Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623)

In Michael Allen Gillespie's The Theological Origins of Modernity in the chapter on Hobbes he mentions Paolo Sarpi and states

During this time in Italy, he [Hobbes] may have heard or met Paolo Sarpi, the nominalist nad materialist who David Whootton has called the only admitted atheist of his age.

hmmm... must look into this guy!!

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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

The sermon this week at First Methodist church of Stockbridge

I went to First Methodist church of Stockbridge yesterday. I had been meaning to for a while. It was a lovely church. Smaller than some of the mega churches that have become the rage but seems active.

Having been raised in a Methodist church there is something interesting about the feeling of... what I'd guess i'd call coming home. Something about the connections of feeling a comfort... and the traditions and songs... it was nice.

The sermon was on Matthew 25:31-46

The Sheep and the Goats
31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

We shall miss you George Carlin

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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

Can we justifiably say...

Read this...

I remain very grateful to my Catholic upbringing and education for giving me relative immunity to nationalism. In the 1950s, the nuns who taught me from age five to twelve were virtually all Irish or Irish-American with sentimental attachment to certain elements of Celtic folklore, but they made sure to inculcate into us that the only serious human society was the Church which was an explicitly international organization. The mass, in the international language, Latin, was the same everywhere; the religious orders were international. This absence of national limitation was something very much to be cherished. “Catholica” in the phrase “[credo in] unam, sanctam, catholicam, et apostolicam ecclesiam” should, we were told, be written with a lower-case, not an upper-case, initial because it was not in the first instance part of the proper name of the church, but an adjective meaning “universal,” and this universality was one of the most important “marks of the true Church.”

Then tell me this... can we not say--or at least question--that those who profess Nationalism fail to have heeded Paul's call of universalism? Is it not un-christian to pit one klan over another? If you believe in a historicist approach to Christianity I guess not--you are the chosen people. If you believe in the ethics of jesus and that Christianity is an action not some political propaganda to spew about I might speculate that you must.

quote

“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.” --Albert Einstein **

motley collection of half-truths

"As vast experimental literature shows, our intuitive theories are often a motley collection of half-truths that get us through the average day rather than true redescriptions of the world." --Gary Marcus

Sam Harris blog post...

What Barack Obama Could Not (and Should Not) Say

Like every candidate, Obama must appeal to millions of voters who believe that without religion, most of us would spend our days raping and killing our neighbors and stealing their pornography. Examples of well-behaved and comparatively atheistic societies like Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark--which surpass us in terrestrial virtues like education, health, public generosity, per capita aid to the developing world, and low rates of violent crime and infant mortality--are of no interest to our electorate whatsoever. It is, of course, good to know that people like Reverend Wright occasionally do help the poor, feed the hungry, and care for the sick. But wouldn't it be better to do these things for reasons that are not manifestly delusional? Can we care for one another without believing that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is now listening to our thoughts?