Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
This interesting tidbit, from Mechanics by John C. Slater and Nathaniel Frank (both of whom taught at MIT): The existence of fundamental laws underlying the behavior or nature has furnished the guiding principle of natural science ever since. It has also formed the basis of most modern thought in philosophy, political science, economics and the …
Continue reading "The Danger of Oversimplifying Extrapolation from the Sciences"
Educating new Christians in the basics of the faith has always been an important task of the Church. A few years back I featured a series on Cyril of Jerusalem's Catechetical Lectures, which date from the fourth century. Evangelical churches can be very casual about the whole business, their reputation for dogmatism notwithstanding. With Roman …
Continue reading "Revisiting the Catholicism of "Christ Among Us""
If you listen to Catholic commentators--especially conservative ones--you'll hear about the obligation of the faithful not only to vote but to vote for the proper person, i.e., one that is pro-life, etc., and that it's a sin to fail to do so. But there was a time when the Church had a less roseate view …
Continue reading "When the Catholic Faithful Were Not Allowed to Vote"
One of my Pentecostal academic friends directed me towards this piece, "How Christian Rationalism Turned Me Into a Psychopath, or A Biblical Defense of Feelings," by one Michael Minkoff, Jr.. It summarizes his journey through Reformed religion, how same religion attempted to drill into him the virtues of rationality and the vices of letting your …
His Holiness has done it again with Amoris Laetitia, his latest encyclical on the family. The traditionalists tell us he's betrayed basic Roman Catholic Doctrine. The loyalists (to the Church) say it really doesn't say anything new. And the revisionists fell a "thrill up their leg" while reading it. Given all of that, I'm reposting …
While searching out the web, I ran across an interesting article in the Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel dated 25 May 1995. The issue at hand was harvesting the organs of anencephalic babies (not fetuses) for their organ parts, by killing the baby first. Fr. William A. Sassman, his photo in the 1973 Tartan (St. Andrew's yearbook.) …
Continue reading "The Man Who Facilitated My Exit from the Episcopal Church"
It's time to mark another anniversary here, in this case the thirty-fifth one of my family business' signing our first contract with the Petroleum Corporation of the People's Republic of China for the sale of pile driving equipment. That may not seem like much today but then we were selling into an economy that was …
Of all of Jesus Christ's post-resurrection appearances, this one is, in many ways, the most intriguing: Meanwhile Mary was standing close outside the tomb, weeping. Still weeping, she leant forward into the tomb, And perceived two angels clothed in white sitting there, where the body of Jesus had been lying, one where the head and …
Continue reading "After the Resurrection, Did Our Lord Need Purification?"
If I had to pick a favourite Bible verse or passage, it would be this: The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought by the High Priest into the Sanctuary, as an offering for sin, are burnt outside the camp. And so Jesus, also, to purify the People by his own blood, suffered outside …
Continue reading "The Meaning of Outside the Camp: A Good Friday Reflection"
Today is Nowruz, the spring equinox festival of the Iranians. To my Iranian friends, who have meant so much, hope you've had a good festival season (it runs about two weeks back in the old country.) Last November I ran a piece about the Persian origin of the term "King of Kings," which most Christians …
Continue reading "Happy Nowruz to the People of the "King of Kings""
Positive Infinity 