The Fall of a Sparrow

There is emotional power in the smallness of human existence when set against the skene of the terrible vastness of the universe. This power drives what remains, along with the Problem of Evil, one of the most effective atheist arguments. The pedigree of its use is impressive: from Carl Sagan—“We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people”—to, more recently, Gad Saad.

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Undermining Our Institutions

The pattern: the left undermines an institution, the right points out that the institution has been undermined, and the left accuses the right of undermining the institution merely by saying it has been undermined.

Example: The latest episode of "Left, Right, and Center", a political podcast that features a leftist, a conservative, and a centrist, plus a guest, who is usually left-wing. One of the topics under discussion was the way in which Trump criticized the judges who shut down his executive order on immigration, despite that it lawfully exercised his constitutional and statutory powers as president. Trump called one judge a "so-called judge" and said that the courts are "political." Naturally, the leftists on the podcast found that this language "erodes public confidence in the institution" and is "insidious" and "dangerous to democracy".

Trump undermined nothing. It was the courts who undermined their own legitimacy by transgressing the limits of their authority. Trump called them out on it.

The judge is a "so-called" judge because he wasn't doing his job properly. The courts are political, and have been for a long time, because they fancy themselves super-legislators. Now, it has become obvious that they want to be super-executives as well.

If the left doesn't want revealed the corrosiveness of their actions for fear that such revelations will undermine the public trust, they should refrain from doing those things in the first place.

The New Witch Craze

The various witch crazes that swept through Europe and elsewhere are oft laid at the feet of Christians as one of those black marks on the history of our divine religion. And it is true that, probably because the Old Testament speaks of witches, combined with the innate superstitiousness of the European barbarians, many in the Church fell victim to the fevers. But there were also Churchmen down through the ages who cautioned against such superstition, as well as against the injustices committed against the accused. Nor should we forget that witchcraft and a fear of witches exists in every culture, Christian or pagan, European or otherwise. Fear of the witch is a weakness of the human constitution.

Do not, oh Modern Man, think yourself immune from the diseases of the human mind. Civilization and Christianity have done a great deal to cool our fevers and dull our fangs, but we are the same fallen beasts we have always been.

Today we are seeing a new witch craze.

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