By ART CHANCE
I was raised in Baptist confinement; the “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it” variety.
There were three kinds of Baptists in the rural South; the Missionary Baptists, the Progressive Primitive Baptists, and the “Old Line” Primitive Baptists. The Missionary Baptists are the ones you might recognize; they had a nice church with a steeple in town and there were nice cars parked around the church on Sunday morning. They’re the ones you’d associate with the Southern Baptist Convention and what passes for mainstream Protestantism these days. I was brought up to think of them as snobs, though not so much as Methodists and Presbyterians, but they did have some pretty girls, so I went to church there from time to time. I’ll always have a warm spot for them for the night we beat a nearby rival, a rivalry so intense the game had to be played on a neutral field, in football for the first time in 28 years, and when the team and band buses arrived back in town in the middle of the night, somebody opened the church and played “Alma Mater” on the carillon for the whole town, whether they wanted to hear it or not.
I sprang from the more déclassé sector of Baptist dogma and I had a divided family. My Father’s side were “progressive” Primitive Baptists. My grandfather and grandmother were charter members of the church, and my grandfather and later my father were deacons. We gave the land for the parsonage to the church.
I was something of a disappointment.
My mother’s side were “Old Line” Primitive Baptists. Union Primitive Baptist church was out in the country and didn’t have running water or modern facilities. It didn’t have stained glass windows or art work on the walls. It didn’t have a piano or other musical instrument. My grandfather was a deacon and the singing leader and most of the singing was “call and repeat.” Most of you don’t know what that is, but most of you have heard Joan Baez’ version of “Amazing Grace” on “From Every Stage,” the only Christian song you can sing or play in polite company these days. She does a lot of it in “call and repeat,” in which she sings out the words of the next verse for the audience.
Other than at Union Church, I remember it most from field hands working in cotton and tobacco fields. Someone was the song leader, maybe the foreman, maybe a pastor among the group; he; always he, led the singing. Most of you have no idea what chopping cotton or cropping tobacco in the 100 degree Georgia heat is like, but singing Gospel songs as you did it seemed to help.
That was the state of the World 50 or 60 years ago. Two hundred years earlier, you could have a trial by water (or worse) to see if your beliefs adequately conformed to “community standards.” A couple of hundred years before that, you would be offered a choice of the hot fire if you could afford it, or the slow fire if you couldn’t, as your soul was tried by fire.
You have to really be a student of history to know about Arianism, Catharism, Nestorianism, Appolarianism, Gnosticism and all the other “isms” that could get you tortured, flayed, blinded, burned at the stake or boiled in oil for the first 1,500 years or so of Christianity’s development. Only some of the notorious Inquisition was about testing just which flavor of Christian you might be, though it got pretty tough in places, but if you were a Muslim or a Jew trying to “pass” as a Christian, your life might well be forfeit.
The Left never had a Council of Nicaea or a Stalin. Constantine had a convocation of Christian bishops in 325 AD who were tasked with setting out what it meant to be a Christian. They produced the Nicene Creed. The assembled bishops were mostly from the Eastern Empire. The great losers were the Arian Christians, but they remained a force in the church for centuries, albeit a persecuted force. The most evident result was that the creed defined heresy, and the church, particularly the Eastern church, set out to extirpate heresy.
There is a good argument that Byzantine losses to the Persians and later to the Muslims among the Jews and other Semitic residents of the empire were in large measure attributable to persecution by the Orthodox Church. As the Muslims became ascendant, many Orthodox but heretical Christians chose conversion or dhimmitude over Orthodox persecution.
Fast forward 1,500 years; communism was little more established in Europe in the mid-1800s than Christianity had been in the 300s, perhaps less so. Various cells, cadres, and communes had tried to establish socialist/communist/communal governments throughout Europe and even to some extent in the U.S. all through the 19th Century.
You can trace most of the “isms” that bedeviled the U.S. in the 19th and early 20thCenturies to the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. in 1848. Marx’ “Das Kapital” wasn’t far behind in 1867. By 1871 proto-communists established the Paris Commune and rejected the authority of the French Government. It only took a couple of months for the French Army to reject the authority of the Paris Commune, but revolutionary groups were here to stay.
World War One proved too much for the tottering Romanov Dynasty in Russia and it succumbed first to a social Democrat democracy and ultimately to the communist Bolsheviks, thus establishing the first communist national government, led first by Vladimir Lenin. Autocracy is the only form of government Russia had ever known, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was even more autocratic than the Romanovs, but different people got to be the autocrats. Anastasia screamed in vain!
The aborning U.S.S.R. faced a civil war with revanchist elements, the “White Russians,” and various schisms between factions inside the nominally communist ranks. Bolshevik means something like majority, but they were anything but; they were just loud and violent.
Lenin kept the unholy alliance together until his death in 1928. Among the many ideological schisms, the most consequential was that between Lenin and another Bolshevik, Leon Trotsky. To use today’s words, Lenin was a bureaucratic communist; his intent was to harness the bureaucratic power of the state to the Communist Party.
Trotsky believed in ongoing revolution; he was more anarchist than communist. Lenin’s successor, Stalin, was cut from different cloth and had nothing of Trotsky’s dissidence; he threw him out of the U.S.S.R. Then, when Trotsky, ensconced in Mexico, continued to try to influence events in the U.S.S.R., Stalin simply had someone put an ice axe through his skull.
That was the communist version of the Council of Nicaea; adhere to the ruling dogma or get an ice axe in your head. To be fair, the Christians weren’t any more gentle; burned at the stake or an ice axe in your head: you pick it.
Through World War II, American communists were doctrinaire Stalinists. After WWII, the U.S. rigorously suppressed doctrinaire communism. The net result, however, was not really the suppression of communism, but its dispersion. In the 1950s and 1960s we saw the rise of the New Left in the US. The epicenter was Chicago and a Trotsky disciple named Saul Alinsky. Chinese Maoism was a derivative of Trotskyism, and lots of American young people spent the 1960s with a copy of Mao’s “Little Red Book” in the pocket of their ragged Levis. It quietened a bit in the Reagan-Bush years, but returned in new bespoke clothes with Bill Clinton.
Bill and Hillary Clinton raised a fist and yelled “Vinceremos.” They meant to restart the revolution. Fortunately, it cost Bill the Congress and he tucked his communist tail between his legs and made nice with Newt Gingrich. Hillary, who wrote her master’s thesis about Saul Alinsky, remains resentful and tries to remain relevant. Bill seems to content himself with finding comfort with women who aren’t Hillary.
The Left did not rest after the Clinton retrenchment; they took your children, if you were foolish enough to send them to college. In scenes reminiscent of a Tom Jones concert in the 1970s, college girls were throwing their panties at the stage at Obama rallies in the ‘00s. Donald Trump was an unanticipated interlude that caused the Left a fit of apoplexy. I won’t discuss how the Left “defeated” him.
To bring this to today, the communists, excuse me, Democrats, control the Congress and the Presidency; they can do pretty much whatever they want subject to their ability to cow the courts. Their tool of manipulation is the Covid scamdemic. Covid has become a messianic religion. You either accept the gospel of St. Anthony Fauci and his ilk, or you are a heretic.
I don’t look or act like a sensitive new-age guy; the Karens don’t even have to know, they couldn’t tell anyway, whether I’m carrying Covid or not; one look at me without a mask and they bustle off in the opposite direction with a distraught look on their faces. They are genuinely afraid, and St. Anthony and the “Jab Inquisition” have done that. St. Anthony doesn’t have to be Slo Joe’s Torquemada, there are millions of Karens out there to do it for him.
We have some “doctor” screeching at the medical board about “misinformation.” Who gave her the power to determine what constitutes misinformation? She doesn’t work for Facebook, which reserves that right for itself.
This doctor and her soy boy disciples would like nothing more than putting the dissenting doctors, most of whom are more qualified than their accusers, to the stake; what better place than in front of Loussac Library, the leftists’ holy temple in Anchorage.
We have exceeded even a medieval level of ignorance and superstition; we’ve made it all the way back to the Dark Ages.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon.
I can’t figure out what you are trying to say.
Me too. I reread and reread. I’m sure it’s my lack of intelligence that’s to blame.
My intelligence is always challenged when reading must read.
Lol. Good one.
It is.
Greg, you might be wrong about who you are blaming.
Try harder.
Makes my brain hurt.
I did. I have trouble connecting the paragraphs that don’t seem to be tied together. Lenin, Trotsky, WW2, bill and Hillary, communists, and excuse you, democrats. You could use a content editor
That’s because you are an idiot, sweeney.
Sweet! Glad to get under your skin
It’s using historical forms of discrimination to illustrate the same in modern times. Some have mistakenly compared the unvaccinated to the Jews from the Holocaust in an ill-advised and uninformed way.
.
What Art has done is compare apples to apples instead of apples to oranges. The Jews of the Holocaust were slaughter for being born, those mentioned here were discriminated against for their beliefs, not their genetic makeup.
Thank you
SO
Wrong.
There are parallels to those that refuse to take the dangerous and ineffective clot shot and so are unjustly being marginalized and shut off from some of society. Especially our patriotic military volunteers being persecuted because they won’t follow anti science mandates.
dang straight! glad to hear “the chance”
The title is the short version.
Art – I’m a paid professional editor. Contact me before your next post please.
I’ll pass, thank you.
That explains a few things……….. #cognitivebias
Well played.
Evan: The perfection crafting the art of writing is learning how to write as the writer/speaker speaks catching all the pauses, the emotions, the dialects, the voice tones. You and any other English critic: Don’t bother reading Alaska Native written oratory you will never get past the incorrect grammatical sentence and miss the cultural indigenous eloquence of elders speaking that even too much of the beauty and knowledge gets lost through written word when transcribers are transfering audio recordings to paper book form. The transcribers sometimes purposefully break grammar rules to protect the identity of the speaker and their cultural knowledge.
We gave away our freedoms and abdicated common sense due to fear and laziness.
Conservatives couldn’t be bothered to care. Liberals went to work. Make common sense comparisons to Europe in the 30s and high minded people get offended.
America is literally burning. And almost nobody gives a damn. Yet.
Art, we might well agree on many things, but your understanding of Church history is a sad caricature populated with hints of truth surrounded by dingy propaganda. It doesn’t help sell your point at all to those that actually have a deep knowledge and understanding of Church history.
Point out the factual inaccuracy. I grew up having jackass preachers for my Sunday dinner; I just love arguing religious dogma.
Sure is good to see you’re not bitter about it.
Where to start?
First of all, your vague conflations of partial truths, vague dates, and dime store propaganda is hard to nail down.
These conflations are so mishmash and ethereal, I don’t know exactly how to counter other than to say that they are confused crap and ask for a reference as a starting point.
The same would go for all of the wild eyed claims of the horrible church of the first 1500 years (just seeking to unfairly smear the Church from before the Protestant Revolution as it appears). You can’t just get all of your ‘history’ from one trip through a European propaganda museum and also conflate that into some vague accusation thrust backwards into the centuries before. All you have really done is make anti-historical rambling a mediocre art form. As for your vague references to “the notorious inquisition“ of which most of these seem to refer to and also apply them to different times, your starting point is fairly flawed as well.
Firstly, there in no such thing as a monolithic “the notorious inquisition”. Inquisitions were local ecclesiastical courts usually assigned by Rome and were plenty varied and diverse. The most notorious (because they were the most maligned) are more and more discoverable today than ever. Among Inquisition scholars, this is known as the golden age of Inquisition studies. Rooms full of first source documents (The Clerics running the inquisition courts were usually well educated Franciscans and they kept meticulous and voluminous notes and records.) are being catalogued and computerized. They are now accessible by scores of universities and are cross reference-able and word and name searches can also be performed. Some inquisition propagandists (not historians) that sold books on the subject claimed 60,000,000 dead Europeans as a result of “the notorious inquisition”. This is an obvious problem that could’ve been solved by looking at an encyclopedia as there were not yet 60 million Europeans yet. But now the number when looking at actual records is between 5,000 to 8,000. This is probably less than the blood spilled at the hands of Calvin and his henchmen, but that doesn’t get as much press.
Also, when the Inquisition courts found someone guilty of heresy and they would not recant (another thing that so many seem unwilling to recognize is that only a Catholic could be tried for heresy), they would be handed over to the state almost always with a plea for mercy. The state (and before historical snobbery applying our such advanced morals backwards takes over, remember that an attack on Church doctrine was seen as an attack on monarchy itself and therefore treason also amplified in Spain by the fear of the recent 700 years of brutal Muslim rule), would almost never apply mercy. Another thing to temper the judgement of “the notorious inquisition” is to realize that this was happening before Rome sent adjudicators in a much more unjust, hasty, and bloody manor. Most don’t realize that many of the facets of justice that we take for granted were brought into being by ecclesiastical courts largely through Spanish Inquisition courts. In fact there are many cases of local people purposefully getting accused of heresy on purpose so that, once easily cleared of heresy they had a chance of getting their civil lawsuit heard by a more fair and just court than they normally had access to.
Ah, the glories of actual, methodical and scholarly study.
There are some decent talks given by Professor Madden (Thomas F, if I recall? Not the football guy that doesn’t like flying) on the subject and even the BBC had a special a few years ago to correct much of the false inquisition ‘history’ in light of recent scholarship.
Now to ‘Arian Christians’. Any fair study of anteNicene Church Fathers (and/or the Sacred Scriptures) show the obvious flaw of Arius. Christianity was always Trinitarian. The Apostle’s Creed was Trinitarian. Putting oneself outside of Doctrine doesn’t mean that you’re an “Arian Christian” otherwise the term Christian no longer is useful as a distinction and means nothing. Arius believed that Jesus the Christ was a creature. That is not Christian. Now we’re there those that were well meaning and were only ignorant of what was Christianity? Undoubtedly. At the time of the Council of Nicaea, roughly 80% of the Christian world was Arian including Priests and Bishops (and yes, I would say that most could be called Arian Christians and most of them had no trouble dropping the heresy after learning what the Church has always taught) which makes it all the more miraculous that this matter was decided correctly against 4 to 1 public pressure. It was not the Eastern Church (calling it the Eastern Church so blithely as if it were a monolith is somewhat anachronistic before the split and even to today given the East’s fractured nature even to today) that pushed this for some nefarious motive. It was merely a reemphasis of what the Church had always taught, albeit more specific.
Now to those who “chose conversion or dhimmitude”.
Give me a break. Coerced or threatened conversion or paying a tax (and other more onerous social pressures) is not a choice. It is force. That is Islam. It is quite evident in simply the way that mohammedan tradition sees the entire world. To a mohammedan, the world exists only in two ways. The Dar al Islam and the Dar al Harb.
The former is the abode of islam while the latter is the abode of war. That’s it. That’s the two choices.
Look, if your experience of Christianity has left you all angry and you want to be your own god, go ahead. Just do it. Make your own stuff up and follow yourself. What say that you refrain from distorting history to do so?
Bravo!
Thank you, Mathew.
The history of Christianity is rich and varied. So much of history, in general, seems cherry picked to make a point. The point and the cherries offered in support change from time to time.
I do think Art makes a valid point in that the cruelty of man is rearing its ugly head, swinging the clubs of Division and Superiority; concepts anathema to Jesus Christ, by my understanding.
“Christianity was always Trinitarian. The Apostle’s Creed was Trinitarian. Putting oneself outside of Doctrine doesn’t mean that you’re an “Arian Christian” … Arius believed that Jesus the Christ was a creature. That is not Christian.”
Dualistic believers hold that “begotten” doesn’t indicate that there was a time when Jesus didn’t exist. The Father and the Son have always existed together.
They are self-existent “light”. This light is much greater than the light we see by. “Light” is the closest word we have to describe something beyond human comprehension. They don’t exist in some heavenly realm. They are that realm. They are the Seventh Heavens, and what everything that was created exists within,
Your God is too small Matthew. Your god is descended from superstition and ignorance. You speak mighty words, but your words lack any understanding of who and what Yahweh Yahweh Elohim really are.
Not really, JJD. You completely missed the point. The Catholic understanding of God is that God is existence Itself.
As St. Thomas Aquinas put it – ipsum esse subsistens
– the very act of ‘to be’ itself.
I still wonder (as often happens with those [ I won’t say cowardly, but ] hesitant to admit the roots of from whence they take their beliefs) if some of your background influence is Jehovahs (sic.) Witness, Mormon, 7th day Adv., or oneness Pentecostals. I don’t feel the need to hide my background. This is a safe enough space. You can tell us.
Bravo, Matthew. I and my history degree came here to say something to this effect.
Being a “student of history” does not mean consuming a great deal of secondhand opinions about times and people in the past. It also implies that you are learning how to understand the thinking of the past and not impose your worldview lens on those who thought that way. Being a good student of history is not about regurgitating a large variety of carelessly assembled factoids (such as throwing out big words like Nestorianism and Docetism or whatever) and saying “aha, I know the big picture.” You must have enough respect for those in the past to suspend your modern judgement, think with logical distinctions (let’s just start with being able to distinguish between millennia, for one!), and refrain from the temptation to crunch all these humans, vast ideas, and epochs into tidy little teaching moments that serve our preconceptions.
The “Dark Ages” is a simplistic notion for simple minds and is not used in serious historical pursuit. If you spend any time reading the patristics or, gasp, the scholastics, you will find your modern thinking equipment grossly underpowered for the task.
I for one am extremely weary of people like Mr. Chance delivering their historical manifestos (or whatever this was intended to be). This all comes of using sociology and politics as a substitute for actual historianship.
We’ll have to get together sometime… I’ve never tried jackass – does it taste good? I hope it’s better than jackrabbit – which is hard to digest since it moves so fast. More seriously, you sound like a jaded pastor’s kid who was teased enough to always have to be right but not having enough information or peace to be certain of it. “This is how they will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Well, for one thing your major emphasis is on ‘ religion’ certainly not on ‘Christianity’. Secondly you take way to much liberty as you swing thru church history like a kid running thru a turnstile.. It’s just not as simplistic as you make it out to be!!
The Trinity doctrine is the same as Jewish monotheism, only under a different label. The real “God” is a duality. The Father and the Son. If you don’t have the Father, you don’t have the Son. If you don’t have the Son, you don’t have the Father.
Many pagan doctrines were incorporated into the Christian religion, such as Easter Sunrise Services and Easter Eggs (A symbol of Ishtar, the fertility goddess). The Christmas tree is a symbol of old Norse mythology. Changing the Sabbath to Sunday. Changing Yahshua’s name to Jesus (He is after all an Israelite). Claiming that the English King James translation has more authority than the original Hebrew/Aramaic Scriptures. “Name it and claim it”, and “Standing on the promises” are attempts to control your god. And etc.
As far as “…those that actually have a deep knowledge and understanding of Church history.” they’re few and far between.
Art was being generous. As measured by the words in the Bible, the Christian religion is apostate.
I don’t know what box top you got this from, but it is pure silliness.
The “duality” issue is the basis for the controversy between the Church, both Latin and Orthodox, and Arianism.
If you have that sort of faith, the deliberations of 300 or so clerics and bureaucrats were divinely inspired and their product produced the word of God. If you’re of a more secular bent, it was just religious ideology by committee; there is still a lot of controversy over what went in The Bible and what didn’t.
Like all the books that didn’t make the cut. Too many aliens and such.
To refresh your memory:
Greg Forkner / April 5, 2020
“Jesus wasn’t the creator. Remember on the cross, he asks the creator why he has forsaken him. Things happen in this world. Keep the faith.”
josephdj / April 5, 2020
“Jesus was the Creator. “Without Him was not anything made that was made”. (John 1:3)
“Of the Father, Jesus said, “You have neither heard His voice at any time, or seen His shape.”
( John 5:37 )
You keep tossing these little one liners, which lack substance and relevance.
Jdj, your lack of Scriptural understanding is monumental. All of Scripture is context for all the rest. You tend to take a Scriptural both/and to turn it into an either/or. All heretics do this. All heretics claim the high ground and plant that hill with the flag of their ignorance. You could learn much better reading the early Church Fathers, but it seems that you already know more than all of them.
I still am wondering (but don’t expect you to fess up) where most of this idealogical ignorance stems from – Mormon? Jehovas witnesses, or 7th Day Adventist?
Perhaps all 3?
Just reading Art Chance on a Sunday helps everyone “turn our brain on”, thank you!
We will start here to dismantle your love of your own ideas pasted onto a Church (that I’m guessing you hate a caricature of?)
Any fair study of anteNicene Church Fathers (and/or the Sacred Scriptures) show the obvious flaw of Arius. Christianity was always Trinitarian. The Apostle’s Creed was Trinitarian. Putting oneself outside of Doctrine doesn’t mean that you’re an “Arian Christian” otherwise the term Christian no longer is useful as a distinction and means nothing. Arius believed that Jesus the Christ was a creature. That is not Christian. Now we’re there those that were well meaning and were only ignorant of what was Christianity? Undoubtedly. At the time of the Council of Nicaea, roughly 80% of the Christian world was Arian including Priests and Bishops (and yes, I would say that most could be called Arian Christians and most of them had no trouble dropping the heresy after learning what the Church has always taught) which makes it all the more miraculous that this matter was decided correctly against 4 to 1 public pressure. It was not the Eastern Church (calling it the Eastern Church so blithely as if it were a monolith is somewhat anachronistic before the split and even to today given the East’s fractured nature even to today) that pushed this for some nefarious motive. It was merely a reemphasis of what the Church had always taught, albeit more specific.
As for the Easter crap, that is easily debunked dime store novel ‘history’ probably started by the silly ‘scholarship’ of Jehovahs (no such word until it was made up as a bad translation from 1530) Witnesses. Has Christianity ‘baptized’ or supplanted pagan practices before? Yes. If you can stop pearl clutching for a moment, it’s not a problem. But the Easter thing falls flat and is suppository research. With the date of Christmas set to supplant the very popular Saturnalia? That actually happened – pretty successfully too, I might add.
The origin of the Christmas tree is not in the Norse. Nice try. Again. Suppository research and confirmation bias. As for the Lord’s Day being Sunday? It says so I’m the New Testament. Christianity is post-Messianic Judaism. POST. Christianity is not bound by jot and tittle of all Mosaic Law. It is bound by the Doctrine and authority of the Church. Christians celebrate on the day of the Resurrection – prophecies fulfilled. New Covenant.
As for an English name of Jesus? So what? Should we still call Peter Cephas? Don’t be silly. More pearl clutching.
As for claiming that the King James has more authority? The Church never accepted it as a good translation. Although the translators did go back to the eldest various manuscripts that they could find. Translators still do. This contradicts another nonsense claim.
Saying that the Cjlhristian religion is apostate based on yhis fluff that you bring? Purest of silliness.
I hope this all helps. It probably doesn’t to someone like you, but I wasted too much time already.
So do you align with LDS? JW? 7th day?
Or do you just like the freedom also of being your own god?
Go ahead, just learn something of what you attack first. And it’s not necessary to be your own god. Just go away and do that. You don’t have to blister it by attacking something that you know so VERY LITTLE about.
You must have really worked up a sweat producing that screed.
Funny. I could say the same about you. At least mine is based in scholarly history and not the writings of a pathetic antiCatholic that no decent modern historian would respect.
The human brain has a natural need to “filter” input. When a baby is first born, they see only colors, shadows, movement, but nothing recognizable. Their brain has to start learning how to filter the “everything” they see, into distinguishable objects.
The incoherent sounds, plus the reverberations bouncing off the walls, which assail them from all directions, also need to start being filtered.
This necessary and natural filtering process has its drawbacks though. In our older years, tween and later, our brain takes a “set”, establishes a pattern, a sequence, and by default tends to reject never before seen unrecognizable objects, and sounds, turning them into something “more comfortable”.
So wheels within wheels, and beings with many faces, eyes all over them, may not be what someone’s eyes and ears actually saw, or heard. They may have seen and heard something so foreign that their brain simply couldn’t resist filtering it into something which “made sense”.
When you read the scriptures, your brain filters it, arriving at whatever “makes sense”. The Trinity doctrine seems to make sense to you, so you support it.
However, true believers have an additional filter, which overrides their natural one. “You have no need for any man to teach you, for the Spirit teaches you all things.”
Your writings reflect the wisdom of mankind, and not the wisdom which comes from Yahweh Yahweh Elohim. Otherwise you would recognize both the Father and the Son, the duality.
Which one do you deny? The Father? The Son? Which is it? You certainly are denying one or the other. God in three offices is monotheism.
In the garden; did Jesus pray to himself? Or was Jesus just a man, and not God? Are you Gnostic?
Sad comments there Joseph’s.
What a poppycock mishmash of more than one heresy. It is not Christianity.
All of Scripture is context for all the rest. You tend to take a Scriptural both/and to turn it into an either/or. All heretics do this. All heretics claim the high ground and plant that hill with the flag of their ignorance. You could learn much better reading the early Church Fathers, but it seems that you already know more than all of them.
I still am wondering (but don’t expect you to fess up) where most of this idealogical ignorance stems from – Mormon? Jehovas witnesses, or 7th Day Adventist? Oneness Pentecostal?
Perhaps all 4?
And your tortured explanation of ‘a priori’ vs. ‘a posteriori’ – ouch.
I was talking about the book of Enoch that didn’t make the Canon of the Bible. Surely you remember Enoch, Methuselah’s dad, great grandpa of Noah. If not you probably need to read about his interaction with aliens and as such, the priest that put the Bible together probably thought it wasn’t appropriate. The priests wanted to maintain control when establishing a new religion. Sometimes I make the mistake of assuming that everyone knows as much as I do about ancient religion.
“What a poppycock mishmash of more than one heresy.”
Let us wager on the odds of my being burned at the stake.
My replies aren’t meant to counter your positions. Rather, to act as a counterweight to your humanistic rendering of the Scriptures.
Your Wikipedia knowledge is in stark contrast to my speaking out of my heart. You quote, and I make original statements.Review my comments here and as “my2cents” in the ADN. You will not find me parroting any denomination’s creed or dogma.
I have spent 59 years working out my own salvation. reasoning, pondering, and deciding for myself, if and what I believe.
You’re not important enough to be burned at the stake. Maybe take your traditions of men and start your own cult? But even then, it would never amount to anything, so I think you’re safe. Besides, most of today’s bishops probably worry more about how they can get a twink in and out of their room without getting caught to worry about someone that thinks that they understand Scriptures because they really like their own ideas (don’t we all?).
As for the book of Enoch, the reason that the Jews don’t include it in their Canon and neither does the Church is because of several reasons. Mostly that it claims to be what it is not. Not written by or from the tradition of Enoch. It did not exist nor was any of it known or referenced elsewhere until about 300 BC and probably later. “Enoch’s” volumes were not finished until possibly after the death of the Christ.
False provenance.
Secondly, it contradicts Scripture with solid and ancient bona fides.
No grand conspiracy. Just no need to include a dime store novel in the Sacred Canon.
Now that is what should be in all of our our history books.
More anti-Church propaganda and less actual history?
Odd.
No, less Roman Catholic propaganda. If all you know of Western History is the teachings of the Latin Church and Gibbons, pretty much everything you know is wrong.
Wrong.
And do you mean Edward Gibbon?
He was a seriously committed and rabid antiCatholic. His ‘scholarship’ is often at serious odds with a fair sampling of first source documents (besides that fact that Gibbon largely stole from Voltaire). You might as well get US History from Howard Zinn. I now understand why you believe this anti historical silliness and nonsense.
You really should read some scholarly historians.
Generic, non-specific comments that evade cogent rebuttal. Say something definitive. Point out the propaganda and correct Art’s history.
I did. Above. And far more specific than either of you gullible gulpers of shallow propaganda.
You didn’t, and you can’t, as evidenced by your resorting to name calling in lieu of a cogent reply.
I did. Above. And far more specific than either of you gullible gulpers of shallow propaganda.
Here’s another one liner for you, why do angels need wings to fly? Why does God need a spaceship to get around on? Of course I’m talking about a chariot of fire. Jesus may have been a hybrid from aliens. That may be who he was speaking to on the cross.
More likely than not the claim that Jesus is only an alien hybrid, returning in a space ship, will be the lie that the anti-Christ tells the people. Otherwise, the world wouldn’t dare fight their creator.
“Technology far enough advanced, will look like magic.” The lie will be that Jesus simply has technology so advanced that He can appear to be god like.
Isn’t it possible that Mary was artificially inseminated by an alien and remained a virgin? Moses had his magical staff and so did Aaron. Jesus raised people from the dead and walked on water and turned water into wine. He even killed a boy when he was young and brought him back to life. So he’s got some Powers no doubt. When they took Ezekiel up in a ship, and also Enoch, that must have really happened. Unless they were doing some really good mushrooms or something back then. My God doesn’t need a spaceship to get around in and his angels don’t need wings to fly. This whole thing about good Angels fighting bad angels and the bad ones getting thrown into hell. Kind of sounds like a Star wars kind of deal to me.
You guys could really learn something from those studying these topics systematically for 2000 years. Your caricature and misunderstanding of what the Church actually teaches means that you are really only fighting straw men.
But you sure can beat the stuffing out of a straw man.
My understanding is not something they print in Wikipedia for teaching Sunday School classes because it doesn’t follow the lines of the ordinary Canon. It’s actually true history. It’s hard to argue with the truth. The Bible is a history book. That’s it in a nutshell. Do you really believe Methuselah lived to be 900 years old? I do but people lived older back then until the changing after the flood.
The Bible is riddled with error, and emendations. Jesus quoted some passages, not to authenticate them, but simply to throw the religious leaders politically correct, but false interpretations in their faces.
The Father allowed error and emendations for the specific purpose of keeping His true believers from worshiping the Book, and not the Author. Also as a caution to beware of man’s interpretations.
The natural man cannot understand the Scriptures. They must be guided by the Father, to understand what He meant by what He said.
The Trinity doctrine didn’t exist for the first three hundred years of Christianity. It was invented as a political expedient.
Absolutely wrong. You seeing error in Scripture is your total lack of understanding on how to interpret Sacred Scripture. Your willingness to put your ignorance above it and trust your ignorance is very telling.
As for you false claim of the trinity being a new idea 300 years in? You completely misunderstand the New Testament and seemingly have studied absolutely zero of the anteNicene Fathers.
I have pasted some things from a good source. I would write, but probably not as well and besides, you seem unteachable on the subject, so I will waste less time this way. There is always more, but for some ‘no amount of evidence will suffice’.
“In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together. The word trias (of which the Latin trinitas is a translation) is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A.D. 180. He speaks of “the Trinity of God [the Father], His Word and His Wisdom” (“Ad. Autol.”, II, 15, P.G., VI, 1078). The term may, of course, have been in use before his time. Shortly afterwards it appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian (“De pud.”, c. xxi, P.G., II, 1026). In the next century the word is in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen (“In Ps. xvii”, 15, P.G., XII, 1229 etc., etc.). The first creed in which it appears is that of Origen’s pupil, Gregory Thaumaturgus. In his “ekthesis tes pisteos composed between 260 and 270, he writes: “There is therefore nothing created, nothing subject to another in the Trinity: nor is there aught that has been added as though it once had not existed, but had entered afterwards: therefore the Father has never been without the Son, nor the Son without the Spirit: and this same Trinity is immutable and unalterable forever” (P.G., X, 986).”
And
“ The evidence from the Gospels culminates in the baptismal commission of Matt., xxviii, 20. It is manifest from the narratives of the Evangelists that Christ only made the great truth known to the Twelve step by step. First He taught them to recognize in Himself the Eternal Son of God. When His ministry was drawing to a close, He promised that the Father would send another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, in His place. Finally, after His resurrection, He revealed the doctrine in explicit terms, bidding them go and teach all nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt., xxviii, 19). The force of this passage is decisive. That “the Father” and “the Son” are distinct Persons follows from the terms themselves, which are mutually exclusive. The mention of the Holy Spirit in the same series, the names being connected one with the other by the conjunctions “and … and”, is evidence that we have here a Third Person coordinate with the Father and the Son, and excludes altogether the supposition that the Apostles understood the Holy Spirit not as a distinct Person, but as God viewed in His action on creatures. The phrase “in the name” (eis to onoma) affirms alike the Godhead of the Persons and their unity of nature. Among the Jews and in the Apostolic Church the Divine name was representative of God. He who had a right to use it was invested with vast authority: for he wielded the supernatural powers of Him whose name he employed. It is incredible that the phrase “in the name” should be here employed, were not all the Persons mentioned equally Divine. Moreover, the use of the singular, “name”, and not the plural, shows that these Three Persons are that One Omnipotent God in whom the Apostles believed. Indeed the unity of God is so fundamental a tenet alike of the Hebrew and of the Christian religion, and is affirmed in such countless passages of the Old and New Testaments, that any explanation inconsistent with this doctrine would be altogether inadmissible. The supernatural appearance at the baptism of Christ is often cited as an explicit revelation of Trinitarian doctrine, given at the very commencement of the Ministry. This, it seems to us, is a mistake. The Evangelists it is true, see in it a manifestation of the Three Divine Persons. Yet, apart from Christ’s subsequent teaching, the dogmatic meaning of the scene would hardly have been understood. Moreover, the Gospel narratives appear to signify that none but Christ and the Baptist were privileged to see the Mystic Dove, and hear the words attesting the Divine sonship cf the Messias.
Besides these passages there are many others in the Gospels which refer to one or other of the Three Persons in particular, and clearly express the separate personality and Divinity of each. In regard to the First Person it will not be necessary to give special citations: those which declare that Jesus Christ is God the Son, affirm thereby also the separate personality of the Father. The Divinity of Christ is amply attested not merely by St. John, but by the Synoptists. As this point is treated elsewhere (see Jesus Christ), it will be sufficient here to enumerate a few of the more important passages from the Synoptists, in which Christ bears witness to His Divine Nature. (I) He declares that He will come to be the judge of all men (Matt., xxv, 31). In Jewish theology the judgment of the world was a distinctively Divine, and not a Messianic, prerogative. (2) In the parable of the wicked husbandmen, He describes Himself as the son of the householder, while the Prophets, one and all, are represented as the servants (Matt., xxi, 33 sqq.). (3) He is the Lord of Angels, who execute His commands (Matt., xxiv, 31). (4) He approves the confession of Peter when he recognizes Him, not as Messias—a step long since taken by all the Apostles—but explicitly as the Son of God: and He declares the knowledge due to a special revelation from the Father (Matt., xvi, 16, 17). (5) Finally, before Caiphas He not merely declares Himself to be the Messias, but in reply to a second and distinct question affirms His claim to be the Son of God. He is instantly declared by the high priest to be guilty of blasphemy, an offense which could not have been attached to the claim to be simply the Messias (Luke, xxii, 66-71).”
But wait! There’s more!
If you want more, let me know.
Also, one of my favorites that even the JWs didn’t know enough to scrub from their ‘translation’ (sic.) is where Jesus stated, “Before Abraham was, I Am.”
At which point the crowd picked up stones to kill Jesus for blasphemy because they knew what He was saying when He not only claimed to be far more ancient than His 30-something years, but claiming to be I AM.
He then supernaturally hid Himself and walked away.
That Wikipedia comment was meant for Matthew, not you.
Wiki? Very telling of you, not me. I have studied Scripture and Church history for 35 years – some in university, some in the Deacon program, and mostly on my own from scholarly and historical sources.
But thanks for the ad hominem – I understand why.
Insightful…
Pure unadulterated and unmitigated……Truth.
Like it or not, the deviant left simply cannot argue down the facts. And shame on us for lazily ignoring this leftist, actually Marxist / Communist deviance to proliferate.
Now we must stand, resist, and vote them out.
These deviants must realize in the end that the America that they are trying to bastardize is willing to allow their personal views, but not their demand for power and governance.
I’m reminded of an old country song lyric which said: “this lady may have stumbled but she ain’t never fell, and if the Russians (deviant leftists) don’t believe that they can all go straight to hell, we’re gonna put her feet back on the path of righteousness and then- God bless America again”
This from the Charlie Daniels Band – In America.
Pure unadulterated and inmitigated……Nonsense.
Talking about your postings here Homo?
Welcome, fellow troglodyte. Let’s meet some time for coffee.
Could you be more specific. And by that, perhaps give examples. Charlie Daniels doesn’t seem to be the prime example of country music philology. Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe it’s something that doesn’t exist.
Mention Art’s name in any city office (well perhaps save one) and you’ll get a blank look.
No, it’s not the intelligence level you’ll find there.,
It’s just that Art has been cancelled.
Oh, soon the 2021 list of most commonly chosen babies names for our great LosAnchorage will be announced.
Two sure things:
1. The most used boy’s name will NOT be “Art” or “Arthur”.
2. The most used girl’s first name will NOT be “Karen”. Too obvious. But you can bet that if anyone listed the most used middle name…….whoops! There ‘Tis!!!
Perhaps, but if so, maybe it was self inflicted.
I’ve always been happy to be judged by the quality of my enemies.
You should have seen me in my prime.
Again, Greg, well played.
OGLIla: What are you trying to say?
Perhaps my cleverly concealed message was that reading comprehension issues CAN be eased. Most likely not in Los Anchorage public schools these days.
Dark Lord Fauci will be consumed by the fire that he lit…
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Thanks for making me laugh a couple times, Mr Chance.
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Sufficiently inspired to buy a book.
Outstanding!
All you need to know :
pre – civilization. Humans were hunter gathers so worshipped animals gods.
Early agricultural and animal husbandry came next. Humans then worshipped Farm Animals. ie. Golden calf.
City state civilization. Humans freed themselves from having to deal with animals. Hence, Man became the God.
Dang, 8 years of Anthropology courses wasted. I coulda just read MRAK.
Be not dismayed, there’s still lots of bones and feathers out there to be discovered. Who knows what the feathers will bring?
Completely missing the point of salvation history.
The fantasy of salvation history.
Says someone that understands neither Christianity or philosophy in general.
Art,
Parallels are unbelievable. Grew up on red dirt tobacco farm 20 miles east of Raleigh ,NC. My sun tan was so deep I was confused with the field hands I worked with and enjoyed every minute. Mom made me go to church Sunday morning, Sunday and Wednesday night until I was 15. After that I refused and to this day attend funerals and weddings of only those I must. Worked my way through UNC graduating in 1966. Came to Alaska in 1974. On the brink of bankruptcy in 1987 went to work for Mayor Fink and then Gov. Hickle..There was an attempt to recruit me into politics which I resisted for fear of committing murder , having experienced those grifters up close for 7 years. Your take on religion and politics make all the sense to me. Instead of the gory details of the inquisition and persecution of hundreds of millions your summary seems about right.
As an asideThe ADN and KTUU have not changed an iota since I arrived here.. They are the propaganda arm of the dIMOCRAT party. Thankful for this venue (Susan is the real deal!) and the writers who post here. This was your best yet.. Cliffs Notes of Western Civilization by Art Chance.
I agree.
Thanks for not writing some academic tome – yawn.
Love your style – some arent bright enough to see “the fun” in it!
You captured the Baptist “way” – warts and all.
You are right – the acceptance of this covid dogma has many parallels to religion.
The road to hell is often paved with good intentions.
AkPureBlood
I came along a few years later, b. 1949, graduated HS in 1967. Little town in SE Georgia about halfway between Macon and Savannah. Stayed in college enough to keep a 2-S deferment, but hated every minute of it and left when I got a high draft number. Like every other first-born son, good-looking daughter, and all the money in Georgia I wound up in Atlanta when it was the murder capital of the Country. Put that hole in my rearview mirrors and went “North to Alaska” in ’74 like you, first to Anchorage and then to Juneau in ’84. Retired from the State in ’06 and returned to ANC in ’10.
Not just the ADN, but all of public radio and TV and most of the commercial media other than talk radio have not changed an iota in my time here. By the time I got far up enough in government that what I did or said mattered, late Cowper Administration on, I had learned to pretty well hate most of the media, and especially public media in Juneau and the detestable ADN.
Thank you for the kind words!
Great piece and some great lines…finding comfort with women who aren’t Hillary.
“finding comfort with women who aren’t Hillary.”
I agree. That’s a great line. Wish I had said it first.
Art, you fail to make the connection between your experience, your opinion of actual church history, and the American battle with leftist totalitarianism. Perhaps you’re trying to say they are all intolerant? Christians generally eschew totalitarianism – that is why the communists fear us. Two comments: 1. we still have Arians with us today, but no one calls them Christians; and 2. you miss the point of Christianity – a relationship with God made possible by the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, not merely adherence to a dogma. Yes, saint fauci has taken us out of the realm of reason into the dark ages of fear – he and his acolytes, and those willing to take advantage of a “crisis” – have nearly overthrown the American experiment with freedom.
Sorry, Christians only learned to eschew totalitarianism with the Reformation and the Enlightenment. Even Henry VIII’s schism with Rome on led to a re-invention of the Latin Church in English; it was just as dogmatic and intolerant. We can thank them for that or there would be no America.
Yeah, good ol’ dogmatic, intolerant America.
Agreed with the note about “overseer” church government driving us to seek more freedom – but there has always been – throughout church history – those who restricted the establishment of truth to Scripture, avoiding ecclesiastical political power moves to seek more freedom. Most were persecuted severely.
“ Sorry, Christians only learned to eschew totalitarianism with the Reformation and the Enlightenment.”
You just cured my irony deficiency.
Your Gibon is showing (which means his Voltaire is showing).
You left out “The Four Horsemen”. If you don’t remember, their names are in the Wikipedia.
Yes. He did, but can’t we let that slide?
Now that’s the truth of it. Thank you.
People are begging me to do a podcast. You better hope I don’t Suzanne.
Slo Joe’s Torquemada….Bha ha haha ha!
I have thought about the NIH being the Salamanca
A sad confusing mess with a few good points completely muddied by confirmation bias looking for suppository history to justify hating the Church. Your idea would be much more cogent without mixing in the Church hatred backed up by discredited ‘historians’.
Amen. “Supposed” history, perhaps? Although this one kind of works too.
“…suppository history?” Sounds painful.
It is.
Excellent! A good synopsis of the history of the left. Poor Greg, Homo and Sweeney above p, obviously products of our public school system as well as one of the status quo wokey universities, likely would benefit from a good history class or two preferably from a non-leftist school which sadly will not be easy to find.
Don’t pity me. I had a good education. How was a collegiate athlete so probably a little thick between the ears at that point. I did okay though. Made some good decisions financially. I’m good. Would somebody, anybody, answer this question for me. We all know what a African-American is. What if somebody from Egypt moved to America. Stay with me now. Is that person now an African American? I would assume someone from South Africa for instance a white person that moved here wouldn’t be an African American because genetically he doesn’t originate in Africa. But Egyptians originate in Africa. What about South Americans? If a native from Brazil moved here is he a South American American? Is he a South American native American? You see what I’m getting at? I’ve heard of Latin Americans, and recently European Americans and even Asian Americans. It’s just one of them things that make you say hmm.
Hey! What about us “Mostly-Finnish-Americans?” Don’t we get to play the game? My ancestors came from mostly Finland.
You fall in with the European Americans
European Americans sounds like an oxymoron to me. But then, I’ve been called bovine and that other word-thingy a lot, mostly before 7th grade (until Art Chance came along.)
Unfortunately, my father’s citizenship papers say he was Russian, an unfortunate consequence of WWI. Then he became a Russian-Finn, whatever that is. It’s a long story, just like most of the rest of us.
The irony is that we are all just about completely 100% DNA related, only some color differences, like who has blue eyes and who has brown eyes.
But then, we’re all just about completely DNA related to the great apes, as well.
You’d think we would have learned how to get along by now, with so many similarities and so few differences.
Maybe Pepe Le Pew had it right when he said, “Vivre le difference!” But then, he was talking about the difference between men and women.
Spanish evolved from Latin. So do we call it Latin Spanish? No, Spanish is it’s own language now.
African Americans are those who have clawed their way out of the political, social cotton fields and into main-stream America. Eventually that crutch will be tossed away and they will simply call themselves Americans.
I am Yupik and Norwegian-German by birth. I identify as an American; not as a Yupik-Norwegan-German -American.
No it goes by your continent of origin. Spanish and Latin would be European American. You being a breed like I am, I guess we would have our choice wouldn’t we? We can be native Americans since I’m a member of the Choctaw tribe, or we could be European American. Irish European American in your eyes.
No, spoken languages morph over time into something which has only vague semblance to the beginning.
Written languages can stay the same seemingly forever, but the original pronunciation always gets lost. The vowel signs in the Masoretic text gives us only partial clues to the ancient pronunciation.
I am a citizen of America by birth. I am an American. To emphasize any ethnic modifiers is to border on racism.
It depends upon their zip code.
LOL!
My favorite African American is Elon Musk.
And he actually has dual citizenship.
Hey, I have one tiny strand of Nigerian DNA in my genome, Can I be an African-American, even though I look damn white?
I’m pretty sure that I have white privilege, so consider it so granted unto you.
His DNA is European though.
I don’t care what they say. It was a great read and quite entertaining.
Thanks Art.
JEEZ; I wish I could comment…I said the Alaska school districts teach neither eastern nor western civilization (including European history). I know I went to college in Hawaii where they do teach eastern civilization. How about that Sulamon the Great Huh? And Fatima and all? And dear old Fulk and the 300 women in chain mail zootsuits on horseback who started the second crusade and kicked remarkable revenge into the near east starting new traditions foundational to today.
Hey now, don’t forget Boudica*? Word has it she had some kind of problem with the men-type rulers. And don’t get her name wrong. Word has it she’ll come for YOU.
*Name taken from usually reliable sources. Do not blame poster for bad scholarship. PLEASE!!!
Sounds like the first woman Lilith.
What a parade of butthurt, faux outrage comments. Especially the alleged pro/con pseudo religious arguments.
Pity so many got caught up in posting their grandstanding they missed Art’s point.
When dogma, any dogma, supersedes common sense, societies collapse.
Ah. once again, “Common sense is that which tells you the earth is flat.”
Yours, perhaps.
What now? My earth or your flat? Or your common and my sense?
True dogma does not supersede common sense. But common sense has become so uncommon and most people don’t understand the tiniest bit of dogma.
Most of these items were gone over lightly or not at all by Alaska school districts’ curriculum materials and omitted by disinterested educators and students alike. Great synopsis though. Our founding documents of this nation declared itself to be a Christian nation with Christian understandings of former colonialists who believed we were endowed by the Creator with God-given natural unalienable rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. That’s what this country is – Christian.
Not at all true.
Should I thank the DNC for that comment? Or would you like the credit?
I meant that America wasn’t and isn’t a christian nation. It’s not political.
No, Thank Washington, and Jefferson, and Franklin, and John Hancock, and others, all of whom were essentially deists who believe what they though about religion was their business and no one else’s and wanted to make durned sure the newly minted national government didn’t establish a religion of its own to wield as a club over its citizens.
Like a lot of you guys seem to want to.
This country was founded largely on the Judeo-Christian ethic. Claiming that the founding fathers were mostly deist is another tired and worn out lie to try to downplay the obvious Christian faith of most of the founding fathers. It is supportable neither by a fair reading of their writings as a whole, nor in their actions and what they left us.
Our education is typically devoid of eastern and western civilization including European history. My Grandson just announced to me that “My Mom said here is nothing new new on the earth.” So, that’s great to know.
Well, my mother always said! Go sit on a stump!
and gud god will always be were you are!
Loggers and tree workers at the time! and too this day!
Does not matter, what culture, religion, we all have the same
beliefs!
We all believe in us as people! pull it together!
Many commenters above, such as Sweeny and Greg Forkner, simply admit being confused by Art’s dissertation. I commend their honesty and I contend their intelligence not the least bit challenged. Others, such as Matthew Myers, get wrapped around the axle pointing out what they see as inaccuracies. In the end, Art’s over-arching point does not depend upon the accuracy of all its parts… which he lays out like parables.
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Let me unpack. Art uses history like a figurative bar-chart with its multitude of bars flowing through time. Some of the bars dissipate and eventually cease to exist (Inquisition). Others mutate and branch into more bars (Marxism to Leninism to Maoism, etc). All the bars are inter-related to varying degrees (Christianity to Reformation to Protestantism to various Baptist sects). History is obviously too complex to hold Art’s colorful observations to rigorous standards of accuracy. After all, they are obviously intended only as illustrative examples to support his overall point. That is, mankind’s desire to control the lives of others is relentlessly insatiable. We must earnestly strive to learn from history exactly how to identify the forces that would usurp our God-given human rights. Art simply put into historical context that which we see occurring in America today. Kindly let me expound on that.
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Our constitution provides five branches of government (many mistakenly believe there are only three). The five are: the congress, the executive branch, the judiciary, the free press, and We the People.
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Congress. The founding fathers erred in believing term limits were unnecessary. They failed to foresee the advent of career politicians. We now actually have people getting degrees in “political science” (fake academics) in order to pursue political careers. Consequently, Congress is now owned by lobbyists (their Faustian bargain).
.
The Judiciary has become totally politicized. No judge should be identifiable as liberal or conservative; it should be impossible to divine their politics from their record of decisions. However, most judges, especially supreme court justices, carry a leftist or conservative label–for good reason.
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The Free Press has abrogated its role as the government watchdog the founding fathers envisioned it would be. It shamelessly embraces a leftist/communist/fascist bias in its agenda. Its relentless promotion of fake news stands as testament.
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The Executive Branch gives us only marginal hope…. for one reason only–term limits. We can keep voting horrible presidents out. However, any truly responsive president we elect will be always be hobbled by the tyranny of the other branches of government. Consequently, the only true hope remaining for our republic now resides in the last branch of government: We The People.
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The problems of We the People are myriad and manifest. As a nation, we have turned our back on God. We have grown complacent…. ignoring JFK’s admonition to ask not what our nation can do for us but rather what we can do for our nation. The majority now identify as intersectional victims demanding government entitlements and exclusive social privileges. So much so the communist nation of China now easily out-performs us in both productivity and initiative.
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In Summary, our hope for preserving our birthrights (protected under our constitution) does not lie in our corrupted congress, nor our biased judiciary, nor our perverted media, nor in hamstrung presidential short-timers. The last hope for preserving our birthrights resides in We the People. None of the bloody wars we fought in the past ever began with acts of violence. Rather, bloody wars only began after tyrants were allowed to gain power as a result of complacency of the masses.
Icing on Art’s cake.
Sorry I get “wrapped around the axle” about false ‘history’ and misrepresentation of Sacred Scripture by those who are butthurt about their own stuff.
I happen to think Truth is supremely important.
As I also stated, there is much that I would agree with Art and others on this subject, but I don’t think mixing polemical propaganda in with it strengthens it.
Thank God people are finally waking up to the propaganda and the deliberate attempt to plunge the world into tyranny. Too bad it’s a little too late. Some tried to warn the masses, but they caved in to fear. Fear of man is a snare.
Yup, Dave nails it, although I’m not sure people are waking up to the propaganda.
There certainly seems to be recurring efforts to plunge the world into tyranny. Tyranny is rule by a tyrant.
We last saw this with Trump, who attempted to override anything the courts or Congress did that went against his wishes. There was his propaganda machine, compliments of OAN and Fox, which spread his easily discernible lies far and wide. There was the brain washing machine that declared anything that did not agree with him “fake news.” There were the blatant efforts to demean and besmirch anyone who said or did anything against him. There were the efforts to remove from office anyone who did not bow to his royal orangeness. There were the execrable rants against American war heroes and their parents. There were…well, the list goes on and on.
Efforts were made to warn the masses. They listened and responded. But the warnings have not been heeded by those who have caved in fear. They are willing to surrender their freedom to the orange tyrant and his minions.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
If you thought that we actually suffered tyranny under Trump (a case for which I see very little evidence), then WHAT are we as a nation experiencing now, with all the coercive mandates, extra-judicial pronouncements, and government-run-amok under PotatoHead Biden?
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As usual, Home Erectus, you have the case exactly backwards once again, and are projecting the faults and crimes of “your side” onto others.
Jefferson: Homo Erectus’s litany is spot on evidence of trump as tyrant. The depth and breadth of Trump’s assault on all things good in America is slowly being revealed, yet his spectacular unfitness was evident from the start. You fell for the con.
Not at all, but thanks for playing.
Thanks to Biden that almost all of Trump’s work was reversed. Thankfully our mineral and energy sector has been all but destroyed, inflation has returned, unemployment has grown, many small businesses are gone, China is now free to invade Taiwan. Yes. We are thankful for the bare grocery shelves Biden has brought us. We are thankful for the social divisions between the vaxxed and unvaxxed.
All thanks to Biden, who pooed himself in front of the Pope.
…and that is why I always fleed Religious peoples of every form (church and government supporters together) who put on a form of godliness but deny the power thereof even before I starting really learning what being a Christian is how to live it by Jesus teachings and the phophets sayings going all the way back to Genesis. What those religious baptists were teaching they were not modeling Jesus’ life and teaching. Who gave them those ideas? I think the devil himself.
What they were doing sounded just as wicked as government characters revealed later in this written piece. Absolutely wicked!
By the way I always tried not to label snappy dressers with beautiful possessions like new cars around a church as snobs. I seen them as someone taught them early in life how to pick out a good looking and quality car while their mentors taught them where and which employments they should pursue. Then they can afford their nicer looking car. However, there are deacons and church members who will buy a good and quality car 20 years earlier and that older model car in the church parking lot still looks new as the day it was driven off the lot and still with low miles.
But if those religious parisees were practicing those heinous practices to see what kind of Christian the person is they probably were snobs. Hahaha.
What a diverse bunch of comments we have above. From Greg F and Sweeny scratching their heads to Matt Meyers virulent defense of Catholic Doctrine. We learn that Evan studied Anthropology for 8 years and seemingly has not been able to find employment in that essential discipline and now is employed as an editor.
I may be wrong but I think the subject about was the new Dark Ages. Art skillfully weaved in the schism between the Eastern and Western Church and then ran into the modern dogma of the Authoritarian/ Democratic (Commie ) Party, via his telling of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin.
My take away , (forgive me Art if I have wandered here) is this. In the Eastern System one finds the God King, this is the Totalitarian or Authoritarian model wherein it’s a top down delivery of information to the masses. The absolute authority of the God King must be adhered to. Those that have a differing idea are persecuted as “Hairy Ticks”, ( as my old Theology Prof would say). The Western Model is one that values the rights of the individual and spawns the free expression of thought and actions. Some may have noticed that it was only after Luther’s break with the Pope in his efforts to “Reform” the Church that “Science” as we know it came into being. Men like Newton surmised that a being like God, must be rational, and that study of his creation through reason might reveal more of who God is. But I digress. The “Dark Ages” of which Art writes are formed in the Eastern or Authoritarian model. The High Lord Fauci ascends the pulpit of Television and spews forth his canon regarding the pestilence known as Covid-19. The sacrament of Pfizer must be jabbed repeatedly, even unto the the second and nay the third time. This sacrament is the modern equivalent to Transubstantiation. If thou shalt be saved you heathen lot, you must believe the High Priest Fauci, who speaks for the Lord Pfizer and His Majesty King Biden. Any deviation from this narrative will bring about immediate scourging to cleanse the unbeliever and to properly chastise him into obedience. Seems like a stretch? It isn’t. Biden his diaper wearing self proclaimed that those who refuse the Jab will “Pay the Price”! Doctors amongst us who are enlightened enough to seek alternative treatments for the Chi-Com bio-weapon are hunted down and chastised in public forums and their very livelihoods are threatened. We are told that the Earth is Flat and that the heavens revolve around m-RNA Treatments and that the reason the Holy Jab has been so ineffective is because of the Un-Jabbed.
Yeah, reason has been tossed out the window here and we are ruled by superstition cloaked as “Science”. Bring on the Darkness!
.
“Virulent”
Gee, that’s not telling at all.
BTW, no historian calls it the Dark Ages anymore.
As for science, you should learn where much of the basis for and early practitioners thereof were from.
The Church is anti science?
Ya! Right!
The following is nowhere near a complete list, and please note that these are only those who lived a consecrated religious life. The list of Catholic scientists that have made massive contributions absolutely dwarfs the following list.
Subject: List of Clerical scientists
St. Severinus Boethius (480 – 524) scholar of logic, arithmetic and musical theory
Pope Sylvester II (c. 946–1003) Prolific scholar who endorsed and promoted Arabic knowledge of arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy in Europe, reintroducing the abacus and armillary sphere which had been lost to Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era
Hermann of Reichenau, OSB (1013–1054) historian, music theorist, astronomer, and mathematician
Eilmer of Malmesbury, OSB (c. 989 – c. 1066) best known for his early attempt at a gliding flight using wings.
Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175 – 1253) Bishop who was one of the most knowledgeable men of the Middle Ages; has been called “the first man ever to write down a complete set of steps for performing a scientific experiment.”
Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195 – c. 1256) Irish monk and astronomer who wrote the authoritative medieval astronomy text Tractatus de Sphaera; his Algorismus was the first text to introduce Hindu-Arabic numerals and procedures into the European university curriculum; the lunar crater Sacrobosco is named after him
Vincent of Beauvais, OP (c.1190–c.1264) wrote the most influential encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
Thomas of Cantimpré (1201-1272) wrote De rerum natura, a Medieval encyclopedia of the natural world
Robert Kilwardby, OP (1215-1279) Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote works on logic, ethics and natural philosophy
John Peckham (1230–1292) Archbishop of Canterbury and early practitioner of experimental science
Roger Bacon, OFM (c. 1214–1294) made significant contributions to mathematics and optics and has been described as a forerunner of modern scientific method.
St. Albertus Magnus, OP (c. 1206–1280) Bishop of Regensberg who has been described as “one of the most famous precursors of modern science in the High Middle Ages.” Patron saint of natural sciences; Works in physics, logic, metaphysics, biology, and psychology.
Theodoric Borgognoni, OP (1205–1298) Bishop of Cervia, and medieval Surgeon who made important contributions to antiseptic practice and anaesthetics
Berthold Schwarz, O.Cist (c. 14th century) reputed inventor of gunpowder and firearms
Theodoric of Freiberg, OP (c. 1250 – c. 1310) theologian and physicist who gave the first correct geometrical analysis of the rainbow
Witelo (c. 1230 – after 1280, before 1314) Canon, physicist, natural philosopher, optician, mathematician; lunar crater Vitello named in his honor; his Perspectiva powerfully influenced later scientists, in particular Johannes Kepler
Ramon Llull, OFM (ca. 1232 – ca. 1315) Majorcan writer and philosopher, logician and a Franciscan tertiary considered a pioneer of computation theory
Richard of Wallingford, OSB (1292-1336) Abbot, renowned clockmaker, and one of the initiators of western trigonometry
William of Ockham, OFM (c. 1288 – c. 1348) Scholastic who wrote significant works on logic, physics, and theology; known for Ockham’s Razor
Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1290–1349) Archbishop of Canturbury and mathematician who helped develop the mean speed theorem; one of the Oxford Calculators
Jean Buridan (c. 1300 – after 1358) Priest who formulated early ideas of momentum and inertial motion and sowed the seeds of the Copernican revolution in Europe
Giovanni di Casali, OFM (died c. 1375) provided a graphical analysis of the motion of accelerated bodies
Nicole Oresme (c. 1323–1382) One of the most famous and influential philosophers of the later Middle Ages; economist, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, philosopher, theologian and Bishop of Lisieux, and competent translator; one of the most original thinkers of the 14th century
Albert of Saxony (c. 1320–1390) bishop who helped develop the theory that was a precursor to the modern theory of inertia
Johannes von Gmunden (c. 1380–1442) Canon, mathematician, and astronomer who compiled astronomical tables; Asteroid 15955 Johannesgmunden named in his honor
Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) Cardinal, philosopher, jurist, mathematician, astronomer, and one of the great geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century
János Vitéz (c.1405–1472) Archbishop, astronomer, and mathematician
John Cantius (1390-1473) Priest and Buridanist mathematical physicist who further developed the theory of impetus
Luca Pacioli, OFM (c. 1446–1517) published several works on mathematics and is often regarded as theFather of Accounting
Martin Waldseemüller (c. 1470–1520) German priest and cartographer who, along with Matthias Ringmann, is credited with the first recorded usage of the word America
Johannes Werner (1468–1522) Priest, mathematician, astronomer, and geographer, cartographer
Maciej Miechowita (1457–1523) Canon who wrote the first accurate geographical and ethnographical description of Eastern Europe, as well as two medical treatises
Thomas Linacre (c. 1460–1524) English priest, humanist, translator, and physician. Linacre College in Oxford is named after him.
Johannes Ruysch (c. 1460–1533) Priest, explorer, cartographer, and astronomer who created the second oldest known printed representation of the New World
Paul of Middelburg (1446–1534) Bishop of Fossombrone who wrote important works on the reform of the calendar
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) Renaissance astronomer and Canon famous for his heliocentric cosmology that set in motion the Copernican Revolution
Domingo de Soto, OP (1494–1560) professor at the University of Salamanca; in his commentaries to Aristotle he proposed that free falling bodies undergo constant acceleration
Gabriele Falloppio (1523–1562) Canon and one of the most important anatomists and physicians of the sixteenth century. The Fallopian tubes are named for him.
Marcin of Urzędów (c. 1500–1573) Priest, physician, pharmacist, and botanist
Francesco Maurolico, OSB (1494–1575) made contributions to the fields of geometry, optics, conics, mechanics, music, and astronomy, and gave the first known proof by mathematical induction
Ignazio Danti, OP (1536–1586) mathematician, astronomer, cosmographer, and cartographer
Franciscus Patricius (1529–1597) Priest, cosmic theorist, philosopher, and Renaissance scholar
Jose de Acosta, SJ (1539-1600) naturalist who described America
Matteo Ricci, SJ (1552–1610) One of the founding fathers of the Jesuit China Mission and co-author of the first European-Chinese dictionary; proposed for beatification
Christopher Clavius, SJ (1538–1612) Astronomer and mathematician who headed the commission that yielded the Gregorian calendar; wrote influential astronomical textbook.
Bernardino Baldi (1533–1617) Abbot, mathematician, writer, geographer, spoke up to 16 languages
Fausto Veranzio (c. 1551–1617) Bishop, polymath, inventor, and lexicographer. His inventions included a prototype parachute, and suspension bridge
François d’Aguilon, SJ (1567–1617) mathematician, physicist, and architect.
Luca Valerio, SJ (1552–1618) mathematician who developed ways to find volumes and centers of gravity of solid bodies
Giuseppe Biancani, SJ (1566–1624) astronomer, mathematician, and selenographer, after whom the crater Blancanus on the Moon is named
Wenceslas Pantaleon Kirwitzer, SJ (1588–1626) astronomer and missionary who published observations of comets
Charles Malapert, SJ (1581–1630) writer, astronomer, and opponent of Galileo and Copernicus; also known for observations of sunspots and of the lunar surface, and the crater Malapert on the Moon is named after him
Anselmus de Boodt (1550–1632) Canon who was one of the founders of mineralogy
Christopher Borrus, SJ (1583–1632) mathematician and astronomer who made observations on the magnetic variation of the compass
Christoph Grienberger, SJ (1561–1636) astronomer after whom the crater Gruemberger on the Moon is named; verified Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons.
Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580–1637) priest, antiquarian, astronomer who discovered the Orion Nebula; lunar crater Peirescius named in his honor
Bl. Denis of the Nativity Berthelot, OCD (1600-1638) Sailor from age twelve. Pilot-in-chief, cartographer, and cosmographer to the king of Portugal, and to the French court. Martyr.
Tommaso Campanella, OP (1568-1639) defended Galileo in his writing
Paul Guldin, SJ (1577–1643) mathematician and astronomer who discovered the Guldinus theorem to determine the surface and the volume of a solid of revolution
Benedetto Castelli, OSB (1578–1643) mathematician; long-time friend and supporter of Galileo Galilei, who was his teacher; wrote an important work on fluids in motion
Jean François Niceron, OM (1613–1646) Minim mathematician who studied geometrical optics
Bonaventura Cavalieri (1598–1647) Jesuate known for his work on the problems of optics and motion, work on the precursors of infinitesimal calculus, and the introduction of logarithms to Italy. Cavalieri’s principle in geometry partially anticipated integral calculus; the lunar crater Cavalerius is named in his honor
Marin Mersenne, OM (1588–1648) Minim philosopher, mathematician, and music theorist who is often referred to as the Father of acoustics
Bartholomeus Amicus, SJ (1562–1649) wrote on philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and the concept of vacuum and its relationship with God.
Giulio Alenio, SJ (1582-1649) astronomer and mathematician. He was sent to the Far East as a missionary and adopted a Chinese name and customs. He wrote 25 books including a cosmography and a Life of Jesus in Chinese.
Christoph Scheiner, SJ (c. 1573–1650) physicist, astronomer, and inventor of the pantograph; wrote on a wide range of scientific subjects
Niccolò Cabeo, SJ (1586–1650) mathematician; the crater Cabeus is named in his honor
Giovanni Battista Zupi, SJ (c. 1590–1650) astronomer, mathematician, and first person to discover that the planet Mercury had orbital phases; the crater Zupus on the Moon is named after him.
Jan Brożek (1585–1652) Polish canon, polymath, mathematician, astronomer, and physician; the most prominent Polish mathematician of the 17th century
Jean-Charles de la Faille, SJ (1597–1652) mathematician who determined the center of gravity of the sector of a circle for the first time
Alexius Sylvius Polonus, SJ (1593 – c. 1653) astronomer who studied sunspots and published a work on calendariography
Juliana Morrell, OP (1594–1653) First woman to receive a Law degree; studied physics, metaphysics and canon and civil law, entered the Dominican convent in 1608
Gerolamo Sersale, SJ (1584–1654) astronomer and selenographer; his map of the moon can be seen in the Naval Observatory of San Fernando; the lunar crater Sirsalis is named after him
Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) French priest, astronomer, and mathematician who published the first data on the transit of Mercury; first named the northern lights the Aurora Borealis
Mario Bettinus, SJ (1582–1657) philosopher, mathematician and astronomer; lunar crater Bettinus named after him
Johann Baptist Cysat, SJ (1587–1657) mathematician and astronomer, after whom the lunar crater Cysatus is named; published the first printed European book concerning Japan; one of the first to make use of the newly developed telescope; most important work was on comets
Angiolo Marchissi, OP (c. 1600-1659) one of the first aromatologists, created the scent for Catherine de Medici when she travelled to France and popularized it.
Michał Boym, SJ (c. 1612–1659) one of the first westerners to travel within the Chinese mainland, and the author of numerous works on Asian fauna, flora and geography.
Giovanni Battista Hodierna (1597–1660) priest and astronomer who catalogued nebulous objects and developed an early microscope
Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita, OFM.Cap (1604–1660) astronomer and optician who built Kepler’s telescope
André Tacquet, SJ (1612–1660) mathematician whose work laid the groundwork for the eventual discovery of calculus
Francesco Maria Grimaldi, SJ (1618–1663) discovered the diffraction of light (indeed coined the term “diffraction”), investigated the free fall of objects, and built and used instruments to measure geological features on the moon
Antoine de Laloubère, SJ (1600–1664) first mathematician to study the properties of the helix
Gaspar Schott, SJ (1608–1666) physicist, astronomer, and natural philosopher who is most widely known for his works on hydraulic and mechanical instruments
Godefroy Wendelin (1580–1667) Priest and astronomer who recognized that Kepler’s third law applied to the satellites of Jupiter; the lunar crater Vendelinus is named in his honor
Gregoire de Saint-Vincent, SJ (1584–1667) mathematician who made important contributions to the study of the hyperbola
Théodore Moret, SJ (1602–1667) mathematician and author of the first mathematical dissertations ever defended in Prague; the lunar crater Moretus is named after him.
Alphonse Antonio de Sarasa, SJ (1618–1667) mathematician who contributed to the understanding of logarithms
Niccolò Zucchi, SJ (1586–1670) claimed to have tried to build a reflecting telescope in 1616 but abandoned the idea (maybe due to the poor quality of the mirror). May have been the first to see the belts on the planet Jupiter (1630). The crater Zucchius on the Moon is named in his honor.
Giovanni Battista Riccioli, SJ (1598–1671) astronomer who authored Almagestum novum, an influential encyclopedia of astronomy; The first person to measure the rate of acceleration of a freely falling body; created a selenograph with Father Grimaldi that now adorns the entrance at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.
Albert Curtz, SJ (1600–1671) astronomer who expanded on the works of Tycho Brahe and contributed to early understanding of the moon; The crater Curtius on the Moon is named after him.
Ignace-Gaston Pardies, SJ (1636–1673) physicist known for his correspondence with Newton and Descartes
Francis Line, SJ (1595–1675) magnetic clock and sundial maker who disagreed with some of the findings of Newton and Boyle
Emmanuel Maignan, OM (1601–1676) Minim physicist and professor of medicine who published works on gnomonics and perspective
Jacques de Billy, SJ (1602–1679) produced a number of results in number theory which have been named after him; published several astronomical tables; The crater Billy on the Moon is named after him.
Athanasius Kircher, SJ (1602–1680) Called the Father of Egyptology and “Master of a hundred Arts”; wrote an encyclopedia of China; one of the first people to observe microbes through a microscope
Louis Moréri (1643–1680) priest and encyclopaedist
Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, O.Cist. (1606–1682) wrote on a variety of scientific subjects, including probability theory
Jean Picard (1620–1682) Priest and first person to measure the size of the Earth to a reasonable degree of accuracy; also developed what became the standard method for measuring the right ascension of a celestial object; The PICARD mission, an orbiting solar observatory, is named in his honor
Edme Mariotte (c. 1620–1684) priest and physicist who recognized Boyle’s Law and wrote about the nature of color. He discovered the eye’s blind spot
Daniello Bartoli, SJ (1608–1685) credited as probably having been the first to see the equatorial belts on the planet Jupiter
René François Walter de Sluse (1622–1685) Canon and mathematician with the conchoid(s) of de Sluze named after him
Pietro Mengoli (1626–1686) Priest and mathematician who first posed the famous Basel Problem
Bl. Nicolas Steno (1638–1686) convert, physician and bishop who is often called the Father of geology and stratigraphy, and is known for Steno’s principles
Francesco Lana de Terzi, SJ (c. 1631–1687) referred to as the Father of Aviation for his pioneering efforts; he also developed a blind writing alphabet prior to Braille.
Honoré Fabri, SJ (1607–1688) Jesuit mathematician and physicist
Ferdinand Verbiest, SJ (1623–1688) astronomer and mathematician; designed what some claim to be the first ever self-propelled vehicle – many claim this as the world’s first automobile. He corrected the Chinese calendar then in use, and rebuilt the Beijing Ancient Observatory
Laurent Cassegrain (1629–1693) Priest who was the probable namesake of the Cassegrain telescope; The crater Cassegrain on the Moon is named after him
Ismaël Bullialdus (1605–1694) Priest, astronomer, and member of the Royal Society; the Bullialdus crater is named in his honor
Gabriel Mouton (1618–1694) priest, mathematician, astronomer, and early proponent of the metric system
Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora (1645–1700) Priest, polymath, mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer; drew the first map of all of New Spain
Paolo Boccone, O.Cist. (1633–1704) botanist who contributed to the fields of medicine and toxicology
Charles Plumier, OM (1646–1704) Minim friar who is considered one of the most important botanical explorers of his time
Valentin Stansel, SJ (1621–1705) astronomer who made important observations of comets
Jean-Baptiste du Hamel (1624–1706) French priest, natural philosopher, and secretary of the Academie Royale des Sciences
Georg Joseph Kamel, SJ (1661–1706) missionary and botanist who established the first pharmacy in the Philippines
Paolo Casati, SJ (1617–1707) mathematician who wrote on astronomy and vacuums; The crater Casatus on the Moon is named after him.
Jean Mabillon, OSB (1632–1707) considered the founder of palaeography and diplomatics
Jean Gallois (1632–1707) French scholar, abbé, and member of Academie des sciences
Franz Reinzer, SJ (1661–1708) wrote an in-depth meteorological, astrological, and political compendium covering topics such as comets, meteors, lightning, winds, fossils, metals, bodies of water, and subterranean treasures and secrets of the earth
Eusebio Kino, SJ (1645-1711) missionary, mathematician, astronomer and cartographer who drew maps based on his explorations first showing that California was not an island as then believed and who published an astronomical treatise in Mexico City of his observations of the Kirsch comet.
Nicolas Malebranche, CO (1638–1715) Oratorian philosopher who studied physics, optics, and the laws of motion and disseminated the ideas of Descartes and Leibniz
Bernard Lamy, CO (1640–1715) Oratorian philosopher and mathematician who wrote on the parallelogram of forces
Vincenzo Coronelli, OFM (1650–1718) cosmographer, cartographer, encyclopedist, and globe-maker
Pierre Varignon (1654–1722) Priest and mathematician whose principle contributions were to statics and mechanics; created a mechanical explanation of gravitation
Bartolomeu de Gusmão, SJ (1685–1724) known for his early work on lighter-than-air airship design
Joachim Bouvet, SJ (1656–1730) sinologist and cartographer who did his work in China
Louis Feuillée, OM (1660–1732) Minim explorer, astronomer, geographer, and botanist
Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri, SJ (1667–1733) mathematician and geometer, wrote the second work on non-Euclidean geometry
Tommaso Ceva, SJ (1648–1737) mathematician and professor who wrote treatises on geometry, gravity, and arithmetic
Andrew Gordon, OSB (1712–1751) physicist, and inventor who made the first electric motor
Joseph Galien, OP (1699 – c. 1762) professor who wrote on aeronautics, hailstorms, and airships
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1713-1762) French deacon and astronomer noted for cataloguing stars, nebulous objects, and constellations
Václav Prokop Diviš (1698–1765) constructed among other inventions, the first electrified musical instrument in history
Nicolò Arrighetti, SJ (1709–1767) wrote treatises on light, heat, and electricity.
José Torrubia, OFM (c. 1700–1768) linguist, scientist, collector of fossils and books, and writer on historical, political and religious subjects
Jean-Baptiste Chappe d’Auteroche (1722–1769) Priest and astronomer best known for his observations of the transits of Venus
Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700–1770) abbé and physicist who discovered the phenomenon of osmosis in natural membranes. Published works on electricity against Benjamin Franklin
Vincenzo Riccati, SJ (1707–1775) Italian Jesuit mathematician and physicist
Giuseppe Asclepi, SJ (1706–1776) astronomer and physician who served as director of the Collegio Romano observatory; The lunar crater Asclepi is named after him.
Laura Maria Caterina Bassi (1711-1778) physicist and academic, recognized as the first woman in the world to earn a university chair in a scientific field of studies; part of 25 scholars known as the Benedettini, who were gathered by Pope Benedict XIV; had 12 children, worked from home
Joseph Stepling, SJ (1716-1778) transposed Aristotelian logic into formulas, thus becoming an early precursor of modern logic
Francesco Cetti, SJ (1726–1778) zoologist and mathematician
Jacques de Vaucanson, OM (1709–1782) French Minim friar inventor and artist who was responsible for the creation of impressive and innovative automata and machines such as the first completely automated loom.
Christian Mayer, SJ (1719–1783) astronomer most noted for pioneering the study of binary stars
Paolo Frisi (1728–1784) Priest, mathematician, and astronomer who did significant work in hydraulics
Joseph Tiefenthaler, SJ (1710–1785) one of the earliest European geographers to write about India
Roger Joseph Boscovich, SJ (1711–1787) polymath known for his contributions to modern atomic theory and astronomy
François Jacquier, OFM (1711–1788) mathematician and physicist; at his death he was connected with nearly all the great scientific and literary societies of Europe
Louis Receveur, OFM (1757–1788) naturalist and astronomer; described as being as close as one could get to being an ecologist in the 18th century
Giacopo Belgrado, SJ (1704–1789) professor of mathematics and physics and court mathematician who did experimental work in physics
Placidus Fixlmillner, OSB (1721–1791) one of the first astronomers to compute the orbit of Uranus
Maximilian Hell, SJ (1720–1792) astronomer and director of the Vienna Observatory; the crater Hell on the Moon is named after him. . Observed the transit of Venus while in Lapland in 1769
Ignacije Szentmartony, SJ (1718–1793) cartographer, mathematician, and astronomer who became a member of the expedition that worked on the rearrangement of the frontiers among colonies in South America
Alexandre Guy Pingré (1711–1796) French priest astronomer and naval geographer; the crater Pingré on the Moon is named after him, as is the asteroid 12719 Pingré
Jan Krzysztof Kluk (1739–1796) Priest, naturalist agronomist, and entomologist who wrote a multi-volume work on Polish animal life
Giuseppe Toaldo (1719–1797) Priest and physicist who studied atmospheric electricity and did important work with lightning rods; the asteroid 23685 Toaldo is named for him.
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) Italian mathematician, sometimes called “mathematician of God,” worked for the ill and homeless after her father’s death. Honored by Pope Benedict XIV
Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729–1799) Priest, biologist, and physiologist who made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions, animal reproduction, and essentially discovered echolocation; his research of biogenesis paved the way for the investigations of Louis Pasteur
José Antonio de Alzate y Ramírez (1737–1799) Priest, scientist, historian, cartographer, and meteorologist who wrote more than thirty treatises on a variety of scientific subjects
Antonio José Cavanilles (1745–1804) Priest and leading Spanish taxonomic botanist of the 18th century
Franz Xaver von Wulfen, SJ (1728-1805) botanist, mineralogist, and alpinist
José Celestino Mutis (1732–1808) Canon, botanist, and mathematician who led the Royal Spanish Botanical Expedition of the New World. He found medicinal qualities to new American species of plants
Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt, SJ (1728–1810) astronomer and mathematician; granted the title of the King’s Astronomer; the crater Poczobutt on the Moon is named after him.
Franz de Paula Triesnecker, SJ (1745–1817) astronomer and director of the Vienna Observatory; published a number of treatises on astronomy and geography; the crater Triesnecker on the Moon is named after him.
Maximus von Imhof, OSA (1758–1817) German physicist and director of the Munich Academy of Sciences. Directed the placement of lightning rods in Bavaria for 22 years
René Just Haüy (1743–1822) Priest known as theFather of crystallography [his brother, Valentin, founded the first school for the blind]
Giovanni Battista Venturi (1746–1822) Priest who discovered the Venturi effect about fluid under pressure
Maria Angela Ardinghelli (1730-1825) Translated into Italian and annotated works on plant and animal physiology, even correcting the French translator
Giuseppe Piazzi, CR (1746–1826) Theatine mathematician and astronomer who discovered Ceres, today known as the largest member of the asteroid belt; also did important work cataloguing stars
Nicholas Halma, (1755–1828) French abbé, mathematician, and translator of Greek scientific texts
Juan Ignacio Molina, SJ (1740–1829) naturalist, historian, botanist, ornithologist and geographer
Barnaba Oriani, CRSB (1752–1832) Barnabite geodesist, astronomer and scientist whose greatest achievement was his detailed research of the planet Uranus, and is also known for Oriani’s theorem
Pierre André Latreille (1762–1833) Priest and entomologist whose works describing insects assigned many of the insect taxa still in use today
Franz Paula von Schrank (1747–1835) Priest, botanist, entomologist, and prolific writer
Lorenzo Fazzini (1787-1837) Priest and mathematician who prepared the way for non-Euclidean geometry
John MacEnery (1797-1841) Priest, archaeologist who investigated the Palaeolithic remains at Kents Cavern discovering that man and mammoths existed at the same time
Franz von Paula Hladnik (1773–1844) Priest and botanist who discovered several new kinds of plants, and certain genera have been named after him
Giuseppe Zamboni (1776–1846) Priest and physicist who invented the Zamboni pile, an early electric battery similar to the Voltaic pile
Nicholas Callan (1799–1846) Priest & Irish scientist best known for his work on the induction coil
Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848) Priest, mathematician, and logician whose other interests included metaphysics, ideas, sensation, and truth.
Francesco de Vico, SJ (1805–1848) astronomer who discovered or co-discovered a number of comets; also made observations of Saturn and the gaps in its rings; the lunar crater De Vico and the asteroid 20103 de Vico are named after him
Giovanni Inghirami, SChP (1779–1851) Italian Piarist astronomer who has a valley on the moon named after him as well as a crater
Lorenz Hengler (1806–1858) Priest often credited as the inventor of the horizontal pendulum used in many seismograph machines
Louis Rendu (1789–1859) Bishop who wrote an important book on the mechanisms of glacial motion; the Rendu Glacier, Alaska, U.S. and Mount Rendu, Antarctica are named for him
Giambattista Pianciani, SJ (1784–1862) mathematician and physicist
Eugenio Barsanti, SChP (1821–1864) Piarist who is the possible inventor of the internal combustion engine
Marian Wolfgang Koller, OSB (1792–1866) professor who wrote on astronomy, physics, and meteorology
Giovanni Antonelli (1818–1872) Priest and director of the Ximenian Observatory of Florence who also collaborated on the design of a prototype of the internal combustion engine
Francesco Zantedeschi (1797–1873) Priest who was among the first to recognize the marked absorption by the atmosphere of red, yellow, and green light; published papers on the production of electric currents in closed circuits by the approach and withdrawal of a magnet, thereby anticipating Michael Faraday’s classical experiments of 1831
Louis-Ovide Brunet (1826–1876) Priest who was one of the founding fathers of Canadian botany
Angelo Secchi, SJ (1818–1878) pioneer in astronomical spectroscopy, and one of the first scientists to state authoritatively that the sun is a star; Father of astrophysics
François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno, SJ (1804–1884) physicist and mathematician
Gregor Mendel, OSA (1822–1884) Augustinian monk and father of genetics
Alessandro Serpieri (1823–1885) Priest, astronomer, and seismologist who studied shooting stars, and was the first to introduce the concept of the seismic radiant
Bl. Francesco Faà di Bruno (c. 1825–1888) Priest and mathematician
James Curley, SJ (1796–1889) first director of Georgetown Observatory and determined the latitude and longitude of Washington D.C.
Jean Baptiste François Pitra, OSB (1812–1889) Cardinal, archaeologist and theologian who was noteworthy for his great archaeological discoveries
Julian Tenison Woods, CP (1832–1889) Passionist geologist and mineralogist
Stephen Joseph Perry, SJ (1833–1889) astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society; made frequent observations of Jupiter’s satellites, of stellar occultations, of comets, of meteorites, of sunspots, and faculae
Benedict Sestini, SJ (1816–1890) astronomer, mathematician and architect; studied sunspots and eclipses; wrote textbooks on a variety of mathematical subjects
Joseph Bayma, SJ (1816–1892) worked in stereochemistry and mathematics
Léon Abel Provancher (1820–1892) Priest and naturalist devoted to the study and description of the fauna and flora of Canada; his pioneer work won for him the appellation of the “Father of Natural History in Canada”
Benito Viñes, SJ (1837–1893) meteorologist who made the first weather model to predict the trajectory of a hurricane.
Francesco Denza, CRSB (1834–1894) Barnabite meteorologist, astronomer, and director of Vatican Observatory
Ányos Jedlik, OSB (1800–1895) engineer, physicist, and inventor; considered by Hungarians and Slovaks to be the unsung Father of the dynamo and electric motor
Francesco Castracane degli Antelminelli (1817–1899) Priest and botanist who was one of the first to introduce microphotography into the study of biology
Jean Baptiste Carnoy (1836–1899) Priest who has been called the founder of the science of cytology
Armand David, CM (1826–1900) zoologist, and botanist who did important work in these fields in China
Pierre Marie Heude, SJ (1836–1902) missionary and zoologist who studied the natural history of Eastern Asia
Johann Dzierzon (1811–1906) Priest and pioneering apiarist who discovered the phenomenon of parthenogenesis among bees, and designed the first successful movable-frame beehive; has been described as the Father of modern apiculture
Manuel Magri, SJ (1851–1907) ethnographer, archaeologist and writer; one of Malta’s pioneers in archaeology
Eugene Lafont, SJ (1837–1908) physicist, astronomer, and founder of the first Scientific Society in India
Vincenzo Nardini, OP (1830-1913) started an observatory at the College of St. Thomas in Rome, then founded a Dominican Province, an observatory and Institute of Physics in Peru
Giuseppe Mercalli (1850–1914) Priest, volcanologist, and director of the Vesuvius Observatory who is best remembered today for his Mercalli scale for measuring earthquakes which is still in use
George Mary Searle, CSP (1839–1918) Paulist astronomer and professor who discovered six galaxies
John Zahm, CSC (1851–1921) South American explorer
Désiré-Félicien-François-Joseph Mercier (1851-1926) Belgian Cardinal who wrote a book on contemporary psychology
Gyula Fényi, SJ (1845–1927) astronomer and director of the Haynald Observatory; noted for his observations of the sun; The crater Fényi on the Moon is named after him
Martin Stanislaus Brennan (1845-1927) Priest and astronomer who wrote several books about science
Landell de Moura (1861–1928) Priest and inventor who was the first to accomplish the transmission of the human voice by a wireless machine
Victor-Alphonse Huard (1853–1929) Priest, naturalist, educator, writer, and promoter of the natural sciences
Edward Pigot, SJ (1858–1929) seismologist and astronomer
Franz Xaver Kugler, SJ (1862–1929) chemist, mathematician, and Assyriologist who is most noted for his studies of cuneiform tablets and Babylonian astronomy
Jozef Murgaš (1864–1929) Priest who contributed to wireless telegraphy and help develop mobile communications and wireless transmission of information and human voice
Johann Georg Hagen, SJ (1847–1930) director of the Georgetown and Vatican Observatories; The crater Hagen on the Moon is named after him
José María Algué (1856–1930) Priest and meteorologist who invented the barocyclonometer
James Cullen, SJ (1867–1933) mathematician who published what is now known as Cullen numbers in number theory
Julius Nieuwland, CSC (1878–1936) known for his contributions to acetylene research and its use as the basis for one type of synthetic rubber, which eventually led to the invention of neoprene
George Schoener (1864–1941) Priest who became known in the United States as the “Padre of the Roses” for his experiments in rose breeding
Joseph Maréchal, SJ (1878–1944) philosopher and psychologist
Marie-Victorin Kirouac, FSC (1885–1944) Christian Brother and botanist best known as the father of the Botanical Garden of Montréal
Theodor Wulf, SJ (1868–1946) physicist, one of the first experimenters to detect excess atmospheric radiation
Hugo Obermaier (1877–1946) Priest, prehistorian, and anthropologist who is known for his work on the diffusion of mankind in Europe during the Ice Age, as well as his work with north Spanish cave art
Johan Stein, SJ (1871–1951) astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory, which he modernized and relocated to Castel Gandolfo; the crater Stein on the far side of the Moon is named after him
Wilhelm Schmidt (1868–1954) Austrian priest, linguist, anthropologist, and ethnologist.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ (1881–1955) paleontologist and geologist who took part in the discovery of Peking Man
Paul McNally, SJ (1890–1955) astronomer and director of Georgetown Observatory; the crater McNally on the Moon is named after him.
James B. Macelwane, SJ (1883–1956) “The best-known Jesuit seismologist” and “one of the most honored practitioners of the science of all time”; wrote the first textbook on seismology in America.
Agostino Gemelli, OFM (1878–1959) physician and psychologist; founded Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan
Henri Breuil (1877–1961) Priest, archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist.
Georges Lemaître (1894–1966) Belgian priest and father of the Big Bang Theory
Carl Cori (1896-1984) and Gerty Radnitz Cori (1896-1957) discovered how glycogen is broken down in animals through the Cori Cycle. Received a Nobel Prize for this
James Weisheipl (1923-1984) wrote important works on natural philosophy and philosophers
Mary Kenneth Keller, BVM (ca. 1913-1985), along with Irving Tang at Washington University, became one of the first people in the United States to earn a doctorate in computer science
Otto Kippes (1905–1994) Priest acknowledged for his work in asteroid orbit calculations; the main belt asteroid 1780 Kippes was named in his honor
Józef Maria Bocheński, OP (1902-1995) Polish logician and philosopher
Karl Kehrle, OSB (1898-1996) World authority on bee breeding, developer of the Buckfast bee.
Mary Celine Fasenmyer, RSM (1906-1996) mathematician who worked on what came to be called Sister Celine’s polynomials.
James Robert McConnell (1915-1999) Irish Theoretical Physicist, Pontifical Academician, Monsignor
Mariano Artigas (1938–2006) Spanish physicist, philosopher and theologian who received the Templeton Foundation Prize in 1995
Alberto Dou, SJ (1915-2009) president of the Spanish Royal Society of Mathematics, member of the Royal Academy of Natural, Physical, and Exact Sciences, and one of the foremost mathematicians of his country.
Stanley Jaki, OSB (1924–2009) prolific writer who wrote on the relationship between science and theology
Roberto Busa (1913-2011) wrote a lemmatization of the complete works of St. Thomas Aquinas (Index Thomisticus) which was later digitalized by IBM.
Rosalie Bertell, GNSH (1929-2012) American scientist, author, environmental activist, epidemiologist, and sister of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, best known for her work in the field of ionizing radiation.
Lorenzo Albacete (1941–2014) Priest physicist and theologian
William Augustine Wallace, OP (1918-2015) Natural philosopher and historian of science.
Paula González, S.C. (1932- ) earned her doctorate in biology at the Catholic University in Washington, DC, and was a biology professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, for 21 years. Since 1972, Sister Paula has been freelancing as an environmentalist
George Coyne, SJ (1933– ) astronomer and former director of the Vatican Observatory
Michał Heller (1936– ) Polish priest, Templeton Prize winner, and prolific writer on numerous scientific topics
Noella Marcellino, O.S.B. (1951- ) American Benedictine nun who has earned a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Connecticut. Studying fungi in France on a Fulbright Scholarship, she concentrated on the positive effects of decay and putrefaction as well as the odors and flavors of cheese.
Guy Consolmagno, SJ (1952– ) astronomer and planetary scientist and current director of the Vatican Observatory
José Gabriel Funes, SJ (1963– ) astronomer and former director of the Vatican Observatory
Tadeusz Pacholczyk (1965- ) Priest, neuroscientist and writer
Andrew Pinsent (1966- ) Priest whose current research includes the application of insights from autism and social cognition to ‘second-person’ accounts of moral perception and character formation. His previous scientific research contributed to the DELPHI experiment at CERN
Nicanor Austriaco, OP (1968- ) studies biology of aging and programmed cell death, biology and ethics of stem cell research, health care ethics and bioethics in the Catholic tradition
All that is in Wikipedia?
No. But thank you for the ad hominem. It secures my faith in your grasp of this subject.
I grasp that you resort to an appeal to authority and name dropping.
I never do that. I get daily texts from President Trump and I know he would vouch for me.
Nice try though.
It’s rude to dump walls of text.
Most of the time, yes. Not so in this case. The reason why is fairly simple. The silly and asinine idea that the church is anti-science is so often used and so very, very wrong. It is pathetic and worn out. Part of the argument here is the sheer volume (although I am sure a very incomplete list) of consecrated Catholics that have done much to advance science. To anybody with a speck of reasoning ability, it should serve in this manner as very good evidence to the contrary of this worn out and bizarrely untrue claim by those adhering to the religion of Scientism.
More likely, you just don’t like the content.
Some people have too much time on their hands.
The ultimate COVID fear porn: AY.4.2 strain of Covid-19 is much more infectious than Delta strain, but AY.4.2 causes no symptoms in 2/3 of those catching it, and only mild symptoms in the other 1/3. The COVIDIOTS use this as greater demand for shots and boosters because people catching this strain might still spread it without knowing because they will have no symptoms! Oh, and AY.4.2 conveys full natural immunity to Delta strain. Some people will believe anything coming from the pulpit, whether beneath the hanging cross or the FDA seal (hail almighty Fauci!)
‘Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.’
Thomas Jefferson
The most amazing thing about most of the comments below is that they ignore the simple and real conclusion that what Art was conveying was his take on things. While so many were bloviating and self flagellating, his conclusion – read the last 4 paragraphs – are correct. The story he told, his personal view on things, whether 100% technically accurate or not, does not change the truth of his conclusion.
Remember that your perspective is what differentiates the forest from the trees.
I made that point earlier. The “mistake” Art made was leaning too hard on religion too often to make his point.
History has plenty other examples he could have used to drive his point. But then he wouldn’t have had his soapbox. He did himself and his larger point a disservice.
I don’t have a real strong reading aptitude. I didn’t go to school in the short bus but I probably should have been in some sort of remedial class in reading.
As often as I disagree with you, you do have the courage to speak your mind. It is written that none fearful shall enter the kingdom of God. You have courage, so you definitely have a better than many opportunity to see God’s kingdom. Courage makes up for a multitude of failings.
Thank you. I’ve just lived a lot and seen a lot. I was born and raised and had the demeanor of an Opie Taylor. Being persecuted by blacks in the 1960s made me fearful. When I became of age I wasn’t afraid anymore. 20 years later, I found my voice. If you can’t speak your mind in this country other than just trolling and not have the courage or knowledge to back up what you say then you’re just an idiot. I’m not right on a lot of things I realize that. But everything I say I truly believe in and have some knowledge on the subject to back it up. Mostly it comes down to a belief. What does everybody believe in and some people call that faith.
I do believe in a supreme being with a heavy dose of science. I don’t believe in 5 billion years and three or four mass extinctions, life on this planet and our DNA could have evolved to a point where it is now. We had to have some help and some seeding. Many ancient people describe things that they couldn’t understand and saw things that they’re limited vocabulary and thinking could provide. Most things in The Exodus can’t be reproduced even today. Moses coming down off the mountain with white hair could be radiation poisoning. Noah’s ark could be a DNA repository because two of each animal would not fit. That number changes in several books in the Bible from two to six. So a lot of things mostly are about faith because our understanding today is not much clearer than ancient peoples understanding was.
Art,
Humans are devolving. Trust me on this. I offer selective comments on MRAK as proof.
My understanding is that Adam and Eve were the only humans created by Divine fiat. The natural humans evolved from whatever mud puppy. Adam’s “seed”, introduced into the natural human DNA, brought the ability to to the natural man, to apprehend the true creator, where prior to that the natural man was capable of only superstition.
Especially yours, Nicco.
But Nicco is close. The true prophecy on the devolution of man is offered in Mike Judge’s definitive work ‘Idiocracy’ (or the kakistocracy that we suffer under now).
Adam and Lilith were first.
Lilith was made from the same clay as Adam. They didn’t get along, so she was removed and Eve was made out of Adam’s rib.
What I love about Art’s compositions is that he always has a slew of interesting comments from people following his spiel. Only great writers like Art can accomplish such. It’s simply called, “thought provoking.”
I have to say in all seriousness, I love to watch the clashing of horns of our mrak big brain bulls.
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