Orthodox Editors

ET and Politics, The Search for Meaning

Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson

by Chuck Colson –
In his book, Lost in the Cosmos, Walker Percy asked “why is Carl Sagan so lonely?” Percy’s question was prompted by the popular scientist Carl Sagan’s insistence that ET must be out there somewhere, despite the lack of any evidence to back it up. Percy believed that this insistence said more about Sagan and people like him, than it did about the possibility of extra-terrestrial life.

According to Percy, Sagan and others who reduced everything, including man, to soulless atoms, were desperate for something to transcend this purely-material existence. Not believing in God, they hoped a phone call from ET would do the trick.

Unfortunately for the scientists, thirty years after the publication of Percy’s book, we still haven’t heard from ET. And it’s not for lack of looking: Scarcely a week goes by when we don’t read or hear about yet another “earth-like” planet being discovered by astronomers.

Yet ET remains silent. [Read more…]

Is it My ‘Civic Duty’ to Pay for Other People’s Stuff?

Socialists communists tyranny spread the wealth by The Godfather –

When John Harrison was a senior at Druid Hills High School in DeKalb County, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, he was miffed when he was rebuffed by parents at a private school when they refused to purchase a discount coupon for Domino’s Pizza. The money was to go to his public school’s art program. They told him, “We already contribute through taxes, and we pay for our children to go to school, so why don’t you hit up your own parents?” A little harsh, if it was really said that way, but right on the money nevertheless. Ann Coulter couldn’t have said it any better.

Young Mr. Harrison was “shocked and appalled” at the curt response he received. Well, I was shocked and appalled, but not surprised, at what I read next from the naïve public school senior who doesn’t own a home or pay very much in taxes and is on the domestic dole of his parents:

Paying taxes is a civic duty, and these people were arrogant enough to view their taxes as a contribution, not a responsibility.

[Read more…]

Silliest Pro-Abortion Argument Ever: ‘We Can’t Legislate Morality’

We Can't Legislate Morality by Kristen Walker –

Tell me if this has ever happened to you. It’s lunchtime. You are eating at your desk at work and decide to look at Facebook. It’s as exciting as ever. Your aunt had a burrito for lunch. A girl you haven’t seen since college got a new tattoo. Someone is super happy it’s almost Friday.

Then you see that a virtual stranger (there’s a double meaning in that) has commented on one of your posts. And she has said something so asinine that you put down your fried pickle (’cause you’re in Texas and you eat stuff like that) and respond.

It’s daunting, the task before you. Do you even want to undertake this? Can you really change someone’s mind about abortion in one Facebook comment?* [Read more…]

The Venture Capitalist vs. The Vulture Socialist

Vulture Socialism Strangles Liberty and Prosperity by George Neumayr –

Put the worst possible construction on Mitt Romney’s career as a venture capitalist and it still looks much better than Barack Obama’s. Pecking at the entrails of a limping economy, Obama is the vulture socialist.

A president who promised to bankrupt the coal industry is in no position to gainsay Romney’s record of job creation at Bain Capital. Romney created at least 100,000 jobs in private life; Obama created none. Then Obama entered office and racked up a record of job destruction that would give even the most reckless corporate raiders pause.

The vulture socialists feed off an economy that they could never create. Parasitism defines their existence. To the extent that it exists, Obama’s moderation consists of keeping the golden goose of capitalism alive just long enough to pluck its eggs.

Were Obama to start an economy from scratch, it would look like the late Soviet Union’s. His de facto socialism is the spoiled and ungrateful child of Western capitalism. Take away the reviled rich and he would have no wealth to seize or workers to exploit. [Read more…]

Leftism Makes You Meaner

Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager
by Dennis Prager –
Only a fool believes that all those with whom he differs are bad people. Moreover, just about all of us live the reality — often within our own family — of knowing good and loving people with whom we strongly differ on political, religious, social and economic issues.

That said, I have come to believe that the more committed one is to leftism, the more likely one is to become meaner.

Two examples in just the past week offer compelling evidence.

Prominent left-wing commentators used the way in which Rick Santorum and his wife handled the death of one of their children to attack — make that mock — the former Pennsylvania senator.

In a lifetime of observing and participating in political debate, I have seen a lot of meanness. But one just assumes that some things — not many, just some — are off limits to political pundits and activists.

Among these few things, one has to believe, is the death of a child. But I was wrong. [Read more…]

The End of Morality?

End of Morality Discover Magazine is wrong by John Feakes –
The End of Morality? A Critique of the Materialistic Views Expressed in Discover Magazine (July-August, 2011)
The two strongest arguments for Christian Theism, seemingly impervious to refutation by materialists, are the arguments from the validity of consciousness and thought, and the argument from morality. The former argument centers on the fact that if everything is reducible to molecules in motion, then our very thoughts – which are simply the result of the meaningless flux of atoms in the human brain – would be called into question as reliable sources of information as well. This would serve to undermine the validity of all reasoning, including the reasoning of the atheist who claims that his brilliant mind has led him to the conclusion that God does not exist. Such a view makes the task of determining which thoughts are more or less “valid” than others impossible. Conversely, Christian Theism has no problem assessing the validity of competing thoughts. Recall that on this view, God has designed the human mind for the express purpose of apprehending truths external to itself. The rational thinking that follows from such apprehension is a reflection of the mind of God, the Rational Mind responsible for this grand universe in the first place. [Read more…]

Morality and the Economy, No Separating the Two

Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson
by Chuck Colson –
The next election should be all about the economy, right? Wrong in spades!

During the seemingly endless build-up to the Iowa caucuses, there was one consistent refrain repeated over and over. It’s like the big lie — the more you keep repeating it, the more people are going to believe it, but it remains a lie.

The lie was simply this: that the political parties have to choose between social issues and economic issues. This year, the media and the party machines are telling us ad nauseam that the only issue that matters is the economy.

So any candidate who wants to win the White House should just shut up about things like marriage, the sanctity of life, religious liberty, and those other annoying issues that distract us from focusing on jobs and the economy.

But that’s crazy! Doesn’t anybody get the connection between the social issues and economics issues [Read more…]

The Left’s Heart of Darkness

The Left Heart of Darknessby Bruce Walker –

On January 2, Alan Colmes on Fox News mocked presidential hopeful Rick Santorum and Santorum’s wife for bringing their critically ill newborn son, Gabriel, into the world and then bringing him home.  Gabriel died 16 years ago, and Karen Santorum wrote a heartrending book, Letters to Gabriel, which describes how the couple dealt with the grief of his death.  Mother Teresa wrote the foreword for the book.

Although Colmes has quickly retreated from his remarks, his crudeness shows how the left really thinks.  When Sarah Palin brings Trig, a child with Down Syndrome, into the world, and he is cherished and loved, the left spins its head — why not just waste the kid before he was born?  This mockery did not end with the 2008 campaign: Family Guy in 2010 made fun of Trig, and in April, another leftist goon mocked the young child on his third birthday.  The left’s heart of darkness is so dreadful that appalling bile seems normal to its minions until normal, moral people object. [Read more…]

Hunter-Gatherer Nut Cases

Hunter-Gatherer Nut Cases by Tom Gilson –
Let’s Just Reduce Our Altruism, Morals & Love to Brain Waves

I opened up “The End of Morality,” Discover magazine’s latest article on ethics and the brain (July/August 2011), and I wondered, “Will this be any different from the others?” Articles on this topic seem to follow a consistent pattern: (1) Researchers can pinpoint physical events taking place in people’s brains when they make ethical decisions. (2) Thus, science is discovering, finally, what ethics is all about: it’s chemistry and electricity doing their chemical and electrical thing inside your skull. And that’s it.

It’s an approach many thinkers call reductionist. Reductionism in this context means that crucial aspects of human experience, like consciousness, love, ethical decisions, the ability to make choices (free will), and so on are best understood as biological processes, which in turn are best understood in terms of chemistry and physics. It’s a matter of bringing down—reducing—these things to the lowest level of physical explanation.

According to reductionism, in fact, the only real thing going on is what happens at the level of chemistry and physics. [Read more…]

Fr. Bakas: Jesus and the Geese at Christmas

Jesus Christ Saves Humanity, Geese Parable by Fr. John S. Bakas –
I teach one class per semester at the Loyola Marymount University School of Theology. In the fall I teach a course on Orthodox Christian Spirituality. I start and end my class with prayer since prayer is the essence of Orthodox spirituality.

I don’t insist that anyone pray along with me, but I do insist that all stand as a sign of respect. I have professed atheists in class as well as Christians of various denominations, Jews and Moslems. Moslems in particular have difficulty understanding not only the Holy Trinity, but the idea of Jesus Christ as the eternal uncreated Incarnate Son of God and the second person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus Christ came into the world as God-Man (Theantropos) to save humanity from death by He Himself suffering death and being resurrected from the dead. Because He became one of us, we too may conquer death through Him and be reconciled to God the Father. Jesus Christ, I tell them, assumed the whole of man; for what is not assumed cannot be saved, whereas what is united with God is saved. [Read more…]