It is not just among Tory backbenchers where the ego is king

Well, I’m sure you will get many comments on this one, but let me say, well done.  A timely reminder of what is real…no pun intended. John Haldane is a treasure and was on Bragg’s In Out Time recently, I believe on the question of the ontological argument.  Its still on the archives of Radio 4 and worth a listen.  If we only are our universe, how small it is, how insignificant. 

Excellent article – we really still are in the grip of the perennial debate between the realists and the idealists, with the English-speaking world badly affected by the disastrous road taken by Berkley and Hume in their lurch towards radical solipsism, a position which still predominates. Irony of irony, of course, is that for the man in the street the word ‘idealist’ would immediately be pinned to all things religious, and ‘realist’ to all things political. Which only goes to show how upside down things have become. We Catholics are firm supporters of Natural Law and Human Nature as objective realities, a scientific, empirical view handed down from the great figures in the Graeco-Roman world. And the politicians, and most of today’s elites? Fanatically wedded to the notion of man’s amorphous, unformed lack of any nature, be it male, female, or even human. In this regard Steven Pinker’s ‘The Blank Slate’ is an excellent read, debunking, from a scientific sociobiological point of view (and therefore loathed by all postmodernists), those who deny Objective Reality and Nature, including, above all, our human nature, which we are born with – whether we like it or not. And of course Cameron’s sudden conversion to gay marriage is yet another, and potentially devastating, example of the modern solipsistic elite’s utter contempt for object reality and the inherent nature of man and woman, and their complementarity. A moment of hubristic political madness if ever there was one. 

Fortunately the Catholic Church is still standing out against the disease of modern sophistry and solipsism. The Church of England has already fallen victim, as is demonstrated in the battle for women bishops with people stamping their feet and saying it’s not fair because they didn’t get their way, others demanding the right to carry out homosexual weddings etc. Of course there are egotists in the Catholic Church, no doubt some in high office, but ultimately they will never prevail.  We have Jesus’s word on that.

Here’s the essence: your current article has you at your best – service indeed, your active support of illegal drugs your worst. A classic display of the Broken nature of man.
GC 

“Real ideas … contained at their core the notion that the universe is natural, objectively ‘out there’, knowable but distinct, and informing views on sexuality, sex, marriage, death, etc.

## That raises a few questions for a start – the phrase “objectively ‘out there’” is a mess. “Distinct” ? “Distinct” from what ? If the language is mugged in this way it becomes unable to communicate meaning.  “Natural” in what sense ?

“Anti-realist ideas, by contrast, consider everything as human constructs, plastic and
malleable, which can be bended and altered but which inherently are unknowable.”

## To say that man is *not* the measure of all things (something that should be obvious to Christians) does not imply that one can logically and consistently have only those ideas labelled “realist” in the quotation.  And “anti-realist” is not the happiest name for those ideas considered (on what grounds ? Clarity would be welcome on this point) not to be “realist”. IMO, neither body of ideas (as described, anyway) is satisfactory: the opposition of them, in this way, is like opposing motion to changelessness, and requiring people to choose one or other. Apart from any other consideration, it is far from clear that there is any necessary logical connection between all the ideas in each group.

At least in creation, *both* motion & changelessness are realities, not one *or* the other: St. Thomas could accomodate both – why should we not be able to do likewise ? Likewise, objectivism is, surely, incomplete without subjectivism, and the converse is also true. Not only is reality is “plastic and malleable” – at the sub-atomic level (which is after all part of the created order), “real” things – like tables, computers, mugs, the coffee in them – are almost (as to their matter) non-existent. Just like the human body. This is very instructive as a reminder of our nothingness before God (a fact clear from both Testaments, but seldom emphasised today). Any view of the universe which is realist, and only realist, is true as far as it goes – but it does not go far enough.

The universe is not what matters anyway – our philosophy should be Christ, Who is made our Righteousness & our Wisdom: all reality is in Him, not in ideas, not even in realism & whatever one is to call other views. All things are relative compared to Him – not absolute. There is no gain in  discarding a philosophy as intellectually and morally insufficient, if what replaces it, leads us into the much worse error of making a god of our ideas. Both POVs (as described in the quotation) are beggarly, but in different ways; and both are thought-provoking & useful.

“Was there not a Sophist  who claimed that “Man is the measure of all things”, implying that here was no objective pre-existing moral order?”

## But is that what *Protagoras* meant by his saying ?

This article is excellent. It seems to me that once something is labelled ”socially constructed” it is an invitation to do what we please in that area of human affairs. This is allied to the notions that there are no such things as truth or right and wrong a.  

Absolutely correct. When humanity turns it’s collective back on the I AM, it must replace the Other with something and it does. The native English speaking world in particular, outside of Africa, is determined from the UK to Ireland to Canada to the US to Australia and New Zealand to substitute the Self for the Other. We have become a culture and society of narcissists. And the disasters are only beginning to unfold.

                             The  old  traps;  1) localisation,  2)  self – abasement  and  3)  Africa  as  a  moral  Nirvana.

                              To  your  credit,  you  did  not  slip  in  the  equally  old,  equally  debased  one  about  the  Afroid being  innately  superior  to  the  Caucasoid  (but  not  the  Indian  Caucasoid  as  he  is,  like  Mediterranean  folk,  of  dark  hair  and  complexion  and  therefore  must  be  venerated). 

                               Your  type  finds  that  there  is  no  comfortable  leftist – approved  way  of  relating  to  the  Mongoloid.

 Oh gawd, here he goes again. No, Father. No, no, no.

 So true but why is it the Chief Rabbi of France the only national, religious leader to see this?  I despair.

I couldn’t agree more.

Thank you, sandygrounder, for drawing to one’s attention this extremely insightful analysis by Rabbi Gilles Berheim. It gets right to the nub of the matter of what in the current jargon is called “lifestyle choice” which is promulgated as everyone’s right. The general public have been largely brainwashed to accept this as it panders to our base human instincts and legitimises almost any behaviour while our political rulers seem to be in thrall to their metrosexual friends (or maybe they are willing cooperators). Truly times are almost impossibly hard for Christians (or people still holding some Christian values) who are mocked, derided and viciously misrepresented  in he left wing press (for example see the extremely nasty cartoon in The Observer on 30th December 212). Unfortunately the young appear to endorse much of this as “cool” and narcissism is very evident among them. As Christians we may indeed be facing marginalisation and possibly increasing persecution if we do not submit to the pressure of state backed hedonism. How long this will last before we seeChristian values restored? Only God knows. We can only pray and make known our views even in face of more ridicule and possible victimisation and persecution. Perhaps we should start saying again the prayer to St Michael (perhaps after every Mass)? How “uncool” this would be and how many of the post Vatican 2 clergy would openly subscribe to any belief in the devil in this day and age? Their carefully cultivated left wing friends would desert them! I am sure there are some many among the parish clergy and even the hierarchy who could give a lead in this matter if only they can overcome the bureaucratic structures so beloved today.