tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post81958357106554330..comments2024-03-28T09:59:13.754-07:00Comments on bionic mosquito: An Excellent Conversation, Part II bionic mosquitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-73332080499978985472021-12-01T19:49:13.071-08:002021-12-01T19:49:13.071-08:00Unknown,
You say there is no such thing as "...Unknown, <br /><br />You say there is no such thing as "revealed Truth." My question to you is this: How do you know? Obviously you believe this to be true, but how did you come to such a conclusion? Where is your proof? Your logic and reasoning? <br /><br />Perhaps, believing that there is no such thing as revealed Truth is one of the most dangerous ideas there can be. <br /><br />I recently posted a short article on my blog about this very subject. You can find it here: <br />https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2021/11/26/the-truth-of-the-matter/ If you like, you can leave a comment. <br /><br /><br />Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156823478509665137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-76604229477133259182021-12-01T14:10:29.098-08:002021-12-01T14:10:29.098-08:00Unknown,
Dangerous to the would-be tyrants of thi...Unknown,<br /><br />Dangerous to the would-be tyrants of this world and their cronies who would be delighted to perch atop a society fostered for generations to believe in only man's reason, with right and wrong reason deciphered only by those favored by Leviathan? Yes, I agree.<br /><br />Revelation (a law beyond man) is essential to good governance, but not all revelation is created equal as you so casually suggest. A fungi-induced psychedelic trip by a 38 year-old living in his mom's basement is not to be treated with equal validity to the words of the Old Testament prophets, the Gospels, the Epistles, or the Apocalypse.<br /><br />Only a law above man can hope to restrict the actions of men in power, and even then it is no guarantee, as can be seen in the history of Christendom. But the hell that was unleashed on the world when the reign of Christ was replaced with the reign of Reason in the West with the rise of nation-states should be instructive to all those who would blithely discount the word of God altogether.<br /><br />If revelation is to be discarded, what then is your solution to the meaning crisis and to the problem of tyranny?A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-83322542526930194602021-12-01T05:23:46.023-08:002021-12-01T05:23:46.023-08:00Psychedelics are just another form of "revela...Psychedelics are just another form of "revelation." Which does not speak well for revelation in general, I'd say. There is no such thing as "revealed Truth." Believing that there is, is one of the most dangerous ideas there can be.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14744536089279494069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-63023045700763806352021-11-30T07:02:31.725-08:002021-11-30T07:02:31.725-08:00Right, it was on the Bishop to broach this topic. ...Right, it was on the Bishop to broach this topic. But apparently psychedelics is something the 'church' is going to have to contend with, but to me it just seems silly. It is sort of analogous to the lowering of interest rates via fiat credit expansion. Interest rates are falling not because of a healthy growing economy with a decreasing time preference, but because of artificial increases in the supply of money. And this manipulation promotes an unhealthy and increasingly fragile economy with an increasing time preference.<br /><br />In the same way psychedelics offers a deeply religious or 'spiritual' experience without the discipline of advanced asceticism or proper religious guidance. It's an attempt at a short cut into religious maturity. And instead of this experience experience reflecting deep religious maturity, it generally seems to promote the opposite: hyper-individualism, materialism, and atheism.<br /><br />"To say out loud that you believe it was God who died on the cross and then He rose again three days later?"<br /><br />Ultimately it took humility for me to accomplish this when I came back to Christ. Or maybe it was a sort of abandoning of the faith in what humanity knows about existence from a scientific perspective. I suppose the two are related. It was a lot of other things too that led me back. The pursuit of the origins of liberty contributed certainly.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-8241447095559125812021-11-30T06:36:49.686-08:002021-11-30T06:36:49.686-08:00Abolition of Man is one for the ages for sure, and...Abolition of Man is one for the ages for sure, and specifically the essay Men without Chests. I need to read it again soon.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-68937001315640272042021-11-29T20:35:21.450-08:002021-11-29T20:35:21.450-08:00I wonder what Peterson has to say about The Abolit...I wonder what Peterson has to say about The Abolition of Man. I have just finished my second reading and I'm even more impressed with its wisdom. I'm only sorry I didn't read it at a younger age, but I thank you Bionic, for your many mentions which pointed me to this powerful book, although I may not have appreciated it as much then as I now do. Peg Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-27116306036716900042021-11-29T18:01:46.476-08:002021-11-29T18:01:46.476-08:00VanderKlay does an interesting treatment on the ps...VanderKlay does an interesting treatment on the psychedelic portion of this conversation. He gets to where I got, and what you have pointed out: it is all inside, atomistic hyper-individualism. It seems a natural place to land for one lost in a society designed to be devoid of meaning.bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-71150898667314797822021-11-29T17:59:38.970-08:002021-11-29T17:59:38.970-08:00ATL first, thank you for the kind words aimed towa...ATL first, thank you for the kind words aimed toward me. You are right: I never had the intent of drawing an audience, yet I am quite pleased with the audience that has been attracted to this spot.<br /><br />As for Peterson, I pray he sees some light, but I feel that he will never allow himself to get there. To say out loud that you believe it was God who died on the cross and then He rose again three days later? Very hard to say for someone steeped in liberal (not even leftist) academia.<br /><br />Still, it was Baron that should have raised the topic of natural law - better this than spend countless minutes on psychedelics. bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-76809265574675314432021-11-29T12:49:10.857-08:002021-11-29T12:49:10.857-08:00I would love to have Hoppe's thoughts on this ...I would love to have Hoppe's thoughts on this conversation between Peterson, Vervaeke, Pageau, and Barron, as well as Bionic's contributions to it. I don't really think the meaning crisis is his forte though. I think he is the vanguard of the most ethical and consistent political system which, I contend, would be best at allowing natural law to flourish and extinguish the meaning crisis. <br /><br />But I'm not sure if Hoppe has ever made this point. I think Hoppe is certainly capable of addressing these issues from logical, ethical, political, and sociological perspectives, but him being an agnostic (as far as I know), would make it difficult for him to swim at the depths of the meaning crisis, which ultimately reflects the God shaped hole both in modern society and in so many human hearts enthralled to it. His interest in the libertarian-ness Christendom and the political thought of the Catholic convert Carl Ludwig von Haller is very promising though. I sincerely hope that Hoppe finds a road to faith in Jesus Christ.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-12596109360451995792021-11-29T09:08:33.884-08:002021-11-29T09:08:33.884-08:00"Pageau introduces it by noting that in the l..."Pageau introduces it by noting that in the last few months, Peterson has been talking a lot about psychedelics."<br /><br />The use of psychedelics is basically mental masturbation. It's selfish inward looking. It's the search for experience with one's own subconscious. It's the search for feeling, not meaning. It's materialism replacing religion. It's the search for the nonexistent God within us who will authorize all of our deepest desires, instead of the existing God above and beyond which sets before us a difficult path of self-deprivation or other-regarding behavior - love.<br /><br />"By insisting specially on the immanence of God we get introspection, self-isolation, quietism, social indifference – Tibet. By insisting specially on the transcendence of God we get wonder, curiosity, moral and political adventure, righteous indignation – Christendom. Insisting that God is inside man, man is always inside himself. By insisting that God transcends man, man has transcended himself." - G.K. ChestertonA Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-89391650188250311862021-11-29T08:58:33.305-08:002021-11-29T08:58:33.305-08:00"And then, a real zinger from Pageau:"
..."And then, a real zinger from Pageau:"<br /><br />I could tell Vanderclay was a bit miffed at this in his reaction video. I would say that the length doesn't matter but the content. I get his point though. <br /><br />I think it's related to the same point I had in critiquing this discussion and Peterson in general. Early on, Peterson spoke about his objective for getting these three guys together to discuss meaning and that was to have an "interesting conversation". Perhaps he meant this as an innocent and uncontroversial statement, but to me it was illuminating. An interesting conversation fills the seats and leads to success in this content-creator field that Peterson now dwells in, but does it arrive at the truth? I would say rarely, unless one's objective is here to begin with - even rarer when the gatekeepers of the majority of the 'seats' are opposed to the truth as is now so evident.<br /><br />This is why I discount a lot of what Peterson says, and why I hold in such high regard what you say Bionic. Your objective has been the truth this whole time. Interesting conversations abound in the pages of Bionic Mosquito, but this aspect of your mission was never the purpose; it was only an effect.<br /><br />Peterson's objective is as he stated, to have interesting conversations. He wants to be successful at filling seats. And he is and does. To the extent he gets close to the truth and gives a giant platform to those who do seek it (sort of like Buckley and his show 'Firing Line'), I applaud him. In this regard he's done more for liberty and Christianity than I have certainly. But I don't look to him as a leader nor will I put my trust in him if he thrusts himself into that role. I think he is at root a showman intellectual who will make a career at dancing around the truth without ever arriving at it.<br /><br />“The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” - G.K. Chesterton<br /><br />Will Peterson ever shut his mind on the meaning-bedrock of natural law? I highly doubt it.<br /><br />"In other words, the most significant single event designed to increase the meaning crisis, and the elephant was left alone in the room."<br /><br />That would have been getting too close to the truth. And the truth will often get you de-platformed by the gatekeepers. Not a good idea if your objective is to fill seats.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-33154750229286083822021-11-29T06:18:42.425-08:002021-11-29T06:18:42.425-08:00"See the Greco-Roman world prior to Christian..."See the Greco-Roman world prior to Christianity, and consider what was considered “ethical” at the time. The ethics desired by scientists cannot be had without the Christianity that underlies these. As Nietzsche offered, when one gives up the Christian faith one also loses the right to Christian morality."<br /><br />I wish Hoppe would chime in regarding this conundrum. He talks about significance of cultural norms in "real world libertarianism" but hasn't discuss how he himself deals with the prospect of being a "non-believer" in Christian terms with the reality of believing the Christian underpinnings of Western culture yields more "libertarian" outcomes.<br /><br />"But you are right - no mention of natural law - and this is where this conversation must go; it is the place where the atheists and Christians in this conversation are both aiming."<br /><br />See, ATL wants Hoppe to chime in too. :)Nick Badalamentihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14015961786370759940noreply@blogger.com