Pope Francis Appears to Give Blessing to Sin (homosexual relationships)

 In a move that will renew pejorative descriptions of the Pope as The Anti-Christ, Catholic Pope Francis gave Catholic priests the right to bless homosexual relationships : "that don't resemble marriage". He has made an apparent conflict of interest with the New and Old Testament reproofs against homosexuality even if he has some sort of Jesuit technical legalist exoneration for himself.The etymology of 'blessing' means to 'sprinkle with blood'. Since the context for Christians is the blood of Christ, it may require copious quantities since blessing present and new sins appears destined to conflict with even more portions of scripture.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/world/europe/pope-gay-lesbian-same-sex-blessing.html

One might expect a partial breakup of the Catholic Church to follow as has occurred already in numerous Protestant sects. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/us/the-united-methodist-church-schism.html

One can make a lot of anecdotal arguments that disregard scripture. One may have false hermeneutics. The seven churches of The Revelation were warned about corrupt practices and bad behavior. Evil dogmatics simply evil. From an historical point of view one realizes these periods of social corruption and decadence are not new. Some day reform will occur or a new society will form without moral decay for a while. Then it will discover deficit spending as if it were rediscovering the ability to eat fruit forbidden in the Garden of Eden. A church that stands for nothing is a self-negation. A car dealer that sells just fruit is no car dealer.

Keep in mind what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah and what Paul wrote to the church at Rome; the Roman Pope has plainly disregarded scripture and gone his own way. I Corinthians 6:9-11 KJV""Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate (malakoi), nor abusers of themselves with mankind (arsenokoitai), nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." People may persuade themselves of whatever they like yet in so doing fail to be saved in order to have worldly comfort or tax cuts (lol). A gospel of hedonism or sexual license is not the Gospel of God. Romans 1:27 "27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet."

Comparing the Pope's decretals to Paul's apostolic letters to the churches is silly. Paul met the Lord on the road to Damascus. He received words directly from the resurrected Christ. Catholics may believe in continuing revelation while Protestants traditionally haven't. The Revelation warns about adding anything to it. (Revelation 22:18-19). The Pope has no Apostolic authority whatsoever. "Rev. Billy Joe Schmoe said today that he will bless sin from now on because there are a lot of sinners that want to be considered to be following the word and kosher. As leader of the First Church of What's Happening Now he said that since most of his flock are thieves ,yet trying to change, so long as they don't take nothin from him he will bless thievery" You are of course free to believe what you want. People that continue to egregiously sin are supposed to be put out of the Church until they change. I will reiterate the point that a Church leader is not supposed to bless sin. "Matthew 18:15-17 "15 “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ 17 And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector." The Vatican might want to start an impeachment inquiry into the Pope's conduct and replace him with someone with a square, solid moral foundation. He may move to liberalize abortion next, and then dope for the Catholic Church. It shouldn't be that difficult to just say wrong is wrong yet not hate or persecute people doing wrong. One should not bless what is wrong. Christians are supposed to be trying to live up to what the little books (biblos) relate, not trying to corrupt them, adulterate them, make sinful conduct OK and etc.

Global Warming; The Coefficient of the Concentration of Wealth?

 The atmospheric heating phenomena may be the coefficient of the concentration of wealth. Wealth concentration has a narrow point of view oriented toward profit that regards non proximal profit elements as beyond its range of interest, or externalities that are not too meaningful.

Concentrated wealth can afford to purchase support for policies that decrease taxation and environmental remediation. A more liberal tax basis that raises the rate of taxes on concentrated wealth probably would pay for a higher percentage of global warming reduction through government policy.

With overly concentrated wealth the electorate become stifled to a large extent in regard to expressing political opinions on taxation antipathetic to the preferred alternatives of the very rich. It may not be possible to effectively slow or reduce global warming without a near-term large tax rate increase on those earning more than $250,000 annually.

You Should hate the word 'Noble'

 I hate the idea of nobility referenced as superior (noble). Some fairly scummy characters have been nobles; they didn’t get there because of virtue. Often they were just the best killers amd/or the most conniving schemers. Mankind had a hard time overcoming those with superior political rights. freedom includes the right to hate things like obnoxious songs, bad politics etc. It is necessary for a democracy to be vigilant against cults, classes and concentrated wealth that would make mankind spiritless jellyfish-sardines malleable to their will.

In the Bible; Revelation 3:15-16″“15“I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. 16* So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.” Also consider Luke 14:26 “
“If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”

One must be wary of government and corporate ideas about hate speech and psychological and political control of the masses for they have always been too happy to exercise thought control. Wrong, reprehensible acts can fairly be proscribed, and language plainly intended to cause harm may be countered but people need be free to thin and to hate things, and that basically means to reject things, that they do not like. Freedom of thought and speech are essential human rights for a life that isn’t subordinated to a superior class by force.

Besides Processing Memories

 Some believe that consciousness is primarily a phenomena to process memories. Consciousness does a pretty good job at evaluating threats like flying objects that were thrown at the brain housing unit. I believe it does more than process memory; consider people with amnesia due to organic insult who nevertheless have a full working consciousness. Socrates might have liked the concept though. In The Meno Socrates demonstrates that a slave boy has built in math memory. I read a refutation someplace of that Socratic experiment yet I would disagree with it anyway since it seems silly and contra to the way things are. If one can compare knowledge and percepts that are always arriving in the brain via senses, or even to falling into cold water, and even compare that accretion of data and sorting it out to atomic and molecular process of adding and radiating mass, there is more than an introverted regurgitation of memory going on.

Temporal Rhyme (poem)

 

The elect saved through grace
fade from time’s scything embrace
becoming one with the Lord
they respond to the knock on the door

The body of Christ is eternal
those worldly foes await the infernal
though the word has brought them near it
they’ve ignored the Holy Spirit

Jesus is the Son of God
together with the Father and Holy Spirit
the triune God is for mortal’s in fog
yet the church body is the Lord’s place alit

Within the kingdom pass many seasons
for life fulfills temporal Holy reasons
changes taking place
are given with the Lord’s grace

Many in one sing
pluralism with the Son brings
individuals to faithful light
Jesus Christ overcame the darkest night.

Oldest Paintings of Jesus Christ

 There are paintings of Jesus dating to 235 AD (in Syria) https://aleteia.org/.../10/the-six-oldest-images-of-jesus/ and the one below from 350 A.D. with more over the centuries of the Byzantine Empire. Even so most people aren't convinced they are actually historical likenesses. Jews of the first century A.D. tended not to make images of people because of scripture. It is possible that some of the followers were able to describe the Lord to Gentiles that saw him and they sketched a likeness that made its way to Roman and Byzantine ceilings. Probably most of the images are representational expressions rather than verisimilitudes of his actual appearance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depiction_of_Jesus...

A Forest Sound With Someone There (poem)

 

Life is hard and then you die
withering flesh and roilsome skies
age is a trial one is convicted of
growing older waiting for heaven above

There is no normal wonder
except the power in the Lord
everything that is and some times blunders
cannot be taken ‘yond death like a horde

Temptations, cold and hunger
anger and emergent sores
blisters of temporal journeys
are set to beautiful sky scores

These leaders of mass confusion
leaving the ecosphere a wreck for dismay
bring wars and broadcast intrusions
and the electorate has not meaningful to say

One could hope for better
God has perfection now
yet not with Earth are Paul’s letters
written for world profits or plow

Thrown from the Temple
James also took the fall to the ground
an encouraging moral example
like Stephen he was beaten and cast down

Like a forest stand to be cut down
life of faith is endless
words from God profound
written on wood pulp public’s way pressed

When the time of night draws nigh
and the old enemy takes mortal life
one readies for travel beyond the sky
a call to resurrection overcoming strife.

Belechick more likely to move to San Diego than Las Vegas

  The Raiders and Chargers each have uncertainty about who their head coach will be next season. WIth Bill Belichick probably being available next season the question arises about his destination for 2024. SInce the Raiders have been playing fairly well after their recent coaching change to interim coach Antonio Pierce, it seems more likely the Chargers will be the team to try out the Belichick system after their recent 63 to 7 loss to the Raiders.

 The patriots are in a rebuild after the championship years and haven't yet fallen to the bottom to draft a quarterback with the first pick. The Chargers are a team that may be more ready-to-wear like the Chiefs and Seahawks were before hiring a new coach and winning championships. I vote for Belchick to San Diego; his disciplined style would be interesting in a town that John Unitas said had a long-haired, dope smoking football team.

EU Wars with Aggressive Racist Expansion to Reel In Ukraine Prize

 The European Union is swollen enough as it is; it has no need to devour all of the former Russian territory named Ukraine in order to grow larger. Europeans did historically have a racist attitude toward Eastern Slavs of Russia viewing them as backward peoples. Yet Russia has loads of resource-rich real estate to devour and enrich Western Europe- hence the history perfidy and war to annex Ukraine for the EU. Western Europe and the American Democrat Party have invested countless billions of dollars to provide weapons of war and cash to one of the most corrupt governments on Earth to keep bodies burning in war in hope of making Ukraine part of the EU.

The United States has made an historical error in backing up EU expansionism. It is rather like that of the French efforts to colonize Vietnam when the United States followed up with a decade of war to attempt to keep Vietnam free. Freedom then meant being a Neo-colony of the west and not aligned with Soviet Communism. Yet the Vietnamese apparently just didn’t want to be a colony of racist colonizers and after the war slowly moved toward a market economy with mixed results. The war probably wasn’t necessary to keep Americans free, and the cost to those involved was very steep.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/15/ukraine-membership-european-union-explained/

N.A.T.O. is also very swollen. It has political entities far removed from the North Atlantic as members. Large military alliances tend toward throwing their weight around and that isn’t necessarily good for the United States. Such a large entity will draft the United States with member obligations into conflicts it has no inherent interest in.

N.A.T.O. embers will have dissimilar political interests than those of the United States as well over time and being independent politically may be more difficult.

If the EU wants to expand it might as well look toward Morocco or Algeria; and it would if the southern shore of the Mediterranean were still mostly white as it was during the era of the Carthaginians. Being non-white and Muslim the EU has erected barriers to prevent illegal alien migrants from entering western Europe and has expressed no interest in expansion to the south. Those southern countries might be more willing than Russia to have their real estate become part of the European Union.

Actually if Europeans had good reason they would end the Ukraine war, make peace and rebuild a partitioned Ukraine in partnership with Russia. After a period of a few years Russia could become part of the European Union and that would be the most rational course toward developing a peaceful Eurasia. Russia has a majority Eastern Slav population so war is the policy for the fascists of Europe lustfully eyeballing rich Ukraine farmland.

Philosophical and Theological Remarks

Solipsism is the default condition of human experience. That is what Sartre's Being and Nothingness is about really. He did say that only God could have the mind of the other and oneself simultaneously. Descartes' Meditations is French rationalism like Sartre's beginning with an epistemological doubt to prove or verify one's own existence. Throughout life one misunderestimates what it is that other people are thinking or know. How can one explain the apparent stupidity of politicians except to believe that their minds are hollow and only cognitive units perhaps cast by alien movie directors to vex normal people on Earth and make a better movie (just kidding)? I believe one doesn't think about solipsism too much and just goes on as if it weren't a thing because one can't do much with it. The idea isn't that other minds do not exist besides one's own. Instead the idea about solipsism is that one cannot prove they exist even if their is a surfeit of circumstantial evidence that they do. However the mind is just cognition, perception, language and experience. The body may fail and the mind worry about that. If one is a military medic and sees brains splattered one doesn't see a mind laying about. How can one's own thought prove that the words of others that originate actually exist somewhere in the brain of another? One's own mind is as ephemeral as that conjectured to exist within the brain and skull housing units of others. So people just kind of accept or recognize the working reality of the situation and move on to try to get positive things accomplished technically speaking.

The Academy philosophers (e.g. Socrates,Plato) called their activity alethea. It means truth. They told outsiders when asked that they were doing philosophy.

You may know about theodicy and the debates about God being responsible for evil or not. The world and Universe is a containment facility for those condemned with original sin. Humans are embedded in a temporal, thermodynamic field and are judged when their life is concluded. They have a chance to be saved or not. With so much information out there these days it's really up to the individual if they spend eternity in heaven or hell. God is wiling yet mankind is willful.

 I like to think of 'The One' that Plotinus mentioned in The Enneads as God the Father. Monism and pluralism present simultaneous unity and differentiation in all matter. Uncertainty in perceptions, borders and language are a priori categories of being. Free enterprise and private property allow specific progress and prosperity to develop. That requires some exclusivity. One cannot make 2 nanometer chips in a cow pasture, as the saying goes. Clean rooms are requisite and that means the unwashed cannot be too welcome. So one has conflicts- and there certainly are thieves, while some are greedy and maybe some politicians are sociopathic (eg Hitler and Stalin). One can try to makes the edges less sharp and create more comprehensive safety nets yet the task isn't politically simple. Good sentiments and a working healthy economy and world ecosphere need be compatible.