Ron Paul A Left-Wing Radical?
Judge for your self!
VTM
Archive for December, 2011
Ron Paul A Left-Wing Radical?
December 30, 2011
Governments Prone To Decay
December 27, 2011  |
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“How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.” –James Monroe, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788 Follow The Patriot Post:
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Altering “For The Better Designedly”: Francis Bacon
December 26, 2011Altering “For The Better Designedly”: Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, is quoted as saying:
“Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.”
For more about Bacon see here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/francis-bacon/
It would appear that Francis Bacon anticipated the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics
I have used this more modern conception to illustrate what happens in a socioculture (an “open system” in America) when it is in decline. An increasingly dysfunctional cultural design transforms useful unbound human energy (available to do work to build and sustain the socioculture), into useless bound, (even damaging) human energy that functions as a destructive drain upon it.
As with physical entropy (wood is burned and transformed into relatively useless ash and gases), when human energy potential is destroyed by bad cultural designs it can become useless and even damaging to the socioculture (addiction, crime, abuse of children, etc.). I call this process Social Entropy.
While the concept of increasing Social Entropy can be a frightening one, it also offers hope. In an “open society” (proper immigration) and with a therapeutic redesign (“altered for the better desinedly”), Social Entropy can be decreased and the socioculture can again flourish.
The therapeutic cultural alterations needed are suggested by several fields of science (anthropology, psychology, sociology, and economics, to name several).
What is not yet clear, is how to cautiously make and assess such alterations while preserving the liberties granted under America’s Constitutional framework.
I am thinking about that and it is an intimidating and humbling area of cogitation.
V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D. 12/26/11
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Merry Christmas!
December 24, 2011Merry Christmas!
Just as I began my search for a Christmas Eve communication my dear life-long friend, Vic Palenske, sent me the following. It is absolutely perfect.
I dearly hope you will take the time to view this short video. It brought a feeling of pride and joy, as well as a few tears to my eyes. Be sure to watch it to the very end, it’s the best part!
God’ Blessings to you and your loved ones during this Christmas celebration and throughout the New Year.
Tom Mawhinney
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The Truth About America’s Christian Heritage
December 24, 2011The Truth About America’s Christian Heritage
President Obama has stated that this is not a Christian Nation. I presume that he said this because America is composed of citizens of many religions, including the religion of secular humanism.
America not being a Christian Nation could be a valid point, if were not the case that Christians still make up the vast majority of all faiths in America.
The American Constitution provides for freedom of religion. There are people of many faiths in America and that would only be a problem only if some religions had the goal of eradicating all the others. Even though this is the goal of radical Islam and some secular humanists, it is against our laws, and the moral precepts of Christianity, to mistreat or hurt others for reasons of religion.
However, none of this changes the fact that America was founded as a Christian Nation and still remains, predominantly a Christian nation.
Many will argue with this fact as they attempt to suppress your religious heritage. It would be in your best interests, and that of this Nations’s that you prepare to rebut their arguments. I expect this will be a matter of social contention for a long time to come. It is possible for people of faith to remain civil, but contentious, in defense of the truth.
Please consider preparing yourselves for the debates that you will surely encounter by reading the following:
http://sz0012.ev.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/mail?app=mail#2
For a contemporary snap-shot of the Religious make-up of America, review the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States
Do not let others brow-beat you into silence on the facts of America’s Faith-Based, predominantly Christian, make-up. I fear that without the strong influence of guiding morals and ethics in the Judeo/Christian tradition, and that of other compatible religions, America will continue along its path of decline.
V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 12/24/11
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The American Attack on Christmas and Spiritual Religions
December 23, 2011The American Attack on Christmas and Spiritual Religions
Yes boys and girls, there is a Christmas! And the word Christ is in it, as well as a reference to Mass—that is, group prayer!
The expression of these thoughts in public is a dreaded horror to secular humanists. They know, and fear, the fact that such ideas can make them dissipate into nothing, much as the “wicked witch of the West”did in the movie: The Wizard of Oz.
I will bet that few of our fellow Americans could explain what a secular humanist is. I even suspect that a limited number, of people of any religious faith, could explain what secular humanism is and how that faith is directly and purposefully competing with their own faith—for life itself.
Secular humanism has been defined (Steven Hall, 2005) as follows:
“Secular humanism is a religion and a philosophy of life which views man as the supreme being of the universe. It rejects the existence of God and the supernatural. It sees moral values as relative and changing and varying from person to person”.
Hall then asserted:
“We live in a day when there is a great war going on in the society in which we live. There are many battlefronts and aspects to the war, but the primary war in our day is between Christianity and secular humanism”.
“Stay in the battle”!
I believe that Steven Hall’s assessment of this epic battle absolutely correct. No wonder there has been an increasing attack on all things religious, especially Christmas and Easter, by a growing number of secular humanists over the past many years.
Religious thoughts, words and symbols are all now being socially censured in all but the most private of places. The secular humanist atheists in America are increasingly strident, lawered-up and litigious as they strive to denigrate and to destroy all public words and symbols related to spiritual religion. Of course, they will vehemently protest that it is not so, that religion should simply be a personal/private matter. Perhaps some naive secular humanists believe this false idea–but, I cannot believe that most of them do. They are far too insulting and even slanderous and intimidating to religious people for that to be their generally true motive.
For an example of what I mean, check these out.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/atheists-up-in-arms-over-nj-towns-keep-christ-in-christmas-sign/
Spiritual religion that is only a private matter is destined to fade into obscurity under the onslaught of secular humanism, and they know it.
Human faith can be reduced to only two categories. There are the spiritual and the secular humanistic faiths. Those who call themselves agnostics are consigned to shift back and forth between these to poles, or sit confused in the middle. Whichever of the two faiths is driven “underground”, out of sight and out of mind, looses the battle; at least from a temporal and sociocultural perspective.
While the average Christian would settle for a peaceful coexistence with modern secular humanists, the great and strident proportion of secular humanists prefer to conduct a stealth and not-so-stealth Jihad against the Christians and other spiritual faiths. This religious war against The Faithful is conducted through our increasingly progressive government, its secular humanistic schools, the predominantly progressive legal system, and through America’s ubiquitous and flamingly progressive media.
I wonder how many secular humanist/atheist warriors understand that when they suppress spiritual religions, they are also suppressing the Natural Law upon which our fundamental precepts of morality and ethics are based. Can they be so ignorant as to not see that as they have gained in this mortal contest, we have all proportionately suffered the loss of honesty, civility and order in America? It is possible, but I doubt it.
Secular humanism is the religion of socialists, communists and dictators. The resulting social disorder and declining economies have traditionally been used to validate their tyrannical actions and to solidify their power. There is unity and symmetry to this big picture which is reflected most clearly in the history the world’s evolving sociocultures.
Find more “handy” examples of secular humanist attacks on spiritual faith at
www.theblaze.com under Faith.
Wake-Up America!
VTM, 12/22/11
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American War On Religion
December 21, 2011American War On Religion
The war is really between secular humanism and spiritual religion. I can have no faith in the religion of secular humanism on the simple basis of human imperfectability. When is the last time we have met the perfect human?
In the war between secular humanism and spiritual religion, one cannot win without the other loosing. Spiritual religion in America is clearly loosing and it has yet to fight back in modern times.
I am in favor of America allowing the symbols of religious holidays to be displayed on what is called public property. It is common to say that public property should be open to the public. If there is controversy over such matters, it can be settled at the local level. I believe the 10th Amendment of the Constitution should ordinarily apply to such matters.
The concept of “separation of Church and State” was never meant to be applied at its current micro-level of dictatorial control of faith-based language and symbols.
I am very happy to see the following. How about you?
VTM, 11/21/11
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God’s Psychology
December 20, 2011God’s Psychology
From my psychological perspective (human conditioning and learning), what causes people to conform to religiously based moral values and conduct are the associations and consequences that deviation from, or conformity to, those values produce for them. Yes, the psychological Principles of Associationism and the Law Of Effect strongly influence our spiritual/religious lives.
A belief in God’s rewards of everlasting life in Heaven and the fearful specter of everlasting Hell are supported by the social consequences that religious organizations and other believers provide to those who do, or do not, conform to God’s moral Laws. The social environment plays a critical role in the degree to which members of any population conform to the prescriptions of a religion, and its moral code.
For those who believe in their God, their learned feelings of love, happiness and security; or fear, anxiety, and guilt are related to their history of learning while growing-up among teaching families and others. These feelings, beliefs and ways of thinking are similar to the those concepts of God and His Words. These strong emotional byproducts of learning can then exert strong control of a persons actions.
When the Word of God and associated emotions have been directly taught in families and the related religious beliefs and moral codes are augmented by the church leaders, a large church family, the community and the media, they are likely to remain strong. When these influences diminish, or they actually turn against these teachings, faith in God and its resulting morality will also diminish.
Beware, the barbarians are coming…..and they are increasingly us.
Wake-Up America!
V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D. 12/20/11
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Newt Gingrich on Activist Judges
December 18, 2011The Blaze posted a short article and an interview of Newt Gingrich on the topic of activist judges and the ballance of power between the President, Congress, and the Judicial branches of our Constitutional Government.
I think that his views on this topic are on the mark. What do you think?
Be certain to watch the video: Let Gingrich speak for himself on this controversial matter.
VTM, 12/18/11
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The Demise of Morality in America
December 17, 2011The Demise of Morality in America
The following is taken from Robert H. Bork’s (1996) extraordinary book, Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline (p.278). For me, Robert Bork has cut through the Gordian tangle presented by the philosophy of ethics. The following are Robert Bork’s words.
Todays Religious conservatives take Christianity and Judaism seriously, but that does not place them outside a very long moral tradition. C. S. Lewis: The number of actions about whose ethical quality a Stoic, an Aristotelian, a Thomist, a Kantian, and a Utilitarian would agree is , after all very large. And again: A Christian who understands his own religion laughs when unbelievers expect to trouble him by the assertion that Jesus uttered no command which had not been anticipated by the Rabbis—few, indeed, which cannot be paralleled in classical, ancient Egyptian, Ninevite, Babylonian, or Chinese texts. We have long recognized that truth with rejoicing. Our faith is not pinned on a crank.’ Bork continued: Only religion can accomplish for a modern society what tradition, reason, and empirical observation cannot. Christianity and Judaism provide the major premises of moral reasoning by revelation and by the stories in the Bible. There is no need to attempt the impossible task of reasoning your way to first principles. Those principles are accepted as given by God. For most people, only revealed religion can supply the premises from which the prescriptions of morality can be deduced. Religion tells us what the end of man should be and that information supplies the premises for moral reasoning and hence a basis for moral conduct. Philosophers cannot agree on the proper end of man and hence cannot supply the necessary premises. Religion is by its nature authoritative and final as to first principles. It must be so or it would be valueless. Those principles are given on a stone tablet, either literally or figuratively, and so long as you believe the religion, there is simply no possibility to arguing with what is on the tablet. End of quotes. But, while Bork’s words resonate and ring true to many, they take their power from something that continues to diminish in the modern world: Faith in God and his Word.
Bork is aware of this potentially fatal erosion and he continues as follows:
What Frederick Lewis Allen noted of the 1920s was true for a long time previously and remains true today: religion is declining because those identified with it do not actually believe in it. It seems impossible to say that a person believes in a religion when he rejects what the religion proclaims. It is difficult to say that a religion even exists if it keeps giving up its tenets to appease its members and critics. If belief, in some sense, can be said to be present, it is a weak and watery belief that is no match for parishioners’ personal, secular concerns (P. 280).
Bork continued:
As life became easier and diversions more plentiful, men are less willing to accept the authority of their clergy and less willing to worship a demanding God, a God who dictates how one should live and puts a great many bodily and psychological pleasures off limits (p. 281).
For Robert Bork and countless others, faith in God is the critical ingredient in human conformity to a religiously based code of moral behavior. It is true that modernity and its products appears to diminish faith in a higher power and also our conformity to religiously based morals. What we call faith is heavily influenced by social consequences levied by those around us, and that suggests another layer of complexity to our moral undoing.
Stay tuned for more on the demise of morality in America
VTM, 12/17/11
Cultural Survival Skills 