Category: Idolatry
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Rogues in Bergoglio’s Footsteps
The truth is too magnificent a thing to be the the property of any one religious institution. Too magnificent a thing, and too elusive a thing to be owned or housed or patented or reduced to the formulas of a sect or finitized or fought over. Institutions too often value their own perpetuation over the…
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What is Fueling the L. A. Fires?
The obvious answer in terms of tinder-dry flammable materials, the Santa Ana winds, etc. does not cut deep enough. Ideologically, nature idolatry plays a major role in the ferocity, force, and human impact of the L. A. fires. Their source is in radical environmentalism. Radical environmentalism, as opposed to a wise stewardship of nature, is…
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Idolatry and Atheism
Substack wanted me to re-post this entry from four years ago. Share an old post You originally published "Idolatry and Atheism" 4 years ago. Consider sharing it again with your readers. Sharing relevant old posts is a great way to engage your audience who might not have seen them already without having to create new…
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Earth Day 2024
Substack latest.
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Idolatry, Desire, Buddha, Causation, and Malebranche
Substack latest. Does causation have a moral dimension? This upload was 'occasioned' (all puns intended) by my meeting with the amazing Steven Nemes yesterday at Joe's Real BBQ in charming old town Gilbert. Among the topics we discussed were idolatry, desire, and Buddhism. He strode up, gave me a hug, and handed me three books…
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Pet Love as Idolatry?
Problems of attachment and grief. Substack latest.
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The Paradox of the Misanthropic Naturalist Animal Lover
Top of the Stack. It concludes: You may recall the case of Timothy Treadwell, who camped among grizzlies, and whose luck ran out. In an Outside article, the author, Doug Peacock, reports that Treadwell "told people he would be honored to 'end up in bear scat.'" And in his last letter, Treadwell refers to the grizzly as…
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Simone Weil on False Gods
Over at Substack. If you haven't made the acquaintance of Simone Weil, may I introduce you?
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Can an Atheist be an Idolater?
Substack latest.
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Simone Weil on False Gods
Despite her infuriating extremism, Simone Weil may well be the purest incarnation of religious sensibility in the twentieth century. "It's not up to us to believe in God, but only not to grant our love to false gods." As Weil understands, essential to genuine religion, though not exhaustive of it, is the realization that nothing…
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A Cure for Infatuation?
One of the very best is marriage. Infatuation is a form of idolatry that cannot last long in a marriage. Marriage cures it. That's an argument for marriage. There was no cure for Don Quixote's romantic fantasies because their object, the fair Dulcinea del Toboso, existed only in his imagination.* But while infatuation lasts, it…
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The Idolatry of the Transient
It is because we want more than the transient that we cling to it, as if it could substitute for the More that eludes us. And so in some we find an inordinate love of life, a mad clinging to what cannot last and which, from the point of view of eternity, ought not last.…
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An Excuse for Idolatry?
The Transcendent being inaccessible, we accept substitutes.
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Berdyaev: Communism as a Form of Idolatry
David Horowitz, Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey, Touchstone, 1997, p. 55: After the Russian Revolution of 1905, the philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev analyzed communism as a form of idolatry in a way that proved to be prophetic. Berdyaev traced the origins of what he called the Marxist “heresy” back to the tower of Babel. In that…
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“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
This is another topic that it would have been great to discuss with Dale Tuggy during his visit thereby bringing my supposed 'gnosticism' into collision with his supposed 'spiritual materialism.' The problems are very difficult and I do not claim to have the answers. The first thing and the main thing, as it seems to…