Author: Scriptorium Admin
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Playing Piano with Jane
John Mark Reynolds, 2005. Today I was working on a book project while my daughter Jane had her piano lesson. She decided to fool Dad by announcing that she was going to play a song for me. What followed was no longer “Lightly Row” or “Twinkle” or any other piece with which beginners delight parents.…
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The Three Essentials for Education: Part I
John Mark Reynolds, 2005. Read Part II here, and Part III here. Part I — Community If I tell you to be a good student, you think of being alone in a library or sitting in a room chewing on the end of a pencil as you work on a hard problem. There is little…
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Other gods?
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. I am sometimes asked how I know my God is the true God. How do I know the Aztec god or the gods of Olympus are not real gods?Here is a short (blog length!) response. People curious about more information should read Scaling the Secular City. First, we must ask ourselves…
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I am not Fluffy
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Jane wants a dog. That is a problem. Aristotle, the Wonder Dog, is already with us and he is enough to torment any family. At seven years old, Jane lacks the rhetorical and cleaning skills to make an effective argument to She Who Must Be Obeyed. Therefore, Jane has solved her…
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Two Frequent Secular Charges
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Frequently when I chat with friends who do not believe in God they will insist on two things. I find both things odd. First, some secularists assert that religious people “cannot question,” but scientists must. Of course, there are some religious people who are dogmatic (in the bad sense). I have…
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A Simple Argument Against Secularism
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Frequently, internet atheists argue that the American Constitution is a secular document. In one way, they are of course right. From a Christian point of view the Constitution governs the “secular authority.” It is for the City of Man and not the City of God. This is just a traditional Western…
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Happy Holidays
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. I love holidays. Just hearing, “Happy holidays!” normally makes me happy. Not today. Who knows why? If blogs are supposed to be, at least partly, about self-reflection, then let me say that today is one of those days when I am tired of myself. Tired of my thoughts on politics. Tired…
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Atheism, Spiritualism, and Me
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Lately, secularism has fallen into name calling as a substitute for argument. After the election, secularists have been active in calling believers bad names. They simply refuse to acknowledge that most people are theists for sensible reasons. First, people have experiences of the divine that they try to understand. They are…
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Welcome!
John Mark Reynold, 2004. What has happened to American atheism? If internet content is any clue, then this is a movement in serious decline. With an aging set of arguments, it seems to survive mostly on a sense of superiority it gained in the fifties. This is sad, since atheism has had a long and…
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Can a Christian love the dialectic?
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. I am a Christian and not just any kind of Christian, but the most robust kind: a Christian who believes the creeds are true and that the Bible is infallible. I don’t think much of modernity and tradition seems a better guide to behavior than the front page of the LA…
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From the Heart of Jesus
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. The heart of Jesus Christ was pierced by a lance and from it came blood and water. Longinus is the name given to the soldier who dared touch the Lord Glory. Tradition tells us that one drop of blood from the wound converted Longinus. Augustine writes that the blood and water…
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On Opposing Tyrants
John Mark Reynolds, 2004. Athens, the world’s first experiment in democracy, was eventually overtaken by the tyranny of Philip and Alexander of Macedonia. One man, Demosthenes, argued for his entire political life for a concentrated assault on Philip. He was sometimes heard and sometimes ignored. In his otherwise excellent history The Ancient Greeks, Fine argues…