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Post a Comment On: Bruce Charlton's Notions

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Blogger William Wildblood said...

The crux of it all is indeed which comes first, God or Man. We have decided it is Man which means we have decided everything is fundamentally meaningless. But in that case the whole thing is a pointless charade anyway and all we need do is anaesthetise ourselves between two phases of non-existence. If God does not come first nothing matters. Why should I care about the survival of the human species unless there is something beyond the human species, giving it its life, in which I partake eternally?

When Rome burned in 64 AD Nero blamed the Christians to deflect accusations that he had ordered the burning himself. According to Tacitus in his Annals 'they were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as of "hating the human race."' Nero is traditionally regarded as a forerunner of the Antichrist so perhaps we are about to see patterns repeat themselves.

28 March 2020 at 13:11

Blogger jas said...

I dont believe theres a coup or plan. Occam's razor: incompetence. They have no idea what they are doing, making it up as they go along. The mentality of 'having to be seen to be doing something', without engaging brain first. This is the evil we won't be able to escape from - till it all comes crashing down.

28 March 2020 at 18:24

Blogger Jared said...

I appreciate your candor, Bruce. I feel it is refreshing and manly in this time of global crackdown.
It's certainly horrible what's going on. But I look at it more like the popularity of a new trend, or like the Beatles' popularity in the 60's. Something like that.
I don't feel powerless. I feel more like a person waiting for the final judgement, (although I know that is a ways off), making a few last improvements and reviewing their life before they will have to give an accounting to their Maker.
We have an unprecedented echo chamber of Facebook and Twitter. We have a lot of decadence.
I think in a totalitarian world people would be complicit with the evil power because they have to and because they want to. There are a lot of powerful people that are just not fighting back because it's not the best thing to do.
I think this will in the future be a thing seen as a backdoor security of Nations hack and people will sneer at false attempts to cause global shutdown to prevent people using that back door again. People live and learn.

28 March 2020 at 20:13

Blogger Bruce Charlton said...

@jas - It's the same with miracles, when someone's assumption is that something can't happen and they do not want to believe, there can Never be sufficient evidence to Make someone believe. Not even totalitarian takeover in scores of nations simultaneously for the only time in the history of the world is going to be enough. There is always some other explanation for anything.

28 March 2020 at 20:19

Anonymous Sean fowler said...

I remember Douglas Murray, who has spent a great deal of time considering the subject, saying, concerning mass coercively engineered migration, as a result of bombing and invading numerous Islamic nations, creating massive waves of refugees, through borders that were wide open, into nations that had been indoctrinated for decades to hate themselves and consider any objection to mass uncontrolled immigration, to be racist. “ it may seem like a conspiracy, but that’s impossible as nobody could have done it.”
Well he’s right about that!
It’s the same with the virus and sabotage of the world economy and imposition of martial law. If you don’t see it as spiritual warfare, it doesn’t matter how intelligent or well informed or well intentioned you are, you’re going to miss the plot.

28 March 2020 at 21:40

Blogger Hrothgar said...

Sean Fowler - indeed!

Jas - I am very familiar with this outlook, as I held it myself for a number of years. It functioned most essentially as a an intellectual defense against personally accepting the real existence of supernatural evil (as opposed to its hypothetical possibility), particularly as manifested in the activities of hostile, destructive spirit beings known as demons or devils (as opposed to a vague abstract tendency to wrongdoing, or a simple privation of good). I suspect that this will be approximately what it does for you too.

I vaguely recollect posting about this subject in more detail here in response to a previous post of Bruce's, but I will probably not be able to find it now, as I don't think the comments, as opposed to the original posts, are searchable. For now, I would draw your attention to Sean Fowler's comment in addition to Bruce's post, and suggest that further reflection on the underlying metaphysics of the situation may help. Occam's Razor, like any other philosophical tool, is only as good as its premises. If you have pre-excluded supernatural evil from consideration, it will lead you to very different conclusions than if you have allowed it.

29 March 2020 at 03:49

Blogger Bruce Charlton said...

@William "If God does not come first nothing matters. Why should I care about the survival of the human species unless there is something beyond the human species, giving it its life, in which I partake eternally?"

What we are seeing is the consequence of extreme short-termism, when it is always most expedient to go along with authority and make excuses for doing so - refusing to see the direction in which one is being herded - even when the timescale is only a few days.

The choice seems to be living on a timescale of eternity, or just a few hours ahead (not even a day, at present!) - no other options are left-open.

This is one way that God makes the ultimate choice clearer and simpler for us.

29 March 2020 at 11:43