Posted on 11/01/2006 1:14:53 PM PST by cornelis
Edited on 11/01/2006 1:21:05 PM PST by Lead Moderator. [history]
I read NRO just about every day and visit The Corner usually several times a day. Of all the contributors there Mr. Derbyshire is my least favorite. I rarely read him at all anymore. He seems to have a very high opinion of himself and I am at a loss to discover why.
Nice.
Brevity is the abortion of thought, words are the stream of the soul.
Have you ever read any of Justine Raimondo's pieces?
The study divides Americans' beliefs about God into four categories (five if you count the 5% or so dogmatic atheists or convinced agnostics). According to the Baylor survey, the four "Gods" Americans believe in are: the Authoritarian God, the Benevolent God, the Critical God and the Distant God. Yes, "authoritarian" is a word that most often gets taken to mean bad, but in this case, it may be hard to come up with an alternative. Maybe "authoritative" or "paternal" or "stern" would fit.
It's an interesting thesis. On some political issues, "which God" one believes in doesn't have much of an effect, at least in so far as the big "the environment should be protected, yes or no" questions. On other issues it looks as though the believers in the Critical or Distant God (where I've sort of found myself lately) tend to be more liberal than believers in the "Authoritarian God" or even the Benevolent God. That troubles me a little.
As for Derbyshire, I think he tells us way too much about himself. It's hard not to lose some respect him at this point.
You can't very well argue with him. He has lost his faith, knows it, and thinks it's a good thing. I'd say it's a bad thing, but that's not going to persuade him.
Rather sad. I too was brought up as an Anglican--technically an Episcopalian, but I always thought of it as High Anglican. It was, for me, not enough, but it gave me the basics of religion and pointed me toward my conversion to Catholicism in college. Otherwise, if I had stayed Anglican, I suspect that the sad developments in that Church would have probably dissillusioned me much like Derbyshire.
I will always be grateful for what the Episcopal Church and some of my fellow Episcopalians gave me, while I was growing up. Unlike Derbyshire, I got none of this from my parents, who were agnostic and non-church going. But if not for the Catholic Church, I probably would have gone the same way Derbyshire did.
I hope he reconsiders and learns better. He will find that fake graces won't fool his children for long.
Actually I'm convinced that we all have attention deficit disorder. Maybe bloggers more so than others.
Just perused them a bit back when he used to link here at FR.
The river to his soul was very wide and extremely shallow. I've never seen someone who could use so many words just to say, "I am angry and hate America".
But I've observed often enough that silence is the sign of ignorance and that mature knowledge has a hard time shutting up.
Good point. I know I bounce all over the net just about every day.
What were we talking about........?????
Since Biology was one of the big things that caused the loss of faith, perhaps you should know that biology does not disprove a human being is made in the image of God.
The image of God is a spiritual image. Upon death, we become something entirely different yet again, a being without the biology of flesh that some scientists use to disprove the Creation.
I read it, and I am sorry, but I have no idea who this guy is either like another poster. I am sorry he feels this way about Christ, but this does not make him unique in the world we live in.
I always liked Derbyshire, but the last two pieces of his, this is one of them, I have found completely depressing. He just seems to have turned into a grumpy old coot. I don't know if I'll read his stuff any more.
A. No. I take the minimal definition of a Christian to be a person who is sure that Jesus of Nazareth was divine, or part-divine, and that the Resurrection was a real event. I don’t believe either of those things.
She should feel right at home in the Episcopal church
Church Head Doubts Jesus is Only Way
Associated Press
November 1, 2006
CBNNews.com - NEW YORK (AP) - The woman who'll be installed this weekend as the first female presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church doesn't consider Jesus Christ the only way to God.
In an Associated Press interview, Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori said, "If we insist that we know the one way to God, we've put God in a very small box."
The Bible declares that "in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form."
But Jefferts-Schori says she doesn't believe that "one person can have the fullness of truth in him or herself." http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/49727.aspx
Just another evolution convert.
Only a fool says in his heart, there is no God.
Yes, he is cynical, and my guess is that he has a bad case of ennui. That's lamentable, I think, even tragic.
Good point, it would make him representative.
Thanks, x, for the links. I think the two fundamental questions that drive politics are Who am I? and Who is God? (Hat tip: Leo Strauss). Surveys that count the spirits are, I think, evidence of a strange duel between God and Man.
I am interested as to why you have that sensibility. I found his essay thoughtful and candid, warts and all. I am not quite on his page (particularly about religion in the public square and his ignoring the tremendous changes that have occurred in Catholicism, and among Catholics, with and since Vatican II - yes the Church really did comes to terms with democracy, liberty and individual conscience IMO), but not far from it.
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