And of course Samuel Johnson's synonym for enthusiast, fanatick, also perfectly describes Paul of Tarsus

 

"A man mad with wild notions of religion", and "struck with a superstitious frenzy":

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

-- 2 Corinthians 12:1ff.

Samuel Johnson's definition of an enthusiast ably describes Paul of Tarsus

Samuel Johnson defined an enthusiast as "one who vainly imagines a private revelation", and "one who has a vain confidence of his intercourse with God".

 

 

 

 

 

Of course "the out" is in the words "vainly" and "vain". As a Christian Johnson would never have admitted the emptiness of Paul's claims. Nevertheless Paul himself clearly boasted both of his revelation's thoroughly private and divine nature and of his immediacy with God, which means Paul put himself and his message beyond scrutiny. We have all met this type, and there is no arguing with them:

Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)

-- Galatians 1:1

But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

-- Galatians 1:11f.

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

-- Galatians 1:15f.

. . . and great was the fall of it

καὶ ἦν ἡ πτῶσις αὐτῆς μεγάλη

Soaring to worlds unknown

Rock of Ages, Burrington Combe, England

 

 

While I draw this fleeting breath,

When mine eyes shall close in death,

When I soar to worlds unknown,

See Thee on Thy judgement throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.

-- Rock of Ages, Augustus Toplady (1775)

Davis California imam calls for killing Jews just like Iranians do, Reza Aslan claims Islam in US "is vastly different from Islam in Iran"

Reza Aslan, here in Foreign Policy on July 24th:

"What we call Islam in the United States is vastly different from Islam in Iran . . .."

CBS Sacramento reported on the 25th what the Davis, CA imam said in a sermon, here:

"Ammar Shahin calls for the annihilation of Jews . . .. 'He spelled out what he wishes for every Muslim who follows the Quran and the Hadith to follow what the Hadith says which is …find the Jews hiding behind trees and stones and kill them,' said Sorele Brownstein."

Worlds unknown

Alpha and Beta Centauri

 

 

These great orbs thus radically bright,

Primitive founts, and origins of light,

Enliven worlds deny'd to human sight.

-- Matthew Prior (1664-1721)

30% of adult Americans own guns, 41% of white Evangelicals, more than any other religious group

I'll bet you gun-owing American Muslims didn't tell the truth in the survey.

From the story here, which tells you more statistics about guns and religion than you'll ever want to know:

The 41 percent of white evangelicals that own a gun surpasses the 33 percent of white mainliners, the 32 percent of the religiously unaffiliated (or “nones”), the 29 percent of black Protestants (two-thirds of whom identify as evangelical, according to Pew), and the 24 percent of Catholics who own one also. (By comparison, 30 percent of all American adults report owning a gun.)

Sending proxies to church has been thought of before

Seldom at church, 'twas such a busy life;

But duly sent his family and wife.

-- Alexander Pope, Epistle to Bathurst (1732)

Doomsday watch: And there shall be earthquakes in divers places

The ten-year trend for strong earthquakes globally is down, with 2017 oddly quieter to date:

The forty-year trend is up, but perhaps due to improved monitoring:

Souls wandering in the shades of night

Our souls, not yet prepar'd for upper light,

Till doomsday wander in the shades of night:

This only holiday of all the year,

We privileg'd in sunshine may appear.

-- John Dryden

Muslims must wash before prayer to be pure: This one in Italy washes his ass, mouth and face in that order all with the same hand

In front of God and everybody. But what do they do in private?

Coming to a neighborhood near you.

Here.

Martin Marty is puzzled why Christians fall for an atheist "philosophy" like libertarianism

Here.

Maybe the reason he is puzzled is because calling libertarianism a philosophy is an intellectual error.

There's precious little wisdom in libertarianism. It's an ideology, not unlike Christianity. It attracts the same kind of persons, i.e. persons who think ideologically or are predisposed to think ideologically, that is, in reductionist terms.

It shouldn't be surprising that some people on this spectrum are poached by a rival system.

There's nothing quite as comparable to a Jesus freak as a self-identified atheist.

More evidence religion is inherently violent: Hindu fundamentalists are killing more and more people suspected of eating cows, especially Muslims

Story here.

Here rather let me drudge . . .

 

 

Here rather let me drudge, and earn my bread,

'Till vermin or the draff of servile food

Consume me, and oft invocated death

Hasten the welcome end of all my pains.

-- John Milton, Samson Agonistes (1671)

On the hypocrisy of Rod Dreher's friend, The New York Times' David Brooks

Seen here in the comments section:

The reason people loathe Brooks so much, and it’s a good reason, is his rank hypocrisy. He talks about values, yet most of his work has no research base and is easily skewered. After years of lecturing people about their immoral ways, he dumps his wife of 34 years and marries his research assistant. After forcing his first wife to convert to Judaism and change her name, he married his second wife without the requirement and is now saying she has made him rethink his “superficial” ideas about Christianity.

So you can absolutely bank on the fact that David Brooks has done everything he can with his considerable power to give his kids every advantage. But now, the putz is going to lecture his readers on the poor people.

He lies. He’s a hypocrite. He’s a moralizing vacuous jerk.

But hey, he’s your friend, so go ahead and defend him.

FOX News is having some fun at the expense of the Joos in the White House

A fanatical personality, Emmanuel Carrère, recognizes his radical self not so much in Jesus but in Paul

From James Wood's review of his book, here in The New Yorker:

There is a certain type of mind, he writes elsewhere in this book, that is attracted to radical doctrines. “The more opposed it is to common sense, the more that proves its truth. The harder it is to believe, the more deserving you are. Paul personified this type of mind—which could be called fanaticism. Luke, as I imagine him, didn’t.” 

While it seems almost a necessity for religious founders to be fanatics and radicals, madmen of sorts, the question remains why the rest of us follow them in the numbers that we do.

As scholars of religion have long posited since Rudolf Otto, this element of fascination could be constitutive of being religious, but more so of simply being human. It expresses itself in a range, from something as ordinary as when everyone slows down to gawk at the car crash on the side of the road to that rare individual who is driven to take vows of poverty and silence.

Where one falls on the spectrum is a subject of the examined life.

The soul ascends back the way it came, like Theseus' return from the convoluted lair of the Minotaur, guided by a thread

Ariadne giving a clew of thread to Theseus, by Pelagio Palagi

While, guided by some clew of heav'nly thread,
The perplex'd labyrinth we backward tread.

-- Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon (1637-1685)

We say that learning's endless . . .

 

 

We say that learning's endless, and blame fate

For not allowing life a longer date,

He did the utmost bounds of knowledge find,

He found them not so large as was his mind.

-- Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

Their throat is an open sepulchre

"Oral Sex Spreading Untreatable 'Super Gonorrhea,' WHO Warns: An untreatable kind of gonorrhea is spreading from unprotected oral sex":

Transmitted to 78 million people annually, gonorrhea infects the genitals and rectum. It can also infect the throat, where antibiotic-resistant bacteria is likely to develop.

The WHO report says oral sex with men carrying the STI can add the bacteria to this environment and create what the agency calls a “super gonorrhea.”

Linda Sarsour is the face of American Islam: Don't assimilate, and practice Jihad by resisting Trump

Here.

Sarsour was a co-chair of The Women's March on Washington.

Martin Marty excels at conveying non-meaning

Here.

An excess of ambition is a kind of madness

If wild ambition in thy bosom reign,

Alas! thou boast'st thy sober sense in vain;

In these poor bedlamites thyself survey,

Thyself less innocently mad than they.

-- Thomas Fitzgerald (c. 1695-1752)

Pope Francis ousts conservative head of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, who wasn't smiling in 2014 as the caption says, and probably isn't now, either.

Story here.