…Hobbes believes people need to be ruled by a Sovereign—a Sovereign with no emotions, desires, or freewill. No, the drastic range of variability within each of those aspects of human nature will never lead to the summum bonum or “the greatest good” necessary to live the good life. The competing conceptions of the good lead only to chaos and war, a “war of all against all.” A social contract is needed for the religious community or the commonwealth founded for the common good of all. Ironically, Hobbes’s catalyst to peace is grounded on a negative view of human nature. The summum malum or “the greatest evil” is used in order to keep the peace, which is stipulated by the social contract. This evil is the fear of violent death given the state of nature or lawless condition of man vs. man. Thus, a Sovereign without wayward human characteristics—a hyper-intelligent Transhuman incapable of disobeying orders—is Hobbes’s contribution to the revolution, from the kingdom of God (the kingdom of already-but-not-yet) or the “kingdom of darkness,” as he likes to call it, to the kingdom of once-and-for-all, Hobbes’s temporal kingdom of absolute rule.
Come, touch my lips, my Lord, caress
With flesh the flesh of me;
One mortal morsel and my “Yes!”
Shall make me one with thee.
Come, kiss thee into me.
“He massages people’s feet
as he washes away the dirt
and the stench of the street.
He walks with those who suffer
and suffers when those who suffer
go astray.”
This is the Rabbi
who inspires closet skeptics
to “come-out” and pray.
As sensitive (artistic) souls, those of us who have the capacity to hold in the most light, light that shines brightest from fragile jars that are living miracles of the conversion of the sweetest wine from the sludge of the darkest and deepest bayous, we were designed as living metaphors of empathy and dependency. We…
Enjoy this video (INDIGNANT) about spiritual warfare. The character I play is a representation of anyone who has been touched by evil and has had his/her innocence and identity stolen from him/her. If you enjoy it, please leave a message on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuuPTxVGTiU&t=31s Thanx!
Category: Art, Beauty, Cinema, Literature, Morality, Music, Philosophy, Poetry, Polity, Science and Religion, Short Stories, Spiritual Formation, Suffering, Theology
This is a unique conference that marries rational apologetics to imaginative apologetics, the art of defending truth claims and the art of creatively expressing truth claims.
Category: Art, Beauty, Cinema, Literature, Morality, Music, Nature, Philosophy, Poetry, Polity, Psychology, Science and Religion, Short Stories, Spiritual Formation, Suffering, Theology
Yes, My Friends, This multi-faceted, multi-challenging, multi-year project is finally complete. With 120 poems, 70 prose, and 10 short stories–that will simultaneously stretch and encourage you–From the Ashes We Rise is a literary force to be read and reckoned with. This book seamlessly weaves Arts and Apologetics all throughout its 556 pages. See why From…
“Burn it?” questions the fat man whose fascination with the “naughty and nice” book has inadvertently eclipsed the genesis of Christmas—the true story of God making a way where there was no way, to save the lost when the lost could never be found.
Sean happens to be thinking the same thing. “If I were to revive his brain, will he end up in the first body or the second body?” A sudden pang of doubt deflates his hope of winning the Nobel Prize for the first successful brain-transplant. “What if his brain doesn’t make it? Then the two people, who’ve put their trust in me and donated their bodies in the name of ‘brain research’ when they died, died in vain. No, I can’t believe that! I know what I believe: logical possibilities ground metaphysical possibilities. Option one is logical and thus ontologically possible.” He swallows a gulp of air. “I have to keep working.”
Blood in my saliva is my tribute
to the expired letters never sent
of soldiers in the ground—
Loyalists’ battles almost won
and Patriots’ battles almost lost.