Episode 108 - A Critical Comeuppance

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Show Notes

Books Referenced

Links Referenced

Quotations

The explanations for our existence that used to be provided by religion went first, falling away from the 19th century onwards. Then over the last century the secular hopes held out by all political ideologies begin to follow in religions wake. In the latter part of the twentieth century we entered the postmodern era. An era which defined itself, and was defined, by its suspicion towards all grand narratives. However, as all schoolchildren learn, nature abhors a vacuum, and into the postmodern vacuum new ideas begin to creep, with the intention of providing explanations and meanings of their own.

Douglas Murray, The Madness of Crowds, page 1.

We are going through a great crowd derangement. In public and in private, both online and off, people are behaving in ways that are increasingly irrational, feverish, herd-like and simply unpleasant. The daily news cycle is filled with the consequences. Yet while we see the symptoms everywhere we do not see that causes...Murray, 1.

People in wealthy, Western democracies today could not simply remain the first people in recorded history to have absolutely no explanation for what we are doing here, and no story to give life purpose. Whatever else they lacked, the grand narratives of the past at least gave life meeting. The question of what exactly we are meant to do now — other than get rich where we can have whatever fun is on offer — was going to have to be answered by something.

The answer that has presented itself in recent years is to engage in new battles, ever fiercer campaigns and evermore niche demands. Defined meaning by waging a constant war against anybody who seems to be on the wrong side of a question which may itself have just been reframed and the answer to which has only just been altered.

The unbelievable speed of this process had principally been caused by the fact that a handful of businesses in Silicon Valley (notably Google, Twitter and Facebook) now have the power not  just to direct what most of the world know, think, and say, but have a business model which has  accurately been described as relying on finding ‘customers ready to pay to modify someone else’s behavior’ Murray, 1-2.

Episode 107 - Morality in Motion

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Show Notes

Books Referenced

Quotations and People Referenced

All page numbers are from Science and the Good

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)

They hoped that by insisting on observable evidence to support moral claims, they would offer a way to temper some of the most violent conflagrations of human unsociability” Page 39

So he was still a moral realist and thought we just we arrived at morality by studying “what is in accord with the kind of society of rational beings that we all want.” Page 40, and even even introduced the concept of rights.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

“As he put it, ‘for these words of Good, Evil, and Contemptible, are ever used in relationship to the person that uses them: there being nothing simply an absolutely so; not any common rule of Good and Evil, to be taken from the nature of the objects themselves.’  Instead, the moral law is whatever human beings make it to be through consent and convention.” Page 42.

Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794)

“In the same manner, by analyzing the faculty of experiencing pain and pleasure, men arrived at the origin of their notions of morality, and the foundation of those general principles which form the necessary and immutable laws of justice; and consequently discovered the proper motives of conforming their conduct to those laws, which, being deduced from the nature of our feeling, may not improperly be called our moral constitution.” Page 45

David Hume (1711-1776)

Hume’s empiricism, by contrast, led him to conclude that moral evaluation simply expressed a person‘s feelings and attitudes with respect to a person or situation. Such sentiments were the sum and substance of  moral life, and they could never be connected to any objective, mind independent moral order.” Page 52

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

“The creed which accepts as the foundations of morals “utility“ or the “greatest happiness principle“ holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure.” Page 61

Nietzsche, The Madman, 1882

Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? 

Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov (1879,80)

Ivan Karamazov claims that if God does not exist, then everything is permitted.  If there is no God, then there are no rules to live by, no moral law we must follow; we can do whatever we want.

Episode 106 - Good Problems and Necessary Goods

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Show Notes

Books Referenced

Science and the Good by Hunter and Nedelisky

“Roughly put, moral laws flowed from the nature of things,” Page 28

“The ethical theories of the scholastics grounded morality in natural laws, which were alleged to be graspable by consideration of the essence of things – that is, by appreciating the ends to which things were made.” Page 32

“The resolution is found in the cultural logic they follow. As they would have it, even if there isn’t anything we objectively “ought” to be doing, we still have to decide, on some basis, how to live and what to do. Without any real ethical standards, we look to social objectives as guides. The project, then, it’s about how science and technology can help us achieve these social goals. The role of science is to reveal how our moral psychology and neurochemistry work—or can be put to work—towards achieving those goals.

The problem is that the social objectives are, in the end, morally arbitrary, reflecting either fluctuating social tastes or the whims of those in power.” Page 21.

Links and Media Referenced

Scriptures Referenced

  • John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

  • Mark 10:18 - And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Episode 105 - A Good Witness

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Show Notes

Scriptures Referenced

Colossians 4:2–6

[2] Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. [3] At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—[4] that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. [5] Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. [6] Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (ESV)

Episode 104 - Previewing the Good

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Books Referenced

James Davison Hunter, Paul Nedelisky, Science and the Good – The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality

Scripture Referenced

John 14:15 (ESV)
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” - Jesus

Romans 2:13–16 (ESV)

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Psalm 34:8–10 (ESV)

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!  9  Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! 10  The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Episode 103 - The Refuge of the Church

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Show Notes

Link Referenced

Ray Ortlund, Immanuel Mantra!, Immanuel Mantra on Vimeo

  1. I'm a complete idiot.

  2. My future is incredibly bright.

  3. Anyone can get in on this.

Scripture Referenced

A Call to Love

8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies-in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. - 1 Peter 4:8-11

A Call to Give Grace

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. - Ephesians 4:29

A Call to Truth

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. - Ephesians 4:25-28

A Call for Patience and Forbearance

12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. - Colossians 3:12-14

Episode 102 - The Refuge of Home

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Show Notes

Links Referenced

Scripture Referenced

  • Working and Sharing - Ephesians 4:25-28

  • Household Care - 1 Timothy 5:3-8

  • Bearing One Another’s Burdens - Galatians 6:1-5

  • Weep with those who Weep, Rejoice with those who Rejoice - Romans 12:15-18

Episode 101 - Resisting Misinformation

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Scripture Referenced

  • The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.  - Proverbs 17:24

  • The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him. Proverbs 18:17

  • Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.  Proverbs 14:29

  • The fruit of the Spirit is...self-control - Galatians 5:22

  • Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things Philippians 4:8

  • Specific to Gossip and Lies

    • You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. Exodus 23:1

    • There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

    • With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered. Proverbs 11:9

    • A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. Proverbs 16:28

    • Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler. Proverbs 20:19

  • Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. Titus 3:1-10

Links Referenced

Books Referenced

A Suggested Flow

  1. Suspend Belief in order to take time and to be discerning, ask the appropriate questions

  2. Keep a Cool Head and De-Value Hot takes if the take could be wrong - in your anger, do not sin - Ephesians 4

  3. Do not chime in and spread things you do not, and cannot know to be true - gossip is a sin

  4. Verify Truth Claims 

    • Multiple attestation by known people/sources (not bots or anonymous trolls)

One important feature of the latter approach is its emphasis on addressing the spread of disinformation not by assessing whether content itself is true or false but instead by providing social media users with accurate information on people’s identity. It’s a commonsense approach that’s been adopted in modern-day political advertising. Leave it to the public to decide what is true. But let them make that decision based on an accurate understanding of who is speaking. And in the twenty-first century, let the public know whether it’s a human being or an automated bot that’s doing the talking.

Brad Smith, Tools and Weapons, 103

    • Look for a unity among the voices of reliable sources( Can they be sued for publishing falsehood?)

    • Are they from a variety perspectives not simply an echo chamber - what do ideological allies and opposition say? Where do those sources agree?

Episode 100 - The Centennial Episode

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Reviewish - Mics and Audio

Best Under $100

Higher End XLR Mics

Bonus: Headphone reviewish

Favorite Episodes

Reid's Top Three

Jesse's Top Three

Episode 97 - The Fight for God Given Rights

Episode 95 - Why Resist?

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Scripture Referenced

1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. - 2 Timothy 2:1-6

Links Referenced

Sojourn Music

Episode 94 - Engage and Resist

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Reviewish

Silicon Kitchen Baking Cups - https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Kitchen-Reusable-Baking-Cups/dp/B0856R63T8

Book Referenced

Prophetic Untimeliness by Os Guinness, https://www.amazon.com/Prophetic-Untimeliness-Challenge-Idol-Relevance/dp/0801065607/

Quotations

Resistance Thinking is a term adapted from a 1945 essay by CS Lewis on “Christian Apologetics.“ It is a way of thinking that balances the pursuit of relevance on the one hand with a tenacious awareness of those elements of the Christian message that don’t fit in with any contemporary age on the other. Emphasize only the natural fit between the gospel and the spirit of our age and we will have an easy, comfortable gospel that is closer to our age than the gospel – all answers to human aspirations, for example, and no mention of self-denial and sacrifice.

But emphasize the difficult, the obscure, and even the repellent themes of the gospel, certain that they too are relevant even though we don’t know how, and we will remain true to the full gospel. And, surprisingly, we will be relevant not only to our own generation but also to the next, and the next, and the next. CS Lewis observed that the same principle holds true in both faith and science: “progress is made only into resisting material.“ Resistance thinking, then, is the way of relevance with faithfulness.

Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness, page 20.

Thinking and acting Christianly in the blizzard of modern information and change requires the courage of a prophet, the wisdom of a sage, and the character of a saint – not to mention the patience of Job and the longevity of Methuselah.

ibid, 56.

Is the culture decisive and the audience sovereign for the Christian church? Not for one moment. God forbid. The client and the consumer may be king for free market enterprise. Serving the shareholders may be obligatory for the directors of corporations. But the church of Christ is not under the sway of market totalitarianism – even in America were capitalism is king, pope, and emperor all rolled into one. From the prophets’  “This is the word of the Lord“ to the reformer’s “Here I stand; so help me, God, I can do no other,” the message, not the audience, is always sovereign, and the culture is always potentially the world set over against Christ and his kingdom. (Sojourning in Babylon) To think and live otherwise is the recycle the classic error of [theological] liberalism and to court the worldliness, irrelevance, and spiritual adultery that it represents.

ibid, 66.

Scripture Referenced

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. - Ephesians 6:12

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. - Colossians 2:8

Episode 93 - Sojourning in Babylon

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Show Notes

Helpful Links

Scriptures Referenced

  • Habakkuk 1:5-11 - 5 "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. 8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. 9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. 10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. 11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!"

  • Daniel 1:3-4 3 Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, 4 youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

  • Daniel 1:17-20 - 17 As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. 18 At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. 20 And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.

  • 1 Peter 1:17-21 - 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. -

  • Revelation 11:15 - Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Episode 92 - What's in Them Borderlands

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Show Notes

Scriptures on Sober-minded Posture 

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. - Romans 12:3-5

1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. - 2 Timothy 4:1-5

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. - 1 Peter 1:13-21

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. James 1:19,20

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. Proverbs 18:2

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. Proverbs 18:13

24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, - 2 Timothy 2:24-25

Links Referenced

Episode 90 - Becoming the Gospel Underground

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Reviewish

The Gospel Underground Mission

The Gospel Underground Exists to Advance the Mission of God in the Borderlands between the Church and Culture.

What We Do

We Support and Strengthen churches, Share Good News with the Coming Generation, and Thoughtfully Engage the Culture with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Guiding Philosophies and Postures

  1. Thoughtful and Respectful Engagement. As we seek to impact people in the borderlands between the church and culture we desire to think deeply about life, faith and the ideas of the world while engaging them with kindness and civility. (1 Peter 3:15, Colossians 4:2-6)

  2. Underground, Behind the Scenes Ministry. We do not desire to be center stage in life and mission but to joyfully and intentionally serve in a behind the scenes fashion. If we can be the most impactful and influential people that no one has ever heard about, we will be grateful for this post in the Kingdom. (John 3:30; Philippians 2:1-11)

  3. Rooting and Establishing. Deep roots grow movements and strong foundations stand the test of time. We desire to see men, marriages, families and churches rooted and established in both love and truth to influence generations to come. (Colossians 2:6, 7; 1 Peter 2:1-12; Psalm 145:1-7; Timothy 5:1, 2, Ephesians 5-6)

  4. Mentoring and Coaching. Our hope is to invest in others who are on the front lines of gospel mission with mentoring and coaching. We desire to be “player coaches” who come along side those who seek to impact and influence others for Jesus Christ. (2 Timothy 2:1-7; 1 Corinthians 11:1; Matthew 28:18-20)

  5. The Primacy of Families and the Local Church. We believe that local churches, communities living out the mission of Jesus, are the primary center for Kingdom work and expansion. As such we value local church authority and investing our lives to strengthen churches and support her mission and ministry. (Acts 16; Ephesians 2; 1 Timothy 3)

Episode 89 - Life Transitions

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Show Notes

Our Guest Today

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Reid is joined today by his college bound daughter Kayla Monaghan to discuss transitions in life. Kayla is about to begin her first year at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. She plans to major in business with an emphasis in entrepreneurship with a double major in history or classics.

Book Referenced

Henry Cloud, Necessary Endings

Poem Referenced

Minnie Louise Haskins, “God Knows” aka The Gate of the Year - Info and Background