Past Postings

Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.

***********************************************************************************************************

The following are some notes on Immanuel Kant's philosophy, as derived from Will Durant, and which serve as a good introduction if not (for all) refresher:

* The concept of cause involves the assumption of necessity and which no experience can yield.
* Human mind, not sensation and perception, introduces universality and necessity.
* Laws of nature are mental constructs. The world for us are our ideas of it.
* Idealist is wrong if nothing exists but ideas; because ideas needs perception, and can't know the thing in itself.
* The external universe and soul are unknowable; are never perceived but only, rather, conceived.
* Consciousness of self apperception is the most intimate of all experience.
* Pure reason cannot prove or disprove nature of soul. Reason (as we know it) applies only to appearances -- not to noumena, soul, universe, or God.
* Design proves architect but not creator.
* Belief in God is necessary for morality (this view Kant later qualified.)
* We must act as if we knew there is a God and free will. But God is deduced from morals; not morals from God.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

There are true and false doors to Jesus, and people decide who he is depending on which door they take. The gospels, in my opinion and in the form in which we have them, are not incontrovertible as record and I find absolute truth in parts and in overall spirit only. Certain passages are open to question as to their accuracy, authenticity, and authorship -- while allowing for necessary caution in dismissing passages too frivolously. So that one finds and arrives at the true Jesus based on right reason and basic morals that are consonant with the key and fundamental principles of faith, mercy, love, justice, tradition (fathership), innocence, due humility, and the demi-deification and commemoration of martyrs. The rituals are fine, indeed good as exercises of devotion; as long as they do not replace or supercede these first principles.

What then people usually reject in religion is its false image; the latter brought about either by wilful counterfeits or else people who mean well, but who don't know what they are doing or talking about. Why then blame true religion, as many of the Enlightenment (including some American) thinkers foolishly did, owing to or because of these two sorts of people?

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Presumably (or at least such as I take to be the case) if you reject the Trinity you reject the Holy Spirit -- and yet is not this last among the most grave of offenses?

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Any scoundrel, or worse, can -- in fact does -- love, respect, or hold devoutly to a or some moral virtues or other. It's the all of them then he invariably has a problem with.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Tempting but not all that tempting.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Thanks to the Patriot Act, I feel a whole lot safer.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Monkees -- from 1967...LIVE! (including Nesmith)

["Forget That Girl"]

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Non quid sunt sed quid potuerint aut erunt.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Since obviously and as you know it is no longer the case the winner can be he or she who is most loved, or who can compete peaceably; so that it must, as a matter of course, be the one who lies and murders most effectively. Yet look on the bright side. As a result, now the same people who make all the movies and television also are the same ones (largely) in charge of overseeing and or producing our food, manfacturing goods, technology, medicine, life-styles, education, and morals (or lack thereof.)

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Let's face it -- the world has gone to the magician.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~


["No Trespassing - The Ventures"]

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

"THE NOVEL AS THEATER IN JAMES FENIMORE COOPER’S THE PILOT (1823);" for which in .pdf see: http://www.gunjones.com/Coopers_The-Pilot_ch28.pdf

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

The following has been attributed to Saint Clement of Rome, one of the earliest church fathers, and also to St. Clement of Alexandria; however, later and more modern scholarship suggests a third Clement, probably from Rome, from the late 2nd century A.D.

[Chapter 1] Brethren, it is fitting that you should think of Jesus Christ as of God—as the Judge of the living and the dead. And it does not become us to think lightly of our salvation; for if we think little of Him, we shall also hope but to obtain little [from Him]. And those of us who hear carelessly of these things, as if they were of small importance, commit sin, not knowing whence we have been called, and by whom, and to what place, and how much Jesus Christ submitted to suffer for our sakes. What return, then, shall we make to Him, or what fruit that shall be worthy of that which He has given to us? For, indeed, how great are the benefits which we owe to Him! He has graciously given us light; as a Father, He has called us sons; He has saved us when we were ready to perish. What praise, then, shall we give to Him, or what return shall we make for the things which we have received? We were deficient in understanding, worshipping stones and wood, and gold, and silver, and brass, the works of men's hands; and our whole life was nothing else than death. Involved in blindness, and with such darkness before our eyes, we have received sight, and through His will have laid aside that cloud by which we were enveloped. For He had compassion on us, and mercifully saved us, observing the many errors in which we were entangled, as well as the destruction to which we were exposed, and that we had no hope of salvation except it came to us from Him. For He called us when we were not, and willed that out of nothing we should attain a real existence.

[Chapter 2] “Rejoice, you barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, you that travailest not; for she that is desolate has many more children than she that has an husband.” In that He said, “Rejoice, you barren that bearest not,” He referred to us, for our church was barren before that children were given to her. But when He said, “Cry out, you that travailest not,” He means this, that we should sincerely offer up our prayers to God, and should not, like women in travail, show signs of weakness. And in that He said, “For she that is desolate has many more children than she that has an husband,” [He means] that our people seemed to be outcast from God, but now, through believing, have become more numerous than those who are reckoned to possess God. And another Scripture says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” This means that those who are perishing must be saved. For it is indeed a great and admirable thing to establish not the things which are standing, but those that are falling. Thus also did Christ desire to save the things which were perishing, [Matthew 18:11] and has saved many by coming and calling us when hastening to destruction.

[Chapter 11] Let us therefore serve God with a pure heart, and we shall be righteous; but if we do not serve Him, because we believe not the promise of God, we shall be miserable. For the prophetic word also declares, “Wretched are those of a double mind, and who doubt in their heart, who say, All these things have we heard even in the times of our fathers; but though we have waited day by day, we have seen none of them [accomplished]. You fools! compare yourselves to a tree; take, for instance, the vine. First of all it sheds its leaves, then the bud appears; after that the sour grape, and then the fully-ripened fruit. So, likewise, my people have borne disturbances and afflictions, but afterwards shall they receive their good things.” Wherefore, my brethren, let us not be of a double mind, but let us hope and endure, that we also may obtain the reward. For He is faithful who has promised that He will bestow on every one a reward according to his works. If, therefore, we shall do righteousness in the sight of God, we shall enter into His kingdom, and shall receive the promises, which “ear has not heard, nor eye seen, neither have entered into the heart of man.” [1 Corinthians 2:9]

[Chapter 17] Let us, then, repent with our whole heart, that no one of us may perish amiss. For if we have commands and engage in withdrawing from idols and instructing others, how much more ought a soul already knowing God not to perish. Rendering, therefore, mutual help, let us raise the weak also in that which is good, that all of us may be saved and convert one another and admonish. And not only now let us seem to believe and give heed, when we are admonished by the elders; but also when we take our departure home, let us remember the commandments of the Lord, and not be allured back by worldly lusts, but let us often and often draw near and try to make progress in the Lord's commands, that we all having the same mind may be gathered together for life. For the Lord said, “I come to gather all nations [kindreds] and tongues.” This means the day of His appearing, when He will come and redeem us— each one according to his works. And the unbelievers will see His glory and might, and, when they see the empire of the world in Jesus, they will be surprised, saying, “Woe to us, because You were, and we knew not and believed not and obeyed not the elders [Isaiah 66:18] who show us plainly of our salvation.” And “their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be a spectacle unto all flesh.” [Isaiah 66:24] It is of the great day of judgment He speaks, when they shall see those among us who were guilty of ungodliness and erred in their estimate of the commands of Jesus Christ. The righteous, having succeeded both in enduring the trials and hating the indulgences of the soul, whenever they witness how those who have swerved and denied Jesus by words or deeds are punished with grievous torments in fire unquenchable, will give glory to their God and say, “There will be hope for him who has served God with his whole heart.”

[Chapter 18] And let us, then, be of the number of those who give thanks, who have served God, and not of the ungodly who are judged. For I myself, though a sinner every whit and not yet fleeing temptation but continuing in the midst of the tools of the devil, study to follow after righteousness, that I may make, be it only some, approach to it, fearing the judgment to come.
~ "Second Epistle of St. Clement"

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

As much as, say (and as some might feel), someone like Voltaire was or might have been in error, he even so cannot possibly be blamed for everything.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

The problem is not that there aren't good arguments to address issues, solve problems, and correct errors. The problem is, rather, those who will not willingly think or listen to reason or good arguments to begin with -- and who instead, more likely than not, listen (directly or indirectly) to spirit people.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Just like many of those who strive in it, every now and then the world itself is hard up for attention. (And is doubtless too much with us as well.)

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Vox daemonis, vox Dei -- for many people, certainly.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Some random thoughts and observations of late that particularly struck me.

1) The love lives of kings and rich people, for all their advantages otherwise, are constantly monitored by someone else.
2) The personality in a given animal was spawned from a divine one (in turn children of THE Divine) and this (he or she animal) is one of its children. And there's no reason an animal could not have been born to be ultimately and eternally happy.
3) You are no friend and no true heart (and therefore no true soul) if you are or recklessly consort with incorrigible liars, cheats, and murderers.
4) The various eternal and or primordial essences and substances of philosphers and theologians are, for those think and mediate on them, both bread and medicine for the soul.
5) Either people should care and adequately see to the basic better welfare of animals, or else not be permitted the privilege of having animals in the first place.
6) Aristocracy based on virture is the only legitimate kind there is. And in this sense, aristocracy is not all excusable but desirable.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Of him it can be said that though he is able to fill the entire sky with shining angels, he can't find or come up with a single honest person to represent him.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

More