons may find of interest -- What Women Never Hear -- I forgotten about this blog (I never carried over my bookmarks when I last switched computers). I was reminded of it just now because Blogger reports that a page-view on my blog originated there.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Mugged by reality ... learned nothing

Ed Driscoll: Student Mugged, Says He Deserved It Because of His ‘Privilege’ -- "To mash-up George Santayana and Irving Kristol, a leftist is someone who refuses to learn from history, and is thus doomed to get mugged by it, but refuses to press charges afterwards."
Senior Oliver Friedfeld and his roommate were held at gunpoint and mugged recently. However, the GU student isn’t upset. In fact he says he “can hardly blame [his muggers].”

“Not once did I consider our attackers to be ‘bad people.’ I trust that they weren’t trying to hurt me. In fact, if they knew me, I bet they’d think I was okay,” wrote Friedfeld in an editorial featured in The Hoya, the university’s newspaper. “The fact that these two kids, who appeared younger than I, have even had to entertain these questions suggests their universes are light years away from mine.”

Friedfeld claims it is the pronounced inequality gap in Washington, D.C. that has fueled these types of crimes. He also says that as a middle-class man, he does not have the right to judge his muggers.

“Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as ‘thugs?’” asks Friedfeld. “It’s precisely this kind of ‘otherization’ that fuels the problem.”
Actually, it's holier-than-Thou (*) damned fools like this who "fuel the problem" ... and have been deliberately doing so for a good 60 or 70 years.

Another thing about these rich white "liberals" and their mind-set to which I think normal people don't give enough consideration is that what they are saying is that if *they* weren't rich and/or "privileged", they'd consider themselves justified in mugging others (**).

(*) not only do they imagine themselves holier that you and me, but also than God

(**) that is, in person in contrast to their perferred method of mugging others through State violence

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Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Self-opacity

Today's chuckle comes from Kathy Shaidle: "Here’s the thing: I have ... an almost psychopathological indifference to criticism."

Please excuse my eyes rolling across the floor.

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Someone has to

Someone has to ... do the jobs Americans won't do

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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Never saw that coming

Wintery Knight: Human Rights Campaign co-founder Terry Bean arrested for sex crime with 15-year-old

Look, America: "sex education" is about grooming your children to make them more susceptible to sex-predators. And the 'Human Rights Campaign' is about grooming you to make you more susceptible to the mainstreaming of NAMBLA.

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'Even-handedness' vs 'moral equivalency' Is there a difference?

Answer: almost never.

Whether we're talking about alleged-President Obama reacting to the murder of Israelis by Arab terrorists by "counseling" both terrorists and Israelis to "be calm" (*), or whether we're talking about the police arresting and charging with disorderly conduct both the man who is attacked and the violent woman who attacked him (**), or whether we're talking about the school administrators who do nothing for weeks or months as you are daily physically bullied, but immediately implement their inane "zero-tolerance policy" the minute you defend yourself, it's all the same: the "authorities" almost never care about justice; they care about keeping things quiet, and if the cost of keeping things quiet happens to be your limb ... or your life ... they'll generally gladly pay it.



(*) as 'Wintery Knight' observes, this is like telling both the rapist and the victim of the rapist to refrain from raping one another in future.

(**) Fortunately for him, he is 'hispanic', and so the charges were eventually dropped

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Sunday, November 16, 2014

Trees ... and Flowers ... and 'Evolution'

'News' at Uncommon Descent recently made a post drawing attention to an evolutionist's statement that "... we don’t know much about how speciation happens in trees."

This prompted me to drop a note to Denyse O'Leary (who is frequently, though not always, 'News') mentioning a Darwinist conundrum about trees and flowers -- well, it would be a conundrum to DarwinDefenders were they not so highly skilled in ignoring everything that needs to be ignored so as to protect their metaphysical speculations disguised as 'Science!' from rational critical evaluation.

The initial note I sent Mrs O'Leary was:
Except for their mode of reproduction, flowering trees and non-flowering trees are more like than flowering trees are to flowering non-trees. However, by their mode of reproduction, oak trees are more like tulips than like pine trees.


It's a great mystery ... if your religion is evolutionism.
A follow-up note to explain in more detail was:
You may recall Darwin's "abominal mystery".

So far as I know, he, nor his followers, never even thought about it in these terms, though they should be doing so: but flowering plants are "abominable" from the DarwinDefender point of view not just in their origin, but also in the fact that flowering plants are so diverse in all ways but the flowers themselves. A tulip blossom and an apple blossom (*) are both "perfect flowers" (**) (see here, as mentioned at the bottom of that page, so is an oat blossom) and also "complete flowers" -- the flowers have the same structures, which, according to evolutionists, are always descended/modified from the same parts (***). But other than the flowers, apple trees and tulip plants have few, if any, similarities in their gross characteristics.

Think about it: for Darwinistic evolutionism to be consistent, the apple and the tulip *must* be more closely related by descent than the apple is to the pine, despite that both being trees, apples and pines grow/develop and maintain their health and lives in very similar ways. The "permanent" part of an apple or pine is the layer of actively growing cells just below the bark (including the roots). But the "permanent" part of a tulip is the little disk at the bottom of the bulb, from which disk (re)grows the roots (it's a yearly affair) and leaves and flower stems. This point is even more ovbious with daffodils and onions. A pine or an apple overwinters by storing food in its roots, which persist, and continuously grow similarly to the branches, year ro year. A tulip sheds its roots as part of its overwintering strategy and instead stores food in the bulb, which has no counterpart in the apple.


(*) I changed my tree example from oak to apple. I had initially picked oak because ‘mighty oaks’ are such exemplar trees in our language; but oak flowers are not “perfect” and are so inconspicuous that most people don’t realize they have flowers.

Perhaps, for the irony of it, I should have picked tulip trees to contrast with tulips.


(**) Apparently, botanists have changed the definition of "perfect flower", for I used to see the term used for what it seems is now called a "complete flower".

Also, it *used* to be that a "perfect flower" (now a "complete flower") had FIVE parts, not four. Goodness, I wish they'd make up their minds!

(***) Flower petals, for instance, are claimed to be modified leaves.


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In which I learn that I am a 'mereological nihilist'

Doug Benscoter: Atomism and Its Irrelevance to Classical Theism -- "Peter van Inwagen, for instance, holds to mereological nihilism: that no composite material thing really exists. He does, nevertheless, make an exception for living things."

While I hadn't yet thought of it in terms of "composite material thing[s]", and of course (being just a normal non-academic person ... like you), I had never encountered the term 'mereological nihilism', I had years ago reached the conclusion that almost none of the (supposed) entities we speak of do actually exist, but that living entities do exist. That is, the sun and moon and stars, and the earth, do not really exist. But you really do exist, and the individual cells comprising your body really do exist.

I had come to these conclusions in considering the 'Perseus' Ship Paradox', which is the paradox of identity. I had concluded that only things inherently possessing identity really exist. And the only material entities possessing inherent identity of which I am aware are living things. Perhaps sub-atomic particles also possess some sort of inherent identity, though I can't see it including "selfness", which seems to me the key thing in identity.


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Saturday, November 15, 2014

Warm!

Last weekend, I discovered that the furnace wasn't working (again). It hadn't got really cold yet, so running a burner on the kitchen stove (coupled with flannel jammies) was enough to keep me comfortable.

On Saturday, I was able to get someone to come out to look at it. Anyway, while I had been hoping to get one more winter out of the old furnace, I decided to have him install a new one. Among other things, I'd noticed before he arrived that even though I had turned off the power to the unit the night before, gas was still flowing to the pilot; it was an electronic pilot, and the gas should have shut down with the power turned off.

It was pretty chilly when I got home last night (Friday). I turned on *two* burners on the stove, full blast, and carted an electric space heater into the bedroom, and piled comforters on the bed. It was still a chilly night.

But, WARMTH! The guy and his son installed a new, high-effiency furnace today, and an electric water heater (it was past time for the old gas water heater to be replaced) ... and I'm warm!

It's not Thanksgiving Day yet, but in case it wasn't obvious, I'm thankful for warmth ... and for capitalism (*) ... and that I had the money in the bank to pay for this work.

(*) I am thankful that other people have the freedom in America to "selfishly" pursue their own "selfish" interests ... and thereby make my life better, easier, more comfortable. Can you inagine what it would be like if I'd had to wait for some "selfless" government bureaucrat to do this work for me? For one thing, I'd still be waiting for the initial visit to check out the problem.

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'to gruber'

Douglas Wilson:"To gruber someone is to dismiss the stupid peons out there with a supercilious arrogance, and with the critic blissfully unaware of the tiny bubble of self-congratulatory hubris he lives in."

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Not fit for the Kids' Table

Victor Reppert: "It must be noted that there is no way, on the model I have presented, to show that everyone who denies the Resurrection is irrational, or engaged in bad faith."

How about showing that *almost* everyone -- and certainly the most vocal -- who denies the Resurrection is engaged in bad-faith hypocrisy?

[The point here is that most "skeptics" have no problem at all with Carl Sagan's scientistic assertions about things just happening for no reason nor cause nor meaning -- events that have never been observed to have happened and that would be considered by nearly everyone except "skeptics" to be miracles, or probable miracles, were they ever to be observed to actually have happened.]


There is another point it seems to me that you constantly overlook -- which is that even were Christianity false, that is, even if Christ did not rise from the dead [and his rising did not mean what Christianity says it means], that doesn't touch on the even more basic question: "Is God?"

The question of Christ's Resurrection is pointless unless there is a Creator-God who intentionally restored life and soul to that dead body as a promise to do likewise with those who love him. After all, one could acknowledge that Jesus really was dead and really did come back to life ... and then "explain" it as one of those (asserted by scientism) pointless [meaningless], astronomically improbable events that just happen from time to time all by themselves for no reason and with no cause [and no attendant meaning], as discussed in the above link.

[To reiterate a point I've made many times -- it's not the (alleged) fact that Jesus really was dead and really did come back to life that gets the so-called skeptics' panties in a bunch, it's the (alleged) meaning of his coming back to life that they hate; for that meaning points to the reality of the Creator, and of moral duties ... and of moral judgment. If Jesus' coming back to life were just a strange historical footnote, to which no one ascribed any particular significance, then the "skeptics" wouldn't be at all skeptical that it really did occur.]

Now, as it happens, we human beings have many lines of argument and evidence that show:
1) belief in the Creator is rational;
2) disbelief in the Creator is irrational.

ERGO, anyone who denies the reality of the Creator is [willfully] irrational.

WHY do you continue to waste your time -- and encourage others to waste their time (to say nothing of sanity) -- in the logically impossible quest of rationally convincing irrational people to acknowledge that you are rational? Arguing Christ with Jews, or even with Hindus, may be a rational undertaking; arguing anything "religious" with God-deniers is the epitome of irrational behavior.

UNTIL a person acknowledges that there is a Creator, he has nothing to say: he "has no place at the table", as the saying goes. It's not that he "belongs at the Kids' Table" [as some God-haters like to say of Christians ... and even of persons who are not necessarily Christians], for even children are rational beings ... it's that, in willfully choosing irrationality, the God-denier belongs on the floor, fighting with the dogs for whatever scraps fall from the Kids' Table.


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Thursday, November 13, 2014

Two Moons for Shambilar

Further to Malcolm the Cynic's post about his stories and ideas for stories, and mashing it up with something Douglas Wilson recently posted:
“Hack writers do not sub-create a world; they simply rearrange furniture in a glibly assumed (and largely unexamined) prefab world. If necessary, they make it an ‘other world’ fantasy by having two moons in the sky or by naming their protagonist something like Shambilar. But this is just moving things around on the surface. There is no deep structure to it — the author is not exercising enough authority. He is being too timid. There is not enough deep structure because there is not enough deep imitation” (From The Romantic Rationalist, pp. 76-77).
I would like to offer an idea -- an annual content for otherworldly hack stories; the only stipulations being that 1) the protagonist must be named 'Shambilar', and 2) there must be two moons involved in some manner with the story's world.

Now, if only someone would volunteer to annually fund a prize for the competition.

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Monday, November 10, 2014

I'm not Wolfgang Pauli

I'm not Wolfgang Pauli, yet I understood this point about Darwinism/evolutionism when I was still a teen --

'News' at Uncommon Descent From Wolfgang Pauli, on Darwinism
“In discussions with biologists I met large difficulties when they apply the concept of ‘natural selection’ in a rather wide field, without being able to estimate the probability of the occurrence in a empirically given time of just those events, which have been important for the biological evolution. Treating the empirical time scale of the evolution theoretically as infinity they have then an easy game, apparently to avoid the concept of purposesiveness. While they pretend to stay in this way completely ‘scientific’ and ‘rational,’ they become actually very irrational, particularly because they use the word ‘chance’, not any longer combined with estimations of a mathematically defined probability, in its application to very rare single events more or less synonymous with the old word ‘miracle.’” (pp. 27-28)
'News' adds, "For the Darwinist (or Christian Darwinist) natural selection is, quite simply, magic. It is not and never could be anything else."

As Pauli put it, "the concept of ‘natural selection’ [is] more or less synonymous with the old word ‘miracle.’ " -- Exactly: what 'Science!' fetishists hate about miracles (or alleged miracles) is not they the supposedly "violate the laws of nature" -- they're quite willing to assert that there are no "laws of nature" in the first place -- but rather that, definitionally, a real miracle is intentionally caused and for a purpose. A (real) miracle is not a random and inherently meaningless event -- that is what they hate about suspected miracles, for their whole worldview requires that *everything* be utterly meaningless.

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Saturday, November 8, 2014

A note about 'an eye for an eye'

In Matthew 5:38ff, it is recorded that Christ says, "You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also ..."

Many today incorrectly believe -- even as Marcion incorrectly taught 1900 years ago -- that this indicates some some sort of tension, in fact a conflict and contradiction, between "the God of the OT" and "the God of the NT". And from that error, unless they correct it, they eventually falsely conclude, as Marcion did, that "the God of the OT" and "the God of the NT" are not the same person and from there that "the God of the OT" is actually demonic -- despite that the NT many times explicity makes clear that Christ Jesus *is* Jehovah/Elohim.

Now, notice what Jesus said about this; notice *how* he said it: "You have heard that it was said ..."

But, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" is not just *said*, it is *written* in the Law of Moses. So, what's going on, what does this mean?

Douglas Wilson explains: Scissors and Library Paste
First, look at how Boyd sets two portions of Scripture at odds with one another, and consider how unnecessary that capitulation is. In ancient times, private vengeance was mediated through the system of the blood avenger. The Mosaic code placed restrictions on this system by establishing cities of refuge. The old system was further restricted by the “eye for eye” code, by the lex talionis. When vengeance was in private hands, it frequently became a life for an eye, a life for a tooth. So the magistrate was required to execute strict justice in judgment himself, and this would remove a great deal of the emotional motivations for private vengeance. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecc. 8:11).

Got that? Eye for eye was required of the magistrate. In the Lord’s day, that phrase was being used to justify private vengenace - in much the same way that someone today might use it. “He hit me so I hit him, Eye for eye.” The Lord was plainly correcting an abusive interpretation of Moses. He was not correcting Moses himself.

As Wilson quippingly quotes (I suspect he's quoting CS Lewis), "He who says A may not have said B, but give him time." The point being, as Wilson titled that little post, "The logic will out". That is, human beings, even when they are willfully choosing to be irrational and illogical, are still rational beings, and ultimately will always arrive at and embrace the logical working-out of the premises they have chosen.

My point here is that those who refuse to be corrected on the matter of this (false) contradiction between "the God of the OT" and "the God of the NT", and likewise those who refuse to understand that Matthew 5:38ff is not about telling the magistrate to "forgive" the offender, must *always* end up perverting both Justice and Mercy.

The "Mercitarians", as we may call them, falsely imagine that there can be be Mercy without Justice -- much as the worshippers of self-esteem falsely image that "everyone is a winner" -- and so they have set themselves up as the dispensers of mercy-without-justice, preventing justice ever being done ... so long as the initial injustice was not against their own interests, of course. These days, they have so committed to the logic of their false premises, they are so far into this inversion of justice and mercy, that they freak out when someone has the temerity to mention that the wrong-doer is, in fact, a wrong-doer.

But here's the thing: only he against whom the injustice was done has the power to forgive the wrong-doer: only the *wronged* can give mercy to the *wrong-doer*, and mercy can but follow justice. That is, mercy cannot be extended unless there is first judgment and condemnation.

To put it another way: *I* do not have the moral standing to forgive John for mugging you. But, this is what "liberals" arrogate to themselves the power and right to do; and in doing so, prevent and pervert justice, to the ultimate undoing of civil society.

The Old Testament's commandment of lex talionis was given in a social environment in which there was no magistrate passing judgment and imposing condemnation, in which the only justice a wronged person could hope to get was that which he and his clan managed to impose upon the wrong-doer ... and his clan. Such an arrangement quickly leads to endless vendetta and blood-fued, in which the "penalty" for knocking out someone's tooth is to take his life ... or the life of his brother.

The Old Testament's commandment of lex talionis was given to *stop* this run-away perversion of Justice.

The "Mercitarians" are simply perverting Justice in the other direction -- and the end-result is, and must be, a social environment in which there is no magistrate passing judgment and imposing condemnation.

In setting their perverted "mercy" above real justice, preventing the victims of injustice getting justice -- and using the magistrate's sword to impose this perversion upon society -- the "Mercitarians" are merely working to undo the moral progress that the lex talionis is.

Unless our society rejects the false gospel of the "Mercitarians", and returns to passing just judgment and imposing just condemnation, we will, and *must*, become a dysfunctional society in which the horrible injustice of vendetta and blood-feud is the only means available for a wronged person to attempt to get justice.


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Thursday, November 6, 2014

Painting the town red

When I was growing up -- as a true-blue red-blooded American -- 'red' was the color of the left (*) (**), and 'blue' of the right. But, a few presidential elections ago, "the media" -- that is, leftists -- switched the color scheme.

OK, fine. So, let's paint the town red


(*) The leftists themselves chose red -- evocative of shed blood -- as their color. Mostly because they're always really into shedding blood.

(**) thus, we said, and meant, "better dead than red": better that the whole nation die, if it came to that, than submit to communism

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Tuesday, November 4, 2014

The #StreetHarassment Meme and #Feminism’s Kafkatrapping Tactics

The Other McCain has a very good post analyzing the recent (and fundamentally dishonest) "street harassment" video (*) -- The #StreetHarassment Meme and #Feminism’s Kafkatrapping Tactics

Also, here is a previous post on the matter -- Racism, Classism and Catcalling (or, #Feminism Is for Rich White Lesbians)

(*) you know, the one that was *supposed* to "prove" that I, being a white(ish) man, am a horrible, incorrigible "sexist" and that all the discontents of all women are *my* fault, but instead it sparked a big cannibalistic (and self-contradictory) feeding-frenzy amongst all The Right (which is to say, leftist) People out to "protect" their own favored protected class of "victims."

Here is a good comment by K T Cat -- -- "So there's a video of some chick walking past a bunch of minority dudes getting catcalls and wolf whistles. ... This has feminists in Full Freakout Mode, demanding, err, something. I'm not quite sure of what they want, probably because what they want is fundamentally contradictory with something else they want and so the whole thing is incoherent."


By the way, here's a video of a man experiencing "#StreetHarassment"

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Monday, November 3, 2014

'The Burglar Across the Hall'

I've been meaning for some time to write a little post about "The Burglar Across the Hall" (a strange dream I had several weeks ago). Malcolm the Cynic has a post that prompted me to write a little post on *his* blog about it. So, rather than re-posting it here, I'll just link to the post there

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Friday, October 31, 2014

Uncle Frank

After all, it's vitally important (to the "liberals") to "count every vote" --

Uncle Frank

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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Darwinist Just-So Stories

This is a recording from a competition to mock Darwinist Just-So Stories --

'News' at Uncommon Descent: The world is changing: Someone noticed what “evolutionary science” has become, and laughed

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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Another Feminist ‘Success’ Story

These two items are related through the pious politically correct myth that being reared by a homosexual "couple" does no harm to children. Actually, of late, the leftists have ramped up the myth -- some of them are now asserting that being reared by one's *actual* Father and Mother is detrimental to children, and that being reared by a homosexual "couple" not only does no harm to children, but is beneficial to them.


The Other McCain: Another Feminist ‘Success’ Story -- "The Hill-Meyer family must be so proud of their son/”daughter,” but I’m pretty sure his/”her” lesbian mothers can relax and stop worrying that anyone might ever call them “Grandma.” The feminist success story concludes with a Darwinian dead end."

Nature, being truth, *always* wins.

The Other McCain: The Gay Hate Machine

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Sunday, October 26, 2014

On 'Gender Inclusive Language'

A little exchange with Matt Flannagan concerning his use of 'gender inclusive language' --

Me:
The point is that in many contexts the difference between people’s knowledge, character, abilities, relationship, and authority mean it is perfectly appropriate for one to tell the other to do something that she herself would not do.

Again! with the leftism!

====
Well, that (the “again”) was real clear, wasn’t it? Here’s my previous comment

A loving parent sets their 9 year old daughter a bedtime of 8:30 pm. This parent’s command reflects their loving character, it does not follow, however, that being loving requires that the parent herself must go to bed at 8:30 pm.

I *do* wish people who are not leftists would check themselves before using leftist-political language. If you’re talking about “a loving parent”, then the correct pronoun to use is neither “their” nor “she/her/her”, it’s “he/his/him” If you’re talking about a her, them you’re not talking about a mere “parent”, you’re talking about a mother.

====
How often do you use that damnable leftist “gender-inclusive language” to refer to a generic/non-specific murderer … or plumber … as “she”? Never, of course.

Matt:
Ilion, I was educated in NZ universities, in some subjects its actually required that you use language like that as part of the style guide. I don’t agree with this but I chose to pick my battles. Its become habit

The same is true with my readers, I am aware what I say is going to be controverted by some people so again I pick my battles and try and give people less to complain about.
Every time I have ever chided a non-leftist for employing leftist "gender inclusive language", he has offered *exactly* this excuse. He (by which pronoun I mean both those I have chided in the past and Mr Flannagan presently) is claiming that it's just a stylistic thing, that it's not very important, that it doesn't mean anything.

To which I say, if it doesn't mean anything, then why do it? Do you normally make it a habit when trying to communicate your thought to another to say/write things that don't *mean* anything?

If "gender inclusive language" is just a stylistic thing, then the next time the thought you're trying to get across involves discussing a murderer, or a plumber, why not refer to him as "she"? Ah! But that would be against the rules, wouldn't it? The anti-grammatical "she" is to be employed only in situations or references that one considers to be "positive". Thus, if one is commenting favorably on solders or police officers, then the generic solder or police officer is a “she”; but if one is accusing soldiers (in general) of being “baby killers” or accusing police officers (in general) of “police brutality”, then they are “he”.

If "gender inclusive language" is not very important, then why not stop intentionally employing it? Ah! But then the leftists would turn their sights on you all the sooner, wouldn't they?

Me:
Matt,
You're a Christian -- you don't have to option of surrendering to lies, and using leftist politicized language is exactly that.

Look, I cannot take seriously, in any regard, anyone who uses "gender-inclusive language" (unless he's using it to mock it), for it is an instance of intellectual dishonesty. And I don't want relegate you to the not-to-be-taken-seriously category. Generally, I *immediately* stop reading a person when he uses "gender-inclusive language" non-ironically (*).

If you were speaking/writing in, say, Spanish to a Spanish-speaking audience, would you not carefully use proper Spanish gendered pronouns in the way that the rules of Spanish require? Or if you were merely speaking/writing to fellow English speakers and refering to Spahish persons, would you not carefully distinguish "Latinos" from "Latinas"? Or, given that you are a New Zealander, if you were seeking to speak/write Maori, would you not do you best to learn and observe all the rules of that language?

Yet, when it comes to your own native language, you choose intentionally to use the corrupt, and corrupting, language of leftist anti-masculine politics.

What? Do you really think that the leftists are going to overlook you, when it's your torn to be broken to the briddle, just because you're already using leftist language to signal your coolness? Not in the least. Your choice to use leftist politicized language tells them that you're already half-broken, that the battle for your soul, and your balls, is already half-won.


(*) From my point of view, I'm bending over backwards to give you a chance to stop behaving like an man-hating leftist. So far, what you've done is make excuses: but, if you don't agree with man-hating leftism, then stop speaking/writing -- and thus, thinking -- as though you do.

Me:
Please be patient with one more comment from me on the matter --

When you use "gender inclusive language", you are not honoring your wife's femininity; you are denegrating your own masculinity.


"Have you not heard that in the beginning God created them male and female?"

The point of "gender inclusive language" is to deny this fundamental truth, and to make the thinking of it into a thought-crime, and ultimately to make it unthinkable. Using "gender inclusive language" isn't a minor foible, it is active collaboration with the Adversary.

When you use "gender inclusive language", it is not *simply* that you are not honoring your wife's femininity and denegrating your own masculinity, but that you are *also* denegrating her femininity.
"Gender inclusive language", and feminism in general, is rooted in hatred of the feminine. To be sure, feminists hate men and masculinity. But that's more in the nature of sour grapes. What they really hate is womanhood, what they really hate is that "in the beginning God created them male *and* female." What they deny, and want to force *you* to deny, is that it is Good that "in the beginning God created them male *and* female."


edit 2014/10/27:
When one uses "gender inclusive language", one is participating in series of leftist lies, which includes:
* lying about Christianity
* lying about Western civilization
* lying about one's own particular people/culture
* lying about all the non-leftist men of one's civilization and particular people/culture
* (possibly) lying about one's own self, if one is a man and not a leftist (if one *is* a leftist, then one almost always *is* a misogynist)

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Friday, October 24, 2014

'Moderate Islam' vs 'Moderate Christianity'

Something to keep in mind when The Usual Suspects start spouting The Usual Hemming and Hawing about Islam and Moslems --

There is no more such a thing as "moderate Islam" than there is such a thing as "moderate Christianity".

A "moderate Christian" is someone who claims to be a Christian *and* who simultaneously holds that Christianity just isn't all that important to how one conducts one's life. A "moderate Christian" is someone who isn't trying to emulate Christ -- whom Christianity holds to be the perfect man whose life and deeds all persons should seek to emulate ... which is to say, someone who is not really a Christian.

Similarly with Islam: A "moderate Moslem" is someone who claims to be a Moslem *and* who simultaneously holds that Islam just isn't all that important to how one conducts one's life. A "moderate Moslem" is someone who isn't trying to emulate Mohammed -- whom Islam holds to be the perfect man whose life and deeds all persons should seek to emulate ... which is to say, someone who is not really a Moslem.

Now, the thing is, one can never rule out the possibility that a "moderate Christian" may decide that he wants to be a real Christian. Likewise, one can never rule out the possibility that a "moderate Moslem" may decide that he wants to be a real Moslem. But, the *other* thing is that when a "moderate Christian" starts trying to become a real Christian, he becomes a better, a more moral, person. Contrarily, when a "moderate Moslem" starts trying to become a real Moslem, he becomes a worse, a less moral, person.

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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

America in C Major

Douglas Wilson: America in C Major
A wedding chapel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, The Hitching Post, run by a man and wife team, each of them an ordained minister, has been informed that they could face jail time or fines if they refuse - as they intend to refuse - to perform same sex mirages. ...

Now the argument is that they will be forced by the state to perform same sex mirages in their role as businessmen, and not in their role as ministers. Because this is an “open to the public” thing, like a restaurant, they must serve whoever walks through the door. Simple pimple, right? Well, not exactly. In the first place, I see no reason why they should be forced to perform same sex mirages any more than our local La Casa Lopez should be forced to serve up Chinese, however much an urgent patron wants him some almond chicken. Their defense would run along the lines of “we’re a Mexican restaurant. We don’t serve Chinese food. We don’t know how to make Chinese food.”

So this is where appeal will be made to the great advances accomplished by the Civil Rights movement back in the sixties. Back in the day, whites could refuse to serve blacks in their restaurants, and it wasn’t that long ago. It was that way in the town where I grew up, and who wants to return to those days? The claim is made that “you opponents of same sex mirage want to return us to those days.” This particular point is the central slippery trick in this whole mess.

Before proceeding further, I do want to say that we should be far better masters of the distinction between sins and crimes before we go about trying to outlaw sins. Because we tried to eliminate the sin of racial prejudice in public spaces without grasping that essential distinction, we have ended up by mandating the commission of sin in public spaces. Essaying to stamp out one sin we have made another sin, one that is far worse, mandatory. Let me go over that again. We have outlawed one sin, and the cost of doing it is that we have made another sin compulsory. People who do that shouldn’t be in charge of things.

Run this out. Suppose The Hitching Post was owned by a couple that had sincere religious convictions against miscegenation. This would mean that they would want the right to refuse to perform a ceremony between a black man and a white woman. Now I take it as a given that such a refusal on their part would be sinful. But should it be illegal?

And even if it should be illegal, how does it follow that if the state can make someone quit being sinful that this somehow authorizes the state to make people start being sinful?

So this is the point where our pretended moral arbiters try to retreat into moral relativism - they say that we use terms like “sin” and we quote Bible verses and all, but not everyone has the same understanding of morality. Who is to say what sins are? Who is to tell us the difference between right and wrong? This is a pluralistic society, and we should know that we cannot impose our own moral codes on others who do not share them. Don’t you know anything, rube? Well, okay, but if we can’t impose a particular morality on people who don’t share that morality, then why did you impose your morality on the bigoted restaurant owner? This is not a difficult question to understand, and I am willing to wait for an answer. By what standard are you making your moral decisions, and why should they be obligatory for others who do not share your devotion to those standards?
By no standard at all, of course, for leftists are *always* lying hypocrites.

Surely, Gentle Reader recalls, oh, just last week, when we were assured that the judicial over-reach imposition of the same-sex mirage regime would not affect "your marriage" (meaning *real* marriages) and that no one would ever be trying to force Christians to violate their consciences over same-sex mirage.
... The Bible speaks on this subject with such clarity that the only way this current homo-overreach can conclude is by trying to take our Bibles away. As long as we have our Bibles, their contentions will be unable to get the clown face paint off. But we live in an era that has difficulty in understanding when an argument is ad absurdum, and so I apologize for bringing it up. No need to take our Bibles. Really.
In the end, they *must* come after our Bibles -- and ultimately our lives -- for the logic of their irrational-and-sinful position commands it.

John C. Wright: Snap Out of It

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Sunday, October 12, 2014

'Everyone is excited about the millions of dollars'

Adventist Mission Doctor Speaks Out on the Ebola Crisis and Foreign Aid -- The leftists who control the government of the US aren't really interested in helping the people of Liberia stamp out this disease. Rather, this is just one more excuse to waste money. The leftists will never forgive Reagan for bankrupting the USSR ... and they fully intend to return the favor.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Making the National Socialist approach to mass murder look moderate

More socialized medicine in action -- Vox Day: Dutch slaughter

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Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Socialized Medicine in Action

Here are two recent news items illustrating what really does -- and must -- go on under socialized medicine --
I want a sex change... again: Transsexual who had £10,000 surgery on NHS wants to become a man again - because being a woman is exhausting [£10,000 is currently about $16,000]

So, rather that working at trying to solve his real problem, this mentally-and-emotionally -- and spiritually -- damaged man was sexually mutilated using funds forcibly extorted from the taxpayers of Britain. Now, he wants a do-over ... using even more funds forcibly extorted from the taxpayers of Britain. But, of course, there is no do-over: even if he does ever get past his real problem, his body will now always be sexually mutilated.

Well, at least they're not talking about "solving" his problem via lethal injection, as was done last year to a "transsexual" woman in Belgium whose "sex-change" to pseudo-male didn't make her happy, after all.


Baby Born from Transplanted Womb -- A woman in Sweden gives birth to a healthy baby boy after carrying the child in a transplanted uterus for 32 weeks.

What this means is that hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions) forcibly extorted from the taxpayers of Sweden were used to transplant someone else's uterus into this woman and keep her immune system from rejecting it long enough for her to carry a child (expensively conceived via IVT) to 'viability'. Which means that these same hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions) forcibly extorted from the taxpayers of Sweden were not used for something of real medical benefit to anyone.

And they're planning more of this waste of resources.

===========
Here (again) is a comment by the blogger 'Wintery Knight' explaining *why* socialized medicine does and must produce such monstrous and/or absurd results -- Wintery Knight: Doctor shortage: how Obamacare makes Americans lose their doctors
The problem is that when government controls health care, they spend the money on things that will buy them more votes. People who need expensive care like this definitely do not get treated. In government-run health care, government takes control of the money being spent by individuals on actual health care in the private sector. They then redirect that money into public sector spending on “health-related” services. Instead of helping people who are really sick, government-run systems cut lose those sick people and concentrate on buying perfectly healthy people things like condoms, abortions, IVF and sex changes. They spread the money around to more people in order to buy more votes. The main goal is to get the majority of people dependent on government so that they continue to vote for bigger government. The few people who need expensive health care? They can just go die in a ditch.

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Saturday, October 4, 2014

When the leftists are making omelettes ...

"When the leftists are making omelettes, the last thing you want to do is stand there looking like an egg."

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The Obama Error

Christopher Chantrill at American Thinker: Rectification of Names: Let's Call Obama Era What It Is

Might I suggest calling the time of alleged-President Obama, that ol' blame duck, 'The Obama Error'?

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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Women! *eyeroll*

Kathy Shaidle: Cry Me a Rivers
How or why Joan Rivers (or anyone within earshot) figured her voice suddenly needed fixing, I couldn’t tell you. Since she wasn’t beautiful, Rivers’ voice was usually described as “raspy” or “grating.” Had she looked like Kathleen Turner and sounded exactly the same, the word would’ve been “husky” instead.

To state that Joan Rivers’ life would’ve been completely different if she’d been better looking is to say nothing—“If we had ham, we could make a ham and cheese sandwich if we had cheese”—and, yet, everything.

Beauty is the female’s primary reserve currency. Some women inherit a pulchritude trust fund; others, like Joan Rivers, are the ones we hear about in stump speeches, those born already owing some five-figure debt to someone or other.
What *is* it with women vis-à-vis other women?! [edit] Also, what *is* is with women that everything they don't like -- even when it's typically done by women, rather than by men -- is always due to the alleged "sexism" of men or of "society" (which is generally used as just another way of blaming men)?

Joan Rivers was a very beautiful woman -- I speak as a man who holds to an all-but-impossible ideal of female beauty (*) -- *until* she turned herself into a freak with plastic surgery. Also, her voice was indeed “raspy” and “grating", and would have been called so even had she looked like the young Liz Taylor.

(*) Some of my cousins are so beautiful that first meeting them can literally take your breath away. And that's just the men. My siblings and I are the "plain" ones of that side of my family (and I'm the "plain" one of the four of us). I know it's not reality, but my setting for "normally attractive woman" is turned up several notches past "5".

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Thursday, September 11, 2014

Another case of 'You are not your brain'

'News' at Uncommon Descent: Woman of 24 found to have no cerebellum in her brain
Although it is not unheard of to have part of your brain missing, either congenitally or from surgery, the woman joins an elite club of just nine people who are known to have lived without their entire cerebellum. A detailed description of how the disorder affects a living adult is almost non-existent, say doctors from the Chinese hospital, because most people with the condition die at a young age and the problem is only discovered on autopsy (Brain, doi.org/vh7).

However, in this woman, the missing cerebellum resulted in only mild to moderate motor deficiency, and mild speech problems such as slightly slurred pronunciation. Her doctors describe these effects as “less than would be expected”, and say her case highlights the remarkable plasticity of the brain.
Such cases not only "highlight the remarkable plasticity of the brain" but *also* highlight the falseness of the atheistic/naturalistic claim that minds are explained by brains (as see here and here)

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Friday, September 5, 2014

Apparently, It's a nice place to visit ...

... but you wouldn't want to live be stuck there. The 7th Century, that is.

Mail Online: 'I don't want to be a jihadi... I want to come home': How dozens of British Muslims who went to Syria to join ISIS 'plead to return to UK after becoming disillusioned with the conflict' -- It seems that the charm of chopping off the heads of dirty kafirs dulls after a while when one considers how dirty one can get without soap and hot running water to wash off the blood. And toilet paper; rubbing your hand in sand just isn't the same as having toilet paper and a flush toilet and, again, soap and water.

Of course, even in reporting this, Political Correctness reigns: these "disillusioned" head-choppers aren't 'Britons'; they never were.

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Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Rotherham is what happens when you deliberately ...

K T Cat: Rotherham, 1980

K T Cat: In Rotherham, They Believed Us

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The Nimoy Nucleus

Dean Burnett: -- "Remember, these [new myths about the human brain] were all written by an actual neuroscientist and they’re in the Guardian, so they must be true, right?"
The Nimoy Nucleus

It is widely accepted that different areas of the brain are responsible for different functions. There are the regions like Broca’s area that are responsible for language, the amygdala for processing emotional memories, the olfactory bulb for processing smells, and the Shatner’s Bassoon which handles time perception.

But scientists have recently identified an area termed the Nimoy Nucleus, which controls the elevation of individual eyebrows. Individuals with a small Nimoy Nucelus struggle to raise individual eyebrows, whereas those with larger, more developed areas are adept at the singe-eyebrow raise. fMRI scans have also revealed that the Nimoy Nucleus shows increased activity in response to hearing the word “fascinating”.

Understanding while you sleep

It is believed by many that you can learn by listening to things in your sleep. Sadly, this is not true. The reason it’s not true is because the sleeping brain doesn’t communicate the way the conscious brain does. We’re not exactly sure what the sleeping brain is doing, but it seems to be processing information, consolidating memories and the like. It also transmits and receives information from brains in a similar state, to confirm or back-up information. This is what human snoring is; the sleeping brain transmitting data, like that noise you used to get from dial-up modems. That’s why someone’s snoring will keep you awake when you share a bed with them; your brains aren’t synched yet. After a while, you can sleep through it.
I can raise just my left eyebrow without even thinking about it (it has happened all on its own, to the surprise and delight of those around me). But trying to raise only my right eyebrow takes a lot of concentration, and then doesn't really work properly.

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Friday, August 29, 2014

W'allah w'allah bing-bang

The nonsense phrase "Walla walla bing-bang", along with constant references to WallawallaWashington, is something I remember from watching Alvin anf the Chipmumks and Rocky and Bullwinkle in my in my long-ago childhood.

The equally nonsensical phrase "W'allah w'allah bing-bang" is my memory of "Walla walla bing-bang" ... turned into a mockery of Moslems, asses waving in the air (*), chanting their devoted slavery to the demon Allah.

Laura Rosen Cohen: National Post: Converting To Islam Might Save Your Disgusting Infidel Heads But Hey Probably Not, Kufar

As Mrs Cohen points out, the National Post article is not only disgusting on multiple levels, but is also intellectually dishonest. For, the shahadah is not *simply* "a Moslem prayer (that might save your life)"; it is not *simply* "a testimony to the identity of Allah as the one true God, and Muhammad as his prophet". It is, rather, a declaration that one is a Moslem ... if one is not a Moslem, to recite the shahadah converts one to Islam ... from which the real Moslems will not allow one to deconvert, on pain of death.

But then, anyone who would recite the shahadah attempting to convince the neck hackers to turn their attentions to someone else rather deserves to die, don't you think?

I am a Christian, not a Jew (one has to go back a few generations to find the Jews in my ancestry), but I approvingly quote Mrs Cohen, quoting Daniel Pearl before he was murdered by Moslems specifically because they were Moslems and he was a Jew and an American: "'My father's Jewish, my mother's Jewish, I'm Jewish,'"


(*) kind of makes you suspect the reason sodomy is so popular amongst Moslems.

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Monday, August 25, 2014

Any port in a storm!

This post will be far too large to post as a comment in the commbox at Victor Reppert's blog (which is its context). Plus, it makes a good post in its own right. It grows out of the insistence of one 'Dan Gillson' that my "*you* are the proof that God is" argument begs the question, starting here
"GIVEN the reality of the natural/physical/material world, IF atheism were indeed the truth about the nature of reality, THEN everything which exists and/or transpires must be wholely reducible, without remainder, to purely physical/material states and causes."

... That is where you beg the question. You haven't sufficiently established that atheism entails materialism. You've assumed something that you have no right (logically speaking) to assume. As I've pointed out to you, atheism is compatible with other monisms, e.g., Strawsonian Panpsychism, or Jamesian Neutral Monism. One can deny God, but hold that what we call matter is both mental and physical (Panpsychism), or that what we call matter is neither mental or physical (Neutral Monism).
[Note: he has "pointed out that atheism is compatible with other monisms" ... and I have pointed out, multiple times, that this dodge just doesn't work; that these "other monisms" are either incoherent or are just smoke-and-mirrors attempt at disguising eliminative reductionist materialism.]

My response was:
Ilíon: "GIVEN the reality of the natural/physical/material world, IF atheism were indeed the truth about the nature of reality, THEN everything which exists and/or transpires must be wholely reducible, without remainder, to purely physical/material states and causes."

Dan Gillson: " ... That is where you beg the question. You haven't sufficiently established that atheism entails materialism. You've assumed something that you have no right (logically speaking) to assume."

As I said previously, "... you will never identify this alleged question-begging. ... you're asserting that I'm begging the question ... and the evidence that I'm begging the question is your assertion that I am begging the question."

Also, as I said previously, "Based on past experience, it seems that when an 'atheist' claims that a theistic arguement begs the question, all he means is that it successfully moves from premise to conclusion ... and that he hates the conclusion."

For anyone can see the that the argument summarized above does not beg the question of God-denial entailing materialism; rather, materialism is just a logical consequence of denying the reality (and personhood) of God while affirming the reality of the physical world.

"Eastern-style" atheism -- which *denies* the reality of the physical world -- does not entail "materialism". But it still denies that *we* are real, and it's still absurd.

It's the denial of the reality and personhood of God that makes (all) atheisms absurd, not the materialism that some of them entail.

Further, the discerning reader will notice that materialism is really irrelevent to the thrust of the argument. Rather, it is the mechanistic determinism inherent in denying that the necessary being/entity is aWho, rather than a what, that shows atheism -- all atheims -- to be absurd.

Dan Gillson: "As I've pointed out to you, atheism is compatible with other monisms, e.g., Strawsonian Panpsychism, or Jamesian Neutral Monism. One can deny God, but hold that what we call matter is both mental and physical (Panpsychism), or that what we call matter is neither mental or physical (Neutral Monism)."

How many times do you expect I am required to point out to you the utter failure of this attempt to escape the logical entailments of God-denial?

How can one coherently "hold that what we call matter is both mental and physical (Panpsychism)" when there is no such thing as "the mental" (or "Mind") if there are no actual minds? But if your hypothetical Panpsychism God-denier wishes to posit that there is an actual mind (or minds) who is/are fundamental to reality, then is he not affirming the reality of God while denying the reality of God?

How can one coherently "hold ... that what we call matter is neither mental or physical (Neutral Monism)" and yet escape the mechanistic determinism inherent in denying that the necessary being/entity is aWho, rather than a what? How can one coherently call oneself a "monist" unless one holds that 'matter' and 'mind' are the same thing? But, there is no such thing as 'mind' unless there is an actual mind, an actually existing who (or Who). But, definitionally, atheism denies there is a non-contingent Who; and we know that whos (ourselves) are contingent.

The fatal problem of atheism is not matter, it is not materialism. The fatal problem of atheism is the determinism -- the denial of agency and of agent freedom -- which inheres in denying the Creator-God. There can be no "mental" unless there is a mind; there can be no agent freedom unless there is an agent.

Mr Gillson made two posts as response --
Post #1 --
Ilion,

"For anyone can see the that the argument summarized above does not beg the question of God-denial entailing materialism; rather, materialism is just a logical consequence of denying the reality (and personhood) of God while affirming the reality of the physical world." ... It does beg the question because there is no further logical development of the point. Your argument takes materialism for granted. If you think otherwise, then copy/paste the portion of your argument in which you prove that materialism is a logical consequence of atheism.

"Further, the discerning reader will notice that materialism is really irrelevent to the thrust of the argument. Rather, it is the mechanistic determinism inherent in denying that the necessary being/entity is aWho, rather than a what, that shows atheism -- all atheims -- to be absurd." ... It's not irrelevant to your argument. In your argument materialism is the mediating step between atheism and determinism. You can't arrive at determinism without supposing a materialistic account of causation, but you haven't satisfactorily answered why atheism entails materialism. Indeed, you've begged the question.

"How many times do you expect I am required to point out to you the utter failure of this attempt to escape the logical entailments of God-denial? " ... As many times as it takes. I'm pretty thick.


Post #2 --
"How can one coherently "hold that what we call matter is both mental and physical (Panpsychism)" when there is no such thing as "the mental" (or "Mind") if there are no actual minds? But if your hypothetical Panpsychism God-denier wishes to posit that there is an actual mind (or minds) who is/are fundamental to reality, then is he not affirming the reality of God while denying the reality of God?" ... On a panpsychist conception, minds aren't fundamental to reality. Mentality and physicality are fundamental properties of matter, that is the base unit of matter (whatever that is) expresses both mental and physical properties.

"How can one coherently "hold ... that what we call matter is neither mental or physical (Neutral Monism)" and yet escape the mechanistic determinism inherent in denying that the necessary being/entity is aWho, rather than a what?" ... By saying that we don't, right now, know what 'matter' really is. We just see mental effects and physical effects, and we suppose that each of these effects originate from the same metaphysical cause.

"How can one coherently call oneself a "monist" unless one holds that 'matter' and 'mind' are the same thing?" ... Because 'matter' and 'mind' can be different properties subsisting in a singular reality.

"But, there is no such thing as 'mind' unless there is an actual mind, an actually existing who (or Who). But, definitionally, atheism denies there is a non-contingent Who; and we know that whos (ourselves) are contingent." A couple things: Firstly, your first sentence begs the question. Secondly, it depends on the atheism. An atheist can subscribe to theistic arguments, but reject divine personalities. One doesn't need to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

"The fatal problem of atheism is not matter, it is not materialism. The fatal problem of atheism is the determinism -- the denial of agency and of agent freedom -- which inheres in denying the Creator-God. There can be no "mental" unless there is a mind; there can be no agent freedom unless there is an agent." ... I don't think you've satisfactorily made your case yet. I'm happy to continue on, if you don't think it's a lost cause.
So, with the background laid out, here is my response to all that --

Ilíon: "For anyone can see the that the argument summarized above does not beg the question of God-denial entailing materialism; rather, materialism is just a logical consequence of denying the reality (and personhood) of God while affirming the reality of the physical world."

Dan Gillson: "It does beg the question because there is no further logical development of the point. Your argument takes materialism for granted. If you think otherwise, then copy/paste the portion of your argument in which you prove that materialism is a logical consequence of atheism."

I had already said, multiple times, that he would never identify nor demonstrate where or how the argument begs the question. I had already said, multiple times, that he would assert this, but never make an actual case. So, look at his most recent "case":
1) "It does beg the question because there is no further logical development of the point" -- What the Hell? When did that become part of the definition of question-begging?
2) "Your argument takes materialism for granted" -- The mere accusation again, raw;
3) "If you think otherwise, then copy/paste the portion of your argument in which you prove that materialism is a logical consequence of atheism" -- Oh, I see! Since he can't identify or demonstrate the question-begging that he just knows is there, he now demands that I demonstrate the lack of question-begging ... and for something that isn't even part of my argument.

Really, when you think about it, with his failure to identify the alleged question-begging in the original argument, his accusation of my begging the question has now devolved into the demand that I (and you) beg the question of whether the original argument begs its question.

As I said above, when an 'atheist' charges that a theistic argument begs the question, all he really means is that it successfully moves from premise to conclusion ... and that he hates the conclusion.

Consider the classic example of a sound and valid logical argument --
P1) All men are mortal;
P2) Socrates is a man;
C) Socrates is mortal.

Now, the conclusion is certainly implied by the premises -- it could not be otherwise and the argument still be a valid deductive argument; one might even say that the premises "contain" the conclusion. But the argument does not beg the question of whether Socrates is mortal.


So, to the argument that Mr Gillson (constantly and falsely) accues, though never demonstrates, of begging the question --

"GIVEN the reality of the natural/physical/material world, IF atheism were indeed the truth about the nature of reality, THEN everything which exists and/or transpires must be wholely reducible, without remainder, to purely physical/material states and causes."

Let's put this argument into the form of the "Socrated is mortal" syllogism --
P1) There is a real physical world comprised of time and space and matter/energy, including the spacial-and-temporal relationships between "bits of matter" -- this all men call 'nature';
P2) There is no Creator-God who creates-and-sustains in existence this real physical world; OR, to put it another way: there is no non-contingent personal entity/agent, who is ontologically-and-logically prior to 'nature', who freely causes the continuous existence of 'nature';
C) "everything which exists and/or transpires must be wholely reducible, without remainder, to purely physical/material states and causes."

As anyone can see, this argument no more begs the question than does the "Socrates is mortal" argument. Certainly, the conclusion is implied by the premises -- it could not be otherwise and the argument still be a valid deductive argument. But the argument does not beg the question of whether denial of the reality of the non-contingent "Necessary Being" -- who is a 'who' rather than a 'what' -- who is ontologically-and-logically prior to 'nature', who is the *cause* of 'nature', who freely *chooses* to cause 'nature' to exist, must resolve into rank mechanistic determinism -- which, in this context, is expressed as eliminative-and-reductionist materialism. There is no 'who' in P1), but only "purely physical/material states and causes"; P2) denies there is a 'Who' "behind" 'nature'; therefore, there can be no 'who' in C). That is, given the premises, the conclusion *must* deny that there is any agency -- that there are any agents -- anywhere.

But, we know that there *are* agent, for *we* are agents. Thus, we know that the conclusion of the argument is false. Thus, we know that the argument in not both sound and valid. Thus, one (and only one) of the following is, and must be, true:
1) the argument is sound, but invalid;
2) the argument is valid, but unsound;
3) the argument is both unsound and invalid.

Mr Gillson (as with every other God-denier I've ever encountered who attempts to take a shot at it) is asserting that the argument is sound, but invalid. That is, he is asserting that the premises are true, but that the conclusion is invalidly obtained. But -- again, as with every other God-denier I've ever encountered who attempts to take a shot at it -- he does not (and cannot) identify any flaw in the argument. He merely asserts that it is flawed ... and now demands that I prove the conclusion by some other argument.

Now, the truth of the matter is that the argument is valid, but unsound; that is, the conclusion does logically follow from the premises, but at least one of the premises is false.


Ilíon: "Further, the discerning reader will notice that materialism is really irrelevent [sic] to the thrust of the argument. Rather, it is the mechanistic determinism inherent in denying that the necessary being/entity is a Who, rather than a what, that shows atheism -- all atheims -- to be absurd."

Dan Gillson: "It's not irrelevant to your argument. In your argument materialism is the mediating step between atheism and determinism. You can't arrive at determinism without supposing a materialistic account of causation, but you haven't satisfactorily answered why atheism entails materialism. Indeed, you've begged the question."

(As with most 'atheists') I don't think he even *attempts* to understand anything that upsets his atheistic apple-cart. But, even if he has made an honest attempt to understand, he doesn't appear to have managed it. So, given that he doesn't even fathom the argument (whether by honest failure or by disinclination), simple though the argument is, does anyone really think I'll be quaking in my boots because he is squawking that it begs the question? especially considering that he never shoulders the burden of proof of identifying the begged question? and further considering that he's now trying to shift his burden of proof to me as a burden of disproof?

It is *not* the case that "In [my] argument materialism is the mediating step between atheism and determinism". Nor is it the case that "You can't arrive at determinism without supposing a materialistic account of causation"

Rather, materialism is the logical entailment of mechanistic determinism applied to a material/physical world; materialism is the expression of determinism in a material/physical world-- deny the reality of the physical world while denying the reality of God (or his personhood) and you're still stuck with determinism, though of a sort that may hard for embodied beings such as ourselves to comprehend. If it helps, consider arithmetic: it is entirely non-physical and utterly deterministic.

And, ultimately, determinism is just an aspect of denying the personhood and/or agency of the Creator-God. What I mean by this is that even if a person acknowledges some sort of necessary "First Cause" that it pleases him to call 'God', but denies that this "First Cause" is a person/agent, then he is asserting that all of reality is deterministic. He is asserting that determinism, rather than agent freedom, is fundamental to reality. Into this category fall all who insist that 'God' is a "force" or a "principle" (this last being especially incoherent, for a principle is a concept, and there are no concepts if there are no minds who think them).

Look again at the argument -- "GIVEN the reality of the natural/physical/material world, IF atheism were indeed the truth about the nature of reality, THEN everything which exists and/or transpires must be wholely reducible, without remainder, to purely physical/material states and causes." -- the materialism arises from applying the denial that there is a Person who is fundamental to the nature of reality to the acknowledgement that the physical/material world in which one finds oneself is a real world. This problem can't be escaped by positing that 'personhood' is fundamental to the nature of reality, any more than by positing that 'mind' is fundamental to the nature of reality; for there is no 'personhood' if there is no actually existing person, just as there is no 'mind' if there is no actually existing mind. 'Personhood' and 'mind' are concepts, they are ideas; they do not exist independently of some actually existing mind who thinks them.

There are some modern physicists who advance the idea that reality is at root mathematical. For that sort of metaphysic, one could restate my argument as: "GIVEN the reality of the [mathematical] world, IF atheism were indeed the truth about the nature of reality, THEN everything which exists and/or transpires must be wholely reducible, without remainder, to purely [arithmetic/logical] states and causes." -- the determinism resides in the denial of God's personhood, not in the affirmation of matter.

Consider again this claim -- "You can't arrive at determinism without supposing a materialistic account of causation" -- in light of the argument (in syllogistic form) --
P1) There is a real physical world comprised of time and space and matter/energy, including the spacial-and-temporal relationships between "bits of matter" -- this all men call 'nature';
P2) There is no Creator-God who creates-and-sustains in existence this real physical world; OR, to put it another way: there is no non-contingent personal entity/agent, who is ontologically-and-logically prior to 'nature', who freely causes the continuous existence of 'nature';
C) "everything which exists and/or transpires must be wholely reducible, without remainder, to purely physical/material states and causes."
Notice: given the premises, there is no possibility of causation that is not determonistic, for the second premise denies this possibility. The determinism doesn't come from the first premise, but from the second; for the second premise denies that there is anything in reality, or in the nature of reality, not covered by the first premise.

It is the second premise that entails the conclusion we know to be false.



Ilíon: "How can one coherently "hold that what we call matter is both mental and physical (Panpsychism)" when there is no such thing as "the mental" (or "Mind") if there are no actual minds? But if your hypothetical Panpsychism God-denier wishes to posit that there is an actual mind (or minds) who is/are fundamental to reality, then is he not affirming the reality of God while denying the reality of God?"

Dan Gillson: "On a panpsychist conception, minds aren't fundamental to reality. Mentality and physicality are fundamental properties of matter, that is the base unit of matter (whatever that is) expresses both mental and physical properties."

Oh, indeed: "On a panpsychist conception, minds aren't fundamental to reality", for a 'panpsychist' is just an everyday run-of-the-mill eliminative materialist (and there is no other kind) who, for some reason or another, doesn't want to acknowledge his eliminative materialism.

What does it even mean to say that "On a panpsychist conception ... [of reality, m]entality and physicality are fundamental properties of matter, that is the base unit of matter (whatever that is) expresses both mental and physical properties"? Why, it means nothing at all, the sentence (if we can even call the string of words a 'sentence') is literally meaningless; its purpose is to blow smoke to disguise or hide the truth that the 'panpsychist' is asserting materialism while denying that he is doing so.

If the sentence is to have any meaning at all, then whatever these "mental" properties of "the base unit of matter" are, they are not "physical" properties; for the mere structure of the sentence demands this. So, let's look at the last clause again: "... that is the base unit of matter (whatever that is) expresses both [non-physical] and physical properties" But, 'physical' encompasses 'matter', so what out hypothetical panpsychist is saying is: "... that is the base unit of [some physical entitiy] (whatever that is) expresses both [non-physical] and physical properties"

If I substute some other word for the words 'mentality' and 'mental' thusly: "On a panpsychist conception ... [of reality, gubd]ality and physicality are fundamental properties of matter, that is the base unit of matter (whatever that is) expresses both [gubd]al and physical properties" does the sentence really become any less meaningful than the original? Not at all.

While the individual words can be analyzed for meaning, string them together as here and it all falls apart into meaninless mush.

If the sentence is to have any meaning at all, then whatever these "mental" properties (or "gubdal" properties, it's all the same) of "the base unit of matter" are, they are not "physical" properties. But, if the sentence is to have any coherent meaning, then these "gubdal" properties can have no relationship to any actually existing "gubds" (or "minds", it's all the same), since, after all, "On a panpsychist conception, [gudb]s aren't fundamental to reality". These alleged "mental" (or "gubdal") properties are abstracted away -- which action is, itself, an activity of minds -- from any actually existing minds (or "gubds"), existing independently of, and logically prior to -- and, in fact, causally prior to -- any minds (or "gubds")



[to be continued]


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'The Media' will have a lot to answer for come Judgment Day

Jim Goad: Murder by Cherry-Picking -- "I lived in Los Angeles during the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots. I heard the media continually refer to “four white police officers,” although technically, one of them was Mexican. And it wasn’t until a year or two ago when I learned that on the night he was beaten, King had two friends with him who obeyed police orders and emerged without a scratch. Fifty-eight people died in those riots, but I doubt anything nearly as catastrophic would have happened if the public had been aware that it wasn’t a tale of rabid Nazi cops attacking a lone meek non-belligerent descendant of slaves. By omitting crucial factual details to sustain a prefabricated moral narrative, the press seemed to enable [deliberately stirred up] mass murder."

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Sunday, August 24, 2014

The Mental Dilemma of the Materialist

William J Murray at UD: The Mental Dilemma of the Materialist -- Mr Murray explains something I have (as also so many other, greater minds in the past two or three centuries) frequently commented upon: to try to convince you to believe his irrational insistence that "your mind" (*) is an epiphenomenon of your brain, a "buzz in the brain" as it were, a materialist must appeal the the very thing he denies and wishes you to disbelieve, namely the truth that "your mind" and your thoughts are not caused by, are not an effect of, your brain.


(*) "your mind" is not something you have and might potentially lose, like a hand or foot. "Your mind" *is* you; and you are not your brain, any more than you are your foot.

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Just two examples

Here are just two recent examples illustrating the fact that the various elements of the leftist coalition will *never* be satisfied, and will *never* leave you alone ... until you bow to their god (who is themselves).

Doughy Dispute: Atheist Group Threatens Lawsuit Over Church Discount

Host a same-sex wedding on your property or pay a $13,000 fine

Moreover, *you*, Mr and Mrs America, enable this leftist cultural warefare against your own future, because you implicitly accept their premises and you constantly give way to their cynical hypocrisy.


edit:
Here is 'the Gay Patriot' commenting on the $13,000 fine for declining to host a "gay" "wedding" -- Wedding Cake Fascists Strike Again


My point with my comments to Nick below is to agree with him (and possibly extend what he means) that these continuously out-cropping outrages are not really about "religionus liberty", but are, rather, far more basic than that: the real issue is freedom of association ... concerning which the "conservatives" surredered to the leftists 60 years ago (which is before I and most of you were even born).

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Talk about not having eyes to see

Here is a comment made on Mr Wright's blog that I wish to share -- Comment by BobTanaka
I hate to be a damper, but I really want to know: how are we certain this is the Consecrated Host? Is it possible that the Satanists kept the real Host and gave back an unconsecrated one in its place? We’re obviously not dealing with honorable or honest men here.

Does anyone know?
Indeed: how does one distinguish the alleged physical body of Christ, that is, the alleged (actual) meat and blood of the consecrated elements (*) from mere bread and wine that hasn't been consecrated?


(*) I mean the physical thing which is asserted to actually become by consecration the actual flesh and blood of the Christ, rather than the mystical Body of Christ, which is the Communion of All Saints, of all the Redeemed throughout all history past and yet to be.


Edit:
Just in case it's not clear: I can rejoice with the Catholics that the Host was recovered and that the Satanists promise to not filch one again ... because it's important to them ... while still believing that the whole raft of their beliefs attached to the Sacrements (and priests and prelates) is absurd and, indeed, anti-Christian.

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On Chesterton's great idiocy

John C. Wright: Distributionism vs Plutoyperetonism -- this could have been written by me; except, of course, that Mr Wright is a better, and more disciplined, writer than I am.

The 'distributionism' and (most of) the 'social teaching' of The One True Bureaucracy that so many Catholics are so enamored of (note, Mr Wright is himself Catholic) is just socialism ... and statist slavery ... with a differnet mask than it wore in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.

Baptizing socialism doesn't make it Christian and doesn't remove its need to destroy its host society (and the lives of the people) in order to power the short-term illusion that it's finally(!) working.

What we call 'captialism' and/or 'the free market' *just is* the inevitable outworking of freedom and morality grounded in Biblical religion. To hate 'free-market capitalism', as so many Catholics who like to think themselves intellectuals do, and as most of their prelates do (with a vegence), is to hate human liberty ... and Christianity.

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Saturday, August 23, 2014

Now we know what leftists *really* think of 'gays'

... or, Now we know where 'gays' stand in the leftist hierarchy of victimhood.

Ace of Spades: What if There Was a Coordinated Group Terror and Murder Campaign Against Gays Living In America, and The Media Didn't Report It?

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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Sartorially Inappropriate

I've seen several references to this incident -- New Jersey vet says military T-shirt led to denied entry at Six Flags amusement park -- which leads to an observation/comment:

Some years ago -- right out in public (*) -- a saw a guy walking around with a tee-shirt on which was printed a life-size photo (***) of a guy performing auto-fellatio (**). What do you think are the odds that Six Flags would deny him entry?

(*) not in San Francisco, not at some parade of perversion, but at a computer show at which anyone might being children

(**) Talk about an education! Who would have thought of that? Who would have thought it possible?


(***) Two photos, actually. On the back of the shirt was a photo of the far too nimble guy taken from behind, and on the front was a picture taken not from behind. As I said, talk about an education.

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Friday, August 15, 2014

Putting the 'fun' in funeral

Laura Rosen Cohen: New From Pallywood: Hamas putting the "FUN" in Funerals!

What's really funny is that Western leftists *still* eat up this shit out of "Pallywood".

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Monday, August 11, 2014

Political/Economic Systems Contrasted and Explained

gothelittle:
Yes. This is the way I explain it:

In Capitalism, the People are in charge.

In Mercantilism, the corporations control the people through the government.

In Fascism, the government controls the people through the corporations.

In Communism, the government throws out the corporations and controls the people directly.
Only *one* of those four is rightist, the others are leftist.

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Friday, August 8, 2014

On the 'Genocide' in Gaza

Laura Rosen Cohen: One of the Main Things Jews Totally Suck At Is (Fortunately) Genocide ... Look! There is even a Bag(ged) Lady in the frame.

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