Bill's Comments

The September, 2011, issue of The Lutheran had this item on p. 9:

Meeting with Obama
"Despite committing himself fully to resolving the debt-ceiling crisis that cominated summer headlines, President Brack Obama took time to meet with Christian leaders, including ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson. The leaders a statement called 'A Circle of Protection,' in which they articulated need for the president and Congress to avoid cutting programs that protect the poor both in the US and globally. The statement urged approaches that help share the sacrifices necessary to eliminate the nation's deficit."

First of all this is a violation of Matthew 22: 15-22

15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.
16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.
17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is is righ to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,
20 and he asked them, “Whose portrait is on this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

In meeting with a politician, any politician, and promulgating policy, Bishop Hanson and cronies has rendered unto Caesar that which is God's. (See my earlier post on the discussion of this.)

The second evil they have committed is endorsing the use of force to support what is supposed to be voluntary charitable assistance. ALL money that the government takes in and disperses is obtained by the use of overt or implied force--pay taxes or go to jail. The ultimate enforcer is the gun in the hand of a government official. Helping the poor and down-trodden is virtuous only if it is voluntary. Coercion removes moral value. Apparently the "leadership" of the the Christian commmunities has finally succumbed to pragmatics, the end of poverty relief by the dole justifies the forceable collection of taxes.

It is no wonder the mainline Protestant faiths are losing membership--their leaders are morally bankrupt. Their politics dictates their theology rather than the other way around.

The big news in science is the publication by CERN that they may have measured neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light. Actually what they have measured is their arrival time as slightly sooner than expected, and it computes to moving faster than light.

Immediately everyone is in a twitter over the possibilities of time travel because Special Relativity formulas give negative time values when velocities are faster than the speed of light.

Hold it right there.

This is an instance of something I have discussed before, the equating of a model of reality with reality itself. Special relativity actually is a description of the world when it is measured by light particles, which move at a constant speed in a vacuum. Actually it does not forbid faster than light movement, it simply says we can't measure it with light particles. The new measurements are not based on light but neutrinos which have some very different properties from other particles.

Once all the whoopla dies down and the press goes away to another story they can exploit for the moment, the results will be recast in a number of different hypotheses which will be tested and retested. Out of it will come new descriptions of the world we live in. My guess is that the description of the dimensional structure of the universe will be modified, and possibly time will be treated not as a fourth dimension as it is now, but in some different way. Stay tuned.

We often relegate the role of ideas to an inferior position in dealing with the world. However, if one takes the time to look back at history, the philosophers have a profound effect on history, allbeit very delayed. Case in point, our current turmoil with "liberalism" comes ultimately from Rousseau, an 18th century philosopher.

One current error is that of attributing Michelle Bachman's ideas and policies to "dominionism". Before you accept this particular over-reaction of the Lame-Stream Media (OK, I don't trust them and don't believe anything they say) read this particular analysis.