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Blog & Mablog

As Smoke Ascends to Gods Who Aren’t There

Blog & Mablog

Canon Press

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.81.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Blog and May Blog from DougWills.com. This audio was brought to you by Canon Press.

0:17.0

As Smoke ascends to Gods who aren't there, May 17th, 2021.

0:23.0

Introduction. In Jonah Goldberg's most recent G-File, he has an extended rumination on the distinctions between faith and belief.

0:32.0

It was a thought-provoking piece, and so here are some thoughts on apologetics and epistemology in return.

0:38.0

I'm not really debating with Jonah, but rather just responding with some stuff that his piece made me think of.

0:44.0

It brings to mind woodhouses fine-attaged, which is that some mines are like the soup in a bad restaurant, better left unsteered.

0:52.0

Before getting to all that, since this is still the introduction, let me just anticipate any writers of letters who want me to vilify Goldberg because he is wrong about Trump or his friends with David French or his vaccinated or in something of a villainous hat trick all three.

1:08.0

The only issue for me is whether or not Goldberg is a reasonable person of the sort that a reasonable person could talk to.

1:14.0

That answer being yes, I shall proceed to my reaction shortly. On my way to that eventual point, let me object to some of our new litmus loyalty tests.

1:23.0

I do grant that Liz Cheney had a blind spot when it came to the propriety of impeaching Trump, and I do not just grant it, but acknowledge it wholeheartedly.

1:32.0

But she has now been replaced by Elise Tafana, who, within living memory, voted for the Equality Act, which makes her blind spot a lot blinder and way spotier.

1:42.0

The fact that she recently came out against the Equality Act merely means that she reads the memos she gets from leadership, while Cheney was apparently too busy.

1:52.0

But let's this turn into a different blog post entirely, let me switch it off now, back to Goldberg on faith and believing.

1:58.0

Believing in science.

2:01.0

Jonah points out that virtually everyone, quote unquote, believes in science or in the scientific method, as he puts it, quote, we are all believers.

2:09.0

Not only so, but because the science has now been conscripted into the service of hard partisan politics, depending on the issue, I would add that we are all science deniers also.

2:20.0

For example, I'm a creationist, I think climate change is so much carbon based global as Tui, and that Dr. Fauci is running a con that mysteriously involves large amounts of cash.

2:30.0

Quote, the immune system is strong with this one, close quote.

2:34.0

But I also believe that the scientific method is a gift of God's common grace.

2:38.0

I believe that it can be an avenue to a great deal of practical and life-giving truth, including vaccines rightly developed and applied,

2:45.0

and I'm fully prepared to tip my hat to the Christian menu that gave rise to the scientific revolution.

2:51.0

Like Jonah, I'm a reasonable guy, can you tell?

...

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