Faith, Knowledge and Certainty

Faith is based on knowledge of some kind, as is any belief that in turn requires an element of faith. Philosophers since Socrates have pointed out the uncertainty of knowledge. It is quiet an ancient topic. I suppose language and lexicons about an ontology have a bootstrap kind of presumption about the certainty of certain founding axioms, yet philosophers have noted that the axioms need to be taken as functionally valid in order to validate all that follows from them. People sometimes like to use certain relations like knowledge and faith with a kind of metaphysical opposition; different poles of an existential magnet, yet I think they are just different concepts within given lexicons or ontologies. 

Assuredly though empirical and other scientific work may not share a lexicon or ontology with faith, yet some would One sees through a glass darkly regarding epistemology and other matters including the reef of solipsism. The Universe is like the woods lonely, dark and deep and people have only so many miles to go before they sleep. Faith is more meaningful and even eventful to some than others; all are called yet few are chosen.

Monism and pluralism are easy and ubiquitous concepts, From the one arises the many. A big bang is a metaphorical paradigm with a singularity becoming pluralism, yet remaining one with a field within a field. The many are always less in quality than the One, like a dollar changed into one cents has one-hundred items of less value each (not that I am saying that the many [parts of the Universe, or even the Universe itself is in some way equal to God.

How the Reaction to Hilozoismo Theory has Changed Over Time

I believe that many people don't regard 'matter' in the way it was regarded in the 17th century when some philosopher invented the term or idea that matter is alive. Probably the guy was some kind of liberal that liked Shakespeare over-much. Hollywood might make films like Attack of the Smartest Dirt yet so much is known about molecules now that anything above the molecular level could be fabricated to a certain extent; some day artificial worlds of 'matter' might be constructed instantly. 

Leibniz had the idea that the smallest particles of 'matter' are one-dimensional things he called monads that are made of spirit- like a one-dimensional string, yet that probably isn't what was meant by the inventor of hilozoismo. He was more like a guy that regarded everything as being alive in some way. Of course the definition of life would then be an issue. Biologically speaking there is a lexicon that is used to classify life in its various forms that probably won't soon include minerals or hydrogen atoms.

Why Statues Were Removed by Reformers from Some Formerly Catholic Churches

Why did some Protestants remove statues from formerly Catholic Churches?  The reformers such as Luther, Zwingli and Calvin wanted to stay true to the Bible- the word of God, and to eliminate errors and authorities that seemed to be in contradistinction to the word of God. That is easy. Luther opposed the sale of indulgences that was ubiquitous and corrupting, the sale of relics that were normally bogus, the veneration of idols/statues and other items that had to much in common with pagan idolatry and so forth. 

Since Martin Luther believed in a priesthood of believers that all Christians are priests he was inclined to be more egalitarian in his approach to reading the word of God. Since the Catholic church had eliminated the married priesthood about 400 years before, and because the New Testament elaborates that marriages is o.k. for Christians, though Paul said it is better to be as he was (single), Luther supported married priests (as apparently has the Catholic Pope recently as he suggested that be allowed again). About Protestants buying Catholic Churches- I think there is quite a lot of ecclesiastical history people are missing- such as the Smalcaldan War, the 100 years war etc that was more important to ecclesiastical structure control than real estate markets. Napoleon made St. Peters a stable for a time, yet consider what iconoclasts and others such as Muslims did to Orthodox and catholic structures alike- The Hagia Sophia- The Church of Holy Wisdom- was converted into a mosque, and communists converted churches into museum-while in Juneau Alaska, a Protestant Church was converted into a public radio building until the public radio network were able to buy a television station.

Von Mises, Hayek and the Decline of Rational Liberal Economics

Monetary policy and a theory of capital were much more important issues to the field of classical economics in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century than today. It was very, very important in the west and not just in opposition to theories of value type discussions with socialists and communists (much less actual philosophers. Monetary policy had real political consequences in applying economic theory to political economy of the United States and the free world. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-14366054 Keynes vs Hayek

After Reagan and the taming of inflation and with the dollar cut loose from the gold standard, economics sort of lost its mind regarding solid political economy; neither did it transition to ecological economics (Democrat candidates for president 2020 would like to spend 52 trillion on health care and another 30 trillion on global warming remedies for example).

It is interesting that Hayek differentiated socialism as state control of the economy from a welfare state within democracy. Right now people tend to conflate the two. 

 https://mises.org/library/why-mises-and-not-hayek

Wesley So Wins World FR Chess Championship

American chess federation member Wesley So won the world Fischer Random chess (chess 960) championship in Norway today becoming the first American chess player to win a world chess championship since Robert James Fischer. The late Bobby Fischer invented Fischer Random chess with different starting positions because he felt chess theory was too well known and boring.

The 2019 championship event was the inaugural F.I.D.E. event. Making American chess great again in winning the first world title match for Fischer random chess was quite an achievement for the Philippine-American.

Candidate Warren Wants 52 Trillion for Medicare- V.A. Budget is 200 Billion

Senator Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for all plan is so expensive that it would cost 2.5 times the existing U.S. Federal debt. The former special education teacher has advanced a 52 trillion dollar program that would require the participation of all.  One must wonder who did her math for her because it doesn't add up to sobriety.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/warrens-52t-medicare-for-all-plan-revealed-campaign-still-claims-no-middle-class-tax-hikes-needed

If the U.S. government was to spend 52 trillion on the space program I could live with that more easily. The Veterans Administration has just a 200 billion dollar budget and it does reasonably well, yet a ludicrously expensive medicare plan that dwarfs present government spending and debt is just about crazy.

Raising the V.A. budget 1000% to 2 trillion and linking new centers that would treat all poor Americans for nothing as well as veterans would be a lot cheaper and more effective, while keeping the existing Medicare program and eliminating Obamacare. A hyper-loop fast train system could be built nationally to link all remote areas to V.A. health centers for poor Americans and veterans, though anyone could ride the trains.  A national worker's comp style program could verify the financial eligibility of patients for the service- say anyone earning $20,000 or less annually would be eligible.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/050815/elon-musks-hyperloop-economically-feasible.asp

For a cost of three or four trillion dollars a public health network for treating the poor and a network of ultra-fast electric trains to reduce global warming gases could be constructed and become new normal American infrastructure. Democrat politicians need to stop finding ways to bankrupt the U.S.A. with uncoordinated and hyper-inflated, bureaucrat heavy Rube Goldberg government schemes that don't work. Elizabeth Warren's plan will ossify Medical innovation and create a vast Soviet Medicare system of bureaucrats with much work probably outsourced on-line to China and India.

Time is the Contemporary History of Universe Thermodynamics

Time could be said to be the rate of change dimension of the thermodynamic expansion of the Universe from T=0. It is relative though, and there may be a Multiverse. In theological time relativity perhaps there is as Tillich described it; "an eternal now". One may have an I-thou time relationship with God through Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God. Physicists have tried to trace the patterns of the expansion of the Universe like time deposition striations...

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-origin-of-time-bootstrapped-from-fundamental-symmetries-20191029/