Resume Executive Summary

executive-summary-examples/

Shoot Around Corners Review

Review

Jesus’ Tomb

jesus-tomb-archaeology-jerusalem-christianity-rome

Reagan vs. People's Park, 1969

1969

Gay Political Control

Gay Control

John Jay College Islamist Art

11/jay-artwork-guantanamo

Harvard Islamism

harvard-lecture-protocols

Qur’an Quotes

Qur’an Quotes

2:65 Allah transforms disobedient Jews into apes

“And well you know there were those among you [Jews] that transgressed the Sabbath, and We said to them, “˜Be you apes, miserably slinking!”

2:89 Unbelievers, particularly Jews, are accursed

“When there came to them [Jews] a Book from Allah, confirming what was with them — and they aforetimes prayed for victory over the unbelievers — when there came to them that they recognized, they disbelieved in it; and the curse of Allah is on the unbelievers.

2:191-193 Fight and kill unbelievers until “religion is Allah’s,” i.e. Islamic law rules all societies

“And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is more grievous than slaying. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, slay them — such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.”

3:28 Don’t take unbelievers as friends and allies, unless it is for “fear of them,” i.e. deceptively for protection of oneself or of Islam

“Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends, rather than the believers — for whoso does that belongs not to Allah in anything — unless you have a fear of them. Allah warns you that You beware of Him, and unto Allah is the homecoming.”

3:110-112 Muslims are the best of people, Jews have earned Allah’s anger

“You are the best nation ever brought forth to men, bidding to honour, and forbidding dishonour, and believing in Allah. Had the People of the Book believed, it were better for them; some of them are believers, but the most of them are ungodly. They will not harm you, except a little hurt; and if they fight with you, they will turn on you their backs; then they will not be helped. Abasement shall be pitched on them, wherever they are come upon, except they be in a bond of Allah, and a bond of the people; they will be laden with the burden of Allah’s anger, and poverty shall be pitched on them; that, because they disbelieved in Allah’s signs, and slew the Prophets without right; that, for that they acted rebelliously and were transgressors.”

3:151 Terror

“We will cast into the hearts of the unbelievers terror, for that they have associated with Allah that for which He sent down never authority; their lodging shall be the Fire; evil is the lodging of the evildoers.”

3:181 Jews are bound for hell

“Allah has heard the saying of those who said, “˜Surely Allah is poor, and we are rich.” We shall write down what they have said, and their slaying the Prophets without right, and We shall say, “˜Taste the chastisement of the burning.–

4:3 Polygamy and sexual slavery

“If you fear that you will not act justly towards the orphans, marry such women as seem good to you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable, then only one, or what your right hands own; so it is likelier you will not be partial.”

4:34 Beat disobedient women

“Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that Allah has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for Allah’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. If they then obey you, look not for any way against them; Allah is All-high, All-great.”

4:89 Kill apostates

“They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of Allah; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper.”

4:160 Jews do evil, turn people away from Allah

“And for the evildoing of those of Jewry, We have forbidden them certain good things that were permitted to them, and for their barring from Allah’s way many”¦”

5:17 Christians — believers in divinity of Christ — are unbelievers

“They are unbelievers who say, “˜Allah is the Messiah, Mary”s son.” Say: “˜Who then shall overrule Allah in any way if He desires to destroy the Messiah, Mary”s son, and his mother, and all those who are on earth?” For to Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is between them, creating what He will. Allah is powerful over everything.”

5:33 Crucify or amputate the hands and feet of those who make war against Allah and Muhammad

“This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.”

5:38 Amputate the hands of thieves

“And the thief, male and female: cut off the hands of both, as a recompense for what they have earned, and a punishment exemplary from Allah; Allah is All-mighty, All-wise.”

5:41 Jews listen to falsehood and pervert the meaning of their Scriptures

“O Messenger, let them not grieve thee that vie with one another in unbelief, such men as say with their mouths “˜We believe” but their hearts believe not; and the Jews who listen to falsehood, listen to other folk, who have not come to thee, perverting words from their meanings, saying, “˜If you are given this, then take it; if you are not given it, beware!” Whomsoever Allah desires to try, thou canst not avail him anything with Allah. Those are they whose hearts Allah desired not to purify; for them is degradation in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.”

5:51 Don’t take Jews and Christians as friends and allies

“O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Whoso of you makes them his friends is one of them. Allah guides not the people of the evildoers.”

5:59-60 Jews cursed, made into apes and swine

“Say: “˜People of the Book, do you blame us for any other cause than that we believe in Allah, and what has been sent down to us, and what was sent down before, and that most of you are ungodly?” Say: “˜Shall I tell you of a recompense with Allah, worse than that? Whomsoever Allah has cursed, and with whom He is wroth, and made some of them apes and swine, and worshippers of idols — they are worse situated, and have gone further astray from the right way.–

5:64 Jews accursed

“The Jews have said, “˜Allah’s hand is fettered.” Fettered are their hands, and they are cursed for what they have said. Nay, but His hands are outspread; He expends how He will. And what has been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase many of them in insolence and unbelief; and We have cast between them enmity and hatred, till the Day of Resurrection. As often as they light a fire for war, Allah will extinguish it. They hasten about the earth, to do corruption there; and Allah loves not the workers of corruption.”

5:72 Christians are unbelievers

“They are unbelievers who say, “’Allah is the Messiah, Mary’s son.’ For the Messiah said, ‘Children of Israel, serve God, my Lord and your Lord. Verily whoso associates with Allah anything, Allah shall prohibit him entrance to Paradise, and his refuge shall be the Fire; and wrongdoers shall have no helpers.'”

5:82 Jews most hostile to the Muslims

“Thou wilt surely find the most hostile of men to the believers are the Jews and the idolaters; and thou wilt surely find the nearest of them in love to the believers are those who say “˜We are Christians”; that, because some of them are priests and monks, and they wax not proud.”

6:91 Jews deny, conceal divine revelations

“They measured not Allah with His true measure when they said, “˜Allah has not sent down aught on any mortal.” Say: “˜Who sent down the Book that Moses brought as a light and a guidance to men? You put it into parchments, revealing them, and hiding much; and you were taught that you knew not, you and your fathers.” Say: “˜Allah.” Then leave them alone, playing their game of plunging.”

6:146 Jews insolent

“And to those of Jewry We have forbidden every beast with claws; and of oxen and sheep We have forbidden them the fat of them, save what their backs carry, or their entrails, or what is mingled with bone; that We recompensed them for their insolence; surely We speak truly.”

7:166 Jews are apes

“And when they [Jews] turned in disdain from that forbidding We said to them, “˜Be you apes, miserably slinking!–

8:12 Allah will terrorize unbelievers; Muslims should behead them

“When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, “˜I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers” hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them!–

8:39 Fight unbelievers until Islam reigns supreme

“Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s entirely; then if they give over, surely Allah sees the things they do.”

8:60 Make war against enemies of Allah

“Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to terrify thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. And whatsoever you expend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged.”

9:5 Slay the idolaters

“Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.”

9:28 Idolaters unclean

“O believers, the idolaters are indeed unclean; so let them not come near the Holy Mosque after this year of theirs. If you fear poverty, Allah shall surely enrich you of His bounty, if He will; Allah is All-knowing; All-wise.”

9:29 Fight and subjugate the Jews and Christians

“Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden — such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book — until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled.”

9:30 Jews and Christians assailed by Allah

“The Jews say, “˜Ezra is the Son of Allah”; the Christians say, “˜The Messiah is the Son of Allah.” That is the utterance of their mouths, conforming with the unbelievers before them. Allah assail them! How they are perverted!”

9:31 Jews and Christians have taken their clergy and holy men as lords

“They have taken their rabbis and their monks as lords apart from Allah, and the Messiah, Mary”s son — and they were commanded to serve but One Allah; there is no god but He; glory be to Him, above that they associate.”

9:73 Be harsh with unbelievers

“O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be thou harsh with them; their refuge is Gehenna — an evil homecoming!”

9:111 Paradise guaranteed to those who kill and are killed for Allah

“Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon Allah in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfils his covenant truer than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph.”

9:123 Fight the unbelievers, be harsh with them

“O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing.”

47:4 Behead and slaughter the unbelievers; take others captive

“When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if Allah had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will not send their works astray.”

48:29 Be merciful to believers, not unbelievers

“Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are hard against the unbelievers, merciful one to another.”

62:6 Jews should long for death

“Say: “’You of Jewry, if you assert that you are the friends of Allah, apart from other men, then do you long for death, if you speak truly.'”

98:6 Unbelievers are the worst of creatures

“The unbelievers of the People of the Book and the idolaters shall be in the Fire of Gehenna, therein dwelling forever; those are the worst of creatures.”

- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2016/03/trump-says-i-think-islam-hates-us-hamas-cair-demands-apology.html/#sthash.c7g8ro0X.dpuf

Kurzweil, Coming Singularly

Kurzweil

Fascist Rainbow

fascism-came-to-america-wrapped-in-a-rainbow-flag-and-wearing-a-pussyhat

Gamification

Gaming

For-Profts Seek Turnaround

Turnaround

Hate America Love Islamic State

commentary-on-some-college-campuses-students-now-hate-america-more-than-isis

SEO & Marketing Automation

SEO

Boston Islamist Seminary

boston-islamic-seminary-training-next-generation-extremists

Debt and Deficit

Clip

Eurabia

Eurabia

Ezra

Ben Shapiro UCLA

Shapiro

Ian Hunter, Montclair

ian-hunter-concert-review-photos-videos

Robot Religion

anthony-levandowski-way-of-the-future-godhead-robot-religion-killer-robots-AI

Detroit: Shame of the Cities

Whittle

Zimbabwe Mugabe

In 1965, the conservative white minority government unilaterally declared independence as Rhodesia. The state endured international isolation and a 15-year guerrilla war with black nationalistforces; this culminated in a peace agreement that established universal enfranchisement and de jure sovereignty in April 1980. 

Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980, when his ZANU-PF party won the elections following the end of white minority rule; he has been the president of Zimbabwe since 1987 in a one-party rule. Under Mugabe's authoritarian regime, the state security apparatus has dominated the country and been responsible for widespread human rights violations.^[16] Mugabe has maintained the revolutionary socialist rhetoric from the Cold War era, blaming Zimbabwe's economic woes on conspiring North American capitalist countries.^[17] Burnished by his anti-imperialist credentials, contemporary African political leaders have been reluctant to criticise Mugabe, though Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called him "a cartoon figure of an archetypal African dictator".^[18] The country has been in economic decline since the 1990s, experiencing several crashes and hyperinflation along the way.^[19]

On 15 November 2017, in the wake of over a year of protests against his government, as well as Zimbabwe's rapidly declining economy, Mugabe was placed under house arrest by the country's national army in a coup d'état.^[20][21]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe

Master Blaster, Stevie Wonder


They want us to join their fighting
But our answer today
Is to let all our worries
Like the breeze through our fingers slip away
Peace has come to Zimbabwe
Third World's right on the one
Now's the time for celebration
'Cause we've only just begun

Elearning Design and Development

elearning

Obama Lied About Al Qaeda

-obama-administration-misled-on-al-qaeda

2016 Deadliest Since 9/11

11/terrorism-report-2016-deadliest-year-west-since-911

Winston Churchill on Islam

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property—either as a child, a wife, or a concubine—must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science—the science against which it had vainly struggled—the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.   Winston Churchill

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property—either as a child, a wife, or a concubine—must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science—the science against which it had vainly struggled—the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.

Winston Churchill

Free Speech Denied

Dissent

FBI: Hate Crimes Targeting Jews Rising

hate-crimes-targeting-jews-rise-second-year-row

PowerPoint Freebies

PP

Conservative Catholic Leaders Resist Pope

/u-s-catholic-leaders-signal-resistance-to-popes-agenda

Getty Scholars Open Source Humanities Tool

Tool

Judicial Watch on Illegal Voters

Tom Fitton

Anti-Semitic Attacks More Than Twice as Much as Anti-Muslim

Anti-Semitism was the leading cause, motivating about 55 percent of those episodes. An increasing anti-Muslim sentiment spurred about 25 percent, the report showed.

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2016-hate-crime-statistics

Intellectual Heritage

Movement

"Other" in Western Consciousness: Edward Said's Influence

Homi_K._Bhabha

Propagandizing Undergraduates

CONTEXT The “Other” in Western Consciousness

"Any history of Western civilization must account for the relation of Western cultures to the other cultures with which they came into contact. The Age of Encounter, which began in the fifteenth century and ended in the seventeenth, resulted in the colonization of most of the non-Western world. Only the vast interior of Asia escaped Western domination. The effect of Western colonization was the displacement, enslavement, and large-scale death of native peoples. This last effect was at least partly unintentional, as Europeans introduced into the uncharted territories of their conquest common European diseases that the immune systems of native populations could not successfully fight. From the Western perspective, it hardly mattered. Europeans thought of these peoples as being in a state of cultural childhood, and because childhood mortality was extremely high in the Renaissance and something Europeans accepted as natural, they could absorb the deaths of these New World “children” with composure. Above all, these “innocents” were “primitive”—that is, they knew nothing of the Christian God and Western culture. At the very least, they required “civilizing.”

Homi Bhaba, a great student of contemporary global culture, has reminded us of the “artifactual” consequences of Western colonization in an essay exploring the connection between contemporary culture and its colonial heritage. “The great remains of the Inca or Aztec world are the debris … of the Culture of Discovery,” he writes. “Their presence in the museum should reflect the devastation that has turned them from being signs in a powerful cultural system to becoming the symbols of a destroyed culture.” The headdress of Motecuhzoma, presented to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by Cortés and now in the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, is a case in point. Consisting of 450 green tail feathers of the quetzal bird, blue feathers from the cotinga bird, beads, and gold, it is a treasure of extraordinary beauty and can be appreciated in purely aesthetic terms, as the museum presents it. Yet as Homi Bhaba points out, “It seems appropriate … [to make] present in the display of art what is so often rendered unrepresentable or left unrepresented—violence, trauma, dispossession.” In other words, Bhaba believes that the headdress’s history, the tale of Cortés and his betrayal of Motecuhzoma, should enter into the museum display.

Bhaba is critiquing museum practice, but his admonition applies as well to this text. Many of the images in this chapter are symbols of destroyed cultures. They were once signs of power. They were quickly consigned, in Western consciousness, to the category of the “Other.” Those classified as “Other” were thought to be incapable of utilizing their own natural resources for themselves. The West considered those whom they colonized to be weak (because unsophisticated in the uses of Western technology), uneducated (though highly trained in their own traditions), and morally bankrupt (because “bloodthirsty,” “naked,” and “uninhibited”). Remember, the Greeks called all peoples who did not speak Greek “barbarians” (see Chapter 5). And just as the Romans tried to “Romanize” their provincial holdings, so too did Western colonizers from the era of the great explorers try to “civilize” the peoples they encountered.

The wealth generated by the Potosí mine was arguably responsible for the ascendancy of Spain as an empire during the sixteenth century. But the exploitation of the people and natural resources of the Americas that the Potosí mine represents thrusts the dark side of the Age of Encounter into astonishing relief. The Dominican monk Francisco de la Cruz was one Spaniard who recognized this: “One of the reasons God will punish Spain is because it has not given due succour and salvation to the Indians. … The time will come when Peru will be ruled independent of Spain.” The Inquisition burned de la Cruz at the stake in Lima on April 13, 1578, for such progressive thinking."

p. 603, The Humanities: Culture, Continuity and Change, Volume I

360 Feedback Programs

/the-7-reasons-why-360-degree-feedback-programs-fail

Death of American Conventional Warfare

the_death_of_american_conventional_warfare_11258of_american_conventiona_warfare

Top Secret Area 6

just-what-the-world-area-6

Mark Dice: Washington, D.C.

D.C.

Islam Regressive

Regressive

Ever Dry

Dry

Trump No Bow Unlike Obama

Trump-shakes-Japan-emperor-s-hand-doesn-t-bow-like-Obama

Avoid Online Application Black Hole

-how-to-avoid-the-online-application

Leftist Teacher vs. Latino Student

Leftist vs. Student

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/11/04/video-leftist-teacher-confronts-student-in-political-debate-student-shuts-her-down-with-facts/

Can Evangelicals and Academics Talk?

can-evangelicals-and-academics-talk-to-each-other

The Myth of Social Security

Myth

Tax Plan

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) unveiled the committee’s tax reform legislation. The widely anticipated tax reform bill includes hundreds of structural changes to the tax code, a summary of which is available here. However, some changes are more significant than others. Thus, here are the eight most important provisions in the House Ways and Means Tax Plan in no particular order.

1. The corporate income tax rate would be reduced to 20 percent. The bill would lower the current statutory corporate income tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. This would bring the U.S. in line with the rest of the other 34 industrialized countries in the OECD, which have an average statutory corporate income tax rate of 21.97 percent. For a comparison of corporate income tax rates around the world, click here.
2. Pass-through business income would be taxed at a maximum rate of 25 percent. In the U.S., small companies are generally organized as pass-through businesses. This means that their income is taxed on their owners’ tax returns and not at the business level. While economists widely agree that C Corporations are less tax-advantaged than pass-through businesses under current law, the House Ways and Means Tax Plan attempts to bring both business types closer to rate parity by setting a maximum rate on pass-through business income.
   However, without appropriate anti-abuse rules this could create incentives for individuals to reclassify their personal income as business income to take advantage of the lower rate. Therefore, the plan includes a number of anti-abuse rules, beginning with the assumption that 70 percent of pass-through business income is compensation (subject to ordinary rates) while 30 percent is business income (subject to the lower pass-through rate). Certain specified service industries (including health, law, financial, and professional services) would only be permitted to claim the lower rate to the extent that they can “prove out” the share of income that constitutes business income. Even with these guardrails, the provision is likely to create opportunities for tax arbitrage, and it adds complexity to the tax code. For more on the taxation of pass-through income, click here.
3. Some of the tax code’s disincentives to investment would be rolled back. Specifically, machinery and equipment could be fully expensed (temporarily). Meanwhile, pass-through businesses would be able to take advantage of higher section 179 caps.
   Corporate income taxes are intended to be imposed on net income after expenses, which is why businesses deduct the costs of compensation and most other expenses. Capital expenditures, however, are a special case. When businesses invest in capital expansion, instead of writing down the cost immediately, they must do so across a depreciation schedule that stretches anywhere from three to 39 years. The House Ways and Means Tax Plan would change that—temporarily and in part.
   Under the plan, short-lived capital expenditures (currently subject to “bonus” depreciation) could be fully expensed, though this provision would be slated to sunset in five years. Section 179 expensing for pass-through businesses would increase from $500,000 to $5 million, with a higher phaseout threshold. These provisions would remove some of the tax code’s current bias against investment, though the temporary and limited nature of the provisions may mute the economic impact. For more on the economic and budgetary impacts of temporary expensing and other possible approaches to depreciation, click here.
4. The U.S. would move to a territorial tax system. In much of the industrialized world, domestic corporations are taxed on their domestic income alone (a so-called territorial tax system). In the U.S., by contrast, companies are taxed on their worldwide income, with credits for taxes paid to other countries (a so-called worldwide tax system). If tax liability is lower in another country in which a controlled foreign corporation operates, the residual amount is paid to the United States. This increases overall liability and makes the U.S. comparatively unattractive as a home for multinational corporations. The proposed tax plan would convert the U.S.’s worldwide tax regime into a territorial system, enhancing competitiveness and undercutting the traditional rationales that encouraged corporate inversion and the offshoring of corporate income. For more on territorial taxation, click here.

Many itemized deductions would be eliminated. For individuals, the mortgage interest, and charitable deductions, as well as the property tax portion of the state and local tax deduction (capped at $10,000), would remain, but other itemized deductions would be eliminated. The elimination of many itemized deductions would broaden the individual income tax base as a means to pay for lower overall rates. Their elimination would also be offset by an increase in the standard deduction and a higher child tax credit. For more on itemized deductions, click here. For more on the state and local tax deduction, click here or here.
The estate tax would be repealed. The federal estate tax, which raises very little revenue but encourages significant tax arbitrage and avoidance activity, would be repealed under the plan after six years. The plan immediately increases the exemption to $10 million. Economists tend to see the estate tax as one of the most economically harmful taxes per dollar of revenue raised. For more on the estate tax, click here and here.
The tax treatment of interest would change. The U.S. tax code is intended to include deductions on interest paid while taxing interest received, but in practice, a substantial portion of interest is untaxed. This results in a tax advantage for debt financing over equity financing, providing a subsidy for some investments while distorting business decision-making. The House Ways and Means Tax Plan would limit business net interest deductibility to 30 percent of a business’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) with a five-year carry-forward basis. Businesses with less than $25 million in gross receipts would be exempt from the limitation. For more information on the tax treatment of interest, click here.
Tax expenditures would be curtailed. The plan would eliminate multiple tax expenditures including the section 199 manufacturing deduction, deductions for like-kind exchanges of personal property, and deductions for entertainment. Credits for orphan drugs, private activity bonds, rehabilitation, and contributions to capital would also be eliminated. With lower business income rates and better treatment of capital expenditures, there would be less need to rely on targeted incentives or industry-specific fixes embedded in the tax code.
Overall, the House Ways and Means Tax Plan represents a move in the direction of greater neutrality and global competitiveness. As the bill goes through markup, and as the Senate takes up tax reform legislation, every provision is subject to change. What happens with these eight proposed changes could be a good benchmark for the degree to which any final plan constitutes meaningful tax reform.

The Case for Free Banking

Banking

FDR Did Not End the Great Depression

1931 15.82%; 1940 14.45% Department of Labor Unemployment Statistics

Unemployment ranged over 20% during the New Deal but unemployment did remain in double digits during the entire 1930s. World War II, not FDR, ended the Great Depression.

Clarence Thomas on America

America

HUM 112: China’s Drug Revenge

China’s Drug Revenge


.mcclatchydc.com

Libertarian Playlist

Libertarian playlist

Pamela Geller vs. Geraldo

Hannity

Bin Laden Files

analysis-cia-releases-massive-trove-of-osama-bin-ladens-files

Simon Deng: Slave of Islam

Simon Deng: Slave of Islam

Simon Deng

Introduction to Philosophy Part 6 God

Part 6: God

Ernest Nagel addresses one of the classic questions: does God Exist?



Does God Exist? 4 New Arguments, 5:39



Science tells us that the universe came into being via The Big Bang.


But how do you get from energy and matter to a self-aware human being?


That takes three additional Big Bangs that science can't explain. Noted theologian, Frank Pastore, unravels this compelling mystery and, in the process, poses the ultimate question that every thinking person must face.

What are the four big bangs that have to be accounted for?

Why is there something rather than nothing?

How does life come from non-life?

How did evolution begin?

How can a mechanistic animal brain become a self-reflective human mind?

https://youtu.be/gIorXcloIac




Human beings alone are introspective and appreciate art and beauty. We search for meaning, significance, and purpose. We alone search for the true, the good, and the beautiful.

1st Big Bang: the cosmological, 2nd, biological, 3rd, anthropological, and the 4th, psychological.

Does God Exist?

Ernest Nagel

Ernest Nagel (November 16, 1901 – September 20, 1985) was an American philosopher of science. Along with Rudolf Carnap, Hans Reichenbach, and Carl Hempel, he is sometimes seen as one of the major figures of the logical positivist movement.



Logical positivism and logical empiricism, which together formed neopositivism, was a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was verificationism, a theory of knowledge which asserted that only statements verifiable through empirical observation are cognitively meaningful. The movement flourished in the 1920s and 1930s in several European centers.



Efforts to convert philosophy to this new "scientific philosophy", shared with empirical sciences' best examples, such as Einstein's general theory of relativity, sought to prevent confusion rooted in unclear language and unverifiable claims.



The Berlin Circle and Vienna Circle—groups of philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians in Berlin and Vienna—propounded logical positivism, starting in the late 1920s.

Why God Allows Evil
Richard Swinburne

Richard G. Swinburne (born 26 December 1934) is a British philosopher. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been an influential proponent of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. His philosophical contributions are primarily in the philosophy of religion and philosophy of science. He aroused much discussion with his early work in the philosophy of religion, a trilogy of books consisting of The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God, and Faith and Reason.



Swinburne on Natural Evil, 7:41



In this video, I discuss Richard Swinburne's interesting argument from a need for knowledge which claims that the need for knowledge of the consequences of our moral actions necessitates some natural evils.

What is moral evil?

What is natural evil?

How does the theist deal with natural evil?

What are the nine premises of Swinburne's argument?

https://youtu.be/3baSHKTI0Xs



Moral evil: instances of evil caused in whole or in part by moral agents.

Natural evil: instances of evil which result from natural processes not involving the free choices of moral agents in such a way as to render them even partially responsible.

Premise: If an agent acts freely (or responsibly) to bring about a good or evil state of affairs, S must know how to bring about this state of affairs.

2nd: An agent S cannot know how to bring about a good or evil state of affairs without knowing what consequences would follow from her actions.

In order for some person to freely do an act--good or evil--for which they could be properly held morally responsible, we must be able to say that that person knew that their act would likely lead to the good or evil consequences.

Premise 3: The only way for S to know the consequences of her actions is through induction from past experience.

The only way we can know about the relevant causal connections in the world such that we can perform actions with their consequences in mind is through induction.

Premise 4: For any evil one person intentionally inflicts on another (or, more generally, for any token of moral evil), there must have been a first time in history when this was done.

There must have been: ". . . a first murder, a first murder by cyanide poisoning, a first deliberate humiliation and so on . . . "

Premise 5: The person committing the moral evil on that first occasion can only learn about the evil consequences of her intended action by induction from past experience.

Premise 6: However, the acquisition of the requisite knowledge by means of option (a) is not possible, since ex hypothesis the moral evil in question has never been actualized in the past.

Premise 7: Therefore, the only way for the requisite knowledge to be acquired is by means of option (b), that is to day, by observation of some natural evil.

"His knowledge that cyanide poison causes death must come from his having seen or others having told him on other accasions that taking cyanide accidently led to death."

Premise 8: Therefore, an agent S cannot know how to bring about a good or evil state of affairs without the existence of natural evil.

Premise 9: Therefore, the freedom to bring about a good or evil state of affairs cannot be had by an agent unless there exists some natural evil.

The Desires of the Heart
Eleonore Stump

Eleonore Stump is the Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, where she has taught since 1992. She received a B.A. in classical languages from Grinnell College (1969), where she was valedictorian and received the Archibald Prize for scholarship; she has an M.A. in Biblical Studies (New Testament) from Harvard University (1971), and an M.A. and Ph.D in Medieval Studies (Medieval Philosophy) from Cornell University (1975). Before coming to Saint Louis University, she taught at Oberlin College, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and University of Notre Dame. Currently, she also holds secondary or honorary appointments at Wuhan University and Australian Catholic University.



Eleonore Stump: Our Heart's Desire, 6:57



Eleonore Stump, Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, answers questions during the Kilns College Kickoff Lecture Series 2012.



https://youtu.be/sq9f5K6VXMc

Pascal’s Wager
Simon Blackburn

Simon Blackburn, FBA (born 12 July 1944) is a British academic philosopher known for his work in metaethics, where he defends quasi-realism, and in the philosophy of language; more recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts to popularise philosophy. He retired as the professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 2011, but remains a distinguished research professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, teaching every fall semester. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a member of the professoriate of New College of the Humanities. He was previously a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford and has also taught full-time at the University of North Carolina as an Edna J. Koury Professor. He is a former president of the Aristotelian Society, having served the 2009–2010 term. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002 and a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008.



PHILOSOPHY - Religion: Pascal's Wager, 6:50



In this Wireless Philosophy video, Susanna Rinard (Harvard University) explains Pascal's Wager, Blaise Pascal's famous argument for belief in God. Lifting an approach from the gambling hall, Pascal argued that, given the odds and the potential payoff, belief in God is a really good deal. Even if the chance that God exists is low, rationality, he claimed, compels us to wager for God.



https://youtu.be/2F_LUFIeUk0

Pascal’s Wager: An Assessment
Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski

Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski (born 1946) is an American philosopher. She is George Lynn Cross Research Professor, and Kingfisher College Chair of the Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at the University of Oklahoma. She writes in the areas of epistemology, philosophy of religion, and virtue theory. She was (2015-2016) president of the American Philosophical Association Central Division, and gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of Saint Andrews in the fall of 2015. She is past president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers. She was a 2011-2012 Guggenheim Fellow.



Zagzebski does not directly dispute Pascal's wager in her assessment however we should consider an argument against Pascal as well.



Christopher Hitchens: Pascal's wager = religious hucksterism, 2:54



Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was an Anglo-American author, columnist, essayist, orator, religious and literary critic, social critic, and journalist. Hitchens was the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of over 30 books, including five collections of essays, on politics, literature and religion. A staple of public discourse, his confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded intellectual and a controversial public figure. He contributed to New Statesman, The Nation, The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, Free Inquiry and Vanity Fair.



Having long described himself as a social democrat, a Marxist, and an anti-totalitarian, he began to break with the established political left after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the Western left to the Satanic Verses controversy, followed by the left's embrace of Bill Clinton and the antiwar movement's opposition to NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. His support of the Iraq War separated him further. While he came to reject socialism, he still identified as a Marxist and believed in both the dialectic and the materialist conception of history. His writings include critiques of public figures such as Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Mother Teresa and Diana, Princess of Wales. He was the elder brother of the conservative journalist and author Peter Hitchens. He advocated the separation of church and state.



As an antitheist he regarded the concept of a god or supreme being as a totalitarian belief that impedes individual freedom. He argued that free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of informing ethics and defining codes of conduct for human civilization. The dictum "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence" has become known as Hitchens's razor.



Christopher Hitchens discusses Pascal's wager. This is during the LBJ Future Forum on May 14, 2007, at the LBJ Library and Museum in Austin, Texas.



https://youtu.be/X94YffpUryo

The Problem of Hell
Marilyn McCord Adams

Marilyn McCord Adams (October 12, 1943 – March 22, 2017) was an American philosopher and priest of the Episcopal Church. She specialised in philosophy of religion, philosophical theology and medieval philosophy.



Marilyn McCord Adams - What can Christian Theology say to the problem of evil? 5:14



This playlist contains all video interviews with Marilyn McCord Adams which were recorded at Schloss Fürstenried in Munich, June 2014.



https://youtu.be/iwMdWx5yysY

Faith and Reason
Michael Scriven

Michael John Scriven (born 1928) is a British-born Australian polymath and academic philosopher, best known for his contributions to the theory and practice of evaluation.

SAM HARRIS FAITH VS REASON, PAX TV - Full Version Part 1 of 2, 6:49

https://youtu.be/GjGcmfiGjL8

The Hiddenness of God
Robert McKim

Robert McKim (born December 29, 1952) is an American philosopher of religion. He has degrees in philosophy from Trinity College Dublin and from the University of Calgary, and a Ph.D. in religious studies and philosophy from Yale University. He is Professor of Religion and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

McKim has written extensively on the implications of religious diversity. In Religious Ambiguity and Religious Diversity (Oxford, 2001) McKim appeals to the twin realities of religious ambiguity and religious diversity in making a case for a self-critical, open, and tentative approach to religious belief. In On Religious Diversity (Oxford, 2011) he tackles the controversial issue of how religious traditions, and their members, ought to look on outsiders, their views, and their salvific prospects.

Michael Tooley On The Divine Hiddenness Of God, 3:47

Michael Tooley is an American philosopher at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has a BA from the University of Toronto and earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at Princeton University in 1968. He taught at Stanford University and the Australian National University and, since 1992, at the University of Colorado Boulder.

He has worked on philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, causality and metaphysical naturalism, and has debated the existence of God with William Lane Craig.^[4][5] His paper "Abortion and Infanticide" has elicited much comment.

Informal Statement of the Argument There are many people who don't believe in God but who wish that some sort of a theistic God did exist. Now the Apostle Paul, in Romans 1:19-21, implies that the existence of God is just obvious to everyone, even atheists and agnostics. But just think about that for a second. How do you prove that something is obvious to another person? Lots of nonbelievers claim that the existence of God is not obvious to them. Indeed, many nonbelievers claim that it is just obvious that it is not obvious that theism is true! Why is this evidence for atheism over theism? Because if theism is true, we would expect nonbelief in God to be unreasonable. What possible reason could God, if He existed, have for not revealing Himself? God is not shy, God is not busy, and so forth. But if atheism is true, there is no God and we would expect nonbelief to be reasonable. Therefore, reasonable nonbelief is more likely on atheism than on theism.

An argument from nonbelief is a philosophical argument that asserts an inconsistency between the existence of God and a world in which people fail to recognize him. It is similar to the classic argument from evil in affirming an inconsistency between the world that exists and the world that would exist if God had certain desires combined with the power to see them through.

There are two key varieties of the argument. The argument from reasonable nonbelief (or the argument from divine hiddenness) was first elaborated in J. L. Schellenberg's 1993 book Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason. This argument says that if God existed (and was perfectly good and loving) every reasonable person would have been brought to belief in God; however, there are reasonable nonbelievers; therefore, God does not exist.

Theodore Drange subsequently developed the argument from nonbelief, based on the mere existence of nonbelief in God. Drange considers the distinction between reasonable (by which Schellenberg means inculpable) and unreasonable (culpable) nonbelief to be irrelevant and confusing. Nevertheless, most academic discussion is concerned with Schellenberg's formulation.



https://youtu.be/jzygUxnGkEc

God and Forgiveness
Anne C. Minas

An animation story about GOD Forgiveness, 1:50

https://youtu.be/WXwQ0RTszBg

God and Morality
Steven M. Cahn

PHILOSOPHY - Religion: God and Morality, Part 1, 4:41

Part 1 of a pair. Stephen Darwall (Yale University) considers the relationship between morality and God. Specifically, he asks: is morality the same thing as the commands of God? Is there no morality if there is no God? Ultimately, Stephen will argue that morality and God's commands are distinct, even if there is a God and she commands moral things. However, in this first video, Steve considers why you might like the view that morality just is God's commands.

https://youtu.be/lmhiibdwznQ

The Ontological Argument
Anselm and Gaunilo

An ontological argument is a philosophical argument for the existence of God that uses ontology. Many arguments fall under the category of the ontological, and they tend to involve arguments about the state of being or existing. More specifically, ontological arguments tend to start with an a priori theory about the organization of the universe. If that organizational structure is true, the argument will provide reasons why God must exist.

The first ontological argument in the Western Christian tradition was proposed by Anselm of Canterbury in his 1078 work Proslogion. Anselm defined God as "that than which nothing greater can be thought", and argued that this being must exist in the mind, even in the mind of the person who denies the existence of God. He suggested that, if the greatest possible being exists in the mind, it must also exist in reality. If it only exists in the mind, then an even greater being must be possible—one which exists both in the mind and in reality. Therefore, this greatest possible being must exist in reality. Seventeenth century French philosopher René Descartes deployed a similar argument. Descartes published several variations of his argument, each of which centred on the idea that God's existence is immediately inferable from a "clear and distinct" idea of a supremely perfect being. In the early eighteenth century, Gottfried Leibniz augmented Descartes' ideas in an attempt to prove that a "supremely perfect" being is a coherent concept. A more recent ontological argument came from Kurt Gödel, who proposed a formal argument for God's existence. Norman Malcolm revived the ontological argument in 1960 when he located a second, stronger ontological argument in Anselm's work; Alvin Plantinga challenged this argument and proposed an alternative, based on modal logic. Attempts have also been made to validate Anselm's proof using an automated theorem prover. Other arguments have been categorised as ontological, including those made by Islamic philosophers Mulla Sadra and Allama Tabatabai.

Since its proposal, few philosophical ideas have generated as much interest and discussion as the ontological argument. Nearly all of the great minds of Western philosophy have found the argument worthy of their attention, and a number of criticisms and objections have been mounted. The first critic of the ontological argument was Anselm's contemporary, Gaunilo of Marmoutiers. He used the analogy of a perfect island, suggesting that the ontological argument could be used to prove the existence of anything. This was the first of many parodies, all of which attempted to show that the argument has absurd consequences. Later, Thomas Aquinas rejected the argument on the basis that humans cannot know God's nature. Also, David Hume offered an empirical objection, criticising its lack of evidential reasoning and rejecting the idea that anything can exist necessarily. Immanuel Kant's critique was based on what he saw as the false premise that existence is a predicate. He argued that "existing" adds nothing (including perfection) to the essence of a being, and thus a "supremely perfect" being can be conceived not to exist. Finally, philosophers including C. D. Broad dismissed the coherence of a maximally great being, proposing that some attributes of greatness are incompatible with others, rendering "maximally great being" incoherent.

2 The Ontological Argument. Criticisms from Gaunilo, 3:42

https://youtu.be/ihj_-zCxekk

Summa Theologiae
Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas OP (Italian: Tommaso d'Aquino, lit. 'Thomas of Aquino'; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian[4][5] Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio.


He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism; of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. Unlike many currents in the Church of the time, Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle—whom he called "the Philosopher"—and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. His best-known works are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle also form an important part of his body of work. Furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Church's liturgy.


The Catholic Church honors Thomas Aquinas as a saint and regards him as the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood, and indeed the highest expression of both natural reason and speculative theology. In modern times, under papal directives, the study of his works was long used as a core of the required program of study for those seeking ordination as priests or deacons, as well as for those in religious formation and for other students of the sacred disciplines (philosophy, Catholic theology, church history, liturgy, and canon law).


Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Church's greatest theologians and philosophers. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order ... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools." The English philosopher Anthony Kenny considers Thomas to be 'one of the dozen greatest philosophers of the western world'.

S.T.

The Summa Theologiæ (written 1265–1274 and also known as the Summa Theologica or simply the Summa) is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274). Although unfinished, the Summa is "one of the classics of the history of philosophy and one of the most influential works of Western literature." It was intended as an instructional guide for theology students, including seminarians and the literate laity. It was a compendium of all of the main theological teachings of the Catholic Church. It presents the reasoning for almost all points of Christian theology in the West. The Summa's topics follow a cycle: the existence of God; Creation, Man; Man's purpose; Christ; the Sacraments; and back to God.


The Summa is Aquinas' "most perfect work, the fruit of his mature years, in which the thought of his whole life is condensed". Among non-scholars, the Summa is perhaps most famous for its five arguments for the existence of God, which are known as the "five ways" (Latin: quinque viae). The five ways, however, occupy under two pages of the Summa's approximately 3,500 pages.


Throughout the Summa, Aquinas cites Christian, Muslim, Hebrew, and Pagan sources including but not limited to Christian Sacred Scripture, Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo, Avicenna, Averroes, Al-Ghazali, Boethius, John of Damascus, Paul the Apostle, Dionysius the Areopagite, Maimonides, Anselm, Plato, Cicero, and Eriugena.


The Summa is a more structured and expanded version of Aquinas's earlier Summa contra Gentiles, though these works were written for different purposes, the Summa Theologiae to explain the Christian faith to beginning theology students, and the Summa contra Gentiles to explain the Christian faith and defend it in hostile situations, with arguments adapted to the intended circumstances of its use, each article refuting a certain belief or a specific heresy.


Aquinas conceived the Summa specifically as a work suited to beginning students: "Because a doctor of catholic truth ought not only to teach the proficient, but to him pertains also to instruct beginners. As the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 3: 1–2, as to infants in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat, our proposed intention in this work is to convey those things that pertain to the Christian religion, in a way that is fitting to the instruction of beginners."


It was while teaching at the Santa Sabina studium provinciale, the forerunner of the Santa Maria sopra Minerva studium generale and College of Saint Thomas, which in the 20th century would become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, that Aquinas began to compose the Summa. He completed the Prima Pars (first part) in its entirety and circulated it in Italy before departing to take up his second regency as professor at the University of Paris (1269–1272).


Even today, both in Western and Eastern Catholic Churches, Orthodoxy, and the mainstream original Protestant denominations (Anglicanism and Episcopalianism, Lutheranism, Methodism, and Presbyterianism), it is very common for the Summa Theologica to be required or strongly urged reading, in whole or in part, for all those seeking ordination to the diaconate or priesthood, or to professed male or female religious life, or for laypersons studying philosophy and theology at the collegiate level.

PHILOSOPHY - Thomas Aquinas, 6:15

Thomas Aquinas deserves to be remembered for reconciling faith with reason, thereby saving Western civilisation from turning its back on science and Greek and Roman wisdom.

https://youtu.be/GJvoFf2wCBU

Natural Theology
William Paley

William Paley (July 1743 – 25 May 1805) was an English clergyman, Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, which made use of the watchmaker analogy.

The Watch Argument (Deductive Teleological Arguments), 5:34

An explication of the deductive teleological argument for the existence of God featuring William Paley's famous Watch analogy. Information for this series obtained from the SEP http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tel....

Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy and more! Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy and more!

https://youtu.be/arWyrC-FIgE

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
David Hume

David Hume (born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism.

Hume Dialogues 1, 4:57

https://youtu.be/RW2lwvk4Kdw

The Wager
Blaise Pascal

1. You should believe in God.



2. The chance that God exists is positive and finite.



3. If you believe in God and he exists, you’ll get an infinite reward. If you believe in God and he doesn’t exist, you’ll have only a finite loss.



4. Believing in God has an infinite expected utility.



5. If you don’t believe in God and he exists, you’ll either win nothing or else you’ll lose something. If you don’t believe in God and he doesn’t exist, you’ll win only a finite gain.



6. Not believing in God has a finite gain or negative expected utility.



7. Believing in God has a much higher expected utility than not believing in God.



8. You should do that which has the higher expected utility.

The Will to Believe
William James

Introductory comments. James indicates the situation in his university --namely, that free-thinking students do not believe one should have religious faith since it cannot be rationally demonstrated. James believes differently, namely that faith is sensible, though not rationally demanded. He indicates his hope that the Brown and Yale students will be more open than his Harvard students.Introductory comments.



Definitions. James will talk about a "genuine" choice. Any choice which merits this name for James must meet three criteria:
be live
be forced
be momentuous



He defines a live choice in opposition to a dead choice.
A live choice has some emotive appeal to the chooser. This is an internal and subjective appeal, not a rational or forced appeal.
A dead option or choice is one which has no appeal to the chooser in question.



He defines an option as forced or non-forced.
An option is forced when there is an either or situation. Nearly all such options are of the sort: Either do this or do not do this.
An avoidable option is when we ask you to choose A or B. You can evade the issue by not choosing at all, or choosing C or D.
He defines an option as momentuous or trivial.
An option is momentuous when it is a matter of some import, life and death, or an important once in a life time situation.
Opposed to this are trivial options--options which don't really make much difference in the world, or ones where you have the option all over again in the near future.
Note that there is great ambiguity here as to who and hope one defines what is momentuous and what is trivial.



Can one choose to believe some claim? James argues that one does not choose one's beliefs, but one just has them.

He defends this claim with a series of examples, focussing on how we could not choose to believe things which we know to be false, such as that Abraham Lincoln did not live or that you are not sick when you are.



James claims that we look to leaders and authority figures, and model our beliefs after theirs. We believe and don't know why; we accept what we've been told.

He discusses the value of free will, but he isn't too clear on this point.

The thesis of this section is that pure logic doesn't dictate our beliefs. There are passional tendencies and volitions which can come before and or after belief.



Thesis: When we have a genuine option that cannot be decided solely on intellectual grounds, our passional nature must be allowed to rule.



Empiricists don't know when they have found truth while the absolutist do.



Although we're born with absolutist attitudes, we should overcome this weakness and strive for the empiricist attitude of continually searching for the truth.



You have more to lose by fearing error in the matter of genuine option than you have to gain.



Our will is bound to play a part in the formation of our opinions.



Moral opinions are based on a personal proof of what one wants to believe, and not necessarily willed.



James is asking what we mean by religious hypotheses. He supports one choosing religious hypotheses and gives reasons.



Scepticism, he argues, is not an avoidance of an option. It is an option of a certain particular kind of option.



James does not believe that agnosticism works either. He says they would not be able to consider other truths, which would make the position irrational.



James proposes an abstract and concrete manner of thinking.



Abstract: We have the right to believe at our own risk any hypothesis that is live enough to tempt our will.



Concrete: The freedom to believe can only cover living options which the intellect cannot by itself resolve; and living options never seem absurdities to him who has them to consider.



Conclusion.



James concludes that whether we choose to believe or not to believe, or wait to believe, we choose our own peril, our own fate.


PHILOSOPHY - Epistemology: The Will to Believe [HD], 6:39


Thomas Donaldson (Stanford University) asks whether it is moral to believe something even when you have no evidence that it is true. He discusses a classic debate on that subject, between philosophers William James and William Clifford.

https://youtu.be/uzmLXIuAspQ