Mirror-nomics; Magnificat
March 5, 2011 Leave a comment
Planned Stop
March 4, 2011 Leave a comment
“Marilyn Musgrave states, “Planned Parenthood’s business model is destructive for women, unborn children and young girls and is offensive to taxpayers. This campaign is a reminder of what the mid-term election was all about — the power of the pro-life grassroots. Pouring millions of dollars into an organization that has been repeatedly exposed as a frequent and willing ally of those who sex traffic women and underage girls makes no sense, especially at a time when our country is drowning in debt. The message is clear: not with our tax dollars. We will accept nothing less than the total defunding of Planned Parenthood.”
Lila Rose states, “Congress can no longer hide behind the lie that Planned Parenthood puts women first, especially not when they’ve been shown repeatedly willing to aid in the sexual exploitation of young girls. A vote to funnel federal dollars into this corrupt organization is a vote to make taxpayers accomplices in the exploitation of women and at a time when our country is broke. We commend our Representatives who have taken the first step by voting to strip Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer funds, and implore that they hold the line in negotiations with the Senate.”
from this post:
‘Women Speak Out’ Bus Tour to Rally Pro-Life Grassroots Support
The Imprint of Prudence
March 4, 2011 Leave a comment
During the 2010 Lenten season, I studied Josef Pieper’s book The Four Cardinal Virtues. I specifically meditated on the first two virtues: Prudence and Justice.
During the 2011 Lenten season, I will meditate on the virtues of Fortitude and Temperance.
Quotes from Josef Pieper’s The Four Cardinal Virtues:
The First of the Cardinal Virtues…
Prudence:
“No dictum in traditional Christian doctrine strikes such a note of strangeness to the ears of contemporaries, even contemporary Christians, as this one: the virtue of prudence is the mold and “mother” of all the other cardinal virtues, of justice, fortitude, and temperance. In other words, none but the prudent man can be just, brave, and temperate, and the good man is good in so far as he is prudent.”
“To the contemporary mind, then, the concept of the good rather excludes than includes prudence. Modern man cannot conceive of a good act which might not be imprudent, nor of a bad act which might not be prudent. He will often call lies and cowardice prudent, truthfulness and courageous sacrifice imprudent.”
“Prudence is the “measure” of justice, of fortitude, of temperance. This means simply the following: as in the creative cognition of God all created things are pre-imaged and pre-formed; as, therefore, the immanent essences of all reality dwell in God as ‘ideas”, as “preceding images” …; and as man’s perception of realty is a receptive transcript of the objective world of being; and as the artist’s works are transcripts of a living prototype already within his creative cognition – so the decree of prudence is the prototype and the pre-existing form of which all ethically good action is the transcript.”
“Prudence “informs” the other virtues; it confers on them the form of their inner essence…And so prudence imprints the inward seal of goodness upon all free activity of man.”
“The intrinsic goodness of man – and that is the same as saying his true humanness – consists in this, that “reason perfected in cognition of truth” shall inwardly shape and imprint his volition and action.”
“Certainly prudence is the standard of volition and action; but the standard of prudence, on the other hand, is the ipsa res, the “thing itself”, the objective reality of being. And therefore the pre-eminence of prudence signifies first of all the direction of volition and action toward truth; but finally it signifies the directing of volition and action toward objective reality. The good is prudent beforehand; but that is prudent which is in keeping with reality.”
“Thank You” Psalm
February 25, 2011 Leave a comment
Now, a “Thank You” March
For a God beyond my means,
His pleasure to want me,
Mine to respond:
O Son of God, O Son of God.
Thank You, Thank You.
© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved
Fever Pitch
February 24, 2011 Leave a comment
Demonstrative differences,
Placard positions held
Above eyes that do not see and
Ears that do not hear,
Become the Rhetoric of Pressure:
“We demand you recognize the truth of power.”
(Denigrating innuendo,
Self-serving solipsism
And proprietary ‘truth’,
Private property of the affixed,
Morphs into murder when
Scoped long enough.)
Folded arms –
The versus-versus of “WE”
/Block /“THEM” out.
*****
Tempest aside,
Demonstrative differences
Converge into community (> us v. them),
When the will to want truth
(Truth, as opposed to what my peers let me get away with saying)
Is also the will to embrace the other –
As “members one of another”
We “speak truth to our neighbor”.
Example given:
A demonstration of truth-love,
Fever pitched –
A baby, this Jesus, Son of Mary.
A Witness to what He has seen, to what He has heard
Of the Father.
© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved
Furthermore Psalm
February 23, 2011 Leave a comment
I don’t exist…
On paper, I am what I owe,
On the street, alexander supertramp,
At home, a tree fallen in the forest,
At work, a number of hours,
At rest, a vaporized dream.
I don’t exist.
A calendar told me,
“Your days don’t matter.”
nil nisi bonum
© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved
Naturalism ‘ad absurdum’
February 23, 2011 4 Comments
Alvin Plantinga responding to Richard Dawkin’s book, The God Delusion:
…“The real problem here, obviously, is Dawkins’ naturalism, his belief that there is no such person as God or anyone like God. That is because naturalism implies that evolution is unguided. So a broader conclusion is that one can’t rationally accept both naturalism and evolution; naturalism, therefore, is in conflict with a premier doctrine of contemporary science. People like Dawkins hold that there is a conflict between science and religion because they think there is a conflict between evolution and theism; the truth of the matter, however, is that the conflict is between science and naturalism, not between science and belief in God.
“The God Delusion is full of bluster and bombast, but it really doesn’t give even the slightest reason for thinking belief in God mistaken, let alone a “delusion.”
The naturalism that Dawkins embraces, furthermore, in addition to its intrinsic unloveliness and its dispiriting conclusions about human beings and their place in the universe, is in deep self-referential trouble. There is no reason to believe it; and there is excellent reason to reject it.”
You can read the entire article here.
Here are excellent papers by professor Alvin Plantinga and one titled “Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism.”
Added 02/24/11:
In terms of probability: P(R/N&E)
R= a claim of reliability based on human cognitive faculties
N=metaphysical naturalism
E=evolution developed cognition (blind watchmaker stuff)
P of R<1/2 = a self-defeater for R if we accept N & E
St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer (A Sardonically Gizmonic Adaptation)
February 22, 2011 Leave a comment
iPhone be with me, iPod within me,
Surround Sound behind me, Netbook before me,
Blackberry beside me, X-Box to win me,
Playstation to comfort and restore me.
DVD beneath me, HDTV above me,
Kindle in quiet, GPS in danger,
PSP in the hearts of all that love me,
Wireless in the mouth of friend and stranger.
I BIND UNTO MYSELF THIS DAY
THE THREE-IN-ONE –
HOME THEATRE.
adaptation © Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved
Endnotes
February 20, 2011 Leave a comment
Time has a caption
Written in stone:
“In Loving Memory;”
“Here Lies So & So.”
Neglect of the spirit,
The body, the soul,
Will banish the goodness
Tarnish the whole.
So, reflect on the Passion –
Christ’s death on a cross,
Repent and return,
He looks for the lost.
Eternity’s caption:
“Forever With Him,”
Means I choose daily
To live without sin.
© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved
*****************
Better yet…
THOU hast made me, and shall Thy work decay?
Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste;
I run to death, and Death meets me as fast,
And all my pleasures are like yesterday.
I dare not move my dim eyes any way;
Despair behind, and Death before doth cast
Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth waste
By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh.
Only Thou art above, and when towards Thee
By Thy leave I can look, I rise again;
But our old subtle foe so tempteth me,
That not one hour myself I can sustain.
Thy grace may wing me to prevent his art
And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart
John Donne, The Holy Sonnets I.
Cindy Wity 