http://www.clusterflock.org/2009/11/for-andrew-5.html a site about everything Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:14:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.clusterflock.org/2009/11/for-andrew-5.html/comment-page-1#comment-674725 A Wonderful & Most Extraordinary Pageant of Contradictions at Zoomtard Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:30:29 +0000 http://www.clusterflock.org/?p=34647#comment-674725 [...] I head out to church this morning, I share this with you. Found at Clusterflock: Of course from one point of view she was right about the Church, which grew so far, almost at [...] [...] I head out to church this morning, I share this with you. Found at Clusterflock: Of course from one point of view she was right about the Church, which grew so far, almost at [...]

]]> http://www.clusterflock.org/2009/11/for-andrew-5.html/comment-page-1#comment-673480 Daryl Scroggins Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:15:54 +0000 http://www.clusterflock.org/?p=34647#comment-673480 This is a wonderful demonstration of the power of concession in argument: much talk of "the stupid Christians" who tragically got it all wrong in their ignorant zeal, coupled with praise of the inadvertent glory and kindness of saints who "flowered up" as an answer to incivility and barbarity and nonsense. Now there's a Plan. Doesn't it seem, though, that this argument is cut in layers that neatly factors out cause and effect? Here we have a kind of gradualism in which the nasty parts are conveniently located in the interstices, leaving only the sublime--the "yes those people had to be burned but Look at the cathedrals we got!" And then there's the second little concession that occurs so quickly as to most likely go unnoticed--in the statement that "kindness and goodness have [of course] freely occured outside this grand provisioning of opportunities for greatness. I wonder: might it have been possible for that "outside" kindness and goodness to produce saints, had they not been struck down as heretics? Who knows. Many Gods have died, but we forget that we have forgotten them. This is a wonderful demonstration of the power of concession in argument: much talk of “the stupid Christians” who tragically got it all wrong in their ignorant zeal, coupled with praise of the inadvertent glory and kindness of saints who “flowered up” as an answer to incivility and barbarity and nonsense. Now there’s a Plan. Doesn’t it seem, though, that this argument is cut in layers that neatly factors out cause and effect? Here we have a kind of gradualism in which the nasty parts are conveniently located in the interstices, leaving only the sublime–the “yes those people had to be burned but Look at the cathedrals we got!” And then there’s the second little concession that occurs so quickly as to most likely go unnoticed–in the statement that “kindness and goodness have [of course] freely occured outside this grand provisioning of opportunities for greatness. I wonder: might it have been possible for that “outside” kindness and goodness to produce saints, had they not been struck down as heretics? Who knows. Many Gods have died, but we forget that we have forgotten them.

]]> http://www.clusterflock.org/2009/11/for-andrew-5.html/comment-page-1#comment-673442 Andrew Simone Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:33:46 +0000 http://www.clusterflock.org/?p=34647#comment-673442 yes. yes. yes. a thousand times yes. yes. yes. yes. a thousand times yes.

]]>