"One From the Vault" Dept.
(On Atheism)

Originally this was drafted in December of 2006 as a short critique of someone else's writing in response to an atheist interlocuter but for some reason I cannot recall at the moment, it was never actually blogged.{1} I have made some redactions to the completed post as it was in the archives and decided to post it at this time for something I have had in the works for completing and posting for about five months now as a point of reference. Without further ado...

Now, I don't subscribe to the belief that religion is the only thing that makes people compelled to good behavior (although it's certainly true for some), but it does give people inner peace, serenity, enlightenment, and often things like creativity and clarity in thinking.

I would change "it does" to "it can." I know not a few theists who frankly are lousy thinkers. But yes, if one accepts as a certain foundational presupposition that there is Infinite Intelligence (in some form or another) it can definitely assist with creativity and clarity in thinking because it defines a point of reference from which one can operate from. And as I am wont to say at times "definitions are the tools of thought."

On the whole the piece you sent me reads fine except it did not seem to me that you challenged the atheist while trying to defend yourself from his assertions. The following threads from my weblog may be of assistance in this area:

Musings on Atheism (circa August 15, 2003)

Points to Ponder on Atheism By Dr. Art Sippo (circa August 14, 2003)

Ultimately, atheism is arbitrary as both Dr. Sippo and I note in various ways. Because to be an atheist is to have an operative presupposition in your thinking that something was created out of nothing. I remember really pissing off atheists at the infidels board about seven to eight years ago with pointing that out in various ways to a whole host of their presumed "arguments against God's existence." The beauty of it is that no matter how they slice it, that is what all of their attempts inexorably boil down to. I hope that helps.

Note:

{1} It was drafted on December 14, 2006 -a few days before the posting of this thread which was written at about the same time and pertaining to similar subject matter:

On Implicit Faith (circa December 16, 2006)

My best guess offhand (since I cannot remember) is that though both posts were similarly of a universal nature and covered some of the same elements that I viewed the above thread to be of greater service both generally as well as particularly at the time than this one. That is one possible reason and the only one I can think of offhand that explains it other than simply being so inundated with a variety of things that I forgot about it and more drafts in various stages of completion piled up after it and it got buried.

Points to Ponder:

I cannot help in pondering the subject of war come to any conclusion except that if it was ever outlawed, if those who are the most manic of the so-called "peacemakers" among us were to actually achieve their intended aim, that we will have forever enthroned an unstoppable totalitarianism on the world. We need to always have the option of what Chesterton called "the sacred right of insurrection" if we are to have a modicum of restoring societies from the tyranny of legal perversion by bureaucratic termites and whores who see mankind as clay for their own sociological "moulding." [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa June 16, 2005)]

Mexico reconquers California? Absolut drinks to that!

And that my friends is why I will not drink Absolut vodka anytime soon -even going so far as to ask every place I go where vodka is served what they are serving.

Also, the presumed apology of Absolut does not change my mind an iota -particularly since this supposed "absolut world" happens to coincide with an actual movement to try and achieve what that map outlines. Pardon your humble servant if he does not find this matter so amusing.

As for the rest, I summarized it last year in a post which I will include in a footnote{1} and that is all I plan to say on it for now.

Note:

{1} On President Bush and the Southern Border (circa June 23, 2007)

Points to Ponder:
(On "Fark")

Fark is what fills space when mass media runs out of news. It's not news, it's Fark. Fark is supposed to look like news... but it's not news.

There is an ancient (supposed) Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Let's face it, interesting times suck. Whenever Mass Media is really fulfilling its intended purpose, generally something bad is going on. Wars, blown elections, bad weather, you name it -- when people need to know something, it's probably because it's likely to kill them. We'd be much better off living in non-interesting times.

This presents a problem for Mass Media, however, when we are not living in interesting times. This has been further compounded by the advent of twenty-four hour news channels and the Internet as a news source. Back in the days when TV news concentrated most of its resources on one half-hour blocks of news, finding material to fill the time slot wasn't difficult. Nowadays cable news networks have to scramble to have something to talk about for twenty-four hours a day, even when nothing of important is going on. Sales departments are still selling advertisements, after all. Mass Media can't just run content made entirely of ads (with the possible exception of the Home Shopping Network). Something has to fill the space.

Over the years Mass Media has developed several methods of filling this space. No one teaches this in journalism school; odds are Mass Media itself hasn't given much thought to the process. It's a practice honed over the years by editors and publishers, verbally passed down from one generation to the next. They're not entirely aware they're doing it, although the media folks who read advance copies of this manuscript all had the same reaction: "I've been saying we should stop doing this for YEARS." [Drew Curtis]

God rest your soul Charlton Heston and thank you for your contributions to humanity

Eternal rest grant unto his soul oh Lord and my Thy perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace with all the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God. Amen.