God - Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary

God - Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary

From  the Hanover College Department of History

"DURING the reign of Arcadius, Logomacos, lecturer in theology of Constantinople, went to Scythia and halted at the foot of the Caucasus, in the fertile plains of Zephirim, on the frontier of Colchis. That good old man Dondindac was in his great lower hall, between his sheepfold and his vast barn; he was kneeling with his wife, his five sons and five daughters, his kindred and his servants, and after a light meal they were all singing God's praises. " What do you there, idolator? " said Logomacos to him.
" I am not an idolator," answered Dondindac.

" You must be an idolator," said Logomacos, " seeing that you are not Greek. Tell me, what was that you were singing in your barbarous Scythian jargon? "

" All tongues are equal in the ears of God," answered the Scythian. " We were singing His praises."

" That's very extraordinary," returned the theologian. " A Scythian family who pray God without having been taught by us! " He soon engaged Dondindac the Scythian in conversation, for he knew a little Scythian, and the other a little Greek. The following conversation was found in a manuscript preserved in the library of Constantinople." [...]

-- http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volgod.html

New Blog Link: We Hunted the Mammoth

We Hunted the Mammoth: The New Misogyny, Tracked and Mocked.

Luther's In Depth Theology for Theological Therapy: the Coram Relations

The coram-relations are analogous with the intra-psychic ego states: the superego, ego, and id and represent the relational ones for our deep selves and extended, social selves for theological therapy.

Singer's "Famine, Affluence and Morality": Exposition and Appraisal

In his article "Famine, Affluence and Morality" Peter Singer gives a seemingly devastating critique of our ordinary ways of thinking about famine relief, charity, and morality in general. In spite of that very few people have accepted, or at any rate acted on, the conclusions he reaches. In light of these facts one might say of Singer's arguments, as Hume said of Berkeley's arguments for immaterialism, that "... they admit of no answer and produce no conviction."[1] While I do think that Singer's considerations show that people should do considerably more than most people actually do, they do not establish his conclusions in their full strength or generality. So his arguments admit of a partial answer, and once properly qualified may produce some conviction.

Castlevania Lords Of Shadow 2 - Dracula and his wife Marie Cutscene

What is Nothing? (original)

This is your mind on Frege and Russell and Rorty and Postmodernism and Lawrence Krauss (or something). ;-)

• P.S.: Thanks to everyone at Rifftrax for bringing that short to my attention!

Link: Owl City Fireflies Parody - Celebrity

I don't mean to offend any celebrities of good will by linking to this--only those who are just "famous for being famous", as the saying goes.

;-) 

Everyone screws up; however (and sorry Quine, but I think this is Analytic) no one should screw up on purpose just to get attention (even though, of course, a lot of people do like attention; though most that do just want to be loved).

D' Jay Z's Faves No. 1 (playlist)

D' Jay Z's Faves No. 1 (playlist)

"This Is A Video EVERYONE Needs To See."

Ok, but things are more multifaceted than that; I think. Another name for this might be: The "Excessive Moderation Paradox Video". Different people engage with the world differently!  Still, Spread the Love  !!!

Viva la Castlevania

One more try...

Castlevania Lord of Shadows 2 - Dracula & Alucard Family Reunion

Castlevania Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate HD[Final Boss + Ending Scene ...

So sad :-( .

Agent Intellect: Linkfest

Agent Intellect: Linkfest

Against Malaria Foundation Blog

http://news.againstmalaria.com/

Castlevania Lords of Shadow Final Boss Cut-scenes and Ending

Gabriel Belmont: Every man has the power to repent! I have FAITH in THAT!!!

Fun.: Some Nights [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Amos 7: Locusts, Fire, and a Plumb-Line

Amos 7

Locusts, Fire, and a Plumb-Line

7This is what the Lord God showed me: he was forming locusts at the time the latter growth began to sprout (it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings). ²When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,
‘O Lord God, forgive, I beg you!
   How can Jacob stand?
   He is so small!’ 
³ The Lord relented concerning this;
   ‘It shall not be,’ said the Lord. 

4 This is what the Lord God showed me: the Lord God was calling for a shower of fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. ⁵Then I said,
‘O Lord God, cease, I beg you!
   How can Jacob stand?
   He is so small!’ 
⁶ The Lord relented concerning this;
   ‘This also shall not be,’ said the Lord God. 

7 This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. ⁸And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb-line.’ Then the Lord said,
‘See, I am setting a plumb-line
   in the midst of my people Israel;
   I will never again pass them by; 
⁹ the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
   and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
   and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’

(From http://bible.oremus.org/)

Steven Pinker: Stylish Academic Writing | Office of Faculty Development ...

Ed Sheeran: The Parting Glass (Irish traditional)

Ed Sheeran - I See Fire - The Hobbit - Peter Hollens

One of my favorite songs..but I think things will turn out perfectly for all good people!!!

Blog: Act Blue

http://blog.actblue.com/

About Against Malaria

Imagine Dragons - Bleeding Out

Walk Free: The Movement to End Modern Slavery

My "translation" (there's different ones) of the 'Our Father':

My "translation" (there's different ones) of the 'Our Father':

"Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom Come, 
Thy Will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this Day, our Daily Bread, and
deliver us from the time(s) of trial, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

(For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, For Ever, and Ever and Ever.) Amen."

Imagine Dragons - It's Time

Imagine Dragons - Demons (Official)

Not sure what I feel here. We (except for God, Jesus, possibly Mary, and some others) are all sinners. I am a great sinner myself. Still, for Catholics, today Is Divine Mercy Sunday, and even if (most) everyone deserves hell, I'm sure that God through His Infinite Mercy will forgive as many as are truly sorry and penitential. So, please, forgive each other in the name of God or whatever Divinity you believe in!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWRsgZuwf_8

Demons Imagine Dragons 1 Hour Version

Imagine 'The Dragon's Desitiny' Sung Like This (by PTX !!!)

Truth-making and Reference-making: Revised and expanded

A revised and much expanded version of my series of posts on truth-making and reference-making--including criticisms of previous theories, a reply to Greg Restall's arguments for the triviality of the truth-making relation, and answers to several objections--is now available here on Scholardarity, for only ten cents!


I'm thinking of using this as my MA thesis, so I've taken it down. 

The problem of how best to explain the truth-making relation is a vexed one for truth-maker theory. As Raimi points out in his introductory survey, theories of this relation face four main difficulties:

An adequate definition of the truth-maker relation must satisfy at least four conditions. It should not fall victim to any of the following problems: (i) the problem of counterintuitive truth-makers; (ii) the problem of excluded truth-makers; (iii) the problem of missing truth-makers; and (iv) the problem of unnecessary truth-makers. A definition falls victim to the first problem if it classifies as truth-makers for a certain proposition entities that are intuitively not truth-makers for this proposition. It falls victim to the second problem if it fails to classify as a truth-maker for a certain proposition an entity that intuitively is a truth-maker for this proposition.  It falls victim to the third problem if it fails to account for any truth-maker for a certain proposition that intuitively has a truth-maker. Finally, it falls victim to the fourth problem if it classifies a truth-maker for a proposition that intuitively has no truth-maker. (Truth and Truth-Making, pp 13-4)

            In this paper I propose an account which I hope will not succumb to any of these problems. Section 2 sketches a couple of the major accounts that have been given of the truth-making relation, and explains what their problems are. In Section 3 I explain the basic ideas behind my own proposal, where I introduce the idea of reference-making, and use it to account for the idea of truth-making for subject-predicate sentences, taking a truth-maker to be a reference-maker for a sentence.  In Section 4, I give a quasi-formal account of how it can be applied to truth-functional compounds, quantified sentences, and modal sentences. Section 5 gives a reply to Greg Restall’s arguments that logical considerations lead quickly to the trivialization of the truth-making relation: that everything is a truth-maker for every true truth-bearer. I show that this does not hold for my approach, and in the process show how it avoids problem (i). Next, in Section 6 I discuss some of its philosophical implications. Then, in Section 7, I show how my account, contrary to first appearance, can be tweaked to avoid truth value gaps. Section 8 answers objections to my views. Finally, I conclude the paper in Section 9.