Stephen Roney's Blog, page 277

Credo in Deum Patrem

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of the saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

A social group to which I belong recently took in a Catholic mass. Discussing it afterward, one participant preemptively announced she was Catholic, and disavowed the Creed, recited at this as at every mass.

“Most Catholics,” she said, “just say the words, but we don’t believe all that stuff.”

I could not contradict her. She may be right. But this is troubling, since the original point of the Creed was to establish who is a Christian and who is not.

My friend Xerxes, a pillar of the United Church, also dismisses God as depicted in the Creed as a “fairy-tale God.”

They seem to take the claims as self-evidently improbable.

The same notion for years powered the “Jesus seminar.” But the logic of it is obviously wrong on the most fundamental level.

First, it takes no leap of faith to assert that a Supreme Being necessarily exists. This various major philosophers have demonstrated seven ways to Sunday.

A Supreme Being is, by definition, all powerful.

It follows that he is perfectly capable of everything in the Creed. There is nothing improbable about any of it. The only question is, would he want to do these things?

Xerxes dislikes the idea of God as a person, who might then so will. He likes to think of God as a force like gravity, or a kind of network.

But this concept too fails right out of the gate. Surely we can agree that a conscious, self-aware being with intent exists in a more complete sense than something unconscious: that, say, a human is a higher state of being than a rock. It is also hard to be omniscient without being conscious; lacking consciousness, God could not be God. A conscious, self-aware being with intent, is what we call a person.

Now, would he will to do these things, or something like them?

A Supreme Being, as Descartes, for one, demonstrated, must necessarily be good, and all-good. Evil is a flaw, a deficiency.

An all-good being would want to do good to man. He would love us, with a perfect love. Accordingly, he would want to reveal himself to us, and lead us to higher perfection.

And so it ought even to be logically expected that God would appear in history at some point. Obvious enough that it is found in Hinduism as well, in the concept of the avatar. Or, in effect, leaving aside some important theological differences, in Buddhism, in the concept of the Bodhisattva.

The only question then is when and where. 


Was it Jesus, or Krishna, or Kwan Yin, or some other, or someone yet to come?

To help us decide, there are also specific empirical facts asserted in the Creed. Christianity is actually to some extent falsifiable, meeting Popper’s criterion for scientific knowledge. It is not a matter of arbitrary belief.

If, for example, it could be shown that Pontius Pilate was not an authority in Palestine at about the time of Jesus, Christianity would be disproven. If a corpse of Jesus were recovered, or there were credible records of one, Christianity would be disproven.

Conversely, the fact that what historical records we have conform with these facts, tends to make the whole more probable than not. The disappearance of the corpse—something attested implicitly by ancient non-Christian sources, which had every reason to wish to debunk Christianity—being the most important.

The same is obviously not true of fairy tales. The existence of fairies is not logically necessary, and fairy tales make no historic claims.

'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

Another Petition to Sign

This one from True North.

Just do it.'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

Now Is the Time for All Good People ...

I certainly can’t say for sure, because Google’s sinister algorithms pre-screen everything so that it conforms to what it thinks are our pexisting prejudices. But it seems the coverage of the Don Cherry firing has changed.

For the first day or two, it was all, “why did it take so long to fire Don Cherry?” And “Canada has at last outgrown Don Cherry.”

Now the story seems to have shifted to “the Don Cherry controversy.” And “the Don Cherry controversy just won’t die.” One online petition is nearing 200,000 signatures, and apparently there was a demonstration this afternoon in from of the SportsNet offices.

I gather the media expected the public to take this sitting down. Seems awfully naïve of them. But it has been clear for some time that they don’t get out much.


'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

Surely a Revelation Is at Hand ...

Why was I thinking last night of Lee Harvey Oswald... along with Don Cherry?

It was almost the same time of year, as darkness was asserting dominance in the skies; and it seemed as epochal a disturbance in our shared lives.

To anyone of about my age, the Kennedy assassination was a revelation. We had innocently assumed that the world was good. The obvious empire of evil had been destroyed, a couple of decades ago, and the future could only be brighter than the past. The death of JFK was, to us, the discovery that evil had spontaneously resurrected itself. Nothing was ever the same again.

Although it seemed so improbable that we could not process it, Kennedy seems to have been killed by one lone demoniac. Oswald killed him for one simple reason: because Kennedy was a better man than he was, and so could not be permitted to exist.

The revelation that comes with this sudden career assassination of Don Cherry is that, over the intervening years, we have all become Oswalds. Now Oswald’s voice is coming from not just from the grassy knoll, but from all sides, from the observing crowd.

Or at least, the Oswalds have taken charge.


'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

A Walk in Toronto

Yesterday, out walking, I passed a woman waiting at the bus stop. She gave me a concerned look. I could not tell why.

Buses do not come often on route 70C. Some minutes later, I was walking back the same way, and the same woman was still waiting. This time she addressed me.

“How do you keep it on?”

I could not place it, but she had a foreign accent.

I did not know what she was referring to. “You mean my toque?”

“No, the poppy. I’ve bought three, but they keep falling off.”

I actually had a few suggestions. I have a video on the subject up on this blog.

Try sticking an eraser end on the pin. Try taping it.

“I’ll do that when I get home.”

“Next year. This is the last day we wear them.”

She obviously did not know. But she had seen my poppy, and felt guilty.

Strikes me this was the immediate result of Don Cherry’s complaint on Coach’s Corner.

He may have gotten fired for it, but he made a good point, and some immigrants are listening.

The shame of it is, nobody is telling them about these Canadian traditions, and why Canadians care about them. Nobody is telling them anything about this new culture they have signed on for. They may very well want to know, want to assimilate and contribute. From my own experience, most of them do, and badly. There is a reason why they left their former country; there is a reason why they chose Canada.

But the government is actively discouraging them, and nobody else dares bring the topic up. Because if they do, they will be berated for it. They may even lose their job.

That is our real problem here: multiculturalism.


'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

This Blog's Apple iTunes Podcast

I am informed by Apple that this blog's podcast is now also live in iTunes. You can subscribe and keep in touch.

As with the book, so far there is only one episode--had to see first if this was going to work--but I plan for more to follow.

So now you can listen on your way to work.'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

Apple iTunes Podcast

The Playing the Indian Card podcast is now available, I am informed, on iTunes.

Only one episode so far, but subscribe and stay tunes. I plan for there to be more.


'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

Vote in the Poll

Should Don Cherry have been fired?

You know what to do.

https://madvalleycurrent.com/

'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

Sign the Petition.

Another Don Cherry petition to sign.

https://www.change.org/p/sportsnet-an...

'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.

Sign the Petition

Rebel media has launched a petition to support Don Cherry.

Sign here.

For details, read the post below.

'Od's Blog: Catholic and Clear Grit comments on the passing parade.