The Christian Vanguard

Much has already been said about whether or not Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Why another drop in the ocean? Because I haven't seen anyone make this point, or at least explicitly make this point, and so that justifies me adding to the noise. That point is that the distinction between de re and de dicto is relevant here.  Take the following syllogism: 1. Mary Jane believes Spider-Man is a hero 2. Spider-Man is Peter Parker  The temptation is to conclude that  3. Mary Jane believes that Peter Parker is a hero But this would not be true if Mary Jane does not know that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. So how do we account for this? We do so by making the semantic distinction between de re and de dicto. De re means "of the thing" and de dicto  means "of what is said." (3) follows from (1) and (2) on the de re  interpretation, but not on the de dicto .  For example, take the proposition, "Adrian believes that someone is a fr...

Extra credit was offered to students in my Physical Anthropology class for attending a Spirituality Panel. This was the same panel that I was on just a few years ago , so it was a joy to be there again, even if it wasn't me up there speaking. So here is the write up I had to turn in for my class, and here is video of me posing questions to the Hindu and Atheist panelists. The event ended up in the school newspaper. 

There is this common saying that once you cease desiring a thing, you will then obtain it. A friend recently told me that I will finally have a girlfriend when I stop looking for one. This seems paradoxical. Take some other desire, like the well-being of your child. Then, some maniac who likes to see you suffer tortures your child because he will get the response desired from you. However, when he sees that once you become indifferent to your child's well-being, he stops torturing your child. So, what is the right thing here to do? In the same way, there is a sense in which pursuing marriage and pursuing a relationship is a good thing, like pursuing the well-being of your child is a good thing, and so the refusal to pursue that good is an immoral thing to do. One difference that can be appealed to here is that one has a duty to your child, but not a duty to pursuing a relationship, so the dilemma doesn't exist in not wanting to want to be in a relationship (whoa...meta). O...

There is a sense in which we wanted to share experiences with friends. It isn't so much that we want conformity, but unity. Conformity may be something like watching a TV show while you are at your house and he is at his, and then you text about it. You two are conforming to the same habits and same tasks. However, when there is unity, you are sharing a screen, you are sitting next to each other, and perhaps even sharing a meal. Unity is a perfected form of conformity. How strange would it be if I invited you over to watch a program and I told you to watch in the living room while I watched in my bedroom? You would think there was a serious disconnect there, and you would question why I invited you over in the first place.  So it is with friends in general. Friends do not desire just conformity, but unity. It makes me wonder about the quality of my friendships, or I guess the quality of friend that I am to them. While I do have this general desire to do things with friends, I ...

Today was my debate with Professor Garcia at LBCC. It went really well. I went in a bit worried, which is not normal for me when I do debates. Why was I worried? I was worried because Garcia had requested that I specifically do a medieval argument, and then he later requested I do only Aquinas. I've not defended Aquinas or scholastic metaphysics in any depth as I have done with arguments like the Kalam or Liebnizian Cosmological arguments, so, not only did I have to defend it, but I had to defend it from someone who has at least a Masters in Philosophy (I'm unsure if he has a PhD). It would be a challenge, but I suppose philosophy isn't worth doing if it's not challenging.  I had tried to email him so we could collaborate on some slides, but it just didn't happen for a number of reasons. There was some comfort that I took in thinking that I would be able to see his presentation so I could prepare some remarks, but that didn't happen and I had to think on my...

I have a small debate on the existence of God coming up with one of the philosophy professors at LBCC for our Philosophy Club. It's short, and only an hour, so, my statement is about ten minutes. Nothing original, just what Edward Feser has been saying for a while. I figure it might be a good idea just to put up here for future reference. Prayers appreciated for my debate coming up Thursday! 

I can't groove. I wish I could, but I can't even if my life depended on it. Well, okay, I can, but just not well. While I would like to dismiss this as some trivial social thing, like playing some board game like chess or something, I don't think I can, and this is becoming more apparent to me as I try to look for a lover.

There may be an inconsistency in my thinking about marriage (yes, another marriage post. Sorry). On one hand, I believe in arranged marriages. I think this is very Biblical. Adam and Eve were an arranged marriage, and they are supposed to be models of how we humans are supposed to be in a state of grace, for which Jesus died, to restore us to our Edenic glory, and then some. On the other hand, I think it is a bit foolish that couples get engaged, or married, too early. What exactly is the tension here? 

I've dipped my toe back in the dating scene. I'm not dating, but I've started investing a little more in my friendships with women. Women I wouldn't mind dating. This is probably a bad idea though, as I can't really afford to invest this time anyways. But why do I desire this? What about marriage makes a man want to spend himself so much? Many of my philosopher friends will say that it is because marriage is a good, and goods are worth pursuing for precisely that reason. While I agree that marriage is a good, it's a little more than that. Pitching it as a mere good is to sell it short. Marriage isn't just good, it's sacred.  When I reflect on that, I become a little embarrassed. When I think of things that are sacred, I have in mind something reverent and so glorious, that it keeps one silent. "Be still and know that I am God" says the Bible. When I am in front of the blessed sacrament, I am quite, still, at ease, at peace, etc. Or if I we...

Cecil the Lion is in the news again, and some people don't see the point to hunting, saying it's inhumane or whatever (well, yes, lions are not humans, duh). Scruton takes the objection and flips it on it's head. Hunting, he says, is a participation of our species with theirs. It's getting in touch with our animal roots. It's is part of being in the community of species. This is what other animals do: they hunt. If we want to be part of the animal community, we should hunt. So, far from it being a practice of dominance and over lording, it's a recognition that we are in some sense like them. It should also be noted that his type of hunting is vastly different from the American type of hunting. He wears ironed and pressed clothing, he has horses, trumpets, hounds, antique looking guns, etc. There is a class and civilization in his presenting his humanity to the other animals. This is what distinguishes himself from the other animals, this culture. You are a ...

I was once assigned a "How-To" project. That is, I had to go up in front of the class, and demonstrate to them all how to do something. I was given about a week to think of something, but being who I am, I procrastinated, and didn't even bother until the night before. Nothing came to mind, so I just decided to take an F on the assignment. Before I left to school that morning, my mom packed my lunch, which was really just sandwich parts I needed to put together. Figuring I had nothing really to lose, I decided to show everyone how to make a sandwich, and I would just make stuff up as I went along.  So, I made up rules and legends about the types of breads that were acceptable with the types of meats. And I would put everything together, trying to make commentary on every ingredient that I put on there. One thing that I didn't make up was the rule that you don't put tomatoes in contact with the bread, because the moisture will thin out and break the bread. And as...

I have some friends on Facebook ( add me !). Many of them are Catholic, and there's this guy, Glenn Peoples, whom I've had some brief exchanges with. He's not a FB friend of mine, but we have a lot of mutual friends. I don't know much about him, but he seems like a nice and respectable dude (from exploring his website, I was impressed to see that he had too get through Edward Feser to receive his degree). So, on more than one occasion, I have seen him post this one post about the Canon  when debating my Catholic friends. It's long, and somewhat detailed, and from what I can tell, none of my friends have bothered to actually respond to it. So, I put it off and put it on my list of things I've wanted to set aside some time for and respond to. Well, I found some time, and here it is.

A point was made to me the other day, which somewhat changed my mind on the relationship between how we live and how we believe. It used to be the case that I believed that the two were loosely related, but not much stock could be taken into it. After all, we're all sinners, and we all believe we ought to be a saint, and so there is a disconnect, but the relationship between the two isn't all that strong. You wouldn't say, "Well, since you act like a little devil but believe you ought to be an angel, you clearly don't believe it, or else you wouldn't be a diablito." I mean, part of me knew there was a connection. Habits become character, overflow of the heart and all that jazz  But then it was pointed out to me how much of the Roman Church is in trouble because of the practices. So, for example, a minority of Catholics believe in the Real Presence. This is reflected in the way we handle the host. Instead of treating it with the utmost reverence and ca...

In my previous post, I mentioned I lost my friend as a friend. We are no longer friends.  Friends seek the good for one another, and goods and truth are the same things. You cannot have something based on an untruth as a good. The most perfect friendship is united in all the Truth. My friendship with the character we are calling Uriah ended for precisely that reason. I can pinpoint that moment. I remember it well. 

A " frienemy " is he who pretends to be your friend, but is really not. It's a slang compound of "friend" and "enemy". I think some people tend to think of me as such. 

For whatever reason, I've had a lot of dialogue with people who can be generally identified as White Supremacists. They tend to be Catholic Radical Traditionalists, unfortunately, and have this strange fervor for Donald Trump. A part of their philosophy (if it can be dignified by being called such) is that the races, whatever that may mean, should not mix. They justify this by saying it is a preservation of European culture, but of course, European culture, which is Western civilization called Christendom, has no ties to any skin color. These are accidental features. If they mean they prefer people of the same race, that would be fine. In fact, I might even agree with that. I've written before why people tend to marry within their same age group, and I would extend that to class, intelligence, and race. I don't mean we should limit ourselves, but if we have preferences, then we are allowed to act on that.  But what if someone said, "I won't date any non-white...

A few days ago, I wrote about my experiences and confusion about kissing . I called it pointless because there didn't seem to be a final cause to it, but this just means I've emphasized this to the exclusion of the more phenomenal aspects to it. I focused on the final cause and purpose to the body parts and their acts, and thereby reduced the person to mere body parts. I suppose what I forgot was that when we kiss, or at least when I kiss, I kiss you because as you are an object of beauty, I want to be united to you not just as a body, but to you embodied, the distinction being that you are more than a sum of your parts. 

There is a video I just saw on Facebook of a puffer fish trying to attract a mate . He does this in a very entertaining way. Well, its entertaining for me anyways, maybe Mr. Fish wouldn't appreciate me looking down at his efforts. But what he does is, he swims around the bottom of the ocean and makes these designs in the sand, and it's really quite impressive. It's large, generally symmetrical, and actually really beautiful. If Cathedrals could be drawn in the ocean sand, the puffer fish would make the best rounded stained windows. 

I am at that age where I, as a single man, observe his friends getting married and starting families, and begin to wonder, is there something wrong with me? The same week I broke up, like, three of my friends got engaged, including one who was single only three weeks earlier. I was happy for them all, but I didn't feel comfortable seeing all that. Of course, you hear the well-meaning but naive lines such as, "It's okay to be single" or "You shouldn't put your confidence in a partner" or the rage inducing, "God is enough."  These all sort of betray a kind of anti-marriage view, and I've noticed a lot of this philosophy comes from emotionally hurt women and people that were duped by the Sam Harris wave that hit Protestantism a few years ago. I say duped because while everyone was distributing Harris' book,  I Kissed Dating Goodbye, encouraging people to be single forever and follow Harris' model, Harris found himself a wife.

I had often wondered whether the hours long make out sessions with my then girlfriend were occasions to sin . We figured they were, so for that, and a few other reasons, we decided to slow down, a lot. This was interesting for me because I've never kissed a girl like that before, and to go from basically no experience to nearly crashing and burning, it had me thinking: What the heck is kissing? Like, okay, it's when one person presses their lips against someone else, generally on the lips as well, or maybe the cheek, or maybe even the forehead. But like, what does it do?  So, like, sex. We know what sex is, and we can describe it in such a way that refers to the final cause of sex, which is procreation. To refer to sex without final causes is to be a somewhat deficient explanation of what sex is. What then is the point of kissing? I can't figure it out. Why the lips? Why not my index finder? I mean, sure, me poking your face over and over again with my finger is probab...

A while ago, I had a conversation with a guy. We both commented on a mutual friends Facebook post, and this friend was from the ICOC. I initiated conversation with him because his profile picture looked like something you would see an Orthodox person put up, and people from the ICOC tend to be isolated from that kind of stuff, so I was intrigued. The man's name is Joey Harris, and I have his permission to make this public. I have cleaned up some of the grammar and spelling errors, but the substance is faithful to the original. I've decided to put this up for a few reasons. One, it's probably the best attempt by a member of the ICOC to stop me from being Catholic. Or at least, it's the more informed attempt. Two, there's a certain intellectual humility in the conversation, which I think other members of the ICOC should follow. I've talked to many of my friends from this group, and they simply don't know how to approach me about this, and I briefly give a...

I've documented on this blog why I think the Protestant domination in pop apologetics unjustly snuffs out Catholic contributions. I want to talk about a particular kind of explicit disallowance (is that a word?) to continue making my case.  There have been times when, as a student, I've looked for opportunities to get involved in apologetics leadership. I did what I could in my previous Protestant denomination, teaching a class, unpopular as it was with the pastors. But, bloom where you're planted, right?  Recently, I've looked into three opportunities and all explicitly deny Catholics opportunities. First, I looked into Ratio Christi. According to their Statement of Belief, "Student leaders must hold to the historic Christian faith as approved by the staff directors." Fair enough. I'd assume this would mean things like the Apostles Creed, the Nicean Creed, etc., and while that's the case, they go a bit further and in defining what they bel...

I have this libertarian friend. Well, he was a friend. He's cut off contact with me recently. Readers of this blog know I am opposed to libertarianism. I had an exchange with this friend I want to talk about. He put up a video made by these two guys. They were driving and they pulled up to a check point. The police offer, in a polite and upbeat manner, asked them some standard questions. They remained silent. The police officer, not letting the rudeness get to him just keep asking questions, and politely. After silence from the two young men, they asked if they were free to go. The officer, probably a bit confused, called over a superior. After a few moments, they were on their way with no hostility or ominous  attitude. However, there was hostility and a kind of on edge attitude on part of the kids. So, seeing the discrepancy in attitudes, I asked my smart friend, and he is very smart, why didn't they say anything to the police officer? His response was, Because they did...

Roger Scruton has this illustration about beauty which I think I may have a version of for a few years. Scruton says that a woman tells you she's wants that  peach from the peach bowl. So you hand her a random peach, and she refuses it. No, she tells you. If her desire was to eat it then sure, any peach would have sufficed. But she does not desire the peach to eat, but for its beauty. She does not wish to observe it and when she gets all the relevant data she tosses it to the side as any other peach. She just wants it.  That is the only peach that will satisfy. To not recognize that is not grasp the power and effects of beauty. I think I was taught the same lesson many years ago.  I was in a car with a mentor of mine. I was still in high school, and dating this girl. My mentor, he tells me, "Adrian, if you don't think you have the most beautiful girl in the world, it's not going to work out." I thought he was being impossible. Of course I could never thin...