Indeed, there’s a tendency on the right to bemoan the fact that traditional morality is breaking down — and that’s obviously true. But the conclusion many take from it is that nothing is taking traditional morality’s place. I’ve been writing for years that this isn’t true. Society, like nature, abhors a vacuum; if you remove one moral dogma, another will rush in to take its place. That’s what much of political correctness is — an attempt to replace one system of customs, mores, values, and ethics with another. The idea that the tweedy Torquemadas who make lists of “trigger warnings” are moral libertarians —or libertines —is resplendently asinine in its manifest ignorance of how the world actually operates.

Thus Jonah Goldberg

With a dash of Southern charm.

By Michael Harris. Free for a day or so at Amazon. (more…)

A proven track record of success.

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But we seem to be growing apart, and maybe it’s time for us to go our separate ways.

The efficacy of prayer is not something which can be established empirically, because there is always another explanation for anything – in extremis anything, no matter how apparently miraculous, can be explained-away by mental illness, mass delusion or lying.

But the validity of prayer does need to be confirmed inwardly and personally by each person – and this is typically by a prayer being grated in such a way that we are convinced (even if, as is usual, we would not be able to convince others – that does not matter, because the prayer was of the nature of a private communication between the prayer and God).

However, not all prayers are granted. Why is this?

In a bigger picture, prayer is one way that we are helped in this life – by the interventions of divine powers. And asking for, and getting, such divine help is one of the important rocks of faith. But why do we not receive more help, since life is so difficult?

Such a question can only be answered if we understand the basic purposes of mortal living, and in particular, why life is some kind of struggle for most people most of the time. If we are able to appreciate that life is a kind of educational process, then we may realize why help is provided, and not provided, in the way it is.

When someone is learning there is a time for help – that is what teachers are supposed to do – and there is a time for solitary struggle – for practice, for grappling with problems, for try, try, try again.

So, one important reason that prayers are not answered will certainly be that we are being required to do something from our own resources, because that is the only way we can learn. In effect, in the unanswered prayer, we were asking the divine powers to ‘do our homework’ – when this homework was vital to our learning.

Now, this is not the only reason, nor is it always the reason, prayers are unanswered – but it is surely one of the reasons, and perhaps a neglected reason: prayers are not answered, help is not given, when it is important that we do something without help, for our own good: when we have asked for help instead of participating in the learning process that is life.

This does not mean we should not have asked for help in the first place, because we can’t always know the nature of the situation (if in doubt: ask); but it does mean that when we have asked for help and received a negative answer, we then acknowledge the validity of that reply, and act accordingly.

**

Note: I feel that the refusing of help to someone who has asked for it, must be one of the most difficult and painful things for the loving divine powers – especially when their refusal to help is misunderstood as indifference or dislike. Parents will know the situation in which they are asked for help by a child, and they could help their child, but the parent knows that such ‘help’ would actually harm the child’s development, and that it is necessary (or, at least, better) that the child is not helped. However, often the child cannot understand this, but feels only a sense of betrayal at being refused help that the parent could have given; and the child reacts with anger and resentment against the parent – may lapse into hatred which may be extreme and lasting. In the end, the parent may simply have to tolerate the situation; in hope that, at some point in the future, the child will recognize that the refusal of help was motivated by love.

Instead of just staring down the pessimistic prospects before us, let’s take a look at some of the amazing wonders this age offers us.

The NYT has nice list of discovered solar systems, all shown to scale, with planets moving at appropriate relative speeds.

The last one listed is ours, so you see how these all compare.

A certain verse about sins being shouted from the housetops comes to mind. Not that I would like to see mine shouted about, still it is hard to have much sympathy for the devil, here.

Hackers are threatening to release names, and all kinds of pervy details and nude photos from pro-cheating website, AshleyMadison. 37 Million different profiles worth, even ones they charged people to officially ‘delete’.

As one twitter commenter put it, It is amazing how much trust untrustworthy people, put into a site for untrustworthy people.

Interestingly, it is a site with more women than men. Odd.

SCOTUS edition.

The whole conversation is worthwhile, but Chapter 3 focuses on the contradictions in Supreme Court free speech jurisprudence.

The fact that Mormons are Christian, and have remained Christian over eight generations – becoming more obviously Christian with each generation – proves to me that there is scope for at least two fundamentally different theologies and metaphysical systems to underlie Christianity.

Although I personally prefer Mormon theology and metaphysics; I acknowledge 100 percent that evidence from two thousand years demonstrates conclusively and abundantly that it is perfectly possible to be a Christian with Classical theology and metaphysics!

(To say the least of it!)

Therefore I regard metaphysics as proven to be (to some significant degree – although obviously not in an open-ended way) a matter of preference (individual preference, denominational preference) and not of fundamental necessity – furthermore I regard different metaphysical approaches as having different advantages and disadvantages because (being human constructions and understood and implemented by humans) none of them are completely-true.

The most I will say for Mormon metaphysics (which is a lot!) is that it has several advantages over Classical metaphysics – and that these advantages correspond to particular needs of our time and circumstances.

In some other respects mainstream Classical metaphysics are superior (e.g. in making clearer the greatness of God and His qualitative difference from Men – Mormon metaphysics does not deny this, of course! – but it is less-clear).

In sum, which metaphysical system a Christian adheres to should not be used as a criterion for challenging whether or not he is a Christian. Metaphysics is secondary to Christianity, which means we ought not to insist upon any particular species of it – the essence of the Christian religion is revelation.

His Majesty has been shaking his head all week in astonishment.

Has anyone else said this yet?

This agreement takes Obama up a couple of notches in my estimation. I thought he was just another empty suit mouthing silly platitudes and breaking down the culture because he was too dim to appreciate what he was destroying. A bull in a china shop. But this move shows a glimmer of actual evil genius.

Of course Obama knows the Iranians aren’t going to honor the agreement. And Obama knows the Israelis know the Iranians aren’t going to honor the agreement. So the Israelis are going to have to strike the nuclear facilities, because for them, it really is an existential threat. They will calculate that they have no choice.

So the Iranian nuclear threat will be eliminated without Obama getting any (more) tarnish on his Nobel Peace Prize.

And Obama will then, in a burst of self-righteous fury, use that strike as a reason to cut all U.S. ties with Israel. Oh, he’ll offer to maintain ties if Israel gives the Palestinians everything they demand — but that is also an existential threat to the Israelis, who will calculate they have no choice but to refuse.

Israel will then have to look for allies wherever she can find them.

And if she can’t, she’ll have all the nation of the earth arrayed against her. Sounds positively apocalyptic.

Free Kindle version available today Saturday July 18, 2015, at Amazon.

It’s Judeo-Christian apologetics, using quantum mechanics.  I haven’t read it yet, but wanted to share since it is free for only a limited time. (more…)

The headline: “CDC: Don’t kiss your pet chicken”

The real lede: “Our 9-year-old daughter wanted a dog for her birthday and we surprised her with chickens instead. She was at first disappointed,” said Ruth Harrigan.

What kind of parent would do that?

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I happened to notice a piece in the local paper about two Virginia cousins playing on the state champion high school baseball team who have decided on Brigham Young University as their college (link). It’s interesting in what it says about family ties and the place of BYU as part of those ties for some families.

Just before Matt Favero pulled the trigger on his college commitment Wednesday afternoon, the Madison rising senior pitcher had to make one call.

On the other end was Pete Nielsen, his cousin and fellow Warhawks rising senior. The two had played baseball together their whole life, and with Nielsen having narrowed his own recruitment to Brigham Young and Virginia, Favero thought his close relative would be interested to hear his college choice.

“I called him and said, ‘Hey Pete, I’m about to commit to BYU,’” Favero said. “I think maybe he was waiting for me to do it; I don’t know.”

In some ways, Favero was right. Even after watching Virginia hoist its first College World Series, Nielsen still felt a stronger tug on his heartstrings from BYU, the same school for which his father, Mike, once suited up and where both his and Favero’s older brothers currently play.

“When Matt told me he was committing to BYU, I was like, ‘Sweet,’” Nielsen said.

Even the Washington Post sports section is running a piece on the sweetness of Mormon life?

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Musing on a recent posting and comments at The Orthosphere

The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion

The problem of Mormonism for mainstream Christians could be analysed as follows:

If we distinguish Mormon Fruits from Beliefs – with Fruits being the behaviour of Mormons, and Beliefs being the doctrines, theology and scriptures – then:

The basic observation is that

1. Mormon Fruits are very similar-to mainstream Christian ideals

But

2. Mormon Beliefs are very different-from mainstream Christianity.

So, to mainstream Christians there seems to be a large mismatch between Mormon Fruits and Beliefs.

How to explain this?

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