The Cut Flowers Civilization
Ben Shapiro is undoubtedly correct below. But there may be a middle way. I follow Carnap in thinking that metaphysical statements are not even meaningful, let alone right or wrong. Yet I sometimes call myself a Christian. Why? Because I try to live a Christian life. I think that is not incoherent and could be adopted by others. I do get rewards when I do the Christian thing in a situation. It's rather wonderful how often and sometimes how promptly kind, forgiving and generous behavior is rewarded
I will mention just one small and rather amusing example of such an occasion.
I was working in a Real Estate office when one of the salesmen began abusing me for something I had said. In reply I said: "Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa". I accepted blame in accordance with Matthew chapter 5 but I did it in Latin.
He was however an older Catholic who remembered the Latin mass so understood what I said and was amused by it. So he instantly went from condemning to laughing. Others nearby said frantically, "What did he say? , What did he say?" They thought I had used some sort of magic spell to get such an abrupt change in him, which, in a way, I had
This week, famed British atheist Richard Dawkins explained that he was a “cultural Christian.”
Praising civilization in the United Kingdom, Dawkins stated:
I do think that we are culturally a Christian country. I call myself a cultural Christian. I’m not a believer. But there is a distinction between being a believing Christian and being a cultural Christian. And so, you know, I love hymns and Christmas carols, and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos. I feel that we are a Christian country in that sense.
Dawkins went on to praise Christianity as a “fundamentally decent religion in a way that I think Islam is not.”
Dawkins’ case for Christianity—a case made on the basis of utility—is nothing new. It was made long ago by Voltaire, an acidic critic of the church who famously averred, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
But the problem with the utilitarian case for religious belief is that it doesn’t animate religious believers. It is simply impossible to build a civilization on the basis of Judeo-Christian foundations while making the active case as to why those foundations ought to be dissolved.
In fact, Western civilization has doomed itself so long as it fails to reconnect to its religious roots. Philosopher Will Herberg wrote:
The moral principles of Western civilization are, in fact, all derived from the tradition rooted in Scripture and have vital meaning only in the context of that tradition. … Cut flowers retain their original beauty and fragrance, but only so long as they retain the vitality that they have drawn from their now severed roots; after that is exhausted, they wither and die. So with freedom, brotherhood, justice and personal dignity—the values that form the moral foundation of our civilization. Without the life-giving power of the faith out of which they have sprung, they possess neither meaning nor vitality.
We are a cut flowers civilization.
And eventually, cut flowers die.
That has never been more obvious than this week, when the Biden administration decided to honor the newly invented Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday. Gender ideology is a symptom of our society’s reversion to gnostic paganism, in which unseen, chaotic forces buffet us about, and in which nature is directly opposed to the freedom of our disembodied essences.
It is no wonder that gender ideology is opposed by every mainstream traditional religion.
Yet claiming that this magical holiday could not be moved, the White House issued a variety of statements in celebration of radical gender ideology, including a deeply insulting statement from the president of the United States citing the book of Genesis to the effect that transgender people are “made in the image of God”—ignoring the last half of the biblical verse, which reads, “male and female he made them.”
What better time than Easter, the holiest day in the Christian calendar, to pay homage to an entirely new religion?
Richard Dawkins is obviously correct that a civilization rooted in church is better than a civilization rooted in an alternative set of values. But in reality, the churches cannot be empty; they must be full. The cathedrals that mean Britain to Dawkins must ring with the sounds of hymns in order to maintain their holiness and their importance; otherwise, they are merely beautiful examples of old architecture, remnants of a dead civilization preserved in stone.
But our civilization must live. And that means more than cultural Christianity. It means reengaging with the source of our values—the Scriptures that educated our fathers and grandfathers.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/03/cut-flowers-civilization/
*****************************************************UK: Transgender children could face 'psychological' repercussions if they are allowed to change their gender
Transgender children could face 'psychological' repercussions if they are allowed to change their gender, a landmark review is set to rule.
The number of children identifying as transgender has seen a significant increase, with growing concerns that schools are allowing pupils to switch gender without informing their parents, despite government guidance stating otherwise.
The Cass review into gender identity services for children has vowed to look at the 'important role of schools' and the difficulties facing them in relation to 'gender-questioning' students.
The review, led by Dame Hilary Cass, will be published on Wednesday and is expected to say children might experience 'psychological' repercussions if they are allowed to change their name and pronoun.
The final review is set to say that prepubescent children should not be put on the same 'pathway' as older adolescents who wish to switch to the opposite gender.
The Department for Education (DfE) is likely to reflect the review's findings in its guidance for teachers on how to deal with transgender children, The Telegraph reported. The final version of the guidance is set to be published later in 2024.
After the publication of the interim Cass review in 2022, the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock transgender clinic announced it would close down after it was considered unsafe for children.
A number of five-year-olds were referred between 2021-2022 to the highly-controversial GIDS at the Tavistock clinic.
Some patients at the clinic were taken on for actual treatment, which could include puberty blockers and hormones that help change their bodies to align more with their gender identity.
NHS England said it would alternatively move young people who believed they were transgender to regional centres that take a more 'holistic' approach and look into other mental health of medical issues the child might have.
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, said: 'Doctors are having to deal with gender-confused children who have already been socially transitioned at school for years, and are, as a result, very disturbed by the idea of going through puberty, which will develop their secondary sex characteristics.'
Ms Foster, who has spoken to Dame Hilary and her team, added: 'If social transitioning in schools is stopped, it will take the pressure off clinics.'
A Government source said: 'We are absolutely clear about the importance of biological sex, particularly in the context of safeguarding, and the role parents must play in decisions about their children.'
The NHS last month announced an immediate ban on prescribing puberty blockers to under 18-s unless they are part of a clinical trial - with ministers saying the 'landmark decision' was in children's 'best interests'.
It comes as primary school teachers are being told to allow children to change gender behind their parents' backs, it has been claimed.
A survey of equality and trans policies at more than 600 schools in Devon and Cornwall showed a large majority (73 and 62 per cent respectively) reportedly misrepresented equality laws.
It claimed one school trust advised teachers to help girls use breast binders on school trips, while also allowing pupils to sleep in bedrooms according to their 'gender identity'.
The details, compiled by Protect and Teach and reported in the Telegraph, concerned state schools.
Some of the school policies reportedly claimed children 'as young as five' could show signs of gender dysphoria.
They also said biological sex 'is assigned at birth, depending on the appearance of the infant'.
One grammar school reportedly stated sex was 'a person's understanding and experience of their own gender identity'.
**********************************************
History will frown upon Hamas’s useful fools in the West
While keyboard warriors across the West pump out Hamas and Iranian propaganda, it has been clear to all who understand Israel that the terror group signed its own death warrant on October 7.
This is not about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Nor about radical Zionism. The main Israeli opposition parties support the war.
Israelis will settle for nothing less than the destruction of Hamas after it crossed into Israel on October 7 to murder innocent civilian women, children and old people on the Sabbath.
On October 14 last year, a week after Hamas’s brutal murders of 1200 people, this column said Israel – a country that swapped 1027 terror prisoners for one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2011 – would struggle with the idea of losing 250 of its people to Islamist hostage takers.
A country shaped by the Holocaust sees Israel as the only place on earth where Jews can live in their own homes in safety.
Hamas was counting on just such an Israeli reaction and has been successful in shaping world opinion against Israel by using Gazan civilians as human shields.
Israel’s critics, who imagine this is a war against Palestinian civilians, should know Israel could have flattened Gaza in a week. Hamas’s leaders have promised repeats of October 7. Nor is it just Hamas.
Check the November 5 interview on Memri TV with Khaled Barakat, a Canada-based Palestinian activist and former People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine official. He says the only solution to the Palestinian problem is the end of Israel.
“Who supports the two-state solution? Arab reactionary regimes, liberal Zionists, fascists and some delusionists,” Barakat says.
Israel’s greatest historian and regular critic, Benny Morris, had similar thoughts about a two-state solution in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on March 29.
A one-time supporter himself, he now thinks Israelis will never agree to the plan the Palestinian leadership has rejected so many times.
History will be kinder to the IDF and to Israel than to the many useful fools in the West who knowingly repeat the propaganda of an Islamist group with direct historical links to the Nazis through its antecedents in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
David Kilcullen, this paper’s pre-eminent military analyst, on March 26 argued – as many others have – that Israel has in fact done its best to limit civilian casualties given Hamas fighters are embedded with civilians.
Yet UN Rapporteur and ABC favourite Francesca Albanese after last week’s killing of aid workers, including Australian Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, argued on social media platform X that Israel is deliberately murdering aid workers.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari immediately promised an independent investigation, apologised to the world and spoke directly with Spanish chef Jose Andres, founder of the aid group World Central Kitchen. Hagari expressed the IDF’s condolences to the families of the victims and to WCK.
Albanese, a UN employee, wrote: “Knowing how Israel operates, my assessment is that Israeli forces intentionally killed WCK workers so that donors would pull out & civilians in Gaza could continue to be starved quietly.” There is a word for that kind of thinking, but here Antoinette Lattouf was quick off the blocks, retweeting the Rapporteur’s libel.
By Wednesday, IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi was profoundly sorry about the attack, which happened in darkness. He praised the courage of WCK workers.
An overwrought interview by ABC RN Breakfast fill-in host Sally Sara on Thursday showed just how hostile some journalists are to Israel. Questioning Israeli government spokesman Avi Hyman, Sara insisted Gazans were racked by famine. She would not accept that the IDF, on the ground, disputes this, nor Mr Hyman’s correct view that arguments about famine are in fact future projections.
Her next interviewee, Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, at the end of the 17-minute segment actually confirmed the famine numbers were in fact future projections.
Israel critics who claim the aid workers were deliberately targeted seem to have missed the many references by Israel last Wednesday and Thursday to the “millions of meals” that WCK has supplied in Gaza and Israel throughout the war. These meals were delivered without aid workers being targeted.
Sara should have known Israel prefers WCK precisely because it is not staffed by UN aid workers, some of whom Hyman pointed out were involved in the killings on October 7 and 1000 of whom are known to be Hamas members.
Last October, US President Joe Biden urged the media to be careful using figures provided from within Gaza, where all ministries are controlled by Hamas.
The Gaza Health Ministry claims 33,000 people have keen killed in this war. The IDF says it has killed more than 15,000 fighters. The UN says more than 13,000 children have been killed. Can this really mean the total of all other casualties – non-combatant men, women and the elderly is 5000?
Tablet magazine on March 7 published an analysis by Professor Abraham Wyner of the University of Pennsylvania. He believes the numbers are not real.
He argues the death toll has been growing “with almost metronomical linearity”.
In the first month of the war, “the daily reported casualty count … averages 270, plus or minus 15 per cent. This is strikingly little variation. There should be days with twice the average or more and others with half or less,” Wyner wrote.
“Similarly, we should see variation in the number of child casualties that track the variation in the number of women.”
Because high casualties should follow days when residential buildings have been hit, there should be a correlation between high and low numbers of casualties of women and children, Professor Abraham argues. There is no such correlation in the Gaza Health Ministry numbers.
“Most likely, the Hamas ministry settled on a daily total arbitrarily. We know this because the daily totals increase too consistently to be real.”
The Western media’s aid picture is also misleading.
Israel attributes aid distribution problems inside Gaza to the inability of UN aid workers to move food trucked in, and to Hamas’s theft of supplies that do arrive.
Israel says 50 per cent more food trucks are arriving today than before the war. It says 184,500 tonnes of food have arrived since the start of the war. It is sending more than 1000 food trucks a week into the territory.
As Avi Hyman told RN: “No one from Hamas is starving.”
If Hamas stopped stealing aid, Gazan civilians would not be facing shortages. UNRWA’s own daily aid numbers confirm what Israel says.
The great tragedy of Palestinian displacement will only accelerate after this war, just as Palestinians lost territory and power over their own lives each time they attacked Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973.
Israel will not stop its war before cleaning out the tunnels of Rafah, whatever our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong say.
The Biden administration is right to demand more care of civilians by Israel’s troops on the ground. But it is also right to state that the US will continue to support Israel’s campaign against Hamas.
******************************************************
A penalty for being good-looking
An element of jealousy involved, I suspect
More on the interesting Ms Hatherall below:
https://brainstatesinc.com/
Jodie Hatherall, TOGA’s former general manager of risk and compliance, is suing her employer in the Federal Circuit and Family Court over her termination.
She claims she endured several instances of “derogatory verbal comments questioning (her) qualifications and suitability for her role”, “sabotage” and “unwanted advances of an inappropriate, intimatory and/or tacitly sexualised nature” under boss and TOGA CFO Alex Collinson.
Ms Hatherall, who was on a $382,000 renumeration package, says Mr Collinson questioned in a performance review why she wanted a pay increase when she was on good money and “doesn’t have a mortgage or kids to look after”, and said “most people have a problem” with a “young, female in a senior position”, according to court documents.
Ms Hatherall, who joined the company in September 2017, claims the sudden and aggressive termination means she now faces considerable emotional and financial hardship, “especially given the current economic climate”.
But in its letter of termination to Ms Hatherall in November last year, TOGA said she was acting improperly by working for several start-up companies and claimed she was “spending substantial amounts of time” on university studies and “personal care” activities such as laser, nails, “cobbler consignment”, cosmetic medicine, facials, lashes and hair appointments. This, an HR executive said, amounted to “serious and wilful misconduct” and “gross neglect” of her duties.
She denied this, and said the start-up was not a conflict of interest and her numerous “praise-filled performance reviews” and “financial bonuses” were inconsistent with her termination.
Ms Hatherall claims she was doing well at TOGA until the appointment of Mr Collison as her boss, and alleges a number of “harassment” and “discrimination” events. In a statement, legal firm Hamilton Locke said: “The respondents (TOGA and Mr Collinson) reject the claims and will be filing a defence in due course.”
As early as his handover meeting in April last year, Mr Collison questioned her qualifications and suitability for the role, which she found “humiliating”.
In another one-on-one meeting, he made comments like “You need to understand that construction is a different operation than what you are used to in hospitality”, which she took to be “dismissive and belittling” because she had not worked in hospitality and had 15 years’ experience in construction and project management.
In a performance review with Mr Collison, she claims he made several remarks like “On top of being young and female, you also look like that, so it is hard for people to take you seriously”, “I want to help you but this isn’t a conversation for the office, it needs to be at the pub over a wine”, and “We need to get you a mentor or put you on a training course to manage the gender problem”.
He later told her she ought to address all communication through him, due to alleged “gender” issues with the other directors, and that the new executive manager would also “likely have a problem with your age and being a woman too”, she wrote in her statement of claim.
In another meeting, she said Mr Collinson “berated” her team’s performance and then “made a point of standing uncomfortably close” to her, calling it “an apparent show of intimidation”.
Ms Hatherall also says Mr Collinson invited her a couple of times to meet at a bar after work, claiming the “ongoing advances” were “inappropriate and threatening”.
He also “frequently visited” her LinkedIn page, and Ms Hatherall told her colleague in a text message “Seriously … He’s on it EVERY day”. She eventually blocked him, saying she felt “threatened and harassed”. In her termination letter, TOGA claimed she blocked him because her LinkedIn page contained reference to a start-up she founded.
****************************************
My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
***************************************
/>
Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See
No comments:
Post a Comment