Animating spirit, first cause

13 Years Ago This Week

By Moristotle

[Published originally on September 27, 2009, the day after a walk with Ralph Earle, and republished in fond reminiscence of our conversation.]

A walk in the gentle woods of Hillsborough, North Carolina, yesterday prompted me to revisit what it is about “God” that I don’t believe. Not the walk, actually, but the conversation with my good friend Ralph, with whom I walked and talked. Ralph said two things that gave me pause. The first was that he finds it impossible to deny that God exists. While he is as clear as I am that “the Christian God,” as he puts it, does not exist, he says that God as the animating spirit of the universe, its first cause, does necessarily exist.

Withholding yourself

15 years later,
still instructive

By Moristotle

[Originally published on December 16, 2006, without an image and in the default font of the time.]

In Colm Tóibín’s novel, The Master, Henry James is visiting his old friend, the wealthy Paul Bourget, an “unpleasantly rigid and authoritarian” anti-Semite:

Henry did everything he could, in the early days of his stay, not to discuss Zola or the Dreyfus case with Paul or Minnie Bourget or their guest, feeling that his own views on the matter would diverge from those of his hosts. His support for Zola and, indeed, for Dreyfus was sufficiently strong not to wish to hear the Bourgets’ prejudices on the matter.

Correspondence: Sacrosanct ideas

And other questionable things

Edited by Moristotle

[Items of correspondence are not attributed; they remain anonymous. They have been chosen for their inherent interest as journalism, story, or provocative opinion, which may or may not be shared by the editor or other members of the staff of Moristotle & Co.]

You must read this – the obituary “John Shelby Spong, 90, Dies; Sought to Open Up the Episcopal Church” [NYT, September 19]. It says that “Spong called on Christians to reject sacrosanct ideas like Jesus’ virgin birth and the existence of heaven and hell.” Excerpts:

Through more than 25 books, as well as…Bishop Spong urged his church to reconcile with modernity, even if that meant setting aside supernatural ideas like Jesus’ resurrection….
    Bishop Spong became a national celebrity in the mid-1980s, when he began calling on the church to reconsider its position on gay rights. He urged his colleagues not only to accept openly gay clergy, but also to welcome openly gay and lesbian worshipers into their congregations and to bless same-sex unions....
    ...He taught that the Gospels should be considered artistic interpretations of Jesus’ life, not literal accounts of it, and he called on Christians to reject ideas, like original sin, that could not be explained by science....
    As a white progressive minister in the South during the civil rights era, he often found himself at odds with his community, especially when he insisted on preaching to Black congregations. He and his family faced regular threats and harassment, and he later claimed that the Ku Klux Klan of eastern North Carolina had labeled him their No. 1 enemy.

Well, if you ask me (and you didn’t), here are my two cents on the President’s speech last night [September 9]: 

    It was a hell of a good speech and about time. The funny thing is, right after the speech came the World News on ABC. David Muir covered the speech but added his own interpretation. He kept saying that Biden ordered most of this and most of that. 

    Biden never used the word “most.” He said flat out that if you wanted to work for the government you will get a shot or you will not work for the government. That includes anyone that gets money from Medicare; like hospitals and nursing homes.
    I don’t know how you feel about it, but the virus has cost me a year of life and now these [people, expletive deleted] that will not take a shot are costing me another. We have very few years to lose, and these two we’ll never get back. The schools in Desoto Co. [Mississippi] are opened back up for the 3rd time, still no mask mandate, so it will not be long till they close again. Stupidest [expletive deleted] people in this world.

Until now I hoped I was the only person with a Trumpist neighbor actually crazy enough to threaten to kill someone because they supported Biden. But I’m not: “Texas Man Arrested After Allegedly Killing Woman, Shooting Her Husband Because They Voted for Biden” [Ally Mauch, People Magazine, September 13]. Excerpt:

On Sept. 8, the El Paso Police Department SWAT team and detectives arrested Joseph Angel Alvarez — nearly a year after Georgette Kauffmann was killed and her husband Daniel Kaufmann’s was shot, police said in a press release issued last week. Alvarez, 38, is currently incarcerated at a county detention facility after his bail was set at $2 million for the murder of Georgette and $500,000 for the aggravated assault of Daniel.
    The couple was attacked in their El Paso home on Nov. 14 last year, one week after Biden was declared the winner over incumbent President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

This salute was posted on Nextdoor, a local site for lost animals and the like:

HATS OFF TO OFFICER BENNY. High speed chase this morning and he threw spike stripes out. Very Dangerous but to see officers in action is emotional for me. They try very hard and so many get a bad rap. I just want to thank all of our Southaven Police Officers!

The saluter forgot to add that the car ran into a pole after its tires blew: “Man charged after fleeing from officers with 6-year-old daughter in car, deputies say” [Newsbreak, September 15]. Thankfully no one was hurt. Excerpt:

Tuesday around 8:30 a.m., DeSoto County Sheriff’s Deputies said they attempted to stop a white Infiniti SUV on Church Road near Highway 51 in Southaven, Miss., for a traffic violation. The driver refused to stop and continued east on Church Road to Getwell. DCSD said the vehicle was known to flee from law enforcement and had done so several times recently.
    Southaven Police Officers put down stop sticks and blocked traffic to help keep the public safe. [They] used a tactical vehicle intervention to stop the SUV...the suspect’s vehicle caught fire...[They] rescued the suspect’s six-year-old daughter, who was in the vehicle during the pursuit.

Stupid people are everywhere apparently, not just where I live. Amazing that more people aren’t killed when idiots try to drive away from the police and ignite high-speed chases.
    With all the trackers and electronics on vehicles that show how it was being driven over a period of days, where it has been, etc, why isn’t there a remote, computer controlled kill switch? That way police could make a phone call, enter a code, and ZAP! the vehicle would be shut down. No heroics necessary, no innocent victims injured or killed.

Public health measures
to prevent the spread
of COVID-19 have
decreased RSV activity

Just when you think you can go back into the swimming pool, a turd floats pass: “A Deadly Virus Is Spiking In Mississippi, And It’s Not Covid” [Matt Lillywhite, Newsbreak, September 18]. Excerpt:

The CDC has issued a serious warning about a virus in Mississippi with similar symptoms to COVID-19. It’s known as the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and luckily, hospitals in Mississippi are well-prepared to fight it.
    RSV, like Covid-19, is primarily spread by respiratory droplets caused by coughing or sneezing and direct contact with a contaminated surface. It’s also the leading cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under the age of one in Mississippi and several other states.
    RSV infections are most frequent in the United States during the autumn and winter. However, due to the deployment of public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, RSV activity decreased substantially in 2020.

Grateful for correspondence, Moristotle

All Over the Place: The New Christianity

By Michael H. Brownstein











Everyone tried to take the staple out
after the list of lies became weeds –
the first a mistake,
the second an error in judgment,
but the third, fourth, hundredth, twenty
thousandth – a brick thrown through a window,
glass shattering into a void of intelligence.

11 Years Ago Yesterday: Animating spirit, first cause

By Moristotle

[Originally published on September 27, 2009.]

A walk in the gentle woods of Hillsborough, North Carolina yesterday prompted me to revisit what it is about “God” that I don’t believe. Not the walk, actually, but the conversation with my good friend Ralph, with whom I walked and talked. Ralph said two things that gave me pause. The first was that he finds it impossible to deny that God exists. While he is as clear as I am that “the Christian God,” as he puts it, does not exist, he says that God as the animating spirit of the universe, its first cause, does necessarily exist.

11 Years Ago Today: Compassion and Justice

[Originally published on September 1, 2009.]

An email discussion I’ve been having about health care reform with a small circle of Yale classmates recently put me in mind of something I’d read about the political philosopher John Rawls (1921-2002). I’d read, perhaps in an obituary, that he held something like

Goines On: A Jessica experiment

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The day after remembering the Jesus experiment, Goines thought of a corollary, or reverse experiment, one that would seek to establish whether a stand-in for Jesus could elicit the same sort of experience. If so, then that would suggest that it wasn’t the nature of Jesus (or of his stand-in) that produced the Jesus-experience phenomenon, but something about people’s psychology.

Goines On: The Jesus experiment

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Inside the McDowell book Goines’ nephew had placed a cordial handwritten note that suggested Goines might “start with the table of contents and go to the chapters that pique your interest.” That didn’t sound too daunting, and Goines was bound to try it.

Goines On: The tome was empty

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Goines’ nephew reported that his mother was much improved, “thank the Lord Jesus for that,” and Goines had automatically said amen, for he too was glad his sister was doing better. But Goines knew that his nephew was aware he didn’t subscribe to the divinity of Jesus, and Goines felt a tinge of regret that he had said amen. Perhaps unwisely, he clarified, “I meant amen to your mother’s improvement, not to Jesus’ having anything to do with it.”

Goines On: Getting to agreeing to disagree

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Goines’ relative who slipped an evangelical pamphlet in with his Christmas card refused at first to discuss politics with Goines. Curbe (his name was pronounced the same as Kirby) insisted at first that they would just have to “agree to disagree.” But Goines nevertheless managed to engage Curbe in more than a dozen email exchanges in which they told each other their primary political principles. Perhaps surprisingly – and reassuringly, for the sake of family relations – they seemed to pretty much agree on the ones they actually discussed:

Today today

This moment

By Moristotle

To a friend’s confession yesterday that as a boy he had wished that dogs could go to heaven, I said, “I can assure you most reliably that dogs do go to heaven.” (Of course, I could “reliably” do no such thing, but my friend was free to be assured, or not, as he wished.)

Interview with Sandi Dalton, on a long Christian journey

Interviewed by Moristotle

I was delighted to meet Sandi Dalton sometime last year when I visited Chef Benjamin Messaoui’s French Corner Bakery (in Durham, North Carolina). There she was behind the counter, greeting customers Bon jour! I was happy for Benjamin to have Sandi at the counter, and happy for Sandi to be countering in so fine a bakery. (Benjamin’s interview was published on April 15.)
    Over the course of many returns to Chef Benjamin’s bakery, I learned enough about his new assistant to want to learn more, and to realize that our readers deserved to know Sandi too. So, I asked her if she would be willing to answer some questions, which are included here in italics.

Three Years Ago Today

A Christian-atheist conversation, Part 1: About animal rights

By Morris Dean 
& Kyle Garza

[Originally published on June 22, 2014, not one word different.]

Morris: In my Thor’s Day post of June 5 (“Value experience for its own sake: It’s an art”), I not only stated positively my view of the sacred art of living in a way that values life and respects one’s own and others’ experience for its own sake, but also outlined six areas in which I found the monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam wanting:

Correspondence: Cheek

Edited by Moristotle

Fortune inside Chinese restaurant cookie: “You find beauty in ordinary things. Appreciate this gift.”

Movie Review: Gladiator

A deeper analysis, with reflections on Christian reviews of the film

By Kyle Garza

[Editor’s Note: The author reviewed Gladiator on August 10. Today’s extended review goes into greater depth and critiques some other sorts of reviews of the film.]

Long before Braveheart (1995) and Gladiator (2000) and Troy (2004) had kicked off a new cycle of epic films that mixed history, legend, and cinematic entertainment, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Beowulf stood as cornerstones of epic poetry, defining for millennia the standards of what it is to be an excellent man. Despite thousands of years between them, the modern cinematic epics still retain much of the same poetic elements that their written predecessors had, and the definition of masculinity which they offer has not varied far.

Compassion and justice

A teaching of Jesus & John

By Morris Dean

[Published originally on September 1, 2009.]

An email discussion I’ve been having about health care reform with a small circle of Yale classmates recently put me in mind of something I’d read about the political philosopher John Rawls (1921-2002). I’d read, perhaps in an obituary, that he held something like

Material body and immaterial soul

According to Christian belief

By Kyle Garza

In our postmodern materialist society, there seems to be an idea creeping steadily more prevalently into our culture that, as the field of neuroscience progresses, scientists will eventually “explain away” all that we once thought could only be attributed to the human soul. Eventually, some think, we’ll be able to say with empirically-based scientific observation and study that the physical human brain accounts for all of our experience in life, and that there is no reason to archaically believe in the existence of the human soul.

Thor’s Day: Eroticism and its discontents

A response to last week’s column on pornography

By Bob Boldt

Moristotle asked me whether Kyle Garza, in his column last week, “Why Christians Aren’t Celebrating Playboy’s PG-13 Move,” left any room to distinguish pornography from erotica.

Ask Wednesday: What does it mean to "meet Jesus"?

Someone has kicked the bucket

It passes for something else

By Morris Dean

To meet Jesus is most commonly a euphemism for dying. You'll hear people say, for example, "So-and-so has gone to meet Jesus." It's a way of avoiding saying that the person died. The more common saying, "So-and-so has passed [or passed away]," serves the same purpose.

Thor's Day: Doubts

Of belief & disbelief

By Morris Dean






Apprehensive atheists agonize:
What if what Christians say believing buys
    is true? I'd miss their salvation,
    suffer vexatious damnation,
and miss partying with believing guys.