New Zealand Conservative

How did you become interested in learning more about Islamic thought? And what have you learned? Reilly: My background really was in the Cold War and I am a student of political philosophy. Most of that was applied to 19th and 20th century Western ideologies. It was only after 9/11 that I wondered whether what I knew could apply to the situation we were facing. So for more than 10 years now I have been studying mainly Muslim theology—and what passes for philosophy and metaphysics and epistemology—to try to get to the source of why things have gone so wrong there. And I traced it back to an enormous intellectual drama in the 9th century in Baghdad between those who wished to give primacy to reason and those who wished to give primacy to pure will and power. So you had, on one side, the first theological school in Islam that said, “God is rationality and justice,” and the other side which said: “No, God is pure will and power. Rationality has nothing to do with Him and whatever...

Quite a good article in the Catholic Herald today by a direct descendant of Charles Darwin (who first proposed the theory of evolution). His great-great-great granddaughter explains why she is Catholic. ‘Are you related to the economist?” People sometimes ask when they see my surname. I explain that, yes, John Maynard Keynes is my great-great-uncle – his brother Geoffrey married Margaret Darwin, my great-grandmother. “So you’re related to Darwin too?” Yes, he’s my great-great-great grandfather. Eyes might fall on the cross around my neck: “And you’re a Christian?” Yes, a Catholic. “How does a Darwin end up Catholic?” [...] My journey back to faith was as much a movement of the heart as a thoroughgoing intellectual inquiry. It had to be both: if my ancestors’ lives trouble faith then as their descendant I couldn’t but confront the issues head on. That I freely chose to be a Catholic after much thought and analysis, and wasn’t brainwashed into it, baffles my friends and family...

Kim Hill is one of those interviewers that seems to delight in tying up her victims in knots, while seeming to remain objective. However, when she tried this technique with John Lennox, he showed her up by pointing out what she was doing and bringing her back to the point, while also in a very nice way, exposed her ignorance. It was a delight to listen to. I would especially recommend this interview to those that would like to understand the necessity of faith for science to flourish. Related link: John Lennox's books on Amazon Saturday Morning with Kim Hill ~ Radio New Zealand

New movie out soon, based on a true story of the Cristeros war in Mexico 1926, when the Govt tried to outlaw Catholicism and other religions. The blurb at Brietbart says of the movie - The film, “For Greater Glory,” hits theaters on June 1 and tells a little known chapter of Mexican history — the Cristero War of 1926 to 1929, which pitted an army of devout Catholic rebels (led in the movie by Andy Garcia) against the government of Mexican President Plutarco Calles (played by Ruben Blades). For Catholics enraged by the Obama administration’s proposed contraception mandate, the film about the Mexican church’s fight in 1920s is a heartening and timely cinematic boost in the American church’s battle to preserve “religious freedom” in 2012. For other Catholics and non-Catholics, the film is, more simply, action, suspense and a good cast. Besides Garcia and Blades, there’s “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria and the legendary actor Peter O’Toole.  For a fuller account o...

Good to see some celebrities not afraid to come out and talk about their faith.

I love reading anything written by Pope Benedict XVI. My favourite book is Jesus of Nazarath written by him a couple of years back. I remember after reading it for the first time a couple of years back, how harsh other books seemed in comparison. During all my years outside of the Church, the few times I really felt the Divine calling me back was in the way the Holy Father brings up in his Palm Sunday sermon. God uses the subtlety of gravity to guide the lost sheep back into the fold. His touch is light, but persistent if we listen to it. The Fathers of the Church maintained that human beings stand at the point of intersection between two gravitational fields. First, there is the force of gravity which pulls us down – towards selfishness, falsehood and evil; the gravity which diminishes us and distances us from the heights of God. On the other hand there is the gravitational force of God’s love: the fact that we are loved by God and respond in love attracts us upwards. Man find...

Here's an interesting article from the Guardian of all places: Faith in the darkest of moments . It's by a psychologist who treats the victims of torture and her observation that in the darkest times after feeling alone and abandoned her patients felt the presence of God. I have heard reports of angels singing comfort, of Mary and/or Jesus whispering to them, of feeling the formless touch of the Divine, of a dream of a prophet or a saint that was real. I have even had multiple reports of literal, physical divine intervention at intense moments of need, in one case dramatically saving the life of my client. I believe that they are telling the truth. People who invent such stories tend to do so regularly as a result of their inability to distinguish internal and external reality or their compulsion to invent extreme stories, and hence would exhibit ongoing and multiple signs of psychosis and/or personality disorder. However, beyond displaying typical impacts of deep traum...