David J. Theroux writes at the Independent Institute’s blog The Beacon about the Rescher Award given to Alvin Plantiga by the University of Pittsburgh for his work in philosophy. Writes Theroux:

Plantinga is widely known for his work in the philosophy of religion, epistemology, metaphysics and Christian apologetics, and he has revolutionized scholarly interest in Christian theism, shown naturalism/atheism to be self-refuting and incoherent, and set the new standards for the defense of free will, individual agency, consciousness, rational inference, science, objective truth and morality, and more. As a result, Plantinga has both directly influenced the entire field of philosophy and has mentored and inspired new generations of top scholars who are critiquing the reductionism, relativism, materialism, collectivism, scientism, positivism, determinism, and de-humanization of the modern era. In short, Plantinga has devastated the prevailing view in Western elites that human beings are merely “matter in motion” (i.e., purposeless, accidental, robotic products of a closed, natural world ruled solely by physical laws and that truth, reason, morality, and God are illusions).

Many links are provided on his post to Plantiga’s writings and videos of his PBS appearances. His latest book, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism, will be reviewed by Louis Markos in the March/April 2013 issue of Touchstone. (You may subscribe here. Why wait any longer?)

Retains job? That’s my question, after reading about this Cook Country judge, Cynthia Brim, who was judged not guilty of battery because she was insane at the time of the incident. She apparently has been on and off meds, has had “incidents” during her tenure as a judge. She has been hospitalized 5 times since becoming a judge in 1994.

In 2004, firefighters removed her from a courtroom and took her to a hospital, said psychiatrist Matthew Markos. Brim was hospitalized for 20 days after her arrest last year, he said. Markos said at the time Brim was hospitalized, she was catatonic, confused, irrational and showing signs of paranoia and psychosis.

So, you would think that keeping her on the bench might not be in the best interest of citizens. With all due respect, I would not want to be tried by her–can anyone guarantee her mental state or that she is properly on her “meds’ and that the right dosage has been prescribed in the first place?

However, this is Chicago, the most corrupt city in the America, in the most corrupt county in America, in the most corrupt state in America:

Brim was re-elected to another six-year term as a judge in November. She was backed by the Cook County Democratic Party as well as the Committee for Retention of Judges in Cook County, a campaign committee funded by judges.

From the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
02/01/2013

Archbishop Broglio to Give Homily on 70th Anniversary of Ultimate Sacrifice Paid by 4 U.S. Military Chaplains

Noon Mass scheduled February 3 at Saint Stephen Parish in Kearny, New Jersey

WASHINGTON, D.C.—His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, will be the main celebrant and homilist at a noon Mass, Sunday, February 3, 2013 at Saint Stephen Parish, 676 Kearny Avenue, Kearny, New Jersey to observe the 70th anniversary of the deaths of four United States military chaplains who sacrificed their lives so that others could survive a 1943 German submarine torpedo attack on a U.S. Army transport ship.

The four chaplains—Father Lt. John P. Washington, a Catholic priest; Rabbi Lt. Alexander D. Goode, a Jewish rabbi; Rev. Lt. Clark V. Poling, a Dutch Reformed minister; and Rev. Lt. George L. Fox, a Methodist minister—were all aboard the U.S.A.T. Dorchester, carrying one-thousand tons of cargo and 902 servicemen, merchant seamen and civilian workers as part of a convoy traveling the North Atlantic on its way to a U.S. military base in Greenland when the torpedo struck its starboard side, killing or wounding many of the passengers.

As the Dorchester began to take on water, panic spread upon realization that life jackets and lifeboats were in short supply. The four chaplains gave up their life jackets and went down with the ship, leaving 230 survivors. Their sacrifice stands in history as an inspirational act of valor living out the notion of service to others, regardless of the price.  For the three Christian chaplains it was surely their application of Christ’s commandment to “love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12-13.) It is also remembered as an utmost demonstration of interfaith compassion and solidarity.

Vladmir Putin, Russian macho-man leader, has apparently ‘decree’ (whatever that really means) an increase in the Russian birth rate, according to the Telegraph, and he has recruited Boyz II Men in the effort. Is it possible that the Russian people will respond unlike Western Europeans to such a call? Don’t underestimate the Russians.

If any ZPG people are still out there and are worried about the Russians overdoing it and overcrowding their country, here’s a fascinating story in Smithsonian about a family living in the Russian wilderness for decades without contact with other human beings–in the middle of millions of square miles of unoccupied countryside.

Chicago-based attorney John Mauck has presented an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court on behalf of the Manhattan Declaration in defense of marriage. Many have given up the defense of marriage as a lost cause. It is still not lost, and even if it were lost, would we not still be obligated to bear witness to the truth (and live it most especially) regardless of the cost or persecution?

Because of my fascination with scientific discoveries, and desire to follow evidence wherever it leads, I’ve been following this fascinating story about the newly-discovered use of DNA: information storage. It seems that promising experiments are underway using artificial DNA to store digital information. Its capacity is well beyond anything man has yet invented. Maybe DNA was designed? No, we are to believe that it just happened and came together. And further, once it did, it started building every living thing that has ever been on earth–by means of mutations and natural selection. The problem is, mutational rates and the usefulness of mutations together are far too unstable and weak to drive such as thing as the origin of the species. If DNA was designed, do we have to draw the line of design “there and no further”? The rest was just mechanics, right up to the men who are using DNA to store information?

Today, January 29, on our FSJ calendar, is the commemoration of St. Gildas the Wise (if you don’t have a FSJ Calendar, you may order it here.)

Gildas once reminded me that we’re not the only Christians troubled by their times. Gildas the Wise was a 6th-century monk from the British Isles (born, it seems, in my ancestral home of Dumbarton, Scotland). In his treatise, On the Ruin of Britain, he writes of the current Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain and cites the moral laxity and infidelity of Christians as their cause. During earlier periods of scarcity and suffering, the Christians had remained faithful and trusted in God. But in a recent time of prosperity, they had forgotten God. Rampant immorality, corrupt clergy, and selfish leaders plagued the land. (Sound familiar?)

But if you think Gildas was simply “venting,” you’d be wrong. He begins:

Whatever my attempt shall be in this epistle, made more in tears than in denunciation, in poor style, I allow, but with good intent, let no man regard me as if about to speak under the influence of contempt for men in general, or with an idea of superiority to all, because I weep the general decay of good, and the heaping up of evils, with tearful complaint. On the contrary, let him think of me as a man that will speak out of a feeling of condolence with my country’s losses and its miseries, and sharing in the joy of remedies.

“Sharing in the joy of remedies” is a wonderful phrase. Gildas, a godly man, viewed the world with the eyes of Christ. He sought a return to God’s grace, the healing of souls, and an end to sin and its destruction. He loved his audience. He was a curator of the healing grace of God that all men need for salvation.

It is this that we, too, seek to promote in Touchstone. There is only one reason to articulate orthodox doctrine: to assist us in the firm knowledge of the Savior, who is both God and Man, and thus able to save. St. Paul insisted on sound doctrine, without which the saving faith would be watered down, corrupted, and lost.

At such times as this, however, it may seem that there is little one person can do. Again, Gildas points the way. In a hymn of the Eastern Church, a verse is addressed to him: “Teach us to despise nothing, that all our talents, however small, may be employed in God¹s service.” To begin with, each of us can and must pray, daily, for our families, our neighbors, our pastors, our parish families, and our leaders.

Support the good, encourage the weak, love all men, do good to all. “The harvest of righteous is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (–James of Jerusalem, Epistle, 3:18.) Notice the order: the fruit comes from a peaceful sowing. Sometimes in the history of the church, that which was sown was the blood of martyrs, “the seed of the church.” It was taken in violence, but offered in peace. We are witnesses, which is an honor and a privilege. We may together share in the joy of remedies!

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There is a trailer and two bonus clips worth watching about EWTN and Human Life International’s “Return to Life,” presenting pro-life stories from Eastern Europe. The more people can hear the stories of people who go against the grain and accept the gift of life, the more will be inspired to take the step of respecting life as a gift. Because the life of the unborn child is a gift to be cherished, so is your life.

Leon Panetta, American Defense Secretary, along with most of our governing elites, are showing signs of military and metaphysical Alzheimer’s: women, it is reported, will now be allowed to fight in combat. Oh boy, the scourge of war, the fruit of sin, that hell on earth called war may now be joined and fully enjoyed by our mothers and our sisters and our cousins and our aunts.

Mothers used to be the givers of life (Eve, “mother of the living”). Today, January 23, 2013, is Roe v. Wade 40 Years Plus a Day. It marks a sad trail that has been blazed, from approving women killing their own children to women killing soldiers in combat. A long way.

If there should be a new Prayer of the American People that reflects contemporary (i.e., this weekend’s) culture, perhaps this leaked “Inaugural Prayer” fills the bill? Enjoy. (Thank you, IRD.)