Recent Entries

• Ways In Which Spirituality Can Be Deemed Psychology.

  by Daniel Arendt April 13, 2010
  I’ve said a lot about all the various ways for centuries critics of religion have claimed same is some sort of self-projection or epigenetic hypertrophism…and from such diverse criticisms of such types, further criticized all religions as therefore psychology. Whereas I do believe metaphysics has ro...

• "Write Something" Counts More Than We Think?

  by Daniel Arendt March 13, 2010
  Sometimes some say I sound like a manual or textbook, but looking even at any State’s (including Oregon Employment Department) workforce development agency definition for “clergy” or “minister”, one of the things States say is clergy of all types are given to researching items at assorted libraries ...
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• Keeping "Right" Simple.

  by Daniel Arendt March 11, 2010
  Some may think my ULCM posts are ponderous, crabby, and so forth; I don’t intend such characteristics, they’re just answers to questions sometimes arising in my journeys and experiences.  ‘Is ULCM a “real” religious entity besides by legal adjudications?” I answer “yes” on its orthopraxy of do...

• Is Resurrection Even Necessary To Legitimize Christian Faith?

  by Daniel Arendt March 4, 2010
  In support of recent blog posts on the Resurrection, I made two comments citing Tacitus and Josephus, inter alia, as many theologians hold the Gospels to be “contoured” truth…sayings of Jesus, but presented under Apostolic kerugma apropos at their time; many theologians also hold ...

• On Rorty-Type Attacks On Metaphysics.

  by Daniel Arendt February 25, 2010
  It’s often said that a problem with Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and a host of other ontological philosophers was that they either ignored or had certain sciences not available to them, thus they labored in “ignorance” on mind-body dualisms or significance.  But a good number of atheism-p...
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• Advice And Encouragement To Those Believing We Are All Children Of The Same Universe.

  by Daniel Arendt February 23, 2010
  I use the avatar of a bust of ancient philosopher Parmenides to symbolize my purpose for joining the ULC Monastery minister’s forum; he is known by fragments mostly of a proem (that’s not mis-spelled) surviving from circa 550 BCE; he is largely known through references back to him by such philosophe...

• For Those Who Cyberstalk Or Seek To Harm ULC Monastery Or Ministerial Trade Reputation.

  by Daniel Arendt February 19, 2010
  Two nights ago I aquired some cyberstalker using name "Anonymous" with no photo; as I was going to post this, another of "its" messages was at my blog, this time implying I'm a Tennessean or in Tennessee...I deleted it, and I'm sure you would agree such stalker regardless of who it fl...
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• Does God Plan All Events In Every Life?

  by Daniel Arendt February 16, 2010
  [I’m addressing this topic on permissive will solely from my own Christian faith’s dynamics, in particular for comparison to John Calvin’s “The Institutes” on same…not to deride or exclude any other perspectives, but to present my hesitance toward Calvinist predestination theory and general overuse ...
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• Balancing Secular And Spiritual Temptation To Expediency.

  by Daniel Arendt February 10, 2010
  In the manner that many criticize the bare claim of genetic/intellectual superiority as a "reason" to eradicate the significance of ethics and generalized dignity, so too per Mark Chapter 7 Jesus appears to have criticized those religious who over-use "God's property or will" as a no-questions-...
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• Confessional Ethics.

  by Daniel Arendt February 9, 2010
  The Roman Catholic Confessional, always for what that religion deems a sacrament, has always prima facie been a way for penitents to privately meet with clergy and be informed Jesus forgives all their sins...essentially what, say, ULC Monastery conveys through its online chapel absolution; Benedict ...
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• In Furtherance Of Ethical Culturalism.

  by Daniel Arendt February 6, 2010
  Just as there is no single social Darwinian unifier, other than the term itself, there need be no one particular spirituality or group of them geared to peaceful eternal progress.  I see through the Bible that I may adequately express my concurrence with God through advocating “Ethical Culture...
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• Recapping Epiphenomenal Epigenetic Use Of Christianity.

  by Daniel Arendt February 4, 2010
  One understands the social Darwinian position is that religion is but a common innate self-projection in all humanity, with any religion being but an excuse for enabling one collective to suppress or conquer another(s) through singular action or in combination with allies…in the social and intellect...

• On Helping Or Hindering Christian Faith.

  by Daniel Arendt February 2, 2010
  Some Christian religious have a penchant for swaggering in the name of Jesus without concern for the feelings or rights of others (or for prudence), and without regard for how it makes their own or all religious look...sometimes such religious are part of a dualistic philosophy so they can remain cl...
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• Right To Support LBGT Rights.

  by Daniel Arendt January 30, 2010
  John Money as a psychologist criticized the view that categories of mental disorder are only a codification of social morals; his research appears to have indicated that paraphilia occurs among both straight and LBGT people, a paraphilia being some thing (e.g., one type of clothing) or some other is...

• On Defining "Do The Right Thing".

  by Daniel Arendt January 26, 2010
  In the early 20th Century, John Broadus Watson (“Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”, ‘Psychological Review’, 1913, 20:158-177; “Behavior: an Introduction to Comparative Psychology”, 1914) declared all behavior is environmentally derived and can’t be explained by appeals to heredity, instincts, ...

• Orthopraxy of ULC Monastery Makes It Real Faith.

  by Daniel Arendt January 24, 2010
    Whenever I hear someone allege ULC cannot be a true religion on basis it has no complex orthodoxy, and is a nondenominational comparative religion exercise, it strikes me how many have forgotten the other equally important term that signifies a faith as well as religion; that philosophically...
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• On The Soul Of Annual January Abortion Protests.

  by Daniel Arendt January 19, 2010
    As a number of Christian groups gear up for the annual January 22 walk against abortion, specifically protesting the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision almost 40 years old, there are some interesting ephemera emerging about what adopting the current USA Catholic clergy’s notions on the soul...
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• Ethically Questioning Authority.

  by Daniel Arendt December 29, 2009
  Most religious doctrines from day one forward are protean in nature and thus open to different readings. One idea still common to all is that he Absolute is capable of creating transcendences in living persons; even with “one Absolute for all”, there are clergy even in same faiths and religions who ...
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• “USA Today”, Are Catholics/Protestants REALLY Superstitious?

  by Daniel Arendt December 10, 2009
  Remember how this Spring Congress “had” to ever-after bailout Hollywood, inter alia, so any amount they claim (especially for movies fitting government political agendas) moviegoers spent will at least LOOK plausible? Unless there’s a reason(s) they were so bankrupt they needed FedCash, which they S...

• Obama May Be Right On Cultural Mark.

  by Daniel Arendt December 3, 2009
  President Obama has this year represented that his critics should just shut up and let things lie and expand as they are; you know, he may be right! Yes, there are a slew of critics ranging from his own party to secular to religious objectors, but does anybody notice that they’re all running out of...

• ULC Is Neither Apostasy Nor False Religion.

  by Daniel Arendt November 19, 2009
  To my perception, ULC through Modesto, the Monastery, and the Seminary most definitely do not create “apostasy” of any faith; ULC is more in the nature of a civil religion to which a higher power leads.  While not accepting the basic reasons he was first to propose civil religion, I find in UL...

• On Being Good Without God.

  by Daniel Arendt November 4, 2009
  Syllabus: humans are by nature all opportunistic; the concept of any nature of God has been vanquished by 20th century physics, namely the special theory of relativity, the chaos theory, and the Big Bang theory in global relativity theoretics. So many people going on and on about such exact physical...
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• LBGT Are Not Affronts To Church Or State.

  by Daniel Arendt October 24, 2009
  There are those in the world who say LBGT, or even other types of people, are being grafted on to either efforts to change faith deposits of assorted kinds, or are being grafted on to efforts to advance negative atheism, or both. These seem incredibly aristocratic notions, perhaps used by assorted ...

• Religious inclusiveness And Universalism.

  by Daniel Arendt October 22, 2009
  A lot of religious dictionaries and such don't even mention any ULC branch, and just lump "Universalism" in with "Unitarianism" (no real relation to any ULC main), but that's not the biggest challenge to Universalism. It has been said that Universalism, likening certain Absolute cultural ...
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