Always interested your thoughts on big subjects like this that are dear to my heart - and it is also a pleasure to read your well measured prose.
And the issue is very relevant to me having in a heartbeat recently changed my position from being an existentialist happily accepting that then when I died that was that…the end of the line being to my mind a comforting nothing.
A nothing into which I was quite looking forward to taking myself in the next 5 years or so. I’d come to this from a general world weariness, and a sense that life for me was not going to be so attractive the allure of the long sleep. The inroads of Parkinson’s on my ability to speak had taken much of my pleasure in life away as had the constant fatigue and brain fog.
However the arrival of the amazing R changed everything. Here was a reason to stay alive and when on the second night she said she could not bear the idea that death was the end. And in short said that if she would end the relationship if I would not change my position. I’d always liked the thinking behind Pascal’s wager and in this instance it would have been madness for me to not change my position.
And after all it is a pleasant enough change of position to think about the people one has loved somehow in some form or another being out there. And as we are all just a bundle of energy and particles it is not such a wild flight of fancy.
But Tommy’s mostly interested in the question why believe in Jesus and God and all the Holy Spirit jazz..And I’ve long been curious why it is that people like Graham Greene become Roman Catholics after a lifetime of outspoken atheism…Are they just deciding Pascal was right and better to believe just in case there is one?
Surely if there is a Christian God s/he/they would have enough love to take all comers? Not make you pass some test as to whether you got into the Four Seasons heaven or were doomed to an eternity of bad hostels or bug ridden airbnb’s?
Well that’s quite enough for now. BTW and for no other reason than swank and showing off. I’m wearing beautiful brand new white linen pj’s that R felt were essential for our weekend break in a country house spa hotel…
Nick, it is great to see that you are back. I was hoping that your new relationship was the reason for your absence. I cannot think of anything that lifts the spirit more than finding that unexpected someone who actually cares about you, but then I am an old romantic. Kudos to her for bringing hope back into your life.
I appreciate your thoughts as I stumble over these big subjects. As Walker Percy, another writer who converted to Roman Catholicism, said "To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something." I believe myself to be on the right search. However, unlike some Christians, I don't pretend to know the mind of God or the hearts of individual people. If I tried, I would limit God with my lack of imagination or limit people with my lack of experience.
Hi - fascinated to read and listen to piece about Vance and his road from Protestant upbringing to new aethism and then to joining the Catholic Church.
I read young J.D.'s Hillbilly Elegy memoir back in 2016 and did not know that he had converted to Catholicism. in 2019. In his memoir he credits his grandmother and the Marine Corp with giving him the discipline and confidence to succeed. LIke his memoir, I found the Lamp article sincere in the description of his journey.
However, with his recent elevation to VP candidate status and the required kissing of Trump's ring, I wonder how sincere he really was. I find it interesting that his religious views, like his political views, are not based on theology or ideology but rather on opportunity.
what i find fascinating is that a heavyweight intellectual such as he should be part of the Trump team. Also very interested in the anti neo-con elite approach that he and the likes of Thiel seem to be voicing. Also very taken by the Girards mimetics analysis ...much food for thougtht all round
Always interested your thoughts on big subjects like this that are dear to my heart - and it is also a pleasure to read your well measured prose.
And the issue is very relevant to me having in a heartbeat recently changed my position from being an existentialist happily accepting that then when I died that was that…the end of the line being to my mind a comforting nothing.
A nothing into which I was quite looking forward to taking myself in the next 5 years or so. I’d come to this from a general world weariness, and a sense that life for me was not going to be so attractive the allure of the long sleep. The inroads of Parkinson’s on my ability to speak had taken much of my pleasure in life away as had the constant fatigue and brain fog.
However the arrival of the amazing R changed everything. Here was a reason to stay alive and when on the second night she said she could not bear the idea that death was the end. And in short said that if she would end the relationship if I would not change my position. I’d always liked the thinking behind Pascal’s wager and in this instance it would have been madness for me to not change my position.
And after all it is a pleasant enough change of position to think about the people one has loved somehow in some form or another being out there. And as we are all just a bundle of energy and particles it is not such a wild flight of fancy.
But Tommy’s mostly interested in the question why believe in Jesus and God and all the Holy Spirit jazz..And I’ve long been curious why it is that people like Graham Greene become Roman Catholics after a lifetime of outspoken atheism…Are they just deciding Pascal was right and better to believe just in case there is one?
Surely if there is a Christian God s/he/they would have enough love to take all comers? Not make you pass some test as to whether you got into the Four Seasons heaven or were doomed to an eternity of bad hostels or bug ridden airbnb’s?
Well that’s quite enough for now. BTW and for no other reason than swank and showing off. I’m wearing beautiful brand new white linen pj’s that R felt were essential for our weekend break in a country house spa hotel…
Nick, it is great to see that you are back. I was hoping that your new relationship was the reason for your absence. I cannot think of anything that lifts the spirit more than finding that unexpected someone who actually cares about you, but then I am an old romantic. Kudos to her for bringing hope back into your life.
I appreciate your thoughts as I stumble over these big subjects. As Walker Percy, another writer who converted to Roman Catholicism, said "To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something." I believe myself to be on the right search. However, unlike some Christians, I don't pretend to know the mind of God or the hearts of individual people. If I tried, I would limit God with my lack of imagination or limit people with my lack of experience.
Hi - fascinated to read and listen to piece about Vance and his road from Protestant upbringing to new aethism and then to joining the Catholic Church.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/past-present-future/id1682047968?i=1000662858311
https://thelampmagazine.com/blog/how-i-joined-the-resistance
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/j-d-vances-radical-religion
Btw, thanks for introducing me to the PPF podcast. Just finished their latest on To Kill A Mockingbird. Great stuff.
Hello Nick,
I read young J.D.'s Hillbilly Elegy memoir back in 2016 and did not know that he had converted to Catholicism. in 2019. In his memoir he credits his grandmother and the Marine Corp with giving him the discipline and confidence to succeed. LIke his memoir, I found the Lamp article sincere in the description of his journey.
However, with his recent elevation to VP candidate status and the required kissing of Trump's ring, I wonder how sincere he really was. I find it interesting that his religious views, like his political views, are not based on theology or ideology but rather on opportunity.
what i find fascinating is that a heavyweight intellectual such as he should be part of the Trump team. Also very interested in the anti neo-con elite approach that he and the likes of Thiel seem to be voicing. Also very taken by the Girards mimetics analysis ...much food for thougtht all round