Alex Spieldenner
@AlexSpieldenner
Catholic Theology teacher and amateur philosopher. Follow for tweets both comedic and contemplative.
Learning theology and philosophy is ultimately a waste of time if it isn't helping your relationship to God. They can and should do that. Since God IS wisdom, the "love of wisdom"should help you to increase in love of God. But if it isn't, you're not doing real philosophy.
Not really, but I'm flattered if they are. I 100% want everyone to be Catholic, and will do what I can to help them get there. I would think that a friend of another faith should feel the same.
You guys ever think about how many of your friends are secretly hoping to convert you
I'm a tour guide at the historical home of Rutherford B Hayes, our 19th president. Found out this Summer that an ancestor was one of the servants who worked for the president in his home.
share a piece of lore that connects you to history.
Reading C.S. Lewis reminds me that by far his greatest strength was his keen awareness of his own sins. All of his writings came from a profound awareness of where he was weak and how it was taking him farther away from God. Something to emulate for everyone, especially writers
"Based on what seems obvious to me, anyone who believes X is insane or immoral" *X is just what basically every Christian has believed for 2000 years* If that's Hart's best criticism of Thomism, they don't have to be concerned.
"I hasten to add. In my experience, the members of that sad and theologically aberrant faction, ... suffer from an oddly touching obtuseness with regard to moral judgments" David Bently Hart on the Thomists. davidbentleyhart.substack.com/p/notes-on-nat…
In the last two days, a prominent atheist philosopher, @analyticatheism has listed two CA apologists, @JimmyAkin3000 and @Trent_Horn, as Christian philosophers who represent the faith well by the standard of academic rigor and intellectual honesty.
Online apologists love to bash Catholic Answers, but they're not big because they're "Catholic Inc." They were a small online apostolate that got big because they helped people realize that the Faith was intellectually defensible. That's why people still use them.
The Guardians fell apart three weeks ago, and now the whole rest of the AL except for Toronto has decided to follow suit right as Cleveland got hot again. Could be an interesting August if this continues.
Anybody on here know where I can find some kind of list of Thomistic manuals of philosophy/theology? I've heard tales about them but I don't even know which ones to look for.
I would name @Trent_Horn, @PatFlynnCOS, @WriterJohnBuck, @JimmyAkin3000, as further examples of Catholic Apologists that bring a strong academic and serious intellectual bent to their apologetic ministries.
This is just a @Trent_Horn appreciation post. The guy doesn't have a PhD but through hard work, humility and intellectual honesty he's getting put on lists with Stump, Pruss, and Swinburne for the best Christian philosophers out there.
@KennethLPearce, @DoloresGMorris, @DanielSpeak, @worldviewdesign, Eleonore Stump, Timothy Perrine, Alex Pruss, @robkoons, @FeserEdward, Fr. Brian Davies, John Haldane, David Oderberg, Richard Swinburne, @Trent_Horn, Michael Almeida, Timothy O'Connor, and many more.
My least favorite way to do philosophy is when an ethicist makes a crazy thought experiment and then goes "but SURELY that would be wrong, right?" like I should assume my intuitions are correct on whether it's acceptable to turn a thousand clowns into sentient bananas.
Pretty sure @justcombs qualifies as a chesterton dad.
In no particular order: -FOCUS normies -Chesterton dads -Tradinista remnants -Commonweal buzzkills -dead eyed E-Girls -Vulcan autist Thomists -gothic aura farmers -grandfathered-in racists -bored homeschool moms -weeb priests -one guy who made Walker Percy his whole personality
This is my favorite one of the whole series. But partially because Puddleglum is just hilarious.
I'm convinced that those who do not rank The Silver Chair in the top tier of the Chronicles don't understand it.
Don't believe the haters. Fatherhood is amazing.
Discussion topic with my youngest son while picking up a pizza just now: how velociraptors would be even more terrifying if they developed flying capacities via jetpacks. Being a dad is just the best.
The first time I read Augustine, I dismissed him because he had a few views I thought were crazy. I still think he's wrong about a few things (shock!), but reading him a second time has really impressed upon just how wise and intellectually humble he was.
The right can't figure out why they lost the culture war, then actively discourages people from doing the kinds of things that create and influence culture.
We need more electricians and less sociology majors.
Steubenville is tier-1, but not for any reason that will make you money. You'll probably lose money there, actually. It's also not really a city.
There are only four tier-1 cities in the 🇺🇸: New York (finance) DC (government) San Francisco (tech) LA (media & entertainment) No other cities are power centers for aspirational talent. Sorry.