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-rw-r--r--drafts/already-and-not-yet.rst75
-rw-r--r--drafts/centered-set-idolworshipping.rst219
-rw-r--r--drafts/chesterton-chaucer-luther.rst33
-rw-r--r--drafts/local-morality.rst18
-rw-r--r--drafts/on_humanae_vitae.rst303
-rw-r--r--firefoxOS_post-mortem.rst8
-rw-r--r--greek_church_orthodoxy.rst (renamed from drafts/greek_church_orthodoxy.rst)46
-rw-r--r--images/centered_set_01.svg263
-rw-r--r--images/centered_set_02.svg327
-rw-r--r--tim-oreilly-future.rst80
10 files changed, 1226 insertions, 146 deletions
diff --git a/drafts/already-and-not-yet.rst b/drafts/already-and-not-yet.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7999a40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drafts/already-and-not-yet.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+Already and not yet
+###################
+
+:date: 1970-01-01T00:00:00
+:status: draft
+:category: faith
+:tags: theology, priesthood, sin
+
+Reading about the Synod of the Bishops of the Catholic church,
+and instead of thinking about the important matters of the
+remarriage, divorce, and ordination of women, what comes to my
+mind is what came through my mind when listening to the past
+dialog about the so called “gay marriages” (no, I don’t
+believe there is such a thing).
+
+It seems to me one of the roots of some Christians accepting the
+idea of the marriage between two persons of the same sex is the
+pain of looking at all those people who are living outside of the
+boundaries of what is right. Listening to the arguments against
+gay marriages claiming that it is unnatural and against the
+God’s ordination what comes through my mind is thinking about
+all those millions of marriages which were divorced. From the
+point of view of the traditional understanding of marriage is
+single-parent family same nonsense as a marriage between two men
+or two women. And yet, we Protestants (but I am afraid most
+Catholics are in the same boat, they just don’t want to admit
+it) looking over the complicated broken marriages just cannot
+throw them away and calling them only sinners and ignoring all
+complexities of their particular relationships. We all know
+stories of people who got divorced, and these are stories perhaps
+of sin, but mainly of pain, lost hope, and suffering for
+everybody involved (of course, including children).
+
+.. FIXME Well, a sin is supposed to bring pain, what’s there
+ surprising?
+
+And in order at least to alleviate the pain we try to create some
+theory how to ignore this incredible number of people who failed
+in one of the most important tasks in their life.
+
+Also, we can see that for some the second marriage is a way more
+holy and complete than the first one, created too young without
+real understanding of what marriage consists of (no, I am not
+talking about the reasons serious enough to allow the annulment
+of the marriage, just young stupidity and irresponsibility). I am
+thinking about my pastor, but also about the famous cases of
+people like Johnny Cash and June Carter, whose second marriage
+was (or is) a way more happy and truly sign pointing towards the
+Paradise.
+
+I don’t think there are many children in the age of my children
+who would be dreaming about broken marriage, about leaving their
+own children, about failing miserably. We all know somewhere deep
+in our hearts what is the ideal for which we long for. And yet so
+many of us fail in this endeavor. How to live in this pain of
+disappointment?
+
+I am thinking about the situation of the Unity of the Church as
+well. How completely impossible it is to imagine than in our life
+we would do at least so small and seemingly obvious step as being
+able to share openly a Communion together. How is it possible
+that followers of Jesus Christ cannot agree on something so
+obvious as that they should follow the command of their Lord and
+share the communion together? And yet we most likely (pending
+some miracle) won’t see the Church repent and follow the Christ
+in our lives. How to live with this pain?
+
+I am thinking how to live in this pain of already knowing where
+we should go and yet not being there.
+
+We all try to avoid pain. We are willing to do anything when the
+pain is too strong. We are able to lie, to hurt those whom we
+love most, to pretend we are somebody else than we are, anything
+possible legal or illegal, moral or immoral just to avoid the
+pain.
diff --git a/drafts/centered-set-idolworshipping.rst b/drafts/centered-set-idolworshipping.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9dbda0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drafts/centered-set-idolworshipping.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,219 @@
+Centered set and idol worshipping
+#################################
+
+:status: draft
+:date: 1970-01-01T00:00:00
+:category: faith
+:tags: blue ocean, centered faith, islam, allah, Christianity
+
+.. zotero-setup::
+ :style: chicago-author-date
+
+The centered-set theory
+-----------------------
+
+Before explaining my further thoughts on the unity of the Church,
+let me explain what I think about the application of the set
+theory to the understanding of the Church. The following thoughts
+are heavily based on :xcite:`[@schmelzer:2008not]`, although
+originally this theory originated from
+:xcite:`[@hiebert:1994anthropological]`, and Schmelzer uses the
+simplified version of the theory probably from
+:xcite:`[@mclaren:2002more]` or some other books by this author,
+not from the Hierbert's article itself. I present here the
+original version. “Centered set” versus “bounded set”
+terminology comes originally from the mathematical set theory
+(originally by Georg Cantor).
+
++--------+--------------+--------------+
+| | Strict | Fuzzy |
++========+==============+==============+
+| Limit | Bounded set | Fuzzy set |
++--------+--------------+--------------+
+| Center | Centered set | Fuzzy center |
++--------+--------------+--------------+
+
+This part of the set theory deals with the means how to define a
+set and thinks about primary two ways. One is the to define a
+limit (“if a vehicle has four wheels it belongs to the set of
+cars”), which is the way more traditional way how to define
+set. When this style of categorization works then it works pretty
+well: a person is at least biologically either a man or a woman
+(ignoring psychological problems of transgender people), or she
+is either Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or an agnostic. There are
+people taller than 180 cm and the rest, etc.
+
+This hard version of the bounded set (bounded by the defining
+characteristics) has been under violent attack of the current
+thinkers mostly because they observed that many (if not most, or
+even all) groups in the real world are not that neatly delineated
+and that ignoring the inherent ambiguity of the world leads to
+sometimes terrible results. For example, to use the example
+relevant to the Czech history, one of the founding problems of
+the Central Europe is the insistence on the exact definition of
+the nation. Of course, there are many reasons why the historical
+events happen, but one of the sources of the Central European
+nationalism (crowned by its extremes like Nazism) was the idea
+that nation can be exactly defined by the characteristics of its
+members, namely their language. Otherwise, it would be possible
+to find a lot of shared between German-speaking and
+Czech-speaking citizens of the Czechoslovakia or the
+Austria-Hungary, it would be perhaps even possible to speak about
+one nation speaking two languages, but that went completely
+against the concept of the nation as a set of people speaking the
+same language and so it was never even seriously considered.
+
+In order to return to the more ecclesiastically relevant example,
+this persistence on the precise and unequivocal characterization
+of the group was something which prevented development of the
+parallel slightly different version of then Roman Catholic church
+in Bohemia of the 15th century (Utraquism, see below), because it
+was not acceptable for two members of the same church to accept
+the Lord’s Supper in a different manner.
+
+After these attacks using obvious examples, couple of ways out of
+this conundrum were developed, two of which I will mention here.
+One is just thinking in terms of the fuzzy logic. Although, the
+sets are still determined based on the characteristics of its
+members, it is now possible to understand membership not in
+terms of “either-or” but more like partial membership. It is
+suddenly possible to be partially (perhaps even expressed in per
+cents) member of the one group and yet in the same time being
+partially members of the opposite one. To return to the
+previously mentioned sets, there is now plenty of psychological
+research showing that the distinction between males and females
+in terms of their character traits can be better understood in
+terms of the fuzzy logic. So, more than person being either a
+pure man or pure woman (and being subject of ridicule if his
+personality is not clearly alienated with either stereotype) it
+is useful to put individuals somewhere on the scale. There are
+obvious males who are driven very much by relationships, and
+females who are much more action- and purpose-driven than would
+be “appropriate” for their respective gender stereotypes. And
+I am purposefully abstaining from any comments on the sexual
+behavior.
+
+Again turning towards the church scene, there is now large
+interest in the theology of the third way, a group of churchmen
+of the 16th century who were neither strong Protestants nor
+strong Catholics; for example a large part of the Anglican
+church, or their patron saint could be Erasmus of Rotterdam. It
+suddenly seems that the difference between Catholicism and
+Protestantism (which itself is very poorly defined) is not that
+endless abyss as it was seen in the modern times. Although some
+differences are real and profound, there are many persons and
+theological systems which are more like bridges over that abyss.
+
+Another way how to overcome the problems with the strict
+definition of the bounded set lies in the complete change of the
+way how to define such set. Instead of looking for a group of
+characteristics (precise or fuzzy) which should be present in
+each member of the set, it could be possible to define a set by
+the relationship towards the common center. It seems to me for
+example that for the medieval Christians the membership in their
+nation was not that much about showing some characteristics but
+rather worship and honor towards the shared saint. So, the basic
+definition of the Czech nation was that it is “domestic staff
+[čeládka] of the Saint Wenceslaus” and similarly were defined
+worshipers of Saint Boniface (Germans), Saint Steven
+(Hungarians), Saint George (English), etc. And while keeping on
+the Czech theme, it was apparently not that big problem that some
+servants of the Saint Wenceslaus were celebrating svatý Václav
+in Czech, and some Heiliger Wenzel in their native German. Only
+with the advent of the modernist thinking there was apparently
+strong desire to get more precise (and thus bounded) definition
+of the nation and number of thinkers (especially known among them
+are Germans Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Gottlieb Fichte)
+develop the bounded set theory of nation as a set of speakers of
+the same language, which got so ingrained in our thinking that
+(at least for me as a native from the Central Europe) now it
+seems completely outrageous to think about nation as anything
+else than the language defined bounded set.
+
+Actually one of the best examples of the historical use of the
+centered set was the understanding of religion by traditional
+Jews. There is no properly developed definition of Judaism in the
+Old Testament in the similar manner Christians defined their
+faith in the great creeds of the early ecumenical councils, and
+with the only exception of the Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles
+of Faith (from the late 12th century) Jews never developed
+anything resembling a creed (the only profession of faith being
+the biblical Shema Yisrael). It is no mistake that the First
+Commandment is resolutely center based “I am the Lord your God,
+who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
+slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
+(Exodus 20:20f).
+
+It must be emphasized that centered set in itself is in its
+original Jewish formulation strictly non-fuzzy. Most of the Old
+Testament is concerned with struggle of the Jewish community to
+keep strictly faithful to the LORD God only and refuse any other
+centers of their faith (aka polytheism and idolatry). For Jew,
+there is absolutely no alternative to the absolute allegiance to
+the only god, The LORD God. Nevertheless,
+:xcite:`[@hiebert:1994anthropological]` considers the fuzzy
+variant of the centered set Church, but we will ignore it here as
+I do not think it brings much interesting to the debate.
+
+Application of the set theory to the understanding of the Church
+----------------------------------------------------------------
+
+So, how we can apply this theory to our understanding of the
+Church. Let us consider first example of a group of Christians
+viewed through the bounded set lenses.
+
+.. image:: {filename}/images/centered_set_01.svg
+ :width: 250pt
+ :align: center
+ :alt: Traditional bounded set
+
+In this illustration of the bounded set we can easily say that
+“A” and “B” (although we are bit worried about the later)
+are members of the set, whereas “C” isn’t. There can be
+some discussion about “D”, but in the end by sharpening the
+rule we can certainly find some decision on which side of the
+line he belongs.
+
+This is the traditional distinction used in the most Christian
+thinking. The traditional evangelical formulation that somebody
+either is or is not born again (another qualifying
+characteristics could be whether they are baptized). You either
+are or you are not with the substantial consequences attached to
+such membership. [#]_
+
+.. [#] Romans 10:9: “because, if you confess with your mouth
+ that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
+ him from the dead, you will be saved.”
+
+Centered set is quite different. It is characterized by its
+center (Jesus) and individual elements are not qualified as
+members but each of them has some level (including none) of
+relationship with the center.
+
+And to make things even more interesting, let us add arrows to
+signify the orientation of each member of this group not only its
+distance from the center. Suddenly the image (with each person in
+more or less the same position) provides quite different picture.
+“A” even though is closer to the center (perhaps he is even a
+pastor from the traditionally religious family) is going in the
+completely opposite direction out from the Lord Jesus. “B” is
+rather close to the Jesus and she goes in more or less right
+direction. Suddenly “D” who was more or less suspicious and
+on the edge and even more “C” who was originally considered
+completely out of the group are suddenly better oriented than
+“A” and “B” although they target Jesus from larger
+distance (perhaps they are converts coming to the Jesus from the
+atheistic background).
+
+.. image:: {filename}/images/centered_set_02.svg
+ :width: 250pt
+ :align: center
+ :alt: Centered set
+
+:xcite:`[@mclaren:2002more]` makes this picture even more
+complicated by assuming that Jesus as the center is constantly on
+the move, so rather than just pointing to the place where the
+Jesus is now it may be better to go to the place where Jesus will
+be in the future.
+
+.. bibliography::
diff --git a/drafts/chesterton-chaucer-luther.rst b/drafts/chesterton-chaucer-luther.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a7910b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drafts/chesterton-chaucer-luther.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+On praise of Luther
+###################
+
+:date: 1970-01-01T00:00:00
+:status: draft
+:category: faith
+:tags: theology, Catholicism, Luther
+
+During the most stimulating discussion in the last “Theology on
+Tap” we have discussed ecclesiology among other things based on
+the lecture by Gordon Isaac “`Luther’s View of the
+Church`_”. Luther’s view of the Church were the most
+interesting for me, because I have first presented in compelling
+manner opinions of non-evangelical ecclesiology.
+
+There was one thing I have not managed to express on Tuesday. G.
+K. Chesterton in his less known book “`Chaucer`_”
+
+
+----------
+
+Religio -- Middle Age managed to include into a rather Christian
+culture whole world, from the Knight all the way down to the
+Miller, but also from truly religious and pious all the way down
+to venal and other sinners. We have lost (during the
+Reformation?, Enlightenment?) this semi-Christian religio and
+replaced it with nationalism (?). Not a good bargain.
+
+
+.. _`Luther’s View of the Church`:
+ https://www.biblicaltraining.org/luthers-view-church/luther
+.. _`Chaucer`:
+ http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1300211h.html
diff --git a/drafts/local-morality.rst b/drafts/local-morality.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..855b6fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drafts/local-morality.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+Locality of morals
+##################
+
+:date: 1970-01-01T00:00:00
+:status: draft
+:category: faith
+:tags: theology, priesthood, sin
+
+.. epigraph::
+ In the course of my life, I have seen Frenchmen, Italians,
+ Russians, etc.; I am even aware, thanks to Montesquieu, that
+ one can be a Persian. But, as for Man, I declare that I have
+ never met him in my life. If he exists, I certainly have no
+ knowledge of him.
+
+ -- Joseph de Maistre, Considerations on France, 1797
+
+pass
diff --git a/drafts/on_humanae_vitae.rst b/drafts/on_humanae_vitae.rst
index f320b67..3ff2748 100644
--- a/drafts/on_humanae_vitae.rst
+++ b/drafts/on_humanae_vitae.rst
@@ -12,199 +12,256 @@ Humanae Vitae | Peter M. J. Stravinskas
mcepl
mcepl pt8685 6 days ago
-Which of course is completely irrelevant. When I am talking about NFP I don't mean the fact that ovulating woman are less likely (on unable?) to conceive. I am talking about NFP as a method to find out when that moment is. And in that aspect I found NFP as completely unreliable.
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
+Which of course is completely irrelevant. When I am talking about NFP
+I don't mean the fact that ovulating woman are less likely (on unable?)
+to conceive. I am talking about NFP as a method to find out when that
+moment is. And in that aspect I found NFP as completely unreliable.
+
mcepl pt8685 16 days ago
Yeah, that’s a good one! I will surely remember it.
-Fortunately for us, my wife’s cycle used to be very regular. We could (and we did for couple of years) do just counting days as our contraceptive technique, because we knew always pretty surely where we are in the cycle. We have tried to do NFP as well, but even though we knew what actually is going on in her body we were never able to do any head and toes from temperatures or any physical signs on her body (I don’t want to get into too much gory details here). I was strictly against the Pill then, not because of the false dichotomy between NFP and contraception, but because I was worried to mix with my wife’s body while we still hoped to have more children, so I am very glad the days counting worked for us. What would we do with my wife’s cycle being less reliable, I don’t know, and I am very glad I didn’t have to deal with it. But certainly the last thing in the world would be to trust NFP.
-2
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
+Fortunately for us, my wife’s cycle used to be very regular. We could
+(and we did for couple of years) do just counting days as our
+contraceptive technique, because we knew always pretty surely where we
+are in the cycle. We have tried to do NFP as well, but even though we
+knew what actually is going on in her body we were never able to do any
+head and toes from temperatures or any physical signs on her body (I
+don’t want to get into too much gory details here). I was strictly
+against the Pill then, not because of the false dichotomy between NFP
+and contraception, but because I was worried to mix with my wife’s body
+while we still hoped to have more children, so I am very glad the days
+counting worked for us. What would we do with my wife’s cycle being less
+reliable, I don’t know, and I am very glad I didn’t have to deal with
+it. But certainly the last thing in the world would be to trust NFP.
+
mcepl 18 days ago
-Could you please explain me how from your nonsensical babble on the verse about circumcision it follows that my wife should endanger her health (she has MS, so further pregnancy could very well lead to another attack), why my friend should endanger her marriage (their fourth child is severely disabled so taking care of her stretches the family to its limits)? Or is all your talk about sanctity of sex just nonsense and you really believe that all should lead the only really truly holy celibate life as you? I really believe that exactly such irresponsible nonsense leads to complete loss of credibility of the Catholics in any discussion on the contraception. Yes, I am angry, because of this nonsense we have lost all Catholics from the debate about the real issues of life into this cesspit of ignorance. Not mentioning that I actually love my wife and care about her more than about your infallibility.
-3
-Edit
-View in discussion
+Could you please explain me how from your nonsensical babble on the
+verse about circumcision it follows that my wife should endanger her
+health (she has MS, so further pregnancy could very well lead to another
+attack), why my friend should endanger her marriage (their fourth child
+is severely disabled so taking care of her stretches the family to its
+limits)? Or is all your talk about sanctity of sex just nonsense and you
+really believe that all should lead the only really truly holy celibate
+life as you? I really believe that exactly such irresponsible nonsense
+leads to complete loss of credibility of the Catholics in any discussion
+on the contraception. Yes, I am angry, because of this nonsense we have
+lost all Catholics from the debate about the real issues of life into
+this cesspit of ignorance. Not mentioning that I actually love my wife
+and care about her more than about your infallibility.
+
Discussion on Echo24.cz 43 comments
Zajatci virtuality. Hloupý lidovec, Hitler a morální policisté
mcepl
mcepl Stanislav Cerman 9 days ago
-Zkuste si přečíst ještě jednou co jsem napsal. Nevím, jak jinak odpovědět na něco co jsem opravdu nenapsal. Hint: zkuste třeba začít u toho zaměstnavatele.
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
-mcepl Stanislav Cerman 9 days ago
-Předpokládám, že to je házení perel sviním, ale mezi panem Kalendou a Vašim nadáváním na komunisty vidím několik drobných rozdílů: pan Kalenda není jenom tak někdo, ale politik reprezentující stranu, která se tváří jako slušná; a jako taková ho má naprosto všechny práva na světě vyhodit ho ze svých řad, protože ji dělá ostudu. KDÚ jsem volil a pokud by s ním okamžitě nevyrazili futro, tak bych o jejich slušnosti velice vážně zapochyboval.
+Předpokládám, že to je házení perel sviním, ale mezi panem Kalendou
+a Vašim nadáváním na komunisty vidím několik drobných rozdílů: pan
+Kalenda není jenom tak někdo, ale politik reprezentující stranu, která
+se tváří jako slušná; a jako taková ho má naprosto všechny práva na
+světě vyhodit ho ze svých řad, protože ji dělá ostudu. KDÚ jsem volil
+a pokud by s ním okamžitě nevyrazili futro, tak bych o jejich slušnosti
+velice vážně zapochyboval.
Pokud Vám to nepřipadne správné, tak zkuste veřejně říkat nebo udělat něco co může silně poškodit Vašeho zaměstnavatele. Pak nám sdělte co bude následovat.
-Nevím, jestli to myslel vážně (a popravdě řečeno mě to ani moc nezajímá), ale jako politik se dal do kšeftu s image a pokud to nevěděl,
+Nevím, jestli to myslel vážně (a popravdě řečeno mě to ani moc
+nezajímá), ale jako politik se dal do kšeftu s image a pokud to nevěděl,
tak v politice nemá co dělat.
-Další rozdíl je v tom, že pravděpodobně se mu nestane nic dalšího než že odejde z politiky (alespoň doufám, že to udělá, a neskončí u někoho jiného), najde si nějaké poctivé zaměstnání, a bude alespoň svobodný říkat kde chce co chce.
-Edit
-View in discussion
-Discussion on First Things 655 comments
+Další rozdíl je v tom, že pravděpodobně se mu nestane nic dalšího než že
+odejde z politiky (alespoň doufám, že to udělá, a neskončí u někoho
+jiného), najde si nějaké poctivé zaměstnání, a bude alespoň svobodný
+říkat kde chce co chce.
+
Gay Marriage and Religious Freedom | R. R. Reno
-mcepl
-mcepl 15 days ago
-BTW, I have to also mention this ... I have incredibly strong feeling that before we can talk about that speck of the tax non-exemption, there is a log all believers should take care of. What about that?
+BTW, I have to also mention this ... I have incredibly strong feeling
+that before we can talk about that speck of the tax non-exemption, there
+is a log all believers should take care of. What about that?
-Before we can cry how we have God-given right of being tax exempt (we don't), we should probably acknowledge a terrible abuse which does happen with this right. I have no clue what to do about it, but it seems a bit hypocritical not to mention it.
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
-mcepl a month ago
+Before we can cry how we have God-given right of being tax exempt (we
+don't), we should probably acknowledge a terrible abuse which does
+happen with this right. I have no clue what to do about it, but it seems
+a bit hypocritical not to mention it.
-I am afraid the author puts the question in a wrong order. It should not be "Why to support religious non-profit organizations?" (we should support them of course), but "Why not to suppport non-religious NGOs?". And I don't think he gives a good answer on the latter.
-5
-Edit
-View in discussion
-Discussion on First Things 129 comments
-The Deeper Issue at the Synod | George Weigel
-mcepl
-mcepl Ford 18 days ago
+I am afraid the author puts the question in a wrong order. It should not
+be "Why to support religious non-profit organizations?" (we should
+support them of course), but "Why not to suppport non-religious NGOs?".
+And I don't think he gives a good answer on the latter.
-So, condoms are permitted? Awesome!
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
-mcepl Michael C 20 days ago
+---------------
-I won't give you chapter and verse, but get yourself into Desert Fathers or some more ascetic literature and you'll get that. However, exact quarrel about this was not the point of what I wanted to say.
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
-mcepl Michael C 20 days ago
+I won't give you chapter and verse, but get yourself into Desert Fathers
+or some more ascetic literature and you'll get that. However, exact
+quarrel about this was not the point of what I wanted to say.
-I will happily let you, Catholics, to fight this among yourselves. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=humane+vi... and you will find hundreds of opinions (including some of them from seemingly quite authoritative authors). Having no interest in getting into that debate myself too much, let me stand aside.
+I will happily let you, Catholics, to fight this among yourselves.
+http://lmgtfy.com/?q=humane+vi... and you will find hundreds of opinions
+(including some of them from seemingly quite authoritative authors).
+Having no interest in getting into that debate myself too much, let me
+stand aside.
+
+Besides, somebody here corrected me that my problem is not that much
+papal infallibility as much as infallibility of magisterium.
-Besides, somebody here corrected me that my problem is not that much papal infallibility as much as infallibility of magisterium.
-1
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
mcepl LeoXIII 21 days ago
-Let me just state that I have read your post, it doesn't make any sense to me, and unfortunately I don’t have time to reply to it now.
+Medicine is denying the will of God, until the middle ages many in
+Christendom agreed with this. How dare you stop somebody from dying when
+the God decided that one should die?
-Be well!
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
-mcepl Dennis Neylon 22 days ago
-
-Medicine is denying the will of God, until the middle ages many in Christendom agreed with this. How dare you stop somebody from dying when the God decided that one should die?
+What I am trying to say is that with this silly absolutes, you won't get
+far in the discussion. And, BTW, the argument about stopping a wife from
+conceiving as against the will of God doesn’t seem to me that much
+different.
-What I am trying to say is that with this silly absolutes, you won't get far in the discussion. And, BTW, the argument about stopping a wife from conceiving as against the will of God doesn’t seem to me that much different.
-2
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
mcepl Iowa_Lawyer 22 days ago
-Thank you for very thoughtful and concise reply. Could you elaborate, please? Perhaps I am not as ignorant as you try to make me?
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
-mcepl 22 days ago
-
-I completely agree that behind Humane Vitae lurks a way deeper issue and that is the infallibility of pope/magisterium. I am not a Catholic myself (and even less I am a theologian), but I believe that the papal infallibility is one of the biggest problems for the credibility of the Church in the Western world. Anyway, as I said I am not a Catholic so the issue of papal infallibility (and confused misunderstanding of the distinction between the Universal and Roman-Catholic Church, which I am afraid is one of the sources of the papal infallibility) are not much interest of me.
-
-What is the interest and what I see as the very evil fruit of Humane Vitae is that by pushing the official Catholic doctrine to the indefensible corner and discarding any credibility of Catholics to talk on the reproductive issue for any non-Catholic, there is now missing voice in the discussion. I do believe that abortion is a murder, and I do believe (and I did promise in my marriage vows), that accepting children God gives us is an inseparable part of the marriage. However, neither of these positions is absolute (e.g., even the civil law knows that there are situations when killing of other person is legitimate; isn't the situation when the life and health of the mother is in danger one of these?) and I believe there is need for continuous discussion on the topic. I would love to have voice of conservative Catholics participate in such discussion. Unfortunately, they are mostly silenced because of the lost credibility and inability to formulate any other opinion than blindly recite Humane Vitae’s dogmatic statements.
-
-I would be grateful for HV to be one voice in the discussion, but it seems obvious that some of its statements turned out to be too extreme and they should be moderated or elaborated. Unfortunately they cannot be because popes consider themselves to be better than other humans and so they cannot say “I am sorry, this was a bit off” about some deeds of their predecessors. Enough, I am starting to be too aggressive.
-2
+Thank you for very thoughtful and concise reply. Could you elaborate,
+please? Perhaps I am not as ignorant as you try to make me?
+
+
+I completely agree that behind Humane Vitae lurks a way deeper issue and
+that is the infallibility of pope/magisterium. I am not a Catholic
+myself (and even less I am a theologian), but I believe that the papal
+infallibility is one of the biggest problems for the credibility of the
+Church in the Western world. Anyway, as I said I am not a Catholic so
+the issue of papal infallibility (and confused misunderstanding of the
+distinction between the Universal and Roman-Catholic Church, which I am
+afraid is one of the sources of the papal infallibility) are not much
+interest of me.
+
+What is the interest and what I see as the very evil fruit of Humane
+Vitae is that by pushing the official Catholic doctrine to the
+indefensible corner and discarding any credibility of Catholics to talk
+on the reproductive issue for any non-Catholic, there is now missing
+voice in the discussion. I do believe that abortion is a murder, and
+I do believe (and I did promise in my marriage vows), that accepting
+children God gives us is an inseparable part of the marriage. However,
+neither of these positions is absolute (e.g., even the civil law knows
+that there are situations when killing of other person is legitimate;
+isn't the situation when the life and health of the mother is in danger
+one of these?) and I believe there is need for continuous discussion on
+the topic. I would love to have voice of conservative Catholics
+participate in such discussion. Unfortunately, they are mostly silenced
+because of the lost credibility and inability to formulate any other
+opinion than blindly recite Humane Vitae’s dogmatic statements.
+
+I would be grateful for HV to be one voice in the discussion, but it
+seems obvious that some of its statements turned out to be too extreme
+and they should be moderated or elaborated. Unfortunately they cannot be
+because popes consider themselves to be better than other humans and so
+they cannot say “I am sorry, this was a bit off” about some deeds of
+their predecessors. Enough, I am starting to be too aggressive. 2
-----------------
-View in discussion
-Discussion on First Things 7 comments
Luther Reading Challenge | Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
-mcepl
-mcepl a month ago
-Just when talking about Luther I have to mention http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/039... … one of the five books which changed most my life.
-Edit
-View in discussion
+Just when talking about Luther I have to mention
+http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/039... … one of the five books which changed
+most my life.
-------------------------
Discussion on Catholic Authenticity 26 comments
My Libido: A Mosquito
-mcepl
-mcepl James 2 months ago
-Well, for one “asexual” is for the other one gifted with the gift of celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:7-9). And of course, it is just right and proper if every Christians follows his/her calling. However, I have problems (yes, I am a Protestant) when the calling is exchanged with the office. E.g., it is my opinion that John Wesley (the great English leader of the Methodist revival in the 18th century) had a gift of celibacy, because he came rationally to the conclusion that a pastor should give an example to his parishioners and be married (although he lived for many many years without a significant problems and his ministry schedule could be an example for 1Co 7:32b how he was incapable of maitaining a good married relationship). Although I don't think he ever did anything immoral, I am also afraid that his marriage was more or less disaster. And of course, I am afraid, that the similar mistake (just in the other direction) is a case for many Catholic priests.
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
+Well, for one “asexual” is for the other one gifted with the gift of
+celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:7-9). And of course, it is just right and
+proper if every Christians follows his/her calling. However, I have
+problems (yes, I am a Protestant) when the calling is exchanged with the
+office. E.g., it is my opinion that John Wesley (the great English
+leader of the Methodist revival in the 18th century) had a gift of
+celibacy, because he came rationally to the conclusion that a pastor
+should give an example to his parishioners and be married (although he
+lived for many many years without a significant problems and his
+ministry schedule could be an example for 1Co 7:32b how he was incapable
+of maitaining a good married relationship). Although I don't think he
+ever did anything immoral, I am also afraid that his marriage was more
+or less disaster. And of course, I am afraid, that the similar mistake
+(just in the other direction) is a case for many Catholic priests.
+
mcepl captcrisis 2 months ago
-Well, Augustine had (especially around sexuality) his own issues, what I meant was that Bible is here remarkably egalitarian ... “husband does not have authority over his own body”.
-Edit
-View in discussion
-mcepl
+Well, Augustine had (especially around sexuality) his own issues, what
+I meant was that Bible is here remarkably egalitarian ... “husband does
+not have authority over his own body”.
+
mcepl 2 months ago
-> I was complaining to God about what a lustful, brutish, inconsiderate lout he was
+> I was complaining to God about what a lustful, brutish, inconsiderate
+> lout he was
-Yes, I have to admit that being a guy with similar low libido (actually, as a former lawyer there are moments when I can very much prefer exactly Lex Visigothorum to my wife ;)) I can understand the author's cited feelings. Except, the Bible has something else to say about this:
+Yes, I have to admit that being a guy with similar low libido (actually,
+as a former lawyer there are moments when I can very much prefer exactly
+Lex Visigothorum to my wife ;)) I can understand the author's cited
+feelings. Except, the Bible has something else to say about this:
-> For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another ... [exceptions follow]
+> For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the
+> husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own
+> body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another ... [exceptions
+> follow]
So much for the Paul's supposed preference for celibacy!
-Which are exactly the moments, when I would rather throw the Holy Bible out of the window. Choosing the obedience to it may be quite difficult at times.
-1
-Edit
+Which are exactly the moments, when I would rather throw the Holy Bible
+out of the window. Choosing the obedience to it may be quite difficult
+at times.
----------------
-View in discussion
-Discussion on First Things 74 comments
Liberal Limits—and Our Opportunity | Brandon McGinley
-mcepl
-mcepl naturgesetz 2 months ago
-Exactly, I am not an American myself (only have a law degree from US university), so I may not have facts correct, but from the legal point of view the abandonment of the US Constitution (which requires a Constitutional Amendment for the large scale changes of constitution) started somewhere with FDR ("general welfare" was understood as a right to ignore all limits on the executive power; show me in the Constitution's enumerated powers place for FCC, SEC, etc.?) or with Brown v. Board of Education (however I like its holding, of course, it was going around the legislative process as well). Roe v. Wade and similar disasters just walked on the path already prepared.
+Exactly, I am not an American myself (only have a law degree from US
+university), so I may not have facts correct, but from the legal point
+of view the abandonment of the US Constitution (which requires
+a Constitutional Amendment for the large scale changes of constitution)
+started somewhere with FDR ("general welfare" was understood as a right
+to ignore all limits on the executive power; show me in the
+Constitution's enumerated powers place for FCC, SEC, etc.?) or with
+Brown v. Board of Education (however I like its holding, of course, it
+was going around the legislative process as well). Roe v. Wade and
+similar disasters just walked on the path already prepared.
-Isn't strange that the last amendment with the serious implications of the life of ordinary people was 19th (that's 1920)?
-2
-Edit
+Isn't strange that the last amendment with the serious implications of
+the life of ordinary people was 19th (that's 1920)?
----------------
Discussion on First Things 60 comments
The Church and the “New Normal” | George Weigel
-mcepl
-mcepl 2 months ago
Does
-> But too much of the Church’s clerical and lay leadership lost its nerve after Humanae Vitae.
+> But too much of the Church’s clerical and lay leadership lost its
+> nerve after Humanae Vitae.
-mean that you are sorry for too much energy spent on defending this encyclical? That would be an interesting thought, which I would tend to agree with.
-2
-Edit
+Do you mean that you are sorry for too much energy spent on defending
+this encyclical? That would be an interesting thought, which I would
+tend to agree with.
----------------
Discussion on First Things 10 comments
Liberalism and the Church | David T. Koyzis
-mcepl
-mcepl 3 months ago
-
-I don’t think you are quoting Locke in the right context. In his essay on understanding he explicitly tried to look at the religion from the political/legal point of view, and he expressly didn't want to distinguish between Christianity and Islam or other religions, and he didn't want to make a theological statement. From such point of view I believe it is perfectly legitimate to consider all religions only as a civic associations, ignoring their revealed part.
-Just to the contrary there is a strange link between political liberalism of the nineteenth century and rather personal faith. Lord Acton seems to me for example way more involved in his faith than for example Burke (as much as I admire his political thoughts), who quite passionately disliked all kinds of Christian enthusiasm, because religion was for him mainly bearer of tradition (see his comments on Methodism).
+I don’t think you are quoting Locke in the right context. In his essay
+on understanding he explicitly tried to look at the religion from the
+political/legal point of view, and he expressly didn't want to
+distinguish between Christianity and Islam or other religions, and he
+didn't want to make a theological statement. From such point of view
+I believe it is perfectly legitimate to consider all religions only as
+a civic associations, ignoring their revealed part.
+
+Just to the contrary there is a strange link between political
+liberalism of the nineteenth century and rather personal faith. Lord
+Acton seems to me for example way more involved in his faith than for
+example Burke (as much as I admire his political thoughts), who quite
+passionately disliked all kinds of Christian enthusiasm, because
+religion was for him mainly bearer of tradition (see his comments on
+Methodism).
diff --git a/firefoxOS_post-mortem.rst b/firefoxOS_post-mortem.rst
index c86a6a4..1bbad13 100644
--- a/firefoxOS_post-mortem.rst
+++ b/firefoxOS_post-mortem.rst
@@ -61,9 +61,9 @@ force use of weak passwords (and the solution is nowhere at
sight). Obviously, it means that `compatibility with Firefox
Sync`_ is really out of question. In the same category of
I-cant-believe-we-are-still-dealing-with-this bugs is inability
-to work with clipboard over the applications well. There is some
-development on this front, but it has still `not be done`_ yet
-(although I have to admit some progress happened lately).
+to work with clipboard between the applications well. There is
+some development on this front, but it has still `not be done`_
+yet (although I have to admit some progress happened lately).
Calendar works quite nicely with CalDAV (and with my ownCloud
instance). However, I would expect that in the same manner the
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ pictures from it. However, it is completely unreliable. We were
in Dresden, visiting the awesome Zwinger_, it was an extremely
hot and sunny day so typical of the past summer, and yet all my
photos of the Zinger itself ended as a complete blue disaster.
-And it is by far not the only case when something like that
+And it is by far not the only situation when something like that
happened. With Flame as a camera I was never really sure what
will I get in the end.
diff --git a/drafts/greek_church_orthodoxy.rst b/greek_church_orthodoxy.rst
index bad80c3..8e11728 100644
--- a/drafts/greek_church_orthodoxy.rst
+++ b/greek_church_orthodoxy.rst
@@ -1,16 +1,13 @@
Greek Church & Orthodoxy
########################
-:date: 1970-01-01T00:00:00
-:status: draft
+:date: 2015-11-02T12:13:30
:category: faith
:tags: ecumenism, utUnumSint, theology, ecclesiology, greek, orthoschesi̱
.. zotero-setup::
:style: chicago-author-date
-.. default-role:: xcite
-
With the end of the Jewish Church (early second century) the
Church as whole was more or less dominated by the Greek culture
until the Roman Church started to dominate the West. It seems to
@@ -48,8 +45,9 @@ There seems to be now an emerging agreement from many sides that
the extreme stress on the theological unity was crippling the
Church in the war of the fifth and sixth century, but also that
the exact minutiae of this fight are now mostly irrelevant
-`[@JenkinsJesusWars2011]`. This idea was (kind of surprisingly)
-partially supported by `@cantalamessa:2015serving`:
+:xcite:`[@JenkinsJesusWars2011]`. This idea was (kind of
+surprisingly) partially supported by
+:xcite:`@cantalamessa:2015serving`:
The situation in the beginning of the third millennium is not
same as the one in the beginning of the second millennium,
@@ -90,15 +88,15 @@ Church or even for the salvation itself.
My claiming that the current Church puts too much stress on the
Greek inheritance may seem too theoretical and abstract. Let me
present here as an example what I am thinking, the discussion
-around `[@RatzingerFaith2006]`. It is obvious that this speech
-was completely misunderstood equally both by the religious
-fanatics and secular journalists. While everybody was excited
-about the citation taken out of context, we missed what the whole
-speach was all about. I more or less agree with `[@Jenkins2009]`
-that “Benedict insisted that authentic Christianity had to be
-based on the Greek philosophical tradition, establishing the
-European intellectual model as the inevitable norm for all future
-ages.”
+around :xcite:`[@RatzingerFaith2006]`. [#]_ It is obvious that
+this speech was completely misunderstood equally both by the
+Moslem religious fanatics and secular journalists. While
+everybody was excited about the citation taken out of context, we
+missed what the whole speach was all about. I more or less agree
+with :xcite:`[@Jenkins2009]` that “Benedict insisted that
+authentic Christianity had to be based on the Greek philosophical
+tradition, establishing the European intellectual model as the
+inevitable norm for all future ages.”
See for example this rather surprising statement
@@ -131,7 +129,7 @@ Gospel message?
Also, it doesn’t seem to me surprising that the Orthodox church
as the most pure heir of this Greek Church is the strongest
opponent of the ecumenical movement. I know that documents like
-`[@mount_athos:2007memorandum]` are not 100% faithful
+:xcite:`[@mount_athos:2007memorandum]` are not 100% faithful
representation of the stance of all Orthodox Christians, but
certainly it presents a strong and authoritative voice and it
seems to present the absolute rejection of any ecumenical process
@@ -139,12 +137,14 @@ other than return of all non-Orthodox back to the Orthodox
church.
.. [#] Could we call it ορθοσχέση [orthoschési̱], right relationship?
- `@haykin:2005orthopathy` suggests the term “orthopaty”, right
- affection, for something possibly similar.
+ :xcite:`@haykin:2005orthopathy` suggests the term
+ “orthopaty”, right affection, for something possibly
+ similar.
.. [#] This stress was then made even more salient by the
Protestant tendency to *sola scriptura*. See
- `[@schmelzer:2015why]` for comment on this Protestant trend.
+ :xcite:`[@schmelzer:2015why]` for comment on this Protestant
+ trend.
.. [#] The Western church was mostly not present in these discussions
because it steadfastly kept its party line, true to its
@@ -152,6 +152,14 @@ church.
the time it was struggling for the mere survival during the
Fall of Rome era.
+.. [#] What I discuss here is the speech by Benedict XVI. only.
+ I do not discuss here his other works or his thinking. I am
+ perfectly aware of his statements like
+ :xcite:`@ratzinger:2007st_ephrem` and
+ :xcite:`@ratzinger:2007aphraates` which show clearly Joseph
+ Ratzinger acknowledging the existence of the Church of the
+ East.
+
----
.. bibliography::
diff --git a/images/centered_set_01.svg b/images/centered_set_01.svg
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diff --git a/tim-oreilly-future.rst b/tim-oreilly-future.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..80a76d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tim-oreilly-future.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+First draft of the future? Yes, throw it away!
+##############################################
+
+:date: 2015-10-06T08:14:29
+:status: draft
+:category: computer
+:tags: econtalk, future, freeMarket
+
+
+Yet another great `EconTalk show`_ with Tim O’Reilly. There was
+a couple of things which made me wonder. First of all, of course,
+Tim O’Reilly is Tim O’Reilly. Always, brilliant, surprising,
+and with the wisdom which is somehow like a pithy Oracle. He is
+too often right, but it is hard to know in advance what he means.
+
+One thing which made me happy was Tim’s unabashed optimism for
+the real market. By the real market I mean
+
+ In my consulting days, I'd been around a lot of startups. And
+ I watched them go from being really interesting companies to
+ becoming just like everybody else. And I thought, 'I don't
+ want to do that.' So, I resolved I didn't want to take
+ anybody's money. But I also knew that the web was growing so
+ fast that if I didn't take other people's money, we'd be out
+ of luck. So, we sold [our website] to AOL [America Online],
+ who promptly screwed it up. We did very well out of the
+ transaction, but we went on from there. And built our
+ publishing business through the 1990s.
+
+and also
+
+ There is a wonderful rigor in free-market economics; When you
+ have to prove the value of your ideas by persuading other
+ people to pay for them, it clears up an awful lot of wooly
+ thinking.
+
+which all leads to
+
+ My partner at O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Bryce Roberts, has
+ started this project called Indie.vc where he's really trying
+ to find companies that need the guidance of a VC (Venture
+ Capital), because a VC can really bring a lot to the table
+ besides money, but who fundamentally have a business model
+ that involves selling things to customers as opposed to, 'Our
+ business model is to get funded and eventually we'll get
+ enough users and then we'll get acquired by somebody who has
+ a business model.' And there are a lot of companies like
+ that. And we don't celebrate them enough. And we don't value
+ them enough. We are so caught up in this model that you are
+ going to grow to massive scale, and then it will be funded by
+ enterprise or more likely it will get acquired; maybe it will
+ get acquired and shut down.
+
+So, yes, I stand by my statement that `Facebook is a dud`_. I
+just have to warn you, the Cepls’ family has a long tradition
+of having the right predictions with a timing a little bit off.
+My father predicted correctly in 1968 that the Soviet Union will
+fall under the defects of its system and described the mechanism
+quite exactly. He was right, just his timing was a little bit
+off, so he wasted next twenty years of his life, the best years
+of life most likely, in the Communist Czechoslovakia. So, yes,
+that timing is often a problem.
+
+But I still stand by this statement, meaning that the company
+which does not produce anything which its users were willing to
+pay for is doomed. It might be an entertainment company, but in
+fact Facebook doesn’t provide even good entertainment. I would
+certainly prefer to watch “Murdoch Mystery” or “Downton
+Abbey” to watching my Facebook feed. It may be the
+communication platform, but it does it rather poorly as well. So,
+yes, people believe that they somehow communicate their feelings
+to the world by writing two line sentences, without understanding
+that for the thought to be valuable it has to be worked on as
+well as on any other product. And I believe that people will find
+sooner or later that HMM, WORK ON IT.
+
+.. _`EconTalk show`:
+ http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/10/tim_oreilly_on.html
+.. _`Facebook is a dud`:
+ {filename}i-will-say-just-one-very-crazy-thing.rst
generated by cgit (git 2.34.1) at 2024-09-20 08:37:17 +0000