The phrase used in the title above, Deus absconditus, is new to me. It means “the hidden God”, or “God who hides from me. I ran across it today in a book by Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I am borrowing it from her just as she borrowed the expression from Pascal.

“Pascal uses a nice term to describe the notion of the creator’s once having called for the universe, turning his back to it: Deus Absconditus. Is this what we think happened? Was the sense of it there, and God absconded with it, ate it, like a wolf who disappears round the edge of a house with the Thanksgiving turkey? “God is subtle,” Einstein said, “but not malicious.”

Continue reading “Deus absconditus” →

Note to readers: Petra is not associated with this blog in any way other than to be an occasional commenter. I asked her a while back if she would allow me to reprint some of her work, and she agreed. This piece from July of last year is long, so park yourself or read it in increments. It incorporates everything I have thought (and much more) about the events of 9/11/2001 in a logical fashion with links to everything. That’s far more work than I can or want to do.

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I just noticed an issue of National Review in which I had left several flags to re-review later. The issue is July of 24, and all of the flags landed between pages 14 and 15. I am not going to repeat their writing here, though it is surely better than mine. I just want to react to their words.

The AR-15. I am going to repeat what my son-in-law told me years ago. He drew a picture of a basic 22-caliber rifle, and then attached a long handle to it, and maybe a telescope. But the key to the matter of the weapon being dangerous or misused was this: It is not automatic. One press of the trigger releases one round of ammunition. Holding the trigger down will not fire more rounds. The impression that people have from the news is that the AR-15 is a machine gun, but machine guns are illegal.

NR reviewed a Washington Post compilation of its multi-stage investigation of the AR-15, citing a former colleague Kevin D. Williamson that the WaPo series is “scientifically illiterate, error-ridden, propagandistic, and willfully misleading.” NR notes that WaPo even confused bullet velocity with rate of fire. WaPo, of course, won a Pulitzer for the series, as the AR-15 is a popular target for the left.

Caitlin Clark of the University of Iowa scored more points in basketball than any other player, male of female, in NCAA history. She will be paid $76,535 as the number one pick of the Indiana Fever. The WNBA makes about $200 million in annual revenue, compared to $10 billion for the NBA. NR uses this opportunity to take a shot at unions in general, sports unions in particular. They conclude that Clark’s $28 million shoe deal with Nike along with many other endorsements only goes to show that unions reward mediocrity, while markets reward excellence. Actually, I side with NR on this matter.

MIT will no longer require diversity statements from potential faculty hires. I was not aware of the practice, of course, but find such statements, along with other virtue signals (like public apologies) to be degrading. I think it is perfectly all right for a human being to be prejudiced in some manner, as in believing that blacks are not as smart as whites. It’s such a general belief that cannot be disproven, but eventually as we age and if we pay attention to the world around us, we will find so many exceptions as to force the belief to be abandoned. It’s a complicated world. 

The Boy Scouts of America have changed its name to “Scouting America”, this to allow for new policies such as allowing gays to be troop leaders and to welcome girls who identify as boys to belong. I don’t care about any of that. I think that forcing children to wear uniforms is not cool, and robs them of individuality, or at least attempts to do so. But I did once belong to Boy Scouts, for a short while. Two things made me quit: One, a disapproving look from my older brother, whom I idolized, as I put on my BSA uniform one night prior to going to a meeting. The other was a meeting where the scoutmaster said we should conclude the evening by playing games. He asked for suggestions, and I ever the smart ass said “How about ring around the rosie?” Later one of the big shot older scouts took me aside and warned me that “We don’t talk like that around here.” I think I just faded away from scouting, with no encouragement to continue from any quarter, for which I am grateful. 

AI dating apps for women: I have never used an app to get a date, mostly because when I last dated before meeting my wife, 29 years ago, there were none. I simply found someone I liked and asked her out. Since almost all relationships eventually fizzle on their own, I would suggest that my success rate was about as high as anyone currently swiping left or right on Tinder. NR’s take is that it used to be common for parents to find a spouse for their children, which, oddly, is mostly not frowned upon and is still practiced in much of the world. I will close with NR’s poignant final words on the subject:

“[We’re now] in an era of online porn and loneliness. If AI can make sense of modern dating, we’ll have to admit it can do something humans can’t.”