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For the record, I'm firing anyone from my company who says "normalize Indian hate" on any forum. And in fact, it's even worse if he said it "anonymously," because it means he's an insecure and pathetic loser.

"Christianity never succeeded in America. Most Americans think of themselves as Christians. But the only religion in America that ever flourished was America. And it twists everything into its own image." ~David Bentley Hart

"I am quite certain that neither love nor grief can ever be excessive; each is its own absolute measure, and knows its own proper proportions. And, as a rule, we generally fail to love or grieve nearly as much as we ought to do." ~David Bentley Hart

Hans Urs von Balthasar with Mickey Mouse.

Kallistos Ware on shattering idols: "True faith is a constant dialogue with doubt, for God is incomparably greater than all our preconceptions about Him; our mental concepts are idols that need to be shattered. So as to be fully alive, our faith needs continually to die."

According to David Bentley Hart, Christianity did not enter human history as a sapiential path, a creed, or a system of religious observances. Christianity appeared as apocalypse. But that's easy to say. What is apocalypse? Well, he gives seven definitions 👇

You know, that "mysterious" claw marks on one's body is the work of a demon and not one of the FOUR dogs that sleep in one's bed is something only someone who sleeps with FOUR dogs in their bed would ever think to say.

"The soteriological stakes for Christianity aren't conspicuously different from those of the other great faiths. They're just laid out in a special way because of the doctrine of incarnation. It's the union of the soul with God that is the consummation of created existence – so intense a union, that for someone like Gregory of Nazianzus or Maximos the Confessor, they'll speak of an equality with God as the end towards which we're called, and even to become 'uncreated.'" ~David Bentley Hart

Is it just me, or has the content on this app got considerably worse (and more boring) over the past 3-4 months?

I'm leaving this site, at least for a while. I've met cool people here, but I don't actually know them. And I can't keep my internal cool when people promote nonsense – especially when it's people I had respected, and when their nonsense condones violence. (And I don't want to become one of those people – a goal that seems less realistic the longer I stick around here.) If you care enough to follow along as I think out loud about life's bigger questions, I'll be writing monthly at my StampFans. First letter is free, then $3/month to cover paper & post 👇 stampfans[dot]com/nick-freiling For everyone sticking around here: Please guard your heart. Not everything you see in your feed, even if it's technically true, deserves to influence how you think about things, and especially about other people. ✌️

Young males who are obsessed with politics are usually into it the same way most other males are obsessed with their sports teams. These guys get so aggressive about politics because it's their margin for "winning" in life. They relish the opportunity to feel like they "defeated" the other side. And when their side loses, they feel defeated like most other guys do when their team loses the national championship. It's a very emotional experience for them. Guys like this should probably try to get into sports. Politics is important, but there are diminishing returns on being so invested (just like with sports). But so long as they don't, it's good for everyone else to remember that this attitude is what's behind most of the unhinged takes you see on this app. Politics is real and important. But most of the political stuff people talk about is just their way of playing a game. You're a sucker if you take other people's made-up games so seriously.

Good book, but it raises some very serious Mariological questions that I really think should have been addressed herein 🫤

Miss me yet?

Dude my reach on this app is total sh*t. What happened? I bet 99% of my likes and engagement come from ~6 people.

For the record, I'm firing anyone from my company who says "normalize Indian hate" on any forum. And in fact, it's even worse if he said it "anonymously," because it means he's an insecure and pathetic loser.

"Christianity never succeeded in America. Most Americans think of themselves as Christians. But the only religion in America that ever flourished was America. And it twists everything into its own image." ~David Bentley Hart

"I am quite certain that neither love nor grief can ever be excessive; each is its own absolute measure, and knows its own proper proportions. And, as a rule, we generally fail to love or grieve nearly as much as we ought to do." ~David Bentley Hart

Miss me yet?

"Doubting Thomas" isn't a fair moniker. None of the disciples believed before seeing. Thomas was expected to believe the disciples, who had only themselves believed after seeing? And in fact, his demanded proof reveals a very deep Christology that, per the gospel of John, only he understood – one where proof of Jesus' death was just as important as proof of his new life (you can't exactly stick your hands into someone's healing wounds), and where wounds would still be present even on his resurrected body. An interesting fellow!

"The soteriological stakes for Christianity aren't conspicuously different from those of the other great faiths. They're just laid out in a special way because of the doctrine of incarnation. It's the union of the soul with God that is the consummation of created existence – so intense a union, that for someone like Gregory of Nazianzus or Maximos the Confessor, they'll speak of an equality with God as the end towards which we're called, and even to become 'uncreated.'" ~David Bentley Hart

Is it just me, or has the content on this app got considerably worse (and more boring) over the past 3-4 months?

Dude my reach on this app is total sh*t. What happened? I bet 99% of my likes and engagement come from ~6 people.

Young males who are obsessed with politics are usually into it the same way most other males are obsessed with their sports teams. These guys get so aggressive about politics because it's their margin for "winning" in life. They relish the opportunity to feel like they "defeated" the other side. And when their side loses, they feel defeated like most other guys do when their team loses the national championship. It's a very emotional experience for them. Guys like this should probably try to get into sports. Politics is important, but there are diminishing returns on being so invested (just like with sports). But so long as they don't, it's good for everyone else to remember that this attitude is what's behind most of the unhinged takes you see on this app. Politics is real and important. But most of the political stuff people talk about is just their way of playing a game. You're a sucker if you take other people's made-up games so seriously.

I experience no "inner voice." But I can remember waking up one day, around 13 years old, and suddenly having one. I was disturbed and the world felt less real to me – as if everything I experienced had to be first run through the flimsy filter of my limited vocabulary. I've always attributed this to crossing some threshold of social insecurity in my early teenage years. I was very stressed at the time about who I was, especially in the eyes of my friends and classmates. But over the years, this inner voice wore off. By my late-20s, it was totally gone. And I do feel like the outside world is "closer" to me – that I experience it now with less of a filter. But one side-effect is that without my inner voice, writing is harder. I don't think my writing today is any worse than before. In fact, in most ways I think it's better. But the words don't come easy. Almost every sentence I write involves a conscious compromise between what I actually want to say (that is, what I actually think) and the vocabulary that's available to me. Because, much of the time, the experience or thought I'm trying to relay in paper (or, for that matter, in conversation) is one I have never put to words, or ever considered putting to words, or ever needed to put to words. Mostly, in my experience, putting thoughts to words debases those thoughts (and sometimes those words). I don't like doing it often. "Whereof one cannot speak, one must be silent." But indeed, practice does help. And I imagine, and can remember, that having an "inner voice" is like practicing this all day long.

Has any other Western country ever tore itself to shreds like the US did in the 1860s? I know there have been bigger wars, but has there been a bigger civil war in the West post-1800?

I'm trying to find a way to real-time validate a form field in my app. This is to prevent the submission of duplicate answers across users. Ideally, users would be able to see, within a second of typing, whether they've entered a unique value or not. Anyone have any ideas?

2016: US elects oldest POTUS ever 2020: US elects oldest POTUS ever 2024: US elects oldest POTUS ever How can we keep this trend going?

Imagine aliens show up and ask to speak with a representative of the human race. They say nothing else. Who do you nominate to be our representative?

Woke up. Saw the news about New Orleans. Very sad. An hour later, I saw Fox News report that the truck had been driven over the border two days ago. Then I saw Trump's statement about terrible criminals coming into America. Then I went on a 4-hour kayak ride and didn't check the news. When I got back, I checked the news again. Fox's statement was apparently straight-up wrong. And the terrorist was born and raised in the US (Army veteran, actually). See how dumb this is? When we're so obsessed with our narrative, we become hopelessly gullible and end up, like Trump, sounding very stupid.