I am writing a book about philosophy and therefore, am spending a lot of time with philosophers. One thing I have learned is that the early Greek philosophers had some ideas that are still current today. For instance, Leucippus (5th century BC) is usually credited with having the idea of atomism.… Read more
Year: 2023
Some Further Thoughts on Lying
The fifth-century BC philosopher, Heraclitus, said, “A man, when he gets drunk, is led stumbling along by an immature boy, not knowing where he is going.” Society today is drunk on lies, drinking from the barrels of politics, fake news, false accusations, advertising, revisionist history, and the freshest brews–artificial intelligence and virtual reality.… Read more
The Political Lie
For those of you who appreciate simile in their reading once in a while I give you this bold attempt:
We are told in the Bible, “the Devil is the father of lies, and was a liar from the beginning”; so that beyond contradiction, the invention is old: And which is more, his first essay of it was purely political, employed in undermining the authority of his Prince, and seducing a third part of the subjects from their obedience.… Read more
Culture 11 – The Christian Looking at the 21st-Century Culture
The brief picture of 21st-Century culture presented in previous posts describes some of the aspects of the world we live in today. It is not our father’s world and it will change before another generation can understand it. A Christian living in the 21st Century should see the world through the biblical worldview and the eyes of God.… Read more
Culture 10 – Image and No Substance
Since now is all there is, how you look now is all that matters. Image is it. What do you want to be? Look like it and you are it. This has led to little girls with makeup looking like they are much older than they are.… Read more
Culture 9 – Youth Culture
In his book Modern Culture, Roger Scruton states that the popular culture today is predominately a culture of youth. Much of the following material comes from that book. His chapter describing the youth culture is appropriately titled “Yoofanasia.” He writes: “Among youth, as we know it from our modern cities, a new human type is emerging.… Read more
Culture 8 – Western Culture Today (3)
Continuing from the previous post, here are more words whose meanings have been deconstructed.
EDUCATION – The University is viewed as a place to be empowered to obtain wealth and its capacity to control other people. The educated, especially the highly educated in the fields of philosophy, psychology, literature, and theology are seen as those endued with power to influence and control.… Read more
Culture 7 – Western Culture Today (2)
Unfortunately, deconstruction did not stay confined to the confines of literature where it was conceived. The driving force of the mindset has taken over all areas of Western culture. Philosopher Roger Scruton speaks of “the culture of repudiation becoming the official culture of the post-modern university” and I would say it is the official culture of Western youth, who will be Western adults in a few short years.… Read more
Culture 6 – Western Culture Today (1)
Three centuries of human progress turned out not to be human progress after all. Man had more machines and tools and information but man also had more wars, dictators, and poverty. The promised utopia did not come and people became disillusioned with science and human reason as they really did not solve all of man’s problems.… Read more
Culture 5 – Our Inherited Culture (2)
The natural man believes his own reason can discover truth and does not need a God to reveal truth. Moreover, like the rich man who does not need God to supply his physical needs, he soon concludes he does not need God at all.… Read more
Culture 4 – Our Inherited Culture (1)
I am writing from a biblical worldview and seeing contemporary culture from that perspective. I inherited my worldview from my father, and he from his, and it was basically the same worldview I encountered when I was old enough to leave home and go to elementary school and then on to high school.… Read more
Culture 3 – Cultural anthropology
In moving from biblical to 21st Century culture it may be good to get the view of those scientists who study the way human beings live, the anthropologists. Broadly speaking, culture is the full range of patterns of human behavior.… Read more
Culture 2 – Hebrew culture
The Hebrew culture is unique in world history because of its origin and because of its endurance. When a people of one culture lose their homeland and become immigrants in other countries their culture only survives from four to five generations before it is absorbed into the host culture and loses its uniqueness.… Read more
Culture 1 – The biblical view of culture
We live in our culture. The language we speak, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat, are culturally determined. The things we pursue and the things that pursue us are in our culture. We are going to look at culture from several standpoints beginning with the biblical view of culture.… Read more
Happy New Year
Hello again. I have been away from the blog for several months. It was all for health reasons, first a heart catheterization, then a complete knee replacement surgery. As you can see, the name of the blog has changed but the writer stays the same.… Read more