[Doctor Stochastic]

A chicken is just an egg's way of producing another egg.

[betty boop]

marron, I've been mulling over your glorious essay this evening.

So tell me, Masked Man: Who the hail are you?

To put that impertinent question into context, we could recall that Plato, in Gorgias, had Socrates instruct his student Chaerophon to ask the first question of the great Sophist, since they were imminently to be joined in company, along with Gorgias' students, Polus and [the fatal] Callicles....

Chaerophon was clueless what question would be appropriate to address to the celebrated orator. So Socrates said, just ask him: "Who he is."

Now this is quite a difficult, if not "fatal" question to ask any intelligent person. For as Voegelin points out, this is the question that

"...is for all times the decisive question, cutting through the network of opinions, social ideas, and ideologies. It is the question that appeals to the nobility of the soul; and it is the one question which the ignoble intellectual cannot face."

Your essay is not "an intellectual exercise." It cuts to the heart-and-soul problems of human existence. And it seems to have done so, so effectively as to have precluded meaningful debate.

That is, I notice that few people have taken the trouble to reply to you.

And the whole thing was done in glorious prose!

KUDOS to you, Masked Man [Woman]!

[EternalVigilance]

Incredible piece of work. I've bookmarked it for when I have more time to read it more closely.

If you'd like to write for RenewAmerica.us, I'm sure your efforts would be very well received:

Talk to them, seriously.

editor@renewamerica.us

[A CA Guy]

Darn, I was hoping you would end by going in a trance an revealing the winning lottery numbers for tomorrow in each state.
Then those who won by listening to you could offer to by you the cheap dinner of your choice!

Why are we here and why were any of us born?
Goes back to Satan being thrown out of heaven with 1/3rd of the former occupants.
God wants a full house and we are souls being born who are trying to fill it back up.
We are not worthy on our own to deserve heaven and should be grateful that we can cheat in this game of life by relying in Christ as out Lord and Savior for our salvation to afterlife.

None of us are here a long lime. Some are forbidden by their parent to even be born.

There are horrors and blessings in this world, but one thing is certain. For those of us born in the USA, we are one fortunate group of people.
God Bless America and the rest of us as well.

[MHGinTN]

A better sermon I have not heard or read. Thank you for regaling my flagging soul. I've printed it out for rereading ... there is so much to contemplate, so much over which to mull, so much that resonates with our 'now' as we meet it day by day. Thank you for 'doing' this.

[MHGinTN]

Incidentally, if you're planning more essays, would you please add me to your 'ping list'?

[MHGinTN]

Need I ping you to this thread?

[Phaedrus]

Faith is courage in motion.

Still reading but, Oh, I like this very much! With Thanks to beckett and bb for the ping. And beckett, what a pleasure it is to see you here! And Askel, what a pleasure it would be to see again!

[Phaedrus]

Still reading but very, very good, marron -- a fine meditation. I expect I'll have more to say later. Thinking about your essay as it relates to the foundational importance of the integrity of the law and the sanctity of property as the duly earned product of human effort and creativity, and these as they relate to our material prosperity.

[TRY ONE]

"God’s people are not those who feel compassion; God’s people are those who act on it."

Doing and "acting" alone do not make you God's people.
Salvation is not a reward for services rendered!
To be "God's people" one must believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior!

[DouglasKC]

I stumbled across this and took a chance. You absolutely nailed faith and love dead on. You put into words that which I thought was impossible to express. Fantastic piece of prose and thanks for posting it.

[dubyagee]

Bump for later read.

[spodefly]

BUMP for when my corporeal existense permits philosophical indulgence ... in other words, I'll read it when I get back from playing outside!

[budwiesest]

bump for later, so far so good though.

[Yardstick]

So many good points and so well written. This is cream-of the-cream type posting. Major *Bump* and kudos!

[TASMANIANRED]

A very good read. Some of these concepts have disturbed my sleep at night. I have churned the concepts over and have pondered on the why of me and the why of all of us.

You are obviously a great ponderer, a very fine organizer and present a very logical argument. My hats off to you that you actually took the time to go from thought to creation .

One of the things that is grotesquely unbalanced in any political discourse in this country is those on the right argue from logic and those on the left have no logic, no attention span for reasoned discussion and argue from emotion. They are the mob mentality at it's worst. They basically are animals , Rutting, grunting, consuming is basic survival. Becoming human requires a large amount of effort.

[in the Arena]

1. to build and to create
2. to seek truth and knowledge
3. to love
4. to live honorably
5. and to raise up another generation to do the same.

It is really that simple.

Nicely put...

[Revolting cat!]

This is “WOW!The Best Essay”, etc? I’d better bookmark it for later. I only read the section on LOVE and am unconvinced. How do you tell what a man is ‘willing’ to sacrifice for love? He’ll tell you, I’ll tell you I’d give the world, etc., but that’s saying it is not the real thing, is it. Later...