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Everything is a total disaster and everyone knows it. This whole thing – life, the universe, everything – is a complete mess. Modern reality is designed to suck the life out of you. This world eats souls. It chews the flesh of souls, leaving soul-bones. Everything is pressure, from all sides. However, what we must... Read More
“JD Vance†is a man without a basic identity. He’s a single mother disaster raised by multiple step dads who had a high IQ and went to Yale, then wrote a pretty good novel (I genuinely like the book). Then he married an Indian. And instead of trying to assimilate her, she assimilated him –... Read More
Most of my thoughts these days don’t pertain to the political realm, rather I tend to focus on the level of spiritual depravity that has led to our fallen state—our fallen state as individual people, due to our fallen state collectively as a people. To paraphrase Dostoevsky, there is a spiritual war going on between... Read More
An abundance of evidence suggests that *state subsidies* for organized religion result in weak leadership, a dull congregation and a dying society. Why do so many Christians, Jews and atheists put up with it? There are some practices so superficially alluring yet destructive and habit-forming that they linger on for generations with little attention to... Read More
Translated from the French and with the introduction by Tom Sunic Tom Sunic Can we still conceive of the revival of pagan sensibility in an age so profoundly saturated by Judeo-Christian monotheism and so ardently adhering to the tenets of liberal democracy? In popular parlance the very word ‘paganism’ may incite some to derision and... Read More
Since I came to Islam in 1993, I have attended plenty of Sufi get-togethers, both here in Morocco and back in the USA. They are generally modest affairs (except for the food, which can be pretty lavish). Typically a couple of dozen people at most gather in a circle if it’s a mosque, or a... Read More
In “The Failed Empireâ€, I have argued that the medieval papacy is responsible for the failure of Europe to reach political unity under German leadership in the medieval period. I did not deny that the “the enduring absence of hegemonic empire†and the “competitive fragmentation of power†had positive effects, as Walter Scheidel claimed in... Read More
The recent essay by Thomas Dalton PhD. attacking Jesus—the subject of this critique—was written with a view toward engaging with figures on the white nationalist far-Right who allegedly hold some vestige of Christian beliefs, and disabusing them of those beliefs. There will be those who will assert that because Dalton’s views are demonstrably false there... Read More
In his New Year’s address, Russian president Vladimir Putin once again spoke of “the importance of traditional family values.†It is one of his most common themes. Two months earlier, Putin had angered Western liberals by saying that teaching children “that a boy can become a girl and vice versa...is on the verge of a... Read More
Related: Christians Now a Minority in England and Wales According to Census Data People need to wise up! God is about to do a Sodom and Gomorrah on this country! Probably too late already! That said: these churches we have in this country are really awful. Protestant ministers are stand-up comedians, they play rock music,... Read More
I don’t believe in God or Satan, but I increasingly wonder whether I should. I greatly admire and regularly learn from the writers Vox Day and Bruce Charlton, so perhaps I should adopt the Christianity that they make central to their work. At the same time, I can separate the ontics from the pragmatics in... Read More
Asians show no sign of a collective death-wish. They are generally proud of their ethnicity and nationality. This, I will argue, has much to do with their general attitude toward their ancestors. Ancestor worship is an essential part of Asian traditions, and although it has receded in big cities, it is still widely practiced. Anthropologists... Read More
“We have met the enemy and he is us.†— Pogo First of all, let’s announce the good news. Professor David Hawkes has declared war on the forces of anti-Logos in our age, telling us that the “profound hostility to logos,†which “permeates every aspect of modern and especially postmodern culture†is “only the latest... Read More
Leftist women seem to be emerging as the “New Church Ladiesâ€, as Jim Goad has called them. In an extraordinary expose, American Conservative columnist Rod Dreher recently reported that even Democrat operatives worry privately that “hard left women†incensed by Hillary Clinton’s defeat have “completely taken over the middle management of the party†and are... Read More
Feelings don’t care about facts. The mass hysteria that’s gripped the Western world after the death of George Floyd can’t be explained in rational terms. Police are shooting fewer unarmed black men each year, and most of the shootings are justified. Police are more likely to shoot a non-threatening white than a non-threatening black. In... Read More
I’ve heard that, as part of new amendments to the Russian Constitution, President Putin proposes to include the Russian people’s “faith in God,†and a definition of marriage as a “union of a man and a woman.†I’m a bit skeptical about the news, but if true, I think it’s a great idea. If voted... Read More
As mentioned in a 2017 review of The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of Jews (2010) by Boston College’s Robert Aleksander Maryks, I am especially fascinated by aspects of Jewish group behavior that involve crypsis, a phenomenon that is often facilitated by a combination of deception and self-deception on the part of Jews. To date,... Read More
If it can be said that Europeans are today largely blind to Jewish aggressions, then Christians are among those fumbling around in deepest darkness. Historian Jonas Alexis once remarked that, contrary to older Christian anger at depictions of Jesus and Christianity in the Talmud, no such reactions are evident in relation to modern the Jewish... Read More
It’s not surprising that Robert “Beto†O’Rourke wanted to apply an ideological test on churches, it’s just surprising he felt so comfortable saying so. Even liberal journalists admit stripping tax-exempt status from churches that oppose homosexual marriage is unconstitutional. However, there has been a concerted effort in the Main Stream Media from The New York... Read More
Introduction by the Saker: I have always had a passion for theology in general and the studies of religions in general. Several years ago I discovered, quite by chance, a book written by Michael A. Hoffman II entitled Judaism's Strange Gods which I found most interesting and thought provoking. Reading that book, I felt that... Read More
Like many Americans during the past three weeks, I've been bombarded by news about the destructive power of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida. The stories are of misery, death and destruction. The misery, death and destruction are acutely difficult to accept because they have been visited upon innocents. I say that... Read More
Two recent controversies about the religious freedom of public and political officials have provoked similar outrage among my fellow social conservatives. I’d like to respectfully suggest that there’s a difference, and that conservatives are mistaken to equate the two. The outrage about one of the stories is absolutely justified. The hounding of British Liberal Democratic... Read More
In today’s irreligious and indeed anti-religious climate the fashion is to dismiss Christianity as crude superstition, and to babble wisely about the separation of church and state. This is unfortunate, and stupid, since Christianity was the heart and soul of as yet the greatest civilization the world has seen. Those who know nothing of it... Read More
Dear friends, Christ is Risen! I have enjoyed a much needed break, but I could not fully forget about the blog and a few current events. Many of you have asked me for my reaction to the meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis but at the time I decided not to comment about it.... Read More
It's that time again. There's been another horrific high-profile mass shooting. And as usual, all the nonsense that typically circulates when that happens is circulating again. "We need more gun control!" "The problem is mental illness!" Or "it's not mental illness!" "It's racism!" Chris Harper Mercer added another layer to the matter – the fact... Read More
On the Unz Review I find a piece by Razib Khan, Can a Religious Person be a Good Scientist? His answer, yes, is inarguable since, as he points out, many good scientists are religious (Newton, a Christian, by most accounts did pretty fair work.) But why should it be necessary to ask such a luminously... Read More
The world is too much with us, late and son. Before long, it can begin to seem reasonable. I have my doubts. The usual always seems reasonable. For example, existence seems reasonable. We wake up every morning and there it is. Actually it isn’t reasonable. It’s just customary. We avoid thinking about this so as... Read More
Introduction: The opening long decade of the 21st century (2000-2012) has been a period of repeated and profound economic and social crises, of serial and prolonged wars and declining living standards for the vast majority of Americans. How have people responded to this crisis? No large scale, long term, socio-political movements have emerged to challenge... Read More
Seeing that the first sentence in the first paragraph of the first chapter of Peter Kreeft's book Heaven: The Heart's Deepest Longing is a quote from C.S. Lewis, my suspicions were aroused right away. Kreeft hastened to confirm them, quoting Lewis again four pages further on, and again eleven pages after that, then four pages... Read More
It's been over six years since I last attended a church service. I maintain a proper humility towards large questions about the universe and the place therein of human (or any other kind of, if there is any other kind of) self-awareness, but I am a functional atheist. It seems highly improbable to me that... Read More
Did you know that Osama bin Laden has twenty-five children? And that his Dad had fifty-four? (Osama seems to be number 17.) Bin Laden Sr. was careful never to have more than four wives at a time, though, divorcing older wives in order to marry younger ones, thus staying within the proper Koranic bounds. Like... Read More
As a child I was indoctrinated with some basic precepts regarding life among other human beings. Don't put your elbows on the dinner table. Don't speak with your mouth full. Blow your nose into a handkerchief. (I pause to notice how quaint that one seems now, when linen handkerchiefs have wellnigh vanished from the stores.... Read More
I am entirely against government bans on “cults.†Such a ban would be an instrument for public administrators trying to control undesirable social and cultural values. In all likelihood this law would be used in a discriminatory fashion, to go after politically incorrect Christians far more than to restrict orgiastic sun worshippers in Arizona or... Read More
I just heard on the radio that the publication of O.J. Simpson’s new book has been canceled. Literature’s loss, I guess. This particular Literary Event of the Season was aborted because of widespread disgust that Simpson was still profiting from crimes he says he didn’t commit. Like many other observers, I take his denial with... Read More
Though I try to keep abreast of new ideas, the conclusions of modern science are often, as they say, “counterintuitive†— that is, contrary to what common sense might lead you to expect. In the realm of physics, this is true of the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and the currently fashionable... Read More
Q. Are you a Christian? A. No. I take the minimal definition of a Christian to be a person who is sure that Jesus of Nazareth was divine, or part-divine, and that the Resurrection was a real event. I don't believe either of those things. Have I ever? Well, up to about three years ago... Read More
In the modern West, Islam is thought of as a violent religion, and I’ve done my part, along with some fanatical (but not necessarily typical) Muslims, to reinforce this view. It’s fatally easy to mistake the nuts for the norm. But I think there may be a better way to look at the situation. “Error... Read More
Nearly every Christian, I suppose, has had the experience of being belabored by unbelievers about the putative sins of what is termed “organized religion†— the Spanish Inquisition, the trial of Galileo, the Salem witch-hunts, and so forth. What surprises me is that Christians have been so slow to turn the argument around and point... Read More
Beginning this week, homosexuals in Britain can sign up for "civil partnerships," giving them most of the tax and legal benefits of marriage. Near the head of the line for this new arrangement were Sir Elton John and his boyfriend, who made a low-key ceremony out of it. My current issue (dated Dec. 3) of... Read More
Marx was wrong. Religion isn’t the “opium of the massesâ€. Its effects are never that benign. No, religion is a shackle clasped to the mind of man, keeping him from utilizing the one thing that lifts him above the primordial swamp of fear and superstition; his inquiring mind. The appointment of the new pope, Joseph... Read More
There is a certain kind of atheist — we have all met him — who is not merely indifferent to organized religion, or puzzled by it, or scornful of it, but who is inflamed to purple rage by the contemplation of it. My own father was of this kidney. He would open conversations with perfect... Read More
The New York Times reported recently that many churches are in effect backing President Bush for reelection. I find this disturbing because I find Bush disturbing. But judging by the flood of letters to the editor this story provoked, many liberals find it disturbing because they find religion in public life disturbing. One Times reader... Read More
Did you read about the Godless Americans March onWashington being organized for this coming November? The nation's atheists, agnostics and skeptics plan to make their presence felt in the way made traditional by blacks, feminists, homosexualists and gun-hating Moms. Now, before proceeding, I should like to register a complaint about the name of this event.... Read More
I have been reluctant to write anything about the current travails of the American Catholic church because it's not my church. Religion is, as the U.S. constitution wisely recognizes, a private matter. To insert oneself into the internal troubles of a church you don't belong to seems impertinent — like stepping into a family feud.... Read More
In addition to being a useful prop for pushing gun control, the massacre at Littleton, Colorado’s Columbine High School, turned out to be a bottomless bonanza for other pet causes of liberalism. While grieving members of the community are planning a memorial in honor of the victims, others are busy planning how to exploit the... Read More
Yet again a group we’d never heard of has become, overnight, the topic of obsessive national discussion. The mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate “cult†also throws an interesting light on “pluralism.†Those who killed themselves wouldn’t describe their deaths as “suicide.†The word begs the question of religious truth. Their definition of the act... Read More