The other day when I was searching for the meaning of the logical fallacy called "special pleading" I came across this website here: . On this website was this definition of the fallacy:

Example #2:
Superstition is a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation -- unless it is written in the Bible, then it is reasonable faith.

Explanation: It has been said that one’s superstition is another’s faith.  The standard of superstition has been defined by the person, and violated by the Bible (attributing God and demons as the cause of natural phenomenon).  But while the person in the example...READ MORE

...our Ruling Class increasingly has trouble making elementary distinctions between Christians and all the rest of those religious riff raff with their silly terrorist beliefs. That spills over even into institutions Christian have historically inhabited and trusted, like the military, since the military is run by our Ruling Class. It will eventually spill over into policy.

In antiquity, this played out with both Catholics and heretics dying together at the hands of pagan murderers, whether mobs or state actors. Indeed, there are actually Arian heretics enrolled in the Roman martyrology making them saints of Holy Church because they died in the bonfire, arena, or mass execution. It will...READ MORE

A reader writes:

As happens each Easter, I find friends posting the supposed pagan origins, rooted in the worship of Ishtar. Any help in this would be appreciated.

“Easter” is the anglicized version of “Eostre” a Germanic deity whose feast fell around the same time as Passover and therefore the celebration of the Passion.  Likewise “Lent” is just the Old English word for Spring.  Many English-speaking Fundamentalists (both Christian and atheist) are big believers in a sort of uncritical “science” of folk etymology which imagines that because the word “Easter” is etymologically related to “Eostre”, Easter is therefore “really” the “worship” of Eostre.  These same people, however,...READ MORE

A reader writes:

One of my co-workers yesterday was somewhat up in arms over the part of Palm Sunday’s account where an eclipse was specifically called out in the text.  His implication I believe was that scientific things had entered into the text where the Church had no basis for doing so.  If you’ve seen other similar tempest-in-a-teapot ravings and haven’t already commented upon them, your take would be interesting to read.

I did some digging and gave my coworker this answer this morning.

Subject: Luke 23:45

Hi,
After we chatted yesterday, I figured I’d look up the passage from Luke that we heard translated as ‘eclipse’ on Sunday.  I have a couple of references at...READ MORE

Easter Monday being God's Laughter Day, I am fond of this curious, funny and mirthful poem by George Herbert written in 1633:

The Dawning.

Awake sad heart, whom sorrow ever drowns;
       Take up thine eyes, which feed on earth;
Unfold thy forehead gather’d into frowns:
       Thy Saviour comes, and with him mirth:
                                       Awake, awake;
And with a thankfull heart his comforts take.
       But thou dost still lament, and pine, and crie;
       And feel his death, but not his victorie.

Arise sad heart; if thou dost not withstand,
       Christs resurrection thine may be:
Do not by hanging down break from the hand,
      ...READ MORE

The Donkey
By G. K. Chesterton

When fishes flew and forests walked  
   And figs grew upon thorn,  
Some moment when the moon was blood  
   Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry
   And ears like errant wings,  
The devil’s walking parody  
   On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
   Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,  
   I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
   One far fierce hour and sweet:  
There was a shout about my ears,
   And palms before my feet.

We sometimes hear it said that Jesus was just a teacher full of punchy aphorisms and turns of phrase: a mystic who...READ MORE

Last time, in this space, I wrote a little piece on Garry Wills' latest swipe at the Catholic faith, in which he tries to argue that the entire concept of a priesthood rooted in Jesus Christ as the Great High Priest in the order of Melchizedek is fraudulent and that the whole notion of a priesthood was cooked up and foisted on the Church by the anonymous author of the book of Hebrews.  One reader--a well-meaning one, I think--attempted a response to my article which struck me as a sort of summary of a great deal of bad information that, alas, many well-meaning Catholics have articulated to me over the years.  Let me re-emphasize that: the reader did not strike me as a "dissenter" and...READ MORE

R.R. Reno takes up the thankless task of critiquing Garry Wills' silly dismissal of the priesthood.

Wills basically says that the problem is that decades after a priestless Church of liberal Protestants began, somebody decided to cook up a priesthood so as to exert control over the Church. They cooked up the Eucharist to give the priesthood some excuse for existence and then wrote the letter to the Hebrews to invent a priesthood. Christians read this anonymous book and with the brainless docility of complete fools then accepted this newfangled priesthood because of this anonymous book.

It's the sort of stuff that a moderately clever progressive dissenter can get away with in a culture...READ MORE