FMeekins's blog

The next theory of truth and religious knowledge is pragmatism.  Developed initially by Charles Sander Pierce and expanded by William James, pragmatism is the theory that truth is not determined by what one thinks, feels, or discovers but rather by what works.
   
Christians may instinctively recoil from this initially. However, the proper response to this epistemological methodology needs to be more nuanced than the believer might originally suspect.
   
Providing in part an alternative to the early 20th century viewpoint promoted in large part by Sigmund Freud that belief in God was psychologically harmful, in works such as  The  Varieties Of Religious Experience, James believed religion should be judged by its results in the life of the individual.  Overall, James concluded that, "In a general way...on the whole...our testing of religion by practical common sense and the empirical method leaves it in possession of its towering place in history.  For economically, the saintly group of qualities is indispensable to the world’s welfare (109).”
   
However, any alliance the Christian apologist may make with William James is tenuous at best.  For example, James categorized the pantheistic outlook of Mediterranean paganism as healthy and those emphasizing the need to be “twice born” as epitomizing a Germanic dourness characterized by an obsession regarding man’s fallen nature and need to be saved by God (105).
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The next methodology is experientialism.  Though fideism strives to make faith alone the justification for religious knowledge or belief, Geisler observes that this faith is ultimately justified in terms of an experience had by the individual (65).
    
To the experientialist, God or the Ultimate is not so much something to be understood or comprehended but rather felt.  Stretching all the way back to the Neoplatonist Plotinus, experientialism views what the believer refers to as God as "the one beyond all knowing and being (66)."
    
In fact, God is so far beyond what the finite mind is capable of comprehending that to really say anything about God is highly inaccurate as to do so would be limiting God.  As such, the best the individual can aspire to is an intuitive mystical union with the universal by turning inward through an ascetic detachment from the physical world around us in pursuit of a metaphysical unity.
    
Friedrich Schleiermacher provided for a more accessible apprehension of the cosmic or divine by equating religious experience not so much with monastic solitude but rather with the feeling of absolute dependence we all feel from time to time.  According to Schleiermacher, this feeling is actually the World Spirit reaching out to us and actualizing within each of us.
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Most Americans are no doubt aware of the tragedy of the oil slick coating the Gulf Coast from the damaged petroleum rig.  What they might not be aware of is the attitude among elites of how we as citizens and consumers are simply to go along with whatever position they craft as a response regarding the matter.

A headline from the 5/25/10 online edition of the Washington Post bemoans "For Some Washington Drivers, Convenience Outweighs Calls For BP Gas Boycott”.  The story laments the tendency of certain consumers who “...prioritize convenience over taking a moral or political stand.”

For starters, in this day where it is constantly pounded into our heads that no one is to impose their views on any one else or to even dare to suggest that certain values might be superior to others, on what grounds are we expected to do something because someone with no real binding authority over us tells us to?

Many of the rabblerousers behind the BP boycott are some of the same nags behind the boycott of the state of Arizona regarding the immigration law.  Yet these crusaders would turn around and become moral libertines if some pro-family coalition organized a boycott of states such as Vermont authorizing sodomite matrimony.

In all fairness, busybody progressives are not the only ones to use boycotts not so much in pursuit of a policy objective but rather to exert power and control over their respective constituencies.   read more »

In "Into The Heart Of Darkness, Part 1", I examined the Black liberation theology of Jeremiah Wright and how the leftist radicalism at the heart of this worldview serves as the foundation of the belief system of President Barack Obama and forms the basis of many of his policies.  And even though Obama claims to have renounced his connections to his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, since Obama sat under this pastor for nearly 20 years and continues to advocate these kinds of policies, it is obvious Obama has not distanced himself from sociopolitical radicalism to the extent he claims he has.

Even if Obama is successful in tossing under the rug the insinuations of having embraced Afrosupremacist theology, he has gone out of his way repeatedly to let the world know he spent the early years of his career as a community organizer.  Obama supporters would have average Americans believe that this position involved little more than getting the plumbing fixed in rundown apartments or organizing senior citizens outings to the local supermarket for the elderly without their own transportation.

While these are laudable undertakings, these tasks do not encapsulate the true purposes and intents of community organizing.  These are just the bait to lure the needy yet unsuspecting into deeper levels of manipulation.  read more »

For anyone pursuing a degree in Apologetics that was given a dollar for every time they were asked "What is that, learning how to say you are sorry" upon answering the question of what it is that they study so many times, many would have financed a considerable portion of their academic pursuits.  Unfortunately, such ignorance as to what exactly this theological discipline entails symbolizes the neglect the defense of the faith has fallen into in the contemporary church and is one of the reasons that everywhere the believer and student of religion turns today they find Christianity losing considerable ground both within and without its boundaries to a wide variety of opponents and adversaries.  To the serious student of this field of study, one of the best tools around which to build a fundamental understanding of the discipline's ins and outs is "Christian Apologetics" by Norman Geisler, one of the field's foremost living practitioners.
   
Basic to any academic discipline is the approach or methodology which scholars and researchers apply to the subject matter.  The field of Apologetics is no different.  Geisler lists the methodologies to knowledge in general and about God in particular as agnosticism, rationalism, fideism, experientialism, evidentialism, pragmatism, and combinationalism.  In the course of his analysis, Geisler evaluates each in terms of their epistemology regarding religious matters and how these approaches stack up under the weight of being scrutinized by their own criteria.  read more »

Over the past decade and a half or thereabouts, I have published occasional columns pointing out that there is more going on in terms of worldview at the Olympic games than good sportsmanship and keeping a stoic outlook no matter how disappointed one might be at the outcome of a particular event. These worldviews often come closest to public light in commemorations surrounding the games such as the opening or closing ceremonies.

For example, in an audio commentary I noted the blatant paganism at the 2006 games in Greece where the ancient gods were not so much depicted as curiosities of mankind’s religious history with the possibility of a few moral axioms derivable occasionally from these myths when approached as literature. Rather, adoration of these entities was approached as a viable system of belief around which humanity could draw ongoing sustain inspiration moving the world towards cultural unification.

For the most part, such ideological manipulation was aimed largely at a generalized audience irrespective of age. Now it seems Olympic organizers may have more carefully targeted their indoctrination efforts towards children.

During each Olympiad, mascots are created as appealing embodiments of each unique set of games. For example, the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles were represented by Sam the Olympian, a bald eagle clad in red, white, and blue which alluded to Uncle Sam and the highest ideals of the American people.  read more »

It seems that the slyest way to undermine the Constitution is to claim to be defending it.

General Paul Vallely, through his front group StandUpAmericaus.com, is calling for Barack Obama to step down from the Presidency over allegations of deceit, fraud, corruption, dishonesty, and for violating the oath of office and the U.S. Constitution.

But while all of these are valid charges, the solution presented indicates that the retired general may himself be an aspiring despot waiting in the wings.

For instead of allowing the constitutional procedures established by the Founding Fathers to guide the nation through turbulent periods in its history, Vallely is insisting that new elections must be held this very instant that are to be authorized as a result of citizen petition.

The General claims "We can wait no longer for a traditional transfer of power and a new government."

Such a proposal causes the discerning to wonder what other provisions of the Constitution he would like to hack to pieces with a bayonet.  Because unless the nation goes through an amendment process, there are no legal provisions there for the kind of procedure he is calling for.

In the Book of Revelation, chapter 6,  the text describes those who are popularly referred to as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

In this passage, the student of Scripture is shown a rider on a White Horse who is believed to conquer peacefully through guile rather than bloodshed; he is then followed by a Red Horse who brings war.  read more »

President Barack Obama addressed the graduating class of Kalamazoo Central High School and personally greeted each of the seniors to congratulate them for their academic achievements.

This honor was extended, for the most part, because of the class patting itself on the back for its lack of racial and ethnic discord, which in today's scholastic environment translates largely into the White students taking with a smile plastered across their faces denouncement for and the accepting of blame for the lion's share of the world's problems as elaborated by leftist textbooks, multiculturalist educators, and the discontented minorities that get worked up into a froth as a result of such indoctrination.

Though a scathing column could be written on that in and of itself, that isn't even the most glaring hypocrisy surrounding this event.

As part of the security procedures surrounding the President's visit, each of the seniors to be personally greeted by the President had to submit to a Secret Service background check.

What's wrong with that those conditioned to submissively accept what they are told to do without a second thought will reply. Nothing whatsoever, as in this day of rampant violence, numerous precautions must be taken to protect the life of the President.

It is just a shame that the President doesn't think that your life is as valuable as his.  read more »

A deadly blob of oil and gunk edges ever closer to a delicate shoreline with each passing wave.  Fear not, Hollywood celebrities will save the day.

The boundary between entertainment and reality is growing more clouded every day.  Because of their respective expertise with complex aquatic equipment, James Cameron and Kevin Costner have stepped forward as potential heroes to resolve the BP oil spill disaster.  I guess most have forgotten what a flop "Waterworld" was at the box office.

However since the films for which these celebrities are best known, "Avatar" and "Dances With Wolves", are quite distinct in regards to the worldviews through which they hope to persuade audiences, can these personalities be trusted to assist in the preservation of our technologically dependent civilization or will they manipulate the crisis to impose cultural primitivism upon broad swaths of humanity?

Running around half-naked riding psychedelically-colored dinosaurs might look fun during an innovative three hour fantasy.  But if it was real, after awhile one would realize that it’s not as glamorous as it looks up on the big screen with no Preparation H in sight for the relief of the chaffed hemorrhoidal tissues that would no doubt result.

by Frederick Meekins

To most Americans, environmentalism is perceived as a benevolent cultural force charged with preserving the earth's endangered natural treasures and resources.  After all, who could possibly oppose freshwater, clean air, and efforts to save fury creatures. Yet few realize there is also a dark underbelly to the growing body of thought that motivates this enthusiastic social movement, causing it to often stand in opposition to fundamental Christian assumptions regarding God, man, and the relation of each to the broader Creation.  These faulty assumptions in turn end up posing a major threat to both the liberties we enjoy as Americans and the standard of living possessed by industrialized nations resulting from technological advancement.

There is more to radical brands of environmental ethics --- also known as "Deep Ecology" --- than the perennial dilemma between paper or plastic.  To a number of the movement's followers, such rigorous devotion to nature serves the function of a comprehensive worldview.  This perspective molds understandings of theology, anthropology, and forms of cultural engagement.

Fundamental, therefore, becomes this outlook's interpretation of ultimate reality.  In one sense, Deep Ecology can be seen as an eclectic philosophical movement finding its well of inspiration from the confluence of several streams of thought.   read more »