Calvin

It was a terrific day of Intro classes, with Nhu on Groundhog Day (here's Phil claiming to be a God), Nicholas on Star Wars, Spurgeon on Calvin, and lots of Einstein, Spinoza, Berkeley, & Leibniz. (That bio about Leibniz's jealous rivalry with Spinoza I mentioned is Matthew Stewart's The Courtier and the Heretic.)

Here's my favorite Calvin:

I'm afraid I just can't get behind any theology that claims kids enter the world in a state of depravity, or that we all  deserve eternal damnation and unrelenting torment for expressing the very nature we supposedly were endowed with by our creator, or that the original "sinfulness" of long-gone ancestors is an ineradicable and permanent stain.

Such ideas can be engaged philosophically, but not by appeal to the putatively unchallengable authority of a pre-scientific, demonstrably errant, multiple-anonymous-contributor text.

One more thing, while I'm wound up, and before I cool down: global warming is not just an Al Gore fantasy.

wanna bet?

"If there is a God," said Blaise Pascal, "He is infinitely incomprehensible. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. This being so, who will dare to undertake to decide the question? How, therefore, shall Christians be blamed for not being able to give reason for their belief, since they profess a religion for which reason cannot be given?

Do not, then, reprove for error those who have made a choice; for you know nothing about it.

Yes; but you must wager. It is not optional. You are in the game. Which will you choose then?

Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God exists.

If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.

Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. Labour to convince yourself, not by accumulating proofs of God, but by weakening your passions. The people who know the road which you would follow and are healed of the ills of which you would be healed. They began by acting in every way as if they believed, by taking holy water, having masses said, and so on. This will naturally make you believe and will stultify you. This way leads you to faith, let me tell you that it will lessen the passions which are your stumbling-blocks. Now, what harm will befall you in taking this side? You will be faithful, humble, grateful, generous, a sincere friend, truthful. Certainly you will not have those poisonous pleasures, glory and luxury; but will you not have others?

Objection. Those who hope for salvation have happiness in that; but they have as a counterpoise the fear of hell.

Reply. Who has most reason to fear hell: he who is in ignorance whether there is a hell, and who is certain of damnation if there is; or he who certainly believes there is a hell and hopes to be saved if there is?" -Squashed philosophers

The real Calvin, btw, was dour, God-fearing, and convinced that salvation is beyond the gambler's calculations. Thomas Hobbes, an atheist, said life in a state of nature must have been "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

Our Calvin's wager seems the better bet, seems to me: Dad's a proven provider.

Calvin, Twit of the Year

The Calvin I like (& his pal Hobbes) express my feelings about Bad Calvin, who despite having said that newborn infants deserve eternal damnation seems to be enjoying an appalling "revival" among young people who think their only "spiritual" options range from mega-smiley Pastor Osteen to the long dead Dark Lord of TULIP (that's "Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints," for those fortunate enough to have escaped that particular form of child abuse.)

When will we have the sense to recognize the value of philosophy, and share it with our kids, before they're so miserably "saved" by the Prophets of doom?

But you gotta love this:

[Calvin] stressed total depravity — the idea that human beings are completely sinful, and can't do anything to earn God's favor. That's a relief to many students who've grown up in church, said Kevin... [wait for it] Twit, who oversees the Reformed University Fellowship at Belmont. Calvinism gives them permission to fail.

"They've been trying to live by their own will power — to be fired up for Jesus. By the time they got to college, they are worn out," Twit said.

Worn out by bad theology. Tell me about it.