What can BROWN Do For You? Here's what:
April 8, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
“Hundreds of Brown students had asked the Providence, R.I. school to stop observing Columbus Day, saying Christopher Columbus’s violent treatment of Native Americans he encountered was inconsistent with Brown’s values. . . .” (continue reading)
Article: Why the Human Mind is a Terrarium for So Many Lies
April 6, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Consider the following statements:
- Neil Armstrong never landed on the moon but was bouncing around in a TV studio on July 20, 1969, with Walter Cronkite in a nearby booth to report on the alleged event.
- The baby baptized as William Shakespeare on April 26, 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon grew up illiterate and thus never wrote any of the works attributed to him.
- The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were brought down on September 11, 2001, not because two planes, gorged with jet fuel, flew into them but because the federal government had planted explosives in them at strategic locations.
- Jesus Christ never existed.
- The Holocaust never happened.
Strange to relate, each of these sentences has found advocates somewhere in contemporary society. Now of course there are varying degrees of moral turpitude involved in subscribing, however sincerely or disingenuously, to these sentences. Despite that moral variety, however, they all have at least this in common, besides their flagrant falsity: It is impossible to convince those who propound these statements of their falsity, partly (but only partly) because the events being denied lack analogies to the everyday world of predictable events.
These denials, in other words, are not solely due to malevolence, although in many cases ill will must be present in the person who voices such views. My concern here is more with the epistemology (loosely defined) that lurks behind the inability to refute such statements. In other words, I want to ask: Why, besides obvious mendacity, does contrary evidence never count with people who claim they sincerely believe these assertions?
The reason I wish to describe these five sentences (needless to say, I could generate a larger list) as “epistemic pathologies” can best be seen from an incident in the life of Albert Einstein. After the Nazi takeover of the German government in 1933, over two hundred German scientists signed a public letter condemning relativity as “Jewish physics,” which for that reason had no place in the science curriculum of the Third Reich. To which Einstein dryly retorted: If these advocates of “German physics” were right, one signature would have sufficed.
True enough, and brilliantly riposted. But what an ironic comfort his retort must be to contemporary Holocaust-deniers! What does it matter, they will retort in turn, if far more than two hundred historians say the Holocaust happened? One would suffice if it had really happened. So here I stand contra mundum, brave Holocaust-denier that I am, forthrightly facing the world of false consensus! (continue reading)
Cardinal George Speaks to the Press About the Notre Dame Scandal
April 6, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
It’s Time to Come Clean. It’s Time for "Soul Wow"
April 6, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Here’s a very, very clever outreach by the Catholic Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Center to all those sinners who need to go to confession. (That includes you and me, by the way).
Listen to the man and git er done. This week. Before Easter. Don’t forget.
It's Time to Come Clean. It's Time for "Soul Wow"
April 6, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Here’s a very, very clever outreach by the Catholic Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Center to all those sinners who need to go to confession. (That includes you and me, by the way).
Listen to the man and git er done. This week. Before Easter. Don’t forget.
Vatican Review of the Legionaries of Christ an "Act of Love"
April 3, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
be a mission of the Vatican to the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ
in Mexico to clarify, among other matters, accusations of sexual abuse
against its founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel, who also had a daughter.
Leopoldo Gonzalez, secretary general of [the Conference] expressed his
approval of the announcement, assuring that the review is being treated as
an “act of love.”
In a press conference announcing the activities of the “Consecration of
Mexico to the Holy Spirit,” he referred to the apostolic visitation and
confirmed that these visits are being undertaken to review the work of the
congregations [e.g., the Legionaries of Christ], not only “when the ship is
sinking.”
On another theme, he defended the fact that Carlos Aguiar, president of the
[Bishops’ Conference] was driven in a luxury automobile on the eve of his
elevation as Archbishop of Tlalnepantla, comparing it with the entrance of
Jesus into Jerusalem [saying], If they offer you a donkey, you have to get on
it.”
EL UNIVERSAL
JUEVES 02 DE ABRIL DE 2009
An Elderly Priest Get’s His Dying Wish
April 3, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
An old Catholic priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.
He motioned for his nurse to come near.
“Yes, Father?” said the nurse.
“I would really like to see Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi before I die,” whispered the priest.
“I’ll see what I can do, Father,” replied the nurse.
The nurse sent the request to them and waited for a response. Soon the word arrived. Harry and Nancy would be delighted to visit the priest. As they went to the hospital, Harry commented to Nancy “I don’t know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images.” Nancy couldn’t help but agree.
When they arrived at the dying man’s room, the priest took Nancy ‘s hand in his right hand and Harry’s hand in his left. There was silence and a look of serenity settled across the old priest’s face.
Finally Nancy spoke. “Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?”
The old priest slowly replied. “I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” His voice trailed off . . .
After a brief pause, he continued . . . “The Lord died between two lying thieves, and I would like to do the same.”
An Elderly Priest Get's His Dying Wish
April 3, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
An old Catholic priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.
He motioned for his nurse to come near.
“Yes, Father?” said the nurse.
“I would really like to see Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi before I die,” whispered the priest.
“I’ll see what I can do, Father,” replied the nurse.
The nurse sent the request to them and waited for a response. Soon the word arrived. Harry and Nancy would be delighted to visit the priest. As they went to the hospital, Harry commented to Nancy “I don’t know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images.” Nancy couldn’t help but agree.
When they arrived at the dying man’s room, the priest took Nancy ‘s hand in his right hand and Harry’s hand in his left. There was silence and a look of serenity settled across the old priest’s face.
Finally Nancy spoke. “Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?”
The old priest slowly replied. “I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” His voice trailed off . . .
After a brief pause, he continued . . . “The Lord died between two lying thieves, and I would like to do the same.”
2012 may bring the “perfect storm” – solar flares, systems collapse
April 2, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Is There More Trouble Ahead for the Legionaries of Christ?
April 2, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
By Miguel Angel Gutierrez
Barba, who says he was abused by Maciel when he was in the order as a teenager training to be a priest, said he expected the investigation would take months.