Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Freud Turns On Himself

Was the concept of God that Freud rejected determined by his relation to his father?

And was Freud's atheism also determined by that relationship, instead of his alleged universalities of human nature?

After all, Freud himself said that his views applied to all human theorizing.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Material Needs Determine Materialism

MARX: Every aspect and thought is determined by social and economic factors. Material needs determine everything. Ideas and values are determined by the material realities of life. Material reality is the foundation on which the superstructure of ideas is erected. Hence, people's social and economics conditions determine what they think.

ME: What material needs and realities determined that theory itself?

Monday, October 24, 2005

Changing Minds

Minds are changed temporarily by force, but permanently by argument.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Heresy

Heresy is just the truth spoken prematurely.

Saturday, October 15, 2005

The Rise of Atheism

Strangely enough, it was the rise of Protestantism that laid the foundation for the later emergence of atheism in the twentieth century. It was believed by some that the only way to liberate humanity from its bondage to the past was to attack this oppression's ultimate cause---the church.

But since not everyone could defeat the church militarily or politically, some developed the strategy of attacking its ideas, thereby undermining the credibility of its teachings. Atheism was seen as able to weaken and destroy the church, as well as to liberate from its repression.

Atheism merely extended Protestantism's criticism of the Catholic Church, without any need to promote the attractions of a godless world.

But it developed a sophistication as a world view in its own right. Now it was much more than merely a newfound intellectual freedom. A brave new world lay ahead...

Alistair McGrath, The Twilight of Atheism

Friday, October 14, 2005

Futureworld

The great powers of the world are not nation-states.

The starting point for global conquest is now the mind, and ideas are the new world war.

Mind Wars

The empires of the future will be empires of the mind.
--Winston Churchill