English socialists exist

LANGER, SUSANNE K (1953)(1967) An Introduction to Symbolic Logic, Dover Publications, New York.

I continue with the Langer, text review.

Some key symbols from the textbook:

≡df = Equivalence by definition
: = Equal (s)
ε = Epsilon and means is
⊃ = Is the same as
⊨ is Entails
˜ = Not
∃ =There exists
∃! =There exists
∴= Therefore
·= Therefore
 < = Is included
---

At times within symbolic logic, two classes might not be identical, and yet the classes overlap (138). There is at least one individual in class A that is a member of class B. (138).

If class A and class B were identical:

(x ε A) . (x ε B) (138).

X is Class A, therefore X is Class B.

Also:

(A x B  < A) . (A x B  < B)

Class A x Class B is included in Class A, therefore, Class A x Class B is included in Class B. (139).

A red apple belongs in the class of red things. (139). Below.

(x ε red thing) . (x ε apple) (139). Langer uses apple.

The defining function of two classes is placed into a class. (139).

But I can also observe using symbolic logic:

(x ε red thing) ˜ (x ε green apple)

A green apple does not belong in the class of a red thing.

Not all Englishmen (A) are socialists. (B). (139). Langer uses this example.

A ˜ B

Not all Englishmen are socialists. But there are English socialists that would be a subclass of both Englishmen and socialists. (139). The product of two classes producing English socialists. Note, female philosopher Langer uses the term Englishmen. This textbook was published in 1967, and originally 1953, and the English language has of course evolved in fifty years and previous.

I reason:

(∃! ES)

or

(∃! x ES)

There exists English socialists.

There exists English x socialists.

(A ˜ B) . (∃! A) . (∃! B) ⊨ (∃! ES).

Not all English are socialists, therefore the English exist, therefore socialists exist, this entails English socialists exist.

Very demotivational.com

Reaching Immigrants

Downtown Vancouver, last night: I did not attend here.

Reaching Immigrants

Last evening at a Christian event, an interesting perspective was provided by the speaker. Syrian refugees coming to this area could provide Metropolitan Vancouver, Christian churches with an opportunity to reach these new immigrants, largely from Islamic backgrounds, with the gospel message. Yes, in a minority of cases, some of these immigrants could be a security concern, but that issue is mainly the work of Canada's security services. My thought was that some Islamic, Syrian immigrants may be reached in dialogue with the gospel, after facing some very difficult and negative circumstances within Islamic society (s).

Of course from a biblical, Reformed perspective, no person is able to embrace the gospel unless this is first caused and willed by God. But a different and biblical view on theism, monotheism and the nature of God could be presented to Syrian immigrants.

PhD, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, 2010: Theodicy and Practical Theology

This means as God chooses to regenerate a person he simultaneously persuades one to freely believe.[1] Murray states that regeneration is logically antecedent to any conscious response,[2] and I reason that God’s choice to commit the act of regeneration must be antecedent due to the corrupt and sinful nature of persons.[3] The work of salvation was confined to God’s part in the calling.[4] This does not prohibit God from causing a compatibilistic human choice within conversion at the moment that God’s initial eternal choice to regenerate[5] becomes a divine act of regeneration.[6] As persons were regenerated they would hear the call of salvation, repent and believe in Christ.[7] I would view conversion as an aspect of regeneration, which is the beginning of the Christian experience.[8] Regeneration was to encompass the entire divine plan of recreation from the initial change in persons to the ultimate culmination of a new heaven and new earth.[9]

---

[1] This allows for a limited but significant human freedom within the salvation process that is not incompatibilism. Salvation remains alone a work of God.  Weber writes that God with his freedom effects both human freedom and human bondage as he reaches out to a saved person through the Word of God.  Weber (1955)(1981: 245).  This would be a work of the Spirit.

[2] Murray (1937-1966)(1977: 172).

[3] Murray (1937-1966)(1977: 168-169).

[4] Bavinck (1918)(2006: 53).

[5] As God is eternal this choice could be viewed as such. Humans of course are not eternal.

[6] Persons have via the Holy Spirit been molded and transformed in order to freely believe. Thiessen, an incompatibilist, states that in regeneration the human is passive and is active in conversion. Thiessen (1956: 367).  I agree concerning regeneration, and I can agree in regard to conversion, only if by active the human being is convinced freely via the Holy Spirit and is not assumed to have incompatibilist free will.

[7] Bavinck (1918)(2006: 53).

[8] Franke notes that the Scripture explains that the Holy Spirit continued to guide the earliest Christians.  Franke (2005: 132).  The Spirit continues to work in regenerated/converted believers that embrace the gospel.

[9] Bavinck (1918)(2006: 53).

BAVINCK, HERMAN (1918)(2006) Reformed Dogmatics Volume 2: God and Creation, John Bolt (gen.ed.), Translated by John Vriend, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids.  

BAVINCK, HERMAN (1918)(2006) Reformed Dogmatics Volume 3: Sin and Salvation in Christ, John Bolt (gen.ed.), Translated by John Vriend, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids.

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.html

CALVIN, JOHN (1540)(1973) Romans and Thessalonians, Translated by Ross Mackenzie, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

CALVIN, JOHN (1550)(1978) Concerning Scandals, Translated by John W. Fraser, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

CALVIN, JOHN (1552)(1995) Acts, Translated by Watermark, Nottingham, Crossway Books.  

CALVIN, JOHN (1553)(1952) Job, Translated by Leroy Nixon, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.  

CALVIN, JOHN (1554)(1965) Genesis, Translated by John King, Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust.

ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

ERICKSON, MILLARD (2003) What Does God Know and When Does He Know It? Grand Rapids, Zondervan.

FEINBERG. JOHN S. (1986) Predestination and Free Will, David Basinger and Randall Basinger (eds.), Downers Grove, Illinois, InterVarsity Press.

FEINBERG, JOHN S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.  

FEINBERG, JOHN S. (2001) No One Like Him, John S. Feinberg (gen.ed.), Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway Books.

FRANKE, JOHN R. (2005) The Character of Theology, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids.

POJMAN, LOUIS P. (1996) Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company.

MURRAY, JOHN (1937-1966)(1977) Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol. 2: Select Lectures in Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust.

THIESSEN, HENRY C. (1956) Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

WEBER, OTTO (1955)(1981) Foundations of Dogmatics, Volumes 1 and 2, Translated and annotated by Darrell L. Guder, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

I pity the fool...

Memegenerator.net

Imgflip.com

I pity the fool...

Preface

PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.

The review continues.

Misericordiam, argumentum ad

Quote

'When we turn to pity instead of reasoned discourse to support a particular contention, we commit the argumentum ad misercordiam. (145).

Lander

Quote

'...Argumentum ad Misericordiam (argument from pity or misery) the fallacy committed when pity or a related emotion such as sympathy or compassion is appealed to for the sake of getting a conclusion accepted.'

Noted sources from Lander University:

Plato, Crito 45c-d, trans. Jowett.↩

Aristotle, Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric trans. Robert C. Bartlett (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019), 6.↩

---

Based on Pirie's example (145). A fictional example:

In asking yourself if Chucky should be convicted by the Canadian government for tax evasion, ask yourself what it will mean for him to be locked in prison, a Mennonite, deprived of liberty, and turned into an outcast within western society.

Chucky pays his taxes, but the example stands.

Pirie writes that what is relevant is guilt or non-guilt, not the effects on the person charged. (145). The introduction of pity does nothing to prove an argument. (145). The author opines that this a fallacious approach used by many defence lawyers. (146). The use of the handkerchief is sometimes used to influence observers to provide someone in question with the benefit of the doubt. (146).

Interestingly, Pirie claims that Charles Dickens: 'A Christmas Carol', appeals to this fallacy. (147). The author explains Scrooge makes a decision contrary to economic reality. (147). I am not an expert on the book or related films. I have not read the text or seen a related film recently. I would state, that within my Christian worldview, I have no theoretical difficulty sharing some of my money and goods with the poor.

Oxford University Press

'Appeal to pity (argumentum ad misericordiam) A fallacy committed when the arguer attempts to evoke pity from the audience and tries to use that pity to make the audience accept the conclusion.' 

HERRICK PAUL (2014) Think with Socrates: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

My example of argumentum ad misericordiam...

The local drug addicts on the street have limited mental capacity and therefore cannot be held legally, ethically and morally responsible for any acts committed.

---

1. Is all significant ethical and moral capacity diminished in every case?

2. Was all significant and moral capacity diminished before he/she became a drug addict, in every case?

3. If #1 is sometimes 'no', and #2 is sometimes 'no', significant legal, ethical and moral responsibility exists in some cases. 

(Legal responsibility should be considered, at least, dependent on the laws that exist, in my humble opinion)

From New Testament theology, significant human, legal, ethical and moral responsibility and accountability is answered with the gospel. Those regenerate (John 3, Titus 3, 1 Peter 1) in Jesus Christ have sins covered through the applied atoning work of Christ on the cross, and death defeated through Christ's resurrection, also applied to believers.

Hebrews 2:14 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

14 Therefore, since the children share in [a]flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, Footnotes Hebrews 2:14 Lit blood and flesh

---

BAVINCK, HERMAN (1918)(2006) Reformed Dogmatics Volume 2: God and Creation, John Bolt (gen.ed.), Translated by John Vriend, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids.

BAVINCK, HERMAN (1918)(2006) Reformed Dogmatics Volume 3: Sin and Salvation in Christ, John Bolt (gen.ed.), Translated by John Vriend, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids. 

BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College. 

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College. 

CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House. 

COURSON, JON (2005) Application Commentary, Thomas Nelson, Nashville. 

CONWAY DAVID A. AND RONALD MUNSON (1997) The Elements of Reasoning, Wadsworth Publishing Company, New York.

GRENZ, STANLEY J., DAVID GURETZKI AND CHERITH FEE NORDLING (1999) Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms, Downers Grove, Ill., InterVarsity Press.

HERRICK PAUL (2014) Think with Socrates: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

LANGER, SUSANNE K (1953)(1967) An Introduction to Symbolic Logic, Dover Publications, New York. (Philosophy).

MURRAY, JOHN (1937-1966)(1977) Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol. 2: Select Lectures in Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust.

NUTE, ALAN G. (1986) in 'Titus', The International Bible Commentary, F.F. Bruce, General Editor, Grand Rapids, Zondervan/Marshall Pickering. 

PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.

SHEDD, WILLIAM G.T. (1874-1890)(1980) Dogmatic Theology, Volume 1, Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers. 

SHEDD, WILLIAM G.T. (1874-1890)(1980) Dogmatic Theology, Volume 2, Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers. 

WEBER, OTTO (1955)(1981) Foundations of Dogmatics, Volumes 1 and 2, Translated and annotated by Darrell L. Guder, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Does Islam hold to Jihad?

Yesterday: On a warm sunny day, Maple Ridge rivals California?

I am referencing some previous entries, as again, I do not believe in reinventing the wheel.

May 26, 2017

September 20, 2014

September 6, 2014

Methodology and academic worldview

I am not an Islamic scholar; my academic specialties (PhD, Wales) within a Reformed Christian worldview are theodicy, the problem of evil, free will, determinism and the nature of God. I am Reformed and evangelical. I do not consider myself a fundamentalist, but a moderate conservative, attempting to interpret the originally divinely inspired and inherent Scripture through copies and translations of Scripture in context, in regard to plain literal or figurative literal meanings.

I have made friends with persons of other worldviews, including Islam. Obviously, from my writings, I am opposed to radical Islam, and any violent, radical worldview. I certainly do not hold to Islam, in any form, as being essentially true as a religion and worldview. 

As a very brief, non-exhaustive, explanation, I reject Islam because it is chronologically later (claimed) revelation than the New Testament and Hebrew Bible. It is originally from Arabia, not Israel and Europe and not within the traditions of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Islamic doctrine rejects essential New Testament doctrine, such the trinity and deity of Jesus Christ, the atoning and resurrection work of Jesus Christ.

In contrast, the new covenant of the New Testament replaces and amplifies the old covenant of the Hebrew Bible. If it replaced with outright contradiction, illogic, it would be void. The New Testament is viewed as progressive revelation from the Old Testament. The Bible is not 'flat', but neither would outright contradiction be intellectually tenable.

Yet, Islam, in part claims the divine validity of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, while denying and contradicting certain biblical essentials. This is fatal contradiction. The importance of this should not be overlooked. Being an Abrahamic, monotheistic faith in no way counters this fatal objection. The New Testament, for example, having thousands of manuscripts in whole or in part for support which would be contradicted outright by later Islamic rejection of the trinity and salvific work of Jesus Christ.

For me the popularity of Islam is irrelevant as a truth claim. I would place more credibility in a supposed, hypothetical, religious worldview which presented something new and denied the divine inspiration of the previous biblical revelation which it contradicts in regard to certain essential theology.

Does Islam hold to Jihad?

Today, the radical, militant Islamists that are very much opposed to toleration of others and democracy and have the theological concept of convert to Islam or die in regard to all other groups, including other Muslims that they find objectionable.

Other notable exceptions that would be opposed to toleration and democracy, not stating this is an exhaustive list, but these philosophical views are not prevalent in the West presently, would be those supporting Communism, certainly as in anything resembling that of the Marxist-Leninist, Soviet Union and those supporting Fascism as in anything resembling Nazism.

I use two world religions texts as sources:

Lewis M. Hopfe admits that one of the most controversial aspects of Islam is 'Jihad' (Holy War). Hopfe (1987: 419). Pagans he writes may have been forced to convert but Jews and Christians and others were free to worship and they chose. Hopfe (1987: 419). It is admitted by Hopfe that there is a Muslim doctrine that one must do battle for God. Hopfe (1987: 419).

This is contrasted by Christ as the Kingdom of God is not of this world.

New American Standard Bible

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." (John 18: 36). Instead of Kingdom of God is eventually established as in fully culminated in Revelation 21-22 by God, and not by the military acts of the Church, Christians, Jews or people of God.

The Holy Roman Empire and other European church-state Kingdoms and nations, would be politicized versions of Christianity which I would not consider primarily Biblically based.

In addition to attempt to force any type of conversion is to miss the point that God converts persons as in God chooses (Ephesians 1-2) and molds one for works by faith through grace through the atoning and resurrection work of Christ. One is born again by an act of God in John 3, not by an act of the sword.

Doubtless, there would be many documented cases found today where radical Islamists have attempted to coerce and force Christians, Jews and persons of all types of religions and views to their type of Islamic views. Some at the threat of death.

S.A. Nigosian states the goal of Jihad is not so much conversion but for Islam to gain 'political control over societies'. Nigosian (1994: 448). This is done in order to rule them under Islam. Nigosian (1994: 448).

Perhaps a more literal, fundamentalist interpretation of the Qur'an and Islam embraces Jihad and Holy War, and the so-called 'religion of peace' is a watered-down, westernized version of Islam?

Perhaps western liberalized Islam in a sense, parallels western liberalized Christianity, which also tends to reinterpret the bible and New Testament within a religiously watered-down, modern, secular worldview?

HOPFE, LEWIS M. (1991) Religions of the World, New York, Macmillan Publishing Company. 

NIGOSIAN, S.A. (1994) World Faiths, New York, St. Martin’s Press.