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A Short Film by a Friend . . .
There are some really interesting things here. Take a look:
Next Week with Jeff Durbin
Not Your Everyday Problem . . .
On the open road, take care not to idle in one place too long.
Why All Arminians Are Calvinists…
Mark Jones has an insightful piece here that I think is worth some vigorous discussion…
The short film was well done, but in an age when anything more than a 2 minute Facebook video is well past most attention spans, it will probably not get much play.
As to the “healthcare options” video, it reflects a bit of the same mindset. Child discipline problems? Consider a preemptive murder ….
The piece by Dr. Jones highlights something that Molinists have themselves affirmed- it’s nowhere near an unveiling of the man behind the machine. As contemporary molinist William Lane Craig has said (I believe paraphrasing Molina himself), “It is up to God whether you are in a world wherein you are predestined, but it is up to you whether you are predestined in the world wherein you find yourself.” Molinists have variously defended either (1) the lost are those who would never accept the grace of God and be saved in any circumstances [Plantinga], (2) that there is concordant grace for… Read more »
Kolten wrote: Call arminianism wrong if you are so convinced by the scriptures … That’s why I call Arminianism wrong. I’m also happy to grant that not all damnable heretics wear dark glasses and a mustache. Kolten wrote: Molinists have variously defended either (1) the lost are those who would never accept the grace of God and be saved in any circumstances [Plantinga] I’d be interested in a citation for this. I take the apostle Paul to be a zealous man of robust conviction, and yet he was swiftly overcome by circumstances on the road to Damascus. Does Plantinga really… Read more »
I don’t deny that many heretics are open-faced either; I was merely pointing out that an accurate representation of classical Molinism/Arminianism is straightforwardly not semi-pelagian, and it’s time to rest that canard. I understand that you believe Calvinism to be scriptural; my point is that we should be giving arguments over exegesis and consistent systematics rather than falsely attributing heresies (but feel free to corectly attribute heresies by all means). With regard to Plantinga, that was a mea culpa- Plantinga has defended transworld depravity, that possibly, any creature created with free will would sin and thus introduce moral evil into… Read more »
Jones is just making arguments I’ve made for a long time. And I’m not alone in this; many have expressed the same logic based on Arminian ideas about God. Arminians all agree that God foreknows everything. They also agree that His foreknowledge — even if it’s conceived of as mere precognition — will not be mistaken. So, before the foundation of the world, He foreknew that creating the world in such-and-such a manner would result in the certain individuals going to heaven, and certain other individuals going to hell. And then He went ahead and pushed the button, so to… Read more »
Agreed. It doesn’t seem that Jones is observing anything that hasn’t been observed before (even by atheists). If Arminians want to argue that God has perfect historical vision, passively foreseeing the operation of our human wills, so that He is just rubberstamping each individual’s choice, such a God still perfectly foresaw the world He chose to make, and made it anyhow. It was locked in by the mere fact of creating this particular world, and not some other one. At some point man must recognize that there is no external proof or independent path of verification of God’s trustworthiness with… Read more »
The elevator video made me laugh. That industry is know for innovation about as well as Amtrak. They even admit as much in their video!
So Jones goes down the Molinism path which is about the only path that somewhat reconciles Arminianism and Calvinism. I believe that Plantinga (Calvinist) and Criag (Arminian) are both Molinists. And it seems (to me) that Wilson had written the odd thing that could be compatible with Molinism (though he would call himself a Calvinist). It is true that the weakness in Arminianism is that how could God know what men will choose if those choices are really free (hence the attractiveness of Open Theism). But the weakness of Calvinism is that it (logically) implies that God authors evil. (I… Read more »
Regarding the government birth control ad, it inadvertently reveals that there is a truckload of anti-children attitude lurking just beneath the “pro-choice” exterior.
Lurking beneath the surface? More like stamped on the label in garish all caps.
It shocked me that this was a real ad, not some pro-lifers trolling. I went to the website and even the youtube channel and checked out a few other videos before I was convinced. I must admit I half expected the kid to come back and the mom to blow his head off with a .357 or at least put skull-and-crossbones poison in his cheerios. Who has time to have children? What, with smart-phones and all? I’m too busy watching MASH reruns. Its shocking to me that a video like this is something actually done to advertise birth control/abortion. And… Read more »
I think that’s not a mom in the video, but an innocent bystander plagued by a feral child who is reminded of why she doesn’t want any. It appears to be a public place, not a home.
It’s still really anti-child, but with the added bonus that children are simply a hostile force of nature rather than persons who can be related to.
The Jeff Durbin bit was cringe worthy – well beneath the comedic sense I’ve come to appreciate from this blog. Not only that, but there is something very unsettling to me about his particular brand of snark. Not that I’m necessarily against snark being employed by Christians, but in this case it totally fell flat. It felt awkward, arrogant, and really just another example of Christian “me-tooism.” In this case, it seems he was channeling the Daily Show or Weekend Update, both of which are totally lame to begin with. It’s best not to make our own Christian knock offs.… Read more »
I agree, though I’m a huge Jeff Durbin fan. He can do better. (He needs to lose that awkward, fake laughter.)
If that elevator system gets off the ground, we’re going to start hearing about elevator crashes a lot more frequently.
I confess, that’s mostly what I thought about as I watched it. But I’m sure that’s how a lot of people thought about normal elevators when they first appeared, so I’m probably just being a pessimist.
When they FIRST appeared, they did. But shortly thereafter they developed the fail-safe system. :-)
I don’t think so. Failsafe systems to prevent that sort of thing are naturally going to be part of the concept itself. But I could be wrong.
Anyway, the Star Trek turbolift has finally been invented!
Canadian gov’t to public: kids are horrible.
I don’t know about you but I find women like that incredibly unnattractive and disturbing. No heart. That attitude translates to a potential mate as well (will he be expedient to my life?).
I’m curious about all the negative comments on YouTube about it stating that this points to a more sinister program aimed at white people and the elimination of their majority status in the west. Is this not cultural Marxism at work?
I really doubt it’s about eliminating white people. For one thing, it’s CANADA. White people are even more of a majority there than in the US; the typical Canadian is much more statistically white than the typical American.
Secondly, if they had used anything other than a white person, the firestorm would have been incredible. White people are deemed “neutral” racially most of the time, whereas people of other races/ethnicities are deemed in as stand-ins for their race or ethnicity.
Worrying that white people are marked for genocide is not a Canadian preoccupation.
Willy Wonka: This is the great glass Wonkavator.
Grandpa Joe: It’s an elevator.
Willy Wonka: It’s a Wonkavator. An elevator can only go up and down, but the Wonkavator can go sideways, and slantways, and longways, and backways…
Charlie Bucket: And frontways?
Willy Wonka: …and squareways, and front ways, and any other ways that you can think of. It can take you to any room in the whole factory just by pressing one of these buttons. Any of these buttons. Just press a button, and *zing*! You’re off.
Thank heaven. If no one in this whole comment section had mentioned the Wonkavator, I would have just sat down right here like Queequeg and waited for the end.