[lbo-talk] nailing the holy ghost

Eubulides paraconsistent at comcast.net
Sun Jan 9 11:21:53 PST 2005


-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Grimes

Clearly you are not getting into the spirit of this. I blew off a whole afternoon a few weeks back figuring out who the fuck the holy ghost was. It took what I consider some serious philosophical elbow grease to work it out. BTW the NewAdvent site was very helpful. The whole low down on the HG is here:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm

The site you quoted from Jon was irrelevant. But it does bring up an interesting problem. The holy ghost was Jesus, his person according to Catholic cannon, consubstantial with god---well post-resurrection in any case.

[snip]

The holy ghost is a real problem because nobody knows what the holy ghost is. It's like the ether. You need it, but you can't find it. So, here's the holy ghost according the chuck. The holy ghost is jesus's soul. Jesus has to have an extra special soul, not just any soul, because he is god's son. Now this brings up Mary and the immaculate conception. Was Mary a virgin? Really a virgin. She was married, so we can assume Joe dipped his wick so to speak. So how virgin is that? Well, it turns out that Mary was officially made virgin at her own conception in 1854 by official decree. Seems a bit late to me, but shit bureaucracy takes time to work these things out. Virgin Mary was virgin in the sense of being free of original sin.

[snip]

This latter part is a little dicy because it bares on the possibility that god isn't just another guy. God knows, but evendently he doesn't think thoughts. He just knows and has a will and judges and has certain principles. So too the holy ghost isn't just another shadow. The holy ghost can hand out gifts. But these are usual cheezy Catholic gifts like wisdom, understanding, knowledge(I hear problems), piety and of course fear. The knowledge part is probably glossed as holy knowledge, not any of the regular knowledge that might be useful, like how to win at black jack and so on.

What's going on here I think is a kind of ad hoc theory of the mind, but they are hung up on the parts problem. You know which part goes with which part.

That's it. I am sending it.

------------------------------------------------------

European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Issue: Volume 8, Number 1 / March 1, 2001

Pages: 1 - 29

URL: Linking Options

The hidden theology of Adam Smith

Lisa Hill

Abstract:

This paper contests late readings of Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' as an essentially secular device. It is argued that Smith's social and economic philosophy is inherently theological and that his entire model of social order is logically dependent on the notion of God's action in nature. It will be shown that far from being a purely secular, materialist or evolutionist approach Smith works from the argument from design to construct a model that is teleological and securely located in the chain of being tradition. His focus upon happiness as the Final Cause of nature renders improbable any claims for proto-evolutionism in his work while his arguments about the deliberate endowment of defects in the human frame make no sense without the supposition of design and purpose in nature.

Keywords:

Adam Smith Invisible Hand Teleology Spontaneous Order Self-INTEREST Stoicism

http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=6804yjq qtm1juxnxuq7p&referrer=parent&backto=issue,1,7;journal,16,20;linkingpublicat ionresults,1:104706,1



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