Anslem, Nietzsche, Goodness, Nihilism & The Good News

Anselm

I wrote in a  previous post here about how we Christians are responding to the incessant attacks on Christians and our Church. Mostly we respond as victims, the zeitgeist of victimology infecting even us.

I recently read an article by a guy, T L Jernigan ("On Anselm's God & the Virtue of Existing"-Touchstone), contrasting St Anselm and Nietzsche. The ideas here are his, I take no claim to them, only my response to the article.

 Nietzsche we all know said God is dead. Anselm we don’t know so much about. He was the 11^th Century Archbishop of Canterbury. His main thing was to prove the existence of God by combining science, logic and reason with experience and knowledge of the Divine.

He said, God is good, so reality is good. I remember a sermon or reading from awhile ago, that said at each stage of creation, God saw it was good. So what could be better than good?

Anselm: “We believe that you are the thing than which nothing greater can be thought…it is the one thing to have something in the understanding, but quite another to understand that it actually exists…And certainly that than which nothing greater can be thought cannot exist only in the understanding. For if it exists only in the understanding, it is possible to think of it existing in reality, and that is greater.”

Existence is good. It’s great in fact!

Then here comes Nietzsche, who considered existence horrible and horrid. It’s something inflicted on us.

Nietzsche: “Oh wretched, ephemeral race, children of chance and misery, why do you compel me to tell you what it would be most expedient for you not to hear? What is best of all is utterly beyond your reach; not to be born, not to be nothing.” Jeeeeez, sad to be him.

Life is tough, and maybe some sometimes would like it to end. Augustine thought: “while [the suicidal man’s] error make him believe that he will no longer be, his nature makes him wish for rest, that is to say, an increase in being. It is why, since it is impossible not to love being, the fact that we are must not be a reason for us to show ingratitude toward the goodness of the creator.” (Being and Nothingness) I'll just bet you Nietzsche loved persons and sometimes even life. I would suggest he loved life so much he spent his life trying to understand and explain it. Volumes worth!

Sometimes we just need a break. We need to lie beside still waters. God provides it when we need it. Nietzsche isn’t wanting a rest, he wants it all to end. Nihilism. Would one expect anything else when one thinks God dead? With God dead there is no redemption, no rest, only endless suffering.

Now we live in a Nietzschean world. Euthanasia is good. Abortion is good; what better than to snuff out existence before a soul is aware of it? Suicide is good, we’ll even murder you while telling you you’re committing suicide.

A universe created by goodness, surrounded goodness, inhabiting goodness. We are created in His image, and it is good. I’ll be anti-Nietzschean, thank you very much. I think one of the things that moved me out of Buddhism is that it’s nihilist. From nothing to nothing. Ultimately I couldn’t accept that.  

John Paul II: “…the first and basic good for every creature…All other good derive from this basic good. I can only act while I am. Man’s multifarious works, the reasons of his genius, the fruits of his holiness are only possible if the man-the genius, the saint-comes into existence.”

I came from these ideas in the article heartened, and know that we mustn’t fall into Nietzschean thinking that life is horrible at its base, and it’s best if we snuff it out however we can. Sorry for the sad man, he’s a bad man.

We can’t whine as Christians, bemoan our plight; especially here in the New Amerika where it’s lawsuits, harassment and government suppression and threats, and we aren’t getting slaughtered like in the Middle East, or imprisoned/murdered like in China.

To back into our Christianity with just a taint of Nietzschean nihilism, or defeatism is to exhibit a weakened faith, a not serious belief of redemption. Not a serious knowledge that Life is Goodness and that God will not forsake us, Christ will return, and all we have to do is live scriptural, Spirit-filled lives.

Witness sensibly by showing understanding and talk to people from their perspective using their language, be careful of our words, listen to them (you have two ears and one mouth), be of service. James: “If you are wise and understand God’s ways prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.” By this way we can take control of the helm and move the ship of humanity back to God, by sharing the Good News.

Occupy Democrats, Lies, & Why I'm Unfriending Longtime Friends from Facebook Because of Their "Occupy Democrats" Posts

“Occupy Democrats” has this post. “So let me get this straight- He is a compulsive liar, he is a con man, he is a racist, he is a religious bigot, he is twice divorced, he robs American students with a fake university, he is a billionaire who pays zero taxes, he is a serial philanderer, he treats women like trash, he has the manners of a spoiled child, he is a failure in business with 4 bankruptcies, he has no military or political experience whatsoever."

If you'll remember the "Occupy" movement, it began with Occupy Wall St and that was followed by several other demonstrations. There was filth, destruction, abandoned babies, fights, murder and clashes with the police. Posts by Occupy Democrats are just blatant lies, like this one. This one is tame compared to many. I've 'unfriended' two people from Facebook, and about to do two more, maybe three. It may seem immature or whatever to 'unfriend' based on politics, but the hatred conveyed by this group, posted by people I respect and often have been long time friends, takes into a realm of political hatred and intolerance, lies and destruction I just can't stand. The horrendous ugliness of what they say is no less than the filth of any of the other things the Occupy movement has brought. I accept, even endorse discussion of any issue, but when faced with lies and hate created entirely out of imagination...how does one have a discussion? This is pure intolerance while claiming to be tolerant. They claim wanting diversity, but seek to destroy with lies anyone that disagrees with their ideas. Stalin would have loved them.

We look at the fabricated lies (nothing even slightly base on truth as any good lie must be) as if Dems are the practitioners of traditional values. Hillary headed the “Bimbo Eruption” task force to cover for serial philander husband, destroying several women’s lives in the process, including a rape by him; that he pays zero taxed is provable BS (this is nonsense like when Harry “Dusty” Reid claimed with no evidence that Romney had not paid taxes for ten years when there was published proof he had. As for treating women like trash, no women have come out saying so. No woman, like in her husband's case said she had been raped by him. Neither Obama nor H Clinton has any military experience. H Clinton’s political experience is riding on the coat tails of her husband. Like H Clinton’s not a liar? Will list below.  What exactly has Trump lied about politically? The bankruptcies were all restructuring, no write offs I’m aware of. Really, divorce is a disqualifier? Damn puritan Democrats anyway.

H Clinton, that the Democrats want to elect president, has the cattle futures scandal, lied about and was not indicted. Rose law firm billing records that were subpoenaed and disappeared that showed up five years later that she lied about. Whitewater real estate scandal covered up and lied about, not indicted. Travelgate that she fabricated lies about the long time WH Travel office staff, got them fired and destroyed Billy Dale’s career (head of the Travel Office). There were never any documents supporting the claims of H Clinton. All the scandals, lies and perjury she's the source of would take a whole blog to cover.

The worst to my mind is Benghazi, 13 hours under attack and nothing done to help them, resulting the death of several Americans. Tens of $millions taken, while Sec of State from nations hostile to the US and put in the Clinton Foundation, her bank account or campaign coffers. While claiming to promote women’s rights, these nations stone women to death that were raped, they can’t leave the house without a male escort, can’t drive, have extremely limited education opportunities, and are murdered in honor killings. Anyone really believe there’s no quid pro quo there?

Then the $millions she gets from speeches to major Wall Street donors, while she at the same time attacks them for being so wealthy and greedy. Not that she’s a one percenter herself. She’s gotten $millions from this. Anyone really believe no quid pro quo there? Neither Islamist dictatorships nor Wall Street give money for nothing.

The estimated worth of the Clintons is estimated to be over $111 million. They earned this creating what? Starting what businesses? Employing whom? She call's Trump a business failure. What the hell has she ever done but be a corrupt political operator? The Clinton Foundations has assets of about $277.8 million. H Clinton won’t release the transcripts of her speeches, and their foundation isn’t a traditional charity, and it doesn’t meet any standards of accountability or transparency. No one know WTH is going on with that.

Then the email scandal. Used unsecured email servers while Sec of State, a Felony. Said she turned over 55,000 emails and deleted 30,000 that were personal. Several of those personal emails turned up later, and had classified info in them. (Some of the emails were intercepted by the Communist Chinese having to do with missiles that they used to modify their's to become more effective. There were a lot more felonies committed by her, listed by the FBI director, who concluded that since she didn’t intend to break those laws will not be indicted. So if you or I broke a law, and said we didn’t intend to, we’d be given a pass?

So compare what was said about Trump (whom I don’t like) being held to puritan standards that Dems don’t practice nor believe in, which this list essentially is, to the 30+ years of lies, scandals, cover-ups and perjury of H Clinton. But her supporters don’t care, and will vote for her anyway because she’s a Democrat and/or has a vagina.

Rethinking How We Christians Respond to the Majority Secular Society's Attacks and Bigotry

I get this sense of doom, about Western Civilization, America’s constitutional republic, and Christianity. The end game is here, we’ve past the tipping point, we’re past the point of no return. The goodness of all these things have their foundation in Christianity. I read a comment a few months ago that Christianity has been in worse positions, and we will survive this too.

We bemoan that traditional religious practices and churches are fading away. Well, there are a lot of them still going strong; let’s acknowledge that. For the rebels among us, what could be more rebellious or revolutionary than being a practicing, churchgoing Christian these days? Nearly half or more of Americans are hostile to and attack Christians. Much of it is government sanctioned.

I get so caught up reading, writing, talking about this hostility that until the past few days I hadn’t thought about the antidote. I rail about the zeitgeist of victimology, and it dawned on me that constantly laying out the attacks and things against Christians, that I was seeing myself and fellow Christians a victims. That’s not good.

I ask myself, who or what are examples of how to maintain one’s religion during times of persecution (though now in Amerika persecution is exercised through prosecution). Think about what practicing (or Orthodox) Jews have put up with; way more than we Christians, even taking into account the things ancient Christians suffered.

Those Jews were and are practicing their faith, living their principals, acting in accordance with Scripture. We Christians must do the same. A majority of Jews in America have put the State, worshipping it, before God. It looks to me that some, maybe a majority of American Christians have done the same (which I've railed about several times in this blog). Yet Jews through pogroms and the Holocaust remained steadfast. Scriptural Christians must do the same.  

I started this essay about the sense of doom because so much is aligned against us. Part of the answer is from a Theodore Roosevelt speech, and many have heard this part:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

A must read if you’ve never read the whole thing here "Citizenship in a Republic".

Christians must be in the arena. We must be sure too that we live by Holy Scripture. Spending ourselves in a worthy cause does no good if we don’t live according to Holy Scripture, we only leave ourselves open to critics.

Our religious liberty is partly diminishing because we aren’t standing up to criticism and attacks. Those external forces attacking us are a part of it, but our playing the victimology card is not any part of the answer. The victimology card is what much of our culture plays now.

From scripture, James has some helpful observations. “Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”

When we deviate from Scripture: “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever. And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.”

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? And also,
“If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?”

So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.”

“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.”

I have friends saying what’s the point of the fight? Major jerks gain wealth and power, which is always true since forever. But we have a constitutional republic here, and if enough of us reject the ‘we are doomed’ victimology, not all those voted into public office will be of the sort we have now. If enough in our personal lives publicly walk the Christian walk, we will influence enough people to turn this mess around.

What we are experiencing, mostly from outside the Christian community (and a little from within by those who listen to Screwtape), from James: “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”

Pretty much describes our culture and politics doesn’t it?

Let’s change how we respond to that meme.

Peter: "For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.
He never sinned,
nor ever deceived anyone.
He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,
who always judges fairly.
He personally carried our sins
in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
and live for what is right.
By his wounds
you are healed.
Once you were like sheep
who wandered away.
But now you have turned to your Shepherd,
the Guardian of your souls."

And this is the way, tough as it is, to turn this hot mess around.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “It is more sensible to be pessimistic; disappointments are left behind, and one can face people unembarrassed. Hence, the clever frown upon optimism. In its essence optimism is not a way of looking at the present situation but a power of life, a power of hope when others resign, a power to hold our heads high when all seems to have come to naught, a power to tolerate setbacks, a power that never abandons the future to the opponent but lays claim to it. Certainly, there is a stupid, cowardly optimism that must be frowned upon. But no one ought to despise optimism as the will for the future, however many times it is mistaken. It is the health of life that the ill dare not infect. There are people who think it frivolous and Christians who think it impious to hope for a better future on earth and to prepare for it. They believe in chaos, disorder, and catastrophe, perceiving it in what is happening now. They withdraw in resignation or pious flight from the world, from the responsibility for ongoing life, for building anew, for the coming generations. It may be that the Day of Judgment will dawn tomorrow; only then and no earlier will we readily lay down our work for a better future.”