Sunday!
One idea that I’ve run across a great deal as I read my choice of blogs is the idea of post-modernism. I really had no idea what that was, but I’m getting closer all the time to figuring a bit of what “post moderism” is on about. If I have this right, it’s the bottle of poison we’ve taken. Ideas have consequences and these are some hum dinging bad ideas. So just asking, does anyone have any idea what is refered to by post-modernism? Do any of my friends or family care?
I’ll continue with my occasional forray in to the Proverbs. Proverbs 10:8
The wise in heart will receive commands, but a prating fool will fall.
In my days on the internet, I ran into a friend who had published all sorts of bridge notes, very well done and quite useful. There were obviously many hours of work in this labor. My only experience with an author type was Mother and her books. She was dogged in pursuit of her typos, grammatical errors and such the like. So I assumed that correction in the nature of proofreading would be welcome. Not so. I thought at the time it was an interesting character indicator. I don’t like my faults and flaws pointed out either, but I try to take heed when I’m told I’m doing something I can fix and do better. I guess we all at one time or another have played the prating fool, and fallen headlong. But wisdom grows in accepting correction, and learning when to be obedient.
Meanwhile, for the rest tonight, I’ll share a couple things I’ve found on the internet.
The lights have gone dim on one of my favorite blog reads. One Cosmos may now be gone. As sustenance I’ve gone back and read from the first posts that I missed. This from the first post in the archive (arkive)
…only in the Christian West was there the development of science and advanced technology, and with it, the ability to deal with the ravages of nature–floods, earthquakes, fires, famines, plague, etc.
…the scientific revolution occurred just once, in just one civilization–something like 99.98 percent of all scientific inventions and discoveries have occurred in western Christendom. Everywhere else, science either never appeared, or it petered out after some initial advances–for example, in China and the Islamic world. And the reason science could not be sustained in these civilizations is specifically religious.
Judeo-Christian metaphysics facilitated science in several unique ways. Remember, the practice of science is based on a number of a priori assumptions about the world that cannot be proven by science. Rather, they must be taken on faith–indeed, it would not be going too far to say that science is based on a foundation of revelation.
In short, Christianity depicts God as a rational being who created the universe in a rational, predictable, and lawful way that is subject to human comprehension. In other words, science is based on the faith that the world is intelligible, that human beings may unlock its secrets, and that doing so actually brings one closer to God.
Gagdad is going to be sadly missed. I hope he rethinks his decision to stop blogging, but I doubt that will happen. I may have to break down and buy his book!
Another sage available via the i-net is Victor Davis Hanson. The conclusion of his latest column is healthy for me, in the “fear not” vein. We may run our civilization onto the shoals, and I hate that it may happen in my lifetime, but for now, for today… keep in mind what you can and cannot do.
All we can do in these times when up is down, down up, is to stay constant, forget polls, and remember the ancient ways. I keep Horace 1.22 close to me at all times these days, a long poem about the need to ignore the depressing world about; the first line:
Integer vitae scelerisque purus non eget Mauris iaculis neque arcu nec venenatis gravida sagittis…
He who is upright in his way of life and unstained by guilt, needs not Moorish darts nor bow nor quiver loaded with poisoned arrows …
And from my photojournal… or diary. The polar bear was playing like crazy trying to keep both his floaties under water it was fun to watch him.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:16 am
I guess Gagdad researched and his 98.9% is correct. But…..going back thousands of years, we have the pyramids and all that plateau in Peru runway and patterns stuff, and Easter Island. The way the pyramids around the world line up with the sun, and especially Giza where it is exactly at the center of absolute latitude and absolute longitude, I have to think some scientic stuff went on them. Not to mention Gallileo, Neuton, and on and on. I think our ancestors contributed more than 1.1% to the scientic and technological knowledge we now have. Loved the bear and his floaties.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
I forgot, I have no idea what post-modernism is in the current usage. I always thought it was a definition of a painting style or architecture or something like that.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I’m with Linda on this! “Post-modernism” cracked me up….what is that except artistic styling for the visual arts??!!