The Continuing Collapse of Israel's 7 October Narrative

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-still-cant-find-any-7-october-rape-victims-prosecutor-admits

As Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada was being detained and ultimately deported from Switzerland for his 'Anti-Semitic' views, Moran Gez the Israeli prosecutor has publicly admitted they have no evidence to suggest that rape occurred in connection with the 7 October 2023 attacks.

How Should We Then Live Part 10: Final Choices (II)

Schaeffer then launches into a discussion regarding civil liberties and the role of the state and how under the Christian consensus freedoms were able to flourish without chaos (for the racial-tribal majority we might add) and yet once the consensus was removed, the very same freedoms became self-destructive.

How Should We Then Live Part 10: Final Choices (I)

This final episode was certainly one of the weakest and most dated – and yet also necessary. Schaeffer attempts to tie things together and make his final appeal. This episode differs from the others in that Schaeffer is not talking about art and culture from the vantage point of historic places and museums. It's mostly just him talking and he more or less keeps falling back on a couple of points crucial to his project. This is what the series has been all about. He wants his audience to take away these crucial applications and he more or less devotes an entire episode to them.

How Should We Then Live Part 8: The Age of Fragmentation (II)

I think it safe to say that Europeans developed a deeper concept of life and thus art – and they felt a deeper and more reflective pain regarding the changes that had overtaken the West.

An Anglo-American wrote about The Wasteland but I think the Europeans felt it more poignantly. Likewise Romanticism came to America but (in my estimation) it never took hold as it did in Europe. Primitivism, the frontier, individualistic anti-Puritanism and the grand spectrum of nature played a part in American Romanticism but it was not deeply retrospective and if anything progressive and therefore of a very different (though at times still pleasing) character.

How Should We Then Live Part 8: The Age of Fragmentation (I)

Watching this episode I was reminded of something I have referenced before – spending time in Europe with American Fundamentalists. In general I found that American Fundamentalists (often from the Mid-West or South) did not always appreciate the richness of Europe and its culture. Their palette struggled with the foods, the ubiquitous alcohol put them off, the arts and culture struck them as high-brow and their own patriotism (and frankly provincialism) caused them to constantly look down on other nations and cultures – and in many cases things they didn't understand. They didn't enjoy their time and I certainly did not enjoy my time with them.

How Should We Then Live Part 7: The Age of Non-Reason (I)

I've often thought about the opening segment of this video, Schaeffer standing on the beach and drawing circles in the sand. Each represents a unified theory, comprehensive system or worldview. Because (Schaeffer argues) these circles or systems are rooted in man they fail and another philosopher comes along, crosses out the circle(s) of his predecessors and develops his own – and so on.

How Should We Then Live Part 6: The Scientific Age (II)

This brings us back to the beginning of the episode and the questions surrounding Galileo, Copernicus and others. Schaeffer is adamant that the divide is not between science and religion but between Biblical science and Aristotelianism which had been embraced by the Roman Catholic Church.

How Should We Then Live Part 6: The Scientific Age (I)

This was a complicated episode with fairly weighty ideas being thrown out at a fast clip. I struggled to take notes without pausing. As such this episode and probably the next will also require two parts in order for me to review and respond to the material. Additionally in this episode I wish to interact on a slightly more involved level with some of the arguments assumptions made by Schaeffer. These are really important issues, especially today and these touch on some very basic and fundamental questions about the nature of knowledge that I think are critical when considering the nature of Biblical authority. I think Schaeffer and his followers have missed the mark on this latter albeit critical point.

How Should We Then Live Part 4: The Reformation

In some respects this was a simpler episode keeping to more basic but recurring and even redundant themes. Schaeffer assumes that his audience is already familiar with the basics of the Reformation narrative and spends hardly any time laying out its chronology. I was surprised however to hear how he postured his narrative. He argued the Reformation was the breaking away of the Reformers from the Roman Catholic Church. Additionally the movement represented a turning away from the humanistic elements of medieval Catholicism.

How Should We Then Live Part 3: The Renaissance

Continuing his themes regarding humanism as expressed through art and culture, Schaeffer is clearly torn. For him the 15^th-16^th century Renaissance was a veritable glory. Clearly he loves the period and yet is torn apart by it because in many respects its values are in opposition to the Reformation culture he champions.

How Should We Then Live Part 2: The Middle Ages

This episode struck me as in some respects the most confused of the series. Schaeffer vacillates between praise and condemnation of The Middle Ages and in several places entangles himself in a series of non sequitirs and incongruencies.

How Should We Then Live Part 1: The Roman Age

Many if not most readers will already be familiar with Francis Schaeffer and his famous series which first appeared in the late 1970's. The Fundamentalist circles I was in during the 1980's would not have bothered too much with someone like Schaeffer and would have viewed him as strange and too worldly.

Frontline's In the Age of AI

I recently watched the PBS Frontline documentary on AI or Artificial Intelligence. I recommend it but with qualification. It was both interesting and disturbing but it was also misleading. There were some interesting discussions to be sure. From the future of jobs to some rather questionable uses in medicine to social media and surveillance, the documentary raises numerous salient questions.

Peering into the Labyrinth: Frontline's Guns, Drugs and the CIA (1988)

I recently found this little gem, an old Frontline documentary from an era on PBS that's hard to imagine in our day. There's no way they would produce or condone a film like this anymore.

Trans or De-formed?

Speaking of PBS' Frontline, I strongly recommend that people watch the latest episode entitled 'Growing Up Trans'.

It is profoundly disturbing and not an easy watch. Aside from the medical ethics and other disturbing aspects of what is taking place, the real import (and shocking at that) is in the mindset of the parents, doctors, and peers. The societal shift is happening at a rocket speed and like it or not we must deal with it and pray for wisdom in knowing how to do so.

Some Comments on: Dispatches (In God's Name)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gqhlRdOxJg

This episode of Dispatches is worth watching. It's one of those documentaries where you find yourself not really agreeing with anyone but it's informative and helps to make you aware of what's happening.

It's quite biased but I suppose that must be expected. As I watch this I sometimes wonder why these Christians are consenting to this. Do they not recall the teaching of the Scripture? The world will think we are fools. To put it on display (in this sense) is not helping the cause. We're sideshow freaks to them.