What is Real History?

 

Whatever the topic of endeavor one must have some philosophical grounding.  For Math (my field) I would recommend Philosophy of Mathematics by Stephen Barker.  For studying events of the past one might read What Is History? by Edward Carr:

https://www.amazon.com/What-History-Edward-Hallet-Carr/dp/039470391X

 

We must view the leaders of the past through our worldview and certain presuppositions.  #WWNS What would Nietzsche say? ... the land beyond good and evil, ubermensch, eternal return and seeking out hardship.

 

Stanley Jaki (philosopher of science, Ph.D. Physics) wrote "On Whose Side is History?":

https://app.box.com/s/m18t42f6x0f9x0sd5va7bhm3xzhjkbny

 

The historian Josephus came from a Jewish perspective and said that  Alexander the Great had this experience when he came to Jerusalem:

 

... he gave his hand to the high priest and, with the Jews running beside him, entered the city.  Then he went up to the temple ... when the book of Daniel was shown to him, in which he had declared that one of the Greeks would destroy the empire of the Persians, he believed himself to be the one indicated; and in his joy he dismissed the multitude ... (Antiquities, XI 317).

 

Alexander did not destroy Jerusalem because history has a plan.  John Warwick Montgomery wrote Where is History Going?  Here is an excerpt:

https://www.disciplenations.org/media/Where-is-History-Going_Montgomery.pdf

C.S. Lewis, who died on the same day as JFK, said this about Montgomery's thesis, "Your two lectures [the basis for the book] did me good ... I don't think it could be bettered."

 

Daniel actually predicted the time of Jesus arrival on this planet (Dan. 9:25-27).  Why was this time important?  The common Greek language, the Roman roads and the Pax Romana all aided the spread of the Gospel message (1 Cor. 15:1-11).  Our Creator is clearly not surprised by tomorrow's headlines:

 

I make known the end from the beginning,

from ancient times, what is still to come.

I say, "My purpose will stand,

and I will do all that I please."

  Isaiah 46:10

 

my site: https://totalyouth.us

 

JW Montgomery defends the #Faith ╬

https://www.amazon.com/Tractatus-Logico-Theologicus-Revised-Christian-Philosophy/dp/166678270X

 

#CS_Lewis #History ⛨⛩⛪⛫⛬⛭⛝ #RealHistory #TrueTruth #TotalYouth #TotalTruth #Greek #Daniel #OneCor15 #IS46_10 #JFK #Nietzsche  #Alexander_the_Great #StanleyJaki #Josephus #Antiquities #FOO   #StephenBarker #EdwardCarr #JohnWarwickMontgomery #TractatusLogicoTheologicus #Philosophy_of_Maths #PhilosophyOfHistory

Do You Mind?!

The mind exists apart from the brain – as does the soul.  Yet atheists and materialists deny it.  We are not meat machines.  Do androids dream of electric sheep?  Are we truly nothing but brain?  Is there life after death?  I’m a SOUL man not a MineCraft calculator.  Saved, Originated by God, United with Christ and Life after Death (in heaven).

John Searle (Philosophy Prof., UC Berkeley) proposed the Chinese Room Experiment.  I’m in a room and I don’t know Chinese, but I’m given a series of questions in Chinese.  I have the rules in English on how to write answers to these questions using Chinese characters.  Those who get my answers think I understand Chinese, but I don’t.  In like manner, a smart computer has no real understanding, consciousness or mind.

Norman Geisler confronts the materialists who think they can explain the mind:

Also unwarranted is the assumption that, because the mind and brain function together, they must be identical.  A corollary assumption is that I am nothing but my brain.  This is reductionist fallacy.  Things that go together are not necessarily the same, any more than ideas expressed by these words are the same as the words themselves.  Mind and brain could interact without being the same. [1]

Brain is Mind advocates fall from logic.  As Geisler reveals:

Materialist arguments are self-defeating.  “Nothing but” statements assume “more than” knowledge.  How could I know I am nothing more than my brain unless I was more than it?  I cannot analyze my brain in a test tube unless I am outside the test tube. [2]

If the nonmaterial mind does not exist, how is it that most cultures have a sense of the afterlife?  In The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul by Mario Beauregard (neuroscientist) and Denyse O'Leary (science journalist) provide empirical evidence for a nonmaterial mind.  Edward Feser teaches Philosophy at Pasadena City College and wrote The Philosophy of Mind.  He provides a number of helpful links here.

“The purposes of a person's heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out” (Pr. 20:5).

Notes:

1) Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman Geisler (Baker

Books, 1999), “Materialism,” p. 445.

2) Ibid.

**Graphic source:  adapted from Bizarro by Dan Piraro.