Contemplative Thoughts + Passing Musings
Many attack Kierkegaard for saying that the incarnation is a contradiction and that Kierkegaard embraces paradox by faith alone. I wish here to argue that these things are wildly misunderstood and Kierkegaard’s view of the incarnation is neither heretical nor absurd, but rather a stance that ought to be taken seriously. In Philosophical Fragments, Kierkegaard …
Continue reading "Kierkegaard and the Contradictory Incarnation"
There are certain things we know. We know that the planet is round. We know that 2 + 2 = 4. We know that gravity prohibits us from floating off the ground and into Earth’s atmosphere. This knowledge is grounded on facts, scientific or logical facts, about reality and the way it operates. We also …
Being consistent with my normality of geek experience, I attended a midnight showing of yet another blockbuster superhero movie last night. Such as been the case with me for nearly a decade since superhero movies became a worldwide trend. They have often been fun, enjoyable experiences, not only for the viewing of a movie that …
Continue reading "Mourning Heroes: The Dark Knight Shooting"
Tonight a friend and I embark on a weekend trip to Utah to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. For those that know me, I am not what is considered an "outdoors" person. I like my cities and would rather face a possible mugger than a small lizard on any day. Three years …
Continue reading "Facing Fear – “Snakes, Why’d it Have to be Snakes?”"
Many know that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of my personal heroes and one to whom I seek guidance from in issues of ethics. Bonhoeffer is one of the reasons I adhere to the pacifist movement. Many have wondered how Bonhoeffer was able to reconcile his position on nonviolence to his choice to involve himself in …
Continue reading "Bonhoeffer, Pacifism, and Suspending the Ethical"
I find myself continuously mesmerized, baffled, and befuddled over the methodology in which people write academic papers. I have seen some abysmal work at the undergraduate level, but even more distressing is seeing poor work done at the graduate level. While I understand that not every paper will strive to be up for the Pulitzer, …
Ponder the thoughts of this great, brilliant man.
A fellow student and myself found ourselves in a perplexing situation in a recent theology class. Another person in class proposed that it is acceptable to live with logical inconsistencies in one’s worldview so long as the Bible supersedes the inconsistency itself. Here we found ourselves in a culture war reduced to one conversation. It …
Continue reading "Experience-Based Knowledge and Logical Problems"
Most, if not all, persons experience some form of suffering. Perhaps suffering takes the form of physical pain or some sort of mentally plagued ailment such as depression. Such cases are internal to the self, although surely there are cases which suffering is caused by external forces, i.e., the death of a loved one, which …
Local and national bookstores are dying out. Taken over by the mass digitalization of books (both as a medium and as a distribution), bookstores are closing one by one (or, as with the case with Borders, by the chain). I own a mere 435 books at present moment. Many of these have been bought through …
Former Aspiring Philosopher 