This pod cast covers the popular "Zombie" genre and what it says of contemporary society. Please note the subject of the blog is the pod cast and comments should be limited to what people got from listening to that pod cast
http://ancientfaith.com/pod...
The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
The Peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.
Don't let worry kill you off -- let the Church help.
Miss Charlene Mason sang, "I Will Not Pass This Way Again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
Next Thursday there will be try outs for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
The Rector will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth Into Joy."
Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
At the evening service tonight, he sermon topic will be, "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.
Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment, and gracious hostility.
Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 P.M. -- prayer and medication to follow.
The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. Please use the back door.
Weight Watchers will meet a 7 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use the large double doors on the east side of the building.
Bultmann held that people today, who use radio and electricity and who avail themselves of modern medicine, cannot accept the miracles (and thus the entire “mythological” worldview) of the New Testament. This post has been viewed 168 times.
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RSS SyndicationCredulity: Now and Then
Posted on Fri Oct 17 2008
George Strickland, Ph.D.
Editor
Rudolf Bultmann, one of the foremost New Testament scholars of the twentieth century, wrote many books of continuing influence on theologians, academics, seminarians and clergy. Bultmann set off a firestorm when he called for the “demythologizing” the New Testament in a five-volume work, Kerygma and Myth. Sixty years after its publication the fire still burns.
Bultmann maintained that the worldview of the New Testament, by which he meant that it understood the world as being continuously penetrated by supernatural forces, foremost among them Christ as a supernatural being. This worldview, he further argued, was not acceptable to the modern mind. If the Christian message (called the 'kerygma” in New Testament Greek) was to be understandable to modern people, it would have to be freed of its mythological elements and translated into a non-mythological language. Bultmann thought this could be done. The new language for this “demythologizing" project he took from existential philosophy. On the grounds of existentialism, Bultmann saw man as “alienated” from his true nature. The Christian message claims to free man from this alienation and changed into a 'new being.” It is permissible to continue to use Christian symbolism as long as it was emptied of its mythological content.
In his foundational writings on demythologization, Bultmann states that people today, who use radio and electricity and who avail themselves of modern medicine, cannot accept the miracles (and thus the entire “mythological” worldview) of the New Testament. Bultmann's theory is, however, social scientific in nature, not a theological one. Neither Bultmann nor his followers ever obtained any empirical evidence to support the theory.
The Baylor Study of Religion conducted under the direction of the highly regarded sociologist Rodney Stark reveals that modern people are very capable indeed of accepting all sorts of full-blown myths and phantasms. Using an index of beliefs in the occult and paranormal as the means of measurement, the Baylor study found that a substantial number of people believe in such things as:
- The existence of advanced ancient civilizations,i.e, “Atlantis"
- Dreams foretell the future
- Haunted houses
- Mind control over the physical world
- The existence of UFOs, "X-Files"
- Communication with the dead
- The existence of creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loc Ness Monster
Of the leading sociological indicators as to what influence people to believe in the occult and paranormal, the following factors are worth careful study:
- Age: Those under thirty are likely to score high (40%) and those over sixty are least likely (17%), but no variation was found among other age groups.
- Marital Status: Married people are least apt to score high (22%), compared with 40 percent of singles and 49 percent who are living with someone.
- Education: Educational attainment has virtually no effect on belief in the occult and paranormal.
- Politics: Democrats by a wide margin score high--40 percent. Republicans the lowest at 16 percent.
- Religion: Church attendance has a powerful negative effect on belief in the occult and paranormal: 31 percent who never attend church scored high; only 8 percent who go to church on a frequent basis scored high.
- Church Affiliation: 31 percent of all liberal Protestants scored high. In contrast, 18 percent of conservative Christians scored high. Those who identify themselves with various forms of 'orthodox-traditional' Christianity are far less likely to believe in the occult and paranormal than are other Americans. Those who identify themselves theologically as liberal (40%) are far more likely than other Americans (26%) to believe in the occult and paranormal.
It is evident fact that people today, despite the astounding growth in knowledge and science, are as credulous as any in history. Education appears to have little if any effect on the readiness to believe anything. There is no imbecility that has not been ardently espoused by some segment of the modern intelligentsia, including some uniquely absurd and invidious superstitions. In fact there is some justification for asserting that the propensity to believe evident nonsense increases rather than decreases with higher education. Credulity and mythology seem to be accurate terms for the modern age.
The evidence is compelling--"Orthodox" Christianity greatly decreases credulity, as measured by beliefs in the occult and paranormal. Those who combine all sorts of religious and phantasmal beliefs into one package label "superstitions" are off the mark. Whatever one may wish to argue about the non empirical nature of such beliefs, they are in no wise identical. Rather, it seems that the choice is either to accept Christian beliefs or the 'X-Files.' For over a century, liberal theologians have been trying to accommodate Christianity to the alleged superiority of the modern age, as if it is self-evident that moderns have intellectual superiority over biblical authors or the Church Fathers. Demonstrably they have been terribly wrong. Christian faith trumps the spirit of the age.
Does the increase secularization and moral decay of contemporary society spell the eventual doom of life affirming culture and values? Father John Oliver in his election year pod cast notes similarities between our present social dilemmas and the pagan society that spurred the growth of Christianity. He also covers what a Christian role is as an agent of cultural change both in the ancient pagan society and our modern, secular society. Enjoy:)
http://ancientfaith.com/pod...
Good news for those who have life affirming values and really care about other people. Latest Polls show Prop 8 gaining steam: http://online.wsj.com/artic...
On the sad side Prop 8 opponents brutally attacked another man in Modesto in an attempt to restrict his right to free speech:http://calcatholic.com/news...
For those who don't believe that man is a hopeless victim of the world and want to seek a better life:)
Former homosexual offers self as proof change is possible
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 10/19/2008 5:05:00 A
A former homosexual has written a book directed at people still in the lifestyle to encourage them to change their orientation.
Ken Jackson lived the homosexual lifestyle for 20 years and knows how difficult change can be. "It's certainly a fight," he acknowledges, "but then...after awhile -- when you're not as rooted in the Word, as I've started to become now -- the enemy really picks up his attacks...."
And at one point during those attacks, says Jackson, he just gave up. "[I] just surrendered to the enemy and just started living the lifestyle -- and that was it," he laments. "It just started spiraling from there."
It was quite a change when he left the lifestyle, considering the fact that he was a homosexual activist previously, even setting up group meetings to help homosexuals adjust to the lifestyle. "When you're on the battlefield and you're working for the enemy and then you turn sides, you realize the fight is a lot more intense than you thought," he shares.
But the battle is winnable -- and Jackson himself is proof. One of the keys, he says, is that a homosexual must die to self before dying to Christ.
"... [W]hen we give up and we turn to the [homosexual] lifestyle, a lot of times there's some selfishness there that we take on," he says, "and we don't care who we hurt when we go into the lifestyle -- because it's all about us."
Jackson was diagnosed with HIV 18 years ago, but through God's grace has stayed healthy, permitting him to be an advocate for change. His book is called Lost and Found: One Man's Journey from Sinner to Saint.
Don't persecute him for his sexual orientation.
German cannibal loses appeal in murder Case.
KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – A German engineer who killed and ate a willing victim in a high profile case that shocked the country, must serve a life sentence for murder after a court rejected his appeal.
The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe threw out the appeal by Armin Meiwes, who had argued that he could not be convicted of murder because his victim had agreed to be killed and eaten.
In a tale that horrified Germany, Meiwes found his victim, Bernd-Juergen Brandes, over the Internet. The IT manager Brandes had posted an advert for someone to "obliterate his life and leave no trace."
Brandes traveled by train to meet Meiwes in the western town of Rotenburg in March 2001. There, the cannibal videotaped himself severing Brandes' penis with a knife before both men tried to eat it.
Bleeding profusely, Brandes fell unconscious. With the video recorder still rolling, Meiwes laid him out on a bench, kissing him on the lips before plunging a knife into his throat.
He suspended the victim on a meat hook and froze 30 kg of flesh in parcels and later ate some with cabbage and potatoes.
A German court had initially convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and sentenced him to eight years in jail in 2004.
But a Frankfurt court in May 2006 overturned that conviction and threw out the defense argument that Meiwes had acted on his victim's request, a crime similar to euthanasia which in Germany carries a maximum prison term of five years.
The Frankfurt court said Meiwes was psychologically sick but fully aware of his actions. Meiwes killed Brandes "because he wanted to slaughter and eat his flesh. He had achieved the biggest kick of his life," the judge said at the time.
The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, Germany's top court, upheld that ruling on Friday.
(Reporting by Diana Niedernhoefer; Writing by Kerstin Gehmlich; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Following the death of Quasimodo. the Bishop of the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame sent word throughout the streets of Paris that a new bellringer would need to be appointed. The Bishop decided that he would himself conduct the interviews, and went up into the belfry to interview the candidates. After observing several applicants demonstrate their skills, he decided to call it a day, when an armless man approached him announcing that he was there to apply for the post.. The Bishop, incredulous declared, " My Son, you have no arms!" " No matter" replied the man. He then proceeded to strike the bells with his face, producing the most beautiful melody on the carillon. The Bishop was astonished, believing he had indeed found a suitable replacement for Quasimodo. But in rushing forward to strike a bell, the armless man tripped, and plunged headlong out of the belfry to his death in the street below. The Bishop, stunned rushed to his side. When he reached the street, a crowd had gathered around the fallen figure, drawn by the beauty of the music they had heard, but a moment before. As they parted in silence to allow the Bishop through, one of the number asked " Bishop, who was this man?"
..wait for it...
wait for it.....
.." I don't know his name" replied the Bishop sadly, " But his face rings a bell."
WAIT, WAIT! not through yet!
The following day, despite the sadness that weighed heavily on his heart following the death of the armless camponologist, the Bishop continued his interviews for a bell ringer for Notre Dame. The first man to approach addressed him, "Your Grace, I am the brother of the poor armless wretch who fell to his death from this belfry yesterday. I pray that you will allow me to replace him." The Bishop agreed to an audition, but as the man reached to strike the first bell, he groaned, clutched at his chest, collapsed, and died on the spot. Two monks, hearing the cries of grief from the Bishop at the tragedy, rushed up the stairs...... "What as happened? Who is this man?" they cried. " I don't know his name" exclaimed the distraught Bishop,.........
wait for it.......
wait for it
wait for it
........." I don't know his name............but he's a dead ringer for his brother."
Recent state health department indicate that the highest incidents for the treatment of dog bites occur on November 1. The reason can be attributed to the following:
I just came across a new concept that explains a lot of the intolerance that is going on in these blogs. The concept is Liberal Fascism and it explains that the compulsion to conform to an authoritarian order is not just confined to the so called right ,but such herd behavior is also a feature of the left. In fact in our post modern, secularist culture identifying yourself as a liberal fills the psychological quest for identity and security that is the function of traditional religious institutions. It also characterizes the self righteousness and intolerance of it's devotees to other faiths. The book "Liberal Fascism" traces the history of fascism and the left from Mussolini and on and it is written by Jonah Goldberg a political pundit. I can't wait to get my own copy. Here is a link to his wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
It is ironic that millions of dollars has been spent to buy the votes that attack the family/marriage institutions of our society, separation of church and state, religious freedom, and the usurpation of the very democratic process. All in the name of protecting the non threatened rights of a unrealistic minority. This campaign has drawn all the attention away from another important proposition that would help protect the rights of children and parents from those who seek to exploit young girls and murder unborn babies. Proposition 4 other wise known as Sarah's Law would require a 48 hour waiting period and notification of the child's parents before an abortion can be performed on the unborn grandchild. This seeks to help control the exploitation of young girls by child rapist who then cover there tracks by having the evidence (a baby) killed. This also strengthens the family by requiring the child's parents being consulted before the execution of their grand child. It is very sad that the money and passion that is committed to attacking Prop; can not have been directed to the protection of life and the very real civil rights of the grand parents, the child, and the unborn grand child.
http://www.yeson4.net/defau...
Please pray for are Christian brothers and sisters who are an minority in Iraq and India. A wave of renewed persecutions is occurring ,because they actually,dared to ask for real minority rights. Just goes to remind us we have it pretty easy in America. Well the Lord said that as they persecuted Him; they will persecute His faithful and history shows the truth of that prophecy. He also said that he who endures to the end will be saved.
+Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners+
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WOR...
http://www.ucanews.com/2008...
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1. If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.
2. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic.
4. Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.
6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
15. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.
24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.
AND . . . (drum roll please?)
25. Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. |
I guess McDonald's won't be renaming the Happy Meal as the Gay Meal anytime soon. The American Association of Families has declared victory in a 5 month economic blockade of McDonald's who donated $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The NGLCC is a special interest group that lobbies congress in there selfish interest. McDonald's former Vice President of US Communications, Richard Ellis has abandoned his seat on the NGLCC board and McDonald's has declared itself neutral in the homosexual war on marriage and family. Good going and thanks American Association of Families;)
http://www.lifesitenews.com...
How many newsgroup members does it take to change a light bulb?
1 to change the light bulb.
1 to post that the light bulb has been changed.
14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.
7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.
18 to flame the spell checkers.
2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term for "light bulb" is "lamp".
15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct.
5 to email others that the light bulb posters are in violation of the list etiquette.
10 to post that this list is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a light bulb list.
12 to demand that cross posting to the hardware list, off-topic list, and light bulb list about changing light bulbs be stopped.
17 to defend the posting to this list saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this list.
25 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique, which brands are faulty, and URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs.
14 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URLs.
33 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too".
4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQs.
13 to ask what is a "FAQ"?
19 to say "do a search on 'light bulbs' before posting questions about light bulbs".
27 to complain that "we've already discussed light bulbs."
42 to post "if you don't want to read it, skip it."
12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.
1 new forum member to respond to the original post 6 months from now so it will start all over again.
Four San Diego Fire Fighters sued the city for sexual harassment. They were forced to drive a fire engine in a Gay Pride Parade against their moral conscience and were exposed to sexual harassment while "In the work place." Is this what we have to look forward to? The loss of our rights in the face of the demands of a selfish minority?
http://www.lifesitenews.com...
A doctor, a civil engineer, and a computer scientist were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world. The doctor remarked, 'Well, in the Bible it says that God created Eve from a rib taken from Adam. This clearly required surgery, so I can rightly claim that mine is the oldest profession in the world.'
The civil engineer interrupted and said, 'But even earlier in the book of Genesis, it states that God created the order of the heavens and the earth from out of the chaos. This was the first and certainly the most spectacular application of civil engineering. Therefore, fair doctor, you are wrong; mine is the oldest profession in the world.'
The computer scientist leaned back in his chair, smiled and said confidently, 'Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?'
Lately a small minority of people have been scheming to force there unnatural delusions on the rest of society. Because this minority has been skillfully manipulating the media for there selfish ends and even attempting to reach our innocent children in our public school system; a parent will eventually have to sit down and explain the facts of the homosexual attack on marriage to their children. Father George Morille and Orthodox Priest and Clinical Psychologist offers rational advice to address the emotional irrationality of unrepentant homosexual enemies of marriage.
http://www.orthodoxytoday.o...
Oh no! Scientest predict that an asteriod will hit the Earth tonight. It's all President Bush, McCains and Sarah Palins fault!http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/...
So far the arguments for allowing same sex marriage are nothing more than emotional, sentimental appeals. Let's try looking at this critically. How does the "rights" of a minority affect the rights of the majority? And what very real results came of degrading marriage in Canada?
http://www.salvomag.com/new...
http://www.mercatornet.com/...
OK this is apolitical, creepy ,but fun. Gnarls Barkley "Whose gonna save my Soul"
Most of these quotes are taken from G. K. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy." Chesterton argues against materialism, the philosophical view that only matter has any reality; non-material constitutents of human experience like love, meaning, compassion, etc. are not real. It's an important discussion given how much Western culture has been influenced by the materialist view in the last century -- Darwin, Freud, Marx, etc.
The general fact is simple. Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion... To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain... The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits...
As an explanation of the world, materialism has a sort of insane simplicity. It has just the quality of the madman's argument; we have at once the sense of it covering everything and the sense of it leaving everything out... His cosmos may be complete in every rivet and cogwheel, but still his cosmos is smaller than our world. Somehow his scheme, like the lucid scheme of the madman, seem unconscious of the alien energies and the large indifference of the Earth...
For we must remember that the materialist philosophy (whether true or not) is certainly much more limiting than any religion. In one sense, of course, all intelligent ideas are narrow. They cannot be broader than themselves. A Christian is only restricted in the same sense that an atheist is restricted. He cannot think Christianity false and continue to be a Christian; the atheist cannot think atheism false and continue to be an atheist.
But, as it happens, there is a very special sense in which materialism has more restrictions than spiritualism... The Christian is quite free to believe that there is a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe, but the materialist is not allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of spiritualism or miracle. The Christian admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as a sane man knows that he is complex. But the materialist's world is quite simple and solid... The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation...
Spiritual doctrines do not actually limit the mind as do materialistic denials. Even if I believe in immortality, I need not think about it. But if I disbelieve in immortality, I must not think about it. In the first case, the road is open and I can go as far as I like; in the second, the road is shut...
(I)t is the charge against the main deductions of the materialist that, right or wrong, they gradually destroy his humanity; I do not mean only kindness, I mean hope, courage, poetry, initiative, all that is human. For instance, when materialism leads men to complete fatalism (as it generally does), it is quite idle to pretend that it is in any sense a liberating force. It is absurd to say that you are especially advancing freedom when you only use free thought to destroy free will. The determinists come to bind, not to loose. They may call their law the "chain" of causation. It is the worst chain that ever fettered a human being. You may use the language of liberty, if you like, about materialistic teaching, but it is obvious that this is just as inapplicable to it as a whole as the same language when applied to a man locked up in a madhouse. You may say, if you like, that the man is free to think himself a poached egg. But it is surely a more massive and important fact that if he is a poeached egg, he is not free to eat, drink, sleep, walk, or smoke a cigarette. Similarly, you may say, if you like, that the bold determinist speculator is free to disbelieve in the reality of the will. But it is a much more massive and important fact that he is not free to raise, to curse, to thank, to justify, to urge, to punish, to resist temptations, to incite mobs, to make New Year resolutions, to pardon sinners, to rebuke tyrants or even to say "thank you" for the mustard.
In passing from this subject, I may note that there is a queer fallacy to the effect that materialistic fatalism is in some way favorable to mercy, to the abolition of cruel punishments or punishments of any kind. This is startlingly the reverse of the truth. It is quite tenable that the doctrine of necessity makes no difference at all; that i leaves the flogger fogging and the kind friend exhorting as before. But, obviously , if it stops either of them, it stops the kind exhortation. That the sins are inevitable does not prevent punishment; if it prevents anything, it prevents persuasion. Determinism is quite as likely to lead to cruelty as it is certain to lead to cowardice. Determinism is not inconsistent with the cruel treatment of criminals. What it is (perhaps) inconsistent with is the generous treatment of criminals, with any appeal to their better feelings or encouragement in their moral struggle. The determinist does not believe in appealing to the will, but he does believe in changing the environment. He must not say to the sinner, "Go and sin no more," because the sinner cannot help it. But he can put him in boiling oil; for boiling oil is an environment. Considered as a figure, therefore, the materialist has the fantastic outline of the figure of the madman. Both take up a position at once unanswerable and intolerable...
The ordinary man always has been sane because the ordinary man always has been a mystic... The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid. The determinist makes the theory of causation quite clear, and then finds that he cannot say "if you please" to the housemaid. The Christian permits free will to remain a sacred mystery but, because of this, his relations with the housemaid become of a sparkling and crystal clearness. He puts the seed of dogma in a central darkness, but it branches forth in all directions with abounding natural health...
It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all...
There is a thought that stops thought...Evolution is a good example of that modern intelligence which, if it destroys anything, destroys itself. Evolution is either an innocent scientific description of how certain earthly things came about; or, if it is anything more than this, is an attack upon thought itself. If evolution destroys anything, it does not destroy religion but rationalism. If evolution simply means that a positive thing called an ape turned very slowly into a positive thing called a man, then it is stingless for the most orthodox; for a personal God might just as well do things slowly as quickly -- especially if, like the Christian God, He were outside time. But if it means anything more, it means that there is no such thing as an ape to change, and no such thing as a man for him to change into. It means that there is no such thing as a thing. At best, there is only nothing, and that is a flux of everything and anything.
This is an attack not upon faith, but upon the mind; you cannot think if you are not separate from the subject of thought. Descartes said "I think, therefore I am." The philosphic evolutionist reverses and negatives the epigram. He says, "I am not, therefore I cannot think."
This bald summary of the thought-destroying forces of our time would not be complete without some reference to pragmatism; for, though I have here used and should everywhere defend the pragmatist method as a preliminary guide to truth, there is an extreme application of it that involves the absence of all truth whatever...
Pragmatism is a matter of human needs, and one of the first of human needs is to be something more than a pragmatist. Extreme pragmatism is just as inhuman as the determinism it so powerfully attacks. The determinist (who, to do him justice, does not pretend to be a human being) makes nonsense of the human sense of actual choice. The pragmatist, who professes to be specially human, makes nonsense of the human sense of actual fact.
To sum up our contention so far, we may say that the most characteristic currrent philosophies have not only a touch of mania, but a touch of suicidal mania. The mere questioner has knocked his head against the limits of human thought; and cracked it. This is what makes so futile warnings of the orthodox and the boasts of the advanced about the dangerous boyhood of free thought. What we are looking at is not the boyhood of free thought; it is the old age and ultimate dissolution of free thought.
It is vain for bishops and pious bigwigs to discuss what dreadful things will happen if wild skepticism runs its course. It has run its course.
It is vain for eloquent atheists to talk of the great truths that will be revealed if once we see free thought begin. We have seen it end. It has no more questions to ask; it has questioned itself.
You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves.
You cannot fancy a more skeptical world than that in which men doubt if there is a world.
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