Bruce Charlton's Notions

I deplore the nonsensical trope that "books" are A Good Thing: only some books are Good - and a small minority.

Discussed over at my Notion Club Papers blog.

There is no substantive difference between, on the one hand, the theology of orthodox-traditional Christian monotheism - with its Omni-God who created every-thing from no-thing; and, on the other hand, the pantheism of Hindu-Buddhist philosophy - where God

At my Notion Club Papers blog; I discuss the question of why Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, spent so much time and effort on conducting Boromir's funeral; when it seems like a more urgent and vital necessity to pursue Merry and Pippin, and rescue them from…

Geopolitics is everywhere, you can't get away from it, and it is nigh impossible to escape falling into engaging in it.

Purgatory is one of those concepts that I regard as false, but having some truth behind it.

If we can all accept that being a (real) Christian entails making a personal commitment to the primacy of (real) Love as a value - while leaving the details and implications undefined at present - then what is the value of "truth", of seeking understanding

The vulnerability to "AI"-capture seems to run deepest among intellectuals - but this vulnerability extends across a very wide range of intellectual types - politicians, media executives, corporate managers, finance entrepreneurs, technocrats, academics,…

I live in a relatively leafy suburb containing many forest-sized trees such as oaks, beeches, horse chestnuts, limes - plus common sycamores that grow as weeds around here.

One effect of modernity (and our atheist, materialist, utilitarian ideological assumptions) is that the question of Life has all-but disappeared from thought, to be replaced by the many questions of Living.

"The official story" is always wrong, and also fundamentally misleading*.

So much depends on motivation; but can it be improved?

People confuse honesty with truthfulness.

In those days - now receding fast!

If it is agreed that the Fourth Gospel is of primary validity; then the other three "Synoptic" Gospels (Mathhew, Mark, and Luke) should be categorized as Apocryphal scriptures - which is, indeed, the way I think of them.

Note: In what follows; I take the Fourth Gospel ("John") as my eyewitness source for the life of Jesus final years.

I don't think that we can really appreciate literary genius outwith out own - high level - language ability.

What I am trying to explain in this post; is how it is that so many serious Christians end-up expending so much energy on defending and asserting the most "indefensible" aspects of Christianity (past and present) - to the point that their program of life…

The 15th September was chosen to commemorate the Battle of Britain, since it was this day in 1940 that was the turning-point.

I recently posted about some of the "Systems" which we might imagine God setting-up to provide humans with revelation; and something analogous could be said for salvation.

Today we saw the base that remains from perhaps the oldest surviving decorated stone rood in England; now forming the base of the font in All Saint's church, Rothbury, Northumberland.

The ancient symbolisation of light (and white) for goodness used to be more than just symbolism.

An RAF spotters guide to identifying the He 113 - an aircraft that did not exist.

If you were God the Creator, making this reality; and you wished to set-up a System for transmitting Revelations to humans, such as essential knowledge for proper living and salvation - consider how you might construct this?

Brian Kingcome, and Geoffrey Wellum in front of a Spitfire - Wellum's First Light is one of the most inspiring and beautiful Battle of Britain accounts, and he himself an exemplar of the best spirit of those times.

Leftism is oppositional in its fundamental nature, and over the centuries it has accumulated many oppositions.

The kind of Christianity that I regard as necessary is one in which we approach the religious task of learning with a mind-set very different from that of the past.

I am a practitioner of the ancient craft of wet shaving with a safety-razer; and have often noticed that I make a "Mussolini face" when shaving my neck - indeed it seems necessary in order to do a good job.

Have you ever noticed that when a lot of people convert to Christianity, or convert to a different denomination or church within Christianity, they cease to become interesting or "real".

Whenever I interact with the mainstream of institutional life, I am aware that the totalitarian omni-surveillance agenda continues, and continues...

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I have often discussed God as a dyad - conceptualized as Father and Mother, or God and Goddess - which, for me, goes with my understanding of divine creation as the manifestation of love.

I have often been puzzled why it is that the mass media Always lies about the people it is witch-hunting.

We had a very enjoyable visit to Carlisle Cathedral recently, not my first, or second - but I still feel there is a great deal more to discover about this marvellous building.

In the past it was natural and spontaneous for people to trust institutions more than themselves - including churches, and especially churches.

How should we read The Bible?

Is this the fundamental nature of inter-personal communication?

It seems a clear lesson of the past century that it is possible, it may even become normal (and "official" to live a human lifespan without any belief in a creator God: to live, that is, in a reality that is "accidental" and has no ultimate purpose - hence

Given that the modern West is evidently both collapsing and being actively destroyed; it is natural to seek for another political-social-cultural form that is known to be sustainable.

I really don't know we should make of the silly paranormal events of everyday life.

News-watchers get terribly excited about reports of declining branches of the global totalitarian System.

The accelerating national and global success of the ("Sorathic") Agents of Chaos is being misinterpreted as progress for the sociopolitical agenda of the (church-rooted) Religious Right -- much as I predicted would happen some six years ago during the cha…

One of the spiritual tests of "AI" is that it offers un-personal pandering, like a "benign" bureaucracy.

From time to time, something relatively minor happens that nonetheless strikes me as indicating an inflexion point in the accelerating dysfunctionality of the UK.

It is common to regard the suffering (and death) of "innocents" such as young children, babies, unborn babies; as especially difficult for Christianity to explain or justify.

There is a very great deal of importuning God, or Jesus, to have mercy on us, or other people - I have done great deal of such importuning myself, such as the Jesus Prayer.

Evil is specific, but Goodness is affiliation with God's creative purpose, a positive affiliation rooted in love.

The computer I use for blogging has suddenly been cut off from the internet by enforced wi-fi changes, and solving this may be a process that takes...well, a couple of weeks or three.

The self-styled anti-Left corner of the internet is mostly filled with revelations, analysis, and discussions of the latest Shocking News that one or another modern Western institution is corrupt and incompetent.