DeeGeesLifeBlog ~ Life as Art ~ Or is it Heart?

VP Mike Pence leads prayer in White House with Coronavirus team Mar 1 2020…

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. ~ Matthew 6:24

Today’s discourse begins with an excerpt from a letter by Albert Einstein, to a 6th-grade girl named Phyllis who asked him if prayer and science are either/or. His response: Scientists believe that every occurrence, including the affairs of human beings, is due to the laws of nature. Therefore a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish.

However, we must concede that our actual knowledge of these forces is imperfect, so that in the end the belief in the existence of a final, ultimate spirit rests on a kind of faith. Such belief remains widespread even with the [present] current achievements in science.

But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.

With cordial greetings, your A. Einstein

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The idea that science and religion are incompatible (ie incommensurable paradigms) is practically axiomatic to western liberalism as informed by the so called age of enlightenment. Scores of people who believe that science and religion are incompatible are theists – they may be heretical silly and irreligious theists, but they are theists nonetheless.

There are also non-theists who don’t believe that science and religion are incommensurable paradigms – the fact that many very significant scientific contributions have been made by many devoutly religious people ought to be conclusive evidence to any reasonable person, even atheists (on rare occasions).

So next time you see a knee-jerk ‘why do you hate science’ reaction to someone saying a prayer, consider it as more western liberalism at work, not atheism. The once great Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ, no slouches in the science department, had a Bible study on site. But that was another time.

God is the ultimate authority figure, the ultimate parent. As children we push against the authority figure; when we become adults we appreciate the wisdom of the ages, parents, Patriarchs. Or at least most of us do. The rest often land in prison.

Which brings me to the topic at hand. The prayerful demeanor of the current presidency and its adherents.

As Monica Showalter described it this past Tuesday in her American Thinker column: “With their famous reputation for ‘tolerance’ all out there, leftists, including the presumably vote-seeking Bernie Sanders, are mocking Vice President Mike Pence for beginning his coronavirus task force (a serious group of working government leaders tasked with keeping the infectious disease from spreading through the U.S.) with a prayer”.[sic]

Concomitant with their leftist skreel, one Thomas Chatterton Williams (PS, how about that for a ‘chatterbox’ name!) couldn’t get to Twitter fast enough with the group pic posted above and the comment “Mike Pence and his coronavirus emergency team praying for a solution. We are so screwed”.

Which drew the attention of Princeton Professor Robert P. George who responded: “I don’t know anything about Mr. Williams, but this photograph and his comment perfectly illustrate the profound division in our culture. It’s ‘obvious’ to some of us that one of the things you do in a crisis is pray. It’s ‘obvious’ to others that praying is (worse than) foolish”.

No surprise then, that the ‘Williams’ referred to lists himself on Twitter as a Harper’s magazine columnist and New York Times magazine contributing writer; aka Mister Establishment. Which also caught the eye of another rather wayward, but no less of an anti-God Establishment rapscallion by the name of Bernie Sanders, who popped up with:

“Trump’s plan for the coronavirus so far: cut winter heating assistance for the poor; have VP Pence, who wanted to ‘pray away’ HIV epidemic, oversee the response; let ex-pharma lobbyist Alex Azar refuse to guarantee affordable vaccines to all. Disgusting”.

And all that from the mouth of the romantic uber-socialist Marxist-communist lover of Fidel (‘let ’em all starve’) Castro and romantic sycophant of all things Russian – especially when it comes to honeymooning one’s bride on the doorstep of dictator Josef Stalin, whose ‘love’ for his nation and people was to institute the “Great Purge“, in which over a million of his fellow-Russians were imprisoned and at least 700,000 executed between 1934 and 1939. Bernie sure knows how to pick ’em.

So much then, for Crazy Bernie-out Sanders and his (ahem) love of country and/or his neighbors. It would appear to yours truly (and I’m sure with others) that Socialist Bernie has a long-developed meme trumpeting much more proclivity towards prey, than pray.

What’s more to the point in all of this of course, is the great divide within and between the Constitutional Republic of the United States.

Donald Trump has the best enemies.

This is because Donald Trump’s enemies are America’s enemies: the media, the Democrats, Big Education, Big Tech; you name it. And not to put too fine a point on it; Donald Trump’s enemies are MY enemies. Or as my boyhood hero, Sir Winston Churchill expressed it: “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life!”

A man is defined by his enemies. The true test is whether he lets them drag him down into their mire, or rises above their pettiness and defeats them.

President Trump is that historical figure whom God, once again, has sent to steer the Constitutional Republic back on course while simultaneously defeating the enemies of Freedom. We have witnessed him outwit and outfight the liberal looney-tune leftists time and time again and again.

We can all see how he revels in the battle. He truly is the political Patton with no Ike to hold him back.

“I love it. God help me I love it so.”

Thank God for that! Just go back and read again the exchange between Phyllis and the great Einstein, and double-check whether God is a relevant being or not: But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.[sic]

In other words, the loonies of the Left have been ‘offed’ most expeditiously by the great Albert Einstein; and a 6th-grade Phyllis. Doesn’t get any better than that!

We rest our case your Honor.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. ~ Galatians 6:7

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Albert Einstein on God and Science

Letter from ‘Phylis’ to Dr. Einstein: Dear Einstein, do Scientists Pray?

Monica Showalter, American Thinker: Mike Pence Catcalled for Prayer against Coronavirus

See also J. B. Shurk, American Thinker : So God Sent us a Salesman

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Soli Deo Gloria!

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