My mother acquired two kittens last October. She has been petless for eighteen years. I myself have not had a pet in twenty years. Her kittens sparked memories of my cute childhood contemplations of metaphysics. I think nearly every child has thought: our pets must see us as gods. I know I said as much on more than one occasion. Now some decades later, I realize that there is a profoundly deeper truth to be examined, and its discovery begins with an improved articulation: these adorable inferior animals of such limited cognition must think us humans to be gods due to our superior abilities that pets can never attain. This more precise and expanded articulation serves a needful purpose in showing our dysfunctional definitions and descriptions of God.Show more ›
Wooley v. Maynard, 430 US 705 (1977)
The First-Amendment does not narrowly protect public expression of ideas and sentiments (whether spoken, written, or gestural); it also prohibits government-compelled speech. “[T]he right of freedom of thought protected by the First Amendment against state action includes both the right to speak freely and the right to refrain from speaking at all.” Wooley v. Maynard, 430 US 705, 714 (1977).Show more ›
Sun Tzu: Victory is only by opportunity
The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself. Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy. Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it. —孫子 (Sun Tzu), The Art of War
Perfectly created to be imperfect
God’s creation reflects artistic creativity. God did not just create birds, but birds of many colors and sizes and songs. But is any one bird better than than another? Why create such variety unless to express artistry. We assume that since God created humans last in an iterative series, that humans must be the apex of creation. Arrogance and nonesense. God designed humans the way that God desired. Why did God give humans two legs and two arms? Why not design humans with four arms or with suction fingers or with two front eyes and two rear eyes? The human shoulder is a very complex and complicated joint. It is masterfully engineered, yet susceptible to so many dysfunctions. Evolutionists will argue that no deity would engineer such a fragile joint. I will reply that evolution should have bred out a fragile joint. God created humans according to God’s creative pleasure. God was an artist before a blank canvas and created what he pleased in the manner that he pleased. For God to create humans with inferiority, and for God to create humans with imperfections does not mean that God’s design is flawed. We exist according to God’s design, not according to our opinion of improvement. Just as we need not be immortal to be created by an immortal God, neither need we to be perfect to be created by a perfect God. In his cubist period, Pablo Picasso painted some pretty zany portraits to deconstruct and contrast the human form. God designed us the way God wished. That does not make us perfect. It makes us what God designed.
Trouser Tyranny
I just saw this turn-of-phrase and thought it needed more publicity. Then I googled it and found a Medium story on it. It’s not directly on-point but it carries an adaptable message.
But then Medium also showed me “The Tyranny of Pants” and it was cooking with gas.
Comfortable with uncertainties and unanswerables
When I was younger (as in my teens and twenties) I had an abiding need (perhaps compulsion) to argue the veracity of scripture, to reduce all mystery to sensible candor. In my thirties, my great uncle (a Duke Divinity M.Th. and M.Div.) told me that when the answer to every question is faith, the explanations become irrelevant. Now in my forties, the more mature that my faith has become, the more comfortable I am with uncertainties and unanswerables. My faith is now rooted in the fact that God is so far superior to me that my mortal mind could never satisfactorily explain God. Scripture endeavors to communicate the nature of an infinite God through inadequate words. And so I find myself happier with an understanding that every articulable thought is completely and utterly irrelevant. In fact, the more abstract the thought, the more comforting I find it. Everything understandable must be wrong so only in recognizing that I am wrong can I know that I am correct.
Zerubbabel’s Deliverance
Zechariah 4:6 records God’s message to Zerubbabel that success would come “‘not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Out of the blue a modern rephrasing dropped into my consciousness: not by struggle nor by strength, but by God’s deliverance.Show more ›
Unintended Consequences
NBC news reports that abortions increased nationally after SCOTUS decided Dobbs v. Jackson in 2022. This unexpected outcome reminds me of a Libertarian Party video titled, “unintended consequences.” Show more ›
Why not male tunics?
I have at various moments stated my fascination with single-garment clothing. (a thobe today, just being practical, envisioning with ai). Striking the right balances of fit and form is nearly impossible when the only item on the menu is the dress. Unlike skirts, there are substantial anatomical considerations. Show more ›
Madonna’s take on gender norms
Wilfully Lost
You’re a self-righteous sell-out who pawned his moral compass to open a door and grew too comfortably cowardly to retrieve it. —Vox