Atheists - "Autonomous, Loose and Randy"

Doug Giles pulls the covers off with his slam-bang funny -- and truthful -- essay, Atheism: An Intellectual Revolt or Pelvic Rebellion?

Look, I’m not buying that the atheists’ altruistic self-professed pursuit of reason is what undergirds their conclusion that God does not exist; I believe it’s because they want to believe that they’ll never be called into eternal accountability for their temporal actions by a holy God. Talk about an opiate for the masses ...

Y’know, Karl Marx said religion is the “opiate of the masses.” I think the real poppy derivative is the black tar belief that tells you atheist lads and lasses that when you take the big dirt nap that’s it. Ah what peace. What a high. No God. No accountability. All our sins of commission and omission will never ever come up again. No pain. No penalty. No heaven. No hell. Imagine. Yeah, dude. Hold that hit. Let it out slowly. Ahhh. Feel better?

There’s your opium.

Ouch. Sometimes the truth hurts. But it is preferable to the alternative; namely, denial of the biblical God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who wants us to redeem us from a hell of our own design. Update: What the New Atheists Don’t See -- Theodore Dalrymple (To regret religion is to regret Western civilization)

The Quiet Revolution of Middle Eastern Greed

S. Gregg posits an interesting observation in Islam’s Quiet Revolution:

Coherence is not something expected from fundamentalist terrorists. But Osama bin-Laden's latest missive (September 7th) to the rest of humanity attained new lows in confusion by articulating ideas normally associated with unrepentant Western European leftists trapped in the 1960s.

Amidst the usual denunciations, al-Qaeda's leader developed a new theme: an attack on globalization, multinational corporations and capitalism alongside praise of hard-left conspiracy theorist Noam Chomsky.

In bin-Laden's words, "I tell you: as you liberated yourselves before from the slavery of monks, kings and feudalism, you should liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles and attrition of the capitalist system."

Leaving aside bin-Laden's somewhat inadequate grasp of basic Western economic history, he's probably aware -- and worried -- that several thousand miles to the southwest of his Afghan-Pakistani hideaway, small but important Muslim countries are gradually embracing features of those very same market-systems he despises ...

Economic liberalization is not a panacea for all the Muslim-Arab world's problems. These go far beyond economic issues. But while economic liberty and free markets are not sufficient for societies to be free, they are essential.

Fifty percent of new entrepreneurs in the UAE, Sheika Lubna Al Qasimi claims, are women. In all four countries, religious liberty restrictions are also loosening as a concession to non-Muslim expatriates.

Presumably neither bin-Laden nor the Taliban are thrilled by these transformations. Not long ago, such changes would have been considered revolutionary in the Gulf.

But as the nineteenth-century French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville observed long ago, economic freedom has a way of loosening those bonds that unjustly diminish other legitimate expressions of human liberty -- including, it seems, in Muslim cultures.

Whether or not capitalism can bring purely secular, multiculturalist goals of gender and ethnic equality is one question. In the West, as Belloc and Chesterton foresaw, it ushered in newer and more lethal forms of pagan barbarism -- look around. Is it a "strong horse" that bin Laden would rather Muslims not admire in his neck of the woods, er, dunes? That looks like a big yes.

Pursuing Christ - Into Great Silence

"And He said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.' (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)" Mark 6:31-32

I don't know a single soul who does not acknowledge that the world we live in today is over-run with noise, distractions, anxiety and fear. Troubling to me is that we continue to increase our daily consumption of this noise without end, as if addicted to it, sensing or believing that it is the only way to fill the 'void'. And what is worse is that our refusal of the silence puts our children at tremendous risk.

Yes, this movie is about seeking silence, yet throughout its unraveling we are made aware of our need to strip away the noise so that we can come to real sustenance - real work. For those of us not called to monastic life, this movie provides a look into our very critical need today for sustenance - for silence. "For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat." Mark 6:31-32 They did not have time for what gives them meaning - sustenance.



Into Great Silence

"A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper."

“You seduced me, O Lord, and I let myself be seduced.”

“He who does not give up everything cannot be My disciple.”

Whether your teenager can sit through what Jesus asks of His disciples (Mark 6:31-32) or not, at least you should, and as one observer said, "I believe the experience of sitting with this film for three hours can change you; if you surrender to it you'll never be the same again."

Combatants for Peace - Israel

A toe hold of peace and a testimony to the power of forgiveness between a grief-stricken father and a prison guard.

There's a Parable Here

I agree with LGF - Maybe the greatest music video ever. And, does it have an embedded parable of hope in it? The West -- secular, vacuous, nihilistic -- suddenly hears the Spirit and dances, jives, flies once more?

Enchanted

Take your kids, nephews, nieces, pals to see "Enchanted" this Christmas and forget about atheist Philip Pullmans "The Golden Compass, which Dr. Ted Baehr calls An atheist's 'Narnia' knockoff. Baehr:

Pullman's world is a sad, animalistic universe. Since this is the only world there is, the trilogy ends in hopelessness. Love is not selfless giving, because that would be useless in a materialistic world. Love instead is the lust of pleasuring each other. In Pullman's world, there's no hope of eternal life where the lame and the blind and the deaf and dumb can walk and see and hear and talk, where the old are made youthful. There's no heavenly banquet, there's no loving God, there's no order, and there's no peace.

The logical consequences of Pullman's atheism can be found in the lives of the leading atheists of the 20th century – Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot – men who killed millions of their own people and had no respect for justice or love. Ultimately, it is a road that only leads to meaninglessness and murder.

It is about time parents and concerned persons of faith start to realize the profound effect that images, lyrics, and their embedded philosophies have on the hearts and souls of the young. Leave "The Golden Compass" alone with the other box office tripe and piffle it so richly deserves.

Nicean Blues

[Tip: M. Shea, Love to be Catholic]

How Do I Know Geo Washington Existed?

The former mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, has issued the historical statement that there never was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, and the Western Wall was really part of a mosque. Historians: take note. Jews and Christians: well, tough luck. Inquirers: Ask yourself: How do you know that George Washington ever really existed? Did YOU see him? And those pesky liars at NASA really landed men on the moon? Yeah, right. Were YOU there? Huh?

Just trust the mufti. The Temple? Never happened. Nope. Who ya gonna trust? Why? For YOUR epistemological certainty, remember one thing: Trust your imam.

Light'em If Ya Got'em

Do it ... for the Kids
[HT: M. Shea]

A Bonny Good Post

On the Bridge of Khazad-dûm

Mark Gordon @ Suicide of the West gives the finest summary of the foes of the West in his post, Assessing the Enemies of the Shire. He kindly cites what I hope is my entertaining fictional yet didactic explication of René Girard's cultural anthropology, The Dionysus Mandate, though this is not why I laud it. Nope.

What Gordon does in his post is this: he circumvents the usual heavy breathing, ego inflation, and tangential rabbit-chasing that typifies most discussion about the "enemies of the Shire." I attribute this, being a Catholic convert myself, to the ballast and stability he has accrued from staying in close proximity to the Eucharistic Table, for one thing. For another, he has kept his understanding of Girard's mimetic theory, or "anthropology of the Cross," as he would have it, as an active tool for explicating one's self, others, and culture in general. Mimetic theory, a clinical sounding phrase, is a breath taking instrument for plumbing the depths of Everyman and every People. If one frequents the Sacraments as a practicing Catholic ("in every sense of the word," as our pal and mentor Gil Bailie says), and firmly resolves to see the world and oneself through the hermeneutic of the Church's Magisterium, to which Girard's work merely adds a forensic footnote in terms of sin pathology, one has as sure footing, vision, wisdom, and humility one is likely to possess in the early days of the 21st century.

If I read him aright, Gordon and I share a vast pessimism about human nature, but a far more sustaining assurance in the providential grace of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May we all hoist a tankard of Green Dragon's finest one day in a Shire that is "safe and secure from all alarms."

Snake Handler or Snake Stomper? A Literary Rant

(Apologies to any genuine snake handlers . . .)

As a favor to a former student, I proofread a paper on D. H. Lawrence. The paper was fine as a lit. paper, but some of the facts that came out in it were head scratchers for me.

It was paper was on The Plumed Serpent (I haven't read it, but have at various times read most of Lawrence's other work). A key episode in the novel is when the character Kate takes part in a traditional Aztec snake dance and experiences a rebirth. The raw, primitive masculinity of the guys in the dance make her feel like a virgin ("Uw! Touched for the very first time.") She is figuratively resurrected as an Aztec goddess. Eventually she marries a key figure in the Aztec dance revival, who is himself a figurative ressurection of the Aztec hummingbird god--the hummingbird sucking nectar from a flower being connected with ritual bloodletting. (Resident Girardians take note.) All of this has much to do with "blood consciousness" and "phallic consciousness" and Lawrence's ideal of womanhood, which is earthy and, er, submissive. (Feminists take note).

Two facts came out in the paper. First, the female Aztec goddess never existed (instead, the figure in the dance is likely connected with an Indian slave woman who was the mistress of Cortez). Secondly, the Aztec snake dance was invented by Lawrence as well, a lot of it transposed from a Hopi snake dance he observed (with approval) in New Mexico. In fact, Lawrence was reportedly dissappointed that there wasn't a living tradition of native religious dance in Mexico. (How considerate of him, then, to create one out of whole cloth!). These factoids about Lawrence's non-factual facts are noted in passing by my former student, and neither criticized nor praised (which is OK--the paper is impartially describing Lawerence's spiritual vision and what components he needed to create in the fiction to make it work).

As for me, I was sort of like, "So, let me get this straight. To portray the revitalizing power of authentic pagan spirituality, Lawrence has to invent an 'authentic' pagan spirituality in the form of a Aztec snake dance that Mexicans don't actually perform, and an Aztec goddess that never existed. Oooookkkaaaayyyy." It struck me further that Mexicans actually do have a very strong traditional devotion, centered on Our Lady of Guadalupe--who also, as it happens, has a reputation for somewhat decisive snake stomping. One can speculate as to why the devotion to Our Lady of G. would not dovetail very neatly with the Lawrencian agenda. (Not kind to snakes? Not submissive enough?)

Finally, Lawrence's enthusiasm for multiple resurrections is curious. I remember his short story, "The Man Who Died," which put in narrative form his vociferous objections to the resurrection of Christ. It seems that (somewhat like Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame) every Tom, Cipriano and Kate gets to be resurrected, just as long as they are not Jesus Christ.

End of literary rant.

Duffy Presentation on BBC

Fr Nicholas Schofield reports the following @ Roman Miscellany: Professor Eamon Duffy (author of Stripping of the Altars and Professor of the History of Christianity at Cambridge) has started an interesting series for BBC Radio 4 called Ten Popes Who Shook the World - and he starts with St Peter. Listen to it here.

He'll be looking at St Leo the Great, St Gregory the Great, St Gregory VII, Innocent III, Paul III (an interesting choice), Bl Pius IX, Pius XII, Bl John XXIII and John Paul II. It will be particularly interesting to hear his analysis of more recent pontiffs. The write-up on Pius XII poses the promising question: 'struggling to remain impartial, Pius failed, in the eyes of many, to speak out strongly enough against the Holocaust. But has history judged him fairly?' However, the description of the John Paul II programme mentions the usual criticism of 'inflexible theological and moral positions,' which Duffy mentioned in his Saints and Sinners book.

Whose Star Shines?

Decide whose star shines brightest in this mockumentary. Is it smarmy John Safran or crusty Father Bob McGuire? [Tip: Holy Smoke]

More Star Wars Spoofing

To complement Ath's Darth Vader Microsoft thing. This is a funny "Cops" type parody with surprisingly good effects.
(Maybe PG-13 for violence.)

Gagdad Bob on Science, Atheism, Intuition and Polanyi

A funky little reflection but maybe worth a read if you're a Michael Polanyi enthusiast (and I am).

Via Pajamas Media

But Is it D'Art?

Or "Art for D'Art's sake." For our resident music man: This has been making the rounds lately. And anyway, we've been a bit thin on music these days.

(I'm being extremely liberal in my use of the words "art" and "music.")

The Plague of Porn-St Augustine Provides Help

This from Catholic Tube

John Piper* reads quotes of St. Augustine’s confessions and makes the correlation to the temptations that Augustine faced, with the temptations that men face in this “advanced” modern society which promotes the disease of pornography as if it were a tasty fruit.

*NOTE: The reader is not Catholic, but he is reading the words of St. Augustine*

Idolatrous Rex

A recent fossil discovery in the Midwest has proved to explain the empty walls and altars, while leaving room for plasma screens, in the Mega-churchs of North America. The newly named Idolatrous Rex appears to be a small, single sighted creature, often found with an abundantly underlined Bible, but without any religious symbols found anywhere in it's meeting or dwelling place (save for a strange "fish" emblem , below a Baltimore Ravens or LAX sticker, often found on it's SUV).

While it is rumoured that this creature was a follower of "The Way", there seems to be no physical evidence of this among the stadium seating (with cup holders) within it's meeting place, nor among the hundreds of family photographs which litter it's nesting habitat. In the writings they seem to love this God/man "Jesus" above all things, but in fact must be terribly afraid of His appearance, as there seems no images of Him anywhere, nor His "wondrous Cross" their Holy writings say saved them from sin and death.

Like the Masons, they could have possibly been a secretive society, not wishing others to see symbols of this "peace that passes understanding" or "unending joy", for fear they might steal it, although their Sacred writings seem to suggest they are to "spread the Good news". The huge televisions in the corporate areas, we assume were used to scare the collective into submission, by letting the "leaders" appear bigger than life (their writing calls it "exalting"), and who we are guessing are the Pharisees their book mentions.

While much further study needs to be done, we have concluded that it was most likely their single-sightedness that lead to their ultimate demise.

I AM Your Father, Microsoft

[Tip: Mark Shea]

Bhutto Speaks

Porthos has been skeetering on the edge of exhaustion these days, with little time or mojo for extended Internet activity, but I noticed a brave speech byBhutto in one of my brief forrays into the blogosphere (via Instapundit).

Things like this tend to keep me from adopting the Neo-Isolationist stance developing amongst my Rad Trad pals.

"Engage," as Cpt. Jean-Luc Picard used to say.